Build Philosophy

Introduction

Guild Wars 2 is a game with a large amount of build diversity. While every class can fill every role, we make sure to recommend the most favorable Builds to ensure an easy and fun time achieving your goals in Guild Wars 2 content.

Low Intensity Builds

Our PvE Low Intensity (Li) Builds are designed around a few key ideas allowing anyone to perform on a very high level:

• Li Builds are designed to have either lower APM (Actions Per Minute) or a simplified rotational concept while still offering very high damage and support capabilities.
• These Builds are usable by everyone, including players with disabilities and those learning the Build for the first time.
• The Li Builds are designed to be more than capable of crushing the hardest content in the game while sacrificing minimal offensive potential for some additional flexibility.

Extra Boon Duration

Things don’t always go to plan! With this in mind, our Builds have extra boon duration built-in that will keep your squad fully buffed even when things start to crumble.
This small leeway also creates more forgiving gameplay for players who are performing mechanics or who are starting to learn the build.

Ascended vs Exotic

This is the message for new players wanting to play end-game content in Guild Wars 2:

Our Builds show Ascended items by default, but if you just decided you want to start playing end-game content, you will be absolutely fine by doing so in Exotic counterparts of the same stats as shown in the Build Guides.

That being said, we do recommend starting with Exotic Power damage builds and getting Berserker’s gear as this will cost you the least amount of Gold. To make up the difference in Critical Chance, replace one of the sigils (usually Superior Sigil of Impact) with Superior Sigil of Accuracy.

We do not recommend starting with Exotic Viper’s gear, as it can be up to between 10-15 times more expensive than Berserker’s.

For more info on this and gear acquisition, refer to these guides:

Gearing guide for PvE

This guide aims to teach you about the easiest, fastest, and most importantly, cheapest methods of acquiring your first entry-level equipment for instanced PvE content.

Gearing up to Ascended

This guide will give you a general overview of some unique properties of ascended items like stat-swapping, and of course, cheapest and fastest methods to get end-game ascended equipment.