I Tried the SPEAR Virtuoso in Guild Wars 2 - Thoughts

[@thomin]

Minor nitpick, but you're benching with Fear on the golem, which inflates your dps little. The trait in Dueling "Superiority Complex" makes you do 10% extra crit damage for the first 50% of the golem's health because they're feared, which isn't realistic for instanced content. Again, super minor but worth mentioning for the nerds like me Still, a great build and worth people playing and picking it up! Thanks for showing it off Muk

[@Saolue]

I thought that all raid/strike bosses since they can't be disabled/stunned/etc are treated as though they are permanently for traits such as Superiority Complex? Or is that just for skills that do a "if you disable them, do this" so the extra effect always happens?

[@thomin]

​@@Saolue This seems to be the one exception. The typical wording for those traits is "Deal increased strike damage to disabled *or defiant* foes". Superiority Complex is "Critical hit damage against disabled foes, or foes below the health threshold, is further increased", with no mention of defiant foes. My best guess is that because the trait has a dual identity as both a % increase on disabled foes, as well as a % increase on foes under a certain health threshold, it was not changed with the others. Couldn't say whether that was intentional or an oversight, but it works as-written in game.

[@remagic6432]

@@thomin Interestingly enough, all those other traits which had that "or defiant foes" added to them *did not work with fear / taunt* despite saying it in the tooltip when clarifying what a disable is. Superiority Complex was the only trait which used to interact with fear and taunt as advertised, and it did not need that "or defiant foes" tacked onto it.

[@stevethedevilnerd2360]

If you dont like the mantra you can always bring sword of decimation, its a bit less dps, but not a huge drop. Also, you can change the mantra for any thing else if needed, example, the stability mantra is enough to cover your group with stab in a lot of situations if you healer and support didnt have enought

[@hollowzangetsu]

That's exactly what I do. I hate mantra ,SoD is better

[@onicar]

Mantra of Pain is higher dps than Rain of Swords. Drop rain first then mantra. They are both pretty similar dps. Do not drop disenchanter.

[@stevethedevilnerd2360]

@@onicar only on the Golem in real szenarios the rain does better

[@deusdeorum85]

I've had my struggles with dealing good dps on power virtuoso before spear was an option. Your video encourages me to give it a shot once more. It's always nice to see someone i consider on about my level to share his experiences as pro guides sometimes stick to details that sometimes are better to ignore and focus on basics. Thanks for your insight.

[@chrispeeters5604]

I have been dapling playing the spear mesmer but haven't really commited to learning it properly yet. Thanks for the great explanation, Hopefully I can level up my mesmer game some more now ^^

[@peterjohnson367]

Empowered spear 5 is such a juicy aoe cc. Imo, it really shines on the transition/add phases of harvest temple strike. Hit the boss with spear 2 when it has ~2-3% health, hold your clarity buff, wait for mobs to come in after MI, wham.

[@Zeoni]

Ooh yeah! Been waiting for this!

[@cameirusisu1024]

cant believe they nerf other specs, and yet faceroll virt be so strong in both condi and power builds (this is simplier than the condi build and does more dps on benchmarks!)

[@luca7675]

I mean its the same as with condiVirt. Its very easy to get a good amount of dps very quickly, but its pretty hard to to master it. If you are not super comfortable with an encounter your dps might suffer A LOT or you might even sabotage your team. The amount of times i have been randomly pulled in or bursted down in seconds as a slubling on wing 2 is criminal.

[@odin13th76]

Firebrand's mantra change never got applied to mesmers. So memser mantras are still in 2012, just like their time warp needs an update so it can come out of the closest and get some use again lol.

[@critical-thinker666]

memer can change one trait to provide alac or quick, seems balanced to me.

[@boschmitch]

8:15 mantra of pain should not be switched. Rain of swords is flexible.

[@molinj.7174]

@@boschmitch what goes into making the decision?

[@snakeman830]

@@molinj.7174 I'm going to guess it's that Mantra of Pain doesn't have a cast time, so long as you don't use the last charge. Thus, there's no point where you're casting it instead of another skill.

[@boschmitch]

@@molinj.7174 if you mean decision to flex Rain of sword, encounter knowledge will usually tell you what it could be (more stab, more cleanse, more stun, portal skips, more defiance break

[@icata12345]

been eyeing the spear for some time, i'll give it a shot later tonight

[@TheDetrox93]

congrats to 37k Muk :)

[@leanture3685]

I'm so in love with mukluk's voice, going very nasal sometimes! Like the word swap, he says MNGSWAP

[@livingfailure]

glad they nerfed warrior spear while leaving this untouched, awesome

[@captaincrapface7337]

stop complaining about warrior, that's my job.

[@molinj.7174]

Why is the gw2 community so thirsty for nerfs? Its PvE diva, its not affecting you.

[@didoma73]

there always has to be an OP class so that the game doesn't lose players.

[@livingfailure]

@@molinj.7174 Because Warrior is stuck in 2012 and every time it's shined it's been quickly smacked down, meanwhile classes like this get to exist. And yes dimwit, PvE balance matters.

[@molinj.7174]

@@livingfailure right so youre wishing your own (perceived) mistreatment on others because….? Idk maybe cruelty? Self righteousness? But you call me a dimwit 🙂‍↕️

[@AMVmushroom]

Spear virt made me roll a Mesmer after putting it off for a decade and I'm having a blast !

[@demenion3521]

Pvirt is clearly a very strong build to do good dps with. Important note: just ignore rain of swords, mantra and pain and your elite and focus on your phantasms, weapon skills and bladesongs in the right order. The utilities except disenchanter are very low damage and your lowest prio. In particular, you are free to replace them all for cc or reflect or other stuff

[@xeridian]

Have they buffed Ranger spear yet or is it still the shittiest spear profession?

[@MuklukYoutube]

No buffs that I am aware of.

[@homage3]

Great video. Virt is a great build to recommend newer players looking to get into endgame content. Easily digestible rotation that is forgiving to pull off in real encounters.

[@MrQuay03]

It's mediocre in open world solo though

[@IllusionistZarran]

Watching this inspired me to try the Chrono Boon DPS variant and I am loving it! 😁

[@Alexfmzika]

The amount of times I`ve gotten oneshot by virt spear in WvW I cant even

[@lemonaj4408]

try odd

[@mateusserafim]

Thank Melandru, I thought I was the only one lol

[@DracoSWZ]

They removed Warrior Spear dodge mechanic but left Mesmer Spear 3 having a 1 sec invul + Condi cleanse + 4k heal They nerfed the other classes because they were doing 45k but Mesmer is still sitting at 46-47k The “balance team” bias in this game is so freaking annoying

[@TheBigManHimself20]

At least mesmer had a time where they weren't that strong, unlike guardian which were OP since the game's release.

[@HrabiaVulpes]

Virtuoso is broken as the best dps mesmer ever since release though

[@AtsAreStupid]

It's okay because they nerfed the healing power scaling of spear... to nerf only people who were running it on cele sets...

[@the2ndsaint]

They're atrocious at their jobs, but at least they've got the security of no one else being willing to touch it.

[@willdeit6057]

Nice one Muk

[@rain.l4621]

Do you do raid guides Muk? I don't wanna get into the new raid blind lol

[@MuklukYoutube]

I do yes! All of the raid guides I've made are listed here: mukluklabs.com/gw2-raid-guides I'm working on guides for the 3 new raid bosses now.

[@K.Dębski]

hi Muk love your guides, I'm creating one build for PVE general bc dont kave time for learning many builds, what is your opinnion on Condi Scrapper spear build that does 30k on golem (I'm avarage player that never done more than 35k dps even with new builds, is it ok to take it into raids)?

[@MuklukYoutube]

I haven't tried that one recently but 30k is more than enough for raids!

[@K.Dębski]

@@MuklukKZbin thx, tried to make holo work in OW but he was too much glass cannon but scrapper just kind of clicks with me after getting spear and wanted to make it work in raids so nice, thx one more time

[@itsshow710]

I always suggest Condi mechanist p/p to new trainees, it will do 34k without having a proper rotation and give you the basics for spear mechanist in the future where you can push all the way up to 44k. Condi mech p/p all you do is spam 4-3-2 go into Grenade kit and use 2/4/5 whenever they’re up and you’ll be doing 35k , auto cast mech skills f1/f2 if you want , leave f3 for manual cast for CC bars (it’s a dps loss don’t use for dps) if you want more info I can help you out. Also needless to say condi mech does all of this whilst being fully ranged, dps uptime is very high when having to do mechanics say like Deimos oils, your dps never drops.

[@K.Dębski]

@@itsshow710 ty for info but personally i just hate mech, he is good but clunky big and eyesore green, I would burnout by just trying him, but thx for info

[@merklyz]

I would stay away from condi Scrapper, because none of the traits scale with condi damage. In order to hit some decent numbers, you need to have 3 engi kits and rotate between them, which is pain. Power Scrapper is way to go and also easier to gear.

[@ilyakusenco8151]

Hope they’ll make power mirage a thing just like they make power harbinger a thing. Spear is extremely fun weapon with one of the best ambushes, but power mirage literally had no traits to use it. I hope Spear could be a weapon that would leverage devs to make power mirage a thing, just like Greatsword was a leverage for power harbi

[@WardenDios]

Something to note: Spear Virtuoso REALLY REALLY NEEDS alacrity and has no way to self-provide it. For this reason, I use Spear Chronomancer when I'm solo in open world.

[@Fishpasta4]

I use it on my Chrono, CC for days.

[@acceptance65]

Can i ask.. if i run assassin’s head and legs + berserkers amulet, will it be the same?

[@mizaru84]

@@acceptance65 I think the main aim is just to get enuf assassin's to get ur CRIT chance to be 70% unbuffed, so it will become 100% when u have fury

[@reconquer5176]

engi spear next please!! i was able to get 36k dps with full exotic gear on my condi mech and its super easy

[@rgentry9]

Agreed on this, spear condi mech is so good.

[@Sir_Scuttles]

If you're crit capped you shouldn't need to worry about the outer edge of the 2 spear skill, although it's still fun to do

[@Jackie-m8i]

you want to hit the outer edge to get clarity not because it is a guaranteed crit

[@Sir_Scuttles]

@@Jackie-m8i They changed it so clarity is granted regardless of distance as long as you hit something. The outer edge is only a guaranteed crit, which is pointless if you're crit capped

[@CyberDoedel]

Thank you for making this video, fellow human. I, too, like Gen 3 bacon (I'm sorry Mrs. Luk).

[@mizaru84]

Hmmm i usualkly go 2-> 5 for spear first. Cos 5 resets 2, so u can go 2-> 4 again immediately.

[@silverhalf8428]

You should go 2 > 4 > heal signet > 5 > 2 > 4, so you get both casts of the empowered 4 and can smoothly queue everything together

[@mizaru84]

@silverhalf8428 I see, cos on a couple of other video guides, the consensus was that the E of the spear is weak, so the Heal is used for the sword phantasm instead. Which was why I went 2,5,2,4

[@SquallSwift]

It's a real shame that these easy weapons and builds are great for new players! But they require to purchase and play recent expacs to use. I find this frustrating myself on my NA account 😢

[@arkanaloth2617]

I've been really suck on spear ele and necro so I haven't poked at spear mes, but I've wanted to.. think I'll check this out.

[@PlaysAsHessalam]

Spear 5 resets spear 2 so usually what I do is: 2 -> 5 -> 2 -> 4 -> swap when available

[@Noname09539]

If that combo is ever up for you, it means that you have stayed on spear for too long. If you're in a spread attack, that's fine but if DPS is possible, you should be on dagger by that point.

[@leftyzappa]

Let’s fight! No. Seriously … thank you 😊