34 replies to this topic

[SlyNatura]

Hello everyone, i need ur little help, i hope you can give me a complete answer

I am currently on level 21. So I went with level 16-17 berserker full team, including jewelry, but soon notice that my survival was improved in order to move forward, even at the cost of damage.


From level 17 I started to change gear  for the though power stats and vitality, and so far so good. I am waiting to finish my equip for greater resistance to agony.

I want to know the opinion of other warriors, as I want to keep going to direct damage rather than damage condition, I would like to know how to set  the traits and gear(including runes and seals) have you  chosen to do this dungeon.
I also look for help choosing the stats of my backpack.
A quick guide would be nice.

I have to make my jewelry yet, and I want to know opinions of warriors at more advanced levels before investing in materials.

Thx for all answers.

[SlyNatura]

maybe can you give me a link of one good build for fractals for gw2codex.com or something?

im going greatsword+rifle

[supacc]

Currently at 31 fotm running this build:  http://www.guildhead...nGMaGxa0VckVsqV

I used to run a healing shout w/ GS build, but phased that out as the mitigation just wasn't there.  The block/reflect with shield is just too good to pass up when mobs are hitting so hard (especially when reflecting upwards of 9k damage on those ridiculous mobs in Ascalon).  The other two weapons are self explanatory, with axe being the highest one-hand dps, and rifle being the stronger range dps.

Endure pain, and Battle standard are pretty much core skills if you are planning to survive higher level fractals.  FGJ with rune of the soldier for a free aoe condition removal + party buff.  Signet of stamina for more dodges (crucial for bosses like mossman+crazy cat golems) and emergency condition removal.  And Battle Standard instead of SoR because of those fights where one death can snowball into a team wipe.  There are of course, times where you should swap utilities to better suit the fight, like 'shake it off' instead of endure for bloomhunger, full dps utilities for the Svanir boss (both red+green banners instead of endure+SoS), 'throw bolas' instead of endure for the cliffside boss, etc, etc.

Also running this build with knight's armor, rune of the soldier, and berserkers for weapons/trinkets, but those shouldn't matter too much.  Sigil of earth on the rifle (so much bleed damage with rifle 1, even more so with the 50% duration trait), force+accuracy on the axe/shield.  Some weapon swaps can be used to hasten killing  the non-boss mobs, like replacing rifle with hammer/gs for the searing fractal, or warhorns/GS for the cliffside fractal.

Edited by supacc, 14 December 2012 - 11:50 PM.

[Gorgexpress]

Still full berserker's for gear, glass cannon for traits. Surviving is more about skill and strategy than gear, and we lack the really good defensive options like wall of reflection, protection, and aegis.

[ewat]

@ 31

Big fan of axe/mace spec with banner (or 2, depending on fight), But I go 10/30/0/30/0 which gives ALOT of flexibility on each type of fractal, i.e.

- Can go into shout heals if you need burst healing, otherwise imo constant regen is amazing in many encounters as its just small bits of dmg everywhere vs BIG hits (because of this, pairing that with signet is nice - add an elem regen and you can keep a whole team topped up real well)

- Can go from axe > gs if needed ...and even sword (but i dont see swords as being very good in fractals, using that burst, similar to 100b is risky / needs alot of thought).

- Some fights are just safer/better done ranged, so trait that if needed

Armor I run mostly knights armor but zerker accessories + rubys.


What supacc has mentioned before is spot on imo on how to properly tackle the higher fractals, i.e. you need to change weapons + traits quite regularly. I personally go more of a offensive build and don't use a shield (as to me its more about avoiding vs 'tanking' - also you have guardians around usually who do a far better job at that role)

[gamblers_luck]

I'm using a shout build.  Full knights set with Soldier runes, as commented above. Acc's used are a mix of knights and Beserkers.

[Xunlai Agent]

I want to test this build, I am wondering if I can take Frenzy to Fractals. If things are one-shotting then double damage doesn't matter.

Edited by Xunlai Agent, 31 December 2012 - 12:48 AM.

[lmaonade]

30 in toughness line will be imperative for survival

however, once you go up a lot higher, you will start being 1 to 2 shot regardless of build, that's when you need to switch back to full damage and rely on experience and dodge rolling to survive.

In the teens and even 20s defensive stats like vit and toughness work fine

[KrayZ33]

Is GS actually viable in higher fractals? given how often you kite and run away, I have a hard time believing its possible to land those 100b you need to keep up in damage.

[Teilion]

KrayZ33, on 22 December 2012 - 10:15 AM, said:

Is GS actually viable in higher fractals? given how often you kite and run away, I have a hard time believing its possible to land those 100b you need to keep up in damage.

You just gotta space them properly and know when to cut the damage short. At melee range, stuff is going to be blowing you up so it doesn't really matter what wep you're smacking them with as long as you don't park in AoE. Oh, and whirlwind attack gives you a third ghetto dodge option.

For my frac war I use 0/20/20/30/0 for sexy time banners. The regen outheals shout builds over time which you can really feel against crap like kitties. The buffs also stack with other shout warriors which can be great if running multi-warriors.

Staple Endure Pain to your bar cuz stuff hurts

[supacc]

KrayZ33, on 22 December 2012 - 10:15 AM, said:

Is GS actually viable in higher fractals? given how often you kite and run away, I have a hard time believing its possible to land those 100b you need to keep up in damage.

once you've played a GS warrior enough, you find out that your main source of damage isn't coming from 100b, but whirlwind+autoattacks instead.  the only time you can finish a full 100b is on a mob that already blew their animations, or on really weak mobs with negligible damage.  maximum damage output with GS would to wind up your 100b and whirlwind out right before they actually land those haymakers on you, which means cutting 100b really short.  bladetrail (skill 4) immediately after your wihrlwind out with skill 5 being your medium/high damage burst skill to connect after a whirlwind when your bladetrail is down.

but i digress, and just wanted to point out that GS is completely viable for high level fractals if you know how to use maximize your damage while staying mobile, the two traits that are often linked with GS.

Edited by supacc, 22 December 2012 - 07:29 PM.

[KrayZ33]

thing is. no matter how I look at it, without 100b I don't see how GS is doing great in the damage-area... compared to axe at least.

and Its hard to believe that people manage to pull of a full 100b frequently

Edited by KrayZ33, 22 December 2012 - 07:42 PM.

[supacc]

KrayZ33, on 22 December 2012 - 07:40 PM, said:

thing is. no matter how I look at it, without 100b I don't see how GS is doing great in the damage-area... compared to axe at least.

and Its hard to believe that people manage to pull of a full 100b frequently

even without 100b, your whirlwind hits minimum of two times per mob and sometimes up to 4 per mob, and with each of those hits rolling a chance to crit, you are stacking insane amounts of might with the might-on-crit trait.  i have played both axe and gs extensively, and axe doesn't even compare to the damage GS puts out when you are stacking ridiculous amounts of might (10+) at all times.

[dukefx]

this ^

Might stacking!

On a side note, I don't know where people get the axe being the best dps weapon idea from. If you use your adrenaline passively, i.e. you do not use Eviscerate many other weapons easily outdamage a main hand axe.

[KrayZ33]

10+ might stacks is something you aquire with every weapon setup

and if you swap your weapons you can even go for 20+ (provided you use sigil of battle)
with the fast hands trait you won't even lose damage as you can pop your high damage abilities and switch back to axe..

axe AA hits like a truck and more often, proccs ommnom more often and you are able to use 2 sigils instead of 1

I don't know, GS damage comes from WW and 100b, if you leave out one, axe's AA will outdamage it


and no, not "many" weapons outdamage the axe, if there even is a weapon that outdamages it, then its the GS -
but as I said, one chunk of its damage comes from 100b but I believe you are rarely able to use it  in higher level fractals


edit: bleh, I just remembered, you can't cancel triple chop anymore MEEEEH

Edited by KrayZ33, 23 December 2012 - 12:16 AM.

[dukefx]

My sword+axe outdamaged axe+whatever when I still ran that setup. The average direct dps of the mh sword and axe is close to the same, but the sword also bleeds which is a bonus. The 10% crit chance trait made me crit more often increasing dps even further. Bleeds were guaranteed so the +10% dmg to bleeding targets was up all the time. I rarely used my adrenaline since I prefered the passive bonuses with all 3 related traits. Now I'm running a GS build, not because it's better than my previous setup, because I'm aiming for a Twilight which is the only acceptable legendary for me.

Back on topic: I'm running GS/rifle for fractals atm but mostly rifle. Reflecting shield would also be nice but I don't have any points in Defense anymore.

[KrayZ33]

axe hits (more than?) twice as fast with chop+double chop.... the avg. direct dps is not equal, the avg damage on each hit however is really close.

thing is, you can't cancel triple chop anymore :/ but you could until recently
and now its a bit weaker but most likely still above sword's

Edited by KrayZ33, 23 December 2012 - 10:45 AM.

[dukefx]

I think you confuse the animation time with total execution time which includes a little delay between attacks. The only slower attack is Final Thrust, but that makes up with its high damage. Instead of relying on numbers simply test it on mobs. Measure how long it takes to kill 1 (preferably something with high hp).

Although my statements are true for the state of the game of about 2 months ago (that's the last time I used mh axe) I doubt they'd have changed something on the mh axe.

[KrayZ33]

I don't think it matters whether I take animation time or execution time, both are faster than swords.
in fact animation+execution time are actually the same, because the animationtime is dependent on the execution time

chop 1/4s  + double chop 1/4s

1. sword thrust 1/2 + 2. sword thrust 1/2

Edited by KrayZ33, 23 December 2012 - 11:28 AM.

[Xunlai Agent]

supacc, on 14 December 2012 - 11:42 PM, said:

Currently at 31 fotm running this build:  http://www.guildhead...nGMaGxa0VckVsqV

I used to run a healing shout w/ GS build, but phased that out as the mitigation just wasn't there.  The block/reflect with shield is just too good to pass up when mobs are hitting so hard (especially when reflecting upwards of 9k damage on those ridiculous mobs in Ascalon).  The other two weapons are self explanatory, with axe being the highest one-hand dps, and rifle being the stronger range dps.

Endure pain, and Battle standard are pretty much core skills if you are planning to survive higher level fractals.  FGJ with rune of the soldier for a free aoe condition removal + party buff.  Signet of stamina for more dodges (crucial for bosses like mossman+crazy cat golems) and emergency condition removal.  And Battle Standard instead of SoR because of those fights where one death can snowball into a team wipe.  There are of course, times where you should swap utilities to better suit the fight, like 'shake it off' instead of endure for bloomhunger, full dps utilities for the Svanir boss (both red+green banners instead of endure+SoS), 'throw bolas' instead of endure for the cliffside boss, etc, etc.

Also running this build with knight's armor, rune of the soldier, and berserkers for weapons/trinkets, but those shouldn't matter too much.  Sigil of earth on the rifle (so much bleed damage with rifle 1, even more so with the 50% duration trait), force+accuracy on the axe/shield.  Some weapon swaps can be used to hasten killing  the non-boss mobs, like replacing rifle with hammer/gs for the searing fractal, or warhorns/GS for the cliffside fractal.

How does defy pain activate? Looking at your spec it might be worth foregoing the usual glass cannon spec to something similar provided Defy Pain kicks in as your health goes over the threshold.

[supacc]

Xunlai Agent, on 29 December 2012 - 02:14 AM, said:

How does defy pain activate? Looking at your spec it might be worth foregoing the usual glass cannon spec to something similar provided Defy Pain kicks in as your health goes over the threshold.

Well it activates once you take another instance of damage under 25% hp.  It has a 90sec cd and procs often enough to warrant a place in the skill tree.  This is just a 2nd chance to get out of danger when all your other skills are on cd and you shouldn't count on it to reliably save you.

edit: you can also swap out the shield trait for the stance trait to increase EP/shield block.  not too sure if it procs for defy pain as well though.

Edited by supacc, 30 December 2012 - 03:18 AM.

[lmaonade]

while we're on the topic of high level fractals, has anyone used the new "furious reaction" in there? Is it worth a take?

previously it sucked, 10s of fury on 20% hp drop, but now it's a 10s fury AND vigor on 10% hp drop, since the mobs hit hard enough to proc it, and the vigor provides more dodge, it seems like a pretty good deal to me

Edited by lmaonade, 01 January 2013 - 02:32 AM.

[supacc]

lmaonade, on 01 January 2013 - 02:32 AM, said:

while we're on the topic of high level fractals, has anyone used the new "furious reaction" in there? Is it worth a take?

previously it sucked, 10s of fury on 20% hp drop, but now it's a 10s fury AND vigor on 10% hp drop, since the mobs hit hard enough to proc it, and the vigor provides more dodge, it seems like a pretty good deal to me

i don't think it is dependable enough to bring when it is more reliable to use food or signet of stamina to keep your endurance up.

Edited by supacc, 01 January 2013 - 02:42 PM.

[Xunlai Agent]

supacc, on 30 December 2012 - 03:16 AM, said:

Well it activates once you take another instance of damage under 25% hp.  It has a 90sec cd and procs often enough to warrant a place in the skill tree.  This is just a 2nd chance to get out of danger when all your other skills are on cd and you shouldn't count on it to reliably save you.

edit: you can also swap out the shield trait for the stance trait to increase EP/shield block.  not too sure if it procs for defy pain as well though.

Eventually I would spec out of Defense though because Defy Pain may not trigger if you get two-shotted. I would sink the other points in Strength or Discipline instead.

[lmaonade]

supacc, on 01 January 2013 - 02:41 PM, said:

i don't think it is dependable enough to bring when it is more reliable to use food or signet of stamina to keep your endurance up.

signet of stamina is a must take for me xD but I really don't like anything else in those 1 to 6 traits, I play a power based build, so longer bleeding even with rifle is just meh, 33% chance of vulnerability is the next best things i suppose but even then you rarely stack more than 4 or 5

[Stigma]

Shout heal warriors can do well into Frac 40+, but glass canon ones just do as well. Depends on player.

Edited by Stigma, 24 January 2013 - 01:06 AM.

[Potenkin]

Currently at fractal 50, i dont have a "set in stone build" since i often switch builds to adapt to the team, but in all of them i have at least :

-15 in strenght for stamina regen on burst skill
-20 in tactics for -20% cd on horn with it's debuff removal if needed
-+% duration boon runes on armor
-one weapon at least with sigil of energy (50% stamina on swap) preferably on long bow

It allow to specialize to certain fight like grawl shaman :

- Very good stamina regen due to perma-vigor with horn (around 17s of uptime for 16s cd, you can shoot anywhere with longbow burst skill if you cant get close enough to a target for stamina regen)
- 2 more root removal from horn (useful when multiple elementals root you and the boss shoot arrow of agony death to you since you cant dodge when rooted)

From there you still have a lot of trait points left to adapt to other build when horn is not needed , i usually either go :

-old axe/mace for more damage type support (can share a lot might to the group especially due to rune)
-shout build for heal or any variant of sonic boon

I never spec into tank type since the kind of damage received cant be really tanked  (hi ascalon fractal)


Utility skills  are more likely tied to your build and the dungeon, but endure pain is an exception.
I take it only when needed on a few spots (like rushing with hammer in a room full of mobs for breaking seals on colossus fractal).
It can also be useful to help someone who is down in a aoe, and is sure to die without your help but cant be helped since if you go you die too.

For elite skill it's signet of rage or resurection banner.
Take the former only if you know everyone can manage easily this part of the fractal.
One death or two down can easily snowball to wipe in the heat of action, and rez banner is a small chance to prevent it.

[Kalekip]

Potenkin, on 12 January 2013 - 09:31 AM, said:

Currently at fractal 50, i dont have a "set in stone build" since i often switch builds to adapt to the team, but in all of them i have at least :

-15 in strenght for stamina regen on burst skill
-20 in tactics for -20% cd on horn with it's debuff removal if needed
-+% duration boon runes on armor
-one weapon at least with sigil of energy (50% stamina on swap) preferably on long bow

It allow to specialize to certain fight like grawl shaman :

- Very good stamina regen due to perma-vigor with horn (around 17s of uptime for 16s cd, you can shoot anywhere with longbow burst skill if you cant get close enough to a target for stamina regen)
- 2 more root removal from horn (useful when multiple elementals root you and the boss shoot arrow of agony death to you since you cant dodge when rooted)

From there you still have a lot of trait points left to adapt to other build when horn is not needed , i usually either go :

-old axe/mace for more damage type support (can share a lot might to the group especially due to rune)
-shout build for heal or any variant of sonic boon

I never spec into tank type since the kind of damage received cant be really tanked  (hi ascalon fractal)


Utility skills  are more likely tied to your build and the dungeon, but endure pain is an exception.
I take it only when needed on a few spots (like rushing with hammer in a room full of mobs for breaking seals on colossus fractal).
It can also be useful to help someone who is down in a aoe, and is sure to die without your help but cant be helped since if you go you die too.

For elite skill it's signet of rage or resurection banner.
Take the former only if you know everyone can manage easily this part of the fractal.
One death or two down can easily snowball to wipe in the heat of action, and rez banner is a small chance to prevent it.

Hi, I like your build but can you give some more info about the armor and runes you run?
Thanks anyway for sharing your build.

[Stigma]

You can get to Fractal 40+ w/o a single point in the Defense line. Currently running full Berserker gear, Signet of Rage, FGJ, and Frenzy.

Armor and healing are just training wheels for you when you make mistakes. When you learn all the monster mechanics you don't need them.

I alternate between 3 sets of armor: Soldier gear w/ rune of soldier, Knight gear with boon duration, and berserker gear with ruby orbs. There have been times where i can get through a Fractal 40 Daily wi/o breaking a single piece of berserker armor and just using that set the entire time.

My advice is just run with any build you feel comfortable with from Frac 1-50

Edited by Stigma, 24 January 2013 - 01:08 AM.

[Potenkin]

Kalekip, on 23 January 2013 - 04:55 PM, said:

Hi, I like your build but can you give some more info about the armor and runes you run?

I also use 3 set of gears which happen to be exactly the same as the above post, the only difference is that i also use boon duration runes on soldier gear.

Most of the time wearing the knight set with berserk accesories.

My reasoning is that even if you dodge all big attack , you will probably get hit by a few random ranged attack/aoe.
(Currently at 62 but still have a hard time dodging everything  especially when you have to fight in tight zone with multiple target like colossus fractal)
And if you dodge absolutely everything you risk being out of stamina for thing that oneshot/deal agony.

I mostly use full berserk on fights when there really is only one target that deal most of the damage(ascalon captain/ poison golem/norn boss/dredge armor/swamp bosses) .

Edited by Potenkin, 24 January 2013 - 02:29 PM.