In stick for ele PVE DPS, this is referenced as an optimal food for certain specs. How does one obtain Plate of Orrian Truffle Steak? I cannot find the recipe, and it is not referenced in GW2 Wiki as far as I can see.
Zelyhn, sorry to hear you are leaving GW2. I’ve enjoyed reading your threads. You will be missed.
Dub, your attacks against Anierna are unwarranted. Anierna has invested a lot of time into developing and revising this guide and responding to questions. Healthy discussions of rotation changes to improve group damage and the validity of Anierna’s assumptions can be constructive. However, personal attacks will only turn people off to what you are saying. Frankly, I fear the death of this game will come not from failures to fix longstanding bugs and balance professions but from the impacts of negative and elitist attitudes on more casual players.
Your idea to remove arcane brilliance from the rotation to make room for an additional LH blast finisher seems worthy of exploration. I am not a fan of wasting heals to accrue side benefits. However, I envision that your suggestion would only be actionable for builds that trait persisting flames.
Anierna, thanks for following through with the damage estimates for the various builds. I think the estimates are overly optimistic for builds that include water VI. If you were to attribute a reduced weight to water VI (e.g., 1.025 assuming a 25% uptime for the bonus), and applied the same armor bonuses to builds F and G, then I believe build G would surpass build F. Even if you assumed 50% uptime, build G would pull ahead. Also, I am not sure it is realistic to assume 100% fury uptime for builds B-E. These builds might be optimal in organized groups but would likely be suboptimal in PUGs.
Thanks for the prompt response. Sorry but I had misread water VI for water IV.
I agree with your point about group vs. personal damage. Still, I would be curious to see how the different builds stack up against each other from personal damage standpoint.
Great guide, Anierna. I have a question. You write:
Playing the S/F Build (G):
Same as “Playing the S/F Builds (C, E, & F),” except that you swap to Air Atune after the 6 complete LH AA chains instead of Fire Atune. You then swap to Fire Atune between completing the subsequent 2 LH AA chains and dropping the hammer.
This seems to imply that the build would execute the 6 LH chains in water, which would not make sense. I would think that build G would execute 6 LH chains while attuned to air, then attune to fire and execute 2 LH chains, then drop LH and refresh. Am I missing something?
Also, I presume your recommendations are based on maximizing group damage. Do you have any thoughts about the relative performance of the builds with regard to personal damage?
GoEP works great! I can keep burning up almost continuously on targets for 30/45s. Thanks for the info.
Can anyone suggest the most efficient way to keep up burning for burning rage trait (+10% damage vs. burning) in solo PVE?
I am running a 30/30/10/0/0 fresh air build that cycles between fire and air (and earth for blast finishers). I am finding that burning precision (30% burn on crit hit) is not doing a good job at maintaining the burning condition on foes. With fury, my crit is ~97%, which implies that burning uptime through burning precision should be <30% on average.
Runes of the flame legion may present an option, though the 5 second CD on the 4-rune bonus (1 second of burn on being hit) limits any benefit it would provide over burning precision.
Does tempest defense yield +20% damage on launched enemies or only on those knocked down? I ask because the Wiki refers to launch as a combination of knockdown and knockback and this would have obvious synergy with LH.
Ugh, I hope this doesn’t take Anet the rest of this year to fix. I would have bought a total makeover kit yesterday if I knew something like this was going to happen. Made a trial change to my eye color a few days ago. Hate it and now want to switch back. I have 3 hairstyle changers, but that doesn’t help me.
Cannot find total makeover kit at the TP.
I have looked at Sager and iBuyPower. They do not offer anything with as small a form factor as Gigabyte. Gigabyte has also received positive reviews from Anandtech.
Been doing some more research today. What are your thoughts about the following ultra-thin gaming laptops? Any suggestions other than these?
1. Razer Blade (14" 1600×900 LED, i7-4702HQ quad core, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M, 16.8mm thick, 1.88kg)
2. Gigabyte P34K (14" 1920×1080 LCD, i7-4700HQ, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760M, 21mm thick, 1.76kg)
3. Gigabyte P35K (15.6" 1920×1080 IPS LCD, i7-4700HQ, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M, 21mm thick, 2.26kg)
I am interested in buying a tablet but would like to get something that would allow me to play GW2 when traveling.
The Razer Edge Pro looks like it would do the job. I saw a video in which GW2 was executed on this tablet. However, the tablet uses NVIDIA graphics, and I believe GW2 has compatibility issues with NVIDIA.
The ASUS Transformer TF710T is newer and has generally better tech specs than the Razer Edge Pro. However, it has an Android OS, and I have not seen any indications that one could run GW2 on it.
Any suggestions would be welcomed.
I’m from Canada also, but I want a beaver pet so it can go harvest all the wood nodes, and in fights it can clamp on to enemy ankles and b*tch slap them with it’s tail …
No, beaver pet has a CD so it is unavailable 1 week a month.
You know, I read a lot of text, but all I saw was you want to ram your enemies nice and hard in Brokeback Mountain.
I have some reservations about this ability. I saw a group of tooltips for the new healing skills posted on a website, and while the healing amounts for most were in the 3000+ range, the base heal for this skill was listed as ~300, which would imply one has to hit at least 10 mobs in order to obtain a “typical” heal (assuming there is no cap).
The listed number was damage dealt, healing value was not on the tooltip at all.
I had interpreted the damage:heal ratio to be 1:1. Regardless, the damage appears to be low from the information presented in the tooltip.
I have some reservations about this ability. I saw a group of tooltips for the new healing skills posted on a website, and while the healing amounts for most were in the 3000+ range, the base heal for this skill was listed as ~300, which would imply one has to hit at least 10 mobs in order to obtain a “typical” heal (assuming there is no cap).
To be clear, my interest in fresh air pertains to personal story/open world PVE. In a group, one can rely on others to stack vulnerability, allowing for S/D (F) + LH with piercing shards. However, when soloing, I find fresh air to provide much greater flexibility. Without any backup, I have found LH to perform somewhat worse in cleave situations than lightning whip, perhaps due to the difference in attack speed. A 30/30/10/0/0 fresh air build, which I believe can be attributed to Zelyhn, performs nicely and is also amenable to prn use of LH. My query related to the substitution of scepter for mainhand dagger for might stacking, but I think the consensus is that would not be a good idea.
Zelyhn, thanks for your prompt response. I presume you are a proponent of D/F with fresh air. I have seen guides referring to use of scepter with fresh air in WvW or PvP. However, aside from might stacking, I was wondering if S/D (or S/F) fresh air is competitive with D/D (or D/F) fresh air in PVE.
Would there be any advantage to running fresh air with S/D instead of D/D in PVE? My understanding is that the AA damage of dagger air 1 is a key driver for building fresh air. Scepter air 1 is weaker, though it can executed in combination with other abilities (e.g., air 2). Other than might stacking, I am unsure of the benefits provided by scepter over dagger in PVE.
Thanks, mind numbing works for me.
Okay, I will ask a dumb question since I have never engaged in WvW before. How is the dust acquired in WvW? Also by killing champions (with group)?
Thanks for the prompt responses. Given the changes to the ascended back pieces, I am looking to make an upgrade. I have read that the dust is dropped in large quantities. However, I am unsure if certain areas (or champions) are most efficient for farming. For instance, do I need to target Orr or similar areas? Can I target champions in low level zones and have a chance for the dust to drop? Is there a circuit that can be run?
What is the most efficient way to farm piles of bloodstone dust? I understand that this is typically a champion drop. Is there an efficient way to farm this in open world?
I created a sylvari with the violet night skin tone and am looking for a dye that, when applied to light armor, matches the “death blue” skin tone. I have spent a boatload of time buying and testing dyes with no success. Can anyone provide me with a suggestion for a matching dye? I wish there was an option to dye armor the same color as one’s skin tone.
Any tips for accomplishing this as a fire elementalist? I am having some difficulty subduing her. She seems to move around and regenerate quite a bit. Any help would be appreciated.
I have been traveling since the patch. When logging in this evening, I saw the toss elixir tooltips now indicate vulnerability on activation. This appears to be a bug/inaccurate.
Wow. So this suggests that taking compounding power or empowering mantras is much less valuable than taking empowered illusions and phantasmal strength. However, I do not think it is feasible to take empowered illusions and phantasmal strength and still get phantasmal haste.
Does anyone know what proportion of total damage (dps) is attributable to phantasms vs. the mesmer when using a PVE mesmer build (e.g., 0/20/0/25/25) and given three iduelists/iswordsmen up?
I am interested in creating a guardian for my next alt. I recognize that many of the profession’s abilities are supportive. However, how does the guardian fare when specified for damage? Smite looks to be a powerful ability based on its base damage and what I understand to be its coefficient. However, I cannot say that I have seen a lot of scepter-wielding guardians in game. What is considered to be a solid damage spec for PVE, and how does this fare against other damage-oriented professions (e.g., warrior, thief)? Thanks in advance.
Is there any reference in the notes to a reversal of the 5% reduction in kit damage that was implemented in the last patch?
As long as they make the hammer sufficiently necro-y within the bounds of what GW necros are, I will love it.
The cultist (necromancer) in the Cliffside Fractal uses a hammer. The animations and manner in which he wields it are sufficiently “necro-y”. Now if we could just apply corruption to our foes…
You know its 2 guardian and other 2 warrior skills, the hammer just looks “necro-y” because it has pink tentacles whirl around and the head is quite dark.
When ya got pink tentacles, do you even need anything else?
THAT’s what we need; wieldable octopi !!!
No, really, all kidding aside. Think about it. Wouldn’t “wielding” living creatures be very much in-line with being a necromancer? I’m not talking familiars or summons like one would associate with mages or illusionists. I’m talking creatures that the necro actually brandishes as weapons. Think snakes, scorpions, spiders, drakes, bats, and all manner of weird, otherwordly, ghastly, or infernal creatures. Grafted, living, organic weaponry FTW !
An elite that fuses all your minions onto your character to create undead battle armor. Total geek out moment!!!
Merging with all one’s minions to form… Devastator… Classic!
There was an all kit build that was reputedly top dps in PVE: the sickman syndrome:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/PVE-The-Sickman-syndrome
Have not heard a lot about the merits of all kit builds in many months.
I have not seen a lot of builds posted since the June 26 patch. I was running grenades/HGH and was thinking of moving to sickman syndrome (all kit spec). For PVE, what are the current best dps builds?
thieves don’t really have a place, and i would argue that they don’t belong in this game.
They used to have a place in all things PVP. But since this is a casual game that attracts…casual gamers (go figure), it was destroyed by gratuitous nerfs.
A casual gamer is a 40 year old guy who works 9 to 5 and wants to roflestomp everything with his 1 hit win class, as a way of achieving gratification. I`m not saying he shouldn`t rather he shouldn`t that easily. The other casual gamer is the youngster that is not fully mentally developed and gets frustrated rather by his lack of understanding of the game than “class imbalance”.
Both types of casual gamers littered the forums with “requests” to “balance” the thief. And since devs have poor judgement concerning how to satisfy their player base… Result: bad profession to pve with, even worse profession to pvp.
And what is a hardcore player? Someone who bags groceries and puts them into the casual player’s BMW when he’s not trying to justify his existence through a game? Stereotypical comments like these are not well taken and are not constructive.
Thanks for the responses!
Carighan, this is particularly the sort of info I am looking for. Supply Crate is a great distraction and mild dps boost but is on a long CD and is “fire and forget.” I would like to think that Elixir X could be of use in an elixir build. However, with grenades I do not need an elite to take out trash. If Elixer X can be used to soak damage or provide support for my group (i.e., CC) that offsets the loss of my personal dps, then it would have value.
I run a condition-based elixir build in PVE (mainly dungeons). While there would be efficiencies in using Elixir X (i.e., low CD, might stacks), I do not see any additional benefits other than controlling adds or potential use as an escape tool (if one gets transformed into the brute). Am I missing something? Is there anyone who uses Elixir X in dungeons with some degree of effectiveness?
Just moved my lvl 64 eng from GoM to TC and am looking for a guild that accepts casual players for PVE and potentially WvW. I am hoping to join a group that is large enough to facilitate ad hoc dungeon runs and am willing to do what is needed to help others.
We need a power weapon to go with the shield for more build diversity though, a mace would be great.
Power weapon is a great idea. But I do not want a mace or hammer. Maybe a hand crossbow. I would say a vibroknife or vibrosword, but those are not weapons that could be shared with other classes. However, I guess the weapon abilities could be designed to make a regular sword or dagger vibro-ish.
Not really…
Coming back to GW2 after an extended work-related interlude. It appears that my guild, Guild of Madness [GoM] on the Gate of Madness server, is now defunct. Accordingly, I am looking for a new guild for my lvl 56 engineer. I am willing to move to a new server, particularly if it has a high population (e.g., TC, BG, JQ, DB).
I am looking for casual PVE (dungeon crawling) and possible WvW on an NA server. I reside in the ET zone. I have a family and very intense job but can commit hours in the evening and on the weekend. Can also provide crafting support (max lvl in three crafting professions).
I was a member of Guild of Madness on the Gate of Madness server. I am returning to the game after a spate of travel, and it appears to me that the guild is gone. I am no longer a member, and the guild website is offline. The listing for the guild on gw2.guildex.org has not been updated since 11/12. Anyone know what happened?
I have been toying with the following HGH/might stacking build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqal0piYnuShF17ICoCAmoHPGkNZfe8WPIEC
assuming
Sigils: battle + accuracy (or corruption or force)
Runes: 2 fire, 2 strength, 2 altruism
Rampager armor and weapons
Berzerker accessories
I believe that with the battle sigil and altruism runes, medkit will provide more sustained might stacks than elixir H in addition to providing a reliable source of fury (along with elixir B ).
A key question is whether to take enhance performance vs. explosive powder or short fuse. Presuming that enhance performance translates into 3 additional sustained stacks of might, I estimate this would yield ~1% increased power and condition damage. Depending on the calculator used (http://gw2.hazno.net vs. http://gw2buildcraft.com), this appears to translate into a 1-5% increase in bleed damage over explosive powder. Over time, short fuse could affect the number of maintained bleed stacks, and to the degree stacks were not already capped at 25, increase bleed damage. In the absence of a solid dps calculator, my limited calculations lead me to believe that short fuse would be better than either explosive powder or enhance performance for sustained damage.
One further question is whether it would be better to take shrapnel or incendiary powder. I would think that maximizing bleed stacks would do more for damage than providing a small amount of burning, though I have seen HGH builds (e.g., Ostricheggs) that incorporate incendiary powder instead of shrapnel. I am not convinced that the shrapnel grenade and sharpshooter, if taken, would be enough to secure 25 stacks of bleeding. Thoughts?
(edited by Moonrabbit.1543)
Mesmers may have good bursts, however, getting that damage through is a whole other story.
It’s easy to dodge the bursts. Easy to kill the illusions before a burst. Easy to use boons to block or go invul before a burst.
In the long run, we’re not superb.
I am thinking of dungeons where boons and invulnerability are a minimal concern. In this environment, how does a mesmer stack against an ele, necro, eng, or ranger when specced for dps (ST or AoE)? I am aware of the mesmer’s strong utility and weak OOC mobility. However, I have seen mixed assertions regarding damage capabilities.
Mesmer single target damage when specced for phantasm damage is difficult to beat. Aoe is significantly weaker though.
Sorry for more dumb questions… I was under the impression that shatter was the key damage spec and that it was pretty good for AoE, though perhaps this is for PvP/WvW.
Mesmers may have good bursts, however, getting that damage through is a whole other story.
It’s easy to dodge the bursts. Easy to kill the illusions before a burst. Easy to use boons to block or go invul before a burst.
In the long run, we’re not superb.
I am thinking of dungeons where boons and invulnerability are a minimal concern. In this environment, how does a mesmer stack against an ele, necro, eng, or ranger when specced for dps (ST or AoE)? I am aware of the mesmer’s strong utility and weak OOC mobility. However, I have seen mixed assertions regarding damage capabilities.
Not to derail thread, but how do mesmers rank with regard to damage in PVE (dungeons)? Say, compared to other scholar professions, engineer, or ranger specced for damage?
Yeah… exactly… build for this dungeon build for that one. To hell with that. Next we going to have a build for crafting too. I’m not here to respec when I need to wipe my kitten
The game clearly rewards respeccing for fights. Frankly, WoW does the same thing. The problem is that you cannot change your allocation of trait points on the fly, and it is cumbersome to change traits and equip new gear, particularly when in a PUG. I have been toying with the idea of a 20/30/20/0/0 build allowing me to switch between condition-based full MM with s/d and conditionmancer with s/d//staff. The problem is that the only traits in spite that would be of significant use to a conditionmancer would be VI, to a much lesser degree V, and VII. Given one would be shifting in and out of DS for fury, this build would not be too inefficient. Still, it would be nice to be able to swap between trait specs as in WoW.
You can use transmutation stones to get that cultural armor for your lower tier character, I’ve been doing this with my necromancer ever since lvl 5. She’s now at lvl 30 looking fine and fancy with the T2 cultural light armor.
If I have the gold to buy T2 cultural armor and the transmutation stones, would I still not be prevented from using the transmuted armor on a character who does not meet the cultural armor level requirement? Or does this restriction go out the window if I keep the stats on the base armor (i.e., the piece to which the cultural appearance is being applied) when performing the transmutation?
If you just apply only the skin to your previous armor it should use the same level requirement as the base armor that you had previously. Although I’m not 100% sure but if I remember correctly I wasn’t able to transmute the cultural skin to the starter armor that you get after finishing the introduction instance.
And it would be great if Anet changed the cultural armors to be just skins without any lvl restrictions that you could just apply to a piece of armor. (similar to the Hall of Monuments skins)
So, if I interpret your response correctly, if I had a level 55 necro, then I would not be able to purchase the T2 armor and transmute it to gear that he could wear (until becoming level 60, the minimum level required for T2). This is what I would expect, though one of the previous posters suggested it was possible to get T2 on a level 30 toon.
You can use transmutation stones to get that cultural armor for your lower tier character, I’ve been doing this with my necromancer ever since lvl 5. She’s now at lvl 30 looking fine and fancy with the T2 cultural light armor.
If I have the gold to buy T2 cultural armor and the transmutation stones, would I still not be prevented from using the transmuted armor on a character who does not meet the cultural armor level requirement? Or does this restriction go out the window if I keep the stats on the base armor (i.e., the piece to which the cultural appearance is being applied) when performing the transmutation?