Guild Wars 2

And what’s the ramp up on those bleed stacks, and the probability that your illusions get wiped out by AoE in dungeons, especially high lv fractals?

There seem to be a lot of maybes with a condition build that do not exist for Berserker builds. And there is a reason why most people outside the necro and engineer do not stack conditions, because they are just comparatively inefficient.

It can’t just be a bias against using a staff over a sword that’s driving people to spec into burst builds — this has been a persistent problem since beta.

Zenith.7301:

And what’s the ramp up on those bleed stacks, and the probability that your illusions get wiped out by AoE in dungeons, especially high lv fractals?

There seem to be a lot of maybes with a condition build that do not exist for Berserker builds. And there is a reason why most people outside the necro and engineer do not stack conditions, because they are just comparatively inefficient.

It can’t just be a bias against using a staff over a sword that’s driving people to spec into burst builds — this has been a persistent problem since beta.

You can spam clones/illusions. You will always have some out so there will be perma 25 stacks of bleeds if you are throwin out illusions constantly. Mesmer cond build is great i wont lie about it. A 1v1 with a perc/cond/tough gear is hard to beat cus they out live you and kill you from tons of conditions. I havent yet been able to beat a cond build mesmer cus they can throw constant illusions and you can get lost in trying to find which one is real.

In pve you can constantly have clones/illusions as well. Even if mobs destroy em.

Maybe we’ve had different experiences, have you tried a condition build before? I played the berserker build at lvl 80 for about 2 months before I tried a condition build and I thought it was good too. Perhaps it is my playstyle, but I like the condition build better and I find it stronger and more versatile. I do admit it is more challenging to obtain the right equipment for it and I had to do the 15 points here and 25 there kind of thing. Unfortunately, you can’t craft precision/toughness/condition stuff and items don’t really exist that pair precision/vitality without giving you another stat that you don’t need in the build, like power. That being said, if the perfect combinations did exist, I think condition builds might be too OP.

Anyways, I wanted to write something that was quantifiable because I hadn’t really seen it in the forums before. In regards to dungeons and lvl 12 fractals, the build does very well and I can take down NPCs without difficulty because clones are nice to have up, but aren’t necessary. They can also be very effective when traited for conditions/boons on shatter in situations where you know they’ll get killed quickly. All in all, I like to make the most use out of clones, which you can pump out every couple of seconds via dodge/staff #2 and in a condition build, do incredible damage that is not negated by armor.