Guild Wars 2

Anyone have an idea of what WvW Berserker build our opponent might have been running? Here’s what little we know:

• Berserker (foe) vs two (mesmer + allied berserker)
• Hit with high condi spike damage against us.
• Took almost no damage from us — foe was at 100% nearly the entire fight; at best, we got him down to 95%.
• What little damage we did do was nearly all retaliation.
• Could not stun him, despite hitting him in a row with all of our stuns (I think we managed 8 or so between us at one point).

I’d like to be able to counter-fight the next time I encounter something similar, but I’m at a loss since I am not sure exactly what I was fighting against: high (condi) damage, high vitality, high toughness, and very stable.

Thanks much in advance.

While I can’t give you a definite build, it sounds like he was running Carrion/Rabid Hybrid, probably with Mace/Shield & Longbow. Chances are he was also running Outrage (10sec CD Stun break) and Eternal Champion (1 stab every 3 sec) along with Balanced Stance (pulsing Stab).
If you want to counter this, you’ll want to kite and bait out all the Stun breakers and invulns, then burst him with power.
Please note that this is based on what I know and you provided, so it may not be the perfect response, but I hope it helps nonetheless.
Have a good day/night!

ErebusVindictus.6514:

While I can’t give you a definite build, it sounds like he was running Carrion/Rabid Hybrid, probably with Mace/Shield & Longbow. Chances are he was also running Outrage (10sec CD Stun break) and Eternal Champion (1 stab every 3 sec) along with Balanced Stance (pulsing Stab).
If you want to counter this, you’ll want to kite and bait out all the Stun breakers and invulns, then burst him with power.
Please note that this is based on what I know and you provided, so it may not be the perfect response, but I hope it helps nonetheless.
Have a good day/night!

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Eternal_Champion

Gain stability while in berserk mode. Gain stability and might when you break out of stun.

• Might (8s): +90 Power, +90 Condition Damage
• Stability (3s): Cannot be knocked down, pushed back, pulled, launched, stunned, dazed, floated, sunk, feared or taunted.
• Boon Application Interval: 3s

That seems very likely — seemingly perma-stability, plenty of power/condi even with high-durability armor.

Thanks — even if that’s not what ‘he’ was running, it gives us something to work with; I’ll see if my ally can replicate something on his end.

I agree with the diagnosis of the build you were up against (almost certainly a mace+shield build and probably a bow). But I disagree with the recommendation on how to fight him.

There’s a good chance he was running a trait (Rousing Resilience) that gives him +1000 toughness and 2500 health every time he breaks a stun. Thus, if he has this trait, you shouldn’t bait out the stunbreaks but rather stop stunning.

His mace set has no range, and know that he’s delivering a massive condi spike plus gaining a ton of healing over 15s if he manages to hit you with the burst. So keep him at range as much as possible, especially when he’s on this set. Keeping him loaded with condis is a good, especially movement impairing condis, or just range spike him as much as possible. If using projectiles, watch out for reflect.

If he’s using a bow as a second weapon, know that he’s still more dangerous up close than he is from range. That said, he’ll be able to get his health benefit (Adrenal Health) even if he can’t hit you with the bow’s burst (just a feature of the bow). Still, keeping him at range will limit his damage output by a lot because the bow’s aoe is slow moving, and most of the damage (condi and power) is fairly easy to avoid at range.

If you find that he’s dumping your condis like a boss, then he’s almost certainly running Cleansing Ire instead of Rousing Resilience. That means you’re free to try and stun him without risk of healing him in the process, but he’ll probably be able to shake most of them off.

Cleansing Ire will make it much harder to down him with condis, but the tactic is largely the same. Keep him at range and on bow, avoid the aoe and damage from distance. Learn what the animation for Combustive Shot and Scorched Earth look like… if you can interrupt it (i.e. doesn’t have stability up) or reflect it, you’re going to really impact his sustain.

EDIT: In terms of how you and your friend could have approached it differently, your friend could have switched to rifle/greatsword and packed Signet of Might. Use rifle on the opponent, activating the Signet to be unblockable during the burst. If the opponent chased your berserker friend, he should switch to gs, Whirlwind through the opponent, and then use gs5 to gain a bunch of distance.

Meanwhile, you do what mesmer’s do, whether power or condi. Keep range as much as you can, use your ports, invulns, evades, blocks, and stealth when he gets close to keep him from doing much to you. Get some distance between you, and keep on trucking.

If you and your friend are nowhere near each other, kite when he’s close to you, unload when he’s not, he’ll be dead in the water. He WILL be able to get Adrenal Health going by bursting one of your clones with his mace, but he’ll still be boned.

Awesome, thanks Choppy. I can work with that.

rabid and carrion are dated. He is running trailblazer and dire most likely. No need really for rabid anymore. Not going to lie, I run this build a lot because I love the asuran zerker mace animation. I played axe/shield for 3 years and it gets… really dull after that long.

Too much talking of kiting, baiting, timing etc…
There is a much easier way. Necro. You can’t stun them because of stability. Corrupt it.
You can’t snare them because of resistance. Corrupt it.
You can’t slice away the sustain because of the heals. Poison them.
You can’t effectively get through the blocks. Use unblockable attacks.

Add all this together= necro was your best choice if the 2 mesmers combined didn’t have a single boon strip between them.

If he’s running rousing resilience, stunning him will make him tougher and heal him quite a bit. If he hits you with headbutt, he gets easy regen, stability, and access to his burst. A condi build will be better if he’s not using cleansing ire, but it takes a long time to tear through 30k hp. If you don’t want to use condi, I suggest you bring more people or run minstrel druid.