Guild Wars 2

Hey, I need some feedback with Elementalist more experienced with Daggers. I’ve used daggers before and liked them, although I still need to work on my dagger tactics. Anyway, I want to work on Exotic Daggers, but unsure what attribute mod I should go for.

I am currently using a Berserker Staff of Superior Fire. I have or am working towards Soldier’s Armor Set (Power Main, Toughness and Vitality Minor), Berserker Armor Set, Emerald Jewelry Set, Ruby Jewelry Set, and Soldier Jewelry Set. I also plan to get a Soldier’s Staff of Superior Battle. I don’t want to add any more armor and jewelry sets though, since I already got a good defensive and a good critical set.

So the question is what stats the daggers should get. Since Daggers are more up close, I was thinking something with a Vitality or Toughness mod. But they also have a good bit of Condition Damage with Fire and Earth so I considered that as well. From what I seen, Daggers can still make good use of Critical though, so I considered of keeping that theme going. I could have each dagger with different mods too, which just makes it even more confusing imo XD

The main mods I’ve been considering have been Rampager’s (Precision Main, Power and Condition Damage Minor) to keep up Critical while adding some Condition Buff. I could just use Berserker Daggers (Power Main, Precision and Critical Damage Minor) as well. Valkyrie (Power Main, Vitality and Condition Damage Minor) or Knight’s (Toughness Main, Power and Precision Minor) would be more defensive options. I could also get Soldier’s Dagger (Power Main, Toughness and Vitality Minor) but I am unsure if I really need that much defense on the dagger. Then there are Rapid, Shaman’s, and Carrion as well, although I am not considering them as much.

So which do you think is best? I could get two sets of daggers like I did for Staff, one offensive and one defensive, but since they are already putting me in close it seems I’d always want to the defensive set. But at same time, when played right, daggers probably can dodge over tank (plan to practice that after I get daggers).
Well I see no reason to keep stating and restating the indecision I’m having. Any suggestions for which mods and playing daggers in general is appreciated.

I use carrion daggers/armor with mostly cleric’s jewelry — but I like more balanced stats and I WvW frequently, including taking part in melee pushes, so being too glass cannony doesn’t work for me. Sigil of Battle (you will definitely be swapping often) in one and currently Sigil of Hydromancy, because that’s what came with it (Mystic Daggers look cool and elementalist-y imo, and come with carrion stats already). Not sure if I want to replace that one or not.

Your mileage may very much vary, but regardless I can’t say enough good things about Sigil of Battle. Along with the might stacks you get from your combos, you can make up for more conservative offensive stats to a degree.

I forgot to mention Sigils. I was thinking 2 Sigils of Fire to have a higher chance at the AoE on crit. 1 Fire and 1 Battle would work, but I wasn’t sure if they share cooldown or not (Aka, if I swap and battle activates, does that mean fire cannot activate for 9 seconds?).

Also, I don’t plan to add more armor and jewelry any time soon, but I’ll consider Carrion Daggers. I am just not sure if Condition Damage is really worth it on the dagger vs. Critical or even Toughness. I assume it is wise to have at least Vitality or Toughness somewhere on dagger though, right?

Shiny ones, with a glow effect.

Sigil of Hydromancy?? How you get that one working? Tested it in sPvP and it did work one time and after that nothing.

From the wiki: clickie

Sigils that have a chance to trigger on critical hits stack their chance percentages multiplicatively, not additively. For example, two major Sigils of Fire, which each have a 20% chance to trigger on critical hit, will have a 36% chance to trigger, not 40%.

Since Battle is an on-swap effect and Fire is an on-crit, it’s my understanding they shake hands just fine.

I also recommend reading the other notes at that link because sigils in general are kinda finicky.

As for stats/whether vitality is required…imo it all comes down to playstyle. I know a lot of people who love glass cannons and that quick “kill or be killed” rush, but I don’t. With my setup I don’t kill super quickly, but I have the tools to stay in range (or escape if I need to) and I find I generally do pretty well when outnumbered (as long as it’s not severely).

So, yes. I personally can’t imagine running D/D with no vitality, but I know people who don’t put all that much into it. I like Carrion because you have a mix of skills that use both power and condi damage as their multiplier. I don’t have huge bursts (though I crit fairly often from Fury) but my condis tick nicely as well.

EDIT:

Sigil of Hydromancy?? How you get that one working? Tested it in sPvP and it did work one time and after that nothing.

You have to be in combat for it to trigger.

Rainshine.5493:

Junkpile.7439:

Sigil of Hydromancy?? How you get that one working? Tested it in sPvP and it did work one time and after that nothing.

You have to be in combat for it to trigger.

I know, but it bugged after first swap. Now when i think about it maybe i got two on-swap sigils. Need to go and test.

Yeah, I notice mine override each other right now. I just haven’t decided what to replace it with, and the times the chill HAS procced it’s saved my bum a couple of times, lol.

Seems like sigil of battle overrides hydromancy. Sucks. Hydromancy would be awesome in WvW when you rush inside zerg, but those might stack are so nice too.

Yeah, whatever’s in your mainhand overrides. I’ve swapped them back and forth and it’s a tough decision.

I think that battle overrides hydromancy in off hand too. Kind of weird.

Merp? I have definitely had Hydromancy proc. …But dangit, now I’m trying to remember if it’s before I slotted Battle in my other dagger. >:{ I’ve only had it a few days.

I believe that all sigils with a cooldown share the same cooldown, including interal cooldowns. That means on-crit and on-weapon-swap sigils don’t work together.

So Battle, Hydromancy and Fire all conflict. Once one procs, none of the others will until the cooldown is up.

I use sigil of blood and sigil of Hydromancy…
Do you know if they override?

Also is it true that sigil of accuracy doesnt work after last patch?

Thanks for the comments. I have read wiki, but I never said that swap and crit didn’t share cooldowns so thought it was worth checking with people who may have tested. If they do conflict, they complicates things and make me think that 2 fire would be easier since they stack.
I am considering Fire, Battle, or Hydromancy. I can always decide sigils after getting weapons and playing them more, but it is hard to get a feel for the stats I need without daggers XD I do have a set of rare ones though, so I may try them a bit more before deciding.

So getting back to discussion more on the stats… Do you think condition damage is worth it for daggers? I heard before that it wasn’t the most useful, at least compared to condition duration, and it is only on two elements while works with all 4 and goes better with armor. If condition damage is worth it, I may just go with Carrion, even though I’d prefer condition be a minor. Or Rampager’s if I feel daring enough to drop vitality. Or Soldier’s/Knight’s if I feel too squishy. If condition damage isn’t that useful, I’d prefer Berserker or Valkyrie probably. So knowing how useful condition damage is would help a lot in choosing. I kinda would like condition boost so a dagger would be more useful if I used scepter, but at same time I don’t want to pick it and have a weaker dagger dagger because of it.

I will probably use daggers more for casual PvE and still use Staff in dungeons. But when I am running around Orr or such, I tend to use staff at point blank range with nukes, so Daggers seem like better choice due to quicker damage. With a berserker staff, I currently don’t feel too weak defense wise…but with lose of range from daggers, lack of my field I’ve grown use to, and running into boss, that may change.

Just to restate current question, which is:

Is it worth having Condition Damage as primary or minor Attribute on a Dagger? Or would it be better to skip it an focus more on Crit considering that is already what my armor does?

Either way I will probably add some defense to it. If I feel to squishy I may just go for Soldier Daggers.

I seem to be doing well with Claws of the Desert daggers, carrion for my armor set and currently, Runes of Hoelbrak. I haven’t swapped out the sigil on the second Claw, but having the might on swap is nice. I’m running 30 fire/10 air/30 arcane, though I think I might swap around a bit and try balancing between earth and water and arcane.

Claws of the Desert daggers seem to be Carrion. Would have saved me a few minutes if you just said that XD

Anyway, I am leaning more towards ignoring condition damage. My armor and play style focuses more on critical than condition and from what I read condition damage only beats critical once you build stacks up high enough, which I don’t see myself doing.

Now the only question is should I get Berserker, Knight’s, or Soldier stats, which is something I’ll need to decide myself by playing them more. I’ll probably lean more towards Berserkers though, since unless I go all out tank I always have Critical in armor or jewelry. And if I do need to go all out tank, I doubt it is someplace where I’d want to be using daggers XD

Someday I may get a set of condition based armor and jewelry, but not anytime soon. If I ever do (probably when I seriously consider scepter outside of PvP), I’ll consider a new set of daggers as well.