In the months before the trait rework patch I’d run condi Necro – and I mean sceptre/dagger + staff rather than some sort of hybrid. Sometimes Rabid amulet, sometimes Carrion. Sometimes Terrormancer, sometimes other. Hell, I even ran Dumbfire, because the combination of Corrupt Boon + Terror + Dark Path + Dumbfire could really knock boon-heavy classes on their butts. It was sometimes feast or famine in its effectiveness, but I got by.
But try as I might, I can’t make anything work after the patch. Warriors are still a problem – pop Berserker’s Stance and basically force me to leave the point or burn my entire DS – but they were before. Oldschool D/D Eles and bunker/support Guardians I can handle thanks to Corrupt Boon. But everything else? Ugh.
I’ve had 1v1s vs. rangers that wildly outdamage me from a mile away. Rangers that just sit on me dropping more conditions via shortbow/traps than I can possibly dream of applying, making me completely melt. Engineers that do the same. I try and use Plague Sending or Plague Signet or Deathly Swarm in these fights, but half the time they go on cooldown without anything happening.
I feel like I’m missing half my tools after the rework, too. Path of Corruption was a great trait, but now it’s in competition with Terror. I have to get all my condi duration from runes or the single GM trait in Curses, which is in competition with the Weakness trait which – now that it’s two rolled into one – actually seems like a decent pickup. Dumbfire is, against all possibility, even worse than before, so I can’t even play the burst game I used to before.
I’ve tried Corruption-centric builds, but they’ve been very unwieldy and I keep wanting to drop half my bar for Flesh Wurm or Spectral Armor or Plague Signet, at which point I question running the trait at all. I’ve considered going into Death Magic for its GM condi trait, but that wastes most of the tree unless I slot minions, which doesn’t seem like a viable option.
So… what does work? Do I go back to oldschool Nightmare Runes terrormancer? Abandon condi and play the Celestial Signet meta build in hopes of contributing something?
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