Guild Wars 2

Hi.

Recently found myself engrossed in the game after a long break, due to having no real goals. Decided to start gearing up my Conditionmancer in Exotics – but I’m struggling to find a balance between the stats I need.

I understand the fundamentals of what stats I need – Condition Damage & Precision being the preferred 2 – but I’m finding it difficult to find a balance between Toughness & Power for the remainder of the gear.

I want to have fair survival, but without being forced to play defensively, so I’m looking for a good balance of Rabid & Rampager equipment – I’m currently toying around with the idea of Rabid legs/shoulders/gloves with the rest of the equipment being Rampager. However, I don’t know just how much it would increase my survivability, or whether it would even be noticeable.

I’ve also toyed around with the idea of Rabid chest/legs & accessories, with the rest of my armor/weapons being Rampager, but the real offput of this is I am unable to purchase Rampager gear with Karma.

One last idea I’ve been thinking of is 6/6 Rabid with accessories/weapons being Rampager, as get 6 Superior Runes of the Undead for 5% of Toughness becoming Condition damage. Of course this could lead to totally ignoring Rampager and go all Rabid to make the most of the Runes of Undead.

Any insight into personal preferences would be greatly appreciated before I sink all my dungeon tokens/Karma into this.

One final note is the only equipment I’ve purchased is Rabid legs from Arah Karma vendor – simply because I couldn’t wait to find an answer – so this is one piece of armor I will be definately using and will not substitute.

~Xephenon.

Im sorry but what made you think you need precision

what does precision do for a condition necro?

dots cannot crit, all you need is condition dammage and condition duration, beyond that any vit or toughness you can get would be perfered

also power will add to all your condition damage

but precision wont help you at all, maybe because its tied to your condition damage in slot 2 tallents , but the game tricked you if u thought u needed it.

Look for Power / vit / Condition dammage gear

5 point trait in curses – 66% chance to apply a bleed on crit.
Sigil of Earth on weapon – 30% chance to apply bleed on crit.

Also, power does not increase your condition damage – you’re thinking of might.

Where you suggest vitality over toughness is the best bit.

I’m no expert, but I understand fundamentals – I saw a theory crafting thread that proves Prec > Power but I cannot seem to find it. So please, if you don’t have a clue on the particular spec of the class in question don’t try to offer advice.

My apologies, the concept on the sigil was correct though.

I use Rabid/Khilbon armor because every stat in that set is working for you.

Precision for bleed procs, Toughness for higher effective health AND more condition damage (Runes and Tuning Crystals), and Condition Damage is quite obvious. Sometimes I wonder, though, if you can have too much Condition Damage…

Listing of God Karma armor sets:
http://dulfy.net/2012/09/08/gw2-templegod-karma-armor-sets/

Somewhat disappointed there is no light armor set equivalent to the Whispering medium armor set. Also, there is no God Karma light armor chest or boots with +Cond Dmg, which is unfortunate.

One thing to remember is the armor pieces have different stat budgets, so choosing which pieces to sub out as different stats will be directly impacted by the specific armor slot.

• High Stat Budget
  • Chest
  • Legs
• Medium Stat Budget
  • Helm
• Low Stat Budget
  • Shoulders
  • Gloves
  • Boots

With a focus on +Cond Dmg, the God Karma set pieces that do have +Cond Dmg have more than Rampagers. Ex. Rampagers legs have 48 Cond Dmg, while God Karma legs have 67 Cond Dmg. For that reason, on my Cond Dmg gear set, I went; Helm, Shoulders, Gloves, & Legs as God Karma pieces with Chest, Boots, weapons, & all 5 Accessories as Rampager. Add in Master Tuning Crystals for 6% Toughness is added as +Cond Dmg, & 4% of Vitality is added as +Cond Dmg. And food that can give +70 Cond Dmg.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Master_Tuning_Crystal
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bowl_of_Fancy_Potato_and_Leek_Soup

Power is needed for staff auto attack, mark detonations, wells, Lich Form, DS, etc. If you choose to go full-on into Rabid style gear, you will see a dropoff in other aspects of the necro playstyle. If you’re PvE focused, this may not be a huge problem.

Another solution you may like is +Might Duration, which is my current build (running as power, but the same principals apply to Cond Dmg). Use 2 Superior Runes of; HoelBrak, Strength, and Fire for +60% Might Duration. Chocolate Omnomberry Cream for another 20%, and any points into Death Magic for additional +boon duration. All in all you can extend Might duration to +110%. Add in Sigils of Strength and Battle for; On Weapon Swap get 3 stacks of might, and 30% chance on crit to gain might.

With the trait selection of Master of Corruption in the Curses line, you can lower Blood Is Power’s recharge to 24s, and have a permanent uptime of 10 stacks of might from that utility skill alone (depending on spec). All in all, I maintain on average 27-30 stacks of might on my power build, which comes out to +875 power.

Because this works the same for Cond Dmg as it does for Power, the comparison of 6 Undead Runes would be ~270-285 Cond Dmg, add in an average 5 stacks of might uptime for Blood Is Power in a non-might stacking build for an additional +175 (which is generous) to be 445-460 depending on your Toughness, vs 875 +Cond Dmg when you have your might rotation in full swing. You’ll have to factor in the loss of Sigil of Earth, as it adds additional bleeds on the non-might stacking build, but it will no where near compensate for upwards of ~500 additional Cond Dmg.

The downside to a might stacking build is it requires a higher APM to play, and maintain your might stacks through constant weapon swaps, and enter DS for gain might on DS 1 casts. There is also a ramp up time as you build up your might stacks from other sources. All in all, it is an active playstyle that I have come to enjoy much more than other types of builds.

Quillixx.7034:

With the trait selection of Master of Corruption in the Curses line, you can lower Blood Is Power’s recharge to 24s, and have a permanent uptime of 10 stacks of might from that utility skill alone (depending on spec). All in all, I maintain on average 27-30 stacks of might on my power build, which comes out to +944 to +1050 power.

This is the best/most clever tactic I have yet read on the Necromancer subforum. Good show.

Quillixx.7034:

Another solution you may like is +Might Duration, which is my current build (running as power, but the same principals apply to Cond Dmg). Use 2 Superior Runes of; HoelBrak, Strength, and Fire for +60% Might Duration. Chocolate Omnomberry Cream for another 20%, and any points into Death Magic for additional +boon duration. All in all you can extend Might duration to +110%. Add in Sigils of Strength and Battle for; On Weapon Swap get 3 stacks of might, and 30% chance on crit to gain might.

With the trait selection of Master of Corruption in the Curses line, you can lower Blood Is Power’s recharge to 24s, and have a permanent uptime of 10 stacks of might from that utility skill alone (depending on spec). All in all, I maintain on average 27-30 stacks of might on my power build, which comes out to +944 to +1050 power.

Because this works the same for Cond Dmg as it does for Power, the comparison of 6 Undead Runes would be ~270-285 Cond Dmg, add in an average 5 stacks of might uptime for Blood Is Power in a non-might stacking build for an additional +175 (which is generous) to be 445-460 depending on your Toughness, vs 944-1050 +Cond Dmg when you have your might rotation in full swing. You’ll have to factor in the loss of Sigil of Earth, as it adds additional bleeds on the non-might stacking build, but it will no where near compensate for upwards of +500 additional Cond Dmg.

The downside to a might stacking build is it requires a higher APM to play, and maintain your might stacks through constant weapon swaps, and enter DS for gain might on DS 1 casts. There is also a ramp up time as you build up your might stacks from other sources. All in all, it is an active playstyle that I have come to enjoy much more than other types of builds.

This is actually a very interesting spec, I believe it was previously suggested by Trafalgar in the sticky though I wanted to do a little bit more testing/research before I invested in a new rune/sigil set.

Figured I would plug in my own stats and compare

Assuming the standard conditionmancer spec with undead runes
Weapons: Rabid
Armour: Rabid
Accessories: 2xCarrion earrings, 1xRampager back (Rampager gem), 2xRampager rings
Spec: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNArYbjMa96pbub07JCJFPjaQKev0ieQMjlMA
Sigils: of earth/of agony, of corruption
Runes: 6xundead
Food: 70 cond dmg

Toughness: 1518
Crit chance: 51% – helps stacking bleeds

Condition dmg from toughness: 1518 toughness * 0.05 = 75.09
Condition dmg from runes: 28+55+100=183
Condition dmg from food: 70

BiP stacks (average)=(10(stacks)14.5(duration))/24(cooldown) = 6.04
Condition dmg from BiP(average)= 6.04135=211.46

Total condition dmg = 75.09+183+70+211.46= 539.55 = 540

Now assuming I swap to the stack’omancer spec

Weapons: same
Armour: same
Accessories: same
Spec: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNArYbjMa96pbub07JCpHP7aUDqw7jeQMjlMA
Sigils: of strength/of agony, of corruption
Runes: 2xof fire, 2xof strength, 2xof hoelbrak
Food: 20% might duration

I would need to maintain a minimum of 16 stacks at any time, to justify the loss from runes i.e. 16(stacks)*35(cond dmg)=560

The question is whether this is doable assuming the following rotation with a might up time of 110%:

Rotation: Scepter 2, dagger 5, BiP, dagger 4, dagger 3, epidemic, swap weapons, staff 2, staff 3, staff 4, enter Deathshroud, 3xdeathshoud 1, deathsroud 4, exit deathsroud, 1xstaff auto attack, staff 2, Swap weapons – REPEAT

I have missed out a couple of things including reapers might gains in the first spec and the dps loss from swapping to sigil of strength over of earth

Though I would imagine the stack’omancer spec comes out marginally on top

Edit: There is also a dps loss from pets assuming you move the 10 points from spite into death magic

That’s why there’s a ramp up time for might stacking. Your initial hits for the first 5-8 seconds (depending on rotation) will be slightly under the undead rune setup. The major gap filler in the might rune setup vs undead is the use of Blood is Power. In my power build variant, my rotation leads off with BiP, to start combat followed by an immediate weapon swap giving 13 stacks from the start of combat.

Using the same principal, we can slightly alter your posted rotation to get a faster might stack going. Lead off with Blood is Power followed by an immediate weapon swap. Let’s say for this example we started as staff and you swapped to scepter/dagger. This gives us 13 stacks in the first second of combat, followed by dagger 4 to send the 2 bleed stacks to our target. Complete the rotation with dagger 5, scepter 2, scepter 3, scepter 1×2 (5 seconds have passed by this mark), and then enter Death Shroud.

Lead off with DS 4 first. This is due to our minor trait Furious Demise in Curses that gives us 5s of fury when we enter DS. Because DS 4 hits 9 times in 3s, and each crit has a chance of giving us might, this has a much higher return by using it first while fury is active. Follow up with DS 1 x6-7. You also want to spam your weapon swap while spamming DS 1. This will rotate you to staff and also begin the 10s weapon swap recharge while still being in DS form gaining additional might stacks. When you drop out of DS into staff, complete your normal rotation At this point, you should be sitting 18s into combat and be around 22-26 stacks of might.

On a constant weapon swap rotation during longer fights, weapon swapping alone will return 9-12 stacks of might (depending on spec). You can maintain 10 stacks from BiP, and you can rotate into DS form every 10s to build another 6-7 stacks. Because staff has longer recharges on most of its abilities and staff 1 spam isn’t very beneficiary, you can opt to stay in DS longer and drop out with enough time to cast your marks and immediately swap back to scepter. You will just need to utilize the weapon swap to staff during DS 1 spam.

Another option would be to opt for a scepter/dagger + scepter/warhorn weapon loadout. This means you’re constantly building bleed stacks during recharge periods by scepter 1 spam, while not in DS form, and you can utilize locust swarm for generating might stacks from the crits. For reference, locust swarm hitting 5 targets for its duration can generate 6-7 might stacks on average.

The crazy benefit of this, is when your in a group that has a lot of might boons, because this build extends the duration of the boons you receive from your group members as well. I have been in groups where I’ve maintained 36+ might stacks. Warriors, mesmers, and guardians are great sources of might, and doubling the duration of their boons adds up fast.

Might ramping is a FANTASTIC way to play for a very skilled and focused player who has that mental edge and capacity to maintain might. my two cents would be to watch out for min/maxing and losing important or vital strengths in that kind of build, because the necro is stretched thin as it is.

tl;dr I love this type of necro. can’t play it for long because the APM stresses me out for all-day playstyle, but it is a great way to surprise people. (you can get dagger2 to hit for 10k in this way)

@Quillixx

Thats an interesting take on the rotation would you advise putting the full 30 points in death or 20 in spite and 20 in death to buff pet dmg and then taking wurm and flesh,

Also ooc whats your power gear spec setup

On a condition build that is sporting wurm/golem, I’d opt for minion damage. The downside is you end up losing 100 toughness and only gain around 5 power by making the change (because of the minor trait Deadly Strength), but the overall damage increase is worth it, imho.

For my power build, I use Berserker’s gear and weapons with 5 Ruby accessories. Power, Crit, and Crit Dmg are the stat focuses.

For my build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRBHbhG2IjWlemm6G9eiQSB2+F0jc9enFpAZGD

The build’s primary rotation revolves around the 3 channeled abilities; Axe 2, Dagger 2, and DS 4, with the rest of the weapon abilities being used as filler between waiting on recharge timers and weapon swap. These abilities hit quickly and have higher chances of proc’n might, so are always the priority cast in the rotation. There are also 3 primary abilities that trigger might off of crits especially in AOE situations; Locust Swarm, Well of Suffering, & Well of Corruption.

For the elite skill, I used to have Lich Form, but it ends up having a high cost to benefit ratio. The 30s duration of Lich Form becomes a double edged sword, because you lose your might stacking rotation. Your initial casts with Lich 1 spam are very high damage, but the the longer you go the more might you lose.

With the food buff, this build has an effective +100% might duration. But as Sheobix mentioned, the higher APM can be busy at times. With the cost of the runes, you may want to make sure it’s something you want to do before you invest. I personally found it to be refreshing, being it’s somewhat unique to the necro class, and how active the playstyle is from the run-of-the-mill power/condition builds.