Guild Wars 2

I am currently running open world content with a reaper outfitted with all ascended berserker gear: armor (scholar runes), trinkets, greatsword, dagger, axe, warhorn, focus. I switch my build between minions (Death, Blood, Reaper) and power (Spite, Blood or Soul, Reaper) depending on the encounter. Commanders do not want minions at Triple Trouble for instance.

My question is whether I should consider condition damage gear and build for open world. I do not enjoy raiding, fractals, dungeons, PvP or WvW. Did all that at a hardcore level in WoW for years. Came to GW2 for a much more casual gaming experience and enjoy it immensely.

I read often about the Viper/Horror meta build with 100% condition duration for raiding. Would that build or a variation with sinister gear be desirable for HoT and Tyria open world bosses and general roaming?

If so, what should I put together? Ascended/Exotic Viper? Ascended/Exotic Sinister? Some combination of these? Build? Runes/Sigils? Food?

I have characters with max crafting in all disciplines and plenty of materials, laurels and gold to make whatever you recommend. I also have a full set of Berserker runes in the bank. I believe only ascended Viper trinkets would be out of reach for me.

Should I bother or just stay power for my preferred content?

Thanks for reading and any insight you offer.

Might reaper is still the best option, IMO. I like Spite, SR, Reaper for solo and BM, SR, Reaper for group events. Power is great for everything but PvP.

It’s fully ranged, which is a good thing for some encounters in OW, especially in HoT areas. It’s also much better at dealing with mobile enemies, since it doesn’t rely on wells and nightfall for bulk of damage.

So yea. It’s very good, and the only reasong I stopped using it is becouse I got bored to death with condi playstile )

Thanks. I like the idea of some range. Would Viper or Sinister gear be best for open world HoT bosses? Should I prioritize condition damage or duration? I’m wondering whether many open world targets would die too quickly for condition duration to ramp up.

Vornath.5027:

Thanks. I like the idea of some range. Would Viper or Sinister gear be best for open world HoT bosses? Should I prioritize condition damage or duration? I’m wondering whether many open world targets would die too quickly for condition duration to ramp up.

Honestly, I run pure power for almost all open world HoT. Some events work better with scepter and bleeds but if you are in a group or zerg power is often better. If you are running condition damage, duration always wins.

I’ve been testing a post-nerf condi build, it works well. It actually has more sustained dps (but lower burst) then a GS power build. It relies heavily on Reaper’s Shroud with Dhuumfire though. Reapers Onslaught + Dhuumfire is a lot of burn stacking, and Soul Spiral + Corrosive Cloud is a lot of poison. You basically want to DPS as much as you can in shroud, and focus on building life force and firing dps cooldowns while out of it.

I’m gonna play Devil’s advocate here.

I run ascended armor/weapons Viper Necro on a mix of rabid/sinister trinkets ( until they sort out to get ascended Viper trinkets from other sources than just story/raid ) now and I levelled as a condition build. Let me tell you that the latter was a pain in the rear. Your greatest enemy as a levelling condition Necro, especially if you’re bullheaded ( or dumb, take your pick ) like me and DON’T carry additional power stat weapons or a second set of gear, are boxes/flagpoles/anything unaffected by conditions.

I love my Necro. She’s – after much dabbling in other classes, and even after the latest nerf – my main and the class itself has become my favourite. I’m one of those players who also runs around with minions/Rise! a lot for maximum survival. I’ve facetanked stuff I wouldn’t even touch with a ten foot pole on other classes. HoT was a cakewalk. What can I say, I’m lazy and I like to take the scenic route.

And that’s the thing: scenic. Viper is a hybrid stat geared mainly toward long fights where all that Expertise you’ll be statting has a chance to shine: world bosses, event bosses, dungeons, anything where your conditions have time to build up and tick. I’m sitting at about 1900 power/1900 condi and 51% condi duration without food/buffs. I’m sure someone more knowledgeable about the numbers can give you an exact breakdown, but bursting doesn’t really happen on a Viper ( the way I play it, anyway, I’m strictly speaking from my own experience here ), so if you’re used to a power build, you’ll definitely feel a difference there. Now, I am not saying that you’ll spend 10 minutes killing a trash mob, but I do take longer than your average Joe Berserker killing the exact same mob two trees over. The ramp-up time is real.

So, pro/con wise:

+ having two sets of gear suited to two completely different play styles is great
+ ranged damage: sometimes it’s nice to stay a bit in the back for that overview
+ when those conditions start to tick, they tick

- Vipers especially is expensive ( or used to be, when I made mine )
- trinkets :(
- almost no burst unless, as Rhyse said, you spend a lot of time in Shroud
- on trash mobs, Vipers is kind of wasted

/two cents

I run a viper’s build too. I really like the play style, but as the post above said, you cannot burst trash mobs down like any zerk build. The RS5>RS4 combo is pretty good as AOE burst, but still yet cannot compare to classes like ele.

However, when those condi ramps up, you will DPS really good, and “sustain” it. If you use epidemic right, you have the highest hitting skill in the game.

I use this build currently:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQNArYWjc0Q3NWdDO2AHOWwFs4rYXcMGtB6AjAorWAYBA-TxSFQBL4QAUNzP9T1nE8EAan+gCq8TJ7DIM1AAwJA4aLMMIlgECQxcA-e

If you have no way of getting ascended viper’s trinkets(raids), and want to keep food cost low, try it out.
Blood is power > deathly swarm > feast of corruption
chain is especially strong with these traits.

I have returned to the GW after almost a year long hiatus last week and was deciding which way to go too.
At the end – as mainly open world PvE player – power build won it for me.
I genuinely think power build is more universal in most situation…. but I also really wanted to use GS as it is my most favorite weapon in GW2… especially on Asura