I wanted to try a mixed power + condition build for the past few days and this is what I’ve come up with:
The idea behind it is that Burn scales very poorly with conditions so it is not worth scarificing stats from gear to get it. Our GM trait in Zeal transforms a big percentage of Power into Condi Damage, so increasing Power is naturally a good idea – not only because it boosts Condi Damage, but because it makes the build not reliant on Condi Damage alone.
The nice thing about it is that we have a trait which improves burning duration and we get 30% Condi Duration from Zeal. That is already 50% burning duration. If you have the money to spend on food you can reach 100% burning duration in WvW/PvE, which means that the passive from Virtue of Justice might be worth saving. (or 86% cheaply.
For defense: because we’re using Soldier gear, HP and defense are pretty sweet, but we are still weak against Condi Damage. This is the motivation behind the Signet traits and 10 in Valor.
Valor (V) and Signet of Resolve (traited) remove 3 conditions every 10 seconds. The downside is that it is significantly weaker when the signet is on cooldown. This can be fixed by bringing some condition cleanse utilities.
For weapons, Torch is really the only essential one because of Zealot’s Flame. Everything else does not really interact with the Condi part of the build, so you can choose whatever you like for extra defense (like mace + shield) or some power burst (greatsword) or power dps (sword+focus).
Zeal
- Fiery Wrath (II)
- Binding Jeopardy (I) or Scepter Power (IX)
- Kindred Zeal (XII).
The important one is Kindred Zeal which gives quite a bit of condition damage based on power. Fiery Wrath because it’s great. Scepter Power is good because you will mostly be using a scepter. Binding Jeopardy is okay too, would work nice with the immobilize from scepter.
Radiance
- Signet Mastery (II)
- Radiant Fire (VII)
- Perfect Inscriptions (XII)
Radiant Fire, since we’re using Torch. For the GM slot, I think XII is better than XI in this case because it will not make much of a difference with the pitiful Crit Dmg and Rate this build has. Shimmering Defense (III) might be an option, but the burn is not controllable so I think II is more reliable.
Valor
- Purity (V)
Against conditions.
Utilities
- Signet of Resolve – for the 2 condition removal every 10 seconds due to the Radiance XII trait.
- Signet of Wrath – passive condition damage or a very long immobilize on a fairly short cooldown due to Radiance II.
- Judge’s Intervention – because it’s very awesome. Applies some burn, is a stun breaker and gives alot of mobility. Love this skill.
- Last utility? There’s quite a few options
- Stand Your Ground – much needed stability and another stun breaker
- Purging Flames – burn and some condition removal (for when Signet of Resolve is on cooldown)
- Signet of Judgement – more tanking to let the burn do its thing
- Bane Signet – a bit more power and control via knockdown
- As for the Elite, it doesn’t really matter. Renewed Focus is probably the best, but Tome of Wrath’s 1 does some pretty nice burn in an AoE.
Sigils:
- I haven’t thought much about sigils. The on-crit and on-kill ones are pretty much useless, so we’re left with passives and on-swaps. I chose Hydromancy in the editor because they’re very cheap and provide a nice chill. Force on Torch because I can’t think of anything else.
- The build can be tuned for more damage via Sigil of Perception and Precision Oils to reach 35-40% Critical Rate – but it requires some effort to keep up the stacks and it might not even be worth it.
Runes:
- I used Speed in the editor because I love 25% MS and the 1.5K+ HP.
- Undead give alot of condition damage, but it’s probably not worth it because of burn scaling.
- Perplexity could work. An extra condition that can be applied.
I wanted to try something like this in WvW, but I’m very busy these few weeks and I can’t find the time to test it. Besides, I’m not that good of a PvPer either so any feedback would be awesome if you guys are willing to try it.
Thanks for reading and if there’s any feedback I can’t wait to hear it!