I tried it with 15/25/0/20/10 with no runes or trinket on the golem and got the same time doing mighty blow then nothing but auto and mighty blow → 2 aa chains → mighty blow. Not waiting for the 2nd chain was a loss.
PS – quickmode math because I know Obal will be curious. Hammer 15/15/0/20/20 under the same situation as above except for prec/crit dmg food and precision oil comes out at roughly 5500dps thanks to the assumed base dps of the auto attack being a whopping 520 (296+333+370 + 5 ticks of 185 for the symbol = 1924 / 3.7 seconds = 520 base dps with a modifier of 9554EP/916=10.43 ). It probably increases with mighty blow. Not too shabby, but still 20-25% less than sword.
Thanks for checking. I’m curious to know what it would be with the 15/25/0/20/10 build which is what I run.
“No changes will be needed. The gs + sword/focus build will be stronger. The DPS rotation might change slightly given sword got a buff, but I’m not sure what would be the optimal rotation yet. I’m wondering what tests were done to find the current one.”
Just want to make sure I understand what you are saying here.
The gs/ s-f build will become stronger (higher DPS) but the hammer build is still what you use for high level FOTM?
The gs sf build was always stronger than hammer. It’s still worth using hammer for fractal though since the perma prot and cc isare worth it. The hammer build still does good damage. I run hammer for fractals and the gs sf build everywhere else. We used to have 2 guards in the party and run 1 hammer and 1 gs sf. I just go with 1 now and run hammer.
I’m not really sure if there is a way to tell the % diff since they are different weapon setups. When people compare the builds it’s usually the same weapon sets. If you have 2 guardians in the group you should have at least 1 run the gs + s/f build. We used to have 2 for fractals and run 1 hammer and the other gs + s/f. I would suggest that or just 2 gs + s/f for dungeons other then fractals if you stack guardians and don’t need the prot. The gs + s/f will provide more vuln with the 3 weapons skills doing rotations on top of the virtue. You should put 10 in virtues.
How will the changes from the patch change this build? Just overall better and no adjustment needed or no change at all
No changes will be needed. The gs + sword/focus build will be stronger. The DPS rotation might change slightly given sword got a buff, but I’m not sure what would be the optimal rotation yet. I’m wondering what tests were done to find the current one.
For ascended gear I’m thinking about going Knight for Chest, Head and Legs and Zerker for Gloves, Shoulder’s and boots with boon duration runes monk, water & traveler or runes of lyssa or Divinity unless someone thinks i should go for an alternative.
I would check the tradeoff of stats vs crit damage before you decide since the trinkets didn’t follow the exotic tradeoffs. I would stick with scholar or ranger runes as suggested in the guide. Boon duration isn’t worth it since if you run hammer you will have perma prot without the runes and the whole goal of boons is using the right ones at the right times so you shouldn’t really need it extended that much and lose out on dps. Lyssa isn’t worth it for a pve guard and all stat gear/runes just aren’t good.
No. Hammer has far superior support. Sword has better dps and will have even more tomorrow. You pretty much already answered your question. The mace excels at nothing and isn’t worth using. You can use it solo open world events to have fun if that’s your kind of thing but you will be gimping your groups support or dps for your own fun in a dungeon/fractal.
Bombs you just blast smoke screen and sr at the door and have all 5 sync plant the bombs and then have 1 person at a time go stealth the last 2 since they won’t pick them up if you go solo. Stealh past the rest to the clown car when the door is blown up. It doesn’t take that long and requires no real effort.
It’s just there to show what the class is capable of. Maybe some of the stubborn or ill-informed AH and clerics guards might convert to zerkerism after seeing it . As far as DPS tests go I agree for the most part.
But how fast can the Gandalf build do it in?
I did a 3.5s kill first try. I’m sure Gandalf can do better.
FGS isn’t a staff!!!
Here is a real staff guard test that Gandolf approves.
…..I have to ask is there really a point to these kill time videos?
Almost every one one involves some type of might vulnerability stacking which is great and all but in a party especially an organized one these are a given. If feels like you play up some burst spec that won’t work in PvE or any place else to maximize solo dps but at the same time practical application and results don’t really mean anything due to party mechanics boosting your dps far past anything you can do solo. The results, the test, clicking or key binding none of it seems to matter because unless you are in a party setting none of it means a thing.
I usually use the 20/25/0/0/25 build I used in the video in places where I don’t need vigor which is pretty much anything other than Arah and Fractal. Any gs + sword/focus variant can be considered a burst spec since GS is a burst weapon. Here is a party one of GS burst http://youtu.be/U67QNskKYHs or just an overall run http://youtu.be/8W38rEAFY9U
I have seen that video before. My comment isn’t about all kill time videos (though it could be looked at in that way) but the solo ones. Even if I knew that was a great DPS build with a party its just sort of pointless. We see them op up to show the great DPS of a class (not only guardians do this obviously). At the same time I could jump on a glass DD thief find a good party and show insane numbers. I would have to eat food and pop impractical buffs to to show how fast I drop a vet giant solo. Just seems pointless to me.
It’s just there to show what the class is capable of. Maybe some of the stubborn or ill-informed AH and clerics guards might convert to zerkerism after seeing it . As far as DPS tests go I agree for the most part.
…..I have to ask is there really a point to these kill time videos?
Almost every one one involves some type of might vulnerability stacking which is great and all but in a party especially an organized one these are a given. If feels like you play up some burst spec that won’t work in PvE or any place else to maximize solo dps but at the same time practical application and results don’t really mean anything due to party mechanics boosting your dps far past anything you can do solo. The results, the test, clicking or key binding none of it seems to matter because unless you are in a party setting none of it means a thing.
I usually use the 20/25/0/0/25 build I used in the video in places where I don’t need vigor which is pretty much anything other than Arah and Fractal. Any gs + sword/focus variant can be considered a burst spec since GS is a burst weapon. Here is a party one of GS burst http://youtu.be/U67QNskKYHs or just an overall run http://youtu.be/8W38rEAFY9U
Stick with the 10/25/0/10/25 build since it has the better support and dps and you will be learning the class properly. I find the hammer build is stronger in fractals though which is 15/25/0/20/10 (max dps), 15/15/0/20/20 (more condition removal), or 15/15/10/20/10 (more armor for team).
Get zerker trinkets and weapons and a set of exotic knights armor should be enough to keep you up at first and will ease your transition to full zerker. For runes I just use beryl on mine when I use it (I use it to draw aggro on some fractal bosses so people can just melee behind it and kill it faster and safer). Ranger runes would be the best choice if you want more dps instead of a bit of survivability the beryl orbs would give for the knights set. Full zerk + scholar runes would be optimal. Soldiers gear just isn’t worth it unless you fight a lot of open world bosses you can’t crit or something like that.
Valor gives trivial offense and selfish support other than strength in numbers. Your missing both 10% damage modifiers from zeal 10 and radiance 25 so you don’t have much offense in this setup. Master of consecrations is the backbone of a solid pve build for wall of reflection, purging flames, and other things when needed. Hammer is a lot better support than mace since it gives perma prot and regen is really weak compared to that. A good secondary weapon is greatsword for grouping mobs and bursting or staff for running, kiting, pulling mobs to LoS spots and putting line of warding before they get there to keep them interrupted.
Something like this would be the best balance of offense and support where you can take 10 out of radiance and put it to valor for strength in numbers for more defense or in virtues for more condition removal. You can put on some knights gear if you want more self sustainability outside of all the blocks, blinds, perma prot, and ccs you have to stay alive. The key to support is just bringing the proper utilities to the fight like wall and shield of avenger when there are projeciles, stability when cc is a problem, retreat for skipping trash and boss fights, etc and you have blind spam, perma prot, consecration cd, shout cd, lots of dps, vuln in the setup below so you are doing the right support. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJASRlUgiC3FSHEfIFRWBRazAgIs+Q8wUgRPC
For fractals you mainly stick to hammer since the whole reason to run the build is perma prot. The thing that changes is the weapon swap.
For things like dredge where you need to pull mobs you use a greatsword.
For things you need to pull to a LoS spot like ascalon you use a staff to blow an orb up on them and get them to come and put a line of warding down where you LoS them to keep them interrupted while you apply blinds and dps them down freely for a bit.
For bosses where blocks are needed like mossman, archdiviner, dredge suit you use sword/focus for shield of wrath and swap back when you can.
You can camp GS for bosses and mobs that you don’t really need perma prot for if you really want like bloomhunger.
Higher level fractals now have 12k hit mobs, pure glass guards don’t work.
It’s all the more reason to go glass, put 15 in radiance for blind spam and 10 in virtues for wall spam to negate attacks, and run hammer to get a damage reduction instead of gimping your team support by running AH or less powerful gear. I scaled to 80 and 50 under the new system as pure glass and it worked fine.
I have tried the GS / S+F build full zerker gear and trinkets. It was amazing DPS but I am not good enough to prevent dmg to down me that often and I ended up being frustrated. I tried the same build with Knight gear + zerker weapons & trinkets and while I was able to go through some personal mistakes I had again the issue of beng downed often especially in pugs, which is what I generally do.
Is it any viable nowadays? if so is it worth?
Mostly I am interested in knowing if the rotation in that guide is correct.
Thanks in advance!
This is the hammer build I use in fractals and is in my guide so yes it is viable and worth it to run. It’s the max damage variation of the hammer core build of 15/15/0/20/10. I don’t know about the rotation. The whole point of running a hammer is for perma prot so it doesn’t make much sense to keep swapping. If you burst with gs you usually start with the gs burst I’m not sure why this started with hammer and you usually swap after you do a second WW though I usually just do 2-4 then swap for trash that will die fast.
I bet all you MAX DPS people would be the same people that posted “Looking For Hunter must Have 40k dps”.. The same people who will kill yet another great game..
Just my opinion .
Notice how there are no red posts made post update on the first 5 pages of the Fractured section yet there are so many issues old and new. It’s not the players that killed the game.
I’m also trying to decide between Meteorlogicus and Twilight, and that decision rests on whichever weapon is better single-target DPS in Dungeons.
What do you think?
GS is more useful in dungeons. WW can hit more than 9x if in the target’kittenbox. It’s useful for bursting then swap to sword auto and repeat or there if you need a pull. I can’t think of much I would use a scepter for anymore other than Ashym when he gets around 50% or there is an aoe near him.
Scholar, >90% health, EP = 7913.19
Scholar, <90% health, EP = 7193.81
Ruby EP = 7370.17
X * 7913.19 + (1-X) * 7193.81 = 7370.17
X = 0.245
—> If you are above 90% health for at least 24.5% of the time, then you are doing better with Scholar than Ruby.
You can use the same formula with any particular build and Ranger runes too in order to see the difference.
Thanks for the calcs. I tried it with ruby orbs and there wasn’t that big of a variation with buffs vs without buffs. There was a huge difference with the Ranger runes though. They can be quite good if you don’t run RH Strength.
Maybe you could rephrase this, obal. Afaik, the 24.5 % threshold applies only to the comparison between Scholar and Ruby Orbs, while the threshold for Ranger is much higher. I just fear that some people could misunderstand the current wording in a way that Scholar is also better than Ranger at 25 %.
But as it is, all they are doing is resetting the fractal levels of people who already got all their rewards from doing those levels, but were never meant to reach those levels.
Let me emphasize that, you already got your rewards!
What rewards? Pretty much any other content was more rewarding than fractals, especially doing odd levels and not even getting the daily chest. I could have mindlessly zerged open world events and have 100s of gold rather than watch my amount of gold barely move for weeks and have my progress wiped with no warning.
I am fully aware that you lose 1% dps on gs and gain 4% on sword but I was thinking the extra 150 power might compensate for that, obviously in situations where unscathered is not an option.
I did a calc and assuming unscathed + power of the virtuous gives you a 10% buff you get about the same EP on the GS and a few hundred EP loss with a sword. The differences weren’t significant so either build would be fine if you don’t need removal.
Since mesmer can remove conditions with mantra and guard can add purging flames if you need even more is the traited resolve really worth it? You should be averaging 4 boons (swiftness, fury, might, vigor) so the dps gain is not that much. Maybe 25/30/0/5/10. I know 5% gs damage isn’t as big but 150 more power could be.
Swap to unscathed contender if you don’t need resolve. You can keep it up with a good group and reflects for a decent amount of time. The 4% or so will apply to sword as well so it would be better than the gs trait.
I’m trying out this build at the moment and so far its working really well. Do you know if this build will be affected by the upcoming class balance in dec? Thanks
It will just make the gs + sword/focus build even stronger since the sword trait is going from 5% to 10% damage increase. The rest of the traits being updated weren’t worth using and still won’t be.
They provide the right boons for the occasion not random ones. You just need to put on the right utility skills like stand your ground if cc is a problem, retreat if aegis is OP for a boss fight like fractal bosses, etc. The zerk hammer build gives perma prot while doing a lot of dps for things like high fractal and pugging.
The zerk builds have blind spam, vuln stacking, and master of consecrations. If you bring the proper utilities along then you have all the support needed. Again, hammer perma prot is OP support if you choose that build.
And perhaps most importantly, is there a hybrid build out there to provide support/tank/damage?
Making a hybrid makes you miss out on a lot and not be worth it. The 10/25/0/0/25 gs + sword/focus and 15/15/0/20/10 hammer core builds give you all the support needed and give you a lot of dps. If you want to be tankier then use the hammer build or just run knights armor with zerk everything else if you are struggling at first since it would be better than running zerk with hybrid builds. If you want more info then here is a good thread https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/DPS-Guardian-Guide-for-PVE-1
nice i didnt test my numbers like u but I myself also came to the mix s/f and gs
it just felt very right maybe bcs im so used from warrior to swap weapons for rotation.
my highest gs hit whirl thing was 24k at fractals in a random group after that i was sure its worth it.
one Question
How to u test ur builds?
I personal just learning by doin but i dont have fix numbers in my head ever
I just play tested them in Arah and Fractals 48-79 using the core trait lines with variations. As far as theory crafting goes, others have tested them out and I’m just providing a summary guide to help people since so many people ask and they can just find the answers here. Nikaido’s sword build and Brazil’s hammer build pretty much paved the way for the meta.
in your video you explain the typical dps rotation, but you never use sword #3, why is that? rotation timing or is the damage less than autoattack?
There has been debates about this. The difference is so slight that it really doesn’t make a difference. I’d rather not break up the sword auto chain for this as it would be a loss. I just use it when reflections are down, the shield flickers off, or I have to stay out of range of something for a few seconds like the rampaging ice ele in the dredge fractal when it does the ground pound agony circle.
My question is regarding which is better between +10% to burning foes and + 15% crit chance (slightly more since it would mean + 50 precision also).
I’m debating between 0/30/0/10/30 and 10/25/0/10/25. I have the 10 there in both because I use shouts a lot. If I went all crit chance I might try Assassin’s gear, but if I gave up some crit chance to focus more on power and + 10 % to burning foes, I’d go Berzerker. The only reason I’m hesitant is because I don’t know how often I could keep an enemy burning.
Thanks for the advice.
I would go with 10/25/0/10/25. The 10% damage modifier would be better than the extra crit chance of a weapon that you should only be using half the time. If you play in a group and are spamming F1 enemies will almost always have burning on them except a few that cleanse themselves which isn’t many. I would stick with berserker as well since if you run with a group you should have perma fury and banner of discipline you will have around 80% chance to crit and with some cheap food like minotaur steaks and stacking perception you will have around 93%. If you had a ranger with spotter on top of that it would be over 100 so that is why I would suggest bloodlust in that case. I would only suggest running assassins gear if you want to try to beat Dub’s lupi solo record where reflection damage is around half of your damage.
You beat our 4 min kill using other peoples builds by a minute. It is more viable than a lot of builds as I figured. I would add it to my sticky, but the world isn’t quite ready for it yet
I’ve tried one of the variants of this build yesterday in a pug group and it was horrible ;-)
I had zero sustain and since the rest of the group didn’t offer any support/defensive boons, I frequently downed and even got killed.
Sustainability comes from the blind spam, aegis, shelter, renewed focus, focus#5, and wall/sheild. It takes awhile to adjust having the low hp pool and toughness. I’d suggest running the hammer build for perma prot at first. You can run knights armor also until you get used to it as well.
while I’m sure such a build would perform well in a coordinated group (or just a group of experienced players), I was wondering if you have any suggestions for a more sustainable pug build with still decent damage?
usually I run a lazy hammer/gs with pure-voice/AH with some boon duration runes (obviously zerker gear), which allows me to dish somewhat decent damage and offer a few defensive boons. it’s very easy to play and seems to keep people alive a lot better than some other guards I meet in dungeons (especially those pesky staff, scepter/focus players). I’d rather get rid of AH, though I lack inspiration =)
The hammer 15/15/10/20/10 would probably best suit pugs. AH is a lot of points better spent to support the group. The only thing in valor worth running in a group is strength in numbers.
on another note: I always liked how running with a mace felt, but pretty much everyone here frowns upon it so I don’t use it in dungeons. is there any decent mace build for dungeons (as I said, pugging speedruns, not coordinated groups) which still does noticable damage and helps the party with some sustain? when running zerker ele in AC I often miss some steady regen/heals, especially while using conjures, which is why I’ve kept thinking about guardian mace recently. I mostly run dungeons with my mesmer (which, for some reason, has fewer problems playing full dps without much sustain than my guard), but depending group composition I’d like to use guardian sometimes – right now I mostly use him when I’m drunk, because he’s pretty much indestructible.
sorry for the wall of text and thanks for reading.
tl;dr: puggable mace-build with decent damage, or something similarly supporty while still running zerker?
The damage you give up for the lack of support mace does isn’t worth it. Mace damage isn’t comparable to gs + sword/focus rotations and the regen it does isn’t comparable to hammer’s protection. Hammer still does comparable damage while giving your team perma prot which makes a big difference especially in higher level fractals. Perma prot is the difference between being able to take 0-1 hits compared to 1-2 and regen you still will be able to take 0-1.
+1’d the OP, Glad someone took the time to write up something regarding DPS guardians.
Also, very, very nice whirlwinds. I don’t have a team to do dungeons with reliably, so I don’t have a chance to use optimal buff setups like this. The most I usually see, in much less optimal situations, is 36k~38k. I’ve always wanted to test the potential in a proper, optimized setup.
Also, was this done with an ascended weapon? I can’t find any evidence either way, but I am assuming it is given the upload date. If it isn’t… go break 50k and record it too ;D!
I didn’t craft one at that point. I plan on doing it again when I have a full set of ascended armor.
Purification – Good for when blocks aren’t important which is most content now
Shelter – Good for dungeons, fractals, and open world when blocks are important
Signet of Resolve – Use when you need a big reliable heal and blocks aren’t important. Good for map completion in Tyria but not HoT
Utilities
Utility
Retreat – Use for running, kiting, boss fights, and just overall content if you have a free slot for a block
Wall of Reflection – Use when there are projectiles
Shield of the Avenger – Use when there are a lot of projectiles along with Wall of Reflection. Use along with retreat for Aegis spam as well.
Stand Your Ground – Use if knockback, stun, daze, etc are an issue
Hallowed Ground – Use if knockback, stun, daze, etc are a big issue
Sanctuary – Use when you need to keep enemies out of an objective
Purging Flames – Condi removal if absolutely needed
DPS for Zerker
Procession of Blades – Use if you have a free slot with DH. Use it before bosses trigger if possible to get more in!
Bane Signet – Use if you have a 2nd free slot with DH or 1st free slot without DH
Test of Faith – Use if you have a 3rd free slot with DH. For bosses that take time to trigger since you can place it a certain way to hit it twice
Save Yourselves – Situational good for power of the virtuous damage, fury, swiftness, and stun break
DPS for Condi
Sword of Justice – Use if you have a free slot
Hammer of Wisdom – Use if you have a 2nd free slot for bosses
Purging Flames – Use if you have a 3rd free slot for bosses or 2nd free slot for mobs
Signet of Wrath – Use if you have another 3rd free slot for mobs
Niche
Merciful Intervention – Useful for mobility
Judge’s Intervention – Useful for mobility
Elite
“Feel My Wrath!” – When you don’t need blocks
Renewed Focus -When you need blocks
Signet of Courage – Niche skill. Should be able to burst stuff down with “Feel My Wrath!” instead.
Dragon’s Maw – Take if quickness is covered already
Virtues
Virtue of Justice – Spam it with DH if you group can keep up cripple 50% or more the time. Keep it passive otherwise
Virtue of Resolve – Use to remove conditions with Absolute Resolution traited or if team is low
Virtue of Courage – Use to alternate blocks at boss fights, keep up up UC, projectile defense, and to give stability with Indomitable Courage
How Am I Supposed to Survive?
Blind Spam – Virtue of Justice Spam, Leap of Faith, Ray of Judgement, Deflecting Shot
Block Rotations – Virtue of Courage, Retreat, Shelter, Shield of Wrath, Renewed Focus, Shield of the Avenger, Protector’s Strike
Projectile Defense – Wall of Reflection, Shield of the Avenger, Sanctuary (if need be)
Crowd Control – Binding Blades for grouping mobs to kill quicker, Line of Warding or Ring of Warding when luring to a LoS spot to keep them interrupted while you attack freely and blind them from behind the line/ring
Dodge – You have some vigor from bow, Save Yourselves, Vigorous Precision if you choose to bring it
Condition Removal – Purging Flames, Absolute Resolution, Ray of Judgement, and Whirls in light fields, Cleansing Flame
Perma Protection if you run hammer
DPS – Stuff will die faster than you! Rallying off good dps is usually better than reviving.
Use Feel My Wrath at the start and when it comes off cooldown since it’s more beneficial to group DPS
Use Whirling Wrath when it comes up again ignoring the gs chain completion
Stand in the hitbox of a boss when using Whirling Wrath to get more hits
Save symbols on GS and Bow on a swap if Procession of Blades will come off cd. Use Trap -> Symbol to maximize DPS since the trap activation has a delay
When using hammer builds use Procession of Blades -> F1 to maximize DPS since the trap activation has a delay and they both will have the same cd
Try to break mace chains after the 2nd auto attack with offhand skills, F1, Trap, Symbol, and Mace block if being targeted. Faithful Strike is terrible DPS.
Use Zealot’s Fire off the start if using Radiant Fire so it doesn’t proc over it
Don’t use Zealot’s Fire for trash except the lead off one if there is more than one left. Continue to use Zealot’s Flame though.
Camp hammer when quickness is up. Mace would be a loss in DPS in that case.
DPS Rotations
Zerker
GS + Bow = Feel My Wrath (If equipped) -> Focus5(Use and swap out before fight) -> Procession of Blades (If equipped)-> F1 -> Bow4 -> Use any other traps equipped -> Bow2 -> swap -> GS2 -> GS4 -> GS5 -> GS3 -> GS Autos -> GS2 -> swap -> Bow2 -> Bow Auto -> Trap -> F1 -> Bow4 -> Bow2 -> Bow3 -> Bow Auto -> Bow2 -> swap and repeat gs and bow combo. Use symbol on GS whenever Procession comes up or after the first WW if it won’t be up. Use symbol on Bow whenever Procession comes up or before the third Bow2
Hammer + Mace – Feel My Wrath (If equipped) -> Focus5(Use and swap out before fight) -> Procession of Blades (If equipped) -> F1 -> Mace2 -> Use any other traps equipped -> Torch4 -> swap -> hammer auto -> swap -> Mace2 -> Mace Auto -> Torch4 -> Mace Auto -> Procession of Blades (If Equipped)-> F1 -> Mace2 -> swap and repeat hammer and mace combo. Use traps after a completed hammer chain when it comes up. Use traps after mace auto 2. Use mace symbol at start of rotation as usual
Hammer + Mace (Perma Quickness) – Procession of Blades (If equipped) -> F1 -> Mace2 -> Use any other traps equipped -> swap -> hammer auto. Use traps and F1 off cd
Scepter = Feel My Wrath -> Scepter2 -> Focus5 -> Focus4 -> Torch4 (Trait Proc) -> Torch4 -> Autos and keep using Smite, Torch 4 (Trait Proc), Torch4 off cooldown. Around 30s and when Torch4 is used swap back to focus for 4 & 5 then swap back to torch
Condi
Condi Trash – Summon Sword then Feel My Wrath -> Purging Flames if slotted -> GS4 -> GS2 -> GS5 -> swap -> Torch4 (don’t throw) -> Sword Auto -> Torch4 (don’t throw) and finish current Sword Chain -> GS2 -> GS4 -> GS3 -> GS Auto -> repeat sword and gs combo commanding spirit weapon whenever up
Condi Boss – Summon Spirit Weapons then Feel My Wrath -> Purging Flames if slotted -> Torch4 -> Scepter2 -> Torch4 -> swap -> GS5 -> GS4 -> GS2 -> GS3 -> GS Auto -> swap -> Scepter2 -> Torch4 -> use Torch4 and Scepter2 off cd/prokittenil you do a 3rd Scepter2 and 2nd Torch4(non trait proc) -> swap -> GS4 -> GS2 -> GS3 -> GS Auto -> repeat scepter and gs combo commanding spirit weapon whenever up and Purging Flames off cd
Mace – Use with GS if blocks are needed or with hammer
Torch – Use with Mace for DPS and condi
Mace – Use for blocks
Sheild – Use for utility out of combat or more cc for raids
Sword – Use for condi trash
Scepter – Use for condi boss or larget targets when solo
Runes
Scholar – Zerker
Flame Legion – Zerker alternative
Balthazar – Condi
Sigils (Multiple sets is optimal)
Zerker
Force + Air
Night + Force
Slaying + Force or Night
Condi
Scepter – Air
Torch – Earth
Sword – Bursting
GS (Boss) – Geomancy + Earth
GS (Trash) – Earth + Bursting
Alternative Cheap Sigil – Geomancy
Consumables
Food
Zerker
Bowl of Seaweed Salad – Most optimal food if you like to dance and for record runs
Plate of Truffle Steak – Best in general
Fried Golden Dumplings – Best for solo
Birthday Blaster – Free decent alternative
Condi
Koi Cake – Best
Super Veggie Pizza – Cheap alternative
Fried Golden Dumplings – Best for solo
Utility
Zerker
Slaying Potions – The best choice if the mobs are all the same type
Toxic Sharpening Stones – Best when slaying doesn’t apply
Condi
Toxic Focusing Crystal – Best choice though slaying is fairly close so you can use that as a cheaper alternative or other condi utilities. If you stick with cheaper alternatives you should get more viper gear to account for the loss in condi duration.
. As far as DPS tests go I agree for the most part.
