Best DPS builds for Revenant

[Kichwas.7152]

Trying to find the ideal options if one wanted to make a build that was DPS focused rather than support focused.

 

Particularly in light of most support gear being so hard to obtain, locked behind complex grinds if one wants to avoid being swamped with toughness, and my revenant being one of many characters...

 

A second reason I'm looking is I'm thinking of buying another character slot, and I already have 1 of each profession, I just have an itch to make another character... and I'm weighing between revenant, guardian, and warrior for that - I feel mostly like going revenant, but only if I can find enough valid builds to split between 2 of them (I know it's cheaper to just unlock a 3rd build slot, but I have the itch to make another character because I want a character that wears the norn cultural heavy armor :3 ).

 

I'd like a build I could use in fractals and dungeons that was a DPS.

 

Is the path to this to go sword / sword and power shortbow, or is there a condition path to it?

is it only renegade or is there a viable Herald choice as well / instead?

I assume, but am not sure, that one stance is Assassin. The other would be Renegade if it was a renegade build? But if not a renegade build?

 

Is there a build that is at all decent as DPS in PvE content like fractals and dungeons when compared to using my elementalist, mesmer, guardian, or even engineer?

 

 

[felix.2386]

well condi dps is what you would go for and can share build.

but i assume you want power.

 

then personally i think in order for rev to be power viable, it needs either, two dps focused legend or two dps focused weapon.

just like mallyx/kalla is two legend for condi, tho kalla by legend herself isn't really condi focused, but shortbow is, so it can be used after mace/axe

 

glint would have been a power legend, but it's more of a support/jack of all trade then a dps one..and that shield doesnt really do dps.

probably a good direction to think of for the next exp. idk

 

or even buff hammer dps, so that s/s hammer shiro/glint can be dps build, tho it's probably harder said then done, it feels like dev intended this way, but failed the excution.

[Kichwas.7152]

> @"felix.2386" said:

> well condi dps is what you would go for and can share build.

> but i assume you want power.

>

> just like mallyx/kalla is two legend for condi, tho kalla by legend herself isn't really condi focused, but shortbow is, so it can be used after mace/axe

>

 

 

I don't really care on power vs condition actually. Mostly just trying to find 'what can pump out a lot of DPS for revenant?'

 

In other words, is this currently a 'support only profession' in all builds, or is there a DPS build 'out there somewhere' that can be good to 'almost meta' in fractals?

 

[Kichwas.7152]

So my attempt is shaping up to:

 

- this is inwork. I used a 12th character slot last night to make this character, , ran around for 10 levels to see if I liked the feel of the weapon animations, then used one of those "make a character level 60 followed by 20 knowledge tomes, and then started crafting...

 

So here is the inprogress:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmjAkelxQIMPKi1RSMOCiRSgMCSgj+k/yE-zRZYBJEmZSDHYhCFgMKFuIc0ogISgKKAhHA-e

 

- Note that some of the gear in the accessories area is berserker, because getting that gear in other stats wasn't easily available to me yet.

- Likewise I went with 'nightmare' rune because I'm sitting on a mountain of dungeon tokens so that rune was easy, while the 'torment' rune is crazy expensive and I'm very low on gold.

- Likewise sigils of force and accuracy - basic easy to get, force is slightly pricey but within reach.

- my current swap weapon is a level 10 mighty hammer, so yeah... but I have a viper shortbow in my bag to use as soon as I got get the skill points...

 

Now to make this build perfect... if it's even any good at all or headed in the right direction, I need to think of what to change.

 

This is a brand new character - so now I need to get a huge stack of skill points, unlock the two elite specs... and figure out which of them is known as renegade and this is better... assuming that is correct. ;)

 

[Kichwas.7152]

That... was my attempt.

 

But I'd love to see if anyone has 'high DPS' builds for the revenant - of any flavor.

 

[felix.2386]

> @"Kichwas.7152" said:

> That... was my attempt.

>

> But I'd love to see if anyone has 'high DPS' builds for the revenant - of any flavor.

>

 

isnt there a condi dps rev build on metabattle for raid.

[otto.5684]

> @"Kichwas.7152" said:

> That... was my attempt.

>

> But I'd love to see if anyone has 'high DPS' builds for the revenant - of any flavor.

>

 

Strongest dps output is condi renegade. Mace/axe and SB. Renegade/invocation/corruption. Full viper. Viper is not very easy to get.

 

If you want to use berserker gear/power instead, power renegade. Sword/sword. Renegade/invocation/devastation.

 

I would look up Gw2 metabattle for detail setups.

 

Power herald is good in open world, and meta for PvP. Group PvE it is kinda meh.

[Kichwas.7152]

Yeah I'm basically running the 'poor player' version of mace/axe and shortbow renegade in almost full viper.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmzAkeVltQIsNKipRSsMCiNSgMDSgjuk+TF-zRZYBJEmZSHHYhSwKAZUKcR4oRBRkCVUBCPA-e

- just that getting viper accessories is not quick or easy, so for those I went mostly rampager. The spec is I think from metabattle or snowcrows with minor tweaks:

- https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/revenant/renegade/condition/

- https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Renegade_-_Condi_DPS

 

I went with force and accuracy sigils instead of the ones they use, and I moved one talent point from 'charged mists' to 'roiling mists'.

 

I'm not sure what race / gender combo has the messed up mace animation, but I've yet to be able to find it on a norm female.

 

I am finding mace a lot of fun especially in the animations and sounds. I've always found maces and hammers more enjoyable to play, so it's good when there's a class that is strong with one of them. That carries over to other games too often, and I use a 2-handed club in ESO, and my 'dark-knight' in FFXIV uses the 'pvp reskin' for her sword which changes it to a spiked greatclub. :)

 

 

But... if this is also the high DPS build for Revenant, then all the better. Running with arcDPS in a bunch of fractals and dungeons I'm getting 'mid-high' in my PUGs which is a good sign since I'm still mastering the rotation. My 'old revanant' uses staff on a healing build, and everytime I look in these forums or on metabattle it always seems to be pushing Revenant towards 'support or change profession'... so hopefully I can get the DPS to be good.

[otto.5684]

For accessories, you can farm ascended accessories from LWS3 and LWS4 maps. Bitter frost you can buy 2 exotic sinister accessories with karma.

[Kichwas.7152]

> @"otto.5684" said:

> > @"Kichwas.7152" said:

> > That... was my attempt.

> >

> > But I'd love to see if anyone has 'high DPS' builds for the revenant - of any flavor.

> >

>

> Strongest dps output is condi renegade. Mace/axe and SB. Renegade/invocation/corruption. Full viper. **Viper is not very easy to get.**

>

 

Started making Ascended armor today.

 

Viper Ascended is a nightmare grind. But... Viper Exotic is easy. So I made 2 pieces of Berseker Ascended armor, and used the Mystic Forge to change it to Viper. B)

- 4 more pieces to go.

 

DPS isn't yet high as I can get on my Firebrand or my Weaver, but that mace / axe combo and the Mallyx stance are a lot more fun.

 

 

 

[Aeolus.3615]

Isnt grieving stats the best for power and condi at same time?

[Kichwas.7152]

> @"Aeolus.3615" said:

> Isnt grieving stats the best for power and condi at same time?

 

I suppose it's about focus. The power or the conditions.

 

Because crit damage bonus versus condition duration is the trade off there.

Here is my build on grieving:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmzAkeVltQIsNKipRSsMCiNSgMDSgjuk+TF-zRZYBJEGrSHtGIRpQJYFgMKFuIc0ogIShKqAhHA-e

 

And here it is on Viper's:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmzAkeVltQIsNKipRSsMCiNSgMDSgjuk+TF-zRZYBJEmpSHtGIRpQJYFgMKFuIc0ogIShKqAhHA-e

 

I'm thinking there just isn't enough critical chance to make that tradeoff worth it.

 

Yes a Renegade has a 30% higher crit chance at full endurance. But this is a mostly melee build meaning time spent NOT dodging won't be enough... and all of that condition duration really works in favor of the high condition damage.

 

If you stick to mostly ranged, then I would think the Ferocity build might be better. I'm not sure how much of an impact a difference of 328 ferocity against a loss of 21.45% of condition duration is... which is more impactful. Already in short fights I can melt things before the conditions come into play much - and in long fights, such as boss fights in fractals, the longer it takes the more I 'keep pace or pull ahead' in arcDPS.

- This was most dramatic when I was recently paired in a fractal with a sword/sword renegade. In shorter fights he was 10-20% ahead of me on arcDPS, but on long fights it was more like I was 20-30% ahead. Of course most of the fractal is trash pulls so I spent most of the run thinking this guy was just much better than me, but on boss or champion fights it flipped and I started to think we might be equally skilled.

- he was probably berserker (I didn't ask). But that's also a ferocity based build theme.

 

 

My core rotation... in case this shines any obvious lights on newbie flaws:

 

- Call to Anguish on 'pull' / 'new targets' - groups them and gap closes. Flaw: this is a 'combo finisher' so for ideal DPS you want a field down first...

- Searing fisure to lay down a combo field...

- Echoing Eruption - combo finisher... also another gap closer...

 

I see a big problem in the skill design here... both of my 'finishers' are also gap closers. Logically you want to do them first... but DPS wise you need to do them last... Logic would having 'Searing Fisure as step three. In a perfect DPS move it's step one... but I move it to step two to try to get the best of both worlds...

 

It's very 'weird' play to lay a small field down in front of myself, and then use a leap that can move me 600-1200 away, targeted on top of myself... and when the enemy is 593 away... it's just really 'off'... especially when the '600' leap also pulls them into a nice tight stack right about perfect for my combo field... that leap should have been where the field effect was put to make the skill effects match the logical rotation...

- this is reminding me of how the 'perfect rotation' for many classes in both ESO and FFXIV is to do an animation-cancel every 1 second (ESO) or 2/3rd through GCD (FFXIV)... something that just 'fries the brain' of newer players because it makes no sense 'conceptually' and looks bad on screen...

 

 

Skills I am struggling with 'when to use':

 

The two axe skills, Frigid Blitz and Temporal Rift... these seem like just 'rando spammers' - but I do see that Temporal Rift claims to pull in enemies. Yet it lacks 'Pull' in the effects list. Going to test that out on some open world mobs...

 

The next general thing I do is to start kiting mobs as soon as I see 5+ stacks of torment on my target, assuming I can kite them (ie: I have the aggro and they're willing to move...).

 

The biggest weakness I see with this build - it being my first time 'maining' a condition build in maybe 5 or more years... is all the times we have to bash down a wall or take out an arrow cart or something... something that doesn't take condition damage...

[Aeolus.3615]

@""Kichwas.7152"

Just a small note, everything takes every condi damage except walls and gates :)

 

 

Even canons bleed... ive been waiting for Anet to iterate the game well... ill continue to wait.

[Buran.3796]

> @"Kichwas.7152" said:

 

> Viper Ascended is a nightmare grind. But... Viper Exotic is easy. So I made 2 pieces of Berseker Ascended armor, and used the Mystic Forge to change it to Viper. B)

> - 4 more pieces to go.

 

 

Why to grind ascended viper instead of just crafting the cheapest ascended pieces and then changing the specs in the mystic foge for some gold coins with the exotic insignia?

[Kichwas.7152]

> @"Buran.3796" said:

> > @"Kichwas.7152" said:

>

> > Viper Ascended is a nightmare grind. But... Viper Exotic is easy. So I made 2 pieces of Berseker Ascended armor, and used the Mystic Forge to change it to Viper. B)

> > - 4 more pieces to go.

>

>

> Why to grind ascended viper instead of just crafting the cheapest ascended pieces and then changing the specs in the mystic foge for some gold coins with the exotic insignia?

 

Which, in the part you quoted, is exactly what I said I did. :)

 

[Mil.3562]

> @"otto.5684" said:

> > @"Kichwas.7152" said:

> > That... was my attempt.

> >

> > But I'd love to see if anyone has 'high DPS' builds for the revenant - of any flavor.

> >

>

> Strongest dps output is condi renegade. Mace/axe and SB. Renegade/invocation/corruption. Full viper. Viper is not very easy to get.

>

> If you want to use berserker gear/power instead, power renegade. Sword/sword. Renegade/invocation/devastation.

>

> I would look up Gw2 metabattle for detail setups.

>

> Power herald is good in open world, and meta for PvP. Group PvE it is kinda meh.

 

I have a question. If going condi renegade build why waste points on precision and power with viper stats? Why not go trailblazer with same buff to condi damage and duration plus a lot more sustainability?

[otto.5684]

> @"Mil.3562" said:

> > @"otto.5684" said:

> > > @"Kichwas.7152" said:

> > > That... was my attempt.

> > >

> > > But I'd love to see if anyone has 'high DPS' builds for the revenant - of any flavor.

> > >

> >

> > Strongest dps output is condi renegade. Mace/axe and SB. Renegade/invocation/corruption. Full viper. Viper is not very easy to get.

> >

> > If you want to use berserker gear/power instead, power renegade. Sword/sword. Renegade/invocation/devastation.

> >

> > I would look up Gw2 metabattle for detail setups.

> >

> > Power herald is good in open world, and meta for PvP. Group PvE it is kinda meh.

>

> I have a question. If going condi renegade build why waste points on precision and power with viper stats? Why not go trailblazer with same buff to condi damage and duration plus a lot more sustainability?

 

The power damage of attacks, especially SB, is pretty good. You are leaving a lot of damage. I dunno the exact breakdown for renegade, but condi builds deal between 25-50% of their damage from power. I would not bother with this in PvE, especially that condi renegade has good survivability.

 

And of of course, depending on your skill level your mileage may vary. Also, if you want to solo instanced PvE content, meant for groups, you may consider gear with higher sustainability. Personally, I would never do that. It takes too much time compared to just running it with a group. Though I could see someone doing it for the challenge.

 

Other game modes are a different story.

[Kichwas.7152]

> @"Mil.3562" said:

> > @"otto.5684" said:

> > > @"Kichwas.7152" said:

> > > That... was my attempt.

> > >

> > > But I'd love to see if anyone has 'high DPS' builds for the revenant - of any flavor.

> > >

> >

> > Strongest dps output is condi renegade. Mace/axe and SB. Renegade/invocation/corruption. Full viper. Viper is not very easy to get.

> >

> > If you want to use berserker gear/power instead, power renegade. Sword/sword. Renegade/invocation/devastation.

> >

> > I would look up Gw2 metabattle for detail setups.

> >

> > Power herald is good in open world, and meta for PvP. Group PvE it is kinda meh.

>

> I have a question. If going condi renegade build why waste points on precision and power with viper stats? Why not go trailblazer with same buff to condi damage and duration plus a lot more sustainability?

 

In addition to @"otto.5684" 's comment, I would never run Toughness and Vitality anymore in PvE. Maybe Vitality... but the only place for Toughness is really a 'WvW solo roamer' build. As in... if you're PUG-playing WvW so your group is just whoever you manage to follow before they outrun you... which is my situation... then you play something with a lot of survival stats.

 

But in PvE, I know they say Toughness only triggers aggro in raids, but even in open world I find that my characters with a toughness score of 1021 because of a back item... take ALL of the aggro in any zerg I join, even if my ArcDPS is ranking me so low I might as well be AFK.

 

I find the more toughness I have, the less survivable PvE content gets...

And I find vitality just doesn't cut it enough. The 1-2-3 hit combo that would kill my character if she had 12,000 health usually is also so big it would kill her if she had 20,000... so instead I focus on mobility and timing my heals so that I only take hit #2, and heal through it...

 

I don't do 'structured PvP' so I have absolutely zero idea how useful Toughness or Vitality are there. The reason they are so useful in WvW is because it's more common to be 'one of several targets' than to be focused on. When one member of a larger zerg - toughness and vitality can keep up with the incoming damage in WvW. So my 'second ranger' is set up on a soldier build for WvW roaming, while my 'first ranger' does a melee DPS Soulbeast build for all forms of PvE.

 

And yes - the Power stats help a lot, not just with shortbow, but also with my mace and axe. I find in fractals I am usually #2 or 3 on the DPS, and when I am doing my timing perfectly (I'm new to this build, my other revenant is a healer boon bot so playing DPS rev is still a work in progress) I can be #1 by a wide margin - even in a melee only fight.

 

(I find that for ranged, my primary tactic is to time #3 to be just right - that applies torment - on anything I can convince to be mobile... because the shortbow is getting insane numbers from BOTH sides - power and condition).

 

 

[Dahkeus.8243]

> @"Mil.3562" said:

> > @"otto.5684" said:

> > > @"Kichwas.7152" said:

> > > That... was my attempt.

> > >

> > > But I'd love to see if anyone has 'high DPS' builds for the revenant - of any flavor.

> > >

> >

> > Strongest dps output is condi renegade. Mace/axe and SB. Renegade/invocation/corruption. Full viper. Viper is not very easy to get.

> >

> > If you want to use berserker gear/power instead, power renegade. Sword/sword. Renegade/invocation/devastation.

> >

> > I would look up Gw2 metabattle for detail setups.

> >

> > Power herald is good in open world, and meta for PvP. Group PvE it is kinda meh.

>

> I have a question. If going condi renegade build why waste points on precision and power with viper stats? Why not go trailblazer with same buff to condi damage and duration plus a lot more sustainability?

 

That questions much more easily turned back around: Why waste points on sustainability at the cost of DPS? As long as you can survive without additional toughness/vitality (which you can in PvE when you know the encounters), the defense stats will do absolutely nothing for you. The power stats on the other hand, while not optimized for a condi build, will still add a very substantial amount of damage since your condi skills also deal power damage.

 

In WvW, however, this can be a reasonable tradeoff since the damage there is not avoidable.

[Mil.3562]

Oh i didn't know that power contributes to condi damage too. That explains it. Maybe I'll mixed them a little, like hybrid build. Thank you guys <3

[The Boz.2038]

Power doesn't contribute to condi damage, but on a condi build, your conditions deal condi damage, but attacks still get power ratio. You can go 100% condi, or 80% condi and 80% power. Unless the build is *heavily* condition-abundant (like a necromancer scepter), you get more from the tiny extra power than just 100% condi.

[Kichwas.7152]

Sigil choices...

 

Looking at this build:

He is using Sigil of Bursting and Sigil of Malice

 

Looking at the Condition DPS builds on Metabattle and Snowcrows:

https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/revenant/renegade/condition/

https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Renegade_-_Condi_DPS

(discretize thinks Revenant only exists as a boon-bot, so has no Condi-DPS build).

 

Both favor:

Sigil of Earth, Doom on melee and Geomancy / Earth on bow.

- these two builds though, are just copies of each other.

 

 

Bursting is +5% condition damage.

Malice is +10% condition duration.

Earth is 6-seconds of bleeding after scoring a crit

Doom is 3-stacks of 8-second point after a weapon swap

Geomancy is 8-second bleed after a weapon swap

 

Thoughts on who has the better sigil choices here?

 

Granted the first build is aimed at open world PvE and the other build is aimed at Fractals/dungeons/raids - but it feels like sigils on the first build would be more ideal in boss fights. Weapon swap sigils are something I'm not so sure about when the swap here is mainly about when you're in melee or ranged.

 

 

 

[Icetea.3204]

> @"Kichwas.7152" said:

> Sigil choices...

>

> Looking at this build:

>

> He is using Sigil of Bursting and Sigil of Malice

>

> Looking at the Condition DPS builds on Metabattle and Snowcrows:

> https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/revenant/renegade/condition/

> https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Renegade_-_Condi_DPS

> (discretize thinks Revenant only exists as a boon-bot, so has no Condi-DPS build).

>

> Both favor:

> Sigil of Earth, Doom on melee and Geomancy / Earth on bow.

> - these two builds though, are just copies of each other.

>

>

> Bursting is +5% condition damage.

> Malice is +10% condition duration.

> Earth is 6-seconds of bleeding after scoring a crit

> Doom is 3-stacks of 8-second point after a weapon swap

> Geomancy is 8-second bleed after a weapon swap

>

> Thoughts on who has the better sigil choices here?

>

> Granted the first build is aimed at open world PvE and the other build is aimed at Fractals/dungeons/raids - but it feels like sigils on the first build would be more ideal in boss fights. Weapon swap sigils are something I'm not so sure about when the swap here is mainly about when you're in melee or ranged.

>

>

>

 

You dont range in Raids.

Weaponswap Sigil are so good on Renegade because you can basically trigger them on CD. Your legendswap counts as a weaponswap and will trigger them, which will make them better than bursting too. Ive done the math a few months ago, but i can probably find it again if you want some proof.

Additionally you dont get the full benefit of Malice since you overcap Bleeding. Which is also the reason why Condi Main Food is better by like 80 DPS. And i dont think you really want the Condition Duration in Open world.

[Buran.3796]

> @"otto.5684" said:

 

> The power damage of attacks, especially SB, is pretty good. You are leaving a lot of damage. I dunno the exact breakdown for renegade, but condi builds deal between 25-50% of their damage from power. I would not bother with this in PvE, especially that condi renegade has good survivability.

 

 

I think that people didn't catch the whole landscape painted by the Nike DNT video or the reality of the viper vs trailblazer in a pure shortw bow Renegade build.

 

The thing is that in therms of condition damage, both viper and trailblazer provide the same stats: condi damage as main stat and condition duration as secondary. So no differences there. Then, vipers boost the physical damage upping critical chance from 5% to 35% (a +30%) and doubles the power(1000 to 2172) in the given build of the video. But what does that exactly means in that context?

 

The build is based almost exclusively in the short bow skills to deal damage, playing F3, Call to Anguish, Embrace the Darkness or the Kalla skills a very small role in terms of dps. And from the short bow whe have that in the #2, #3, #4 and #5 skills even if the physical damage is doubled going from trailblazer to viper, the whole amount of physical damage represents in those skills less that a 15% of the total damage, so the viper boost is ~8% of the total damage or less. In the auto attack the physical damage is ~37% of the total, which means that viper's power and crit chance boost the WHOLE damage around a 10%.

 

So, in exchange of viper stats, Renegade bow boost the damage in less than a 10%. Trailblazer, on the other hand, retains 90%+ of the same whole damage, ads 1172 armor and 6330 HP making us almost invulnerable to one-shooters. Which means that with trailblazer you can kill almost as fast as with viper, but being able to recover from almost any mistake.

[Kichwas.7152]

> @"Buran.3796" said:

> > @"otto.5684" said:

>

> > The power damage of attacks, especially SB, is pretty good. You are leaving a lot of damage. I dunno the exact breakdown for renegade, but condi builds deal between 25-50% of their damage from power. I would not bother with this in PvE, especially that condi renegade has good survivability.

>

> So, in exchange of viper stats, Renegade bow boost the damage in less than a 10%. Trailblazer, on the other hand, retains 90%+ of the same whole damage, ads 1172 armor and 6330 HP making us almost invulnerable to one-shooters. Which means that with trailblazer you can kill almost as fast as with viper, but being able to recover from almost any mistake.

 

That seems good in solo content. In group content that toughness boost is going to make you a hyper focused target by NPCs, which dramatically reduces survival odds. I know they say toughness is only used for aggro in raids - but I've found having a toughness of even 1021 from a single back item can make me the near 100% target in dungeons and fractals and very often the target in open world group events. Just shedding that small bit from an old back item upped my survival dramatically on several characters.

 

My characters with actually notably high toughness - holdover gear from the Pre-HoT days when I thought Knights was the best gear, or some level boost alts with soldiers... found it just as bad. As much as 1800 toughness, get hyper-focused and while with scores like that open-world gets easy, in dungeons you get so much aggro you get over-whelmed.

 

Trailblazers looks like a gearset I would only dare use in solo play, or use in WvW where you can toss out conditions into a zerg and they will be distracted enough by the crowd to not cleanse them.