User:Masel/Builds/Vindicator

 Power Dual Swords Vindicator

Build Rating (Subjective)

Criterion	Rating
Burst Damage	5/5
Sustained Damage	5/5
Utility Options	4/5
Survivability	5/5
Difficulty	2/5

 Power  Vindicator is a very strong and straightforward damage build for instanced content. The iteration provided here uses Dual Swords, but it works in a similar way with Hammer and Greatsword too.  Vindicator also a great pick for solo gameplay, as it can provide itself with good amounts of the most essential offensive and defensive boons:  Quickness,  Protection,  Fury and  Might. Through its frequent Dodges, it can avoid a lot of incoming damage and therefore be quite survivable, even in damage gear.

Link to the Build on the Editor

Playstyle & Skills

Skill Type	Skills
Vindicator Skills
Dual Sword Skills
Hammer Skills
Utility Skills (Legendary Assassin Stance)
Utility Skills (Legendary Alliance Stance)

Dodge &  Tenacious Ruin

• On  Vindicator, your Dodge becomes an integral part of your damage rotation. Instead of diving into a specific direaction, it causes you to "jump" into the Mists and deal damage upon landing by default.
• With  Forerunner of Death, you gain 25% Strike damage done for 10 seconds whenever you Dodge. This is one of the strongest single damage modifiers in the game. It is therefore crucial to Dodge at least once every 10 seconds.
• That's not a problem though, because   Death Drop is great damage while providing that damage modifier.
• The Dodge requirement is reinforced by  Leviathan Strength, which increases your damage done when your Endurance is not full.

  Energy Meld

• Another part of the profession mechanics is   Energy Meld.
• By default, this grants you 25 Endurance for 10 Energy.
• In the damage rotation, we'll use  Reaver's Curse to reduce the cooldown of   Energy Meld and double the damage that our Dodges deal.
• In case you want to have extra Energy on demand, you can also make use of   Angsiyan's Trust. This removes the Energy cost and grants 25 Energy instead. This can be helpful if you want to use costly skills.

Rotation Concept

Opener

For the opener, start in   Legendary Alliance Stance.

• Use   Energy Meld and   Spear of Archemorus.   Spear of Archemorus deals damage with a ~3 second delay, allowing you to precast it without entering combat immediately.
• Then Dodge right after to make use of the buff from  Reaver's Curse and to benefit from  Forerunner of Death and  Leviathan Strength immediately.
• Use   Shackling Wave,   Deathstrike and   Chilling Isolation.
• Swap to   Legendary Assassin Stance and activate   Impossible Odds.

General Rotation

The general rotation involves swapping between   Legendary Alliance Stance and   Legendary Assassin Stance and using a list of priority damage skills on cooldown.

• In  Legendary Assassin Stance, you start with 50 Energy.
•   Impossible Odds will cost 5 Energy for its activation and then drain 1 point per second over a 10 second duration. You can thus spend ~35 energy in total.
• Always use   Chilling Isolation twice to maintain Relic of the Thief. This costs 10 Energy

Additionally, you should spend Energy for the following skills:

1.   Energy Meld,
2.   Shackling Wave and
3.   Deathstrike.

• Swap to   Legendary Alliance Stance as soon as it becomes available.
• You usually dont have enough energy to use all three of the skills listed before. It's not a big deal, just skip one of them and use it in   Legendary Alliance Stance later.
•   Legendary Alliance Stance is more liberal on Energy usage, as it does not include an Upkeep skill.
• Always start and end   Legendary Alliance Stance with   Spear of Archemorus. This is the strongest single skill on it and it has a ~10 second cooldown with  Alacrity, meaning you can only use it twice without delaying the rotation when you use it as the first skill. This will slightly delay the swap to   Legendary Assassin Stance.
• Use the same skills as listed before on cooldown.
• On top of those, you can use   Nomad's Advance twice and still have enough energy to use   Spear of Archemorus a second time towards the end.
• After the second cast of   Spear of Archemorus, repeat from  Legendary Assassin Stance.

Alternative Juggernaut Rotation

This alternative rotation uses Greatsword and Hammer to fulfil everyone's juggernaut dreams!
Link to a log
The rotation concept includes three steps: an opening section, Greatsword paired with  Legendary Assassin Stance and Hammer paired with  Legendary Alliance Stance. We're going to empower Dodges with  Reaver's Curse throughout the rotation. This doubles the damage! Opener The opener is the same as above, but with Hammer skills instead of Sword Skills prior to swapping to  Legendary Assassin Stance. Use   Drop the Hammer,   Field of the Mists and   Coalescence of Ruin, Loop Section 1:   Legendary Assassin Stance Swap to  Legendary Assassin Stance and activate   Impossible Odds right away. Swap to Dual Swords. Then, use the following skills:   Chilling Isolation x 3   Shackling Wave x 1   Deathstrike x 1 As soon as   Legendary Alliance Stance becomes available, swap to it. Loop Section 2:   Legendary Alliance Stance Always start   Legendary Alliance Stance with   Spear of Archemorus. Swap to Hammer. Then, use the following skills:   Energy Meld x 2   Coalescence of Ruin x 3   Field of the Mists x 1   Drop the Hammer x 1 After the second cast of   Spear of Archemorus, swap to   Legendary Assassin Stance and repeat from there.

CC Skills for Defiance bar damage

• Depending on your secondary weapon:

1. Staff:   Surge of the Mists
2. Hammer:   Drop the Hammer
3. Shortbow:   Scorchrazor

•   Reaver's Rage
•   Jade Winds - do not use, this is way too expensive.

Gear

Important Stats in Hero Panel (descending in Importance):

1. At least 50% Critical Chance:  Fury together with  Roiling Mists give the remaining 50%.
2. Maximize Ferocity
3. Maximize Power

Gear

Armor	Prefix	Rune
Head	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter
Shoulders	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter
Chest	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter
Gloves	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter
Legs	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter
Boots	Berserker's	Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter
Trinket	Prefix
Amulet	Berserker's
Ring 1	Berserker's
Ring 2	Berserker's
Accessory 1	Berserker's
Accessory 2	Berserker's
Backpack	Berserker's
Weapon	Prefix	Sigil
Sword (Main Hand)	Berserker's	Superior Sigil of Force
Sword (Off Hand)	Berserker's	Superior Sigil of Air
Purpose	Item Type	Source
Damage	Ascended Food	Cilantro Lime Sous-Vide Steak
Damage	Non-Ascended Food	Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup
Survivability	Ascended Food	Peppercorn-Crusted Sous-Vide Steak
Survivability	Non-Ascended Food	Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew
Damage	Utility	Potent Superior Sharpening Stone
Survivability	Utility	Potion Of Karka Toughness
Damage	Relic	Relic of the Thief

• For a budget variant, simply replace all ascended armor pieces of Berserker's with rare/exotic Berserker's.
• Superior Rune of the Scholar and Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter are basically equivalent in terms of damage, use whichever you have or is cheaper.

Traits

Invocation
Devastation
Vindicator

DPS Rotation Showcase

You can find my most recent rotation showcase here.

Open World Build

Link to the open world build in the editor

• You can slap on a Superior Sigil of Accuracy for a minor damage gain over Superior Sigil of Air.

You can find my most recent open world build showcase here.

For OW, it can make sense to make a build more forgiving, so that you can sustain on your own.

Increasing General Survivability

• First off, I'd like to clarify that  Power  Vindicator is not a build I'd recommend for soloing very hard content, at least when it comes to boss fights. Almost every increase to survivability you make on  Power  Vindicator comes at around a 1-to-1 tradeoff in damage.
• For the vast majority of open world content however, it is enough to change to  Dance of Death in  Devastation and swap out   Legendary Assassin Stance for   Legendary Dwarf Stance:

1.  Dance of Death makes hits after applying  Vulnerability steal health via   Battle Scars, passively healing you. Dual Swords synergize very well with this trait, as they hit frequently and apply  Vulnerability on the auto attack chain and   Shackling Wave.
2.   Vengeful Hammers reduces all incoming damage by 20% while it is active, triggers   Battle Scars often and heals you every time it hits. This makes it priority number one in   Legendary Dwarf Stance. Generate   Battle Scars with Dodge, Auto Attacks or   Shackling Wave.
3.   Forced Engagement reduces damage taken from its targets by 33% and applies ~300 Defiance bar damage over its duration. That is very strong, dont underestimate this!
4.  Angsiyan's Trust gives you Endurance and Energy on demand via, which is great to sustain   Vengeful Hammers for longer or provide yourself and allies with stability via   Inspiring Reinforcement.

• Second, using Hammer can help avoid damage that you'd otherwise take by kiting at range. Especially with  Vassals of the Empire, losing the damage from the dodge isnt a big deal anyway.
• Hammer also removes the requirement to run to every mob in open world through its high range, allowing you to kill them from range. It does pretty good damage after the buffs to it. Both   Coalescence of Ruin and   Drop the Hammer are strong for damage!
• It has a short-cooldown Block (via  Aegis and Projectile blocking) with   Field of the Mists and a short-cooldown Evade with   Phase Smash.

To fully bunker down for very difficult content, you can make additional adjustments.

Salvation  Unyielding Devotion reduces incoming damge by 15%.  Resilient Spirit will also grant you Barrier for each unique boon you have on you.  Eluding Nullification cleanses a condition and   Healer's Gift heals you and allies whenever you Dodge. You can replace any piece of Berserker's gear with Knight's, giving you  Toughness in exchange for  Power and  Ferocity. This is a 1-to-1 tradeoff in damage, but can provide a more relaxed experience. Use  Vassals of the Empire in  Vindicator. Covering  Protection is pretty massive, and this also grants a few stacks of  Might on dodge! Stacking these defensive options will make you basically unkillable, but also makes you hit like a wet noodle.

Boon Coverage

• If you want to acquire a good chunk of Boon duration at a relatively low damage tradeoff, you can swap in a few Diviner's Trinkets, as they are very cheap.
•   Legendary Alliance Stance allows you to cover essential offensive boons quite easily:

1.   Selfish Spirit applies both  Might and  Vulnerability while healing you for a lot with a very short cooldown. Use this on cooldown, it is really strong!
2.   Nomad's Advance is a mobility skill that also applies additional  Might to you. Use it to cover ground.
3.   Scavenger Burst covers  Quickness and  Fury, especially in AoE scenarios. Prioritize using Energy for this when you're alone, it only has a 3 second cooldown! With  Incensed Response, you will grant additional  Might to yourself as well.

• As explained before,  Vassals of the Empire will cover a good uptime on  Protection as long as you keep dodging.
• I further like to use Relic of Evasion for full access to  Vigor, but it isn't required.
• If you don't want to spend the money for the relic, you can keep the Relic of the Thief and use Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew for close to the same effect. It is cheaper, but removes the ability to use other survivability food.
• If you can, make use of   Jade Tech Offensive Overcharge and   Jade Tech Defensive Overcharge give 150 additional Toughness, Vitality, Condition Damage and Power as well as all boons aside from  Stability,  Resistance and  Resolution on entering combat, with a 90 second cooldown. The free stats are very nice to have, especially for harder open world content.
• In story instances (or if you don't want the hassle of reapplying protocols), you can abuse the synergy between Relic of the Cavalier and   Blast from the Skyscale to apply lots of  Aegis,  Resistance,  Might and  Quickness to yourself.   Blast places a damaging field, and the Boons apply on every hit of the damage field. Just mount up and press the engage skill right after to cast it instantly.

Dealing with Conditions and Control effects

•   Soothing Stone cleanses multiple conditions.
• You can also put on a Superior Sigil of Purity on another cheap exotic Berserker's weapon. Simply swap to that weapon when you encounter condition-heavy enemies.
•   Cleansing Channel cleanses 1 condition on every Legend swap, but costs a 10% damage modifier from   Rising Tide.
•   Inspiring Reinforcement gives pulsing  Stability to yourself and allies, allowing you to ignore incoming Control effects. Since it is expe
•   Reaver's Rage and   Rite of the Great Dwarf are your two Stun breaks. With  Contained Temper, you will gain 15 Energy back, making   Reaver's Rage free of charge and   Rite of the Great Dwarf cost 25 Energy .   Rite of the Great Dwarf is still pretty expensive, but also reduces incoming damage by 50% for 5 seconds.