@ Silver -
Like you, I die with the latest dungeon meta builds of 30/00/10/30 or 30/25/00/15. I think for me one of the biggest issues is that I like to use range as one of my damage-mitigation tools, and DPS drops like a stone on GS or Axe once you are outside of 130. But I stay alive much better if I’m able to bounce in and out of melee. Using GS/A+M, I seem to either stand in melee & die in 1/5 encounters, or bounce out of melee and contribute… ah… witty comments? And I’m not that witty? So I really have to use a rifle or LB, and now either the GS or Axe is off the bar.
After trying a bunch of different builds since the patch, this is what seems to be working for me:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-s;4RKkN0P4JL-60;9;5TJ99;129A18-1;02;0K-F4;9-o-FW0-w6;2Vp-wWz12Z8_Ea5Z-870HV8aNX8a;9;9;9;7kkkkkkW
The playstyle is very mobile. After you 100b, if you need to get out you can still keep up DPS. LB burst + LB3 do nice damage, with the bonus of area might. It’s great to be able to use the LB at distance, but depending on weapon swap cooldown I may be setting it off at my feet, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Discipline III is great for walking out of red circles, and saving dodges for when you need it. Keeping fury and might up isn’t a problem if you are bursting with the GS. True, the might from GS procs are short – but I don’t seem to have a problem keeping up 10+ stacks during a fight when FGJ and Sig of Rage are on cooldown.
I would love to drop Arms to 25 and go 15 in Discipline for more 100b up-time. The 10sec wait on weapon swap can kill 100b up-time. But so far in my testing the faster adrenaline regen from Arms XI is better than faster weapon swaps. You’re at full adren as soon (if not before) as the burst recharges with Arms XI. Without it, it seems to take forever, and now you’re waiting longer at range before closing in anyway. Perhaps I should work harder on getting hit, so Defense IX procs more often?
In harder fights, being able to shake off 3 conditions every 9 secs seems to make a significant difference in my survivability. In easier fights, it kills fast enough that the fights are still easy. I didn’t think conditions were really that big of a deal, but watching them disappear on demand is definitely fun.