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If you consider legendary bounty soloes a priority, stick to celestial. It's the better tool for the job. The same applies any time you're struggling with sustain in solo play. The damage on viper is only worth taking if you aren't having to play defensively. Once you do that you give up any DPS advantage you had and celestial will be the better option. Edit: FWIW I did try to get you a video of it. The legendary hydras are doable in Viper as most of their damage is avoidable. Unfortunately, it spawned with ley energy buildup and the constant damage ticks were too much. I finished the fight but went down a couple of times. Just another reason celestial is the better option when there's too much unavoidable incoming damage.

Untamed is very strong! However, there is a bit of a trick at play here. You can see when I mouse over the damage breakdown at the end of the clip there's an ability called "Shed" contributing 12% damage. That's the skill the dogs use that creates fire puddles on the ground, which I reflected onto the boss. Without that, this probably would have taken about 3 seconds longer.

@@HardcoreCasualGW2 Thank you for the reply! 3 seconds longer? I'm on a level where beating Balthazar solo is a big feat in and of itself, and it usually takes minutes. And you talk about +3 seconds :D I'm playing Untamed right now, full exotic zerker, and I can never crit for more than 6k. Sure, my build is more on the defensive side, but still, the difference is staggering. Oh, I just understand now what you mean by reflecting the fires. That's a neat trick indeed!

@@matejzajacik8496 Berserker gear is just part of it. There are a ton of damage boosters, boons, and synergies involved in pumping that damage up, so even with the same class and same stats on your gear you can get dramatically different results. If you're only getting 6k crits you must have made quite a few tradeoffs for defense. And honestly, I don't think you really need them with Untamed. It has great sustain without having to sacrifice any damage at all. You might give the linked build a try. When you're constantly critting for 20, 30, 40k+ it's a whole different game!

@@HardcoreCasualGW2 I just might! I'll try the exact same build and rotations you do in the video to see if I can get closer to your numbers. I didn't think just a few tweaks to the build would make such a big difference, but I was apparently wrong. Thanks!

It shouldn't be too difficult to follow. It's only a 24 second fight, not a full golem rotation.

I don't see how that's possible. Just auto-attacking with sword with pet on auto (which generates almost none of the critical boons/vulnerability that you need to really deal damage with this build) is still 11k DPS (yes, I tested that to be sure!). Even if you're just pushing buttons at random you can't help but land CC which will give you those boons and massively boost your DPS far higher than the 11k baseline. You'd literally have to stop attacking to manage less. I think there must be some differences in the build to explain that.

It's linked in the comments below the video, although I would recommend a couple of changes to the linked build. Relic of the Claw released with Janthir Wilds expansion and is a little bit better than Relic of the Thief. Also, I used Clarion Bond here which is useless if you aren't swapping pets, so you can take Stoneform instead. It won't impact DPS, but it does give you a good defensive cooldown if needed.

The main thing on this boss is not to get hit by the knockdown. You have enough evades, blocks, barrier/healing and CC to keep your health up while staying on offense otherwise. But with no stunbreak getting hit by the knockdown is pretty much game over.

I guess you could say that. There's a lot less margin for error and you're only gaining maybe 20% DPS over celestial.

Additionally celestial already reaches the sweet spot for toughness so you are not proportionally wasting stats contratry to giver Celestial is THE stat for open world... especially for Ele If enough gold is available for a second equip slot aaand a full celestial set its always better ❤

@@Cross_111 On the other hand, this was 21% more damage than my celestial set on the same build and for the vast majority of open world including most champions I'm comfortable using Viper. So, like I do on Untamed, I tend to use the higher damage build most of the time, only switching to high sustain for where it's really needed. But for that I agree celestial is a great option!

@@HardcoreCasualGW2 very much true that most encounters in open world do not need that level of sustain I also tend to switch in open world between a pure power dps build for most content and switch to the tanky open world build/equipment when the situation demands it But from the standpoint of a newer or a bit less experienced player i definitely recommend a full fledged open world setup 🤗

Relic of the Fractal is the go-to choice for most condition builds since SotO. It adds a significant source of damage on a moderate cooldown. But there may be some other utility/sustain options available if you prefer. I just don't find I want for anything but more damage on cele weaver.

Sword/focus weaver is naturally pretty solid defensively (for an ele, anyway!), with two extra evades, two sources of projectile block/reflect, and constant light barrier and healing. Add to it some protection uptime, an additional source of block with final shielding, and extra heal on swap, and evasive arcana effects and using toughness/vitality gear it's pretty easy to sustain even against champions.

Thanks! I admit it's a weird place to find myself. I've never been a fan of pet classes. Too passive, generally. But Untamed manages to make it feel like the pet is almost like just having extra skills on your bar. It's more interactive while having less reliance on passive pet mechanics. I also dislike cat people in video games because, like FFXIV for example, they tend to be weird hyper-sexualized furries. The Charr are great because they're decidedly not that way. They're grotesque and beastial, with a violent warlike culture to match! I can deal with this vision of cat people!

I tried more standard golem testing as well and the results were pretty meh, about 15% lower DPS than I saw on sword/axe. That tracks with this open world champion test where the difference is a bit less due to the short duration of the fight. But 15% is significant, especially when you consider the weapon is slower due to the stealth requirement and has less CC and utility. The slower attacks mean you can't squeeze those strikes in between enemy attacks as easily, and that really starts to impact DPS in these champion solo conditions. It's not terrible, but I definitely wouldn't pick spear over sword or hammer. I think it needs some work to make it worth choosing over these other weapons.

Sorry, I probably copy/pasted the build from another video and forgot to switch it. That trait choice is pretty much irrelevant in terms of output, so you're free to take stone form for an extra emergency button on your emergency button!

@@HardcoreCasualGW2 All good, that is what I did anyway. Just pointing it out for newer players wondering. Maybe change it to Stone Form in the build link, since that makes the most sense.

If it's any consolation, I don't think there's any additional reward for coming in 1st place? And to offer an alternative POV, GW2's movement systems (i.e. mounts, gliders, and associated skills) are excellent and events like these offer an opportunity to put them to use!

Well, my sword DPS benchmark on this champion is 36.6k DPS...

It's probably pretty similar, with advantage to scepter where bosses are difficult to stay on top of for 100% melee uptime. I just prefer sword. Plus videos would be pretty lame if I just kite around using scepter, right? :)

Just use my build! No Let Loose = problem solved!

You could use a similar build for catalyst, but catalyst being a more power-oriented spec I don't know that it will be an improvement. I use both fire/earth and fire/arcane. I think for trailblazer especially earth is better as you have the 10% conversion of toughness to condition damage.

@@HardcoreCasualGW2ok sir tq so much.. i started play this game and direct follow all ur trailbbzer build wit trapper rune.. im still newbie 3month. . I play scepter dagger for ur same build trailbzer trapper rune.. still can ya sir?

@@hizbullahawaludin6094 If the question is does the trailblazer fire/earth build work well with scepter/dagger? Yes, it does.

@@HardcoreCasualGW2 ok tq so much sir. I follow all ur build.. i tested it out on weaver is more dmg compare catalyts.. just weaver abit hard for me to play. So i just use all same build to cata.. 😨

Yes, and while it can't keep up with the best solo builds out there, as you can see it's not as bad as the community might have you believe.

I have an old video up on the channel doing mushroom queen in grieving gear. It's just really not ideal because without either crazy high burst (like my untamed mushroom queen video) or high passive sustain and/or healing there is no way to stand at melee against her. You have no choice but to kite, which doesn't look or feel all that skillful. It's more fun when you have some high damage attacks you can actually avoid like with the frog or arrowhead!

​@@HardcoreCasualGW2 oh perhaps a video on the Tangled Depths Mordrem Champion (archer) HP or another To Kill a God Balthazar fight with Viper gear? Just love watching your Weaver dance around bosses.

@@ivanicguildmember2844 I went ahead and got you a clip of "To Kill a God" on viper weaver. I don't think I have the patience to get one of the Archer. Since you can't control which of the three bosses spawn and any time a mordrem Desolator add spawns I basically just reset the fight and start over (gotta love adds that are invulnerable until they feel like letting you hit them but spam leap attacks that take half your health per hit!), plus the usual dealing with other players showing up in the middle of the fight.

Does it, though? You have to give up too much for everything on catalyst. Want stability, increased damage, or passive stats? Sorry, no boons. You can take sustain utilities, too. But so can weaver...if you want to lose even more damage when your DPS is already way lower than something like untamed. Maybe I'm wrong? But I've yet to see a tanky solo catalyst doing better damage than weaver. What kind of DPS do you think catalyst can get in solo play?

@@HardcoreCasualGW2 Are you sure? Catalyst is widely known for spitting out most boons left and right, through the Arcane trait line, spamming jade spheres, and hammer orbs (if you take hammer). Can't argue against the damage factor, but like I said, the risk/reward factor is there in the complex high APM playstyle, and the tankiness is there thanks to Rocky Loop and Earth Jade Sphere

You have to figure if you're taking hammer that means you aren't taking sword/focus. Catalyst also lacks the condi boosts that weaver has, but if you go power can you match cele weaver's damage? But even then cele weaver is much tankier than berserker catalyst.

I'm fine if it's just personal quickness. That would keep it in line with the "selfish DPS" concept. But at this point their quest to give every spec alac/quickness has resulted in most other specs having access to self-quickness/alac on their solo builds while weaver just gets shafted. Which is a shame because its arguably the spec that needs alac and quickness the most to really shine! It feels like you just can't fit your skills into those attunement swap windows without it!

Yeah, it seems to have the right stuff for a good build. I dunno, I guess I am not a huge fan of death drop though.

@@HardcoreCasualGW2 yeah, you either like that one or you don't.

For the purposes of this video, I included no weapon swap. You just camp sword/axe, which is a core weapon set. And just to clarify, unlike my usual open world content this is intended for use in raids/strikes.

Oh now there's a question! Mask of the Silent, Runic Hunter's Shoulders and Coat, Stalker Gloves, Obsidian Leggings, Rebel Long Boots, Banner of the Bastion of Strength, and the weapons are Honor of Humanity and Krytan Axe.

@@HardcoreCasualGW2 Nice. Even tho you can only see the back of your character, It still looks pretty cool 👍

Well darn, I didn't try that!

Okay, I tried it out. It seems to be well below hammer and sword, closer to axe in damage. It seems like it would have good opening burst, but is a bit lacking in sustained damage. Also did maces and they were in the same ballpark as greatsword and axe.

Greatsword sorta sucks on Untamed because it's balanced around the two handed training trait, which increases it's damage and decreases it's cooldowns. You've just tested it and found out the end result, and there generally isn't a good way to work greatsword onto untamed because beastmastery is that bad of a traitline. I think its important to note that swapping weapons generally relies on an increase in value elsewhere to be truly beneficial- as much as I want greatsword to be good on untamed, it doesn't provide much of anything that is uniquely useful. If you need a block, take White Tiger or Stone Spirit for the Aegis. If you need mobility, hammer and sword both have movement skills. Axes have minor utility in 900 range skills, but you want to be in melee for those axe 5s and the shotgun blast axe 2s. Maces are the only weapon (if you're going for efficacy) that I'd swap in for sword/axe, because maces provide boons and group healing that, while not super necessary, is untouchable by any other (effective) power weapon set on untamed, and can generate value with soloheal squad comps. Greatsword actually has one of the better unleash ambush skills, but it's not enough to offset what is effectively 10% less damage and 20% higher cooldown that builds that can run beastmastery (aka power soulbeast) get on greatsword.

@@rainbowturtle I came to the same conclusions. I just tested it because somebody asked about it. I do bring maces as a swap when using this build. They're good for trash clearing since sword is limited in number of targets and they also bring huge CC on top of the utility from defensive boons, healing, and barrier. This is all of limited use in group content, but it does come into play sometimes. But in my open world build maces are amazing as they provide extremely powerful sustain as well as powering quickness via Enhancing Impact. This allows me to take Ferocious Symbiosis for 25% damage boost instead of Let Loose while still maintaining quickness uptime!

I do, although for this purpose it's possible hammer could work better. I'm not sure.

Thanks! No, hadn't thought about it. I just use the max level glide booster. Really handy in open world!

If you want high sustain with solid damage fire/earth condi tempest works. I play weaver but you can use the same build for tempest.

@@HardcoreCasualGW2 Thanks, I think I might try weaver with a condi build instead then.

@@OlsenOfficial Here's a recent clip of celestial arcane weaver: th-cam.com/video/N9Y1fwDLHWI/w-d-xo.html You might also try trailblazer fire/earth. Both have great sustain and solid damage. The arcane build has better recovery while the trailblazer build has slightly better damage and stronger passive sustain.

Nope! This build is a joy to play! But we'll see what happens with the new expansion coming.

@@HardcoreCasualGW2 How about catalyst? eager to hear and see how you play the class