You can keep up with the PvE meta with these underrated builds.
People often say that in Guild Wars 2, you can do whatever you want in the open world, whether you play alone or with a big group. But this is usually not the case for endgame PvE like raids, strikes, and fractals. For them, there is a list that can be changed of the best meta builds. These are also very common because many players follow the advice of popular guilds.
On the other hand, there are dozens of builds that aren’t as popular or aren’t called the best. Don’t get me wrong, though: some of these builds can easily keep up with the meta builds if they are in the right hands and used in the right way.
Heal Scourge
This non-traditional healer’s main goal is to make a lot of obstacles for ten people. You don’t give any important benefits and you don’t heal in the sense that you fill up the health bars of other players. Besides putting up barriers, you can also teleport downed people to you or give up some of your own health to instantly revive teammates from far away.
This build is too strong for experienced teams. But in groups with less experience, heal Scourge is called “training wheels” because it makes it easier for everyone to stay alive during a fight.
Power Deadeye
In theory, this is the build that does the most damage in the game right now, but that is only against a training golem that is standing still and has no hazards or mechanics.
This dagger/dagger set-up isn’t the best for real fights because it depends so much on skill rotation at the right time. You also do more damage if you attack the enemy from the side or if you have more than 90% health, even though these things don’t always happen in real life. But it can be very rewarding to master this build and change it to fit the way bosses work.
Power Reaper
Power Reaper is a DPS build that makes Funny Shooter 2 game much easier than the last Deadeye entry. Reaper is very forgiving because he has two thick health bars. It needs gear with the stats of a berserker, which is easy to get even if you don’t have legendary armor or a lot of crafting experience.
This build shines in fractals, where its ability to cleave is best used. Trash mobs don’t show up in raids very often, so Reaper’s damage output isn’t very high and he isn’t a good choice for 10-player content. But it does a good job of keeping people away and is easy to turn.
Heal Scrapper
Scrapper with harrier or minstrel stats uses Med Kit and its three strong healing skills because he is a “typical” healer. If that isn’t enough, the Elixir Gun has a second healing burst. If all else fails, Function Gyro can bring three people back from the dead from far away.
The main benefit of Heal Scrapper is its speed, which comes from four skills. Aside from that, Scrapper will always give you protection, regeneration, and strength. The problem with this build is that, other than Function Gyro, it doesn’t have many good options for healing at a distance.
Power Support Chronomancer
Long gone are the days when a Chronomancer could do everything with just one build. But the November 2022 patch was a breath of fresh air. Depending on how you set up your build, Chrono can now give either permanent speed or permanent speed.
When compared to the condition alacrity Mirage, the alacrity version is harder to do. Chronomancer’s quickness option is also mostly for more experienced Mesmer players, but the non-weapon skill options give you more freedom. Even more impressive is how useful this build is when you think about the two-way portal and Mass Invisibility, which affects ten players instead of just five.
Power Quickness Catalyst
This hammer build is a great choice for Elementalists who want to help their team and do a lot of damage at the same time. It does more damage than its rival, the Power Quickness Herald. Catalyst is also the only elite specialization for an Elementalist that can make five players permanently faster.
You don’t need the boon duration of the expensive diviner’s gear to keep it forever. It’s enough to use the standard berserker gear that is usually used by pure damage builds. But, like most Elementalist builds, this one needs a lot of practice and skill to do as much damage as it can.
Condition Mechanist
This could be the easiest build on this list. Mechanist is easy to use in general, and the condition build does a lot of damage—on average, the third most of all the builds on this list.
The variant with the highest DPS has a long skill rotation and needs to switch between pistols, bombs, and grenades often. But Mechanist also works well as a low-intensity build if that’s what you need. After some practice, the traits and weapons can be tweaked a bit to reach their full potential, which is around 37,000 damage per second. And, of course, it helps to be good with long-range weapons and know how to handle a crowd.
Condition Willbender
The condition version of the newest elite specialization for Guardians focuses on setting one enemy on fire. It is very mobile, like the Thief, which can be very helpful in situations where getting out of a dangerous area of effect in time can save your life.
Unlike Daredevil and Vindicator, your damage rotation does not include valuable dodges. Willbender doesn’t have much of a rotation to start with, since its gameplay is mostly based on what comes first. You can also give up a utility skill without taking too much damage and replace it with a skill that helps other people, like stability, projectile reflection, or more crowd control.
Condition Alacrity Tempest
The only Elementalist specialization that can give the trait alacrity is Tempest. This useful hybrid build does all of this with just two overload skills and a mix of burning and power damage.
Take care of alacrity Tempest wears mostly gear from the heavens, which boosts all of her stats evenly. This gives you a little more chance to stay alive, makes power damage matter, and makes boons last longer, so you can also take an emergency support utility skill. To make it more versatile, a quick trip to the Air Attunement also gives allies fury, and multiple Earth skills give projectile reflection.
Heal Herald
Here’s what I think is the most underrated build for PvE right now: heal Herald. This Revenant build uses Ventari for ranged burst healing and projectile destruction or Jallis for stability, and it’s always paired with Glint, the dragon legend that gives permanent quickness, protection, fury, swiftness, regeneration, strength, and a few seconds of superspeed by just pressing a few skills off cooldown. It also makes allies’ gifts last longer.
This build also uses a mace to make sure that might stays at 25 stacks, as well as a shield and a staff to heal more, block more, and control crowds more effectively. Herald is also a great alternative to heal tanks like Mechanist and Firebrand. Thanks to Glint’s healing skill and weapon blocks, it can easily take on the hardest bosses.