Guild Wars 2

10/30/0/30/0 is in my opinion, the most well rounded DPS build, closest to the current DPS meta (minus UC) but much more forgiving and versatile in terms of gameplay. If everyone and especially PUG begin to use it, I am sure that the overall quality of PUG players will increase significantly as it is the first step out of AH with high sustainability, condition removals and reasonably high damage (again, minus UC) because seriously, in these few days when I really really look at my boons during dungeon boss fights, I only see 4-6 unique boons at best in every party and the shout “Save Yourselves” only last this long.

I could go on, but I’m kind of done. I want to think of my playstyle as one of a teamplayer. You can travel faster solo, but you will certainly travel further in a group.

The damage of UC is superb, Purging Flames and Absolute Resolution are very nice to remove conditions. I however, do not want to re-spec every time I do dungeon, wvw and open world events. I recognise the merits of 10/30/0/5/25 and the damage this build offer has no challenge, and so is its ability to provide boons though on a relatively long cooldown and I am genuinely happy to know that there are very pro players that can keep Aegis up 90% of the time. I am however, not such a near perfect player like you guys are. I dodge and I do make mistakes here and there, but I can try. I no longer have a group that can do record breaking runs, but I make do and lower my expectations.

To sum up, I am not making a meta DPS build. I am introducing a very forgiving DPS build that is not exactly effortless but at least provide a less steep learning curve build that can be used by anyone lazy or otherwise and still remain somewhat competitive enough if the individual cannot afford the time to learn boss telegraph from experience to keep Aegis up. Of course 10% boon duration and UC/MoC from 0/30/0/30/10 is a very strong contender, but 100 power and 10% damage from Zeal is very enticing as well. Do not forget that consecration can be used untraited. Traiting for it lowers cooldown and improve uptime. If fights end as fast as this forum seem to claim, then is the 2 second extra from MoC even necessary? Not everyone melees in PUG and there is a good chance they will not listen to a mere player in a group (I melee exclusively) and shouts are in my humble opinion, easier to keep buff on ranged party members; I just want to have a build that is prepared for all situations.

The herd mentality is very strong in this forum. With this, I will end my wall of flamebait text and change my current build from the meta back to 10/30/0/30/0. I apologise to hardcore critics in advance for failing to comply with the meta due to the above reasons.

After reverting back to the meta for a couple of days while keeping constant tab to this thread, I have decided to break the silence knowing full well that my build, opinion and results will be bashed and challenged to no end.

First off, I feel that I have to repeat myself that I tend to PUG for dungeons (excluding FotM 48 which I do use the meta for with my buddies). Yes that makes me a PUG as well and the forum community likes to pretend people like me do not exist or simply associate us with bad reputation of poor skill instantly across the board.

Like the rest of the community of this forum, I had an awesome make up group a long time ago that plays CoF P1 (our record is iirc 4 min 49 sec or 4 min 59 sec from the first gate where Magg would first blast it open) repeatedly for 8 hours a day till 3 of us farmed ourselves an Eternity each. Long story short, at that point of time we were not supposed to dodge because if dodging make me miss by 1 swing to make use of Unscathed Contender, I will need few swings to cover back the same damage that I could otherwise have done if I stand my ground on through the entire fight by traiting 30 into Valor. It was a time where 10/30/30/0/0 was the meta DPS build back then and Brutaly hammer build was (and perhaps still) widely used.

Fast forwarding to today, alot of old players have left. My static group had quit, leaving myself more or less stranded to earn ingame gold through dungeons with PUGs. One thing I have noticed is that 90% of these PUGs do not have more than 5k achievement points denoting that they are relatively new or inexperienced players. I have chatted with some of the PUG guardians and they are mostly using 0/0/30/30/10 or 0/15/30/20/5 (and other slight variants) to stay alive as that build is ALOT more forgiving than our new meta here. Here we are complaining that PUGs are bad and whatnot because they are using AH when they simply do not have the luxury of magically increasing their player skill to the level that this community allegedly claims to have to maintain Aegis.

It took me alot of effort and time to practise in the same dungeons (AC and CoF) again and again over the past 2 days to practise dodges and bosses telegraph to its exact precision and even then, I still make mistakes from time to time. I was barely able to keep my Aegis uptime to around 40-60% when I fight Howling King. The adds just keep coming and I have to put in alot of very active effort to press F3 and retreat to accomplish that. No pain no gain, right? Maybe, but is it really worth the effort to lose a 30 Honor HP buffer, heal on dodge and empowering might, 2 handed mastery etc so that I can end a fight a few seconds faster.

May I remind you readers once again that all these take place in PUG groups. I do not use PoV if the fight does not need it (like CoF), but it is good to know that with PoV and 2 shouts plus Purging Flame, I have 3 active condition removals, 2 of which can be life savers due to their 600 range and instant cast nature. If you are skipping mobs in say… AC P1, a newbie who does not have stability and/or enough condition removal will struggle to make it to the boss at the tunnels nearing the end of the dungeon. With 2 shouts to remove conditions when skipping mobs, it is invaluable when I think about the 1.5 minutes I had saved to wait for or re-run with the folks that did not make it. I am fully aware that Purging Flame and Absolute Resolution are great condition removing tools. However, only AR is party friendly when you are running for your lives and that only counts as a 1-time condition removal; Purging Flames sometimes just come out too late and its radius is not particularly big either. Has it ever occurred to you that there’s a chance that the conditions can be applied again to any of your group members and they may not have their condition removal up in time to bail out of the situation? Occassionally, I will still die to immobilise when I solo Magg to the ore in CoF P2. I have 3 Aegis, AR and Purging Flames but sometimes bad luck CAN happen and Purging Flames is just too slow to save myself from the immobilise reapplication and PUG tend to shy away from doing this part so I have to solo it most of the time. In your elite pre-made groups, I’m sure you can all make it to the end very very easily, but I do not believe the majority of the player base actually play in pre-made groups with all 5 extremely good players in it. Haven’t you people carry bad or inexperienced guildies before?

After going through the helpful replies, I have changed my traits back to the meta and give it another go.

Judging from some of the nastier response, I do not believe I want to post here again.

Thank you all for your inputs.

Nike Porphyrogenita.8137:

Carlos.9104:

Technically any mob that gives poison and confusion specifically. Also, to remove cripple and chill when skipping mobs – these conditions tend to be applied alot. I may not need them, but someone else in the group (PUG specifically) will.

Name the boss that applies poison and confusion in rapid succession whereby two cleanses would not be sufficient? And skips you have Aegis and a cleanse, name me the specific trash run that requires more than that. When I say “specific” I don’t want a general answer, I want a specific one.

So, how can I take MoC, UC and AR all at the same time with 25 in Virtues that everyone is talking about? It seems to me that taking AR is a given, and yet without MoC and UC my build is a fail. Which am I suppose to be picking up again?

Playing coy is not endearing. Not every encounter has conditions. Not every encounter requires reflects. Use your common sense as to how to swap the traits around for what you’re doing.

I am here in this forum to share and learn new stuff.

I cannot remember any boss offhand. Skipping of mobs relates to Arah dungeons p1 and p2. I cleanse whatever I see immediately. Look, if you still want to reply to me in such a condescending manner instead of giving me non-rude proper guidance, you are just reminding me of the very reason why I post so little. Stop being an elitist and lend a kind helping hand to a fellow guardian if you will. Otherwise, I would still appreciate it if you can leave the thread alone. Thank you.

Technically any mob that gives poison and confusion specifically. Also, to remove cripple and chill when skipping mobs – these conditions tend to be applied alot. I may not need them, but someone else in the group (PUG specifically) will.

So, how can I take MoC, UC and AR all at the same time with 25 in Virtues that everyone is talking about? It seems to me that taking AR is a given, and yet without MoC and UC my build is a fail. Which am I suppose to be picking up again?

Anicetus.1253:

Carlos.9104:

Seriously, is there anyone that can keep aegis up for more than 5 seconds?

About 90% uptime on it, so yes.

Could you please teach me?

I can only maintain Aegis for an extended period of time if I use scepter. In melee range however, dodging too much appears to be reducing my DPS yet if I don’t dodge, I lose Aegis for Unscathed Contender. I would greatly appreciate it if anyone can teach me the art of using Unscathed Contender to its fullest, that is 90% uptime.

I was originally a 10/30/30/0/0 and 10/30/0/30/0 since launch and I have only 1 character, a full zerker guardian of 2800 hours.

Yeah, I tried the 10/30/0/5/25 sword/focus + greatsword full ascended zerker gears meta for 3 weeks now and I have very mixed feeling with the build that everyone advocates. Sure, the DPS is great for the first few hits but since I mainly PUG in a dungeon, more often than not fights tend to be extended. Seriously, is there anyone that can keep aegis up for more than 5 seconds?

If you jump into the fray first, the aegis will be gone in a sec. If you are dodging alot, direct DPS will be reduced from the time loss due to dodging. With at least 15 in Honor however, I could at the very least do something productive (healing) while dodging and make use of Elusive Power (Honor 25) to make up for the Aegis that I cannot seem to maintain past the first 5-10 seconds of the fight.

Also, in an extended fight, I will need more on-demand AoE condition removal than ever which 10/30/0/5/25 has difficulty providing past VoR and Purging Flame. Pure of Voice would be able to supplement that since I tend to run 2 shouts to make full use of Superior Aria from Honor line.

My point is this: Since we know that 10 Zeal and 25/30 Radiance provides the best offensive, why not combine it with 30 Honor which in my opinion, is the best support plus defense line compared to Virtue which is again, to me, a purely support line. Unscathed Contender is just too unrealistic for every guardian out there since not everyone of us have make up/static groups. So, go 10/30/0/30/0 or 10/25/0/30/5 to get the best of everything and make it the new meta!

I need some clarification on this matter.

A user in my other thread pointed out that the icon for Queen Gauntlet is brown and is likely to see a return under the Activities section. Another user pointed out that the completed achievements within Queen Gauntlet is purple, mirroring Living Story achievements fate in the Historical section upon expiry. While I understand that Queen Gauntlet will see a permanent return in the future, I have some questions that I hope anyone or Anet can provide clarifications to:

1. Will the same set of Queen Gauntlet achievement see a return for players to resume from where they last stop?

2. We now know that Sanctum Sprint, Southsun Survival etc were brought back with a brand new set of achievements. How to know for sure if other activities such as SAB and/or Queen Gauntlet brought back by Anet will see an entire new set of achievements or not?

3. What exactly does the colour code on the achievement title icon and completed individual achievement respectively mean? i.e Living Story = purple, Activities = brown, Queen Gauntlet = brown icon + purple completed achievements

I have wasted much time, in-game money and effort over 8 days trying to complete “Light up the Darkness” achievement to no avail. Please give me a sign so that I may better plan my time.

Thank you.

g e o.2589:

There are major updates and minor updates in Living story. Major updates brings up new map, new content that will stay for 2 updates, 4 weeks. eg Bazaar of Four winds, Jubilee, Dragonbash, Secret of Southsun. The Minor updates are those that stay for 2 weeks and have less content are are more climax of the story, ex. Sky pirates, Queens speech, Cutthroat Politics, Last stand on southsun. Basixally, major updates give more challanging and bigger content that stays for long time while minors give less content for two weeks.

Sky Pirates and Cutthroat Politics may be minor updates, but they have extremely challenging contents that require you to complete them within 2 weeks. Candidate trial T4 was alright in the first week but post-patch literally locks those who were away during the first week from the achievement when the difficulty increased exponentially, effectively doubling the stress the player will feel.

I am stressed out more by these minor updates than major ones. I am already plagued by the 8 orbs achievement and now I am just sitting here waiting for something even harder with 2 weeks of time limit to slam into my face in 5 days time.

kokiman.2364:

Well if they add challenging content, a lot of people will complain (like they did with Liadri) so the best way to add a little bit of challenge is through achievements.

I too support the notion of adding higher difficult contents through achievements. But limited time only achievement seriously?

I am really tired of this consistent introduction of high difficulty contents that are limited by time.

I thoroughly enjoyed Guild Wars 2 since the launch in late August last year. I like Anet’s philosphy and directions; I like how GW2 cater for the casual gamers; I like how GW2 allows gamers to play the way they want. I really do.

I bit the bullet during the Clocktower Jumping Puzzle back in Halloween last year and completed it. I thought that Anet had learnt their lesson and indeed they had – for 8 months only. I greatly appreciated Anet’s effort in reducing the achievement difficulty on one of the mini games during Wintersday event. The Living Story that were later released were all manageable albeit lack of content.

I thought Anet got the tone and difficulty of the game right, but I was soon proven wrong. Things began to change when Sky Pirates was released. I know many people had feedback about wanting the contents of higher difficulty. I am all for it – alittle difficult content doesn’t hurt.

First, it was the grindy crab toss minigame, but that was still manageable. After that it was Frizz and the Unfriendly Skies achievement. I cleared them. Took me afew days but I did it. Next came Cutthroat Politics. I cleared Candidate Trial pre-patch on my main account. It was downright frustrating to solo post patch that “fixed a bug” concerning the number of mobs in the map. I eventually cleared it twice on my second account, but one of them was bugged and I couldn’t get the achievement. In the meantime I had to grind 2500 points for the Southsun Survival which is once again a limited time achievement. In this recent patch, the “Light up the Darkness” achievement is just impossible for me. I had already used up over 200 tickets due to bugs, lame camera angles and admittedly my own carelessness.

Anet, are you mistaking “extreme difficulty and grind” for “fun and casual”? Shouldn’t limited time achievements from Living Story be strictly a symbol of participation? Is this trend just a mask to distract us from the lack of content?

I wouldn’t have been this stressed up if you had put Queen Gauntlet achievement right at the Activities Section from the beginning. At least I know that I can get my last achievement one day. Watching it in the Living Story segment means that it will be thrown into the historical folder along with my shame and regret. Now, I understand that the Queen Gauntlet minigame will become a permanent content, however, reintroducing it would mean an entire new list of Queen Gauntlet achievements that will not give us anymore chance to re-do what was already lost but not forgotten.

Am I asking too much to be a Living Story achievement completionist?

PS: Judging from the recent trends, I predict that future patches will be of similar or increasing difficulties. I may as well quit now while I still can. My spirit is breaking from Anet’s punishment.

I really am…

I have been doing 28 and 38 FotM dailies every single day diligently for the past 2-3 months and only got 3 skins to show for. Even if I grind for another 6 months, it does not necessarily mean that I would get the Fractal Shield skin that I’m after.

Precursor at this moment seems easier to obtain seriously; at least I can farm gold for to buy one off the TP. But this? Why Anet why won’t you make them trade-able or implement a token or relic system already so that we players have a sense of progression?!

Currently, there is no other way of obtaining fractal weapons besides grinding FotM daily. Would there be new progression methods such as spending Fractal Pristine Relics to obtain the fractal weapon of our choice in the new future?

How to destroy the Gate Controller in the CoF dungeon Path 1 asap before the flamethrower guy destroys you first? Scepter is too slow; Zealot’s Defense doesn’t seem to hit the device and while Whirling Wrath is awesome, puts you directly in harm’s way.

I understand that Thief and Warrior are the best at it, but I would like some advice in the event I have am forced to do this.

Any tips on this would be most appreciated.

Thank you!

Which has higher DPS potential for AH greatsword build users between these 2 options in PvE and WvW settings?

Option 1:

10/0/30/25 (WoE/2H)/5

6 superior runes of strength

Option2:

0/5/30/30 (WoE/2H/EM)/5

2 superior runes of hoelbrak, 2 superior runes of fire and 2 superior runes of strength.

Does the increase in boon duration affects the duration of boon received on self given by others and/or does it affect the duration of boon given to others?

My Crithammer animation skipping method is the same as Brutaly. Last night, I tried Trungalung and found my third chain to activate faster and frankly speaking, I find this method more to my liking. So, does this mean that 2 handed mastery has lost its luster in the DPS aspect of this build since I am no longer able to use MB in every rotation?

On a separate note, I am currently on 0/5/30/30/5 and using WoE, EP and 2HM. I don’t use shout much because I am mostly running on Signet of Judgement, Judge’s Intervention and Stand Your Ground. As such, is it advisable if I replace my 2HM for Superior Aria nonetheless? I only play PvE for now and am gearing up before trying out my first WvW and dungeons, so I would like some pointers on a versatile build that I can bring to everywhere.

I feel that we should not forget that power from berserker gear aids in normal and critical damage. In this context, a comparison isn’t straight forward because while rampager has 218 precision or approximately 10% of critical chance over berserker, berserker also has 218 power and 41% critical damage over rampager. There is also a ready synergy between power and critical damage.

Rampager has 592 condition damage that brings up our burning from 328 damage per tick to 476. To make full use of this synergy with precision, you may wish to use a superior sigil of earth for example that procs on critical hits. There are so many possibilities available and for all we know, this set up may beat a full berserker set.

Until the time comes when some genius is able to put everything together using formulas and kitten, I’ll put my money on berserker.