Guild Wars 2

Buy lvl 78 or lvl 80 exotics zerk gear right away if you have the money, if not, buy lvl 80 rares. Especially the trinkets since you can get the armors from dungeons.

1. Learn how to dungeon and do easy dungeons daily for money / Champ train
2. Use dungeon tokens to gear up more (COF / COE for zerk)

OR

Flip TP.

Gold → Gear.

Alternatively, use some of your WvW badges if you love WvWing, but note that you can’t salvage the gears unlike the AC gears which can at least net you some Dark Matter.

Anyway, the OP can just play fractals more. Not a true solution, but it seems to have more going in terms of the kind of experience that the OP wants.

Plus, the average LFG PUGs will support the OP all the way in this endeavour.

Elementalists in WvW aren’t “unique” in what they give, but uniqueness is overrated. They are one of the best professions out there to give on demand water fields. They chuck out awesome AoE in group fights and choke points.

Not only that, the Air group stun is one of the best stuns in the game. And the Earth attunement is very useful when used correctly.

The Veil, Portal, Null Field, Mass Invis and Time Warp are all great when used correctly so a group without one Mesmer does suffer quite a bit. But if you scale them quantitatively like in a zerg environment, more Eles would be more useful than having more Mesmers.

In Dungeon speedclear environment, Mesmers are also in low demand except for dungeons where if you care about speed can use the Portal to a great effect and Arah runs.

And in the open world, Mesmers suffer the ability to tag mobs like in WvW and Eles excel at it as much as they excel in WvW. But other than this, no class in unviable so just go with whatever appeals to you more.

Don’t take a Mesmer unless the optimum build for that instance is 6/6/0/0/2.

Just kidding.

Or not…

Speedclearers care about the speed at which it is cleared. It’s just that many encounters with certain strategies make things much easier because you’re able to bypass many mechanics.

There is a correlation between ease and speed, but not all the time. Speedclearers would sacrifice ease for the sake of speed. But if the encounter would end faster and on the plus side it’s also easier, why the heck not?

If you melee the dredge car in SE p3, it’s much harder than just afk-ranging it, but it’s also much faster, so in a speedclear, you melee it anyway.

But at the end of the day, if all you care is about being forced to play against the game mechanics, then go for it in your own LFG. I honestly don’t see the excitement of doing the Nightmare tree slower.

Thanks! Very nice

CM p2 and COF p3 can also fall under this category.

Maybe add that little box like the “I agree to the terms and conditions”

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

xallever.1874:

DonGero.2847:

Does every other profession have a identity crisis if they change one weapon for another? People who don’t use the staff because it’s not the best in slot. Who cares, if we all played one build/style it would be the most boring MMO created. It’s getting close as any new build or idea’s are shot down and not deemed worthy for the “uber complicated” dungeons. I feel that everyone is so focused on maximizing damage, that only these two worthy builds can exist! Playing mesmer for a long and only seeing the same 4 builds over a span of two years is getting old….real fast.

As it happens, the post-patch makes people run different builds more than ever before.

The thing is, if the build is more or less a dead weight, why do people even bother optimizing it and calling out for opinions for the best inefficient build?

If people wanna run whatever they wanna run, they can go ahead and run them. But the one getting old is arguing that the inefficient playstyles can be in any way on par with the optimized playstyles.

If someone enjoys a style enough and really wants to stick to it, what’s wrong with them trying to get advice on it? Alternatively, if you pug often, would you prefer a play how they want pug that is or isn’t optimized?

As for the other professions and identity crisis, yes the other professions are in similar situations. Some weapons are significantly worse than others depending on the situation. Bearbow, rifle warriors, flamethrower etc… there are usually some obvious signs/stereotypes of terrible dps for a reason.

Nothing “wrong” per se, it just seems kinda pointless. If you don’t start with the viable options, you usually end up with the best of meaningless builds.

Like someone loving the confusion playstyle for PvE and asking for the best way to achieve the highest stacks of confusion possible.

The more you optimize, the further you stray from the best DPS builds. Granted, this is just an extreme example I’m providing.

It just seems kinda contradictory for anyone asking for advice for optimum DPS while at the same time needing it to be on certain weapons like Mes staff or Guard staff.

If you care about DPS at all, then it should be enough as to forego using non-optimal weapons in the first place.

DonGero.2847:

Does every other profession have a identity crisis if they change one weapon for another? People who don’t use the staff because it’s not the best in slot. Who cares, if we all played one build/style it would be the most boring MMO created. It’s getting close as any new build or idea’s are shot down and not deemed worthy for the “uber complicated” dungeons. I feel that everyone is so focused on maximizing damage, that only these two worthy builds can exist! Playing mesmer for a long and only seeing the same 4 builds over a span of two years is getting old….real fast.

As it happens, the post-patch makes people run different builds more than ever before.

The thing is, if the build is more or less a dead weight, why do people even bother optimizing it and calling out for opinions for the best inefficient build?

If people wanna run whatever they wanna run, they can go ahead and run them. But the one getting old is arguing that the inefficient playstyles can be in any way on par with the optimized playstyles.

If you’ve learned about Arah inside out, and you have a group of gd party members who also know what to do, have at least a Mesmer/Guardian and a Thief… You’ll find that Arah aren’t hard and worth the time vs reward.

But it does have a steeper learning curve than many other dungeons.

CM p1-3 are easy and quick to do, but it’s just so much nicer when people know how to skip and stealth properly. And that’s not what you can reliably find in PUGs.

If you’re pugging, just add SE p1/p3, COE 1-3 and TA Fwd / Up to your next to-do list.

Create new character, choose the unique equipment… Delete char. Repeat.

Pyroathiest.4168:

Scribble.8069:

without saved templates I doubt people would retrait every fight or for trash mobs.

Yep. I like efficient runs as much as the next guy, but I’m not willing to muck with my traits that much without templates. Just not worth it.

Exactly.

I guess I’d either go with 2/4/0/4/4 relatively throughout, or 6/4/0/4/0 and then change to 6/4/0/0/4 if it will absolutely make a critical difference. Or should that be the other way round? :/

I’ve never felt so reduced to Portal and Lupicus as a Mesmer before… I’m sure it’s still a viable option, but still…

Jeremlloyd.6837:

Well there’s many encounters where reflect are not needed. And untraited warden is very useful for some encounters.

Yeah, I guess runs like CoF 2 in an organized group, the 6/4/0/0/4 can be used rather thoroughly…

I’m assuming where 6/4/0/0/4 is most appropriate, there’s no better DPS build for Mesmer now?

Mantra build with phantasmal warden: 6/4/0/4/0
Mantra build without phantasmal warden: 6/4/0/0/4
Full phantasm build: 2/4/0/4/4

What’s the DPS difference between 6/4/0/4/0 and 2/4/0/4/4?

It’s so difficult for me to want to take 6/4/0/0/4 because why Mesmer if not for the reflects? It feels like it’s better for me to just switch to a different profession altogether.

I suppose now that we can change the trait anytime we like, there’s an argument for 6/4/0/0/4 while you’re stuck in a dungeon or in a fractal run… I don’t know.

Now that with all the ascended stuffs account-bound, it’s quite easy for you to just switch to an Ele or move all the trinkets to another toon. It’s a hassle, though.

I like how Anet
thinks 5 silver more is worth
10 percent slower

You can right click the armor and click preview.

Grimezy.5679:

Thanks for the input guys, I played around a little bit more last night and I do enjoy the S/D + LH build but I think you’re right in maybe it’s the group around me that is making it less effective perhaps. I’ve never really been in a pure DPS dungeon group before and I do notice I run out of dodges and defence skills quite quickly when stacking, etc.

I’ll keep having a play around with some traits and skill slots especially after this patch and see what I’m most comfortable with. A lot of the time I dungeon run with Guildies but they’re not necessarily ‘optimised’ builds so we still sometimes struggle.

I’ll keep working on my rotations till they’re like second nature though One thought, is it beneficial for someone to pick up my other LH once I’ve stacked might and if we’re stacking? That way things might die before I need the second hammer and therefore ‘more’ survivability. Or does that just screw our rotations up completely?

If not everyone is optimized, the strat varies too much. Does it mean that you guys don’t even stack? I don’t know to what extent the gameplay goes with you and your guildies.

For instance, when you try to fgs rush Leurent in TA, you can imagine this done with a guard casting Hallowed Ground and Wall of Reflect. The warrior drops banners. 2 Eles, 1 Thief and the Guard takes the FGS.

But if you just try to double FGS Leurent (1 Ele only in the group), he won’t be downed fast enough and it’s difficult for you to try and kill him even with LH. The Staff or D/F could be the better choice here.

And for the last para, especially if you’re a Staff Ele, dropping LH could help also for the utility such as when you need to knock an enemy into a wall.

It’s possible for everyone to pick up hammer but it depends on the situation and it depends on whether everybody’s geared up and optimized or not. Otherwise, you’ll find that you won’t have enough sustain DPS.

Tim.6450:

xallever.1874:

How does that work?

If he didn’t need to add any toughness or vitality, how do you argue that it would’ve been better that he used some?

If he did add vitality or toughness, he could have used less dodges/heals/blocks/… and used more attacks and finished the fractal faster.

Uh, I’m talking about this part 0:39+

Would you care to provide us with a specific case where using PVT/Cleric’s gear would speed up an encounter because less dodges/heals/blocks are being used?

If you’re talking about people wiping so many times because they’re on zerk gear, then the answer would be, of course.

We’re not talking about whether zerk gear results in the fastest clear every single time in all situations. We’re talking about how it’s the most optimum gear to use if used accordingly, backed with coordination, strategies and the skills accordingly.

Tim.6450:

xallever.1874:

Like the Snowblind one? I don’t think Obal had to change his gear there.

Just because a player doesn’t change it’s gear doesn’t mean that the build is edually good in that situation.

How does that work?

If he didn’t need to add any toughness or vitality, how do you argue that it would’ve been better that he used some?

Tim.6450:

xallever.1874:

Honestly, you can use a tank in this game, but it doesn’t make the encounter easier or faster necessarily.

There are some places (fractals especially) where being a tank is far more advantagous then being a zerker.

Like the Snowblind one? I don’t think Obal had to change his gear there.

Honestly, you can use a tank in this game, but it doesn’t make the encounter easier or faster necessarily.

I’ve seen that used on the last boss in HotW p1. It doesn’t make the encounter more interesting, though.

Or like you can have that one person ranging the Wurm in TA. How is that more fun seriously

Did you gear up properly? Have you bought any trinkets?

Personal story, crafting and dailies give relatively better experience too. Sometimes, jumping on a karma train in WvW. You would’ve been easily level 80 before you even complete your personal story.

Pyroathiest.4168:

xallever.1874:

The only thing I’d like to add to that is considering how things can often go wrong whilst pugging, you might want to switch to Ether feast if you’re not confident about the encounter and only switch to the MoR only when you’re confident about it.

Also, when no reflect is needed, just run any other mantra and switch to pistol instead of focus.

And worse comes to worst, slot a Phantasmal Defender there. I sometimes do that when doing fractals and most of the pug-team decides to range Old Tom.

Untrait your focus and toss on the sigil heal for old tom.

Oh. That’s the trick. Yeah, I’ll definitely do that the next time.

maxinion.8396:

xallever.1874:

The only thing I’d like to add to that is considering how things can often go wrong whilst pugging, you might want to switch to Ether feast if you’re not confident about the encounter and only switch to the MoR only when you’re confident about it.

Also, when no reflect is needed, just run any other mantra and switch to pistol instead of focus.

And worse comes to worst, slot a Phantasmal Defender there. I sometimes do that when doing fractals and most of the pug-team decides to range Old Tom.

This is also very nice advice.

iDuelist with pistol does more damage than iWarden, but only to single target. It’s often worth it to keep the focus for iWarden to get better splash damage on mobs. iDuelist is great for bosses that don’t need reflects, though.

That’s true. That’s why generally you might want to use Sword + Focus for your Perception/Bloodlust stacks simply because of the iWarden cleave.

That would soon change with the next patch, though. It’s happening so soon you might as well only have one Perception/Bloodlust sword.

The only thing I’d like to add to that is considering how things can often go wrong whilst pugging, you might want to switch to Ether feast if you’re not confident about the encounter and only switch to the MoR only when you’re confident about it.

Also, when no reflect is needed, just run any other mantra and switch to pistol instead of focus.

And worse comes to worst, slot a Phantasmal Defender there. I sometimes do that when doing fractals and most of the pug-team decides to range Old Tom.

As someone who is new to the game, I would advise to stay away from crafting, except maybe cooking.

The loots that you get, while you can use deposit all collectibles, probably are better sold on TP. One of the common mistakes that newbies make is to delay getting involved in TP.

While you can get cheap whites as Dalanor suggested, you can also try to make buying orders for the next 5th level in the TP cheaply and possibly resold for a profit after you’re done. But make sure you’re buying blue items.

If not, buy them off TP and then resell after you no longer need them and you’ll be looking at very cheap price for an armor upgrade (kinda like a rental fee).

joey the creator.3587:

AC – ele (Frostbow on burrows is nice)
CM – Thief (stealth is nice for the skips)
TA – Guardian ( I like the staff for taking out the blossoms)
SE – Ranger
CoF – Mesmer (I like the portal for path 1)
HoTW – Engi i guess, it had to go somewhere
COE – Necro- ( You can do story mode in 5 minutes using a necromancer trick :P )
Arah – Warrior

I would switch the Engi with the Ranger because Aquaman!

Gintokikun.9342:

So for PVE dungeons and that kind of thing you would say GS+S/F?

And WvW staff?

Guardian has many viable builds in general and is probably the most balanced profession out there.

So in WvW, a lot of people go Staff because it’s very easy to tag, gives a really gd support. It’s possible to run hammer, mace+shield, etc. Really depends on which build you’re after.

Gintokikun.9342:

Hm…. So a good weapon set would be gs + s/f

Yes. Or replace the GS with Hammer. Or go GS/Hammer.

The hammer is there for gd utility when no better alternative is around. Thankfully, it also has a decent DPS.

Ele is the top glass cannon.

In WvW, they contribute a lot in AoE chokepoints.

moiraine.2753:

Xallever@
Yes mesmer’s feedback can work but the problem is that the class doesn’t have any healing spells.So when the reflect finishes and if the group takes too much dmg by accident and their healing spells are on cd?in this situation guard will heal and will give aegis.

Yeah… That doesn’t happen in the proper meta. All the reflects that you need will be covered as long as you properly feedback, iWarden and Time Warp.

Guard for p2 is nice to have at the trap part.

Healing is DPS loss and in most situations you don’t need it.

moiraine.2753:

A guard is a must because of your two eles you will want to pull boss in the corner to burst it with 4 fgs.Well for P2 with 2 eles if you go.
Optional is thief or ranger.It doesn’t mater which one.They both are great supporters.

Is that impossible to do with a Mesmer instead of a Guardian?

I agree thief and ranger are optional. But for the stealthy skips, I prefer to have the thief.

Gintokikun.9342:

I see…

Is there any weapon set with sword for Guards?

Is Guard good for pve? Cause first I need to lvl up shah

Could you give me like some or one build, in which they all have a sword in it??

Thanks for the reply so far.

The Guard is really good in PvE, but only in situations in which you really care for a kiter (like in Snowblind fractal or AC p2) and reflects.

The current meta of Guardian, fortunately for you, revolves around GS, Hammer, minor Staff, and a lot of Sword/Focus.

Laar.5476:

RSLongK.8961:

1+ Ele and the rest does not matter as long everybody runs META.

Pretty much this. Properly built eles are a great backbone for a group, speed clear or not. Take a warrior for banners and whatever other classes you need for that particular path.

Avoid tanky/healing characters and condi specs like the plague, also avoid things like double mesmers and such; bring the damage and the group will be fine.

Yeah, avoid Engi and Necros in general. Try not to have a Mesmer. Then build up from 1 Warrior and 2 Eles.

So the other 2 can be either a combination of Thief, Guardian & Ranger.

A Guardian for p2 would be nice.

deSade.9437:

Squishy.3694:

@xallever I wasn’t specifically looking for a speed run team more of a team that can help each other out and can finish in a reasonable time while still doing all of the dungeon properly as opposed to just farming but I’m fine with people who do speed clear I just feel they miss out on the content

Uh?

Yeah. I feel like I’m stuck in the matrix.

With the same team comp (I’m not even saying it’s necessarily the best team comp) you can easily finish off Kohler, the Gravelings and the troll if it appears.

Sword is the highest single-target damage. It’s possible to kite a lot of mobs and then just use the Axe mainhand auto-attack instead.

Sell everything you find and only buy things that you need (get at least blue power equips + whatever power trinkets you can find). You don’t need to gear every time you level, but it’s probably nice to do every 10 levels or so.

To level up fast, always use the mobility Signet.

What I generally have is this:

Sword/Warhorn (look back, use Sword 2 then activate Warhorn 5)
Swap to
Greatsword (for Greatsword 3 leaps around the map)
Swap back

When you won’t be grouping mobs together, use sword. When you will, use axe.

Is there any specific mob that gives you more troubles?

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Actually Flissy i usually find it a great relaxing way to spend my weekend mornings. I have my coffee and run the train and make enough gold to spend the rest of my time in wvw. I would rather do that than speed run a dungeon which takes ZERO more skill than a champ train. It’s all farming. Dungeon runners should get over themselves. Not everyone needs to or wants to run dungeons and at least we do have an option.

If it takes no more skill, then why don’t you run dungeons as well since it is as relaxing. Is that why PUGs are overcrowded with extremely efficient runs?

I wouldn’t say that dungeons are extremely tough to finish (otherwise you won’t see PUGs anymore), but that’s such a ridiculous notion now you’re saying OP can just write LFG for any/all dungeons and expect the run to go smooth, fast and it can be done as easily as hopping onto a Champ train.

It’s so easy to disprove this. OP will just do that and come back at you with his dungeoning results.

Also, I don’t think Flissy ever mentioned anything about not having an option other than doing dungeons. I don’t think anybody ever did. Why should anyone who speedclears dungeons care that not everybody’s doing it?

What I like about dungeon is:

You’re “playing” the game.
It’s nice to learn about how to speed clear, get organized and then try new tactics.
Also, quite decent money.

This is the kind of potential we’re talking about:

Arah P2 can be speed-cleared in less than 10 minutes. It rewards you daily with some tokens, 3.26 gold and random loots to sell (rares give you another 25-40 silver each).

The only way to make money faster is to flip the TP.

So I do both moderately.

There’s quite a steep learning curve, and you won’t immediately get to that point of speed clearing, but you can also sign up in the Dungeon Mentor area in the Dungeon section and it’ll be a much more enjoyable and efficient experience than trying it out on your own.

Without reaching that level of Arah p2 speed clear, once you get the hang of it, you can easily finish many easy dungeons in under 10 minutes and it gives you 1.26-76 gold excluding loots and tokens (which also can be used to get exotics to be salvaged).

Also, once you’ve become good at it, it’s a really lucrative way of getting a lot more gold.

Hmm. What could be the opposite of speedrun…

Slow walk?

Soap.6124:

• The loot isn’t fun. There’s very little variation when it comes to items, besides aesthetics. While leveling up this isn’t too much of an issue, it kind of dulls the experience at max level. Sure, I don’t have full Ascended gear, but I’m also not very compelled to put a ridiculous amount of time and effort into getting them due to one, these items don’t really have a meaningful impact on gameplay, and two, there’s no gameplay that really merits them.

• Nobody really does dungeons; they skip them. If people are going out of their way to skip content, don’t you think there might be something wrong with the content? Most dungeons contain too much filler and lack real “loot” for your efforts; that doesn’t create a challenging, rewarding, nor immersing dungeon experience.

• Build diversity and overall balance could be much better. Nowadays, it seems like nobody likes you unless you’re full Berserker, using your classes “best” weapon. Doesn’t that seem a little strange to anyone? If balancing between PvE and PvP is difficult, why not just balance them separately?

I don’t think the loot is fun, yes I agree. It’s a game that encourages to get loots and sell almost everything you get and buy everything you need (or use tokens). On top of that, many of the new aesthetic options are GEM-store only. I don’t particularly mind that so much, but soon there will be a feature patch and I think the aesthetic part of this game would be much improved with the much overdue Wardrobe system since you don’t have to spend too much on transmutation crystals anymore. I don’t think horizontal progression is unfun, but without this Wardrobe system, the game hasn’t really encouraged the horizontal progression as much as it should be.

Secondly, that’s actually not the problem with stuffs being placed as “trash mobs”. You are awarded for skipping them efficiently because they don’t give good loots. But as you can see how people can sometimes struggle skipping mobs, and instead find it easier if they were killed (like in TA path Up, many people even if they have a thief, don’t realise that they can skip most of the spiders in the Marona area). Therefore, people who spend time killing them are punished since they are meant to be skipped. The exception to the rule is in COE where the trash mobs give good loots so aren’t considered as trashy. For now, I don’t really care whether Anet will continue to give better rewards for trash mobs in other dungeons, but certainly I have no problem with them increasing the time vs reward table for whatever mobs.

To put this into perspective, do you clear all the yellow non-aggressive mobs in the open world? Do you, when you’re doing your heart quests, only aim at the mobs that you need to fill the hearts, or clear everything else? That’s your own fault for spending your time with unrewarding activities, but if you want to, nobody is there to stop you except if you’re in a group environment where people are more interested in better reward in a time scale, you just shouldn’t join them and form your own group, as others also have noted.

Build diversity is both an issue and not an issue. I agree that all the present content ought to be done most optimally in Berserker’s gear, and they have to come up with the mechanics/different numbers to encourage/discourage certain team comps. But it will be a long way to change the game from making something other than the Berserker’s gear optimum.

While that is true, there are many builds available for a single class. Take the Elementalist for instance. You have D/F, Sc/x, Staff. And in the upcoming feature patch, you can even change your traits from anywhere you want. So you can always use the most optimum trait for any given weapons that you’ll need. A guardian could always then switch between a Hammer build and a GS build. How is this not a diversity of options? I’ll grant you that some classes like the Thief does suffer in this area and it’s nice if they could improve this, but it’s not true that there aren’t build diversities. And this is just for PvE, mind you. You’ll come across with many more GEAR diversities and BUILD diversities for WvW and PvP.

Level up your Elementalist to lvl 80, and check out how Staff Ele out-DPSes a melee Warrior.

Even if you’re gonna be ranging, the best practices would still be, in general, to stack tightly or be very near (generally, stack tightly. If you happen to be out-DPS-ing everybody, it’s also possible that you’ll get aggro and you don’t want the mob to be out of the corner/wall chasing after you because you’re not stacked).

This is of course PvE.

WvW, you’ll still find Ele to be extremely powerful for CCs and AoE choke points.

Staff isn’t weak, but in open world, and before lvl 80, you’re much more gear-reliant than many other classes due to your low stats. Also, your best DPS relies the target to be stationary so you need to use your Elementals to tank on them or be in like an absurd PVT gear and go bunker build.

And if you’re wondering if this is slower than going D/F or D/D since they are “melee-oriented” then the answer is yes because the Elementals have quite a long CD and if you rely on them too much, it can’t defeat the speed and ease of clearing the mobs if you were in D/F or D/D.

Use DEKeyz’s excellent tips there

The only thing I’d like to add is to use Staff as the last resort weapon, when things are too rough for you.

I think I remembered using my Staff against Kraits because with too many knockdowns, it was difficult for me to DPS them (plus I was in a place where using dagger’s mobility attacks could easily make me fall).

Using Earth elemental and the Elemental elite as tanks, I was able to DPS them better.

was on TP, made a purchase order for Sigil of Bloodlust for 60 gold + each because I accidentally just typed 6 in front of the 0 (usually when I click it right it highlights the 0, so typing 6 would erase the 0).

I think I made 3 orders of that. FML.

Tamuraki.3851:

Is it bad if I’m maxing Virtues or just the gear?

It’s kinda sad that everyone just uses Berserker gear…

I’m annoying aren’t I?

If you want variety for variety’s sake, then there’s really no real need for an opinion.

If you want a transition gear towards full Berserker’s, try using some Knights gear here and there.

I don’t even recommend that. I did this with my Mesmer because people kept suggesting it if you’re new. It took me a long time to get into full Berserker’s because I wasn’t sure how bad I performed when I died (did I need more toughness? Or did I need more damage? Or did the others perform badly?).

Instead, if you went with full zerk, you are able to gauge how long the fight ought to take if everybody else is on full zerk and have the ability to gauge whether you were one playing it poorly or the others.

I’d rather you jump into the deep-end of the pool and try coming out of it alive until you do in full glass. It might’ve been a steeper learning curve, but it’s probably better that way.

All I’m saying is, if you are in full glass, whenever you get hurt or die, it makes you think, “Oh. I couldn’t afford to do that. I should avoid that next time.”

But if you went the other way round, from a tankier gear, then you need to pay more attention to the situations in which you are extremely safe and then you think, “Oh. I guess I can afford to be in zerg gear.”

The question is why spend all your focus on safe times rather than dangerous times?

I think more likely you’ll still end up thinking about more about the times in which you die and fail, and you think “I need an even tankier gear, probably” and it goes on.

More toughness only matters more in WvW and PvP.

As a personal anecdote, when I tried playing my thief on the D/D zerg meta, I realised that I died a lot more with PUGs because some bosses are a lot more unforgiving if you don’t deal enough DPS (like the Slave Driver in p1. A nightmare to be the only one meleeing). My solution to this is to play using S/P more because I get more evades. And if that doesn’t work, instead of Pistol Whipping, I’ll use Black Powder and hopefully that allows me to tank for the team. And in the worst case scenario, switch to P/P, etc. Changing my gear isn’t even an option to me.

If I’m pugging, if I ever have to resort to P/P, usually I’ll leave after that particular major encounter. I’ll suck it up if I’m running with guildies.

At lvl 80 PvE Ele has the highest DPS possible in the game.

DeadyEyez.4350:

Hello.
I finally hit level 80 on my guardian today!!!
But i have no idea where to start.
I want to get the armor skin that shows when you go picking your profession when creating a new character but i don’t know which one is that and how to get it.
also I really don’t know what stats to go for on my guardian. right now i am wearing all berserker’s gear and i have only 11k health so i keep dying.

Thanks

Berserker’s gear is good for you to practice on reacting to the mobs, so you dodge optimally, etc.

A successful stacking strategy if you’re a berserker’s usually requires everybody else in a berserker gear and know what they’re doing.

Do you keep dying in dungeons? Try going to the dungeon forum and ask for a meta mentor and run with them to experience how hard/difficult it is in a Berserker’s gear in a better environment.