Guild Wars 2

Haha all your traits are so good and useful that I don’t know what to choose. Given a choice I would want to choose all.

I am using 0/25/25/0/20. Unsuspecting Foe and Forceful GS, Embrace Pain and Merciless Hammer, Heighten Focus and Mobile Strike.

EQ is full zerk and ruby orbs. Basically I go in with GS using 5 or 3 then gap close with either bull charge or Earthshaker. For Earthshaker, I always follow up with 4 and 3. If you time the hammer Earthshaker → 4 → 3 nicely, you can cut off the casting animation by half. It will look like you cast 1 skill with 2 swing animation.

Eldrich Scroll to make Mystic Weapons. Averagely the other indigents cost around 3 to 3.5 gold and each Mystic Weapons sells for 7 to 9.5 gold. Your 50 Skill Points = 4 to 5 gold so there is around 35 to 50 silver per SP. Please forgive me if my calculations are wrong. I made quite a number of mystic weapons for my own use so I see the pricing of mystic weapons are ranging 7 to 9.5 gold.

FGJ and SOR will keep you almost perm might and fury. Ruby orb outweight boom duration as you crit more often offsetting the lack of might stacks. (boon duration can almost perm 25 stacks of might whereas ruby orb give on average 15 stacks.) SoS or Shake It Off for condition and Endure Pain will be the rest of your utilities. Depending on situation you can swap Shake It Off or Endure Pain for Balance Stance.

Trait wise is good. Strength take Berserker Power and Slashing Power. Arms take Furious Reaction. Defense take Embrace Pain and Last Stand, more useful than turtle defense. Disciple go for Heighten Focus and Trait X :p forgot the name. Movement skill break immb.

I believe you are using GS and Axe/Shield therefore the above build. You can also use GS and Hammer. Just change Furious Reaction to Unsuspecting Foes for 50% more crit chance on stunned and change Last Stand to Merciless Hammer 25% more damage on hammer and 20% faster cooldown.

Beside Lyssa, anyone tested Melandru on warriors? Basically the idea is to mitigate most conditions to the extent it does not hurt anymore.

Runes of Melandru + Lemongrass poultry = minus 65% condition duration.

Try it if you have some spare gold.

Hi CookMeTender, I can give you my answer based on real game play experience.

When you use boon duration based runes, eg. I would think these work better for warrior, 2 x Rune of Hoelbrak 2 x Rune of the Fire and 2 x Rune of the Citadel would give you almost true perm fury and true 25 stacks might.

You will see it move between 22 to 25 stack of might and no less. With 2 monk, 2 water and 2 major water/monk, the rest of boons are better but your Might and Fury are not so good compared.

When you use Ruby orbs, normally is between 12 to 16 stack of might. Of course both scenarios are based on when you are solo. IMO Ruby orb make up for the loss in power due to lesser might. The crit chance and crit damage made up for the loss resulting slightly better overall dps. This difference is minor when you solo.

When you are in a team, the difference becomes obvious. Ruby orbs outweigh boon durations runes for full zerker DPS build.

Hi Razor, Rune of Rage 5% damage under Fury is bugged. It does not add the 5% extra damage therefore will not be as good as Ruby orb.

Any idea what is Arcane Retribution internal cooldown? I just can’t get or managed to calculate the exact cooldown as there are too many factors involved. eg. Your own or natural crit, Arcane Power skill crit or etc.

Anyway it trigger once when you reach 75% HP, switch to water for regen. In combat, your HP will most probably swing between 80% and 40% so the chance of triggering is very high.

Of course there is internal CD for Arcane Retribution else I would have seen perm crit :p It’s determining the exact CD that is tough. Though do take notice when Arcane Retribution is triggered, don’t use Fire 2, 3 and 5. These are multiple hits and would take Arcane Power in an instant. Use Earth 2, 4 and 5 if possible.

Phira, so based on your own experience, 50 precision which is about 2.5% crit chance and +10% dmg vs bleeding foes outweigh 20% signet CD?

By the way, what is your average upkeep of Might? How many stacks you normally have? Mine is average 15 stacks. My friend tested with 60% boon duration to Might (Fighter, Strength and Holbrak) and his Might is always 25 stacks.

My 15 stacks of Might are based on if I am solo or no one else is providing me with Might.

What is your take on this?

Phira, I just want to know your opinion. 15 Discipline means you can’t have Signet Mastery compared to 20. If you are using 2 or more signets.

50 precision is about 2.5% crit chance compared with signet recharge 20%. Which is more important?

Phira, slightly out of topic. If you are solo or in a group where no one else are providing you with Might. Just assume you are in PVE or any other dungeon than COF P1.

What is the average uptime or stack of Might you have on you at all time? I notice when I am solo or in a group with no one else giving me Might, I am looking perma around 15 stacks of Might instead of 25. There is a difference of 350 power.

Please give some comments

Fourtyfives.6297:

If you choose to go with #1, I’d take 5 points from Arms and put them into discipline. I’ll do this entirely because I’d loathe being stuck with a rifle for 10 seconds. Fast hands is probably one of the most flexible traits warriors can get, not to mention how perfectly it fits thematically

and yes; I would trade 50 power, and 3% damage whenever endurance is not full for it (and 5% critdmg.)

That’s true when you use Rifle/GS. I believe the above 2 builds are sort of meta build for GC warrior.

We can modify slightly eg. 5 off here and there to fit to our weapon choice. GS/Axe/X would not benefit too much from 5 sec weapon swap because 100B have not cooldown yet.

In summary, Ruby Orbs still gives the best returns constantly. To top it off, they are cheap

Thanks Phira for confirming my choice

Hi CookMETender, nice discussion with Phira on these 2 builds. IMO, I would go for 30/25/0/0/15 simply due to 1 reason.

I can use Axe Mastery and Slashing Power which benefit both Axe and GS. Of course Phira’s calculation point out differently which it would take build 1 to have 5 boons to even out the damage compared to build 2. For me, I would say both you and Phira to each of his own.

That amount of damage will not offset the benefit of having 10% GS damage and 10% Axe Crit damage. That’s the only reason.

Thank you to both you and Phira for these calculations. It made me see warrior build in a different light cheers.

First skill to learn as Ele is Conjure Lightning Hammer :p That should bring u up to level 30+ easily. Then learn Fiery GS.

There you go, you have a good and easy time leveling. Of course when you hit the level 50 or 60 mark, craft level to 80. Mobs gets harder to spam 1 on Lightning Hammer.

SlimGenre, the last time I checked Crafted Exotic armor are the same stats as dungeon armor. Correct me if I am wrong.

Hi guys, I know the patch have screwed us in a really bad way. I am using my build shown as below:

My Build

Please take some time to read as this is my first long post in GW2 forum

For equipments (weapons and armor), I am using Valkyrie with Sigil of Battle and Force. Armor will be slotted with Beryl jewel :p I can’t think of any better.

For accessories, it would be best if you can get Celestial amulet and rings. However, if you haven’t got it yet. You can go for all Cavalier slotted with Beryl jewel.

Trait wise is 10/25/0/15/20.

Fire VI – Since Fire is part of our DPS rotation, I think it makes sense to give 10% more damage to it.
Air I – Fury and swiftness too good to miss though it’s only 5 seconds.
Air X – Same as Fire VI, 10% damage more to Lightning Whip.
Water V – Condition removal (Self explained)
Arcana I – I want Arcane skills cooldown to be faster especially Arcane Wave and Power.
Arcana III – Arcane Power at 75% health is nice. What is the internal cooldown for this trait?

1. - Signet of Restoration or Glyph of Elemental Harmony up to your preference
2. - Cleansing Fire (I do need 1 more condition removal since Water is no longer my main trait line)
3. - Arcane Power (This is a must since this build revolve around it)
4. - Arcane Wave or Blast depending on your preference
5. - Fiery Greatsword (I realise the auto attack hit very hard with this build)

Ok it’s time to explain my build. You will notice that the critical chance % is crap at 18% even with Fury on is 38% and almost 100% critical damage.

Basically I make use of Arcane Power to give me guaranteed critical hit for the next 5 hits. The idea is skills like Churning Earth, Earthquake and RTL considered 1 hit whereas skills like Burning Speed, Fire Grab or even Lightning Whip considered as multiple hits eg. Lightning Whip hit twice so it’s 2 hits bye bye. Therefore many people consider Arcane build as unstable or inconsistent.

I use Valkyrie and Cavalier to balance up the Toughness and Vitality for survivability. While Arcane Power can be cast only 36 secs at a time, Arcane Retribution provide some cover as I am always hovering between 50 to 75% health. It’s not 100% critical hit all the time but you do get at least 75% average uptime on your critical attacks. This adds additional DPS to your skills combo/rotation while still giving you the extra bit of balance in Toughness and Vitality.

Please give me constructive feedback or discussion on my build to see where I can further improve on. Cheers

Anyone knows what is the cooldown for Arcane Retribution? Kind of nice to focus primarily on Critical Damage % :p

Hi OP, my advise is to buy: 2 x berserker weapon, 6 x knight armor, 5 x accessories cavalier or knight with beryl jewels. Go for rare if possible, else settle for at least masterwork.

Toughness and crit % and crit damage % should be enough for the moment and that bit of vitality from beryl should help you. Going full bunker with rare or masterwork will just reduce your total damage output though you don’t kiss the floor that often.

You should be grinding AC dungeon in the beginning so you can google for guides in AC (exp). That should prepare you pretty much for it. Do take note on the Kholer part (Dodge when he raises his hand) and during his spinning attack just do Fire 2, Water 2 or CE assuming you dodged his scorpion wire. Hopes these helps.

Hi all, I have just made a build so please give some constructive feedback on my build. Thanks.

My Dual Axe Build

Basically, I go for 20/15/0/10/25.
Strength 20 – V, X
Arms 15 – V
Tactics 10 – VI
Disciple 25 – V, IX

The focus of this build is of course on Dual Axe high critical build. I use Healing Surge, Throw Bolas, For Great Justice, Shake it off and Signet of Rage.

Humposaurus.5764:

0/20/0/20/30 With the traits:
20% more damage to mobs with health < 33%
air +10% dam.
10% more damage when hp >90%
Arcane skills reduction
Evasive arcana
Vigor on critical
Full scholar set.

Arcane wave and arcane blast

It makes our damage so much better. Ofc you need to dodge roll alot to keep your hp up, but when you do: hello 16k churning earth, hello 10k dragon’s tooth, hello 13k phoenix and the chain lightning/lightning burst woooowie free 20k damage. EAT THAT 100B WARRIORS

Wow Humposaurus, mind posting your build please? That’s impressive damage.

By the way, does the NPC still available in Southsun Cove? The one that can exchange 1000 karka shells for Ancient Karka Shell Earring?

To burst your cantrips for 9 stack of Might (15secs), you most probably can add Lightning Flash, Armor of Earth and Cleansing Flames as part of your Burst rotation.

Problem is you may have to leave Mist Form out and of course the CD for your burst would be at least 36 secs.

Depending on situation and personal preferences, LordBryon and Intigo have their points.

@Thunderbrew and jque

Thanks for the input. That’s nice DPS output.

@Dexter

I am still 10 in Air. My precision mainly from equipments and accessories. though I am still thinking about Air 20 and Water 20, need to put in real world tests instead of theory craft for this setup.

For Arcana, min 20 points at least. Most people put 30. The reason is simple, you shorten the time to change attunements. 30 points you get to change every 9 sec, 20 points is 10 secs.

30 Arcana gives u EA which equal to 2 AOE, 1 Blind and 1 Heal every 10 secs depending which attunement you are in. It’s essential at least for me since I always animation cancel plus dodge roll for blast finishers.

You can read up on the standard D/D build which is 0/10/0/30/30. Water and Arcana 30 is almost staple for a reason.

The reason being conjured hammer is slow in attack and dungeon mobs hit much harder than open world mobs.

You can’t stand tanking for too long lets alone spam Hammer auto attack 1. That’s just my view though.

I still prefer to chain though my attunements to DPS and support.

Thunderbrew.7034:

^^ On paper that sounds good, but after spending all night
in WvW, Im sticking with my 30 in water. The enemy zerg had
6 necros working in perfect unison, and the allies on my side
(including me) found it common to see 7+ debuffs on us. As fast as
we could get rid of them, they were back. They were part of a 30
man zerg by the way, not alone.

This is the only reason why I go water. The 3k HP buff and the ability
to remove so many conditions, when coupled with the other traits,
allowed me to live in situations that it would not have been possible
without mass condition removal. It could be argued that Ether Renewal
could achieve this same effect, but I still think 3300 attack, 53% crit, and 99%
to crit damage is more than sufficient traited 0-20-0-30-20.

There are many different play styles, and any of them work with a skilled
player. Just find the mix for your own self between offense vs defense.

Hi Thunderbrew, no offense please. Can you share your build as of how to get 99% crit damage please? I am playing around with build editor but can’t get it to that level. I am also trying out crit build but seems not to be able to push up my crit damage that high. Thanks

Soothing Winds is also a good trait (5% precision added to your healing power) if you are crit heavy, else it doesn’t make sense.

I will choose other trait then trait 1 when I am using S/D. For D/D, trait 1 in Air is a must in my opinion. Fury and Swiftness for every 15 sec is too much to be passed on top of 4% extra damage given by water 25.

Intigo.1653:

You don’t need to kill 25 trash mobs to “up the stack”. Play with it normally and simply swap when you’re at 25 stacks. If you’re in a group, you get the 25 stacks in 1-2 engagements.

Everyone should use it, it’s insanely good.

I used Bloodlust previously. Dungeon to be honest is pretty useless as you skip mostly. WvW wise I prefer that little heal over more power due to the fact I am quite glassy. Knight with Berserkers and Beryl jewels. No boon duration runes for me.

In my opinion, 10 points to Arcana is always better than to Earth.

EA give you the access to Cleansing Wave (Heal), Churning Earth (Blast Finisher), Flame Burst (AOE Burn) and Blinding Flash (Blind <- a bit buggy at times where it miss entirely) every 10 secs.

Whereas 10 points in Earth is either trait 3 or 5 which give u either protection for 3 sec or Armor of Earth when health drop to 50%.

20 Arcana Attunement switch is 10sec, 30 Arcana is 9 sec.

These are just my view. cheers.

Initially I am using Bloodlust, however in dungeons you can’t stack 25 since skipping is a common practice.

I am using Sigil of Blood instead, close 500 hp per heal. With fury, I normally have 60+% crit chance so it’s roughly 1 out of every 6 hit I get a heal.

For Bloodlust to be effective in WvW, you also need to find a spot to kill 25 trash mobs to up the stack and would be gone if you are down. The heal from Blood will be helpful since our HP hovers around 14 to 15k.

S/D still better in stacking Might compared to D/D. Since dungeon mobs are predictable, S/D would be a better choice.

I always stack 25 stacks of Might by the 2nd cycle, meaning Fire → Earth → Air → Water.

Signet of Air is bugged. It says 25% increase in movement speed but gives 10% actually.

Ray.2640:

Get any random combination of trait points.
Any random combination of gear.

Use Dragons Tooth -> Ring of Fire -> Phoenix -> switch to earth attunement -> (Dodge roll if you have evasive arcana) Earthquake -> Arcane Wave somewhere in between -> Churning Earth (will still give you the might if the ring disappears during the channel so don’t worry). Repeat as many times as possible with as many ready blast finishers as possible.

Enjoy 25 stacks of might for the entire party near permanently(if they’re close enough, range seems to be 600-900)

Does Powerful Aura shares Might with your allies in this case since the Might is gained from combos not casting?

You can refer to daphoenix’s guide post last page. He’s mentioning on his setup full knight, berserker or soldier depending on situation. It’s a good read.

For AC Path 2, if Detha goes down and your party gets wiped. Never ever revive Detha till you clear the entire area, else the ghosts will just add on.

I encountered that situation few nights back. Sometimes when you don’t notice and ghosts will grow in size (12 to 15) especially if you got wiped twice then revive Detha.

IMO, if the ghosts size goes to 10 or more, it makes sense to quit the AC then redo rather than trying ways to beat it. 3 or more necros ghosts wipe parties out fast.

Anyone using sigil of battle and sigil of strength? Sigil of strength default 10 sec Might can be affected by Boon duration?

Or Sigil of battle can be pair with Sigil of Perception for Crit build D/D

Alilinke.7690:

Red Falcon.8257:

Currently the D/D build has the same burst power of a Thief…

lol’d

Red Falcon is a famous troll. Forget about it :p

Thunderbrew.7034:

Allow me to help with 4 months of Ele staff experience.

Use a Fiery Greatsword for Elite and when you need to escape,
use it. It has 2 movement abilities like a warriors greatsword.

That combined with map awareness 100% is all you need. If you
are in the open and getting to zerg, use a dagger offhand for
Ride the Lightning so you are not caught in open.

Four hours playing tonight, zero deaths, 132 badges. Typical night
I may die 2 times max. Some might find that hard to beleive, but
map awareness 100% and knowing when to run and where NOT
to be.

Nice advice thanks, though I hardly use Staff for WvW.

My advice is as followed:

1. Most important point, since you can only access to equipments that have only 1 stat and later 2 stat. Go for Toughness/Vitality equipment, when you have access to only 1 stat, mix your equipment equally between Toughness and Vitality.

Later when you can get Toughness/Vitality equipment, go for full set. You deal mediocre damage but you survive.

2. For my style, I mostly start in Air, I normally start the attack with Air 2 (Vulnerability reduce their defense by 50%), Air 4 then Air 3 to stun and finally Air 5, all happens in a second, switch to Fire then Fire 3, Fire 5 then Fire 4, switch to Earth then Earth 4 to gain Might and Interrupt the mobs, Earth 3 then Earth 5 if the mobs are not dead. Switch to water to heal if needed. If there is still surviving mobs, Water 3 then Water 4 to chill and slow the mobs while healing.

Air mainly stun and weaken the mobs, Fire main DPS skills and Earth to gain might plus your strong AOE skills and Water is for heal and slowing of mobs.

3. Trait points wise go Air 10 points first for Fury/Swiftness then Arcana 10 points finally Water 15 points in the beginning. Study through daphoenix’s guide, his guide is an inspiration for ele

4. Finally enjoy being ele, though it’s tough in the beginning but really fun to play.

Oneira.1495:

Hey Daphoenix:

I tried using the D/D setup leveling a newbie Ele. I really tried, but I’m losing constantly. Maybe I’m just not familiar enough with the setup, maybe it’s not meant for low level Eles.

Using Mist Form + Cleansing Fire. Usual rotation is Burning Speed-Ring of Fire-Fire Grab-Earthquake.

Especially with multi-mobs, I’m just losing health too fast. I can’t keep up with the damage. Down half my health before I know it. Any suggestions on what I’m doing wrong?

Hi Oneira, I been through that stage too. My advice is to get Toughness/Vitality gear in the beginning for every 10 levels, either Fine or Masterwork.

I also realize that the most enjoyable and easiest way for PVE leveling is to clear maps, meaning try to get all the maps 100%. Gather/Mine/Chop at every opportunity. You will see the locations on the map. Clear vistas, way points and POI when you see them. When in doubt, check on youtube. Like in my case, I am only 41% map completion and I got to level 67. I guess before 50% map completion, you should be level 80 with a good understanding of where the places are.

If you struck in a location and wish to go to town, go to Hearts of Mist or WvW then use the portal to Lion Arch. That saves u lots of silvers :P

Till now I haven’t even done a single dungeon :P failed AC story with my friend (2 man party) so if anyone interested please PM me Chaosfrenzy in Crystal Desert.

daphoenix, from your previous posts your HP is about 16k HP. How high is your crit % before fury?

With your current crit %, how often your endurance/vigor get refilled from boons? Eg. how many continuous dodges you can do before you have not enough energy? How fast your energy refill?

The reason I am asking is to tailor this build abit to suit my playing style. I am looking at toning down the toughness/vitality to roughly 16k HP and hopefully get the crit % up to keep getting my energy near perm state. Thanks for you guys advise, you all rocks

Sorry for the misleading question. What I mean is slight variant from this build, same traits at 0/10/0/30/30, but equipment wise focus on crit %. Its glassier compared to bunker.

The idea is to use Regen vigor 33% on crit to get endurance almost in perm state thus allowing player to do countless dodges.

Anyone tested this kind of build?

Sigil of Battle is give 3 might when weapon swap whereas sigil of corruption is give condition damage per kill. Sigil of corruption will stack regardless the dagger is on main or off hand. If I am not wrong, I believe you are talking about Sigil of Bloodlust which stack Power per kill. You can swap from Corruption to Bloodlust once you get 25 stacks. The only thing is you lose the stacks when you are downed or leave the map.

May I ask what is the max possible crit % you can get on D/D?

Lol Rayti :p so 2 x Superior Rune of the Monk will give 25 healing and 15% boon duration as listed. Now I get it :p

No wonder people go for 2 x Superior Rune of the Monk and 2 x Superior Rune of Water to get +50 healing +30% boon duration in total.

Hmm now what to use for the final 2 runes :p Major Rune of the Monk or runes that increase Might or Fury duration.

Any advise?

Oh I see, so if I have 2 x Superior Rune of the Monk, I have 25 healing and 15% boon duration per piece.

If I have 6 x Superior Rune of the Monk, I will have instead +90 healing and Gain Aegis per piece?

Lol I am getting confused.

Dear all, as I am a Elementalist I will be posting this question here.

I have seen and searched the entire forum/wiki for Runes explanation but cannot find one that can properly explain the mechanics.

Let’s take Superior Rune of the Monk as an example. If we have 2 x Superior Rune of the Monk in our armor, we basically have +25 healing and +15% boon duration per armor, total +50 healing and +30% boon duration for 2 piece of armor.

How about if we have 6 x Superior Rune of the Monk? Do we have +25 healing, +15% boon duration, +50 healing, 5% chance to gain health when hit. (Cooldown: 10s), +90 healing, Gain aegis for 30 seconds for each piece of armor?

Meaning total you can get from 6 piece of armor – +150 healing, +90% boon duration, +300 healing, 30% chance to gain health when hit, +540 healing and Gain Aegis.

Please correct me if I am wrong as I am totally confused with this rune bonus. Thanks.