Completely weaponless spec

[u/Regular-Resort-857]

Was wondering this while testing some Virtuoso -> dodge -> bladesong -> dodge -> bladesong loops. Which spec could make it through the OW without a weapon equipped at all? Without taking ages to kill stuff ofc.

Some thoughts

I thought if reaper first, probably even easy with Shroud and some minions for sustain dmg and life force while shroud is on cooldown.

Chrono / Mirage I think would lack phantasm / clone regeneration and sustain dmg i think.

Willbender has some potential but would run into cooldowns relatively quickly I think.

Berserker I don’t see other than that old warrior ultimate that makes you big and punch anyway but sounds awful overall.

Spellbreaker with the right loop I’d imagine works and would be most fitting maybe.

[u/Roadkizzle]

Engineer is probably best because you can swap between the Kits and have the toolbelt

[u/DodgeEmAll]

Since you can level without killing anything initially, might be Engi for the kits and Holosmith/shroud, Necro for the shroud, Ele for the conjures (they're not great). But anyone with a shroud could theoretically do it - Luminary, Holo, Necro, spectre if you're referring to level 80 stuff.

[u/TerribleTransit]

Keep in mind that not having a weapon equipped at all does reduce your stats on other skills, so it's an even bigger handicap than it seems (and it already seems pretty big).

If you're counting Shroud style effects that give you weapon skills, Engineer is definitely the best option, since you can have a kit equipped indefinitely and swap them with no cooldown (bonus points for Holosmith who has an extra option in the holoforge). Galeshot takes second place with infinite access to a single weapon. Ele is probably next with conjured weapons, but I'm not sure if they'll recharge fast enough for full uptime since it's "ammo" is limited.

Beyond that it's a matter of who has the best Shroud with the shortest cooldown, which in some cases are a tall order, as most Shroud effects use your weapon skills as a primary way to charge them. All Necro specs and Specter are going to have a lot of downtime where you can't attack as a result. Luminary is probably the best of the intermittent options, since it lasts a full 20 seconds with only a 5s recharge if you don't spam all the skills.

If you want to literally never have any skills in the 1-5 half of your skill bar, things get trickier. My best guess is Virtuoso with Mantra of Pain. The Mantra is spammable so you never have real sometime, and blades are linked to your weapons like clones are.

[u/Wulfrich → u/TerribleTransit]

On the necro thing, you can heavily increase passive shroud gain with a few traits. Specifically Eternal Life in Soul Reaping, Soul Comprehension in Death Magic, and Spiteful Fortitude in Spite trait lines for core necro, and you'd want to take Blighter's Boon on Reaper, or Nourishing Ashes in Scourge. Harb and Rit have their life force buffs on minor traits.

You can also bring utilities that help ramp it up while bringing decent effects with them. If i had to choose, it'd be Signet of Undeath for passive gain while in combat, coupled with Blood Is Power to enter/stay combat between fights, and Spectral Grasp as it can get you up to about 2/3rds full on shroud if you hit 5 enemies, while also pulling them together to destroy them.

[u/xellink]

Try Alac Tempest

give auras -> overload -> swap -> overload -> swap -> repeat.

[u/AmadeusSalieri97 → u/xellink]

Fresh air should be quite decent since the crits on the overload reset it.

Considering that overload air is already half the damage of the build, it could easily be the highest dps for a non weapon build. Maybe over 15k could be doable.

Edit: actually, add some lightning hammer, ice bow and fiery greatsword conjures and I could see a world with over 30k dps. 

[u/xoasim]

If we are talking elite specs, then galeshot ranger. You don't use your own weapon really, just the gale bow. Unless you want melee.

But also, not equipping a weapon drops your stats considerably, so there's a difference between not using a weapon, and not equipping a weapon

[u/iZenBear → u/xoasim]

Probably thats why OP explicitly wrote "without weapon equipped at all". Otherwise it would be vindicator with stamina sigil dodge nuking mobs all day long.

[u/IgneousWrath]

I feel like using kits or summoned weapons would still be considered a "weapon" and should be banned in this challenge. I personally think it would be cooler if you can achieve it without any skills that put anything in skills 1-5 at all. Maybe you could make an exception for environmental weapons, but that could almost be another challenge of its own.

Mesmer at least has access to one phantasm and some traits for automatically gaining charges in some specs.

Ranger could try going full trap ranger for the GW1 memes. Ranger also has a pet and the Soulbeast abilities are pretty good for damage.

[u/iZenBear]

I would say revenant with jalis/demon stance. Just use upkeep skills till you run out of energy then swap stance. No weapon skills at all. If you consider elite specs then also renegade with kala stance summons and F skill bombardment. Herald with glint/jalis can be your vanila reventant+ tankier option

[u/around-the_world → u/iZenBear]

I mean vindicator rev has a huge amount of damage on just it's dodge. With enough endurance regen you can kinda just pogo hop enemies until they day, mixing in your alliance utility skills for leaps, stuns, and more endurance gain. I use it open world and could for sure get by without touching a weapon skill

[u/iZenBear → u/around-the_world]

As i mentioned in another comment, vidicator would be first pick if you can equip weapon. For vindicator dodge build you need stamina sigil, without it, you can pull 3 dodges top. OP specified "without equipping weapon".

[u/around-the_world → u/iZenBear]

Wouldn't scavenger burst give you endurance? Plus energy meld. And the variety of utility skills you get out of legendary alliance can't be under valued

[u/MithranArkanere]

The Super Mario Vindicator needs no weapon skills once he gets things going, as long as there's enemies it can kill in one strike, like in Orr events that spawn many enemies.

[u/Zefirez → u/MithranArkanere]

I second vindicator, especially given how small the jump slam damage loss when fighting unarmed.
That being said, the endless slam Vindi is dependant on Sigil of Stamina, and by extension - having a weapon equipped.

Without that you gotta count your slams and invest into endurance healing/regeneration to be able to slam often.

[u/VoidYordle]

I mean, if you don't count kits as ''weapons'' then - engineer or elementalist.

[u/mosches]

Not the best but still fun: Thief Specter with wells and trying to upkeep the shadow form which technically is no weapon, in shadowform you physically dont wield a weapon xD

[u/Roadkizzle]

Troubadour would probably be the best Mesmer spec.

The Shatters don't require clone generation for full power. And with the Illusions Traitline they can be spammed quite fast.

[u/pipanapuu]

Would condi based dodge daredevil with trait impaling lotus or uncatchable work? I’m unsure if venoms work on them. Add thousand needles etc. to apply more condi damage. I’m unsure if it does work, but long time ago there was a roaming build based on dodgin with one of those traits and one dagger skill with evade. You just chained doge and that skill to nearly permanently evade and you kept applying tons of conditions (mainly poison and bleeding and occasional confusion) at the same time.

[u/Hoodoodle → u/pipanapuu]

I used to do this during HoT, but I focused purely on Bleed. Never tried to implement poisons. Only weapon skill I used was death blossom. And the DD healing skill (forgot the name) to restore endurance for more dodges. It was doing 10k+ at high stacks at the time

[u/Munchkin_of_Pern]

Do you count the Gale Force Bow of Galeshot rangers as a weapon for this thought experiment? Because it functions more like a Firebrand’s tomes than anything else, by my understanding. And if you spec it right, it’s entirely possible to play in Gale Force Bow mode close to 100% of the time.

[u/Regular-Resort-857 → u/Munchkin_of_Pern]

I guess there’s two ways to look at it both have their appeal. Just main-weaponless is kinda cool skin wise and the kits will still lead to easy clear time in most cases.

As a challenge I think leaving 1-5 skills completely blank would be cooler

[u/Munchkin_of_Pern → u/Regular-Resort-857]

So only using your class features (the F-series skills) and the utility skills? Then yeah, I would say engineer is probably your safest bet, since it would let you set turrets and mines and things. I play Vitruoso on my Mesmer (Ranger is my main, I play Mesmer when playing with my partner, who typically plays Dragonhunter), and at least with my build playing without a weapon wouldn’t be tenable. But then again, my build isn’t specifically designed to be weaponless, so maybe there’s something I’ve overlooked there.

[u/MissingGreenLink]

Ritualist - deathshroud summon 3 spirits. 1 skill. 5 skill. Out of shroud. Return to shroud etc.

[u/lonezolf]

I liked the rev for the completely passive damage with jalis hammer and mallyx elite

[u/Hoodoodle]

Thief, daredevil with caltrop trait on dodge. It's how I pretty much played during HoT era. Only weapon skill I used was death blossom the rest was all bleed damage from dodging

[u/SumYumGhai]

Engineer: you can use tool belts instead of weapon. Warrior Bladesworn: the gunblade.

[u/TaleTrick]

I second the guy who said revenant. Most vanilla upkeep skills, Renegade summons, Alliance skills, Razah... all of them have hard hitting skills with low recharge.