Guild Wars 2

VideoGamermike.5813:

and if you don’t corrilate that shine with an instant-kill attack? what if you think it’s a buff? what if you think its some kind of bonus? There no indicaiton to what that light is other than a light. to top if off, even if you guess it’s an attack, how do you know how long until it charges? how do you know how to time you dodge, how do you know what KIND of ability it is and what to use to resist it? Again, the only way to find out is to have him use it on you first. You should not have to lose to figure out whats going on. this isn’t I wanna Be The guy, I shouldnt be paranoid about every little thing and have to play with absolute perfection or lose.

This, and other action oriented games, are probably not the right genre for you in that case. Using OOC information, as you put it, is pretty much required all the time in these games.

VideoGamermike.5813:

sigh, dutch, did you even bother to understand what I said.

This is the GARBAGE that makes me want to never enter a dungeon again, I’m not going to waste my time argueing with elitist idiots who seem to think DPS is efficiency, that strength is determined by how fast you can kill, and that DPS is the only way to go. You’re personal ideas on how to play does not give any of you the right to bash every other possible fighting style.
I am getting tired of this, I see it in WvW comments when im researching to join soon(in a few levels), and I see it in dungeons, I am getting really kitten tired of this garbage, and am stepping into legitimate anger. STOP.

lol, you come into a forum where the experts of the game discuss the optimal way to play, and tell us to stop discussing the best way to play, so that you don’t get angry. Because the fact that there is a “best” way to play a game which is built around active combat and active defenses (i.e., relying on said active defenses and not wasting stats on tankiness which is not needed) angers you.

lol

No Pulse.2967:

Iris Ng.9845:

Sins.4782:

I’d like to place a bet of 50g on hendo. Who do I send the money to/when?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D7njjRmjTYAarPpqg7b9bDrU_9HmEYX7ET-MVan2OdQ/edit#gid=0

Can I bet 50g on hendo too please? Do I have to send it to Tree?

Enter it on the spreadsheet and send the money to Tree, yup~

Congrats Slither, and good luck with Arah!

Pyroathiest.4168:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Mesmer is currently THE sustained DPS class, I dunno what you’re on about. Where they fail currently is burst, which is why no one wants them in a speedclear. Takes too long to ramp up to high sustain (3-4 seconds) and burst is crap meanwhile.

What? Mesmer has incredible burst. If you wanted burst, you’d bring a shatter mesmer. No class is capable of the same massive aoe burst that a shatter mesmer can do. However, burst is entirely useless in PvE, so nobody brings shatter mesmers.

As far as being THE sustained dps class…no? I mean maybe if you’re able to maintain 3 phantasms, which happens incredibly rarely. The sustained DPS class would probably have to be the lords of autoattack…axe warriors.

Mesmer shatter burst < FGS into wall burst. Since that’s how most bosses end up dying, and mes has low percentage modifiers and low DPS without phants, and even shatter takes a few seconds to setup, the burst is considered low. I’d be interested in seeing whether a burst/shatter mesmer could contribute a bit more to FGS’ing speed runs. Obviously this only applies to PvE, as burst works very differently in PvP and WvW.

If two/three swordsman are up, than mesmer is competitive with or better than Warrior DPS. Warrior is still probably better in most situations because of banners + FGJ + EA.

Kaiser.8504:

How do I edit it on an iPad >_>

I think the Google Drive app will do it

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D7njjRmjTYAarPpqg7b9bDrU_9HmEYX7ET-MVan2OdQ/edit#gid=0 is the official betting spreadsheet. Thanks Tree/Dankies!

Kaiser.8504:

hendo.1940:

Kaiser.8504:

I think frifox has what he calls a “personal pugs gear lie detector”, I know how it works, but I shouldn’t reveal the details here.

I do know how it works, but it doesn’t let you check stats or anything. It’s just to calculate stuff like movement speed, range and dps based on what the client displays.

Mm. Does it display health values though?

There’s a version which does (at least I’ve seen the videos).

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Mesmer is currently THE sustained DPS class, I dunno what you’re on about. Where they fail currently is burst, which is why no one wants them in a speedclear. Takes too long to ramp up to high sustain (3-4 seconds) and burst is crap meanwhile.

This is why they’re much more viable in Fractals.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Zealot’s. Of all the sets with a tank stat, it’s got the best DPS since it has power main stat and also precision. For some reason there’s no other set that does that.

Also healing power is better than vitality or toughness IMO since filling bars faster > taking longer to kill. The latter only prolongs the inevitable while the former can keep you standing forever.

And yes, healing power scales like crap with heal skills but it works pretty well for stuff like regeneration and other “small” heals, which can add up quite a bit. It’s a pretty good deal for a DPS set, much better than Soldier or Knight.

That’s a nice point. Zealot’s you can’t get with tokens, so it’s more annoying because of that, but if gold isn’t a problem than this is a neat idea.

Anierna.6918:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:n8M30I1L3HgJ:https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/We-need-Nemesis-for-the-full-GW2-Experience/first+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

lol. Archives2stronk.

Too bad I couldn’t find one for our original, deleted thread =(

The necromancer is strong with this one!

Humans get Hounds of Balthazar, which isn’t a bad elite when all you care about is a bit more DPS. The human heal also isn’t bad.

OP: my transition to zerker went like this:

1. Full zerker trinkets, soldier’s armor/weapons
2. Zerker weapon
3. Boots, gloves, shoulders zerker
4. Rest zerker

Knight’s is a good alternative to soldier’s for the starting set as well.

As a seriously reply to OP…

I remember the first time I did ACp1. The burrows event took like 15 tries there, while nowadays I solo it with my ele. The point its: you can have a rough start, and still figure things out in the end.

The transition from open world PvE (which I assume is what you’ve been doing up till now) to dungeon explorable is stupidly, stupidly rough. Especially nowadays with the megaserver, open world is more or less a faceroll— you can range and kite, never dodge, and play pretty much any build and survive. There are so many people around that you’ll rarely lose.

And then you get thrown into AC explorable, with bosses like Kholer and the Spider Queen that one-shot. These bosses require some actual knowledge of the game mechanics— how to recognize tells, how to dodge, how to use your class mechanics to support the team, etc. What stinks is that the transition is so stark— there is no tutorial or introduction to the higher expectations. That is pretty bad, and a problem with the game— but there’s nothing we can do about it except tell you what to look out for.

Now you know that there is such a stark transition. Now it’s on you: will you take a good look at your contribution to your team and decide you could do better, or blame the game for being too hard? The folks here have given you a lot of advice which can help raise the chance of success, but if you don’t look inward and take this as a learning opportunity, you won’t succeed at the game.

The burrows can be one -shot with icebow 4, but only if you’re wearing full power gear (berserkers or at least soldiers). If everyone is using something else, You’re Gonna Have a Bad Time.

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

Just from a DPS point of view, or in general? You’re probably right, people usually won’t notice if their kill is 5-10 seconds slower (in a pug).

Though, at this point I don’t see what you’re arguing for. Players who are performing so perfectly that they never allow for a situation that would show them taking less damage than they should be, are most definitely the anecdotal exception. I feel like you’re kind of just playing devils advocate to get the usual bait biters to argue with you.

This is a more succinct version of what I was getting at. Thanks for that, Cookie.

Azreell.1568:

linuxotaku.4731:

Azreell.1568:

DonQuack.9025:

gw2esp id notice you.

My point was – I could have easily put on all zerker but there was absolutely no need because the difference between the two in a normal pug group setting is so low there is no point and :

No, you wouldn’t have noticed.

Granted if you go into a dungeon using a long bow and a bear then all the zerker gear in the world isn’t going to save you , but playing a reasonably decent spec decently well and in a pug setting you can wear what you want without worry of being noticed.

It’s a stigma – nothing more.

It is not noticeable when all 5 are attacking a target, but I do see a difference between my celestial + travelers and my zerker + scholar’s when it’s just me attacking a target; I think others would notice.

I do usually run ascended celestial armor (travelers’) + zerker trinkets for PUGs on my guard (though the nerf hurt celestial armor a lot more than zerker armor); but when groups ask for zerker only I switch to exotic zerker + scholar’s, and there’s some difference.

For ele it might be less obvious (there are lots of traits that give +dmg modifiers), but my ele is pure zerker anyway — if I play him, it’s to nuke all the things.

My point was simply no one in this game can tell you for 100% certain one way or another if another player in your group is wearing zerker or not.

There are to many variables which make it impossible as well as a lack of any type of dps meter.

The point is people getting kicked from "zerker’ groups are doing a lot more wrong then not wearing zerker gear and that is what caused them to be kicked more then likely.

That’s certainly true. You don’t say “zerker only” and require pings and expect people to be 100% quality, but it does raise the standards on average, and that’s why people do it.

Azreell.1568:

maxinion.8396:

Azreell.1568:

DigitalKirin.9714:

I notice. I just don’t call people on it. I leave that to the “ping gear or kick” crowds.

If anything, I’ll usually make comments in guild chat. And when I’m done with a party, I’ll just say, “Welp, done. G’luck all. May your guardians always have reflect handy.”

Actually it’s impossible for you to notice without a damage meter.

So, I’m going to call you out on this.

Even in zerker gear peoples dps and performance very GREATLY.

So , You can have someone in full zerker doing terrible dps and someone in for example in celes or zealot doing more simply because they are playing better and and using their cds and rotations appropriately.

So no offense but I call bs on your statement.

It’s not unreasonable to know the approximate damage to expect from each class. Can you tell how much one person is doing in AC, where everything dies immediately no matter what? Probably not. Can you tell in Arah or CoE or Fractals? Absolutely.

Requiring zerker with no ping is fine because there usually will only be a handful of people cheating like you, and most will follow the request. That’s always enough in the low-level dungeons.

Having experienced the highest levels of fractals as well as completing / solo’ing Arah , I will be the first to tell you – It is still impossible for you to be able to tell which person is doing less damage in any group. The difference even in Arah, CoE or Fractals is minimal unless you are running with a static group.

Also, As I said once again – A person in full zerker does not ensure the maximum damage for that particular spot due to player skill , spec and class.

It’s simply a stigma.

Also, To clarify – I was not cheating as I have stated prior I have full ascended zerker sets which at any point in time I could have put on – but the point is it was never required nor asked.

This stigma is similar to people desiring heavies only for parties or warriors only thinking they are the highest dps.

The bottom line is without a ping there isn’t a person alive who is going to be able to tell if any particular player is wearing zerker or not if they are playing the class with even the smallest amount of skill.

Anyone who gets kicked from a party for lack of zerker is doing something wrong far beyond gear.

If the post said “zerker”, than zerker was expected, and you were cheating/lying to the group, even if they didn’t ask. That’s common courtesy, but like I said, most “zerker only” groups that don’t actually require pings are ok with one or two hanger-ons (especially if they can blend in). It’s usually good enough for most dungeons anyway, and not worth confronting people like you who want to argue.

Depending on the encounter, you can absolutely tell if someone is a bad/ not wearing zerker. From how much HP they lose from specific hits, you can gather what their toughness/vitality is. From using crap like Banner of Defense or Strength in Numbers, you can recognize bad builds (and likely bad gearsets). From bad weapons like Staff on Guard or Greatsword on Mesmer, you also are more likely to not be wearing the right gear. Food/consumables/stacking set are also often giveaways. In AC, not one-shotting a burrow with icebow is a giveaway (but Soldiers can also one-shot, so it’s not guaranteed). Zerker is short for “play a proper meta build,” and as the build and gear are correlated, if you see a bad build you can guess that there’s bad gear as well.

Can all this be avoided? Absolutely— if you dodge perfectly so you never get hit, if you focus your damage with the rest of the group so your individual dps is never revealed, if you run the right traits and utilities, than you can hide. But at that point, you’re doing more or less everything correct, so you might as well play zerker and do more damage with the same quality of play. I guess that’s what you’re doing— way to stick it to the man. I would rather have an otherwise meta player using knight’s than a bad zerker doing everything else wrong, so that’s true. But these are the exception, and not the rule.

Azreell.1568:

DigitalKirin.9714:

I notice. I just don’t call people on it. I leave that to the “ping gear or kick” crowds.

If anything, I’ll usually make comments in guild chat. And when I’m done with a party, I’ll just say, “Welp, done. G’luck all. May your guardians always have reflect handy.”

Actually it’s impossible for you to notice without a damage meter.

So, I’m going to call you out on this.

Even in zerker gear peoples dps and performance very GREATLY.

So , You can have someone in full zerker doing terrible dps and someone in for example in celes or zealot doing more simply because they are playing better and and using their cds and rotations appropriately.

So no offense but I call bs on your statement.

It’s not unreasonable to know the approximate damage to expect from each class. Can you tell how much one person is doing in AC, where everything dies immediately no matter what? Probably not. Can you tell in Arah or CoE or Fractals? Absolutely.

Requiring zerker with no ping is fine because there usually will only be a handful of people cheating like you, and most will follow the request. That’s always enough in the low-level dungeons.

1 infused ring (magi), 2 weapon chests (one healer, one rampager!), and a fractal torch (for me!) on a 19 tonight. Torch isn’t the most exciting, but hey, I’ll be more fashionable when doing skips in Arah now.

Tyjaan.2451:

maxinion.8396:

The mobs that spawn behind her killed the console before you killed her. If the console dies, you get ported back to the middle of the run after Alphard. So, either kill the adds, or have one person kite them while the other person finishes Brie.

I thought that that might be the case so I stayed to defend the console while my friend tried to take down brie and it still teleported us. I guess some must have gotten behind me somehow and hit the console then.

The console can take a few hits before going down, so this seems strange. Afaik it is the only way to get teleported back, though, so that must have been it.

Tyjaan.2451:

We ended up just doing it again lol. But if it ever happens again we will be sure to try all those.
I do have another question tho. When we got to the end boss, Brie, we would get her low on health, roughly 25% left and then she would teleport us to another part of the map. Ive nvr had this happen be4 and was curious why she kept doing this to us…we ended up just inviting a few friends and just beat her normally since the whole teleporting thing was getting rly annoying.

The mobs that spawn behind her killed the console before you killed her. If the console dies, you get ported back to the middle of the run after Alphard. So, either kill the adds, or have one person kite them while the other person finishes Brie.

Saint.5647:

Ah ya. Fair enough. Those paths are just the dryest of the dry in my opinion. I guess I am just not willing to do them on a regular basis just for the gold anymore. I feel like I am dying a little inside each time I have to wait on the NPC sections

Pls pls pls new dungeons in Maguuma!!!

I’ve lately been doing the Solo Challenge in CoF p2: join a PuG that says “anyone welcome” or “new to path” or something and then do the NPC gated sections (like the fire path, or the assassins) more or less solo. You also get to experience “the only person actually DPS’ing the rock thing at the final boss”, which is fun! One way to keep it interesting, anyway…

Saint.5647:

ProRulez.5207:

Hello guys, im wondering which dungeons should i do every day that are fast, easy and rewarding? i know cof p1+p2 and ac p1+p3 are fast easy and rewarding so far, but which others are too?
thanks ^^

CoF 2 isn’t that fast though. Neither is AC 3. They’re two of the longest ones in the game because of all the time gating involved. Not sure why they are always referred to as ‘quick’ dungeons.

If you want only the fastest, you want to hit up CM (1/2/3), TA (Frank/Underwood), SE (1/3), CoF 1, AC 1, HoTW1.

CoF2, AC 2/3 will tack time onto your runs. Granted they’re not difficult or anything but they add time. Depending on your experience or your group, CoE 1 is very quick. P2 and 3 are both time gated.

Arah 1 and 2 are both quick as well as very rewarding. Not sure why 3 gives our hobo level rewards but it’s also a quick one to do.

Good luck and may RNJesus be with you.

They’re “quick” because you can rely on just about any crappy PUG to beat CoF p2 and AC p3. TA and CM are in principle faster if you have a good group, but it’s harder for you to carry your team in those as they can rely on things like chaining reflects and condition clears.

Miku Lawrence.6329:

Morsus.5106:

Yeah, but the idea behind the nerf was to make PVT/Knights/Clerics/etc more valuable in dungeon runs, now people are doing more gear checks, so it backfired.

No, it was to shut down the crying crowd of casuals. It backfired though as you said.

But it also made all casual dungeons (the < 80 ones, and especially AC) so easy that even one zerker can carry a whole party now.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/links/We-need-Nemesis-for-the-full-GW2-Experience

O….m….g….. poetic justice folks.

I lol’ed

Silberfisch.3046:

I’d like to ask those with more experience using necromancers a question.

Today I was told that the popular rune of strength would be the rune of choice for necromancers in coordinated dungeon groups.
Now I wonder why? When I asked I was told that was because they usually have 25 stacks might up in their groups. That part was pretty obvious, being an organized group and all, but I still don’t get the choice in runes.
Wouldn’t scholar for a necromancer still be the better choice if they can keep above the 90% health threshold?
I can understand the rune of strength for might stacking elementalists or phalanxwarriors. Or anyone who provides a lot of might in general.
But as little as I know about necromancers, they are usually not those providing might. So I’m a little confused. Would anyone please enlighten me as to why the rune of strength would be the better choice compared to scholar for a necromancer in an organized group?

It’s not. Scholar is better.

You get one each of your Offensive/Defensive for the trinkets and rings (so Ring of Red Death and Crystalline Band for zerker stats for ascended rings). Trinkets are unique, so you can only grab one of each, so you end up getting both offensive and defensive at the end. This doesn’t matter fundamentally, since you’ll almost certainly just be slotting versatile infusions anyway for the AR.

For amulets, the utility ones are almost always superior. They can slot everything you’d ever want to slot— normal versatile infusions for AR, or karma/magic find infusions for farming.

chaosgrimm.5837:

maxinion.8396:

Role && build == traits && skills.

Technically speaking, I dont think you meant this, but who cares about operator precedence and semantics anyway lol.

maxinion.8396:

You can have many roles/builds with zerker. Just check out the ele meta, with d/f, s/d, and staff providing completely different roles and playstyles (all high damage, but one with more general utility, one with might stacking, one with ‘highest’ dps and fire field uptime). Check out the guardian meta, with hammer options for providing protection, or sword/focus + greattsword for pure damage.

now do necro…
6/x/x/x/6 with 2 points to help you diversify!!!

and look at the wonderful weapon selection:
dagger/warhorn and axe / focus
OR!!!!!
dagger/focus and axe / warhorn

maxinion.8396:

There are plenty of diverse builds and roles. They all happen to use zerker, because zerker just means “I am comfortable with active defenses in the game and do not need passive ones.” That is all that zerker means.

You have won me over. I will now be running scepter/dagger and staff with zerker gear instead of the above. Dungeons are fine!!!

All fear the zerkditionmancer!!! Commence running around in circles.

a warning though, I hear circle zerking for too long can make you go blind.

Yes, my operator overloading is bad and I should feel bad. But you understood what I meant.

Necro is a bad class. No one is arguing this. There are no options, as it is a matter of finding the least bad build. But that doesn’t change the fact that most other classes have many different roles and options. Another example: warrior. The warrior can spec for full DPS, team support with Empower Allies, or sacrifice personal DPS to maintain might stacks on team with Phalanx Strength. All three are viable options, which depend on your team composition and slot you into very different roles on the support-DPS spectrum. The Phalanx build even gives up the pure DPS gear (Scholar Runes) for boon-support (Strength Runes and sometimes Strength Sigil instead of Force)— here’s a bit of gear diversity, even. Mesmer is the same story— you can spec for full reflection to provide more team support at the cost of personal DPS, or you can spec for full damage to maximize your burst potential (there are actually 7 or so viable trait compositions, the best of which depends on your encounter and the type of group you’re with).

I’m not sure what your point about zerkditionmancer is, you’re getting fairly incoherent here. Is this a complaint that conditions aren’t viable? Yes, that’s annoying and ANet should fix it (as it would help Necro a lot as well). I don’t think anyone argues against that. No good player, zerker or otherwise, runs around like a chicken with his head cut off anyway, so I’m not sure what you’re getting at there.

Gear != build. Gear != role. Role && build == traits && skills.

You can have many roles/builds with zerker. Just check out the ele meta, with d/f, s/d, and staff providing completely different roles and playstyles (all high damage, but one with more general utility, one with might stacking, one with ‘highest’ dps and fire field uptime). Check out the guardian meta, with hammer options for providing protection, or sword/focus + greattsword for pure damage.

There are plenty of diverse builds and roles. They all happen to use zerker, because zerker just means “I am comfortable with active defenses in the game and do not need passive ones.” That is all that zerker means.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

maxinion.8396:

Ephemeral.5409:

Also, role play must be present in every single dungeon run. Not adhering to this will result in a perma ban with no appeal.

#LilithRules2014

#LilithRulesEternity

how can an asura look down on me, didn’t know this was possible

Ephemeral.5409:

Also, role play must be present in every single dungeon run. Not adhering to this will result in a perma ban with no appeal.

#LilithRules2014

Ecole.2349:

- Doors will not open until all mobs in the preceding area have been cleared. This is to prevent skipping, obviously. This should be a thing anyhow. I can’t count the times I’ve been booted for wanting to run the dungeon properly, there are people out there that are 100% convinced the devs make content that is supposed to be skipped. I weep for the lfg T_T

rofl

do you even know where you’re posting

Sublimatio.6981:

precision is a damage multiplayer, indirectly. that’s why i’m asking if accuracy is better than force
assuming there is no fury, no banner, no spotter, no perception

You basically always want to get to 100% crit chance because so much of your damage is reflect based. If you’re regularly not hitting 100% crit chance because you’re lacking Banner and Spotter, consider Assassin’s armor or an accuracy sigil to replace the 5% sigil, sure. I think most people get the Assassin’s in this situation instead of the accuracy sigil though, since a 5% multiplier that adds to your feedback damage is quite useful.

Good point that I missed the second 5 in your proposed build. You’re right, that brings it up to 14% over the baseline, and the 2/4/0/4/4 (or 2/4/0/5/3) is only at 10% or so.

So the 5/4/0/5/0 also seems reasonable!

So many builds these days…

PS the differences between Signet Mastery and the cooldown on phantasms is mostly a matter of taste, so that one can go either way I feel.

I think it’s easier to estimate with the totals:

With 5 in dom you gain: 1. 150 power (more like 4% DPS, but ok, call it 5%). 2. 5% on idle for personal— call it 2% (half because it’s just personal, and then a little lower because bosses are not always idle). This is a total of 7%. Signet heal 20% faster (IMO irrelevant, fights don’t last long enough for it to come out of the cooldown anyway).

So that’s 7% damage overall (5% + 2%).

With 4 in illusions, you gain: 1. 3% damage per illusion. On average you’ll have 2 out, so that’s 6% personal DPS (3% DPS gain). 2. Faster cooldowns— which can be out faster than the end of the fight, which makes it better than Signet Mastery imo. 3. Phantasmal Haste, which is a ~15% buff to phantasms (so 7% damage increase, since phants are half your damage— I’m also assuming this is about equivalent to 5 in Inspiration instead).

So that’s 10% overall, plus the faster cooldowns in case your phants die (which signet mastery doesn’t help with— it just helps get a third one out quickly, but in case they die, your DPS plummets while you wait for the cooldowns).

So it’s a net difference of 3% towards the Illusions, by my estimates, plus you get the cooldowns which are better than signet mastery. The 5 in dom has more personal DPS gain, but relies on bosses being idle. The 4 in Illusions is assuming decent illusion uptime, but can be even better if your phants/clones have longer uptime.

I think it’s fairly clear than that 2/4 is superior to 5/4, but these are all estimates anyway. It’s obviously not a huge difference.

Advent Leader.1083:

If they’d up condition code, it should be both ways – boost base condi calculation in PvE such that it’s not just us that benefits, but mobs as well.

Removing (or raising) the condi cap would not help mobs, since they hardly ever reach the cap on players anyway.

Xyonon.3987:

because…

Because none of the traits, except III and XI, increase your damage or cooldowns, and those are the things you need on phant builds. You get a little bit of extra damage because of all the power you’re stacking, but that’s a lot of points to burn for 150 power (which is about a 4% damage buff for both you and your phants). Things like 15% phant damage or 20% faster phant attack are substantially better (ends up being an overall 7-8% buff to your DPS, since it only affects phants). On top of this you get the cooldown reduction to spam more phants.

Now, if you’re talking about 200 power + 12% personal damage… the equation shifts. 6 dom is quite nice for this reason, even if there’s no great Master level major trait to take still.

2/4/0/5/3 or 2/4/0/4/4 are my suggestions for starter builds. 5 points in Dom, without going for Empowering mantras, is a waste— the Dom line is not good for phantasm builds.

Just go 5/3 in inspiration/illusions, or 4/4. 3 in illusions is really nice for cooldown, and the last point can go in either. In pugs, bosses last longer so phantasmal haste is better, but if you don’t pug a lot, go the other way.

How about you write “no stacking” in the LFG and go on your merry way?

For dungeons, use full zerker sword/sword and sword/focus with 2/4/0/4/4. Scholar runes are best, but ranger runes are good too and cheaper. Sigil of force/night/accuracy in non-night dungeons. Put everything into cooldown reduction and damage increasing (I think it’s, in order, traits III, II, IV, II, VIII, III, X, but I’m on my phone and could be remembering wrong). This is the basic “general purpose” build— there are more advanced ones you can swap between once you’ve gotten the hang of things, but this is a great place to start and will serve you well in almost all situations.

Lol, this is some classic atse. A++ keep it up, keep complaining about how everything is OP.

No, just using rabid like you at the moment (along with the points in chaos raising toughness as well). I feel like I already go down quickly in team fights if I get focused and can’t get the signets off, so going glassier isn’t quite an option for me yet.

I use sword mostly because it’s what I’m familiar with (since I mostly play PvE). It brings more damage and less condi to the table than scepter, which makes the build a bit more of a hybrid, I feel like. Blurred Frenzy fits will with the theme of “lots of invuln” though, so I kind of like it for that reason alone. I might try the scepter in some hotjoins and see how it feels.

Steak and asparagus is 1s and gives power and prec. Can’t go wrong with that.

Personally I love Candied Dragon Rolls. They’re also about 1s each, and give a bunch of precision, and life gain on crit. Since you crit so much, it’s a nice buffer for your health, especially if you need to keep it above 90% for scholar. You lose 80 power compared to steak and asparagus, but that’s not too huge an exchange. This is a very common choice for experienced folks in pugs or casual runs.

Griff.5073:

When I played several months ago, Berserker greatsword and swords dominated the scene. It discouraged me from experimenting builds in PvE and it wasn’t as fun.

I’m wondering if this has changed at all? Have they buffed condition damage, etc. to make it more effective in PvE?

Full power + crit phantasm builds with sword/sword and sword/focus are the meta. Unfortunately the last patches hit mesmer very hard, so mesmers have been reduced to portalbots in the broader metagame (though their high reflection uptime gives them a little bit of a place in some places like fractals).

But definitely no greatswords, those are bad.

Scholar is the best— 10% DPS bonus to yourself only is still nothing to sneeze at. If you’re in a good group, someone else is stacking might for you and your phantasms, so your Strength Runes are a waste.. Considering Runes of Strength are going for 14 gp a piece right now, save yourself the money.

A great, cheap alternative is Ranger, which gives lots of precision and the 7% bonus is rather easy to maintain by always having an Illusion out.

Seras.5702:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhUQNAW8dnsISBa2qGmqB1aIR1QM5pent4Q01lUBA-TRCBwAQ3fQiSQjK/A8AAwp+TKdDWOCAbuIAKM/REAzCA-e

That would boost my phantasms like crazy, give me reflect on focus, reduced glamour cooldown, and iWarlock on 10.75s cooldown. Chaos Sstorm with a little +boon duration food and Sig of Inspiration for a bit of general boon sharing and group support.

How’s that? iWarlock x3 should be easy to keep up. Let them hit like trucks while I bash away with sword.

Would personally move the 20 in Chaos to Dueling and taking Phantasmal Fury and Blade Training. Those are both such good skills— Phantasmal Fury will really make your Warlocks hit like trucks (and give you 200 more precision and ferocity, which is a big difference in damage). You’ll actually give your phantasms about 30% higher crit chance with this move, which is definitely noticeable. Since you’re usually going to start with double warlock, the cooldown on staff doesn’t matter, so the Chaotic Dampening isn’t worth it imo. But something similar to this is basically what you want.

You can move the 5th point in Inspiration to the 4th in Illusions and take X, Phantasmal Haste, which is usually a little bit better of an investment, but it’s a small difference.

Hope this helps~

hendo.1940:

You should be using 30/20/0/20/20 if heavy reflects are required.

Where’d you get the extra 20? :O