Came back After long hiatus

[WittGen.7315]

I just started playing again after 3 years or even more, i haven't touched HoT and PoF although i have them both.I'm a bit overwhelmed, so i just want someone to give me some good builds for pve (solo roaming, world bosses, open world pve and the occasional dungeon and low level fractal).I'm a casual player, not interested in raiding or high level fractals. Most of the time i enjoy soloing or doing some world events. I always loved D/D but i've read some really awful things about it.Seems like Daredevil staff power builds are the way to go. I was just thinking if there is a viable d/d build for my game style. Maybe condi? If not i'm open to anything else.P.S. I'm really squishy for some reason. Probably cause my current build sucks. I have full ascended power zerker gear, maybe i should go valkyrie or something like that?Thanks in advance :)

[Aplier.7829]

For open world, I'd say that the Daredevil staff power build is definitely the most versatile and overall balanced. Power D/D is just too squishy for xpac content, as staff's endless evades+permanent weakness on foes are much better defensive mechanism that a brief moment of stealth. Condi D/D daredevil exists, but it takes far too long to ramp up its bleeding and poison stacks and has too precise of positioning requirements to function well in open world. Power deadeye is a thing and can quickly rip through normal/veteran single targets from a distance, but it has no cleave, is squishy if it gets caught up close, and doesn't translate very well into instanced content like dungeons, fractals, and raids.

I will admit to being biased, but I can not say enough good things about staff. The autoattack is strong enough that you can save initiative purely for utility/defensives if you so choose, and each of the initiative spenders are varied enough that you will find yourself using them all in open world depending on the situations you're in. You have all the defensive benefits of near-infinite evades that simultaneously do damage, on demand weakness and blinds, and by being a power build you even get Critical Strike's Invigorating Precision trait for more free sustain than any other full-dps spec. Everything you do has built in 3-5 target cleave, and just a few chained together vaults is enough to take out a whole pack of normal mobs, so clearing your way through content is a breeze.

If you find your health pool feeling too squishy, it's important to remember that your sustain comes largely from invigorating precision, so the more dps you sacrifice the lower your healing. Thus, my #1 suggestion for open world survivability is to simply change out berserker's gear for marauder's (one of the HoT 4-stat combinations, of power/precision/ferocity/vitality). Swapping pretty much all of your gear results in 55% more hp gain for roughly 10% dps loss, and focuses more of your dps into critical hits so overall healing from Invigorating Precision remains about the same.

Check out https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/351211 for some other people's takes on the same question and a more in-depth analysis of open world thief builds by me.

[Urejt.5648]

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[WittGen.7315]

I see. So the daredevil staff power build is the dominant one. I guess i was dying alot because of my d/d power build. I got a 6 piece exotic marauders set, it seemed to help a bit, not sure if i should swap everything, trinkets and such.3 Questions.1: Which healing skill should i be using with the staff build? I currently run with malice, maybe i should switch to Vigor?2: Whats up with Deadeye. I see either tons of love or tons of hate. I was thinking of making a d/d deadeye build cause i find the idea of rifle snipping a bit boring but i havent tried it, maybe im wrong.3: What other classes would you recommend for my playstyle cause i would like to invest on a 2nd toon aswell but i'm not sure, and i don't have the time to try all of them out?Tnx a lot for the input, appreciate it!

[Aplier.7829]

@WittGen.7315 said:I see. So the daredevil staff power build is the dominant one. I guess i was dying alot because of my d/d power build. I got a 6 piece exotic marauders set, it seemed to help a bit, not sure if i should swap everything, trinkets and such.3 Questions.1: Which healing skill should i be using with the staff build? I currently run with malice, maybe i should switch to Vigor?2: Whats up with Deadeye. I see either tons of love or tons of hate. I was thinking of making a d/d deadeye build cause i find the idea of rifle snipping a bit boring but i havent tried it, maybe im wrong.3: What other classes would you recommend for my playstyle cause i would like to invest on a 2nd toon aswell but i'm not sure, and i don't have the time to try all of them out?Tnx a lot for the input, appreciate it!

You can get a free ascended marauder amulet from HoT story achievements, and make your free daredevil staff marauder's if you haven't selected stats for it yet.1: With IP bringing in the consistent healing, I definitely prefer Vigor as it's a stronger burst heal and the endurance can help you get out of whatever sticky situation left you at low health to begin with.2: Deadeye is a class that serves a particular niche, and up until very recent buffs was not strong enough to perform that niche well. Most of the hate seems to stem from the build-up time of Malice which is an odd mechanic for a power class, and the fact that Rifle requires you to be rooted to the ground to do halfway decent dps (and to a lesser extent the cast time for Mark compared to instant Steal, which is just odd). For power D/D or P/P unload spam it's actually pretty decent, and the quickness grandmaster trait really helps you kill stuff fast in open world.3: I suggest a 2nd thief. But really idk, nothing plays the same as the thief because we're the only class with an initiative system rather than cooldowns. Holosmith engi is pretty good right now and kinda resource-management focused like thief, and you can just swap all your ascended gear over.

[WittGen.7315]

Yeah, those things you said about deadeye where the ones that bumped me. I was thinking deadeye with d/d p/p, i just don't know about survivability.I never thought of a 2nd thief. It's tiresome to constantly swap specs. I already have 2 boosts, so i might give it a go :)