Guild Wars 2

I have been on a quest to play a condition damage based build on any class if it is considered “strong”. I know that as a PvE player, I have the freedom to play just about anything but I put a lot of value in working towards becoming considered “maxed” as part of my end game goals. Are all these complaints actually a reflection of the actual state of the class?

Sort of… From a straight DPS rating standpoint necro is lower than any other class except druid builds and power mesmer builds. (In single target fights, in fights where epidemic cheese can happen it’s impossible to rank.)

That said, there’s no fight in the game where the necro’s dps is going to hold a competent group back from getting a kill, but if you’re all about min/max’ing for a condi DPS class you’ll really want to be going ranger. Or I guess condi-PS—your dps won’t be top tier, but you’ll be fulfilling a necessary utility roll while playing with your condi’s.

narcx.3570:

Sort of… From a straight DPS rating standpoint necro is lower than any other class except druid builds and power mesmer builds. (In single target fights, in fights where epidemic cheese can happen it’s impossible to rank.)

That said, there’s no fight in the game where the necro’s dps is going to hold a competent group back from getting a kill, but if you’re all about min/max’ing for a condi DPS class you’ll really want to be going ranger. Or I guess condi-PS—your dps won’t be top tier, but you’ll be fulfilling a necessary utility roll while playing with your condi’s.

I see a lot of complaints on the ranger forums too though on how rangers are better off power than condi, is that also true? Is condition damage really not optimal in the game?

One thing I will tell you now, every forum is gonna have someone complaining about pretty much every aspect of the profession. That is just the nature of things. Most people who are enjoying the class are too busy enjoying the class, so you end up with all the unhappy people doing the bulk of the posting. So don’t base anything off of that.

That said… this site is referenced pretty heavily for dps rankings for raids.

http://www.qtfy.enjin.com/dps#Ranking

I would suggest checking that out if dps is your biggest concern. I’ve been told it’s maintained by one of the more serious raiding guilds, and they maintain the information and the builds for all classes. Have a look.

Edit: You will note that ranger’s strongest dps build on there is the condi build. This is largely because they have several skills that dump a high number of stacks right off the bat, so there is less of a buildup phase like is often the case with condi builds.

For PvE, it depends abit on the kind of PvE you are talking about

Open PvE (open world events like dragon stand, world bosses etc): Condi war, condi necro, condi druid/ranger and engi are all better or equal to their power variants.

Low lvl fracs and dungeons: power wins

High lvl Fracs and raids: Condi war, condi necro, condi druid/ranger and engi are all better or equal to their power variants.

Condi ranger (highest condi dmg in the game atm) have started to see more and more play in raids, it started as mainly on VG, but now people play it on close to all bosses and we see it in more and more record running also. Just take the 5 man SAB kill by LN that used 1 chrono (power) + 1 condi war + 1 condi druid + 2 condi rangers.

I enjoy playing condi-ranger.

RoidRage.1325:

I see a lot of complaints on the ranger forums too though on how rangers are better off power than condi, is that also true? Is condition damage really not optimal in the game?

Mmmm, I think maybe they only prefer power > condi when using a Druid build for healing… Even then that’s debatable and really comes down to having stat choices with more healing power/the utility on S/A/WH. I dunno tho, I don’t really play ranger too much, but I can tell you that I’ve never seen someone play Power RANGER in a raid nor a group looking specially for one.

narcx.3570:

RoidRage.1325:

I see a lot of complaints on the ranger forums too though on how rangers are better off power than condi, is that also true? Is condition damage really not optimal in the game?

Mmmm, I think maybe they only prefer power > condi when using a Druid build for healing… Even then that’s debatable and really comes down to having stat choices with more healing power/the utility on S/A/WH. I dunno tho, I don’t really play ranger too much, but I can tell you that I’ve never seen someone play Power RANGER in a raid nor a group looking specially for one.

Yeah there are some people who play power exclusively, and thus may not like ranger too much because its stronger build is condi.

bearshaman.3421:

One thing I will tell you now, every forum is gonna have someone complaining about pretty much every aspect of the profession. That is just the nature of things. Most people who are enjoying the class are too busy enjoying the class, so you end up with all the unhappy people doing the bulk of the posting. So don’t base anything off of that.

That said… this site is referenced pretty heavily for dps rankings for raids.

http://www.qtfy.enjin.com/dps#Ranking

I would suggest checking that out if dps is your biggest concern. I’ve been told it’s maintained by one of the more serious raiding guilds, and they maintain the information and the builds for all classes. Have a look.

Edit: You will note that ranger’s strongest dps build on there is the condi build. This is largely because they have several skills that dump a high number of stacks right off the bat, so there is less of a buildup phase like is often the case with condi builds.

It’s also worth noting, any time you reference the qtfy DPS rankings, even their most realistic efforts are based on fighting the training golem.

Back when I did a bunch of simcraft work around WoW, we’d call that the “patchwerk”, or “tank n spank”, boss. You might consider those numbers for curiosity, or to see how different skills or skill sequences performed on the same class, but you wouldn’t treat them very seriously.

In practice, DPS was significantly influenced by, eg, the need to move to handle mechanics. A class that needs to root for 1.5 seconds to throw an attack out, and can’t move or cancel it, is going to have lower DPS in the real world than a class that has full mobility while still running the “rotation” correctly.

So, while those numbers are not flattering to necro, I’d also submit that in practice the delta in the real world isn’t likely to be quite so big. (Plus, it’s all single target; since real fights involve adds and target switching, those can also change the picture. Not always in the favor of a necro.