Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing around with a few different PVE build styles since the last patch and would appreciate some feedback from more knowledgeable warriors on the forum.

Here’s the one I’m playing with currently:

Greatsword (Berzerkers & Signet of Accuracy – +5% crit)
Longbow (Berzerkers & Signet of Fire)
Berzerkers Armor set + Ruby Orbs
Ascended Soldier/Soldier Amulet
Ascended Soldier/Solder Ring
Back/2nd ring/accessories are all Berzerkers + Exquisite Ruby Jewel

5 Signet build – +180 Power, +180 Precision, +180 Toughness, Health, and Rage

Traits are 0/20/30/10/10
Arms tree – +40 Precision for each signet & Forceful greatsword
Defense – Dogged March, Defy Pain, & the new condition clear when spending adrenaline
Tactics – Empower Allies for +150 power
Discipline – +25% run buff with melee weapons

A few key ideas – I wanted to try something that was a bit more survivable while still maintaining good DPS. All this without giving up condition removal of some kind, an Endure Pain emergency button, some party support, and maintaining a decent run speed. Without the traits for + crit or damage based upon keeping 3 stacks of adrenaline at all times with the greatsword, I was also free to use the GS burst skill to keep fury up at all times.

Here’s some rough stats:

Power ~2500
Precision ~ 2150
Toughness ~ 1650
Vitality ~ 1150
Armor ~ 2850
Crit Chance ~ 87% with Fury up
Crit Damage ~ +69%

I’m seeing some HB crits – before getting Forceful greatsword stacks of around 12-13k. Not terrible, but not the 20k I’m used to with a full berzerker set up – even so, it’s a lot more survivable for me. Overall performance is decent for PVE, ran COF P1 in this and didn’t have much trouble.

As I mentioned, would appreciate some feedback or to get some insight into how others are seeing/playing with these kinds of setups.

Thanks!

I think you’re missing a lot of damage by not going 30 into the power line. You could try 30/20/10/0/10

There is still somewhat of a stigma associated with signet builds, but in my opinion, they are a great way to get lots of crit so you can free up some resources to go defensive.

As far as your build, am I understanding correctly that you will only be using it to run dungeons and other PvE content?

If you’re going for high crit numbers, 30 in discipline is a must. If you’re running a lot of berserk you’ll have the precision. Your goal is like 115+ crit damage. Power is so easy to stack because you have many options like LB’s blast finisher-6 stacks in a short period of time, Plus other class buffs. You should have no problem with like 2.5k power. Crit damage is what you wanna stack though.

Am I reading a post from October, or did someone seriously just suggest a signet build?

Thanks for the replies so far.

Peter – I’ll try that out and compare it up.

Veritas – Yes, I’m PVE primarily but run a different roaming build for wvw with sword +WH or shield / Longbow. It’s really not too different from Defektive’s current builds and more PVT gear.

Callahan – I’ll try it out with a higher number in discipline. Makes sense that with a high precision amount already I could lose some in favor of more crit damage.

Kain Francois – no…it’s not October…and I did just say I was experimenting with a 5 signet build. Sounds like there is still a lot of stigma around them – even so, this is experimental and signets have improved somewhat in the last 6 months. Would appreciate your input and experience with it, even if it is “stay far away from it” with some good reasons. I wonder if the stigma is more that we were all still learning the game last October and there were a lot of beginning players running it.

Nicknamenick – Callahan above suggested I try out the 30 in discipline – will give it a go as it looks like you have something similar.

Thanks all for the feedback so far.

Kain Francois.4328:

Am I reading a post from October, or did someone seriously just suggest a signet build?

Now with signets you have a stunbreak, a condition remover and an adrenaline refill (that might work as another condition remover). A build with 4 signets is not so stupid, at least in pvp. Maybe also in pve.

Okay, well before I start, let me just say this is all just my opinion. Although I don’t PvE now, I spent enough time in dungeons and fractals to grind out a legendary and 4 ascended pieces. In all that time, I never found I needed more than a Mango Pie, 15 points in Defense, and a ranged weapon to stay up in pugs… and I mean faceroll easy stay up. With that amount of regen combined with effective dodges and the ability to DPS at range if needed, you’ll rarely feel any pressure unless your group is on the verge of a wipe.

However, I encourage you to play the way you want, so I’ll only offer changes that will net you substantial gains.

Since you mentioned DPS is important, I think you’ll be happier with something more offensive. For instance, dropping 5 points from Defense and moving it to Arms will net you additional crit chance and 10% more damage to bleeding targets, which is easily achieved. That is no substantial loss to toughness, and you gain a lot of damage, also to be quite honest, I doubt you’ll get much use out of Defy Pain. Note that % damage traits will be modified by critical damage, so on crit they add even more damage.

The only other suggestion I would make is to switch from Warrior’s Sprint to Signet Mastery. I understand your choice there, but Signet Mastery will give you 3/4 uptime on Fury, 5 Might, and Swiftness. That will help you keep your peak damage longer but if you want to run anywhere, you still have the option of just flopping Warrior’s Sprint in for travel purposes.

One last thing, our most effective means of gaining critical damage comes from the jewel slots on our trinkets. For that reason, in the future, I would recommend going with Ascended Trinkets and Backpack that have critical damage as an attribute if you have any interest in DPSing.