Guild Wars 2

Hey all, recently I have fallen in love again with doing Fractals, and even though I haven’t done it yet, Raids.

I’ve been maining on a Condi-Reaper for a while now, but, they seem not to be recommended for high end Fractals and Raids, so I think it’s time I put my focus on a class that is recommended, and will be wanted in both content areas.

So I am asking what are my options on classes that both perform very well in high end Fractals and Raids, and, are a welcomed addition, since the majority of the time, I PUG a lot of the PvE Content in GW2.

Thank you for your time!

With a group of friends or a guild will usually let you run with a bit more flexibility in raids, but I think even there it is good to have a meta toon or two to help when everyone is having a bad night.

Since you said pugging though, this is my take on each and what you might consider.

I think you can do alot with a Reaper if you wanted too. There might be some classes who do it better. But I know several raid groups that use Reapers for tanks or for DPS or condi roles. So if you enjoy it look into some options for what would make it most optimal. I myself have been having alot of fun with my reaper lately.

I would suggest Rev, I think even with the upcoming nerf to their Auto Attack chain they will still be very good for their boon duration. They also come with some nice features like projectile blocks which can help out alot in certain fractals.

Warrior – easy to play in pugs, PS is a good might stacking machine, but it won’t give you the carry capacity other classes will. And they are a dime a dozen if you are looking to pug. Also Viper gear is kinda expensive to make.

Mesmer is also good in both raiding and fractals, although you would be expected to tank . Not sure how this will be affected with the Alacrity nerf that is coming up though.

engi – Their condi damage is really great, but they are alot harder to play then the condi warrior. Although they do have alot more utility that you can bring. but for me they make my fingers and brain hurt after a while keeping track of all their cool downs.

ranger – Most raid groups will have one of these, or someone fitting the healing role. Not alot of choice after how Anet set up their raids with Auras. If you are thinking of this rout I would really study up on the videos. I wouldn’t try healers in fractals, but that is my opinion, I guess it can’t hurt that someone is healing if people don’t know what they are doing, and there are alot of pugs who don’t.

guardian – This was my main for almost 3 years. They are pretty great at carrying people through fractals. Not very high in demand for raids right now, although this isn’t to say they are awful, just not as good at filling some roles as others. I had great success with this during the last laugh fractals when we were doing them by using communal defense and dropping as much aegis as possible trough traps, shouts and shield spam.

Ele- One of my personal favorites. The new Tempest is alot of fun to play. They are great at dealing out DPS and have a solid spot in both Raids and Fractals due to their utility and DPS potential.

thief – Kinda in the same boat as guardian. They are good for helping with skips blinds can help in fractals quite a bit. But they are not really wanted for Raid teams as of yet.

There really should be little reason to not take a condi reaper, its a pretty decent class.

Condi Reaper is actually welcome in raid and fractal. They have more than decent dps, and at Gorseval their epidemic is welcome.

This doesn’t make them one the absolute best profession, but they are still a very good profession. We use 1-2 Condi Reaper in most our raid run when we kill all 3 bosses.

That said, if you want an even more efficient profession here a small list

- PS Berserker
- Condi Beserker
- Sword/X Herald
- Condi Engineer
- Chronomancer
- Fresh Air or Staff Tempest

Plenty of other build/profession that are very good, but those are pretty much on the top right now.

Alright this is great news, that I can continue to use my Condi-Reaper, just need to change up his gear, because I am using mostly Dire w/ some Rabid (Don’t ask, Lol…) I was thinking of going Full Vipers Weapons/Armor w/ Cele Trinkets.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Condi necro is certainly good in raids. Some people do not want them for sabetha because they bug out her flak shot, however running double necro in that fight gives extremely high dps and some teams just attempt to deal with the flak and collect their 15k-20k bleed ticks.

That being said, you need to be full Viper’s gear. I believe on necro you even want all Viper’s trinkets as well (Exotic Viper’s is better than Ascended Sinister). You cannot come with celestial trinkets, as you will screw up the aggro for vale guardian and gorseval. And even for sabetha where there is no tank, honestly a pug group would probably kick you if they found out you were bringing cele trinkets on a necro. There are people playing elementalist in full zerk/assassin gear and staying alive in the raid fights, you can stay alive just fine on necromancer in full viper’s.

This only applies for raids though, for fractals play whatever you want.

I believe you will want sinister trinkets besides the amulet and backpiece. You will definitely need full vipers armor and trinkets.

Yeah, avoid the cele trinkets. You won’t need them if you are running a necro.

Your goal is to reach 100% condition duration (for bleed and chill at least), and then get the max condition damage you can. This can be achieved in different ways, some are more efficient than other, but as long as you have 100% bleed, high condi duration for chill and around 1900 condition damage, you are good.

And you won’t gonna get that cele trinkets.

So for Trinkets.
Ascended = Sinister
Exotic = Vipers

Right?

Odokuro.5049:

So for Trinkets.
Ascended = Sinister
Exotic = Vipers

Right?

Ascended vipers would be best, but they are difficult to get right now. But exotic vipers would be better then the ascended sinister

Talyn.3295:

Odokuro.5049:

So for Trinkets.
Ascended = Sinister
Exotic = Vipers

Right?

Ascended vipers would be best, but they are difficult to get right now. But exotic vipers would be better then the ascended sinister

This is what I was saying before, sorry if it was unclear.

Talyn.3295:

Odokuro.5049:

So for Trinkets.
Ascended = Sinister
Exotic = Vipers

Right?

Ascended vipers would be best, but they are difficult to get right now. But exotic vipers would be better then the ascended sinister

I highly doudt that.

5 Ascended Sinister Trinkets =1481 total stats ; 629 condi dmg, 426 power, 426 prec
5 Exotic Viper Trinkets = 1188 total stats ; 384 condi dmg, 384 power, 210 Prec, 210 Expertise

Ascended Sinister have more total stats, more condi dmg, more power and more precision. 210 Expertise isn’t worth it since you can reach 100% condition duration anyway.

Thaddeus.4891:

Talyn.3295:

Odokuro.5049:

So for Trinkets.
Ascended = Sinister
Exotic = Vipers

Right?

Ascended vipers would be best, but they are difficult to get right now. But exotic vipers would be better then the ascended sinister

I highly doudt that.

5 Ascended Sinister Trinkets =1481 total stats ; 629 condi dmg, 426 power, 426 prec
5 Exotic Viper Trinkets = 1188 total stats ; 384 condi dmg, 384 power, 210 Prec, 210 Expertise

Ascended Sinister have more total stats, more condi dmg, more power and more precision. 210 Expertise isn’t worth it since you can reach 100% condition duration anyway.

How can you reach 100% condition duration on necro with exotic trinkets? I have:

Traits for chill/bleed: 20%
Food: 20%
Utility: 10%
Sigil of Malice: 10%
Ascended Weapons: 7.87% (118 Expertise)
Ascended Armor: 13.80% (207 Expertise)
Ascended Amulet: 4.73% (71 Expertise)
Exotic Rings+Earrings: 10.27% (154 Expertise)

For a total of 96.67%

I suppose it is possible that it would be better to forego a lot of viper’s get and use condi duration runes, I haven’t tested that out. But if you are using runes of the berserker than exotic viper’s is better because your condi damage and power will already be stacked high from 25 might stacks in raids, so increasing them further is generally less helpful than increasing condi duration. If you have more exact calculations let me know.

Dinosaurs.8674:

Thaddeus.4891:

Talyn.3295:

Odokuro.5049:

So for Trinkets.
Ascended = Sinister
Exotic = Vipers

Right?

Ascended vipers would be best, but they are difficult to get right now. But exotic vipers would be better then the ascended sinister

I highly doudt that.

5 Ascended Sinister Trinkets =1481 total stats ; 629 condi dmg, 426 power, 426 prec
5 Exotic Viper Trinkets = 1188 total stats ; 384 condi dmg, 384 power, 210 Prec, 210 Expertise

Ascended Sinister have more total stats, more condi dmg, more power and more precision. 210 Expertise isn’t worth it since you can reach 100% condition duration anyway.

How can you reach 100% condition duration on necro with exotic trinkets? I have:

Traits for chill/bleed: 20%
Food: 20%
Utility: 10%
Sigil of Malice: 10%
Ascended Weapons: 7.87% (118 Expertise)
Ascended Armor: 13.80% (207 Expertise)
Ascended Amulet: 4.73% (71 Expertise)
Exotic Rings+Earrings: 10.27% (154 Expertise)

For a total of 96.67%

I suppose it is possible that it would be better to forego a lot of viper’s get and use condi duration runes, I haven’t tested that out. But if you are using runes of the berserker than exotic viper’s is better because your condi damage and power will already be stacked high from 25 might stacks in raids, so increasing them further is generally less helpful than increasing condi duration. If you have more exact calculations let me know.

Are you using an ascended viper amulet or backpiece? That should get you “close enough”

Ascended viper backpiece doesn’t exist, except for from sabetha. The point of this discussion is whether ascended sinister is better than exotic vipers. If ascended viper’s trinkets are allowed then those are obviously the best.

Also an ascended viper’s backpiece would only get you to 98.47% anyway, why not just say use a viper’s ring (100.4%) or accessory (99.94%)? They are equally difficult to get.