Guild Wars 2

This is a question more than a suggestion, so all comments are welcome. I’d prefer comments based on experience rather than theory, if possible.

I’ve been using a power build in sPvP recently, and having fun with it. I use A/F and D/H and the build is intentionally built around frequent switching. One thing I do as often as I can is apply Life Siphon and Ghastly Claws in quick succession. They are both easy to apply and have decent DPS.

While doing that I wondered whether the 9 hits for siphon and the 8 from claws each have a chance to crit. I believe I read somewhere that they do. Anyone know for sure?

It then occured to me that if they CAN crit, you might be able to stack quite a few crits pretty quickly, and so stack bleeds very quickly. So I made this build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRAnd4YjMap7xbub87JipCZD6RueftieQMjxMA;TwAA2CoogxMjYGrPOYk+sCYUxOgZFA

Anyone have any experience trying something like this or know whether it woud work or not?

NOTE – I have not posted this in the builds thread because this is not a serious suggestion and I don’t actually use it.

well of course every single hit from those 2 skills (dagger and axe #2) can and will crit, with the last couple of hits if specced and geared for it (+ crit damage and percentage) those attacks can actually crit for a lot, especially when 80% of them crit in a row (last one in axe #2 -> 5k+ easily in berzerkers gear and a 20(30)/20(10)/0/0/30 spec so imagine 8-9 hits/crits in a row each one harder than the previous one leading up to the last one getting at 5k+ when it also crits)

not sure how you never noticed them critting??? unless you have an extremely low crit chance % ??

and yes they can potentially stack 1 or 2 bleeds from the trait if you are lucky

Thanks for the info.

My normal power build, I have spec’d for Wells and don’t have a very high crit chance.

It’s 17 hits between siphon and claws. On a 50% crit build that would give 9 crits, which would mean 6 stacks of bleed. That’s in 6 seconds, which probably means it is not as fast as building bleeds from a S/D and Staff Bleed build. It would also have low condition damage.

I think what you would end up with is a decent power build that has the added bonus of stacking a lot of bleeds. I actually don’t know whether that’s a good thing! Will have to try it to find out.

The bleeds don’t stick for very long, maybe 1 second for 1 tick or so, but your mileage may vary. Test it out and let’s see how it goes!

maybe he got the sigil of earth wich are bleeds for 5 seconds.. I tried the axe and dagger combo also for a while but honestly i think axe is horendous.. but to each his own.

and yea they do crit if you make up a 20 / 20 / 0 / 0 /30 build you can take foot in the grave and his ds and then immidatly go out of it to get the fury buff.. don’t worry it wont cost you any life force i prommise if you tick tick fast it will cost 0 lifeforce.. but that gives you 5 sec of fure.. wich should give you a full 60~70% chance on axe and then switch to dagger wich probably get 1 or 2 seconds of crit time too for a nice combo..

i think its human nature to dodge when they see a lot of damage tho.. damage is weird and i bet some people think they are being hit for 1 2 3 4 5 k damage in a row totalling up.. wich obviously it isnt but they think they get hit for 15k burst so natural reaction is to dodge.. thats what make these channel skills kinda sucky if you ask me..

they got there use maybe vs people that get away or if youre specced for life return but apart from that there kinda meh.. i like the in your face aproach from dagger a lot better.

I’ve used axe for a month so far and yeah it does suck no matter how you build, unfortunately. The only thing I liked was the retaliation which does nice damage with 3000+ power, or so formulas show anyway. I’ve never noticed retaliation make any difference whatsoever with the 3s going into death shroud trait or axe #3.

Just switched back to scepter and just looking at the damage it gives is overpowering vs the axe. Every auto attack is 1000-1500 damage with scepter. Axe needs a serious buff =/

I am now using a sort of hybrid between power and conditions with Scepter and Focus.

I’d be interested in seeing your build Ruufio. I’ve been thinking hybrid is the way to go, which is partly what got me thinking along this power/bleed line.