Guild Wars 2

Does corrosive poison cloud apply poison and weakness when you enter it? I know they changed it to pulse every 3 seconds. Three seconds is a long time to tick so if it doesn’t apply to people as they enter it seems like this skill is pretty weak.

On the contrary. It’s amazing in PvE, and so-so in PvP.

It pulses every 3 seconds, and adds 3 seconds of Poison and Weakness per pulse. So it only ticks on people if they’re present when it pulses.

The strength of it is that it applies 6 seconds of weakness to you, which you can then transfer to anyone in the area using Staff 4. Since Staff 4 is a Blast Finisher it also applies Area: Weakness from the Poison Field. That’s around 10-13s of Weakness, assuming only one tick of CPC. As long as they’re in the field they get as much duration as they lose, so it doesn’t tick down at all.

Weakness is a very underrated condition, as is Poison. They’re only good for long fights, though. For fast, bursty fights they’re garbage.

So i could drop it and a 10 people could run through it in a 2 second window and not even get a pulse? 3 second pulse is way too long…

Torqky.3682:

So i could drop it and a 10 people could run through it in a 2 second window and not even get a pulse? 3 second pulse is way too long…

It’s for fighting over points in sPvP.

TBH, most underperforming abilities and classes work perfectly fine in sPvP. Everything in this game is balanced around fighting over a little pitcher’s mound sized dais.

Torqky.3682:

So i could drop it and a 10 people could run through it in a 2 second window and not even get a pulse? 3 second pulse is way too long…

Correct. I was just testing this in Heart of the Mists with the running golem. If you place CPC across a part of its path with correct timing, it can run into the cloud and run out again without receiving any of the conditions.

That said, it’s not like that 3 second window starts for your opponent once they run in. Even with excellent timing, it’s more like a 2.5 second window. And even then there’s no visual indicator of the pulse, so you’d have to note exactly when it was cast / see someone get hit to know when the pulses were.

Edit: Basically, it’s theoretically possible, but they have to get through CPC very quickly and get a little lucky.

I certainly wouldn’t call it amazing…. its horribly underpowered compared to other utilities and there are more reliable ways to apply poison and weakness. I guess you could make the argument it is nice in a point control situation… but I am not big on Spvp, so I won’t comment.

Just on the short list: Enfeebling blood is 10 seconds of weakness, and that is from one hit. Even with all 5 pulses from CPC you are looking at only 15 seconds total. Also enfeeble applies bleeds and deals direct damage. Withering prec. also gives 3 seconds of weakness on a crit (25%). Its a GM trait, but its still there.

I would much prefer to save my mark 4 for something dangerous, like confusion, 5+ stacks of bleeding, poison, chill, or basically any other condition besides weakness.

In certain situations in SPVP against bunker builds it is very nice for the reapplication of poison and weakness. But against anything that crits, has ranged attacks, and doesn’t need to stand on a circle exactly the same size as your CPC, it isn’t great.

I just compare it to any of the wells that we have available. And then I realize I won’t use it for anything other than PVE, where my job is to keep weakness/poison up 100% of the time in certain fights.

Rennoko.5731:

I certainly wouldn’t call it amazing…. its horribly underpowered compared to other utilities and there are more reliable ways to apply poison and weakness. I guess you could make the argument it is nice in a point control situation… but I am not big on Spvp, so I won’t comment.

Just on the short list: Enfeebling blood is 10 seconds of weakness, and that is from one hit. Even with all 5 pulses from CPC you are looking at only 15 seconds total. Also enfeeble applies bleeds and deals direct damage. Withering prec. also gives 3 seconds of weakness on a crit (25%). Its a GM trait, but its still there.

I would much prefer to save my mark 4 for something dangerous, like confusion, 5+ stacks of bleeding, poison, chill, or basically any other condition besides weakness.

In certain situations in SPVP against bunker builds it is very nice for the reapplication of poison and weakness. But against anything that crits, has ranged attacks, and doesn’t need to stand on a circle exactly the same size as your CPC, it isn’t great.

I just compare it to any of the wells that we have available. And then I realize I won’t use it for anything other than PVE, where my job is to keep weakness/poison up 100% of the time in certain fights.

You are correct on all counts. CPC is awful against anything with range, anything that crits a lot, and anything that can just move 2 steps to the right and avoid your ground effect. It’s great against someone that depends on healing, doesn’t crit much, and must stay inside the tiny circle for the duration. That makes it decent for tangling with bunkers in sPvP, and probably designed for the purpose.

But….half of our profession is obviously designed to rush the pitcher’s mound. Our wells, our marks, the size of our AoE, even how far people tend to run when they’re feared are all designed around that tiny platform. It’s why we seem so lackluster in WvW and PvE.

The fact that you can manipulate mobs to stand in the circle fairly easily, and mobs don’t tend to crit all that much, makes it pretty good for fighting any mob that hits fairly hard up to champions. So, there is some use out of the skill in PvE and I quite like it.