Guild Wars 2

So one of the advantages to playing staff/GS power shatter in pvp was that staff/staff clone autos and staff clones do some pretty decent condition pressure because of illusions giving us 300 condition damage, and burning scaling well at low amounts of condition damage.

Since they’re removing condition damage from trait lines and changing the way that condition scaling works, I feel as thought the condition pressure from staff in a power shatter build will be greatly reduced, making it an overall nerf to the weaponset.

Still sword/torch will be similarly effected by the prestige’s burning being less useful, but I still worry that the changes will disproportionatley effect staff in a negative way compared to sword/torch. Additionally, since Prismatic Understanding looks to a bit stronger for stealth duration in the core spec, it might shift the meta a bit further to use with torch.

What are your thoughts on this? I think that staff will still be good because phase retreat and chaos strom and iwarlock are so kitten good, and shatter and interrupts (from chaos storm) are being majorly buffed regardless, but I’d still like to hear your thoughts on this. I think it will still be viable, but it will just offer less ranged pressure than it did before when kiting before setting up a burst.

I had the same question, as presumably power shatter post patch will have no additional condition dmg beyond base stats. I would guess you are right in the above. I think on the other hand that condi builds will be even stronger post patch, and most of those take staff. So really this will just make GS sw/t shatter even more preferred over double ranged. Since sw/t is already generally preferred, this actually won’t change things too much I think,

MSFone.3026:

I had the same question, as presumably power shatter post patch will have no additional condition dmg beyond base stats. I would guess you are right in the above. I think on the other hand that condi builds will be even stronger post patch, and most of those take staff. So really this will just make GS sw/t shatter even more preferred over double ranged. Since sw/t is already generally preferred, this actually won’t change things too much I think,

Good point. And yeah I still think condi will suck as long as the cele war/engi +dps guard comp dominates, and yeah I think it will be a slight disadvantage, but I’ll still take staff just to have an edge over dps guard/ cele war.

Honestly the burns and bleeds from staff were incidental damage to begin with in a standard shatter build. I don’t think anything will change, especially with the fact illusionary elasticity will be default.

That, along with IP being default provides a potentially better staff/GS shatter build by being able to take chaos, inspiration or chrono with the standard domination and dueling lines. That will more than make up for any lost condition damage. I’d trade the lost 300 condition damage for a whole new trait line any day =P

As a side note, the change to vulnerability is interesting for condition builds with staff AA. Same for sword AA and clones (together with bleeding/confusion on crit).

I speculate that Sword/Shield could see a lot of use in addition to torch. Maybe if Inspiration becomes interesting enough to take with Domination and Duelling, traited Focus could come back for Sword/Focus.

It’s going to be a tough choice between the 4 trait lines (Chaos/Inspiration/Illusions/Chrono) to add to Domination/Duelling for power shatter (I still believe DE will be necessary), so hopefully there will be a good variety of builds at all ends of the scale.

Probably the best offensive PvP combo will be with Chrono as you will be able to preserve your phantasms after shatter for even more pressure on thieves

Korusef.3714:

Probably the best offensive PvP combo will be with Chrono as you will be able to preserve your phantasms after shatter for even more pressure on thieves

Eh I feel like quickness and slow will be more useful than chronophantasma.

nearlight.3064:

MSFone.3026:

I had the same question, as presumably power shatter post patch will have no additional condition dmg beyond base stats. I would guess you are right in the above. I think on the other hand that condi builds will be even stronger post patch, and most of those take staff. So really this will just make GS sw/t shatter even more preferred over double ranged. Since sw/t is already generally preferred, this actually won’t change things too much I think,

Good point. And yeah I still think condi will suck as long as the cele war/engi +dps guard comp dominates, and yeah I think it will be a slight disadvantage, but I’ll still take staff just to have an edge over dps guard/ cele war.

s/t is not preferred by most top players because of the current meta. cele engi has little condi clear so that point is completely false, msot dps guards are bad at cleasing condis even though they have plenty of condi clear because they use it to burst, too. Regardless staff does help against meditation guardians, chaos storm can have an extremely low cooldown if properly managing chaos armor, and grants protection on chaos armor are bot hon the way to CI which ( pre chronomancer atleast) will likely be the best choice for a purely damage oriented shatter build.

nearlight.3064:

Korusef.3714:

Probably the best offensive PvP combo will be with Chrono as you will be able to preserve your phantasms after shatter for even more pressure on thieves

Eh I feel like quickness and slow will be more useful than chronophantasma.

I feel like chronophantasma really shines in phantasm builds, especially condi oriented ones which can take MtD and duelign for extremely high condi pressure.

Well, since talking about shatter, I assume we’re talking about 4 Dom, 4 Dueling, 6 Illusion.

In the new system, this will simply be Dom, Dueling, Illusion.

• Illusions will have Illusionary Elasticity by default (baseline) … frees up a trait
• Illusions will have Illusionary Persona by default (baseline) … frees up a trait
• Illusions will now inflict bleeding and confusion on crit … more conditions applied
• Vulnerability from staff clones (when they don’t inflict bleeding/burning) give you +% dmg versus the target … more direct damage done
• Phantasm damage increase by default (baseline) … more direct damage done

I think these things alone will help.
Your conditions do less damage, but you’re applying more conditions.
Your conditions do less damage but you’re doing more direct damage.
Your conditions do less damage, but you have some freed up traits to compensate with.

Sebrent.3625:

Well, since talking about shatter, I assume we’re talking about 4 Dom, 4 Dueling, 6 Illusion.

In the new system, this will simply be Dom, Dueling, Illusion.

• Illusions will have Illusionary Elasticity by default (baseline) … frees up a trait
• Illusions will have Illusionary Persona by default (baseline) … frees up a trait
• Illusions will now inflict bleeding and confusion on crit … more conditions applied
• Vulnerability from staff clones (when they don’t inflict bleeding/burning) give you +% dmg versus the target … more direct damage done
• Phantasm damage increase by default (baseline) … more direct damage done

I think these things alone will help.
Your conditions do less damage, but you’re applying more conditions.
Your conditions do less damage but you’re doing more direct damage.
Your conditions do less damage, but you have some freed up traits to compensate with.

Yeah thats true. My anxiety has been mostly relieved for now. Before HoT comes out I might take chaos over illusions to see how a bridged lockdown/shatter build would work as well.