Guild Wars 2

So I ’m running a S/A warrior and I would like some help in choosing Runes and Sigils.

I am running Disc, Strength, Arms and took everything that processes on Crits.

I have full Rampager’s gear (Armor/Trinkets) and after my “4” I have a 99% crit rate – the problem is, I cant figure out what to fill in the blank spots in with.

This is what I was thinking

Trinkets
- Soldier Crests
Armor
- Runes of Krait or more Soldiers
Weapons
- Air/Fire or Air/Agony

Thoughts?

Any help is always appreciated, thank you.

Can you describe the content you’re playing? For example, are you still leveling, doing casual pve, dungeons and fractals, wvw, something else? And is there a particular concept or playstyle you’re going for?

Finally, am I right in assuming you’re running a bow as your alt set and working a rotation that goes something like, “Combustive Shot→Arcing Arrow→Axe 5”?

Yes I suppose that all makes sense.

Ive been a lvl 80 for about a month now – I am currently doing PvE and Fractals and yes, my alternate weapon set is the longbow.

My play style is just condi damage, crit proc, and trying to stay alive. Im not terrible at dodging, but since I’ve switched to full Exotic Rampager, I’ve noticed Im a little more squishy.

I know the meta is Greatsword/Torch/Zerk but to be honest, I just like the S/A combo better (more fun for me at least). My goal is just to make something viable for both PvE and Dungeons and then have a different set for fractals.

Well, sticking strictly with that build, I’d say Krait, Nightmare, or Berserker are probably your best bets for runes.

In terms of sigils, I’d put an Agony sigil on your sword set and a Smoldering sigil on your bow. Sigil of Earth and Strength are both good candidates for the second slot on your sword set, though if you find yourself on your bow a lot, I’d put the Strength on it and the Earth on your sword set. The Earth sigil will tie nicely to the Agony sigil, and might helps both your condi and power damage.

Going beyond that, I imagine you’re in Strength to get Axe Mastery. If you’re open to suggestions, I recommend you drop it in favour of Defense, Tactics or (best if you have it) Berserker.

Both Defense and Berserker can help you stay up and fighting longer, both will allow you to drop those fire fields way more often, and they just bring you so much more than you’re going to get out of the Strength line for your particular build, imo.

Tactics would give you a burn on your bow auto and access to Phalanx Strength (which your party will appreciate), but you’re not built to take maximum advantage of PS, so I’d suggest the other two for this particular build.

In terms of Arms, I think you should be in Berserker’s Fury, Deep Strike and Furious. Though it pains me to not recommend the truly fantastic Signet Mastery trait, the other traits are better for what you’re trying to do and the gear you’ve chosen.

I also think you’re over invested in Precision/Crit Chance, meaning you’ll get more mileage moving away from your precision focus in favour of something else. It sounds like you just bought/crafted your Rampagers gear, and that’s not wrong. But consider shifting some of your trinkets toward Carrion or Trailblazer’s over time when you’re ready. Alternatively, leave your gear as it is and eventually start exploring other builds and using your resources to gear those alternative builds (this one’s probably better than trying to optimize the gear for your current build).

Finally, it should be noted that you’re not running a fully optimized build/weapon comp, which is totally fine as long as you find it fun. The downside is you could get some hate or even kicked from teams unless you really just run with friends or are running at a low fractal level. I mention this only so you’re not caught off guard if/when it happens, not so you feel compelled to play something less fun.

(Note: There are much more knowledgeable people here than me when it comes to fractals (I’m more wvw), but the above should do in a pinch)

I do have access to Berserker – I only have about 20% unlocked though (just purchased HoT last week)

Right now Im running-
Arms:
Signet Mastery
BladeMaster
Furious
Strength:
Restorative
Great Fortitude
Berserker Power
Disc:
Vengeful\Warrior’s Sprint
Destruction
Heightened Focus

Also not sure if Berserker’s Fury is necessary as I get fury from “4” and “0” (Signet of Rage) fairly steadily and the stacks of 100 precision seem like it would be more than enough to offset. Also it reduces the recharge of “0” by 12 seconds.

I was looking into the 5 Traveler/1 Divinity Combo – Do you add the +’s together? Is it +8 +12 +16 or is it just +16? … It would seem that if it is just +16, a combination of Orbs/Crests would be better.

The reason for Berserker’s Fury is to keep pushing your adren up and to pair with Deep Strike, and recognition that you don’t need the precision stacks nor the unblockable buff from Signet Mastery for your build.

But you’re right, if you’re getting perma Fury anyway and your adren generation is already fine, then Signet Mastery’s the way to go.

Not Blademaster though. First, you’re already approaching 100% crit chance with your build without the buff. Second, the only skill that really benefits from the cd reduction is Final Thrust, and you’re not a power-centric build. Deep Strike for its +150 condi damage on all your Fury is way better for your condi build.

I still think the other traitlines would do so much more for you than Strength, and encourage you to try them out.

As for the runes, yes they just stack. But why would you want those over the ones that will really pump your damage?

Definitely no adren problems, actually part of the reason Im in Disc is for Versatile Power to lower my Burst CD – right now I feel like I am waiting to long with a full bar.

My thought behind Blademaster was the “1” skills, I was looking at it as a perma quickness buff. Are those strikes not affected by it?

And huh, I thought you were the one to bring up Traveler’s – I must have misread trailblazer into traveler runes – my bad. No, I would rather use damage/condi runes over Traveler’s.

Do you see any need for soldier crests?

Nefariis.4135:

Definitely no adren problems, actually part of the reason Im in Disc is for Versatile Power to lower my Burst CD – right now I feel like I am waiting to long with a full bar.

My thought behind Blademaster was the “1” skills, I was looking at it as a perma quickness buff. Are those strikes not affected by it?

And huh, I thought you were the one to bring up Traveler’s – I must have misread trailblazer into traveler runes – my bad. No, I would rather use damage/condi runes over Traveler’s.

Do you see any need for soldier crests?

Blademaster doesn’t affect attack speed at all, actually:

“Sword skills have an increased critical-hit chance (+20%) against bleeding foes. Reduces recharge on sword skills (-20%).”

Auto attacks don’t have a recharge period at all, so they get nothing. It knocks 1.6s off of the Savage Leap cooldown, and 3s off of Final Thrust, iirc.

And yeah, closest thing I would have said to Travellers was a suggestion to work in some Trailblazer gear, but I don’t think it’s worth it, tbh, unless you permanently settle on the build and want to look into optimizing it to be as good as it can be.

My suggestions were Krait, Nightmare, or Berserker runes.

What is your opinion on Viper’s Gear?

The math seems to work out well. I’d trust the meta build you linked earlier, which had mostly Viper gear and some Sinisters to get it right.

The key thing is to make sure you don’t have too much condi duration bonus, as you can’t go over +100% for any condi. It’s very easy to overtrait by way of full Vipers, runes, sigils, and traits, so be careful.