GW2 Random Class Discussion: Shiyo Knows Best edition

[Kuishen]

Dolyak runes are pretty meh, the regen doesn't scale with healing so it only ever recovers 30/second.

It makes more difference the lower you're scaled, because the regen doesn't scale down with level, so if you're regening 30 hp per second and you only have <4k health it's pretty useful. Love it during AC explorable. The regen itself isn't what you'd be using the runes for anyways though.

[Cjskater]

Dolyak runes are pretty meh, the regen doesn't scale with healing so it only ever recovers 30/second.

I know, using it for the toughness/vit combo, the small regen is a bonus. Plus I'm a necro, 30/second is better than my leeching on hit when I'm not mainhanding dagger.

[Kiarax]

Would have thought Undead runes would be way better for pretty much every Necro build, but to each their own I suppose. The 30/tick would definitely be nice for level capped content but you can steamroll most of it at 80 anyway.

[Shiyo]

3 Afflicted, 3 krait. +166 condition damage +30% bleed duration.

[Rhyis.]

6 undead gives 253 condition damage if you have 1400 toughness (which is a modest amount of toughness. you can have higher).

[Cjskater]

Would have thought Undead runes would be way better for pretty much every Necro build, but to each their own I suppose. The 30/tick would definitely be nice for level capped content but you can steamroll most of it at 80 anyway.

3 Afflicted, 3 krait. +166 condition damage +30% bleed duration.

Necro condition damage is pretty lackluster in general. It's one of our best builds but it's still pretty "eh..." Best is to just focus on survivability at the moment, maybe after we get more bug fixes we can steamroll like a warrior but until then its better to just outlast people. Which I do 90% of the time, unless I run into a glass cannon then I destroy them anyway.

I only WvW btw, and my dungeon build is built around my high survivability (I mainhand dagger with wells and "tank"). Speaking of wells, if anything, those things can rape. I'd much rather spec power/crit damage than condition but there's not really any easy way to do that while having high survivability (outside invader gear but you still dont have a lot of crit damage). Maybe I could make some Beryl accessories when I get 6/6 invader, test that out.

[Kiarax]

Cond damage is literally the only time I've seen Necros damage me in WvW or sPvP, so apologies for my ignorance. Mind posting your build? I'd like to mess around on Necro myself at some point and it'd be nice to see a build that doesn't just focus on laying on assloads of conditions. Seems like a well build would be great for defending stuff assuming you can lay them down with ground targetting.

[Cjskater]

Cond damage is literally the only time I've seen Necros damage me in WvW or sPvP, so apologies for my ignorance. Mind posting your build? I'd like to mess around on Necro myself at some point and it'd be nice to see a build that doesn't just focus on laying on assloads of conditions. Seems like a well build would be great for defending stuff assuming you can lay them down with ground targetting.

My dungeon build is kind of a pain in the ass in WvW, way too many goddamn longbow rangers out there. It's like soon as you're spotted every longbow ranger in the zone starts spamming knockback on you. I typically use the "conditionmancer" build in WvW but like I said, I focus on outlasting not outdamaging. Without hardly any focus on condition damage my bleeds tic for 66, when I use blood is power (350 condition damage) it tics for 85, I generally make up for any damage deficiencies with that (I have a lot of crit too so its not like my damage is low, I've seen Life Blast hit for 2.6k+ with my tanky as fuck build).

WvW build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQEQNBL...CeH9QYiTmSh7vD
Swap out 20% bleed for ground targeted wells and use Well of Suffering and Well of Corruption for keep defense. Typically I just find the biggest ball of people, throw my wells down on them, then throw all my marks down on top of that.

Dungeon build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQEQNAo...P9w7xFP6RxEzMA
If you wanted to use this in WvW you'd have to use ground targeted wells obviously. Spinal shivers/immobilize people, when they break that go into DS and teleport when they get out of range, keep them chilled/immobilized the best you could. Also you would probably want to focus a bit more on healing than I do, because Well of Blood benefits particularly well (its got like 5k+6k healing or something) compared to Consume Conditions. Or you could just use Consume Conditions, either one is fine. lol

I have about 1500 power, 1700ish precision, 1800 toughness, and I think 1300something vitality.

[Rhyis.]

Even with a well build, I use condition damage. Wellmancer

I suppose I could get another set of gear with +healing, but meh.

FYI: Transfusion is a vastly superior healing tool than Bloodthirst/Vampiric Rituals combo. Transfusion heals others for 250+ for 9 ticks. Vampiric Rituals with Bloodthirst heals for 40+ for 5 ticks. Pretty lame.

[Cjskater]

Even with a well build, I use condition damage. Wellmancer

I suppose I could get another set of gear with +healing, but meh.

I use dagger in my wells build because of how fast it attacks, it siphons really...really quickly (siphon on hit + an extra time on crit), plus it has amazing damage potential. Really wish axe damage was even 3/4ths as good as dagger.

@the edit: Yeah I already knew how ass bloodthirst is. I like the siphon on crit one though, for dagger anyway. I know about transfusion as well but I don't really use DS #4 that often. I mean I kind of do, but it's not really that reliable considering people will CC the fuck out of you as soon as you use DS (so I've pretty much stopped using #4, at least till the very last moment... it still siphons even when you exit DS).

[Rhyis.]

Axe is so shitty lol. I can understand using dagger.

[ClarkSammich]

But that's not true at all, especially on a class with a large amount of focus on healing like Guardian. I'd love to hear you try and back up that claim though.

forgot about this for a day or so.
but it is:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...FE&hl=en#gid=0

Edit: the only real caveat is guardian heals a good deal, increasing the value of w/e toughness is in question. for classes with less healing (not the stat, the actual act of restoring hp), vitality pulls further and further ahead. in the case of surviving burst though, which is apparently the issue at hand, vitality will do more for you.

[Kiarax]

That is literally assuming you are never getting healed. I regen hundreds of HP per second on Guardian, which changes the ball game completely. At that point the importance lies on reducing the damage taken per hit rather than max HP, because you spend most of any fight that matters at mid-range HP, not at max. Those numbers are only good assuming absolutely no heals at all and is a straight fight from 100% to 0%, in which they are correct.

[shepardG]

What's the current strongest ranger build for PvP and PvE? All the guides I've found seem to say condition/toughness and use traps for PvP, but honestly with the way battles flow charging in to set traps or leaving them during a retreat just seems....inefficient. I saw some ax/torch burn builds, and those seem a bit more worthwhile but Im wondering if I can go double bow and just be a ranged cannon.


Also what would be the best for PvE? Currently only 26 so there's that, but what should I be building towards.

[Aevis]

I play cond/tough traps rng and absolutely love it for sPvP (random). you are incredibly mobile and very annoying for your opponent but you aren't a killer machine per se. you get two active speed buffs (one AoE), two active and one passiv stun breaker, an active and a passive condition removal. you have four cripple/-% movement speed skills, three bleeds (four depending on positionig), one immobilize (if spider) and one stun. I have a relatively low kill rate per match and most of the kills actually come from people, who are stupid enough to follow me all the way to the next location where my buddies are waiting. the traps are used for either:

a) warn signal. whenever I approach a location, I immediately throw my traps to the possible approaching sides. nobody gets through unnoticed and crippled, at least long enough for me to notice.
b) get away helpers. you're almost impossible to kill when you need to get away, except you have heavy DOT on you and downtime on heal/removal. use your speed buffs. keep throwing traps behind you. If you annoy them enough, they'll keep following you right into your team waiting.

IMO perfect for sPvP but it requires a certain playstyle, which you might not like.

as for PvE, it doesn't matter outside of dungeons. play whatever you like. I ran a crit/sword build during mid levels and melted through mobs like butter. didn't like it tho, as my ranger has to be a bow one, at least one set. recently reached 80 and am looking for a more tough/cond build again, especially since I'm still poor and can't afford multiple gear sets for dungeons/WvW yet.

[Keshad]

Any examples of builds mesmers are running these days? Aside from random overpowered rants about them, I enjoyed the class in GW1 so taking a break from Guardian to try one out

[Meph]

Any examples of builds mesmers are running these days?

seconded

also, whats the best/usual weapon-of-choice for necromancers?

[Imitarate]

Staff is pretty much your best bet; marks are quite good. Axe would be a very good alternative if it wasn't bugged all to hell.

I've been really enjoying a mantra-focused mesmer build I'm playing with; two or three (once you're 60 and can grandmaster domination) 2-condition removal skills on a short cooldown with Mantra of Resolve is pretty awesome, and I really like the daze and stunbreak from other mantras. They're like shouts, too, in that they can be used in the midst of other skills without interrupting. There's a 20-Inspiration trait I want to try, too, that turns the actual initial mantra cast into a group heal.

[Kachiko]

This is the Mesmer build I've run with; it's the Crit/Bleed build, and it works very well for how I play. Sword/Pistol and Greatsword are the weapons used. The Protection buff is constantly refreshed, so if you have a persistent Regen, such as standing next to your Illusions, Dolyak Runes, or a Healing Turret, it will have a very high up-time. Rampager's gear for PvE and Knight's Gear for PvP.

http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/mes...0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

There's also a shatter build, but I've not used it so I can't say anything about it.

[Kiarax]

Kachi's bleed build is one nice option, I use this burst/shatter focused build:
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/mes...0|0|0|0|0|0|0|
Sword/Pistol + GS for me too, will prob run Staff instead of GS in dungeons and PvP though, but not 100% yet. Not sure which build is "better" overall but I find the shatter build more fun/active than the bleed/cond damage focused one personally. I've also seen a pretty nice WvW build that focuses on projectile reflection (through utils and the focus trait), not tried it myself so I couldn't tell you how it performs though.