Guild Wars 2

I have been experimenting with this.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBHhZakjmWb7txxG2bTULIQ3IwsoP1aFV3B-TBSBABNfCACUPABPAAKV/J69HwTTwCHCAAOCAAA-e

The problem with condi builds in PvE has always been condition caps. Bleeds cap on PvE targets faster than vulnerability and scepter’s damage is primarily from bleeds. However, confusion never even comes close to capping, hence the hybrid axe/wh/perplexity build.
Dagger, for me, is often handicapped by its short range. Switching targets quickly and ramping dps on them is hard so axe gives better dps for me due to less lost time on switching targets. It is late at night so I hope it makes sense.

Axe has the second best raw damage and the crazy-long condition duration helps. In soloing bosses, the vulnerability stack alone is >10 continuously. In a group, it pegs the cap no matter what the party mix seems to be.

A large portion of the condition damage in this build comes from confusion proc’s and this build tries to maximize them. Again, bleeds for large scale PvE do very little damage because of the cap and other players pushing your bleeds off the stack. Necromancer’s only other significant alternatives are poisons and burning, which do not stack in intensity, and confusion, which can only be produced with Perplexity runes. The beauty of confusion, I think, is that PvE mobs do not halt attacks just because they have a condition. While bleeds may be wasted on a rotating stack and poison, like burning, have 100% up time, confusion still has room to be effective.

Comments are always welcome so let me know what you think.

It’s better to just stick to power meta build, it has the best damage.

You mean 6/2/0/0/6 dagger/war horn/WoS/SoS? That build was getting boring. Also, it was frustrating having to chase targets everywhere losing tons of dps when other players spam hard CC like PBS.

Granted this Perplexity build is for a small niche in PvE but it uses control effects to my advantage, not disadvantage. It is kind of like Fear-chaining and still gets that damage but without the Terror bonus if I trait war horn for reduced CD.

Mordrem husks are resistant to direct damage making condition damage more attractive (or less unattractive) and the other mordrem are highly mobile so there are plenty of chances to interrupt.

I meant 66002 but 62006 is ok too
But you know you can run with whatever you like, you’ll just kill things slower. Nobody will care too since it’s open world pve. Husks aren’t entirely resistant and it’s kinda bad decision to gear just for 1 enemy type

For the husks you can just add a dark path to the dagger rotation and let the barbed precision procs do the work. You really dont need to build for killing husks. They die plenty fast enough.

I just don’t think you get enough benefit from procing confusion from a rune set. If other players are beating you to the punch in SW, I would think you want to avoid conditions and just do some kind of bursting approach to get to target, do enough damage to tag and get looting right. Necro has all the elements needed to do that; in fact, many ways.

No reason to follow the power meta build in open world PVE. Most power meta builds aren’t optimized for open world PVE to being with.

Been running a sinister armour/rabid trinkets packing Rabid Sceptre (Geomancer rune)/D(Malice rune) + Zerk D (air)/F(fire) with aristocrat runes hybrid power/condimancer. Sticking with 6/6/0/0/2 for now.

Considering whether to go pure sinister or stick with rabid trinkets for the extra toughness instead. Tears up husks and more than puts up a good fight when switching to the zerk weapons. Survivability, surprisingly good in the SW. Just need to remember to carry tuning crystals and condi duration food for that little bit extra. Using DS to gain might then switch back out to conditions to push up the damage per tick.

I thought about running condition armor but decided to stick with Berserker for the critical hits.

The perplexity build is really just a power build variant hybrid 6/6/0/0/2

And you literally get nothing out of perplexity other than wasting 60g. :P

I’d rather use a sinister build (probably w/ terror) for open world. The amount of non-stacking mobs make condi works much better than in dungeon because of the amount of aoe condi necro has. Cripple is useful to a extent. Terror is decent for burst damage. Condi cap is not that big of a problem on boss with adds because of epidemic. Blind, chill also helps.

spoj.9672:

And you literally get nothing out of perplexity other than wasting 60g. :P

The runes did consume lots of sprockets (^_^)! and the build does forego wells but I proc fear more often for base damage and can swap in Terror for the horn’s CD reduction. I don’t lose much in direct damage and get the added challenge of trying to interrupt for 5 long stacks of confusion.

The build is less about being meta and more about being fun but dps is still pretty good, even w/o WoS.

Epidemic is much better in a crowded environment but becomes useless on single targets. It is by far the best choice for lane defense, though.

I also liked how MM performed in Silverwastes roaming but it does not do as well in scaled events. Too much personal dps relies on minions often caught by AoE.

Scepter is okay for solo roaming, too, but requires a lot of patience and kiting. It works better with minions to act as bait while waiting for the bleed stack to grow.

Dagger can get boring and risky with mordrem siphons and AoE conditions.

Please continue posting Silverwastes builds and I will try them while farming events.

In fact I came up with the same conclusion as the OP. In SW condition build are indeed pretty valuable since there are mobs very resilient but with low HP.

While you chose to use your necromancer, I chose my mesmer and I’ve gone on the confusion/torment path that is pretty effective I’ve seen some 10k-11k confusion damage pop on my screen.

I don’t use Perplexity runes (to espensives) but I think the necromancer have a better use for them in SW because necromancer have some good access to cripple/chill. It’s not something that everyone see but, If you cripple (I’m pretty sure that chilling work to, It worked when i did it with my elementalist) those kitten charging beasts, it interrupt the charge, procing an interrupt (though I’m not sur if you have to cripple it before it charge).

An heavy cripple/chill build may be very valuable to make perplexity runes shine in SW.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBLhZYkjmub7th/2E4CC0C0KanGRVcA-ThyAABDcEA6TfQlKB74QAYtyPAOBAu/AAyU9nfWcY69AAA-e

I purposedly chose rampager because it’s cheap elite skill can be golem or plague, both are fine I leave the last utility on personal choice, WoD may be taken here with the “chilling darkness” trait.

Yeah im really not seeing a use for perplexity in PvE. Sinister maybe. Perplexity no.

Dadnir.5038:

In fact I came up with the same conclusion as the OP. In SW condition build are indeed pretty valuable since there are mobs very resilient but with low HP.

I’m not sure how you arrived at that conclusion. This game doesn’t follow the “most damage = loot rights” rule; GW2 follows enough damage = loot rights. Condition damage is the worst strategy in that environment because its damage is spread out over time and requires some ‘building’ to apply them. If you want to tag and get loot rights in trashy mob PVE environments, you need to be FAST and apply your bursts, preferably AOE ones, ASAP. Necro does that really well.

Total damage, direct plus condition, should affect odds of a loot drop but I am not sure Epidemic counts.

Side topic; has anyone noticed low odds for loot using Epi?

Obtena.7952:

Dadnir.5038:

In fact I came up with the same conclusion as the OP. In SW condition build are indeed pretty valuable since there are mobs very resilient but with low HP.

I’m not sure how you arrived at that conclusion. This game doesn’t follow the “most damage = loot rights” rule; GW2 follows enough damage = loot rights. Condition damage is the worst strategy in that environment because its damage is spread out over time and requires some ‘building’ to apply them. If you want to tag and get loot rights in trashy mob PVE environments, you need to be FAST and apply your bursts, preferably AOE ones, ASAP. Necro does that really well.

You know… there are people that play for fun not for loots. In most of silverwaste event mobs don’t loot, all that leave to you is looking for the best way to be in control of your fight. The build is not here for curse shore events it’s here for silverwaste and maybe expansion maps.

But I also agree that perplexity may be a waste of money. It’s just that ATM there is plenty of room for confusion to be apply on mobs. Beside confusion is pretty OP against husk.

Loot or fun, I don’t see how that changes what I’ve said. Controlling the fight is good but then again, you’re not solo out there so there are many people bringing ‘fight control’. If mobs have such low HP as you say, fight control isn’t that useful anyways.

You indicated condition is valuable since mobs have low HP and resilient. That’s not about fight control, that’s about applying damage conditions, so it just goes back to my point about how conditions aren’t the optimal approach to tag mobs. Why else would anyone care about the resiliency and low HP of mobs if their goal isn’t to tag for loot?

A better answer would have been “I don’t care, I want to apply conditions in PVE. To hell with optimized play”. I would have believed that much more.

Seriously OP, dump the perplexity runes if you want better performance … or play how you want and tell us all to go to hell.