Buran.3796

Due my lack of skill. The Ritualist build soloes the Champion Mordrem Vinetooth in 42", and my best time with ANY build at is 52", so MY skills with the rotations of this specific build are just bad and useless to make any comparison. If anyone has the chance to try the same and would like to share it would be great. Anyway, the incoming patch is going to nerf damage from the alacrigade ritualist Renegade, so for OW meta events (as Palawadan... ), I would keep using celestial over ritualist. Must add that for solo OW I still prefer variants of Vindicator, Mirage or cHerald, amongs others, over Renegade.

My next step in MMOs will be the LoL one from Riot. Unless the combat system is atrocious (highly unlikely) is the only company with financial muscle big enough to craft a AAA MMOas a well polished product and to put lot of focus in the competitive game modes. Any other incoming MMO game will probably be forced to have crapy qol and mechanics to sell you the fixes, so they can milk you as much as they can until the player leaves the boat. You can like Riot or not but no one can negate that they have plenty of success keeping active the competitive side of their games. At this point in time I think that hoping for solutions in the PvP of GW2 or a highly unlikely GW3 is just silly. Both GW and GW2 had very strong focus in PvP, but the company moved entirely away from that focus due the nature of the average player, and now ANet is a way weaker place than 10 years ago (a GW2 revival or a GW3 release isn't going to happen). That's my honest view.

That's mostly hybrid damage, the same as Renegade's short bow.

I'm sure that you're right. My (limited) experience comes from fractals, where most of the time players stack over targets at mele range, and as you said GS is the main dps tool there. Anyway, power Soulbeast with long bow is still meta in the Snow Crows page, and the weapon has 300 more units of range over DH's long bow, which doesn't even figure in their "meta". But is good for the poster to have a different point of view...

I'm not sure why people asume that the next expansion will grant specs: everything seems to point that the new rythm of content will force ANet to release smaller expansions, and designing specs is one of the hardest thing to do (not to mention that in EoD we found some repetitiveness, lack of distinctive features in some of the specs and tons and tons of recycled animations). I think that there's more chances to either open the use of spec weapons to all specs/core (which will be very easy to implement, and very tame in terms of power creep, since running Renegade's short bow as a core, Herald or Vindi won't make it as powerfull as in synergy to the Renegade traitline). So, spec weapons becoming available across the whole profession would make the classes more versatile whitout harmong balance to much or whithout requiring a huge effort. Another option would be the release of a new core weapon for all professions, but that means at least 24 new skills (probably a lot morte), and if they plan to re.-use animations again I would prefer from them to take that route. Finally, if they plan to give us full new specs (to introduce new trillions of bugs and power creep) then my preferences for a new Rev would be a tank spec with hateful amounts of cc: we already have a boon-sharing/extending quickness Herald, an hybrid ranged fighter with alacrity in the Renegade and a (mostly) power AoE Vindicator with tons of dps (with an almost immortal hybrid build). I don't care which weapon/s as long as a) they aren't firearms, and b) whe don't get stealth. A rev with a gun/s and/or stealth is the last thing I want. Still, I would prefer just opening all spec weapons; las time they had 4.5 years to release EoD and specs felt rushed as hell...

Sorry to kitten in your DIV parede but I have to; at the time DII LoD was one of my favorite games of all time, and along BF Bad Company 2 the game I spent more time playing (over 1k hours in each). When DIII was released bought the game, the art book and a guide totalling over 120 €, and as you can guess I was thirsty about the game. Less that 4 months after the release, I did leave the game (which was really mediocre) and focused on GW2. Almost two years later I bought Reaper of Souls, and albeit it improved the base game it fall far from what DII LoD offered, in both fun and adictiveness. So played it a bit, some seasons, in which usually the interest lasted 2-4 weeks and then turned into boredom. Didn't bought the Necro class, I kept stacking hours in GW2 (currently 10k and going). I tried the demo from Resurrected, felt like wasn't going to bring up anything new, and didn't even supported ultrawide screens, so ditched any interest in buying it. Never had any in Immortal (is a phone game, I never play in phones, another trash product, anyway). I refused to pre-purchase DIV, instead Idid wait to the open beta. Leveled a Rogue to 25 and a Necro to 18. When the Necro was around level 10 the game already seemed to me one of the most boring and empty products I've tested in my life. The "story mode" is a bunch of chained dungeons, the meta events will feel like garbage to anyone which saw the ones in GW2, and the "end game" of DIV is just doing dungons and then doing harder dungeons (as Diablo III with the Bounties/Rifts/Grand Rifts, only this time the rift mechanics are worse). The game is unbeliebvably BORING, and compared to other action MMOs which tries to imitate (as Lost Ark) lacks so much content that feels rushed... Which is exactly what is happening. PoE dethroned DII LoD as king of action RPGs due deept of the systems, constant addition of content and delevopers which cared about the product; that's how GGG profits ~40 million $ a year whereas Diablo III is probably making Blizzard to lose money just keep the lights running. Streaming/content creation in DIII has been so dead for years that some of the best Diablo players moved to PoE, and the most followed ones in the D IV beta (aside Asmongold) were PoE players. I won't buy D IV; is a unnapealing and unfinished product made by a company which has no relation with the creators of DII. I guess it will sell well the first months (as happened with Diablo III) and will be next to dead after 4-6 months, because has litearly NOTHING to retain its player base. I haven't spent a dime in an Activision game in 8 years and seems that it will last for time... Now, about MMOs: I think that the one from Riot based on League of Legends will be a large success; they have crushed DOTA 2 in popularity and Valorant became an instant classic (ever suprassing CS in Twitch). They have the financial muscle and human brain power to craft a very big MMO, which will be f2p as LoL/Valorant/PoE, and they do put a lot of effort in the patching, suppport and addition of content in their games. Their products are in a lucky streak, they are big and well known, their cinematics are amazing and their competitive divisions are thriving, whereas Blizzard is now the company which used to rip off Games Workshop franchises, but now tries to scam his customers with monetization ideas extracted from the worst of the asian game market while also let their competitive games to languishing to death. So good luck with DIV.

Context and game mode is important. For PvE, in instanced content, the low HP isn't a problem since a well played Guardian in a competent group has tools more than enough to deal with it. In WvW roaming my dragon/marauder WB has 18.8k HP, hits very hard and has plenty of mobility and cleanses but barely any cc; on the other hand my celestial FB has 19.5k HP and way less damage and mobility, but much more cc while keeping similar cleansing abilities. In PvP WB and DH are competent despite their HP, but FB is waaaay weaker, even compared to core Guardian. Compared to that, the kind of builds I run with Warrior sits ~22-24k HP, and with Rev ~20-22k HP. But I consider Bladesworn much harder to play than Willbender, since most of your damage is stacked in charged attacks, and if you miss or get interrupted you dps falls to nothing...

On average with a 50/50 w/l ratio it takes less than 90 matches to reach the last (bizantium) chest of rewards in a ranked season in Conquest, which at ~15 minutes x match (including queues) resuts in ~23 hours of gameplay to get the 3 grandmaster marks from one ranked season in Conquest. So is less than 160 hours. As I said, season rewards are time caped, but you can purchase grandmaster marks (with tokens from other game modes, including WvW with the Grandmaster Mark Shards; outside participating in large WvW events the best way to get them is reaching the last gold chest in WvW to get at least 3 shads x week). Let's say that one completes the gold chest of WvW rewards every week for 8 months (which can be done just flipping camps alone) with no participation in any other skirmish: after that time you will stack 108+ shards enough to buy half of the pieces of the armor from PvP (doing sieges will largely speed up the time), and in the same time PvP will grant the other half of Marks to get all the precursors (just playing an average of 8 hors a month!). The main advantage of the PvP/WvW path is that you don't need to have success to earn the rewards; in PvE each time you wipe in a raid you will get 0 components foir your legendary armor whereas in PvP even if you lose every match you still progress and become 4 pips closer to the last 3 chest of the season, so progression is INEVITABLE. Yes, PvE is faster (and more expensive) as long as your team never wipes (or you are carried), but PvP/WvW offers the advantage of needing 0 teamplay and not relying in success to get the goals (of course teamplay and success will speed up the proccess, but again, is NOT mandatory). You can lose every PvP match (which is impossible) and every WvW fight and still you'll get rewards and progression, whereas in PvE you need success to grand the required reards. I say this as player which obtained 3 sets of legendary PvP armors + The Ascension + Trascendence just playing PvP.

Actually, PvP. You need 20 grandmaster marks to craft the 6 ascended armor pieces which will work as the precursors to the full legendary armor pieces, and you'll get 3 of those marks x ranked season (plus 1 for each mini-season), which is near a year and half BUT those marks can be purchased to speed up a lot the proccess. Most of the other tokens are easy to get and much more cheap than the ones in WvW. Also, you don't have to win matches to progress: any match moves you closer to the goal, and even even if your performance is bad, the matchmaking will move you eventually against adversries so bad that you will reach a 50% w/l ratio even if you don't even try. You can also accelerate the proccess mixing gear from WvW and PvP, but as I said WvW is more expensive.

There's few but clear answers to that. The first ones to come to my mind are from the hammer, with Coalescence of Ruin above nything else. The hammer is not only the only ranged weapon in core Revenant (and Hearld and Vindicator), but also one of the least used in the entire game. Hammer's auto attacks deliver 2/3 of the damage from sword or greatsword autos, which is bad, but the main shame in the hammer is not the numbers, which can easily be adjusted, but the mechanics. The change in CoR worked did not only made it weaker, it also made it the most bugged, clunky, inconsistent and worst implemented weapon in the game (whic still has an use; susrprisingly there are weapons which work better nmd more consistently but aren't used). Since CmC is on a crusade to revert drawbacks (Vindi and Mirage single evade, Berserker armor reduction... ) I think that CoR could be changed to the original way in which worked, and then just reduce the damage to the values they would regard as acceptable in WvW (since I doubt anyone would use it in PvE even with the changes).The old CoR skill at least hit the foes consistently and tracked them instead of being an empty slot with no use in a forgotten weapon. There's a reason why is the only (ground) Rev weapon which I don't have as legendary (and by the way: I think that the trident has priority/offers more value). There's a couple of badly nerfed ones in Mallyx and Jalis, but nothing as overwhelming as CoR. I would say also that Energy Meld is a total waste of space and I'll gladly would pay the price of a full expansion to see it removed from the game. I never use it and filling the space (F2) in a swap to Viktor (F3) messes my changes and is the reason I almost never use the blue legend. I don't want anything in exchange, just remove Energy Meld.

In zergs Ranger long bow is sometimes used to kill back line spell casters or even to snipe the commander due has longer range and a very effective access to quickness + cc + burst dps combo. DH used to be a great AoE dps glass canon mixing the burn procs from F1 with Permeating Wrath trait + Purging Flames & Sword of Justice, which literaly melted people in seconds at the designated area, but ANet nerfed Sword of Justice and the combo has now much lower damage and competent teams will cleanse the burns before becomes fatal. Most of players running Guardians and Rangers in zergs do play suppport builds (mainly Firebrand and Druid) since they provide better team value. So, if you're hopping to jump in a zerg and wield a longbow from DH or Ranger I would say that is not meta and given the amount of access to projectile-denial skills in organized teams they won't be much effective using their long bows. Small scale and roaming is entirely different and at that landscape both can work well. For solo content the strongest builds from Rangers are Soulbeast and Untamed, but are condition based and mostly mele. You can do well vs champions and most of Hero Points with power builds running long bow + greatsword but against some bounties and meta events the sustain will be way lower than with the condition based builds (which are mostly mele). Untamed in particular has very high dps, but is really hard to play at its max potential. The strongest solo build from Guardian is probably Willbender, with either condi opr hybrid damage and (again) mele based. DH cand do well vs champiosn and HPs but again the sustain will be a problems vs some bounties. I would say that at the moment WB > FB > DH at soloing things. At the moment, I would say that the best OW solo build using a bow is celestial Renegade (but is a short bow!). Has decent WvW roaming potential but is weak in PvP (no celestial stats available) and not meta in zergs.

For solo PvE Ranger's long bow is better due most of damage fromn DH comes from point blank mele traps, not from the bow. For instanced content is tricky: DH is in a very good place at Fractals due his AoE burst but Ranger has superior single target dps at Strike Missions and Raids. In PvP played at max level long bow Untamed is better, but at ranked both do well and DH can easily wipe foes in teamfights if the enemy makes mistakes (which usually happens), albeit is more brittle. In WvW roaming I would say that Soulbeast is Stronger, with better mobility; part of the effectiveness of DH is lost compared to PvP due there is no capture point, and a DH won't match a SB in mobility. In zergs both are detrimental.

Which profession and build are you using? The only dangerous foes are the Veteran Awakened Abominations, which can summon a barrier of swords which can knock back you and revert back your damage if they are hit while the barrier is up (that includes ticks from conditions that can be active on them when they use the skill). The most effective way to deal with them is just avoiding attacking them in that phase, and specially not casting attacks with chains of strikes or condition procs which can't be cancelled after a cast (you can kill yourself accidentally). Skills which grant i-frames while they hit the enemy (as Revenant's Unrelenting Assault or Surge of the Mist) can ignore the knock back/reflect damage. Builds with heavy cc can shut down those foes quite easily, but the key here is more about looking at what the enemies do, instead of trying to burst them in a single volley (albeit a few builds can kill them even before they summon their first barrier):

Also, get an ascended amulet from any of the Season 3, 4 or Icebrood Saga maps and put a karmic infusion from WvW in the slot for your main character. I wouldn't worry too much about specific was to farm karma, since even without doing instanced content I get plenty just playing everytrhing else and I'm constantly spending ~50k karma in accesories from the Bjora Marches map.

Yep, my bad.

You'll get ascended amulet, ring and back pack from Bloodstone Fen. Is not the most farmeable map but those ascended items from this map can be reset in stats as many times as you want just paying 100 undound magic, so they are very convenient. You'll get ascended ring, ear ring, back pack and the undewater respirator from Bitterfrost Frontier. Is the most farmeable map for ascended items since you can gather ~50 winterberries + over 1k unbound magic in 5 minutes (using mounts) x character x day, and remember that you can consume the materials to get more unmbound magic if needed. Remember also thet you can have 2 rings of the same kind if one is infused. Yoy can get ascended ring and ear ring from Sandswept Isles, and ring, ear ring and amulet from Dragonfall. Dragongfall is quite easy tio farm. Finally, you'll get (once quest are done) ascended amult and earing from Bjora Marches. That map has the second most farmeable currency since you can get ~180 iceshards in 3 minutes just opening the 3 big chest of rewards. There's other maps which provide ascended trinkets, but those 5 are the best ones. For the armor I'll recomend either PvP or WvW ascended ones buyed with tokens; remember that if you don't swap the stats those would serve to craft future legendary armors. For the weapons just craft ascended ones or play fractals.

In PvP it worked this way: you had amulets, runes and sigils which were arguably better than most of the others, so they either removed them, nerfed them or did both, until everything became so dull and useless that every power build runs berserker + divinity and the same 2-3 sigils. They succesfully nerfed FB until was removed from PvP and even now the spec still gets nerfs in PvP (like the latest changes in mantras); you should brace yourselves for having a quite decent range of b-tier builds with some c-tier traits across the Rev specs in PvP. Honestly Rev is so powerful right now at PvE that I wouldn't ditch the chance of PvE nerfs splashing over PvP, specially since ANet has neither interest or resources to pour into PvP/WvW.

* Nightmare runes: probably the best set for offensive Renevant builds based on condition damage. Do require Dungeon tokens so you'll need to either do them of complete Dungeon reward tracks in PvP/WvW to get those. * Tormenting runes: bring strong condi damage along considerable sustain; they were nerfed but are still powerful (and expensive!). * Fireworks runes: an all around mighty choice which provides damage enhancements to both condi and physical builds, valuable boons, boon duratioon and a 25% increase in movement pace. More suited to hybrid builds, but quite affordable. * Eagle and Pack runes: very good for physical damage builds which could want a bit of precission, but usually power Rev doesn't need them to cap crit chance. Unexpensive. *Strength runes: a cheap alternative to Scholar for power builds. * Krait runes: a good placeholder until you have Nightmare. I'm all about Balthazar in condi builds for Guardians and Eles, but I don't think that Rev access and stacks of burns is that good to make them your main choice. Sigils: There's mostly two routes here: you can go for Bursting and Malice to buff all your condition damage and condition duration or you can chose sigils which proc condis on weapon and legend swaps, as Doom, Geomancy or Hydromancy (that last one only with Abysal Chill). For hybrid builds Earth, Blight and Torment work well. For power Force, Battle, Cleansing and Energy are common choices.

That would make sense. @UncreativeGreen.2019 I'm asking if Ritualist alacrigade really does more damage than the same build with celestial gear, because as I said I'm not competent doing consistent rotations with Renegade. My test were limited to auto attacks & burst due I can do both consistently. Anyway, in the ShirukuSama video the Vinetooth soloed in 42 seconds, so I guess I can try (and I would) to do the same with celestial stats

I'll take this opportunity to express a doubt about Alacrigade: I saw that in the Snow Crows page the "prescribed" build is full Ritualist gear except a Viper's chest piece (I guess to run enough bood duration to grant perma-alacrity and then push max damage possible). Rune of choice is Nightmare (as in the pure condi dps Renegade build) and for sigils they use the ones which proc condis on weapon swap (since the optimal rotation tries to get the max value from Charged Mist, constantly depleting energy and rotating both legends and weapons asap). Now the question: is really that choice the optimal one? Today I tested in the Arrowhead Valley at Auric Basin the Ritualist build against some Arrowhead Hatchlings. Since the build has some complexity in rotations and mines are probably far from stellar I just did two test: auto attacking with short bow and then doing a short bow burst. Then did the same with a Celestial build using Leadership runes (tho that build runs sigil of bursting and Devastation instead of Invocation, so is not exactly apples to aples, albeit I can repeat it 1 : 1 if is required). So, the Ritualist build has near 1500 condition damage, 8% base cc, 150% cd and 37% boon duration, 100-87% condi duration with no food: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmwAUlflhQLMJSjFRZMIajBSjMBygjuk5TH-zRRYmhIIH10+FSXJQkhQlVgwDAA-e The Celestial build has near 800 condition damage, 37% base cc, 195% cd, 1675 power and 70% boon duration, 70% condi duration with no food: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmwAUlflxQHMPyh1RNMO6hRSfMCKgjul+TH-zxIY1om/QiUIUpKoDJgHHAA-e The Ritualist build killed the Arrowhead Hatchlings in 11, 10 and 11 seconds using short bow's AA, and in 4, 4 and 3.5 seconds using a burst from the short bow skills. The Celestial builds killed the Arrowhead Hatchlings in 10, 11 and 11 seconds using short bow's AA, and in 3, 4 and 3 seconds using a burst from the Short Bow skills. So: I have no clue if in an optimal rotation over a stationary, non beligerant target the Ritualist build which takes advantage of Charged Mists achieves better dps than the Celestial one running Devastation (traitlines aren't even the question since can be swaped at will for no cost). BUT, in terms of raw damage, the output seems to be roughly the same. Is Ritaualist better? It provides more HP (26.5k vs 22.5k) and I would agree that the 675 extra healing points in Celestial is not that relevant in those particular builds, but Celestial gives also 675 extra toughness and aditional 32% boon duration. In the Celestial build with Leadership runes once the F4 finishes the cooldown you have 4 seconds "of gratia" to recast it, and even with Fireworks runes the window is still 3 seconds (with the mobility and extra might and vigor generation). I have my doubts about having 4k extra HP being better than having +32% extra boon duration (Leadership, +19,6% with Fireworks), specailly taking in consideration that both builds are well over 20k HP. Also, the more balance nature of the physical+condition damage of Celestial is probably a better "do it all" over the full condition choice with Ritualist. I'm wrong? Edit: added video, sorry for the lack of text & transitions, just installed Resolve yesterday and I'm figuring how to edit in it.

Regular champions, HPs and bosses in meta events are trivial, outside very few exceptions with a certain attack or mechanic which could beat you if you don't pay attention. In bounties I can solo 60-70% of them if the unstable magic abilities aren't terrible (Restorer + Phase Shifted would wreck the dps), but the celestial build can handle 90% of them. The power build is more fun to play, tho.

For PvE at the moment I think that Vindicator is stronger. Has the best solo builds in the game (celestial Vindicator, celestial Herald, marauder Vindicator and celestial Renegade) with 3 of them sharing the same stats and runes. Also has some meta builds for instanced content (quickness Herald and alacrity Renegade) and is one of the most popular professions in WvW zergs (mainly Herald and Vindicator). In roaming and PvP tho, I think that Engineer is currently stronger (Scrapper, Holosmith), and Mechanist is also a meta PvE support build in instanced content. Being said that, I don't stand more Engie's rifle after the re-re-work: just feels slow and boring. Now, since you narrowed the choices to power Scrapper and Power Vindicator and just in PvE with a single set of gear, I would say go Vindi, this is what I currently run soloing bounties and meta events: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmzAExzlxQmMP6k1RpMOClRSqMCqkn1kfsF-zRhYbBhJG1cGwBBOHUwhkpUoXRQFKAFfAEYDc/QSAvF9HtgKA-e You can replace the swap to swords for a second greatsword, a staff or even a hammer if you want.

I've been using this two builds (power and hybrid) to farm bounties the whole week: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmzAExzlxQmMP6k1RpMOClRSqMCqkn1kfsF-zRZYiRNnHcQgzBFcIZKF6VEUhCQxHAB2D9JF4W0f0CqA-e http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmzAkeZlhQmsI6kJRpMIClBSqMBqkjyzasF-zxIY1ojvMyMB6oA8+AEue41AipNQFA-e I like more the power variant, since has the qol of 25% increased pace and feels more visceral; can reach ~30k Eternity's Requiem in some bounties, which isn't bad for a power Rev with no Devastation traitline. In the weakest bounties, specially if the Champion doesn't have too much cc, can kill faster than the hybrid one. When a bounty is uncanny tanky or has plenty of cc mechanics is when the celestial variant shines: in power when you're cced you deal o damage, whereas things as Embrace the Darkness keep stacking even when you're disabled. Sometimes a specially convoluted bounty emerges with Restored + Phase Shifted; in those cases the power build is unable to seal the deal, but the celestial one sometimes can. If not, you can always wait a day for a different Unstable Magic Ability combo. They are perfect to solo. Much better to deal with condis than Mirage after the changes in mantras. Did use the power one to end EoD's campaign, Drakkar, Drizzlewood, even one Dragonstorm public instance. I guess that in large public events Alacrigade can be better for your partners since you can attack at both mele or range, provide perma alacrity, lost of cc and plenty of stability if you run Jalis... But Alacrigade or qHerld would be crushed trying to solo most of those bounties. And since those fights usually last 4-8 minutes you end fighting better the longer it last, which means you avoid or block more attacks, deal better with the mechanics of the fight, etc. Is also funny doing your own business soloing a bounty at 30% HP, seeing another player join to the party, doing down, reviving it (3 times), surviving and still comfy completing the task (happened me already a few times). And by the way I saw at least another player soloing bounties with the same build. Credits to Hizen for spreading the word...

1) Yes. 2) The cap is currently 100 x condition, if I remember correctly (some builds can stack burst of more than 60 of the same!). I don't remember if they last in order or overlap, probably the wiki has the answer.

From the November 29th pach: "The last set of changes didn't have quite enough impact on condition-based revenant builds in PvP, and we're following up with a few more adjustments to improve their damage output and free up a bit more energy while in Legendary Demon Stance. We've focused on improving damage builds for both herald and vindicator in PvE, improving the potency of sword off hand, Legendary Assassin Stance and Legendary Dragon Stance, and the Luxon side of Legendary Alliance Stance." https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/124807-game-update-notes-november-29-2022/ They slighly buffed Mallyx in that one. A quarter later they slighly buffed some Renegade traits and Sevenshots in PvP and WvW in the Feb 14 patch: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/127677-game-update-notes-february-14-2023/ In the same one also they kept hammering Vindi out of the meta (this time successfully). The other changes were lergely irrelevant for both Herald and Renegade, but at least now the three specs + core Rev are in the same can (figure out which one 🙂 ). Don't blame CMC, He has been very busy making all specs of Ele meta in PvP, we can't get everything! But yes, Devastation is bad. As I said if I want damage in PvPI run a Willbender; when I chose a Rev in PvP I just go the tankiest I could trying to bunker at mid/home: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmwAYx7lpQHsLqhhROML6hJSfsCKgl+UVrD-z5gXIZmClWA9GBaMAA I find out the other offensive Rev specs just unable to compete vs the best EoD specs in damage + mobility.