Guild Wars 2

Mark of Blood will be getting 2 stacks of bleeding in all game modes.

Some people complain about this being a nerf, but overall the staff will be stronger after the patch than it is now.
And here is some math to prove it:

1. The damage formula of bleeding
At lvl 80 will be changed from 42.5 + (0.05 x condi dmg) to 26 + (0.075 x condi dmg), so the base damage is going to be lower but the scaling is increased by 50%.
That means with 1500 condition damage 1 stack of bleeding does 117.5 now and will do 138,5 after the patch (assuming you can still get 1500 in PvP). That means 2 stacks of bleeding after the patch will do about 18% more damage than the current 2 stacks in PvP and about 21% less damage than the current 3 stacks in WvW/PvE.

2. On the upside, a lot of features are made baseline.
We get lower cds and size by default, even the 10% direct damage from Spiteful Marks was added, so in regards to damage you will only need to trait for unblockable marks in Soul Reaping (which will be a popular spec anyway) to have the same result as a 4 point investment in Death Magic.
This is a straight up buff for all staff users.

3. Chillblains will get 3 stacks of poison for 5 seconds, now the duration is 6 seconds.
Duration nerf aside, the damage itself is a really nice buff:
Old poison dmg formula at lvl 80 is 84 + (0.1 x cond dmg).
New formula per stack: 33,5 + (0.06 x cond dmg).

If we apply that to a build with 1500 condition damage you get 234 and 123.5 per stack after the patch. That means 3 stacks on Chillblains will actually do 370.5 damage per tick. That is about 58% more damage per tick and about 32% more damage for the entire duration assuming both skills aren’t cleansed.

4. The poison field on Chillblains will be a lot more effective after the patch.
The combo field radius will be a standard 300 units for everyone. Also, every projectile and whirl finisher will stack more poison instead of just adding duration.
For now we only have a few rather unreliable projectiles, but our allies can combo with it and of course once the Reaper/Greatsword comes out we will be able to whirl through as well.

5. Vulnerablity
The change to vulnerablity means a serious buff to condition builds on top of better scaling with condition damage.
For example: the 1500 condi dmg build with 138.5 dmg per stack of bleeding could actually get 173 dmg if combined with 25 stacks of vuln.
As a reference, this amount of damage is currently only possible if you had 2610 condition damage. And a Mark of Blood with 2 stacks of those bleeds would do a total of 346 damage, which is almost as high as you can currently get with the same amount of condition damage and 3 stacks of bleeding: 3 × 117.5 = 352.5.

Bottom line:

In PvP where you have 2 stacks of bleeding already, all of the changes to conditions mean that Mark of Blood and our staff will be buffed.
In PvE and WvW it will also be a buff because we can actually stack condition damage higher than 1500 with full gear and might/vuln stacking in groups, not to mention that our own vuln application will be improved with the Spite specialization.

in short … i think others get bigger power creep.

shoutbot +cleanse on weapon swap, dev comment “we played 2v1 against condi necro and condi thief, haha it was crazy”

take current thief + executioner + no stat loss from defensive line + FULL SHADOW ARTS …. blehh

so while it is a 10-20% buff to something that is currently closer to noodle than dps , it is rubbing salt into old dhuumfire wound while watching other meta classes launching to mars.

Interesting perspective, good to know.

This is good analysis actually. The chillblains buff is a much bigger deal than I thought.

Yes, it’s quite a thing. I’d still like that 1 bleeding back or bigger radius in which Regeneration applies, but it’s not bad as I thought.

They could give us back the ally cleanse on Putrid Mark, though.

flow.6043:

4. The poison field on Chillblains will be a lot more effective after the patch.
The combo field radius will be a standard 300 units for everyone. Also, every projectile and whirl finisher will stack more poison instead of just adding duration.

Hadn’t realized this before. But poison fields have definitely become more valuable in terms of providing condition damage, which actually makes them a little less terrible in general. Granted, fire fields got the same treatment with their added burning, but burning is usually a little harder to get.

Great write up OP. It was probably the buff to Chillblains and the general baselining of Staff that convinced Anet to normalize bleeds at the 2 stacks rather than three stacks. I don’t blame them, but I would have liked to see 3 stacks.

I didn’t even consider how effective vulnerability would be with armor ignoring condition ticks.

The staff change really wasn’t my concern personally. My biggest concern is with Consume condition and Curses as a whole. The staff is peanuts in comparison. But its nice to know its a bit stronger. I suspected it might be but I’ve been too distracted by the devastation that is curses.

Good read, but I am wondering about hybrid builds such as your Hybrid Staff build which was a little more reliant on the higher base damage of conditions.

Will hybrid builds be forced towards condis in light of these new changes? While I’m all for condis, having a multi-purpose build that doesn’t get stomped and tea-bagged by Diamond Armour eles would be nice.

I know it might be a little early to be doing the numbers on hybrid builds, so maybe I’ll just have to wait and see.

Softspoken.2410:

poison fields have definitely become more valuable in terms of providing condition damage, which actually makes them a little less terrible in general.

I believe Corrosive Poison Cloud will be seen more often after the patch.
The stacks have also been raised to 3 per pulse, it provides a poison field for 12 seconds and if traited with Master of Corruption the cooldown is just 20 seconds.

Rym.1469:

Yes, it’s quite a thing. I’d still like that 1 bleeding back or bigger radius in which Regeneration applies, but it’s not bad as I thought.

Bigger radius for regen?
Not sure what you mean, but the trigger radius of all marks is 60 units more than the mark itself, so a standard 300 after the patch. And that includes the area in which regeneration is applied to you or your allies.

Rym.1469:

They could give us back the ally cleanse on Putrid Mark, though.

I agree, but keep the changes for conditions in mind: no stack limit, and more intensity stacking conditions. And while cleansing is going to be random instead of having a predictable transfer priority, transfering even a few stacks of poison/bleeding/burning from several allies to a single target could result in some weird situations.

Here’s an idea though, the ally cleansing could follow the same rules as the caster: 1 condition transfered per target. This way if there are more allies than opponents you won’t be able to cleanse everyone and stacks would spread more evenly in team fights.

Citizen.3869:

Will hybrid builds be forced towards condis in light of these new changes?

Hybrid builds have been working so far because the base damage of conditions means that – depending on the skills used – full condi gear yields a smaller return than suplementing some of it with power and direct damage.
I’m confident that hybrid builds will still exist. However, a low-ish stat investment in condition damage will make a more noticable difference in condi pressure compared to someone who’s running full dire/Scavenging with 2k condi dmg.
I suppose we’ll have to wait and see how the loss of trait line stats will affect builds, but I’m sure I’ll have to make some adjustments to my gear anyway.
Generally I think it’s a good change though.

flow.6043:

Softspoken.2410:

poison fields have definitely become more valuable in terms of providing condition damage, which actually makes them a little less terrible in general.

I believe Corrosive Poison Cloud will be seen more often after the patch.
The stacks have also been raised to 3 per pulse, it provides a poison field for 12 seconds and if traited with Master of Corruption the cooldown is just 20 seconds.

Rym.1469:

Yes, it’s quite a thing. I’d still like that 1 bleeding back or bigger radius in which Regeneration applies, but it’s not bad as I thought.

Bigger radius for regen?
Not sure what you mean, but the trigger radius of all marks is 60 units more than the mark itself, so a standard 300 after the patch. And that includes the area in which regeneration is applied to you or your allies.

Rym.1469:

They could give us back the ally cleanse on Putrid Mark, though.

I agree, but keep the changes for conditions in mind: no stack limit, and more intensity stacking conditions. And while cleansing is going to be random instead of having a predictable transfer priority, transfering even a few stacks of poison/bleeding/burning from several allies to a single target could result in some weird situations.

Here’s an idea though, the ally cleansing could follow the same rules as the caster: 1 condition transfered per target. This way if there are more allies than opponents you won’t be able to cleanse everyone and stacks would spread more evenly in team fights.

Citizen.3869:

Will hybrid builds be forced towards condis in light of these new changes?

Hybrid builds have been working so far because the base damage of conditions means that – depending on the skills used – full condi gear yields a smaller return than suplementing some of it with power and direct damage.
I’m confident that hybrid builds will still exist. However, a low-ish stat investment in condition damage will make a more noticable difference in condi pressure compared to someone who’s running full dire/Scavenging with 2k condi dmg.
I suppose we’ll have to wait and see how the loss of trait line stats will affect builds, but I’m sure I’ll have to make some adjustments to my gear anyway.
Generally I think it’s a good change though.

We have more ways to get might now. So i am hoping cele necro can work. If they nerf cele by 10% it still gives 25% more stats and will still be good