Guide to Weapon Swaps, Suggested by Eddie

Okay, well, Eddie suggested a while back some body make a guide to weapon swaps for people who like to do PvP and so they can learn how they work.

What are Weapon Swaps?
At the bottum-right of your screen (in the normal GW interface), there are from two to four different weapon set bubbles that you can see. Weapon swaps are highly used in GvG and can help make your character alot more effective.

How do they work?
Each weapon swap you have usually has weapons with different inscriptions (and other mods) to them which you can swap between to get the different effects from to make your character work optimally.

Why run Weapon Swaps?
Theres a few reasons why people run weapon swaps in GW:

1. Energy Hiding - Mesmers and Necromancers sometimes run something called 'Energy Denial' against casters that are on your team in PvP. You can avoid being full 'Energy Denied' by swapping to your weapon swap that has the lowest energy. By doing this, they can only deny the ammount you have in your lowest energy pool. You can easily just swap to a higher set, cast, then swap back down to avoid being E-Denied.

2. Damage Prevention - The first swap (with few exceptions) any caster should run would be a swap with a shield in it. By running a shield, even without meeting the attribute, you gain half the armor that the shield grants you if you meet its' requirement. For example, on a 60 armor character such as an elementalist, if you run a shield, you would have a global 68 armor. It may not seem like much, but it REALLY does help your monks out and lets you live longer. If your full team does this, it really is substantial how much it helps your monks.

3. Damage Prevention 2 - You can further reduce the damage that you take by carrying an assortment of types of shields around with you. On shields, there are some inscriptions such as the "Riders on the Storm" and "Sleep Now in the Fire" which you can keep swaps of in your back pack and swap to according to what you see your enemy is running most of. In HA, we usually swap to "Riders on the Storm" when we approach a Ritualist-Spike team as it gives us +10 armor against all of their attacks. You can do this with other inscriptions corresponding to whatever the enemy runs.

Usually, I atleast bring shields with "Riders on the Storm", "Sleep Now in the Fire", "The Riddle of Steel", "Through Thick and Thin", and if you are a warrior you might want to think about ones with "I Can see Clearly Now" and "Swift as the Wind" incase they run a blinding surge ele or a cripshot ranger. Like I said, +10 armor or 20% off a condition may not seem like much, but it helps you -- and your monks.


Example of a Weapon Swap for a Caster:

Swap 1:
PvP Axe of Fortitude OR Enchanting
Axe Grip of Fortitude OR Axe Grip of Enchanting
Health +30 OR Enchants last 20% longer
Inscription: "Brawns over Brains"
Damage +15% Energy -5
Damage +20%

PvP Tactics Shield of Fortitude
Armor: 16 (Requires 9 Tactics)
Shield Handle of Fortitude
Health +30
Inscription:
Armor +10 (vs. ______ damage)

This swap results in -5 overall energy (best for energy hiding), +60 health, and also optimally +18 armor against certain types of damage, and +8 armor against all types. For this, the Axe can also be a spear, sword, but -do not use a hammer-
Regarding monks, usually a healing prayers monk would go Health +30 and a protection prayers monk would go enchanting. It, of course, is completely up to the player.

Swap 2:
Pvp of Memory
Wand Wrapping of Memory
Halves skill recharge on spells of item's attribute (Chance: 20%)
Inscription: "Aptitude not Attitude"
Halves casting time on spells of item's attribute (Chance: 20%)
Damage +20%

Pvp of Fortitude
Focus Core of Fortitude
Health +30
Inscription: "Forget Me Not"
Halves skill recharge on spells of item's attribute (Chance: 20%)

Swap 3:
Pvp of Memory
Wand Wrapping of Memory
Halves skill recharge on spells of item's attribute (Chance: 20%)
Inscription: "Aptitude not Attitude"
Halves casting time on spells of item's attribute (Chance: 20%)
Damage +20%

Pvp of Fortitude
Focus Core of Fortitude
Health +30
Inscription: "Live For Today"
Energy +15
Energy regeneration -1

Swap 4:
Pvp of Memory
Wand Wrapping of Memory
Halves skill recharge of spells of item's attribute (Chance: 20%)
Inscription: "Seize the Day"
Energy +15
Energy regeneration -1
Damage +20%

Pvp of Fortitude
Focus Core of Fortitude
Health +30
Inscription: "Live For Today"
Energy +15
Energy regeneration -1

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Basically, stay on your lowest energy swap (Sword & Shield) while you can. The damage reduction really helps you. When you run out of energy and cant make it back, move up a swap to what we'll call the "20/20 Swap (also Swap 2). This helps your casting, and also gives you the +12 Energy from the Focus. Continue up your energy swaps if you run out of energy, progressing to the 15/-1 (Swap 3) or the 30/-2 (Swap 4) as energy is needed.

Warning though, if you go to your 30/-2 and waste your energy, then swap to your Sword & Shield, youll be in the negatives in energy and will have to wait until the energy regenerates. Also, staying on your 30/-2 isnt the best, usually just swap there then try and swap off as soon as you can to try and get your energy back. The 15/-1 and 30/-2 are mostly 'Crisis Sets'.





I've probably missed something, if I have I'll fix it later. If theres already a guide around, go ahead and disregard this, but I havent seen one and explaining weapon swaps ingame is a pain. http://www.theamazonbasin.com/gw/forums/index.php?showtopic=8170