August 2023

Heal Alacrity Mechanist

Heal Alacrity Mechanist is a defensive support that provides permanent Alacrity, Regeneration, Protection, Fury, Vigor, and 25 stacks of Might to a subgroup. This build provides sustained Barrier generation and good healing output. Use Energizing Slam off-cooldown to generate Barrier, Alacrity, Vigor and Regeneration for your group. Use Elixir Gun's Acid Bomb and Super Elixir, and Elite Mortar Kit's Elixir Shell off-cooldown to provide Might and healing. The Mech applies boons around itself: Control its positioning to be near the group at all times. Mech Boon Application: Use Barrier Burst off-cooldown for Might, Fury, Barrier and Alacrity. Use Barrier Signet off-cooldown to provide Barrier and Alacrity. Make sure not to overlap Barrier Signet and Barrier Burst, or you will waste some alacrity application. Crisis Zone provides Aegis, Stability, Protection, Alacrity. Unless you need it for extra Alacrity, save this ability for certain situations…

Condition Alacrity Specter

Condition Alacrity Specter offers Alacrity, 11 stacks of Might through Thrill of the Crime, Well of Bounty,some Vigor, Fury, Swiftness, Stability to the party and good overall damage via large amounts of Torment and Poisoned. It also provides a lot of barrier with some healing and great CC with your off-hand Pistol. This build plays almost the same as Condition Specter. Due to how Consume Shadows and Enter Shadow Shroud scale with the high amount of Vitality present in this build, your heals and barriers will be stronger compared to Condition Specter. Condition Alacrity Specter does its damage in two ways: weapon skills while not in Shadow Shroud and non-initiative spending skills while in Shadow Shroud. While using your scepter/dagger weapon set, you will want to prioritize using Twilight Combo as your main source of damage. If you can’t cast…

Condition Harbinger

Condition Harbinger is a strong Torment-based DPS build. Unlike Death Shroud, Harbinger Shroud does not protect the Harbinger’s health pool while it is active. Harbinger benefits from self-inflicted Blight stacks by utilizing Shroud skills that consume Blight in exchange for more damage. This build uses a Jade Bot Core: Tier 10 to gain extra Expertise via Dark Gunslinger. If you are not using a Jade Bot Core: Tier 10, you will see a small DPS loss. Use Harbinger Shroud, Elixir of Promise and Elixir of Bliss to stack up Blight on yourself. You gain 2 stacks of Blight every second while in Harbinger Shroud. To utilize your Blight stacks, use Voracious Arc and Devouring Cut in Harbinger Shroud. If you have more than 5 stacks of Blight, these skills will consume that Blight to apply extra Torment. Make sure to transfer the…

Condition Quickness Harbinger

Condition Quickness Harbinger is a strong Offensive Support build. While this build doesn’t provide as many boons or as much utility as some other Quickness builds, its damage output is unmatched in the category. Unlike Death Shroud, Harbinger Shroud does not protect the Harbinger’s health pool while it is active. Harbinger profits off of self-inflicted Blight stacks by utilizing shroud skills that consume the Blight in exchange for more damage. This build uses a Jade Bot Core: Tier 10 to gain extra Concentration via Twisted Medicine. You will still be able to upkeep 100% quickness without it, but the Jade Bot Core: Tier 10 is recommended. Condition Quickness Harbinger plays extremely similarly to its full DPS counterpart. This Build provides Quickness via the passive pulsing in Harbinger Shroud thanks to Deathly Haste. Additional Quickness is generated by Elixir of Anguish and…

Support Guardian

Build offers good sustain for allies and self with lots of Stability application and good revive capabilities, while having decent mobility. Your main role as a support is to heal, sustain and revive your allies, either in team fights or when a sidenoder is under pressure. During fights, avoid standing in the center of the fight or on the node, as you are rather squishy. Try to stand at ~600 range and heal from a safe distance. Both your weapon sets offer a good amount of healing, Holy Strike and Empower in staff, and Shield of Absorption > Shield of Absorption on the shield can be used to heal, but all of those can have more situational uses (Holy Strike is blast finisher, Empower can be used to stack Might while helping maintain pressure, and finally Shield of Absorption can…

Handkite Herald

Handkite Herald is one of the simpler builds to kite “hands” mechanic during a final boss fight in Wing 4: Deimos allowing you to fully outheal and partially block and mitigate Hands damage. This build does not see play anywhere outside Deimos’ encounter. Deimos Select difficulty The last and hardest boss in Wing 4, Deimos requires a toughness tank and one special role, the Handkite. Mind Crush: Always remember to have Crystal Hibernation to protect yourself from Mind Crush. Alternatively, you can use Warding Rift or Facet of Light->Infuse Light. With Warding Rift  you can block every other stack of hands. Because Hands are spawning in groups of 5 with a longer break between them, you should use Warding Rift after 2nd hands spawn and block 3 subsequent ticks. If your Warding Rift is on cooldown you can keep stacking…

Condition Renegade

Condition Renegade is a flexible high DPS build with a slow ramp-up and the ability to provide supportive boons or CC as needed. Charged Mists grants you 25 extra Energy when you swap Legends. Use this to be able to use more skills on each Legend. If you mess up your Energy management, guarantee that you are under 10 Energy to proc Charged Mists by using either Heroic Command or Orders from Above. This also provides Might or Alacrity to your subgroup. To maximize DPS, use Mace/Axe on Kalla and Shortbow on Mallyx. Auto-Attack between Shortbow skills to maximize the damage of Torment pulses from Embrace the Darkness. Use Searing Fissure and Bloodbane Path off-cooldown. Make sure to place Razorclaw's Rage on top of allies, or it will be wasted. Always be in range of Embrace the Darkness, or you will lose significant…

Power Dragonhunter

Power Dragonhunter is still a great option for providing damage build in World vs World. This Guardian elite specialization turns their virtues into extremely powerful tools that provide sustain, mobility and crowd control.  With large amounts of piercing ranged damage, high area burst potential from traps and two of the most powerful crowd control skills in the game; Hunter's Ward and Hunter's Verdict combined, the Dragonhunter has the potential to be a great class in skilled hands! The Dragonhunter is mostly ranged due to wielding scepter/focus and longbow, however many of the skills can also be cast effectively in melee range therefore making it very versatile. Most organized groups will like to coordinate your crowd control Hunter's Ward with Necromancer wells Well of Corruption, and your traps (Test of Faith & Procession of Blades ) with Ghastly Breach so make sure…

Support Spellbreaker

Spellbreaker can play an important role in WvW, however it functions best in easier fights. In the right situation this build does provide decent amounts of boon removal, some boons notably might and quickness, some cleanse and last but not least soft/hard crowd control.  The large amounts of boon rip come from the use of Winds of Disenchantment and Break Enchantments combined with Enchantment Collapse.  Support Spellbreaker has the ability to chain crowd control and Immobilize enemy players, locking them down for your team to finish off!. This build utilizes powerful synergies between crowd control weapon skills, Spellbreaker traits and utilities in addition to sigils to produce excellent boon removal, crowd control and survivability.  Rotate "Shake It Off!" and your Warhorn skills to support your party when needed. Use Break Enchantments when in range of the enemy to remove boons,…

Power Weaver

Power Weaver is a very fast-paced, high-burst melee DPS build with good mobility at the cost of being very fragile. Fully attuning to any Element provides you with Elements of Rage. To maximize the duration of the Weave Self buffs, swap between Air, Fire, and Earth Attunements to use all of the strong damage skills. Then only go into Water when the Weave Self buff is about to end to extend it and gain Perfect Weave. Elementalist can change Attunements in the middle of channeling skills without interrupting them. To make sure you are not late to gain Perfect Weave, change Attunements as soon as they are available. Always use Primordial Stance and Arcane Blast in either Fire-Air or Fire-Fire to gain extra stats from Elemental Polyphony. Certain skills lock you in place. Be careful of your positioning when using…

Support Chronomancer

Chronomancer is an elite specialization for the mesmer class, bringing some of the best utility, crowd control, boon removal and some condition cleanse for large WvW battles. While it is meta class, only a few Chronomancers are needed per squad.  This build is hard to master because of Continuum Split, which gives you a short window to essentially use your key abilities twice! Continuum Split offers incredible combo potential to get the most out of. The build is best described as unique utility, simply put you will  provide mass stealth for your squad via Veil , burst boon removal via shatters due to Shattered Concentration combined with crowd control thanks to Vicious Expression and your final third auto attack on sword Mind Spike, generate quickness on shatters and  last but not least revival of allies with Illusion of Life .  Commanders…

Boonstrip Scourge

Scourge can play an important role in any World vs World battle. In large scale fights you provide pressure breaking up the enemy squad through area damage, boon removal/corruption, single target bursts and finally supporting allies by giving barrier, condition removal might and a new addition alacrity. Unlike other necromancer specializations, you have no additional health bar or shroud form with skills that replace your weapons.  Instead you have access to sand shades with skills that can be used if you have enough life force except for Manifest Sand Shade.  Life force can be gained via nearby deaths, traits or using certain weapon skills such as Ghastly Claws , Soul Grasp Some shade skills have powerful effects and can strike enemies near you and where you place Manifest Sand Shade, for example Sandstorm Shroud.  Each shade skill has a purpose…

Support Tempest

Support tempest has access to strong healing and condition cleanse, reflects and CCs Currently, the earth variant is the one used the most as tempest needs the extra survivability from the traitline against the strong power damage dealers.   As support, your primary job is to keep your team alive, but keep in mind Tempest is a squishy, light armor class. Therefore it is useful if you’re already familiar with kiting and know which skills are ranged. Only "Wash the Pain Away!" first few pulses require you to be close to your allies. Earth tempest applies high amounts of Protection thanks to Elemental Shielding and has significantly better survivability thanks to its the damage reduction from Stone Flesh, Geomancer's Training and Stone Heart. Thanks to  Elemental Bastion and Cleansing Water  auras that you apply to your allies will heal them…

Condition Scourge

Condition Scourge is a flexible and durable ranged DPS build with a large amount of built-in, passive utility, including a lot of Might and Barrier. This Build is fairly easy for new players to pick up, as both main-hand weapons share similar rotation concepts, and all other cooldowns are visible at a glance. Maintain at least one Manifest Sand Shade up at all times to gain Expertise (via Sand Sage) and Damage Reduction (via Blood as Sand). Near the end of Blood Is Power cast time, use Desert Shroud to transfer the self-inflicted conditions onto your enemy thanks to Plague Sending. Always use Grasping Dead and Devouring Darkness together off-cooldown, as they will always be ready at the same time. As a Scourge, your character also counts as a Shade just like the Manifest Sand Shades. Because of this, you can…

Power Reaper

Power Reaper provides a strong and self-sufficient all rounder power build, good for up front burst and sustained damage coupled with survivability, CC and self generated Quickness to last through split phases. It can also bring utility such as projectile mitigation or even more CC with minimal damage loss. Your rotation loops very well but you will have to pay attention to your lifeforce. You don’t want to stand in too much damage while in Shroud or your dps will suffer a lot. Your aim is to enter Shroud every time it’s up while regaining lifeforce when you’re outside of it. Entering and leaving Shroud will also re-apply Soul Barbs buff. Make sure to always place Nightfall ,  Well of Darkness and Well of Suffering right before entering Shroud because you gain massive stat bonuses while in shroud that boosts…

Power Daredevil

Power Daredevil is a burst-centric DPS class that not only offers good single targets DPS but also a significant amount of cleave/AoE damage. In addition, the stolen skills gained from Steal can be very useful for multiple situations: Detonate Plasma for more boon uptime in your subgroup. Unstable Artifact for increased mobility or providing a clutch mid-combat resurrection. Soul Stone Venom for condition cleanse for your subgroup. Throw Magnetic Bomb for breaking very large defiance bars on bosses. Finally, the build can provide amazing CC via Basilisk Venom and Fist Flurry. Your DPS comes in repeated bursts. After you perform one, you will enter a rest period where you will refill your resources with the staff Auto-attack chain. If your endurance bar fills to one dodge while in your rest period, you will want to Dodge and use Weakening Charge.…

Hybrid Soulbeast

Hybrid Soulbeast is a DPS Soulbeast variant that combines the already bursty damage profile of Condi Soulbeast with the Beastmastery traitline to boost its power damage considerably. This results in a DPS build that offers stronger damage output compared to Condi Soulbeast in most circumstances while also being more bursty in nature, especially in conjunction with "Sic 'Em!" and One Wolf Pack. Due to Resounding Timbre, the build can also provide high amounts of Swiftness and Regeneration to the party when using "We Heal As One!" and "Sic 'Em!". The basic rotation alternates between an Axe Loop and a Dagger Loop while always staying in Beastmode and flanking enemies to benefit from Hunter's Tactics. The main idea behind both loops is the same: use Splitblade and Double Arc three times as soon as possible before swapping weapons. Keep in mind that…

Condition Soulbeast

Condition Soulbeast is a durable DPS build that is relatively easy to pick up due to its simple rotation. It has great self-sustain capabilities thanks to Predator's Cunning and Rugged Growth. The build can also offer group support by combining Leader of the Pack with stances such as Moa Stance or Dolyak Stance. A significant part of the DPS of the build will come from your allies applying Poisoned due to sharing Vulture Stance. Optimized variant of this build is built around using Superior Rune of Thorns which focuses on boosting the Poisoned application of this build. This will make the build a bit more reliant on your allies proccing Vulture Stance as often as they can while they have this buff. Universal variant of this build is built around using Superior Rune of the Krait which focuses more on…