Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone,
Started a guard recently. Wish somebody told me at launch that they used ghost fire. I think the ankhs on their armor confused me, and made me think of them as traditional paladins.

Anyway, with the new marionette fight and other world bosses, I’ve been trying to come up with some sustained aoe dps builds. Best I’ve managed so far is a 25/15/0/30/0 GS/H symbol build.

Any thoughts? Hammer isn’t the greatest, but between the 100% symbol uptime, GS aoe and cleaves of both, it seems like the best bet.

25 Zeal is worthless, it’s a very tiny overall damage boost. 10% to symbols only. Don’t dip past 20 if you’re using a Greatsword, and if you’re swapping between GS and Hammer you’re probably not even really going to want 20 in Zeal at all.

Somthing like 15/0/0/30/25 would be good, as you’d have access to powerful support, an extra straight damage modifier, and still have your main symbol traits. You could also do 10/0/0/30/30 Permeating Wrath and have essentially infinite AOE burning.

Purging flames, even untraited and without condition damage investment, can be a good skill to use for aoe damage. Its confusing to understand, but they changed it a while back.

As I understand it at the moment, it casts 5s of fire damage on cast to everyone in the area of effect. The enemy doesn’t have to stay in the ring. In fact, as they leave the ring (walk over the fire) they get an additional 5s. If they’re dumb and keep going in/out it’ll keep adding 5s each time.

Much better than (I think) it used to be at 1s of damage each second they’re in the area.

It also removes 1 condition on cast, and lowers incoming conditions by 33% if you stay in the ring.

Anthony.7219:

Purging flames, even untraited and without condition damage investment, can be a good skill to use for aoe damage. Its confusing to understand, but they changed it a while back.

As I understand it at the moment, it casts 5s of fire damage on cast to everyone in the area of effect. The enemy doesn’t have to stay in the ring. In fact, as they leave the ring (walk over the fire) they get an additional 5s. If they’re dumb and keep going in/out it’ll keep adding 5s each time.

Much better than (I think) it used to be at 1s of damage each second they’re in the area.

It also removes 1 condition on cast, and lowers incoming conditions by 33% if you stay in the ring.

You’re mixing up the new and old effects.

Currently it removes 3 conditions to everyone in the AOE instantly on use, and applies burning once instantly on use. The only sustained effect is the 33% condition duration reduction on allies in the AOE.

foofad.5162:

Anthony.7219:

Purging flames, even untraited and without condition damage investment, can be a good skill to use for aoe damage. Its confusing to understand, but they changed it a while back.

As I understand it at the moment, it casts 5s of fire damage on cast to everyone in the area of effect. The enemy doesn’t have to stay in the ring. In fact, as they leave the ring (walk over the fire) they get an additional 5s. If they’re dumb and keep going in/out it’ll keep adding 5s each time.

Much better than (I think) it used to be at 1s of damage each second they’re in the area.

It also removes 1 condition on cast, and lowers incoming conditions by 33% if you stay in the ring.

You’re mixing up the new and old effects.

Currently it removes 3 conditions to everyone in the AOE instantly on use, and applies burning once instantly on use. The only sustained effect is the 33% condition duration reduction on allies in the AOE.

Re: conditions, I thought it was bugged and removed only 1 instead of 3. I know it used to remove 1 and then another 1 if you entered/exited the ring, which it no longer does. I haven’t tested this, so it may be 3.

We are agreed on how the fire works though, yes?

To be honest I just started a new fire build for the first time since the change and I’ve been googling purging flames since I can’t log in game at the moment.

*just found out that this was fixed in October, so it cleanses 3 conditions now.

Thanks all! Though in a group setting, it doesn’t seem like burning and conditions in general would be that effective.

That’s why I said don’t trait it, then you can just remove the skill. Its just an easy way to add an extra 300dps by having fire up all the time.

makiface.3286:

Thanks all! Though in a group setting, it doesn’t seem like burning and conditions in general would be that effective.

Not everyone brings burning, and not everyone can AOE it like you can. It’s not as big a deal as a it might seem, though if you’re doing planned groups it’s probably best to leave it out.