Endgame Stats
IMO staffs are the best and d/d the second best in dungeons.
staffs are usually safe, has great sustained damage/heal/utilities.
d/d has high aoe, massive knockdowns/conditions
if you’re a staff user, just go power/prec/cond, d/d should add in vitality to the mix.
(i really dislike s/d)
I focused on magic find, mainly cause I want to increase my drop chances from mobs, and Ive been having no issue taking on 1-2 mobs at a time in lvl 80 zones, I spec’d for condition dmg, so bleeds are my specality as well as burns, also have a superior swiftness/haste sigil in my sceptor, 10% chance to use swiftness/haste on attack, which pretty much gives me super rapid fire ever so often which basically stacks 20+ bleeds on the mob, they are dead within a matter of moments, if I have pet active I can take 3-4 mobs at a time, I kite allot and retreat when I have to, having 30 in arcane really helps out since I can pretty much completely heal by doing a dodge when attuned to water.
Right now, in dungeons I run a crit oriented build focusing mainly on precision, vitality, and toughness, using a staff and Super Divinities.
0-25-0-25-20
The divinities are essential for crit damage and boosting the other stats that the gear doesn’t cover. Toughness on armor is to keep me alive since I’m not specced in earth. 25 in water magic is actually a huge boost for me, given the extra health + 2% damage per boon, I aim for making the most out of the staff AoE fields at the right time for my parties combos and general sustained damage. 20 in arcana is absolutely necessary, Elemental Attunement, Blasting Staff, faster attunement recharge and increased boon durations are all cornerstones of my build. I’m not expecting to see big, bursty numbers, but with enough crit+crit dmg I can deal respectable sustained damage through the ele AoEs and still play a strong backline support role.
I’d say it’s very effective. I don’t usually die.
The other thing I was looking at it is an S/D cond. dmg build. 30 in earth, but I’d never max out fire and earth at the same time – i feel like it would kitten my vitality way, way too much (3k hp is a lot). Maybe 10 in fire 30 in earth 10 in arcana and 20 in water. I would miss the 20% reduced cd on glyphs though (because glyph of storms+glyph of elementals are just kitten). But this is just a random thought from the top of my head, I won’t go out and experiment with it in dungeons for awhile.
In normal PVE, thats a different story, D/D all the way and I can kite around 4-5 mobs and think nothing of it.
Since you are doing dungeons with scepter/dagger, I would suggest a mix of carrion and knight’s. Condition damage is very useful in a dungeon setting, but not in large group DE’s or in wvw.
I use a mix of berserker and knight’s gear since I’m going for crit, as it is both useful for PVE and wvw settings. My stats are 2.2k power, 2k precision, 1k toughness, and 1.1k vitality. It works pretty well for me for all weapon types.