condi spec dmg?
mind posting ur build? ty
So the first question I have to ask is: how much condition damage do you have? Different people seem to manage to run with different amounts. When I run PU condies, I will always have roughly 2000 condition damage, which makes the condition burst very potent.
Most of your burst damage comes from the torment block. On a moving target, the 5 stacks of torment should be doing around 1000 damage per second. That will reall destroy lower hp targets like eles, thieves, and guardians.
In general, a fight has 3 phases: opening, continuation, and finisher.
In the opening phase, you want to load up as many conditions as you can, as rapidly as you can. Confusing images for confusion, the prestige for burn, chaos storm/staff clones for chill/burn/poison/bleeding, the torment block, and then rapid clone explosions that I usually combo with the clone from the torment block. That opening burst puts your opponent on the defensive immediately.
After the opener, you need continued pressure. This usually comes in the form of staff clones and staff autoattacks, more confusion from the iMage or confusing images again, and clone explosions as you produce clones by dodging their attacks. This pressure keeps them at a lowish health, baiting their heal and then keeping pressure on them.
Lastly you hit the finishing phase. You need to make sure you burst someone down before they can react to run away. When this phase actually occurs depends on the class, as well as how you actually do it, but in almost all cases it relies on the torment. For example:
- Since thieves have generally very low health, they can be finished as early as around half health with a good burst. At this point thieves are generally going to still be pretty aggressive, and this can allow you to catch them with a burst similar to the opener that just loads them up rapidly with conditions for the kill.
- Many engineers have a trait that scatters mines when they drop below a certain health threshold. These mines allow you to get guaranteed torment procs over and over on a low health engineer to rapidly finish them.
- Elementalists tend to leave damaging aoes all over the place, especially when running away. You can use these just like mines for the engineer to get guaranteed torment procs for a fast kill.
- Guardians, like eles and thieves, have low health. They also have an enourmous amount of cleave/aoe damage when attacking, and you can use this to your advantage in an attack. After the opener, they should have burned most of their high output condition removals, and so if you can get them to attack you near several of your clones, you’ll be able to apply the torment and multiple clone explosions in just a couple cleaving hits, which gives a massive condition burst.
- Rangers can be rather tough to finish, because the torment has a good chance of being stolen by a pet instead of the ranger themselves. Look for good persistent attacks to get torment procs on the ranger, like barrage, or a well telegraphed attack, like serpent’s strike. Rangers tend to use attacks rapidly, since they have a high amount of access to quickness, and the ones that use shortbow attack even faster. This makes them highly susceptible to a confusion attack like confusing images in conjunction with the iMage. The torment in this case serves as a starting damage, the confusion works as the midway finisher, and the persistent torment kills them when they run.
- Necromancers can be really tough to kill, because they’re very good at getting rid of conditions. However, they do have vulnerabilities. The first thing to notice is if they are using traited marks. The trait will make them larger and unblockable, but if they aren’t traited, every single mark is a free torment application, and this will kill them rapidly. Necros especially like to spam marks behind them while they run away at low health, and catching them with torment here can be deadly. Other then that, try to watch for their heal (consume conditions). Once that is on cooldown, try to load them up. Ultimately a necro is hard to finish, and it really turns into an endurance fight.
- Mesmers are probably the hardest class to actually land torment on, but there are some tricks you can use to help. Chaos storm is a good aoe to proc torment with, but be careful of the dazes/stuns. Confusing images and the greatsword autoattack are fantastic channeled attacks to catch with the block as well. Lastly, if they are using an offhand sword or scepter, you can actually trigger their block on purpose, then block their counter with your block, applying the torment. A lot of mesmers also have poor condition removal, so load the torment up when they hit lower health, and they’ll die. One other tip for condition burst is that clone explosions go through evade, so blurred frenzy can be a very good way to catch them with a condition burst.
Continued:
- Warriors can either be really easy or a massive pain. They really don’t leave many aoe fields like guardians, and they have very high hp. However, they are incredibly agressive and have a lot of cleave. If you play in a tight area, you can often load them up rapidly with conditions before they realize it. At this point it sorta comes down to how they play. If they choose to cleanse the conditions and disengage, there’s not really much you can do to stop them, but most will try a partial cleanse followed by another attack, and at that point they’ll be low enough on health for a second burst to kill them.
Wow, that got really long. Hope it helps though.
Well constructed and well presented post Pyro, should get this added to the Mesmer Guide, if it isn’t already, haven’t checked it in a while.
Well constructed and well presented post Pyro, should get this added to the Mesmer Guide, if it isn’t already, haven’t checked it in a while.
I wouldn’t think it’s in the Mesmer guide, seeing as I just wrote it =P
Wow Thanks guys! Im trying to put together my build on gw2skills but it seems to be down at the moment or my internet hates me =(
but id say im at 1400 condi dmg with food buffs and without my 25 stacks on my sigil.
only thing im running slightly different to the normal spec is I use travler runes not perplexity It seems, thanks to pyros Epic post, that my main issue is that I havent been forcing torment procs with aoes when they ignore me.
I’ll work on getting torment to work as a “kill phase” Thanks!
Haha shame on me Pyro, get it added then :-)
I highly, highly, highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend sword/pistol instead of staff for damage. Your duelists will stack a kittenton of bleeds that are both more reliable than scepter torment and do more damage. Moreover, I take it you’re running Debilitating Dissipation, and sword clones are the best for that because they run up and melee the target.
When I fight PU staff + scepter/torch mesmers, they usually never kill me. When they’re smart enough to use pistol, I know I’ll lose. Staff is really a defensive weapon on PU condi, and when you’re solo roaming or 1v1ing, you usually can’t dish out enough DPS with the standard PU condi to take down classes with decent condition removal.
Second Child
When I fight PU staff + scepter/torch mesmers, they usually never kill me. When they’re smart enough to use pistol, I know I’ll lose.
It really depends on what you yourself are fighting. If you run a classic 20/20/30/0/0 PU build with a pistol instead of a torch, you get a lot more offense as you noted, but you also dramatically reduce the defensive capabilities of the build, by giving away over 50% of your stealth uptime and removing a primary source of condition removal. I’ve experimented with it both ways and it’s a definite trade-off.
I find that when going with the pistol I usually must, at a minimum, shift to 10/20/30/10/0 for Mender’s Purity. But it’s still a lot easier to die.
EDIT: I should wait until I’m more awake before posting, as I just noticed you are talking about replacing the staff, not the scepter/torch. But the same basic principle applies: you’re trading defense for offense. I do this myself (though I prefer the GS) but I recognize that I will die more quickly than if I had the staff.
(edited by Qaelyn.7612)
they just run away or if im with a friend or two they just ignore me untill my friends are dead (my main partner is a gaurd)
And you just described the best way to shut down a condition based PU Mesmer. Much of the condition pressure comes from your enemy killing your clones, so if they simply ignore you they can take a substantial bite out of your damage potential.
This is the main reason why I switched over to a more hybrid power/condi build a while ago, and ditched the staff for greatsword (with sigil of earth for the bleed procs)
Less survivable? Sure. But a PU build already has pretty darn good survivability. The hybrid build has better chasing power, is less passive, and can’t be ignored.
I’ve just changed the staff for sword/pistol, and it’s just awesome. And I really don’t miss the staff for defense purposes. If I need to be defensive, I have 2 blocks and 4 invis to use, that’s more than enough to get me out of trouble.
[HUE]
EDIT: I should wait until I’m more awake before posting, as I just noticed you are talking about replacing the staff, not the scepter/torch. But the same basic principle applies: you’re trading defense for offense. I do this myself (though I prefer the GS) but I recognize that I will die more quickly than if I had the staff.
To be honest, you’re not sacrificing that much defense. Sword/pistol can actually be played quite defensively as well. Sword 2 is a low cd evade. Sword 3 is a blink/stunbreak. Pistol 5 will stun/daze/blind. I also run a sigil of energy on either sword or pistol, so I get an extra dodge as well.
What you’re sacrificing most by removing staff is your mobility. Phase retreat is just great for kiting melee classes around. Chaos storm and chaos armor do provide you some defensive options, but, overall, not something that sword/pistol can’t compensate for.
Overall, I’d take the hit in mobility if it meant I could kill classes with decent condi removal instead of tying with them.
Second Child
I actually replaced my staff with GS. I’ve swapped that for sword/pistol before but I find the GS substantially better for my playstyle, because I much prefer playing at range rather than up close. The GS auto-attack does substantial amounts of extra damage, and is extremely useful in downing fleeing opponents. (Especially the ones who think “if you are fighting a PU mesmer you can just run away”, lol.) I also really like the knockback.
Don’t miss the staff (except for chaos storm, which I think is cool.)
(edited by Qaelyn.7612)