Guild Wars 2

I completely disagree with your argument. These maps have some of the clearest narratives of any in the game. ArenaNet has shown great improvement in this regard with The Silverwastes and now the Magus Falls maps.

Verdant Brink is about gathering the remains of the scattered pact fleet and trying to gain a foothold in the jungle.

Auric Basin is about discovering the Exalted and assisting in the defense of Tarir.

Tangled Depths is about helping the Order of Whispers blast kitten into Dragon’s Stand.

Dragon’s Stand is about striking directly at Mordremoth.

All the maps have really fun, rewarding meta-events that add a lot of replayability to the map. I think the only map in the original game that comes close to this is Straights of Devastation, but even that feels less replayable because there is only one phase to the map and it just involves a ton of escort missions. The events in Magus Falls are multi-layered and have lots of different mechanics. The world bosses are really fun too.

I’m enjoying this build a lot. Thanks for sharing it.

Norjena.5172:

If u use Scepter u have a weaponset with nearly no direct dmg. Thats bad for a hybrid.

And the reason why i use Staff+Dagger, but probably spoj build is better because of the easier rotation even if there are less bleeds.

With staff+dagger u have both on both sets. Direct dmg and conditiondmg. Staff 2/3>DS1, and Dagger AA on the other weaponset.

The direct damage comes from the dagger autoattack.

Rotation would be Scepter 2, Dagger 5, Signet of Spite, Feast of Corruption, weapon switch, Warhorn 5, dagger autoattack until all scepter/dagger skills off cooldown. That seems like not bad damage to me. Obviously not going to be as good as a full zerk build, but it’s something.

Edit: Spoj, here is my proposed edit of your build. What do you think?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQRBIhtG1JNi0ZjN2g1NwhjJwFEoXEoV0ZONiqtA-TRSBABGcEA0R9HzUCelysOOJAooHYLlGAu/oZAgHAAA-e

spoj.9672:

Ghastly claws is low dps. Dagger auto passively stacks a lot of bleeds. If you combine that with warhorn you can sustain about 10 stacks of bleed just from passive procs. If i was to build a hybrid now it would probably be d/w + d/d with rampager gear and strength runes and using signets for might.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQRBIhhG1JNiUdjd2gjNwhjJwFEoXEoV0ZO1hqtA-TBSBABXq+DN7PYmSwrUG0xJBAP9Dbp0DgnAggAOF-e

The best choices for runes are strength or aristocracy. But in a hybrid build you will want too focus on power slightly more. Thats why i chose strength. However you can get 6 stacks of might when using the heal signet if you use aristocracy. So either would be fine.

The reason for rampager is simple. Necro lacks crit chance in most sistuations. Assassins armour is better than beserkers in most situations for a power build. So the same can be said for a hybrid build. You are simply swapping crit damage for condi damage and keeping the high precision.

This is a cool build, but I wish there was some way to incorporate Scepter. Couldn’t you use Scepter 2 and Dagger 5 off cooldown then rotate back to Dagger and autoattack? Signet of Spite followed by Feast of Corruption is a decent bit of burst too.

Would Aristocracy runes and all Berserker trinkets be a suitable budget option? Not sure I want to pour 60g into strength runes.

oxtred.7658:

dagger autoattack is the highest necro dps.

As a side note, hybrid builds are bad both for condi and direct damage, at least in pve.

I’m well aware of the disadvantages of a hybrid build, I’m just trying to see what changes can be made to improve the build Nemesis made a year ago.

Even if dagger autoattack does more damage than Ghastly Claws (I doubt that), it’s still not going to proc as many bleeds which is kind of the point of the build. You stack bleed with scepter, then switch to burst but still maintain some bleeding thanks to Barbed Precision and Sigil of Earth.

It seems like everyone agrees Runes of Divinity and Celestial trinkets are bad value overall and should be replaced. So if we go with Berserker trinkets, what’s the best armor set? Carrion better than Rabid? Vitality is kinda crappy compared to Toughness but Power probably serves this build better than Precision. Then there’s the runes. Someone suggested Rune of the Aristocracy, which seems interesting. But Rune of the Mad King could also work? I’m not sure.

I do this world boss daily with a success rate of around 60-75%. There are plenty of guilds that do public runs of this. You just need to join them in a TeamSpeak and taxi onto their map. It’s more involved than Tequatl, but that’s the point. You put in more effort to overcome a harder challenge. You must work with other players in an organized setting to beat Triple Trouble.

tl;dr: don’t change the boss, but maybe have it drop more than just two gold, a bunch of masterworks, and a chance at a mini and crappy ascended armor

Pregnantman.8259:

I would still go for Focus. The Zerker build uses warhorn only if Focus is worn as well. The burst damage and the vulnurability should provide good burst of power damage for you. I would try using dagger instead of axe, as it has better life force regen and higher damage. Even with Axe Mastery, I think daggershroud should be superior to axeshroud in terms of damage when counting the time spent out of death shroud.

I think Axe works better for a hybrid build because you can stack bleeds with Ghastly Claws very quickly. The skill rotation also calls for never using the Axe autoattack and only staying in Death Shroud briefly between Ghastly Claws. I think that rotation would do more damage than dagger autoattack, but I suppose I should test it.

Narkodx.1472:

OK so you want a hybrid build and no one is answering you

6/6/x/x/x Would be your best bet utilizing our dps trait lines

As far as gear goes you can mix in Carrion/Zerker to get yourself close to 2k power and as much Condition dmg as possible after that

If you can get 2k power with respectable precision/ferocity than close to death is an option if not dhuumfire – parasitic contagion will not increase dps just survivability which is not needed once you master the PvE engagments

Weapons? Scepter/Dagger along with Axe or Dagger / Warhorn would be my guess – Nemesis used Axe – Staff is weak and slow I never use it anymore

I believe for a hybrid to reach its full potential you would need might stacking so Blood is Power along with Reapers Might along with Aristocrat runes seems like a good bet

Nemesis video while old and “outdated” is still a good source for a hybrid build – not much has changed for a Necromancer since that video

Nemesis’s build calls for Scepter/Dagger and Axe/Focus. Has the Warhorn buff made it better than Focus?

Edit: I like the idea of Aristocrat runes. But what about Rune of the Mad King? Rune of the Adventurer too maybe?

dwillikers.2348:

Wisp.9725:

Yes, I know Berserker stats don’t offer condition damage. I was giving a sarcastic response to his unhelpful comment.

Your general argument is off-base though.

Everyone knows power builds deal more damage than condition builds. But to then turn around and say all condition builds are the same is nonsense. Some condition builds do more damage than other condition builds.

By your logic, I could say that because Necromancers are the worst dungeon class in the game, your build doesn’t matter at all and you might as well run all signets.

Obviously the goal is to optimize your build with a given set of parameters. Power Necros want to maximize their damage using a dagger. Condi Necros want to do the best possible condition damage.

So please, don’t tell me to run a Berserker build. I have a good Berserker build that I run.

I also want to play a hybrid-condi Necro because it’s fun and does something better than other classes. I use it to kill husks in Triple Trouble, for instance.

I can only assume you just skimmed my post. I already stated you can either build optimally or for fun. I’m just saying that if you don’t build optimally, yes, your build is irrelevant as far as I’m concerned. Maybe it’s black and white, but to me, you either run a build that’s capable of maximizing your damage or you don’t. You’re electing for the latter, which is fine. I was just merely pointing you that, be aware that if you choose this route, you’re electing to take a class that is already innately sub-par in pvE content, leaving damage our only real method to make up for this, and running a condi build only makes you even less optimal, due to it’s inferior damage.

If you still want to run a condi build knowing this, then by all means, go for it. Like I said, most pvE content, barring some exceptions, is pretty faceroll. I was merely posting to be sure you were aware that a condi build in pvE is unviable, in case you had the desire to be optimal to your group, like I always do.

But then we play the game to have fun. If being optimal to your group isn’t fun for you, then don’t do it.

No, I read your entire post. It was every bit as useless to me as this last one.

You apparently cannot understand the concept that some condition builds are better than others and I would prefer a better one. So instead of helping me with this, you elected to give me the patronizing “but berserker is the only optimal build” line.

Yes, I know Berserker stats don’t offer condition damage. I was giving a sarcastic response to his unhelpful comment.

Your general argument is off-base though.

Everyone knows power builds deal more damage than condition builds. But to then turn around and say all condition builds are the same is nonsense. Some condition builds do more damage than other condition builds.

By your logic, I could say that because Necromancers are the worst dungeon class in the game, your build doesn’t matter at all and you might as well run all signets.

Obviously the goal is to optimize your build with a given set of parameters. Power Necros want to maximize their damage using a dagger. Condi Necros want to do the best possible condition damage.

So please, don’t tell me to run a Berserker build. I have a good Berserker build that I run.

I also want to play a hybrid-condi Necro because it’s fun and does something better than other classes. I use it to kill husks in Triple Trouble, for instance.

jingkangtan.6752:

30/10/0/0/30
full zerker

How do Berserker weapons do condition damage exactly?

Norjena.5172:

Nemesis Hybrid was never rly good and it did never “excellent dmg”. It was only “ok”.

If u rly want to play Hybrid, use Dagger Staff or Dagger/Scepter. But it is still worse then Berserker for dps (but more defensiv stats if u use celestial).
To make hybridbuilds “viable” we will need a better statcombination then rampager, with power or conditiondmg as mainstat.

Why Staff? It’s damage is terrible. It’s not good for stacking bleeds. I don’t see how it improves the Nemesis build at all.

http://intothemists.com/guides/264-nemesis_necro_damage_hybrid

I’m a fan of Nemesis’s hybrid power/condi Necromancer build. It seems like it does excellent damage as long as you’re not doing world bosses, or dungeons with another person adding poison and bleed.

The build is over a year old and hasn’t been updated though, so I’m wondering if any of the balance changes in that time mean that changes should be made.

Scanning the YouTube video’s comments, Nemesis recommending changed Dhuumfire for Parasitic Contagion a few months back.

I’m wondering if Celestrial trinkets still make sense. How about Runes of Divinity?

Another question that has come up is Giver’s weapons versus Rabid. I’ve noticed that I can’t get 25 stacks of bleed up. My base condition duration is 30% plus the 20% on bleed from Hemophilia and another 33% from Lingering Curse. I think I read that you need 133% condition duration to achieve 25 bleed stacks. Is it worth it to invest in that? Or maybe fewer stacks but higher damage is better considering other people in groups will add a few bleed stacks.

What changes would you guys recommend?

Thank you for coming up with this.

I kind of wish there was a way to squeeze in an extra point for additional Mace damage, but I suppose there’s no way to do that without sacrificing symbol damage.

Zealot armor is also a good idea, I hadn’t considered that.

I don’t see the advantage of Cleric stats on the Hammer though. I think Berserker would be better there (I already have Zojja’s Warhammer too). Am I wrong here? The Mace has two healing abilities compared to the Hammer’s potential of one.

Edit: Does the trait Protective Reviver work with Signet of Mercy? That could be useful it it does, since we’re not getting a ton of use out of Superior Aria.

Edit 2: It doesn’t.

Veydar.5017:

What you are trying to create is a useless dungeon/fractals guardian and there’s no way to sugarcoat this. Every class has sufficient success to healing skills in regards to dungeons. In high level fractals a lot of classes will get 1 shot, whether or not there’s a guardian in knights armor standing next to them is of little relevance. Taking and holding aggro in this game relies on far more than just toughness.
There’s a reason this game has such an all encompassing meta which happens to be all about dps. If you want to completely ignore that you can play any build you like. If it’s about healing and support it is always going to be really bad for dungeons and fractals and you will always be a burden on your team.

I was quite clear about my intentions here.

I am not trying to create an optimal Guardian build. I am trying to create an optimal Guardian build with the given parameters of using a mace for defense and healing.

If you’re not interested in helping me, then don’t post in this thread.

oxtred.7658:

Please, don’t.

Ask yourself what will that vitality/ healing power achieve against OHKO bosses. Mitigating damage > healing it.

Yeah, your usual berserker answer, but playing a selfish guardian is just wrong. Shouts are bad for support. Gear isn’t tied to support either. Staff is a garbage weapon.

Your tone is unnecessarily hostile. You can offer constructive criticism and suggestions without being dismissive.

If you read my post, you’d see that I asked questions like would Communal Defenses be a useful trait instead of Absolute Resolution because it provides aegis spam. I also asked whether a sword rotation would be better than staff. Instead of saying “staff is garbage,” offer an alternative.

I’m relatively new to Guild Wars 2, so I’m not at all experienced in designing builds. That’s why I’m making this thread, to seek the advice of you all, whom I expect know a lot more about this game than I do.

I’ve been running the standard variety of Berserker builds. GS/Sword + focus for dungeons, Hammer/GS for fractals, etc. Those are great, but I’d like to experiment with some other builds for fun.

I’ve seen some builds utilizing a mace, but a lot of them are 18 to 24 months old. They also don’t seem like they have been iterated on heavily. I’d like to find/create something that’s more refined.

Basically my goal for this build is too create an extremely tanky Guardian that also provides healing support to allies in dungeons/fractals, along with the standard array of blinds, aegis spam, and reflects.

My initial idea is Magi stats for Mace/Focus and a Magi staff. My first question is would a Sword/Shield in the off-hand be better than a staff? I believe this would offer greater DPS, but at the expense of Empower. Is Empower worth it?

What would be the optimal sigils for these weapons?

As for armor, I’m think Knight’s. I don’t know what runes would be best, however. And what about trinkets? More Knight’s? Or Celestial?

As for traits, I came up with 0/0/4/6/4.

Valor: VI, VII
Honor: II, VII, XII
Virtues: I, IX

Would Writ of the Merciful be better than Writ of Persistence? What about Pure of Voice instead of Battle Presence?

Alternatively, I considered 0/0/6/6/4 with Communal Defenses. The advantage here is might and more aegis spam for your teammates, but the loss of Absolute Resolution. Would this be better? I suspect not, but I’m no expert.

As for utilities, since I’m using Superior Aria, I figured lots of shouts would be good. Retreat, Stand Your Ground, and Wall of Reflection were my choice for utilities. I figure Hold The Line or Purging Flames could be substituted in based on circumstance.

I think that’s everything. I realize this hardly optimal, but I want to create the best possible build utilizing my stated objective of healing support and tankiness.

Kohlteth.3715:

HHR LostProphet.4801:

Kohlteth.3715:

Kohlteth.3715:

Hmmmmmm I just wanted to point out one thing …… Teq and Shatterer and others that people want harder … are ALL in level zones way lower than 80.

So newer players / Players leveling up are NOT going to want some super leveled boss there ..

Why not make the harder, bigger, badder bosses in Lvl 80 zones ?

Where you would expect the hard stuff to be !!!

I love how everyone glossed over what I thought was a valid point about WHERE the bosses y’all want harder are placed !!

Tha Shatterer is a Dragon Champion. He’s one of the 3 strongest bosses lore-wise. He should live up to that from a gameplay perspective.

Then if He is going to be that hard, He needs moving into a lvl 80 zone, not a lvl 50 zone !!

Evolved Jungle Wurm is the hardest open world fight in the game, and it’s in a level 50 zone.

Tequatl is harder than Karka Queen and he’s a lower-level boss.

I think it’s pretty clear that zone level shouldn’t matter when it comes to boss difficulty.

You should spam Virtue of Justice always. I don’t use Virtue of Resolve in a solo setting unless I’m about to use Renewed Focus. If I’m in a group setting, I use it whenever I see our party’s health is below 90% or right before I used Renewed Focus. As far Virtue of Courage, that one I try to alternate with Retreat so I have as much aegis uptime as possible. Because it’s got an 80 second cooldown and Renewed Focus has a 90 second cooldown, there’s no sense not using it. With a point in Virtues, you also get the 5.5 seconds of protection from it. Basically the cooldown on the passive is too long to not use the active ability. Especially use it in a group setting. Always, always.

Right now my favorite fights are Tequatl, Golem Mark II, and Evolved Jungle Wurm.

I don’t really understand anyone who says Tequatl is too hard. I think his difficulty is balanced pretty well. He’s hard to beat on a map that isn’t organized, but the truth is that most are. I show up around 30 minutes before his afternoon spawn. There will always be 1-2 commanders who explain the basics to new people. People sort of naturally fall into place. It’s gotten to the point where we regularly beat Teq with 9-10 minutes left on the clock. This is all total random strangers mind you. I’ve failed a few times in the last month, but not often.

What’s great about the Teq encounter is that it requires you to think. It’s not a total mindless exercise like fighting The Shatterer for instance. It’s sufficiently epic in scope and there are specific roles for people.

Evolved Jungle Worm is another great fight, but it’s best left to organized guilds. I’ve never successfully done this with strangers – only when I get taxi’d into an organized map. I understand some people don’t want this experience, but I think it’s good to have challenging fights for guilds and winnable fights for random people like Tequatl.

Golem Mark II is the best non-Hardcore boss because his move-set requires you to actually dodge. Only change I would make is have some way for him to kill the people standing on the box at range. Everyone should be forced to contend with his lightning attacks.

The rest are pretty boring in my opinion. The first one I would re-do is The Shatterer because he’s meant to be this epic encounter, but instead you just sit there and wail on his toe for 10 minutes. If you die to him, you’re bad at this game. He’s a total pushover. This whole fight needs a redesign so that he’s actually deadly against zergs and so that it’s possible to fail. A fight will always become tedious if you win it 100% of the time. It drains all the tension otherwise. So there needs to be a real fail condition, he needs more attacks, and there needs to be a role outside of the zerg. Not saying he needs to be as hard as Tequatl, but it should be 75 or 80% as hard.

Claw of Jormag also needs a redesign. This fight is like ramming your head into a wall. I don’t care about the length of it. It’s just boring to play. Again, it needs more roles outside the zerg. Make it failable.

Modniir Ulgoth and Taida Covington both have really fun pre-events, but the actual boss fights are boring. They are like Svanir Shaman in that you just wail on a tiny dude for five minutes. The Earth Elemental bit of Ulgoth is particularly disappointing. It’s over in ten seconds and it does nothing. Make that the fight and have it be real scary.

Megadestroyer and Karka Queen are the same deal as The Shatterer really.

I understand why the starting zone bosses are simplistic. I think the Jungle Wurm is the best of the three though. Fire Elemental dies instantly and the Shadow Behemoth does nothing threatening. The Jungle Wurm will at least knock you back if you don’t dodge. SB just drools on you while you stab him.

Sebbl.2806:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Sebbl.2806:

Balancing the present skill/traitset should always have priority over introducing something new, which has a high probability of adding more balancing problems.

Balance is an iterative process and shouldn’t be thought of as something you can ‘finish.’ Add new skills and keep iterating.

Not contradicting you on the iterative process thing. I just think that balancing, fixing and improving already available skills/traits should be done before giving players something new.
GW1, for example, had way too many skills after some time, and the developers obviously had problems balancing everything in the end, so some skills just got nerfed into nothingness.
ANet learned from that, and in GW2 they limited the number of skills per class drastically (but also made them modifiable by traits). That’s a good thing in my opinion.

But okay, I have to admit that I’m always looking from a more competitive perspective. PvE-only skills are something else.

There were problems with the Guild Wars system, and perhaps it needed some modification coming into Guild Wars 2. Seems to me they threw the baby out with the bathwater. Pardon the dumb analogy.

Guild Wars 2 has regressed to a state where there is very little variety and not much of a metagame. As far as my Guardian is concerned, Greatsword is the best choice 90% of the time. I’ll swap into a Hammer for some fractals or maybe a Scepter for ranged fights. But most of the time it’s the same five skills and I have no influence over them. That leaves me with three utilities and an elite (which is always Renewed Focus). It’s basically like running the same Guild Wars build all the time. But in Guild Wars I was swapping skills all the time, especially in an organized group where we tried to get some synergy going. It was like building a deck of cards.

I’ll take some imbalance if it means more customization and more strategy. Maybe Guild Wars had too many skills, but Guild Wars 2 has far too few. Perhaps there is a happy medium to be found.

Factions and Nightfall were fantastic add-ons to the original Guild Wars. I don’t see why we can’t get something similar in Guild Wars 2.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be a $60 boxed standalone campaign or even a $30 expansion pack.

People just want new professions, new skills, new weapons, new races, new zones, new bosses, new dungeons, and other substantial, repeatable content. ArenaNet can figure out a way to monetize that in a fair way that minimizes player segregation and doesn’t make the original Tyria content obsolete.