Guild Wars 2

As many of you know, a build I frequently run in WvW is a condition bunker. My friend and I had run the same build except he uses the Sigil of Geomancy for extra bleeds while I used the Sigil of Doom to apply poison. I switched sigil to try out but I never noticed a significant difference when I fought certain people. This is an analysis of which one benefits me the most over the duration of the skill.

Here is some info about each

Sigil of Doom

Your next attack after you swap to this weapon while in combat inflicts Poison (5 seconds).
Single Target
Affected by condition duration.
Poison also reduces healing affectivness by 33%

Sigil of Geomancy

Inflict Bleeding on nearby foes for 7 seconds when you swap to this weapon while in combat.
240 Aoe Radius
Affected by Condition duration
Mist Form and RtL proc it

I typically run with +40% condition duration.
Sigil of Doom- 7 seconds
Sigil of Geomancy 9.8 seconds

If I ran with, lets say 1000 condition damage I would be doing 2500 damage from bleeds over the course of 9 seconds or 1288 poison damage over the course of 9 seconds.

If I take into account the -33% effectiveness from poison on lets say a Warrior using his signet heal with no healing power. That heals for 392 per second. Over the course of 9 seconds that is going to heal for 3528. With poison applied it will heal for 2397. Since the duration of the poison is 7 seconds the actual heal over 9 seconds will be 2625.

2625-1288=1337 that the warrior will actually heal from the poison over the next time it can be applied

For the Sigil of Geomancy-

3528-2500= 1028

In terms of damage output it seems that the Sigil of Geomancy is superior. Of course to be fair I will also use the same math on a bunker ranger using his regen heal at 1000 healing power.

Over the course of 9 seconds, Healing spring will heal for 1395 in terms of regen. With poison applied it would heal 936. Because the poison is 7 seconds, the actual heal is 1038.

1038-1288= -250 damage to the ranger.

For Sigil of Geomancy-

1395-2500= -1105 damage to the ranger

In conclusion, there is no class with enough healing power in the game that will make the poison more worthwhile than the bleed.

Of course, this does not take into account the enemies potential to use there heal. The poison is more effective on higher heals.

Also, poison is a great additional cover condition which elementalists otherwise wouldn’t have access too.

And the bleeds have the potential to miss if you are not within 240 radius of the enemy.

I for one, will be trying the sigil of geomancy instead for awhile and my next video will showcase it.

I’d put it down to personal preference above theory crafting.

They both have benefits, and drawbacks, Geomancy can hit multiple targets so if you’re talking AoE effectiveness it’s a no brainer, but it also requires to be in melee. Doom only hits one, but it can proc from as far as you’re able to range which is of course a huge benefit, you also don’t have to change attunements to use it as you can have the poison ready to proc before entering combat.

So I’d just say to run it whichever suits your playstyle and try not to worry too much about hard numbers. I run Sigil of Doom if that means anything to you ;-)

azamean.8017:

I’d put it down to personal preference above theory crafting.

They both have benefits, and drawbacks, Geomancy can hit multiple targets so if you’re talking AoE effectiveness it’s a no brainer, but it also requires to be in melee. Doom only hits one, but it can proc from as far as you’re able to range which is of course a huge benefit, you also don’t have to change attunements to use it as you can have the poison ready to proc before entering combat.

So I’d just say to run it whichever suits your playstyle and try not to worry too much about hard numbers. I run Sigil of Doom if that means anything to you ;-)

Yea I don’t notice a significant difference. In group fights i find geomancy a bit better because i’m able to be in melee range more often. Also, with the doom sigil i sometimes hit people with it i dont intend to

I prefer geomancy, but there are times (when facing annoying regen classes solo) that I really want that poison. However, geomancy does direct AND condition damage (and more condition damage than doom) though, and hits multiple targets. Plus there are so many classes with annoying pets and minions that sigil of doom is often wasted.