So im coming back to gw2 to play some holosmith after trying it out. I have access to scrapper and am looking for a build to play roaming around WvW and perhaps some zerg play with it too. I want to try to play without kits to get ready for holosmith and I want it to be power based. I haven’t played my engineer since I used to kit swap like a pianist but now that hurts my hands too much since I joined the trades work. I really want to go back to my engi now that I won’t have to hurt myself to play it. Any help here would be welcome =D
Well based on the new information on Renegade talents I’d say the new Griever stats will be the way I go…Maybe a mix with vipers. Seems we will be able to get to 77% crit chance with no stat contribution. Albeit that is with full endurance so basically with vipers and not full endurance you won’t over cap crit % but with full endurance and vipers you would overcap 100%.
Hello lovely people,
So I took a large break after HoT launched and my beloved Guardian was given a bow and thrown to the jungle after being told to hunt dragons. Now i’m back, I like to think from the mists to go with my revenant choice of class but now I’d like a little help from the community on what path to take regarding skills/traits.
I’ve leveled to 37 and maxed my Jarlis, Assassin and Malax skills but only just started leveling my traits in devastation but haven’t gotten far into yet. At this point i’d say your going to need a little glimpse to my future goals to point me in the right direction…I will mostly Open world and WvW (in small groups/roaming 90% of the time and Command 10% of the time). Since I wish to play revenant into PoF I guess i’d like to gear towards Renegade which seems to be condi from what I’ve read.
Oh one last thing, Glint seems basically needed for all builds from what i’ve researched but i’d like a build that doesn’t rely on it for 2 reasons; I don’t have access to it until i have everything else unlocked, and idk if you can use glint with renegade (I don’t think) so why get used to it. Maybe I’ll sub it in after.
This post is brought to you by Michelob Ultra beer and getting really confused at 10pm on guildwars2skills builder…..
Here’s my swing at it. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNApXmnXNeNSqJvJR/kHlsgykS4Q5SJYrsrklTFJNwhGqZCdiN5zqA-TVyHABTsEgyPBAxOBA4u7QdKBpQfQRK/iX9HAOEABAOAs8yLP+4jHpAWUsF-w
Worth noting i’d be open to a hybrid build too if one exists to mesh into renegade
Edit: Next morning and here’s my revised version of a build I think would work. It’s hybrid.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNApXmnfNWNSuJrJRHl/kskygS4S5QJorcrkFNFpdRgGshT3OtToSA-TliAQBc4EAIINBNTJGAeAAQU9nHYCiQ6BmlSwAu/AIVeQKgFVWB-w
(edited by Animosity.5968)
to add to my comment before….after skimming the forums and asking some guildies (former guildies now) about state of revenant…people are actually leaving the game for some time until the class gets sorted. They are calling this the worst “balance” to date and stating the fact that dps got nerf, all problems got ignored, more problems were made and 0 condi clear was added. Idk if it’s actually “that bad” but it seems to be the view of a good few Rev players. I’d suggest guardian even more now but you have to use DH in your build if you want higher dps.
tbh both aren’t in a good place atm for end game raids. After this “big” patch i’d say guardian and rev were the 2 classes completely neglected. Now don’t get me wrong you can fractal and raid with both of these classes but their condi options are outclassed by engi/necro/warrior/etc and their power options are outclassed by other classes (rev was high dps but with sword nerf and all the bugs in their rotations it seems they have fallen from grace). So basically you will be fighting a uphill battle for a spot in a raid because another class can do everything you do better.
Guardian changes this patch haven’t affected us any in PvE so they aren’t worth mentioning. Nothing has changed here.
Rev changes are:
0 buffs to offhand sword
0 buffs to staff
0 buffs to Jalis/Retribution
0 buffs to Ventari
0 buffs/compensation whatsoever for deleting hammer from the game (for spvp and heavy nerfed in pve)
No rework whatsoever to Mallyx and corruption line,
No rework to shiro healing or fixed PT (which should also become insta cast due to slapped cd)
Base rev still without 25% movement trait (or swiftness) despite the fact we have a slot in adept devastation for it
So basically with Rev you WILL be taking shiro/glint and atm it’s at it’s worst. There’s basically no build diversity on rev atm and I honestly can’t believe Jalis/Ventari weren’t changed in the slightest. Main problem here is Glint does jalis/ventari jobs better and shiro makes you auto attack faster which when in sword/shield (which you will camp) you just have to auto attack for dps. Other skills are all dps losses but maybe precision strike is now a dps gain since patch but the projectile straight up misses and does no dmg 80% of the time or 100% of the time if moving (think guardian scepter at a distance).
Idk what you should play. I’m kind of glad I made a necro before HoT because that class is rocking right now. I do strongly believe you should play what you find more fun though so try them both out. I still vote for guardian because it was my main since launch.
But why are you popping it?
1 word: stunbreak. The weakness and retal is just icing.
Shield of avenger command stun breaks too. So does SyG (bonus stability), SY (bonus everything but long CD), CoP (all condi’s gone too) and JI (tele + burn dps). Still more power to you for using it.
I think they should merge Stalwart Defender and Strength in Numbers and move Glacial Heart to valor. GH seems really out of place where it is, as the other two traits improve the passives of F1 and F2, and since it gives protection hammer seems to belong in the valor tree with armor-y stuff. So maybe something to improve the F3 passive beyond a 10 second cooldown reduction given by Indomitable Courage?
Thats a good idea
Actually, I use Sigil of Judgement active all the time. Given I’m a pve scrub cashew-all—
It’s really fun for HoT. I also manage fine for fractals switching SoJ for Reflect wall sometimes. I don’t pvp or wvw or raid on my guard.
But why are you popping it? Other classes give easier access to weaken and you don’t have the health pool for retal to be worth it. tbh with your health pool/armor the 10% reduction may not (probably isnt) enough to make a difference between 2-3 hit KO. It’s probably just a fun factor to you perhaps and I understand that because I sometimes use shield for that reason. Also Spirit shield applies weakness to 3 enemies, blocks projectiles and does some dmg but on a long CD.
I was going to post some troll build trying to piece together all the “changes” to guardian but i stopped half way through because Im just straight up confused. Scepter buff isn’t enough to make it better than mace in 90% of the builds. Shield trait buff makes you go to valor which is only good with medi and lets be serious 240 toughness for you or 150 toughness for your party? I’d take the party buff because shield skills don’t warrant the extra CD reduction.
Invigorated Bulwark buff is ok (?) if your running healing symbols with like a mace+X/Hammer symbol build but honestly writ of persistence multiplier is 0.075 so its for the regen? maybe. Protective reviver is good, we rezz quicker, thats always good.
Obvious buffs to medi guard but apparently they are bugged. Sanctuary has always been a skill that i liked the idea of but in practice it falls on its face. A cd reduction is a step in the right direction?
Signet cd reduction is w/e. I get bane signet can do work on break bars but honestly is it worth the loss of power? No it isn’t. No one uses signet of judgement and if they do they sure as hell dont activate it. Atleast i never did, ever.
Trap nerfs. Im not a huge fan of traps anyways and cant say if that was warranted for not. Still, i ask myself…What was the point of these changes to signets/sanctuary/shield? I’m pretty sure you won’t see more shield guardians wielding sanctuary and popping those signets left and right.
Suggestions: Do something better with shield. I still don’t see why strength in numbers + Stalwart Defender haven’t been combined into one with a blanket 200 toughness increase + 20% cd reduction. This at the very least would allow people to take shield for prot uptime, cc for breakbar and help the group out with some extra toughness. Then simply add another trait to that 2nd tier. Shield has a hard enough time being taken in the first place but having the choice of 240 self toughness vs 150 group toughness means it won’t be taken. There’s 2 mentalities here: 1) I want to help my group so i’ll take shield for prot and absorb + cc but I won’t then pick a selfish 240 self toughness over 150 group toughness. 2) I’m dps and want medi traits in this line so I won’t take a shield cause no dps. Although a nice 150 toughness is better than nothing while I build toward monks focus.
So, i’m starting to think that this may not be worth it. I mean i’m all for the journey but…well here’s my break down of meteorlogicus.
Got the mastery trained, then headed to legendary crafting NPC in the middle of the crafting area in LA to buy the recipe for 5g + 10 karma.
Collection 1 – basically view a bunch of places, save some chickens, get some elemental stuff. Took about 4 hours because it has some night cycle stuff you need to wait on.
Chest gives you recipes to make before you can unlocked Collection 2.
All Recipe mats are: 35 spiritwood planks + 200 memory of battle + 200 shards of glory + 10 ectos + 5 T6 dust + 10 elonian leather. This equates to 319g + 3.4g + 2.1g + 101g = 425.5g total for collection 1.
So, here I am looking at a 425.5g investment for step 1 out of 3 to get a item I can put a buy order on the TP for 400g or outward buy it for 425-450g. I can understand that for some precursors you will come out near even or perhaps saving gold in the long run but for meteorlogicus this is not the case. It’s a shame really because collecting the items via traveling the world, doing jump puzzles and visiting special area’s was super cool but the investment still required after that is just plain not worth it. I hope a-net revisit’s the precursor crafting and makes it cost viable compared to just saving.
Has anyone else looked into this? Also I’ve only unlocked/completed tier 1 so far so i’m wondering what goes into tier 2-3 if anyone knows. Atm it looks like i’ll bite the loss of my 5g + 10k karma.
So i’m building meteorlogicus (about 2/3 done atm) because I love the look of the skin. I’ve fallen in love with hybrid reaper recently so I’m wondering if I can get some fashion posts of Necro’s with meteorlogicus to see what kind of dyes/armor work with the skin. I also don’t care if my necro is happy go lucky looking vs dark/evil but if I do go the dark/evil route then I’ll just say I put all my happy into the meteorlogicus and try to subtlety incorporate it into my dye palate. I also welcome others to show off their necro/reaper with other legendary’s seeing you worked so hard for it.
so I did some digging around and found out that a support fractal guardian does exist and actually does extremely well in high end fractals even with only 3 ppl. The build is http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS5dl8AhShYvQwOIQQEHxDVeMexqoGAPwAg7hkILA-TxxGwAAuIAqU/BvSwh7PsU5HhnAwGdDkCwv9WA-e
A video of the build in action is : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLItHwWS_nY
I don’t take credit for the build, Skady Valda is the creator and a detail look at the build can be found on her youtube channel.
(edited by Animosity.5968)
Gonna run this tomorrow after work in scale 20 fractals but with zerk armor just to see how the gameplay feels. The equipment will basically just make me crit for less dmg and heal for more, build basics should run the same.
Been playing a long time and thinking about getting this gear to try to in Fractals to mix up the zerk meta ive been riding. Its meant to give AoE burst and passive heals while maintaining decent damage and massive amounts of might for everyone around you. I got shield in here for the burst heal and prot uptime but tbh I think torch is better still for condi cleanse and burn uptime to help with dps. Anyways, I’d have to craft it so I’m asking opinions on it first. Im hoping to perhaps take a similar build to HoT content to help with the “Challenging content”.
For PvP i’ve been using this : http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAodWjc0QrNWeD22A/NOwFKZP017LcACgWg2FxxXA-TZBBABAcIA44EAgxTAwn9HEvMAA
Been playing with foot in grave and 50% Crit in shroud but so far Int sigils + Foot in grave seem to b better team play which I focus on. I don’t 1v1 much if at all.
So, Ive been playing gw2 since launch and haven’t touched necro with a 10 foot pole because of all the negative feedback I get on them. Now as HOT comes closer and I’ve maxed all other toons I’m taking a shot at Necro. tbh, I find them amazingly fun and hella tanky but im not max level yet on him and im wondering what is wrong with necro to have such a large percentage of the community to have a negative outlook on the professions current state?
Also interested in some builds to play for Dungeon’s and PvP that are better than my online friends idea’s of “go Lich form and blow kitten up”.
BONUS ROUND!!!! : How do you think Reaper will compare with other elite spec’s because it looks kitten and chill is annoying as hell.
Very interesting, ill have to do up a build rough up and link It back to u for some approval when I’m not out on my cell phone Drinking. I’ll prob link something later or maybe tomorrow depending on how much I drink :P BTW, how u feel about the new necro specialization? It seems kinda Dervishy to me and I like that
Flow, I’m also interested in what your running or Is it the same as what is posted on meta battle? Talking about pve mostly
Well I find both fun so I’d like to use what ever is better in this instance. I was figuring single target bleed stacks with scepter and epidemic but is staff better for this? I’ve seen your name alot of these forums so I’ll take your word fairly highly flow, you seem to be a good necro player if not one of the best.
Is staff really a good weapon for conditions over scepter/dagger? Also I don’t care for meta so I’m fine with dealing a bit less dmg for more fun
So I’m on the verge of quitting the game but I made a necro and so far it seems like hybrid is actually fun to play. Is hybrid decent to play at end game In wvw and pve?
On my phone so I can’t link build but the build I believe would b 6/6/0/0/2 and armor/weps are rampager with Cele amulet and rings + zerk back piece and maybe sinister earning. rare pizza food and crystal.
Edit: forgot weps. Maybe axe/focus and scepter/dagger? Idea as far as I can theory craft would b to dot up with S/d and then swap to a/f for direct dmg.
Utilities maybe could be epidemic, blood Is power and a well maybE
(edited by Animosity.5968)
After all the responses, Some good, some bad but all peoples opinions and valid I’ve pretty much decided to quit until HoT and then come back to see if HoT fixes any issues regarding the zerk meta. To clarify for some people i don’t mean to say this meta is the only bad meta option and push in a new one but i mean to bring to light the fact that there are many different types of armor and only 2 (zerk and assassin’s) that are used primarily in PvE. It’s a sad day when work to build over 20+ stat combinations worth of armor isn’t even used.
Like i said i’m quitting for the time being and waiting for HoT to see if it changes anything at all, which I hope it does. TBH it’s a sad day for me..Guild wars has been a big part of my life. I know alot of people thought i was trolling but i’m just passionate about the game because it’s done so much for me. Let me explain quickly…At the age of 14 I bought guild wars 1 without a pc and got a paper route to save for my own computer. I used to look at the art work on the disc box and read the manual while i waited (kinda pathetic looking back at it, I know). This taught me to save for what I wanted ( a great life lesson) and eventually i got a new pc with money I saved and my parents chipping in the last 150$. I started to play and played though all expansions until Eye of north in 2007 where I actually met my wife. Being only 16 at the time I found a girl at school that played guild wars and we began dating which in turn after a while ended up with us being married at 23 (2015). So i’m a bit defensive over the game but it’s because in a weird way it’s given alot back to me. Anyways i guess it’s time to move on for a bit and return when HoT comes out in hopes of greener pastures. GL everyone else in their endeavors.
So I’ve played since launch and lately I cant even log in because the game is so boring to me. I PvE, mostly dungeon or fotm and this zerker meta is literally killing the game. Just recently a old gw2 member named Nemesis uploaded a video on this subject and he hit alot of points that I’ve noticed and even more than I didn’t notice. (GJ nemesis!)
So this meta is all about DPS, Corner stacking, Glitching and exploiting.. Some evidence…
-The meta is DPS because its all Zerker gear (out of the 23 stat prefix’s, guess anet just wanted to make different stat gear for giggles)
-Corner stacking doesn’t need evidence, everyone has done it but it’s common in MMO’s and isn’t a problem unless it’s mixed with the other 3 parts of the meta.
-Glitching is a serious problem but people do it and it’s literally accepted as part of the meta. A few examples are CM attacking people through walls, CM climbing wall by Frost in P1 to take 0 damage, CM P2 running the boss between 2 plateau’s to become completely stuck, etc. I only mentioned CM but there’s glitching in every dungeon, just youtube “gw2 Glitch (whatever dungeon)” and you’ll be met with video proof.
- Exploiting is just stupid and yet people still do it to Lupi with reflecting his attacks to down him in seconds. Obviously this isn’t challenging content for a boss in a dungeon yet now it’s accepted as ok? wtf man. There are more but I draw a fine line between glitching and exploiting so i’ll let you choose.
So as nemesis states in his video “Gw2 abondonded the holy trinity to become…just dps?” It’s literally gotten to a point where people are stating that certain classes are sub par and should not be taken for optimal dps. How is this better? I for one think it’s literally ludicious and now with HoT coming I’m sending the Dev’s a message…" You have the opportunity to fix what has been left to grow into such a big problem. The ball’s in your court, Please stay true to your word to make this MMO the be all end all MMO"
Just so you know (Nemesis says this as well), 3.5 million copies of the game has been sold since launch but only 443k views on the expansion reveal video. These number’s are fairly alarming as the majority of players still interested in the game would of watched the video already. New or returning players will be greeted by looking up videos of corner stacking, glitching, all dps numbers and most likely turn away from the game as it’s bad advertising.
What does everyone else think about gw2 current state? Is all this ok?
Link to Nemesis video as it’s very informative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js5ltIBr73s
I’m glad to see that some people are getting what they want. Perhaps it’s my own fault for still loving the defender type in a mmo without the Trinity system or perhaps it’s the meta’s fault for pushing everything besides dmg zerk out of the game (pve). overall I’ll wait and atleast try it because of having over 2500 hours logged on my main guardian. But, I’m pretty sure I’ll b moving on to a new class as I can’t see myself attacking from afar with a bow and laying traps. I’m working on a ele atm and I have all other classes maxed so I’ll have some options.
On another note, I hope this meta dies and is burned never to return. I tried to play my passive healing, tanky, concentration build with mace/shield and staff in fotm and dungeons and Ppl auto kick me for not being zerk. I think something is seriously wrong when the game has so many armor types and Ppl only use zerk or assassin mix.
I thought during one of the interviews they said they were completely reworking the shield? Does anyone else remember that or am I just nuts?
If they are reworking the shield then thats great news. Unfortunately it doesn’t help too much with dragon hunters though where they have some longbow specific traits. Although i gotta say my main gripe on the class is the traps…Traps just don’t meld well with the guardian concept imo (other’s opinions may differ). Still seems really left field to me. Look at other spec’s for examples on melding… Ranger (nature, pets, bows) goes to Druid (nature still so it melds well, then magic and tba stuff), Mesmer (trickery, Manipulation, displacement) goes to Chronomancer (Manipulates time so it melds well, other great stuff but i don’t play mesmer) and Guardian (buffs, defending, etc) to Dragon hunter ( Longbows, traps, damage, lots of cripple, etc.) Not much similarity here.
Arguably Guardian CAN be very militant in its defense. My guardian was always much more Torch tossing heretic-hunting ,Flame Legion slaying, Charr zealot than any bulwark against a foe. The best defense is a good offense and all that. From the way that Peters describes it, I saw the Dragon Hunter as a specific application of that same zealous urge to punish the wicked who would harm people. Which groks to me.
So you’re setting traps to slow enemies and leave trials of blood so that you can find them, stake them to the ground, ignite them in flames, and smite! Smite the dragonspawn before they can reach our homes! Our spawn’s fahrars! Hunt them in all the dark places of the world and bring searing light to them. Trap the paths where they hunt, the places they rest, their training ground, their warrens. Only when they are destroyed is this world safe!
So pretty much you’re still “defending” in the more general sense of preventing harm even before it can look at others. And its not like you can’t still buff. Defense still has a spot even for a DH, it just seems to me more about defending your small Inquisitorial squad on missions than everyone in a wide swath.
At least that was my take on it. Others have very different opinions of course. I wonder if they could have synced things better if they downplayed the “hunter” part and focused more on an Inquisitorial outlook, or made it sound more obviously a Paladin order type of thing.
Regardless I can see where people hoping for a little bit more “Last bulwark for survival” would be disappointed by “Smite the abomination” style play. Guardian’s always been a bit weird that way because it seems to try and incorporate both concepts. Which is a bit more wide conceptually than say Dexterous Warrior or Berserk Warrior .
Great response! I’m glad that the dragon hunter does fit into some shape of the guardian spirit after all. Unfortunately it’s not the one I fell in love with but it brings hope to me that other’s (such as yourself) with such a obvious passion for the class are having your expectations met.
I thought during one of the interviews they said they were completely reworking the shield? Does anyone else remember that or am I just nuts?
If they are reworking the shield then thats great news. Unfortunately it doesn’t help too much with dragon hunters though where they have some longbow specific traits. Although i gotta say my main gripe on the class is the traps…Traps just don’t meld well with the guardian concept imo (other’s opinions may differ). Still seems really left field to me. Look at other spec’s for examples on melding… Ranger (nature, pets, bows) goes to Druid (nature still so it melds well, then magic and tba stuff), Mesmer (trickery, Manipulation, displacement) goes to Chronomancer (Manipulates time so it melds well, other great stuff but i don’t play mesmer) and Guardian (buffs, defending, etc) to Dragon hunter ( Longbows, traps, damage, lots of cripple, etc.) Not much similarity here.
So Dragon Hunter has been revealed. The specialization seems quite strong tbh in terms of raw damage multipliers and vun stacking. Although I gotta say and I hope i’m not alone in this…I signed up to play guardian 2 and half years ago to play the Vanguard, Defender, Shield Bearer (shield STILL sucks and STILL hasn’t been fixed to improve it), Heavy armor, support warrior. Not a full out dps long ranged trapper?
I just think the specialization went way left field and didn’t really build upon that defender image guardians portrayed while the game was still being made. Basically I feel this specialization hasn’t built upon that portrayal in the slightest. So, with that I’ll wait out seeing the other specializations but if nothing catch’s my eye with a similar “Defender-ish” playstyle then I’ll prob take a break from GW2. Anyone feel the same way as me?
p.s. Before people tell me to just play guardian without the specialization… well I just want to play a new part of the game as many if not all players will want to do by playing the new specialization content. Also gonna add that the “defender” portrayed class doesn’t have good shield skills…still. Even after years of community pleading.
Build I theory crafted while drunk. I’m busy for the next 12 hours but then ill prob get the items and see how it plays. Any feedback? It looks like it may have some staying power but also hit like a truck. Also considering dropping sword for scepter to have some range capability as 2x melee is often a real drag to play.
Kagak I agree with you after reading your thought on fire sigil. So its out now for hydromancy. Nil I like your build. Its basically better than the build I made. You people are gonna make me make cele armor…time to try to reverse engineer those stats without cele armor.
The build I came up with that doesnt make me create 30 days of Celestial armor…again. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJARWlsApVo1CxZI8DNRCRk1M2fhpXHcdA-T1SDABMqqSCHBQJ4TKRgSJUjqV0lyjV2fAOdBD8AAAwEkEXCACBYeLA-w
It’s slightly worse than the one you linked before but with without 60g worth of runes and 30 days of gear crafting. Im going to make and test it in a moment. I believe its going to be good for havoc roaming. If solo roaming then I’d drop staff for Sword/Focus and take Empowering Might instead of 2 handed mastery trait.
The key to soul roaming as a guardian is to understand tempo control what is this. Tempo control is the thing that your class or build does well that allows you to set the pace of combat a.k.a. mobility and visibility sustained heavy CC these are some examples of tempo control. This being said guardians have amazing sustained and despite our limited mobility we are not completely defenseless to high mobility classes it’s a matter of timing skills and realizing that you need to make your hits count in your stats need to reflect this. This means that against the high mobility opponent your average engagement at their base is going to be seven seconds or less so you have to make your hits count. This makes critical damage become a very important stat to your low engagement time.
For running in havoc squad this build works extremely well also works for solo play key things you have to remember knowing your skills timing your gap closers and timing your blocks or blinds. This bill can be used as a great sword and a sword focus or basically any other weapons that you want to toss on a. Keep in mind with your previous build the reason why you have so much trouble staying on your opponents baseIs that you only have two gap closers and judges intervention being a wonderful skill has a long cooldown for a gap closer. If you’re running in a havoc group with Rangers or warriors they should be able to give you more than enough swiftness something else to note is that pure voice will convert a immobilize or cripple into nine seconds of swiftness.Pending the makeup of your party the sword focus may benefit your layout better than the staff but that’s certainly on a case to case basis. I never run a set weapon pairing what weapon you use directly relates to what you’re doing and what you need at that moment as everyone knows.
Playing since launch and this answer opened my eyes to why certain builds I ran worked to a MUCH greater degree than others. The reason was higher Crit dmg multiplier on those builds and the small engagement windows you have pointed out. I’ve always tried to maximize the engagement window by taking traveler runes but tbh it was probably not the best option. I could of taken a more well rounded rune to maximize my strength and smooth out my stats. Then it would be punishing to fight me (potential lethal) but staying at range would get you no where. Obviously kiting tactics will bring down this strategy but with guardian being forgiving in nature coupled with my knowledge of the profession I’d still bet they will fatally screw up before me. in most cases =P I’m going to try to make a build close to what you have but with some celestial accessories instead of armor due to me already having those.
So i’ve theory crafted alot and got a solid GvG build and Solo roaming build that works for me but i’ve been having trouble with a havoc build. My definition of a havoc build is something that can stand alone but also benefits others as most havoc players are often outnumbered and need to peel for some breathing room. I really want to make shouts work because of their obvious group benefit but find all shout builds so far just lack the mobility and dmg to stick to someone for a kill unless their bad. Lately I’ve been running my solo roaming build for havoc but my buddies also want shouts for the stability which would be amazing for mid fight stomps when outnumbered. I’ll link my solo roaming build. If I can have some theory crafting guru’s to help me with a decent shout havoc build i’d appreciate it or if anyone got a build that is good for these applications please link it.
My solo build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQRAsd7flsApaolDxbI8DRh/Qkj1FTB4cd55HA-TFTDAB9oEhijAgc6Hyb/hDOJAMq+zTKDSQJYVKNgSJ0APAAAMRRIAzbBA-w
Also keep in mind i do have all guards stacks unlocked and if your gonna theory craft a build you can take that into account as i basically always have +2500 hp and +150 power. My havoc buddies would also like staff in the build if possible for might and swiftness but im not willing to sacrifice my own potential just for others convenience as they aren’t doing it for me.
so what about players who are buying guilds to transfer to their server for WvW purposes? I’ve heard on several occasions that DB and Mag (most likely others too) have put together over 1500 gold as a community to pay for people’s server transfer costs. Then those guilds usually cover off times that the server is lower on population to keep objectives.
My build is currently
I’m kinda down to a defensive food because my power is fairly high in the build with full bloodlust + guard stacks + Warrior friend running that power aura. I could also go for crit chance or crit dmg food too but with my crit dmg being low as it is I don’t think it would solve much. I could be wrong. The 2 foods I thought it could be would be Loaf of saffron Bread or Lemongrass and poultry soup.
Atm i’m using Saffron Bread because it’s cheaper but idk if the 20% reduction when stunned, knocked down or knock back is worth the loss of 20% condi reduction. I use this build for zerging and when im Havocing with 4-10 guildies. Any thoughts?
it has a place in a support bunker role but arguably hammer is better if your going for prot up time. On a side note, have you seen the data mined revenant shield skills? Closer to what guard shield should of been imo.
http://i.imgur.com/SjX7u2A.png
Obviously nothing is confirmed on that information so take it as a grain of salt. Still i hope they revisit guardian shield in the near future.
Also that was found on reddit, I didnt data mine it
Your new build isnt terrible but it’s lacking. Incoming wall of text. warned
you said: “It’s built with the intention to be slightly tough and slightly hard-hitting while stacking conditions ( burn, blind, vulnerability ) and might when a crit is dealt”
Your build atm has;
- 1 blind
- Might on Block (shelter/aegis are only blocks)
- Grant Aegis on block (This doesnt apply to yourself)
- Burn on block (yea burning does decent dmg and no internal CD)
- Vulnerability from sigil of frailty
Tbh the build you linked doesn’t work great for blinds spam (1 source), Vun spam (1 source) or Block benefits (only 1 source of shelter). If you want to run block benefits then you should really have focus in a offhand for 3 extra blocks. If not then perhaps drop a few block traits to fill other parts of the build that are weaker. For instance…burn on block could be swapped for 7% extra crit chance with retributive armor or Purity to help with your lack of condi clear.
Condi clear is something you lack and your gonna feel it with Save Yourselves on your bar. PoV alone isnt enough and you’ll find yourself “wasting” shouts to get ride of a part of a condi bomb. I’d consider dropping Communal Defense (which tbh i think is trash but maybe i’m missing the point) for Absolute resolution Which then gives you 3 condi clears + extra passive regen and it can be refreshed with Renewed Focus for another 3 condi clears.
Also, I find Retreat a bad skill for WvW Havoc (which i assume is what your doing when you say Havoc). My reasoning behind this is Aegis blocks one attack of way to freaking many attacks coming your way. It’s great in dungeons when a big telegraphed attack is coming but in WvW alot of attacks come in small burst, for example Whirling wrath. The Swiftness is nice but you got staff so just use the symbol. I’d swap it for HtL. HtL offers group -33% dmg, a regen heal and its on lower CD for more condi removal.
Runes of fire aren’t great. My recommendation would be runes of trooper for more condi removal because your running 3 shouts. You lose power but take power food to compensate for it. Also i prefer stacking bloodlust sigil over Sigil of force because guardians tag everything with staff. You get 25 stacks fast and your hard to kill.
Lastly, if your running in a organised guild group with comm’s then perhaps drop GS for Hammer simply for the zealot’s embrace Immob when you start to enter a fight to setup a bomb target, Ring of warding for Area denial/stab burning, Banish for Anti stomp (saving friends) and a 4 second blast finisher for fields like water or fire.
your build with my changes:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVMQJASWlsApVo97wWI8DNRCBlZR+P2fIEp4yLEAA-TFCEABQ8AAaR9HBVCqlyvQ0Fk0+DAcEAe4SAQGA9tA-w
Other things I changed and didn’t mention are:
-swapped unscathed for vengeful because your fairly tanky and retal can do good dmg. also you don’t get aegis alot and when you got it you will lose it quick.
- Sigil of Hydromancy on hammer for AoE Chill when your in a group + it will do almost 600 AoE dmg if your got full bloodlust stacks and it can crit.
- Sigil of energy on both weapons because dodging is nice and when you dodge you heal for almost 700 hp for you and other’s. Test it out though because you have vigor on crit as a minor trait so you may only want one of these.
The build I currently run in Havoc incase you want to know:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJASWl8ApVo1CxfH8DNRCRldR8fBI2fQIkCXFAA-TFTDwAOeAAHVC5TZCM1fiq0IgZqCmQYu/AgjAgClgSuEAp0FQKAv2CA-w
It’s more about keeping everyone up rather than raw dps but it still does decent dmg. No crits though which is a shame but my friends do all the criting while I keep them alive. I will say it’s still a work in progess and I’m not sure if I want to try for more crit chance over healing yet.
My guardian experience comes from playing guardian as a main in WvW since launch but it’s all just my opinion.
I think it depends a lot on your Guardians role within the group and what you wish to accomplish as a group. We generally run 2 Guards but they are slightly different in their roles/builds, 1 is the driver who pushes hard and is always at the front of the group. The other(me) is more support/healing based, more how you have set up your guard with nomads.
Both have some measure of healing power, i think our driver sits at about 800, whereas with stacks im about 1300. Both are shout builds with PoV for condi control and run the same 3 shouts, SYG, HTL, SY. Same traits(0-0-2-6-6) and same weapons(hammer, staff). Staff because its the ultimate support and hammer for blasts, although for a duo id most likely switch to scepter/shield support rather than hammer. I run healing breeze whereas our driver runs more survivability with shelter, given that he is usually at the point pushing it makes sense.
We differ in runes and stats, he runs trooper so 2 condis every shout whereas i run monks for more healing output, i am still picking up the 1 condi every shout due to PoV, both of us run AR for the 3 condis cleared from everyone in 1200 rng on F2. He runs more Soldiers/Clerics(toughness, Power, Healing Power) whereas im more Nomads/Clerics/Magi(healing Power, Toughness, Precision). He runs DPS food i run boon duration.
In a havoc fight the bomb and counter bomb seem to be pretty dominant thus the AR and SY that both guards run. SY can help with the inital spike as it generally comes on the end of a shatter mesmer iLeap, or some kind of immob, to prevent dodge roles. 2 Guards give us some serious uptime on stability both with SYG and IC(F3). My SYG stab with 75% boon duration is 8.75seconds another 5.25seconds from IC trait, so its key they land that immob as stuns/pulls etc will most likely b ineffective. Also gives us good sustain with all the boons/condi clear/healing and hammer blasts on smoke/water fields.
I find the tomes far too slow for that sort of fast paced havoc bomb/counter bomb, but in large scrims the heal can be useful. The fact i can fire off my VoR for a 2700 heal with a 1200rad + 3 condis reset it with RF and fire it off again for my group is solid.
Personally id ditch AH and RA for PoV and IC. Check my sigs 1st vimeo link for some fraps of our guards in action getting zerged.
Nice videos! They are actually amazing feats. So I changed my build up a bit. After rolling with my group last night I found that my dps was too low with nomad’s armor and AH just kept me alive long after my team was dead. So i swapped some stuff around. New build is currently
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJASWl8ApVo1CxfH8DNRCRldR8fBI2fQIkCXFAA-TFTDwAOeAAHVC5TZCM1fiq0IgZqCmQYu/AgjAgClgSuEAp0FQKAv2CA-w
I’m liking it a bit more. I sacrificed a bit of healing power and toughness for raw power but it seems to work better for us. Im kinda interested in Mace/Shield over hammer too but im unsure on how good that is. The heals it gives when water fields are on CD is nice and you can bubble downed so rangers can’t shoot your mates off the rezz. Plus the extra prot boon would be nice. Thoughts? Suggestions?
Lately I have been trying out a build that would focus on keeping my friends protection and retaliation up constantly instead of purely going with healing. Healing Breeze and Tome of Courage do a wonderful job even with low healing power.
The protection focused rune can be swapped to Grove, Water or Travelers depending if you want to lengthen the uptime of other boons instead of just protection.
Looking at your build and you opt for solider’s gear which is typically good but after looking at your build, how do you deal with condi’s ? You purge 3 condi’s on VoR but thats all I really c. Also how do you use shelter in a havoc group scenario? More curious about this one
So my guild has been havocing alot lately im wondering what kinda build I should be playing. When I play bunker guard I don’t die easily and I keep boons flowing. This is great for when we run into a zerg or cut off a zergs tail. On the other hand sometimes we run into other havoc groups and then my lack of damage seems apparent and the fight often slowly dwindles down my allies till we are all dead. Basically I find myself not being able to help bomb anything because I hit like a wet noodle. I’ve tried going glass and its the opposite. Great for havoc Vs Havoc but you melt when you get a zerg. So what do all you other guys run? I’ll link my current supporty/tank build for criticism as i’m unsure about it.
-ty in advance
Yea i realize im in a sink or swim situation. After looking up some builds (which ALOT are condi based) Im wondering if something like this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR8alknpMtNqxINcrNSrxg6ryqMSFQp/o6MA-TVTDwA9UCR5IAwS3wM1fyv/QUlCHeIAPVGkQJYVlEQViM4CAAwEGhAEsFA-w may be better for a beginner. Pistol seems like it’s more noob friendly and the traits are slightly different for what i believe to be higher dps? Perhaps some feedback on changes. I may be missing the nail head perhaps.
So I got a level 80 mesmer. I did actually level it in PvE (not Eotm) and i gotta say it was the hardest toon to level out of all my toons. I mainly play WvW roaming or small havoc group and I cant for the life of me figure out how to play this class. Atm I feel like I straight up wasted a week of my life getting to level 80 because I just get blown up and become a major liability to my mates I Havoc with. I do understand that this is most likely a case of learn to play so here I am… I’ll post my build below so people can see it. Any help on positioning, Starting fights, Combo’s, Surviving Outnumbered fights, etc. Basically any help would be appreciated. I will say I do not want to play any condi spec (includes PU condi spec). I played alot of Engi Condi spec and now crave power specs.
Also I have looked up numerous videos on Power Shatter mesmer and even when trying to mimic their actions my burst doesnt come out near the same way or I die before I get anything happening.
I had all zerk armor and trinkets but I need the knights armor training wheels to survive longer than 1 second. Apparently the training wheels aren’t strong enough…
Other toons at 80: Guardian, Warrior and Engineer. All are spec’ed power for roaming and I don’t have anywhere near the trouble I have on Mesmer with them. Although that means little.
tbh I find defender’s flame plays a vital role to this build because of Shield of Wraith, Shelter and protectors Strike. It gives you dps while using skills that mitigate damage while your passive healing tops you up.
PoV does small condi removal and I tend to agree with you about it not being enough. You can take Purging flames over SY for more condi removal or take Poultry soup to help against condi dmg. Personally I cant take Trooper runes (which solves this problem) because the lack of mobility without Traveler runes just ends shouts for me.
(edited by Animosity.5968)
So recently I decided I wanted to roam with shouts and with a mace if I could. So i tried TapDatMouse shout build for roaming and found it a bit lacking for myself so I began to tweak it and came up with something that I find Rather good, maybe not perfect yet but hey it works. It works decent for solo roaming but it was built for Havoc groups of 2-5 ppl.
I find the amount of regen you get allows you to take some serious hurt and keep walking. The dmg On WW is usually around 5-6k and mace actually does some decent dmg of about 2-3k crits. You have some Condi removal (thinking of running poultry soup) and boons for days. I do note if you run with a full 5 party you may want to take Purging flames over SY because you can die really fast if you suck in a full teams condi bomb.
What you guys think? You can take sword or Scepter instead of mace if you’d like. I just like mace for going on the defense and Active heals for allies.
So i didnt know what was otg and I still cant repeat it 100% of the time but sometimes when I Judgement’s intervention, fat finger my elite renewed focus (both are close buttons on my mouse) and use Zealots defense, I tele with JI to the target for a half a second but then revert back to my old position. It’s obvious its not supposed to happen because my camera freaks out and then bam im sitting back where I was before zealot’s defensing the air. I’ve got shadowplay on now and ill record it if it happens again. Anyone else have this problem? I could find anything on the forums.
when I roam I usually run with 2x 1 hander Mediation build, zerk armor with traveler runes, valk weps and earrings, Zerk necklace, Captain and Cavalier rings. Gives about 16k hp with guard stacks, 2.8k armor, high dmg and my build is 0/6/6/1/1 or 2/6/6/0/0 so I have high crit. Sigils and food are sustain and utility is toughness + ferocity sharpening stones. The build is good but you gotta blind big bursts. I can and regularly do 1v2 or 1v3 in this build but admittedly in a 1v3 the others have to be below your skills level for any profession to win those odds.
If you choose a guard to play as a roamer then you will have to learn to play with lower hp pools and taking traveler or speed runes. (i guess pack could work too if you wanna staff swap alot)
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I did swap out flame legion runes for travelers after much debate. It was a great swap, I wish we had a 25% movement speed trait though. I did infact swap my weapons around to Sw/F + Sc/T because I find landing shield of wraith crucial to the build and after the sword burst of Shield of wraith + Zealot defense + JI + smite condi + RoJ and they usually double dodge roll or shadow step away so I can swap to Sc/T and VoJ + Bind + leeching proc + Smite + Zealots fire and they are down.
About the gear, most people say swap for more valk gear but honestly after playing alot I dont need it. I have 16k hp with guard stacks and if we have bloodlust then even more hp. I simply blind everything. Sounds too simple but its seems to work because lately i’ve been doing 1v2, 1v3 and even a 2v5 yesterday. The ommnomberry ghosts and leeching sigil keep you topped up nicely but doing camps can get sketchy at best, I find myself kitting around killing 1-2 guards before going to mid of camp.
Im going to test out taking 2 from zeal and putting 1 into honor and virtues from more sustain. The vigor would be the big thing allowing better outnumbered survival but the passive boons are nice too. Im iffy about giving up 10% dmg modifier and 100 power from zeal because it puts my power in a much lower tier. Tbh the 10% modifier is always active in this builds burst so it’s gonna be noticeable.
Update for how it plays against other professions:
Warrior- you blow them the hell up. Just blind their Burst skills and profit, super easy cause tells are easiest to read
Mesmer- Pretty easy against shatter, harder against condi but very do-able. Just shelter or dodge the shatter and if you can bind them you basically win cause they will use their tele skill and then you JI to them and blow em up.
Elementalist – Against Cele its pretty hard. you gotta bait a water heal without blowing alot of CD’s then after they go through water then you blow everything and hope it downs em.
Guardians- I don’t have trouble against them. Blind the pull, dodge the WW and bait their blinds if they seem to be a very good player.
Thief- against condi you need to end the fight fast or die. Against Power if you blind their big hits you can down them in half a rotation.
Engineer- Condi engi is annoying because of their poison uptime. If they know what their doing then you will have a up hill battle. Cele or SD power builds you will destroy pretty hard, often times I find myself killing them through their healing turret rotation.
Necro – Be aggressive. Don’t stand in wells. Against power you can blow them up fast but spam blinds as you do it. Against condi if you dont down them on first rotation then let them DoT you up and blow all their CD’s while you wait for your CD’s then use CoP and 2nd burst usually downs them fast. In outnumbered fights I usually target necro first.
Ranger- Power seems to be all thats around, you will down them on first burst rotation, use shelter to block rapid fire. I don’t think i’ve ever lost to one but its prob because they are flavor of month and alot of newer players are playing it atm.
So lately GS or Hammer has been super hard to play against better players because people see the burst the coming after playing against medi guards alot. So I switched it up to a full 1 handed spec that I call Animosity’s Crit build (original I know) and i’m having alot of success. Im wondering if there’s anything the community would change about it? Build and reasoning here:
This build has 92% Crit chance with full sigil stacks (easy to get in WvW after a few kills) + 15% bonus from trait+ perma fury in fight (20%) So i went with higher crit dmg which now sits at 223%. I also get dmg bonus of 27% against burning targets via traits/runes. I took some valk gear because hp pool was too low against power ranger burst. Sigils offer some burst to go with my crit chance and some heal (975hp) and dmg on swap. 2700 armor is a bit lower than the 2800 I wanted but hey its pretty close. Food gives me nice 325hp on crit and only has 1 sec CD which gives decent substain with leeching sigil + 2k heal on medi skills.
The dmg is pretty good sitting at 2216 power (2366 with guard buff) but with some decent crit dmg, awesome crit chance and 27% modifier . Not uncommon to see a Shield of wraith of zealots fire crit for 5k. HP pool is still pretty low but with guard stacks you sit at 15.7k hp but with good healing via food/sigil. The sharpening stones are kinda annoying to get but make the build much better and give much needed toughness too.
you can obviously get swiftness but not on a dps mediation guardian. You try running shouts dps against any good player. As soon as they realize you dont have JI to make a big gap closer they fall back and dps from range. Now, by all means if you have a guardian build in mind that can provide swiftness, on demand gap closers and high dps for solo roaming then please link and make my day because I’d love to stay guardian.
Im swapping from guard to warrior for solo roaming because guardian atm NEED traveler runes to be effective (they lack mobility and soft cc to stay on ppl). Which trades your % rune modifiers hoelbrak, strength, flame legion etc for passive movement speed. I was all gung-ho for it until i came to the warrior forums and saw alot of "dont play warrior, its nerfed beyond belief..*Guardian does same dps but with boons too* " The guardian vs warrior interruption has thrown me off a bit. Is warrior actually in that bad of a spot (roaming only) ? I really want to have mobility, be able to 1v2 and be able to burst someone down fast. Can warrior still do all of this effectively or should i look elsewhere?