(edited by thundering.2674)
On the path to Viper's, Alternatives?
So I just recently boosted my Necromancer, and my goal is to do World Completion on it. As such, I am uncertain what the best build/armor/runes would be for mindless slogging through the world and Hearts.
I know ultimately I want to end up with Viper’s for the Condition Damage build, however it seems that the materials to build Vipers are difficult to come by/not something that can be purchased on the Trading Post.
Ultimately, there are two questions I want to pose:
What is a good gearset/build for World Completion, and after that, what would be a good option in terms of Gearing for Fractals/Group Content that won’t kitten me too horribly on my path to Viper’s.
I figured it worth an edit; since I’m recently 80’d I do not have the Reaper sepc
My ideal set-up is a mix of Trailblaizer and Sinister due to the fact that I do a ton of WVW and I like diving in with the front where glass builds just don’t cut it.
However, just like you, due to the limitations on availability of materials for Trailblazers (which come from my most hated map in all of GW2), I end up defaulting to Carrion or Dire mixes.
If you want to stay condi DPS focused, you can go with Sinister / Rampager mix instead of Viper. In some instances, depending on your build, you can also pull slightly ahead by using Rabid + Carrion, depending on your build and which bonusses you get from toughness or vitality and which runes you use.
Really the only place you have to worry about having full ascended Vipers in the whole game is only in PVE raids, and thats only when running with the kind of groups that will cause you to quit them or the game entirely anyways, so not even worth it. Just go for the other ones.
Try out cheap exotics, mix up your stats, keep an eye on your totals rather then each individual piece and find your comfort spot. Then upgrade from exotic to ascended piece by piece, starting with the pieces you find yourself using most often.
In addition, don’t forget you can switch stats on ascended gear in the Mystic Forge, so for most part you don’t have to worry about wasting ascended mats. In fact, a lot of stat combos you can make cheaper this way then going straight for them using their respective crafting mats.
Heavy Deedz – COSA – SF
Any recommended specs in particular to make it easier to do the World Completion hooplah? I wonder if Condition Damage is a bit slower than just outright blasting enemies.
I’ve managed World completion ( the map that counts) on a mixed bag of items. From low level magiction ( starting gear stuff) to Viper and other nice things.
I’ve found in all of that it doesn’t really matter what your gear is like so long as it works for you. Build wise Vampire bite or what ever the trait is called is a must!. With out doing anything you have a much higher chance of randomly gaining back health. This works in your favor, specially around world/map bosses. You have your build set up in a good way you’ll never go down or your health will stay pretty up there for the pve content.
To be strong as the roots and bold as the earth,
Free as the wind and subtle as the rain upon my leaves.
Free as the wind and subtle as the rain upon my leaves.
I would just run power builds for world completion. Minion Master for utilities is good for sustain, if you need it.
There are many ways to play solo PvE successfully. Try something like this :
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQRAnY4djM0QLN2VDO2A7NOwFKZOsDh9sIK7qAOABQLA-ThRBABAcGAoU9ni2f4hHAgZKBvS5HA-e
Can’t say that using Vipers is a foregone conclusion on a Condi necro … you get lots of duration already from traits and the direct damage on scepter is so bad, there is almost no reason to try to make it better with armor sets that primary Power as a stat. Of course it all depends on your build and what you’re doing with it but generally, I wouldn’t advise Vipers in open world content, at least not a full out set.
I personally think map exploring in core tyria is easier done on a power build because of how quickly things die to direct damage.
As for fractals I wouldn’t go into high end fractals on a half geared condition build because of how important condition duration is to the build. I would suggest just running a standard zerker till you can get the pieces you need.
Dungeons, are easy. However, they tend to have a lot of condition resistant things that make you near useless. It’d honestly be better if you ran power.
While it seems I’m heavily advocating power build, I actually run condition myself. I think condi build is great for heart of thorns content, fractals, and raids. However, condition builds aren’t really something that’s optimal in every situation (things you seem to want to do) and definitely not great while half geared.
Power is better for open world and dungeons overall
Condi wins in (high scale) fractals and raids
An alternative to viper’s could possibly be full rabid gear with superior rune of the afflicted (30% bleed and 15% poison duration), superior sigil of earth on scepter and venom (20% poison duration) on dagger off hand. With the scepter trait in curses, you’ll be doing 50% additional bleed duration while wielding a scepter (which you will be using all the time). And then rare veggie pizza (20% condition duration) and master tuning crystals will be needed. As such, you will have a total of 100% bleed duration, 55% poison duration, and heaps of condi dmg.
Just based on my experience running a full viper necro, I would say that you get 90%+ of your dps from bleeds, which means that it is in your best interest to try to extend bleed duration as much as you can (all condition durations cap at 100%). The reason why people run full viper is because then people can cap out bleed, poison as well as adding on a bunch of agony and chill duration. The poison and agony dmg is more or less the cherry on top of a sundae in that while they add a noticeable chunk of extra dmg, it is nowhere near as big or significant as bleed dmg. Even without the capped poison and extra agony duration, you’ll be shredding down mobs in any pve content with epidemic.
(edited by Daedraz.1650)
I used to be using viper but I’m changing to trail blazer + rune of the nightmare