Guild Wars 2

Hi! Is there a Scepter/Torch + probably Staff which can work in PvP and WvW? I really am a fun of a Scepter :P Like animations and condition damage. But i’m not sure would i be just as effective as Sw/x + GS or Staff + GS?

Sceptet torch and staff is a PU condi build. It is extremely effective. Some people dislike it but I have been playing that for a long long time. If it suits your style, you will love it and endure those who make idiotic remarks.

In PvP, i’m playing a non-PU variant which I think also works great. I’m just not overly fan of the torch so I use scepter-pistol/staff, the only problem being that this build is meant to work with Duelist’s discipline which is (still) bugged… But at least, my build should improve in the future and not get nerfed (PU nerf incoming?)

I was running scepter+torch/staff condi last night in WvW, and had a lot of fun roaming.
Popped my tag at one point to call out a golem raiding company, and a couple minutes later discovered I’d collected a little posse. So we went around cleaning up camps and counter-raiding, did some good work (got a Wupwup armor chest!).

Best part of the night was when 4 of us ambushed a 5-6(? there was at least one mes, hard to say if it was 6 or not)-man crew assaulting a tower with a catapult. MI before we rounded the bend on the bluff, jumped them, downed them all.

It’s really, really satisfying loading up 3 illusions, running in the middle of an enemy cluster, and bombing them with CoF. With some fancy footwork you can drop a MW within a second or two after, and now they’ve got enormous stacks of confusion and torment on them.
My build is a modified version of the clone bleed build, so I can even back out and bomb them to death with bleeds as well, and cleanses have a harder time with me since I’m stacking up torment, bleed and confusion at high rates, with weakness and burn following up decently often.

The worst time I had so far with the build was when I came across a group with a good ele who really knew how to unload the cleanses.

But I have a lot of stealth uptime thanks to the broken The Pledge, so it warn’t. no. thing.

More details on my build:
Rabid gear
Chaos(Illusionary Defense, Chaotic Transference, Prismatic Understanding)
Dueling(Phantasmal Fury, Blinding Dissipation, Deceptive Evasion)
Illusions(The Pledge, Maim the Disillusioned, Ineptitude)
Traveler’s runes
Sigil of Earth+Sigil of Agony on Staff
Sigil of Torment + Sigil of Corruption on Scepter

Changes I’ve been making in sPVP:
Traveler’s Runes → Nightmare Runes
Sigil of Earth → Sigil of Bursting on staff
Sigil of Corruption → Sigil of Bursting on Scepter
Phantasmal Fury → Desperate Decoy

But I’m very flexible about the sPVP changes. I’ve been playing Nightmare, tonight I’m gonna give Undead a run.

I really wish that they had a dire amulet for sPVP :P

I think in WvW a PU/MtD Shatter build works really well. In WvW i wouldn’t reccommend it but its still pretty good.

In WvW I’d go with perplexity runes to make it a confusion based build

Personally I’d go with Dire armor instead of Rabid (unless PvP, then go Dire, maybe Carrion)
Its a shatter based build, not a clone build so you have no need for the crit chance & it makes surviving outnumbered situations a lot easier in WvW without sacrificing a lot of damage.

Build:
Dire armor (Rune of Perplexity)
Dire Staff & Scepter/Torch (Bursting & Energy Sigils)
Rabid/Dire Trinkes (can’t find Pure Dire trinkets. idk if they’re available)
Signet of Ether, Decoy, Blink, Mantra of Resolve (or arcane thievery if going with manipulation trait.) & Mass Invis.

Dueling: 2, 1 ,3
Chaos: 2, 2 (can go with 3 if u wanna be more survivable), 2
Illusions: 3, 3, 1 (i think 3 is also viable now that its fixed. haven’t tested enough to see what’s actually better.)

I also like Master of Fragmentation in Illusions coz of the cripple on F2. This build suffers from people running away. You are slow & have no CC to lock them in place & the cripple might help you sticking to them.

glenndevis.8327:

I think in WvW a PU/MtD Shatter build works really well. In WvW i wouldn’t reccommend it but its still pretty good.

In WvW I’d go with perplexity runes to make it a confusion based build

Personally I’d go with Dire armor instead of Rabid (unless PvP, then go Dire, maybe Carrion)
Its a shatter based build, not a clone build so you have no need for the crit chance & it makes surviving outnumbered situations a lot easier in WvW without sacrificing a lot of damage.

Build:
Dire armor (Rune of Perplexity)
Dire Staff & Scepter/Torch (Bursting & Energy Sigils)
Rabid/Dire Trinkes (can’t find Pure Dire trinkets. idk if they’re available)
Signet of Ether, Decoy, Blink, Mantra of Resolve (or arcane thievery if going with manipulation trait.) & Mass Invis.

Dueling: 2, 1 ,3
Chaos: 2, 2 (can go with 3 if u wanna be more survivable), 2
Illusions: 3, 3, 1 (i think 3 is also viable now that its fixed. haven’t tested enough to see what’s actually better.)

I also like Master of Fragmentation in Illusions coz of the cripple on F2. This build suffers from people running away. You are slow & have no CC to lock them in place & the cripple might help you sticking to them.

+1 for Dire. If you don’t go Dueling at all, there’s no reason not to go Dire over Rabid. I prefer Rabid because I like adding bleeds to my repertoire for the added robustness vs cleanses.

There is no Dire in sPVP though, so you have to choose between Carrion and Rabid. Rabid sends you into Dueling for Sharper Images to proc bleeds, Blinding Dissipation for blind (and confusion via Ineptitude) on shatter, and Deceptive Evasion for shatter food on dodge.
Carrion sends you the other direction, opening up Domination for some boss interrupt/cc options, and major vulnerability application, as well as beefier pure damage on your shatters.

Honestly, you can easily hit confusion duration cap without Rune of Perplexity, so you’re pretty much wasting that part of the runeset.The only advantage then is the confusion application. 5 stacks of confusion on interrupt is nice, but you have to compare that to the actual duration gains you get on sets like Nightmare or Tormenting. Or the movespeed you get on Travelers.
If you interrupt a ton, you’ll get your worth out of Perplexity (theoretically…60g is still just a lot of gold). And as you can see, it does free you up to not take Signet of Midnight, if you like.

Just…don’t go Dueling with Dire. You’re wasting so much potential that way, because you’ll never crit. You’ll give up Deceptive Evasions yeah, but switching over to Domination will give you plenty of toys to make up for it.

When I have some time I’ll mock up a full build for all three approaches (Rabid, Dire+Perplexity, Dire+Something else).

PU Condi-Shatter is the best for Scepter/Torch – Staff

AlphatheWhite.9351:

~snip~

Please please please do this. I’m currently about to level my Mes to 80 for WvW, and since I’ve already got a nearly full set of Rabid Ascended Trinkets, I’d like to make use of them.

I’m especially curious about the effects of a full Rabid with Undead Runes making super-damaging but short lived conditions. Just not flush with gold atm for trying out the different rune sets, so a more experienced Mes at the helm would be much appreciated!

To be honest, there’s a LOT of play in how you build a condi scepter+torch build.

People have posted a lot of different options, and what you pick really depends on how you like to play, or what kind of tricks you like to pull.
Are you fond of Blink? It’s a pretty amazing skill all around. But then, you can also gain by grabbing Signet of Midnight and Signet of Domination for superior condition damage, and relying on The Pledge+Decoy+MI for your escape and repositioning. That’s not a stable choice, in that different players have seen the payoff in different ways. I critiqued glenndavis’s choice of Perplexity runes and Dueling with Dire, but there’s a valid use case for that combo.

If we think of a stable choice as a “of course you’re gonna grab that”, then condi builds are filled with _un_stable choices, which is frankly pretty cool.

Here’s some examples of builds I’ve put together based partly on my experience, and a lot on things different posters have tried post-patch:

Rabid PU scepter/torch+staff with dueling:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhEQNArfWlsnhK0YZawRNwtGLvGkZHG+IQDQObS5E6d0A-T1xXwAEU+N/UAMU9HA7PYSfA9nAwDlgBAQA2NdT36Gw4Fv4Fv4FPzcmzcmzcmFCQxaA-w
Leverages the precision on rabid to add bleeds on every illusion crit (clone or phant), adding to total condition stacks, increasing condition spread vs cleanse, and improving reflects dramatically. Also shifts more power into the staff side, allowing space to back off and staff-clone things to death. PU means you can’t see me!

Dire PU scepter/torch+staff with domination and Nightmare runes:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhEQNArfWnsICVoh1oBOqBcrhlTDysFTfGkBIFBFNCJtLA-T1xXwAzPFAA2fgl+Alq/UTJYBlf0fCABAQAmZZWmzMw4Fv4Fv4FPzcmzcmzcmFCQxaA-w
Adds signets to torch for condi removal, leverages alternate sources of condi duration to have higher torment/bleed/burn/vuln uptime than a Perplexity build, specs domination for heavy vulnerability application and some interrupt synergy. Dire adds so much to durability you might never die without 1v5. PU means you can’t see me!

Dire PU scepter/torch+staff with domination and Perplexity runes:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhEQNArfWlknhy0YNawRNwtGLnGkZLm+MQjQS7CZA2QQB-T1BZwAuPFAn0HUU9H57PATJIAlfvfCABAQAmZZWmzMw4Fv4Fv4FPzcmzcmzcmFCQxaA-w
Swaps Nightmare out for Perplexity, trades out the signets for more utility, has even better interrupt synergy, has the same durability benefits via dire. PU means you can’t see me!

Dire scepter/pistol+scepter/torch with domination, perplexity runes, and CI instead of PU:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhEQRAra7flknhy0YNawRNwtGLnGkZLm+NQjQS7CZA2QQB-T1BZwAuPJAn0PUU9H57PATJIAlfvfCABAQAmZZWmlZw4Fv4Fv4FPzcmzcmzcmFCQxaA-w
Trades out PU for Chaotic Interruption, swaps out staff for a pistol, and runs Perplexity runes. Still just as durable via Dire, and now has Magic Bullet for even more interrupt uptime. Vulnerability on interrupt, confusion on interrupt, weakness and cooldown time on interrupt, Immobilize and might on interrupt, another random boon on interrupt, recharge Magic Bullet on interrupt (seriously), quickness on interrupt. Retains torch for cleanse and iMage burns (no dueling = no conditions from iDuelist).

Heck, there’s even room to swap Chaos over to Dueling for Mistrust to add 2 more (aoe) stacks of confusion on interrupts, or swap Dom for dueling to trade in different perks…there’s just a lot of viable options.

None of that even steps into Carrion builds, which by focusing harder on shatters can unload enormous amounts of damage while still being pretty dang tough with a ton of vitality. Though, since there’s no carrion ascended trinkets, Carrion tends to go farther in sPVP, where there’s no Dire amulet anyway.

Also, no Perplexity in sPVP either, so interrupt condi builds don’t have quite the same boost.

ALLL that said, none of these builds are going to compete with power shatter for raw damage unload. You won’t be 2-shotting people.
Condi right now is about picking up higher durability for still-competitive damage, putting pressure to force people to take/use cleanse, and exploiting the synergy that already exists between various other mesmer mechanics (Interrupt, Shatter, Stealth) and condition application.
There’s plenty of it.

Currently, I’m working on 2 builds:
A Power Shatter for bursting down other roamers, camping flipped keeps to reflip them with portal, and just being a general pain. Essentially working as a utility version of thief.

So, for the most part, PU Condi is by camp-flip 1vX build. Thus additional durability with still solid damage is exactly what I’m after.

I’m currently looking at something like THIS; the idea being that I can stack a ton of conditions in a very short time, which deal their damage quickly and can be reapplied just as fast. Since clearing is so common now, I wanted to build to make sure they suffer as much as possible from the conditions while they remain. I’m hoping 2500 condition damage is enough to get the job done.

Ty, ty, ty, ty a lot! It really helps! Nice to see so many different and useful Scepter builds … Now the time for practicing has come.
I don’t care if i wont be able two shotting people, i more prefer slowly killing and annoying them with some tricks, stelth and actualy have some fun.