Guild Wars 2

Ok, so there’s been a lot of back and forth on chrono builds lately, particularly with the boon cap. Some people have said you only need 94% and some people have said you need absolutely 100%.

I was one of the people that took someone else’s math at face value and went with 94%. However, after finally looking into this myself (thanks Molch for provoking me to do this, lol), I found that the actual boon cap to get max quickness uptime is 96%. I posted this in another thread, but for clarity’s sake and to keep that one from getting too side tracked, I started this one.

Here’s the reason for the 96%:

• Boon duration is rounded to the nearest quarter second based on the boon duration percentage from your stats. This is why the duration of Time Warp in the attached image is 1.25 seconds, when I only have 20% boon duration.
• Because of the rounding of duration, you only need enough to get to the point where duration is rounded to the highest duration possible. For low duration boons, this is a lower number and for high duration boons, this is a higher number.

Below are the boon duration caps you need for the various quickness-granting abilities:
Time Warp – 1s quickness ticks ~ 88% boon duration caps this at 2s.
Tides of Time – 1.5s quickness ~ 92% boon duration caps this at 3s.
Runes of the Chronomancer – 2s quickness ~ 94% boon duration caps this at 4s.
Well of Action – 3s quickness ~ 96% boon duration caps this at 6s.

From a practical sense, you may only need to get to a point where you need 46% duration if you can count on having a herald in your group for the 50% from Facet of Nature.

There’s two main ways to reach this cap with a minimal impact to your personal DPS:
1) Sigil of Concentration with 20% boon duration food.
2) 5x Runes of Surging with 1 Platinum Doubloon, 20% boon duration food and Bountiful Sharpening Stones.

If you want to run Runes of the Chrono with Sig of Inspiration, go with the first option.

(As a side note, for anyone that wants to model this in a spreadsheet, the MROUND function is really handy)

Molch.2078:

Dahkeus.8243:

edit I actually don’t think you even need that platinum doubloon since 94% and up rounds 1 second boons to 2 seconds.

How did you test that?

So, I knew that boons rounded to the nearest quarter second based on seeing this effect in game. For example, see the image on this post. Technically, you should need 25% boon duration to get a 1 second Time Warp boon to 1.25 seconds, but with just 20% boon duration, you can achieve this due to the system’s rounding.

However, after looking closely, I see that I was mistaken in trusting someone else’s math. I tested and recreated this in Excel by modelling out various different boon durations with the time rounded to the closest quarter second and for low boon durations (such as TW), you don’t even need 94%, but for long duration durations, like Well of Action, you need more than 94%

Since this is a different cap number for different durations, we can look at the durations we have and what caps are needed for them:

Time Warp – 1s quickness ticks ~ 88% boon duration caps this at 2s.
Tides of Time – 1.5s quickness ~ 92% boon duration caps this at 3s.
Runes of the Chronomancer – 2s quickness ~ 94% boon duration caps this at 4s.
Well of Action – 3s quickness ~ 96% boon duration caps this at 6s.

So, until we get a source of quickness with more than a 3 second base duration or a boon important enough to worry about that’s more than 3 second base duration, there’s no need to get more than 96% boon duration.

tl:dr – Correction, the boon cap is 96%. This was shown with math and the mechanic was proven from the attached image from in game.

So, just because you’re tanking doesn’t mean you need to stack as much survivability as possible. You just need enough so that you’re not too much of a burden to the healer.

Since there’s so many active defense skills on chrono, you really don’t take much damage anyways. Chaos isn’t bad, per se, since it does give some decent boon duration that can make up for a lack of it on your gear, but you only need to aim for about 44% if you have a herald in your party (44% + their 50% gives you 94%, which rounds up 1s quickness boons to 2s).

Here’s a basic outline of what lines are good for tanks and why:

Chaos – Makes up for boon duration missing on gear and has decent damage reduction.
Inspiration – Allows you to grant distortion to your group and Mental Defense gives you another illusion, which reduces group damage.
Illusions – More alacrity from lower shatter recharge and more dps.
Domination – More dps and distortion on signet (can work well with Inspiration line and Sig of Insp to allow groups to skip mechanics, like green circles on VG)

Ooops.8694:

Xyonon.3987:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAs+dncfC9fitfCmfCUrhFVjiMAKgirOZn2qFtLSjsD-TBCBABjq+zZKBxS5BAnEg80LUmSs+3fIgHAApACcMA-e

This is you endgoal you want to aim for for raids. If you got questions, go ahead, I’ll check this thread to answer you

With the way GW2 rounds cooldowns and durations there really should be no reason for 100% boon duration… Math says Bountiful Sharpening Stone, 5 Runes of Surging and a Platin Dubloon (99% boon duration buffed) is the stronger and cheaper setup for that build.

Quoting this for truth. I honestly don’t understand how anyone in good can really recommend Runes of Leadership anymore. Even if they didn’t take a ridiculous amount of grind to get, they’re just worse than surging and bountiful stones since the other stats on leadership are so poor compared to the power from surging.

edit I actually don’t think you even need that platinum doubloon since 94% and up rounds 1 second boons to 2 seconds.

BloodyNine.7504:

I came to this game hoping to tank as well. It doesn’t really exist for the most part. Embrace it, I did. I played Tera for a bit as a lancer. I found it fun and the tanking was well done and always needed.

Yes, Tera really nailed tanking. Tanking a “BAM” (boss-like monster) in that game was amazingly fun. No game has ever came as close to making tanking as fun as that game…

It’s such a shame that everything outside of combat mechanics in that game is absolutely horrible.

SlyDevil.3952:

Iris Ng.9845:

SlyDevil.3952:

Did you include both banners, assassin’s presence, fury, might, empower allies, 25 vuln as well as 39.9% crit chance + 10% against bleeding foes. Sharpshooter also is a 33% chance to inflict a 3sec bleed.

Is any time lost when you swap in and out of the kit?

Should also consider the time lost when ground target the moving Vale Guardian in that line of logic.

Considering both attacks ground target in the exact same way it doesn’t matter, and grenade has 3x the proc chances on shrapnel and sharpshooter.

One leaves a field of ticking conditions, the other applies all conditions on impact. I think that’s what they meant. Either way, there’s plenty of similar assumptions, just like dropping Napalm.

God, the childish passive aggressiveness here is just ridiculous.

Redo the calculations with shrapnel, but take into account that it has multiple triggers from grenades vs the single one from mortar.

Yea, there’s a lot of ways to get to 100% boon duration, especially when running with a rev. If you already have commander’s gear, then good for you.

Leadership runes, however, are a bit different since using them means you aren’t using Chrono runes and can’t share the extra quickness from inspiration.

If you’re just trying to avoid a sigil of concentration, you can do that with Commander’s armor. It’s a dps loss to use that instead of zerker/assassin, but everything is if you don’t use chrono runes and it’s at least useful if you tank.

If you absolutely aren’t a tank and are against sigil of conc, then you can still go full zerk/sin armor with boon food/utility and 5x Surging (you don’t even need the plat since this puts you at 45%). You’ll lose the extra quickness from chrono runes, but at least you get the extra alacrity from the well or mimic that replaces Sig of Insp.

The more I think about it, the less reason I see to take Leadership runes, even if you don’t take Chrono runes.

Sanderinoa.8065:

The cap on boon duration is being ignored massively here it seems. Also the fact that leadership runes add unnecessary stats which can interfere with the tank is overlooked.

From a raid perspective, ironically, leadership runes are a lazy man’s runes. The point that ‘SoI is no longer necessary’ when using them is not at all true and Im not sure where the idea comes from.

When comparing chrono runes+ concentration sigil with leadership you are essentially comparing 2sec quickness per well, 100% boon duration,better stats at the condition of complicating your rotation, with 100% boon duration, worse stats compensated by a subpar sigil choice like air/accuracy, but less effort.

At this point I would even recommend surging over leadership, as you reach the same result without the extra farming/ bad stats.

1) No one is ignoring boon cap. Boon cap only comes into play depending on the rest of your gear (which is why I noted that one of the benefits is that you don’t need Sigil of Conc).

2) Leadership won’t interfere with a tank. The amount of toughness from these runes is less than a single toughness trinket. Check out the comparison:
Leadership Runes – http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQBAA-TZQABAw+DAA
Single Toughness Ring – http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQBAA-TRQYAAgSBA-e

Kusa.6438:

Fay.2357:

Kusa.6438:

So I’m not sure if this ideal. This is what I’m runnig.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAse8dncfClfi1fC+fCUrhlejqeUb1Z9MFKhVzMAelMC-TRhaAB+o+DKKBHR/AAK/uc/BSB81YA-e

I have the weapon swap sigil, that gives boon duration as well.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil_of_Concentration

Probably the most expensive and grindiest build. Probably not the best either.

Leadership/chronomancer are debatable, but you’ve made some pretty poor choices in that build that aren’t. Celestial gear is bad. You should be using zerk/sin or adding in knights/cavs if you’re tanking. Additionally, the chaos line is bad. The only thing you get from it is boons on shatter, and that’s completely worthless if the rest of your group is even remotely competent.

Eh I have multiple ascended sets. Though my group has been clearing all three encountes with ease and typically one shots. I go full zerk on sab. I would disagree with you statement on chaos line. Try looking at all three minor traits, especially that third one… Considering quickness stacking is a thing.

Unless for some reason you don’t run with heralds, you’re wasting a lot of boon duration. You have 50% before Sigil of Concentration, meaning that on swap, you’re at 83%. With the Chaos line, you’re getting another 15% (give or take, depending on boons from party). If you have a herald, then you’re also getting 50%.

Put that together and you’re either sitting at 98% without a revenant or you’re at 148% with the revenant. =P

savacli.8172:

Commander’s gear has also been used in conjunction with Chrono runes to meet the boon duration needs. Obtaining the Inscription/Insignia recipes is cheap enough at 50 Crystalline Ore a piece. Though unless you have some Ascended boxes set aside that you can transmute you’re also looking at purchasing the armor/weapon recipes for each individual slot.

Ultimately, the decision should be based on what you do, what you have, and what you’re willing to grind/spend.

Personally. I use Assassin/Chrono as my “catch-all” gear and just switch around traits and nourishments to meet my needs based on the situation: Raids, fractals, open world, etc.

If I was more dedicated as a Chronotank my preference would be to made a set of Commander’s gear. Though, that decision is primarily based on I have the Insignia/Inscription recipes already on hand as well as spare ascended gear I can transmute.

Eh, even as tank, it still seems like you can use assassin’s gear and just swap your trinkets for Knight’s. That frees you up to swap back to zerker when you get to Sabetha. However, if you’re ok either having two sets (assassin and commander) or are ok in using commander’s gear everywhere, then it can definitely save you from the high cost of a Concentration sigil.

So, Chronomancer runes seem to be winning in terms of community acceptance and overall I’d agree. However, here’s a summary of the pros and cons:

Chronomancer

• Allow for more quickness sharing to the group when used with sig of inspiration
• With the right build, you can also utilize Sig of Insp as an on-demand group distortion, which has allowed groups to bypass the green circle mechanic of VG (example here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3xhs8k/king_5_man_vale_guardian_kill/cy4rnpj)
• Higher dps stats since chrono is still a power build

Leadership Runes

• Provide the most boon duration of any rune (30% vs 20% from Durability or Water, the next highest options)
• Since no sig of insp is needed, you can take Mimic, which allows you to provide more alacrity than a Chrono/Sig of Insp build could provide.
• Provides some degree of healing power, which is somewhat helpful if you run Well of Eternity and/or Restorative Illusions.

Whether you’re running as tank or utility/dps, both runes are equally valuable, although you could argue that the toughness from the all stats portion of Leadership runes is more useful there.

From a price point perspective, Chronomancer runes are definitely cheaper/easier to attain. However, if you go with Chronomancer runes, you’ll probably need to use a Sigil of Concentration for your boon duration if you want to get boon duration capped and that’s about 150g on the trading post at the moment (may be cheaper if you have it crafted for you). If you’re already farming DS and aren’t bothered by dropping 600 crystalline ore on a set of runes, that may be easier, but I think for most people 150g is easier to obtain. =P

If you do look to another profession, Ranger would be the one I would recommend simply due to the Druid elite specialization. There’s not much of a healing role in this game overall since players can generally sustain themselves, but Raids are the one exception to this since you do need a dedicated healer for that content and currently that spot is almost always handled by a druid (the one exception is that eles can do this).

The Druid specialization uses the staff and has a ‘Celestial Avatar’ form that transforms your skills into almost all pure healing skills and druid builds also bring tons of buffs at the same time.

There’s not quite as much CC with druids, however, and you are still tied to the pet mechanic of Ranger, even when playing as a druid, so there’s that to consider.

However, I think you may still be happy with the role of a Chronomancer that brings wells and abilities to grant alacrity as well as quickness to the party since that’s also a big support role. At the same time, you do have some pretty significant CC. Feel free to check out the elite skill ‘Gravity Well’ as an example of this, even though it’s a bit uncommon to see that used in PvE since most take ‘Time Warp’ instead.

Honestly, you could probably run the current meta builds at max level and it would certainly fill the role of being support since chronomancers are the best source of Quickness and the only profession that can provide Alacrity. Any mesmer build can bring decent CC just from Diversion shatters and most offhands:
Focus Offhand – This is great as a pull and is often used in dungeon/fractal content to group up mobs.
Shield/Pistol – Both offhands bring a stun

Even Greatsword brings a good knockback to the table.

If you’re level 25, you have a good ways to go before having to worry about max level builds. While leveling, I’d recommend just experimenting with all the weapons. When you hit max level and unlock the Chronomancer specialization, you can head to MetaBattle.com for a good source of builds.

rchu.8945:

Poop.4295:

harold.3526:

Scootabuser.4915:

Actually, if you watch any of the kill videos involving burnzerkers, it doesn’t require a perfect environment to do the top dps in the game, it is easily done in a raid setting.

I want to see you doing top dps in the game with burnzerker while running the green circles.

- 2 PS Berserker is in the meta for party buffing(not more as far as i know)
- 2 Revenant is in the meta for party buffing(not more as far as i know)
- 1 Crono is in the meta for party buffing(not more as far as i know, unless you want distortion for 10 people)
Some classes are better in some fights, Necro on sabetha, burnzerker on gorseval, i personally don’t like burnzerker on VG

-> BUT if these numbers are true(numbers thrown without the spreadsheet/source has no value), and you can really get this DPS in anyfight, burnzerker will be on meta for unbalanced DPS against other classes, and not for team utility, THAN you need a balance change.

It’s not a versatile build at all.

There are people crying because there so happens to be more than one playable build for warriors so they see 2 ps zerkers + 2 burnzerkers and go “ahhmagaaawwd so much warrior,” and think they’re super OP and meta then search for any misguided way to nerf them.

Just like the condi ranger, burnzerkers aren’t useful in most scenarios. “40% higher damage” is misleading information comparing burnzerker peak spike damage to average/below average for other builds.

As people have stated here, their own spreadsheets show themselves pulling 30k+ average with other builds that are much more versatile with mechanics.

sorry, if there are other videos showing class stacking of other professions that can kill two raid bosses in 3 to 4 min, then you might have a point. But now you are just defending a profession that’s OP in a “challenge” content basically making bunch other classes and builds obsolete compare to this min/max raid build for warrior.

I agree…but if we’re going to talk balance based on bosses being killed in 3-4 min, then we also have to address how OP Chronomancer skills are at skipping certain boss mechanics. =P

Hmm…what kind of content are you looking to get a build for? Open world PvE? 5-player instanced PvE? Raids? WvW? PvP? The best answer could change substantially depending on this.

Ok, so I’ve been pouring over reddit, metabattle, and these forums lately trying to decipher the best build for chrono tank. The gear for this build is potentially ridiculous (runes of leadership, commander stats, sigil of conc), so I really want to get this stuff right and while I’m willing to pay for the best stuff, I don’t want to waste gold on something expensive that I later find is sub-optimal.

After reviewing all the builds posted everywhere for this role, this is what I believe is the most optimal chrono tank build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAse8dncfCFohlfC2fCUrhFVjiMAGhirOZn2q98JGioD-ThRBABcp8DP9DmpEEgTCAlq/8/+DkCwrlRA-e

• Sig of Concentration not shown due to not being in the calculator

Alternatively, for less distortion, but more alacrity from iAvenger, swap the Domination trait line for Illusions.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAse8dncfCFohlfC2fCUrhlljCdyOhLr+Qj0J9sBCgHD-ThRBAB/v/Ae6H4S5HAnEAzUCSp6PkCwrlRA-e

Gear: Zerker with knights trinkets to get enough toughness for aggro (my char has Assassin’s armor for dungeons/reflects, but w/e)
Runes: Chronomancer (used with Sig of Insp)
Boon Duration: 33% from Sig of Conc + 20% from food + 50% from Rev for max quickness

This build is pretty much the same build from what Ilyavi ran on KING’s 5-man VG, but with some toughness trinkets to allow tanking (they used a condi war to tank on that run). Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3xhs8k/king_5_man_vale_guardian_kill/cy4rnpj

The traits here pretty much allow for a ton of group distortion that of course has been used to skip the green circle mechanic of the VG fight, but even if you don’t have another chrono in the group and aren’t skipping the mechanic, it still seems like some great damage mitigation.

There seems to be a lot of back and forth on the forums over how to get enough boon duration, but ultimately sigil of concentration seems to be the best way to address this, even if it does require a bit more awareness in your rotation. Also, the rune choice seems to be somewhat controversial since Leadership allow you to take an extra well to provide additional alacrity, but considering that you can get boon capped without this and also can provide distortion when running sig of insp, I think chronomancer runes win out.

Anyways, that’s my 2 copper.

edit Added alternate version with more alacrity from iAvenger at the expense of distortion on Sig of Insp.

Also, as a side note, I find it interesting that MetaBattle’s Chrono Tank is so off since it’s recommending much more boon duration than the cap if you have a rev in the party (pretty much any organized group).

deSade.9437:

You could’ve avoided all this blabbering back n’ forth and summed it up by: engi has good ccs and better healing; warr is easier, has steadier, more reliable dps and personal survival. No turret, though, what a shame.
Spreadsheeters are almost always gonna pick the latter. You pick the one you see fits your team the most.
I’d go engi in a puggy team. And if you’re still unsure and shaky on green aoe duty, well… it sounds kinda puggy.
… or go double mes, huh. Who needs green duty anyway.

Yea, lots of comparisons of war vs engi for green circle, but honestly, if you get a decent player, you’ll clear VG just fine regardless of whether they play engi or war.

Miellyn.6847:

Dahkeus.8243:

At the same time, there’s the example of the Four Horsemen (original) fight that took 7 weeks before there was a world first. (https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/2wp5tc/which_raid_lasted_the_longest/)

You also could tell people why it took 7 weeks to kill the horsemen
It was not the difficulty of the encounter itself but the need for 6-8 tanks with 3 pieces T3 armor, something that will never happen in GW2

The lichking was impossible to kill without the legendary axe and weapons from him with an higher itemlevel before the 5% buff (panic 30% health buff from blizzard, the rest of the encounters were a joke for top guilds and got killed within 10h after hard mode opened), he had also limited attempts to slow progress

I actually didn’t know that, but good point.

I think that’s the tough point that ANet has to contend with in difficulty. If they tune raids to be as tough as the toughest raids in WoW, people may still clear them faster since there’s not as much gear grind.

However…

With HoT, there has been a gear grind introduced for certain classes/builds.

The community didn’t really cry out since it wasn’t a new tier of gear, but it might as well have been. In particular, I’m talking about Viper’s Stats and Commander’s Stats for condi dps and chrono tanks.

Anyways, I guess that’s a bit of a tangent, but I agree that the gear component does make a really solid comparison tough.

Roul.3205:

Dahkeus.8243:

Fractals
Rangers aren’t particularly noteable for Fractals, but they still work well. A full healer isn’t needed here, but rangers still tend to run as druids for the buffs that the glyphs can provide.

Guardians tend to really shine in Fractals and many groups swear by having at least one in the party. This is because of how helpful reflects, stability, blinds, and aegis is for clearing this content.

It’s possible that when the next wing of raid content is released, there will be mechanics that make Guardians wildly popular like they are for Fractals.

As it stands now, if you wanted a profession that played a range DPS role and was really useful in raids, your best bet would be a condition warrior. However, this is a relatively new spec and warriors historically have been most prevalent playing a power melee role. Also, in 5 person content, groups will usually want a Phalanx Strength warrior more than a condition, ranged warrior.

Hopefully that helps explain things a bit. Again, this is only a reflection of the popular meta. Groups have shown that playing an exact meta build with perfect gear is not required to clear the current raid content, even though meta builds will generally make it easier to succeed.

B-buttt It doesn’t feel like guards are really viable in fractals, all they do can be done by a mesmer even better (in most fracs), while ranger is pretty viable in high lvl fracs, as their condi dmg is really good and they buff the group very good.

Soooo, @OP, guard is in a pretty bad situation in PvE atm, and tbh I am kinda sure this won’t change that much even after balancing, I would recommend using ranger.

Honestly, it doesn’t really matter for Fractals. Considering that most groups just farm the easy Fractals for rewards, group comp doesn’t make much of a difference.

If you do actually try to do all the levels of Fractals though, Mesmer and Guard play a similar role. Mesmer is better for a speed run with teleports and such, but guard is more forgiving for tough fights due to aegis and such. Neither are exactly DPS powerhouses, but they’re both kings of reflects.

So, here’s the current state of end game for these two professions. Note that this is a reflection of the meta and it’s possible for something outside of this to work, but finding a group who will support that may be difficult.

Raids
Rangers are generally in the role of healers for raids with the Druid elite spec. This involves using staff primarily, so this does allow for a lot of play at ranged. You still have your pet, but they play a relatively minor role for healers. However, the primary DPS weapon tends to be sword mainhand, which has a mechanic that can make it hard to dodge (you can’t dodge during the leap animation of the autoattack). Sword isn’t really mandatory though and many druids use Axe mainhand or Longbow.

Most groups will have 1 druid to fill their healer slot and there’s not much competition with other professions since druids provide so many offensive buffs while filling the healer’s role.

Guardians aren’t the most popular class for raids, even though they can be great in other content since there aren’t currently any bosses where the specific benefits of a guardian, such as stability, reflects, blinds, and aegis, come into play. They’re not as unpopular as something like thieves, but they’re not really sought after much either. The Dragonhunter elite spec is pretty much best for all roles a guardian plays right now. Guardians can do a good job of tanking in raids, but they’re not particularly renown for this.

Fractals
Rangers aren’t particularly noteable for Fractals, but they still work well. A full healer isn’t needed here, but rangers still tend to run as druids for the buffs that the glyphs can provide.

Guardians tend to really shine in Fractals and many groups swear by having at least one in the party. This is because of how helpful reflects, stability, blinds, and aegis is for clearing this content.

It’s possible that when the next wing of raid content is released, there will be mechanics that make Guardians wildly popular like they are for Fractals.

As it stands now, if you wanted a profession that played a range DPS role and was really useful in raids, your best bet would be a condition warrior. However, this is a relatively new spec and warriors historically have been most prevalent playing a power melee role. Also, in 5 person content, groups will usually want a Phalanx Strength warrior more than a condition, ranged warrior.

Hopefully that helps explain things a bit. Again, this is only a reflection of the popular meta. Groups have shown that playing an exact meta build with perfect gear is not required to clear the current raid content, even though meta builds will generally make it easier to succeed.

For the best answer, I think you’ll need to answer a few more things.
What are your interests?
– Do you aim to do serious raiding?
– Do you want to do high end fractals?
– How important is open world content to you?

As far as the professions go, I would also ask what your thoughts are on potentially playing as a full healer. Currently, rangers are mostly utilized in raids as purely healers and their dps builds are a bit less popular/desired by groups. However, few classes can really perform their best without at least periodically dipping into melee.

Finally: What are your thoughts on having a pet? As a ranger, you’ll always be tied to your pet, so don’t choose this class unless you’re a fan of that mechanic. Otherwise, you may grow frustrated when you lose a source of your damage and utility because the AI that can’t dodge gets killed or has to take a long, weird path to reach an enemy. Fortunately, pets take a lot less damage in PvE than they used to, so they don’t die off as much.

I’ve only raided in WoW (BC through Cata) and GW2 (unless you count Urgoz/Deep/FoW/UW stuff from GW1). Here’s my thoughts on GW2 vs WoW:

WoW had a much larger scale in difficulties – Even before the tab-target-to-glory LFR system came out, I think that there was often an easier learning curve to raiding in WoW as long as you took the time to get your gear, but not by much. You can see this if you compare the mechanics of VG to something like Attument in Karazhan or Anub’Rekhan in Naxx from WotLK.

At the same time, there’s the example of the Four Horsemen (original) fight that took 7 weeks before there was a world first. (https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/2wp5tc/which_raid_lasted_the_longest/)

It’s not entirely fair to make this comparison since GW2 has only had 3 raid bosses ever, whereas WoW has had more than I can count. Also, WoW seems to have taken a step back from making super hard raids. If you look at the link above, you can see this trend.

It’s possible that in the next wing we will see a boss that doesn’t go down at all until months after release, but I would be surprised if that happens, honestly.

However, GW2 has made a pretty decent showing for a game that has been 3 years without a single raid and probably didn’t even anticipate having this type of content when the mechanics were conceived.

Apparition.1576:

Dahkeus.8243:

Prophet.1584:

warrior noob with a question: since anet balances across the board instead of splitting game modes do you expect warriors to get a pretty big buff to bring them back into the pvp meta? I have one of each class but have been floating between mains for a while so i’m curious.

ANet generally is subtle with their balance. I’d say that they’re more likely to be too soft handed than to be too heavy handed with balance changes, even though there are some over-the-top nerfs/buffs from time to time.

That being said, I’m pretty sure we’ll see some sort of warrior buffs in the next balance patch. Just be aware that they may buff some useless skill that are still useless after the buffs instead of making changes that actually make warriors viable. A great example of this happening is thieves getting buffs to venoms, lol.

Either way, the ANet gods do as the ANet gods want. While warriors will almost certainly be strong in PvP again, it’s hard to say how long it will be until that happens…

ANet generally is subtle with their BUFFS. fixt

ANET has a history of being pretty brutal with their NERFS

I’m sure it feels that way to you at the time, but that’s not really the case and certainly doesn’t account for the terrible power creep we’re going through right now.

When something is nerfed, it’s generally felt immediately since everyone was playing it. When something is buffed, it takes a while for the community to realize and embrace it. I.e. people are generally resistant to trying new things. =P

Honestly, there’s so many players that both PvE and PvP that it’s generally a false dichotomy to analyze the game from a PvEer vs PvPer perspective.

SenthRawr.7843:

Is weapon versatility .
There are so many weapons that warrior uses but only GS is actually viable/useful.
Hammer needs fixes with faster casts and lower cooldowns plus F1 needs more damage for berserk mode.
Sword looks good on paper but is not strong enough.
Axe offhand needs total rework pretty much.
Mace main hand needs to get off condi builds and “make” you feel more tanky and give you strong counter attack options.
Riffle is meh,skill 5 needs to be replaced with jump like engineer’s one.Remove some damage from F1 and add it to skill3 or so.
I actually like longbow.
Shield needs to do more, much more.Skill 4 cd is just too long and range too short.Shield Stance(skill 5) should benefit from stances traits and give swiftness and retaliation.
Edit:what is sword offhand on warriors?

Hmm, I agree that some warrior weapons could use some help, but I don’t think that’s really a main issue for warriors right now.. Warrior weapon skills are pretty by in large pretty solid, but warrior sustain and utility compared to current meta classes is really what holds the profession back. Some smart nerfs to classes that are both super tough to kill while also high damage would go a long way to make warriors, who are not as tough to kill, but potentially very high damage, viable.

While there are some weak weapons, that’s the case for all professions (Ranger axe offhand, shield offhand on engi, ele scepter, etc.).

My 2 cents on the weapons:
Hammer – This weapon does need some help, but I think a longer duration to the CC from the primal burst would mean more than additional damage. I mean, it does equal damage to the non-zerk version (and will do more with berserk mode modifiers), which can’t be said for other burst skills.
Sword – It’s a solid weapon that not only deals significant condi damage, but also gives good mobility to condi builds. Condi builds have problems, but it’s not from sword.
Axe offhand – Agreed it sucks, but I don’t think it needs a full rework. Whirl finishers need a rework, but even without that, an added reflect or even just a damage increase could go a long way here.
Mace mainhand and offhand Mace just all around is in an awkward spot where it’s just redundant with hammer. Putting condis on this weapon in theory open up the potential for a cc-heavy condi build, but again, there are other problems plaguing condi.
Rifle This weapon is carried by the burst, but I think that a bit more damage on it’s normal attacks could really help. As it stands, longbow just outshines rifle in everything except for burst in PvP, even with a power build. Rifle should stand out as the single-target power dps option, but right now it just doesn’t. A cast time reduction on the AA or a reduced cast on Volley (bringing it in line with Rapid Fire on Rangers) could make a big difference here.

Prophet.1584:

warrior noob with a question: since anet balances across the board instead of splitting game modes do you expect warriors to get a pretty big buff to bring them back into the pvp meta? I have one of each class but have been floating between mains for a while so i’m curious.

ANet generally is subtle with their balance. I’d say that they’re more likely to be too soft handed than to be too heavy handed with balance changes, even though there are some over-the-top nerfs/buffs from time to time.

That being said, I’m pretty sure we’ll see some sort of warrior buffs in the next balance patch. Just be aware that they may buff some useless skill that are still useless after the buffs instead of making changes that actually make warriors viable. A great example of this happening is thieves getting buffs to venoms, lol.

Either way, the ANet gods do as the ANet gods want. While warriors will almost certainly be strong in PvP again, it’s hard to say how long it will be until that happens…

Kind of ironic to see this on the thief forums, considering that this has historically been what thieves do to others, except that it’s evade, evade, evade, blind, evade, etc.

However, I agree that this is over the top for some builds like mesmer.

I honestly think that blocks themselves are not bad since it does open up room for unblockable skills and abilities to become useful (hence why warriors are now running Sig of Might), but there’s still a bit of a shortage for unblockable stuff for some classes.

My 2 cents: Make Flanking Strike unblockable once again.

Since when was mortar AA and healing/CCing mutually exclusive? When I ran on engi, I did both…

Pop healing turret, knockback if needed, then spam mortar until in range of grenades. Even if you only get 1 cast of AA off, it’s better than just running around without doing anything.

Do you mean to compare a viper’s rev to a berserker amulet warrior? If so, then no, not hardly. However, viper’s rev is still a lot more viable due to other factors (such as being able to survive and land that damage).

Best thread on the PvP forums in a long time.

Eh…I can only put so much praise around an outfit-based design, but for what it is, it works and looks good.

There would be so many possibilities if outfits were made into armor skins. =/

Andraus.3874:

Dahkeus.8243:

harold.3526:

NikeEU.7690:

Condi engineer is so much worse at VG than condi berserker it’s not remotely close. Condi berserker has slightly less CC so the players in the ranged group have to be much more on their game, but the DPS gain is nearly double.

Engineer has more DPS on first, second, and fourth phase.

lightning has 8 seconds cooldown and 8 seconds lit till explode, napalm has 30 seconds cooldown, firebomb 10, blowtorch 15

So if you stay ALL 8 seconds with the lightning up in range, you will still be able to use all those skills most of time on cooldown.

VG on third phase moves once every 20 seconds, and once every 15 seconds on fifth phase, so its still not a problem.

Berserker is good on big HitBoxes, not on small ones.

Sorry, just not buying it. Even in phase 1, you can keep up a perfect rotation more on a warrior since you need less melee time than an engi.

On phase 2 and 4, you can easily land scorched earths with the connections between fields on top of the guardian for double burn ticks since he’s so stationary.

Rotation is not a problem for engi if you are used to the fight and your rotation. You can use your close ranged attacks on cool down with still doing green circles if you time things right. Granted your engi may not be that good. And your berserker does not need to be that good to pull off DPS that is only a bit under. I don’t think anyone wants to go to the effort to make a vid showing this but if anyone feels so passionate about it they feel moved to do so I’d say go for it.

I don’t need a vid. I’ve done the fight with both condi zerk and condi engi. Even if you time everything perfectly, you’re still not going to be able to pull off a perfect rotation on engi and you’re a lot more likely to on war.

harold.3526:

NikeEU.7690:

Condi engineer is so much worse at VG than condi berserker it’s not remotely close. Condi berserker has slightly less CC so the players in the ranged group have to be much more on their game, but the DPS gain is nearly double.

Engineer has more DPS on first, second, and fourth phase.

lightning has 8 seconds cooldown and 8 seconds lit till explode, napalm has 30 seconds cooldown, firebomb 10, blowtorch 15

So if you stay ALL 8 seconds with the lightning up in range, you will still be able to use all those skills most of time on cooldown.

VG on third phase moves once every 20 seconds, and once every 15 seconds on fifth phase, so its still not a problem.

Berserker is good on big HitBoxes, not on small ones.

Sorry, just not buying it. Even in phase 1, you can keep up a perfect rotation more on a warrior since you need less melee time than an engi.

On phase 2 and 4, you can easily land scorched earths with the connections between fields on top of the guardian for double burn ticks since he’s so stationary.

Hunter.4783:

Silverkey.2078:

Hi all

I did have some fun trying to compute a value of the sustain for a few new meta builds:

• chronobunker (before and after the last patch) (http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Chronomancer_-_Alacrity_Bunker)
• condi rev (http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Herald_-_Condition_Mallyx)

and for comparison, old meta builds:

• power warrior (http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Warrior_-_GS/Hammer)
• bunker guardian (http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Bunker)

The sustain index 1 that I am computing is supposed to represent the amount of sustained damage the enemy team has to put up to overcome the sustained healing of the build. The sustained index 2 is trying to take into account armor and protection+damage reduction, so it represents the amount of power damage you need (while index 1 is valid for condition damage). I excluded all skills which would prevent point capping (therefore mimicking the build trying to fight on point). I also assume that the enemy has not unblockable/unavoidable skills. This is a very gross estimate, based on value/cooldown and not on a rotation, but it does give an idea.
Formula:
sustain index 1 = healing per second / (1 – evade/block uptime)
sustain index 2 = sustain index 1 * damage mitigation * armor/2200

Chrono before patch (using sentinel amulet)
I computed with and without perma-alacrity. While perma-alacrity is not easy to maintain, it is not too hard to have close to perma.

• healing per second: 543 without alacrity, 815 with alacrity
• evade/block uptime (includes dodges): 55% without alacrity, 77% with alacrity
• sustain index 1: 1200 without alacrity, 3564 with alacrity
• sustain index 2: 2461 without, 7311 with

Chrono after patch

• evade/block uptime (includes dodges): 43% without alacrity, 58% with alacrity
• sustain index 1: 947 without alacrity, 1923 with alacrity
• sustain index 2: 1944 without, 3947 with

I used sentinel amulet since this is the most often used one. However, this is not the one maximizing sustain. For the sake of comparison, chrono after patch with clerics has a sustain index 2 of 5474 with alacrity.

What we can notice immediately is how much alacrity adds to the sustain, by increasing the healing but mostly by increasing the invulnerability uptime. That is why I think the only thing left to nerf for chronobunker is their personal alacrity (either by tweaking the alacrity on shatter or the trait “improved alacrity”).

Condi rev

• healing per second: 764 (assuming no conditions when healing with mallyx heal)
• evade/block uptime (includes dodges): 71%
• sustain index 1: 2887
• sustain index 2: 4642

Now you immediately notice something interesting: condi rev has a higher sustain than bunker mesmer. And those condi rev values are without alacrity (since my scenario was defending a point solo). Also, condi rev cannot maintain his own perma-protection or perma-regen. This means that a condi rev supported by a mesmer will have an absolutely insane sustain, much higher than the mesmer himself. And it does this on a glass-cannon amulet.

For comparison, here are old meta builds:

Power warrior

• healing per second: 479 (optimistic, I assumed always 2 adrenaline bars)
• evade/block uptime (includes dodges): 28%
• sustain index 1: 668
• sustain index 2: 694

this is how you would expect offensive builds to work: they do high damage but die fast. Not a surprise that this build is not meta anymore. You would get higher values with the axe-shield variant, but probably not amazingly different.

Bunker guard

• healing per second: 1566 (this was really tough to compute since there are many sources of healing, I would not be surprised if I did a few mistakes)
• evade/block uptime (includes dodges): 24%
• sustain index 1: 2068
• sustain index 2: 3415

What should be the reference of bunker builds. As you see, chronobunker is still a bit above, mostly because of alacrity. Note however, that before asking for chronobunker to be nerfed, the overall power creep should be reduced too, since even bunker guard could not keep up with it.

So in conclusion:

• chronobunker has been nerfed significantly with the last patch, but still has a higher sustain than bunker guard, mostly thanks to the very high alacrity uptime
• condi rev still has the most ridiculous sustain. This kind of sustain should not be possible for a offensive build.
• power rev is even worse (higher invulnerability uptime), and is only “weaker” thanks to the amount of conditions in the current meta.

note: I did not include all details of the calculations because they are a lot of numbers. I do not claim my numbers are perfect, but I sincerely did my best.

Extremely flawed argument. Especially when it comes to asking for nerfs. You have to account for skills. And class mechanics.

You can’t just craft a sustain value and base balance on that.

Also reapers and chrono didn’t exist during bunker guardian Era. Neither did the current spike damage

Rev was op due to resistance spam. Not the sustain. And I like how you kept auramancers out of your calculator

Well, he’s not calling for nerfs solely based on the sustain values (see his point about the overall power creep) and I don’t think anyone here says that you should. However, modelling of sustain like this is very helpful, even if it’s not perfect.

@ OP: Great post. Thanks for sharing and doing the maths.

1) Conceptualizing players as “good” or “bad” is not only overly simplistic, but also doesn’t do much to help you improve aside from either inflating or deflating your own worth (depending on which bucket you put yourself in).

2) It’s possible that you’ve reached the rank that best represents your current abilities.

3) It’s natural to perceive your team as usually being worse than the enemy team due to psychological bias. Don’t focus on this. Work with your team as well as you can and don’t let it bother you when teammates make bad decisions. Help them if you can, but don’t get caught arguing with them if they refuse to take your advice or get defensive. If someone rotates badly, just adjust your personal strategy as best as possible.

4) Some people abuse the MMR, but that’s not an excuse for your current position.

5) If you can, record some of your games and then go back and watch them to see what goes wrong and why.

Tl;dr – Focus on what you can do and not what someone else should have done. If your current approach isn’t working, try something else. Pips will come when you focus on being a better player and don’t get distracted by focusing on your pips or the shortcomings of your team.

Orcinus Orca.8627:

Dahkeus.8243:

Cheapest depends on what gear you have already. What are you running?

Basically a wild mix of Berserker’s and Knight’s exotics with a few Carrion pieces mixed in. I’d really love to try out a (pure) condition berserker but I don’t know if it will be worth the investment. I love my swords and since a lot of the mobs seem to move a lot it’s very frustrating to need to reposition while Hundred Blades is active.

Without radically changing your gear, a power build is probably your best option. If you do dungeons/fractals/raids, you can focus on berserker gear and run a Phalanx Strength build (see MetaBattle.com).

For open world, GS can be a bit of a pain in the kitten , especially in HoT open world. I honestly haven’t done a ton of open HoT content with my war, but if you run a power build, an axe mainhand may be a solid option since it’s higher dps than sword and it’s easier to keep up dps than with hundred blades.

I did find that longbow condi was pretty easy for open world HoT, but the good condi gear isn’t cheap or easy to come by. Trinkets require you to complete a lot of living story content (Sinister Stats) and the ideal armor/weapons are Viper’s, which can only be crafted and will require some farming of AB for lumps of aurillium. However, you could probably put together a budget set of rabid gear for cheap if you really wanted…

Overlooked this build, but just realized that I ended up on a very similar build for what I run in Stronghold:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fgw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FvJAQNAR3enMdAlhgdhAWhAElilqATpH04iBILuGQA490maftA-TpBFABCcBAYf%2FhFOIAJcEAqqMAAPAAA

Main differences:
– Balanced Stance for Sig of Might. I’d say that Might is better than Balanced for conquest, but on demand stability is really clutch for SH.
– Dogged March over Shield Master Really depends on the matchup. If against reapers, Dogged is awesome, but otherwise Shield Master rocks.
– Heightened Focus over Burst Mastery – I find quickness HB more useful than 7% on bursts and the adrenal return from bursts seems to be unnecessary.
– Smash Brawler over Savage Instinct – Both are solid traits, but I prefer the lower cd zerk mode.
– Bloody Roar over Eternal Champion – Again, both solid traits, but I’m not a fan of having stability tied to my zerk cd and I like the taunt.

Gear
– Durability Runes over Hoelbrak – Durability runes are still op and there’s just not enough might in this build to justify Hoelbrak imo.
– Berserker Amulet over Marauder – Berserker rune may be a terrible option for most builds/classes, but with warrior’s high base hp pool and Durability runes being OP for defense, the Berserker amulet actually seems to work here.

Either way, not very big differences. And GS + Axe/Sh does seem to be pretty amazing at pushing out eye-watering cleave dps, particularly with how well the primal burst skills work together.

Tl;dr – Nice build.

Raizen.7981:

Dahkeus.8243:

Raizen.7981:

Except that Revenant has permanent +33% swiftness, and with the might stacking and other facets it will kill any mob in 2 auto attacks. Revenant is by far the easiest class to complete world with. I play both classes, the only regret I have for maining warrior over rev is that the warrior is so freakin slow. Warrior is the 2nd slowest after guard. It is the only one that gains move speed in relation with the weapons they wield.
Reve- swiftness regardless of weapon
chrono- speed regardless of weapon
necro/ranger/ele- permanent signets
daredevil- signet along permanent swiftness by spamming dodge
engi- mecha legs- permanent
guardian- 404
warrior- i gotta be in meele to have access to the 25% speed thing. I play a condi war, meaning my weapon is a longbow. It’s not hard to switch to sword/torch but what’s the point of having a legendary longbow when I’m always using meele weapons to get around. I wish they’d fix this

Every class has permanent swiftness with the right setup. Movement speed skills are what make warriors so much faster than revenants.

If you think warrior is slow, you A) haven’t fully read this thread and don’t understand this profession well.

I fully read this thread, but I wasn’t talking about a “right setup”. I’m talking about your natural class, using the stuff you use for combat, dungeons,fractals and gear like this. And in that case, my point is 100% valid

Yea, you don’t need to change any gear for 100% swiftness. If you’re a PS zerker warrior, you don’t need to change anything meaningful to get the full mobility that completely outclasses a revenant:
– Swap Axe/Mace for Sw/Wh (you don’t need Axe/Mace for open world)
– Swap Headbutt for Sig of Rage or just swap a banner for Balanced Stance (banners are next to useless in open world)

And tadaa! More mobility than a revenant!

Hell, even if you don’t use anything beyond warhorn for swiftness, you’ll still outpace a revenant due to the movement of GS + Sw skills.

NikeEU.7690:

Condi engineer is so much worse at VG than condi berserker it’s not remotely close. Condi berserker has slightly less CC so the players in the ranged group have to be much more on their game, but the DPS gain is nearly double.

Agreed with this. I’ve done the fight on lightning circle duty as both condi zerk and engineer and zerk is not only leagues easier, but also keeps up the optimal rotation a lot more since you don’t rely on melee as much.

Also, I found that people tend to overestimate how much cc is needed for seekers since everyone loves to go and stand in the circle asap. Not only is this a bad habit to get into once you get to the last phase (since this teleports become a threat to the circle group at that point), but it also leads to people face-tanking seekers when they’re on a circle instead of just waiting for the last minute to step on the circle so that they take less damage.

Preeeetty sure that you can’t reflect those. That sounds like something that would be in every boss guide if it was true, but I’ve never heard of that.

Of course, I never tried…

I tried several builds and while I liked several of the dps-focused zerk builds similar to above, I ended up ditching rifle. It’s a great weapon for landing some well timed burst at range, but I found adrenaline building really low at range with a single-target weapon like rifle and it also comes at the expense of mobility since you’ll want Crack Shot over Warrior’s Sprint.

So, instead, I went with GS/Axe+Shield. I found this to work really well since the Axe primal burst skill in zerk mode is very similar to the rifle burst, but you gain a big boost in cleave damage. Also, this combos very well with GS since you can chain both primal burst skills together very easily. The other big advantage was that the non-burst skills on axe/shield are a lot more useful than the rifle skills.

As much as I also loved being able to land burst through blocks, I found that having the ability to wade through big damage to cleave NPCs (Endure Pain) and have stability on demand for stomps/channels (Balanced Stance) was more helpful in Stronghold.

Ultimately, as great as unblockable gunflames are, I think they’re just better suited for Conquest.

For runes, I went with Durability just because they’re just so good and balance out the glassiness of zerk amulet well.

One decision I’m still on the fence about is the Defense line vs the Strength line. The big reason I went for Defense was for Dogged March. There’s a lot of reapers in Stronghold at the moment and Dogged March is a really great tool to counter chill. Cleansing Ire is also still a pretty good trait for handling condis. However, the Strength line is still a great source of damage, even if the major traits are relatively useless.

I still found that my dps was strong enough with the defense line, but on matches where there’s no reaper on the other team, I may swap to Strength in the future.

Anyways, here’s the build link:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAR3enMdAlhgdhAWhAElilqATpH04iBILuGQA4d0maftA-TpBFABCcBAYf/hFOIAJcEAqqMAAPAAA

Cheapest depends on what gear you have already. What are you running?

Raizen.7981:

Except that Revenant has permanent +33% swiftness, and with the might stacking and other facets it will kill any mob in 2 auto attacks. Revenant is by far the easiest class to complete world with. I play both classes, the only regret I have for maining warrior over rev is that the warrior is so freakin slow. Warrior is the 2nd slowest after guard. It is the only one that gains move speed in relation with the weapons they wield.
Reve- swiftness regardless of weapon
chrono- speed regardless of weapon
necro/ranger/ele- permanent signets
daredevil- signet along permanent swiftness by spamming dodge
engi- mecha legs- permanent
guardian- 404
warrior- i gotta be in meele to have access to the 25% speed thing. I play a condi war, meaning my weapon is a longbow. It’s not hard to switch to sword/torch but what’s the point of having a legendary longbow when I’m always using meele weapons to get around. I wish they’d fix this

Every class has permanent swiftness with the right setup. Movement speed skills are what make warriors so much faster than revenants.

If you think warrior is slow, you A) haven’t fully read this thread and don’t understand this profession well.

Dulfy.

Dulfy.net (’nuff said)

Yes, that’s her character name (not sure of account name) and she plays on Tarnished Coast.

I can’t think of anyone who’s done more for this community. WoodenPotatoes would be a second choice.

Doh, you’re right. That was just a vid of the kill. However, I’m pretty sure it’s used very similarly to a normal chronomancer in a raid. DnT has a pretty good written guide: http://www.dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewthread/25108491-dnt-dps-mesmer-build-for-raids

@UnratedX: Thanks. I’ll update my links.

Edit I forgot to mention, but last I checked, Berserker runes were bugged so that they didn’t give their 6 set bonus, which makes 5x Nightmare + Black Diamond.

So, if you decide to go Chrono tank, there’s a pretty good guide that should help if you decide to go that direction:

Build – http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJAsencfC9ph1fC+fCUrhloj6MACsBrePL0DF9w2gFD-TBCBQBRSJI+0D0FleIU9HAcCAwoyg+t/QAeAAkCwrZWA-e
Video Guide – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2CxDFLLLV0

Of course, commander stats is one of the new stats to the game and I’m guessing it’s not cheap, so there’s that to consider.

As for deciding on a class, here’s my 2 copper on which classes can do this well and why:

Chrono Tank – Chronomancers tend to have low personal dps anyways, so having the chrono in your group go tank is generally the lowest hit to dps for your group overall. Also, this makes it a bit easier for the chrono to know where to drop wells.

Rabid Scrapper Tank – Since condi builds don’t rely on power, it’s not a huge dps hit to have a condi scrapper use rabid gear over viper/sinister. The scrapper can also easily land slick shoes for breakbars as a tank when needed. Another advantage is that the scrapper line gives some strong damage mitigation and rez utility. See below for build and video guide:
Build – http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqalUUhSsYfWwWLQ7FLsFFdwP8JP4HWiBwXFmhHAA-TxhHABFp87l9HIU9HAOBAnpHo2HAAUKBJFAMLrA-e
Video Guide – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNTPZ_Rfhk0

Dragonhunter Tank – The biggest benefit of a dragonhunter tank is the 100% prot for melee that comes from the hammer autoattack. This makes it a lot easier for the melee group to stay alive and makes the role of healing all around a lot easier. “Feel My Wrath” is also a helpful source of quickness if you don’t have a mesmer or are on a highly mobile fight, such as VG.
Build – http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS5ensABddilCBGCBEEhl4BrKA8AqXY9g/zWQe/1/WgA-ThRBABlp8rRlgjq+zW7P8wFBAgnAApAGVqF-e
Video Guide – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQN9RvCjeoI

Druid Tank – The biggest advantage to a druid tank is combining your tank and healer to one person so that you can maximize dps. However, this can be pretty rough and is probably the most difficult to pull off.

Other professions can tank too, but these are probably what I would consider as the top options.

edit I didn’t mention reaper, but they can be solid too for many of the same reasons as rabid engi.

So, Stronghold is an interesting PvP mode and it seems that a different meta is emerging there. However, since this isn’t really hitting tournaments, there’s not a ton of visibility in what people are running there. Because of this, I’m curious as to what warriors are running in Stronghold. If you’re willing to share, please post:

1) Your PvP League Rank (yea, it’s pretty arbitrary due to imbalance, but w/e) or some other background on your PvP experience
2) A link to your build
3) Why you like this build for Stronghold

I would LOVE this! This is my favorite jumping puzzle in the game and I think the PvP community could breathe some life into this.

Ok, if you continue to get grumpy with me not taking everything you say at face value, there’s not much to continue here in the way of a discussion. I acknowledged and commented on every point you made, so there was no parsing of your post to a single point.

- You’re claiming that the raid bosses have less toughness, but there’s no measure of how much of a difference this makes in dps just as there’s no measure of what exactly the boss toughness is.

- Already replied the same point you just re-itereated about Gorse.

- Yes, it’s possible that power is being underestimated, but there’s just not much proof of that out there right now aside from your anecdotal experiences.

- Quickness also helps condi. There’s no icd on shrapnel or sharpshooter, so more AAs also means more condis.

- Even if power dps does even dps with condi, it’s a hell of a lot easier to find a group as condi since groups have limited options for good condi dps, whereas it’s easy to find power dps.

Xyonon.3987:

I don’t want to destroy you here…

Really? This is a forum post, not a rap battle. Stick to the facts and leave the cool internet guy act behind.