Guild Wars 2

Hi,

I been trying many builds (full zerk / 20,20,0,30,0 support / etc) and none of it seem to do it for me. I guess it just does not fit my play style…

I only play PVE and the following build work wonders for me. I mainly run PUG dungeons and PVE roam. I don’t see anyone posting a build like this so I just wanted to get some expert opinion. I like being DPS/Support (reasoning below). Is there any other way to maximize my DPS with out compromising my support/survivability? Let me know what you think about my build

War DPS/regen/support build

Before you dis me, here is why this build works for me:

1. High survivability:
With regen from healing signet and adrenal health, shout healing, heal on crit food, and high vit, I am able to stand head to head and melee bosses longer. This allows me to maximize my DPS with GS instead of falling back and ranging.

2. Group condition removal and heal:
I PUG a lot… actually all the time! I notice when I run a higher DPS build (by sacrificing survivability and/or support) my PUG group has a high chance of wiping. I really can’t rely on a PUG to keep me alive…. In fact, I cant rely on a PUG to keep themselves alive. With Trooper runes + Shout heal, I can keep the PUG from wiping.

3. Good DPS:
Good DPS??? Its not the best DPS but I think I do better than OK damage. Although I have 0 in strength, I get power/DPS through other means: full zerk armor, weapon, and trinkets, empowered allies trait, forceful greatsword trait, attack of opportunity trait, rending strikes trait. I figure going 6 into strength, you will get the following: 300 power, 10% dmg with GS, 15% dmg with max adrenaline. Even with 0 in Strength, I still get 150 power from Empowered Allies, 10% dmg on bleed foes, roughly 17 stacks of might from Forceful GS and FGJ, high crit rate with 33% chance to apply vulnerability, 33% change to apply bleed, 50% change for lighting strike (sigil), and I get roughly 50sec of fury with 10secs downtime. Also keep in mind, this build has high survivability so I can stand there and 100 Blades all day long…. not really but you get the idea.

4. Speed and mobility:
With Signet of Rage, Balanced Stance, and Shake it off, this build gets 2 stun breaker, a 10sec stability, and 50sec of swiftness. In dungeons, having stability and stun breakers are a life saver. And for those dungeon speed runs, 50sec swiftness helps you keep up with the group. Because in PUGs, you CANNOT rely on them for buffs. Also 50sec swiftness with 10sec downtime is great for doing PVE map completions.

Final Notes:
I like the GS/Longbow combo. GS for maximize DPS and Longbow for F1 fire field, kiting, and a lazy way to tag mobs for extra XP/loot/etc. Keep in mind FGJ, Balanced Stance, Shake it off, and Signet of Rage is what I normally run with, but I do switch out my skills depending on the situation.

Switch…
Balanced Stance -> On My Mark = for more group condition removal and heal for hard Bosses
Balanced Stance -> Banner of Discipline = for more group DPS.
Signet of Rage ->Battle Standard = for hard Boss fights.
FGJ -> Dolyak Signet = For long dungeon sprints through mobs.

Do you seriously call adrenal health + heal signet “high regen”??? That’s pitiful!!!

Prysin.8542:

Do you seriously call adrenal health + heal signet “high regen”??? That’s pitiful!!!

ok what would you consider high regen?

Full Cleric with banner regen and the above, obviously.

ok thats fair. this build is not about getting top heal/regen.

Well first off this is just my opinion so no one get mad at what I’m saying. You seem to wan’t to play a supportive class with some survivability, you like your regen, and you do dungeons. Now what I think the best way for any profession to support in GW2 is to do it’s general job, and that for the warrior is dps. Below I’ve attached a build that is essentially the meta for dungeon warriors, with some modifications that I use, and that I find would fit some of the things you want (i.e. the Mango Pie which is insanely cheap and very strong with the healing signet). Also the utilities are very changeable based on the situation or preference. The big one I change a lot is the Signet of Fury, which I often swap out for a banner, or for the stability from Balanced Stance with speed as a bonus. Another thing in regards to survivability is Endure Pain, which is the perfect utility for those moments when you see your health bar dropping. Also the runes and sigils are changeable too, but you want to stick to dps oriented sigils and runes to fulfill your roll.
Overall the main focus of this build is dps, and I can guarantee you that most people you pug with won’t complain about the insane damage output you can get from this build with a normal might amount from a party, and the bloodlust you’ll have. You don’t have to run this build obviously but you have my strong recommendation. Stay Awesome!!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJEQNAR3ZjMd0FalH+dQHaAggycBEALw1APD0dGA-TBCBwAY3fU+JRJIO1fAcQAyrbIhJIGXAgAPBAyAYOBA-e

I would complain about the obvious lack of banners in that build. If it’s really that important for you to have Endure Pain so you don’t die or whatever at least take Banner of Discipline over Signet of Fury.

http://i.imgur.com/igQCQ07.gif

Sigh.

You are asking for opinions, so I’ll give you it but I’m not trying to offend you.

It’s horrific. I’ll respond to each of your numbered points.

1. First of all, having high survivability with passive stats is just a terrible route. This game is about active defenses (dodges/evasions/blocks) and if you don’t try to optimize your gameplay with them, you’re not supporting any team and your survivability is in fact lower than a person playing in full glass that does actively defend themself. You aren’t supposed to let yourself absorb hits from mobs… you’re supposed to try to avoid them hitting you!

2. No one is responsible for healing one another and every class has a plethora of options to defend/heal themselves. You are responsible for your own survival and even if you do get downed you can either rally or be revived. You’re wasting your time and prolonging encounters by gimping yourself, ultimately resulting in more damage taken.

3. You have extremely low DPS. So low that by comparison to someone running a berserker build with a practical trait point allocation and gear, the damage you deal will be so negligible that a party won’t even notice you’re there. Seriously you don’t understand how much you’re gimping yourself. This video is of me soloing a boss encounter to demonstrate some of the potential you’re lacking due to your build:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dyKNuEYwWs
By the way, the damage I’m dealing would be much higher with perma-25 might/fury/banner of strength/frost spirit/empowered allies/more stacks of vuln. All of these can be achieved through a proper party composition.

4. You don’t need to be carrying stun breakers with you everywhere you go… it’s ok to take shake it off every now and then but making use of your dodges/blocks would once again be much better of an idea.

A build like yours is only going to be “viable” in some open world PvE fights and non-solo WvW. Dungeon pugs will kick you, possibly with harsh language involved, and in sPvP you’ll melt.

The GW2 trinity is supposed to be DPS, support, and control, however the only one that is really optimized by the current meta is DPS. If you want to handle support or control you can, however they must take a backseat to DPS.

I’m personally not a fan of this, but let’s face it support and control have no place in the majority of the game (currently). WvW is about the only place where support and control can do their job, and even then they often get outclassed by DPS.

If you’re not going to go full DPS try to get at least two of the three aspects of the trinity, and even if you manage that be fully aware of where such a build will be accepted.

Support is everywhere in this game, are you sure you’re playing GW2?

maha.7902:

Support is everywhere in this game, are you sure you’re playing GW2?

Fully focusing on support, however, is not yet an optimal strategy. Someone split between DPS and support can do just as much supporting, but with damage.

And in a game where you’re expected to do dps, support and control, why should fully spec ing for support be optimal?

With that logic why should fully focusing on DPS be optimal? Full DPS works, the other two don’t. I was just pointing this out.

You only take full DPS build if either the support is already covered or you’re playing a class where support traiting isn’t necessary like thief where your support is exclusively from your utility bar and you just need to load up on damage modifiers. For something like war or guard or ele to be optimal though you’ll be taking supportive traits like empower allies, master of consecrations and persisting flames. So it’s not always optimal at all. And in a game about killing things, why shouldn’t maximising dps be optimal? You don’t kill things by controlling or healing them to death, you do damage to them.

I don’t know how much time you’ve spent playing other classes but shout based heals are not particularly efficient for group play. The amount healed per shout is decent enough but shout usage can be spotty with relatively long cooldowns and your team roaming out of shout range.

There are other classes that can group heal much more effectively, so if you really want to provide support as a warrior I would suggest focusing on offensive support. You can trait basically the same as before except change your Tactics line to V/VIII/XIII. Wear runes of strength, throw a sigil of strength on your GS and of course make sure you have plenty of critical chance. It can be quite easy to maintain 25 stacks of might in addition to the 150 power/170 precision/170 ferocity provided by other buffs. If you like, bring Banner of Strength for even more lolpve support, although I recommend sticking to a single banner since you can’t carry two at once from place to place. I’m actually not sure the warrior can be beat in terms of providing offensive support.

maha.7902:

You only take full DPS build if either the support is already covered or you’re playing a class where support traiting isn’t necessary like thief where your support is exclusively from your utility bar and you just need to load up on damage modifiers. For something like war or guard or ele to be optimal though you’ll be taking supportive traits like empower allies, master of consecrations and persisting flames. So it’s not always optimal at all. And in a game about killing things, why shouldn’t maximising dps be optimal? You don’t kill things by controlling or healing them to death, you do damage to them.

You’ve completely missed my point. Yes full DPS works if support is covered by someone else, but that someone, in the current meta, is not allowed to go full support. Being mostly DPS and a little support is the best way to do things, but that only works with DPS being the main focus.

Everything in this game appears to be built around all three having equal weight, and playing as such will get you through all content easy enough, however the DPS optimized meta has shifted support and control into a much smaller role than they are capable of.

Support and control focused characters should be able to optimize their builds without having more DPS than support and control. This was my point.

TofuShake.8027:

Prysin.8542:

Do you seriously call adrenal health + heal signet “high regen”??? That’s pitiful!!!

ok what would you consider high regen?

what my ranger can dish out. 675 AOE for allies + 1413.3 for self and pet. I know, it’s still a little bit on the low end, after all they nerfed my rangers max AOE regen by 160. Which hurt me a lot. Such unfair thing to do… Now i cannot keep my allies alive very well….

You’re so close to the meta/effective Phalanx Strength build, which maximizes personal DPS while still providing adequate support to take down the relatively simple PvE content. It may sound silly, but bringing large/consistent stacks of might and better DPS can be looked at as a form of support – boss dies faster and does less overall damage.

I use a shout variation along with zerker gear and Trooper runes (since I don’t feel like shelling out for Strength runes), and trait IV in Discipline (Inspiring Shouts) cannot be understated, as it provides 8 adrenaline (3 full bars of adrenaline is 30) per shout. Going for Fast Hands lets you swap out of GS more often and dump your adrenaline on Eviscerate. GS+Longbow is fine, since you can provide fire fields and detonate them for even more group might, but GS+Axe/Mace is still better for vulnerability and the 1200 range knockdown.

For Great Justice and On My Mark are staples, with the third being either the power banner or crit banner; there is usually another warrior in the group to bring the other one anyway. Empower Allies can be swapped for Quick Breathing or Burning Arrows as the situation requires. And yes, you can occasionally change Phalanx Strength to Vigorous Shouts when you’ll want to do that little bit of burst healing. Also, if you’re still feeling squishy with all of that, you can change out of zerker gear to something like knight (Power/Precision/Toughness+), but it shouldn’t really be necessary for the majority of content if you consider dodge roll to be an invulnerability you can cast with a relatively short cooldown.

Vv W.7821:

With that logic why should fully focusing on DPS be optimal? Full DPS works, the other two don’t. I was just pointing this out.

That’s why every dungeon party is just 5 staff eles running pure DPS. Because speccing pure DPS always works.

Except they’re not and it doesn’t so…