Guild Wars 2

They’re not really viable in most settings. Seems like they were only made for lesser skilled players to annoy others.

They are viable in pvp and WvW roaming.

Jim Hunter.6821:

They are viable in pvp and WvW roaming.

JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH.7349:

They’re not really viable in most settings. Seems like they were only made for lesser skilled players to annoy others.

Just like that account name of yours?

Vikkela.7261:

JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH.7349:

They’re not really viable in most settings. Seems like they were only made for lesser skilled players to annoy others.

Just like that account name of yours?

+1 for shrewd observation. :-)

On a more serious note, conditions counter high toughness builds. Think, bunker-breaker. A foe with 15,000 hp, 3,400 armor, and protection boon will die faster than a foe with 16,000hp, 1,900 armor and no protection. All things being equal.

If you run a bunker build with low condition removal (I love you turret engineers), you will find them very annoying.

Archon.6480:

Vikkela.7261:

JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH.7349:

They’re not really viable in most settings. Seems like they were only made for lesser skilled players to annoy others.

Just like that account name of yours?

+1 for shrewd observation. :-)

On a more serious note, conditions counter high toughness builds. Think, bunker-breaker. A foe with 15,000 hp, 3,400 armor, and protection boon will die faster than a foe with 16,000hp, 1,900 armor and no protection. All things being equal.

If you run a bunker build with low condition removal (I love you turret engineers), you will find them very annoying.

This ^

Though some bunker builds have allot of condition removal & can even transfer your conditions back on you thanks to generocity sigil (also looking at necromancers)

they were made to make nabbies feel liek gawds.

and demonstrate anet’s highly popularized system of balance.

They counter a focus on Toughness. Which makes them work rather well in smallest-scale right now because:

1. Power damage is off the charts.
2. As a result, anyone not partaking in the kill-instantly race (so anyone not playing Berserker) has to stack Toughness high to be able to survive it.
3. Toughness then wastes a whole gear-stat slot on something which does nothing at all against conditions, exposing those players to condition damage.

It’s also funny to read how people keep talking about how “newb” condition damage is, but continue to run their toughness-only gear or their zerker-setups. Funny that, when I don’t do anything against what is being thrown at me, it becomes dangerous!

Well, I’ve barely even scratched the surface of what it’s possible to do in fights in this game, but this doesn’t really seem that complicated to me.

Take an x/x/4/6/x warrior in toughness and healing power gear, with Inspiring Battle Standard and other traits chosen to fit playstyle. You’re far from invincible, but even if you do nothing to defend yourself, unskilled players won’t even scratch you, moderately skilled players will take a while to bring you down, and even skilled players will have to put some effort into it (the banner version of this build makes better use of the healing power, but the shout version lets you diversify your defence a bit more).

But now you can’t even start to accomplish anything unless you’re physically standing on a control point. You’re a walking slab of meat that hits like a wet noodle. The simplest way to avoid hitting like a wet noodle is to equip a couple of swords, take condition damage as your third stat, and throw dozens of bleeds at anything that gets near you.

This doesn’t mean you’ll be doing particularly good DPS, of course, but it does turn you into something that enemies have to anticipate and take into account. If nobody on the other team has any good defence against bleed spam, you’re going to rip through them, often faster than they can damage you. If everybody on the other team specs to deal with this sort of bleed-spam condi bunker warrior build, then you’ll effectively feed for the whole match, but your team as a whole will still have a concrete advantage over the other team.

One thing conditions do accomplish is to provide some basic offensive capability to things that wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford it and, as such, wouldn’t be viable otherwise. Additionally, they allow for more diversity in offensive strategies, which forces more diversity in defensive strategies and ultimately makes for a deeper game.

Conditions also serve as a way to indirectly apply pressure. It allows you to take a more defensive approach, without having to completely lose your offensive power. Now, luckily, conditions are for the most part single target, so they cannot wipe whole groups with ease. There is exceptions to this though.

JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH.7349:

…

Your name seems to be made to annoy other players. Should get changed immediately.

Archon.6480:

Vikkela.7261:

JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH.7349:

They’re not really viable in most settings. Seems like they were only made for lesser skilled players to annoy others.

Just like that account name of yours?

+1 for shrewd observation. :-)

On a more serious note, conditions counter high toughness builds. Think, bunker-breaker. A foe with 15,000 hp, 3,400 armor, and protection boon will die faster than a foe with 16,000hp, 1,900 armor and no protection. All things being equal.

If you run a bunker build with low condition removal (I love you turret engineers), you will find them very annoying.

A guardian with prot and with toughness above that value still melts to classeson zerk gear, game base is on power creep builds, being in raw power or condi power.

I like condi builds. Call me a noob if you want, but I love my condi necro. Even in PvE. Granted it’s value is lessened considerably in a group setting (i.e. dungeons, world bosses) but great for solo. In PvP and WvW is where they really shine though. Most people tend to take higher toughness and vitality in those for a bit more survivability, but the counter to those is conditions. I love taking down bunker builds with stacks of bleed from my necro.

Conditions do several things.
1. Reduce incoming damage by reducing opponent output. These are non-damaging conditions like blind, chill, weakness, and cripple. Equipment and trait selection affect this type, not condition damage.
2. Force an opponent into combat. It only takes one condition for this to happen but I am sure everyone knows how inconvenient this can be.
3. Provide sustained dps through damaging conditions that are not affected by armor or positioning. Conditions like poison reduce an oponent’s heals and pass through armor to provide a minimum dps regardless of the oponent’s combat mobility skills and armor. No amount of jumping around will stop the bleeding or put the flames out. All damaging conditions have a substantial minimum dps that can be improved via the condition damage stat but are job, equipment, and trait dependent.

Conditions provide steady reduction of incoming damage and a steady base for outgoing damage. Ironically, you do not need to trait for conditions to have a base dps.

pdavis.8031:

I like condi builds. Call me a noob if you want, but I love my condi necro. Even in PvE. Granted it’s value is lessened considerably in a group setting (i.e. dungeons, world bosses) but great for solo. In PvP and WvW is where they really shine though. Most people tend to take higher toughness and vitality in those for a bit more survivability, but the counter to those is conditions. I love taking down bunker builds with stacks of bleed from my necro.

Regarding solo pve, it’s rather intersting how fast I am able to kill mobs with conditions even on a pure power build. In wvw, if I make anyone sit in stolen engi skill for 2-3s or get torment on them, it still hurts a lot (again on pure power build).

Condis have always had the same issue: Underpowered in PvE and OP in PvP/WvW

style.6173:

Condis have always had the same issue: Underpowered in PvE and OP in PvP/WvW

And the basic reason for that is that stat differences are tighter between combatants in PVP than they are in PVE. In particular power and health are very high in mobs.

style.6173:

Condis have always had the same issue: Underpowered in PvE and OP in PvP/WvW

Its not that they are underpowered in pve its just when you get into any sort of group condition builds become almost useless. Take world bosses for example: with a bleed cap of 25, one condi necro can get 20 without even trying. But now you have 50+ people, and almost everyone is added some sort of bleed one way or another, which makes it hit the cap quickly. However with a condi build i can tick bleed at say 150 per tick, but say a warrior adds a bleed that ticks at 50. His tick overrides mine. Each new application removes an old one. And in dungeons, its faster to go direct damage then condi, but the same rules of condi stacking apply. Thats why people dont like condis in pve or dungeons. The current system severely hampers condis in a group of more than 3. But in solo pve condis are awesome and take out mobs fast. Because no one is overriding your condi damage, and actually hurting the dps from condis.

I run a condi ranger in tpvp and love it and I am not a noob. People are always expecting a power ranger. Why is it that anything people don’t seem to like just call it a “noob build.” Well I don’t like mesmers cause they can clone and I don’t know which one to hit….must be a noob build. I don’t like warriors cause they knock me around with their hammer…..noob build. I don’t like thieves cause they disappear….noob build. Lich form….noob build. Medi guard…….noob build. There is a really simple solution to fighting condi builds……don’t play. Take up card collecting or knitting. If I meet a build I cant beat then I study the problem and figure out a solution. What are its counters? What are my strengths over their weakness and vice versa. I may invent a game where the pvp is two warriors with the same armor and same weapons and 3 skills but Im sure someone would complain that warrior number one can hit the skill one button faster than the other guy

Androlan.9487:

I run a condi ranger in tpvp and love it and I am not a noob. People are always expecting a power ranger. Why is it that anything people don’t seem to like just call it a “noob build.” Well I don’t like mesmers cause they can clone and I don’t know which one to hit….must be a noob build. I don’t like warriors cause they knock me around with their hammer…..noob build. I don’t like thieves y

Why….do….you…type….like….a….moron?