Looking for Vindicator strike build

[Veprovina.4876]

Total noob here, my Revenant is currently assigned to Icebrood Saga mastery point collection, and that means Dragonstorm, Drakkar, Ice shards, whatever... 

 

Open world mainly. But i'd like to throw some IBS strikes in the mix and DRMs.

 

And i know Renegade could probably do it better, i already have a Condi renegade, but i'm kinda bored with it and wanna try Vindicator.

Is anyone using it in strikes? How is it? 

What is it? - DPS, support?

 

Is there kind of a hybrid support/dps build that i can take into strikes, but also solo open world with?

 

Can anyone link me some builds? Thank you!

[morsdood.1987]

Snowcrows has a Shiro/Alliance build that revolves around smashing GS 2, 3 and 5 off cooldown aswell as dumping energy on Nomad's Advance and Spear, then swapping to S/S for a standard Shiro rotation and then repeating, does good damage

If you don't want to smash buttons as much you can also take that build but run Shiro/Jalis instead and camp GS while still spamming 2, 3 and 5, letting Vengeful Hammers/Impossible Odds do their thing, swap legend on CD with this one, it won't do as much DPS as the Snowcrows build but it should still dish out more than acceptable DPS for Strikes, Raids and especially Open World

Also dodge on CD of course for a good dmg boost, also gonna need to get used to GS4 now being your main way to evade damage

 

[Sudno.6209]

31 minutes ago, morsdood.1987 said:

it won't do as much DPS as the Snowcrows build but it should still dish out more than acceptable DPS for Strikes, Raids and especially Open World

The damage is actually almost identical with shiro/alliance beating shiro/jallis by less than 100 dps if you don't camp GS. 2,3,5 with hammers up then swap to swords/shiro and 2,4,5 with impossible odds up +dodge on cd = a somehow even easier rotation than alliance/shiro with identical dps.

[Veprovina.4876]

Thank you both! 

Yes, i did visit snowcrows, and got a version of that build for open world (got a version of it in private message), which i like, and i can easily switch to strike build from that. 

I'm using Alliance/Shiro, only thing is, i'm using staff as a secondary weapon instead of s/s for open world because you can camp greatsword anyway there, doesn't mean much. Plus, i like staff's utility, like that insane CC on staff 5. And it's a movement ability as well, if i need to get out of something, having one dodge, and the dodge being so long is kinda weird. 

For strikes i can get s/s when i need to.

 

And yes, figured out that GS4 will basicall be a dodge now lol. 😄 

Still have to get used to it, but for now it's pretty cool. It's new so it's interesting. Wether or not it's better than other established builds i have no idea, but i needed a change, and this is different enough. 

 

Still... One dodge... Didn't Anet learn from one dodge mirage that one dodge just doesn't work in this game?

Oh well...

 

Also, in beta, didn't it used to be that utility skills were fliping after use? Or am i crazy? Like, spend a red one, then it flips to blue for that one, and F3 would flip all of them? Now it's just manually flipping from red to blue (and no i don't know how each one is called). 

EDIT: Also, is there any time or reason to switch from red utilities to blue ones? The blue ones are all support, not much i need them for do i?

I need to buy some endurance regen food for this build as well. 😉 

Edited March 26, 2022 by Veprovina.4876

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

17 hours ago, Veprovina.4876 said:

Thank you both! 

Yes, i did visit snowcrows, and got a version of that build for open world (got a version of it in private message), which i like, and i can easily switch to strike build from that. 

I'm using Alliance/Shiro, only thing is, i'm using staff as a secondary weapon instead of s/s for open world because you can camp greatsword anyway there, doesn't mean much. Plus, i like staff's utility, like that insane CC on staff 5. And it's a movement ability as well, if i need to get out of something, having one dodge, and the dodge being so long is kinda weird. 

For strikes i can get s/s when i need to.

 

And yes, figured out that GS4 will basicall be a dodge now lol. 😄 

Still have to get used to it, but for now it's pretty cool. It's new so it's interesting. Wether or not it's better than other established builds i have no idea, but i needed a change, and this is different enough. 

 

Still... One dodge... Didn't Anet learn from one dodge mirage that one dodge just doesn't work in this game?

Oh well...

 

Also, in beta, didn't it used to be that utility skills were fliping after use? Or am i crazy? Like, spend a red one, then it flips to blue for that one, and F3 would flip all of them? Now it's just manually flipping from red to blue (and no i don't know how each one is called). 

EDIT: Also, is there any time or reason to switch from red utilities to blue ones? The blue ones are all support, not much i need them for do i?

I need to buy some endurance regen food for this build as well. 😉 

If anything, Anet saw how the one-dodge mirage ceased mesmer domination in PVP modes, patted themselves on the back for a job well done, and then consider this the correct move from here on out.  Group polarization tends to do things like that.  

The good news is that Vindicator was made from the ground up with this limitation in mind.  There are several things built around the spec to alleviate this burden.  Every weapon except for the mace has either a dodge or a block built in to it.  The Vindicator isn't particularly energy hungry, so you'll usually have enough to use them.  There's also Battle Dance in alliance stance, which is an evade on a 3-second cooldown, as well as the evade in assassin stance.  Finally, Energy Meld is still an option.  This is all for single, tough bosses.  In any fight with plenty of adds and little guys, Sigil of Stamina lets you transform into the bunny lord.  The hardest part is adjusting to not using the dodge on instinct.  

To answer your other questions, yes the skills used to flip over.  This made the spec difficult to play with, so it was changed to always sit on one or the other.  The best reason to swap to blue is for Tree Song, which is an AoE condi cleanse that is relatively spammable.  Awakening is an AoE stunbreak, which probably has its uses, too.  

[Veprovina.4876]

2 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

If anything, Anet saw how the one-dodge mirage ceased mesmer domination in PVP modes, patted themselves on the back for a job well done, and then consider this the correct move from here on out.  Group polarization tends to do things like that.  

Yes, i'm still salty about that. 

2 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

The good news is that Vindicator was made from the ground up with this limitation in mind.

And this is why. I agree, Vindicator has good options for endurance management, blocks, evades that are not on dodge. It just takes a while to lose the muscle memory as you now use the dodge to do damage, and other blocks and evades for damage mitigation.

Mirage didn't get anything to compensate for that dodge loss, and in PvE it still has 2, which is how it should be. They really made a mess out of WvW mirage. Sad.

2 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

There are several things built around the spec to alleviate this burden.  Every weapon except for the mace has either a dodge or a block built in to it.  The Vindicator isn't particularly energy hungry, so you'll usually have enough to use them.  There's also Battle Dance in alliance stance, which is an evade on a 3-second cooldown, as well as the evade in assassin stance.  Finally, Energy Meld is still an option.  This is all for single, tough bosses.  In any fight with plenty of adds and little guys, Sigil of Stamina lets you transform into the bunny lord.  The hardest part is adjusting to not using the dodge on instinct.  

To answer your other questions, yes the skills used to flip over.  This made the spec difficult to play with, so it was changed to always sit on one or the other.  The best reason to swap to blue is for Tree Song, which is an AoE condi cleanse that is relatively spammable.  Awakening is an AoE stunbreak, which probably has its uses, too.  

Now that you mention it, Sigil of Stamina on Mirage is great as well for general open world, i thought about using it on Vindicator but idk... But since you say so, i'll definitely try it! Doesn't work as great on bosses, but that's what sigil of energy is for i guess.

Still, not even that required since, yes, there's tons of blocks, evades, "the stamina button F2". Shiro has a good evade, and i'll look into the skills you mentioned, see if i can work with 3 legends. 😄

Cause i usually camped red alliance (yeah, i know, i should learn how they're called), and Shiro on greatsword both. Switching to staff when i need reflects or that massive CC. I kinda like camping GS though, and i like that it's not a huge dps loss. It'll take a while to get used to blocking and 3 legends, not needing to switch weapons is actually pretty great! 😄

 

And thank you for confirming i'm not crazy! 😛

I thought the switching was interesting in beta, but the skills then needed to complement each other, not be polar opposites with different use cases. That would have been great, but not when one is damage, and the flip side is then a heal, like, no, that heal is then useless and you always want the damage one if you're DPS, and the other one if you're support. 

So, short of reworking the skills, this is probably the best solution to this.