Guild Wars 2

I don’t mind the slightly higher health pool considering it also comes with more power and toughness, but I really wouldn’t mind sapphire clone Ascended rings instead…

Hmm.

Increased movement speed when Aegis is up.

Color me impressed.

Warriors have adrenaline skills. My brother’s level 10 warrior melts most mobs in level-appropriate zones. But…that isn’t the point, is it? The most I can suggest is to get a Sigil of Bloodlust on your focus if you don’t already have one. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt horribly to replace your rings with zerker, but that’s about it gear-wise.

A lot of our damage is from retaliation and burn blocks, so we of course won’t kill things quite as fast as certain damage-speced builds.

Choo and CDS, Y U ALWAYS TURTLE?

It is kind of fun to drop area denial in the middle of it though.

15,725 health without nourishment, and I still haven’t replaced my second ring.

I’ll be using Cleric’s until I pick up my legendary, and it’ll be a while until then. However, even then I might end up transmuting the legendary skin onto Cleric’s stats (horrifying, I know). I’m finding through experimentation that the build relies more on healing power than I had once thought.

At the end of the day, you CAN probably do without the 180 from weapons, but I really don’t want to.

If you absolutely cannot afford superiors, you may as well go with majors. You won’t be nearly as effective though…

I’m under the impression that superiors and majors of the same type don’t stack. Can anyone confirm or deny? Either way, it’s not like trying different runes will break the build or make it overpowered. I just really like the 3 water/3 monk setup, so I haven’t considered swapping out of it.

Move to Blackgate, and check us out. Here’s our recruitment post, complete with a promo video and everything else you might want to know: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/guilds/guilds/Revel-REV-of-Blackgate-WvW-PvE-PvP

And here’s our website: http://www.revelguild.com

Questions? Feel free to hit me up in-game. :> Otherwise, we hope to hear from you via an application!

6 dodges a minute from base endurance regen (5% per sec). 6-7 dodges a minute from weapon swaps. And then a minimum of 16 seconds of Vigor a minute via SY.

To be honest, it’s mostly reflex. If I’m fighting a Warrior, I’ll dodge when I see a KS animation. If I’m fighting a Necro that’s already ripped one boon, I’ll start dodging on almost every non-instant spell animation. I dodge when a Mesmer’s clones converge on me or when they blink to me because I know a shatter burst is coming. If I’m fighting a Guardian, I’ll dodge when I see a spin animation start just in case it’s Binding Blade.

Outside of that, I tend to dodge anytime my health deficit is around 1.5-2k in order to stay topped off with Selfless Daring. I don’t have a very calculated method, heh. You just get used to when to dodge and when to let your regen and blocks cover you.

I’m normally a little more personal (in-game contact right away, etc.) but I’m running on zero sleep right now, so here’s some quick info for ya, starting with our recruitment post on these forums:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/guilds/guilds/Revel-REV-of-Blackgate-WvW-PvE-PvP
Revel [REV] of Blackgate (at the top of T2) is always looking for new members. :> Here at REV, we recruit people, not numbers. We want to get to know our members. We’re a very social, very friendly group, but we play to win. That said, I think the best way to summarize us is this: we plan to win while having fun doing it.
Multiple scheduled events per week, organized WvW, dungeon groups, etc. You can find more info on the linked thread AND here at our website: http://www.revelguild.com

You are in no way REQUIRED to show up for events and stuff, but obviously it’s preferable. We also like it when members are able to at least occasionally hop into mumble to chat. We like to talk, you see. ^^

Anyway, here’s hoping to hear from you via an application! Or in-game/through PM if you have any questions, haha.

Orrr you can check out this thread!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/guilds/guilds/Revel-REV-of-Blackgate-WvW-PvE-PvP

Revel [REV] of Blackgate (at the top of T2) is always looking for new members. :> Here at REV, we recruit people, not numbers. We want to get to know our members. We’re a very social, very friendly group, but we play to win. That said, I think the best way to summarize us is this: we plan to win while having fun doing it.

Multiple scheduled events per week, organized WvW, dungeon groups, etc. You can find more info on the linked thread AND here at our website: http://www.revelguild.com

Hope to hear from you via an application! ^^

If Blackgate turns into one of those hit-the-top-then-crash gigs, I wouldn’t be adverse to REV moving to SoR…but that’d be way too much work.

I just want to give Alpaca false hope.

New video! The Gates of Arah. There’ll be a “round 2” at some point when I can manage to really fight the big guy alone. It’s obviously pretty hard to truly set that kind of thing up though, so…eventually.

DivineBeing.2086:

Christos de Soufre.3802:

I just hope BG doesn’t turn into one of those things…bandwagoners hop on, the influx in coverage leads to domination of T1, and then everyone leaves because there’s nowhere else to go but down.

Not fun. Well, unless that loss of people leads to us stabilizing back in T2 with SoR. :>

This already happened a while back.

I started playing the week after it happened, I think.

I just hope BG doesn’t turn into one of those things…bandwagoners hop on, the influx in coverage leads to domination of T1, and then everyone leaves because there’s nowhere else to go but down.

Not fun. Well, unless that loss of people leads to us stabilizing back in T2 with SoR. :>

You’ll do more damage than straight bunker builds, but you certainly won’t do as much as a glass cannon. It’s somewhere in between…but it works. I’m progressing into 20th scale fractals with it, and I plan to go even further.

Skill ceiling is higher with this build than others in PvE due to health pool, so don’t expect to do great in very high-scale fractals if you’re used to face tanking with high vitality builds. Just have AR and don’t get hit by obvious stuff. You can dodge more than 15 times a minute with this build, so you should definitely use that to your advantage.

Depends on the player. You cannot arbitrarily say what profession as a whole is better than another in groups. Not without direct comparisons of particular builds anyway. Player skill is also a factor, obviously.

I don’t want to go to T1. I’ll miss SoR too much.

It’d have to be balanced around the fact that everyone else has to actually have a certain skill equipped for their movement speed, but…this is an excellent idea.

Perhaps make the cooldown 45 seconds and nerf Retreat.

Definitely not the only one that thinks this. There have been several posts about this, all of which I agree with. I’m sitting here gimping my playstyle because I’m forced to use the next best thing for my setup, which are soldier’s rings, which I do not find incredibly useful.

I need healing power, not vitality. I’d rather not have to consider sticking to exotic rings just for the correct stats.

Some of the strongest points of this build are its regeneration, protection, and retaliation uptimes. Lower boon duration can mean the difference between a win or loss.

Darn, I usually prefer to contact people in-game, but I guess I can type something up here.

At Revel [REV] of Blackgate, we recruit people, not numbers. We like to get to know everyone who joins our guild; we’re a very social, friendly group. We have a strong focus on all aspects of the game, with especial interest in dungeons and WvW. We have several scheduled guild events through the week, and dungeon/sPvP/WvW groups will form spontaneously rather often in between.

We use Mumble and do expect our members to hop in and do a little socializing every now and then, but we don’t require you to have a headset on 24/7 (of course). We’re currently looking to ramp up our WvW presence and increase our involvement with the server community, so we will also be making use of the community TS server fairly soon.

Basically…we’re everything you’re looking for from what I’ve read, and you’re everything we’re looking for in a new guild member. :> You can find more information at our website (and you can apply!): http://www.revelguild.com

Feel free to hit me up in game with any questions. Hope to hear from you.

I’m sure if you spend enough time playing (especially hanging around in Lion’s Arch or WvW), you’ll find someone with a guild tag or name that brings it all back to you. Just do some lookin’ in-game if you don’t get any hits here.

I’ve found x/30/20/20 to be fairly effective, and it may be slightly better suited to medium-large group or zerg combat, depending on how you play. However, this pros and cons list I’ve made, in addition to personal preference, is making me second guess any considerations I may have of switching to an AH build…

Pros of x/30/20/20 vs x/10/30/30
Higher self-heals while in groups via AH
200 more toughness (yay!)
Passive condition removal (1/10 sec)
Might for 7 seconds for each block
20% more Crit Dmg

Cons of x/30/20/20 vs x/10/30/30
Loss of 10% boon duration across the board
Loss of 1,000 health and 100 healing power
Virtues recharge 10% slower (myriad of cons in this bit alone)
- Less consistent might and retaliation from virtues
- Less consistent burning from VoJ
- Longer CD “OH kitten” buttons (VoR mostly)
- Much longer VoC cooldown if using it for clutch stability
Courageous Return is borderline useless
20% more Crit Dmg is borderline useless to this build
Loss of 1% bonus damage per boon (small, I know)
Loss of 10% bonus damage with <full Endurance
Loss of condition removal/extra boon per shout
- It’s only about 50% effective with HTL and SY, but…still

I think the worst part of switching out of x/10/30/30 is that you have to choose EITHER 25% stronger + 3 condition removal Resolve OR an additional free block per minute plus clutch stability (SO useful) in the Virtues line, as opposed to just having both. Losing 100 healing power also hurts your dodge roll heals quite a bit if you’re starting to put on ascended gear and therefore are losing healing power already. This build relies quite a bit on those dodge heals for both survival and team support, so…

Edit: I’m still considering a 0/0/20/20/30 build.

Pros of x/20/20/30 vs x/10/30/30
100 more toughness (yay!)
You get both burn blocks AND passive condition removal
10% more Crit Dmg

Cons of x/20/20/30 vs x/10/30/30
1,000 less health and 100 less healing power
Loss of more on-demand condition removal (sort of)
Loss of 10% bonus damage with <full Endurance
Courageous Return is sooo lackluster…

Orson.3265:

Nice video. I enjoyed the build but I can’t stop thinking about those 10 points in Valor. Don’t you feel a bit squishy? I mean, I can’t conceive a build without at least 20 points on it. Not saying you’re wrong. You definitely have more experience than me, but tell me about your tanking capabilities.
I’m asking, becouse I’ve always wanted a healing build. The first gear (rare) I bought at 80 was Cleric’s, but I couldn’t make it work. Also, how does that shout build work for small combats, like 2×2 or 2×4 (2 on your side)?

I don’t feel the least bit squishy. The primary reason I don’t take points out of anything else for more toughness (even though I’d love some more toughness) is because I’ll have to lose healing power, boon duration, faster virtue recharge, health, and/or a useful minor trait in exchange for a relatively useless one (Courageous Return). And while I wouldn’t mind having Purity in addition to burn blocks, I’m unwilling to give up a stronger resolve that also removes conditions OR a 3 second stability and shorter ICD on the passive VoC.

The shouts work about as well as you’d imagine, I guess. It’s fairly consistent regen and protection uptime for yourself and a decent boost to survivability for your allies. SY will sap conditions from your allies to you, which you can consider a blessing or a curse. It’s easy enough for me to get rid of conditions in a group (light fields help), so it’s not that huge of a deal to me. Stand Your Ground helps to secure finishes when you’re outnumbered, etc.

This build carries a metric kittenton of blocks, blinds, and “OH kitten” buttons as well (Shelter, RF, high-powered virtues), so that helps.

Edit: I’m going to dabble with 0/0/20/20/30 and 0/0/30/20/20 just to see, but I’m almost positive I’ll hate 30/20/20. Not sure about 20/20/30.

I’ve tried variations of 0/0/30/x/x, but never liked them as much as 0/10/30/30. I’m just not a big fan of AH considering how much passive healing, boon duration, and condition removal you have to give up for it.

Hoping to catch you in-game to talk to you about Revel on Blackgate. Not a big fan of generic guild spam.

I’ll be swapping from Bloodlust back to Life when I replace my weapons. The additional power from the Ascended items + infusions will cover most of the loss of a full stack of power, and a high enough stack of Life will cut the healing power loss of trading out rings and weapons in half.

Hopefully the additional toughness and vitality also help to counteract the loss.

I pretty much never switch to staff in WvW. I get around with GS leap, Sword teleport, SY and sometimes Retreat.

You might be able to get away with different weapons, but you’ll be lacking in the damage department. The sigils of energy are an absolute requirement for this build though.

In other news, I’m enjoying having a little extra health and power through my soldier’s rings, but I’m not so sure I like the huge dip that comes with replacing cleric’s weapons. It’s not going to be fun when I finally pick up Sunrise. I might actually give up the legendary status in exchange for cleric’s stats and just keep the skin. Ergh..

They’re swapped permanently. I’m replacing my exotic sapphire rings with the Ascended soldier’s clones and slowly replacing my cleric’s weapons with soldier’s. Everything else is remaining cleric’s and sapphire.

Yeah, I’m not a huge fan of it in sPvP, but I never actually do it, so eh. I figured to increase viability in there you’d have to change out SY and possibly substitute in more soldier’s gear. I don’t really know though.

As far as the dungeons go…it can be a pain with the lower health pool, but I’ve always done pretty well with it in there. I’m starting to replace my rings and weapons with soldier’s pieces though, so the extra health and power is definitely helping. Even if it does mean losing some healing power… /cry

Shouts do prioritize party members. I also think it’s better to be providing boons to 5 people than to none in group combat, but that wasn’t really the idea when I start playing with this anyway. The shouts were mostly for myself because I enjoyed the protection and regen uptime, but they happen to work well for group support as well.

I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try if you’re into it, but I’d rather 85 healing power than an extra 0.5-1.5 seconds of boon duration personally.

Burst damage and ranged absorbs through Zealot’s Defense. Mobility and defensive blinds through Flashing Blade. A higher-than-average range multi-hit auto attack. It’s a fairly balanced weapons and is one of my favorites. I use it in conjunction with a focus.

Update: we just took Valley back! :>

That’d work. The whole point is to have two sets of +15% boon duration.

I actually use WoR a lot more often than not lately. I don’t roam quite as much as I participate in zerg warfare these days.

They’re the exact same, Crapgame. 6 Water isn’t the same as 3 Water and 3 Monk though.

New video posted! Guardian PoV 3v18. It’s myself, my GM (a D/D Ele), and one of our newer guild members running my Healway build taking on a fairly long string of SoR last night. Hope you find it entertaining.

Hah, that may be. I’ve only ever played AH builds for about a day just to see what they’re like. This was actually the first build I ever tried and continues to be my mainstay.

It’s meant to be a pretty selfish build; it just has the fortunate bonus of being a reasonable support build as well.

SoR BL feels so repetitive lately. Take GL, get trebbed, lose GL, take GL, get trebbed…

It’s still fun to farm badges as the flood of defenders comes at us though. >:D

You plus 4 allies.

nalenb.1425:

Christos de Soufre.3802:

I use Heritage weapons. The FDS is great, but I’m working towards a better skin for my GS.

Oh, another questions. So you bought the full Cleric’s set and the full cultural tier 3 set and transmuted it? So 100g for the 5 pieces of cultural but you keep those when you transmute and the Clerics set is lost? For instance if you wanted to run full knights next, you would buy the Knights set for maybe 20g and transmute those stats onto the existing cultural set? Then you change back to Cleric spending another 20g for that set and the knights is lost in the transmute?

If that’s right, then I’m guessing you have to be pretty happy with an armor set to transmute it, i.e. if you weren’t happy with Cleric then you wouldn’t transmute yet.

Just asking because the draconic set looks okay, but the cultural stuff you have looks pretty awesome. I might have to gender change too.

I had the Draconic Cleric’s transmuted to Heritage armor while I saved up. Then I just transmuted the t3 skins onto the Cleric’s exotics.

If I wanted a separate set of armor for an entirely different build, I’d probably just put Heritage on it. For instance, I’m slowly building a glass cannon set just to see what it feels like. Just gonna’ put Heritage on it. Or Orrian…we’ll see.

jerhog.2814:

How well does this build hold up in dungeons?

I’m not sure what people look for in most explorables since I don’t do them often, but I’ve used the build to exceptional effect in several runs. It also holds up well in fractals. You definitely have to get some agony resistance and know how to avoid damage, but it’s certainly tanky enough and hits harder than most popular defensive builds.

akamon.2769:

have you ever considered the mace with this build? i feel it’s not not as versatile / mobile as the sword and less “burst” and block (sword #3), but the healing factor could be great for group play?

Sure, it could be useful in small group situations. I might actually give it a shot with my guild sometime soon, but I feel the loss of burst and mobility would really just balance out the additional heals and blocks in a way.

nalenb.1425:

Reset my traits tonight and bought all exotic cleric’s gear. Tried it out in WvW. I probably have a lot to learn and practice with this because I’m getting dropped like a rock. Head into battle 1v2 or 1v1 and my health will stay up for the first 10 seconds and then I’m dropped over the next 10 seconds.

It’s certainly not a face-tanking build. The most I can recommend is to go over some of my videos. :/ This build is pretty reliant on situational (not a word ><) awareness and fluidity in knowing when and how to dodge/block/etc.

Also, make sure you’re using the superior sigils of energy…those are extremely important.

I personally only have real trouble against dedicated boon rip necros, but those are pretty gimmicky and rare. Glass cannons of each profession take some learning to get used to taking down, but once you get it, it’s a done deal.

I’m glad so many of you are finding this build to work well for you.

That is a little confusing…because the character clearly only spins three times.

I give up. I’ve explained how the VoJ proc mechanic works to the best of my ability.