Guild Wars 2

I just have a fairly short and simple question. Obviously with HGH and various other might stacking runes and traits, you get either really high power/condi dmg, and fairly decent power/condi dmg (depends on the gear you choose.) so HGH nades with full rabid for example, i wind up with 3500+ condi dmg and 2k power, but with HGH nades and zerker armor i get 3500+ power, and 1300+ condi dmg. My question is which do you think is more effective? Absurd condi dmg with decent power, or absurd power with decent condi dmg? Im also a bit undecided about weapons. Rifle obviously for the zerker gear one, but im torn between rifle or p/p for the rabid one. Any help here would be greatly appreciated

The main question is: WvW or PvE?
However I really doubt that you get nearly 3500 condi dmg. A full condi equip with nourishment get up to 2k, with 25stacks might 2875. I guess it’s awesome for WvW but still crap for PvE due overwriting conditions. However you should also focus on condi duration instead of full dmg. It also helps chill, vulnerability, weakness and poison, or damaging conditions in general.

concerning wvw, I use hgh with carrion which is both condi and power and I think the pressure I get on players is unmatched by power or condies alone. the downside is you have to mix some trinkets in for toughness and some precision. if there was a condi/power/toughness set, I’d be very happy :p
there’s always celestial but I use that for something else.

now, if you absolutely have to choose between power or condition dmg, it depends greatly on what kind of stuff you do, but I think generally conditions are better for an elixir build because you still deal damage while consuming/tossing elixirs and/or kiting unlike direct damage. this is not a matter of raw dps, it has more to do with keeping the pressure up on a target.

Sorry, i should have clarified WvW or PVE. Its for solo WvW. Here is the primary condi dmg one

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqal0pyXnuSiF17ICoC5loHPGlNZfe8WPIEC-jUCBYhBEbBhWAgoAhEBMFtIasVhFRjVJjIqWpETKAImGB-w

Stick on 25 stacks of might since its incredibly easy to get that much. You wind up with 2500 condi dmg, (not 3500 my bad) and over 2k power. Put corruption stacks and youve got 2750 condi dmg. Swap corruption pistol to a bursting one and youve got nearly 3k condi dmg. People’s health bars just melt. The primary power version is the same, just with zerkers armor and a rifle. Blunderbuss can one shoot squishies, and jumps hot can oneshot even fairly tanky targets. Thats where im having the trouble of power vs condi.

Also im wondering how you survive in this sort of build. You’ve got massive condi and power pressure, decentish toughness, elixir S, and 2 blinds. You don’t have a whole lot of active defense like vigor/energy sigils or any blocks, and really poor sustain. It looks great for 1v1/duels, but im wondering how i can handle multiples with no mobility either :/

I wouldn’t use the build above, looks for something that only works if you are planning to stand on a wall throwing nades while someone does the tanking for you down by the gate.

noble runes give you 40% might duration, why use them over 2 x travelers, 2x monk, 2x water is beyond me, certainly 45% boon duration on every boon is better than 40% for might alone.
the might on heal is not too bad, but you likely get more dps from the increased duration on fury and retaliation and you certainly get alot more survivability from the increased duration on protection, regen, switfness, stability; this will normally also translate as more dps as more survivability allows you to keep the pressure up for longer rather than going on the defense as soon as your target sneezes at you.

besides, the build already has enhanced performance, thats enough to get you to 25 might. I still rather use incendiary powder, even if it means I rarely hit 25 might, mainly for that “first strike” condi pressure, 4-5 conditions on the first 1-2 hits with one of them being burn -for 6+ seconds every 10 seconds- is hard to beat, especially when you have blowtorch ready as soon as they cleanse the first burn.

personally I prefer using toolkit, the defense is much better on it and the damage pressure is generally just as good. remember grenades don’t add in damaging conditions to your pistol skills (except for shrapnel trait). grenades are good at covering the damage conditions but then again that build above doesnt have ip so there’s not really much to cover outside of blowtorch.

as for enemies health melting away, you can imagine what happens when instead of 2500 condi dmg, you have 2200 condi and 2200 power at 50% crit chance. :p

Maskaganda.2043:

I wouldn’t use the build above, looks for something that only works if you are planning to stand on a wall throwing nades while someone does the tanking for you down by the gate.

noble runes give you 40% might duration, why use them over 2 x travelers, 2x monk, 2x water is beyond me, certainly 45% boon duration on every boon is better than 40% for might alone.
the might on heal is not too bad, but you likely get more dps from the increased duration on fury and retaliation and you certainly get alot more survivability from the increased duration on protection, regen, switfness, stability; this will normally also translate as more dps as more survivability allows you to keep the pressure up for longer rather than going on the defense as soon as your target sneezes at you.

besides, the build already has enhanced performance, thats enough to get you to 25 might. I still rather use incendiary powder, even if it means I rarely hit 25 might, mainly for that “first strike” condi pressure, 4-5 conditions on the first 1-2 hits with one of them being burn -for 6+ seconds every 10 seconds- is hard to beat, especially when you have blowtorch ready as soon as they cleanse the first burn.

personally I prefer using toolkit, the defense is much better on it and the damage pressure is generally just as good. remember grenades don’t add in damaging conditions to your pistol skills (except for shrapnel trait). grenades are good at covering the damage conditions but then again that build above doesnt have ip so there’s not really much to cover outside of blowtorch.

as for enemies health melting away, you can imagine what happens when instead of 2500 condi dmg, you have 2200 condi and 2200 power at 50% crit chance. :p

Can you link your build please?

http://tinyurl.com/psgswsn

protective shield instead of cloaking device most of the time now.

Maskaganda.2043:

http://tinyurl.com/psgswsn

protective shield instead of cloaking device most of the time now.

I might be missing something, but that build looks worse than the build i posted. You trade 400 armor for 200 power. It has less condi dmg, less armor, and no real way to apply that extra power. TK doesn’t really seem like a good match. Sure prybar can hit hard, but its got a cool down, and only so hard since there is no crit dmg. I think you underestimate how much bleeds you can stack with nades, shrapnel, and sharpshooter. especiallt with nearly 3k condi dmg, theyll hurt really bad. That is a good point about straight boon duration runes tho. Im nervous about the rune change especially since they mentioned stacking boon duration. All in all, it seems like ill have to play around with it. Rifle/nades with IP sounds really good to me all of a sudden.

if you can bear to wait 3 weeks for the patch, im sure a 2-2-2 boon duration set will be completely outdated.

also maska pls gw2skills.net interface infinitely better, pls

Carpboy.7145:

Maskaganda.2043:

http://tinyurl.com/psgswsn

protective shield instead of cloaking device most of the time now.

I might be missing something, but that build looks worse than the build i posted. You trade 400 armor for 200 power. It has less condi dmg, less armor, and no real way to apply that extra power. TK doesn’t really seem like a good match. Sure prybar can hit hard, but its got a cool down, and only so hard since there is no crit dmg. I think you underestimate how much bleeds you can stack with nades, shrapnel, and sharpshooter. especiallt with nearly 3k condi dmg, theyll hurt really bad. That is a good point about straight boon duration runes tho. Im nervous about the rune change especially since they mentioned stacking boon duration. All in all, it seems like ill have to play around with it. Rifle/nades with IP sounds really good to me all of a sudden.

the armor/trinkets listed there aren’t exactly what Im using right now, I think I changed the traits when I stopped going 20 in inventions and never updated the gear part. I’ll redo it later when I get back home. my stats atm are something like 1430 toughness, 1500 power, 1300 condi dmg, 28% crit chance, 25k hp unbuffed. add 700 power and 950 condition at 20 stacks of might/25 corruption, and almost perma fury.

I’m not underestimating what grenades and shrapnel do, I’m just very skeptical about hgh-grenades solo in wvw (because it lacks defense) and even more so regarding rabid/dire gear (because it lacks offense). They certainly have it’s merits and I’m well aware of them as I’ve tested it myself.

My main build has been an elixir build since before hgh was even a thing. I’ve tried it, I’ve dueled it and I’ve seen it in action and there’s a reason I use what I use, it works well for me and it’s fine tuned for what I do. in 1v1 the only thing atm that reliably beats me is a tanky diamond skin ele.

just watch my last vid and pay close atention to my power and condition damage, I think you’ll find my time to kill is pretty low and I still have alot of survivability. notice the prybar into dodge bombs combo too :p

thats stuff I do everytime I’m solo. ofc, a big part of what I do comes from experience and not the build itself so I might be biased into thinking the build is good when in fact what happens is I just had alot of time with it.

about the runes, we’ll just have to wait and see.

no condi necros in wvw ? In sPvP I die to necros because the good ones send the condis back to me and game over

Lupanic.6502:

no condi necros in wvw ? In sPvP I die to necros because the good ones send the condis back to me and game over

in wvw you don’t have to stand in a small circle and you can stealth, go immune or run out of range after the first condi burst without fear of losing said small circle :p

necros are tough obviously, spite and corrupt boon are very very annoying :<

since no ones put in anything about power HGH builds his a few video’s and builds i like to run in wvw with HGH zerker

zerker HGH power nader.
i take enhance preformance and 2 runes of alturism to buff my might as quickly as possible since your running zerker your not exactly going to be sustaining for that long so you want more might sooner, i take the boon duration so that if i do have to sustain for a while i at least have my protective boons up a while longer to keep me going that little bit longer
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUlspSXnvSiF17ICoC6loHPGlNZfeQXPIEC-j0CBYjAkIAJfQZmEZsFhBpMMaVXhVVTQWxATVKp+EKrSBMqwI-w

tanky HGH power nader.
even though you dont have as much burst potential you still hit very hard and have that added defense to make 1vX more doable
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUlspSXnvSiF17ISoCFmoHPGlNZfeQXPIEC-jkCBYjAkIApmFRjtIMIlhRr6KsqaCyKGYqSJ1nQZVKgRFGB-w

HGH build i use right now.
hits like a truck and out conditions most things just gotta get those rotations down packed and some great situational awareness you’ll be doing 3v1 in no time
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUlspSXnvSiF17ICoC2loHPGlNZfe8WsFEC-j0CBYjAkIAJfIJPEasVORr0JsVQBRVTQWxATVKp+EKrSBMqwI-w

and if you feel like it and yes this does work, a full soldiers HGH power nader build, you can actually pull out some rediculously big hits with this build and since you have high fury up time you sit around 31% crit chance which gives a bit extra damage.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUlspSXnvSiF17ISoCSooHPGlNZfe8WsFEC-jUyAofASEQ2rIasVuoV6CbFMI6FMdJRUt/oIa1SBcxyI-w

for me personally i don’t think ill run HGH condis ever again and this will be enforced by the upcoming rune/sigil changes, you can add an extra 100 power to all those builds thanks to the rune changes and a further 250 power if you take a stacking sigil, any way hope some of this helps you in making your decision.

Ty both for the videos. I think i will probably go condi nades at first, then try experimenting with other variations. No offense to you ukuni, you had awesome gameplay, i think i just like the way condis can melt people instead of setting up burst combos with a rifle.

Maska, i noticed you seem to do really well survivability wise, but i also noticed you were saving every dodge, every blind to stay alive. Im not at that point yet (i know, i know, filthy casual) which is why i feel i need the extra armor from my build.

Builds look nice, however do you guy ever miss the vigor trait, the prot on CC trait, and the heal turret (stronger heal)?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqalspSXnvSyF1LJRoCFGUh8K6xjp8k/og+sF-jEDBIhBkWAkEBI5EMDlIatMMsVXRr8KIKZoqbYqXQ6YCxSBso0I-w

updated mine.

@carpboy , I actually use the dodge bomb as offensively as I can, it’s a nice damage addition, especially on the initial burst, before might stacks start kicking in.
static I use not just for the blind but for the x4 conditions it applies on an initial crit.

and yes, you should definetly try things out and see what you prefer, everything I said was with my experience in mind, ymmv as they say :p

ManCaptain.3154:

Builds look nice, however do you guy ever miss the vigor trait, the prot on CC trait, and the heal turret (stronger heal)?

sometimes but the surviveability you can get out of a HGH build can be huge at times and worse at others but i guess its mainly about how you use whats are your disposal, as for healing turret yes i miss it all the time.

Carpboy.7145:

Ty both for the videos. I think i will probably go condi nades at first, then try experimenting with other variations. No offense to you ukuni, you had awesome gameplay, i think i just like the way condis can melt people instead of setting up burst combos with a rifle.

Conditions HGH nades are a much better option for solo roaming so good choice and no offence taken i just like the big numbers.

Ok so one more quick question. If i were to drop hair trigger in favor of protection in inventions, or cloaking device, which do you think would be better, 20% CD on pistols or 5 1/2 seconds of protection every 20 sec, or more stealth, and more target drops when solo roaming is always good. Especially since im using nades, the only thing I’d really miss is glue shot having a 6 sec longer CD, but glue shot isnt that great anyway, and static shot having a 3 sec longer CD. A couple seconds on CDs traded for good protection uptime or another target drop sounds good to me.

As an example. I dont think i can stay at 25 might anymore tho

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqalspyXnuSiF17ISoCFmoHPGlNZfe8WsFEC-j0CBYhBEbBhWAgoAhEBMFtIaslhBp6KalXhVJjIqWpETKAImGB-w

the way I see it, since you are using grenades you aren’t as dependent on hair trigger as I am, you can probably afford to drop it.
I’ve used cloaking device for the longest time and before the ip nerf I used both cloaking device and protective shield… boy those were the days, the extra heal at 25% was so good too.
right now I use protective shield most of the time, it helps me survive the bursts and fight the rng from elixr H.. no matter what I get from it, I’ll always have 5.5 secs of prot every 20.
I’m only missing cloaking device when a zerg does catch up to me and chain cc’s me enough that I cant toss S.. with cloaking device I’d probably escape since surely someone would try an immobilize :p

you’ll still maintain 15-25 stacks most of the time, I wouldn’t worry about it.

If you want to be good at 1on1, choose condi over power for the most part.

Noob question from a 1-day old engineer:

What does HGH stand for?

human growth hormone?

its a 30 point trait in alchemy