Guild Wars 2

Thanks for the answer Frans!

This may be a really stupid question but my thief, which I’ve had since the time I started GW2, has a set of condition gear with all perplexity runes. From what I’ve seen though, most folks are running krait instead. Are perplexity runes just not all that much good anymore? If so, should I drop them for the krait runes? I still enjoy the thief but I’m not much good at it.

Galsia.4102:

FinalPatriot.8034:

Anyways, what do you all think?

You’ll make Necromancers look mobile.

Even with the traveler’s runes? I figured if necessary I can always take out the GS for getting around faster.

I saw a similar build to this listed from those folks at Addiktgaming though the version they were discussing was specifically for PvP. I played a few matches and found that is was really fun and the might stacking was pretty amazing. Unlike my D/D Ele, might stacking with this build was just a natural part of the combo’s and was really easy to get 20+ stacks. Because of that, I wanted to create a WvW version that didn’t completely kill the roaming aspect but still also had enough defense to survive a long fight. I am wondering though, what do you all think of the build below? I would test it myself but those traveler’s runes are pricey and I don’t want to dump more gold unless it looks like it’s really going to be effective.

LB+Eviscerate Warrior

Overview

This build uses the LB combined with the axe/shield combo’s to build massive amounts of might and constantly remove conditions. With the AoE aspect of the LB, removing conditions is fairly easy plus it makes for an easy way to get fire shields when you shield bash or eviscerate through it.

I also used all Soldier gear so that I would end up over 2.8K armor and not “feel” squishy like most dps builds. The theory is that if a thief or other high dps class/build tries to open up, you can just counter with endure pain and then go after them. The extra toughness/vitality should make that much easier.

Anyways, what do you all think?

Celestial D/D Ele I’ll post this build later but it’s not a clear “celestial” build. It does mix and match other armor items/weapons but overall, celestial is the base. With this build, I found it key to match-time the burning speed with lightning flash. A programmable mouse really helps!

Ok, because ya’ll made some interesting questions, I’ll see if I can answer them w/o causing even more questions in return…

THE BUILDS What I tried to do was take some of the more popular builds for each class and break them down into DPS and Conditions. From there, I used these builds in solo roaming, small groups, roaming blobs, and then point defense. Some of them just excelled in one situation more than others. Lemme get my list of the builds tested and then I’ll post them here later this evening. There were a few hybrid builds tested with the Warrior and the Mesmer which I can post as well. They didn’t really stand out enough to note them here but both were great for roaming or with small groups. They pretty much were below average in everything else.

S/W Mobility for Warriors It may not make much sense initially as to why I rated this higher in mobility than GS/Hammer or a similar build. Where the details came down was that a Warrior that uses the warhorn traits gives you a really strong reduction in the CD of that weapon. As such, you pretty much have constant swiftness. Combined with sword #2 and it’s speed, leap, speed… From point to point on a map, the combination of the sword/warhorn ended up be quicker than anything else. Warhorn #5 also was a nasty trick to use on folks trying to stop you.

Mesmer For the Mesmer I tested several variations of the shatter builds (FUN!) along with condition (perplexity) and the ever hated PU builds. I also tested one sword/torch + GS hybrid build that used mostly power gear with a few condi items. It was a bit strange but very strong in roaming. Overall, the shatter builds were a blast to play but like unto the D/D thief, there wasn’t too much room for mistakes. As for PU builds, I still think they are the king of dueling as you really get the ability to control the fight and wait for the target to make a mistake. Of all the PU based builds, my personal favorite was the S/T + GS. Yes, I didn’t much care for the staff even though it’s an amazing weapon. GS just has some amazing animation…

Sword Thieves In only tested sword thieves for about a month and got bored with it. Because of that, I didn’t think I should rate them..

Rating System As an example, the ratings for dueling were based upon the class/build I was playing and then notes on every duel I had. I made sure to duel just about everything under the sun so that way the specific results of each battle would begin to show a general average. The problem though was in some cases it was very much a case of rock, paper, scissors. What I did though was mark down the exact build of the target and then 1, try to counter/survive, and then 2, try to kill them as fast as possible. The idea was to see just how many ways each class was able to use some sort of skill to avoid damage or to just take down the other player. Obviously, some skills were not uses because, well, they just suck.

Hello everyone!

First, before I try to explain the chart listed below I should probably say since I came to GW2 from SWTOR, I have had a VERY difficult time trying to find the “one” class I will play. In every MMO I’ve played, my friends would joke with me how I never would really set much time aside for an alt. That being said, I have leveled several 80’s now and have been testing them based upon my own criteria. The chart will list the results of this research which compares a few of my favorite classes and various builds. Now, before we go any further, you should know the following about this chart and what was done to get these results…

6 Months – The results of this report are based upon 6 months of events on “general” conditions. All characters were given exotic armor/weapons and ascended everything else. Results were tracked on each encounter so that an overall “average” could be taken. There ARE extremes in each where one class would greatly excel but I really wanted to find a middle area that one could expect in “most” cases. The breakdown was not done below “DPS” or “Condi” as I rolled most of those builds into those two areas. The weapon sets listed are those I used most of the time though several other combinations were also tested. Yes, I did some really strange builds for a while!
Objective – The goal I had when I first started doing this was to find “my” class/build. While I’m still not sure I’ve done that it does at least give me an idea of what direction I should focus on. While I do list several areas that data was tracked, my personal concerns are dueling, 1vx, and escaping. Even though other classes listed better overall, my personal selection would be the thief. /sigh…

WvW Results Only – I made no real effort to balance these findings with PvE or PvP. While I did spend time in each, I don’t feel that I have yet to get enough information to make a report. My PvP level is only 38 so…
Results are Opinion – That’s right. I don’t claim and scientific research on anything you’ll see here. Everything in these findings is based upon my own experiences. Those that made the list are the classes/builds I found to be most fun to play. While I did play Rangers, Guards, and Necro’s as well as several other builds of the classes listed, I did not enjoy them enough to keep them going for this report.

Skill Requirements – This is very subjective but I put in an “average” score on how difficult it is to master each class/build combination. While I am NOT a master at anything other than perhaps sleeping, I do think I have a good idea as to the skill level needed. Skill level was subtracted from the total score.

Anyways, the results (overall highest score) are as follows (check the chart for the complete breakdown):

1 Warrior – Conditions, S/W + LB. This class/build scored the best in most cases. While it’s not my personal favorite, the class/build does provide a great deal in several areas making it a good, solid choice to pick. I’ll warn you though, it can get pretty boring at times but winning is also nice…

2 D/D Ele – Celestial Build. I would not have thought this when I first started by the celestial D/D Ele is amazing in so many ways. Yes, it takes some time to build up some good memory on those combo’s but it’s very rewarding. There is something just amazing about using burning speed to rip through a zerg followed by a few CC’s. Look at all those bags!!!

3 D/D Ele – Condition/Perplexity. Ok, there are some strong feelings about these runes so I won’t even go into that topic here. I’ll just say that this class/build was a HUGE surprise on how much fun it could be. 3K+ armor, 1700 condition damage, and a crap load of heals? Yeah, it’s nasty. Seriously, don’t laugh until you give it a try. You’d be surprise on how many people fall for this…

4 Thieves – While the P/D condition thief came in at a close 4th, all the thief builds were about equal in their effectiveness. They are probably the best in dueling and can escape from just about anything! The one area they lack (from my opinion) is their ability to support a zerg. Either case, they are a ton of fun to play even if 50% of everything you’ll see in WvW is a thief…

Anyways, check out the report to see the full details!

Folks, I have been toying around with my thief a good bit lately as I really just don’t enjoy the common P/D perplexity builds. I hate playing something that is so common and with all the anti condi builds these days, I wanted to try something a bit different. That being the case, the build below uses a similar play style as the condi P/D builds though it’s all power base with conditions as an added bonus. My concern with the build is the that since the armor is below 2800, I’m afraid that it will be too squishy. I also built this based upon the gear I currently have – the traveler’s runes.

What do you all think of this build and is it something that would be effective as a roaming build? Will there be enough survival traits?

Power P/D Roaming Thief

As someone who also plays a thief, the class is very easy to kill if you know how to play against them. If we make 1-2 mistakes, we lose. Expert thieves take tons of practice.

Nicely played!

The thing I learned about this build is that if you’re good, you pretty much become an unstoppable force of death and destruction. As there is little room for mistakes, the average player can get taken down rather quickly. You clearly have much more skill than me as I never was that impressive on my D/D thief.

Playing a condi/tank D/D Ele, I tend to find full zerker thieves to be much less of a threat. With 3K+ armor, 1700+ condi damage and a sload of regen, I typically take now most thieves w/o too much trouble. The more skilled players like you end up in a massive duel that lasts so long one of us ends up falling asleep at the keyboard.

Another great video there Ash. I’ve been playing your build now for a few days and I’ll admit that it has gotten me out some really rough situations that my normal DPS build probably wouldn’t have. Course, that could be due to my skill level as well. I’ll be honest in that I’m not completely convinced this is where I want to go yet as I don’t have the mats/time to build 2 sets of ascended gear. Either way, it’s been pretty fun though I think most people just don’t have a clue what to do with a condi D/D ele.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Finally started the editing for the final WvW tournament video. Hope to have it up either today or tomorrow.

Today… that’s an order!

I’ve been playing Armageddon’s build for a few days now and even though, at first, I tried it more out of a morbid curiosity, it’s quickly becoming my primary build. I’ve found that folks almost freak out when they see the confusion stacks and so they use their CD’s to remove them. Sad for them is that’s when I burn them with everything else I have and they don’t have much left they can do but die, or run.

I actually got jumped by a pretty impressive thief last night that though he was able to run away and disappear, I dropped him down to about 20% while he’d done little to me.

Celestina.2894:

It’s all or nothing, though back pieces are not hidden.

That sucks… Those pants would look amazing with my normal armor. Oh well…

Just wondering, can you wear just a few pieces of this with normal armor?

@Armageddon,

Ok, I tried out a build almost just like yours based upon how you do your play style and I must admit, I’m very disappointed with it. Honest, I went up against 5 people and I didn’t win! Your build sucks!

;)

Actually, it’s pretty darn fun. I used it tonight as a havoc build and it’s a blast!

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

http://youtu.be/CKbyKeO94Xk

Just one of my roaming videos. I think it works well, especially in a condition build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFEQJAoYlcMonhFOwvB8rNwHgRcEECGXACAPwirgUAA-T1yCABQoEEgDIAPqUgiGCuUa0iegJeAALv/gPqrklyspPRAkCAipRA-w

Thats my build.

I just watched the video and must say that it’s pretty impressive how quickly you took down that one thief. They tend to be my biggest problem for some reason. I may have to give this some thought as I have 6 perplexity runes in the bank.

This may be a stupid question as I’ve never seen an Ele running with perplexity runes but how exactly is this more effective than the traditional 0/0/2/6/6 build (see link below)? I ran perplexity on my Warrior for a time and though it was fun in dueling, I hated it for just about everything else. Does anyone have a video of this in action? The Ele is probably my favorite class though I get somewhat frustrated as it’s so much easier to get certain results with my Warrior or Mesmer. They both just aren’t much fun to play.

Thanks Cysetmatic! I love the D/D but it would be fun to try something different from time to time.

I have heard a great deal about this build in that it’s a ton of fun to play if you’re looking for a more “glassy” concept. By chance, do you all have a link to this build? I’ve seared over Google and keep coming up with multiple versions so I wasn’t sure what was the most current.

Thanks!

First, I don’t take credit for this idea but as I have changed it around quite a bit and found it to work well for me, I figured I would post this here. I should say that I tried to kill Liadri almost 70 times with my Ele, Thief and my Warrior and almost always ran out of time. With this build/rotation, she dies in about 30 seconds once you get to the second phase. It’s actually pretty darn easy.

Ok, here is the build – [Crit/Condi Rifle]

Unlike some builds for Liadri, I stuck with the S/S for this first phase as it’s easy to move around and it’s a great setup for phase 2. As soon as the second phase starts, I hit her with the sword #4 (torment) and then change over to the rifle. Some will argue that it’s good to keep torment on her the entire fight but I found it to not be necessary. The initial is just to set the stage.

After you change to rifle, hit her with rifle #4, pop your elite, and then rifle #3. That rapid shot with a 90+% crit chance will fill her full of bleeds, life drain, and a ton of crit damage. I found that after the initial combo her health was down over 30%. After that it’s just about 20 seconds of kiting her around and using rifle #4 and #3 until she melts. You’ll be surprised on how fast she goes down as you will be getting tons of crits, stacking loads of bleeds, and draining her life at the same time.

I hope this helps.

I’m just surprised though being as you can have one if you’re a Norn but not a Human? That doesn’t make much sense.

Anet, like the topic states, are there any plans to add ponytails to the hair options in the custom kits? You all have done a great job with all the faces and hairstyles so far but I think this is the one thing missing for the human females.

Thanks!

Well, after coming back to my favorite class in the game, here is a few shots of my Ele, Alexis “Lexi” Seranus:

Again, thanks for all the help folks!

I have been working this build a bit more with what ya’ll have said and I think I’ve come up a final product. It will require that I buy a new set of armor but it’s ok… I don’t like gold…

From what I have so far, the armor is pushing 2800+ so that should help a great deal. I should be able to get a celestial ring tomorrow after the daily.

[Lexi’s Build v4.2]

Gokil.2543:

Too much ferocity, too little precision. Precision adds more damage overall, until you have 1140 more precision than ferocity. I’d swap all of that valkyrie for knights, and half of that cavalier’s into celestial.

Furthermore, sigil of battle is very strong on ele, i advise you swap one sigil for a battle sigil.

If you’re going solo roaming, swap cleansing wave for regen on crit.

Ok, I see what you’re saying but getting celestial gear isn’t an easy task. I put on the build what I had readily available or what I could afford. Until I can get some, what would suggest?

If I change everything to knights, won’t I be taking a huge hit in my health?

Ok, based upon what ya’ll have suggested, I went back and made a few more changes which combines some of what ya’ll have said. Can you look at this build and let me know what you think?

[New Build w/Toughness]

Like, I should change all my trinkets to + toughness?

I should probably say here though a few things which I hope ya’ll understand why I’m trying to learn so much…

I created this character back when GW2 first came out, deleted her, and then quit the game. 8 months later I come back, level a Warrior, Thief, and a Mesmer. None of them have been that much fun even though I do VERY well on the Warrior and the Mesmer. They just bore me…

Anyways, I really want to be able to do well as an Ele because the class plays so much like how I think – completely erratic.

Folks, I just hit 80 the other night and already had my gear ready for when the time came. I think I have a decent understanding of the class and really loved playing it in PvP and leaving. However, when I jumped into roaming WvW today, I would pretty much just become an instant bag to D/D thieves and rangers. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong but it feels like I have no defenses and they are hitting me like a truck. Is my build wrong or something?

What I have linked below is what I actually have on right now.

Thanks!

[Current D/D Build

I’m hoping that you all can give me some advice as I’ll be hitting 80 tomorrow on my D/D Ele and I’m not sure what sort of guild I should pick while I’m working on ascended items. The build I’m running with is listed below and it takes several celestial items that I simply won’t be able to get right when I pop 80. Being as I can’t get those, what would you all suggest I go with if I’m building my Ele as more of roamer or small-team support in WvW?

Thanks!

[Roaming D/D Ele]

@ Warriorjrd,

Thanks for the comments. I agree that a Warrior can be pretty easy at times which is why I was really impressed when a Ranger completely made me look stupid the other day.

What kind of build(s) would you recommend for roaming? I have heard that the SB + whatever is fairly effective. Right now, my Ranger is only level 54 so I don’t have much of a clue.

What about the LB + GS power/crit builds? I saw a Ranger the other day completely wreck a thief before she had a chance to respond.

Ok, please understand that my question here is mainly due to comments I have received from others while trying to level a Ranger for WvW. I currently have a Thief, Warrior, and a Mesmer at 80 and haven’t yet found that class that just “feels” right. So, I figured I would give the Ranger a try since I didn’t much care for the Engi, Ele, or the Guard.

My question though comes from statements that people have made to me that Rangers are “easy bags” and that they are only good at being a zerg support. I had looked at a condi Ranger that uses S/T + A/D and loads of healing gear yet folks tell me that at best, the class remains secondary to every other class.

I typically don’t much give a crap about another person’s opinion about what I play and what I consider to be fun but after leveling 3 80’s, I’m somewhat hesitant to dedicate my time/gold to another toon. Can you all give me a better objective opinion on what I’ve been told?

I personally tend to spend most of my time roaming or with small groups. My goal is that should I get into a bad situation, it’s really important for me to be able to escape rather than just die. I have seen some LB Rangers that ate folks alive and camped areas of the Mist where they can use the LB skill to kick players off the bridges (looks like fun…).

Anyways, sorry for the long rant.

Nevhie, I love your Mesmer video’s!

Conditions are killing the fun? I don’t know, I think it’s pretty fun to kill people with conditions.

Thanks! I’m at 438 so that’s why I didn’t see it.

Folks, I’m currently looking for an updated WvW zerg build that is designed for max damage to as many targets as possible. I currently have a full set of zerker gear and was wondering, is the GS+LB the best option or should I go for something else? I tried the rifle and it was fun on those people who didn’t try to dodge but other than that, I wasn’t all that excited.

Any suggestions?

Ok, so I’m new to “advanced” crafting but I’m pretty darn close now to making my first ascended item and had no idea how to craft this item. Can you all provide a link which explains the process?

Thanks for this response Harley! I subscribed to your channel BTW. Your info really makes a ton of sense as I was so confused on how thieves were able to pull off some of those tricks that when I tried, I never got to work. I’m going to test this out some tonight and see how it goes.

Thanks again!

Hello folks!

Way back when, I leveled my thief with full conditions only to hit 80, jump into WvW and then jumped by about 5 people every time I came out of stealth. I swear, it felt like everyone just stopped and yelled, “LOOK , A THIEF! KILL HER!”

So… I quit playing my thief and rolled a warrior. /sigh…

Anyways, I’ve been watching several of these P/D Condi builds on YouTube and was amazing at how well they could survive and really just troll small havoc groups. It looks like a ton of fun but to be honest, I’ve not a clue how to play it. By chance, do any of you know a link to a site that has a decent guide on how to play a P/D thief?

Any help would be great!

Oh, and here is the build I was talking about : Pistol/Dagger + D/D or LB

Way back when, a friend talked me into playing a D/D Ele and for awhile, it was my favorite class in the game. After time though, it began to feel that my Ele really wasn’t all that effective in most situations and so, I hate to admit it, but I deleted her and then quit playing GW2. I should probably say that I almost never do PvE so my questions are strictly based upon WvW and PvP.

After recently coming back to the game, I have quickly grown bored of how simple my Warrior is and so I was wondering, is the D/D Ele worth playing again? I’m looking to play a class that is VERY quick paced, mobile and can dish out some nice AoE. I remember way back when that I used to rush into a zerg, drop a crap-ton of AoE and then run out again while laughing. Yeah, I would die about half the time but it was so much fun to troll those zergs.

The other goal I have is that I love solo roaming and being able to 1v1 or 1vX w/o getting completely destroyed. With that goal, being able to escape a bad situation is also really handy.

Thanks!

This is yet, another in my long history of theorycrafting…

I have been trying to modify my build slightly to increase overall conditions while not killing the ability to do direct damage. My hope was to put more pressure on the target and essentially, make my Mesmer more versatile as a roamer. With that being said, I changed out several zerker items and replaced them with rabid which greatly increased my condi damage but obviously, dropped my high-end crit damage.

Can you all take a look at this and tell me what you think?

Condition/Direct Damage Hybrid

Thanks!

Hmm… then another thought would be to use a SB and have the LB in the bag when doing zergs? I have seen several Rangers do some impressive damage against 1vX when using the SB.

The thing is, I LOVE my hybrid warrior but as much fun as she is in dueling and small groups, she’s not much of a threat when it comes to zerg Vs zerg. The ability of a Ranger to just eat someone alive from great distances just sounds like a ton of fun. I tried build a sniper with my warrior using the rifle and the LB and neither of them really had the effect I was hoping for.

I do like that comment about getting killed to a strong wind! lol, that’s great.

Hello folks!

Yes, I’m back again in my attempt to find out more about the Ranger class for the one I just created. I have been playing around with a “sniper” concept but also giving up options for survival and the ability to duel. Well, at least that’s the hope…

Anyways, can you all please look at this build and let me know how or where I an adjust it so it works well for long-range attacks in WvW but will also not completely suck in dueling?

Thanks!

WvW Sniper Ranger

Romo.3709:

Hahaha. I know exactly which piece of armor you’re referring to xD And I also wish I could get that separately, but for a price more reasonable at let’s say, 250gems?

LOL! Yup! It’s sad but I’m thinking of selling off all my saved crafting items to get the gems I need for those pants. They will just look perfect with the rest of the gear I’ve been collecting.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m really picky about what I buy. Since release, I have bought 2 armor sets and both of the glasses. Other than that, I will buy things from the services section but I can’t stomach paying $10 US for just a pair of pants so that I can look even more OP than people on another forum already accuse my class of.

The thing is, I just wanted these so I can walk around town singing, “I’m too sexy for my pants, to sexy for my pants….”

Is it wrong then that the reason why I made this post is because I want the pants from 1 set and the boots from another? I only play one character now so yea, I’m kinda strange.

To be fair, the only way it would work for selling individual items would be to make the cost proportional with the 800 set with perhaps, a slight 10-15% increase in the cost. Outside of this, I agree, there wouldn’t be a point.

Nick.6972:

If you’re a male, obviously females will look better to you than some ugly rat goblins, plants or cat cows.

“Rat goblins” I think I almost fell out of my chair laughing at that one!

Romo.3709:

And you sir are part of the problem.

I get that a lot. Perhaps I’ll change that to my quote in my signature block.

For the record though, it’s Ma’am…