Guild Wars 2

Do Runes of the Undead and the chaos trait Chaotic Transference stack?

Yes. My mesmer almost hit 2000 condition damage.

Byut condition duration is better most of the time in terms of pure damage.

Fairly certain they do.

Absolutely. I’ve done 0/15/25/0/30 and 0/0/30/10/30 builds … those bad boys stack nicely.

It stacks with Master Tuning Crystals too … so you can have 16% of your Toughness and 4% of your Vitality converted to Condition Damage.

Phira.3970:

Yes. My mesmer almost hit 2000 condition damage.

How did you do this? My mesmer is fully geared in almost all exotic condition damage gear and is only around 1000 (even with 30 Illusions):

armor: 4x temple karma Prec/Tough/Cond* + 2x crafted Rampagers
jewels: 4x Rampagers jewels + Karka trinket and zerker spineguard

I’m using Centaur runes instead of condition runes, but I think that only costs me at most ~200 condition dmg.

Superior Runes of the Undead provide quite a lot of condition damage. 173 straight up, and 5% toughness to condition damage which should be ~80-90 if you are in full rabid gear (CondDmg*/prec/tough). So you’re out upwards of 250 or more condition damage by not using them. Of course, play style and what you are doing make a big difference in if you should be running that kind of setup.

Dont forget the signet. That one can also boost condition damage by 10% (Think it’s called Signet of Midnight).

Thanks guys. So the runes would get me to ~1250 and the Signet of Domination would add ~125 to 1375. That’s till over 600 off, a huge amount.

I also realized of my three weapons, only my 1h sword has condition damage, so I might be able to get another 90 at best (on my 2h weapon).

Assume that gets me up to 1500 now. Where’s the rest coming from? (I’m doing quick and dirty estimates just b/c I’m not even the ballpark and wondering what big thing am I missing)

Full Rabid with Superior Rune of the Undead, Rabid jewelry w/ a Carrion Jewel, Ascended backpiece is good here (Rabid stats).

300 from your Illusions Traitline
90 from your SIgnet of Domination
Bowl of Tropical Mousse Food = +100 tough (which gives you 5-16 cond damage, depending on your tough % to cond), +70 condition damage
Master Tuning Crystal Nourishment = 6% of tough to cond, 4% of vit to cond

That puts me at about 2004 without any might stacks or Sigil of Corruption stacks.

EDIT: I prefer going straight cond damage in my build, duration is secondary. Since most of your bleeds will be from your clones doing sharper images and your staff clones throwing winds of chaos and they don’t get your condition duration, sadly. Still good to have some if you want it.

Phira.3970:

Yes. My mesmer almost hit 2000 condition damage.

Byut condition duration is better most of the time in terms of pure damage.

This, my mesmer rocks runes of nightmare instead of undead because of this increased duration.

1. Duration won’t affect conditions from clones and phantasms

2. Duration is best achieved with food (up to 40%)

3. To get over 2000 malice use gear with max malice stats (Rabid, Carrion), Runes of Undead and Sigil of Corruption

As ZiD said, condition duration does not transfer to phantasms or clones, which makes it a stat that we do not profit off as much as other classes.

I personally roll around in Prec, Togh, Cond Dmg gear:

- Toug: Survivability and added cond dmg from tuning crystal, 5% cond dmg trait and undead runes
- Prec: For crits and extra bleeds from clones (if I can’t extend duration I might as well throw on more conds, and a more reliable bleed mechanic then staff auto attack)
- Cond damage: Because cond damage

- Food I go for proc and condition, or condition and proc. If I find a specific mob intensive area I might go with +200 cond dmg after a kill.

And sigil for staff is of course the extra 250 condition damage from corruption stacks.

I roll around with my guardian friend (and a warrior for his crit banner when I can for the fury) and she easily stacks 25 might on me while I always try and stay clsoe to get the staff to bounce on me for fury (if no warrior friend available)… 3000 cond dmg much ?

An important note: All classes can basically pull this off. So the 15% from cond from toughness is not that much if you do the math…it just makes mesmers pull a little extra… but since mesmers suck at properly stacking bleeds it kinda only gets you on equal ground with the rest of the classes for a lot more effort and stress. (but I enjoy my mesmer)

P.S.: kitten is still hilarious when you quickly stack confusion on a large group of mobs or people in WvW and watch them hit themselves for 7000k on every hit (confusion scales best with cond dmg out of all conditions.)

@Hastur lol aren’t mobs and players in WvW zergs the same thing? I know me and 4 necro friends (all condi specced) ran around and spread a good 25 stacks or so of confusion through an entire zerg with epidemic galore xD, those poor 21 people dropped so kittening fast it wasn’t even funny! Well it was… but that’s not the point!

Hastur.6231:

but since mesmers suck at properly stacking bleeds it kinda only gets you on equal ground with the rest of the classes for a lot more effort and stress. (but I enjoy my mesmer)

so 16-18 stacks means you suck at stacking conditions? Not many classes can do above that tbh without going into very specific builds AFAIK
I do that easily with about 50% crit, sharper immange and 3 staff clones+myself doing staff #1

Are you saying that you keep on 16-18 stacks of bleeding by yourself with that ?
You should tell me then, with that exact same configuration, I only keep up between 6 and 10 bleeding stacks at the same time (and burn ~70% uptime, 2-3 stacks vulnerability).
Or maybe you were talking about the addition of the 3 conditions ?

depending on target 16 bleeds, perma burn and a good amount of vulnerability is realistic. for example I kill dolyaks in wvw with mirror+dodge-> 3 clones+me = 14-18 bleeds, perma burn and ~10 vulnerability. that is reached when its hp hit about 50%.
if you generate your clones as fast as possible you could get more conditions with the help of chaos V.

standard confusion shatter build

Phira.3970:

Yes. My mesmer almost hit 2000 condition damage.

Byut condition duration is better most of the time in terms of pure damage.

For mesmer that’s debatable, because our illusions inherit only condition damage and not condition duration. It comes down to the prime source of your conditions, length of fight, what you need to be hitting harder, etc.

Right, if you’re using Confusion a bunch, duration becomes a big deal. Sharper Images is the only condition damage delivery that ignores duration.

EasymodeX.4062:

Right, if you’re using Confusion a bunch, duration becomes a big deal. Sharper Images is the only condition damage delivery that ignores duration.

I was under the impression that all attacks performed by the illusion don’t receive the duration, which includes staff illusion’s WoC. Staff illusions WoC is insanely powerful to the point where a staff illusion is stronger than almost every phantasm in a lot of condition builds.

Condition duration is definitely very helpful for condition mesmers, especially if you use confusion. Not only does it mean a good chance for more damage in PVE and wvwvw noobs, but even against better players it means longer control.

A few tips:
1) Food offers much more for Cond duration (+40%!) than Cond damage, so don’t screw your build going after duration with traits/runes/sigils. A nice bonus is good, but only if your build can accommodate it. Cond damage gear will also help against classes with a lot of condition removal.

2) CD duration is still useful even though clones don’t benefit. A +40% CD duration translates to a ~6% damage increase for you and 3 clones spamming WoC (up to +13% if you have Elasticity and position right), and that’s before any damage from CS or other skills that proc conditions. An estimate since it needs to round whole seconds.

3) You don’t have to lose any clone DPS by shattering with a MW and/or CoF if you keep an eye on your CDs. A MI + DE dodge can put 3 clones back up immediately after your shatter; your shatter is pure bonus damage/control/pressure.

4) Food and Master of Misdirection alone can make a big 12 stack of confusion last for over 5s. More than enough for multiple hits on most mobs if timed right and a great burst or daze on most players. Be smart and shatter after your target burns his condition removal on your bleeds/burns. And for Lyssa’s sake, don’t juke after a big CoF shatter! Use distortions/blur to tank a few seconds and make it easy for them to kill themselves faster.

5) Use finishers to get extra condition damage as often as you can! You get much more benefit out of most combo effects than a power/crit mesmer since it calcs the finisher’s CD and duration. That measn your CD and duration count when throwing a projectile/leaping through a fire/ice/ethereal/poison/whatever field. (Disclaimer: taking this info off the wiki, so I’m not 100% sure it’s right).

@EasymodeX: Also conditions spread from clones using WoC don’t benefit, but your point still stands, and I agree it rocks for confusion.

Q: Haven’t tested this, but does anyone know if using a skill to clear conditions procs confusion or removes it before it does damage?

Ah yeah, Staff clones. Good times.

KratosAngel.7289:

Are you saying that you keep on 16-18 stacks of bleeding by yourself with that ?
You should tell me then, with that exact same configuration, I only keep up between 6 and 10 bleeding stacks at the same time (and burn ~70% uptime, 2-3 stacks vulnerability).
Or maybe you were talking about the addition of the 3 conditions ?

i am talking about bleedings ONLY as that is the only one i keep up constant, burn is simply too short to keep up 24/7 by myself and confusion is always more for if you need a burst
this is my build(and sitting about 50%crit rate), and yes quite simple get 3 staff clones out and keep them out (try and spread them out as much as possible so if one get hit by aoe only that one die so you can replace it right away instead of all 3 dies at once making you loose 70% of your dps or something until you get new ones up. And yes the only clone generation i have is the staff phase retreat simply due to that fact with only a 5sec cd on it (-20% cd both from staff trait as well as the clone generating traits for a total of -40% ) it is only really in the start of a fight that will feel remotely long time and even then it not really that bad, or if you decide to do a confusion burst (cry of confusion with 3 clones =6stacks of confusion+5stack from confusion images right after is 10-11 stack depedning on how fast and flawless you do it, and if you drop a etheral field under the mob too maybe some of your team mates with projectile finishers add a few more, sometimes with lots of allies with that can get 15 or confusions)

Also YES i am aware that i could easily squish out more condition dmg in my build with like undead runes instead of lyssa, and dropping the glamour cd reduction trait for something else, but i like being supportive as well. The main reaosn i chose lyssa is to use time warp and then follow it up with a use if signet of inspiration upping the extra dmg that timewarp would give even further for my team mates as well as given them good defence boons as well as well on top

I can get with 25 stacks of corruption 2130? condition dmg I run prec tough con gear

ACTUALLY at 2201 right now with 25 stacks:D