Burst damage Spvp combos
I don’t mean this in a derogatory way, but I would advise you to stop using the staff as a crutch. I’ve been playing since the betas and back then I too thought the staff was too good of a defensive weapon to ever let go of as your secondary set regardless of your build. However now I couldn’t disagree with that notion more. You are taking a big fat 0 for condition damage (outside of Signet of Domination), and the staff’s defensive boons are all random and thus unreliable. The greatsword will offer you AoE cripple and AoE knockback (which gets people off points so you can actually cap it) whilst still providing a strong damaging set.
Lately I’ve been trying out 30/20/20/0/0 with sword/sword, greatsword, Ether Feast, Mantra of Distraction, Mirror Images and Arcane Thievery. With traits applying vulnerability on interrupt, daze and shatter you can very quickly stack up masses of vulnerability on your foe. This is particularly deadly when the game is new and people are running glass cannon set ups everywhere. Pop Power Lock to interrupt that nasty thief’s combo, turn around and smash their glass into a million pieces. They have stability? Break stun with Mirror Images, use Distortion and chain into Blurred Frenzy.
As a mesmer I’m not looking for the way to maximise my burst because I just don’t see the class working like that. We have reduced damage in comparison to other classes to compensate for the fact we can leave the foe utterly helpless while we annihilate them. In contrast, you have taken the maximise DPS approach which is evident in the way you stun your foe, then use Blurred Frenzy. I cannot agree with the logic in this play at all. Blurred Frenzy gives you invulnerability while it channels. A stunned foe is already unable to attack you. BF is something I use in the face of, for example, Hundred Blades (warrior).
(edited by ChaosStar.3162)
Chaosstar – I think staff is a great weapon, though its perhaps more suited for larger groups than the smaller conflicts in SPvP. That said, even without condition bonuses, being able to stack conditins and boons quickly and then switching to your other weapon is very effective. and the combo fields are nice when combined with finishers on other weapons
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the staff is a bad weapon at all, but once you get over the feeling of staves being mandatory you realise how good the other options are. Based on the description of a typical fight the OP gave us, I don’t think the staff is worth the weapon slot. By the time he has the Duelist up the CS will have ended, so we’re not getting confusion from that. Blink doesn’t count a finisher, so the storm is giving us nothing here. He applies CA then boasts the foe is stunned all the time anyway. Only the actual hard effect of CS is being used here. Poison – good. Weakness – the foe is stunned. Chilled – the foe is stunned. Daze – the foe is stunned. Swiftness – stunned. Retaliation – stunned. Aegis – stunned. It just feels very redundant.
I think they are both fine choices. I actually started with the Greatsword and moved to using the Staff as a backup to the Sword/Offhand use. To me the Greatsword is better for direclty dealing damage, chasing opponents, and pushing people off the point. The Staff is better for the defensive tools and team utility it can bring.
It comes down to Chaos Storm and Chaos Armor being extremely strong skills to have, and the damage the Warlock can makes up a bit for the damage loss you take by using it.
I would agree with the advice of not trying to stack stuns, invuln, and Chaos Storm together. Stack them in duration, not intensity, or in a chained fashion rather then all at once. Dealing maximum damage is only one of the priorities in dueling someone, remember that avoiding damage is probably more important.
Tirydia – Scrapper
This thread is inane.
First, the general structure of the highest burst damage build pretty obvious:
- 20/30/0/0/30
- GS // Sword/Sword
- 24`53372F1F3F274
Second, Staff is a rather poor choice for maximizing burst. There’s really no discussing this.