List of builds that can do 42k+ DPS

[Furball.1236]

With SOTO, many classes can do 42k+ benchmark now.

Below is the list of classes that can do 42k+ (up to 49k) DPS against golem when played by the top players. This does not include multiple classes that could already do 42k+ in the previous patch, most of which likely do more DPS now.

There's at  least one elite spec per profession on this list. About half of 27 (elite specs) x 2 (power/condi damage type) = 54 is on this list.

I just wanted to share this to help some players with having easy overview of some classes. The goal is not to suggest any particular playstyle of the game. If any of the players who recorded any of the videos below want to have the link removed, please let me know.

Note the lowest 42k DPS shown here is only 14% lower than the highest 49k DPS

pBerserker 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FSsivpP1i0

cBerserker 46k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om42kVew_UU

cRenegade 44k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzwsXsU_ek

cFirebrand 43k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6Z-qSpY9pY

pWillbender 44k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHVnxv-pop0

cDruid 46k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVDYwrIyeAE

pSoulbeast 45k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aF9MkB-LXU

hybridSoulbeast 43k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDAtGWCeS7o

cSoulbeast 43k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ3KRnJ9SL8

pHolosmith 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfgtQ_zxYrY

cHolosmith 46k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q12mALnhGc

cMechanist 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oc55XlBcZ4

cDaredevil 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GLr1TRL4rQ

cDeadeye 48k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeVpSJISZ6s

cSpecter 47k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvCn4vQbDuw

pChrono 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiIxsd2wL0M

cMirage 43k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0NGs0BRS4M

cVirtuoso 43k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHcSKGDrvPk

pReaper 43k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdGhb1cbCG4

cReaper 43k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w-Mc6nyW_U

cScourge 49k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Br4E802nKY

cHarbinger 45k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBDxS1f_c6E

cTempest 43k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S3WFpyJA4w

pWeaver 44k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzA9PeUHcl4

cWeaver 45k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zozzIbVqPjA

pCatalyst 47k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVzsLcObcS4

For those who're not familiar, "DPS with allies" means your DPS when you have 4 allies standing next to you. This represents the DPS in most group contents. The reason some classes have higher DPS with allies is because they apply damage dealing buffs on the nearby allies.

 

 

For real fight DPS, you can check https://gw2wingman.nevermindcreations.de/bossBench.

Edited September 20, 2023 by Furball.1236
Updated numbers and added new benchmarks

[Ferus.3165]

the game was never made with these damage numbers in mind. I hope anet turns every one of these builds down to below 40k dps again. 40k dps builds have always been outliers and now we are close to 50k. What an enormous powercreep.

[Kuma.1503]

Damage has gotten too high. 

I want Anet to reduce it, but the balance team doesn't know how to nerf a build properly to save their lives. 

Instead, I'd rather them increase the health of bosses and OW enemies. Core Tyria has needed that for a long time. 

Edited August 25, 2023 by Kuma.1503

[XSevSpreeX.2143]

8 hours ago, Kuma.1503 said:

 

Instead, I'd rather them increase the health of bosses and OW enemies. Core Tyria has needed that for a long time. 

They need to be careful about this though. Look at Shadow Behemoth or the norn shaman. They're just 10 minute long damage sponges in starter zones. I'm of the opinion that the difficulty of core OW needs to be balanced for someone who has no idea what they're doing.

[Furball.1236]

I agree with the points raised above. At the same time, I can also see the challenges.

As players, we'd want to see improvement of our character performance over time as it gives the sense of growth of your character. Many contents have existed from launch (11 yrs ago), HoT (8 yrs ago), or PoF (5 yrs ago). I'm worried many of us would be bored of the game if we don't see improvements for 5-11 yrs. For SOTO, I'd imagine most people would not try out the new weapons unless they perform better than the existing ones.

Also, ArenaNET allegedly was sad about the end-game raid and fractal CMs were only played by a small portion of the player base. Although I disagree this is how the problem should be solved, higher DPS these days compared to HoT days for example does help some players to clear these instanced contents and let them keep playing.

Perhaps they could scale up the boss HP and damage based on how much better player DPS and heal have improved from the release day of each instanced contents to give us back the intense feeling of the fights. But they probably want to keep the unscaled version as an easy mode too all the time, so more new groups can toggle that option on and start playing the contents.

Edited August 26, 2023 by Furball.1236

[Gaiawolf.8261]

29 minutes ago, Furball.1236 said:

As players, we'd want to see improvement of our character performance over time as it gives the sense of growth of your character.

That's not character growth, that's powercreep. There are so many better ways to measure character growth. Real character growth would be learning to want the DPS you have instead of trying to have the DPS you want. 🙃

[Furball.1236]

3 minutes ago, Gaiawolf.8261 said:

That's not character growth, that's powercreep. There are so many better ways to measure character growth. Real character growth would be learning to want the DPS you have instead of trying to have the DPS you want. 🙃

I would call it player growth rather than character growth haha. Yes, player growth is far more effective than any character growth

[Warscythes.9307]

11 hours ago, Furball.1236 said:

I agree with the points raised above. At the same time, I can also see the challenges.

As players, we'd want to see improvement of our character performance over time as it gives the sense of growth of your character. Many contents have existed from launch (11 yrs ago), HoT (8 yrs ago), or PoF (5 yrs ago). I'm worried many of us would be bored of the game if we don't see improvements for 5-11 yrs. For SOTO, I'd imagine most people would not try out the new weapons unless they perform better than the existing ones.

Also, ArenaNET allegedly was sad about the end-game raid and fractal CMs were only played by a small portion of the player base. Although I disagree this is how the problem should be solved, higher DPS these days compared to HoT days for example does help some players to clear these instanced contents and let them keep playing.

Perhaps they could scale up the boss HP and damage based on how much better player DPS and heal have improved from the release day of each instanced contents to give us back the intense feeling of the fights. But they probably want to keep the unscaled version as an easy mode too all the time, so more new groups can toggle that option on and start playing the contents.

This is absolutely the wrong game if you want to see character power increase as a selling point. It is unavoidable for powercreep to occur in any game but it should never be the intention. This is definitely not a "we" situation here to see flat character power increase for no reason. What I would argue people want is choice and variety. New different traits and weapons that provide different ways or playstyles. Small powercreep can come with it because it is unavoidable, but definitely not just boosts straight up just because. This is not WoW.

Edited August 26, 2023 by Warscythes.9307

[Dawdler.8521]

11 hours ago, Warscythes.9307 said:

This is absolutely the wrong game if you want to see character power increase as a selling point. 

When GW2 was released, around 25K dps was on the high end. Through the expansions its almost doubled and every spec in the OP is an elite. So is it really, lol?

[nucklepuckk.1805]

Given that most of them are condition builds, I fully expect Relic of the Fractal to be nerfed.

Edited August 27, 2023 by nucklepuckk.1805

[otto.5684]

2 hours ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

When GW2 was released, around 25K dps was on the high end. Through the expansions its almost doubled and every spec in the OP is an elite. So is it really, lol?

By most MMOs standards, damage will be 10x what it was. Maybe even more. And we have been between 35-45k for as long as I remember. 

[Warscythes.9307]

13 hours ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

When GW2 was released, around 25K dps was on the high end. Through the expansions its almost doubled and every spec in the OP is an elite. So is it really, lol?

Yes

GW2 is a 11 year old game. Even at its current absolute worst the top dps has double at most and it is going to be nerfed in the next patch. The game has stabled around 32k, 36k for the vast majority of its lifetime and only in the few month around the 40k dps range. I wouldn't consider the start of an expansion where we know there will be broken builds as a standard thus far, but GW2 powercreep in comparison to actual vertical progression games is exceedingly small. 

[Shiyo.3578]

On 8/25/2023 at 5:19 AM, Ferus.3165 said:

the game was never made with these damage numbers in mind. I hope anet turns every one of these builds down to below 40k dps again. 40k dps builds have always been outliers and now we are close to 50k. What an enormous powercreep.

We need to go back to 30k DPS, now that support builds aren't a 4k DPS character.

However, history has shown Anet always power creeps to the new expacs power level, so expect 50k to be the new 40k as they power creep everyone to that in 3 months.

Edited August 27, 2023 by Shiyo.3578

[Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267]

2 hours ago, Shiyo.3578 said:

On 8/25/2023 at 5:19 AM, Ferus.3165 said:

the game was never made with these damage numbers in mind. I hope anet turns every one of these builds down to below 40k dps again. 40k dps builds have always been outliers and now we are close to 50k. What an enormous powercreep.

We need to go back to 30k DPS, now that support builds aren't a 4k DPS character.

However, history has shown Anet always power creeps to the new expacs power level, so expect 50k to be the new 40k as they power creep everyone to that in 3 months

If Elder Scrolls Online update 35 and Diablo 4 season 1 patch taught me anything. It's that doing a broad nerf across the board is going to kitten a lot of people of. To the point of a possible mass Exodus.

 

Like it or not, Anet has pinned themselves into a corner they have no easy solution for. All because they don't think these things though.

 

So now we have a choice. Start nerfing the game back to where we had 30k dps. Which would require nerfing everything across the board, regardless of how players feel about it.

 

Or they make mobs more tankier. Which in Anet mind is a easier solution, but has it own set of problems.

Pick your poison.

Edited August 27, 2023 by Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267

[Batalix.2873]

In general, the game's obsession with "balancing" every class, with DPS being the predominant if not only major concern, is ruining job fantasies and the game's core conceit of customization and self-expression.

This is just the other half of that perpetual power creep feedback loop. Players "optimize", the devs "balance", etc.

It's extremely sad, because some spot removal and smartly tailored new combat features would have kept design fairly diverse and horizontal. A design strategy that isn't guaranteed to be sustainable forever, but I do think could have still worked on the scale of 27 especs.

The class design in this game definitely had its flaws in the past, but introducing things like barrier and new condis/boons periodically was an extremely effective way of adding just enough new layers/facets to make new especs feel distinct while being just incomparable enough that they didn't need to directly reflect DPS power levels. The fact that EoD did not do this and instead just chose to lazily slap together prior mechanics/features/animations and sell it with just overtuned DPS and utility is inexcusably kit design in my book.

The EoD especs, and the general transition away from *proactive* espec design to *recycled* espec design is far and away the worst thing to happen to this game. The biggest waste of resources on the biggest drag down on content across the board. Combat is the most central thing to this game and they totally ruined it with their grubby rushed half-design nonsense.

[Stand The Wall.6987]

reaper on that list after all these years...

[Zepoolpe.9217]

On 8/27/2023 at 8:33 AM, otto.5684 said:

By most MMOs standards, damage will be 10x what it was. Maybe even more. And we have been between 35-45k for as long as I remember. 

Except that GW2 character and gear max level has not increased since release unlike most MMOs... the only thing that increased is that in the first years Exotic was the common gear rarity and now it's ascended/leggy, and the impact is only slightly above 5%.

Edited August 30, 2023 by Zepoolpe.9217

[Zepoolpe.9217]

On 8/27/2023 at 11:08 PM, Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267 said:

Like it or not, Anet has pinned themselves into a corner they have no easy solution for. All because they don't think these things though.

That.
100%.

[Gibson.4036]

On 8/25/2023 at 2:52 AM, Furball.1236 said:

With SOTO, many classes can do 42k+ benchmark now.

Below is the list of classes that can do 42k+ (up to 49k) DPS against golem when played by the top players. This does not include multiple classes that could already do 42k+ in the previous patch, most of which likely do more DPS now. There's at least one elite spec per profession on this list.

I just wanted to share this to help some players with having easy overview of some classes. The goal is not to suggest any particular playstyle of the game. If any of the players who recorded any of the videos below want to have the link removed, please let me know.

Note the lowest 42k DPS shown here is only 14% lower than the highest 49k DPS

pBerserker 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FSsivpP1i0

cBerserker 45k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD9_IaZf7_c

cRenegade 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu0CHp4BSdc

pWB 44k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHVnxv-pop0

pSoulbeast 45k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcrZ_9LYzYk

hybridSoulbeast 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzoCqO6_mW0

cSoulbeast 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rm8VWS7GYg

cMechanist 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oc55XlBcZ4

cDeadeye 48k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeVpSJISZ6s

cSpecter 47k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvCn4vQbDuw

cMirage 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRnqEZAWuys

cVirtuoso 43k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sNPz68Ru7o

pReaper 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohXmDdc-Ko4

cReaper 43k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w-Mc6nyW_U

cScourge 49k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Br4E802nKY

cHarbinger 45k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBDxS1f_c6E

cTempest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S3WFpyJA4w

pWeaver 44k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzA9PeUHcl4

pCatalyst 46k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eC_lZZU9XY

For those who're not familiar, "DPS with allies" means your DPS when you have 4 allies standing next to you. This represents the DPS in most group contents. The reason some classes have higher DPS with allies is because they apply damage dealing buffs on the nearby allies.

 

For real fight DPS, you can check https://gw2wingman.nevermindcreations.de/bossBench.

Please paste as plain text. Thank you.

[toorichforyou.6743]

On 8/25/2023 at 7:24 AM, Kuma.1503 said:

Damage has gotten too high. 

I want Anet to reduce it, but the balance team doesn't know how to nerf a build properly to save their lives. 

Instead, I'd rather them increase the health of bosses and OW enemies. Core Tyria has needed that for a long time. 

careful bro. CMC has only played 1000000 hours and still needs the wiki to help him balance.

[Infusion.7149]

I really think Akeem relic (which is making scourge scale higher with pistol) is going to be nerfed along with possibly trapper runes. I tried scourge without using pistol and it doesn't pull nearly the same numbers, what makes it ludicrous is the pistol weaponswap along with the change to have 2 stacks of burning from Sadistic Searing come from Nefarious Favor (which is instant). Akeem with Nightmare runes is also used on specter and both scourge and specter are supposed to be more support-spec oriented. Harbinger and daredevil/deadeye should be pulling more than the scourge/specter builds.

The main reason I think Akeem relic is going to be nerfed is similar relics have 20 or 30s cooldowns and also the description does not mention affecting the main target.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Relic_of_Akeem

Compare this to the Relic of the Fractal for example:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Relic_of_the_Fractal

[Furball.1236]

On 8/24/2023 at 11:52 PM, Furball.1236 said:

With SOTO, many classes can do 42k+ benchmark now.

Below is the list of classes that can do 42k+ (up to 49k) DPS against golem when played by the top players. This does not include multiple classes that could already do 42k+ in the previous patch, most of which likely do more DPS now.

There's at  least one elite spec per profession on this list. About half of 27 (elite specs) x 2 (power/condi damage type) = 54 is on this list.

I just wanted to share this to help some players with having easy overview of some classes. The goal is not to suggest any particular playstyle of the game. If any of the players who recorded any of the videos below want to have the link removed, please let me know.

Note the lowest 42k DPS shown here is only 14% lower than the highest 49k DPS

pBerserker 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FSsivpP1i0

cBerserker 45k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD9_IaZf7_c

cRenegade 44k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfzwsXsU_ek

pWillbender 44k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHVnxv-pop0

cDruid 46k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVDYwrIyeAE

pSoulbeast 45k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcrZ_9LYzYk

hybridSoulbeast 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzoCqO6_mW0

cSoulbeast 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rm8VWS7GYg

pHolosmith 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfgtQ_zxYrY

cMechanist 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oc55XlBcZ4

cDaredevil 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GLr1TRL4rQ

cDeadeye 48k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeVpSJISZ6s

cSpecter 47k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvCn4vQbDuw

cMirage 43k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0NGs0BRS4M

cVirtuoso 43k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHcSKGDrvPk

pReaper 42k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohXmDdc-Ko4

cReaper 43k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w-Mc6nyW_U

cScourge 49k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Br4E802nKY

cHarbinger 45k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBDxS1f_c6E

cTempest 43k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S3WFpyJA4w

pWeaver 44k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzA9PeUHcl4

cWeaver 45k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zozzIbVqPjA

pCatalyst 46k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eC_lZZU9XY

For those who're not familiar, "DPS with allies" means your DPS when you have 4 allies standing next to you. This represents the DPS in most group contents. The reason some classes have higher DPS with allies is because they apply damage dealing buffs on the nearby allies.

 

For real fight DPS, you can check https://gw2wingman.nevermindcreations.de/bossBench.

Updated numbers and added new benchmarks.

Now this list has 23. Again, not including those classes that already did 42k+ before SOTO but haven't had their bench shared after SOTO.

I only list 1 build per elite spec per damage type, this is about half of the 27 (elite specs) x 2 (power/condi damage types) = 54.

Nothing changed in any of the classes. Just more players have tested new builds and recorded their bench.

[Leo G.4501]

On 8/25/2023 at 5:19 AM, Ferus.3165 said:

the game was never made with these damage numbers in mind. I hope anet turns every one of these builds down to below 40k dps again. 40k dps builds have always been outliers and now we are close to 50k. What an enormous powercreep.

I don't think it's possible to target just those specific builds and tune them to a specific benchmark without also hurting all the other non-optimized builds that sit comfortably at 30-35k.

As far as the game being 11 years old and inflated numbers, I'd think some of the seedy culprits that no one will mention for causing power creep:

-these loosey goosey damage multipliers they have consistently tacked on to things to make them more attractive options. I remember back when, mods like sigil of force + stuff like scholar runes were the only +dmg some builds had. Now there are traits that dwarf these effects. Same with condi.

-cast time reductions. Combine the abundance of quickness with all these changes to make attacks "flow" better and of course you're going to inadvertently bolster dps AND shoot yourself in the foot by making the game feel more spammy.

-simplifying skills for ease of use. Path of least resistance and all that...skills like Churning Earth were limited use because it was difficult to land and left you vulnerable (the payoff wasn't all that either), but making the skill far faster, a leap with a faster cooldown (at the cost of its power and pulsing condis). It might sound like a solid change, more fun to use and balanced...but in reality, you're taking a skill that couldn't be in a normal rotation and added it into every dps rotation.

Not even going into adding espec weapons to other espec builds, I'd say another innocuous shift has come in the form of equipment stat options building over time. I think this could still be mitigated but it's not as huge a deal. Specialized builds just got more specialized over time...it's more the boon spam/barrier that can negate a lot of the drawbacks of glass builds. Anyway, I forsee the new standard will likely remain around 40-45k and it's not going to get nerfed or anything. Most don't even run such optimized builds for that kind of output and when they do, it's probably for raids. It's not that big a deal but it is disappointing that the game indeed went hog on vertical progression...maybe not fully but enough that if you logged out for 4+ years and come back, your build might not be very effective anymore.

[Stx.4857]

A new expansion *just* launched.   Give them some time to balance things.  
 

Do you remember what some dps specs could do when Path of fire launched?

[Furball.1236]

2 hours ago, Stx.4857 said:

A new expansion *just* launched.   Give them some time to balance things.  
 

Do you remember what some dps specs could do when Path of fire launched?

Exactly. And wait until people actually play these builds to start  talking about balancing, instead of debating over the theoretical max DPS achieved by the top players who can do 4 times higher than 90% of the player base

Edited September 3, 2023 by Furball.1236