Guild Wars 2

Currently, this trait (Spite Grandmaster) provides added damage to low health enemies. Certainly not a bad trait allowing you to finish enemies easier, but it could do so much more. My thought would simply be for it to increase damage to enemies that are within a certain range. This could be accomplished in one of two ways, each with their own benefits.

1) A flat damage increase to enemies within a certain range. Say being within 400 range gives a 15% damage increase. Probably easy to implement, but it provides the same benefit to already melee ranged weapons as it does weapons you might not use in range. This is simple and elegant, but applies to all weapons equally, for better or worse.

2) An increase to the damage of skills based on their range. Maybe dagger skills get a 5% boost (because they’re already melee), axe a slightly larger one but Scepter and Staff get a much larger boost to the direct damage they do. I’m partial to this option as it opens the more conservative weapons up for more aggressive melee uses. Pick this trait up if you’re built tanky or just want to play aggressively, but pack some solid AE damage with the Staff, or do respectable single target direct damage while still stacking bleed/poison up.

Let me know your thoughts on this. The idea just came to me today, but I’d love something along these lines that made it applicable to run Dagger/X + Axe/X or use the Staff or Scepter for melee/power applications. More build versatility is always great, especially when one trait could provide it.

I think this trait will be great and need no further changes once they get it working with condition damage. As for now, it is definitely not as useful as it could be for our class, but I’m confident that will be fixed in an upcoming patch.

Rising Dusk.2408:

I think this trait will be great and need no further changes once they get it working with condition damage. As for now, it is definitely not as useful as it could be for our class, but I’m confident that will be fixed in an upcoming patch.

Yeah, I’m not saying it’s a bad trait. Just a boring one that doesn’t really alter playstyle much. I like trait that impact how you play, not just how effectively you play. But that’s just me =D

I think its a fantastic trait to be honest. It works with multiple power builds if you go that route.

The only downside is I can’t use a Staff power build not because of the trait, but because of how low Base damage Mark of Blood has which is primarily a condition move.

Even with the 10% Mark base damage increase, its barely an increase.

Berullos.6928:

Even with the 10% Mark base damage increase, its barely an increase.

Speaking of this trait, they really need to get it working with condition damage as well so it does something beyond give Putrid Mark a laughable ~90 bonus damage at max level.

Yeah, I’m not saying it’s a bad trait. Just a boring one that doesn’t really alter playstyle much. I like trait that impact how you play, not just how effectively you play.

I think traits should both augment the way the class is intended to play, enabling certain builds through the use of different trait choices, and supplement base strategies that all aspects of a class use. I do not think they should outright change this specific trait, because once they get it working with condition damage, it will really validate spending 30 trait points in Spite to get that oomph when enemies are close to death.

I don’t know why people keep thinking it’s going to work for condition dmg, that’s not a bug, it’s intended..

% Dmg increases don’t affect conditions nor do % Dmg decreases.

It’s difficult to say that with certainty, as we’ve had no developer correspondence in the matter. I understand that, for instance, Vulnerability will never increase condition damage by design because it decreases the target’s effective armor. That said, these traits do not function the same way, and so it is not unreasonable to assume that when it says “bonus % damage” it should work for all damage.

Until a developer says otherwise, I at least will hope.

Vulnerability hasn’t reduced armor for a while now.

It works exactly the same, a basic % dmg increase. Which only affects Direct Dmg.

I see. That should be something they at the least discuss reworking then.

Rising Dusk.2408:

I see. That should be something they at the least discuss reworking then.

If they let % dmg mod’s affect conditions, then they’ll have to let % dmg mitigation reduce it, including protection, which could either make it awful or OP, and it loses it’s uniqueness of eating through mitigation as true dmg. Then people will probably start asking for conditions to crit.

It’s most likely not going to happen.

That’s actually a logical fallacy. They do not ‘have’ to do anything. I do not, for instance, think Vulnerability should affect conditions. These traits and their synergy with the class’s capabilities, however, are critical for their value and success. They do not have to, for instance, “make % dmg mods affect conditions”. They could just as easily change the trait to say: “Increases damage and condition damage by 20% against foes under 50% max health”, and I think they should in this case.

I don’t want to swarm this fellow’s thread with our derailment, however, and so I think I’ve made my point as far as is necessary. Good chat.

Oh, thanks for this. I was spec’ing way down this line for the condition duration.

I wasn’t sure if the +10% damage affected the bleed on the marks. The trait was either very good or useless and I guess it’s useless. Probably shouldn’t be a tier 2 trait then. I wish the tool-tip updated.

If Close to Death doesn’t work with the staff either, is the spinal shivers better?

I’m really not set on a condition damage build, I just know realistically I’m going to be using the staff 85%+ of the time in W kittenittenrying to maximize it’s effectiveness.