Signet of the Locust IS very nice for leveling, exploration, and travel.
I kind of dispute your claim on conditions being bad leveling, though. When I first leveled my first Necro to 80, I did it with a funky condition/minion build that worked quite well. I just opened with Blood is Power, which sent out the minions, and then I transferred off my bleeding from blood is power to the opponent with deathly swarm from the dagger offhand before slapping on both enfeebling blood and grasping dead, then three pops with the scepter auto and epidemic if farming. The minions served as added DPS and condition removal. I think it was Death Magic, Spite, and Curses? Or it could be made that way today. Heck, minions and corruptions could still work decently that way.
Good luck Shahin.
If you consider one toolbelt, the flamethrower is a crowd favorite…As you can see.
If you consider a second, I would suggest tool kit for a condi engie. The confuse in the crowbar is nice, the cripple is good for kiting and added bleeds, the magnet has hilarious enemy positioning utilities (I love using it to haul an enemy into the box of nails cripple near a cliff, then crowbar, swap to FT, dodge roll reposition, and blow said enemy off to his/her demise), and the it’s got a fantastic. 3 second block for emergencies. Oh, and with Streamlined Kits from the tools line it gives you a burst of super speed for skeedaddling away or gaining distance.
And if you want ANOTHER, then you may like grenades or bombs. Grenades with give you more ranged options and DPS. Bombs will give you a smoke field, a fire field, a cripple, another confusion source for added DPS, and a long delay blast finisher in big ol’ bomb.
Personally, I run this as my survival/support build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqelUUh+sYJXwyKQ7FLpFV4LGjz43GGANw4ckGlBA-TFSAABYoEUI1fow8XX7PAwDAYgTAAh6BiS5XAgDghrbAgUA+t3C-w
And THIS as my DPS build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqalUUhatYJWwdLQ7FLsFF4HWiBwXFmhHwYcMGfBA-TVSAABYoEUI1f8a/gBOBAQb+DgHAATLIQoegoU+FA4AY4CHAIFAErBA-w
They both are more condi based than power, and while both use kits, honestly it’s hard NOT to use kits as an engie.
The med kit has its uses, but it’s primarily to help the player rather than the whole team. Its best skill is the toolbelt heal with the ridiculously low recharge time, after all. It can go down to, what, like 14-15 seconds recharge time between uses? It can also condi cleanse and give fury/swift to one person.
The auto attack is flavorful and I guess could see use as healing for others during a running battle or something, but in 99 scenarios out of a hundred, you’ll likely be better off with the turret.
It does look fun against huge groups.
In any heavy raid experience I’ve ever really participated in, the biggest part of the team wasn’t who had the best heals or the biggest beat stick. It was always down to teamwork, covering your friends, and staying alive.
Not everyone is going to be running a fully optimized meta team which only consists of exceptionally broken builds with often high skill caps. Some of us have jobs and families, and their experience is going to be based on the friends they run content with regardless of how ultra powerful their classes are.
Necro is durable, has solid damage, and a blood magic reaper, for example, can help friends with life drain by being nearby, plus finish off weakened enemies with spite and reaper traits. It can’t out damage a sinister engie with a top level player? Meh. It’s still a solid and fun class.
I swear, by reading these forums, you’d think the only professions that’ll ever be used in raid are Revenants.
I prefer D/W+A/F these days when I’m running power.
Very valid. Out of habit, I normall go d/f because I like how Reaper’s Touch works in melee with its regen and then a warhorn or staff in the other, I should try to mix axe in more.
Death Magic is indeed really nice for Minions and leveling in general. In early levels, the bonuses can make you pretty beefy. At end game, less so, but it’s still decent. Death nova is much stronger than it used to be with the changes to lich form making you able to summon 5 jagged horrors that will explode into poison fields on death for a poison spike.
If you’re riding high on dagger then trait up blood magic for life leeching on those minions. It’s a good trait line to have under your belt, and most survivable builds these days incorporate it.
Third trait line can be Spite if you want to crank your damage up, Curses if you wanna go for condi and/or “flash” shroud for fury/other effects, or Soul Reaping if you find yourself wanting more time in shroud.
For me, personally, I’d go Death magic, blood magic, and Spite with traits for minions in death magic, the dagger trait and life drain traits in blood magic, and spite with spiteful talisman, chill of death, and closer to death for a rounded build with solid DPS and survivability. Dagger/Focus main weapons with Staff off (mark of blood can heal pets through regen and debuff enemies to help them kill more safely) and a horn on the side for when you want it.
Scepter is really nice for condi damage. Great for bleeds and torments. Use curses with scepter. The added duration is lovely. Pairs well with offhand dagger for more bleedy goodness and focus if you want to add chill and vuln into the condi mix.
Axe is good for throwing around retaliion, giving some retaliation, and building life force more than it is for actual damage. Not horrible, but not great for DPS. Axe/Focus is nice for stacking Vuln, and axe/horn is nice for running from combat in exploration with its dual cripples.
Hopefully this helps somewhat.
(edited by Mercurias.1826)
Wasn’t healing bombs almost never used when it existed because the heals were tiny and the rest of the trait line wasn’t terribly good as it was?
I mean, when it existed it was often outright mocked right here on these forums as a bad trait.
Am I the only person who remembers this?
So why do people desperately want it back suddenly?
This…This might be the only pro-Druid thread active on the forums, and it was made because somebody told people that Druid wasn’t as good as Dragonhunter.
Quick! The guardian side of the fence hates Dragonhunter! Someone post a Druid build and say it’s better than DH! See if we can trick people into appreciating their new specs!
“Hey guys the devs gave a class with a deficit of support options a way to have a lot of support and five healing skills in their builds with only changing one trait line from their normal builds, meaning that they can have some spur of the moment healing and still throw out pretty solid damage.”
“WHAT? HEAL CLASS!? NO THIS IS GOING TO MEAN THAT THE WORLD IS OVER AND THE META IS GOING TO ONLY RELY ON HAVING ONE AND CATS WILL CHASE DOGS AND TIME TO BEAT MY KEYBOARD WITH MY FACE UNTIL MY DISPLEASURE IS MADE MANIFEST ON THE FORUMS WHARBLEGAAAA-”
“W-what!? No…That isn’t what anybody has been saying at-”
“-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”
“H-how can you have that much hate in you without exploding into a black flame that sounds like Linkin Park music?”
“-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGJHTEGJWTRGEET!”
Not only that, but almost half of Giardian’s utilities and a good amount of traits are useless. That is why we feel so little options to choose.
List of useless utilities:
- Hallowed Ground (Stability Field which increases Buff Duration – Not Broken)
- Sanctuary (Long recharge projectile protection with attached healing – Maybe a little revision)
- Merciful Intervention (Teleport/heal/gap close which can grant fury. Powerful skill – Not broken.
- Signet of Mercy (Flat 180 healing stat boost which can revive an ally – Not Broken)
- Sword of Justice (Can be traited to be a high power attack with a relatively low cooldown as well as burning and vuln – Not Broken)
- Shield of the Avenger (Periodically activates a shield of Absorption and can be triggered to inflict a Weakness condition while giving aegis to allies. – Too good. Needs nerf)
- Hammer of Wisdom (not as good as the SoJ, but includes an at-will KB. – Not broken)
- Bow of Truth (Easily managed to set this skill for a 5k heal burst that can be used three times before the bow itself needs to recharge – Not broken at all)
- Signet of Courage (Three second cast time beings all allies to full health. If you can’t make it work, then you clearly need to get gud because shi skill is highly overpowered. – Broken in players’ favor)
- Traps (Powerful in melee. Heal includes a large AoE Blind and area heal – Not broken)
And useless traits:
- Wrathful Spirit (Not impressive, but could potentially use a slight duration increase)
- Healer’s Retribution (5 seconds of retaliation whenever you heal, and it’s easy to aquire a 24 sec. Guardian heal – Not broken)
- Radiant Retaliation (Retaliation scales from condi in case you’re a condi build – Not broken)
- Battle Presence (Makes Vitue of Resolve’s heal a group heal. Strong group Passive healing – Not Broken)
- The on fall trait (Halves falling dmg and gives you protection – Not broken)
- And there are other very weak traits… (Nothing is perfect, but your concept of weak really needs some definition before oyu make sweeping generalizations like this, since you literally list nothing and that means you got bored when creating this post).
This kills any sort of versatility.
Fixed for accuracy.
Aww. 151 views and not a single reply.
Just looking for some feedback on this setup for PvE/1v1/Roaming to see your thoughts.
Basis is on my old MM Shroud build that carried me through most of the Living Story: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBIhZakhGaqxuawtGYvxx0QNb5LoCkDQBEA0Z4GyUA-TBCBwAVeEAGV+pw8nElg4U/BwZAo4+Dp0HQKgI2aB-e
What I ended up doing was taking it and making it ultra tanky, with Reaper to boost the vampiric traits: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQJARWjM0QTN2VDu1A7NWmGspW2FoCINAKABg4RYJ8FC-TRSBABNfIAMS5HOq/UxVAIFdBSoEkNzfxs/AAPAASBcxyI-e
I was wondering if you all had any thoughts.
Thank you in advance.
Necromancer is a light armor class with the hp pool of a warrior and a secondary damage soak pool that you can tap into whenever you like. It has more survivability than most other classes from that alone.
Necromancer is also the class which is best at throwing out conditions. Even when I’m not even trying, I usually end up applying chill, bleed, and vulnerability to enemies. They also have several ways to cleanse their own conditions, and even take condis from allies and cleanse themselves.
Necros can also strip boons and health drain. Honestly, health drain is a little bit weak even when fully traited, but it still helps survival, especially when using minions.
Oh yeah, and there are minions. People often claim that minions are underpowered, but in my experience they work just fine for most content, especially in a death magic and blood magic build.
Currently I run a build which uses survivable minions which drain enemy health when they attack and feed said health to my Necro. The other component to the build is judicious use of death shroud for added survivability and stacks of might. I’ve been through most of the living story with my Necro, and he’s always been a tanky bugger with solid DPS and mean conditions . I doubt that will change in HoT.
engi shuld be hard cc class, so i think extra taunt wont hurt anyway.
it would be cool if taut ignore defiance, making it exceptional way to cover for those zerk players behind.
or just add another way to gain more agrro.
Engineers can do a lot of things, including hard cc.
The taunt status is honestly VERY strong. Given what Engies can do without it already, I think it’s an unneeded addition to an already powerful profession.
If you feel like you should be playing tankier, then read up, on how aggro works in this game and grab some toughness/vitality gear. Bombs work very well for that because of the condition spam they can dish out in melee. Thumper turret is also a good aid in grabbing aggro. Thumper turret and aa with shield kit can enough to take out big targets Wih surprising ease (though it takes a while).
Can’t you just use the adept trait for celestial to condi cleanse? Glyphs already have impressively short cool downs and alter what they do depending on if you’re in celestial or not, AND you can trait them to condi cleanse almost everyone but yourself.
And rangers have other traits that allow your pet to take your conditions,
I honestly don’t think Druid glyphs need it.
Advance warning: this is not about assembling a meta build. This is just for funsies.
Having been enjoying the use of Streamlined Kits and Tool Kit (for short bursts of super speed), as well as rocket boots for massive leaps and Elixir Gun for noping away from stuff, I can basically state that Engineer is one of the faster moving classes in GW2 and that I love going really fast, especially if it’s the kind of really fast that still manages to keep me occupied.
Engie is my last prof to 80, and zipping around crazy fast while leveling has been enough fun that I wanted to have a “running around” build to play with that can emphasize speed and durability for when combat actually needs to happen.
My current build ( http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdEQJAqelUUhSuYfWwdLQ7FLpFV4OEj12XNEAh44ckGlBA-TBCBAB8o+zsKBVS53Cm/A4BA0ieAZ2fIgTAAA-e ) isn’t bad for a speedy explorer setup. When running straight through areas, I’ll normally swap the Elixir kit for rocket boots for added speed, as the bomb kit is too nice to get rid of when combat is unavoidable. The shield and tool kit, plus other toys like the water fields and blast finishers, help ensure a lot of survival even with the lower damaged and all the AoE has made it something of a new favorite in big events.
With the release of HoT and the new Scrapper spec, though, I really would like to tweak it a bit. Hammer 3 looks like it’s a fun little travel skill that will work well in water fields, and it also has both block and reflect, which is nice. Bunker down in melee with a cleaving hammer seemed like a solid pick for survival in a straight fight and all, but I didn’t know if the trait would be worse than, say, going full Soldier’s for survival and damage.
So far I came up with this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdEQFASlUUhSuYfXwdLQ7FLbGF9YX2vdY70cR14DUABAA-ThxDABioDIG1fQVJ4PK/OZ/BAM/BA-e
I was wondering if anyone else wanted to tweak it and make it better. Or mock me, either works.
Charr can use magic. They just have a cultural stigma about it due to the flaming legion’s reliance on it in the past.
Personally, I sort of saw the pistol/shield engie setup, gadgets, and alchemy to be very Asura-esque, particularly with Asura racials in the mix.
My plan was to use the hammer, tool kit, and bomb kit for melee in order to have a good mix of options and sustainability while using the thumper turret (great for blast finishers and cripple, plus the hilarious knock back on its overcharge they people don’t expect it) if I’ll not need ranged or grenades if I will. Mortar turret for elite because of its variety of combo fields and blast finisher.
Hammer, healing turret, bombs, tool kit, thumper, and mortar with tools, inventions, and scrapper traits seem like they can make for a fun melee-centric engie with high mobility, high support, and moderate damage. Three water fields, I think six potential blast finishers, blinds, blocks, all but I think one type of combo field (with streamlined kits), and if needed, drop thumper for elixir gun condi cleansing, grenades for extra ranged damage, or rocket boots for literally having rockets in your boots I mean come on.
Hey guys!
I was thinking of future elite specs and I came up with the idea of a technomancer. This would open up some space for actual magic and weapons like staff, focus and scepter.
My original idea was to make a kinetic energy bar, that woud fill in combat. Either way by being hit or whatever. Your toolbelts change in upkeep skills, undependant of what utility skills you take. The role of the technomancer could be something like offensive support (would fit imo). As for utility skills you can use things like consecrations since we have a source of magic.
But thematicly, how would you feel about using actual magic? I would be fine with it, as long as we dont get straight up spellcasting but instead use the magic to creatr powerful mechanical attacks.
Do you think technomancy could fit the engineer?
I had this great idea. The utilities will call forth one of your arcane clockwork creations that will wander around the area, with a small life bar, and they’ll be interactable. You and allies can press F to purchase magical items such as Gyro Sandwiches that get you out of hungrytown fast.
No one should be able to escape hungrytown that fast. Your idea is going to render CUL useless, and then they’ll cry about it for weeks.
As for the. Ext spec? If I want to think about it hard, I’d like either a mace with cool engie skills or a bow and trick arrows for theme. Magi tech doesn’t reall do it for me.
Interesting concept, though, op. I’ll put it right here on the fridge with the heart shaped fridge magnet.
To me it sort of feels like most classes just to an added level of options for play.
Guardians became better at clutch appearances and spike heals for emergencies to supplement their sustain.
Berserkers get conditions to work with, as well as a trait that taunts, along with their new burst boost and Hulk switch.
Rangers, which previously was constantly panned for not having as much team contribution, got the Druid spec which gives it a lot of support, and a supports weapon.
Necro builds for raw damage were normally relegated to the dagger aa. The great sword gives them a new weapon that plays very differently and has big cleave, plus a shroud with way more AoE than before. They can also trait to do some pretty amazing things with chill now, because conditions and Necros.
Eles get a lot more use out of auras as well as overcharged skills, which is going to affect the gameplay of a lot of play styles which used to like to cycle elements quickly (dagger/dagger for example).
Chronomancers get a lot of additional support from Alarcity, plus a more defensive off hand.
Thieves, who have been crying about their hit and run class that they trait for pure damage being too glassy and not powerful enough, got a class that gives them a lot of elude (see: invincibility for brief periods) and skills that deal spike damage. And interrupt. And blocking. Oh, and now they can just trait to deal more damage whenever they dodge with all the new dodge stuff. Yeah they really got the short end of the stick, there, with all those new options of play. Terrible.
Scrappers get the hammer as a close range combat tool that gives Engies ranged protection, even more gap closing options than before, a ranged revive/stomp, and a new set of utilities. The hammer is nice, and he’s the gyros seem a little underwhelming, but it isn’t as if you’re going to use the full set of them. Crying about getting weak utilities on an engineer, the class with the best utilities in the game, rather than looking at what you can do to get the new skills and trait line to work with your existing skills and traits, seems a little pointless to me.
Even leveling, Warriors put out stupid big numbers in bursts. I wouldn’t compare your Ranger output to the end of a hundred blades cast.
If you want a higher damage output, then I would use sword/axe rather than great sword and keep the longbow. The greats word is a goo, weapon for movement and the occasional control, buts it’s damage isn’t outstanding. The Sword/Axe pairing along with longbow is probably the strongest dps setup for a range right now.
In melee, remember that sword 2 and 3 can help you maneuver, especially 2, which is a great skill for gaining distance and swapping to bow. The sword auto attack, and axe 4/5 and good DPS.
Normal for damage I’ll use barrage, rapid fire, and then hunters arrow for stealth as I run into melee and sword at things until I think I’m done. It woks pretty well, especially with the aforementioned strats from Raven
I’ve seen some pretty great looking condi reaper builds being bandied about, and while that gives seems to give less overall DPS in most cases, the stronger conditions give an added dimension that opponents have to watch out for.
Personally, I’m planning on grabbing two sets of exotic gear and try both builds to see which I like best.
I find it pretty astounding that every class believes it’s the class that was given the worst new spec.
Astounding and kind of hilarious.
A good ranger will justify their slot far better than a merely-decent member of any other profession, even if other professions “do more damage” on paper.
So your answer is that you got to be better than the other players, otherwise you won’t get a spot? What if two players are on an equal level – the ranger will not get the spot because he/she is not good enough?
If yer playing a ranger, yer not in the Meta to begin with, so i am not sure why you think this is even salient to Rangers.
Face it, Druid or no Druid, Rangers will more than likely not be Meta when it comes tot he elitist players who refuse to look outside the box of… faster faster faster, number numbers numbers.
And you say rangers have not been in the meta, so it is ok that druids are not in the meta either?
What kind of discussion is that? Rangers should just accept their fate to be subpar and get used to be ignored unless they are better than anyone else?
C’mon, that makes no sense…
Did you not get hugged enough as a kid?
In my experience, meta builds take a lot of skill and timing to play, and that means a whole lot of full server teams which hilariously wipe because someone went online and got a glass cannon build before they learned how to handle the content normally.
Rangers have plenty of strengths, and the Druid setup just gives them an extra variable to use in all levels of content. Are they stronger in PvP due to their tendency to be self contained? Probably. Are they meta? Who cares what the meta is until the content is plotted out to face roll levels? I’d take a good player over a meta build any day.
Settle down and quit calling doom and gloom. Jeez.
To paraphrase all that other stuff up there, thanks for the hard work on Druid. It looks way awesome and we can’t wait to use it and, for some of us, complain about it so bitterly that you’ll wonder if we’ve ever had a single moment of joy in our entire lives.
I personally believe that there’s room at the table for both Druid healing as well as people dropping water heals.
Druid is an extremely powerful healing spec. It has some limits as far as targeting go, but I the heat of a big fight 3-5 people are probably all you can target in a clump unless you’re stacking. On top of it, they’re free heals that you can spam, and Celestial Shroud is hugely powerful.
That being stated, I don’t know why people are hung up on the concept of ONLY healing when Rangers also have some great damage as well as added DPS and great utilities from their pets.
Honestly all I’m planning to do is decide what whether to have longbow or sword/axe as my go-to weapons setup alongside my shiny new staff, and whether to go marksmanship or skirmishing alongside Beast Mastery and the new Druid trait line.
Don’t get all threatened by water fields, and don’t think that one new spec suddenly makes ranger the ultimate healing profession in the game. Strong? Oh yeah, but please don’t go thinking that other classes are incapable.
In other words, I’d be glad with what you’ve got rather than looking for reasons that someone else might have something just as nice.
Given how easy it is to trait for added DPS and bonuses against weakened enemies while popping them with conditions, I sort of thought the Necro’s place in raid would be to clear out trash mobs, and weaken and delay more dangerous enemies with condis until its buddies DPS it down a bit, then lunge in for the kill.
Reaper seems to thrive on having a lot of things to kill, after all, and once you’re left with then nastiest ones, you can focus on inflicting chill to lower its damage output with the auto attack on GS before its HP drops low and you drill it for massive damage.
That’s just how I plan to play it, though.
Is that what Anet thinks, or what players decide makes sense to them? Again, Anet determines and owns the concept of the class. What players decide/interpret/think has likely little to no influence on this. The only problem here is that players aren’t aligning what they think the class concept should to the class concept that Anet has created.
How the hell could anybody not see the connection guardians have with monks?
I don’t see how it’s relevant. Is that the connections and lore that Anet are using to create DH? I don’t think so. Does that lore exclude Rangers from having Druid? I don’t think so either.
Anet creates the lore and concepts they want; why should they be restricted to conform to something outside of GW2?
As another thread recently pointed out, the wings, spear, and shield you get in Dragonhunter are very reminiscent of the Paragon class, and considering HoT is going into the site of Nightfall, I think it’s really a nice touch.
And while Anet can tweak lore, some of it, as ancient superstition (e.g. Bloodstone being stones with stored magic the dragons eient eat rather than the source of all magic, and the original four schools of magic now seen as ancient superstition), I can’t think of an outright retcon like WoW has done in the past.
As for Druids? To me they seem like Melandru’s answer to Guardians being all angelic and Dwayna-y, or Necros and their obvious connection to Grenth’s (at least for the Six).
The wings we got are left overs from when the Devs thought they were doing a Paragon Espec (Spear, Shield, and Wings? Yeah, seen that all bundled up together before in Tyria…).
I’d rather they hold off on more wings until they have the tech for terrestrial spears and can deliver the complete feathery Paragon package.
I thought lore stated that Guadians were what happened when Dervishes, Monks, and Paragons were all slammed together and hung out teaching stuff to on another for two centuries. I actually really love the nod to GW1, especially since we’re going back to Maguuma.
In fact, I kind of wish the wings looked MORE like Paragon wings.
I hear a lot of crying about the awkward and OP tomes…Which most of you skipped all the time while using nothing but Renewed Focus and crying about how you don’t have any better Elites.
So the devs took them away and gave you a frankly outstanding shout and a signet that can literally heal everyone alive near you to 100% while adding to your existing passive healing.
You can throw around Aegis and retaliation nearly all day. You can condition cleanse and give stability. You can trait to mak your sigils heal allies and burn enemies, and you get a lot of sigils. Not only that, but you’ve got good projectile protection.
Dragon Hunter gives Guadians multiple ways to be better at the same things they were already good at. More deflection, the change to perma and cripple enemies in melee when things get nasty and the party needs a second to recover. More damage. A gap closer that also heals in AoE so you can reinforce someone about to die and ninja bounce between ranges.
Oh, and you still have all your stuff from before that made you so survivable in melee, otherwise known as the place to be when you want to drop traps and make them fire off instantly.
Is DH going to give you something to make you a special unicorn? You were already the special unicorn. You’re taking the waambukance to the boo hoo train because other classes are catching up.
If your kitten is really that painful, just use Signet of Courage.
My engie is going to have so much fun. Even at 20%, that’s still a majorly powerful trait. Given that I’ve managed to burst five times off of the Mortar water field with my current build (thump, Orbital, Thump self destruct, big ol’ bomb, and Rumble), that’s a heck of a lot of bonus healing for a raid scenario.
Personally, I have a Sylvari fun-time character who looks like he was set on fire and burnt until he was mostly dead bark. It’s a very fun look for his dual pistols/flamethrower juggernaut build. He’s PVE only, but thematically a very fun commando who has nothing left to lose. I’d like to see racial elites get a toolbelt skill just for his awesome plant turret elite.
My other engie is a human who has an almost MacGuyver kind of vibe from his build full of gadgets, gizmos, and explosions. He has so much burst healing that I basically can’t die in PVE. With three water fields, one of at every other field other than lightning, and seven blast finishers, he makes for a very fun sort of support/survivalist. Human racials tend to be kind of bland (other than Hounds), but their outfits look great, and you can’t help but be amused at your dude hefting a wrench while he yells “Urge to kill rising!”
I sort of saw Scrapper as a trait line that allowed Engies mobility, just enough staying power to handle a couple of swats from big enemies, and remote support away from you with the gyros. I’d personally like to see if they end up being blast finishers as well when they’re self-destructed.
Personally, I’m sort of looking forward to it. Gyros are absolutely not going to replace kits, but I can see myself using one or two of them along with a grenade kit and the mortar.
Am I seriously the only person who thinks Spirit weapons are just fine as they are? I use them all the time in PvE and WvW and PvP with burn condi traits. The sword does respectable damage, especially with its burning, and it’s skill inflicts 5 stacks of Vuln for 10 seconds…On a ten second recharge that can be brought down to 8 seconds with Expleditious Spirit. The hammer, especially when paired with the sword, is good for pressuring enemies as well as knocking them down in order to give a little breathing room, plus the skill is a blast finisher (I would agree that it’s damage could use a buff, however). The shield is pretty versatile with projectile reflection and its skill that can give aegis and weakness, which makes it a staple against ranged enemies for me, and it’s skill also makes it a stun breaker. The bow is wonderful for fights against condi opponents and enemies, as well as any fight that can drag on, since it’s skill gives a regen-like healing surge over 9 seconds, and you can use it three times when trained for Expeditious Spirit.
These are very good and useful effects.
Drones have a single function, unless you count the tool belt skills accompanying them. Spirit weapons have two. On top of that, Gyro durations won’t last even close to as long as Spirit Weapons (you can easily make a high speed/damage build based around having them self-destruct, for example).
Are Spirit Weapons as good as Necro Minions? Not for straight DPS, and they probably never will be. They don’t NEED to be. Most of the “fixes” I see for spirit weapons essentially make them into Necro minions or invincible. Necro minions for Guardians would mean rebalancing the entire class for them, which is dumb because then you could just roll a Necro and save the devs the trouble, and making them invincible would both make them overpowered and eliminate their usefulness as a soak for enemy damage in PvP while you get free shots in.
Love what you have. Seriously.
Huh. I use shield all the time in group situations. Not my favorite off-hand, but I never thought it was useless or terrible. It’s especially nice with Mace, I think, especially when you can pop skill 5 and then swap to a ranged weapon for kiting or use the distance to let you do something sneaky.
I especially think it will work well with DH, where you can buy a couple of seconds to lay down a trap.
I just don’t see it as a raw DPS weapon. It’s a support weapon.
Maybe you’re wanting it to be something it isn’t meant to be?
I admittedly haven’t had any opportunity to play with the new Dragonhunter toys to comment on the bow, but frankly I’ve never really had much trouble using thenSpirit Weapons. I just think you’re seeing them as if you’d prefer them to be me to minions rather than actually being Spirit Weapons. They’re sort of fundamentally different.
I freely agree that they have a huge recharge time, but given how useful, potent, and powerful they can be, I always felt it was pretty justified.
The shield and bow are basically dungeon staples for me. In long fights with lots of projectiles/conditions they can be lifesavers. My friend has a pure healer Guardian build she likes to run in dungeons and WvW to help keep her glass-running DPS boyfriend alive, and what she can do with the bow and healing breeze to keep people up is very impressive. Making them perma with themind of effects they throw out would require a massive nerf to balance them, wouldn’kitten
The sword and hammer are outstanding when I know I’m about to come up against enemies and want to shut down and kill them fast. They stick around a long time and normally my traits allow them to survive the duration unless my team has dumb people in it. Again, that added DPS and burning on top of my regular DPS isn’t something I feel it would be balanced to keep around nonstop, regardless of whether or not I use their skills.
If people really want to buff them, I might suggest upping the sword damage, revamping its skill, or raising the health for all healing weapons to make them a little more sturdy, but otherwise I see them as just fine they way they are.
This is essentially a general PvE/Dungeon build which uses Scepter or Sword with Torch for burning and straight damage while keeping Mace/Focus (or shield) in the back pocket for when needing to swap to more defensive play with blocking and healing. Shout- based utilities, Heal skill, and Elite for support, healing, and Condition Removal.
Traits are based on adding damage to the build as well as enhancing its support traits and reducing Shout Recharge. When swapping out to Sword, Zealous Scepter will be changed to Fiery Wrath.
If anyone wants to take a look at it, I would appreciate any insight on how you would tweak it to make it a little more effective, I’d be grateful!
Thanks in advance, and have an awesome day.
Tossed this one together pretty quickly, but it looks fairly nice for non-meta, and I prefer not to be a S/D or D/F might bot.
This is a fairly rounded dungeon running build put together around the concept of having the full range of the ever-versatile staff on hand while also being able to dispense powerful conjured weapon attacks on a whim. To facilitate this, the traits give an added 40% to damage when in Conjured Weapon range (20 for the staff’s longer reach), which jumps to 60% when the enemy’s health drops below 33% for quick finishing. Conjurer was also taken, but the master traits in fire and air are largely unimportant. I went 20 into each for boosting damage, as well as getting Conjurer so one can maximize conjured weapon use.
Remember to stay in Water attunement when using Conjured Weapons for max damage.
I picked each utility skill for a reason, but feel free to make your own choices:
Ether Renewal is an excellent heal with condition removal that I believe warrants the longer casting time. It can be cancelled if needed, and the recharge time is a fantastic 15 seconds. This skill works well with the Zephyr’s Focus trait for endurance recovery in drawn out fights.
Frost bow has outstanding 2, 3, 4, and 5 skills that work exceedingly well for bursting and CCing enemies. Some players dislike the long recharge time on Ice Storm, but I find that dropping the bow after it’s most powerful skills are used and picking it up again thirty seconds later works just fine. If someone else on the dungeon group grabs your spare and lets loose with it, then your second Ice Storm just gets used that much faster. Guardians with Heal/support specs can also make surprisingly good use of its auto attack to heal. A friend of mine with a very effective support build was healing for roughly 700-800 health/sec (she dips so far into healing and survival that it is actually wasteful, so that number is pretty extreme). Very helpful skill, especially when running AC explore paths 1 and 3 because it can decimate Graveling Burrows.
Lightning Hammer is your weapon du jour when stacking up. Just drop Geyser and Healing Rain and then call down the hammer to pile on damage. You will rarely get to grab your second hammer these days, but that is rarely a bad thing because it means a teammate is using it. Spam 1, use 2 as a gap closer/leap finisher, and only use the other skills in very select circumstances. This weapon is amazing and there is no question as to why its part of the PvE meta.
Lightning Flash is your basic survival/running power. I suggest it over Mist Form both because Mist Form forces you to drop your Conjured Weapons and because its recharge time is much shorter (40 secs to Mist Form’s 75). This isn’t to say that Mist Form is a bad skill by any means, but I just think Lightning Flash works better here where utility slots are at a bit of a minimum.
Conjure Fiery Greatsword is our elite for obvious reasons. Strong 2, 3, and 4 skills with solid enough 1 and 5 skills, it doesn’t have a single “bad” skill. 3’and 4 give great mobility and outstanding damage when near a wall to run into so that their damage is condensed into a tight area. Amazing for champs and also good for murdering Graveling Burrows in AC explore by facing the burrow and running up and over it with skill 4.
I excluded Flame Axe and Magnetic Shield because they, sadly, are less than amazing unless running very specific builds or running into very specific situations.
A good, basic opening for this build would be casting healing rain (over the enemy if you plan to use Conjure Lightning Hammer’s 2 skill to leap in or otherwise enter melee, but over yourself in most other cases), then summon either your hammer or bow, placing the spare where you think it will be the most useful. If bow, open with either 4 or 5, making sure to use 4 to clear out or damage as many trash mobs as possible. If Hammer, just mash 1 or use 2 to leap into the fray and then mash 1. I usually like to expend at least one conjured weapon and be well into a fight before summoning GFS when needed. Remember not to be stingy with your elite. It won’t do you any good if you’re dead. As needed, make use of the staff for ranged damage, combos, healing, and group effects.
Not too complicated, right?
Tip: swap out Frost Bow for Mist Form when running if you feel the need for extra survival.
Hope this at least gives you some ideas!
(edited by Mercurias.1826)
Heya. Pasting a copy of a post I just made in another thread about this same topic:
“Another very solid style of playing while leveling is what a good friend of mine calls “Shadowdancing”. I tend to call it “The Backstab Shuffle” instead, if only to torment said friend. It’s a good way to kill groups at a time.
Go sword/dagger and get the trait “Cloaked in Shadow” (Shadow Arts VI), which blinds enemies around you when going into Stealth. Use CnD, then head ’round to the rear of the enemy and pop it with Tactical Strike from behind, go through a full auto attack combo, and pop the enemy with CnD again, then repeat. Against Vets, just swap to main hand dagger if you have trouble.
Your liberal application of blind and daze won’t have much trouble handling roaming or story missions at all. I used this same build all the way to 80, adding in traits like flanking strike that increase damage from behind or the side as well as initiative boosting traits to make sure I could sustain high safety and DPS.
Keep Hide in Shadows, Blinding Powder, and one other stealth power in your utility bar as well as either Caltrops (for crippling and bleeds), Roll For Initiative (for initiative recovery), or a signet in the third slot.
Initially, you’ll need to lean on your stealth utility skills harder than you want in order to keep the pattern up, but traiting will help ease that significantly.
I’d avoid using this build against large numbers of Dredge, who are immune to blind, as well as in Orr, where many of the enemies eat, remove, or transfer conditions and have AoEs to knock you out of stealth.
Gear-wise, I always went Zerker or the lower level power/accuracy boost equivalent in order to maximize damage, though my friend spent a while in Soldier’s gear for the survivability.
Overall, it’s a solid and pretty safe leveling build. Hope this helps!”
In terms of endgame gear, yes I do recommend Berserker’s everything. Ascended, if you can manage it. I also suggest an endgame PvE build of 25/30/0/0/15. (Highly adjustable damage build that lets you switch things out on the fly for use with multiple weapons and situations). All thief weapons are viable at endgame (though I wouldn’t bring P/P into dungeons/fractals as your main setup), but I have SB mostly glued to my bar like many thieves for Infiltrator’s arrow and those beautiful combos. My other personal weapon choice is usually S/D or S/P, swapping to D/D for champs unless I need the sword interrupts.
Sure Bilbo has Perma Stealth, but he had to gear for it and the drop rate for that ring is crazy low. Even then, he only uses it when he needs Perma. The stats on it are way situational.
Still, I would covet that ring too. Never see one on the TP. I half believe it’s the only one of its kind or something.
Another very solid style of playing while leveling is what a good friend of mine calls “Shadowdancing”. I tend to call it “The Backstab Shuffle” instead, if only to torment said friend. It’s a good way to kill groups at a time.
Go sword/dagger and get the trait “Cloaked in Shadow” (Shadow Arts VI), which blinds enemies around you when going into Stealth. Use CnD, then head ’round to the rear of the enemy and pop it with Tactical Strike from behind, go through a full auto attack combo, and pop the enemy with CnD again, then repeat. Against Vets, just swap to main hand dagger if you have trouble.
Your liberal application of blind and daze won’t have much trouble handling roaming or story missions at all. I used this same build all the way to 80, adding in traits like flanking strike that increase damage from behind or the side as well as initiative boosting traits to make sure I could sustain high safety and DPS.
Keep Hide in Shadows, Blinding Powder, and one other stealth power in your utility bar as well as either Caltrops (for crippling and bleeds), Roll For Initiative (for initiative recovery), or a signet in the third slot.
Initially, you’ll need to lean on your stealth utility skills harder than you want in order to keep the pattern up, but traiting will help ease that significantly.
I’d avoid using this build against large numbers of Dredge, who are immune to blind, as well as in Orr, where many of the enemies eat, remove, or transfer conditions and have AoEs to knock you out of stealth.
Gear-wise, I always went Zerker or the lower level power/accuracy boost equivalent in order to maximize damage, though my friend spent a while in Soldier’s gear for the survivability.
Overall, it’s a solid and pretty safe leveling build. Hope this helps!
My “team oriented” WvW thief usually finds himself rezzing with SH and spreading out damage/combo field bursting with Cluster Bomb on far targets while using S/D in melee. I tend to open with Smoke Screen, two Choking Gas shots right in front of the opposing Zerg, then bursting with Cluster Bomb so that a good chunk of the enemy is Weakened.
Solo roaming, I’ve fallen in love with my own approximation of BattleAxe’s P/P build. It’s linked to his sig and his videos are both hilarious and awesome. I’ve also taken a more team friendly P/P build into Zergs, but I feel more useful with SB as my alt set when doing so, using P/P for focused fire on particularly annoying players or to crush down Necros in Death Shroud.
On an unrelated note, I absolutely love teaming with Elementalists when I use P/P. I have way too much fun standing in the middle of combo fields and spamming unload when I have Ricochet traited. In fire fields, That 20% chance to projectile finish might as well say that Unload is 20% stronger. Not sure if the math would corroborate that, but it’s a lot of fun.
I actually spent some serious time noodling with Team BattleAxe’s build, and I found it to be a much more reliable WvW killer than I thought I would be able to make it.
And as for the OP…I can’t really see what this post is about other than for you to use as many words as possible to just say “I’m upset because I don’t know how to play my class in WvW anymore.”
People recognize the meta and will spend time learning how to counter it specifically. Step outside of it and you can be a lot less predictable.
The armor set people largely suggested earlier was PVT (a Power Vitality Toughness), which I believe is Soldier. It can be bought for karma every ten levels or so in plenty if areas and gives some nice survivability.
I also love the shortbow, especially in groups. It’s great for combo fields your team mates lay down (I run a lot of dungeons with an Elementalist, and she will often toss down a combo field for me to spam sb 2 on, making the pair of us able to stack up a ridiculous pile of might or burst heals, while she drops a conjured weapon for me to swing with until my initiative comes back), and one of your best emergency dodges/teleports when running through sections of a dungeon. Shortbow 4 is awesome for poisoning, especially if you burst off of the field for AoE weakness on top of it, and sb 3 is a heck of a gap opener.
In other words, it gives a lot of survival and party options to you. When most people say “utility” that’s often what they mean.
D/P would absolutely work with the Shortbow. If you open the fight with D/P and use blinding powder, then you’ll have another combo field ready made for you. Also, D/P’s dual weapon skill helps open up distance so you can swap out from D/P to the shortbow and be at range.
Personally, I usually run S/P and Shortbow, swapping out either the sword, pistol, or both for dagger as the situation warrants. It just seems the most universally effective to me.
Oh, and since you’re new-ish to thieves (welcome btw), let me suggest picking up Shadow Refuge, Signet of Agility, and Smoke Screen. Shadow Refuge is the most team friendly stealth power you have, grants regen, and has all sorts of uses from safely resizing a downed friend to steal thing and running through the most annoying parts of CM explore. Signet of Agility gives a meaty boost to your crit chance and will refill your endurance when triggered, which we can agree are both very nice things, and smoke screen is an awesome power so help defend or escape from ranged enemies, and you can burst finish off of it to give AoE stealth at the end of its duration to give your party more time to close gaps or escape, making it great for the shortbow.
Personally, I really love playing with dual pistols on a thief both in PvP and WvW. I also love it in PvE, but I almost never run it in dungeons or fractals.
For PvE roaming, however, it can be a whole lot of fun. You can mark large numbers of enemies in events with Ricochet and spamming unload. My current build for that is right here:
Basically, it’s made to use D/P for stealth when needed and use signet of malice/stealing to add on extra initiative when you either begin to run low or start dropping below 6 initiative (for the 10% DMV boost in the minor trait). Popping signets will restore one initiative, also, and if you prefer then you can swap the alt weapon set to shortbow for combo fields, as well as Shadow Refuge for smoke screen or another signet. I swap pistols out when the bloodlust stacks are maxed out for a sigil of stamina for dodges.
Thanks for the input!
Exactly what other skills would you choose?
After roaming around my friend’s private Skyhammer map, as well as through some of the busier story missions, my goofy self came up with this build. As far as optimization goes, it probably isn’t going to win the competition for damage god anytime soon. It’s been a lot of fun, though!
So the build!
Rifle / Longbow
20 / 30 / 0 / 20 / 0
Strength II and VIII
Arms III, VII, and IX
Tactics I and X
Heal – Mending
Utilities – Bolas, Kick, and Stomp.
Elite – Signet of Rage
Rampager’s Rifle with Superior Sigil of Earth
Ravager’s Longbow with Superior Sigil of Smoldering
Ravager’s Armor / accessories with four Superior Runes of the Nightmare and two Superior Runes of the Krait (I tossed three Rampager’s accessories in later on to help the rifle’s DPS a bit).
Master Tuning Crystal and Bowl of Garlic Kale Sauté for the consumables.
As you can probably tell from the gear and the food, This is a high-duration condition damage build with a bit of Power tossed in to make the majority of the Rifle’s skills still have some kick, as well as crit enough to get plenty of mileage out of the Superior Sigil of Earth. I sort of model it after what a big game hunter in Tyria would be like when you’re hunting Dragons and Undead abominations.
Mending and Restorative Strength are your built-in condition removals, and Physical Training helps get the most out of your Utilities.
Deep Cuts and Crack Shot help increase the damage and number of enemies that the rifle can hit at once. Opportunist is your primary source of Fury, and it works wonders.
Leg Specialist makes Opportunist all the more useful by adding Immobs to your cripples, of this this build has two. Three Immobilizes total for Leg Specialist to work on, so it’s easy to make fury permanent. Burning Arrows amps the Longbow’s overall effectiveness by making it deal extra damage to burning foes (easily done with the Longbow’s own skills) and knock a fifth of the recharge time off of its skills.
Normally, you want to open the fight with the Rifle and build up as much Adrenaline as possible. With multiple enemies, Signet of Rage, and Crack Shot, this is fairly easy to do. Use bolas and Aimed shot as needed to bring up Fury while enemies are at range, especially if you can do so to put enemies in a straight line for more Crack Shot fun.
Once enemies get into melee, immediately swap to the Longbow and fire off Fan of Fire, then dodge roll backwards and let ‘er rip with Combustive Shot and Arcing Arrow. In PvE, kite around to keep enemies in the Fire field for as long as possible. It doesn’t work as well in PvP because, well, players are smarter than most game AIs.
Just as Combustive Shot is about to wear off, run back into the fire field and use Stomp to sent any survivors scattering and gain a few more stacks of might for the next pull, swapping back to Rifle to finish thing off and gain access to a second Knockback (aside from Kick) if things get hairy.
Speaking of the Knockbacks, they come in extremely handy in Skyhammer, especially paired with your immobilizes. A fun trick is to pile on the Immobs as needed to let yourself get into position to double-KB someone off of a ledge or into a pit your friend just opened up for you.
So that’s the build! What do you all think? How would you tweak it to improve either damage or survivability? I’m not the biggest numbers wizard, so any insight in terms of min/maxing would be hugely appreciated!