Guild Wars 2

I’m trying to build a PvE Condi Reaper build, focusing on RS and burning damage – and I think this is the highest possible burn I can get. I threw Sinister in there for the raw damage too – but I’m thinking that I may need to reconfigure the choices when GW2Skills Updates to the Trailblazer and Vipers gear, so I don’t have to use Givers Weapons.

Thoughts?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRQQNBmQD7kZTomGs2GwcTgeTs8LYxHxo4VkKL8FGWQfpAwHA-ThhAABVr+DM7PctyPAeCARfRAdDspEMAwBwu7mu1NY8xHf8xHvd3d3d3d3SBYoyK-e

Hey just as an update – This is what you can get with a WORSE build in a team setup – Focus on the burn damage.

http://imgur.com/a/inBvo

[Edit1: Build Updated]
[Edit2: Screenshots of Burning – With inferiror build, with the same theories]

Apparently….people have been using a few combos.

Chill doing damage or reaper’s onslaught.

dhuumfire

and Soldier’s/valk gear with Sinister trinkets.

I would try this…but sinister trinkets seem really difficult to actually obtain

otherwise the combo seems nicely when:

staff 3 poison field, Reaper shroud 4 spin inside of it, stack 18+ poison, and then swing away to do massive ammounts of burning.

I want to try it…I really do.

alas, I am unable to get a lot of sinister trinkets.

;_; sadness overhwelming.

Close to Death seems a better option than Spiteful Spirit. Otherwise I want to try something similar (http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQJARWnMbC12gF3Au0As3glfBL+IGFviQfpAwHgKL8FGWA-TxhAABfq+DM7PMxlA4alfA8EAiWXAbKBJFgfCrA-e). With Carrion and Sinister gear. More of a Hybrid build.

vanderwolf.7084:

Apparently….people have been using a few combos.

Chill doing damage or reaper’s onslaught.

dhuumfire

and Soldier’s/valk gear with Sinister trinkets.

I would try this…but sinister trinkets seem really difficult to actually obtain

otherwise the combo seems nicely when:

staff 3 poison field, Reaper shroud 4 spin inside of it, stack 18+ poison, and then swing away to do massive ammounts of burning.

I want to try it…I really do.

alas, I am unable to get a lot of sinister trinkets.

;_; sadness overhwelming.

This makes me really proud of the reaper. I personally find staying in one stat-set lame and wish it was the more viable option.

Rirgul.5302:

I’m trying to build a PvE Condi Reaper build, focusing on RS and burning damage – and I think this is the highest possible burn I can get. I threw Sinister in there for the raw damage too – but I’m thinking that I may need to reconfigure the choices when GW2Skills Updates to the Trailblazer and Vipers gear, so I don’t have to use Givers Weapons.

Thoughts?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRQQNBmWD7kZTomGs2GwcTgeTssLYxPxr4XkKMcGWWQnpEQAA-ThhAABVr+DM7PctyPAeCARfRAdDspEMAwBwu7mu1NY8xHf8xHvd3d3d3d3SBYoyK-e

I am testing out a very similar build and these are my thoughts/critiques to try to help you out.

1. If you’re going to be focusing on RS, you may want to try changing one of your weapon sets to generate a little more LF. WH can generate quite a bit in packs of mobs, but otherwise itll be hard to refill it as quickly as it falls away. If you like the weapons a lot I would stick with them, if they’re just their for extra conditions it may be worthwhile to switch.
2. I would take Close to Death for Spite Grandmaster over your choice. Cripple/Retaliate can be out-done by extra damage in PvE (not sure about others).
3. Stacking to 25 might even with just RS1 is fairly easy (especially if you have Herald or Ele with you) so taking Decimate Defenses over Chilling Victory may be a good alternative. The LF gain is nice, but foes that have 25 vulnerability stacks (super easy in PvE) will get critted on every hit, which I believe carries into conditions now. I don’t know how Decimate Defenses’ mechanics work with Dhuumfire, but if all the ticks crit it seems like it would increase your damage significantly.
4. This is more a personal preference, but I like to keep a stack of zerker/valk gear just so I have higher power-based damage when I need it over condi damage.
5. Giver’s weapons to increase condi duration further? Seems to do more for you (based on numbers) than Sinister and it gives some vitality.

Other than that it looks awesome! I loves Runes of Balth and there’s nothing like watching all your burn ticks do their work! :p

The problem with these fancy burns builds is that they are very focused on burn. We only have 1 skill that applies burn, and if you take a large hit and get knocked out of RS your dps essentially drops to 0. You have 0 bleed stacks up, and no more poison generation.

You become dead weight until you can fully recharge RS. This could be devastating in a raid where you take one hit by the boss and lose all your dps for 10-20s while recharging RS.

Thanks for the ideas, most were oversights as origionally the build was with Dire gear xD!

I was using Dagger/Wh + Scepter origionally.

And yes – I know it’s not great overall with the out of shroud drop off time – but this is PvE. The worst thing about it is that shroud has a 10 second recharge and you’ve got to fill that with your other weapons.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

The problem with these fancy burns builds is that they are very focused on burn. We only have 1 skill that applies burn, and if you take a large hit and get knocked out of RS your dps essentially drops to 0. You have 0 bleed stacks up, and no more poison generation.

You become dead weight until you can fully recharge RS. This could be devastating in a raid where you take one hit by the boss and lose all your dps for 10-20s while recharging RS.

^^This…it is the biggest downfall of the build.

Not that that makes it unusable, but unless you know the mechanics of a fight by heart and have solid maneuvering skills the downtime will outweigh the DPS gains while in shroud. Since scepters deal bleeding this can be somewhat mitigated, but changing armor sets during new fights wouldn’t be bad for learning mechanics…it doesn’t require much switching in terms of the traits or skills, though.

I am not overly fond of burning.
Condition damage Reaper is primarily a Deathly Chill build. From there you can add Terror, Dhuumfire, and scepter bleeds and poison.

It would be great to have a poison on chill trait or something similar but right now there is little synergy with old damaging conditions and chill – based Reaper.

You might still do better with a Corruption build using DS and Epidemic focusing on bleeds, poison, and maybe Terror.

Deathly Chill doesn’t do enough damage to have it be your primary focus of a build.

Just for the sake of the argument what kind of burning numbers could a build like OP’s keep up?
Theoretically we could hit 7-8 burn stacks under quickness, and have say 3,2k condi power (might and banner and furious stacks and corruption stacks if gear is viper), and an extra 25% added to all that from vulnerability.
That means 784dps per stack, so 784×8=6,275k dps, and if the dps of the auto attacks is ~2-4k, then we get ~8-10k sustained AoE DPS in fully buffed mode, with quickness. (Im not sure the math is accurate, maybe someone more experienced can do a better analysis).

Its true though, when life force ends you’re kittened. Unless you cast epidemic and watch everything melt, then you are satisified for the rest of the day;)
Dhuumfire imo is more of a pvp skill to burst more as condi, and it could really use a slight buff

Pelopidas.2140:

Just for the sake of the argument what kind of burning numbers could a build like OP’s keep up?
Theoretically we could hit 7-8 burn stacks under quickness, and have say 3,2k condi power (might and banner and furious stacks and corruption stacks if gear is viper), and an extra 25% added to all that from vulnerability.
That means 784dps per stack, so 784×8=6,275k dps, and if the dps of the auto attacks is ~2-4k, then we get ~8-10k sustained AoE DPS in fully buffed mode, with quickness. (Im not sure the math is accurate, maybe someone more experienced can do a better analysis).

Its true though, when life force ends you’re kittened. Unless you cast epidemic and watch everything melt, then you are satisified for the rest of the day;)
Dhuumfire imo is more of a pvp skill to burst more as condi, and it could really use a slight buff

This comes from my in-game tooltip.

Gear Set 1: Full berserker (trinkets, armor, weapons) with ogre runes and force/night sigils (power food/utility). 100% crit with Decimate Defense, 208% crit damage

RS AA does 642 – 642 – 1281 damage and the burn stacks last 3 seconds and do 395 damage. Soul Spiral (RS4) Deals 3204 damage per foe and poison for 3204 and poisons each one for 1600 over 4 seconds.

Gear Set 2: Sinister Armor/Trinkets w/ Balthazar Runes. Giver’s Weapons with night/force sigils. Condition food/utility, 100% crit with Decimate Defense, 150% crit chance

RS AA does 466 -466-930 damage and the burn stacks last 6 seconds dealing 2,103 damage. Soul Spiral (RS4) deals 2328 damage per for and poison for 8516 over 6.75 seconds.

This is without might, vuln or other modifiers and does these are not critical hits. Looking at the numbers, however, even the increased crit damage berserker provides wouldn’t bring it up to compete with the sinister version. However, like it’s been stated, you need a solution for when you aren’t in RS.

Eneldiar.9670:

Pelopidas.2140:

Just for the sake of the argument what kind of burning numbers could a build like OP’s keep up?
Theoretically we could hit 7-8 burn stacks under quickness, and have say 3,2k condi power (might and banner and furious stacks and corruption stacks if gear is viper), and an extra 25% added to all that from vulnerability.
That means 784dps per stack, so 784×8=6,275k dps, and if the dps of the auto attacks is ~2-4k, then we get ~8-10k sustained AoE DPS in fully buffed mode, with quickness. (Im not sure the math is accurate, maybe someone more experienced can do a better analysis).

Its true though, when life force ends you’re kittened. Unless you cast epidemic and watch everything melt, then you are satisified for the rest of the day;)
Dhuumfire imo is more of a pvp skill to burst more as condi, and it could really use a slight buff

This comes from my in-game tooltip.

Gear Set 1: Full berserker (trinkets, armor, weapons) with ogre runes and force/night sigils (power food/utility). 100% crit with Decimate Defense, 208% crit damage

RS AA does 642 – 642 – 1281 damage and the burn stacks last 3 seconds and do 395 damage. Soul Spiral (RS4) Deals 3204 damage per foe and poison for 3204 and poisons each one for 1600 over 4 seconds.

Gear Set 2: Sinister Armor/Trinkets w/ Balthazar Runes. Giver’s Weapons with night/force sigils. Condition food/utility, 100% crit with Decimate Defense, 150% crit chance

RS AA does 466 -466-930 damage and the burn stacks last 6 seconds dealing 2,103 damage. Soul Spiral (RS4) deals 2328 damage per for and poison for 8516 over 6.75 seconds.

This is without might, vuln or other modifiers and does these are not critical hits. Looking at the numbers, however, even the increased crit damage berserker provides wouldn’t bring it up to compete with the sinister version. However, like it’s been stated, you need a solution for when you aren’t in RS.

Agree with you. Burn Reaper is far superior imo in PVE right now.
You can build 7~8 stacks in 6 seconds dealing more constant damage than a power build would do. And new mobs have a lot more toughness so power builds hit really low in some of them, specially champions/legendaries.
Only downside on this build is when you meet a mob that doesn’t take burn damage.
About the downtime of shroud you can build it fast enough using Your Soul is Mine > Scepter 3 > Spectral Grasp(i use thsi skill to help break the defiance bar along with Golem Rush).

I’ve been using a build with dhuumfire and carrion gear. I use runes of balthazar but that’s just because duration-wise and application-wise burning is the condi reaper needs most help applying and maintaining. Basically, a mob with enough health should at some point in the fight be taking 3-4k poison ticks, 2k bleed ticks and 800-1k chill ticks and 5-6k burn ticks. I use staff and GS(for flavor and I love GS4 so frickin’ much). This facilitates the playstyle of reaper more because scepter just doesn’t cover enough targets to satisfy me. Cleaving is love.

ragnarokda.1805:

I’ve been using a build with dhuumfire and carrion gear. I use runes of balthazar but that’s just because duration-wise and application-wise burning is the condi reaper needs most help applying and maintaining. Basically, a mob with enough health should at some point in the fight be taking 3-4k poison ticks, 2k bleed ticks and 800-1k chill ticks and 5-6k burn ticks. I use staff and GS(for flavor and I love GS4 so frickin’ much). This facilitates the playstyle of reaper more because scepter just doesn’t cover enough targets to satisfy me. Cleaving is love.

Okay, i don’t see these 2k bleeds happening. 2k bleed is like 10~14 stacks depending on your condition damage. But how are you applying it being in Reaper Shroud most of time? Just asking bcz curious.

Boss was stunned, so you are doing more dmg.

Updated From Advice + Given basic idea of the burns.

Lynnie.7213:

ragnarokda.1805:

I’ve been using a build with dhuumfire and carrion gear. I use runes of balthazar but that’s just because duration-wise and application-wise burning is the condi reaper needs most help applying and maintaining. Basically, a mob with enough health should at some point in the fight be taking 3-4k poison ticks, 2k bleed ticks and 800-1k chill ticks and 5-6k burn ticks. I use staff and GS(for flavor and I love GS4 so frickin’ much). This facilitates the playstyle of reaper more because scepter just doesn’t cover enough targets to satisfy me. Cleaving is love.

Okay, i don’t see these 2k bleeds happening. 2k bleed is like 10~14 stacks depending on your condition damage. But how are you applying it being in Reaper Shroud most of time? Just asking bcz curious.

I don’t take offense to questions being asked of me. haha

I use curses and weakening shroud. Before shroud Staff2-5 then 2 again. Enter shroud and decimate def starts working and generating more bleeds with barbed precision. The bleeds aren’t SUPER consistent but I usually have 1500-2000 bleed going. I can also start in GS for 12stacks of vuln to start.

I think 5% base crit chance, plus fury and at least 10% crit from Target the weak make 35% crit and if vuln caps off 85%. So barbed precision doesn’t feel nearly as pointless in a non-prec build.

I know scepter is more efficient but I’m just not a fan of the single target bleed stack and I don’t run epidemic. (although considering it)

Sorry if any of that sounds stupid.

Disclaimer: I’m not pro bro

Nice, I just wish I had sinister trinkets I never got LS2 I guess its time to buy that.

ragnarokda.1805:

Lynnie.7213:

ragnarokda.1805:

I’ve been using a build with dhuumfire and carrion gear. I use runes of balthazar but that’s just because duration-wise and application-wise burning is the condi reaper needs most help applying and maintaining. Basically, a mob with enough health should at some point in the fight be taking 3-4k poison ticks, 2k bleed ticks and 800-1k chill ticks and 5-6k burn ticks. I use staff and GS(for flavor and I love GS4 so frickin’ much). This facilitates the playstyle of reaper more because scepter just doesn’t cover enough targets to satisfy me. Cleaving is love.

Okay, i don’t see these 2k bleeds happening. 2k bleed is like 10~14 stacks depending on your condition damage. But how are you applying it being in Reaper Shroud most of time? Just asking bcz curious.

I don’t take offense to questions being asked of me. haha

I use curses and weakening shroud. Before shroud Staff2-5 then 2 again. Enter shroud and decimate def starts working and generating more bleeds with barbed precision. The bleeds aren’t SUPER consistent but I usually have 1500-2000 bleed going. I can also start in GS for 12stacks of vuln to start.

I think 5% base crit chance, plus fury and at least 10% crit from Target the weak make 35% crit and if vuln caps off 85%. So barbed precision doesn’t feel nearly as pointless in a non-prec build.

I know scepter is more efficient but I’m just not a fan of the single target bleed stack and I don’t run epidemic. (although considering it)

Sorry if any of that sounds stupid.

Disclaimer: I’m not pro bro

So no spite in your build means no perma 25 might if your party can’t provide it. (most of pugs can’t)
And your chill application comes from Shroud 5 and Chilling Nova? Idk if that can provide perma chill, can it?

Lynnie.7213:

ragnarokda.1805:

Lynnie.7213:

ragnarokda.1805:

I’ve been using a build with dhuumfire and carrion gear. I use runes of balthazar but that’s just because duration-wise and application-wise burning is the condi reaper needs most help applying and maintaining. Basically, a mob with enough health should at some point in the fight be taking 3-4k poison ticks, 2k bleed ticks and 800-1k chill ticks and 5-6k burn ticks. I use staff and GS(for flavor and I love GS4 so frickin’ much). This facilitates the playstyle of reaper more because scepter just doesn’t cover enough targets to satisfy me. Cleaving is love.

Okay, i don’t see these 2k bleeds happening. 2k bleed is like 10~14 stacks depending on your condition damage. But how are you applying it being in Reaper Shroud most of time? Just asking bcz curious.

I don’t take offense to questions being asked of me. haha

I use curses and weakening shroud. Before shroud Staff2-5 then 2 again. Enter shroud and decimate def starts working and generating more bleeds with barbed precision. The bleeds aren’t SUPER consistent but I usually have 1500-2000 bleed going. I can also start in GS for 12stacks of vuln to start.

I think 5% base crit chance, plus fury and at least 10% crit from Target the weak make 35% crit and if vuln caps off 85%. So barbed precision doesn’t feel nearly as pointless in a non-prec build.

I know scepter is more efficient but I’m just not a fan of the single target bleed stack and I don’t run epidemic. (although considering it)

Sorry if any of that sounds stupid.

Disclaimer: I’m not pro bro

So no spite in your build means no perma 25 might if your party can’t provide it. (most of pugs can’t)
And your chill application comes from Shroud 5 and Chilling Nova? Idk if that can provide perma chill, can it?

No I’m usually running around with a herald so I neglect my own might generation and yeah also chill from blind.

I use Valkyrie gear w rune of elementalist and sinister trinkets and it does good power and condi dmg. I just like that it’s flexible. I tried to use scepter/dagger but it’s so slow and staff is just too useful.

Quells.2498:

I use Valkyrie gear w rune of elementalist and sinister trinkets and it does good power and condi dmg. I just like that it’s flexible. I tried to use scepter/dagger but it’s so slow and staff is just too useful.

My issue with scepter is that you want to camp it. I can see it being good with epidemic for aoe but staff is a very flexible weapon for us regardless of build. It’s not the best but it’s the easiest to use.

I think i’d consider axe/dagger or axe/warhorn before I go back to scepter at this point I just don’t want to be a full power reaper.

The thread piqued some interest, so I came up with two options. The spite build stacks might and vuln and lends itself better to solo play. The curses build relies on allies for might and vuln and goes for more damage from a variety of conditions.

Keep in mind I might’ve overlooked some things. The armor stats are purely to represent a mix of Viper’s and Sinister, just so that is a bit easier to look at potential damage outputs through the editor compared to no stats.

Spite hybrid Dhuumfire
Curses Dhuumfire

I spent a bunch of time in the new areas trying out Necromancer builds, today. They all come out pretty much the same. Condition damage is weak with scepter, almost unnoticeable with Deathly Chill. Running a condition damage build is a poor trade on Reaper. It felt like I had better results just running non-reaper condition damage builds.

Swapping between Soldier’s, Berserker’s, Rabid, and Sinister, I was humbled in all cases how other professions like Ranger and Ele could just burn down opponents from a safe distance while Reaper builds had to assume all of the close range combat risks from hard CC and nasty AoE. Condition builds were sort of effective using traditional bleed/poison. Shout builds on Reaper were awful compared to a power/crit build. In turn, power/crit builds were only good for close range AoE dps. Other professions with ranged options did far better, often vaporizing foes remarkably quickly.

Because of the large amount of damaging AoE and hard CC coming from mobs, any advantage Reaper might have in close range combat is quickly negated by dodging.

Minions are fairly strong.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQJARWnMbCN3gtbCebC0biliBLeHOETiUPhpwtKKAMAKAA-TBSEABPcFACZ/BS0EQqSQAM/BkyvYU/phHBApAgYNA-e

This is what I’m running atm. I gave up on trying to keep bleeding prominent but it IS still there and usually runs around 500-1500 dmg per tick randomly.

Chill and weakness are 100% uptime and poison is a burst from CPC + Soul Spiral. Burning is what camping RS is for from Dhuumfire.

The weaknesses of the build are too many ranged mobs that won’t group up. (Looking at you shadowleaper sonsa batches) However, CPC used defensively can mitigate that a bit and so can Rise!. Shouts can be used liberally and can lead to pretty explosive condi bursts.

If you don’t mind losing some vit/HP/LF you can go half carrion and half vipers. With Rise! that might be a pretty safe option. Otherwise, if you’re cheap like me just stick with carrion.

Edit: Additionally, I would consider using Blighter’s Boon or Reaper’s Onslaught instead of deathly chill in a group setting where your chill may get over written.

Also, there may be an argument to be made about having a few less chill sources but I’m too lazy to optimize that and would rather just spam it as much as possible. Plague sending may be better if you use viper/sinister and a few more corruption skills but I’m not a fan.

For those of you going condi without burn, have you noticed increased dps without burn or is the dps comparable and the playstyle just a little different?

Javonovich.5280:

For those of you going condi without burn, have you noticed increased dps without burn or is the dps comparable and the playstyle just a little different?

Without burn you probably wouldn’t be auto attacking in shroud. That’s if you keep reaper.

Without Dhuumfire, you get Death Perception, if short on precision, or FitG, which is handy with all the hard control effects.

Terror provides small amounts of condition damage in a build that depends upon it.

Both Terror and Dhuumfire add condition damage but neither has enough up-time to rival a scepter build. Deathly Chill seems weak, even with as many ways to chill as possible. Scepter bleeds and poisons outclass everything Reaper can do foe condi damage.

On the brighter side, pretty much everything is better than axe right now. Scepter and corruption skills can help more than axe so if you want to run a condition damage build, it will be better than axe by a wide margin. Even staff feels better dealing with high mobility mobs. Axe offers cripples with Unholy Feast but there are other was to proc cripple and Necromancer’s limited range and mobs’ ability to ignore cripple on mobility skills makes cripple nearly useless!

Anchoku.8142:

Without Dhuumfire, you get Death Perception, if short on precision, or FitG, which is handy with all the hard control effects.

Terror provides small amounts of condition damage in a build that depends upon it.

Both Terror and Dhuumfire add condition damage but neither has enough up-time to rival a scepter build. Deathly Chill seems weak, even with as many ways to chill as possible. Scepter bleeds and poisons outclass everything Reaper can do foe condi damage.

On the brighter side, pretty much everything is better than axe right now. Scepter and corruption skills can help more than axe so if you want to run a condition damage build, it will be better than axe by a wide margin. Even staff feels better dealing with high mobility mobs. Axe offers cripples with Unholy Feast but there are other was to proc cripple and Necromancer’s limited range and mobs’ ability to ignore cripple on mobility skills makes cripple nearly useless!

Scepter is too slow and has a higher ramp up time than dhuumfire does. Without reaper, though, there is no better option than scepter/dagger and staff.

Overall, reaper does condi better unless you NEED range. My poison ticks alone reach 5k+ ticks on top of 5k burns and 1k chill. And bleeding still happens in my build at about 500-1k ticks depending on RNG and how frequently I camp shroud.

Deathly chill is weak. Needs to be better.

Anchoku.8142:

Both Terror and Dhuumfire add condition damage but neither has enough up-time to rival a scepter build. Deathly Chill seems weak, even with as many ways to chill as possible. Scepter bleeds and poisons outclass everything Reaper can do foe condi damage.

I’ve done some superficial tests and scepter and dhummfire build seems to do same damage with the difference that dhummfire takes 6 seconds to achieve the max dmg output and scepter builds takes about 12 seconds or so.

You can AA with scepter and keep 10 stacks of bleeding with more than one stack of poison 100% of the time while kiting.

Compare that to Dhuumfire, which only proc’s in shroud, when you use 1 and connect with targets. Take a guess how long, on average, targets actually have even one stack of Dhuumfire, then start recording an outpost defense.

If you could apply burning 100% of the time, it would be awesome.

I find that dps from hits and crit’s far outweigh condition damage without scepter. Other condition damage is in the noise. You will probably see that direct damage in Shroud outweighs both Dhuumfire and Terror by a large amount.

Anchoku.8142:

You can AA with scepter and keep 10 stacks of bleeding with more than one stack of poison 100% of the time while kiting.

Compare that to Dhuumfire, which only proc’s in shroud, when you use 2 and connect with targets. Take a guess how long, on average, targets actually have even one stack of Dhuumfire, then start recording an outpost defense.

If you could apply burning 100% of the time, it would be awesome.

I find that dps from hits and crit’s far outweigh condition damage without scepter. Other condition damage is in the noise. You will probably see that direct damage in Shroud outweighs both Dhuumfire and Terror by a large amount.

With fights being designed to last longer and punish meele groups which can’t break defiance bar, condition damage is the best option right now, imo.

Lynnie.7213:

Anchoku.8142:

You can AA with scepter and keep 10 stacks of bleeding with more than one stack of poison 100% of the time while kiting.

Compare that to Dhuumfire, which only proc’s in shroud, when you use 2 and connect with targets. Take a guess how long, on average, targets actually have even one stack of Dhuumfire, then start recording an outpost defense.

If you could apply burning 100% of the time, it would be awesome.

I find that dps from hits and crit’s far outweigh condition damage without scepter. Other condition damage is in the noise. You will probably see that direct damage in Shroud outweighs both Dhuumfire and Terror by a large amount.

With fights being designed to last longer and punish meele groups which can’t break defiance bar, condition damage is the best option right now, imo.

Most certainly. I think it would be a lot easier to maintain scepter with less risks and without reaper. Basically the long the fight the more scepter is the better condition option. But as far as small content or even pvp, dhuumfire and dropping scepter is better. IMO, of course.

I use scepter/dagger for bleed/poison as my main damage source. It has a long ramp up time, but for fast kills I use staff. Staff 2-5 gives me 3 stacks of bleed, 3 stacks of poison and chill which is enough damage to get tag credit on all mobs.

For bosses, I ramp up with bleed/poison then after I lay down CPC I go into RS, use RS 2 to get to the boss, RS 4 for poison bolts, RS 5 for chill, RS 2 again for frost armor, then RS1 until I get 5 stacks of burn (also 5 stacks might, 10 stacks vuln) then pop back out and repeat. The bleeds last long enough that they are still ticking hard by the time the rotation ends so the ramp up the second time is much shorter and you get pretty crazy high burst during the RS rotation.

This also gives good survivability. It lets my heal recharge while in shroud and build my shroud up pretty quick.

I haven’t clocked my DPS yet, but I will at some point.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I use scepter/dagger for bleed/poison as my main damage source. It has a long ramp up time, but for fast kills I use staff. Staff 2-5 gives me 3 stacks of bleed, 3 stacks of poison and chill which is enough damage to get tag credit on all mobs.

For bosses, I ramp up with bleed/poison then after I lay down CPC I go into RS, use RS 2 to get to the boss, RS 4 for poison bolts, RS 5 for chill, RS 2 again for frost armor, then RS1 until I get 5 stacks of burn (also 5 stacks might, 10 stacks vuln) then pop back out and repeat. The bleeds last long enough that they are still ticking hard by the time the rotation ends so the ramp up the second time is much shorter and you get pretty crazy high burst during the RS rotation.

This also gives good survivability. It lets my heal recharge while in shroud and build my shroud up pretty quick.

I haven’t clocked my DPS yet, but I will at some point.

Can you share your build? Im also using Scepter/Dagger & Staff with Dire Gear. I’m a casual player so im not really sure how to best optimize the build I want (Condition/MM/Reaper)

Anchoku.8142:

Without Dhuumfire, you get Death Perception, if short on precision, or FitG, which is handy with all the hard control effects.

Terror provides small amounts of condition damage in a build that depends upon it.

Both Terror and Dhuumfire add condition damage but neither has enough up-time to rival a scepter build. Deathly Chill seems weak, even with as many ways to chill as possible. Scepter bleeds and poisons outclass everything Reaper can do foe condi damage.

On the brighter side, pretty much everything is better than axe right now. Scepter and corruption skills can help more than axe so if you want to run a condition damage build, it will be better than axe by a wide margin. Even staff feels better dealing with high mobility mobs. Axe offers cripples with Unholy Feast but there are other was to proc cripple and Necromancer’s limited range and mobs’ ability to ignore cripple on mobility skills makes cripple nearly useless!

Axe is a 900 range sustained dps weapon, which ignores projectile defenses and applies lots of vulnerability. Geezus said it doesn’t get more dps because of the non projectile thing, so according to the devs now it’s in a good spot. Also the 3 is an aoe boon conversion, useful against mobs that use swiftness or protection or stability

In terms of getting the job done, axe is the worst main hand or two handed weapon. The vulnerability is only useful solo MM because there is so much more of that condition, now. It caps almost instantly with even an ally or two around. Cripple does virtually nothing and should be changed to a bind. Similarly, the boon conversion only lasts a moment and the dangerous PvE mobs with boons can ignore the effects of conditions.

The biggest problem with axe in HoT is that it can never be more than a poor party support weapon offering unneeded vuln or a poor solo weapon offering no CC and low sustain.

Scepter’s useless cripple at least includes bleeds, which stack more than 25, last longer than a boon corruption, and cut through husks. Axe felt like the least useful weapon. There is too much vulnerability in game and cripple is a weak condition.

Axe may be balanced for PvP where there is more condition removal and higher boon use but HoT mobs still do not do those things.

I’m testing these days with this build

The idea is to burst condition using Terror and Deathly Chill which works very effectively for example with Staff #5 and Shroud #3, then build condition with either the Scepter of with Shroud #1 and Dhuumfire.
I’m not using a greatsword because I still not own an ascended one however sceptre is really useful in many situations. This builds is kitten squishy so it’s not always possible to reach the target (for example: wyverns) and the Staff is not powerful enough in single target (or, at least, useless once you are out of marks), so sceptre/dagger is the best option.

I don’t understand why people are against the sceptre, it’s a very nice condition weapon. I may agree that it doesn’t shine in a hybrid build but it’s really powerful on a pure-condition one.

I really like this build which provides a lot of fun but it’s sub-optimal rather than a cavalier&zerk (pure direct) or a dire/rabid (pure condition) one.

I guess I would use different runes and, for PvE, run Spectral wall instead of Grasp for the fear soft CC and Terror damage. Pulls still have reliability problems.

Being able to swap to traited Lich is very handy for some events.

Epidemic can substitute for Rise in outpost defense events.

Edit: you do not need an ascended weapon for HoT. Greatsword is excellent if you can get mobs to cluster close enough, have enough condition management, and enough LF.

In major boss meta events, greatsword is also good if you can stay on target without taking too much AoE. I try to hide behind the boss and dps but swapping to scepter or staff is frequently necessary due to phase changes or aggro. Shroud only gives a moment of safety under fire so don’t face-tank.

I use Spectral Grasp for LF generation and, with the overall fears, stuns and chills, I decimate breakbars with great efficiency.
I don’t use epicdemic because I apply few condition that doesn’t last much, Rise is a good AoE chill source which is very useful against masses of moss.

Spectral Wall is not good because it applies one fear but unless the mob is constantly walking towards it the wall applies no more fears, in my opinion it’s useless against bosses and it’s cooldown it’s too big versus trash mobs.

Rirgul.5302:

Hey just as an update – This is what you can get with a WORSE build in a team setup – Focus on the burn damage.

http://imgur.com/a/inBvo

[Edit1: Build Updated]
[Edit2: Screenshots of Burning – With inferiror build, with the same theories]

Quite nice numbers you have there. Now my question is:
IN your build with 25 might stacks and 25 vulnerability your burning should be ticking for 650ish. To maintain those 7k dmg burn tick you should be applying 10~11 burning stacks.
I saw in one of your screenshots you had quickness. All those screenshots were taken after quickness ran out? Or just tell me how are you maintaining 11 burning stacks.

Spectral wall is useless against bosses. I use it to interrupt movement skills on trash mobs and only offer it as a suggestion.

Being able to swap between shouts and Spectral skills is very nice.

Epidemic takes some planning, timing, and the right situation but can be very good so keep it in mind as an AoE you do not need to retrait for like you would to use wells.