Guild Wars 2

Weth’s trolls are just too good for some to handle.

It’s not better DPS in most dungeons though. It only exceeds zerk after 14 seconds or when you have to take defensives (toolkit/shield). Othwerise zerk wins over.

I’m curious what you run outside of glass that becomes more fun? I’m not in to telling people what they have to run, but I think there are logical reasons why glass is better assuming you can actively defend yourself(or your team).

Necrotize.2974:

If I understand correctly, the best rune setup would be 5 Nightmare runes and then 1 of something else(I’ve seen 1x Rune of Antitoxin or 1x Chrysocola Orb) since the full set nightmare rune bonus doesn’t actually boost your damage, just provides fear.

Depends. Are you using best food or not? Are you looking for burst or sustain?

NightmareX5 is 15% + 33% trait+36% food you’re sitting at 84%
NightmareX2 + TrapperX2 is 25% so you’re at 94%

With best food however the nightmareX5 jumps to 98% with the extra 14% from toxic crystal and koi cakes. So you’re already basically max.

Overall, Condi is fun, it’s a little different. However, the play style isn’t all that different from zerker. It’s still tying your fingers in knots as you kit swap and stack all your condi’s. Where on say Ranger the condi build plays quite a bit different than the power builds, it’s just not the same here. Only real notable difference is a little less mashing as you’re not focusing on flame blast and acid bomb, but you’re still swapping bomb kit every 8 or 10s, pistols every 15, and flame blast can still be nice for might production after every firebomb.

To add, Pros/Cons
Pros: Better sustained dps, better dps if you have to pull out some defensive tools (toolkit/shield), and it can be nice having bomb kit on the ready for blinds
Cons: Lower burst damage, Some missing utility/mobility, no built in stunbreak and lower structure damage.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

I don’t know. I didn’t test that. I was comparing Sword/Axe with Greatsword. Throwing in additional longbow swaps would’ve added another variable.

Ohh I know, just curious if it’s worthwhile is all.

Torolan.5816:

rotten.9753:

That’s not elitism but professions exclusion. Change the title to more appropriate.

???
How is that not elitism? That´s basically like ousting the middlefield players from a soccer club because they neither defend or are out to make goals, that being the respective jobs of defenders and attackers.

While I do think it’s a form of elitism that metaphor is pretty bad. There are roles on a soccer team including mid fielders. Necro and to a lesser extent Engi/Ranger just simply don’t perform any role needed in this game as well as the other professions. So in a sense the profession exclusion makes sense… but when we’re talking PUG groups it’s just downright stupid for various reasons.

If you had guys who were amazing at all elements of soccer but a whole team of them, you’d still slot some of them midfield to cover that role

Would you want to swap LB every 30s for the rapid fire → Barrage → Rapid Fire + like 2 autos?

Zenith.7301:

Quarktastic.1027:

Jerus.4350:

Again I find the off hand benefits to be more of a factor than the damage, Fury/might from warhorn and reflects from axe will benefit a group more than 11%+ damage.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. Ever since I dropped my longbow and picked up a sword, I’ve felt much more versatile in group scenarios. Having a reflect alone is a tremendous asset when dealing with those “meta pug” zerker groups that consist of nothing but warriors and eles. (I’m aware that warriors and eles do have reflects, but more often than not, they refuse to use them)

I really wish whirling defense worked with quick draw, but having a 5 second reflect on a 9 second cooldown does seem a bit extreme when you look at it objectively.

I don’t. For one, warhorn is obsolete with PSEA warrior and ele in a group. psea warrior makes any outside sources of might obsolete, and ele gives the group easy perma-fury.

Not every group runs with a PS war and/or Ele. Though yeah, warhorn isn’t all that great.

Adamantium.3682:

Jerus.4350:

Adamantium.3682:

I assumed that’s how it worked, but it does give you the Goggles buff right? I never saw that buff on my character in SW when I was trying it out earlier. I never recovered from a stun either, and I don’t even think there’s any blind in the SW to use it on.

Dust Storms blind, and the Leechers can fear if you don’t dodge out of the red circle, but outside of that nothing triggers it. Did you get hit by either of those and not get it?

When I first tested it I was questioning it’s value as well as I tested in SW, but knowing more about it now I see why I wasn’t noticing much effect.

If knockdown and knockback is not triggering the trait wouldn’t you consider that a bug? “Disabled” is a pretty consistent term throughout the rest of the game. If you look it up on the wiki (or Protection Injection) it should include every kind of CC there is.

Not saying it isn’t, just saying it does seem to work consistently, just not on knockdowns and such.

bladex.9502:

IrisTheCasual.3742:

Eh, no? I said “guild chat gets interesting” and my pug didn’t even start the path yet, why would I judge them? o.O

Best guild chat reads and puglife stories confirmed?

Nitpick and criticize anything posted in a fun thread confirmed?

IllegalChocolate.6938:

Jerus.4350:

Toolbox.9375:

Extremely useful advice, thank you all very much. We’ll hopefully be able to give it another shot in the near future, and will try some of those approaches. Prior to the difficulty level where we started having problems, the Engineer would distract the north side while the Mesmer and Guardian ran the hammer back and forth. X) That approach and variations on that approach were what we were trying, mostly, and it didn’t work out.

WHAT? No, hopefully you won’t ever have to give it a shot again! do it right and don’t kill both sides! hehe

There is nothing wrong with R&Ding worst case scenarios, things can happen and knowing how you can wiggle your way out of a tight situation is a recognized skill set.

I was just teasing

IrisTheCasual.3742:

Jerus.4350:

True, you’re right. Much better synopsis.

Btw, play with me again Iris! I promise I won’t bite as hard this time

Everytime I invite you, You’re always AFK in the Lalaland XD

It’s my kingdom, I have to deal with matters to keep the peace in the Unknown.

:D, to many to name in my drunken ramblings above! They all make me feel bad anyways!

Elistism is a people problem not anything else. It’s just like the guys who take PVP too seriously (not on a competitive level but the ones who feel the need to complain or gloat) or any such jerks.

Ranger/Engi are SOLID options, they aren’t optimal options, but they’re solid. Ranger has plenty of group support in offensive buffs including the unique Frost Spirit and Spotter. You also have some reflects to add to your team as well as some other possible options for different stuff. Not a bad profession.

Necro is a bit of a different story in that they are just so far behind in the damage category and group support/utility. They have some stuff, some unique and cool stuff, but overall they are just way behind. It’s unfortunate, but you can still do a fractal 50 with a bunch of noob necros in a decent time (did it not long ago, by noob necro I mean half the group had to ask how to set up their builds). So the idea of leaving them out is just people being tryhard idiots. But, again, that’s just something that comes with dealing with people.

Totally true, and I don’t mean to ignore or brush off a double digit difference. That said, I think it’s acceptable given that sword is a kittening pain in the kitten . Yes suboptimal, but still not necro level. Run GS and you’ll still be contributing and when you consider any personal loss is cut to roughly 20% (5 people in a group) well, it becomes pretty negligible. You’re still contributing a large amount, just not as much as you could. But assuming that everyone can handle that annoying sword auto is just as faulty as overlooking the damage loss.

Want to be the best ranger you can be, of course Sword, but want to just contribute to a group GS becomes acceptable and more than viable.

Again I find the off hand benefits to be more of a factor than the damage, Fury/might from warhorn and reflects from axe will benefit a group more than 11%+ damage.

Adamantium.3682:

I assumed that’s how it worked, but it does give you the Goggles buff right? I never saw that buff on my character in SW when I was trying it out earlier. I never recovered from a stun either, and I don’t even think there’s any blind in the SW to use it on.

Dust Storms blind, and the Leechers can fear if you don’t dodge out of the red circle, but outside of that nothing triggers it. Did you get hit by either of those and not get it?

When I first tested it I was questioning it’s value as well as I tested in SW, but knowing more about it now I see why I wasn’t noticing much effect.

True, you’re right. Much better synopsis.

Btw, play with me again Iris! I promise I won’t bite as hard this time

Toolbox.9375:

Extremely useful advice, thank you all very much. We’ll hopefully be able to give it another shot in the near future, and will try some of those approaches. Prior to the difficulty level where we started having problems, the Engineer would distract the north side while the Mesmer and Guardian ran the hammer back and forth. X) That approach and variations on that approach were what we were trying, mostly, and it didn’t work out.

WHAT? No, hopefully you won’t ever have to give it a shot again! do it right and don’t kill both sides! hehe

I’ll be happy to pass along your channel.

Quick shoutout, but I want to thank Brazil for spending the time he has, I wasn’t a big fan till I saw that Brazil vs Nemesis teatime. I think the tone you portrayed there is exactly what this community needs.

To get a little ranty. I think that our community often gets a bit extremist, we focus too much on optimal and ignore so many things. Not all players are Sesshi/Abe/Element/Purple Miku/Wethospu(do I have to list them all?) and well, we can’t play at that level (yes We, I’m not that great as anyone who has played with me will attest to, just apparently a good enough attitude to get invites back).

With that there are deviations and alternatives to what is optimal that simply fit most players better. I’ll take an example of my own failures, I simply can’t handle ranger sword very well, I find it cumbersome and annoying, so I’ve made it my mission to optimize my GS options (and now condi! love it). We don’t often discuss these suboptimal builds though, we focus on the best, do it or kitten off. Now I want to say that some (a lot) of the guide makers have taken the time to suggest alternatives and ways to take easier routes, but as a community we often shun them. Speed running is great, but that’s not what your average player and PUG group is doing. They’re trying to get through as easy as possible while maintaining some attention to time. No one wants to go full nomad, but not everyone is able to handle meta.

It’s been something I’ve noticed since I first joined this game, an annoyance that’s bothered me for a long time. Something I’ve done what I am capable of to combat, but I just don’t have the motivation, devotion or time to really address. I’d LOVE to see more guides on “easymode” options. I look back to my old group which ran what we dubbed the ‘braindead meta", day one of phalanx strength we rejoiced because it meant we could have high might while sitting with a hammer guard and perma protection making almost every dungeon a faceroll. I can’t help but feel that type of thing would be helpful to people. How to make things smooth and easy while maintaining a decent time (we averaged 4-5min SE1 for example, sure it’s no speed run, but it’s nothing to complain about).

So, like I said ranty. But, I look at Skady’s post, I find the responses revolting. There’s obviously power in it, you could tell from the videos. And, now having run with her, kitten some of the smoothest 50’s I’ve ever done, and they were kittening 3 man! There’s power to tap there, but we ignore it because it’s not optimal. No one’s saying speed runs and organized dungeon guilds running full groups should pick it up, it’s just a solid option and something worth considering. But, instead of embracing it we saw a backlash against it. It was pretty sad to me.

But on the flip side, this is where I feel the anti-meta people come into play. With them around we kind of need to squash all these alternatives because it’s a slippery slope. “ok bringing one clerics guard can make a group much easier” and then suddenly we see 3 clerics guards in a PUG group and facepalm ourselves to death.

And that’s where I feel the human element comes in. People simply take what they want from people talking about stuff. THey hear “clerics guard can be effective and make a run easier” and suddenly they stack 5 clerics guards and think that’s a good idea. It’s not just our community that goes to extremes it’s also those watching and following our community. It takes a level of understanding beyond what most people put in to really “get it”.

So again, ranty, I know, but I just feel that the problems we see aren’t really fixable, they’re the result of failures due to the human element. People listening and taking in what they want rather than what is said. People falling into the black and white issue (which we all know doesn’t really exist). People hanging on every word of certain people (not the people to blame, but the misunderstandings of their listeners).

I’ll end with another little story, last night I did an Arah4 path, went fine, but it was one of those “ping gear” groups and at the time I thought sure whatever, not usually my style but I feel like doing Arah and p4 is fun. So I join, he was also asking for an Ele. Problem was he was dead set on getting an Ele. Well, we end up getting to Lupi before we find an Ele, half a dozen other professions joining but getting kicked, so we 4 man all the way there. Get an Ele that’s quite frankly mediocre at best. But he’s satisfied. We continue, get to grenth and the Ele doesn’t know what to do so we basically 4.5 man that. Go do one of the longest Simin fights I’ve ever done, and then contrary to the post (:D) do the tree skip which most need a portal (thank you mesmer if you read this you know who you are but I don’t want to name names) and we get to the boss then do that. So the whole time I’m laughing my kitten off, an Ele is nice and all but really not necessary, but instead of taking a guard which would have been great on Melandru, might have been able to pull off the melee instead of dropping to range, we just sit and wait because it’s “optimal” to have Ele’s. It’s just kind of silly. But, that’s something that’s bred in the community. And the type of attitude I find a bit off. Run 2 ele, war, guard, thief in a dungeon guild trying to speed run everything, sure, but when it comes to PUGs, 4 manning a dungeon vs taking something else… well, it’s silly.

So to finally end, I think a reasonable approach and concessions to factor in skill levels is something that would help the approach of our community. I feel like a hypocrite saying it in that I don’t really do much myself, I’m just a “forum warrior” as people often call me when I end up in groups with them, but I think it’d help our image if that type of thing exists. Love you all, and sorry for ranting but ehh, as usual I’m well into a bottle of whiskey and felt like elaborating on my view

Everything is less tedious than an Engi

Though I find the condi build to be quite active with pet management, instant weapon swaps off cooldown and keeping your utilities rolling. Much more fun than the jump around but don’t do much sword stuff (ok I just have a bias against sword cause I can’t handle it).

As a question of curiosity Obal, do you happen to have calculation on the potential of Retribution + Focus vs the optimal Radiant Fire + Torch? Just curious as I find myself using that a decent amount as that block is ohh so sweet.

Vero.7013:

May I ask why Kindled Zeal instead of Binding Jeopardy? Does the added condition damage outdamage the vulnerability stacks considering you will be spamming Virtue of Justice due to Radiance specialization?

You only spam VoJ on trash as you get the quick recharges, on a boss you don’t. You don’t really need to build for trash though outside of blinds/reflects, they’re typically pushovers (maybe stab if you feel like clearing inquest technicians?). Over time your passive VoJ will outweigh the active when you’re not getting the consistent refreshes (so boss fights) and that’s why you stick with just making it more potent.

That said you’re taking Zealous Blade outside of Scepter and Hammer builds, in both cases you can get extra vuln from the immob, but I’m sure Obal’s taken a look at that and found it’s just not enough (4s duration vs 15 and 20s cooldowns).

Suiciding should reset one side, then you just run it like normal (or in reverse).

If they’re still both swarmed… eek, best advice would be to swap up some traits so you can survive running to the unmanned side and get that in, it’ll likely recharge itself but just keep at it focusing on getting one seal destroyed on a side you’re clearing. Just take it slowly and get the one side down then shift to the other.

So like take say warrior with endure pain (just example other options obviously) so you can hit that and run in on that swarmed unmanned side safely and get that trigger.

Keep clearing the other side to prevent cultists from healing the seal and bang that one out.

With your comp you could probably just save feedback/walls and toss them up to defend yourself on the unmanned side to get those hits in.

Either way, it shouldn’t happen in that you should be able to reset one side with a suicide jump (everyone dead) then respawn together.

Lets be honest if the raids are well made at all the 11% is not going to be the focal point of the decision making process. You’ll be considering the offhands vs the defensive attributes of GS more than the damage output. A well timed axe5 has far more potency than 11% damage difference. And defensively you’ll be considering dagger offhand vs GS

I expect some sort of enrage timer, but I highly doubt it will be tuned so tight that 11% difference will make or break it.

It triggers on blinds and disables. Knockdowns apparently are not considered disables. Stun, Daze, Fear triggers perfectly fine, but you’ll still get knocked around and down from those effects.

One downside, swapping in other weapons for certain skills (warhorn) you can accidentally slot it in with your axe then you have to go pull it out… aside from that no downside. (I just find that a bit annoying). Easily avoidable by using hero’s panel to swap though, just I usually used inventory in the past.

3 pillars of dungeon/fractal play.

1: Might (war/ele/engi mainly)
2: Reflect (guard/mesmer mainly)
3: Stealth (Thief/Engi/Mesmer)

There are certainly other aspects but generally you want those 3 things covered and the rest will likely fall in line anyways. You could certainly get more in depth and add more categories but this is the simple version.

Ele is amazing damage, especially burst with Ice Bow. You also have Deep Freeze locking a target down while you burst it.

Engi is sort of a jack of all trades, you fill whatever role is needed or just go DPS and contribute with your 10000 blast finishers.

Thief is your stealth guy, great damage, blinds are huge. Stealth/blind/defiance rips

Mesmer is reflect heavy, and can contribute in other elements as well with various mantras and what not.

Guardian is your defensive king with it’s Aegis and reflects.

Getting more in depth than that would lead to a massive post that would take an hour to write and read. I suggest looking into each specific professions forums, maybe watching some speed run videos and checking out DNT stuff in general. Another great resource for more content focused information is GW2dungeons.net.

If you have more focused questions I’d be happy to help but like I said the general questions you posed could lead to a novel (another plug though, for guardian Zui has an amazing guide for every fractal and dungeon posted and stickied in the guardian area, don’t think there’s anything even close to that depth for other professions)

So I’ve typed this out twice and ended up just having rants

So short and sweet. Enjoyed the video, agree with basically all the commentary. Not sure anything can or even needs to be done. It’s a social/people issue you’re discussing. No matter how well you explain, no matter what style you use be it positive, negative, or just logic and reason, these people who oppose things will continue to do so.

Most new players I find do seem to follow the guides of DnT or the ones Dulfy has posted and are grateful when I expose them to things like gw2dungeons. So I don’t really see it as a huge issue, just a lot of loud people hating.

Not completely sure what your goal is, but more people talking reasonably about things is great. If there’s something I can do, I’m down.

There are quite a few issues on Mai trin, especially cannon phase. You should be getting circles, but sometimes they’re late, if someone jumps you can sometimes get headshot out of the circle, and yeah, it’s messed up. There’s a reason we complain about it in these forums.

Aktium.9506:

Jerus.4350:

But, Dagger build doesn’t let me get transfusion and then I can’t summon downed people in front of killshots

Dagger build uses Blood Magic tho. You can just drop Well trait for Transfusion.

Doh, you’re right (noob necro here honestly) for some reason I was thinking you dropped that for curses, but it’s soul reaping for curses. I still like my DS build, if I’m going to do poor damage might as well make it easy

Thanks Blood, that sounds like what I expected. the 24 seemed off. Maul is huge for GS that’s for sure. And, are you sure on swoop? I know tooltip says 1.75s cast time, but if you have a target right in front of you, you don’t do the whole run, you start then leap and strike. Going off wiki info you’d just need a little less than a second cast to beat out the first two autos and for the third auto you could have even longer. Maybe I’m missing something but seems you can increase your potential DPS notably by working maul/swoop in place of that third power stab auto.

It’s a bug, the “create” window pops up in the bottom left corner of your screen, you need to drag that up and click enter and you should enter. Alternatively you can sometimes fix by going to a different waypoint in LA.

Yes it’s annoying.

Just no need really. I mean sure, I wouldnt’ complain about getting a blunderbuss in my condi rotation, or having a shield block on swap and stuff like that. But, just not needed, revenant felt slow and clunky and needed it IMO.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Khristophoros.7194:

What’s wrong with either of those things?

Staff is a horrible weapon to get stuck in. It’s okay for fights where you are forced to range because of either a bad party or a lack of mechanical skill so you get the bonus damage on DS1, but otherwise it’s bad for PvE. You get far better mileage out of D/F + D/W.

For the second, stacking in a corner is an outdated tactic. The fastest way to do things is to just stack on top of wherever the creature spawns and murder him there. Corners were only used for the FGS meta, which is long since dead.

But, Dagger build doesn’t let me get transfusion and then I can’t summon downed people in front of killshots

I get two shoutouts!? Sweet, Will give it a watch later tonight (no sound at work).

http://www.dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewthread/23410216-dnt-condition-ranger-build-guide-for-62315

Full build guide.

If I understand correctly it’s easy top 3 condi builds, best being Engi, ranger/guard taking other slots (not sure which is higher and when)

We really arguing what’s more complex and fun between staff ele and warrior? I miss D/F

As I understand it, S/A + LB is best single target, S/A + GS is solid defensively and both of these have the added benefit of reflect utility with axe5. However, best damage is Condi Axe/Torch (staggered such that you can swap back and forth within same combo). Spotter and Frost spirit in all 3.

And of course it’s Asura

Reminds me of a raid mechanic used in EQ, Dead players spawn nasty skeletons to attack. Made some raids initially require near perfection to complete, any dead = wipe.

Love to see that as part of the new challengeing content. Crazy mechanics like these are what makes that stuff fun.

Khristophoros.7194:

Spirited Was Eceni.3869:

So OP, zerker glass cannon good, all else bad? I’ll remember that next time I’m rezzing those cannons in a dungeon or world event. This thread seems utterly pointless unless the point was to restart the zerker argument again.

Ok, I’ll play along. My build philosophy is as it has been since the early years of GW1; survive, damage, buff/help others, in that order of importance. Great if your char can do massive hits, not so great when you’re lay on the ground squealing for a rezz while others are busy trying to finish the fight. Or, how much better is zerker DPS when a lot of zerkers spend half a fight lay on the ground doing zero DPS? And worse, detracting from others’ DPS as they stop fighting to rezz, haha, thereby causing negative DPS!

Face rolling button mashers will always prefer zerker, those of us that know how to dodge and use attributes/runes/sigils/food/utilities know there are other options available which may help keep you alive longer. That’s not to say those people won’t still use full zerker just that I, or others like me, may need to rezz them less often.

My point was more that most of the mixes people do are horribly inefficient and they don’t do enough damage, nor are they tanky enough to justify the damage loss.

This exactly. Learning to use your active defenses is HUGE. Take Engi, I’d rather have a pistol/shield + toolkit/eg/nade engi with zerker than a rifle + FT/EG/Nade with soldier gear engi.

I will say I see some value to mixes at times. For example my thief will get one shot by a Lupi kick, boost the toughness/vit just a little and that becomes survivable… having a single mistake opportunity can be huge (granted this is pre major update, not sure if it’s changed, but previously I would die at the beginning of the week and live at the end due to WvW bonuses). So I wouldn’t fault someone or consider it ridiculous to have a little boost somewhere to break that threshold.

dom.2748:

Metasynaptic.1093:

Survival from stats matters in wvw. Soldiers is nearly mandatory in a decent zerg build. Even running to a zerg, being in full soldiers makes it possible for me to laugh in the face of trollasins. In pve, generally, zerk is the only sensible option, outside of certain uncritable targets.

There really are not any uncrittable targets any longer. Wearing soldiers to Teq use to make sense, now its a waste of stats.

Elemental Source and Dredge cart… they’re the banes of my Condi Engi, just saying not disputing your point.

dom.2748:

Jerus.4350:

dom.2748:

No, they don’t suck. They died because you weren’t running zerker. Not enough damage to kill things fast enough. You killed your party, good job.

We’re talking Arah here right? And dying on skips right? Yeah… no. A single players low dps does not lead to the deaths of others here unless maybe failing simin or brie.

There really aren’t any notable attrition mechanics in Arah, everything is avoidable, and most professions have ample tools to do so (all but necro basically).

You have no ground to stand on blaming other people if you can’t do a skip through Arah or remember where your dodge key is. I see this argument all the time, I could agree on maybe CoF Slavedriver, Old Tom, or any fight where you will take damage, but Arah… c’mon.

So yes, they were bad players. His points are correct. But, everyone should still strive to master the game well enough that they can feel comfortable going full glass (be that condi or power).

He said Arah, he never named a path. I can think of several Arah legendaries where you will be subject to more damage because you didn’t kill fast enough.

Path 1 – 4: Lupi
Path 1: The legendary giants
Path 2: The thief legendary, the end boss.
Path 3: I don’t really run this path very often because it is too low of a payout so I’m not sure of the legendaries that well off the top of my head.
Path 4: Definitely Simin, yeah that is about it in that path the rest are jokes.

I don’t really care what people wear, but the facts need to be straight.
Zerker don’t die any more often than anybody else.

Considering I’ve soloed, duo’d or 3-manned every one of those paths, well, you just don’t need the damage and complaining about a single person lacking killing you is just a sign of poor play on your part. Self respect and responsibility is a thing.

Now, Yes, your last statement is true, zerkers don’t die more as a fact, only bad zerkers die more. Actually in my experience as a generally PUG player I see more soldiers or something players die (you can tell by how much HP they go down when they get hit by attacks) than zerkers as I find most players capable of defending themselves lean towards the zerker side because they can.

Anyways, take Lupi, People can solo him… naked, without a UI, in first person, bringing in extra champs just for funsies (look at Purple Miku’s Normal/Nightmare/Hell scale) So blaming someone for doing half the damage (10% damage loss roughly for the group) for a fail is just… well pathetic. If you eat a kick/bolt/whatever, that’s on you. I think it’s far more reasonable to be mad at bad builds than it is to be mad about bad gear. A guard/mesmer not bringing reflects (no need to wallsploit but reflects in general for defense help a LOT).

Alphard (thief legendary?) is just a matter of time, reflects again help immensely, but taking longer to kill… well it jsut takes longer. She’s actually quite easy with a group, dodge out of the red circle if it pops up (give it extra room) double dodge if you get targetted for an unload without a reflect, whatever, easy fight with a full team.

P3 is actually one of the more attrition based fights with Hunter/Crusher, but good tactics and positioning will still end up making a joke of it (poison field can hurt, but cleanses/heals can keep up).

Simin is a pain, but the DPS requirement is pretty low, if it weren’t for the petrify I’d bet you’d see people soloing it without much issue, just taking a while to do so. I happened to do it just a couple days ago with a trio and we did pretty terribly… still beat it eventually, just a few more spark runs than we would have liked. Grenth is actually probably the more DPS reliant fight but can be mitigated with well timed evades or quality teamwork picking people up.

In the end, no, a person bringing in defensive gear is simply not going to kill you unless you’re a bad player (not trying to target you, just that excuse as I hate it, I have no idea about you obviously ) In the end even most dungeon paths are soloable in zerker gear by most professions. It’s just a poor excuse and shifting the blame. I’d rather have a quality mesmer/guard who does 0 damage than one that does optimal damage but is kittenty at timing their reflects/cleanses/aegis/what have you. If they feel they screw up on the personal defense side of things too much that’s fine as long as they know what they’re doing for their role in the group.

People are dumb. At the very least they are useful for defiance rips, at best you strategically use them with a purpose.

Necro is pretty nice for defiance rips, if you go with a DS build with warhorn you can Staff fear + DS fear + warhorn stun for 3 rips, it’s nice.

I LOVE Engi, so don’t get me wrong, you’re right when it comes to your general PUG, I can get the job done just fine, but that’s because a general PUG quite frankly is unreliable.

A Thief beats Engi out primarily in the more advanced tactics. Pathing enemies, doing that Mai trin stuff (pulled it off with 2X engi last night, that was cool, great group been a long time since I was in a group that organized, yay 3 man fractal 50s!) An Engi for example will struggle in Arah1 doing the pathing on the oozes/drakes. It can be done with very precise play and some help (consumables or mesmer) but it’s not ideal at all. A thief wins out in that regards.

For Guard, Aegis is HUGE, and it doesnt’ require some high level of organization, just a solid guard knowing when to Aegis. A great example is either Berserker in Molten Duo (final auto attack) or Captain Ashrym’s flame burst. Both hard hitting attacks you can negate and save a group that isn’t on top of dodging.

Again, kittening love Engi (I have 3 for a reason) but when you’re looking at optimal play they simply don’t replace guard/thief fully at all. In places where the two of those aren’t needed, absolutely, or in the case of stealth with a mesmer working with you, you’ll be solid. But, thief/guard still have a very solid presence and worth. Plus it’s easier.

True, but I think they’ve proven themselves credible sources. As I said, I’m honestly curious to see the math of a GS build vs Sword build. I want to say I saw a Sword/axe + GS build vs Sword/Axe + Longbow build and it was something like 13.5 vs 14.5, so 9.3% less working GS in vs Longbow. I don’t think it’ll jump over 17% or even reach that had you taken out sword/axe, now that’s just my guess, but I’d like to see some type of proof to the contrary.

specific is 45% for burning, general is 15% with nightmare, though you can get 25% with 2X trapper.

Combine that though with 10% tuning, 33% trait, 40% food, well, you’re at 69-83 with that(69 without tuning/rich food, it’s expensive), 15% on top and you’re at 84-98%, go balth and you’re at over 100% on burning (which apparently the pistol condi trait overlooks cap).

Now, the main reason I prefer condi damage is that burst matters. Condi already lacks in that area compared to power and I’d like to get as much as I can.

You’ll want either Balth runes, Nightmare X5 + chrysblahblah jewel/Anti-toxin run, or NightmareX4 + trapperX2. Any of those sets are solid. Nightmare+ trapper is best overall duration, Balth maximizes burn, the last is overall duration with higher damage. With optimal consumables I think the 5XNightmare option is best, without optimal consumables then Nightmare/Trapper I think is best, and Balth is also an option though ignoring bleeding is not the best idea IMO.

dom.2748:

No, they don’t suck. They died because you weren’t running zerker. Not enough damage to kill things fast enough. You killed your party, good job.

We’re talking Arah here right? And dying on skips right? Yeah… no. A single players low dps does not lead to the deaths of others here unless maybe failing simin or brie.

There really aren’t any notable attrition mechanics in Arah, everything is avoidable, and most professions have ample tools to do so (all but necro basically).

You have no ground to stand on blaming other people if you can’t do a skip through Arah or remember where your dodge key is. I see this argument all the time, I could agree on maybe CoF Slavedriver, Old Tom, or any fight where you will take damage, but Arah… c’mon.

So yes, they were bad players. His points are correct. But, everyone should still strive to master the game well enough that they can feel comfortable going full glass (be that condi or power).

Zenith.7301:

Jerus.4350:

Zenith.7301:

Prophet.1584:

GS is perfectly viable and the dps loss is negligible at best since the last patch. it would still be a good idea to learn sword andh ow to play within the bounds of how it works. use gs in situations where the leap could kill you like harpy fractal. dagger oh evades break the leap animation so you could use that until you’re used to it. and turn off auto attack.

The DPS difference is not negligible. Stop this myth.

It’s a convenient weapon to use over 1h sword, but it’s a notable DPS loss.

Is it? Like do you have math to back that up? From what I remember before update it was 17% less damage, much of that attributed to PO and the cripple up time on auto. So I’m curious to see the math as I’d imagine that gap would have shrank with Remorseless.

The 17% figure was BEFORE the advent of PO. Search some of Dojo’s posts and about 2 years ago there was somebody else who also did the math.

2 years is quite a while ago. I was going from right after PO was put in asking those DnT folks with their maths and all that jazz.

http://www.dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewthread/16060384-greatsword

Source, got one for me?

For PVE Condition damage for all gear. Condi duration comes in with runes/food and you can actually get close/hit the cap (100%). So giver’s weapons aren’t worth it (only gear with duration).

Timing on Magnetic wave is tough for reflect, but yes it is (it’s also a blast finisher which is huge). Swirling Winds is great. Ring of Earth just like magnetic wave takes more precise timing but is solid as well.

Engi magnetic shield is a bit easier in that there’s very much a visual cue (bubble around you) it’s more similar to Ele’s Magnetic Aura (staff skill).

As for Meat shielding, you can body block projectiles, but you can not body block standard strikes/AE’s. And, in general you go very glassy stats in PVE because the content is build to allow you to actively defend yourself through the reflects/blocks/evades. So the body blocking/shielding is a lesser used tactic only in a few specific areas basically.

As for Engi, you don’t use a shield much, generally jsut for extra blast or very dangerous fights. You’re swapping a lot of kits and before you equip shield you’ll likely grab toolkit and use the shield in there if defense is needed.

Reason reflects aren’t mentioned much for Ele is in PVE people have different strengths/weaknesses. Even if you can do everything there are general roles people slot different professions into as they are especially strong in that area. Reflects are left to guards/mesmers and most others leave it at that unless help is needed, every profession except necro can help, including Ele.

NikeEU.7690:

If guilds like TTS can beat the content out of the box then it won’t be challenging.

If DnT can beat the content out of the box then it won’t be challenging.

(we’re just repeating that comment and slotting random stuff in right?)