Guild Wars 2

Have always liked DoT classes in every MMO I have played. What profession in GW2 does the most condition damage? Dont care about how many types they have just want the most damage possible even if its only stacking a single condition type. Thinking about either a Necro or Engineer. But all I read is how weak and hard to play Engineers are. Would prefer the easier class.

While i dont play either profession, I would say Necro has the best. But you can always try both profession and by lvl 10 you will have your answer.

Mesmer > Necro > Ranger = Engineer = Elementalist > Thief > Warrior > Guardian

This is my opinion, of course

necro is your best bet

I’d say mesmer, ranger and engineer are the most reliable when you want condition damage.

Lets take a look at conditions.

Bleed = basic
Burn = non stacking, damage is worth around 7 stacks of bleed
Poison = non stacking, damage is worth 2 stacks of bleed and cuts heals by 1/3
Confusion = stacking, damage is contextual (based on opponent)

Mesmer has access to all 4 conditions. Poison is very limited here. Your bread and butter condition is staff which is somewhat random. With traits you get much stronger at lvl 40 and 60 respectively. (bouncing attacks, cooldown reduction)
Combat is staff is pretty unique and may take some getting used to. It seems to be a long ranged weapon but it’s actually much stronger in close proximity. Also very strong bleed application with the trait that lets clones bleed on criticals, especially multihit phantasms like the warden (12 hits)

Ranger has access to 3 conditions and can maintain them with careful skill application and traps (also has reliable access to chill, very strong non-damaging condition to have) Swapping between shortbow and axe/dagger or axe/torch, you have some really good condition application. Trap condition rangers are pretty straightforward to use, get the trait that makes traps ranged if you want to maintain distance.

Engineers have access to all 4 conditions as well. Dual pistols provide you with ways to apply these reliably, then you can swap over to a kit for condition stacking. Easiest way to stack conditions is through flamethrower application and the bleeding trait (30% chance to bleed on crit) as the high hit rate of the flamethrower does this really well (10 hits across 2.25 secs on normal autoattack). Engineers are quite tedious to use though, and they’re going through a phase where stuff is getting changed. Grenade have a similar effect through sheer number of grenades thrown.

Necros aren’t really that good at stacking conditions. Maintaining them isn’t a problem of course.

I was actually considering a shortbow Ranger as well. Do their bleeds stack up pretty high and do decent damage? Also are they any good for max level farming?

AwwGee.5628:

… bla bla bla …

Necros aren’t really that good at stacking conditions. Maintaining them isn’t a problem of course.

How are necros not good at conditions? Have you ever played necro ? Obviously not.

OP, necro IS the conditon class, if u like dot play necro.

Agreed. My 80 ranger can apply maybe 18 stacks of bleed consistently on a PvE target. In WvW/PvP not so much. You have to hit your target from the side or back to apply bleeds with a shortbow (i think there might be a trait that eliminates this? not sure, haven’t played him in awhile) but I can already see that my lvl 20 Necro is going to be far better at applying and maintaining multiple types of conditions PvE and WvW/PvP.

thief can apply 25 stacks of bleed spam skill 3 then dagger storm swap to SB skill 4 perma poison

I think Mesmer and Necro are superior to Rangers just because of how limiting bleed can be

Messmer is the profession whit the most conditions and buffs. Plus it can transform on into another

Necro is the DoT profession you are looking for.

OP, read up on Epidemic. Its fine to stack conditions fast on one target, but when you can take any target with conditions and spread those to 5 others, that is your condition profession.

…essentially though, every condition has access to conditions. Don’t get me started on how many player complain abou the warriors’ ability to stack conditions as well as mainain high direct damage when compared to the necro…

When it comes to deciding between Mesmer and Necro, you might want to look at your preferences concerning PvP and PvE. Mesmer seems to be muchs tronger in PvP at the moment, but is quite difficult in PvE (at least in the beginning). Necros are really viable in PvE, being the most tanky scholar profession and having reliable access to specific dots. They can also turn conditions into boons and vice versa, too

Stacking conditions in PvE is quite easy on a ranger too, though, plus you can select pets which will also aplly dots.

Rememeber, you can stack only a max of 25 of one condition type on a mob in total from all players attacking that mob.

So, being able to stack 25 is wasted if 1 or 2 other players are applying the same condition to the same mob.

I would think a class that applies a larger variety of conditions with less stacks is more viable than a class that applies a lot of only 1 or 2 conditions …

Necro of course

I’m surprised that no one has been sticking up for the Elementalist. With my condition build my d/d ele has access to 7 out of 11 conditions. That sounds like a lot to me. Am I wrong about this?

Oh, and I do that with AoE madness so it’s conditions spread across the entire battle field…not just on one mob.

KICKER.3874:

How are necros not good at conditions? Have you ever played necro ? Obviously not.

OP, necro IS the conditon class, if u like dot play necro.

oh? the question is have you ever played the other classes?

No access to burns. Slow bleed stacking. Poison is non stackable. How is that good condition damage? Reliable yes, great no.

Frotee.2634:

Mesmer seems to be muchs tronger in PvP at the moment, but is quite difficult in PvE (at least in the beginning). Necros are really viable in PvE, being the most tanky scholar profession and having reliable access to specific dots. They can also turn conditions into boons and vice versa, too

Mesmers are actually strong in both. They are one of the more desired professions to be grouped up with because of incredible utility and flexibility, without having to sacrifice significant damage to do so. Turning conditions into boons isn’t that impressive really with a 60s cd on that, and the main use of that is to remove conditions, the boons are a bonus. Check out mesmers Null Field. 36s cd when traited into.

BioFringe.7945:

my d/d ele has access to 7 out of 11 conditions.

Out of those 7, 2 do damage. OP wants DoT. Ele has access to conditions but is sadly unable to use them all at the same time. They are flexible but not 100% so.

I would say mesmer and necromancer are your top two. After than I think ranger and engineer are both equal as well. Ranger can be great at times with popping quickness or getting inside a time warp and just unloading bleeds, but of course you have to be flanking. The nice thing is that ‘flanking’ is very generous.

bri.2359:

Rememeber, you can stack only a max of 25 of one condition type on a mob in total from all players attacking that mob.

So, being able to stack 25 is wasted if 1 or 2 other players are applying the same condition to the same mob.

I would think a class that applies a larger variety of conditions with less stacks is more viable than a class that applies a lot of only 1 or 2 conditions …

Well, this is somewhat misleading.

Bleeding and vulnerability stack to 25
Confusion probably stacks to 25 as well but I’ve never seen that happen
Poison and burn stack in duration
And i believe most of the non-damaging conditions stack in duration as well (cripple, weakened, etc)

This is why I think warrior and rangers are low – bleeding is probably the only one you’ll regularly see capped at 25 and it becomes waste compared to the mesmer or necro which usually don’t end up wasting any damage

Also it seems like people treat condition ranger as exclusively a autoattack bleed machine with shortbow crossfire.

Shortbow still has poison volley and crippling shot gives your pets next 3 attacks a bleed.
Axe, torch and dagger all come with reliable conditions.
Traps are great.
You have a pet that can deal condition damage.

Necro over mesmer easily. Its not just bleed either…available conditions are, bleeding cripple, chill, weakness, vulnerability, blindness, fear & poison. All can be cast instantly and can be traited to be targeted aoe’s. Pretty quick CD’s using scepter/dagger & staff, also.

Raf.1078:

Necro over mesmer easily. Its not just bleed either…available conditions are, bleeding cripple, chill, weakness, vulnerability, blindness, fear & poison. All can be cast instantly and can be traited to be targeted aoe’s. Pretty quick CD’s using scepter/dagger & staff, also.

Okay so you forgot the most powerful condition in PVP, confusion.

Its an easy answer… Necro lacks burn, but can have 20+ bleed stacks on a target, with poison up 100% of the time, indefinately. It can also spec for condition damage and do its condition damage safely from 900 range. So in PVE its going to be necro for dots over long fights where there are no other condition heros around.

If you have a few other heros bleeding (even non condition ones) and a necro, its potential drops quite a bit, and that would be where a class that has a burn and some bleeds would get ahead on dot damage, like a condition ele. That scenario also heavily favors taking a DPS class instead of a dot class.

If you are pvping, all arguments are moot about anything but a condition mesmer for raw damage, who deals 6000 damage every time someone pushes any button on their character at 15 stacks of confusion. I have literally seen people kill themselves in 1.5 seconds. (instant cast spells cause confusion instantly!). Mesmers can easily stack 10+ confusion in a second or two, and will often catch people off guard and cause them to panic.

OP is asking for condition DAMAGE. Not conditions.

Dabrixmgp.4758:

What profession in GW2 does the most condition damage? Dont care about how many types they have just want the most damage possible even if its only stacking a single condition type.