Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow mesmer,

just a quick question regarding condition gear in PvE and PvP.
Which stat combination makes more sense or is more viable for a condi/hybrid shatter spec?

Thanks in advance and keep having fun at chronomancing. ^-^

Yunalesca.9850:

Hello fellow mesmer,

just a quick question regarding condition gear in PvE and PvP.
Which stat combination makes more sense or is more viable for a condi/hybrid shatter spec?

Thanks in advance and keep having fun at chronomancing. ^-^

Full condi: Rabid/Sinister (depending how glass you want to be)
Hybrid: Not rabid.

Between Viper and Sinister, the jury’s still out. I’ll get around to the math eventually, but I’m pretty busy this week.

I’m considering converting my Sinister with nightmare (x5) and a coral orb over to Viper with Berserker’s runes… I’m not sure yet, though.

Needs moar maths!

It’s a tough choice because I have the legendary staff and full ascendend armor + trinkets. So getting sinister or viper armor is no problem, but I think a full viper-set will be.
Besides I also have runes of perplexity an the armor."

I’d rather run with full berserker if I wanted to play glass.

Even with Sinister/Viper, conditions still take time to tick, but you lack all the damage mitigation of toughness and also all the ferocity.

Curunen.8729:

I’d rather run with full berserker if I wanted to play glass.

Even with Sinister/Viper, conditions still take time to tick, but you lack all the damage mitigation of toughness and also all the ferocity.

Your underestimating condition damage if you meant it for pve.

Sinister for now imo, viper’s gonna take time to aquire anyway.

Telekinesis.8312:

Curunen.8729:

I’d rather run with full berserker if I wanted to play glass.

Even with Sinister/Viper, conditions still take time to tick, but you lack all the damage mitigation of toughness and also all the ferocity.

Your underestimating condition damage if you meant it for pve.

Sinister for now imo, viper’s gonna take time to aquire anyway.

Oh I meant pvp or wvw, sorry. All my comments are generally pvp or wvw, and I don’t like being glassy while dealing DoT against other players. I prefer straight up burst and big crits if playing glass.

For pve I’m still unsure about zerk or sinister. I’m super excited about viper in nearly all other modes, but that will take some time.

Rabid Armour, Sinister Weapons and some Trinkets.

Need the toughness still even my build allows me to dodge a lot. Extra bit of survivalibility makes life easier.

Anyway, I would love to test the new Trailblazer stats: Toughness, Condi, Vitality, Expertise. Or more specifically the Expertise stat. Does anyone knows how to get it?

What about celestial? Could it be worthwhile?

So with the expertise from ascendend viper’s armor and weapons we get 443 Expertise which means 29,5% on condition duration.

Yunalesca.9850:

So with the expertise from ascendend viper’s armor and weapons we get 443 Expertise which means 29,5% on condition duration.

So about 30%

No Jewellery yet unfortunately.

Without Viper the best you can do is 75% condition duration

10% Malice/15% set bonus/20% Signet/20% food/10% crystal.

Technically you can get an extra 5% by mixing armor runes though it does cost you 100 condition damage.

With Viper’s it goes to 105%. Which is kitten near perfect. Maybe switch out a few pieces to get it right on 100%.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3qjd5g/mathematical_analysis_of_sinister_vs_viper_item/

Someone did a rough analysis for Berserker spec condition warrior.

Basically Viper due to its higher stat total does more direct damage and condition damage. The caveat being that if you have talents that can boost condition duration it lowers it’s effectiveness. We only have one (33% on confusion).

At least a few pieces to up condition duration would have to be in the PvE meta surely.

Maxzero.4032:

At least a few pieces to up condition duration would have to be in the PvE meta surely.

Well, condition Mesmer isn’t and won’t be a part of the PvE condition meta for the forseeable future. Our only way of applying solid damage through conditions (auto spam with staff clones) is single target and requires no allies nearby. This has obvious disadvantages. Our other ways (duelists) got nerfed and are single target, and torment/confusion from shatters are bad in PvE.

These replies are super focussed on the meta, I also doubt condition mesmer will really ever be PvE meta, but I am curious how to properly play one in PvE (just for my own fun). Can we switch the topic over to that side of the fence? Just how to do it well instead of how viable it would be.

Min/maxed pre-HoT way was quite simple – staff AA in melee while keeping 3 staff clones out for that juicy dps. Post-HoT, well I’m still grinding out my Chrono specialization so couldn’t experiment with any of the chrono goodies, so can’t say for certain just yet. Using duelists for power/condi hybrid is looking promising but I personally haven’t played with them yet since duelists are limited to single target and were very hard to keep alive, though with new 95% dmg reduction tweak that shouldn’t be an issue anymore.

As far as how to play staff, it’s so simple it doesn’t even require explaining but if you are still not sure, I have a few vids showing how (pretty sure many of you already seen them plenty but oh well):
- vacuum: video
- arah ooze: video
- coe wolf: video

Cookiezz.5261:

These replies are super focussed on the meta, I also doubt condition mesmer will really ever be PvE meta, but I am curious how to properly play one in PvE (just for my own fun). Can we switch the topic over to that side of the fence? Just how to do it well instead of how viable it would be.

I’m currently running Sinister weapons + armor with Runes of Perplexity and rabid trinkets and so far PvE content and especially HoT maps are no problem at all. With Gravity Well and Well of Calamity (for events) and Well of Recall (for solo champions or Hero Points) I have no problem in clearing them.
Shield + scepter offers a lot of blocks and together with staff enough defense and mobility to survive.

I can see Viper’s being useful for keeping confusion and possibly torment up longer while providing a power/condi hybrid playstyle. Since I enjoy using scepter/shield often, I’m thinking Viper might be something that I need to look into more than Marauder’s (which I was going for in a power build). However, the low precision does make me consider me getting some Assassin or Rampager in the mix.

Out of curiosity, why is Rampager’s not as popular? Is it due to not having enough condition damage compare to Sinister?

Phloww.1048:

Out of curiosity, why is Rampager’s not as popular? Is it due to not having enough condition damage compare to Sinister?

Yes.

That’s not to say it’s not effective, but it’s a very different playstyle from most condi, and yet also different from power. It really is more the “true” hybrid style, funny enough.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Yes.

That’s not to say it’s not effective, but it’s a very different playstyle from most condi, and yet also different from power. It really is more the “true” hybrid style, funny enough.

Ah, I’ve been wanting to try an actual hybrid DPS build and thought of Rampager before Viper came in. Guess I gotta play around with these stats to find a middle ground. Is there a minimum amount of condition damage to be consider decent?

I did some math on the subject.

Interestingly enough, mesmer is one of the few classes where sinister might be better. It all comes down to how much damage comes from sharper images. If it is a lot, then go Sinister. If it isn’t a lot, Viper.