I would suggest making two armor sets. Your raid group is gonna expect you to be the healer. Not the backup, not the hybrid. So you should make a set that is full magi/monk runes/etc etc etc., and then make a second set of gear for when you are doing other stuff. Just my 2 cents. Fluffball’s idea above is a good one.
I know I’ve been told this before but I keep forgetting. What is the problem with the way this sigil works? I’ve been told it isn’t a true 6% increase in condi damage, and I know the explanation I was given made sense, but I can’t find it in my backlog of messages, and I don’t remember what the explanation was… ;-;
Ok, final question. What sources of condition damage stat are not affected by the Sigil of Bursting? I always hear people say that that sigil isn’t as good as it appears to be.
I have a question about LC and instead of a new thread, I’ll post it here. The 50% duration increase goes off the base duration of the skill, but doesn’t add to the duration cap. Got that. Does the duration increases from Expertise stat/food/traits/etc work off the originial base duration of the skill, or the LC modified duration of the skill?
Actually it doesnt matter mathematically since multiplication is commutative. Important is only to know that LC is an extra factor in the equation and independed of the normal condition duration value.
Also something like this:
Conditionduration=baseduration * LCextraduration (which is 1.5 and only works for conditions on scepter) * Durationmultiplier (which is 1+x/100)
where x is the condition duration in your herosheet (given in %) and x is a number between 0 and 100 (100 is the hardcap).
That’s the thing. Maybe gw2skills.net has their math wrong, but the durations seem to operate additively on there. As in:
baseduration + (50% of base from LC) + (all other duration gained from other stuff up to 100%).
If their math is wrong on the build editor, then that’s cool, I just wanna know.
I have a question about LC and instead of a new thread, I’ll post it here. The 50% duration increase goes off the base duration of the skill, but doesn’t add to the duration cap. Got that. Does the duration increases from Expertise stat/food/traits/etc work off the originial base duration of the skill, or the LC modified duration of the skill?
Got it. Thanks again.
Thanks for the info! So now I’ll ask more of an opinion: Is it worth statting healing power for?
Edit: I’m mostly looking at PVE stuffs, though WvW may be a thing at some point. PvP isn’t my thing.
Hasn’t posted in his thread for 2 days. Definitely clickbait trolling.
and the healing portion is based on healing power, I’m guessing. Is the scaling from power and healing power significant enough to be considered? (Power you’re gonna stat for anyways, but wondering if healing power scales well for this.)
So I admit this profession themed mechanic confuses me a bit. I get that the damage scales from power (sometimes?) and the healing off healing power (again, sometimes?), but the stats doesn’t seem to have much of an effect on it. Also, sometimes bypasses armor? Does it work while you’re in shroud? If you give life steal to others, is it your stats or theirs that matter? Someone break this down for me. I want to understand how it works.
(Please, no shorthand opinions of the mechanic without some well-reasoned explanation of why you think that at the least. Looking for factual information here.)
Edit: and yes I looked at the wiki, but that just confused me more.
i use scepter/torch and staff on mine, but i only do non-pvp/wvw.
Personally I favor guardian of the heavy armor classes. Good dps, good support, and you can’t faceroll it (which is what warrior feels like to me; a subjective opinion I know), and I can still customize it well (one of my main problems with the legend mechanic of revenant). Warrior is second, and I couldn’t stand revenant long enough to get it to 80. (shrug)
Edit for grammar (oops)
(edited by bearshaman.3421)
With the ascended berserker/valkyrie stat trinkets, valk armor, and berserker weapons (my initial build for this), you only need EITHER Death Perception for the shroud build, or Decimate defenses for the Reaper build. With fury, you are sitting at or near 100% (one with the vulnerability reaper and GS just throw around like candy, or with the extra 50 in shroud) and that’s without food. And that’s not even a full valkyrie build, which I would only do if you were using BOTH traits, not one or the other.
If you like minions and being tanky, use the death magic, blood magic, and soul reaping trait lines. Take the top row of traits in death magic, and experiment with the other two. You could also go with the spite traitline instead of soul reaping. If you have HoT, once you unlock reaper, pick up Rise!. Lich form also has a skill that produces more minions as well.
Weapons are personal preference for a minion build. If you want to do condi, scepter/x, if power, dagger/x (melee) or axe/x (ranged). Staff can be ok with this build as you will likely not be targeted (your minions will hold aggro), so you can stay at range easier, and the AoEs will get more use.
The builds you will find are usually targeted towards certain game modes in GW2. There are builds for fractals, speedclearing dungeons, pvp, wvw, and raids. If you know what the build is for, then you can better gauge what will be good for you. Note however that most of these are group content, so the builds are designed for group play, not soloing. What works well for one is not gonna work for another.
The reason the above comments are correct (if lacking in explanation) is because OW pve is much more forgiving, so that you can experiment with all the different weapons and skills of your profession. Unless you are planning to play any of the game modes I mentioned, I would suggest avoiding builds and just experimenting with different combinations of weapons, skills, class mechanics, pets, etc. Learning the different possibilities of the profession is more important than using the “correct” build. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to create the builds you need, and adjust them on the fly to compensate for group composition when you do decide to play in those game modes.
I would suggest to play both, actually. But if you decide to do so, please make sure to begin with the Necro/Reaper as it is out-damaged by pretty much any other class and thus can seem lackluster when compared to other classes, leading to you discarding it entirely, which imho would be a shame as the class itself has some pretty awesome feel to it. Especially when everybody else is retreating to catch a breath while you enter the fray in DS/RS and kick some butt.
Not true. Reaper can pump out some very good damage (depends on your build), and Mesmer takes the bottom spot when it comes to damage.
The thing is Necro/Reaper is selfish. They offer very little in the way of support to other classes. The one thing they do excel at is condi manipulation. I say manipulation because they don’t get rid of the conditions so much as pull them to itself and send them back to the enemy. But aside from that and some life steal they don’t offer much to other party members.
However, they are tanky as hell, and dish out damage very well. You don’t have to use GS, D/x is usually better/faster, and traits well with Blood Magic if you want to go the life steal route (which also has the well trait).
Guardians on the other hand are also tanky but offer a lot of boon and healing support to the party. Their overall damage depends on how you trait them. If you go heavy support, your party will love you, but you won’t crank out the dps as much. If you don’t, you can still offer some support (more than reaper) even while maxing out your dps.
(Have played both classes, but only in PVE, both solo and group play)
Having known you for well over 6 decades now, having been there for the birth of your daughter, for the birth of your daughter’s daughter, having helped you through your wife’s passing, I can tell you that guardian is your favorite character.
Sounds like warrior or engi are what you enjoy playing.
I was gonna suggest something, but I think you just got advice from someone who knows you (VERY) well…
(FYI: What follows is all of the input from the OP, since this thread has veered off track a bit)
What is a good ideal base crit chance for a Power Reaper?
I’ve been running full Ascended Berserker’s gear on my Reaper and I’m about to convert it all to Valkyrie gear in the Mystic Forge. As suggested my many players in game and on several YouTube tutorials (Brazil for one example)
I’m using this Reaper build (build input also welcome) I was advised to drop blood magic for soul reaping for higher uptime on shroud for better survival without sacrificing on damage.
I know I’ll defiantly have 100% chance in shroud, but I’m worried about non shrouded crit chance with Gravedigger skill.
Is an ideal level of precision I should be aiming for? I don’t want to convert all my gear to Valkyries only to find out I’m not able to get those wonderful 30k+ crits anymore.
Running general PvE to farm mastery experience. Mostly solo play, some META events, Teq & a few low level fractals. Not interested in swapping Staff out for Axe. That’s pretty much the only thing I’m not open to change.
I’m currently doing general PvE to earn mastery experience. Solo events, META events, Teq, low level Fractals.
I’ve been told several times in game I should convert to Valkyries gear to increase HP / LF pool without sacrificing damage output. I’ve found several guides and tutorials on YouTube explaining how it works better (example brazil videos)
I was told to swap out blood magic for soul reaping for better survivability via staying in shroud longer and building LF quicker.
Really the only thing I’m not interested in changing is swapping Staff out. I wish to retain that no matter what build / gear I decide on.
I just feel that currently with Berserker’s gear I have a ton of precision that’s not needed and feel the points could be better allocated into vitality.
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Sorry to bring it down to you, but staff is a terrible weapon, only useful in pvp. If you truly care about performance, you will swap to dagger/focus + greatsword. Staff may also be the cause of your problem with LF generation.
Totally understand, but I like the aesthetics of a Staff very much and refuse to give it up. I also hate being cornered into a melee class, even though axe is still ranged I just prefer the look of a staff.
So looks like general consensus is switching to Valkyrie gear will render me worthless without a group? I know I won’t have many buffs / debuffs playing solo, I just figured I’d still be able to hold my own in solo content. It’s usually just fluff I’m fighting anyways.
Ok, so I see a different issue here then. You want to keep staff because you like the look and you don’t like being in melee, yet you have a build designed to produce lots of lifeforce. The sole purpose of lifeforce is to use shroud, and you are using the reaper traitline, thus your shroud will put you in melee. Also you have GS as one of your weapons, and you’ve mentioned using Gravedigger, but also don’t want melee. I’m very confused on what you want to do here.
Since so much of what you are doing is solo (thus no spotter, frost spirit, banners, etc), then whether you use Berserker or Valkyrie (or a mix) depends on what traitlines you use, and also what rune set you are using (which hasn’t been mentioned yet I think), and what weapons you plan to use. Staff is a weird weapon, with 4 AOE attacks, and is useful if you take the reaper line just to have a long range weapon (if range is what you want), but I still don’t know if you want to do ranged or melee as your primary range.
(edited by bearshaman.3421)
And yes blood magic > soul reaping. And a personal choice of mine Bitter chill > Spiteful Talisman. I prefer a higher chance of having 25 vuln up permanently to a single +5% damage buff.
I swap bitter chill and spiteful talisman depending on party im pugging with
@Aeniklast
Valkyrie will sacrifice your damage output, because it relies on vulnerability on mob (and having spotter, discipline banner and fury at all times). In reality you will never meet these 4 criteria at all times, it has to be set up first and you also rely on other players. Especially in open world, you’re going to hit a lot of newly spawned mobs across a bigger area.The precision you have from berserker gear may seem abundant but remember many times you fight foes over the level 80. Later in FotM you might even fight mobs of lvl 83 – critical chance on these foes drops down despite the Hero panel showing you a 100%. Apart from that, you need this base crit chance for situations without buffs or vuln downtimes.
I’ve never depended on others to make that work btw. maintaining 25 stacks of vuln has been pretty easy all by myself, more so with others. Didn’t know about the high level fractal dropping your crit chance.
Dont do it. Don’t convert your gear to valkyrie. It’s only good on paper, think of all the vulnerability downtimes or kitten groups you gonna get. it’s not worth it for the long run.
Only place you could benefit would probably be raids if your party is decent and if you use the right consumablesbtw. don’t run soul reaping wtf. blood magic is better, lower cd on wells
@OP: Listen to this person, please.
Also, you’re rarely going to find a raid group wanting to bring a power necro.
This last comment is also part of the reason why I didn’t worry overmuch about what a raid group would want. It was a power necro build, thus not really raid-accepted. So I treated it as something to do OW PVE with, which can be whatever you want it to be.
(edited by bearshaman.3421)
full zerker gear will get you at about 54ish% and you can stack enough vulnerability solo that you can completely forego death perception and instead take dhuumfire or foot in the grave. alternatively, you could switch out soul reaping for blood magic to get that self healing and provide a bit extra group support without losing out on crit chance but you would lose vulnerability stacking from shroud1.
if you’re doing group content, everyone will be stacking so much vulnerability that you will get the 50% crit increase from decimate defences near constantly, so you could ease off on your vulnerability stacking and take things like the focus and chill traits in spite for that bit extra damage
you also don’t need valk gear at all, necro is tanky enough that any stats other than attacking stats are a waste. you taking too much damage? run rise, gonna take fatal? pop shroud.
also if you’re really needing more survivability, trait into blighters boon. you generate enough might from shroud aa and boons from allies that it’s a decent amount of healing in shroud.
tldr; full zerker with decimate defences will have you at around 104% crit chance, don’t take death perception
I based what I said on his current build. With things as they are, he doesn’t need precision. At all. At least vitality would have some benefit; precision on that build is pointless.
If he wants to change it, then yes the stat set changes with it. But he said he’s using it mostly just for PVE, and MAYBE raiding. I advise people on what they want to play, unless they are playing in a more competitive gametype, like raiding, high end fractals, speedrun dungeons, WvW or PvP. Then I’ll suggest changes. But pointless to do that without knowing what he wants the build to accomplish, and how he wants to play a necro.
Depends on your playstyle. Are you planning to be in Reaper as much as possible? If so, switch to Soul Marks, and use Valkyrie Gear. You will have 50% just from Death Perception, and Decimate Defenses will get you the rest. You don’t even need other people to get you there, but it will be nice to have them when you aren’t in shroud, but not necessary.
If you aren’t planning to be in shroud for days, Berserker weapons, Valkyrie armor. (either way you will want the berserker/valkyrie mixed trinkets.)
I use this and I crit CONSTANTLY….
I started guardian with a build like what you were talking about. I used meditations alot with Monk’s focus, and the added self heal made soloing stuff pretty easy. Combine with Viper gear, GS, maybe sword/torch, and the appropriate traitlines, and you should be good to go.
Engi is a solid choice for both gametypes. If you like that, enjoy it. only reason to switch is if you just want variety (but you have more than one character slot, so there’s that.)
agreed on condi ranger. You need to use your offhand torch skills and more than just the axe autoattack, but it isn’t so complicated as engi or ele rotations.
So here we come to a crossroads: Do you want to be a support or not? If yes, ranger. If no, thief.
That only really applies for raids. rangers, even druids, have other roles in all other gamemodes that are viable. I personally tried thief and found it’s single target focus to be a detriment overall, though they are great when you want to focus down one target at a time, all the time. Ranger is definitely on of my favorite classes.
I played a condi support druid in fractals. Used spirits with the traits, axe/torch and axe/warhorn. Would blast the fire field from torch with call of the wild from warhorn for lots of boon support.
I did mention runes in my wall of text (sorry). I am using Perplexity Runes to put out more condition damage and confusion.
I’ll look into Malice and Berserker Runes. Thanks for the replies.
You’re right. My mistake. Perplexity is great if you are doing a heavy shatter build with scepter 3. Not so good for hybrid builds like you have. You’re gonna be a jack of all trades, master of none, which is possible to do, but perplexity runes aren’t the best choice for that.
It looks like you are going with a hybrid build since you are using rampager (even balance between power and condi) and you are using a condi weapon set (scepter/torch) and a power weapon set (sword/shield). Which is FINE, since you are only doing OW PVE. My suggestion then is this: use the Sigil of Force and Air on your sword and shield, and use sigils of Malice and either Earth or Geomancy on the Scepter and torch.
You didn’t mention armor runes. May I suggest Berserker runes?
You can get ascended trinkets with laurels, fractal relics (not OW PVE but still pve), guild commendations, and apparently Season 3 stuff (thanks Xiahou Mao).
Mesmer and elementalist are the two hardest classes in the game imo that have the steepest learning curves.
Elementalist is hard simply because in end game content you’ll be running full berserker stat gear (power, precision, ferocity) which means you will be extremely squishy and basically everything will 1 shot you. Unless you have an absolute mastery of your class and understanding of the pve content you are doing, you will be going down/dying a lot. But when played well, elementalist is the undeniable top dog in terms of dps in the entire game.
Mesmers are hard because due to their lackluster dps, they are taken as tanks most of the time. Also it is worth noting that mesmers should never be using ranged weapons because their ranged options are god awful. All mesmers at end game content run sword. And like WoW, there’s a whole lot of responsibility riding on the tank. Mesmer tanks are the meta for raids right now because mesmers can provide the party with a lot of quickness (a boon that makes everyone affected attack and use skills 50% faster). However, the quickness upkeep rotations are very complex and perplexing to learn, especially if you are new to mesmer. On top of a confusing and complex rotation, you will have to pay attention to tanking raid bosses, raid mechanics, etc.
For ranged options, there are scepter dps guardian(stay at range and just go ham with scepter range attacks. Great dps and offers a modicum of party support); condition necro (stay at mid range and spam scepter. However, condi necros were nerfed last halloween and they perform at a bit sub-par level now.); power longbow ranger (stay at range and pew pew with a long bow. Generally not favored because power rangers have pretty bad dps).
you forgot engineer. That one and the two you mentioned have the biggest learning curves.
Though I think Signet of Inspiration’s active effect will give fury to them if you have it.
It is also worth remembering that nothing is forever: balance changes happen regularly, classes go up and down in power, new content brings new favored approaches, and people relaxing means they stop being so kitten about “the exact thing I read on metabattle was the bestest”.
Plus, while we don’t have a hard promise that the next xpac will bring a new round of elite specs, it seems highly likely, and that almost certainly brings a non-healing/support elite spec to ranger. (Because, hey, druid is already there, yo.)
PS: ANet, make it rifle based.
There were confirmed leaks about the new elites and the weapons for them. Don’t remember what it was for ranger, but I know it wasn’t rifle. Sorry, bud.
Edit: I think it was mainhand dagger.
You can play a ranger without being a healer at 80. You can play a druid without being a healer, though if you aren’t at least doing a group buffing build, there’s not much reason to use druid. Ranger is a very viable class, and one of the best condi classes (quick stacking of burns and bleeds with the right build).
The game offers some group activity (dungeons, raids) and a facility to get into such a group. The presence of such a group is an exception. The requirements are unfamiliar, what is the meaning of asking for P1, P2 or P3?
P1/2/3 refers to the paths of the dungeons. At the beginning of each dungeon, you’re given an option which path to take. It changes the enemies and challenges you face.
There is also the story mode of the dungeon, which must be completed first before you unlock the other 3 paths for yourself. You can bypass this if someone else in your party starts the dungeon who has already completed story mode.
I’d say ranger. Very easy to play, good all rounder and transitions in to an amazing supportive option as druid if you own HoT.
Alternatively, necro. (as a Reaper main, I am biased here).
Good dps, almost unkillable in PvE content, amazingly fun in PvP, reaper is one of the most fun specialisations (once again, if you own HoT), and it has a much wider variety of play styles that are actually viable than other classes.
I agree with both of these choices.
I am not a fan of Rev, largely because of the lack of customization with your 6-10 skills being grouped in sets. Most people use it to make an endrun to Herald (elite spec) which has pretty good support abilities with the Glint legend, and then switch out the other legend depending on what they are wanting (usually Shiro), but they rarely switch away from Glint.
being lazy and not reading previous posts, but a Total Makeover Kit offers a lot of appearance options that are ONLY available through the kit and not available at character creation. If you only need to change from the head up, there’s the Self-Style Hair Kit.
Pretty Pixie’s link will show you all the available options before you spend the gems on it.
Nice! keep them coming!!!!
I went with dark colors for the skin, but her hair is white.
I’m using the racial skills quite often, I also try to persuade people to use them. Always with the same result: “it is not meta so scrap it!” Those are my experiences so far:
human
- engineer is just a huge wow-effect (not the game). You gain access to a very powerful healing-skill with an OK cooldown. It is not the best, but a good alternative to the boring healing-turret 101. The utility skills are good to cleanse conditions and the toolbelt (F1-F3) skills turn out to be area-versions of the skills with way lower cooldowns. Also the animations are pretty cool if you want to point certain things out.
- necromancer can use the Reaper of Grenth, which surprisingly works with the traits Bitter Chill and Deadly Chill.
- every class can use the Hounds of Balthazar elite skill until they reach level 80. Having two aggressive add which deal good damage and tank quite well is pretty nice for most hero-challenges in core tyria and even some in HoT territory.sylvari
- take root works with many classes. It is a cheap way to have an invincibility-skill. It makes you immobile, but it can save your life a lot of times. I’ve been using it on my guardian to compare it with the Renewed Focus.norn
- bear transformation is excellent to eat a load of damage without dying. I saw people using it in the heat room of the Thaumanova Fractal. I also remember quite funny build for WvWvW where a guy used to get 90k hp for the duration of the transformation.charr
- warrior can make use of battle roar in the early leveling stages. Although the cooldown is longer than For Great Justice, it can be used in combination to quickly buff up a group of people when you do not have access to all skills/traits yet.
- other damage based classes and support classes can also make use of battle roar.
- engineer can use the hidden pistol, which also has a nice toolbelt skill. It looks like the unload from the thief. Looks pretty cool, but is not much effective thou :S.
- some condition builds, ofc no metas, use the shrapnel mine utility.
- Although the Atillery Barrage got me for a while, I found alternatives for it. Cast time is too long, cooldown is way too long. And the damage is sadly not even close to the Elementalists’ meteor shower.
- similar to the hounds of balthazar of humans, the call warband also grants you access to two npc companions which attack automatically and take a lot of damage.
- the charrzooka is just epic. Sadly the duration is so short. It is not a quite effective elite skill, but a lot of fun to use. And it grants you access to a leap skill, if your class does not have one. Aiming is a bit weird thou.Asura
- necromancer and engineer can use the radiation field as a conditon source.
- the elite golems are nice helpers and compared to most other companions of that powerlevel, they have a lower cooldown. Only one at a time.
Wow there are some good insights here… completely forgot about the toobelt skills for the racials, and the reaper of grenth for necro is pretty nice with those traits. Thanks!
Yes, I’m doing this more for fun than anything else, yes I know anything goes. Also I should have specified I only pve (but people tend to ignore you when you say that because most everyone is focused on pvp it seems), so taking a racial skill or two won’t mean my death in any way, shape, or form. In any case, the main thing I was trying to figure out was this:
The norn were forms, the asura power armor, etc all replace the weapons skills, but unlike the engineer kits that do the same thing, these also shut down the class mechanic skills (like the tool belt skills of an engineer or the burst skills of a warrior). So i was trying to figure out which classes would be least affected by this.
What I came up with was that classes whose class skills produce constant effects (like guardian virtues), or are incredibly central to the functioning of the class (like the mesmer shatters) where not good choices if you want to use the aforementioned racial skills. But other professions, like thief (where you can use up your initiative and it will recharge while you are in another form), or elementalist (which is a skill 1-5 swap anyway), are not impacted by this.
Sorry if that was confusing.
@Sigfodr, that is useful info as well, thank you. That is the other aspect of what I was asking.
(edited by bearshaman.3421)
My suggestion is similar to slippycheeze and deanbb. go to pvp lobby and try out the metabattle builds.
that wasn’t really relevant to my question, but thanks I’ll find my own answers.
LB Warrior is a good option. LB Ranger is also good and is one of two ways to 1500 range in the game (the other is engineer with mortar kit). The Rifle is pretty good for engineer if you want a ranged power build. Engineer is a class that looks like a lot to handle (and it can be) but it doesn’t HAVE to be.
Which reminds me… What aspects of PVE are you looking to play? Open World? Map Meta-events? Dungeons? Fractals (and if yes, then just the lower level ones, or do you want to get to the high level ones as well?). Raids?
So basically I want to make use of the racial skills. Which professions work the best with each race’s particular racial skills? Most of them are kinda easy, but some, like the Asura battle armor and the norn wereforms, do things that are a little more all-encompassing. Suggestions?
For instance, I think Norn works ok with thief, since you could use the wereforms while steal is on CD and your initiative rebuilds.
Ok, these are all fair points. So basically DS needs a rework on some of the skills to make it more useful (not necessarily more powerful), or to make those skills perform better or as intended?
Death shroud is not as strong as reaper shroud; that is true if all you look at is pure numbers. But there is one number you’re forgetting that is important to a lot of people: range. RS is a melee shroud, and melee attacks are typically stronger because you are up close to your target. Reaper (in general, the shroud in particular) is all about beating things in the face, but if you want to do that at range, DS is definitely the better shroud.
Yes there are people who will use DS over RS for that reason alone, much less others. I switch between them depending on what I feel like playing. It is myopic to say that no one will want to RS; just because you don’t, or even you and your other friends don’t doesn’t mean no one will, nor does it mean that their build is weaker for it. Just different.
Edit: the strongest aspect of reaper imo isn’t even the shroud, it’s the shouts. Those can be awesome (though I still like wells).
Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out.