Guild Wars 2

So in this event added a new sigil; Sigil of Generosity. It’s very good, and cheap, I’ve been using it quite a lot and I really like it. There’s just one hitch: it straight up makes Sigil of Purity obsolete.

Sigil of Purity:
60% chance to remove condition on critical, 10 second cooldown.

Sigil of Generosity:
60% chance to transfer condition to foe on critical, 10 second cooldown.

I’m not sure if sigils are meant to be “balanced” as such, but this is straight up better, no argument, no pros or cons. Is this intended?

It’s balanced with finite resources to make it that are only available for a limited time.

So best make a stockpile while you can, eh?

Can you explain why a sigil like this is good? Seems to me like a waste of an upgrade slot, as it is only useful if 3 things happen all at once: 1) Get condition cast on you, 2) Within the few seconds that it lasts, get a critical hit, 3) Proc the 60% rate to transfer.

I am an ele, and I have a ridiculous amount of condition removal, so this would be useless to me. But even if I weren’t, it just seems impractical, am I wrong? Is this actually a viable option for condition removal on classes with fewer removal skills like warriors?

Use both of them dual-wielding. Should never have a condition on you with a decent crit rate.

I’ve played with a Mesmer who had that Sigil slotted in his Greatsword and swore on that combination.

As to the constraints you mentioned:
1) With the higher up and/or dungeon enemies, conditions are pretty much a given.
2) Unless you have a build with very low Precision – or you don’t engange in fights that much – that’s not difficult, even with cond builds.
3) I use the Sigil of Frailty which has a 30% chance to proc Vulnerability and on average I see 2-4 stacks of Vulnerability each fight when opposing single targets. So that should not be that difficult either.

So it all comes down to whether your class/build/playstyle has enough condition removal. As a thief I have no need for that, as I have plenty of condition removal skills. And if I am more in need of different skills, there’s always Saffron scented Poultry Soup.

However if you play a class which lacks condition removal (the forementioned Mesmer said that about his class, can’t comment on that since my Mesmer is still only 14) and you need the food slot for different stuff, and the conditions you encounter are to die for, then yes that Sigil might be worth looking at.

Imagine the sigil transferring a stack of 25 bleed to your opponent. That’s what it would be good for.

@fractal: that might be overdoing it a bit. Since both mentioned Sigils are on a 10s cd – and the cd is shared among all sigils – you would escape only a miniscule amount of cond dmg by double stacking them, depending on how many crit hit’s you do. Not really worth it in my eyes.

These points make a lot of sense to me, maybe I’ll try it on my warrior. One other thing though, in the past I’ve noticed that the sigil in the offhand weapon seems to have no effect. I’m talking about bloodlust mainhand, precision stacking offhand. I only get the stacks for the bloodlust. Is it really correct that I could use two of these sigils if I’m dual wielding?

ThiBash.5634:

Imagine the sigil transferring a stack of 25 bleed to your opponent. That’s what it would be good for.

ehmm if you ahve 25 stacsk of bleed on you, you should not rely on something like this to remove it really, as 25 stacks really kill about any players in a few seconds, you would barely have time to land 2 deffo not 3 crits before you dead, so if the proc fails at the first crit, you as good as dead

Facepunch.5710:

Can you explain why a sigil like this is good? Seems to me like a waste of an upgrade slot, as it is only useful if 3 things happen all at once: 1) Get condition cast on you, 2) Within the few seconds that it lasts, get a critical hit, 3) Proc the 60% rate to transfer.

It sounds bad on paper, but it’s quite good in practice. It is of course, as you mention, a little unreliable, but for those times when you just have a tonne of conditions on you it can ease the load a little bit. Also, irritating long duration conditions that you seem to rack up even when using other sources of removal – such as burn against a ele or poison against a ranger – are almost guaranteed to be removed eventually after you hit your target around (assuming a crit rate of 50%) 3 times. I can’t talk about this sigil without mentioning the time yesterday when a confusion stacking mesmer in W^3 let me tap him once with a throwing axe, and then melted himself because his confusion stack got reflected at him. I feel like it loosens my warriors reliance on Soldiers runes + shouts build to get rid of condtions, frees up my utility bar a little bit.

It’s pretty good in Dungeons too. A lot of creeps, especially bosses, have long duration conditions which they will often apply, such as the Spider Queen in AC.

In a way it’s like “passive” condition removal with the perks of being able to be a little controllable (Although, of course, being RNG it is quite unpredictable) and also with the added bonus of reflecting the spell.

Does this sigil and sigil of purity have different CD times? meaning they’ll both work (removing up to 2 condi on a separate 10s timer)?

penatbater.4710:

Does this sigil and sigil of purity have different CD times? meaning they’ll both work (removing up to 2 condi on a separate 10s timer)?

No, it doesn’t work like that. If one sigil procs the other will be put onto cooldown for the same amount as the one that procced. The sigil in the main hand will be the one applied if both are procced at once. Would not recommend.

Facepunch.5710:

These points make a lot of sense to me, maybe I’ll try it on my warrior. One other thing though, in the past I’ve noticed that the sigil in the offhand weapon seems to have no effect. I’m talking about bloodlust mainhand, precision stacking offhand. I only get the stacks for the bloodlust. Is it really correct that I could use two of these sigils if I’m dual wielding?

Sigils interact with each other in specific ways. Stacking sigils (Bloodlust and Perception in your post are examples) don’t work together. You can only stack one type of bonus, so you will never see Perception working while you have Bloodlust (probably would be reversed if they swapped hands). You’ll need to find a different type of sigil you like for your off hand.

Are these crafted or are they just lucky drops?

They’re crafted, but I don’t think you can just discover the recipe. It drops from presents, or you can buy it with Ugly items.

I can’t seem to find it in the Festive Vendor’s inventory…?

Urthona.3198:

They’re crafted, but I don’t think you can just discover the recipe. It drops from presents, or you can buy it with Ugly items.

You can’t buy it with Ugly items and I haven’t seen the recipe anywhere. As far as I’m aware the Sigil of Generosity is drop only (from presents).

I could be mistaken but every other recipe is on the TP for like 2 silver or less and there’s nothing for this one.

Edit: There’s also never been more than 200-300 of them on the TP at the same time since Wintersday started.

Sigil of purity could still have a place. I don’t know what the hidden cooldown on purity is (when I last used it, the cooldown wasn’t displayed although now it seems it’s 10 seconds) but it’s possible it is better than generosity. If it’s not, they could alter purity to not need a crit, or reduce its hidden cooldown.