Guild Wars 2

Hey guys!

I’m a fairly new player so forgive me if I sound ignorant.

Having played World of Warcraft for ~6 years as a Warlock and a Shadow Priest, the Necromancer profession seemed right up my alley.

So far it’s pretty cool, however, one skill seems to confuse me. Epidemic.

So it’s supposed to spread my conditions from my current target to up to 4 more mobs, yes? My confusion comes from this: both of my condition spells so far (keep in mind I’m like level 15) are AoE conditions. Does this make Epidemic useless for solo PVE play? Or does it re-stack conditions on more foes. Say I drop down my two bleeds on 5 mobs, and get 6 stacks on everything. If I cast Epidemic on my target is it going to add 6 more stacks to the other mobs nearby? I’m currently using Scepter/Dagger and Staff.

I’m trying to understand when I would use this spell.

I hope this isn’t too stupid of a question. :P Any kind of help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

I don’t use Epidemic because my entire focus is wells and I never thought it could spread those to enemies that were also hit by the well, but I never tried it.

My advice: Test it out. Apply the AoE condition, use epidemic, and then switch target to see if they now have double.

Otherwise, I think Epidemic is probably best used with other utility skills, rather than the attacks on your weapons. For instance, the Signet of Spite, when active, gives one target bleeds, blind, cripple, poison, vulnerability, and weakness. If you use Epidemic immediately after, those conditions spread to nearby foes. Another way you could use it is with Spectral Grasp, which chills. If you used Epidemic, it could chill multiple enemies.

There are probably a lot of other ways to use it, too, but those are the ones that come to mind for me.

No, this makes it all the better.

Let’s say you’re fighting a frog, a cat, and a wolf. You target the cat, and use grasping dead and enfeebling blood. All three enemies have 5 stacks of bleeding now. You then immediately use epidemic, with the cat targeted. The cat’s conditions travel to the frog and the wolf – not overwriting them, but copying and pasting them. That means the frog and wolf will have 10 stacks, though the cat will still have 5 stacks.

Hope that makes sense. Keep it on your bar, it’s the bread and butter skill of any condition necromancer.

SpelignErrir.4263:

No, this makes it all the better.

Let’s say you’re fighting a frog, a cat, and a wolf. You target the cat, and use grasping dead and enfeebling blood. All three enemies have 5 stacks of bleeding now. You then immediately use epidemic, with the cat targeted. The cat’s conditions travel to the frog and the wolf – not overwriting them, but copying and pasting them. That means the frog and wolf will have 10 stacks, though the cat will still have 5 stacks.

Hope that makes sense. Keep it on your bar, it’s the bread and butter skill of any condition necromancer.

That’s exactly what I was wondering! Thanks!!