Guild Wars 2

I fare well enough with my Necro that is built for condition. Except, of course, against objects. Bleeds do nothing, poison does nothing, I might as well just stand there and auto attack.

The broken thing is crit damage not conditions. Too op when you compare both. Also the most gamebreaking stat and source of many nerfs.

Ruprect.7260:

Goloith.6349:

Shufflepants.9785:

Because 10 * 10 > 10 + 10

This is exactly why. However with the advent of Giver’s gear & food it is now possible to at least get to:

10*10 (Berserker) > 10*5 (Vatlaaws/Carron). P.S. I know they have more surivablity, but there isn’t another stat that adds to damage.

They really need to have gear that gives the stats of:
Precision/Condition Dmg(the max stat)/Condition Duration (5% per piece)

That is the only way that condition damage will be somewhere on par with Berserker. This would give builds like the Engineer and other condition users more viable builds.

Until then condition damage will always be weaker and people will continue to run without condition removal in WvW.

So you are one of those that continue to attack while my confusion ticks on you for 3k per hit. It never fails to amaze me how many ppl die from confusion when almost all classes have at least on condition removal skill.

Absolutely not, I run a Engineer with 409 & Elixir C. Guardian is also a shout Guardian as well.

The problem is that many people do not run condition removal or not enough. Take a Mesmer, his clones don’t instantly jump to the target and detonate confusion so if you clear confusion the second you see it you might get hit with another stack before and then you’re out. I just think condition damage builds need to have an equivalent gear to berserkers.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Goloith.6349:

Until then condition damage will always be weaker and people will continue to run without condition removal in WvW.

LOL what? ppl that run in WvW without any condition removal don’t last very long.

I know and I love that. Again bigger threat is not running enough condition removal.

Why? Because we don’t have enough armor to make anyone need conditions to kill us, even if we invest very heavily into Toughness. Add to this that P/P/Crit Damage scale together, so it’s always a good idea to get more than you had before.

Toughness/Armor are on a diminshing scale, such that after you get a certain amount it doesn’t make any sense to get more.

I think this was designed to promote balanced builds and gearing, but has done the exact opposite because ’Zerk stats are seen as the only “good deal” available.

That said, I still prefer taking Toughness as a primary or secondary stat because I enjoy the playstyle it provides.

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Also remember that a condition build’s greatest enemy is an inanimate object.

Omg screw anything that will not bleed.

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Cymatoperior.5942:

Condition damage such as burning and bleeding means you can do damage while you are dodging or running away. So in terms of actual dps you can actually do more than a zerk build where you hit a few times and run/dodge most of the time or stay dead.

Not really, no.
All that time you’re spending dodging is time you aren’t applying conditions. Your immediate dps may not take much of a hit, but your long-term dps is still dropping just as badly as a direct damage build will.

I play an earth staff elementalist. I press skill 2 twice and run far away. Never failed any fotm before. Max 1.5 hours.

AzureDragon.1482:

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Also remember that a condition build’s greatest enemy is an inanimate object.

This, so much. Lol.

A couple of my guildies have rolled power focused Warriors, so just for variety I decided to take a different approach with mine and build to maximize bleeds. I absolutely love it so far (almost level 60), but completing heart quests that involve destroying objects takes so long!! XD

I decided to use some Power focused trinkets just to give me that extra “umph” I need to make breaking objects bearable.

My only 80 warrior is a bleed stylist. I love watching the numbers zoom away. I started doing it around his level 60 an decided to stick with for something different at the end. He does a great job.

Cymatoperior.5942:

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Cymatoperior.5942:

Condition damage such as burning and bleeding means you can do damage while you are dodging or running away. So in terms of actual dps you can actually do more than a zerk build where you hit a few times and run/dodge most of the time or stay dead.

Not really, no.
All that time you’re spending dodging is time you aren’t applying conditions. Your immediate dps may not take much of a hit, but your long-term dps is still dropping just as badly as a direct damage build will.

I play an earth staff elementalist. I press skill 2 twice and run far away. Never failed any fotm before. Max 1.5 hours.

And you’re losing damage that you could be dealing by switching to Fire and pressing 3. You are losing damage because you aren’t attacking. Ele staff isn’t a very good example of a condition weapon anyway since only a few skills apply damaging conditions, none of them autoattacks. Compare to an actual condition damage weapon like Necro Scepter. If you aren’t attacking constantly you’re losing damage because you aren’t applying more conditions. Stopping WILL cut your long-term dps.

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Cymatoperior.5942:

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Cymatoperior.5942:

Condition damage such as burning and bleeding means you can do damage while you are dodging or running away. So in terms of actual dps you can actually do more than a zerk build where you hit a few times and run/dodge most of the time or stay dead.

Not really, no.
All that time you’re spending dodging is time you aren’t applying conditions. Your immediate dps may not take much of a hit, but your long-term dps is still dropping just as badly as a direct damage build will.

I play an earth staff elementalist. I press skill 2 twice and run far away. Never failed any fotm before. Max 1.5 hours.

And you’re losing damage that you could be dealing by switching to Fire and pressing 3. You are losing damage because you aren’t attacking. Ele staff isn’t a very good example of a condition weapon anyway since only a few skills apply damaging conditions, none of them autoattacks. Compare to an actual condition damage weapon like Necro Scepter. If you aren’t attacking constantly you’re losing damage because you aren’t applying more conditions. Stopping WILL cut your long-term dps.

Switching to Fire and pressing 3 costs at least 2 casts of Earth 2; fire scales to the point that one stack of fire is worth around 5 bleeds. Staff Earth 2 deals 6 bleeds, so missing even one cast of it to gain burning would reduce DPS.

Staff can be used as an effective bleed weapon – the bleeds can last over 26 seconds in a dedicated build, and Eruption can be traited down to 4.75 second cooldown, which means just casting Eruption on cooldown hits the stack cap easily (even without traiting for earth cooldown reduction, a stable 24 stacks can be achieved). As an Asura, add in Radiation Field with Stoning’s 100% projectile finisher, and you’ve got decent AoE Poison/Bleeding; burning could be found in Signet of Fire (permanent single target burn) or using Glyph of Elemental Power in fire attunement before initiating combat, as well as the Burning Precision trait if running Rabid or Rampager gear (if running Signet of Fire, add in Glyph of Elemental Power for permanent cripple anyways, and of course our auto-attack would be permanent weakness on top of that)

I wouldn’t use it in PvP because of how hilariously easy Eruption is to dodge, but it could be effective in PvE. A full DoT condition damage output is roughly 4k damage per second, and staff could potentially hit that on groups of mobs – I’d say the only reason it isn’t a popular choice is because it limits the character to only staying in earth (and of course all the inherent problems with conditions anyways…)

Cymatoperior.5942:

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Cymatoperior.5942:

Condition damage such as burning and bleeding means you can do damage while you are dodging or running away. So in terms of actual dps you can actually do more than a zerk build where you hit a few times and run/dodge most of the time or stay dead.

Not really, no.
All that time you’re spending dodging is time you aren’t applying conditions. Your immediate dps may not take much of a hit, but your long-term dps is still dropping just as badly as a direct damage build will.

I play an earth staff elementalist. I press skill 2 twice and run far away. Never failed any fotm before. Max 1.5 hours.

1.5 hours… Not sure if really sarcastic troll, or really terrible scrub.

Staff is a pretty lackluster bleed weapon. With an almost 2 sec cast time Staff #2 is also pretty bad to try to use a bleed aoe weapon.

Iruwen.3164:

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Scootabuser.4915:

Why would anyone ever want to play a condition build in PvE when every class has an infinity more powerful in every single way berzerker build?

Because not everyone uses maximized damage output as the main factor in deciding their characters’ build and play style.

Condition damage barely helps in PvE though. Heals, boons and so on offer other options, also conditions like vulnerability, cripple and so on, but they’re again not affected by conditon damage. And then there’s the stack cap and Defiant. Lots of condition hate in PvE. Let’s not even talk about confusion.

My full condition Mesmer finds all PvE content rather easy; confusion even works for me… not to mention all the Toughness gained from full Rabid’s plus all the cloaking/tricks make him survive forever. He’s also the Terror of the Seas with that Trident and all that condition damage (best underwater combatant by far for me). Indeed, from what I’ve seen and experienced, condition/Staff Mesmer is actually easier to play than the usual Berserker Shatterer, because it’s so much hardier and still brutally strong under the right circumstances (though I do not claim that my choice must be the “superior one” just because I enjoy playing it.)

The stack bleed can be a problem, but at least my Mesmer will ensure the highest possible condition damage on a group, barring someone else with even higher condition damage (which is rare, because not many people play condition builds on PvE, as suggested on this thread.)

The major PvE weakness? Paltry damage against inanimate objects, which is rarely a concern, though certainly noticeable the few times it is. I did read that developers know this is a problem, but are not sure how to tackle it or something to that effect.

I agree with Grandma Funk, not everybody’s playstyle revolves around doing max direct damage, and it’s OK for people to play the way they like, rather than the way “they are supposed to”, as stated by people who are not them and have no right to tell them how to play their characters.

Berserker’s is fine-it’s just NOT “how GW2 is supposed to be played”; at least not for a great number of players.