User:Masel/OpenWorldGuidelines

Introduction[edit]

If you're starting post-Level 80 content in Guild Wars 2, you're likely a little lost due to the increased difficulty you encounter in open world roaming, so that you start thinking about your build more and more. Now you might look for build guides for open world, but find it hard to judge whether the builds provided on various sites are actually good or not. In this write-up, I'd like to provide open world basics so that you can a) better judge what you might find on sites and b) even start making your own builds!

First off, open world content in Guild Wars 2 is very diverse in terms of damage & survivability required. Here are a few examples:

non-combat related events (e.g. Renown Hearts): here, mobility is often the only factor that matters,
general events with many smaller mobs: these favour bursty builds (usually Power-based) to kill mobs quickly,
soloing harder bosses (like Bounties in Path of Fire or Hero Points in Heart of Thorns): these tend to favour Condition Damage-based builds as they have an easier time sustaining damage and making themselves more survivable,
coordinated large-group meta event chains (like The Battle for the Jade Sea in Dragon's End or Convergences): here, standard Endgame PvE builds (Healer, Boon DPS, Full DPS) with smaller tweaks usually do the trick.

Ideally, you'd be able to flexibly change your setup for the scenario you find yourself in. However, I understand that that requires knowledge you might not have yet; the good news is that a well-constructed allrounder build will work too! What kind of allrounder build can you go for? The following table shows synergies in requirements for survivability, mobility and group utility by type of content:

Build Synergies between Game Mode
Game Mode	Survivability Requirement	Mobility Requirement	Group Utility Requirement
Solo Open World (Events & Roaming)	Low	High	Low
Solo Open World (Bosses)	High	Low	Low
Group Open World	Low	Low	High
Instanced PvE	Low	Low	High
Solo World vs. World	High	High	Low
Group World vs. World	High	Low	High

For an allrounder PvE build, I'd always recommend you to use Endgame PvE-Builds for instanced content as the starting point (e.g. from Snow Crows) and then increase survivability from there step-by-step until you feel comfortable in open world. That way, you save money and time and retain the highest amount of flexibility for the very diverse content that PvE throws at you.

If your ingame focus is on WvW and OW instead of Endgame PvE the requirements change. Survivability has a higher priority in PvP content, so you might be better off with a build that has more innate survivability, but flexible potential for increased damage whenever you want to do group OW content.

Either way, let's dive into the basics of Guild Wars 2's Open World!

Maintaining Offensive Boons and Vulnerability[edit]

The first thing you should take a look at for open world gameplay is Boon coverage, as Boons massively increase your damage output and survivability. So let's look at offensive Boons first! Boons that are important to all builds are:

Might - grants up to 750 Power and Condition damage at 25 Stacks. Big damage! Some Professions include traits that boost the stats per stack even more.
Fury - grants 25 % Critical chance. Very important for power builds to reach 100%, usually less impactful on condition builds.
Quickness - makes all skill casts 50% faster. This is nuts, you won't want to play without it once you had it. It further makes your characer quicker to respond via the shorter cast times, which also entails many defensive benefits.
Alacrity - reduces the cooldowns of skills (not traits) by 20% (The tooltip is a little misleading here, as it effectively divides the cooldown by 1.25, it does not multiply it by 0.75!)

Open World Tenet 1: If things die faster, you live longer. Make sure to cover Might, Fury, Quickness and Alacrity if you can!

There are too many sources of the abovementioned boons to mention them all here, so the choices made in terms of offensive Boon coverage vary per build (and mainly with the damage tradeoff that they entail). When playing solo, traits that grant Alacrity often cost the same or more damage than having Alacrity brings, so it can come down to preference. That changes in group scenarios, where you will share it with up to 5 players. Then, it is always better to supply Alacrity. Alacrity also reduces the recharge of defensive skills (like your heal skill), so keep that in mind too.

Open World Tenet 2: Sharing is caring: Make use of traits and skills that do not only apply Boons to you, but also share them in an area (e.g. by playing a Quickness or Alacrity DPS build in open world instead of a regular DPS build). That way, everyone around you becomes more powerful!

Further note that many classes have traits that increase your damage when you have specific boons (or per boon you have). Some examples are:

Roiling Mists and Ferocious Aggression in Invocation
Righteous Instincts and Retribution in Radiance
Premeditation in Deadeye
Object in Motion in Scrapper
Empowered in Tactics

On top of offensive boons, maintaining Vulnerability is important for your damage output, as it increases it by up to 25%. But that's not all: many builds will further scale with the number of unique conditions on the enemy. In group gameplay however,you will likely have other players maintaining stacks of Vulnerability and other Conditions along with you, so making drastic changes to your build just for solo gameplay will be pointless there. So don't swap gear to cover particular conditions, including Vulnerability (e.g. via a Superior Sigil of Frailty).

Open World Tenet 3: Don't overoptimize for full Vulnerability coverage. It is likely useless whenever you are not alone.

In solo scenarios, it can still be worth considering taking traits and skills that cover a decent amount of Vulnerability and other Conditions. Condition builds have an easier time maintaining Vulnerability due to Expertise affecting it. Some examples for traits and skills that apply lots of Vulnerability or make your damage scale with Conditions:

Increasing Survivability[edit]

After showing options for offensive Boon coverage, I'd like to provide options that grant additional survivability, with a focus on passive survivability. If you're just starting the game or just want a more relaxed experience, it is likely that you are looking for things that will allow you to take a hit or two. More survivability can also lead to increased DPS under pressure, as you have less disruption in your damage rotation. Note that in many cases, builds have active ways to gain survivability (e.g. Evades and Blocks) that - once you learned to play a build well enough - will become more effective than just stacking passives.

Reducing Incoming Strike Damage[edit]

The vast majority of damage you receive in open world is Strike damage. It thus makes sense to reduce it to make a build more survivable: this can be done via higher Toughness or by stacking %-damage reduction modifiers. In the following figure, I calculated the reduction in strike damage taken from various sources, including Toughness-based prefixes (Ascended) like Celestial, Trailblazer's and Knight's. In the case of Celestial and Trailblazer's, this does not take the additional Concentration, Healing Power and Vitality into account, which will further increase survivability.

Maintaining Protection[edit]

The strongest reduction to strike damage taken from a single source can be achieved via Protection: 33%! Many Elite specializations have good access to this boon.

Open World Tenet 4: Protect yourself (and others)! if you intend to become more survivable, you might want to look into possible sources of Protection first.

Often, just changing a few traits and skills can get a good uptime on it! Here are a few worthy example trait and skill choices for Protection - more details on the respective build pages:

Illusionary Defense in Chaos
Corrupter's Fervor in Death Magic
Elemental Shielding in Earth
Inspired Virtue in Virtues
All for One in Renegade
Stone Spirit on Ranger
Crisis Zone on Mechanist with Mech Frame: Channeling Conduits
Facet of Chaos on Herald

Evades and Blocks[edit]

On top of passive sources of defense, you can make use of Evades and Blocks to negate incoming damage.
Successfully evading or blocking an attack will negate all damage from the attack, including potential conditions applied by an attack.
Every build has access to Dodge, which will gives you brief window of evasion

Open World Tenet: Catch me if you can! Using cheap defensive Food and Utility items is more impactful than you think.

Changing Food & Utility Items[edit]

Changing the Food and Utility item to defensive options can add survivability in a flexible way and provide around 16% damage reduction. If you can use Ascended food, you do not lose a lot of damage from using the -10% damage taken option anyway.

Open World Tenet 5: Don't go outside malnourished! Using cheap defensive Food and Utility items is more impactful than you think.

Here's a list of prominent options for defensive food and utility items - more details on the respective build pages:

Food and Utility Items
Purpose	Item Type	Item
Survivability	Ascended Condition Food	Peppered Cured Meat Flatbread
Survivability	Non-Ascended Condition Food	Oysters Gnashblade
Survivability	Ascended Power Food	Peppercorn-Crusted Sous-Vide Steak
Survivability	Non-Ascended Power Food	Oysters with Zesty Sauce
Survivability	Dodge Food	Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew
Survivability	Might Food for Builds that Heal per Boon Application	Fried Golden Dumpling
Survivability	Utility	Potion Of Karka Toughness

Reducing Incoming Condition Damage[edit]

The abovementioned factors do not affect damage taken from Conditions. There are several ways to counter condition damage (descending order of preference):

Condition cleanses,
Condition transfers,
Maintaining Resolution,
Additional Vitality - this will increase the chance to outlast them via higher Health,
% incoming condition duration modifiers (e.g. Plate of Clove-Spiced Coq Au Vin) and
% incoming condition damage modifiers (e.g. Dark Defiance or Breakrazor's Bastion).

As you can imagine, the best way to deal with conditions is to remove or transfer them as soon as you get them, because then they pose no threat. A good allrounder build for open world should include enough options to do just that.

Open World Tenet 6: Cleanse, convert & transfer! Outhealing Conditions is pointless when you can cleanse, transfer or convert them into boons.

For the choices made for each individual open world build, see the respective build page. Some noteworthy examples of strong condition cleanses:

Smothering Auras in Fire
Abrasive Grit in Scourge
Eluding Nullification in Salvation
Escapist's Fortitude in Daredevil
Using Whirl finishers, Blast finishers or Projectile finishers inside Light fields

Increasing Healing Inflow and Barrier Generation[edit]

You can also survive by outhealing incoming damage or by applying Barrier to yourself. However, Guild Wars 2 is build so that healing potential is limited and usually comes at a direct tradeoff to damage dealt. Generally, many applications of healing and Barrier come in small but frequent ticks. Don't underestimate how strong those can be if you have multiple sources.

Open World Tenet 7: Many a mickle makes a muckle! Despite appearing as insignificant, many small healing ticks and/or Barrier applications can add up to massive amounts of survivability with the right build.

Increasing Healing Inflow[edit]

A first step can be to look at covering Regeneration. It is a small but persistent heal on damage-focused builds. Aditionally, I prefer the following types of healing for open world:

Traits and skills that heal you based off of damage dealt,
Traits that heal on easy-to-fulfil conditions (apply a boon, apply a condition etc.) and
Traits and skills that convert incomign damage into healing (making you effectively invulnerable for their duration).

Some examples of traits and skills that heal you based off your damage are:

Relic of Zakiros for Power builds if you have Secrets of the Obscure.
Sun and Moon Style in Spellbreaker
Parasitic Contagion in Curses
Jagged Mind in Virtuoso
Restorative Strikes in Untamed
Invigorating Precision in Critical Strikes
Litany of Wrath on Guardian
Blood Reckoning on Berserker

Some examples of traits and skills that passively heal you with easy-to-fulfil conditions are:

For builds that heal on the application of Boons to yourself and/or allies, using Fried Golden Dumpling and/or other frequent Might applications can quickly accumulate massive amounts of healing.

Some examples of traits and skills that convert incoming damage to healing are:

Facet of Light on Herald
Defiant Stance on Warrior

Barrier Generation[edit]

On top of healing, generating Barrier is a very strong option for many builds, as Barrier effectively increases your health pool and allows you to recover health underneath it. If you generate a constant inflow of Barrier, enemies might not even be able to reduce your health below 100%! Note that Barrier scales with your Healing Power. Some Noteworthy examples of traits and skills that generate Barrier are:

Impact Savant in Scrapper converts damage into Barrier.
Herald of Sorrow, Sand Cascade and Sand Flare on Scourge
Blood Bank in Blood Magic
Resilient Spirit in Salvation
Rock Barrier on Elementalists
Barrier Signet and Mech Core: Barrier Engine on Mechanist

Often, increasing healing and Barrier means lower personal damage, which in turn means more incoming damage as whatever damages you lives longer. Then you need to outheal more incoming damage. Judging whether a trade-off is worth it isn't always easy, but you can just test how changes feel when roaming in open world to test it for yourself.

Changing Major Gear Pieces[edit]

On top of changing traits, skills and consumables, you can change gear pieces to more defensive Prefixes. Depending on the Prefix you choose, this can increase Toughness, Vitality, Healing Power and Concentration, which can all increase your survivability. A lot of survivability can be achieved by changing weapons, the chest piece and an amulet only. These are responsible for ~40% of the stats coming from gear. The other gear pieces often cost around the same per piece, but provide much lower marginal gain in survivability.

Open World Tenet 8: A penny saved is a penny got! The chest, amulet and weapons are responsible for 40% of your stats coming from gear, so don't waste money on defensive prefixes on small gear pieces.

There are a few exceptions to this, as some prefixes can be obtained very cheap and there are special items with selectable Attribute combinations you can buy, craft or farm with a fairly small time or gold investment. The following table outlines the survivability options that can be used instead of damage gear as a 1-to-1 replacement. They keep the same levels of Precision for power builds, the same Expertise for condition builds and/or the same Concentration for boon dps builds to retain the same functionality:

Offensive Prefix (Main Attributes in Bold)	Defensive Replacement 1	Defensive Replacement 2	Defensive Replacement 3
Berserker's Power Precision Ferocity	Knight's + Toughness - all Ferocity & some Power	Zealot's + Healing Power - all Ferocity
Viper's Power Precision Condition Damage Expertise	Trailblazer's + Toughness & Vitality - all Power & all Precision	Celestial + Toughness, Vitality, Concentration, Healing Power, Ferocity - some Condition Damage & some Power	Ritualist's + Vitality & Concentration - all Power & all Precision
Sinister Power Precision Condition Damage	Dire + Toughness & Vitality - all Power & all Precision	Rabid + Toughness - all Power
Grieving Power Precision Ferocity Condition Damage	Dire + Toughness & Vitality - all Power, all Precision & all Ferocity	Rabid + Toughness & some Precision - all Power & all Ferocity
Ritualist's Vitality Concentration Condition Damage Expertise	Celestial + Toughness, Power, Precision, Healing Power, Ferocity - some Condition Damage & some Vitality

Note 1: Sometimes, pieces of Diviner's ( Power,

Precision,

Ferocity and Concentration) or Assassin's (

Power, Precision and

Ferocity) are used on Power-based builds to increase

Concentration and/or to reach 100% Critical chance. They do not have a 1-to-1 replacement in terms of

Precision and/or

Concentration, so replace the pieces of Berserker on those builds first.

Note 2: Using a

Level-80 Boost comes with a

Level-80 Equipment Package that includes a full set of Celestial gear. If you have it, it is a great set for open world. Note that it is best suited for Condition-based builds, as they make better use of the stat density.

Crafting & Trading Post[edit]

Unfortunately, many stronger Prefixes like like Celestial, Viper's, Sinister, Grieving, Trailblazer's, Ritualist's can be quite expensive if you craft them or buy pieces of them directly off the Trading Post. But there's a way to circumvent that: stat-selectable Exotic items!

Open World Tenet 9: Stat-selectables rule! Instead of buying expensive gear from the trading post, buy budget gear and stat-selectables first and go for the rest in stat-selectables with that.

Let's look at cost-efficient ways to obtain the defensive replacements! The following table shows a few options for cheap stat-selectable Exotic items you can either craft or buy from the Trading Post directly:

Cost Comparison of Crafted and Sold
Type	Cost
Stat-Selectable Helmet Box	…
Stat-Selectable Helmet Box (Charr Only)	…
Stat-Selectable Shoulders	…
Stat-selectable Crafted Amulet: requires Artificer on level 400	… + Level 80 Jewel
Any Crafter's backpack: requires any Crafting profession on level 400	… + varying basic ingredients + Level 65 Jewel
Any Iron Legion Weapon: only Staff, Pistol, Sword, Rifle, Greatsword are available.	Example: …

If you want to find prices for particular gear slots and Prefixes, the Equipment Query is a very helpful tool!

World versus World currency[edit]

If you have a little bit of time, you can do some WvW to farm a few Badges of Honor to purchase cheap stat-selectable Exotic pieces for all armor & trinket slots + all weapons from TEID-07 Unified Vendor System (or Lionguard (Merchant) in Lion's Arch).

Here are a few examples:

Item	Rarity	Level	Prefix	Cost
Invader's Heavy Chestguard	FExotic	80	Selectable	1 8 + 100
Invader's Medium Chestguard	FExotic	80	Selectable	1 8 + 100
Invader's Light Chestguard	FExotic	80	Selectable	1 8 + 100
Invader's Amulet	FExotic	80	Selectable	90 + 50
Invader's Short Bow	FExotic	80	Selectable	1 + 75
Invader's Dagger	FExotic	80	Selectable	90 + 50
Invader's Focus	FExotic	80	Selectable	80 + 40

Bladed Armor in Verdant Brink[edit]

If you don't want to do WvW, getting Bladed Armor in Verdant Brink is another alternative. All pieces but the Bladed Coat Box are sold by Itzel Mastery Vendors or obtained by participating in the Night and the Enemy meta event in Verdant Brink:

The items below require the mastery Itzel Language.

Item	Type	Rarity	Cost
Bladed Headgear Box	Container	ERare	500 + 1
Bladed Shoulders Box	Container	ERare	500 + 1
Bladed Glove Box	Container	ERare	500 + 1
Bladed Leggings Box	Container	ERare	500 + 1
Bladed Boot Box	Container	ERare	500 + 1

For the chest piece, you need to either complete the Night and the Enemy meta to have a chance for a Bladed Armor Box or Kill the wyvern matriarch for a chance of a Bladed Coat Box to drop for you.

Easy Ascended Trinkets[edit]

For trinkets, an easy way to obtain them in Ascended(!) is to acquire a few living world episodes and farm their currencies. If you can only get a few of them, prioritize A Crack in the Ice, War Eternal and Out of the Shadows. Any two of these will allow you to farm full sets of ascended trinkets with small effort per day. A Crack in the Ice can be done on every character every day, allowing you to farm everything but an Amulet very fast!

Laranity has a video with more details on how to farm them, so check that out!

Credits for the table go to Tanetris!

Episode	Zone	Vendor	Currency	Available Trinkets	Stats
S3E1: Out of the Shadows	Bloodstone Fen	Scholar Rakka	Unbound Magic + Blood Rubies	Amulet, Backpack, Ring	All available stats
S3E2: Rising Flames	Ember Bay	Scholar Surra	Unbound Magic + Petrified Wood	Accessory, Backpack	All available stats
S3E3: A Crack in the Ice	Bitterfrost Frontier	Slooshoo	Unbound Magic + Fresh Winterberries	Accessory, Backpack, Ring	All available stats
S3E4: The Head of the Snake	Lake Doric	Quartermaster Hitchens	Unbound Magic + Jade Shards	Amulet, Backpack	All available stats
S3E5: Flashpoint	Draconis Mons	Supplymaster Hanjo	Unbound Magic + Fire Orchid Blossoms	Amulet, Ring	All available stats
S3E6: One Path Ends	Siren's Landing	Provisioner Anlana	Unbound Magic /Karma + Orrian Pearls	Amulet, Backpacks^{note 1}	All available stats
S4E2: A Bug in the System	Sandswept Isles	Ethall	Volatile Magic + Difluorite Crystals	Accessory, Ring	All available stats
S4E3: Long Live the Lich	Domain of Kourna	Nalar	Laurels	Accessory, Amulet, Ring	Only Plaguedoctor's
S4E5: All or Nothing	Thunderhead Peaks	Kynon	Laurels	Accessory, Amulet, Ring	Only Diviner's
S4E6: War Eternal	Dragonfall	Various lane quartermasters	Volatile Magic + Mistborn Motes	Accessory, Amulet, Ring	All available stats
S5E1: Whisper in the Dark	Bjora Marches	Bright Shore^{note 2}	Karma + Eternal Ice Shards	Amulet	All available stats
S5E2: Shadow in the Ice	Bjora Marches	Humble Stone^{note 3}	Karma + Eternal Ice Shards	Accessory	All available stats

Note 1: The Siren's Landing backpacks are not available from Provisioner Anlana, but rather from the map's Renown Heart NPCs and require karma instead of Unbound Magic.

Note 2: The amulet is unlocked for sale only after completing The Hunger collection.

Note 3: The Accessory is unlocked for sale only after completing Idolatry achievement.

I highly recommend giving User:Tanetris/So You Want To Gear a Character and User:Dak393/New player Guide a read for additional gearing options.

Dealing with Incoming Control effects and Defiance Bars[edit]

Dealing with Incoming Control effects[edit]

While incoming Control effects in instanced content are often handled by support players or by breaking Defiance bars, in OW you might be dealing with them on your own. Being disabled is one of the most frequent reasons for deaths in OW gameplay. Therefore, it can be helpful to either prevent them from applying to you or getting yourself out of them as soon as you notice them. Preventing them can be done via Stability, the latter via Stun breaks. Every Elite specialization has several ways to break stuns, but some are generally better than others and it is tricky to find the ones that fit your build best. Usually, I recommend going for Stun breaks that fill a gap within the build (does your build have enough condition cleanses? If not, is there a stun break that also does that? Does the stun break provide a Boon your build might need?). For the choices I made, see the respective build pages.

Open World Tenet 10: Be stunned, be dead! Always bring at least one emergency Stun break.

Dealing with Defiance bars (aka Breakbars)[edit]

On top of incoming Control effects, you will have to examine your output of Control effects in your build to deal with Breakbars. They are found on higher rank enemies frequently, looking like this:

Why is that important? The answer to that is twofold:

when a Breakbar is broken, the enemy is usually stunned for a few seconds, during which it will take increased damage. The Stun gives you breathing room against harder enemies and allows you to go mad on damage for the duration.
the Breakbar sometimes has to be broken to interrupt enemies from completing certain attacks (sometimes one-shot attacks). This is particularly relevant in group events and instanced content.

It is therefore essential that you include some skills with Breakbar damage in your build, both in solo gameplay and group content. The following effects apply defiance bar damage:

Breakbar damage Over Time	Direct Breakbar Damage
Fear	Daze
Taunt	Stun
Immobile	Knockdown
Slow	Pull
Chilled	Knockback
Blinded	Launch
Weakness	Float
Crippled	Sink

Hard CCs apply their Breakbar damage immediately, while the listed Conditions apply their damage over time. Note that the listed Conditions cannot be stacked in intensity, just in duration. Multiple applications of Fear will not apply more defiance bar damage per second than one instance, but will make it last for a longer duration.

Open World Tenet 11: Know your CC! Save skills with Control effects for Defiance bars whenever required.

Open World Build Showcase[edit]

You can find the most recent open world build showcase here

The solo build showcase covers all elite specializations and show them killing a 1,000,000 health Golem with a moderately threatening damage area. This area does over 1,000 damage to the player every second, requiring substantial amounts of sustain to outlast it over longer time periods. However, there are a few specialties that it does not account for:

It does not apply Conditions to the player. For that reason, I included reliable sources for condition cleanses in every build.
It does not apply Control Effects to the player. For that reason, I included a Stun break or sources for Stability in every build.
Since it helps for event farming and general gameplay, all builds have at least one ranged weapon set. That allows you to kite damage as well, making mayn encounters much easier to handle on your own.
The area damage cannot be blocked, but can be evaded. Builds with access to many Blocks (e.g. via Aegis) will thus have better sustain in actual gameplay.

The general settings are as follows:

All builds use full legendary/ascended gear with the following food and utility items:
No Boons on self and no Conditions on the Golem.
No gear optimization for Vulnerability coverage. That means that we're only taking it when a build can access it via skills and traits, but we're not adjusting gear for it (e.g. via Superior Sigil of Frailty: these sigils are subpar in most scenarios where you're not alone and apply to one target only).
If there is an option to share important boons with allies ( Might, Fury, Quickness, Alacrity, Protection), I went for it.
Gear changes are restricted to remain cheap (less than 15-20 gold) and/or synergetic with a dps or boon dps build. Using some cheap Diviner's or Ritualist's gear is fine for example, using Celestial gear is not. You can still use more survivable gear pieces on top of the changes I made of course.

Outro[edit]

That's it for now! I hope this was insightful for you and helped a little in understanding Guild Wars 2's quite complex open world and combat design. If it did, I'd appreciate you giving me a follow on My YouTube!