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Need a suggestion for heavy armor, open world farmer


Tinker.6924

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I want to create a character specifically for open world farming. I already have a necro, ele and ranger and I wanted to add a heavy armor character since I don't have one yet.

Guardian, Warrior, Revenant, looking for

  • Power dps with high burst. Dismount, kill, grab winterberries, go. Occasional champ fighting.
  • no reliance on pets/minions
  • Decent backup range weapon with 900 range. I always find myself in situations where I want to attack from outside of melee range. Either I have to back off because of a mechanic or simply want to tag a mob in a group fight I can't engage in melee fast enough. (it was a nice to have at best)
  • High survivability.
  • Good AOE for mobs.

I'm probably going to boost the guy.

What class and weapon combo would folks recommend?

Don't care about what is or isn't meta. It won't be used for pvp, fractals or raids and it will be dead last on my toon depth chart.

EDITED: Refined requirements.

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  • Power DPS with high burst: nothing beats a Power Dragonhunter. Revenant has a terrible burst for PvE. Warrior has high burst if played as Berserker; a spin2win type of gameplay.
  • Champ fighting: Warrior and Revenant (Jalis) can do that better than a Guard on a DPS build because they have higher HP and easier/consistent sustain, but a Guard can take some champs, just not as many. Put in mind a mistake is lethal for low HP classes - guard included - there is that oneshot from 11.6k to 0 HP by a scaled up veteran mob.
  • No reliance on summons: Unless you play with Renegade stance, none of them relies on summons.
  • Decent backup range: Dragonhunter has scepter as a meta pick for DPS and its 900 range. Others have ranged options, but just have in mind that that's not meta. A Revenant is easier to place a Hammer on weapon swap because they camp Sw/Sw only.
  • High survivability: Warrior is the most wheelchair class I can think of for 1v1 because it has high HP and armor + passives... lots of passives... and if you're Spellbreaker then you can rotate easily. Followed by a Jalis Herald or a Power Renegade (not meta) because they can heal by dealing damage. Guardian stands last if you want pDPS because it has low HP and relies on 'active defense' and its heals come in chunks rather than consistent heals + chunks, however, I found Power Dragonhunter to be ok if played well given how I was able to take most classes in a duel in WvW.

If looking for a meta Power DPS with range and ok-ish sustain then Dragonhunter is the most meta pick of all power classes. Revenant lacks the burst to be called a pDPS in PvE + lacks range weapons that actually can DPS. Warrior can DPS with high burst if played as Berserker and your 3 utilities are completely free for you to choose; it has high sustain, and even higher with Spellbreaker, but it lacks a meta ranged option.

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@Auburner.6945 said:

  • Champ fighting: Warrior and Revenant (Jalis) can do that better than a Guard on a DPS build because they have higher HP and easier/consistent sustain, but a Guard can take some champs, just not as many. Put in mind a mistake is lethal for low HP classes - guard included - there is that oneshot from 11.6k to 0 HP by a scaled up veteran mob.

I disagree. If you only have 11.6k with guardian, you deserve to get one shot. You need some vitality.Warrior may have good sustain, guardian do it better:

  • Mace/Focus and Sword/Shield gives you a high number of blocks, along with Litany of Wrath and Saves Yourselves, you can survive almost any time you need.
  • if champion requires ranged attack, scepter, staff, and sword of justice will cut it while warriors will struggle with bow/riffle.
  • if champion has very high stack of condi, guardian will handle it with his high number of cleanse and convert.

Warrior sustain is centered around long duration block : shield 5, endure pain (active and passive), defiant stance. Because champion attacks are slow, you will block one or two attacks at best.As for life regen, I find guardian better with resolve and litany.

But maybe I am not good enough with warrior ?

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@Aigleborgne.2981 said:

  • Champ fighting: Warrior and Revenant (Jalis) can do that better than a Guard on a DPS build because they have higher HP and easier/consistent sustain, but a Guard can take some champs, just not as many. Put in mind a mistake is lethal for low HP classes - guard included - there is that oneshot from 11.6k to 0 HP by a scaled up veteran mob.

I disagree. If you only have 11.6k with guardian, you deserve to get one shot. You need some vitality.Warrior may have good sustain, guardian do it better:
  • Mace/Focus and Sword/Shield gives you a high number of blocks, along with Litany of Wrath and Saves Yourselves, you can survive almost any time you need.
  • if champion requires ranged attack, scepter, staff, and sword of justice will cut it while warriors will struggle with bow/riffle.
  • if champion has very high stack of condi, guardian will handle it with his high number of cleanse and convert.

Warrior sustain is centered around long duration block : shield 5, endure pain (active and passive), defiant stance. Because champion attacks are slow, you will block one or two attacks at best.As for life regen, I find guardian better with resolve and litany.

But maybe I am not good enough with warrior ?

I am speaking as an Ele main of how 11.6k HP makes your eyes open to not take hits because only one can already take you down.

Regarding the trait lines and gear stats. Sure we can pick defensive ones, but that would affect the high power burst that is asked for here as only certain weapons and trait lines can offer that much burst.

However, I agree with you if it wasn't a Spellbreaker/core. Simply because Berserker is too squishy and lacks the the sustain vs a Dragonhunter if both were to min-max their burst.

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I had a longer thread in mind earlier, but its probably faster to skip all the requisite build theory due to Guard being a weird spot in the overall meta.

I would suggest looking into Firebrand for multiple reasons... Mainly its extremely high self-sustain and its compounding power with both enemy and allied numbers. Short fights (especially against singles) are notably longer, but the hybrid damage approach scales much better against durable mobs. If you're dead set on pure power, quickness builds are viable, while still leaving your tomes available for bigger fights.

The problem with the current batch of DH builds is they lean heavily into a highly offensive style of combat. You're OP suggests that you're either not good at handling active defenses, or have trouble with movement and positioning. None of the prominent builds for Solider classes allow for "tank and spank" in their Glass configs, and guardian especially leans hardest on its active defenses. However- the Firebrand Tomes have very high baseline effectiveness, with a manageable skill curve, since you shift into offensive or defensive stances rather then juggle them.

Option B is Medi DH Guard, since it builds in a lot of additional healing and condi cleanse. Unfortunately it also cost you a large amount of your front loaded damage, so you'll have to change tactics. But in terms of simplicity and sustain, (Medi, Rad, DH) does works. However, if you're decently skilled, and can get over the "I don't know how to avoid attacks" hump, you can get way more mileage out of Power Rev or the Semi-Glass guards.

Or consider Inventions/Arms/Holosmith Engineer, since it offers a lot of stat tweaking options, flexible defenses and sustain, good damage, and absolutely broken amounts of hard CCs.

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I appreciate everyone's input.

I've updated my requirements.Removed:Range requirement (it was a nice to have)

Added:AOE for mobs (essential for the bash-n-go farming lifestyle)

The character will be dead last on my toon depth charts. It's primary purpose will be farming winterberries and unbound magic in Bitterfrost so I can buy the 3 trinkets for other toons.

Meta isn't anything I care about in general and I care even less about it for this character. I expect effectiveness and enjoyment (which is personal and subjective) for solo play. I will sprint through the PoF and HoT zones to max out the HP's (if that's even needed on a boosted toon) and HoT has some tough HP challenges and I want to be able to do those solo. After that, I don't expect it to do anything more challenging than the rare elite.

This character will be a Heavy armor user, because I want to be able to "keep" the skins when I occasionally loot heavy armory on my mains by sending that stuff to this guy and I want an armorsmith and I just can't see my other toons having that (makes no sense).

Right now Warrior looks like the option I will be going with.

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For AoE, Guardian with either core or the other 2 specs has amazing AoE. It's even used for cleave in fractals because of the bursty AoE.

Next would be Berserker with GS on weapon swap and Arc Divider the enemies to death. If not Berserker for Warrior then Revenant should take the lead because it has Jalis and Glint which provide a fine amount of AoE.

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Currently messing around with solo builds myself. Switching between Guardian and warrior, I've found that either core or SB warrior seems to be my favorite. Guardian is just too squishy - in longer fights you'll run out of active defenses or you'll spend so much time playing defensively you won't kill anything that doesn't die to GS 4 + 2 and the blade trap.

I've been using GS + mace/shield on warrior, which provides high damage via GS, and tons of survivability with the other set. One thing to note with warrior, is even without utilities, it has a ton of access to breakbar damage, and it's all more convenient than guardian's (you aren't wasting the damage from GS 5, bane signet, or F1's pull to do it). With Adrenal Health and your choice of heal, plus your blocks and evades, it makes soloing tough guys a breeze. Utility skills are pretty free, but I've been running Bull's Charge and Stomp for the mobility, CC, stunbreak, and high damage.

Rifle isn't great, but it's not as bad as everyone says it is.

I'd recommend checking this out: https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Warrior_-_Strength_Greatsword

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