Guild Wars 2

People usually do, and for good reason. Longbow is a tactical weapon that can be utilized to strong potentials in combination with other weaponry which is really effective in PvP, but you don’t need that ‘smart’ style in PvE at all. You just want to blaze through content faster, and a Bow doesn’t help do that at all.

Having healing (Cleric) gives you 40% more recharge from Rejuvenation, however you are sacrificing Precision (and thus damage) and everything that relates to Precision, including Bleeding (with 10% damage) and Vulnerability (1% damage per stack). With Toughness (Knight) you can have 96% critical chance and use life stealing food as a core mechanic to bridge the 40% healing ‘reduction’ quite easily, while being really tough and doing very good damage.

I have ran Cleric and Jalis, and neither is really worth it (in PvE).

There is no point. Healing Power is a worthless stat. You’re better off with self preservation using Knights and life steel food so you are both support and offensive (Shout/Banner preferred). Get some ideas here https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Build-High-damage-team-focused-dungeon-PvE/first#post1099679 if you want to do a PvE build.

Ryosukii.5472:

Hey guys, I read through the entire guide as well as the discussion that follows and the one question I have that wasn’t clearly answered is what jewelry should you go for? If you went Zerkers armor should you go knights jewelry and vice versa? Or should you keep stacking the same, zerker/zerker knights/knights? Just trying to look for the most survivable build while still dealing the massive damage warriors are known for Thanks in advance! (I’ve been using a sword/warhorn bleeds build, and while effective, it doesn’t have the high damage output needed for fotm) ^^

I run Knight for everything and I usually play together with another warrior whom is using Berserker for everything. You can make your choice and even add pieces of the other set to get the amount of damage/survivability you are comfortable with. Look at the following thread for the priorities of swapping pieces to get the maximum of both worlds when you do go down that route: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/12dmi5/tip_stat_optimization_with_crit_damage/. Personally, I’m usually the main ‘tank’ so I prefer full toughness because I get hit quite brutally and Knights helps me survive.

All melee weapons are designed that way. They do more damage, especially with proper traits. You can do the same kiting with a melee weapon because your range is almost always larger than the target. I’m not saying rifle sucks, on the contrary, it is a great weapon. But again, melee is always stronger (on every class).

Range is far inferior to melee in damage comparison, no matter how you attempt to twist or turn it. For most dungeons, tough, it usually won’t be a problem, but if you get on higher level fractals you will even be booted for running rifle/longbow.

Healing banners and shout healing are ways to contribute towards team survivability, but you cannot carry it alone. Both Guardians and Elementalists can have a build that has a much better survivability for themselves and their allies, with an equal damage output. Warriors are a lot of fun and are welcomed in most parties (up to a rather high level fractal), but our defensive brothers, the Guardians, have the Protection boon and a variety of situational shields that change everything. I mentioned Elementalists because an auramancer is capable of keeping up Protection 100% of the time (which equals -33% damage) and that alone saves more than we can. They can also heal. Quite well.

Well, unless you are going for level 40+ FOTM the Warrior is a fun choice. If you want to do more serious PvP, pick Elementalist or Guardian and if you want to run high level FOTM, go Guardian. Yes, we warriors contribute, but Guardians take the throne in everything we can accomplish (Damage, Survivability, Support, …). They are nowhere near half as fun though!

Note; I run Warrior main (Knight 25/15/30). Part of me dies promoting Guardians..

Zelotes.1570:

Question for OP: If using GS as primary weapon, would axe/mace be a viable secondary (as opposed to axe/shield), all other things the same?

Since the primary weapon is also an axe, sure! Depending on circumstances, it might be a better idea to use a shield with the Missile Deflection trait to bounce back projectiles and do amazing damage. Otherwise a mace is also a good choice.

theamato.8756:

Snip

Needing to go 20 deep into Strength means you really do lose a lot of precision when compared to Arms, sacrificing a lot of survivability for that. The reduction is 12% critical chance for the trait change alone. I’m guessing that 25/15/30 would still work, because I’d like to weave Adrenal Health and 30 Defense for shouts/banners into that. I’m currently buying the required weaponry to give this a whirl, thanks for the insights.

I’m loving the discussions. It shows that different people have different preferences and different configurations work for their preferred playing style. There are some things to consider when switching to a different primary weapon:

Traits: Using an axe as your primary weapon would cause your Arms trait line to have to be redistributed. Forceful Greatsword and all the critical chance you get from the Arms line, including 10% additional damage, would have to be sacrificed for investments into the Power line to make it all worth while. This, however, reduces your total critical chance and thus your survivability. I’d like to see a mash up on an effective re-trait for Axe and critical life steal and give it a whirl before I conclude it is not so great. On paper, it doesn’t look that good.

Whirlwind Attack: The most amazing attack that effectively is a dodge when using it. The cooldown pretty much is a permanent vigor on you, since you can squeeze an additional dodge at any give time you require it. While doing damage. This simply cannot be underestimated, even if a different weapon might actually do more damage, you cannot give up Adrenal Health for its burst skills and having one less dodge can make a situation unbearable.

Keep up the discussion, I love reading about different playstyles people came up with

- AOE healing is limited to 5 people, making healing in large-scale WvW useless.
- AOE healing uses shouts, you only have one low-cooldown one. Fear Me is long CD.
- Hammer CC is dependent on Adrenaline, where is Embrace The Pain?
- Dolyak ticks at 30hp/second, which is negligible in PVP.
- Why use a banner trait when you don’t even use a decent banner?

Would you mind defining “high level”? Which level is “high level”?

To accommodate the discussion, the Greatsword is indeed used for auto attack damage and hundred blades, but the most important reason is Whirlwind Attack, which allows you to evade for the duration of the attack while dealing damage. Hundred blades itself is not, to quote, ‘almost impossible’ to land at all, not in dungeons (including high level FOTM) at least. It is ‘almost impossible’ in player-versus-player, that I do agree on, but the AI controlling the monsters is extremely bad and extremely predictable.

Wielding an axe in the main hand is one of the situational weapons I described, and has good utilities. The damage comes close to auto attacking with the Greatsword, but you’re not doing just that. The vulnerability of an Axe leaves to be desired as the sheer speed of the Greatsword, combined with auto-attack effects, and the appropriate traits stacks vulnerability at a much higher pace. The cripple attack of the Greatsword is an area with a forward straight line allowing you to cripple entire groups with a little positioning. The knockdown of the mace is nice, but is short with a long cooldown, it doesn’t even come close to being anywhere near constant.

The longbow is indeed a burst finisher, but so is any random banner. Pick it up, smash it into an area and activate the effects you love. Besides that, it does pitful damage when compared to the same-cooldown Volley of the rifle. Yes, it is an area, but so is your Greatsword. The other utilities of the longbow include a nice point-black fire attack, but which (sadly) does almost nothing at range. Its blind is nice but is once per 15 seconds, which is not anywhere near enough as the sheer pressure you can apply with a rifle. I probably don’t need to point out that the immobilize is short, doesn’t often work and has a long cooldown. I much prefer the aesthetics of the longbow, but for a Power/Precision build, it’s nothing more than a toy weapon.

I know you didn’t mention this, but there is something to be said for a Mace on the main-hand for blocking purposes. It’s actually quite nice with a good cooldown, but the attack speed is just pitiful. Remember that this build synergizes a lot with hitting critical hits to recharge and tank even the most harsh punishment.

I run Knight and switch between Banner/Shout/Hybrid as per:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Build-High-damage-team-focused-dungeon-PvE

Might give you some ideas.

@OP: To level, put 10 points into Arms for +40 Precision for each unused signet. Use only signets, never touch them, and into your late 50’s you’ll have 100% critical chance. Use a food to steal life on critical hit to avoid death in the most insane situations. Have fun.

Build: High-damage & team-focused dungeon/PvE:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Build-High-damage-team-focused-dungeon-PvE/first#post1099679

Defense (15): The reason we invest in defense is Adrenal Health, which requires 15 points into this trait line. It will provide a great amount of health regeneration and boost your survivability. It also provides some additional toughness, which is never a bad thing. The trait choice is yours, you could pick Missile Reflection when using a shield or Turtle’s Defense for additional toughness when crippled. This choice ultimately does not really matter and is highly situational.

Tactics (30): The tactics line is the bread and butter of this build. Two of the three available traits are required to create the configurations that are listed below, so you have one (Master) trait available to choose. I recommend using Empower Allies unless another warrior has it enabled, at which point you could use Empowered for additional damage.

Configuration
Your healing slot should be used for Healing Signet at all times for the added passive health regeneration it adds. You should aim to never activate this skill at all, since it removes the passive health regeneration, but it could potentially save your life at times to use it wisely. Your elite skill should always be Battle Standard to revive fallen allies. A lot of players would want to use Signet of Rage, however we can already achieve permanent Might/Fury so it would be a waste.

Banner Warrior: A banner warrior uses the Inspiring Banners and Inspiring Battle Standard traits to have permanent regeneration boons on you and your allies. You can choose this configuration when your party members have limited regeneration capabilities. Use the For Great Justice shout for Might/Fury and a single condition remove, while using Shake It Off to remove two conditions and break out of stun. The third utility skill should be Banner of Discipline for the permanent regeneration boon, critical rate and critical damage. You and your party members can pick up the banner to cast Fury to achieve permanent Fury. In some situations, you could swap Shake It Off for another banner to cover a larger area with regeneration. This is sometimes necessary when kiting a boss.

Shout Warrior: The shout warrior uses Lung Capacity and Vigorous Shouting. You can choose this configuration when your party members provide enough regeneration boons (when there is a Banner Warrior, for example). Use the three shouts, For Great Justice (for Might/Fury and a single condition remove), Shake It Off (removes two conditions and breaks out of stun) and On My Mark (Vulnerability). Note that each shout now has a reduced cooldown and will heal your entire party when used.

Banner/Shout Hybrid: This configuration actually combines the benefits of both previously listed builds, but requires you to pause and cast regeneration manually. This is only recommended when you wish to take a more active support role and when there is no good source of regeneration already. Uses Lung Capacity and Vigorous Shouting for healing when shouting and Inspiring Banners to reduce banner cooldown. Use For Great Justice (for Might/Fury and a single condition remove), Shake It Off (removes two conditions and breaks out of stun) and Banner of Tactics. Pick up the banner each 10 seconds to cast regeneration for you and your team, or, have other party members use it as well to give you more time to damage.

Conclusion
You now know how to pick equipment, traits and utilities that synergizes with your current dungeon and party configuration allowing you to having regeneration, healing signet, adrenal health, steal life and shouting for massive survivability. Before jumping into a dungeon, check your party capabilities and pick a configuration accordingly to maximize effectiveness. Please share this build along your warrior friends, even if they are not intending to use this exact build, this can be a good starting place to learn about utilities that are easy to learn and love, adding extreme effectiveness to your entire party. Thanks for reading!

This guide explains how to build a dungeon/PvE warrior with team-orientated support and high survivability using a Greatsword and situational off-hand weapon. You will be able to choose from a variety of configurations to match your warrior to your current party (without having to re-trait) and how to select equipment that best suits your playing style. Most experienced warriors will already have one of the equipment sets that I will recommend and I encourage these players to give this build a try.

Consumables
The consumable is actually a core component in survivability. The one that you will need to have is all times is a food that has a chance to steal life when you hit with a critical hit. This includes Omnomberry Pie (66% chance) which is relatively expensive, Mixed Berry Pie (50% chance) which is quite cheap and Blackberry Pie (40% chance) for which there is no excuse to have none.

Equipment
Now that we have established that critical rate is important for stealing life, we need to have equipment that includes Precision. We also know that we will be wielding the weapon that gives us the most mobility and damage, the Greatsword, which is a direct damage weapon. This means we need Power and Precision, leaving three viable equipment options.

Berserker: Berserker provides critical damage and is referred to as the glass cannon equipment set. It has the highest possible damage but leaves something to be desired in terms of survivability. This equipment set allows for fewer errors and I recommend using this set when you are more experienced in dungeon encounters.

Knight: Knight provides toughness and is recommend to players whom haven’t mastered dodging the hard hitting skills a boss throws at you in a dungeon. It has the highest possible damage reduction due to the added toughness and provides a greater survivability. The total damage output is about 15-20% less compared to using Berserker, but is recommended when you haven’t mastered dungeon encounters yet.

Explorer: Explorer provides magic find and is recommend to players wishing to be leeching parasites. Magic find improves the chance on higher grade loot, but has the downside of each previous mentioned equipment set; a lower survivability as Berserker has and a lower damage output as Knight has. I do not recommend using this set, but if you are insistent on using something with magic find, this is the one that you should be using.

Situational Weapons
Your primary weapon is a Greatsword and there is little reason to discuss this weapon again, but certain encounters call for different off-hand weapons. There are several weapons to choose from.

Axe/Shield: The reason to choose these weapons as your situational weapon is for the ability to block incoming attacks. Several dungeons have hard-hitting skills thrown at you that can be completely negated using the shield. This is especially true at higher level fractals when you do not have enough resistance. The reason why I paired an Axe is due to it being a good direct damage weapon but could be swapped for a Mace. A Sword is a poor choice because our Power/Precision does not work well for the Sword that uses Bleed as a form of attack.

Rifle: The rifle is a distance weapon that is perfect for attacking from a distance. The Longbow, the other distance weapon, is more orientated around area-of-attack and condition damage and does not work well with the Power/Precision combination we have. Certain encounters have an almost mandatory distance attack requirement and having one on you is absolutely required.

Hammer: I am listing the hammer because it is a fun weapon. It does not have the damage or speed as any of the other weapons but it has a lot of crowd control and smacking monsters around with a hammer is fun. This weapon is great when you’re dealing with easy content and you want a change of pace, but is not generally recommended as a serious weapon.

Sigil and Runes
To improve your critical change you want to use a Superior Sigil of Perception. The consumable improves survivability based on your critical chance, meaning that Perception is actually adding stacks of Precision which benefits your survivability. The runes you want are Superior Rune of the Soldier due to the condition remove it provides when shouting. You will always be having between one and three shouts, allowing you to deal with a lot of conditions.

Traits
Arms (25): The Arms trait line provides you with Precision. The Precise Strikes trait gives you 33% chance to cause bleeding on a critical hit and the Rendering Strikes gives you 33% chance to inflict vulnerability. Pick Forceful Greatsword which reduces cooldown of Greatsword abilities and gives you might each time you hit a critical hit. The reason we put in 25 points is because we will gain 10% power when the enemy is bleeding, which it is guaranteed to be due to your crazy critical chance.

It is mandatory to take 30 in Tactics and 20 in Defense (20% faster shouts, shouts heal, 20% cooldown from hammer). To maximize shouting, you probably want to run with 3 shout utilities at all times (For Great Justice, Shake It Off and On My Mark).

The remaining 20 points are up to your discretion, just try to avoid traits that give benefits based on adrenaline level. This is because of your strongest attack, Earthshaker, which uses your adrenaline. Having quicker adrenaline recharge is great, so Embrace The Pain and Inspiring Shouts are great.

I run Hammer/GS and use the GS for its superior mobility and damage. This is my build, http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/warrior#1|0|10|65|919|45|246|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|25|1895|1529|0|30|1518|1510|1056|15|1104|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0| and I am using Knight gear.

I have never seen a skilled Warrior going against a group of remotely skilled enemies and live to tell the tale. Warriors are snared, knocked backed, blinded, knocked down, kited and horribly destroyed with no real effort. Especially against a group. The only classes capable of such a feat are those with reliable condition removal, healing and superb mobility. Even a Warrior with 3x shout and Soldier Runes does not have enough condition removes, and would lack stun breakers.

If you want to do EVERYTHING, I just suggest to roll with Knight. It has power/precision for good effects from foods, traits and has good damage, and toughness to be a bit more sturdy. I use this armour for everything, but then again, PvP with a Warrior I rarely do because the current game does not allow for any effective Warrior PvP build.

DigitalMaster.4870:

Low health pool
Low condition removal
Low direct damage
Low AoEs

Low health pool; this is true, but teleportation and stealth negates a need for health.
Low condition removal; without stealth traits, this is true.
Low direct damage; no, because a good burst can even kill bunker guardians.
Low AoEs; some classes are superior, but the mediocre classes are not.

Bursting doesn’t require any skill, except for knowning about invulnerabilities and reflects (And no, this isn’t a backstab burst because those are actually quite tricky). That really isn’t much to learn and allows for easy obliterations of enemies. Even those ’I’m a godlike condition build thief’ or ‘Godlike Guardian’ builds are vulnerable to a burst. Defense isn’t effective against a thief, we have superior mobility, stealth and a general pain in the kitten I made a Thief for this reason, and guess what, I actually do great in PvP now. My skill didn’t change compared to my previous class, Warrior, but my effectivity sky-rocketed. THAT is why people complain (including me).

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Option-to-disable-skill-queue/first#post985606

Upscaling is a bunch of nonsense. You’re not even near 10% of the power of a level 80.

I run P/P glass cannon (Berserker/Ruby) using the following build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAqa4YlUmaPHdy5E95Ex2Dg+Te6fgs6MoJOB

I have enough power to take a camp with a Thieves Guild.

The statement that the thief is easiest to play is quite accurate. The mobility, stealth and general burst are insane and allow a non-skilled player to be extremely effective against skilled players. The entry level is low and the possibilities are endless, if you become really skilled you will be almost impossible to kill.

If you compare this to different classes, you could look at Warrior, Elementalist and Guardian. The Warrior has a very low entry level but does not have a high skill cap, meaning that an average and a skill player aren’t worlds apart. The Elementalist has a high entry level due to having to know all about other classes and their (possible) attack patterns, but the possibilities are endless. The Guardian is again formidable played by a non-skilled player using an appropriate build, but can be beaten easily by a thief geared towards duelling (Carrion condition build).

All in all, thief is easy to control and has a high skill cap. It grows with your own skill.

Using a hammer on off-hand works wonder to CC, switching to GS and doing burst just after that.

There are a lot of people in PUG that are downright idiotic and almost everyone is a glass cannon. If you have a tank (yourself, perhaps) it usually is smooth sailing from there on out.

I tend to use in a regeneration banner in my shout build and the most tedious is to find the banner, pick it up (with all the issues you mentioned), cast a slow animation, then slam it back or drop it. This all takes ~30% of the time because I have to do this every 10 seconds. I’m all for this change, great idea!

You’d jump from ~21k to ~29k with Vitality, allowing you to survive 38% longer. You probably want Knight for critical rate and traits/recharge on critical.

I did all PvE content with a main hand dagger and offhand pistol. This allows you to use the 3th skill to teleport to/blind a target, after which you can use the 5th skill for AoE blind and you can keep hitting the target while in the field. At the end of the field (3 second) use a heartseeker to deal high damage and go stealth to finish with a backstab if necessary. This weapon configuration makes content, except Dredge, extremely easy.

The Arms line is most important, followed by Strength. You want to use the Deep Strike and Forceful Greatsword whenever possible. Do use healing signet and a healing food to allow you to be AFK in groups attacking you. When you reach into the 60+ areas and monsters start to throw poison, go for 15 points in Defense to get Adrenal Health which pretty much negates all poison. This allows you to steam-roll through all PvE content (except dungeons) with no effort.

Human has the hilariously overpowered Hounds of Balthazar. Asura is better due to the animations being hard to see in PvP/Wv3, but the Hounds are madness. Until they are nerfed (I expect them to be), Human might be the better choice, but Asura might be the better long-term investment.

Arsenic.8259:

Roll a Warrior. Be tanky and have higher burst then a thief.

If you enjoy PvE, Warrior is great. Don’t try to PvP with it. Just to get this clear for the OP.

It’s the fist trait in Arms, which gives +40 precision for each unused signet. It’s insane at low level, and largely irrelevant at higher levels.

Pinch.4273:

No one can do perma AoE weakness / blind like a Thief. Those alone, combined with their high damage, make them quite useful in a group. On top of that, they have the best blast finisher (spammable), and bring some pretty good secondary utility, like smoke screen and shadow refuge ressing.

The problem is that finishers are largely irrelevant, they aren’t quite as good as ANet intended them to be. You can ignore them, no harm done, except for some special traits triggering off combination effects (i.e. Elementalist auras with boons for everyone). Similarly, you don’t really care about those other utilities because they aren’t as good as anyone might want to think. If you have a solid bunker to keep focus and tank, the other people can bring a single utility to the group; damage. The way the game currently stands, there is very little skill involved in any encounter. Learn a few dodges, have something that tanks and occasionally prevent healing. Nothing more is necessary.

A lot of damage? Not really compared to the other 3 god-classes, they are much more tank-style or they die in a simple burst. But because of that, they won’t die and dish out damage consistently over a long period of time, making them extremely formidable enemies.

Mufa.1326:

With those utilities I mentioned you will have access to stealth approximately every 11-12 seconds. So whenever opponent closes on you, stealth up, get some range, open with sneak attack and proceed to unload. While others have to spend initiative to enter stealth you can spend it on unloads. Also try to keep ini up for some blinding powder to mitigate dmg if all ur stealth entrees are down and the enemy closes in.

This is a very important piece of information to make P/P work for you. You should also remember that you have the most amazing, spammable interrupt in the entire game: Headshot. Learn to use it, learn to love it. Guardians are a pest when they heal, but you don’t have to let them (!)

Everyone realizes this at some point and re-roll to Guardian (Defense), Thief (Burst), Elementalist (Defense + Consistent Damage) or Mesmer (Defense + Burst). Those 4 classes are the god-classes and everyone on the 4 classes that are not realize this at some point, and re-roll. I choose thief to burst and get away when I did something stupid.

A thief in a dungeon is generally not being ‘useful’, regardless of their build. You just bring them for damage, much like you bring the typical warrior or elementalist for damage. Their build and utilities are most irrelevant, so long as they don’t constantly die and dish out a good portion of damage. In some situations, it is beneficial if the thief switches to particular utilities, such as poison on healing bosses. For the rest, upping precision and power with signets is a good thing. So long as they keep at least the stealth/heal skill on the healing slot, instead of the healing signet, they can get out of bad situations with that.

Rhaj.5261:

Take Aion for example. The PvP there has that fast paced action to it while gw2 you kinda just wait for your one damg skill to come off CD just to use it again, and then have your enemy heal. I was In a fight today in WvW 2 guardians, the fight lasted for literally 10min then we both gave up cause we have no way of dealing fast damg and keeping dps on each other.

You’re basically saying that Aion was fast paced, but neglect to recall the Cleric/Templar combination that dominated and survived the most insane damage that both Assassins and Rangers could dish out? Yeah, they were the Guardian/Guardian combination in the Aion universe. Similarly, the bunker builds we have in GW2 represent the duelist gladiator, tanking chanter, and so forth. Nothing about Aion was fast paced except fights between cannon-classes (i.e. Ranger and Assassin), and you know, that is exactly the same as Thief/Warrior cannons here. Almost every MMO I know has these options, and the real problem is that bunkers are far more effective at sPVP/tPVP, not the game pace itself.

I shoot Guardians down with 3 chains of Unload (with them atteming to heal).

What is wrong with Unload?

Esorono.1039:

Dodge while they are casting phantasms, they won’t summon at all.

Really? I have to learn how to do this. Thanks for the tip!

Delofakitten.4231:

The Phantasms DEFINITELY spawn and have about a quarter of a second of visibility before attacking, giving you just the right amount of time to dodge if you are watching the animation of the Mesmer holding his sword above his head and mouthing the words “THUNDER! THUNDER! THUNDERRRRCATS!!! HOOOOOO!!!!!!” (at least in my head) Oh hey a Berserker is about to appear. . . I should probably be ready to dodge. >.>

I suspect the same issues as un-stealthing thieves are at work here. On my mesmer (an awesome level 15), I see the them appear and attack almost immediately, however an enemy mesmer phantasm in pvp does not appear before having done its damage. Very frustrating. Besides, the animations aren’t very clear on some races, but I’ll try

Speaking from encountering mesmers in player-versus-player; The patch before the 14th the Mesmer became much less of a threat, which just broke the class mechanics, causing the initial fear for mesmers I had for the class to be less severe. With solid tactics against a good mesmer, you had a decent enough chance. But, now? At the slightest hint of encountering a mesmer, I turn around and run away as fast as I can. The damage became phenomenal, phantasm actually deal damage before properly appearing (no dodge possibilities) and the clones/hiding/teleportation is as annoying as ever. Usually having relied on dodging to counter the massive, massive (!) berserker damage, I now have no idea what to do anymore.

Would an experienced mesmer player please elaborate possible tactics against you tanky GS mesmers with berserkers?

Coltz.5617:

hm, so there is no way of making this work at all?

Honestly, for player-versus-player, I wouldn’t even try. You need to excel at something, not be mediocre at everything. If it’s not for that purpose, pick up the Deep Cuts trait at least and you can probably get away using a tankier build, i.e. Toughness/Power/x

That’s right. It is weird. The greatsword is indeed a power-based weapon, meaning that your equipment choice should have a focus towards increasing that statistic (power, and perhaps precision and critical damage too). The sword, tough, relies more on condition damage through it stacking bleeding on the enemies. Your equipment choice should have a focus towards condition damage (and perhaps some power too) to make this weapon more effective. Either way, if you focus on both, both are sub-par. If you focus on one, the other is sub-par. It’s best to choose a weapon set that compliments your primary choice (i.e. Longbow for condition with s/s, or axe/axe for power with gs).

Hi,

I would very much like the option to disable the skill queue to be implemented.

What I see as the skill queue is the system that ensures that the skill you pressed is used after your current skill animation finishes. This is almost never a problem on a profession with skill cooldown, but the thief uses initiative. When the skill is not responsive for whatever reason (latency for example), I press it again, often ending up in using the skill twice. This drains initiative and often screws your strategy (i.e. using Cloak and Dagger twice, unstealthing due to the second attack and being immune to stealth again).

I request an option that allows us to opt-out this behavior.

You can be amazing support, having a Vitality/Healing Power/Condition Damage build or a Toughness/Healing Power/Power build. Basically, you’d never die. But it doesn’t do as much damage, but you can still go glass cannon and focus a little on healing (through shouts or banners) while you put the rest into damage. If you play well with that, you do amazing damage and contribute towards the survivability of your designated tank.

These sigils are so-called “Permanent stat bonuses”-sigils which apply to the weapon they are placed on. Even if you have 2x+5% damage, that will NOT give you +10% damage. It will give +5% damage for each individual weapon. The only sigils in this category are Force, Accuracy and Night, and therefore, the answer is: No.

Spiders Spiders Spiders.8043:

Do you realize you are saying that I’m right?

No? You’re seeing initiative as a big hurdle to overcome while it really is not. What I’m describing is all on auto-attacking and stealth/backstab with the occasional cloak & dagger. Infiltrators Arrow burns initiative yeah, but that is an example, you can use Shadow Step, Steal or even your trusted sword if you’ve got one for a much lower cost of teleportation. Initiative is not an issue unless you want to 2222222.