Guild Wars 2

im trying out various ways to “sustain healing” in some dungeons, fractals, but no raids and mostly general pve (specifically large group events and events that benefit or require npcs to stay alive)

assuming i have:

-signet of the wild
-health regenerating per second food
-staff + longbow with piercing arrows
- “Guard!” with 10s of regeneration
- Sylvan hound regeneration
-environment with multiple mobs to hit multiple times with my longbow and staff

how fast can i generate astral force?

I understand druids are considered to be burst healers, but i was just wondering (before i commit to leveling one to lvl 80 and unlocking full druid) if those situations were in play, how fast can i generate astral force and become a high sustain healer trough regular bursts?

can also knock the pet far far away and stomp the ranger before the pet returns to lick wounds

Fluffball.8307:

Vukorep.3081:

signets dont have stunbreak but has 0 damage for 6 seconds.

SoR is a stun break. It’s one of our best skills.

Oh sorry, my bad. So rangers signets have a stunbreak as well as a 6second invulnerability for both pet and ranger.

Gwaihir.1745:

Anet has inconsistencies like this all over. Doubt any of them ever get fixed or created since they seem to be struggling with content creation.

theres nothing to be “fixed” with all professions having 3 elites, 4 healing skills and 20 utilities.

The only inconsistency is the engineer that has 4 utility types instead of the regular 5, but then again he does have his toolbelt skills so i guess he does kinda have 5.

should we get more skils? yeah..and we do get them trough elite specializations.

By the way does anyone remember the Antitoxin Spray healing skill? https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Antitoxin_Spray

also, some skills still dont have a “type” (shelter guardian healing skill for example) even after the specialization patch where they removed and changed certain skills so they can “fit in” within a type.
An example would be rangers “we heal as one” and “strength of the pack!” turning into shouts, or guardians elite tomes turning into a signet.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tome_of_Courage
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tome_of_Wrath

survival has 2, shouts have 1, they are also very defensive.
signets dont have stunbreak but has 0 damage for 6 seconds..
theres even a glyph with a stunbreak

sooo youre saying rangers should have stunbreaks on all types of skills?

we also dont have a signet elite but oh well

Conjured weapons are bundles, multiple of the same bundles share their cooldowns.

imagine a warrior drops 2 banners, picks one up, uses aoe fury and swiftness, drops it, picks another one and casts another aoe swiftness, then picks up the first banner and casts fury and swiftness back…

and yes, tons of burst cc with specific conjured weapons, including also, using shield for 6 seconds of invulnerable (which reminds me, why dont people use this instead of arcane shield? :P)

All cities can go trough a portal into lions arch, and from there into other cities. However f2p players have a restriction of lvl 35 to be able to enter lions arch.

If you are trying to simply go to another starting zone there should be 1 waypoint right outside the city from all starting zone regardless

Besides the obvious “its an mmo with thousands of people and it has lore and story” and “its just a game” i try to look at it like this:

-I create a new character who lives in the current timeline,the timeline of whatever current up to date living world season is (why? cause only those actually change my enviroment such as brisban wildlands, lornars pass, kessex hills, lions arch ect)

-The world it self is set up in such a way that it has its own lore,stuff thats going on (dynamic events and renown hearts) which doesnt really interfear with the living world much.

-When i go play my PERSONAL zhaitan story its just that.Im playing in a old flashbacky timeline in a instanced zone. Heck even when you enter lions arch with destinys edge you play in the old lions arch.

-When i play with another player who is a dragon slayer ex commander newly baby dragon trainer in the world doing guild missions or dungeons…well…nothing changes.. he still acts the same way as i do.. so whats the point?

your pistol 5 black powder skill is a pulsating blind field.
You can use your bow auto attacks to pull a bunch of mobs to come to you, use black powder to permanently blind them and auto attack them away with your main hand (preferably sword)

This is very useful in some dungeons as well where there are tons of normal mobs stacked on a single spot. Does not work very well with bosses tho.

You can use leaps such as dagger 2 heartseeker trough such black powder to stealth.
Dont worry if you hit something with your heartseeker at the end of your leap, you will hit them and go stealth.

(if you have gliding mastery) You can use gliding to stealth in air, dropping on the ground will apply revealed effect on you for a few seconds. You can use this with your trait Revealing training which gives you +200 power while revealed. Might be a nice boost for engaging combat.

You can kinda sorta perma stealth using cloak and dagger if you time it really really good. Make sure you are using shadow arts for that extra +1second stealth.
You simply spam it, use it once, and start casting it just before you exit stealth. With some practice and timing you will hit the enemy with cloak and dagger just as you exit the stealth and it wont trigger revealed effect cause you didnt hit it during stealth.

You can also use “non direct damage” damage skills to kill things while permanently stealthed this way such as caltrops or caltrops on dodge.

btw i also made a frosty skinned sylvari ele, but thats just cause im using it as a challenge character where i have to go trough all shiverpeak zones from lvl 1-80 and no other zones.

So i thought id make him frosty looking considering he " awakened and wondered off to slay a dragon (champion of jormag)"

The theory is that a lot of sylvari elementalists are pale/white.
Your sylvari is one of them.

Anyone else?

Just a quick question i was wondering about.

Those who play Sylvari elementalists, what “skin” color did you go with, regardless of gender, and why?

Im really curious , and i wanna see if my observations and theory are true

works just fine with my tempest.

tried on healing rain, lava font, overload fire. also tried the arcane brilliance healing skill just in case if you ment that one.

Were does it not work for you?

this has been asked for numerous times.

Simply allowing everyone to use any skin from any armor type will add serious clipping issues as well as invisible hollow body parts.
An example would be one pants that are a little bit under the hips and using heavy chest armor that is to hips. most likely you wont see your skin between those 2.

Please spend 2 hours naked in front of the bank wardrobe and try all skins in the game available for your character and create your self a few sets of “perfect” outfits. You will be satisfied 100%

staff revenants arent dervishes, reapers in reaper shroud are.

Cooler idle animations would be nice, guess they just went with the default melee 2h weapon animation from hammer. maybe one day.

Nusku.3941:

reikken.4961:

for an option purely in game that you can grind all day any time, gathering is 15-20g/h iirc

You do not make 20g/h gathering plz.

“Timberline falls 20 minute
Harathi 5 minutes
Bloodtide coast 15minutes
(shatterer boss zone,forgot the name) 25minute
Total= 23.46 gold in 55minutes (19.94g after tax)”

Check my reply a few posts up

i get about 93k (not counting the karma i loose when creating gifts) karma in about a bit less than 10 minutes on my dragon hunter orphan run. I say dragon hunter cause i know thieves and daredevils can do it much faster.

I use guild hall boost, food ,utility, 50% karma booster (i hoarded them back in the day as well as when i lvl up new characters), 10% wintersday daily booster and sometimes i find a 10% banner.

Its definently worth it, after doing the run i go for the wintersday jp and a few bell choir runs till the diminishing return kicks in (i get 10k per jp run and the same as bell choir).

in pve exploring everything that lets you kill and not die works.

In pve dungeons, fractals try to focus on dps and specific utility on specific situations like using a ventari projectile barrier when there are tons of dangerous projectiles all the time.

In WvW it depends on your role. Scout, roamer, front,middle or back of the zerg or maybe a commander?

In pvp you use pvp amulet and pvp runes and pvp weapon sigils. Your pve gear means absolutely nothing in this part of the game.
While Mettabattle.com has some nice builds for you to get started with in pvp you still have to understand your own class, the classes you are facing in pvp, the roles and objectives of the pvp match as well as enemy movement.
And then there is also the part where you actually need to have skill in order to be somewhat good (this applies to all professions, do not behave or play pvp as you would in pve)

most “casual” farming and gold making can earn from 10-25 gold per hour depending on how efficient you are.

The first thing that comes to mind when reading your criteria is farming crafting materials such as platinum, seasoned and hard wood. even iron ore.

there are web pages with routes that you can go trough and using a high mobility fast character such as a thief that has permanent swiftness as well as teleports makes things super fast.

About 6 months ago hardwood and seasoned wood was the most profitable item on the tp and i tried all map routes with them and these are my resoult on a regular thief (not daredevil) :

Timberline falls 20 minute
Harathi 5 minutes
Bloodtide coast 15minutes
(shatterer boss zone,forgot the name) 25minute

Total= 23.46 gold in 55minutes (19.94g after tax)

Can use the other 5minutes for a short break, take a drink,walk around, resuply on gathering tools, switch to another character and do the whole thing again.

By the time you finish it with a 2nd character the nodes will respawn and you can go back to your first character

I noticed activating a herald skill creates some sort of music i heard somewhere before and then it hit me, Glint and her lair back in guild wars prophecies.

- Original soundtrack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCpdHdw31qE – The one from Season 2 living world
Later i found someone even made a video about it as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySl6cBlMl0w

I know mesmers has its own special musical box soundtrack but the heralds sound is super subtle and it did took me a while. Nice job sneaking this in anet

glorious armor are Exotic quality. Besides the lvl 78 crafted exotic backpacks no other exotic gear can be sloted with infusions..

You can however get an ascended armor piece,infuse it and just change its skin into the glorious ones if you want

I replied in a few posts back to someone who asked if my build would be possible without commanders gear. Yes it can be done, in multiple different ways even. Using Sigils of concentration, using lots of platinum doubloons, or with your example relying on soothing bastion. But trying to make a substitute or changing anything from my set up will change the build in many ways.The only positive thing ive seen with substitutes you guys have shown me was extra critical damage… but you traded it for lower critical chance, lower fury upkeep, restrictive 2ndary stances (you can use any you wish with my build), lower quickness upkeep (or a very restrictive quickness 100% upkeep such as seen in your build there).

My build lets you toggle on and off 100% quickness upkeep, lets you pick any 2ndary weapon and stance, the 100% boon duration simply gives you much freedom and puts you in a comfort zone with quickness and 100% critical hit which you can use to focus on whatever you think is best in any situation.

Kevin.5980:

2.2k atk, 2.7k armour, 80% duration (with an 20% boon duration food), 84% crit chance with fury, 200% crit damage,70% protection uptime or more. (Runes of durability actually gives about 7s, facet of nature gives about 9s, shield4 gives about 5s with soothing bastion)

Your fury seems to only come from switching legends and one with nature, which isnt bad but it feels a bit restricting.
Doesn’t Soothing bastion increase the boon duration after you use the skill? Meaning if you want to increase protection from shield 4 you have to use shield 5 first. Or apply protection via facet of chaos/nature and then use shield 4/5 (both of which have quite a cooldown and energy cost)
Runes of durability apply randomly and it has a 20 second cd…
Wont focusing on protection upkeep (even tho you are already at 2800ish armor+hardening persistence) as well as trying to balance shield skills cooldown in order to achieve 100% quickness upkeep be a dps loss?

True, my build only has about 8 seconds of protection (without herald) but i can use dwarven stance to toggle on and off 20% condition/damage reduction +small heals, i can use rite of the great dwarf (multiple times, as well as get 20s of fury from it) for another 50% dmg reduction and all that without any restrictions or limitations or dps loss.

Also 84%crit chance… but you do gain a whooping 35% more critical dmg which can be nice. Just wondering if its worth it all for what you traded in.

Kevin.5980:

You can get 10s of quickness this method too, every second shiro gives 1.75s of quickness. Quickness stacks up to 5 stacks, which is 8.75s of quickness, with soothing bastion, it gives your 10.75s quickness.

Moreover, runes of leadership takes at least a week to farm in WvW where runes of durability takes about a day in AB if you really want.

Again, you are trying to juggle between shield skill cooldowns while maintaining both protection and quickness. It can feel restrictive at times and the traits limit fury upkeep as well meaning you will only have fury for initial bursts (unless you rely on switching to herald and using facets to keep it up?)

Im sure this all works (for keeping quickness up to 100%) but it doesnt have as high of a critical chance, it doesnt have high fury upkeep, and you rely on shield skills cooldowns and switching to herald for facets.

With my build you can be sure you have 95% critical chance all the time, quickness at all times and you can still use any 2ndary stance you wish as well as use those skills as you please. You’re also free to use any 2ndary weapons you wish as well without the restriction of relying on soothing bastion.

It also has about 70 less power than mine ( i changed your Ogre sharpening stone (88silver each) to a standard sharpening stone (cheap but gives a nice boost as well).
Why? Cause even tho everyone hates the fact im using runes of leadership and thinks they are suuper expensive and hard to get and i should simply change them into something else (and while im at it might as well change commander set which kinda changes the build into something completely different as seen multiple times trough the substitute suggestions people keep showing me right?) i still think they arent as hard to get as people think.

Besides im trying to keep the discussion about the build it self, the stats it provides and the abilities you get from it. Not how much it will cost me and how to min/max things trough expensive food or how to shove this build into dungeons/fractals/raids.

And thats why in my build (the 2nd link in my original post) i use somewhat “realistic” gear such as exotic weapons, cheap food and exotic trinkets.
Getting a set of leadership runes is realistic for me.

fourhim.3584:

On second thought, is this build even worth pursuing without the “Commander” stuff? It looks like around 35% of the boon duration increase is coming from Commander stats. I have zero interest in crafting armor, nor do I have the funds for that.

Would this work a LOT worse for open world PVE with something like Zerker, Knight, Soldier, Assassin and other stuff you can buy off the AH? (Exotic level gear)

The reason i went commander is cause its the best stat combo for dps that has concentration (for boon duration) and we need 100% boon duration to get the 2seconds of quicknes per pulse on Impssible odds so you can have 100% upkeep.

an cheap alternative would be having full zerker armor and trinkets (with leadership runes) and a superior sigil of Concentration on both weapon sets which increases your boon duration for 33% for 7 seconds.
This means you will have 100% boon duration for 7 seconds, about 65% for 3 seconds and then you swap weapons.

You can also use Knights trinkets for some extra toughness, otherwise you are very squishy.

This will also make you have quickness only 70-80% upkeep at all times, slightly lower might stacks. But it could be enough for bursting down stuff.
This would make you deal higher raw dmg and critical hits but i dont think it compensates with the lack of 3s of quickness.

You can camp in shiro for full upkeep for a little while but it will cost you energy more and more and more. With 100% constant boon duration you can freely do whatever you want, even switch to another legendary stance for 10 seconds with 10s of quickness and new +50% energy you can use for weapon and utility skills

Kevin.5980:

Too much concentration, too expensive, it isnt newbie friendly. Especially for runes of leadership.

If you really want duraation, you can go for sth like this instead:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNAsXGW0UI2xcm20OgA0A7CmwGC-TRSBABUq+DFPCA+3f475PFp8DgTAAe6DiQJ4CHBASB41UL-e

This way you wont lose too much dps, yet you have nearly 100% duration, just change zerkers to cavalier or valkyrie if you wish to have more toughness and vitality.

Swap leadership for durability for more protection uptime together with vit and toughness:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNAsXGW0Uo2BEgGYXwE2Q2xcm2A-TRSBAB7v/wCHBAAOBARoEkS1f+e+TRK/wTfAFPCASB41UL-e

About 90% boon duration, Close to Zerk dps, 18k hp, 2.5k armour with higher protection uptime.

I never said it is newbie friendly but compared to your Bountiful Sharpening Stone (2,80 gold for 30minutes) and Bowl of Nopalitos Sauté (1.04 gold for 1 hour) its not that expensive…. Not to mention you have to aquire the recipies first and then spend money and time leveling cooking to 400-450…. very newbie friendly indeed.

Also neither of those 2 builds have 100% critical chance (85% at best) and you cant even maintain fury either.. and for what? about 50-80 extra power and 43% critical damage? Does that really make a huge damage boost compared to my build? Again, i wonder for how much of a damage boost it really is cause every time someone says changing something that barely increases any power ,lowers critical chance for a 40ish % critical dmg will make a great increase in damage and how low my 7-8k dps is.

You have barely any additional toughness and 5 seconds of random protection proc on a 25s cd isnt that good in my opinion.

Koto.1824:

Soooo basically it’s just the meta power Rev…….. With Commander stats

Unless you think i can do raids/fractals and dungeons just as efficiently with this build…but then i would get quickness from my teammates…and i wouldnt need commanders or boon duration or those extra fury sources…..and i would need to offer some sort of extra support to my other teammates….. i guess one could say it was ment for something completely different… say..solo open world pve?

fourhim.3584:

I have an 80 Revenant who I used the 80 scroll on. What specialization would you suggest instead of Herald while I work on getting the Specialization?

Generally speaking all professions have 1 trait for raw dps, condition/precision, defense, support/utilty and 1 trait for their specific profession mechanic. +1 elite specialization (per expansion)

Invocation (profession specific), Devestation(raw dps) and Retribution(defense) or corruption (condi/precision) if you wanna go more condi dmg, or are simply in a more condition heavy enviroment

Those are the most easy and all around specializations.

Personally i didnt like revenant cause i thought you cant do that much with him, that other classes can do more things at the same time (something i prefer for my characters) but then,as i leveled up (didnt instant boosted it) i learned the skills and i took a better look at the traits and i realized not only can revs do multiple things at once but they can exceed and boost certain things to a new higher level.

Such as ,with this build there, 100% quickness upkeep while still being tanky and great dps.
They can have +50-70% damage modifiers, they can have around +100% extra healing, imagine burst healing someone for more than 15-20k health every now and then?
Fury granting 40% critical chance instead of normal 20% and other things.

So i do highly suggest taking your time and learning your profession fully, play a bit with the skill edditor youll find lots of interesting builds and set ups you can do with a rev.

(Note im not trying to compare min/maxed revs with other professions…this isnt a raid meta comp discussion…)

PS: In HoT maps 1 hero challenge grants you 10 hero points so i do suggest doing those if you wanna max herald quick

I would just like to say one more time, when i say you can have quickness 100% uptime i dont mean you will be forced to use Impossible Odds all the time.

I explained in one of my posts before that because you get 2 seconds of quickness every second you maintain impossible odds you can disable it and get as much quickness as you were maintaining it during the time you are regenerating energy.

Meaning with a little practice,timing and knowing your targets you are still free to use any other skill most of the time (even tho it is generally ment for auto attack spaming..).

you can also maintain Impossible Odds for about 10 seconds, switch to another stance and have 50% energy (with +5pips regen) and about 10 seconds of quickness on you
Meaning you can go back to Shiro just before it ends and start gaining quickness from start

Norjena.5172:

Vul is never a problem on champions. So it´s no support.

Fair enough ,but it does increase my own damage by a lot when soloing.

Norjena.5172:

And the thing is, if u are only exploring. U spend most of the time running from enemy to enemy.
If u are doing this your boons will expire, And after u attacked the next victim, u need time to stack your might up.
Might that will expire again….

I see your point, but it doesn’t expire as fast as you might think in most cases considering my might lasts from 16-20 seconds per stack and i get it back fairly quickly.

Norjena.5172:

So what u want is to say spend a few hundred gold into gear thats only useful for one thing.
Mediocore dps, brain afk solo pve.? Is a good idea?

I don´t think so.

It´s much easier and cheaper to use a Zerkersbuild (probably with and exotic knights armor and cheap runes) an just use some more defensive traits (that Shiro LL GM trait for example, works extremly well with Sword 3). And use Lifeleech food (which is cheap, what´s good for exploring).

Knights armor is easy to get, and offers by far enough thoughness.

But that sweet perma quickness tho…
On a more serious note..again this isnt about min/maxing dps or efficiency or creating a balanced build…this is a “one trick pony” build that focuses on a very specific thing. This isnt a newbie friendly leveling build and it isnt supposed to compete or compare with any other build in any way.

Its like saying why have condition build if you can go full zerker? Why use staff if you can use 2 swords? Why invest in vitality or toughness or any sort of sustain skill/trait if you can just dodge? Why play a auramancer (before there was tempest) if you can just spam lava font and meteorshowers?

Its a build that i made with an idea of having permanent quickness, bumping up my damage modifiers and it just also happen to be tanky and shares might.

What about male charr? or am i the only non female human mesmer in the game …..

It was overhyped yes.

buuutt… technically you caaan put an ascended ring on tp now, which is something new as well :P

Norjena.5172:

8k dps? Lohol…
Fact is, it´s completly impossibel to deal high dps while being tanky.
U can use whatever u want for your build, but each point in vita/thoughness/boon duration/healpower reduces your dmg.

U can´t compensate it in no way, cause everything u use for that compensation can be used by zerkers/sinisters/vipers to increase their already higher dps even more.

U can be tanky, or do high dps. But u can never do both at the same time!

Your build can´t compare to zerkers dps. Its not even close. The dmg output is low.
U can´t use power as a single stat to compare the dps of builds.

This is a “one trick pony” build, not a min/max build. 8k constant dps for solo pve in lvl 80 zones is not that horrible as you think it is. Having 2800 armor at start and +400Toughness in combat is pretty tanky to me considering i can deal 8k dps.

This build compared to a full zerker build with 25 stacks of bloodlust and might is 413less power and about 50% less critical damage. (is it even possible to get to 25 stacks of might without any boon duration without any gimmicky way that would make it a non full zerker build?)

How much would that full zerker (super squishy) build do more dmg than this “one trick pony” build do?

Note that the 2800+armor absorbs a lot of damage and i can stay in my monsters face spaming 1 without the worry of dodging,healing, switching to herald and healing again or even switching weapons which is in pure zerker build considered a dps loss.

I would like to see the real difference in these 2 builds when it comes to actual damage and see if my tankyness and 100% quickness and 25 stacks of might and almost 25 stacks of vulnerability (that helps other people around if they are nearby).

Norjena.5172:

U are losing so much dmg…alot critical dmg, runes, sigils and more. Using all your energy for impossible odds means that u lose dps aswell.
Skill 2 is important for dps, not using it (u can´t because of the energy problem) is dps loss.

Again i understand that i might be dealing less critical dmg than a full zerker (about 50%) but what runes? what sigils and what more?. I can switch the bloodlust sigil on another weapon and leave a open slot on one of my swords for something else for some extra dmg but again like a sigil of flame but again this is not a min/max build.

The thing about Impossible odds is that i can maintain it 100% even by having it activated for 3 seconds. Doing that i still have lots of energy left to cast anything i want because after 3 seconds of impossible odds i still have 3 seconds of quickness on me (double duration). Thats 42-48k dmg in 6 seconds with just spamming 1..how much more do you need (and more is possible) when it comes to solo world pve?

Many spam 1 rev swords players (specially when using full zerkers) dont use any other skill and some of them think using skill 2 or 3 is a dps LOSS. Im not going into it if it is or not…cause again, this is not a min/max build.

The only situation where you can use skill 2 as a boost is when you are standing inside a mob and there are other mobs nearby or behind the one you are focusing on.

Because : “Multiple projectiles can affect the same foe when enemies are lined up, when you’re inside one of them or when there is only one target.”
Otherwise i stick with spamming one since it generates vulnerability and has about the same dmg as a single projectile from skill 2.

Norjena.5172:

Your builds is doing lower dps then a heal druid.

Really? A solo heal druid with maybe a few stacks of might and rarely few seconds of quickness deals more damage than this build? Or are you thinking about raids and dungeons and group play again?

Norjena.5172:

Oh and your food….it´s expensive, and u lose even more dps (power/prec/critdmg).

Yeah…about that… the food in the build edditor is just a random one i clicked and didnt thought about it much. Im sure there are other better and much cheaper ones that give you +20% boon duration.

Again. This is a solo pve build that focuses on being tanky trough armor and hardening persistence, having 100% boon duration for perma fury (90-100% crit chance) and perma quickness for exploring and killing stuff quickly in lvl 80 zones.

It deals 70-80k dmg in 10 seconds(how much more do you need for exploring??) and it also generates almost 25stacks of vulnerability and shares 10 seconds of might to everyone around constantly if the player encounters some group play (like a hero challenge or a champion fight)

TLTR: This is only possible in lvl 80 zones as stats from gear scale down in lower level areas meaning that you wont be able to have 100% boon duration that comes from your gear (concentration stats).
The build grants 100% fury, 25stacks of might, 23-25 stacks of vulnerability, 90-100% crit chance and 100% quickness upkeep.
This build is also very tanky and self sustainable. It does not require any other player interaction.
It has about 7200-8200+ dps by spamming the sword auto attacks (3 targets) while still being tanky trough life steal and high armor (also" kill it before it kills you" defence)
It also grants might to allies around him constantly.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlMQNAscmnvN2gS6JvQRZlbosryPUYV5IKYs8ElFNFqdABoBslZNtxugJshA-TxBEQBZUJIAeAA8T9HGq8LBnAg4t/wH0HIKgAD-e

There it is, the ultimate tanky spam 1 high dps semi kinda sorta support Herald!

Some stats and notes:

-Over 3200 Power
-Over 50% critical hit (90% with constant fury!)
-Over 2800 Armor
-18,000 Health
-100% Boon duration!!
-100% Quickness uptime!!!
-20-25 constant might upkeep!!!!
-23-25 stacks of vulnerability upkeep!
-51% extra damage modifiers! (up to 73% when hitting something under 50% hp)!!
-50% of time you get +400 toughness and +25 Endurance regeneration

How does it work?

Gear:
Armor: Commander (ascended)
Runes: Leadership
Trinkets: Commander (ascended)

Weapons: Sword (Bloodlust) + Sword (Strength)
-Valkyrie (exotic) if you want extra 1700 health,
-Berserker (exotic) if you want extra 10% crit chance to max it to 100%

How to use:

-25 stacks of bloodlust will grant you enough power to be compared to a full zerker character without a sigil of bloodlust (youll have 60 less power)

-With 100% boon duration Impossible Odds now grant 2 seconds of quickness instead of 1. In combat you will have +5 energy pips, and -5pips while youre using Impossible odds. 1 energy pip is 1% per second.
Using impossible odds for 5 seconds will give you 5 seconds of quickness when you have -5pips, and another 5 seconds of quickness when you turned it off and have +5pips. This means you can have 100% quickness uptime.

-You spam your sword auto attacks which now goes trough all 3 hits in 1.025 seconds. In 6 seconds with the 1vulnerability per 25% hits you will get constant 23-25 stacks

-Auto attacking also triggers sigil of strenght that grants you 20s of might per crit, you can also get 5 stacks for 16 seconds with unrelenting assault (i use this for engagement)

-Shared Empowerment grants 10s of might to allies around you constantly

-Breaking stuns,using heal skills, invoking legends and using one with nature grants very long fury upkeep. Use Grasping Shadow while not under the effects of Impossible Odds and you have extra energy.

Eddit:

After some comments i tuned up/down the build to a more “realistic” and cheaper version.

Things changed:

-Exotic trinkets, Ascended commander trinkets are hard to get. Backpack is exotic zerker +Platinum doubloon
-Weapons are exotic Zerker now, also placed the “correct” sigils on correct weapons. Sword offhand has a empty sigil, place whatever you think is best there. Flame sigil, draining, healing, condition removal your choice.
-Used the cheapest +20%boon duration food +Cheapest and effective sharpening stone.
-Second legend switched to Dwarf, has nice sustains and aoes for tagging mobs. Herald is still an option, feel free to switch when needed

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlMQNAscmnvNWNS6JrJRVl/ksrygSYW5QJYscrkFNFqdABoB2FMhNktMrpNA-TBCEQBdQfQ82fgfq/AgjAA1mgmfSwjAggK/MgSQiAYWC-e

Note: One can sacrifice some trinket jewels (along with the stats they provide) with additional Platinum doubloons in order to have 100% boon duration in lower level zones as Platinum doubloons are a fixed % rather than a jewel with a stat (concentration) that scales with level

unless you place energy gain in all weapons /stances/traitlines you will end up feeling like you NEED to use that specific weapon/stance/trait cause it,and only it gives you more energy which is always usefull.. and that creates a problem with “forced” staples for a build.

lets say we get more utilities per legendary stance. instead of 3 we get 4 or 6. we will still only be able to use 3 per stance and the 3 will be the ones that are most useful. The current neglected stance skills will still be neglected, just replaced by the new ones that are slightly better. Just buff the neglected stance skills instead, even so slightly so people can use it now and then without worrying if they just wasted 10-30 energy on nothing useful at all.

Cooldown on skills prevents possible high damage bursts as seen via thieves that will run you down to 0 energy.. twice for each stance. This will result in you just standing there auto attacking or trying to run away somehow..

You mentioned thieves? Imagine a burst damage thief with no stealth and no initiation regeneration as well as “disabled utility and healing skills for at least 5 seconds when initiation goes down to 0”

Elementalists that are tempests have the ability to overcharge their attunements once they stay in them for a while. Perhaps we get a similar new elite specialization next expansion.
That, or a special core trait from a non specific stance traitline that grants us such effects across all stances. Even something small such as “gain 10 condition every 2 seconds up to 100 condition damage while you are invoking Mallyx”

Guild shield, the largest in the game!

a lot if not most armor skins work only with their own weight and sometimes only with their own set.

You will have a handfull of very specific combination that will work, the rest will have clipping issues, missing body parts as well as wierd cut offs. Like a heavy breast plate that is cut with a scalpel around your stomach followed by a gap of nothing and then another scalpel cut of pants

As it is already been said people tend to come to forums only to complain, if you check the other profession forum threads there are complains about something for every profession…

PvE, exploring the giant world from 0-100%, doing personal and living world stories and dungeons to an extent is the majority of the content you will be doing most of the time with any profession. But nobody is complaining about their profession in those areas now isnt it?

People follow the meta and want to play to win in PvP and in WvW so they are very picky of their builds and roles inside such instances. Sure some work better than the others but that doesnt mean you are useless.

you need to look the entire skill as it is not just pick something you dont like about it and add something you wish it to have (on top with other effects it already has atm)

its a 1200 range 5 target piercing free spammable attack that also increases your life force by 4% per hit. its also a 20% projectile finisher.

For me this skill is the best thing one can have to get your life force back up super fast.

5 targets = 20% life force (about 2800 life force per attack).
Maybe add extra short bleeds (like 2 seconds..considering how high it can get on condi necros) just so you can trigger something with it.
Spamable poison of 3 seconds (ends up about 6 seconds if you are constantly hiting a target with it without any condition duration) is too strong on a weapon that pierces 5 targets and is 1200 range…and spamable…..and brings your life force from 0-100% in 5 auto attacks…….

minions when used in minion master builds are strong enough.

On another note 15 minion masters with 5-6 each (more if they have Rise!) in wvw=75-90 (over 100) minions that have high imunity to aoe dmg, transfer conditions and steal life.

now imagine if they all go full zerker and somehow power scales up all those minions raw dmg that ticks 1-4k per minion attack…yeah..

guild wars is a game where you should addapt your skills/traits/gear to the content you are playing in.

You cant expect to perform the same in an environment filled with core tyria moas that walk to you peck you and then flee from you at low health, raid environment with specific roles,movements and mechanics and wvw environment with 20+ players throwing everything they have at you.

I expect you to have the same problem if you do the same thing with any other profession. And this is a problem with boosted characters with professions that the player has no idea about.

I suggest going into pvp lobby trying out different skills and traits on golem dummies to learn how everything works at least on a basic level. After that read about wvw builds and roles and goals. Now that you understand how your class works, how wvw works you should be able to have a idea of what kind of build/gear stats is required for you not to be beaten like a little baby.

And then theres also that “learn to play” thing…

the dark theme, death, dark animations, the whole grenth thing, “fashion wars”, minion master gameplay is fun to me as well.
Death shroud gives much survivability.

As for weapons, unlike many other professions, necromancer weapons are usually straightforward. some are for pure damage, others are for pure condi. Some are have additional effects such as boon coruption/strip combo fields finishers ect.

People should also use deathsrhoud skills as well more often instead of just saving it for a “oh snap” button for shielding their health pool.

Warrior:
-Great passive defenses,high armor,high health, very high health regeneration/second and can still dish out tons of damage at the same time.
-While it is mostly melee combat, Its skills and traits and again large passive defenses makes them very tough to beat even in extremely dangerous situations.

Necromancer:
-High base health pool + about 13 000 death shroud “health”.
-Minions and lots of life steal that take agro from mobs, increases your toughness and remove conditions from you
-While you dont have usually high health regeneration you can have high death shroud regeneration and if you take that into consideration then wow youre tough

Engineers:
-Not a profession for everyone, thematically its very different from other magic/bow/sword professinos
-has lots of skills and passive defenses to keep you tough and up and running

Rangers:
-While the them selves arent super tough as above mentioned professions they do have many mechanics that will keep them alive such as…
-Ranged skills. Rangers have the longest range (1500 with longbow,while others have 1200 on rifles,staves ect). Its simple really, kill it before it even comes to you
-Traps and cc. If it does come to you knock it back, knock it up, stun it and daze it or even go stealth
-Pets, no matter what people tell you and how people take them pets are great at holding agro. A lot of people look as pets as strictly as a dps boost, but you have a lot of controll over your pet and the types of pets you can charm. Ive been able to solo many kinds of champions just because i had a tanky pair of pets. When it comes to stats, you pretty much have 2 health pools of 40 000 health that you can switch and refresh endlessly that takes all the beatings from the hard hitting mobs.

As a general tip regarding any class that i always give out when people ask me about professions are stats. You need to understand that all professions have the exact same stats at lvl 80 (besides the base health pool and armor level).
Knowing that it is possible to mix and match armor/rune/trinkets/weapons/traits/skills to get certain stats at certain “sweet spots” for any kind of player without sacrificing much of the dps at all.

I often play full zerker armor + power/precision runes (runes of the pack is nice) and full soldiers trinkets. I use weapon sigils,traits and skills to boost certain stats even further such as might for more power, fury for additional 20% crit chance, quickness ect.

its normal, it happens to everyone with any type of game really. Taking breaks or simply trying out something completely different in game (i find it quite fun and challenging to make a new character with a race i dont rly play often and try to level it from 1-80 using only shiverpeak zones…with 0 deaths)

Personally i did try ESO and i have been playing it since the free steam weekend (a few weeks ago)
However…as much as refreshing and new experience i had with eso i got pretty bored and fed up with it as it quickly turned from new,fresh, exciting, interesting into veery repetitive, boring, always more of the same and just plain annoying…so i returned to GW2.

But thats just me, feel free to try eso or any other game. They are all quite different from GW2 and you will definently experience something new and fresh ..at least for a while

There is no need for such things in my opinion.
Personally im trying to collect all things that i can that isnt gem shop related such as minis, karma weapon/armor skins ,racial armor skins (starting with my main profession/race and then on with the others)

However i recently came to a conclusion that there are MORE sinks in the game than i realized.

Things such as the 1000gold title, various new s3 content rewards, the wintersday ho-ho-tron gold donation event in DR…just think how many gold will go in there every festival.
There are other types if sinks as well such as many achievements that are related to ridiculous amount of materials and items such as open 50 wintersday gifts, eat a TON of candy corn, the new raven halloween that requires you to buy it with over 100 candy corn cobs. Remember that most of these “currencies” come form the tp, nobody in their mind will grind over 100 candy corn cobs,so they buy it from the tp, and the tp takes a small amount of tax for every piece removing gold from the game.

Another HUGE sink, and this is where i actually started to notice these things, are the special “aura” items such as the first bat aura shoulders, later on the wintersday snowyflake shoulders. These are pretty expensive (and exclusive) stuff that one will most likely obtain trough mostly TP transactions.

This is why im against them adding a random merchant with a few skins that cost 100-1000 gold each…
This is also the reason why i reorganized my priorities when trying to unlock and collect all non gem shop skins/minipets and other gizmos as some are obtained trough fun and trough actual content such as fractals,raids,dungeons, questing for karma, guild missions ect and while others are obtained trough the power of gold and tp….

PS: This also reminds me of guild commendations and its new minipets…. im focusing on the old ones only as well as guild weapons (and at least 1 set of shimmering /tenebrous weapons) since everything else will take me yeeeears and yeears of regular max weekly guild commendation cap to get…

Wondrouswall.7169:

Druids rarely, if ever, use Cosmic Ray in raids. Rejuvenating Tides and Lunar Impact are our primary tools as they both serve as a heal and additional utility.

Burst heal and CC with Lunar Impact and moderate heal-over-time with a water field and full Grace of the Land with Rejuvenating Tides. Seeds of Life is also sprinkled in for a small heal, condition cleanse, blind, and stack of Grace.

There are setups of full Berserker with Monk Runes and Rice Ball food for 50% outgoing healing on top of the PS Warrior minor trait that increases healing power of allies by 10 per Might stack they apply. A feature that’s overlooked on PS Warriors as they not only increase everyone’s damage, but also our healing.

Overall, a low healing Berserker Druid (assuming Monk and Rice Balls) comes in with 275 healing power, 525 with a PS Warrior at 25 might stacks, 345 base with full healing infusions and 595 with the PS Warrior buff.

It may not seem to be much, but 500+ Healing Power with +50% outgoing healing adds up and allows a Berserker Druid to be effective within an organized and experienced group.

actually thats quite impressive.
with 550healing power and 50% outgoing healing:
-rejuvenating tides 1387
-lunar impact 3915

its not that far off from my initial zealot’s weapon/armor +magi trinkets (tho i did miss 10% from the trait, and i didn’t count food)

Well thanks for clearing everything up guys. I hope i can use this thread and show it to everyone who has any questions or is confused about the post patch healing power scaling and the " strength" of healing needed in various squad set ups.

Okay, interesting.

one final question tho.

low/no healing power zerker druid healers?
You do realize cosmic ray would heal for 330 health then right? Compared to a 1490-1647 i cant seem to understand how that would work…
Might as well have a herald spamming regeneration constantly then..

Then again i havent been raiding…

Im sure there are people out there that can 7 man the encounters but playing soo well to be able to finish the raids with a zerker druid healer that can burst everyone with a whooping 330 health is just too much for me.

tnx for all the replies everyone.

Ive been talking with some guildies and other players and it seems people’s usual reaction is : magi’s has more healing so its much safer for pugs and new raiders.
Or just “magi has the most healing power and 0 toughness which is best for a healer”

But again…how much healing is actually needed? Even with pugs and new first time raiders?

I showed the numbers comparing a full healing power magi vs a “75%” zealots/magi’s gear set and the differences are very minimal… do those differences seriously impact raid groups so much (with new players) ?

Its like saying tanks in raid need to stack as much vit and toughness as possible…but instead we see chronotanks using commander and zerker gear….and commander toughness is even less than a 2ndary toughness in a 3 stat gear piece.
On top of that it doesnt even have vitality!

Necromancers and other condition dmg dealers have their discussions about sinister and viper stats. Some even being very precise on what piece of gear should be vipers and what should be sinister to min max their dps.

So clearly there is a bar set on when certain stat being “enough”.

So another question now…
I understand druid healers arent ment to deal dps…but lets say we pug with people that know their class and they understand other classes and they watched videos about the raid and learn quickly..

Knowing the above mentioned healing numbers,how much of a difference would a full magi’s druid healer have compared to the above mentioned weapon/armor zealot’s + magi’s trinkets?

Sinsko.9342:

As someone that has raided since Spirit Vale opened, I’ve never understood the drive for Magi’s gear. You receive nearly non-stop heals so vitality isn’t a desired stat, and last I tested heals don’t crit so why precision?

Zealots is superior imo, and am able to raid heal fine in full Zealot’s with the latest changes.

again, i understand that using clerics and apothecary gives toughness and that can mess up the tank and aggro. Precision from magi’s can be used with the 25 stacks of might to deal at least some small good dmg via crits (only)..

Theres also shaman vit/condi dmg/healing stats that goes a bit better into condi dmg ranger but less healing power (again i dont know how much healing you really need in dungeons…but even so the numbers above show very little difference in healing power main and secondary stats)

It all points to zealots armor/weapon + magi’s trinkets as a combo stat that provides both good dmg and great healing at a cost of very small healing drop and 5k health…

TLDR: wouldnt it be better to use zealots staff/armor + Magi’s trinkets instead of just full on magi’s gear?

first of all i haven’t raided yet and i haven’t finished my druid elite spec.

i have been looking on guides and builds for a healing support druid and i often see magi’s stats involved. Sometimes also a condition dmg dealing healer.

I don’t know where to start here but why magi’s?

1) Is maxing out healing power that important… i mean how much healing is actually needed?
2) Is having 25000 health as a healer important?
3) Is having the above two pros worth the cons of dealing very low damage?
4) Yes i understand we will have 25 might stacks at all time, but so will the other players around you and comparing your dmg is still as weak as it was before

So then i went on with a little bit of research and i went to look for some sort of alternatives.

Zealots stats came to my mind, but the difference in healing power between zealots and magi’s was quite a bit (about 500ish healing power difference) so i didn’t go looking further into that.

And then it came to my mind to combine zealots weapon/armor + Magi’s trinkets.

I compared ascended zealots weapon/armor (runes of monk) + magi’s trinkets vs full magi’s weapons/armor/trinkets (also with runes of monk)
I applied 10% outgoing healing from runes of monk and i also applied 10% healing from natural mender. (yes i know its 20% but lets just go with 10%…)

I counted up the healing power from both sets and used those numbers with the stats shown on skills on wiki (the base heals and healing power coeficient)

And here are my results:
Z/M = zealots weapon/armor+ magi trinkets
M/M = full magi weapon/armor/trinkets

STAFF
-Solar beam= Z/M 129(387), M/M 136(408)
-Astral wisp= Z/M 554, M/M 572
-Ancestral grace= Z/M 3383, M/M 3607

-Healing glyph= Z/M 3552-7824 M/M 3838-8111

CELESTIAL AVATAR
-Cosmic ray= Z/M 1490, M/M 1647
-Seeds of life= Z/M 1464, M/M 1604
-Lunar impact= Z/M 4883, M/M 5303
-Rejuvenating tides= Z/M 1596, M/M 1713

Note that the Z/M combo gives 690 power at a cost of 5000 health, just as the M/M combo gives 5000 more health but 690 power less.

Conclusion: Again…i haven’t been raiding yet…and i haven’t fully unlocked druid yet… but these numbers look very close to each other in my eyes. Is giving out those small amounts of healing so worth the lack of 690 power?

Entering CA and spaming cosmic ray up to 20 times as a full magi geared druid will grant just 3300 health more than the Z/M combo… (29800hp Z/M compared to 32940hp M/M)…

Sooo can someone please explain me why people arent mixing dmg/healing gear and going full magi instead?

TLDR: How do i find a “balanced” thief build with very good dmg and great survivability against several mobs (silverwaste and hot) at the same time?

So i was playing around with the lvl 80 booster and trying out different builds on different professions. I enjoyed necros and specially warriors where i could just throw my self among large amount of various modrem and just hack and slice them down while countering their dmg and cc via traits and raw stats.

I also plaid ranger and enjoyed pew pewing from afar and going all “tactical positioning” gameplay.

Then i tried thief… and i have no idea how to survive against several different modrem at the same time.

I do understand that not all professions wear the same gear stats (valkyrie thief are bound to be squishy compared to a soldiers warriors) but i did try using trickery/shadow arts and deadly/acrobatics. I tried ambush traps, some cc, stealthing away but i always end up being knocked around and destroyed…

Is there a pve thief build that deals good dmg (such as a 30-50% crit chance soldiers warrior) but can still handle multiple modrem at the same time?

Why not both?

Anyway since its the skin your after check your greatsword wielding characters and see what legendary fits their armor/color theme more.

On another note sunrise is a bit rarer to see around…at least that i noticed