Guild Wars 2

I thought you could see your latency, maybe on the Options menu.

Hammer is ideal for Altruistic Healing, just so many boons going out. Staff4 + AH gives a ton of HP back, usually refills your health. I leveled from 60 up in WvW with Hammer/Staff AH and it was a breeze if you get a decent zerg. If you just can’t hit anything with Hammer throw on Staff, each ability is useful in a zerg.

Blood~

I would want a Guardian that stays alive and does his/her best to push as much dps as he/she can. I’ve run with Tank/Healer combos and it just seems slow and more challenging. Pure of Voice is very nice to run with and shouts are great support. The more Wall of Reflection and Avengers Shields the better. I love running with a Hammer guardian for that protection, don’t run 2 though.

In any case if you need Altruistic Healing to stay up then go for it, if not hit the DPS build. The DPS build is quite versatile also, it can get tanky with a Hammer and some gear change, can’t really go wrong if you can survive it.

Blood~

If you want to be ‘Tanky’ in WvW mix some power/vitality/toughness, power/precision/toughness and power/precision/crit dmg gear. Look at a build that gives you Altruistic Healing to start, something like 0/0/30/30/10 or 0/15/30/20/5, get the feel for things and graduate away from Altruistic Healing. Hammer and Staff both take advantage of Altruistic Healing quite well. There is a guide stickied in this forum, read through it cuz there is a lot of great info.

As for weapon DPS, GSword is seen as our DSP weapon but when you really look at it most weapons are pretty close in damage output if spec’d and geared right. Scepter has quite high dps but it doesn’t hit all the time if the target moves or is blocked but another mob, unfortunately its our only long ranged option. Sword has quite good damage output too but its more single target. Mace is strong, slightly lower but offers a good amount healing. Staff is lowest but offers the best support options. But I agree, keep one of each weapon as they all have their strengths.

Get to 80, things change a good deal when you cap.

GL
Blood~

You could head to the Mists and try some different amulets and builds n go smack some test Golems. I’ve used them to do some testing and its about as consistent of a test as we have access too right now. Granted the amulets don’t fully mimic exotic/ascended stat spread but it will give you an idea of the difference between some builds. I’ll post some average hit values when I can do some recording.

Blood~

My feeling is that you would gain more damage output by investing in your Phantasms also. My personal testing showed that vs Thief and Guardian you’re on the low side w/o any phantasms. With 1-2 you’re on par with Guard, with 2-3 you can match and exceed Thief’s damage. Not sure how accurate it is but I’m satisfied with the outcome so far. I’m sure its as viable as any GC build though.

I’m currently a 30/10/0/25/5 build. Phantasms deal good damage and Mantras are there to bolster personal DPS and heal. It’s actually quite comfortable to play as you’re getting a steady stream of healing. MoP hits pretty hard and I love mantras as you can drop charges even while stunned.

I’m running a 30/10/0/25/5 Phantasm/Mantra build and I like it. Use Sword/Sword and GSword with MoRec, MoP and switch in two other utilities as needed. MoP is a DPS increase from GSword Auto so Charge>Auto. I like it for that little extra kick when you’re phantasms have a tough time staying up. The heals are nice and noticeable but I went Knights/Zerker and it works good.

Blood~

10/30/0/30/0 Versatile ‘DPS’, weapons and utilities adjusted per content. Heavy Zerker use with a bit of Soldiers mixed in.

Hammer and Scepter/Focus – Signet heal, Save Yourselves, Wall of Reflection, Shield of the Avenger default.
AC = Autoattack Chain
1. Sc/F 5>2>3>1 >>swich to H> 1AC>2>1AC> repeat Hammer sequence. SYs to fill the block/protection gap between Sc/F 5 falling off and H 1 Symbol start up. Switch to Sc/F and back off to regen HP if needed. 6 as needed. H 3,4,5 and Sc/F 4 as needed.

2. Same as 1, position to Symbol as many targets as possible.

3. Hammer’s Protection symbol is awesome for melee heavy groups. Allows melee to ‘face tank’ much longer. Omnom Pie and Sigil of Blood on Scepter to retreat and refill HP.

4. Goal is to keep your endurance between 50% and 100% to increase damage by 10%. Try to keep 1 dodge available. I will usually dodge out just before Might Blast so I can get a quick leap back to the target.

5. Zerker gear is workable, it adds more challenge and proactive damage mitigation fun. Gear to your comfort level but more DPS equals faster runs and less damage incoming. Give your group Virtue of Justice, you get more Burning up time on the target if all group members hit it vs 1 proc per 5 swings.

haviz.1340:

Bloodgruve.6038:

@Havis, I’m sure you’re probably right but your posts generally lack information. Your word alone isn’t enough to convince people, please elaborate a bit. Where am I missing the 4.755%?
Blood~

It’s (dmg * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.1 * 1.05) not (dmg + 0.35dmg)

Ty for the run down.

Blood~

10/30/0/25/5 is what I run for RHS.

Fiery Wrath – 10% to burning targets
Radiant Power – 10% to condition’d targets
Elusive Power – 10% when under 100% endurance
Powerful Blades – 5% with Sword

Throw on Empowering Might and Inspired Virtue+Renewed Justice+Blind Justice you’ll build a decent stack. Its also nice to grab the Honor tree simply for the HP, you can more easily go into Zerker gear this way. With Omnomberry Pie and Sigil of Blood you’ll heal a decent amount, get in trouble just back off to ranged until you can get back in. Mace is another option here as it gives more healing, damage output doesn’t match Sword but its not too far off if you can manage your symbol and Protectors Strike.

If you want a bit more versatility and support go 10/30/0/30/0 for the ability to work with 2h weapons and/or Pure of Voice, also good for WvW. 10/30/30/0/0 will give you that sought after Altruistic Healing and some big crits, your hp will be lower here so more proactive survival is needed.

GL,

Blood~

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

This thread.

20/30/10/0/10 with scepter, Smiting on a large target is the highest possible theoretical DPS you can get. In practice though you would probably want either 20/30/0/20/0 or 10/30/0/30/0 to maximize group DPS through Empowering Might stacks.

I’ve lost a lot of faith in Scepter lately. It doesn’t hit moving targets reliably and won’t hit your desire target if anything is in front of it. On a solo stationary target it does well but we don’t get that very often. It is however my default secondary weapon loadout due to our lack of ranged options.

@Havis, I’m sure you’re probably right but your posts generally lack information. Your word alone isn’t enough to convince people, please elaborate a bit. Where am I missing the 4.755%?

Blood~

Interesting, I did testing in Orr a while back with Sigil of Blood and it didn’t seem to be proc’ing for me on off hand but I’ll try again (yes, my health wasn’t full. TY for the info. I usually run Sigil of Force on my GSword and Hammer, switching to a Sigil of Blood on my scepter when I need to back off and get some HP back. I agree its not a lot but stack Omnom Pie, Virtue regen and Sigil the healing is noticeable even without healing gear. Mace will just add to that setup.

The reason I mentioned Mace over Sword is that you’re looking for a DPS/Support setup and Mace has a lot more support than Sword. I believe it also has a larger aoe hit range then Sword but don’t quote me on that . I do prefer Sword for DPS unless I’m running a really glassy build.

Maybe replace zerker amulet with soldiers and run the Omnom Pie? I don’t run without them, even after the nerf/fix.

Blood~

I like GSword and Sword/Sword. Simple reason at lvl 25 you can take Blade Training trait and reduce the cooldown of Sword abilities. At 15 you take the all-powerful Illusionists Celerity trait, this stacks with weapon cooldown reduction traits that produce any Illusions IIRC. Takes iSwordsman down to 12 sec recast from 20 sec.

Even if the GSword iZerker is bugged it’s still pretty useful for AoE. I see some big hits come from it. If you really don’t like GSword then run staff, this works more off of conditions though where Sword/Sword is better with Power. I’m not a fan of Scepter, don’t use Torch much and Focus is good when traited. I opt for /Sword over /Pistol simply because of the Blade Training trait.

GL

20/25/0/25/0 will give you a 35% increase in damage plus any vulnerability you can stack.

I usually go with Sigil of Force on main hand and Sigil of Accuracy in off hand. I do run 6x Rune of the Mesmer for my Sword/Dagger but that’s a heavy investment so you could just go with Sigil of Paralyzation on offhand dagger and Sigil of Force on main hand. Sigil of Paralyzation and 6x Runes do not stack high enough to increase the daze duration over 3 seconds.

Not sure but ‘on crit’ sigils on off hand weapons don’t seem to proc unless you use the off hand attack. At least that’s how it seems to me.

GL
Blood~

1. Does Sigil of Fire proc on offhand weapons much? I tried Sigil of Blood that way and didn’t get much of anything from it.
2. Have you thought about Mace/Shield? It’s damage doesn’t match sword but it’s not too far off if you can manage symbol placement and use Protectors Strike as a DPS ability.
3. I like Focus as an offhand for Scepter.
4. I’m not experienced in fractals over the mid 20’s, but would Omnomberry Pie and maybe Sigil of Blood help? Or do you find yourself either alive or 1-shot?

I like the trait layout, been thinking of going a similar route for WoR and SoA.

Blood~

Max DPS is probably something like 20/25/0/25/0 or 10/30/0/30/0 or 10/25/0/30/5 with GSword and Scepter/Focus for CoF runs. These will give you 30% increased damage if the target has a condition and you have less then 100% energy. Then add might and vulnerability to the mix for more %. Zerker gear obviously, maybe a couple soldiers pcs if you need them. Omnomberry Pie and Master Maintenance Oil or Superior Sharpening Stones always.

I have no problem clearing CoF without getting floored in any of these builds.

GL
Blood~

Mongo.2490:

Is that how it works? I don’t have much experience in large group settings so I haven’t come across this yet. Why are there caps at all? If you can maintain the upkeep on adding more stacks, why is there a cap?

I don’t know the exact mechanics behind it, but isn’t it like.. the enemy loses 1 stack a second? Something like that? Why not make it a percentage per second.. so the more stacks an enemy has, the harder the group needs to work to keep those stacks up. Seems like it would be a pretty good ‘soft cap’ that’s actually skill based instead of a flat hard cap that doesn’t add ANYTHING to the game.

Bleeds are capped at 25 stacks. Each individual bleed has a duration and they drop when the duration is up. I believe a newly applied bleed will push off an old bleed if the stack is capped.

Burning allows the highest damage burn to take precedence and new burns find their priority and add to the duration. Targets take only 1 burn per tick but its longer duration.

Confusion, same as bleed IIRC

Poison, think its like burning but not 100% sure

They have caps on bleeds n confusion because of Zerg play, wvw and large world events. More then 25 stacks of confusion on ya? Suppose they could cap it in wvw and pvp, don’t see a good reason in PvE though.

I prefer to go direct damage simply because I know if I hit something it damages it and I don’t run the risk of my conditions falling off or being pushed back. I would like to see personal stack limits implemented, least you would know you could realize your full damage potential then.

I run a condition build on my thief sometimes. It does pretty good damage if I’m the only bleeder. But its on par with direct damage output so it almost easier and more useful to go direct damage and be done with it.

Blood~

I’m one of those guys who likes to see big numbers so I run a lot of Zerker. I back it up with Valks and Soldiers to a comfortable level. We’re not totally devoid of support but we’re not real strong in that aspect so I’ve decided to bring as much DPS as I can. One trait I can’t get away from is Acrobatics 15. The extra dodges help a ton with survivability. Shortbow can throw AoE Weakness which is good support and it does quite good with Signet of Malice, Sigil of Blood and Omnomberry Pie if you’re crit is high. Personally never been a fan of Venoms in PvE but they’re not for everyone, just cant get over the long cooldowns for such an important part of the build.

Blood~

Wise,

Definitely an interesting build. I believe the 2x Sigil of Blood don’t stack, you may be better off going with Sigil of Accuracy on your off hand. IIRC on crit sigils share cooldowns.

Also, what do you see for autoattack damage with sword? Seems your crit dmg and effective power is pretty low but your toughness and effective health are nice. Master Maintenance Oil or Superior Sharpening Stones would give you a good boost.

I rarely if ever see a venom share setup.

Blood~

The thing with this class is that it has a higher learning curve in PvE than other classes, simply do to its squish factor and wanting to play in melee range. Get good here and you’ll be playing all other classes better.

Sword Builds..
I like running these with Sword/Dagger, first two work with Sword/Pistol also.
25/30/0/15/0, Sorta Glass Cannon but has a bit of Vitality and extra Dodges.
0/30/0/25/15, An extra 5% damage from behind the target.
0/30/15/25/0, I use this for some healing while CnD>Tactical Strike
0/30/25/15/0, This is for stacking Might on Stealth and Dodge

Sword/Dagger has a lot of tools to work with, Tactical Strike with 6x Rune of the Mesmer increases your daze duration equal your Revealed debuff. Not a total ‘daze lock’ but you can hamper your target pretty well. You have on demand condition removal, cripple, stealth and the new Flanking/Larcenous strikes are actually quite good now. Sword Auto does good damage and Larcenous Strike hits pretty hard. Not gonna match single target damage that D/D does but your toolbelt is bigger.

Sword/Pistol isn’t bad, less tools but you get Evasion with Pistol Whip or blinding field with Black Powder which is admittedly pretty nice.

Stop using your keyboards, game as our great 8 bit forefathers intended, D-Pads!

Razer (Belkin) Nostromo game pad, a bunch of programmable keys and a directional pad to help movement. Couple this with a mouse that has programmable keys also and you’ll only have to mess with your keyboard when you want to talk to your guildies.

Or make your own with this.

I can see 1.5k to 2k for auto1 and auto2, auto 3 sits around 3.5k to 4k with Executioner traited. Flanking/Larcenous does decent damage also, little higher than the 3rd auto attack. Don’t think auto got buffed but I have seen some very high numbers while running dungeons lately that don’t make sense compared to the active boons/conditions.

Blood~

Hammer is amazing in PvE if you trait for larger and longer symbols. Whats better than giving your whole melee team 33% damage reduction while beating on the target? Its also nice that you can save Hammer 3/4/5 for ‘utility’.

I run Mace/Shield when I’m traited for RHS, otherwise I’ll run Hammer. Mace can do some good damage if you’re geared and traited for it. If you run Mace though you could have Superior Aria and Pure of Voice which is just great for clearing conditions on your group.

Another way to think of it though, the faster you kill a target the less damage it will do..

Blood~

For leveling in PvE you can go with Evasion and/or Stealth to help. D/D Backstab does great single target damage. Sword works quite well for AoE as does Shortbow.

S/P Pistol Whip gives evasion while its rolling. Couple this with Signet of Malice and you’re healing a good amount. This works well with traits that give you initiative regen. Alternately you could simply stand in the Black Powder field and keep your target blinded so it doesn’t hit you. Sword autoattack chain does pretty good damage.

D/D Deathblossom gives evasion also, its quite initiative intensive and you’ll be working with Condition Damage and Duration for better effect as your bleeds do all the work. Q up a bunch of stacks then run away and let them bleed out.

Shortbow 4>2 drops a poison field and combo’s it into aoe Weakness which is helpful in staying alive. Also does good aoe and if you use the cluster bomb, works well with Signet of Malice.

Shadow Arts Trait line 10 gives you access to -2 initiative with stealth abilities. This lets you CnD>Backstab all day long. Great for single targets.

Just a few for you to mess with. GL,

Blood~

I run a 10/30/0/30/0 with a heavy mix of Zerker and a couple Soldier pieces. I’ve run almost every dungeon path with this setup and it’s performing quite well. I’m quite happy with the damage output and support. You need to actively mitigate incoming damage but its quite doable. This trait build will give you up to 30% increased damage if your target is burning and you’re under full energy.

For WvW increase your Soldiers gear mix until you’re comfortable. Or switch out some Zerker for Knights.

This build can be adjusted for all weapons as you have access to RHS and 2HMastery also. Hammer is fun here with increased Protection and symbol duration.

If you think you will be comfortable in Zerker gear but you need to get used to it start out with a 0/0/30/30/10 AH build. Then switch into Meditations and ultimatly work your way out of the Valor tree.

Blood~

Actually, Mantras were viable before the charge reduction, now they’re just a bit better. The DPS for Mantra of Pain was and is higher than a full range GSword auto attack. I’ve been running a 30/10/0/25/5 build for a while and I really enjoy it. That is my default setup but I’ll switch in different utilities and throw on Focus and Wardens Feedback when it’s called for. Use your MoP when your other skills are on cooldown and you have 2 phantasms out. The damage output will make up for the charge time when you’re only able to autoattack. This also heals you and your group so charge up when you’re close to others. Phantasms do quite good damage and I use some Knights gear, trait n Signet to bolster their health and toughness (if that works, I pretend it does..). If you can maintain 2 or 3 phantasms and push some Power Spikes out you’re doing quite good damage. Mantras give you a bit more depth in play compared to a standard Phantasm build, and its nice to have a little extra to throw around in fights where your phantasms don’t stick around long.

GL,

Blood~

I leveled a Thief and Guardian before I leveled my Mesmer. Mesmer was painful compared to the other classes, until level 60. Push through it and it gets better.

At 40 you have access to Deceptive Evasion trait that brings shatter builds online. Throw out your clones, Cry of Frustration, Throw more out, Mind Wrack, pop your Phantasms and swing some swords around. Try not to shatter your Phantasms as they’ll do some good damage.

Alternatively you can get Greatsword Training and Blade Training and work with your Phantasms to more effect. Take Signet of Illusions utility skill. Start with GSword at range, do some direct damage and get the mob’s attention. Make sure its headed to you, then pop the iZerker, switch to swords n pop iSwordsman and let the mob come to you, swing your swords n let the phantasms do some good damage. Try to keep the mobs attention on you so it doesn’t kill your phantasms. Your offhand sword block does good damage also, use it

After 60 both builds really improve and by 80 its a whole different class, very trait dependent.

GL
Blood~

Travlane.5948:

with 15% +33% its a total of 48%. so you go from a 2 sec stun to a 3 sec stun pretty much. with just one or the other you go up to 2.66 seconds or 2.3 seconds…… do they work / stack and in what mode? im not sure as i have used them but never thought they wouldnt work so i never counted….. can anyone verify a 3 sec stun in wvw or pve?

I can verify a 3 second stun in PvE with the 6x Mesmer runes. I can also verify that adding Superior Sigil of Paralyzation does not increase the duration from 3 seconds. Not sure if it’s rounding up to the next second or not. I have not tested daze duration w/o the Mesmer runes.

I’ve been running 6x Mesmer for quite a while now. Just tested Paralyzation with the setup and the PvE duration did not increase using both. I thought I saw somewhere that they do stack but it doesn’t stack enough to make a difference so you’re better off running the runes or the sigil but not both. Not sure how this equates to PvP.

With or without the sigil my Daze lasted exactally as long as my Revealed.

Blood~

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

This rotation actually does more damage than just being in GS all the time, and you get all the benefits of Mace/Shield to boot.

The auto attack chain for mace hits harder but it’s also slower. 2.5sec for GSword chain and 3.2sec for Mace chain. Wouldn’t this result in less damage output than GSword? Tried to math it but the coffee hasn’t set in yet. Also, make sure you use Protectors Strike as a dps tool, it’ll hit from 6K to 8K normally.

Blood~

Not sure if this is capable of dealing with that high of Fractals but 10/30/30/0/0 puts out some good damage with Mace/Shield and gives you the healing and high crit dmg of Valor. 5% Mace dmg also there. Gonna try this out tonight in the 20’s.

GL
Blood~

Playstyle is a factor here too. With PVT Hammer you can stand toe to toe with your target all day long, in a lot of cases. Zerker uses more dodges and active mitigation but its still quite survivable.

PVT has a place, I still carry some of the pieces for rough spots but my default is 10 pcs Zerker 2 pcs PVT. Its not useless, its just not supportive of optimal dps. We only stop doing damage when we die, if we’re at 10% life for the whole dungeon but stay on our feet we’re still effective. Some of us like more of a cushion than others, I just get bored with full health and AH all the time.

10/25/0/30/5 Is what I actually run for Hammer n GSword, this is my Hammer setup. 10/30/0/30/0 is used if you want the option of RHS.

0/0/30/30/10 will give you a ton of healing and survivability.

Mix gear to your comfort level.

GL,

Blood~

Maiden England.3491:

Bloodgruve.6038:

Maiden England.3491:

zerker guards are a joke.

That’s interesting because I feel that comfy PVT guards are a joke in PvE…

If by PvE you mean killing boars in queensdale, then no, you don’t need PVT. When I say PvE, I mean doing dungeons like SE, CoF, Arah, Fractals, and CoE. If you go into one of those dungeons with a party, you’re expected to do most if not all the tanking. A zerker guard would do as much tanking as a warrior. The reason I run PVT is not so I have full health, rather so I’m not on the ground, being a pain in the butt to my team, throughout the whole dungeon.

Oh, sorry, did I upset you by calling your setup a joke? My apologies.

I have the DM title and it was done mostly with my zerker guardian which I also run Fractals with. The groups I run with don’t expect me to tank nor do I expect any class to tank. None of us have a taunt button.

Zerker isn’t a joke, full PVT isn’t needed. If you want to play your guard like a tank or healer that’s your call, I love the fact we have different builds to explore. We can ‘tank’ better than most, all I’m saying is don’t be afraid to grab some DPS gear because you can be effective with it. Killing stuff quickly mitigates damage also. I agree that staying on your feet is highest priority.

Blood~

Signet of Wrath is not effected by Perfect Inscription it seems. Tooltip, Paperdoll, buff icon and weapon tooltips show no increase with the trait active. Unless I’m missing something.

Maiden England.3491:

zerker guards are a joke.

That’s interesting because I feel that comfy PVT guards are a joke in PvE…

If you want to sit there all fat on hp and armor, full health all the time wasting potential DPS and wasting the time of your group then I guess that’s how you want to play.

I’d like to caution the OP here, and this is from experience, a full set of PVT will be rotting in the bank at some point. I’ve 3 man’d a lot of dungeon content with mostly full Zerker gear without issue. I run with another guard, he’s full Zerker also, runs 12.5k HP and he is front line melee and he survives it.

Gear to where you’re comfortable, just don’t be afraid to run some DPS gear over PVT.

@ the war vs guard DPS argument, post your numbers or formulas, speculation is not fact. Screen shots of 100b or WW alone is not proof.

I don’t play for the e-sport here nor do I in any other game. Aren’t there other games out there that don’t run on a Trinity? I’d guess some FPS?

I enjoy the fact that there is not a tank and healer here, and also that there is not a DPS meter. Guardian may not be the best name for the class but throwing around puddles of Protection for melee makes me feel like a guardian…

10/30/0/30/0 with Hammer and Zerker works good. Get 2x runes that improve Protection duration and you’re good to go, fill the rest with Ruby Orbs.

0/0/30/30/10 with Hammer and Zerker is very tanky and almost autopilot in most cases. I’d think if you want a tanky GSword setup this is it too but if you don’t run Zerker or Knights your DPS will be low. Start with Knights if you feel the need but move to Zerker as you get comfortable, keep that crit high.

Blood~

*By ‘Tanky’ do you mean holding agro or just survivability?

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

If you’re in a party, active VoJ will burn a target for 25/30 seconds. If anyone has any condition duration, it’ll probably be 100%, easy.

Torch for solo is a different matter, but honestly I still don’t think it’s that great.

Just when you think you have a good grasp on a class a small but significant detail works its way out and you get another /facepalm.. I’ve always liked Torch to keep burning going and until recently haven’t made much use of the VoJ spam. After this revelation I’ll be switching into shield or focus if burning can be kept up…

Blood~

I’ve been running a specific setup for many years, spanning more than a few games and I feel its made the games much more fun and even given me an edge in pvp and meter wars. I’ll give you my setup in case you’re interested

Start with a Razer Nostromo Gaming Keypad or similar, this has a d-pad directional button like the platform controllers have. It also has a bunch of programmable keys. Also have a gaming mouse with a couple programmable thumb keys. I only use my keyboard to chat or do non combat stuff.

Movement: I’m always using the right mouse button to move the camera and toon. The directional pad on the gamepad is used for forward, reverse and strafing (turning when i’m not using my mouse-look). Jump and Dodge are set to my mouse thumb keys, I don’t double-tap to dodge.

Keybinds: My weapon abilities and utilities are bound to the gamepad; weapon 1-5 top row, utilities 6-0 middle row and bottom row is Tab>weapon switch>[use]>map. Thumb key under the d-pad is Shift and the F key abilities are remapped to Shift+1, Shift+2 etc so I can trigger them by pressing thumb Shift and mapped 1 key together. Key above the d-pad is set up to set Targets.

This is sorta a universal setup for many games, I just rework the key binds in the game to fit the setup concept. You can get good with any setup it just takes a bit of time. Develop a system that works for you, it just takes some practice and muscle memory to get effecient.

Another alternative to the gaming keypad is to make your own with a Makey Makey…

GL
Blood~

10/25/0/30/5 is what I like to run for hammer. WoP and 2x Sup Rune of Earth give full time protection which is great. Make use of your Virtue of Justice spam for might and vulnerability. You can adjust your Honor traits to work GSword and Staff with Shouts and Pure of Voice. A weapon preference is great but don’t stick yourself to it, adjust weapons and skills to the anticipated challenge. Guards can do quite good damage, maybe not the very top but we’re not too far behind. Hammer gives a ton of staying power.

Blood~

Since you have a legendary mace… Maybe try 10/30/30/0/0 build? Mace can put out some good numbers, I especially like the big hits Protectors Strike gives when running ‘DPS’ gear. Mace isn’t as high on the dps scale as other weapons but I feel the extra support it gives is worth the slight dps loss. Throw a torch on for your Burning and do some tanky DPS.

10/30/0/30/0 will give you good damage and you still get Pure of Voice or EM or the ability to work with really any weapon you want.

GL
Blood~

Mufasa.5671:

Nretep.2564:

I’d prefer:

• GS: #1 pierces or #1 has a ~300 AoE at the target

Great sword 1 does hit all targets within the beam.

I believe GSword 1 hits up to 2 or 3 extra targets within the beam but I’m pretty sure it’s capped.

I have a hard time not traiting for weapon cooldowns. I run a Phantasm build and it can be challenging in PvE to keep all three active so those traits are just too important. Also, I’m impatient so improved cooldowns are great for me.

Blood~

Input is much appreciated. Any idea what the highest sustained damage weapon is using a Power build? I think he has the capacity to deal with some melee if needed.

Ty again.

Hello Necro community. I’m helping a buddy get setup to start running dungeons and I’m looking for suggestions on a build that is relatively easy to run and is effective, I have very little experience in this area. Optimization is not a large concern right away but survival with decent damage output is.

What build and gear would you suggest in this situation? This is his first MMO but he is 80 and does possess a decent level of skill.

Are condition builds most effective or are there power builds that are feasible also?

TYVM

I can tell you that I run full Zerker armor and weapons with 4 Zerker and 2 Soldier trinkets and with Hammer and/or AH you are still tanky. With my build I have 15.5k hps and 2300 armor but hammer mitigates a lot of damage, I’ll toss on the 10% signet if things look tough. I haven’t pushed Fractals like I should but at lvl 25 I’m still able to face tank things, can even stand toe to toe with Mossman for a hit or two. I know this will change farther up the tree though. I spent my time building full exotic Soldiers and then spent that same amount of time building Zerker and most of my first set sits in my bank collecting dust. AH helps you recover from a hit but you can do that with Omnom Pie and Sigil of Blood on a secondary weapon.

AH is great and don’t discount it, I like the term ‘Training Wheels’ though as it fits it well. Trait it, use it, get to know the class at 80 with it but realize there could be a time where you outgrow it.

Kill those targets quickly, a dead mob can’t kill you.

*Not to speak for Guan, but Writ of Persistance gives an extra tick on your protection symbol. This means it increases your base protection duration by 25% and also ticks for damage a 4th time. Simply throw 2x Rune of Earth on for another 20% duration and this allows you to move around during an encounter without losing Protection much.

GL
Blood~

This thread got me thinking about GSword again. I’ve been running it some more and it sure ‘feels’ like it does more damage against groups of mobs, yet I am not totally convinced that it has higher sustained dps. If it does more damage than Hammer you can probably make up for it with the fact that you and your team can stay in melee hitting the targets 33% longer… Again IMO its back to player preference.

^ What Guanglai said.

My learning curve went from 0/0/30/30/10 to 0/15/30/20/0 to 25/15/0/25/5 to 10/25/0/30/5 which I’m happy with now. I honestly suggest running the 30/30/10 setup to start but strap on Zerker gear for it and progress into higher dps formats as you get comfortable. It does have a place in groups with less experience and/or skill. I’ll still throw it on if I’m gonna teach new groups Arah or whatnot. Guardian at 80 is quite different from 50, concentrate on getting there first.

Blood~

• Fall in love with Wall of Reflection and Shield of the Avenger and Stand Your Ground. That is not a suggestion, just do it Actually, adjust your utilities for the content you’re running, don’t just pick 3 and let them live on your bar until the end of time.

With a pack try to hit your Save Yourself to start, this will give protection for 10s before you get your hammer protection rolling. Also, make sure you save Might Blast to hit at the end of every other autochain, this will give you retaliation and help kill stuff faster. Lifesteal on Crit food is still quite good, Omnomberry Pie and its relatives.

While leveling I did tend to work with GSword on packs of mobs, its burst is better and you can take down your standard mob more quickly if you have 5,4,3 n 2 available. At 80 and in dungeons I like Hammer, as I said damage output looks similar, what you lose with Hammer is most likely lost by dodging with GSword so I feel its a matter of preference between the two.

I run 2x Sup Rune of Earth and Writ of Persistence trait to lengthen the protection buff. I find on long fights my Protection can build to 20+ seconds with just Hammer Auto and Mighty Blast.

Blood~

For fun and challenge try 10/30/30/0/0 Mace/Torch and Scepter/Focus. Quite good damage and a proactive play style. Use Protectors Strike and Symbol for DPS. Switch in Sword in situations that don’t have a lot of incoming damage.

Probably not great for higher level Fractals but with anything else this is fun.

Another more standard build for damage output is 10/25/0/25/0 with 10 pts to spare. This gives you 30% damage increase across the board if your target is burning and your energy isn’t full. Tailor this to the weapons you want to use.

GL
Blood~