Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone! Just had a question about mobs and epidemic with the goal of making my leveling more efficient. I know that epidemic can be a very powerful tool spreading conditions to multiple enemies in the area but was wondering if there was any particular combo to make it work most efficiently. Is there a particular skill/chain of skills I should generally use prior to casting epidemic to cause more total damage? As of now, I have been casting grasping dead then one full cycle of skill 1 (for bleed and poison), then epidemic but imagine that there is probably a better combo out there.

Right now I am level 50 but ultimately plan on putting 30 into Spite, 30 into Curses and 10 into Blood Magic.

Thanks for all the help ahead of time!

Scepter 2, Dagger 5, BiP, Dagger 4, Scepter 3, Swap weapons, Staff 2, Staff 3, Staff 4, epidemic

Alternatively pop epidemic after Scepter 3 if so, I would then continue the rotation then enter DS, DS 4, DS 1 × 3 (assuming you stack might on life blast – spite 10)

Savan.8495:

Scepter 2, Dagger 5, BiP, Dagger 4, Scepter 3, Swap weapons, Staff 2, Staff 3, Staff 4, epidemic

Alternatively pop epidemic after Scepter 3 if so, I would then continue the rotation then enter DS, DS 4, DS 1 × 3 (assuming you stack might on life blast – spite 10)

Do this, and someone will come along and kill your ‘patient zero’ just before you launch epidemic. Murphy’s Law!

Yeah honestly with most mobs they’ll be dead before you can maximize Epidemic efficiency.
If you do staff 2 3 and then epidemic you get a nice bleed, chill and poison that were already AoE to stack AoE.
Another fast one is dagger 5 (has the down-spiral animation start up so this one first) to scepter 2 and then epidemic. Double AoE as well.
And if you don’t need to be fast… just spam everything and then epidemic
Hell try signet of spite? to epidemic just for the fun of it.

Doctor Orderly MD PhD DDS.7625:

try signet of spite? to epidemic just for the fun of it.

I think the signet throws something like 6 conditions on one target, so that followed by Epidemic would be very efficient. (Ignoring condition durations and signet cooldown, which I’m not sure of.)

Question that would affect the ultimate answer: Does Epidemic throw the same stacking/duration conditions or does it just throw one stack of each condition, or something in between? If you have a 30-second bleed, does it throw that, or a more generic (shorter-duration) bleed? If you have a 20-stack of bleed, does it throw that?

I think so, but don’t know.

If you are traited for mark of evasion try this: Gather up the mobs and
1)Death shroud with the enfeebling blood and retaliation traits, then cast 2 and exit death shroud
2) You are in melee range so dodge roll for mark of evasion on top of them and cast staff 2 & 3.
3) Switch to Daggers and cast 5
4) Cast epidemic.
-Everyone is now frozen, bleeding, poisoned & weakened.

Just try to get atleast 5 stacks or more of bleed to spread, that’s about it really.

If you want to just practice or are lazy just lay down grasping hand, auto one mob with sceptre for a little bit then epidemic and clean up. You’ll eventually start to get the hang of BiP —> transfer combo and stacking mark of blood/grasping/enfeebling and spread higher stacks of bleed, but on normal mobs it’s usually overkill and you’ll kill your target too fast if you try to stack too much lol.

@Druitt not sure what you’re asking, it “throws” everything, complete copy/pastes conditions from your target to everyone else which stacks on top of what those targets also currently had. (Mark of Blood —> Epidemic = aoe 6 stack bleed, 3 stack on one target)

Also don’t bother with Signet of Spite, that skill is absolutely horrible, I know it’s enticing to combine with epidemic because it’s technically putting up 6 conditions but it’s terrible. Super short blind/Cripple/Poison/Weakness for 5 sec base on a 90 sec cooldown? The single stack of vuln/bleed is pretty much irrelevant. It’s just terrible.

My rotation for mobs, is to find an area with 3+ mobs close by, then:
Staff 2, Staff 3, BIP, Staff 4, switch, Scept 2, Dagger 5, Dodge roll mark, DS enfeeble (in and out of shroud), epidemic (15 bleeds minimum).

That whole exchange takes just a few seconds when you get the timing down, and its easy to follow up with a staff 5 fear etc. You could use the DS 2 skill, but the cast time is too long for me in the rotation. That is enough to kill any non-elite.

PVP is another story, and I tend to try and epidemic around 6-10 bleeds, as often times if you wait any longer, they get out of range.

Wow, thanks for the responses everyone. It seems like a general consensus is that weapon swapping scepter/dagger and staff ends up building up conditions to best make use of epidemic. I am too lazy for weapon swapping so for now am thinking about doing:

BiP, poison cloud, dagger 5, scepter 2, epidemic, consume conditions

I know it’s probably not highest yield but it theoretically seems like it would work well

Yeah it’s really not that important to weapon swap, you can stack bleeds a little faster by dumping each x2/x3 bleed cooldowns back to back, but for normal mobs that’s a bit overkill and unless you’re a hybrid build with some decent Power being stuck in Staff for 10 seconds will sort of lower your DPS in a condition build.

You can start with staff and dump Blood/Chillblain then just sit in sceptre and use cooldowns. Also I suggest using DS Dark Path in a group of mobs (the chill splashes) then epidemic’ing for double aoe chill, makes it alot easier to kite, although Grasping Hand works just fine for that.

Also I’d refrain from using Poison Cloud, waste of a utility =p.

Knote.2904:

Yeah it’s really not that important to weapon swap, you can stack bleeds a little faster by dumping each x2/x3 bleed cooldowns back to back, but for normal mobs that’s a bit overkill and unless you’re a hybrid build with some decent Power being stuck in Staff for 10 seconds will sort of lower your DPS in a condition build.

You can start with staff and dump Blood/Chillblain then just sit in sceptre and use cooldowns. Also I suggest using DS Dark Path in a group of mobs (the chill splashes) then epidemic’ing for double aoe chill, makes it alot easier to kite, although Grasping Hand works just fine for that.

Also I’d refrain from using Poison Cloud, waste of a utility =p.

Agreed on all above points. If you don’t like swapping, start on staff and go to scept. or just stay on scept. Make sure to get dagger 4 in the rotation if you are going to use BIP or you are going to have to consume your self bleeds.

Poison cloud is also redundant if you are going to be using scept, as you will already have full time poison converage. I would suggest a movement skill like worm or spectral walk for that last utility slot.

I would say spectral walk and epidemic should have a permanent place on your utility bar while leveling.

The last slot can be w/e you like. Personally I’m not that big a fan of BiP anyway. And I like to put some extra utility there instead like Corrupt boon. Shadowfiend is also pretty nice, extra dmg/tank.