Guild Wars 2

Was musing today on various aspects of the Scourge and came to the conclusion that in PvE we might see plenty of minion use with this spec. My reasonings:

• Ghastly Breach is not a terribly useful skill in PvE given the lack of boons to corrupt, the lack of damage compared with Plaguelands, the long cooldown, the lack of group utility and the small nature of the AoE. Because of this and since the scourge is a little light on CC options I think that the Flesh Golem might become the natural choice for players who are not looking to minmax DPS.

• The scourge is a spec that hungers for lifeforce and which (outside of one Punishment skill of questionable utility and one trait that doesn’t work in PvE) does not provide new source of lifeforce generation. To a scourge therefore the utility skills which provide lifeforce are more valuable than they would be for a reaper, one of which is the Haunt skill of the Shadow Fiend. Compared with the other utilities that provide lifeforce this one arguably requires the least by way of tradeoffs since it’s instant cast and comes with a damage-dealing/soft CC minion.

• For various reasons the Blood Magic trait line is a good choice for scourges. This traitline includes the minor trait that buffs minion damage by causing every attack they make to steal life.

• Perhaps most importantly, the scourge has an exceptional 10-to-20 target cap on all buffs derived from their Shade skills. This includes the condition conversion from F2, the barrier from F3 and traited F1 and the might/condition clear from the Abrasive Gift trait. Not only can scourges buff every member of a party/raid but they can buff every member’s pet as well, giving these pets a modest but appreciable boost to DPS, especially in a 5 scourge fractal team.

• Lastly, and I’ll admit that not many players other than myself will be interested in this, but the scourge has a good deal of compatibility with the second-best runeset in the game, the Privateer Runes https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_the_Privateer. This is one of only two current runesets that can grant might to nearby allies and it’s arguably the best one for scourges to use, and with all the aforementioned shade buffs I think that the tropical bird from the rune 6 would be a nice DPS boost for a support build that has not invested heavily in its own damage stats.

Any other pet- or minion-related issues that I’ve missed regarding the scourge that would be worth discussing?

I just can’t agree with Privateer runes. There’s nothing good on them for Scourge, really. Better to use Aristocracy Runes if you want to be a wannabe PS Warrior.

However, I do think Shadow Fiend is a very strong contender for a utility slot. It’s our highest DPS non-Elite minion already, and the life force gain isn’t awful. Definitely better than Dessicate for the slot in raids.

Privateer seems bad. Like, really bad, wasted stats all over. Pick Aristocracy instead, the might duration is WAY better than 3 stacks of might that need YOU to get hit.

especially in a 5 scourge fractal team

If this ever works out well, it’ll be nerfed to the ground, so I’d not plan for this.

Shadow Fiend, on the other hand, seems to be a generally great contender, probably to be run alongside Dessicate if you want to grant might, and without Dessicate if you don’t.

And yeah, Blood Magic seems pretty good on scourge indeed. If Dhuumfire will be nerfed, Blood Magic will likely become THE mandatory line for scourges.

I would like to use Rune of the Lich, but it need overhaul. Cd should be 15-20s… 60 is just pure bs.
And because our support is mostly barrier, we wont be able to keep an army alive.

@Zefiris @Drarnor Kunoram oh definitely, the bird from Privateer runes doesn’t offer enough in a group setting to make up for the extra damage/boon duration that would come from Aristocracy/Strength runes. I would only run it in solo PvE.

@mazut aye, most of these summon runes and the sigil could do with a complete overhaul. Other than Golemancer for the extra CC and Ogre for the guaranteed +4% damage there’s not a lot of value in these runes at higher levels of play.

It occured to me today that the Blood Fiend might also see some play for scourges, albeit it faces stiffer competition than the other minions mentioned. A scourge who loves to use traited corruptions for DPS and in order to collect boons via Nefarious Favour is going to prefer to use Consume Conditions; and one who has traited punishments or is spamming barrier would use Sand Flare instead. Well builds will continue to use wells and power DPS might use the signet. However that might still leave a small quorum of condition or hybrid builds interested in Blood Fiend, particularly since the healing from the minion will no longer be blocked by shroud.

In PvE, minions will also hold aggro giving a Scourge a fixed location to drop shades, which may be more beneficial than first appears.

In open-world group PvE, Bone Minion has projectile finishers and stays ranged so its dps is also good.

However, I suspect the new elites are being tweaked so the utilities may be improved. Wells may also be reasonable alternative utilities for Scourge, especially in WvW.

Anchoku.8142:

In PvE, minions will also hold aggro giving a Scourge a fixed location to drop shades, which may be more beneficial than first appears.

In open-world group PvE, Bone Minion has projectile finishers and stays ranged so its dps is also good.

However, I suspect the new elites are being tweaked so the utilities may be improved. Wells may also be reasonable alternative utilities for Scourge, especially in WvW.

wait what !?! Bone minion have projectile finisher o.O do we play the same game

mazut.4296:

Anchoku.8142:

In PvE, minions will also hold aggro giving a Scourge a fixed location to drop shades, which may be more beneficial than first appears.

In open-world group PvE, Bone Minion has projectile finishers and stays ranged so its dps is also good.

However, I suspect the new elites are being tweaked so the utilities may be improved. Wells may also be reasonable alternative utilities for Scourge, especially in WvW.

wait what !?! Bone minion have projectile finisher o.O do we play the same game

Summon Bone Fiend’s attacks are all projectile finishers.

Anchoku.8142:

In PvE, minions will also hold aggro giving a Scourge a fixed location to drop shades, which may be more beneficial than first appears.

In open-world group PvE, Bone Fiend has projectile finishers and stays ranged so its dps is also good.

However, I suspect the new elites are being tweaked so the utilities may be improved. Wells may also be reasonable alternative utilities for Scourge, especially in WvW.

Ok, that make snese then.

Bone Fiend is nice in that its attacks are two projectile finishers. Actually adds quite a bit of DPS with fire fields. It’s not too bad with Dark fields either.