Guild Wars 2

Is Retaliation worth it on a build with low power?

I used to be 10 – 0 – 30 – 25 – 5, but im starting to wondering is those 10 points in zeal bether spendt somewhere else?

10% extra dmg to burn target sounds good, but its not always the target is on fire, so i was thinking about putting 20 points in Virtues. There i get alot of Retaliation, but my power is only 1660. so is Retalitation worth it on a build that dont focus on power/crit?

I agree that 105 extra damage to burning sounds nice, it isn’t always reliable. As far as is retaliation worth it? I guess I think of it this way: most condition damage ticks for around 300-500 or so but ticks fast. Most people can get around 300-400 damage out of a retaliation proc, so for damage you can’t dodge or block, retaliation helps in keeping you productive with that incoming damage.

Should you stack power and focus on only retal? No because then handicapped yourself to not be able to survive long enough for retaliation to work, but with an easy way of putting it on when condition damage is present or other faster/smaller hits and maintaining your defensive capability, then why not have retal to supplement your blocks/aegis and rolls.

In my opinion: your mindset shouldn’t be: how can I increase the retaliation damage the most. But: how can I reduce the damage done to me. The lower the damage you receive, the more effective retaliation becomes.

Retaliation is worth it except against mesmers. Blurred frenzy just loves it. =)

Retaliation is based off of power, so if you have a high-damage build, it’s better to build around that rather than burning. Still, both are nice to have, and remember that burning damage is based off of the highest condition damage from the people who applied it, so giving burning to those who can use it best (necros), is still a good thing.

Also, retaliation is much better for PvP than PvE, imo, just because the only way to avoid it is to not attack that person…if the enemy doesn’t see a burning marker on them, they might not realize that you have another way of dealing secondary damage. It’s great to have against aggressive warriors.

So really, if you work with a team almost always, I’d go with retaliation over burning, simply because you’ll often have someone spec’d a bit into condition damage. Let them take care of the condition damage, while you make sure it lasts long while giving the party yet another secondary damage source.