Spellbreaker - DPS Spellbreaker

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Focused on: Strike damage, Dps and Boon removal

Designed for: WvW Zerg

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Hard

Overview

A Spellbreaker build for WvW. Combines high personal damage, good personal survivability and extreme boonrip.

Skill Bar

Weapon 1: Greatsword

Weapon 2:

Weapon 3: Hammer

Weapon 4:

Healing skill: Defiant Stance

Utility skill 1: Balanced Stance

Utility skill 2: "Shake It Off!"

Utility skill 3: Break Enchantments

Elite skill: Winds of Disenchantment

Variants

Weapons

• Hammer ⇒ Axe/Axe significantly better spike damage, but drops most CC and a lot of mobility
• Spear good DPS option with high range and utility

Utilities

• Banner of Tactics
• Endure Pain

Template Code

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Specializations

Strength: Bot, Mid, Top

Discipline: Mid, Mid, Bot

Variant

• Axe Mastery on Axe/Axe

Spellbreaker: Bot, Top, Top

Equipment

Rune: 6 Superior Rune of the Scholar

Infusion 1: 18 Mighty WvW Infusion

Infusion 2:

Relic: Relic of Nourys

Weapon 1: Greatsword

Weapon 2:

Sigil 1: Superior Sigil of Vision

Sigil 2: Superior Sigil of Hydromancy

Weapon 3: Hammer

Weapon 4:

Sigil 3: Superior Sigil of Absorption

Sigil 4: Superior Sigil of Nullification

Main stats: Marauder

Equipment Variants

Relics

• Relic of Speed
• Relic of the Thief

Stats

• Feel free to use as much Berserker's gear as you can without dying

Runes

• Superior Rune of Durability trades off damage for survivability

Sigils

• Superior Sigil of Energy
• Superior Sigil of Bloodlust

Consumables

• Fried Oyster Sandwich
  • Peppercorn-Crusted Sous-Vide Steak feast option with additional power and ferocity.
• Superior Sharpening Stone

Usage

Priorities

High

• Winds of Disenchantment
• Spike Damage

Moderate

• Sustained damage
• CC

Low

• Boon rip

Surviving

• This build has moderate passive defense
• This build has high mobility skill access
  • Use Whirlwind Attack to move out after spiking
  • Rush can be used for repositioning or gap closing
    • Drop your target if using it defensively
• This build has low active defenses
  • Balanced Stance gives Stability and makes you immune to critical hits for its duration, but is very important for protecting Winds of Disenchantment
  • If you think you're likely to completely die with no chance of being rezzed, use Balanced Stance to survive, but if you're likely to be rezzed by an allied Illusion of Life or Signet of Mercy, consider saving the cooldown for Winds of Disenchantment instead

Active defense priority

• "Shake It Off!" - for stunbreaking
• Balanced Stance - for stunbreaking
• Warrior's Sprint - for Immobilize
  • Whirlwind Attack
  • Rush
  • Earthshaker
• "Shake It Off!" - for Immobilize
• Dodge
• Defiant Stance
• Whirlwind Attack - general use
• Balanced Stance - general use

Detailed Explanations

Spike damage

• Arcing Slice ⇒ Full Counter ⇒ Arcing Slice
  • Full Counter should be used exclusively to reset the cooldown of Arcing Slice
  • To ensure Full Counter triggers, you can briefly move into hostile enemy ground pressure.
• If your adrenaline is too low, use Break Enchantments to activate Loss Aversion

Sustained damage

• Hundred Blades is situational. You stand still during channel, which means hitting CC'ed, movement impaired and downed foes is the ideal setup for this ability.
  • Making good use of Hundred Blades is critical to maximizing damage, look for any chance to get multiple ticks off
    • Delaying your Arcing Slice combo for Hundred Blades is worth it in low pressure situations where proccing Full Counter is not guaranteed
  • A stow weapon keybind is very useful to cancel Hundred Blades after enemies move out of the way
• Use Rush for single target damage even when already in melee

Skill priority

Greatsword

• Arcing Slice
• Full Counter - only while Arcing Slice on cooldown
• Hundred Blades
• Rush
• Bladetrail
• Whirlwind Attack - save to disengage

Hammer

• Fierce Blow
• Hammer Shock
• Earthshaker

CC

• Use your CC when:
  • Your group calls a spike:
    • Winds - Winds of Disenchantment
    • Wells - Well of Corruption+Well of Suffering
    • Shades - Desert Shroud
    • Traps - Procession of Blades+Test of Faith
  • On top of enemy downs (while alive players are on top of them)
  • Enemy groups moving defensively while your group is pushing
• Much of your boon rip comes from CC due to the synergies between Dispelling Force, Superior Sigil of Absorption and Enchantment Collapse
  • Since you need to actually apply the stun/daze/knockdown to proc your trait/sigil synergies, make sure to target enemy players and watch their boon bar, only prioritizing CCing over boon rip when they run out of Stability
• Aim Earthshaker to the side of enemy groups instead of center mass to avoid damage. The AoE is large enough to still catch 5 targets.
• Full Counter should be used exclusively to reset the cooldown of Arcing Slice, only use it on hammer if you will die without using it
  • To ensure Full Counter triggers, you can briefly move into hostile enemy ground pressure.
• Be careful with the knockback of Staggering Blow, the skill is not worth casting if it will move enemies out of damage
• Backbreaker is a single target CC and very slow cast, its best use is following up on a player singled out by other CC and unable to avoid it

CC priority

• Earthshaker - only when enemies lack Stability
• Staggering Blow - only when enemies lack Stability
• Backbreaker - only when enemies lack Stability
• Full Counter - only when enemies lack Stability

Boon rip

• Land Winds of Disenchantment on the enemy group while your group is in range to follow up with a spike
  • Communicate while casting, let your team know if it gets interrupted and whether it's available or not
  • Make sure Balanced Stance is ready every time Winds of Disenchantment is and use it immediately before starting the cast to protect it
  • It is worth casting Whirlwind Attack just to get into a better position for Winds of Disenchantment, even if it hits no enemies
• Break Enchantments is a great way to proc Loss Aversion to give you enough Adrenaline for Arcing Slice