Guild Wars 2

You can use Steal during a Vault to move the damage, but you have to time it in the small window where Vault is interruptible at the end of the animation. Here’s a video of me doing it: https://youtu.be/C4qY-8aFhjg.

Just to update the topic a little bit, I’ve been playing this build for the last month, and I still think it’s pretty good. I’m almost to Ruby with mostly solo queueing. My biased opinion is that I’ve been doing a lot for my team and haven’t been holding my team back at all. I can win a lot of 1v1s while staying on point, I can hold off against multiple enemies for a while, I can do a lot of AOE damage without dying, and I can move around and escape pretty well.

Hannibal.5871:

Is there a “gold standard” build for staff DD PvE?
If so, is the DPS on this Staff / staff build competitive with that one?

I’m not sure, sorry. I haven’t done much PvE recently. I primarily play PvP. I still haven’t even unlocked all of the Daredevil skills and traits.

Kaliny.8265:

I managed to reproduce the exploit for sake of testing. Yw ANet.

Asura Dreams was making similar comments to me on my thief in a match last night. He didn’t believe me that I could beat necromancers 1v1 and hold far, but I did.

Hey Caed, it’s been fun watching you in pro league so far. I know you said earlier that you must use shortbow in PvP, you really like Deadly Arts, and you don’t think Acrobatics is great, but… I’m wondering if you have tried a build like this: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Build-Daredevil-Staff-Staff-cheese/first. I’m not a pro, but I’ve been having fun and success with it in PvP. What do you think? Have you ever tried something like this? I think it might hit a little bit harder and have a little bit more survivability than your staff build.

I swapped in Escapist’s Absolution for Staff Master. I needed more condition clearing.

I swapped in Assassin’s Reward instead of Upper Hand actually, and I like that better. I don’t think the immobilize protection is needed with staff #3 breaking immobilize as well as Roll for Initiative. Assassin’s Reward provides a nice but small stream of healing through a fight. It’s also saved me while running away because Vault is a nice evade and leap, but it will also return some health, which helps you stay alive when you’re hanging on by a thread.

Hello, I haven’t seen a build going in this far in this direction before, so I thought I would share it. I’m not saying it’s amazing or that I’m that great with it, but I thought it had some nice synergy and had potential to be good.

Link to build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQJAWWn8lClOh9OBGOBkmiFqiyLE+gBoLCCgGYO77+xH-TJBHABMVGAgLBQ67PMwTAAA

Overview
This build is all about bounding and vaulting repeatedly to land big critical hits. It relies on Runes of the Daredevil and Sigils of Intelligence to critically hit. It is designed to have lots of endurance and initiative regeneration to increase the amount of bounds and vaults. Its survivability comes from high vitality, evading, and escape utilities.

Equipment
Weapons: Staff / Staff
Two of the same weapons makes it possible to use on-swap sigils and on-swap traits that aid in bounding and vaulting. There are other skills on the weapon set, but this build is mostly about spamming Vault, which hits really hard while evading. Other than Vault, use the auto attack when you are conserving initiative and endurance, and use Debilitating Arc (#3) to break immobilize.

Amulet: Valkyrie
We don’t need precision because we have guaranteed critical hits through sigils and runes. Valkyrie gives as much power and ferocity as Berserker’s amulet but with a lot of vitality as well.

Runes: Daredevil
Power and toughness are good, but these runes are taken for the ability to have a guaranteed critical hit after dodging. This makes the Bound, Vault, Bound, Vault, etc. combo chain always have critical hits on Vaults.

Sigils: Energy and Intelligence on both weapons
Swapping between staves every ten seconds provides extra endurance as well as three guaranteed critical hits (as well as three initiative from trait Quick Pockets).

Utility skills
Damage comes from weapons, so utility skills are mostly about survivability

Channeled Vigor: Regenerates endurance as well as providing a nice heal on a low cool down. Use it early to keep yourself topped off. It will come off cool down again quickly.
Shadowstep: Stun break, teleport, bulk condition clear. I use it most frequently as a stun break and teleport out of heavy AOE like Dragon’s Maw or Gravity Well.
Roll for Intiative: Stun break, immobilize break, initiative regeneration, distance creator. I mostly use it for extra initiative in order to be more offensive and land another Vault. You can also use it for the immobilize break, but I would use Debilitating Arc (staff #3) first.
Signet of Agility: Endurance regeneration, condition clear. The passive precision isn’t really useful, so feel free to use this actively. Either use it when you have a heavy damaging condition stack or when you want extra endurance.
Impact Strike: Interrupt, quick finisher. Timing this to end the chain when the enemy goes down is very powerful for a fast stomp. It’s also better than a regular stomp in some downed state situations because the stun and launch prevent some defensive downed state skills. I wouldn’t use it if you have a safe stomp and aren’t in a hurry though, because it’s not worth putting it on cool down. It can also be used to interrupt channeled abilities, like summoning supply or Mist Champions in Stronghold.

Traits
Acrobatics
Expeditious Dodger: swiftness on dodge
Vigorous Recovery: vigor on heal
Feline Grace: vigor on evade
Hard to Catch: automatic stun break and teleport
Endless Stamina: increased effectiveness of vigor
Assassin’s Reward: healing per initiative used

Trickery
Kleptomaniac: initiative on steal
Thrill of the Crime: fury, might, and swiftness on steal
Preparedness: increased maximum initiative
Bountiful Theft: vigor and boon rip on steal
Lead Attacks: increased damage per initiative, decreased steal recharge
Quick Pockets: initiative on weapon swap

Daredevil
Physical Supremacy: increased maximum endurance, access to physical skills
Brawler’s Tenacity: decreased recharge on physical skills, endurance on physical skills
Driven Fortitude: heal on evade
Escapist’s Absolution: condition clear on evade, which allows you to save utility skills for condition bursts
Endurance Thief: endurance on steal
Bounding Dodger: damage on dodge, bonus damage after dodging

Alternatives
Bandit’s Defense could be swapped for one of the utilities for more frequent stun break and the offensive knockdown
Upper Hand could be swapped for Assassin’s Reward for more initiative.
Trickster could be swapped for Bountiful Theft to help with condition clearing
Havoc Mastery could be swapped for Brawler’s Tenacity for increased damage
Staff Master could be swapped for Escapist’s Absolution for a little more offense if you have help clearing conditions.

Tips
Cleave on downed bodies: swap weapons for three guaranteed critical Vaults. Huge area damage.
Extra heal: swap weapons or use signet of agility before healing to increase the amount of health returned when using Channeled Vigor
Stealth: if you get stealth via leaping in a smoke field, Blinding Tuft stolen from Thieves, or from other means, open with a Hook Strike (staff #1 stealthed) for the knock down, swap staves for guaranteed critical hit, and then Vault.
Leap finishers: Bound and Vault are both leap finishers, so look for combo fields. Water fields, such as Healing Seed stolen from Rangers, provide lots of extra self healing. Smoke fields provide Stealth, which can be used for a knock down followed by a Vault.
Steal: Use it for swiftness at the beginning of the match sometimes. I usually save it for mid way through the fight as a gap closer or for extra initiative.
Bound: if I’m being offensive, I Bound toward the enemy. If the enemy is surrounded by AOE damage, I usually Bound away from them. Bound does a little bit of damage, but Vault is the main source.
Stomping: If you’re trying to time Impact Strike to skip the downed state completely, swap staves for guaranteed critical hits on all three strikes. Another important tip for Impact Strike is that the chain can be used on multiple targets. For example, you can start all three skills on an enemy and then teleport to a downed enemy right before the third skill lands. This technique is also useful for stopping revives. Use the stun and the launch on someone reviving, and then stomp the downed enemy. Other than Impact Strike, Shadowstep and Steal can also be used to help with stomping.

I haven’t read everyone’s replies here, but I agree with the topic. I have never liked the fact that you have to pay to unlock old episodes of the living world. I don’t think it’s a good move for the game in the long term. It might make some money in the short term, but I think it harms the game in the long term because fewer people will see the entire story if they have to pay to play past episodes than if they could play past episodes for free. People who don’t see the entire story won’t be as interested in future stories, and they will be less likely to keep playing the game long term, which could mean less money for ArenaNet in the long term. For example, I have several family members that play the game, but most of them took a break from playing the game for a couple months. They have missed most of season 2, and I’m pretty sure they are not going to want to pay for old episodes even if they aren’t super expensive. I think this will make the future stories less interesting to them, and it will make it harder for me to recommend that they come back to play the game when a good story episode comes out in the future. I wish that they were able to play through all of season 2 for free when they start playing again.

Here’s the warrior bunker build that I have used. I created it myself a while ago, and I’ve never seen anyone else using it. It’s a little similar to the shout bow meta build that’s popular now, though.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNBJhRakpjOPr8w1DORDUFUoX8AYrVdDpPhXIFA-TpxGwAAOBAGOEABOCAPLDo4BA4b/BA

Mace/warhorn + rifle. Soldier amulet. Shouts. Runes of the Soldier.

It’s very hard to kill because it has a ton of toughness and vitality. It also has a lot of condition clearing with warhorn, shouts, and Cleansing Ire. It also has vigor, weakness, reduction on movement impairing effects, a block, and some interrupts. I can often survive against multiple enemies on me for a long time.

It provides support to allies with the condition clearing and with healing shouts. It’s also really good at reviving allies. I can tank a lot of body cleave while I revive at an increased speed. I have a few tools to get people off of a downed body in case they are stomping or cleaving without stability: mace #3, mace burst, rifle #5, and Fear Me. I can also use all of these abilities to slow down enemies trying to revive another enemy.

It doesn’t do a ton of damage, obviously, but it does have a decent amount. I chose to focus only on power, so I’m mostly ignoring precision, ferocity, and condition damage. The mace does a decent amount of damage, but it’s not going to bring anyone down very fast. If I want to do more damage and I don’t need as many defensive abilities, I switch to rifle. The first option is the Kill Shot after swap which can do a lot of damage. The rifle #3 also does quite a bit of damage after a swap, and I can use rifle #5 to knock someone down when they are close to dying. I think this bunker build has more burst than other bunker builds that I know of because of the focus on power and the rifle.

I chose to keep Signet of Rage over Battle Standard because the adrenaline gain is really noticeable, and I like to have more burst abilities and more health regeneration from adrenaline with Adrenal Health. I’m just not a fan of Battle Standard, but I think it would be a decent choice to use with this build as well.

I generally go to the middle point and help sustain that fight. If we win it, I will stick near the mid point most of the time, but I’ll sometimes run to roads or side points to help turn around a fight or revive an ally.

If anyone tries it out, I’d love to know what people think. People have always laughed at me for using uncommon weapons, but I think this build is pretty good. I love to play it.

This is the condition build I’ve been using. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQRAsf5dlsApaolDxbI8DNR8QZVHUdAkAP61zwPkDA-TphAwAw2fYyJAgzBBgcZgNHBAAPAA

Rabid amulet. Sword/torch and mace/shield. Meditations. 6/2/6/0/0.

It works well in unranked, but I don’t think its good enough for ranked. I open with sword/torch and swap to mace/shield when I’m under pressure. It’s tough to beat real condition builds because I don’t have enough condition cleanse, so I have to try to avoid conditions as well. It doesn’t have much corpse cleave, and it can’t kill trebuchets or gates. But I have found it works surprisingly well, and I can stay alive pretty well in most situations. It beats many people in 1v1s, so I try to hunt ranged characters or thieves on the edges of team fights or take points solo.

Hello, I’m just wondering if anyone else is thinking about how the new iMac Retina 5K might play Guild Wars 2. Does anyone have one yet?

I’m currently playing on a Macbook Pro (mac client), and I have to turn most graphics to Best Performance. If anyone gets a new iMac, I would love to know how it plays, especially in WvW.

Speculation is also welcome.

I’ve always had problems with the trading post (e.g. gem store) being blank in the past, but I’ve usually been able to fix it my searching and deleting a folder called gw2cache*. Today, that isn’t working. I’ve tried all of the other suggested things here (killing things with Activity Monitor, deleting Temporary Internet Files in Application Support), but nothing is working.

I haven’t tried re-installing yet, but I might have to.

Just adding my voice. I also saw a massive FPS drop today on my Macbook Pro. I noticed it in WvW and the Twisted Marionette event.

Just adding my voice. I also saw a massive FPS drop today on my Macbook Pro. I noticed it in WvW and the Twisted Marionette event.

A way to unlock build sets. That is, if I want to have multiple builds for one character, I could unlock a way to click a button and switch between sets of traits, skills, and items (for free?) at locations in major cities, WvW staging areas, and Heart of the Mists.

Nice golem rush on SoS garrison from Abys. Are we imagining things, or were there white swords on garrison for only 15 seconds?

This blog post was just posted.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/wvw-matchup-variance-reduction/

I don’t understand why the Agony condition exists at all. There is an infinite dungeon where each run is harder than the last. Except the only way it’s harder is because there is a new condition called Agony. So you get gear that negates Agony. Then, you can progress farther into the dungeon. Repeat forever. Except every time Agony gets stronger, your resistance to it gets stronger. In reality, there is nothing different from the first, fifth, and one hundredth runs of the dungeon.

Okay, so maybe the dungeon also gets harder in other ways: mobs have better stats, there are more mobs, or the mobs are somehow smarter or more challenging. These are all fine methods of progression. But if these other types of progression exist at all, why have Agony?