My question is stated in the title. This is assuming a standard d/d build with 30 in Arcana. How much do you guys value boon duration within your build? Do you stay at 30% or do you try and max out duration? Just curious, as I’ve been experimenting with many builds, but gauging the effectiveness of boons is pretty difficult. So I just wanted some of your guy’s opinions. Thanks
honestly I’m on the fence for this. The boon increase is only really good if the boon already had a decent size duration. alot of our boons last the span of 2-4 seconds without the 30% and all they get is maybe a 1 second increase in time. Seems kinda meek for a trait stat.
I prefer more offensive builds, so I don’t value boon duration very much. protection/vigor/regeneration uptime and all that.
perma fury is easy to get without boon duration, and might duration isn’t worth going out of your way for.
I like condition duration more. throw stupidly long immobilizes and chills at people. conditions are stronger than boons
(edited by reikken.4961)
As a S/F PvE elementalist, very much – enough to spec 190% boon duration. But if we’re talking D/D PvP, boon duration is not a good idea. Condition duration, condition damage would do better, because having your boons nulled or stolen is Not Funny.
I believe its a little bit overated.The only weapon set fit for boon duration is dagger/x.Cause in situations where you are outnumbered boons are your only protection-source of dmg etc.Though in spvp i use Ogre/Scholar.When i play staff in WvW or i play PvE i will definetly go for offensive runes or Orbs(mainly for pve)
0 value given to boon duration stat since beta. Wait I take that back, I gave it some value when I used to waste a lot of points in the arcana tree back in the early stage of. Ele.
(edited by LightningBlaze.4913)
I value it by about 3000 power, AKA the power I’m at when I have 21-25 stacks. Not to mention the perma protection it gives me.
With it, I also keep up permanent regeneration, giving me more hp/sec than a healing signet warrior.
It is a good choice, but that’s not to say there aren’t better alternatives. I value it for outnumbered fights.
Edit- I’ll also say I value it a lot more thanks to Anet nerfing sword thieves. I really appreciated that one. It makes my boons go a lot farther, as I do expect some to be stripped.
My personal opinion is no more than 60%. I would at this point only go 45%. I posted this in another thread but in my brief time running around with runes of hoelbrak in WvW I noticed I was able to keep stacks at 20 pretty easily as if I had 75% boon duration.
So the other 30% if you go all out really gets good use on your updraft swiftness, but elemental attunement swaps are barely effected except for the might.
I have used 75% back to 30% I think 45% if you want extra boon duration for backloaded DPS like full boon duration setups.
60% if you really value the other boons.
75% boon duration if you are fighting people that let you keep 25 stacks of might and watch you stack it.
For DPS it is frontloaded vs backloaded damage in regards to Might and a extra 15% will give you solid effective might stacks. If you really like the other boons you can go 60% but 45% boon duration and 60% boon duration would have about the same amount of might stacks. If the main reason you went boon duration is DPS and the most important boon to you is Might 45% is a good spot.
(edited by oZii.2864)
I’d say it depends on your build. Defensive builds with points in water, arcane and earth profit most of it because of longer vigor, protection, stability and regen.
I wouldn’t pick it for offensive builds though. As already mentioned 25 stacks of might is not that difficult to obtain in a 5man group. Same goes for fury and that’s all you need for offense.
Superior runes of divinity , only way to go but having a boon duration set is good to have
As a S/F PvE elementalist, very much – enough to spec 190% boon duration. But if we’re talking D/D PvP, boon duration is not a good idea. Condition duration, condition damage would do better, because having your boons nulled or stolen is Not Funny.
As someone who mains a boon strip thief I can confirm that it indeed sucks for boon duration classes to have their boons stolen. Especially your 30 seconds plus of stability during Tornado, Rampage (ranger, engie, warrior), Dagger Storm, etc.. It’s hilarious for me when playing my thief though — immune to CC while having the ability to stun lock you in your elite or after you’ve blown your utilities is amazing in the way it can turn any fight around.
Since it is easer to see everything in front of you at one time this should help 20 water 30 arcana users.
Note:
Fire Field Might – 3 stacks 20 seconds.
Sigil of Battle – 3 stacks 20 seconds
Elemental attunement – Might 1 stack 15 seconds
30% Boon Duration Setup
Might – 19.5 s
Swiftness – 6.5 s
Protection – 6.5 s
Regen – 6.5
Vigor -
Fury -
75% Boon duration
Might – 26.25 s
Swiftness – 8.75 s
Protection – 8.75 s
Regen – 8.75
Vigor -
Fury -
(edited by oZii.2864)
I just recently finished leveling my Guardian to 80 and I consider Guard and Ele to be similar on boon reliance but that was until I actually started playing it. The boons help the Guardian heal in a AH build but right now I am not very tempted to run boon duration on Guardian and I am playing more dps/hybrid. Probably Guardian Version of 0/10/0/30/30 D/D Ele which is 0/5/30/30/5.
It is easier on Guardian because of 1 trait and the base armor. The trait is strength in numbers which I am jelly of as a Ele main. We have Stone Flesh but you can’t keep it up like Soothing Mist since it doesn’t refresh like soothing mist. Which you can keep up almost 100%.
Just playing the Guardian for just a few days at 80 so far. Ele’s give me a hard time rofl which is kinda funny triple meds is probably better for solo though.
I like both classes and Guard will probably end up being my second fav after Ele taking Warriors spot since it is not as straight forward as Warrior.
(edited by oZii.2864)
U should also consider that going from 60% to 75% boon duration is at a very very low price, only 2 runes, what can u do that is better then 15% boon duration with 2 runes?
Considerering that u already have on 2 monks/waters and 2 travelers, what can u do? 2 divinities? 2 melandru? Easy match for 15% more boon duration
U should also consider that going from 60% to 75% boon duration is at a very very low price, only 2 runes, what can u do that is better then 15% boon duration with 2 runes?
Considerering that u already have on 2 monks/waters and 2 travelers, what can u do? 2 divinities? 2 melandru? Easy match for 15% more boon duration
Very very true
I will add though that if I had 10 points in Earth I would definitely consider taking Elemental shielding if I had 75% boon duration because that is Perma Protection without question and I think protection and stability are probably the strongest boons in the game. I would put prot over stab personally.
(edited by oZii.2864)
When conditions will be, somehow, nerfed… 30 water will be less powerful and 10 earth with elemental shielding will be the way for D/D, I already tested it and it’s very strong if u master magnetic grasp, it’s close-to-perma protection.
Btw, because it takes magnetic grasp usage in fire field to be full effective, this build will be harder to play
Using Trait V in Earth Magic has been the way for several months to a year as far as I’m concerned. 10 points into Air Magic for fury/swiftness on auras is useless as those two boons are either easily obtained through other means or just not very game-changing. For D/D, 30 points into Water Magic is only good for sharing auras, and even that is only good for particular group compositions (having at least two other heavier melee-oriented professions).
I go 75% boon duration simply because of the 20 points I put into Earth Magic for protection to drastically increase my survivability, and stability for almost-guaranteed stomps in group fights.
(edited by Thorp.7982)
If u talk about zergs, I agree with you.
If u talk about roaming, solo or small/medium scale, there is no D/D build without 10 air I can remember :P
And 30 water is popular for cleanses more then for aura share, low radius and not enough auras to share
(edited by Xunleashed.5271)
I play with between 2-8 people at the most, three on most nights, eight on reset. Having 10 points into Air Magic is overrated. You get a little bit of precision and +10% critical damage on top of the already weak damage of a D/D Elementalist, along with the fury/swiftness mentioned before. The protection and stability from Earth Magic fit the play-style of D/D Elementalist better — being sustained in the fight and getting stomps, damage coming afterwards. Aura-sharing the protection with a higher boon duration gives melee fighters near you near-permanent protection when combined with the protection applied from attuning to Earth with the Arcana trait.
I’m aware of why 30 Water or 10 Air is popular. I’m saying they’re bad choices with the exception of going 30 Water for aura sharing with 10 Earth for a D/D Elementalist.
(edited by Thorp.7982)
weak damage? 2-8 is a scale where D/D damage shines, his aoe burst can change fights, I think you should look around some vids :P
If you’re using a D/D Elementalist for AoE burst rather than a power Engineer, Warrior, even a power Necromancer, you’re doing it wrong. I consider D/D Elementalist very weak in terms of AoE burst or even simply damage compared to these professions.
(edited by Thorp.7982)
We can look at the numbers here of 3 builds to see what the Effective Power difference looks like. Fury and Might has to be added manually also.
Effective Power – 4860.9
20 stacks of Might and 100% fury up time has to be added also. 10 air would have perma fury. A generous 6% damage boost from bountiful power has to be added manually.
Effective Power – 4836.41
20 stacks of might 40% fury uptime via Arcane fury w/ Stone Splinters and Serrated stone which it calculates automatically as applied
Effective Power – 5322.05
If we move 5 more points on the last build to 25 Earth. 20 Stacks of Might 40% Fury Uptime taking all the damage modifier traits.
Enduring Damage modifier is a bit harder to pull off though.
(edited by oZii.2864)
ew @ 25 earth
enduring damage is only useful if you never dodge
Anyway, what is effective power?
edit: nvm. I see now. I haven’t used this site before. Let’s see what the effective power of my prospective build would be…
13k apparently. not too shabby! (8 might, 85% fury, 48.3% damage [4.4 bolt to the heart, 10 stone splinters, 7 burning rage, 7.5 air training, 1/7 * 2/1.15 *2/3 = 12.3 fresh air+electric discharge {1 bolt per 7 seconds compared to 2/3 uptime on lightning whip dps}])
and with a whopping 16313 effective hp. so tanky, oh man
But after trying to calculate how much damage I get out of bolt to the heart, I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to swap it out for zephyr’s focus. since your opponent spends much less time below 33% than between 33 and 67, or above 67%, and on top of that the damage has a high chance of being overkill and not making a difference. But on the other hand, damage to a low health opponent is much more critical, since they’ll be trying to heal or whatever, and more damage can help you kill them before that happens.
edit: actually it looks like some of these damage traits are added in automatically? hmm
OK, 10k is the actual effective power
(edited by reikken.4961)
ew @ 25 earth
enduring damage is only useful if you never dodgeAnyway, what is effective power?
edit: nvm. I see now. I haven’t used this site before. Let’s see what the effective power of my prospective build would be…
13k apparently. not too shabby! (8 might, 85% fury, 48.3% damage [4.4 bolt to the heart, 10 stone splinters, 7 burning rage, 7.5 air training, 1/7 * 2/1.15 *2/3 = 12.3 fresh air+electric discharge {1 bolt per 7 seconds compared to 2/3 uptime on lightning whip dps}])
and with a whopping 16313 effective hp. so tanky, oh manBut after trying to calculate how much damage I get out of bolt to the heart, I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to swap it out for zephyr’s focus. since your opponent spends much less time below 33% than between 33 and 67, or above 67%, and on top of that the damage has a high chance of being overkill and not making a difference. But on the other hand, damage to a low health opponent is much more critical, since they’ll be trying to heal or whatever, and more damage can help you kill them before that happens.
edit: actually it looks like some of these damage traits are added in automatically? hmm
OK, 10k is the actual effective power
Yea most of the damage modifiers are added in automatically. Bountiful power you have to put in automatically.
Bitcloud mentioned in his newest video that Bolt to the Heart applies to Necromancer Deathshroud which makes it more attractive but I haven’t tested it myself.
It is hard to gauge the value of Bolt to the Heart I feel like most people are dead at that mark. Reverse thinking would be would I take Earths Embrace or any other health threshold traits if they triggered at 33% health I would not. The alternatives beside bolt to the heart I like Air training for lightning whip spam or Arcane lightning if I run a Arcane spell.
(edited by oZii.2864)
gw2buildcraft is a bit overconfident when calculating its values. For example if you take a thief and pick the “7% more chance to crit from behind or side” trait, it will ignore that there is a condition attached to that trait and simply add those 7% to your regular crit chance. You should be careful when taking those values for granted – it always makes a best case calculation.
Back to topic: I am fully in the boon duration boat. Take the protection boon for instance. Keeping that boon up reduces the damage taken by 33%. Given the diminishing returns of toughness/armor this can easily be the equivalent of 2000 or more toughness. The same could be said about fury as well. If i remember correctly you need 21 points in precision to increase your critical chance by 1%. So having the fury boon is like 420 extra precision. Or take the might boon: with 16 stacks (which is a more or less realistic value even if you opponent pushes you) thats 560 power and condition damage. And there is swiftness, regeneration or vigor on top of that.
Keeping all those boons up is in my opinion the best choice for your rune slots and is also one of the reasons I never run without 30 arcana (aside from the fact that it contains the key traits for a boon duration build – without it there would be no boons in the first place…).
(edited by Columbo.5924)
75% boon duration is nifty on guardian for maintaining perma-prot, might stacks, regen, and more stability in wvw. Dont tell anyone I used boon runes though, it would hurt my cred.
gw2buildcraft is a bit overconfident when calculating its values. For example if you take a thief and pick the “7% more chance to crit from behind or side” trait, it will ignore that there is a condition attached to that trait and simply add those 7% to your regular crit chance. You should be careful when taking those values for granted – it always makes a best case calculation.
Back to topic: I am fully in the boon duration boat. Take the protection boon for instance. Keeping that boon up reduces the damage taken by 33%. Given the diminishing returns of toughness/armor this can easily be the equivalent of 2000 or more toughness. The same could be said about fury as well. If i remember correctly you need 21 points in precision to increase your critical chance by 1%. So having the fury boon is like 420 extra precision. Or take the might boon: with 16 stacks (which is a more or less realistic value even if you opponent pushes you) thats 560 power and condition damage. And there is swiftness, regeneration or vigor on top of that.
Keeping all those boons up is in my opinion the best choice for your rune slots and is also one of the reasons I never run without 30 arcana (aside from the fact that it contains the key traits for a boon duration build – without it there would be no boons in the first place…).
I agree with this as well. For me it’s pretty important because I can afford cheap boon duration runes and food, but I don’t yet have ascended armor and weapons, only a couple trinkets. If everything I had was ascended, it might be different, but it’s hard to for me to decide right now if the Ele is even worth pumping my resources into since I don’t have enough for more than 1 character and probably won’t for quite a long time.
Gear always skews things so much, which is why I’m glad this game still has sPVP, at least I know there it’s not my gear that’s allowing someone to roll me.
gw2buildcraft is a bit overconfident when calculating its values. For example if you take a thief and pick the “7% more chance to crit from behind or side” trait, it will ignore that there is a condition attached to that trait and simply add those 7% to your regular crit chance. You should be careful when taking those values for granted – it always makes a best case calculation.
Back to topic: I am fully in the boon duration boat. Take the protection boon for instance. Keeping that boon up reduces the damage taken by 33%. Given the diminishing returns of toughness/armor this can easily be the equivalent of 2000 or more toughness. The same could be said about fury as well. If i remember correctly you need 21 points in precision to increase your critical chance by 1%. So having the fury boon is like 420 extra precision. Or take the might boon: with 16 stacks (which is a more or less realistic value even if you opponent pushes you) thats 560 power and condition damage. And there is swiftness, regeneration or vigor on top of that.
Keeping all those boons up is in my opinion the best choice for your rune slots and is also one of the reasons I never run without 30 arcana (aside from the fact that it contains the key traits for a boon duration build – without it there would be no boons in the first place…).
With 10 air you can have perma fury with just 30% if you are being pressured this can drop off for a short time but not long. Protection difference with 30% boon duration vs 75% duration is 2.25 sec that is very little downtime unless we are talking about with Elemental Shielding then you can keep it up 100% with just 60% boon duration.
So those 2.25 seconds of protection in a 0/10/0/30/30 D/D build instead of:
60 to all stats 12 crit damage
or
30 to all stats 6 crit damage, 15% boon duration and 25 movement Speed
or
120 Power 84 precision and 12 crit damage
or
165 of one stat and 50 of another and whatever 6 piece bonus comes with it.
165 power (i’ll take power because i could easily drop 165 power from my gear and get the respective other stat for it) equals 5 might stacks (4,71 to be more precise, but let’s leave it at that). 45% more boon duration will let me keep these might stacks so i have the same power as well – and I am convinced that 45% more boon duration will let me keep those 5 might stacks in a sustained fight.
But i wouldn’t want to talk about power alone. It is the combined value of might and protection and regeneration and vigor and fury that makes boon duration runes so strong. Take the combined stat gain (and also the damage that you don’t take because of vigor) of keeping those boons and compare it to the runes/ruby orbs. In my opinion boon duration offers much more than the stat runes.
Something that is easily forgotten in that equasion is that extended boon duration also benefits nerby allies, whereas a stat bonus for yourself doesn’t.
gw2buildcraft is a bit overconfident when calculating its values. For example if you take a thief and pick the “7% more chance to crit from behind or side” trait, it will ignore that there is a condition attached to that trait and simply add those 7% to your regular crit chance. You should be careful when taking those values for granted – it always makes a best case calculation.
Back to topic: I am fully in the boon duration boat. Take the protection boon for instance. Keeping that boon up reduces the damage taken by 33%. Given the diminishing returns of toughness/armor this can easily be the equivalent of 2000 or more toughness. The same could be said about fury as well. If i remember correctly you need 21 points in precision to increase your critical chance by 1%. So having the fury boon is like 420 extra precision. Or take the might boon: with 16 stacks (which is a more or less realistic value even if you opponent pushes you) thats 560 power and condition damage. And there is swiftness, regeneration or vigor on top of that.
Keeping all those boons up is in my opinion the best choice for your rune slots and is also one of the reasons I never run without 30 arcana (aside from the fact that it contains the key traits for a boon duration build – without it there would be no boons in the first place…).
With 10 air you can have perma fury with just 30% if you are being pressured this can drop off for a short time but not long. Protection difference with 30% boon duration vs 75% duration is 2.25 sec that is very little downtime unless we are talking about with Elemental Shielding then you can keep it up 100% with just 60% boon duration.
So those 2.25 seconds of protection in a 0/10/0/30/30 D/D build instead of:
60 to all stats 12 crit damage
or
30 to all stats 6 crit damage, 15% boon duration and 25 movement Speed
or
120 Power 84 precision and 12 crit damage
or
165 of one stat and 50 of another and whatever 6 piece bonus comes with it.
I was thinking of switching to the 75% setup, but I’m losing +50 to all stats and 10% critical damage. I don’t know if it is worth it. I would like to try both setups, but it would be expensive.
Another option is to not go full boon duration, but a mix: You can also go for 60% boon duration using 2x traveler, 2x divinity, 2x water. This will give you 30 all stats, 30% additional boon duration and 6% crit dmg. However, this will cost you something like 40-50 gold, so it’s maybe a better idea to test it first in sPvP.
In all seriousness, I think or settled on a build (pay no attention to the boon duration…..)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmgbyx5wjDAkHuADLiCYUekDN2A-jUDBYMChUDIUIAUBgZPFRjtMMaVXBp8Ks6FY6SK1qTByfAwpgRrWEAzYA-w
I play d/d with 0/10/10/20/30 and I have 75% boon duration (30% arcana, 15% monk, 15% water, 15% traveller) – after a few seconds infight I have always between 12 and 25 might stacks because of my superior Sigil of battle. Imo if u have that Sigil go for boon duration it is amazing – in general boon duration is better for elementalist than for any other class (maybe some guardians but I don’t really know much about these) as you get a lot boons by switching between your attunements and blasting into your fire fields
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I was thinking of switching to the 75% setup, but I’m losing +50 to all stats and 10% critical damage. I don’t know if it is worth it. I would like to try both setups, but it would be expensive.
but you get some longer might duration for these +15% boon duration = more dps
also all of your important boons (vigor, protection) have a longer duration and also all of your sideboons like regeneration or swiftness
I love my boon duration bonus of 70%. I use Chocolate Omnomberry Cream for the boost as well, and I explain to my party I’m using it for the boon duration, not the magic find.
In all seriousness, I think or settled on a build (pay no attention to the boon duration…..)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmgbyx5wjDAkHuADLiCYUekDN2A-jUDBYMChUDIUIAUBgZPFRjtMMaVXBp8Ks6FY6SK1qTByfAwpgRrWEAzYA-w
Not sure if trolling…
In all seriousness, I think or settled on a build (pay no attention to the boon duration…..)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmgbyx5wjDAkHuADLiCYUekDN2A-jUDBYMChUDIUIAUBgZPFRjtMMaVXBp8Ks6FY6SK1qTByfAwpgRrWEAzYA-wNot sure if trolling…
It’s decently viable in WvW. No worse than any other D/D setup, unless you’re fighting a corrupt boon necro or boon steal thief. I use it more for team roaming, rather than solo roaming though.
Boon duration hasn’t been really strong since it stopped affecting aura duration and ANet went overboard with the anti-boon nerfs/counters.
It can be ok for soloing if it helps you maintain higher might stacks and fury up time, but in a group, you should always be at or near 25 with perma fury, so the 165 power and #6 rune set ability is going to be much more valuable.
In all seriousness, I think or settled on a build (pay no attention to the boon duration…..)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmgbyx5wjDAkHuADLiCYUekDN2A-jUDBYMChUDIUIAUBgZPFRjtMMaVXBp8Ks6FY6SK1qTByfAwpgRrWEAzYA-wNot sure if trolling…
It’s decently viable in WvW. No worse than any other D/D setup, unless you’re fighting a corrupt boon necro or boon steal thief. I use it more for team roaming, rather than solo roaming though.
30 into arcane without elemental attunement?…
In all seriousness, I think or settled on a build (pay no attention to the boon duration…..)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmgbyx5wjDAkHuADLiCYUekDN2A-jUDBYMChUDIUIAUBgZPFRjtMMaVXBp8Ks6FY6SK1qTByfAwpgRrWEAzYA-wNot sure if trolling…
It’s decently viable in WvW. No worse than any other D/D setup, unless you’re fighting a corrupt boon necro or boon steal thief. I use it more for team roaming, rather than solo roaming though.
30 into arcane without elemental attunement?…
and 10 into air without zephyrs boon?… let’s just assume he did not pay that much attention to the traits…
In all seriousness, I think or settled on a build (pay no attention to the boon duration…..)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmgbyx5wjDAkHuADLiCYUekDN2A-jUDBYMChUDIUIAUBgZPFRjtMMaVXBp8Ks6FY6SK1qTByfAwpgRrWEAzYA-wNot sure if trolling…
It’s decently viable in WvW. No worse than any other D/D setup, unless you’re fighting a corrupt boon necro or boon steal thief. I use it more for team roaming, rather than solo roaming though.
30 into arcane without elemental attunement?…
and 10 into air without zephyrs boon?… let’s just assume he did not pay that much attention to the traits…
Fixed. XD
In all seriousness, I think or settled on a build (pay no attention to the boon duration…..)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmgbyx5wjDAkHuADLiCYUekDN2A-jUDBYMChUDIUIAUBgZPFRjtMMaVXBp8Ks6FY6SK1qTByfAwpgRrWEAzYA-wNot sure if trolling…
It’s decently viable in WvW. No worse than any other D/D setup, unless you’re fighting a corrupt boon necro or boon steal thief. I use it more for team roaming, rather than solo roaming though.
30 into arcane without elemental attunement?…
and 10 into air without zephyrs boon?… let’s just assume he did not pay that much attention to the traits…
Fixed. XD
The only thing that I don’t like about that build is that you have 11% crit dmg. Nice build though, not sure if I want to go for the +20% boon duration in my food too – that’s the question I always ask myself after getting up in the morning :P but for now I’m ok with my boon duration
I’m not sure if it was mentioned, but here goes my opinion:
Since I do only small scale roaming with team, I value highly boon duration (so does my guardian teammates), along with high healing power, it makes me part of the support core for our group. It works really well for tankier playstyle. With “only” 60% boon duration it gives perma: fury, swiftness, vigor, regen and at least 16 stacks of might (from swaps and blasts), not to mention high protection uptime. It’s a little like eqiuvalent of healway guardian, but less tankier, although with higher damage (due crazyly stacked might and perma fury).
In bigger team (zerg) it’s not so beneficial, due quite much damage for best possible cost is all that matters.
In all seriousness, I think or settled on a build (pay no attention to the boon duration…..)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmgbyx5wjDAkHuADLiCYUekDN2A-jUDBYMChUDIUIAUBgZPFRjtMMaVXBp8Ks6FY6SK1qTByfAwpgRrWEAzYA-wNot sure if trolling…
It’s decently viable in WvW. No worse than any other D/D setup, unless you’re fighting a corrupt boon necro or boon steal thief. I use it more for team roaming, rather than solo roaming though.
30 into arcane without elemental attunement?…
and 10 into air without zephyrs boon?… let’s just assume he did not pay that much attention to the traits…
Fixed. XD
The only thing that I don’t like about that build is that you have 11% crit dmg. Nice build though, not sure if I want to go for the +20% boon duration in my food too – that’s the question I always ask myself after getting up in the morning :P but for now I’m ok with my boon duration
Yeah, the build is a nice idea for a smile, but at the end of the day you will realize that you have to give up too much for that extra boon duration (snowflake/givers is not exactly the highest valued gear for a reason).
Boon duration gear only if u are going the classic dnd route. Otherwise, the conversation is a waste of time.
In wvw I value 6/6 traveler’s more for every weapon set.
In close-combat pve, boon duration wins (almost) every time. However, I just use scholars/zerker in fungeons.
In spvp I use Lyssa.
Boon duration gear only if u are going the classic dnd route. Otherwise, the conversation is a waste of time.
I see. So boosting your party heals or extending your might durations isn’t useful?
Boon duration gear only if u are going the classic dnd route. Otherwise, the conversation is a waste of time.
I see. So boosting your party heals or extending your might durations isn’t useful?
It is but to really find how useful the extended might durations are or the extra time regen is up has to be figured out. Which is really hard to do. The safe bet would be to stack as much as you can and just call it a day.
What has to be determined:
For heals boons that stat duration can only stack a max of 9 times with Retal capped at 5 and stability capped at 3. So if Regen is being handed out like crazy you might be giving out all that much extra healing from regen.
This is actually good design I think in small scale battles it is much harder to hit the 9 stack cap on regen but in larger battles it is definitely easy but the 9 stack cap ensures that those that are dedicated to healing hand that healing out more.
Side Note
Didn’t churning earth give 6 stacks of might in a fire field? 3 at start 3 at finish now it just gives 3 at finish.
(edited by oZii.2864)
The boon duration from say, Arcana, goes a long way in making up for the loss of stats you would otherwise get from say, Fire Magic. But only if you make sure you use at least some might stacking and other boons. Elemental Attunement seems a must for any ele boon duration build because of its spammability and long duration.
It would be interesting to see how effective Arcana is in providing stats like power to an ele using it. If we just take Sigil of Battle, and assume it refreshes on cooldown, we get 6 stacks of might on average. At 30% boon duration, that would mean 7.8 stacks on average, or 1.8 might gained, which equals 65 power or so. Compared to the 300 power you get from Fire Magic, that’s pitiful.
However, you also gain near-perma fury (=420 precision) from the same attribute line. Assuming 50% uptime, it adds 210 precision on average. Adding the 210 precision to the power and condition damage from the sigil of battle, that sums up to+340 offensive stat points.
Add to that the might from combos, the extra protection and regen and I think you might actually get more ‘stats’ from boon duration that you would get from attributes. Or gear for that matter.
Boon duration gear only if u are going the classic dnd route. Otherwise, the conversation is a waste of time.
I see. So boosting your party heals or extending your might durations isn’t useful?
Because the DnD ele is a frontliner attacker, having boon duration on him , combined with powerful aura and grp condi removal are all at max 360 radius. Staff eles serve different purposes and dont really neeed that high of boon duration gear.
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