Guild Wars 2

Easy go full magi for raids. Get the tinkets from the new maps, and armor from the dungeon AC, from AC you can get exotic magi armor with monk runes directly. So its the fastest and cheapest way of getting a full sett of really good healer gear. A full run will net you over 300 tokens a day. And the cost of a full sett (+ staff) is about 1500. So 5 days worth.

For fracs/dungeons and open world, go berserker or viper. Both setts can also be used as off-healer in raids.

base is only armor/weapons/runes

other: might (25 stacks á 30, 750 condi dmg), food, the 170 from banner, other things I forget right now ^^

MikaDeMika.4369:

That’s good to know. Before I quit playing, berserk meta was everything for every profession which spawned the “if you ain’t doing zerk you ain’t doing it right” mentality, but condi Druid sounds like it could be fun and challenging so I’ll go check it out.
Though, I wonder why there’s been no mentions of Reaver, Guardian or Elementalist.

People where berserk, since you where able to do all the support in berserk. The support was reflects, might/fury buffing, stun break, stealth, etc all stuff you can do in berserker gear.

Now a days, in raids. Its less berserker, but dmg dealers naturally still run dmg and the better your group is, the more people will run full dmg.

Here is a few meta and semi meta builds for different classes, take a look

Meta Chrono (tank): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAse8dncfCFoh9fCmfCEgiFVjiMAGhirOZn2q9MIWipD-TRSBQBfbCClUfBAnEgro8jf7PMxnAAe0PcQVIigSQSBE4UL-e

Semi Meta Chrono (tank): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAse8cncfClfi9fCGoBEgiFVjiMAGhi7MIWiprOZn2qF-TBSBQBkUJIlU/BAnEgJ+EA43+DXU5Fe0PcFlIkCIwxAA-e

Semi Meta Chrono (tank+Healer): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAse8dncfClfi9fCGoBMrhFVjqOZn2qlMAGhi7MIWipD-ThhXABheSA9DQrEEg9H09JAEr6PBr8jUA+N1C-e

Semi Meta Chrono (tank+healer) cheaper version: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAse8dncfClfi9fCGoBMrhFVj6MIWiprOZn2qlMAGhiD-TxhXABxq+TwKLQQpG0KBD9kA6HAY/BdfCAkCIw9WA-e

Meta Druid (condi healer): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAnfVn0rC1siNrAuqAEtiFDBDerGWLrMBg1VDopDEsqalcswA-TBSFQBNU5X70Hok9BAwTAIBnCg+p+z1WYYkKBJFwiKrA-e

Meta Druid (berserker healer): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAsXWn0rC1siFsCuqAEtil9ADOueX3rMXgA2IY52FAGdlI8xA-TRSBABDqJwMlgWcIAe4EAgneAAeAAUq+j+HBgr2fU+RKA9UGB-e

Meta Druid (full healer): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAsXWn0rC1siFsCuqAEtiFDBz511s6Bwb1waZlJAsuaAlI8xA-ThSBQBW4QAMINBLT5HNVCqvjAAe0Dkl9HAwDA4BnAAQp+DpA8bvF-e

Alot more of them, but starting to be a LONG post, so will only list a few more, since you asked about guard, ele and “reaper?” I will list these. If you are looking for something more specific let me know.

Semi Meta DH (dmg support): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS7OnsABddiFCBEEhl4BrKAslKAy7v+3CEbJ8f2CA-ThBBABnpEMPdDB8EAqU9HAuIAYt/o8jUADsrC-e

Semi Meta DH (tank+support): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS7ensABddiFCBmCBkdiFGiSu4P+qHrCSuS4qYbgAA-TxBBABVq+DW7PKxC4JAcmSwuUeknuBAuIAkCYgdVA-e

Semi Meta Temp (healer): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQFAWn0XC9XiVYCGYCcYiFVAjIAsASiFfgIQGwNrOWTrA-TxxGQB1S5Xb0B4RlgKS9Hy9AAGy+DA4CAQKA/2bB-e
Note: carry build for mathias, people cant die

Semi Meta Reaper (condition manegement, mainly at mathias, sloth): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQRBLRtG2JDNQ1NY5mgnNA7NYxYwizhDxjY0PLAcAmSBxgXAA-TBSAQBhUJGFOJARU9nbqEEbKPY4+DA4JAEQ9DkCYRlVA-e

NOTICE that skills (and even traits) naturally can/will change depending on the fight

First all, support builds have always been a part of the gw2 meta, it used to be that you where able to make due with a minimum of support, so your supporters was still running dmg builds while supporting (ps war, guard and mesmer was all 3 clear supporters in the old dungeon/frac meta).

In raids today, the general group will need more support and the builds (and the general meta) have therefore changed. This combined with the strong offensive and defensive effects of the elite specs, this have led to several “mainly support” role in alot of raid groups.

PS war is still 1 of them
Druid, either full magi, condi or berserker
Chrono, either as tank or as second chrono (some also use minstreal here)

Twitch.4635:

but the meta events from my experience over the past 3 weeks are kitten near impossible to complete for whatever reason not enough people or they don’t know or care.
//Twitch

I can tell you that the meta events on ALL of the maps are done every day on multiple overflows at all times of the day.

BUT you generally need to use LFG and then taxi into the map. Also note the event timers: http://gw2.ninja/timer
Start looking for a taxi in lfg 10-15 min. before nightfall in VB, 10-15 min. before challenges in AB. 10-15 min before prep in TD and 10-15 min before start of DS. If no lfg is up, wait a few min and look again

as others have mentioned, for open pve, anything will work. Some things are just faster to kill with then others. That said, I’d recommend going for either a power or a coni build. And picking weapons/armor/traits that fit your choise.

For Power, longbow (or staff) can be a ranged option, and sword/warhorn or sword/axe can be an melee option. The warhorn is imo nice due to swiftness
Armor stats can here be: berserker, or if you have problem surviving, something more tanky.

For condi, shortbow is a good ranged option, and axe/torch is nice for melee (or close to melee)
Armor stats can be viper. Worth knowing, condi duration food is alot more importent then any power food. A condi build simply get more out of using food then a power build, so even a cheap food is worth using if you pick a condi build.

Other things worth noting is buffs, it will generally always be worth using tiger (fury) as one of your 2 pets.

We always have a druid (full magi heal) with us when we do it. Best heal/buffer in game.
Bring spotter, frost spirit and GoE, + GotL naturally to buff the rest. And Heal like insane.

On second boss, the 66% and 33%, druid join chrono on 1 of them, and the other 3 take 1 each.

ohh and the perma proc from traited stone spirit.. so nice

Just to be sure, you do know about taxi right? About right clicking on the commander and picking “join in xxx map”. Not being sarcastic

Else as stated, its more often a lack of commanders then people (often the commander dont even need to do anything, just be a tag). I blame it on “/how many others are in this map” mentality, 99% of people will asume that a map is emty if there are no tags, even if its a 95% full map

Solo classes:

Dungeons: All classes, know your class and all can do it. The build will depend on the dungeon and the path. Bevare a few cant be soloed, like CoE and some will take more skill then others.
I recommend on starting with an easy one like CM P1 or P3.

Fractals: same same same

Raids: I have seen a duo escort, and a trio VG, but a solo.. VG can as stated in teory be soloed. But it will take hours without doing any mistakes. GL ^^

AliamRationem.5172:

I’m capable of doing T3/T4 fractals and have the AR for it. However, I’m fairly new to fractals and found (understandably!) that groups of experienced players don’t take the time to explain fractal mechanics and instead plow through it, leaving me in the dark as to what they’re doing in places such as Thaumanova Reactor.

So, the past few days I decided to learn the basics myself by advertising tier 1 fractals in LFG with the tag “New Players Welcome!”. As it happens, not only was I able to learn how the puzzles and boss mechanics work in most of these fractals, I ended up getting at least 1 ascended ring drop each day.

If I’m getting these in tier 1, I imagine your luck in tier 4 must be substantially better. You must not be running many fractals to end up with nothing at all over months of play.

I know this stricly is not the topic but, king made a really REALLY good fractal guide (its a few month old and small things have changed but): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1R-GiMTON4&list=PLu6e24dQtVRdg1ihFaUnTiRLcAQ5OOr-f

Here are my 2 DH tank builds for raids (very similar)

On VG I go:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS8ensABlChddCGCBkdiFGi6qYbgAArCSuSQu4P+qH-TxBBABB8EAwa/RJWXKPyT3AAXEgKV/5MlgkBQfBA-e

And on gors:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS8ensABlChddCGCBkdil4BDbJ8f2CVBgtU9Se/1/WgA-TxBBAB5pboLlHYt/oELgnAAAXEgzUCWp6PkCYgFAA-e

Pros:
– Close to max dmg output
– Over 1400 thoughness, letting your war’s ress without taking agro
– Perma proc to 5 people
– Tons of cc
– Aegis for blue circles on VG and stomps on gors
– Small but nice extra heal for 5 people to make scholar buff easyer
– EASY rotation (more or less just 1111) letting you focus 100% on tanking/mechanics

Cons:
– You lose abit more dmg from tanking on DH compared to what a chrono lose, but since the rotation is so easy its easy and let your chronos focus on rotation.
– not meta, so harder to get a pug group to take you

Extra:
– Notice the difference between the VG and the gors build. The VG build is less dmg, but more tanky. And ill let you tank at VG even if your healer ignore you. At gors you take less dmg and can therefore take the build with more dmg and less tankyness.
– In swap I placed svord/shild, you can take any other weapon like scepter, mace, focus, torch and what you want here depend on the fight and your group. You will be on hammer 99% of the time though so….

I have also been tanking at VG (and a few other bosses) on DH, prob the easyest class to tank on.

Hammer proc so OP ^^

On VG I go:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS8ensABlChddCGCBkdiFGi6qYbgAArCSuSQu4P+qH-TxBBABB8EAwa/RJWXKPyT3AAXEgKV/5MlgkBQfBA-e

And on gors:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS8ensABlChddCGCBkdil4BDbJ8f2CVBgtU9Se/1/WgA-TxBBAB5pboLlHYt/oELgnAAAXEgzUCWp6PkCYgFAA-e

This build leave you close to max dmg, and super tanky so that you cant die, even if your healers ignore you. Rotation is 11111111 on hammer, letting you use all your attention on mechanics. You bring tons of cc and aegis and perma proc for all.

(edit: wrong food)

Are you talking open world?, since in org. groups you already will generate 25 stacks of might, so you dont really gain anything from sigil of strength.

If for open world, then I guess it might be more dmg then force, but why even driop force for it. Drop the air sigil. Or did you droop that one for accuracy since this is prob the best pick when soloing.

Personally I rarely optimise for solo play

Rauderi.8706:

Sigfodr.9576:

Personally I had to spend a lot more kittining time of kitten minigames things to get my mastery points. I did not find that fun, but needed the points to be able to raid.

When you put it that way, I’m inspired to rally the guild for whatever this Escort thingy is, slap “NOOB RUN” on the LFG and make it happen.

Because I remember the literal hour of fuming, spitting, and ranting from Sanctum Scramble. And that was, in theory, one of the Adventures that I liked (blah blah marred by unsmooth design choices blah blah).

Happy to hear. And if you are EU and want a hand, drop me a whisper and I will be happy to join and give a hand

Djinn.9245:

If raids are so easy and people are completing with 4 people, why are some raid leaders charging 100g for a boss so people can open this Mastery? If its so easy why not let anyone in your raid?

If you are willing to pay 100g for escort, then… I dont even know. I have pugged this “boss” alot of times, mainly in “ALL welcome” runs and depending on the time of day (or night) the group fill in 5-15 min (also at night), and ALWAYS make it. Sometimes it takes 30 min to make it, sometimes it go faster, but I have literally only been in 1 failed escort and that was with 6 of the people joining to be so drunk that they where not able to do anything.

If you actually care about the xp (spiritsharts) then join 1 of the “all welcome” groups, or make yourown and do it. If 30 min. of your life is more then you are willing to spend, then you dont really care about it.

Personally I had to spend alot more kittining time of kitten minigames things to get my mastery points. I did not find that fun, but neded the points to be able to raid.

If you have problems, my exp. is that the best carry is a full magi heal temp, slotting “cleansing waters” from water traitline. Overload water is now a super strong condi cleanse that let you ignore shakes completely. (have the temp stand on sloth and jump up/down during shake).

make sure the temp healer is in a group alone, no reason to buff him and he need to be able to heall all.

Though I as a general rule agree that RNG is not desired in raids, I dont think any of the current raid bosses have RNG to a point where it become a problem (KC being the only one that is even close).

To the specific given ex. with VG blue in green circles, here is abit of help to how to solve it

Many dont know that you can block or invuln blue circles, you can however both, therefore any of the following things work:

1) Have a DH in the green group and have him use “Shield of courage” or “Retreat” just before the blue circles pop. this will block the telepor from happening.

2) Have a Chrono in the green group and have him use distortion just before blue circle pop, notice that he need to run the “Inspiring Distortion” trait from “Inspiration” traitline. If he also run “Blurred Inskription” from the “Domination” traitline, then he can just use a signet to trigger the distortion. Notice that the distortion only last 1 sec on allies so he need to use it just before blue pop.

3) Jump, if you jump when blue pop you still take the dmg from the blue circle, but you do not get teleportet. can be a last resort.

4) Blue always pop before green, so you can stay outside the circle and then fast walk in after blue have popped.

5) Ignore that specific green circle and stack close to the boss, then have 2 tempists use “Rebound” (1 temp pr. group), this way noone die from the missed green circle and your healer can fast heal you all back up to full hp.

6) Ignore that specific green circle and stack close to the boss, then have 2 chronos (1 in each group) use distortion just before green circle pop. Now you dont take any dmg from the missed green. Notice the same things as in 2) about distortion.

GL

No 1 build sry

http://qtfy.enjin.com/ranger have all of them, and what a pug group will want/prefer will depend on how good they are (or think they are) and what wing/boss you want to kill.

Generally

Wing 1: 1 full heal (magi) and 1 condi (viper) or if the group is really good/bad 2 of either.

Wing 2: 1 full heal (magi and 1 power (berserker) or if the group is really good/bad 2 of either.

Wing 3: 1 full heal (magi and 1 power (berserker) or if the group is really good/bad 2 of either.

Some will pref. zealot over magi, though I have never seen a reason or any good arguments for this.

As a general rule, they are weaker them “normal” skills. But from patch to patch a few of them sometimes become worth using.

From a raid/fractal point of wiew:
– Sylvari: Take Root, is a very high dmg skill atm for several (condi) classes
On condi necro its centesting with Flesh Golem, golem win on cc, but is alot less dmg.
On condi ranger/druid its Entangle or GoU, for entangle the argument is the cc/immob, GoU is a GotL stack + faster regain of CA. But again Take Root is higher dmg.

- Asura: Radiation Field, Mainly for condi Necro if you dont have a 3’th skill worth taking, this is rare, but can happen.

- Human: Avatar of Melandru, Not for any class specific (though mainly used on tempist). For Gorseval if you dont have any other soft cc’s for holding spirits, AoM can hold all 4 spirits for a LONG time with the Binding Root skill

I think thats about it

Short version. The dmg diff. is very small. But for raids thorns runes give more dmg and for open world/fractals berserker runes give more dmg.

The reason is that you need to get 3+ stacks on thorns runes for them to be worth it, and that mainly happen in raids where you have a passive dmg tick on you. Other places you will normally not get hit enough to trigger the 3+ stacks and hence berserker runes will pull ahead.

Notice that you want to have different sigils depending on your choise, for:
– Thorns runes you want: Agony and either earth or Geo sigils.
– Berserker runes you want malice and either earth or Geo sigils.
Both ways you will cap on poison and bleed duration.

Lendruil.9061:

nagr.1593:

Sloth, I dunno that it matters overmuch tbh since u can still cleave adds long as they get pulled in. It’s not ur job to pull in mobs. Also I take shroom as ps so I’m not rly useful there except for banners and stuff

If you eat shrooms as warrior then your group doesnt get your banners and ea, but you are actually buffing the boss.

For some reason I still meet alot of people that dont know this. But its fairly simple if you think about it. You are on same team as sloth. So naturally your buffs also help sloth ^^ Thats why you generally leave slub duty to temps/thiefs/DH’s

The same at matt btw, when you are getting sacrificed. We had a chrono get sacrified a few weeks back, just after he used his reflect (in matt’s invuld bubble part), this made the reflect nolonger reflect. Since now the chrono (and therefore his reflect) and matt was on same team

Not worth it to use viper, sinister still better for condi temp

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAodn0XCNNglNAGNA8RgFBAzN1ObztBBgCwBoYT2GSDA-TBCBQBTT9nI8AAemeAAcCA8oSoqp8hmKBdx+DkCYRlVA-e

will give you about 30k dps, its abit lower then condi ranger and condi engi. And as squishe as berserker temp. So the reason to play it is.. but if you like it and think its fun, then its a good dmg build that easy can take a dmg spot in raids.

Make suse to NEVER leave fire attunement, use 3+4 off cd, and press 7+8+9 any time you can also. Your fgs you only drop to use nr. 2 skill. Make sure to drop it (and use nr. 2 skill) before using overload fire, this way your overload do more dmg, and you can use nr. 2 again after the overload as its off cd again.

Variation:
scepter not dagger main hand. This cost you some dmg, but not alot. And the benefit is that you are ranged (helps for greens at VG), and you now have a blast finisher to help with might/fury stacking. This can be helpfull at any boss where your war can have a few sec down time or where you run condi war.

Warhorn not focus in off-hand, focus 4 is a huge dmg dealer, but it cover a small area, so if the boss move abit, it can be hard to hit. Warhorn can here can the help as the aoe is alot larger. Just bevare, the dmg will drop.. alot. A small saving grace for warhorn is nr. 4 that share might/fury to group. This can often make it possible for your druid to drop tiger for large parts of the fight if your group strugle with cc.

TLDR: Less dmg then other condi builds, and less dmg then power temp. But still a ok option for a dmg build. Just NEVER leave fire attunement ^^

when we got that frac. I was hoping for a toxic-node in homeinstance. Able to get it from bling after having done lvl 100 or 100 challenge mode. Cost.. whatever anet think its worth

I guess I can still dream about them doing this ^^

Great, one of the very few PvE changes in the patch is a hard nerf to guard :/ going from 100 insta cc points down to 75 points over 1,5 sec…

well as we all know, all raid/fractal group only accept guards, we need that nerf to make room for atleast a few temps.. or wait.. what?

For fractals/dungeons and open PvE, GS is good for guard. The pull on gs5 is really nice at stacking mobs and the dmg is good (though not quite sword/scepter+torch). If your fractal group dont have a mesmer (chrono), it will often be your job to pull mobs so DD/tempist can effectively blind and then nuke down them.

The reason its not used in raids is the longer fight time, where a boss fight easy take several minutes and here both hammer and sword/scepter/torch pull away in damage. But the shorter fights of fractals/dungeons/open world make the burst from gs competiple. With the added support from a pull. GS + either sword/torch or scepter/torch is often a good choice

Though I personally dont have a problem with seperating raid masterys from the rest. The way we have it now, is a design choise that also make sence. It is a soft way to “force” into giving raids a go, just like we have with ALL other game modes. Give WvW a go to get gift of battle, or give LW a go to get gliding etc etc etc.

You might like that design choice or not. All that said, the problem is fairly easy to solve as several others have pointed out. Do escort (some call it siege), I dont believe there is a lvl 80 thats not able to complete escort. I have done it with people of all skill levels, ranging from very skilled players to, can barely do open world bosses like maw. The only time I have not been able to complete escort I had a group where 7 of them was so drunk that they popped auto run and heeded directly for a mine (every single time for 20 min.).

About the “noone will join me” argument, last time I did it, it was a lfg made at 3 AM on a week day, and it took 30 min to fill. Text was “Escort: ALL welcome”. I was able to log mesmer for port, so I guess it had been abit harder if not for this. But you might need to start a lfg youself, though job I know, but if you cant even do that to get the kill, Then I dont really feel for you. sorry

I have just done the last story step, 3 times and every single time the endboss agro on garm. And since garm cant die. The agro dont change. End result, start over and hope its fixed. After 3 attempts however, I dont really feel like doing it anymore.

Hi

Though I agree it is abit silly that xp gain is closed of without the raid masterys. This is how anet have decided it to be. I assume it simply is ment as a small incentive to raid. Just like there are tons of incentives to do PvP, WvW and Open PvE content. Like you need to do DS to get currency for your legendary etc.

However, You are lucky, the sulution is simple, just take 30 min out of your time and do Siege (some also call it escort). This raid “boss” is really simple, and you dont need to have super gear, skill or anything else to complete it. Plenty of lfg’s for it also (or start your own lfg). Takes 30 min tops (also counting the time to find people and gather up).

Sykper.6583:

Condi Ranger takes up a healing slot since the druid nerfs. It is why we don’t see 4 Ranger comps in Raids. Necro Epidemic Bouncing on top of their overall utility with CCs and condition pulling/transferring puts them as the condition profession to stack.

Just to make sure, we are talking condi RANGER, and not condi druid..
You will (generally) always run 2 druids in a comp, for GotL etc, but mainly for wing 1, having a condi ranger as the condi dmg is really good (and alot more dmg then necro).

Notice that the weapons/gear/tinkets are the same for condi druid and condi ranger. And its only the traits theat changes. This however change the class from a off-support build with abit of dmg to a super dmg build with low support. A good ex to show what traits mean ^^

It really depend on what kind of content you like to do. Lets take an exp.

You like to do open world events/map clear/world bosses:
Ele die easy (untill you learn how to place yourself), but do insane dmg. this can be done in anything from 0-1200 range. (with staff)

Ranger (longbow) will do alot less dmg, but is also alot more tanky and have a pet to tank for you.

Engi, can be tanky but can also die from anything. Can do good dmg but can also be useless. Engi can be hard to play, but played well is amasing.

All 3 classes can be used with good effect in all kinds of gamemode. Give them all a go and see what you like. And dont be scared of making all 3

For open world? Pick whatever you want, it dont matter

For WvW? dont know sry.

For Fractals/raids? When you do content with others, it is generally polite to be useful and not just be carryed. For Guard this mean full berserker (of if you are really bad on you class some marauder)

DH is not a bad tank in raids, many groups prefer a chrono, but DH have many benefits and the dmg loss is minimal. So what to bring?

This is my “My healer hate me and dont want to heal me” build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS5ensABVdiddCGCBkdiFGiCrCSuSQu4P+q/qYbgAA-TxBBABB8EAqU9Hs2fUiAwFBoLlXnpEMPdDkBQfBA-e

If my healer dont hate me, and actually heal me, then:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS5ensABVdiddCGCBkdil4BTe/1/WgYLh/zWoKAslqXA-TxBBABB8EAA4iAknuhKV/5MlgYt/oEpLlXkBQfBA-e

When you get better, use “Bowl of seaweed salad” as food.

Why is this a good tank build? several reason:
1) perma protection for yourself and anyone else close by
2) small extra healing for the group to top people off
3) aegis for those pesky blue circkles at VG or slams at gors. Swap a trap for retreat when needed.
4) Easy rotation, so you can focus on tanking.
5) no chrono tank, so your chrono can focus on buffing.
6) dmg is not bad, the dmg loss from running DH as tank is there, but its less then if your chrono make rotation mistakes due to focusing on tanking. So the overall group dps often come out on the positive side. Unless you have a REALLY good chrono tank.
7) CC heaven, you bring ALOT of cc, so your group will more or less never have cc problems.

Rotation, btw is: 1111111111111111111111111111111 (add in putting down traps and pressing F1 when you can. Just make sure to get your 3’th AA off to get the big dmg and protection from the symbol), then 111111111111 again

you might want to add “solo roaming WvW”

I do T4’s every day. And often also some lower lvl ones. I am yet to find a class that dont work in fractals. I do however recommend to learn what your class do. What kind of skills do you have etc.

It always saddens me when I see an ele that dont know what blind is (glyph of storms in earth attunement) or a guard that dont use wall of reflection when an enemy use ranged attacks on your group.

We all need to learn what our class do, and low lvl fracs are a good place. But pls spend 2 min. to mouse over your skill and read what it do ^^

For open world/fractal/raid? if so:

1) yes, a berserker sett with scholar runes will fit and work for all 3 classes. (you will need to run different food on the 3 though)

2) for raids, yes. Generally all groups run 2 wars, where guard and rev are less used. And more depend on the rest of the group composition. If you are new to raids (I assume you are), then war will prob be the easyest way to get a spot. When you get better a guard is often really good and can do alot for the group. And (atm) rev is kinda niche.

3) condi sett for war is good, for some groups. But it generally take better groups that already know what they are doing. A normal power war is the “safe” pick.

For a sec there I thought you ment the other way around. I/we often have a “looking for opener for xxx-boss” in the lfg. We might want to train mathias, but have already killed him. So to skip sloth/trio and get some time in on mathias, we ask for a nice person to open for us. We normally dont mention any reward, but normally just send 1-2 gold as a ty

I’d also enjoy more of them. But if you read forum, it seems harder content is the dead of gw2. No more raids, no more T4 fracs, no more hard anything. Since hard = toxic = gw2 will die… or something.. not sure how it works. Since I am busy doing raids and T4’s every day

Though I think the sPvP gear system is good and can work for raids, I dont see it implemented. The games economy will be effected to hard that.. That said I dont think it will have any effect on the forum complaints either.

You can already raid fine in exo. And its not that hard to get exo armor/weapons.

In my normal monday group (fairly exp. group), we run 1 magi and 1 full dmg druid. This give us plenty of heal, making if safe so small mistakes are not noticed and just as importent GotL for all.

Why not zealot? well why use zealot? the extra dmg is minimal (REALLY minimal) and if your group need that extra dmg (and you are not doing a record run) then you need to bring them all into the training golem and learn rotations. The magi can however make you survive ressing the fool that went down in poison (extra hp giving you time to ress him) or something similar and therefore save the run.

All groups make mistakes and if you are not going for a record run, then getting the kill with 1 min left or 61 sec left is not really that importent. Wiping and having wasted 3-5 min due to some stupid mistake however..

So why not go 2 full magi?, well going from full magi to full dmg is a huge dps gain. So here its worth it (imo). And the second druid is not really there to heal, but mainly to apply GotL (and spotter, fury and spirit buffs). Thats only why a dmg druid normally run scholar runes (if power) and dmg food.

If you are in a really good group, run 2 full dmg. But imo its not worth it unless you are doing a record run

not a bug (as far as we know atlest), all movement skills work this way. You can also use it in 3rd person by lookiing from above. Used in several build to improve dmg, and other places to move faster, move less.

Morty.4721:

Fair points. I am indeed playing mostly solo. So far, the build is field-testing well, especially when I added Signet of Resolve and Renewed Focus for stun-breaking and a panic button like you suggested.

I realize that hammer isn’t really the best weapon in the guardians’ lineup, but I felt like giving it a try. I like trying out new combinations – the reason I dropped my mace/shield set-up is a change of pace, since it worked well enough. I do plan to try sword+focus later, though.

hammer is not bad, the dmg is very good (2’nd best dmg build for DH is with hammer), and the protection is amazing. Main problem is the ramp up time and many mobs die before you really start doing max dmg

For open world, play anything you think is fun, it all work

For raids, DH is actually a really good tank (though not often used), for VG, Gors and KC its a strong and safe tank. That allow your chrono/chrono’s to focus on buffing and running full dmg. (I dont know about xera but I assume it will also work there).

However, you still want to do dmg so depending on the rest of the group a few small changes can be needed. Here are a few build, going from Very tanky —> less tanky

When your healer ignore you and dont want to heal you at all, then go: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS7ensABVdiddCGCBkdiFGiCrCSuSQu4P+q/qYbgAA-TBCBABbp0AgLCQAPBg80N0lyszUCi1+DVq+DpAGYBA-e

When you still need to be super tanky but your healer actually heal you:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS7ensABVdiddCGCBkdil4BrKAslqXy7v+3CEbJ8f2CA-TBCBAB5pbYLlGYt/wZKBrU9nAeCAAcRA6SZGpAGYBA-e

When you learn to tank and dodge/block when needed:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAS7ensABVdiddCGCBkdil4BTe/1/WgVBgtU9CbJ8f2CA-TxBBABVq+zWKNyT3QAPBAs2fUmBwFB4MlgkCYgFAA-e

stay on hammer and auto attack 99% of the time. Make sure to finish your 3’th AA before you use traps/F1 so you can provide protection to yourself and everyone else.

Generally groups prefer chrono tank, but DH is a safe pick if the group strugle. Also since its rotation is 99% AA’s so you can focus on tanking without having to think about anything else.

juno.1840:

Rebound is not the best skill to use a benchmark. Some quick thoughts:

1. The cast time on Rebound! makes it hard to use
2. The window for death-blow prevention is small
3. The fall-back effect (aura) doesn’t occur until 5 seconds after using the shout

Most players I know would like to see the skill become instant cast and provide the aura immediately. The death blow effect can be scrapped or made supplemental to the primary behavior.

Death-blow prevention is not that great in GW2 because it simply delays the outcome of a very bad situation. Also death-blow prevention on a skill that’s not instant-cast makes it very difficult to use (cast too late, cast too early, easily interrupted).

I think you only think about PvP, in both open and instanced PvE its an amasing skill and you can use it to take a fatel blow and still survive.
To give a few ex. : green circle at vale guardian, have 2 temps pop it and ignore green. Used many places, just requere people know what to do. And the casting time is not really a problem there since you just need to know the mechanicks

Moonsinn.5382:

I actually think the passive heal isn’t too bad with some healing power now. The active heal’s cast time is still way too long, though, and roots you. It’s absolutely worthless in all game modes, especially with the cd.

main problem imo is the 10 sec interval. 10 sec is just way to long to be usefull. If I was able to change it to 1 heal every 2 sec and it healed 10% of what it do now. (effectivly 50% of the total heal over a 10 sec interval) then that be a trade I’d take any day.

for max dps, all zerker or full zerker minus 1 shoulder being assassin. Scholar runes (prob not for wvw, but for pve).

For dmg, you might want to test out sword/axe or sword/warhord over the gs. But gs is a fun weapon ^^

Traits:
Marksmanship: 321
Skirmishing: 111
and then depending on whether you want to run druid or not. either
Beastmastery: 222 or druid: 221 or 231

Erocy.3869:

Here is a screenshot http://puu.sh/saUr8/efe64be87e.jpg. I dont have full infusions so the actual dps is even a bit higher.

The dps difference of thorns runes with 0 stacks and the nightmare/trapper setup is about 1,3k. As i said bevore 3 thorns stacks will push it to the same dmg as nightmare/trapper(32k) and every additional stack will make it better then the nightmaree/trapper variant.

The sigils in the thorns setup are: agony/geomancy. Smoldering isn’t worth taking.

okay.. here you are comparing ALL buffs (your link) with 32k realistic buffs. If you want to do the comparison, then you need to have the same conditions

The ranger dps with all buffs is 35,7k. However I will recommend to do a run with realistic buffs, either with or without alacrity.

Bast Bow.2958:

About rune of the krait on the Vipers Raid build. I was wondering yesterday how that would be less effective in raids than 4x nightmare and 2x trapper? Considering everything krait offers: +% duration bleeds (don’t we deal most dmg via bleeds?) +condi dmg. Keep popping your elite: bleed, torment (how good/bad is torment on raid bosses, anyone?) and poison which all sync well with our traits for specific condi dmgs (SK bleefd, WS poison).

Maybe I’m missing something obvious.

PS sorry for a bit off topic

About 40% or so of the condi dmg is burning. So only having bleed duration will hurt your dmg hard.

And about rabid, some bosses in raids and even in fractals agro the player with highest thoughness. So running rabid will make you the tank. Not really what you want.

Erocy.3869:

Thorns runes are better for Condi Ranger in raids. At 3 thorns stacks their dps is about the same. At 4/5 stacks thorns does higher dps.

I am going to assume you mis-read it as necro. Since they will gain from running thorns runes in raids. Ranger/druid on the other hand loose alot from running thorn.

Why? simple, thorn only provide poison duration, and ranger/druid is not able to get close to 100% condi duration without help from runes. With thorns you will get the poison duration to over 100%, but both bleeding and burning (your 2 main dmg conditions in a ranger/druid build) will only be at 72%, or at 92% if you sacrifise geo AND eath sigils for smoldering and agony. Both choises are HUGE dmg loss. I dont have the math atm, but I will guess at about 5-8k less dmg then with the normal Nightmare/Trapper settup.

Hi

First off, where and for what do you plan to use it? PvP, WvW, open PvE, instanced PvE (dungeons/fractals) or raids? Depending on where and for what, the “optimal” build will differ alot.

If its for open world PvE or fractals/raids, condi ranger and condi druid are both super meta (and have been so for along time). Full viper gear/weapons and tinkets. 4 nightmare runes and 2 trapper runes.
The druid build is strong damage and heal nicely (support others with GotL, spotter and spirits).
The ranger (dropping druid traitline for beastmastery traitline) is the highest dmg build for condi builds atm. Easyer rotation then engi and more dmg.

magi if your group need you to heal, berserker/viper if you want to do dmg.

Problem is the staff, if you want to heal, then staff is the go to weapon, but it scale very porly with power so your gain from zealot is more or less null.

When you dont need to heal (or be the main healer), then you go berserker/viper and use your avatar for healing and here you lose alot of dmg by going zealot.