Guild Wars 2

re: Deep Strikes vs Rending Strikes

http://dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewthread/15437841-rending-strikes-vs-deep-in-solo-builds/page/1

Yeah I know that theoretically it’s supposed to be slightly better, but it requires 3 assassin ascended pieces. If you have that, rending strikes is ever so slightly better but if you’re in full berserker, deep strikes seems to be a little better.

I remember talking about that in pm a while ago. It’s less than 100 DPS increase and I said “kitten it, I’m not going to spend hundreds of gold for that if I’m not even making infusions.” :P

I was unaware of it being posted on the forums though, thanks for posting it here too!

It’s been a while since the last post.

Just thought I’d bump for now; will look for things to revise tomorrow maybe.

In the meantime, I have something to say about scholar vs. strength.

I’ve done testing with Lupicus and it’s become pretty clear to me that for phases 1 and 2, scholar and strength are roughly equal to one another assuming similar conditions (swarms, rotations, RNG) but for phase 3 it seems like strength pulls ahead a bit. This is likely because in order for strength runes to be better DPS over scholar, more than 8 might stacks need to be maintained (thank Nike for this information). In phase 3 Lupi likes to do that big aoe life leech a lot so that’s when DPS tanks/might stacks drop fast.

When cleaving multiple mobs, might is accumulated much faster due to forceful greatsword so there is also the chance that in some circumstances scholar will provide vastly superior DPS. It all depends on the circumstances but it’s worth noting that strength isn’t always the best for DPS in solos!

This topic should get stickied so it always stays on the front page. Just like the guides on other class subforums.

I have a question. Recently started doing dungeons with a friend of mine (he plays guard, warrior and ele if nessecary). So far, we’ve only done AC p1 a couple times, which was easy. Which dungeon paths do you recommend besides that?

I also have gear with Hoelbrak, and find Strength to be kind of expensive. Tbh, I can only stomache PvE until I got enough gold to buy what I want, and solo/duo dungeons is at least challenging. But If I can skip buying the ever so expensive Strength runes, that’d be nice. So how mandatory are they?

Hi!

If this was pre-ferocity my answer would be different but now that all of these changes since April have rolled out the lower leveled dungeons (especially story modes) are trivialized compared to how they once were.

You’ll have more than likely the easiest time soloing CM p1, p3, and I suggest TA up and fwd as well. SE p1 is easy as well except I suspect you’ll struggle with Tazza (last boss) and SE p3’s last boss is no walk in the park either.

Aside from those, Hotw p3’s Svanigandir (wolf boss) is a fantastic boss to solo. All Arah paths are fun as well aside from the unfortunate tar boss (shoggroth) in p1 which requires 4 people to spawn.

As for strength runes, I say they are one of the most important components of the build aside from traits/weapon choice. You’ll be able to succeed with hoelbrak of course, but you’ll notice a substantial difference with everything combined altogether and the DPS loss will be more noticeable in a solo setting.

Save up for them!

Wo thanks for the quick response!

I do have the cash for Strength right now, so I’ll think about wether or not to buy them straight away.

Thanks for the advice!

Cygnus.6903:

Wo thanks for the quick response!

I do have the cash for Strength right now, so I’ll think about wether or not to buy them straight away.

Thanks for the advice!

Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten.

I still wish scholar went back to being the all-purpose god-of-everything rune.

Nike is right though… once you try the best stuff you will be relieved of the burden of how much you’ve spent for it because it’s just that much better. I still remember back in April on that ferocity patch how much I cringed at the idea of replacing my [at the time] only ascended set’s scholar runes with strength. After giving it a test run… I was like… yeah, f—-ing worth it

Bought the Strength runes, cause I figured they would be fun on some builds in WvW too. You were right, off course, they rock.

Last time you advised me to run these;

Purple Miku.7032:

You’ll have more than likely the easiest time soloing CM p1, p3, and I suggest TA up and fwd as well. SE p1 is easy as well except I suspect you’ll struggle with Tazza (last boss) and SE p3’s last boss is no walk in the park either.

Watched some vids on those paths, some did look easy, some didn’t.

I’ve still been running AC p3. Find everything to be quite easy, except for the boss. Just need a lil more practice to get him right every time. The NPC is what makes it hard.

Where would you rank ACp3 to be, difficulty-wise?

I think TA up might be a good next try.

Update:

Since we are seeing a lot of nerfs once again, I thought I would bump this to note that I have now edited out “Superior sigil of battle” as an option for offhands. It’s going to be absolutely terrible and never worth using again in a few days.

I’ll go through all four posts and look for things to change after the update comes live.

Update again:

I had to remove some things in the first post because of irrelevance and because I needed more room to list important information.

I mention now in post 1 the significance between changing the adept major trait depending on the situations and how it synergizes well with our healing skill + signet of fury.

I also put a comparison between our healing abilities and how much hp/min they each give, also mentioning the usefulness of defiant stance in fotm.

Sigil of Strength might be a viable alternative for battle after the patch hits?

Well technically anything is viable.

But, while sigil of strength would most certainly be better than battle, it wouldn’t be the best option.

The sigils with flat bonus modifiers would always be better options in the end though it was convenient for off-wall rotations (and also those who enjoyed running Phalanx Strength 05063 builds) to have battle on their axe/mace set as it formerly allowed for an extra 9 might stacks to be maintained.

Currently with 9 might being equal to 35 * 9 = 315, that’s a bit more than a flat 5% modifier which makes it slightly better if you’re doing an off-wall rotation with GS + axe/mace.

After the patch battle sigil will only help you maintain 6 stacks more, which is 6 * 30 = 180. That’s not really impressive at all anymore.

Sigil of strength enables you to maintain ~8 stacks of might more at a time but see… you shouldn’t be camping axe/mace long enough for this sigil to serve its purpose. It’s a good sigil for eles (in particular for D/F builds) but for warriors it’s most of the time wasteful for just about any weapon except for maybe a longbow/rifle… which aren’t really relevant anyways.

Another update.

I changed some of the things mentioned in posts about utilities and my uses for them, but also added two videos demonstrating some examples of using them during solos.

These include:
-a guide to soloing the light orbs on a warrior in Arah P3/P4
-a guide to soloing the first part in CM P1 (golem parts/bombs) on a warrior (thank you to Stoya Gray/ELement for originally showing me this long ago!)

More video demonstrations are soon to come!

Purple Miku.7032:

I still wish scholar went back to being the all-purpose god-of-everything rune.

Nike is right though… once you try the best stuff you will be relieved of the burden of how much you’ve spent for it because it’s just that much better. I still remember back in April on that ferocity patch how much I cringed at the idea of replacing my [at the time] only ascended set’s scholar runes with strength. After giving it a test run… I was like… yeah, f—-ing worth it

I have zerker ascended gear with scholar runes. Should I change to strength, is it worth it (I do a bit of everything, mostly PUG dung/fracts & WwW)?

I recognize that scholar might be better in a organized group where there is another phalanx warrior or against multiple enemies (where you stack more might with your crits and don’t need the duration buff as much).

Just curious what you guys think is better overall.

hulmen.8713:

Purple Miku.7032:

I still wish scholar went back to being the all-purpose god-of-everything rune.

Nike is right though… once you try the best stuff you will be relieved of the burden of how much you’ve spent for it because it’s just that much better. I still remember back in April on that ferocity patch how much I cringed at the idea of replacing my [at the time] only ascended set’s scholar runes with strength. After giving it a test run… I was like… yeah, f—-ing worth it

I have zerker ascended gear with scholar runes. Should I change to strength, is it worth it (I do a bit of everything, mostly PUG dung/fracts & WwW)?

I recognize that scholar might be better in a organized group where there is another phalanx warrior or against multiple enemies (where you stack more might with your crits and don’t need the duration buff as much).

Just curious what you guys think is better overall.

After the Might nerf the gap between scholar and strength in solos is pretty small. In group play scholar is significantly better than strength, but in solos strength is only slightly better. If you already have ascended scholar I wouldnt recommend going out and buying strength unless your goal is to push for solo records.

Thanks for answering for me when I wasn’t able to, Nike. Much appreciated.

@hulmen.8713
If you truly wanted to perform at the top level that you can for warrior still, you can match the DPS of strength runes now provided you maintain 100% scholar uptime. The numbers are slightly off but strength runes end up being just barely better DPS when soloing, however not enough for me to justify telling people they should put them on a set if a person only has one armor set available. If you can, I suggest you have both a scholar set and a strength set because it will make it easier for you to determine what’s situationally best when soloing and in groups.

Ideally if you have the option to, you should have a scholar set and a strength set.

If you don’t have two sets and don’t want to make another, then just roll scholar.

Between scholar and strength in a solo setting, the difference is so small now thanks to the might nerf that it makes me regret putting strength on this set. I am tempted to overwrite them with scholar, as I personally have stopped doing solos for the most part on warrior (mostly because I’ve almost entirely switched to ele at this point).

Right now I suggest strength runes only for phalanx warrior, which is pretty much the most boring thing I can imagine with the low numbers it puts out. ._.

Thx hybrid/purple miku!

I appreciate your input. Since I have no interest in soloing I’ll just keep my scholar set!

Just thought I’d also post to let everyone know that truffle steak went from being third best DPS to first in a solo setting due to the might nerf. The lower power means that right now power is the very most important attribute given by food. But since we’re in a solo setting and don’t have an optimized crit chance, we want precision more than we want ferocity.

Truffle steak is now best and curry butternut squash went from first to third best, making it kind of pointless to use altogether due to the fact that it costs nearly twice as much anyways.

If you want to use them they’re obviously all good DPS choices, but I figured I’d pass on the advice to help save money.

So this build is still viable? :x

Kira.9782:

So this build is still viable? :x

Every single build you could manage to create is viable in any gamemode.

Do you mean to ask me if it’s still optimal/the best choice?

If so, it really depends on the specific encounters/bosses/mobs that you’re fighting against. Sometimes for example like I stated in the first post, 66002 can yield slightly superior DPS to 65003 but it’s very niche and requires perfect conditions.

Rest assured the build I suggest is the most versatile trait point allocation that serves for as close as you can get to an all-purpose and efficient build centered around DPS for the warrior.

The guide is pretty much up-to-date; I periodically check to see if there’s anything I can reword better or tweak.

Brilliant guide thank you.
So useful it has prompted my first forum post despite playing for a long time.

I levelled my Guardian and Mesmer almost purely in WvW and recently started a Warrior to level in pve and dungeons so this is great. Loving the Warrior so far.

I’m glad you’ve found it helpful!

Let me know if you have any specific questions and I’d be glad to help answer them.

is GS bad now, purple

zohawn.6351:

is GS bad now, purple

It’s still the best, but compared to what it was capable of dealing in the past it’s worse.

Hey miku,
Element’s guide has 06062 gs/sword +warhorn setup for phalanx strength. is this setup still good when running a ps build?

HungInc.1864:

Hey miku,
Element’s guide has 06062 gs/sword +warhorn setup for phalanx strength. is this setup still good when running a ps build?

If you run PS, you should still do the normal rotation for vuln. So that means 05063 GS+Axe/Mace.

HungInc.1864:

Hey miku,
Element’s guide has 06062 gs/sword +warhorn setup for phalanx strength. is this setup still good when running a ps build?

First, the reason I didn’t mention it in this guide is because PS is something you should only run depending on what the team comp is and what everyone is capable of bringing. In other words you should be wise with the decision of when it is and when it isn’t appropriate to use, and it is never worth bringing in a solo setting which is what this guide focuses mostly on.

Second of all there are two options you should ever consider for PS builds in my opinion.

First would be 05063 with axe/mace swap.
Second would be what Element suggested, 06062 with sword/warhorn swap.

Which one you choose to run is something you need to consider based off of the comp, your personal comfort, and what you’re doing.

If you choose the fast hands + axe/mace setup, it’s because of two primary reasons:

a) Your party needs more vuln application on bosses. If you have eles but they aren’t running at least 5 trait points in air and aren’t able to use glyph of storms in air regularly against a boss, chances are you might have low uptime. Engineers will always be able to cover it, so if you have an engineer in the party with you that knows what they’re doing then you probably don’t need to contribute more vuln aside from rending strikes.

b) You want/need to weapon swap. Generally speaking it’s a lot more comfortable to be able to swap when you want/need to and having 3 points into discipline will allow you to do so. Just because axe/mace is the most efficient swap for group DPS doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to have it at all times – if you struggle to survive against certain bosses then temporarily replacing mace offhand with a sword offhand for the block certainly would be a good idea. With the 05063 build you’re permitted to do this.

Now, to explain why Element has 06062 in his guide:

a) If your party doesn’t need more vuln, there’s no sense in swapping. Camping GS will result in the best might uptime for your party because of the forceful greatsword trait and having 6 points in the arms traitline pretty much guarantees that you won’t miss a crit.

b) The sword/warhorn swap is suggested because quite frankly, you don’t swap with this trait setup. This is a PS build assuming you will only use GS in combat. For the purpose of mobility, sword/warhorn is the best option you have so when you exit combat it only makes it more convenient for travel to not have to swap weapons. Of course it’s not necessary, but helpful nonetheless.

Hopefully this clears things up for you!

Bump for great justice.

Well, good news for warriors somewhat.

Now that they’ve completely changed the downscaling formula, everyone’s DPS is significantly nerfed once again as of 3/16/2015.

Warrior is now actually worth taking in some circumstances to groups in lower dungeons (only one) for phalanx strength. Aside from PS builds, warrior is pretty much as useless as ever in groups.

This has nothing to do with soloing but figured it would be worth mentioning here still.

Rofl ok.

So it appears they reverted the change as of tonight, 3/17/2015. NEVERMIND. xD

So… Will you do a guide for eles?

Ryn.6459:

So… Will you do a guide for eles?

Yes, but I can’t right now because I have a cooldown of 15 minutes in between posts. I have to wait for if/whenever they remove it before I can make the guide because I’m sure people would not allow me to finish with all the posts (4-5 or more) before commenting.

So I will begin making another guide similar to this for eles now.

While I am doing so, I figured it would be worth mentioning something about warrior DPS vs Lupicus in a solo setting.

As many of you guys know, Lupicus is currently bugged and his ranged autoattack hits you regardless of what range you’re in.

This changes things about optimizing our DPS!

It’s actually better to use missile deflection (reflecting while blocking) because each of his projectiles deals more than half the damage we can with hundred blades.

The traits I recommend are:

4 (V IX)
5 (I X)
2 (V)
0
3 (VI)

It may sound weird, but using this allows you to have the bulk of your melee damage while nearly optimizing your damage from reflects while blocking. The weapons that seem to work best are GS + mace/sword.

As for utilities, I’ve found banner to be more of a hindrance than boon at the moment because it’s difficult to avoid pushing him around without always dodging backwards and avoiding whirlwinding through him. Because of this, I find taking the following best:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJIQNAR5cjMdTnKvwbh34xv7+wJ2hEAEIoiZ8QgrhyorNA-TRSBAB0s/Alq/YmSwrU+hnmHU0BoxBBIvnAAAXAAA-e

I’m not entirely sure if it’s best as of yet because I’ve only done a few solos with the new bugged Lupicus as of now, this one being the only one I’ve bothered to upload (with a fail).

I’m not promising when, but this bug will likely be fixed within the next couple of days. If you find it fun, enjoy it while it lasts!

P.S. – I put Superior Sigil of the Night on the GS and mace in the build editor link because there is no option to select Superior Sigil of Undead Slaying. Please keep that in mind.

Hi Miku, I’ve been looking for people who are interested in a collaberative Warrior Youtube channel. I can’t claim to be an expert in PvE these days (still putting off getting ascended) and I was wondering if you would be interested in getting involved?

It depends entirely on what you want. Just to take videos from my channel for it or what?

Purple Miku.7032:

It depends entirely on what you want. Just to take videos from my channel for it or what?

Nothing like that, but I’m hoping we can get several PvE people to work together on new content. You can promote your main channel all you want too. I’m not too sure on the specifics yet, but we got several interested people already.

Well sure you can mark me down as a potential candidate for it. Once you get the specifics with what it will entail be sure to let me know. Also posting here is a good way to grab my attention but you can feel free to inbox me too.

Looks like PvE warriors are going to be back in action everyone

The new specializations/traits changes are very beneficial for warriors.

Warriors will be able to run 66006 in solos for full DPS while they’ll be able to run 66060 in groups. They’re going to get berserker’s power upped to 20% after the use of a burst skill, get to keep phalanx, oh man it looks like I’m going to be returning to warrior main from my ele.

\o/

Special thanks to Gaile Gray for stickying the guide for me!

Purple Miku.7032:

Special thanks to Gaile Gray for stickying the guide for me!

Yeah it’s an amazing guide should’ve been stickied ages ago. And I’m leveling a warrior over guardian now (already have a thief and the changes don’t look good and rip S/D acro) because you are good at PvE and are so hyped!

Hope the guide gets updated when patch comes out, thanks for guide btw!

I definitely plan to update the guide when the changes are implemented and you are very welcome.

cant wait for update

I’ll update it when I’m confident about what’s best to use. There are some pretty large changes so it will take me time to figure out what to edit to exactly.

Hey all, I’ve updated my guide to include relevant information as of today 6/30/2015, as per the update on 6/23/2015 that included specializations and a lot of changes for the warrior.

You can view a nice link to a lot of the build information here: http://intothemists.com/guides/5899-solo_pve_warrior_build

Unfortunately due to the character limit, I am forced to link a lot of information externally now.

A summary of some of the major changes for the warrior:

-Berserker’s Power is no longer a passive 15% damage increase at full adrenaline but we will now need to actively maintain it by using our burst skills off cooldown (at 100% adrenaline) to maintain a 20% damage modifier. You will want to use Arcing Slice over Eviscerate most of the time to maintain fury.

-Because we will be maintaining fury from Arcing Slice and Signet of Rage, the shout “For Great Justice” is no longer meta for the solo warrior. Signet of Might has replaced it as it provides more power, which is a nice DPS boost for us!

-The trait Stick & Move was buffed from 3% to 10%, making it a relevant enough DPS increase to justify paying very close attention to your endurance. A 10% damage modifier is fairly noticeable, so I suggest making sure your endurance bar isn’t full to the best of your ability in an encounter to maintain optimal DPS!

-Attack of Opportunity was renamed to Bloodlust and was nerfed from 10% to 5% damage against bleeding foes. I think I can live with this considering how much our personal damage was buffed already.

-Rending Strikes is now a minor trait in arms meaning we’ll have more vuln in solos than before. Previously we’d always take the former version of Deep Strikes for extra precision, so this is another DPS increase for us!

-Healing Surge was renamed to “To The Limit” and changed to a shout, and due to the recent changes it’s even more desirable for solo encounters where health isn’t a problem, as we’ll want to be starting out a fight by using our burst skill at full adrenaline for Berserker’s Power.

-We have 3 super-awesome GM traits at our disposal now that we didn’t get to use in solos before: Furious, Heightened Focus and Burst Mastery. My explanation for these 3 traits can be found on the first post of this thread on page 1.

Anyways this guide is always going to be a work in progress as long as I play this game, hope you guys continue to find it helpful. Let me know of any feedback if you have any to give, I’d greatly appreciate suggestions if there are any.

Thank you for this update, it’s quite interesting. I have two questions:

• Don’t you have too much Precision, in regards of the Precision Stacks which can be nurtured from Signet Mastery (for instance casting the signets while traveling to maintain 5 stacks)?
• What is your opinion about condition builds (Sinister gear I’d assume)?

Thanks for taking the time to update the guide. While I’m more a PvP person now, I still occasionally duo some dungeons with a friend, and your guide has always been a very helpful resource to me.

How can you have too much precision? You’re getting free precision from the trait without investing any gear into it so I don’t see what the problem is. Also I cannot think of any place where you would be casting 5 signets while running without having the problem of waiting for the cooldowns to switch back to normal utils for the next encounter.

And my opinion about condition builds is they’re dreadfully monotonous to watch and have too low of a skill cap for me to care to play them. They have high damage in solo settings, especially on bosses with high armor, but they will not be something that I will cover in my guide. This opinion stands for the case of warrior only for me.

Purple Miku.7032:

How can you have too much precision? You’re getting free precision from the trait without investing any gear into it so I don’t see what the problem is. Also I cannot think of any place where you would be casting 5 signets while running without having the problem of waiting for the cooldowns to switch back to normal utils for the next encounter.

Sorry if I’ve been unclear. I meant too much precision, because I was under the impression it went beyond 100% when you’d benefit from all the Precision Stacks of Signet Mastery (thus providing a chance to change food and infusions). I didn’t mean to cast 5 different signets to nurture the stacks, casting the Healing Signet repeatedly would probably be enough in regards of the CDs involved.

Well like I said on page 1 of my guide generally speaking you will take healing signet if health is something you will actually have to monitor in a fight. If you’re taking it just to spam the active off cooldown for signet mastery, you would be better off taking “to the limit” instead for the 5 might + adrenaline. So with that in mind, you wouldn’t be able to regularly maintain more than 100 precision from the trait mid-fight, making truffle steak the obvious best option.

Even if you were using healing signet active off cooldown for signet mastery, +200 precision extra would just make it possible to use sweet and spicy butternut squash soup, which costs 1g. You’d gain only 70 ferocity from that. Does the tradeoff sound worth it to you?

In reality, it’s just not worth it honestly. Remember that between the three attributes power/precision/ferocity, ferocity comes third in order of importance.

In this updated version you are more focused on solo play than before, right? What do you think of Scholar Runes in an organized party (dung/eotm)?

My question is really if I should put strength runes instead of my scholar ones! (I don’t think I will make another ascended set to have both.)