GW2 Random Class Discussion: Shiyo Knows Best edition

[Kuishen]

You didn't say anything about people previously being in a party with you. I'm sorry for not assuming such, I should have known better considering the source.

Yes because I was supposed to know that was the cause of the bug. I never claimed to have done thorough testing (just light testing that took like 5 mins) and I did indeed bring this to the official forums and that is where I learned that was the cause.

You however immediately started being a prick and said that was how it's supposed to work. I'll admit that my initial post was whiny, but beyond that you are just a raging asshole to pretty much everybody that has even the slightest issue with this game for what appears to be no reason.

I fucking love this game as I've stated many times, I'm sure you do too. Why the hostility?

[Celeras]

when it comes to pvp as a warrior. do you lose too much damage from going deep in both defense and tactics?

Glass cannons almost universally get shit on by survival builds, but I didnt play my warrior with enough builds to specifically answer your question. Id assume no depending on what you chose.

[Eanae]

I play my warrior 20/30/20/0/0 with mostly Knight's gear and I can take a beating for quite a while and still maintain a 70% crit rate with fury.

[Shiyo]

How to play thief: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh5zj...1&feature=plcp

Spoiler: show

sarcasm, but still funny

No, this isn't sarcasm at all. It's actually true because you replace heartseeker with pistol whip now, being able to spam 1 button as any class is in this game is really dumb. THF shouldn't do any damage at all for how annoying they are and how much survivability they have.

Looking for a better set up for my elementalist. Anyone got some tried and tested trait/stat specs?

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#...vo9MxxaVscVcqV

Carrion armor, carrion weapons, clerics accessories. Superior siigil of battle in your weapon(xxx on weapon swap procs when changing attunments),superior sigil of agony on offhand, rune of the undead x6 in armor for more damage/survivability.

Very tanky, very good damage, very good condition damage, lots of survivability, mobility and damage. -33% cripple/chill/immobolize duration is a huge life saver and adds a ton of mobility, gaining 3 secs of proteciton when you use frost/lightning aura is nice as well. Swapping to water attunement instantly removes 2 conditions from you/nearby allies and AOE heals you/everyone around you for ~2k. Superior rune of battle is passive 3-6 stacks of might(usually 6), and comboing off ring of fire - > earthquake - >churning earth is +6 stacks of AOE might.

Dagger/dagger for pure DPS, scepter/focus for support/single target ranged DPS on things that don't move around 24/7(5% crit in focus, sigil of battle in scepter), staff for ranged AOE damage(I only use it in WVW for attacking towers/keeps, AOEing everyone off the balcony is very good damage, sigil of battle in your staff again).

Swap tornado for summon ele in dungeons, swap either mist form or arcane armor for water signet in dungeons depending on the dungeon. You pretty much ALWAYS want water signet on in a dungeon, but don't always need both mist form or arcane armor. I like arcane armor for everything but twilight arbor. When Using scepter in PVE I prefer mist form over arcane armor, and when using staff in PVE I swap earth armor for arcane blast, arcane shield for summon ele, and mist form for water signet. Sometimes you'll still want to keep mist form though, so give up arcane blast for that.

Use +20% bleed duration earth trait and -20% earth weapon skill cooldowns in PVE over the immobolize/cripple/chill -33% trait and the protection for 3 second trait when applying an aura.

1611 power
959 precsion
1581 toughness(1661 in earth attunment)
1568 vitality
18711 HP
6% crit(lol)
761 healing power
1,120 condition damage

My spec is a group DPS/solo/duo spec, while the one posted above is a pure support group spec.

[Kirbyprime]

Can anyone give me any comments on this build? Elementalist S/D or D/D.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fEAQ...kIIrOOdk6MEZSB ** Modified based on some comments on other boards.

Also, I think this might be an issue with S/D, but I get crushed by THF way too easily. Even with pistols they can take me down in under 5 seconds. Bit easier if I can get close to them, but daggers still hurt a hell lot. Any good way to deal with them?

[Alderaan]

No, this isn't sarcasm at all. It's actually true because you replace heartseeker with pistol whip now, being able to spam 1 button as any class is in this game is really dumb. THF shouldn't do any damage at all for how annoying they are and how much survivability they have.

Pistol Whip build is such a beta spec though. It was all the rage until people figured out how much utility has to be given up to make it viable. You have to slot Haste and Devourer Venom just to make sure you land all of the hits while being rooted while the animation goes off. 1 stun breaker negates all of that damage, same as Hundred Blades. Heartseeker on the other hand is so freaking good because it's also a gap closer and low initiative. I personally only use it as a gap closer and sub 25%. I think most thieves underestimate just how much damage the auto chain does.

I also don't agree with the survivability comment but i don't consider running away as survivability. It's more of a necessity due to our low HP and lack of passive heals.

[Shiyo]

Can anyone give me any comments on this build? Elementalist S/D or D/D.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fEAQ...kIIrOOdk6MEZSB ** Modified based on some comments on other boards.

Also, I think this might be an issue with S/D, but I get crushed by THF way too easily. Even with pistols they can take me down in under 5 seconds. Bit easier if I can get close to them, but daggers still hurt a hell lot. Any good way to deal with them?

Arcane wave is pretty weak in PVP, slot earth armor. The stability/stun/fear break is too important and useful. 10 in air is a waste, you lose too much suvivability(1k hp/100 healing or 100 toughness) for a very minor damage increase. Arcane mastery and shard of ice don't really have a use because the only really useful PVP arcane spell is arcane shield, which has a long cooldown anyways.

Rune of battle and rune of air share an ICD(I haven't tested, friend tested and told me this) so only one of them works. 5% crit is probably your best bet in your offhand. Your runes offer no survivability and sub-par damage. If you are trying to go support(which is what scepter/dagger is for), 4 runes of water and 2 runes of monk is the best choice. +30% boon duration, 5% chance to remove a condition from yourself when hit on a 10 sec ICD, and +healing.

[Aristio]

Speaking of Thieves, I fucking love Shadow Refuge. It's like they laid down one huge target for me to Grenade spam.

[Kirbyprime]

Arcane wave is pretty weak in PVP, slot earth armor. The stability/stun/fear break is too important and useful. 10 in air is a waste, you lose too much suvivability(1k hp/100 healing or 100 toughness) for a very minor damage increase. Arcane mastery and shard of ice don't really have a use because the only really useful PVP arcane spell is arcane shield, which has a long cooldown anyways.

Rune of battle and rune of air share an ICD(I haven't tested, friend tested and told me this) so only one of them works. 5% crit is probably your best bet in your offhand. Your runes offer no survivability and sub-par damage. If you are trying to go support(which is what scepter/dagger is for), 4 runes of water and 2 runes of monk is the best choice. +30% boon duration, 5% chance to remove a condition from yourself when hit on a 10 sec ICD, and +healing.

Oh, please ignore the PVP accessories, they were there from a previous build and forgot to remove them, this is for WvW roaming build. Sorry for not specifying earlier.

I'm trying to go as a direct damage build with enough survivability to actually in and out of a mob. Arcane wave was used as a blast finisher for my fire field though I'm kind of iffy on it since it is kind of weak. Also kind of hesitating on the whole might stacking thing now, kind of hard to actually set up the thing while the enemy is still around.

Currently working with this.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fEAQ...JCyqjTHpODRmFA

Basic combo right now is

Lightning Attune : Ride lightning -- > Updraft
Fire Attune : Tooth --> Fire Ring --> Arcane Blast --> Phoenix --> Grab
Earth Attune : Stun + Poke
Lightning attune : Mist form, run the hell away and ride lightning

I can kill somewhat decently with this but still find this way too slow since tooth loads too slow and half of the combo can be avoided really. Ride the lightning is also kind of bugged since I estimate 25% of the time I don't even get to the guy for updraft to work.

[Shiyo]

Scepter is horrible and does 0 damage. Dragon's tooth and phoenix are too easy to dodge and every other skill you have does horrible damage. Scepter is a horrible weapon besides AOE might in dungeons. I tested out scepter and my build earlier in PVP and it's just complete garbage, it'd be nice in dungeons but it doesn't do anything meaningful at all in PVP. Evasive arcana's churning earth/fireblast only does 300 damage for some unknown reason, and doesn't even apply a bleed, the water attunment part heals for the correctly scaled amount though which is nice.

[Kirbyprime]

Scepter is horrible and does 0 damage. Dragon's tooth and phoenix are too easy to dodge and every other skill you have does horrible damage. Scepter is a horrible weapon besides AOE might in dungeons. I tested out scepter and my build earlier in PVP and it's just complete garbage, it'd be nice in dungeons but it doesn't do anything meaningful at all in PVP. Evasive arcana's churning earth/fireblast only does 300 damage for some unknown reason, and doesn't even apply a bleed, the water attunment part heals for the correctly scaled amount though which is nice.

Yeah =( I heard that Arcana's earth is actually Shockwave which is a lot weaker. I'm not that happy with dagger/dagger ( that or I'm not used to it, either, or, and ) though it does seem more offensive. Not sure how safe it is though.

[supercoco]

is viable a turret build as engineer or it lacks of damage ?

[Shiyo]

Yeah =( I heard that Arcana's earth is actually Shockwave which is a lot weaker. I'm not that happy with dagger/dagger ( that or I'm not used to it, either, or, and ) though it does seem more offensive. Not sure how safe it is though.

Dagger/dagger is fine and completely safe. I can pretty much always dagger/dagger in dungeons and PVP, if I can't in PVE it's a very special boss that no one else can melee anyways, or it's just face roll to ranged it so w/e. In PVP the only times it's unsafe to d/d is when attacking people inside a keep or defending a keep, which is fine because staff is amazing in this situation and I don't even care.

[Kirbyprime]

Still learning D/D but Evasive Arcana is decent right now even with the broken earth attunement. At the very least, the 10s cooldown is separate for each attunement and they help trigger blast finishes and an extra heal from water. Lightning attunement is utterly worthless though, has to be right next to guy to even blind them.

Still trying to work out combo, but looks like it's similar as in ride -> updraft -> vulnerability -> fire attune -> ring of fire -> firewalk -> dodge back into ring for blast finish -> grab.

Seems weaker than S/D for some reason but I assume that's because I'm doing something wrong plus my gear is still set up for might stacking which isn't going to happen now.

Will try out the 50% endurance sigil with one of the daggers, should help with survivability and triggering evasive arcana.

[Shiyo]

Ring of fire - > earthquake - > churning earth/dodge roll. Evasive arcana isn't worth all you lose in water/earth(it's also bugged for flame burst for some reason, does like 300 damage too), the extra blast finisher isn't worth losing all the damage, unless you're using scepter/dagger and playing support then the heal and additional x3 AOE might along with the boon duration increase is very nice.

New spec I'm trying today in PVP(and pve, but changing traits/utilities for PVE):
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#...vo0axx0cVscVcs

Gain a ton of survivability with -5 sec on my heal.

edited scepter/dagger build:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#...voa9MxxoVcsVsq

Gain a bit of damage for some survivability, not sure if worth it but also a possible variant.

[Kirbyprime]

Changed to a 10,0,20,30,10 build for D/D. Tested it with my old S/D build and seems to be fairly even in terms of general PvE. D/D is weaker against multiple mobs of course but stronger against a single so I guess it matches up.

Running full Knight gear right now but haven't attached runes yet since I'm still testing and don't want to blow 3-4 gold.

[Corrderio]

So does anyone have any suggestions for an Engineer build? Curious if it's possible to make one that focuses on DPS.

Also, what do you guys use for a Guardian PvP build?

[Belragga]

It's old but after using it in sPvP for awhile I've found a few tweaks that work for me, such as using the hammer instead of sword and torch. http://www.teamparadigm.net/guides/G...Guardian-Guide

Pure support build. Everything ya need to know is in the guide. http://www.teamparadigm.net/guides/G...dMode-Guardian

Build Link seems broken but it's 0/5/30/30/5.

[Celeras]

So does anyone have any suggestions for an Engineer build? Curious if it's possible to make one that focuses on DPS.

Also, what do you guys use for a Guardian PvP build?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJkTMqJOWvU

Especially effective against Mesmers and other pet classes due to the AoE. Feel free to add Engineer to Shiyo's OP list.

[Corrderio]

That looks pretty good. Was hoping for a pistol/turret build, but traits look kinda meh for that.