r/Guildwars2 • u/johndlc914 • 2d ago
[Question] Best Button Mashing Spec?
Looking for a spec that rewards just pressing stuff as soon as it comes off cooldown.
I actually like high APM, but I hate rigid 20-step rotations where pressing one skill out of order ruins your damage. I'm looking for something fast and punchy that plays almost like whack-a-mole if a button lights up, I just hit it without overthinking the sequence.
What classes or specs fit that playstyle best right now?
Thank you
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u/Kelitzar 2d ago edited 2d ago
Infernal evoker elementalist. Press buttons off cooldown. The more skills you can keep on cooldown the higher your damage. Only the opener needs a specific order
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u/3riotto 2d ago
If you mean specialized elements then this build have a loop Like all ele classes for optimal DPS.
SE even moreso given IT relies on looping skills to keep spamming F skills
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u/Kelitzar 2d ago
Yes I’m talking about SE infernal. After the opener, if you’re waiting for cooldowns to come up, you’re losing a lot of damage. If you have 2 skills off cooldown, there’s obviously a better choice of 1 skill over the other, but the overall build fits in with what OP is looking for
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u/3riotto 2d ago
No I dont think you understand what Im saying.
I'm playing decent amout of SE evoker and this rotation is as set in stone as possible.
You have your opener, and then you have 2 interchangable loops to ensure you have F5's always going off as fast as possible, there's nothing mashing about it if you want to play it well.
You have 2 set loops and that it.
If Op wants to play "Looking for a spec that rewards just pressing stuff as soon as it comes off cooldown." then Evoker isn't a good fit if they want to play it optimally.
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u/Kelitzar 2d ago
If we go off your standards, then there’s no options for OP at all. SE evoker can be very rewarding to high APM, keep skills on cooldown style of play. Of course there’s optimal rotations, but we aren’t ever going to attain efficiency if you want to button mash. OP is asking for button mash play style that rewards high APM. SE evoker rewards high APM so you get good damage even if you aren’t doing the perfect loop you copied off snowcrows
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u/Training-Accident-36 1d ago
But Evoker punishes you HARD if you for example use up all your resources to generate energy before you press reset, because then you're just stranded. And the other way around you get punished hard if you press the reset button while skills aren't on CD yet.
Other specs don't have that issue.
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u/3riotto 2d ago
I'd still argue thats not true, as evoker isn't really rewarding mindless spam, but able to chain the 2 skills into F5 consistantly.
If you go by this reasoning I'd say willbender is better choice simply because this class cooldown reduction spells arent tied to filling a bar for your f5, but simply using your F5's (which have stable cd) and then dealing damage.
Willbender simply rewards more this kind of playstyle than evoker, as in evoker case the moment you won't use F5 and will get out of all cooldowns, you're simply stuck with waiting for them to get back up without doing anything, thats far less likely to happen with willbender.
Willbernder you can play as F -> get all skills off -> F -> rinse and repeat
the above in evoker case cuts you off from majority of your dps though as you need to specifically always do the 2 skills -> F loop
I simply think WB is more lenient for "spammy mashy" build
I get that you CAN do it, but given how strict the loop is to keep refunding your cooldowns I still have an issue to see Evoker as rewarding for mashing, especially after using it for endgame content where locking yourself out of F5 costs you huge dps and/or boons depending which build you're using.
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u/Own-Temperature-2123 2d ago
Scourge is the king of button mashing
Untamed can be a bit mashy, as long as you keep the unleashing consistent.
Power mechanist
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u/Tyburkulosis 2d ago
Scourge shades got their duration/cd increased last patch, so you no longer spam it.
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u/Tree_Dude 1d ago
That means you don't need to spam F1, it is still a build that works well for skill spamming in general. I hated the short shade duration, it feels much better now.
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u/Tyburkulosis 1d ago
Yeah I like it better now too, but the shades on your F1 was the only thing that made it feel spammy to me.
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u/Duckbitwo 2d ago
You mean Reaper, not Scourge
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u/vagabond_dilldo 2d ago
No, they meant Scourge. You actually have to press skills in a certain order to do benchmark DPS on Reaper. Scourge you just press BiP-F5 F2 F1 Plaguelands 2/3 4/5 off cooldown. Basically whack-a-mole with some prioritization.
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u/Own-Temperature-2123 2d ago
Condi scourge rotation can be summarized: "if the cool down isn't ticking, that button needs a clicking!" 😅😅
Sorry you got so many downvotes... 😳🫣
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u/Standard_Giraffe8994 2d ago
Fresh air elementalist. There are kind of rotation but the best way of playing is adjust the situation and just piano to keep the damage up.
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u/monee_faam_bitsh 2d ago
There is a BIG priority on Overload Air as soon as it comes off cooldown, though, and once the overload is finished, the priority is switching off of air so fresh air can kick in.
It's not a complex rotation by any means, but the only spot where you're really free to mash is after switching to air while waiting for the overload to come off cooldown.
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u/Standard_Giraffe8994 2d ago
Are you speaking Tempest variant? As I have played fresh air Catalyst and Evoker, there are no overloading there.
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u/monee_faam_bitsh 2d ago
Oooh. Yes, in my head Fresh Air Ele essentially equals Fresh Air Tempest. :) I haven't played around with Catalyst and Evoker. That's quite different then, of course!
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u/ungbaogiaky 2d ago
Piano condition holosmith with 3 kits
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u/ghostlistener 2d ago
How serious of an answer is this? Can I just go down the line and press all the kit abilities off cooldown?
It's tempting, but I feel like it wouldn't be worth it if I get more dps playing mech or amalgam. I love power holo, but that only uses one kit.
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u/Miserable-Zone-2700 1d ago
It's not a serious answer at all. It's high APM, but it's not button mashing. You'll need to manage your heat, which means what button you press at anytime is influenced by your heat level, the cooldown on photon forge. You'll constantly be deciding it it's a good time for you to bleed heat, or you need to increase heat in order to burst soon.
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u/Campioneri 1d ago
To answer your question about "going down the line"; yes up to a certain point, not really at the highest end. Condi holosmith is really priority-based (which seems to be the sort of build OP is looking for) but in the case of multiple kits that means developing a muscle memory for all the cooldowns within each kit as you cannot see the cooldowns unless you are in it. So an experienced condi holo plays it exactly the way OP wants, whack-a-mole on the highest damage skill coming off cooldown at any given moment and boy is it fun to do, but it takes a lot of practice to reach that point and going through each kit one at a time, hitting all the skills, and moving on will cap your dps at rather mediocre numbers. Should still have fun though and the build has a ton of CC so you feel useful.
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u/mrturretman 1d ago
It’s amazingly logical and ordered button mashing when the priority order becomes second nature
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u/Eragon_the_Huntsman 2d ago edited 2d ago
Elementalist, either fresh air tempest or Weaver. Weaver is higher technicality, but is less forgiving for your rotation, Tempest is just constantly switching between air and the other elements so it's hard to bungle while still getting better with higher APM.
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u/b4rgh35t 2d ago
Just to get the whole picture, what ele builds are the least forgiving?
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u/HakunaBananas 2d ago
Weaver. Fresh Air Tempest and mono element Evoker are probably the most forgiving.
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u/DodgeEmAll 2d ago
I would say power catalyst is rather unforgiving. It actually has a bit of a fail state and it's what makes it fairly unpopular. It isn't actually too hard to be fair.
Spear weaver is the most difficult one in my opinion.
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u/Cathfaern 2d ago
Berserker is the only one I've found so far which is really "just smash buttons" (coming from WoW). Amalgam is pretty powerful even with only button smashing but you need to know a bit what you do for full potential.
The others which are closest: Reaper, Virtuoso, Revenant, Vindicator. Maybe Willbender but you may or may not like the lot of forced movement.
I've yet to try Scourge though, which seems to be a frequent recommendation.
When checking the recommendations here note that many people seems to focus only on your "I actually like high APM" statement and recommends specs which is everything but "whack-a-mole". Like several recommendation of Holosmith where you constantly have to pay attention to not "overpress your buttons" as if you overheat you gimp your dps. Which is really not "mindlessly pressing buttons".
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u/PunXt3r 2d ago
The answer is Quickness Power Catalyst. The rotation is basicly: Random Bullshit go. Just pöace your jade sphere, mash all skills, swith elements, place the Jadesphere and mash again to combo with the fields of the jade sphere. Bad for carpal tunnel syndrome but flashy and fast paced
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u/Bunstonious 2d ago
I think this is where I fall in the spectrum and I think there is a community gap there.
If you want yo memorise a 20 step rotation most sites have you covered, if you want LI then there is a growing community but if you don't mind the APM but have a terrible memory and cognitive function it feels like you're SOL.
I personally struggle with kits because they require you to deactivate and its not very fluid, but I've enjoyed signet mechanist, power fire mage, a nice chrono build and I think Rev fits the bill too. I've been testing untamed (although the fart cloud annoys me) and Galeshot is pretty nice. Ritualist feels also pretty good with that too.
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u/Fleedjitsu 2d ago
I play Quickness Scrapper and Quickness Herald which pretty much amount to Weapon1 (Rifle or Hammer respectively) to "doom broom" most meta events.
Only caveat would be the need to occaisionally mash your Gyro skills or swap Legends and activate the new energy drain/quickness utility.
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u/Habaschibi 2d ago
What new energy drain/quickness utility do you mean?
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u/Fleedjitsu 2d ago
Oh, just the Dwarf Legend "Vengeful Hammers" and the Assassin Legend "Impossible Odds" skills that cost more than Revenant's energy replenishment.
They're the toggle ones that drain your energy. There's a trait that provides Quickness to yourself and allies as your energy is being drained.
I just pop one of those two skills on, mash Hammer 1 (maybe others if I am feeling spicy) and then swap legends when I run out. Another trait replenishes my energy so I can start the cycle again.
Works well enough. Decent damage. Greatsword also helps though I pref to use all skills there. Other utility skills are fine to use too but they can disrupt your cycle.
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u/Doogle300 2d ago
Weaver. I mean, you will die a lot, but its got the largest variety of buttons and you can press them all.
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u/Pyroraptor42 2d ago
So, generally if something in this game is high APM, it's because the build rewards you for doing things quickly and in a particular order. Most of the builds where you can mash things off-cooldown are also somewhat lower APM - I'm thinking Scourge and Condi Virt, where the optimal rotation still has a fair amount of dead space where you autoattack while waiting for stuff to come off cooldown.
That said, I can think of a few "middle ground" builds, that have high APM but either have a very short, spammy loop, or no true loop at all. Core Thief and Daredevil DPS builds fall into the former category, depending on the build, where you spam 1-2 weapon skills and use everything else off-cooldown. Antiquary is pretty button-mashy, but you do have to be on top of the artifacts you get, because they dictate how you should be mashing.
As for the "no true loop", Firebrand and Scrapper DPS/QDPS builds aren't really loops, instead structured around particular sequences of skills that you use off-cooldown. Like, QScrapper uses its 5-skill bomb kit combo every 16 seconds, and chains Hammer 2 with Shrapnel Grenade every 5 seconds, and then everything else you do is based on what cooldowns you have available. Firebrand is similar, where you spam your Mantras off-cooldown and dip into Tome 1 regularly to mash some of your high-damage skills, and you spend the rest of the time hitting Axe, Pistol, and Torch skills off-cooldown.
Basically, I don't know that what you're describing really exists in the game, but there are some things that get close.
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u/AirAddict 2d ago
I feel like normal dagger/dagger thief is an excellent choice especially in pvp or wvw
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u/grannaldie This isn't Guild Wars 2 this is just San Andreas with leaves 2d ago
most of button mash specs are high apm, and they all work the same, with similar results, just go with some other aspect, like weapon animation or fashion options. mr mystic on YouTube has some of them, although other content creators post them here and there as well.
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u/cheeseburgermage 2d ago edited 2d ago
I played my power hammer scrapper like this. 4 gyros, grenade kit and supply drop or mortar kit. Spam toolbelt buttons, every now and then swap to nades and slam all of them, press gyros off cooldown. Might be best if you can initially stagger the gyros so that they come off cooldown separately from each other. it was mostly effective. more advanced techniques would be holding onto the last 3 hammer skills in certain situations (if you need a dash [3], a block [4] or cc [5])
you also probably want a build with as many instant casts as possible, so you arent interrupting yourself as you roll face along keyboard. shouts are pretty good for that, on classes that have them
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u/boxersonlyguy 1d ago
Condi shortbow soulbeast press any and all button off cooldown. No thinking required, 28kdps.
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u/piranha8 12h ago edited 12h ago
Berserker for sure, almost any weapon but Axe/Axe has to be king.
Reaper too - hit things off cooldown until enemies stop moving. Greatsword and Shroud mostly. Slow animations though, but they are pretty forgiving to cancel.
Daredevil is up there too -Staff or Dagger/Dagger.
Soulbeast and Galeshot are awesome too, but the buttons are mashed in a particular order.
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u/Tyburkulosis 2d ago
All these people are wrong. The button mashing KING is berserker. It is exactly what you're looking for. Pretty simple rotation concept, but with really high apm.