(edited by Davion.8509)
Is it worth going full Viper?
I run Full vipers, thorn runes, earth/agony sigil. That way I can cap my bleed off nicely (and slightly overcap for poison) with the cheap badges of honour bought food for my T4 fractal dailies.
Surrender and serve me in life, or die and slave for me in death.
Considering viper’s is for PvE where bosses mostly do not bother clearing conditions, +100% duration offers the better result.
If PvE bosses start clearing, or flipping, conditions, Conditionmancer will be hurt the most of all professions because it relies so heavily on long duration bleed stacks for its substandard condi dps.
Including all trinkets? Or 2-3-4 Sinister trinkets will be a better idea? Runes are of Thorns.
P.S. For Fractals and maybe someday Raids.
Well I believe meta is to run an accessory, a ring, and back sinister if you are getting hit enough that your rune of thorns is proc’ing frequently. If it isn’t proc’ing enough you’re better off running full vipers with sinister back and rune of berserker.
I personally find it varies a lot whether I’m getting hit enough so I kind of hybrid between the two with the full viper/sin backpiece but still use rune of thorns. If you’re in a dedicated group where you know exactly who’ll be taking the hits focus on the one that is relevant. I pug and solo a lot though so I kind of play both possibilities lol.
I think with all viper you’d still need to use Thorns/Agony for 100% bleed and poison duration, so I guess it’d only be worth it if you wanted to cheap out on food costs?
Or I guess use different food, like endurance regen for Nightmare Challenge Mote or something…
What sigils and traits are you using?
If you run full Viper’s, Sigil of Malice, Barbed Precision trait and you have meta food, you’ll overcap your bleed duration.
The most efficient piece of equipment to swap to non-Viper’s is the helm (you’ll overcap bleed by 0.4%). I switch the backpiece even though it’s less efficient (overcaps by about 0.8%) because I’ve got the legendary one and it’s more convenient to switch between stats when I’m not using meta food.
Also, if you use Sinister back/helm, Decimate Defenses trait and your team is providing optimal buffs (specifically fury and spotter), you’ll overcap crit chance too… so sometimes Carrion may be the better stat type to take.