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Roaming Condi Build
try and get runes of aristocracy, so you can stack 12-15 perma might off that sigil of battle and potentially 20+ if you use your skills right which i think trumps undead runes
you could also try going full dire with runes of scavenger and a sigil of leeching its alot more tanky and dishes out a surprising amount of damage when you factor in all those leeching strikes
I know this won’t be popular with some, but if you aren’t running runes of perplexity with at least 5 potential interrupts (like this build) you are missing the real deal with condition stacking.
I realize some consider this distasteful, but enjoy being stomped by hambows and PU mesmers, who lay on the cheese nice and thick.
Miss Fisthammer – Engineer | Urgard Fistorsen – Guardian
Physti – Elementalist | Fistful of Blades – Thief
[WHIP] Quaggan Slavers – HoD
Physti – Elementalist | Fistful of Blades – Thief
[WHIP] Quaggan Slavers – HoD
try and get runes of aristocracy, so you can stack 12-15 perma might off that sigil of battle and potentially 20+ if you use your skills right which i think trumps undead runes
you could also try going full dire with runes of scavenger and a sigil of leeching its alot more tanky and dishes out a surprising amount of damage when you factor in all those leeching strikes
Balthazar is actually a better option. If you run Aristo your damage will go down as the extra burning duration of Balth already wins from the Might if you get one extra second of burning off. Scavenging is a bugged rune, if you get downed the (4) bonus stops working.
try and get runes of aristocracy, so you can stack 12-15 perma might off that sigil of battle and potentially 20+ if you use your skills right which i think trumps undead runes
you could also try going full dire with runes of scavenger and a sigil of leeching its alot more tanky and dishes out a surprising amount of damage when you factor in all those leeching strikes
Balthazar is actually a better option. If you run Aristo your damage will go down as the extra burning duration of Balth already wins from the Might if you get one extra second of burning off. Scavenging is a bugged rune, if you get downed the (4) bonus stops working.
pro tip: don’t get downed
I kid I kid, I heard about that but I thought it only affected vampirism runes, either way it’s still a very strong build, as for Balthazar runes by the time you get to that extra second of burn my higher power/condition damage from a more higher stable amount of might stacks has already out dps’d your 1 second of extra burning
I would also throw carrion gear in there as a possibility. This stat distribution works well with all the kits you’re using, and it will easily result in overall higher DPS. It also means builds that have strong condition defense (i.e. diamond skin eles) are more easily dealt with since you’re damage has a larger power focus with the same or nearly the same condi output. It may make you a bit weaker in surviving sustained combat due to the exchange of toughness for vitality, but you’d be able to survive burst periods more readily, as well as just being able to absorb more condi damage in general.
You’d probably still want to use rabid trinkets (or the dire/rabid ascended ones) so that you still have some semblance of precision on the build to proc things like incendiary powder.
It makes undead runes a bit of a less attractive choice, but you can always slot balthazar, perplexity, or aristocracy rune instead. Nightmare runes could also work out.
try and get runes of aristocracy, so you can stack 12-15 perma might off that sigil of battle and potentially 20+ if you use your skills right which i think trumps undead runes
you could also try going full dire with runes of scavenger and a sigil of leeching its alot more tanky and dishes out a surprising amount of damage when you factor in all those leeching strikes
It’s better to go with Balthazar Runes though as one extra second of Burning already wins from the extra might you generate with Rune of Arist. Rune of Scavenging is currently bugged so I wouldn’t go with that also running Full Dire.. is kinda meh.. you want a little bit of precision to proc IP.
What about sigil of intelligence to proc IP with dire? Anyway, does anyone know the numbers of the rune of scavenging? How much leaching is it? Imo balthazar is overkill for wvw. You reach anyway a high amount of condition duration with food. Permaburning still stays permaburning.
My point not using aristocracy is:
Runes of Strength:
+175 power
+45% might duration
25% chance when struck to gain Might for 10 seconds. (Cooldown: 5s)
+7% damage while under the effects of Might.
Rune of Aristocracy:
+175 condition damage
+45% might duration
when you use a healing skill, gain 3 stacks of Might for 10 seconds. (Cooldown: 10s)
This seems somehow unbalanced to me. Rune of Aristocracy should be the condition counterpart to Rune of Strength but is so much weaker in my opinion. Is it still strong enougth for a roaming build which profits from strong gear/skill combinations?
(edited by Forestnator.6298)
What about sigil of intelligence to proc IP with dire?
This would work out, but I find it to be a bit wasteful. If you get the ascended trinkets with dire/rabid stats and have at least some investment into firearms and/or alchemy, you should have a high enough base precision that can be boosted with fury in order to proc incendiary powder, especially if you have the grenade kit. I only find the sigil of intelligence to be worth it if you have absolutely no precision at all (i.e. sPvP build using carrion amulet).
This seems somehow unbalanced to me. Rune of Aristocracy should be the condition counterpart to Rune of Strength but is so much weaker in my opinion. Is it still strong enougth for a roaming build which profits from strong gear/skill combinations?
I can say that it is. I use them in a p/p HGH roaming build. I think they work best with an HGH build since it results in 5 might stacks being generated by elixir H. It’s also a reliable trigger mechanism that doesn’t result in you having to be hit, but it is dependent on using your healing skill.
The issue you’ll run into with strength runes is that they’ll boost direct damage with their extra bonuses, whereas aristocracy runes give you higher condi damage. So if you’re running primarily rabid gear, the effect of strength runes might not be as potent. Carrion gear would obviously synergize much better with strength runes, although even if you’re just running the grenade and/or bomb kit you’ll probably see decent gains with strength runes despite your gear stats.
The other thing to keep in mind is that strength runes are currently insanely expensive, whereas aristocracy runes are much cheaper to acquire (though they require dungeon farming).
try and get runes of aristocracy, so you can stack 12-15 perma might off that sigil of battle and potentially 20+ if you use your skills right which i think trumps undead runes
you could also try going full dire with runes of scavenger and a sigil of leeching its alot more tanky and dishes out a surprising amount of damage when you factor in all those leeching strikes
Balthazar is actually a better option. If you run Aristo your damage will go down as the extra burning duration of Balth already wins from the Might if you get one extra second of burning off. Scavenging is a bugged rune, if you get downed the (4) bonus stops working.
pro tip: don’t get downed
I kid I kid, I heard about that but I thought it only affected vampirism runes, either way it’s still a very strong build, as for Balthazar runes by the time you get to that extra second of burn my higher power/condition damage from a more higher stable amount of might stacks has already out dps’d your 1 second of extra burning
The amount of extra damage you do thanks to Might is that small that it requires a lot of seconds before you got the upperhand. A simple flamebomb tick with Balthazar Runes on already gives one extra second and so assuming it does not get stripped in time.. the damage easily wins of the extra might. You also got the extra burn with the Healing Turret in case your target strips condis a lot, something aristo can’t offer and thus it’s extra damage.
Just calculate an aprox of 9 extra might in condition damage calculators and you see how little the impact of the extra condition damage is.
Now in a situation where the opponent doesn’t care about condis, chances are aristo does more damage but we can assume that most people are not like that.
This seems somehow unbalanced to me. Rune of Aristocracy should be the condition counterpart to Rune of Strength but is so much weaker in my opinion. Is it still strong enougth for a roaming build which profits from strong gear/skill combinations?
I can say that it is. I use them in a p/p HGH roaming build. I think they work best with an HGH build since it results in 5 might stacks being generated by elixir H. It’s also a reliable trigger mechanism that doesn’t result in you having to be hit, but it is dependent on using your healing skill.
They work well for HGH builds for sure. But HGH is “out” for good reason: HGH-engis are just necros without fear but with (limited) swiftness. It’s a bit under engineers potential in other words. Roaming profits from very good locomotion.
The amount of extra damage you do thanks to Might is that small that it requires a lot of seconds before you got the upperhand. A simple flamebomb tick with Balthazar Runes on already gives one extra second and so assuming it does not get stripped in time.. the damage easily wins of the extra might. You also got the extra burn with the Healing Turret in case your target strips condis a lot, something aristo can’t offer and thus it’s extra damage.
The point still is: you do have enougth condition duration in wvw for perma burning anyway.: 30% with traits, 50% with food. Balthasar are overkill in wvw because any good player will either remove the burning or die because of no condition cleanse left anyway – with and without balthasar. There is definitly no need for burning duration there.
Just calculate an aprox of 9 extra might in condition damage calculators and you see how little the impact of the extra condition damage is.
Now in a situation where the opponent doesn’t care about condis, chances are aristo does more damage but we can assume that most people are not like that.
9 might is like 10-15% more condition damage. That’s not bad.
I just tested a few days balthasars, Scavenging and grenths. Balthasar seems a bit overkill as I said. Anyway it gives the most damage overall in most situations but not against skilled players. And those non-skilled shouldn’t be a problem anyway. Scavenging gives a little bit sustain but not really noticeable imo. Grenth was the most useful rune set for me: I used grenth with grenades and sigil of hydro. With condition duration buff food it is possible to nearly perma slow a small group of peoples which extremly increases your surviveability. Chill is really strong offensive (to land your skills much easier) and defensive (increased escape chances, 66% more skill cooldowns for enemies..)
I actually run this build:
(edited by Forestnator.6298)
I know this won’t be popular with some, but if you aren’t running runes of perplexity with at least 5 potential interrupts (like this build) you are missing the real deal with condition stacking.
I realize some consider this distasteful, but enjoy being stomped by hambows and PU mesmers, who lay on the cheese nice and thick.
Are perplexity runes still viable and a better choice than undead/balthazar? Someone told me they were nerfed but idk what they were before patch so i cant confirm this.
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