Guild Wars 2

Try as I might to research this on my own I am having a rough go of it, so I leave it to the forum community.

I have my signet, have my banner, so the obvious is taken care of. Going to begin saving soon for those Bloodstone Shards but first I want to grab one of the 30 point skills. Question is what one? Rampage or Hounds of Balthazaar?

Rampage I know a sufficient bit about. I know of the 20 second stability, I know of the unmentioned boosts to health and the utility slots getting locked. And from what I understand it doubles your Power. Honestly it doesn’t impress me enough to trade out the Signet but I would get it for the situational utility.

What I don’t know much about is the Hounds. I know they cause burning. Do they benefit from player condition damage boosts? Do they benefit from any player stat coefficient? Whats the average damage? Does it level scale? Do they continue to fight during the players Downed/Defeated status? I need numbers and info before I go dumping 30 skill points. Frankly I like the visual and role-play associations of the skill but that isn’t sufficient at the end of the day to justify the purchase on its own.

Anyone have any info? Have the skills and can comment? And to clarify, we’re talking pve situational use here. Pvp I am already locked into what I will be going with.

Sorry to necro this one (not really).

I’ve got a Charr Warrior myself. I purchased the 30 point Rampage (essentially the Juggernaut skill exactly except the name). Like the OP I thought it sounded useful and to an extent it is but really I wouldn’t even say it’s more useful than the banner or signet especially not for the 300% price tag it carries.

So now I’ve pulled together another 30+ SP’s . I began this much earlier on in my Warrior career seeing things from the lowbie’s perspective before higher levels put things in perspective for me. I had (back then) intended on buying out both the 30 pt. skills once I had all the 10 & 6 ones I wanted, but I’m really questioning that now. Any assistance would be much appreciated. (also considering that the dankest of crafted stuff requires a pretty hefty stack of SPs – so that’s def something to consider if the OP checks back here).

Also, I’m assuming this skill is relatively Charr specific, do I have to have the “Hidden Pistol” 6 pt. skill on my hotbar for it to proc? If so that’ seems like a COMPLETE waste to me. Any info on that would be much appreciated as well.

Hounds are terrible imho, they die so fast.

I was wondering that about some other abilities like endure pain trait skill and berseker stance trait skill

In my humble opinion if you’re going to pick one of the two, I’d go with Rampage. It doubles your base Power statistic and also grants that 20 sec Stability. Definitely the better choice. It’s also been my experience in any WvWvW or SPvP that any summoned allies such as Hounds, Charr Warband, etc., are killed off rather quickly. They just don’t have the staying power that I’d imagine a 30 point skill should possess.

I personally don’t run either. I actually run with Signet of Rage in my final slot for the added Might and Fury with the extra Swiftness to boot.

In all honesty, I’d consider just holding onto the Skill Points. As Mayam said, it just doesn’t merit the massive increase in cost as opposed to the bonus you’d get from running with Signet of Rage.

Hope this helps!

@Mayam – Hidden Pistol doesn’t proc, you use it as an active dodge that does a bit of damage.

@Assassin X – You do not need the abilities on your bars for them to proc from traits. If you do have them on your bars, the traits will not put them on cooldown when they proc. For example, you could use Endure Pain at 50% health, then at 25% health, the trait would proc Endure Pain again, even though it’s on cooldown on your bars.