I will try that build right now. With the heal on meditation and smite condition on such a short cooldown it might give me that survivability I was looking for.
Additionally that site is a much better one than the two I have been using for linking/theory crafting builds so far. That guildhead.com page has quickly been bookmarked by me.
Thanks for the feedback trung =)
Running a retal build tonight based off of what trung pointed out:
A retaliation build only relies on Signet of Judgement and SYG, not Symbol of Wrath.
This is much easier to keep retaliation up persistently, but I do find that I am dying very fast.
While I am doing thorns damage, I’m also taking full damage and the build is reliant on being hit. In the end I haven’t been getting many kills this way against someone doing active damage versus my passive damage.
I may have to adjust and set up more defensive WITH retal, but then I lose power which is what gives retal it’s damage.
Will keep it up and try to adjust though, give feedback with tips cause I love them.
(edited by CMF.5461)
I had noticed that myself. Originally I didn’t realize there was a secondary effect on it. Once I saw that on one of the webpages, I went in game and couldn’t get it to show up on initial tests.
I now have it show up but I think sometimes what happens is that I double press it quickly while trying to get the shield up and initiate the heal at the same time as activation so I never see the graphic on my skill icon.
trung, I’m trying to keep this constructive but your superior attitude and negativity are really distracting with comments like “any real pvper”.
Regardless, no this is not an amazing build, but an idea I have been testing to move away from the generic builds I have been seeing. Once more, I am more than interested in trying the retal build you talk about so please post it or pm me with it.
As far cooldown on block, that is why there multiple forms of block instead of just one. Passive condition removal is every 10 seconds, active might be about 20-30. In essence 3 fairly reliable blocks in the form of protector’s strike (1 block every 15 seconds), shield of wrath (3 blocks every 36 seconds with faster focus cooldown), and shelter every 30 seconds that will block everything for a 2 second duration. Aegis of Courage also adds a block with active or passive.
As far as burning condition being removed, a passive condition removal typically only removes 1 condition every 10 seconds. Blind from Ray of Judgement and from virtue of justice cause vulnerability as well as symbols cause vulnerability, which may or may not get in the way of a condition removal.
Why did I not get Monk’s Focus? I wanted to, because of the meditation/self heals but I was in the mind set of focusing on the innate abilities of block which are: stop damage, cause burning, give might.
Based off of that, I saw extra damage via conditions might make this more effective in surviving as when I have played full defensive, I run out of answers with no skills up and an empty hp bar while my opponent has full life. It’s like beating a rock, eventually it will break but it never hit you back. This is not to say I wont go back and try to adjust for Monk’s Focus because that is still a great idea without sacrificing much defensive damage.
Back to the retaliation build, I completely see the value of retal and I repeat my interest so drop some knowledge on me =)
I spend tons of time in mists just respecing and going over stats/skills.
In the end, as I have said, this build I originally posted has tons of flaws, but it was an idea that I thought was interesting. I played it all this week and it has surprised me in it’s ability to survive while still keep an opponent worried about their life. Many times i have had a warrior or rogue run away from me cause they couldn’t kill me and they ran out of self heals. Is this an amazing “I win” build? No, in fact it needs lots of work and that is why I posted it. To see if anyone can help improve it or if I should scrap the idea and try something else (ie. retaliation)
Anyway, thanks for the feedback, one way or another. This may just end up as my pve build if anything.
It is a one second burn, but with repeated blocks I can get the duration up to 11 seconds.
As trungalung said though, one good condition removal can wipe that damage away, but you can always reapply faster than they can typically get the condition removal back up.
Again, I was going for a defensive build. Retaliation will not increase your ability to survive but only do thorns damage, so you still take full damage.
As I said, this is not an offensive build, but it is one that has been helping me to counter some of the more aggressive professions that have given me problems, such as warriors and 100 blades, or other similar big hitting abilities.
As far as a retal set up, I originally tried to do that one with a great sword, but relying on symbols became to restrictive for my mobility and keeping up with the target, the other option is hammer but that is fairly slow as well.
If you have an interesting retaliation build I would be interested in trying it out.
sPvP oriented build. I got tired of great sword/spirit weapons and wanted something different so came up with a build based on Defender’s Flame (100% chance to burn on block) and Might of the Defender (Block gives Might – increased power and condition damage).
-mace/focus & sword/shield (sigil of smoldering)
-rune of the guardian
-shamans amulet
-20 zeal (fiery wrath & focus mastery)
-25 radiance (searing flames & blind exposure)
-25 valor (defenders flame & honorable shield)
Overall, it seems to perform decent versus melee. Warriors and rogues tend to kill themselves overtime. If they spam an attack like 100 blades while using the blocking heal they stack a lot of burning condition damage on themselves and end up pretty low while you just got healed up.
Against ranged, this has a lot more issues, and is highly ineffective. Maybe someone can collaborate with me and develop this build more to make it more well rounded, but i tend to swap sword/shield for the ranged blocks and attacks.
Killing lords also ends up being ineffective because the damage is so slow, they are able to use a heal signet and top themselves off again. You can knock back with the shield 5 ability if you need to interrupt that, but for the most part this is not worth it to try to be offensive.
In the end, everything in this build relies on getting as many blocks as possible, then healing and dodging between cool downs for more blocks.
(edited by CMF.5461)
I have recently become a target of spam mail in game after posting on these forums. My wife on the other hand has not posted on these forums at all and she has yet to be spammed once.
I believe this is due to posting on these forums shows your user name and any character you own can be reached in game by using that name. So now the bots are able to browse these forums and you become a target to spam.
We need a way of limiting who can message you or use your user name in order to protect us from more assaults like this. Additionally we need the ability to change our user names so that previously gained info from bots can be negated.
In the Radiance tree of Guardian traits, the trait “Inner Fire” states: “When you are set on fire, you gain fury.”
This ability does not appear to take affect, as I have tested being set on fire using the torch weapon ability, “Zealot’s Flame”, which is described as: “Set yourself alight, periodically burning up to three nearby foes.”
The boon icon for fury never triggers, and the hero window display for critical chance never changes to reflect that Inner Fire ever took effect.
The Radiance line of traits also has “Radiant fire” which reduces the cooldown of torch abilities by 15%, this is seemingly synergetic with Inner fire and suggested they would have been used in conjunction with each other.
I have tested being set on fire by an enemy and fury does trigger. Is this working as intended and meant to be very situational or are we supposed to have some control over this ability?
Per Victoriam Pax [PVP] “Through victory, is peace”
We are a new guild on the Fort Aspenwood world. The vision for the guild is to hold a WvW and sPvP presence in Guild Wars 2. Storming and holding a keep, winning rewards and benifits for our fellow players on the Fort Aspenwood world, and playing competitive in the sPvP tournaments are high attraction marks to me as a player and I want to bring others interested in the same goals along for the ride.
Beyond that Guild Wars 2 has provided PvE elements that are very interesting and provide a variety of goals for many players to pursue. Per Victoriam Pax welcomes any PvE players to join for the social environment as well, if you do not like to journey alone or need help talking about game mechanics or how to find those difficult to locate vistas or other map completion items.
Beyond in game goals, my primary goal is to have a well respected name and reputation for the guild. Maturity and patience are a highly sought after traits in members for this guild.
Any that are interested in a guild invite, feel free to contact me in game or via forum/PM. Just mail or message me at:
CMF.5461