Saiyan.1704

Still no real reason a Zerk DH Longbow would choose Hunter's Determination over a free 10% damage buff that Zealot's Aggression gives. Any melee builds (and condi builds) would find HD more useful than ZA. Especially if you're already a guard that uses FmW (what others have already stated). Not overly hyped about it but I'm glad Anet has this out-of-the-box thinking when it comes to a trait rework.

I want to like hammer... (actually every Guard wants to like hammer lol).. but it's too much of a meme right now. Either you're killing some one with Hammer#2, or you swap to Hammer just to have 0 value with it. They really need to rework the extremely slow autoattack... Many WB's are having more success with GS. GS#3 can hit like a truck sometimes.

I am 100% down for a higher APM WB playstyle if Restorative Virtues is meant to offer that but... yeah, I just don't like that specific trait at all. Restorative Virtues is such a sad trait compared to Holy Reckoning or Vanguard Tactics (at least these 2 have synergy with other treelines) I kinda want a Boon specific trait similar to how Permeating Wrath works... 3hits to trigger virtues in an area among your allies but at the severe cost of self-boon duration. This buffs the already lackluster Condi spec WB has in PvX, while increasing build diversity a bit (altruistic healing), including offering a lot more Alacrity to your team (self applying alacrity reduced).

Ahha I knew you would say that! Meet "Random @$$ Demo Trash Prot Build #3!!" Went away from the trait Focus Mastery and got Strength of the Fallen's condi removal every 10s Combined with Signet of Resolve's 1 cleanse every 4s, you'll self cleans more conditions in a period of 20s than a F2 burst cleanse... also when their icd is up, they'll automatically cleanse the first 2 conditions applied to you. It feels better than an F2 cleanse in some situations. Healing nearly to full health with the signet heal while at 20% is such a meme...kinda like this build! The 3rd utility skill on your bar can be anything, but I've been liking Shield of the Avenger lately... gives Weakness (50% damage reduction) and much needed range denial but you certainly lose a stunbreak. If they don't have a DE then I tend to go back to SoJ/Judges/CoP.

So I posted an earlier version of the build a month ago... this is the revamped version.... (personally i think this one is 15% more efficient... why? Idk I guess I like clickbaiting people... leave me alone ok?) The WB Build - build editor site (edited: 9/21/2022, incorporated cleanses) -Changes from old thread- Dolyak runes over Soldier (yeah i know this was obvious.. leave me alone!): Dolyak just offers so much more toughness than the '1 condi clear + 1.7k health' from Soldiers.... Scepter/Sword.. instead of.. Greatsword (removing Greatsword completely) Greatsword is excellent for bursting but not so great vs medium to long range, especially when the bursts fails (your WW and gs#3) Willbender already does excellent AoE damages but not so excellent recovery time when your much needed damaging skills misses... for Scepter/Sword: Use scepter#3 to setup F1/Whirling Light/Scepter#2/Sword#4... And/Or.. use Sword#5 for the exact same reasons listed. The more you play with Scepter, the better you'll do when mix & matching your combo skills the CC (Scepter#2/Sword#5). Sword/Focus Edited: Removed Prot on Focus#4/#5 trait and went with Strength of the Fallen for condi cleanses. Signet of Judgement over X -10% damage -10% condition at all times adds to your facetanking abilities... it is also a stunbreak in emergencies but you lack Contemplation of Purity which is huge vs condi specs I personally prefer Judgement over CoP but... to each their own....(if condi is going to pwn you anyways, might as well be 10% more tanky vs power.. is how i think of it) EDIT: Forgot to add... Condition classes will farm you probably (definitely)... but a +1 condi cleanse partner like Core Guard or Ele kinda carries... you simply wont die but will continue to offer damage similar to a Marauder Willbender (metabattle). If I had to give a rough estimate of this build efficiency... you'll play like a more Damaging version of Prot Holo, worse 1v1 burst than rev, except deal more AoE damages overall within a blob fight.

First off, welcome to the forums! There's a slight smell of oppression in the air every pve/pvp patch but I hope you enjoy your stay. Secondly, offhand sword used to feel good (sPvP)... until they hard-nerfed its #4 and #5 damage so badly that the skills no longer feel rewarding.

Condi is certainly bad if the person has poor planning... it's excellent when you swap to condi to specifically single out a class that you know has very poor cleanses. There certainly is a skill-factor to it but I wouldn't necessarily agree that it's of bad design.... if anything i would argue that Condi builds across the board needs to be more leveled amongst classes. This includes wars who have zero efficient condi builds. The heart of condition gripe we hear on the forums is the whole, "condition builds are brain dead easy to play..." when in reality, it can be completely countered if played incorrectly.

This guy 100% gets it. Side thought.... Perfect Inscriptions trait + Signet of Resolve is the best healskill the Guardian has but we have to sacrifice damage to have it.

While everyone is dodging, ccing, and applying conditions to the BS, you just got the node decapped. Play with the BS 1v1 could result in him capping the node himself. Only a few classes can actually 1v1 a BS without negatively contributing to their team. A good BS is beneficial in so many areas on the map...that's why they're the most OP class in the game rn.

I just want my damage back for WB in sPvP... Marauder builds hits like a wet noodle and Zerk builds is asking to be farmed by a thief. How is Anet going to nerf F2 sustains AND our damage? Worse class balance decision ever.

It's another day, and another opportunity to emphasize how bad Heaven's Palm is. HOW are we not able to evade attacks while in the air, enduring the 1.25 second animation time when casting Heaven's Palm? Rename the elite to Death Sentence because that's basically what we're doing to ourselves when casting this skill.

There's certain classes who prefer 1v2 because they're tanky or mobile af... even IF mid wipes, a good far side-noder can potentially 1vX long enough for the team to regroup back mid or home, if home is needing help. It's really mind boggling how players think 2v1 for 2minutes straight is a good thing. These specific situations is what can really snowball the map. So many players have 0 map awareness, including body count on nodes.

I theory crafted this build last night and wanted to share it for feedback... so far it has held it's own in 1v1's and has done excellent in +1ing. In fact it feels better than the Zerk glass cannon virtue/radiance build...but I'll let yall decide >_<. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWwAEx3lhyUZfMM2IW+PbRPA-z5gfIlKE6VFkxEQGDA The main premise of the build is its high Protection upkeep in Valor + Altruistic Healing, which complements its already incredibly high toughness with Demolisher amulet. It's ridiculous how little damage a power Untamed will do to you. Vanguard Tactics adds additional protection and resolution on every shadowstep. Phoenix Protocol is a must for this build, compared to the measly 10% extra damage of Tyrants Momentum. Phoenix adds 2 extra boons on F2 proc for Altuistic Healing to do it's thing and Alacrity which helps with rolling out new rotations. The rotations on this build is a little different... try casting Focus#4 then engage with F3 + WW or Whirling Light. Try landing an F1 then immediately use F2 (this is when you use either a WW or WL, which ever one is up). It is important to attempt to land as many hits for F2 activations for that Alacrity to proc. When F1-F3 comes up, rinse and repeat. I generally save SYG and/or Focus#5 for F2 depending on how hot the blob is. A different Amulet variant would be Paladin's but as long as you can kite with GS and learn how not to die, I feel Demo amulet is much better... oh, stay away from condi anything rofl...

Best thing about EOD: -Righteous Instincts: Increased bonus critical chance from 25% to 40% in PvP only. Worse thing about EOD: -Rushing Justice: Reduced power coefficient from 1.5 to 1.2 in PvP only. -Executioner's Calling: Reduced power coefficient of secondary attacks from 0.4 to 0.33 in PvP only. -Advancing Strike: Reduced power coefficient from 1.4 to 0.9 in PvP only.

If you have been pvping since launch then you should already know the answer to your first paragraph...back then, soloQ was FAR worse than it is currently. You clearly haven't queued solo and gotten a pub group vs a team called The Abjured and it shows. Anet already altered queue times several times for 5man premades vs soloQ mixers. Matchmaking quality was simply atrocious. They raised it up to 5minutes+ and even changed the rating variables..not only did the match quality not get much better for solo players but it took half a day for premades to get a game. Scrapping it completely and adding AT's was the best solution for 5man premades IMO.... they now just need to add a *'forfeit'* button for AFK teams. You are not getting your 5man premades back there's just too much history of failure regarding that era of matchmaking...

Agreed... Plat players should Never have Silvers on their team but this happens so embarrassingly often... Everyone in the top 250 practically know each other by their first names lol.

Whelp, found my answer. We're better in Ranked sPvP... as oppose to AT's (gotta play kitten good to even get anywhere) but the only viable build rn is Zerks amulet basically.. rather, that's performing better than Marauders or Valks by a large margin. That said grinding out Rating is a huge uphill battle....

I have never seen so many words that mean so little in one thread..

Why are people talking about Bladesworn... when the main issue was the nerfs of the powercreep EOD classes? Willbender, Vindicator, Mechanist, Specter, Harbringer... .they all used to shutdown Bladesworn. They all received HEAVY nerfs. Bladesworn hasn't really changed since EOD...we just can't deal as much damage as we used to. How about giving back my Willbender's F1 damage instead? Or does the forum community prefer a direct nerf to Bladesworn, of which, has struggled since the start of EOD?

The immob on Scepter#3 and a faster method of casting Scepter#2 Symbol (even though anet destroyed symbolic guards) and off-hand utility usages. Technically Scepter + Torch outputs a lot more damage than staff. Can't just compare the first three skills the weapon has.

Since the nerf to damage and F2 cleanses... I'm sucking more than usual. I'm not even winning favorable even matchups like how I used to. I've looked on a few people's Twitch streamers and they're not even playing WB in PvP anymore. Been seeing a lot more DH guards around... Do we suck?

Ok hear me out... What if when any player blocks another player, they both are seen as having a randomized character name in every game they are together in. Including their character appearance being defaulted, and always appear as Offline. ...before vials of salt is thrown at me from the top 50 sPvP players, I'll just see myself out.

Let me stop you right there mate. Because of WvW Firebrand nerfs... Firebrand in sPvP was sent to the gutter along with it. For some reason it received the same kind of nerfs as WvW did even after the spec was no longer meta. When Firebrand was F tier, its Healing skill was nerfed...Lol... it's heal ability is now officially the worse heal skill in the game. So I PRAY that they don't touch Willbender in the same way like how they gutted out FB due to WvW prowess abilities..... as a matter of fact, why don't they buff the plethora of other classes in the game that hasn't seen light of day since the launch of PoF?

Why in the world do you feel that every utility Physical skill deserve a global treatment? How about pointing out which ones needs improving instead?? *cough*flashcombo*cough*

Every single nerf to Firebrand in WvW has directly effect sPvP Firebrand builds.... even when Firebrand wasn't meta in sPvP... Let that marinate a little. Firebrand is bad for so many reasons. For starters, Firebrand does not excel in any category. The spec does not excel in burst power damages, AoE condi damages nor single target condi damages. It can't even self-bunker itself on sidenodes very effectively, which can be a role within itself. Anet even nerfed the self-quickness it gets when switching to Virtues....so how the spec plays, is not the same as when the spec first launched. (the cooldowns on virtues and the quickness on virtues cast for example) To answer your question, Firebrand is REALLY terrible in sPvP. You should never use it.