Zin Dau.1749

I play an unconventional Arms/Discipline/Spellbreaker, with a major emphasis on fury uptime and ferocity inflation. In the long run, ferocity scales better than power if you can max out crit chance. Fortunately, Warrior is the (only?) class that lets you easily max out crit chance and raise ferocity way up high--by using just regular weapons rotation and low-maintenance utilities.

This build looks something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQRAnY4XjMdQfH22B2eAdIWgCM8TcM+Gf0ECA1OlnwNIDA-jRCBABV8QAA4ABcmSw80PovGGj2fALlfecGAqU9HA-e

One suggestion for improvement is to use Sigil of Force, if you can afford them.

Now for the strategy of this build.

Focus mainly on Ferocity and 100% Fury uptime. The Arms spec has minor trait that gives fury every time you burst, and Discipline spec has traits that reduce burst and weapon swap recharge times. Thus you get neverending fury just by repeating burst + weapon swap every 5 or 6 seconds. I have seen fury stacked to 45s. You don't need much precision from gear, because fury, banner of discipline, signet of fury together grant about +45% crit chance. So Berserker gear is fine; also I prefer Rune of Rage. Don't forget Signet Mastery in Arms spec for even more power and ferocity. So freely activate Signets of Healing and of Fury on cooldown (every 16s).

Spellbreaker synergizes perfectly with this strategy of inflating crit damage. Pure Strike further increases crit damage, and Sun and Moon Style returns health when you crit while dagger is in off-hand. Not to mention that Dagger auto-attack deals additional crit damage.

Spellbreaker is excellent for soloing, as it plays both offense and defense superbly. Obviously Full Counter whenever possible when facing groups of mobs, and when anticipating big attacks from bosses. Sustain is further assisted with multiple sources of health-over-time: Healing Signet; Sun and Moon Style in SB line; Inspiring Battle Standard in Discipline line. Where the third utility is an open slot (I feel Signet of Fury and Banner of Discipline are a must in this build), I love Stomp for its versatility and synergy (can grant multiple stacks of Insight for SB), but mainly to get out of trouble.

Drop (i.e. activate) Banner of Discipline and Battle Standard on the ground if you feel a fight will take a while or is difficult. Do pick up and move the banners if going through a gauntlet of enemies over considerable distance. Note that you can carry and keep a bundle while on a mount--that means pick up banner, mount, run to another location, dismount, drop same banner at new location. However, you can only pick up one banner at a time.

In short, just go out there and dole out huge amounts of crit damage and go crazy by mashing all the weapon skills, burst, and weapon swap nonstop. Your health is rarely in danger, nonetheless don't hold back from activating Healing Signet. Even if you don't need to regain health, activate it anyway to boost ferocity, thus more damage. In fact, you should activate both signets before a fight.

> @"ZeftheWicked.3076" said:

> Yeah, people like you.

>

like me what? that's your lame argument?

you're the naive ones who think more options magically lead to more 'diversity' and 'balance'. we already have 9 professions each with 7 specs lines = 63 specs altogether, with exponential combinations amongst them. but that's still not 'diverse' and 'balanced' enough for you.

people like you will never be satisfied with enough 'diversity' and 'balance'.

> Also "Meta" can be ignored as long as the differences in performance aren't that high. Just look at raids and dps slots. Almost any profession can fill those and do fine.

so you're saying that if you ignore the meta, you can already play 3 cores. therefore, there are no problems with the core specs as they are right now. so what are you complaining about again?

> @"Iozeph.5617" said:

> The intent of this proposed change is to allow Core spec lines to remain competitive with current and future elite spec lines and to facilitate better balance between them in order to avoid the feeling of power creep and that one must chase certain metas to be viable across various game modes.

1. Why should we care that Core specs be equally is viable as elite specs? That's your false assumption.

2. Why would you think making Core specs stronger lead to better balance? That's another false assumption.

3. Wouldn't making Core specs stronger lead to more power creep, which goes against your wanting to avoid? Self-contradiction.

4. How do you avoid that one Core spec become better than and desired over others, and thus become the meta over all other Core specs?

5. Generally speaking, is how people misunderstand what meta(game) is, and somehow feel think can control it or direct it (especially with such vague, unreachable, unprovable methods or justifications like "better balance").

challenging instance content like dungeons, raids breed toxic people. DPS meter has nothing to do with that.

> @"IndigoSundown.5419" said:

> As Danikat says, allowing add-ons creates an incentive for developers not to put functionality into the base game. I am in favor of consumers holding businesses to higher standards, not enabling businesses to cut corners and self half-kittened products for premium prices.

>

> So, no, I am not in favor. For that matter, I also believe that ANet should create its own DPS meter _if_ it's going to allow such to be available at all.

Fallacy.

Companies will do least work to keep customers happy. If you are already happy with current state (of the UI) they have no reason to put effort to think of ways to improve. Also they have limited resources, manpower, and time. UI is apparently way down on their priority list.

Then there are counter-examples where devs added UI features after community addons became popular. Thus improving QOL for all players even without using addons.

Addons to

- organize skill buttons for different classes, weapon sets, etc.

- emphasize certain buffs relevant to a build

- build templates

> @"Jimbru.6014" said:

> > @"Obtena.7952" said:

> > Everyone wants 'balance' ... no one wants to pay the price to get it.

>

> Everyone wants "balance" but only in favor of their favorite class.

Everyone wants "balance", but no one knows how to achieve it. Especially the creators.

Will watch again 8/10

When did PSA become distasteful? Should all cautionary knowledge remain hidden from public?

PvE Open world: Arms/Discipline/Spellbreaker

This build is all about Fury uptime. The most reliable way to do that is burst as much as possible, thanks to Arms. Meanwhile Discipline reduces both burst and Weapon swap recharge to around the same timer. Note each weapon set has their own burst cooldown. Thus it's simply burst and weapon swap whenever they fully recharge since they're on similar schedules. So Discipline is important for reducing both burst and weapon swap recharge, in order to proc more often from burst.

Power, Ferocity + Precision, Toughness

run around the western side while killing every mob. it can spawn at more one of several locations. ignore the eastern side and hylek events, lest you miss the spawn while wasting time on hyleks.

Torch: Arsonist generates fields to fuel combos and causes burn damage

Focus: Shadowmaster holds a focus to channel chakra used to summon shadow clones

Sword off-hand: Martial Artist when sword is equipred in offhand, it combines with main hand weapon into nunchuku-like weapon, which changes main hand skills. (Ex. Sword/sword gets 5 new skills)

> @"Laila Lightness.8742" said:

> Maybe my commander herald will get chance ☺

at least for a month before they nerf it into the ground next patch. Guardian and rev are high on the watchlist.

each zone has one heart NPC that sells unbound tools that provide unbound magic when you gather, mine, forage. also do events, chests, etc.

it's better to save the berries because trinkets also cost berries, and they are harder to farm than unbound magic.

Chronomancer has been out for 3 years, reworked a dozen times, and they're still at the stage of learning how to balance it. But it's so cute and applaudable to see these devs keep trying and failing, right. Almost as cute as watching babies learn to walk.

Problem is devs think constantly redesigning "broken" abilities and dynamics into other untested abilities and dynamics will achieve "true" balance. (Which itself is a pointless goal.) We've been through this for years, and the only true consequences are never what the devs or whining players envision in their intent from the changes.

For example the original intent was no more trinity and roles that groups can't live without. The reality is players will always find new ways to combine skills into unseen emergent gameplay, and players themselves will define what and how the meta forms. Regardless of how well your intention is and how clever you devs think your solutions are.

This piecemeal stepping stone patching methodology is also baflling and frustrating. They take months between balance patches. And the best they can do is some half-baked untested cross-my-fingers bandaid. Which will still get broken by clever players. That means it's nothing but a never-ending cycle of devs creating new situations for elite players to solve, but really the status quo doesn't really budge or improve over time. Every problem is replaced by more problems. It's illusion of work but no positive results; like shuffling paper around just to make yourself seem busy.

Meanwhile the losers are the rest of the playerbase, who have to keep up with never-ending, seemingly pointless series of changes every other month. Along with that is frustration to find new builds, acquire new gear, relearn how to play the same fricking class for the umpteenth time.

no one knows what or how real balance looks like. if they did, the game would already be balanced.

so instead of group centered around chrono, it'll be group centered around FB, making FB indispensable. then they'll nerf FB, making group centered around Renegade, making Rene indispensable. then people will crawl back to chrono, and cycle repeats.

'muh diversity' = cycle of nerfs and moving goalposts without actual balance and harmony

To me mesmer every weapon is useful, fun, and/or viable in some form. In other classes, usually only one weapon set I like. Coincidentally it's usually the axe I like best for these classes, then dagger. So mesmer I'm more willing to experiment with different weapon sets and builds. But for other classes I just stick to one build.

It seems they need another separation of mode, so that changes to Raid/Fractals meta don't affect other modes, including Open world PvE. So 4 modes: open world pve, instance pve (raid, fractal), pvp, wvw.

The nerf to Chronomancer seems premature. Why not apply their changes during the boons' big patch? Unless this some beta testing and you need to gather data from raiders.

> @"Dreamy Lu.3865" said:

> The least: Warrior. I could never find a fun way to play with it (to my taste). I have one only, equipped with double axe main, longbow backup. That's what suits me the most. However, even though, I use her very rarely and only in explorable for easy stuff.

Having only recently getting to know Warrior better, the only build I like is Axe/Dagger + Dagger/Axe in Arms/Discipline/Spellbreaker. Focus mainly on Ferocity and 100% Fury uptime. The Arms spec has trait that gives fury every time you burst, and Discipline spec has traits that reduce burst and weapon swap recharge times. Thus you get never-ending fury just by repeating burst + weapon swap every 6 seconds. I have seen fury stacked to 45s. You don't need much precision because fury, banner of discipline, signet of fury together grant about +45% crit chance. So Berserker gear is fine; also I prefer Rune of Rage. Don't forget Signet Mastery in Arms spec for even more power and ferocity. So freely activate Signets of Healing and of Fury on cooldown (every 16s).

My rankings by enjoyment level (S tier is most fun):

S Tier:

Mesmer/Mirage

A Tier:

Ranger/Soulbeast, Warrior/Spellbreaker

B Tier:

Thief (sadly eclipsed by Mirage)

C Tier:

Engineer, Necromancer

D Tier:

Guardian, Elementalist

F Tier:

Revenant

Sure Axe 5 looks cool, and works great when surrounded by trash mobs. But it's not that efficient compared to what other classes can do in much shorter time (that is, instant time frame for the same damage). Nevertheless, Axe/Axe is the best set--and the only set you need--for leveling Warrior.

I tried Strength/Discipline/Spellbreaker, but it just didn't work for me. Everybody says it deals great damage and sustain, but I just don't see or feel it. Then I tried GS, and that's just so clunky; that weapon is just bipolar and unintuitive.

Now I'm using Arms/Discipline/Spellbreaker, and it's working a lot better. It's Axe/Dagger and Dagger/Axe with emphasis on crits, fury, and passive healing. Much more damage than Strength + Physical traits. I can actually see the mobs drop fast now. Plus great sustain thanks to Full Counter from Spellbreaker, and passive healing--including healing signet, banner trait, sun and moon style, and sigil of blood. The latter two require crits, hence heavy investment in Arms for fury.

Obviously Revenant and Engineer because they are the least played, least popular, and least effective.

Objectively Rev probably needs the most work--both on mechanics and theme. I conjecture that very few people actually understand its flavor and skill rotation. But eh it is too murky to envision and find a definitive way to improve.

So I vote Engineer because I and many others really like its theme, but its mechanics and power level has always been the worst since the beginning. Having the fewest choices of weapons also make them worst choice for customization (i.e. chasing legendaries and skins) by far. Worst, if kits replace weapon sets, then weapon type don't even matter; only its stats and sigils matter, not the skills.

How can you click them if they're obstructed?

> @"Leo G.4501" said:

> > @"Thar.9465" said:

> > I'd welcome it if outfits were abandoned completely. A single armor set adds more customization options than 20 outfits could and it would need only one great part for me to want it, unlike with outfits which need to be outright perfect.

> > I made the mistake of buying one once because I thought an aspect I didn't like wouldn't bother me that much. I was terribly wrong. After a few days I couldn't stand the buttcape anymore and never used the outfit again. As a result I'll probabloy never buy one again.

> > As for the "need" to make single sets for every weight class. It doesn't really matter anymore whether they look distinct. Specific looks for weight classes have already been thrown out of the window with outfits, so they could look all the same for all I care. In fact, it would be welcome, since that would probably add more variety, which is still severly lacking with still no real pants for light armor or the overwhelming amount of trenchcoats for medium armor.

>

> Well good news! 70% of your armor sets will be buttcapes too so you can hate 70% of the skins that take 1600% longer to make XD

Bad news! They can make 1 million outfits, and I will still own ZERO outfits.