Guild Wars 2

So I came back from a year AFG a few weeks ago and made an engi. I mostly made them because I always wanted to play a character in PvE, and that never really worked out pre-HoT. I’ve been getting my head around the business of condition durations, and I would appreciate it if somebody could confirm/correct my understanding…

Wiki says that for condi duration that is affected by the cap (not Chemical Rounds):
[outgoing] = [base] * (1 + MIN{ 1, [specific modifier] + [Condition Duration] } )

I reckon that this means:
1. If I have +33% bleed duration from Serrated Steel, and 67% from gear/consumables, I hit the duration cap and there’s no point going further. What I’me really checking here is that the two bonuses add, they don’t multiply.
2. Similarly, +33% burn duration from Incendiary Powder +67% from gear/consumables will cap burn duration.
3. Chemical Rounds affects the base duration on pistol skills, that gets extended by the global condition duration bonuses, it’s orthogonal to the two bonuses above and won’t put me over the duration cap.
4. Improving the global duration past +67% helps poison, cripple, confusion etc but not traited bleed/burn.

Do I have my facts right?

So, in a moment of insanity I made an ascended Viper’s armor set with Berserker runes. I am now wondering what to do about trinkets. I have an ascended Sinister trinket set, or I could craft exotic Viper’s, but ascended Viper’s are out since I don’t intend to raid.

I figure I could use something like this to get bleed/burn to 100% for general runaround:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqalUUhSsYfWwWLQ7FLsF1XSlhHwYbMGfB4HWiBAA-TBSGQBH4BAEQlfRz8T+U/Rd7PkO9A66EAAAlgECQxcA-e

Is that right, am I capping bleed/burn duration on that build?

If I bought better consumables to improve condition duration I wouldn’t need so much from the Viper’s trinkets, so I could get some of my ascended Sinister out for extra power/condi/crit damage:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqalUUhSsYfWwWLQ7FLsF1XSlhHA4HWiBwYbMGfBA-ThSGQB4yECwUeENTE5T9HAoEUd7PcgHAguOBABUJW60DQKgFVWB-e
…or I could stick with the exotic Viper’s and enjoy extra poison/cripple/etc duration.

So, basically, would somebody be kind enough to check my understanding and my math?

…and since we’re doing this, does anybody want to check my wisdom? Are those sensible builds? This is for open world and dungeons.

So far your understanding is correct.

The beginner raid build looks like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqalUUhSsYfWwWLQ7FLpF13TFANw4PmGlBYJuiHAA-TBiHQBA4BAQP1fInegyt/AUUCSQlB16EAsLlekCYRlVA-e

I corrected some traits and the sigil. Viper amulett is available by completing the HoT chronic 4 achivments.

If you are into raiding you can aim for this version :

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqalUUhSsYfWwWLQ7FLpFFYJuiHw3TFANw4PmGlBA-TBSFQBJ4BAQAlg9T9H3t/QDVuBgTAQ70DQMlEkC4ulVA-e

Thanks, much appreciated. And so quick!

Wahoo!

Global and condition specific durations stack up to 100%. Weapon specific duration modifier are unaffected by this cap and will Multiply.

So let’s say you have 5s burn on bomb kit with 0% duration. With 100% duration this is extended to 10s. So far so good.

Now let’s say you have 5s burn on pistol. With 100% duraton this goes to 10s aswell, but now you also have another weapon specific +50% wich increases it to 15s.

You could say you have a base duration of 100%, wich can be increased by 100% to 200%. The pistol trait increases these 200% by the half to 300% so your base stas can be tripled!

Is this clear enough or do you need more help?

The builds from Forestnator are good goals, except for the back item. I’d suggest to go for rampager so you don’t have any toughness that might interfere with the aggro and lead to you tanking. After all in the end ppl want to tank with as little toughness as possible! Better safe than sorry

Greez!
- Ziggy

Xyonon.3987:

all in the end ppl want to tank with as little toughness as possible! Better safe than sorry

So I’m learning. My Dire build is like a magnet for Bosses in PvE.

I am running trailblazers/dire alot in fractals with pugs. Yes the aggro is huge. That’s how I can carry those bobs. If my team is fine I swap to viper/sinister.

I’m not quite sure if the toughness directly aggros anywhere else but in raids. In fotm / open world the highest damage gets aggro immediately if you get too close.

Try this: Do silverwastes and go with the champion train as condi. When you visit the husk, each time you’re melee it will immediately start beating you. But the AI doesn’t allow it to chase you so it starts beating others when you get out of range.

In open world, dungeons and fractals the aggro system is rather complex, you get aggro by attacking, dealing damage, ressing others, range, wearing a shield, toughness?? The aggro swaps quite often since all those factors play with each other. In raids you only need 1 toughness more and you KEEP the aggro (specific bosses).

greez!

From my experience it is always both: damage and toughness. But the quantifier is different depending on the content. Raids obviously have a very high quantifier for toughness as you observed correctly.

From my experience with trailblazers/dire in fractals I can tell that I am 99% target. There are just very rare moments I see others taking the aggro.

This can be very tough sometimes. The pre boss from the molten fractal e.g. does not stop to throw fireballs at my trailblazer engineer. The boss is easier for me with viper but at least I can make sure that my team does not wipe. Also the underwater fractal endboss is incredible difficult with trailblazers. 100% the whole fight makes you need to dodge better than any zerker.