Guild Wars 2

Lvling to 80 atm but I am not 80 yet.
So far I have been lvling with a powerbuild and wanted to change things up a bit and lvl some as a condition build. I lvl with my younger bro. He is a Warrior. I am an Engi.

Now as far as I know, conditions cant crit (at least not in pvp which I usually play in this game and from what I know it cant crit in pve either).
I was searching for some condition gear on the trading post to buy and all the condition gear has precision as well.

But precision is more or less useless for a condition build right?
Unless you have some stuff that procs something on crit.
However even than is it not really an important stat to have compared to other stats beside condition boosting stats right?

In the Firearms spec are some traits that cause bleed and burning on crit.
Sharpshooter and Incendiary power (10 sec internal cd on the latter).

Still it feels a bit odd seeing precision on those condition dmg pieces in the trading post.
I havent bought some yet because of it.
Isnt the fury boon and some crit from traits and such enough for traits like Sharpshooter and Incendiary power (especially with 10 sec internal cd on the latter)?

Also would a condition build be okay for lvling or will it just not come in handy because stuff often dies very fast while lvling?

I have experience in make condi builds, the only thing I can say is that condition builds require very, very very careful study. And especially in terms of versatility, condi builds have less room to serve both as open Pve and as for WvW.

The good side, is that very fun, when u get bored of zerker style u can switch characters.

Still it feels a bit odd seeing precision on those condition dmg pieces

This is a sample of what im saying. Many condi proc sigils, is proc on critical dmg. So if u want maximize some condi like Bleeding, u will need good crit. chance.

this a list with equipment prefixes by stats. u can see combinations with conditions, not all are availiable on trading post, some of them is crafted. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Equipment_acquisition_by_stats

The thing is conditions only directly benefit from 2 stats: Condition Damage and Expertise (condition duration). So even if Expertise was available on triple stat gear (which it isn’t) you’d still have a ‘spare’ one. Since Expertise isn’t available you’ve got 2 ‘spare’.

So from Anet’s side they had to put something in, and there’s only so many choices available (and apparently my preference: Condition Damage, Power, Toughness would be too OP). There’s actually several sets that don’t include Precision, they’re just less popular with players.

From the players perspective it’s basically the same line of thinking as with direct damage builds: you could go for Dire, which has 2 defensive stats, but since you almost never need that much passive defence, and since all attacks do base damage even if they also apply conditions it makes more sense to go for extra offense.

Since, as you mentioned, many traits, sigils etc. apply conditions (or trigger other effects) on crit, and since critical hits do more damage even without Ferocity it’s beneficial to take sets that include both Condition Damage and Precision.

There’s also Carrion, which has Condition Damage, Power, Vitality. But given all of the above and the fact that Toughness is generally preferred over Vitality that’s not a very popular choice either.

Depends on the build. If you have a talent that says something like “on critical hit apply bleed”, than yes you probably want precision if not, I’d go power condi. Since your leveling, I’d just say read your talents and weapons carefully and look at the ones that cause condition damage and gear accordingly, but don’t break the bank since you’ll throw it all out the window at 80.

Keep in mind destructible objects are not affected by conditions, so you’ll have a harder time kicking barrels and such over for hearts. It’s also why I’d eye ball power condi over precision condi for leveling.