Guild Wars 2

I was wondering if anyone has found any viable Scepter/focus PvE builds for use in places like fractals, dungeons, etc.

off hand dagger better, if you’re pure condition damage.

I know that, but I’ve been wanting to explore some more builds. Was hoping there was some kind of distribution that made this weapon set viable. Thanks

Right now I am leveling (currently about 35) and messing with a scepter/focus~scepter/dagger doing champion farming. I am enjoying it very much. I hit them with my offhand focus and then switch to dagger when focus skills are on recharge. I also bounce into DS and throw Tainted Shackles on as soon as possible. This way I am not bound by waiting for my skills to recharge for too long. I am also supplementing my non-AOE focus with ground casted wells.

For traits I am going toward 10/10/0/10/0 so far.

Not really. As Condition damage, Focus #5 is useful. Though by using a Dagger you can trait to cast Focus #5 when enemy hits 25% health anyway.

Condis = Bad for PvE

vesta.3170:

Condis = Bad for PvE

Cond. Damage BADO for whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

‘’am i really readding this?’’

Scepter focus is good for a hybrid build.

spoj.9672:

Scepter focus is good for a hybrid build.

I was going to say something similar. If you are running a powerish build but like the scepter for its bleeds, traiting focus for reduced CD is not wrong. A hybrid using scepter/focus is a valid build and will not be horrible. You will probably use staff, too, just like a lot of players so don’t let people troll you for wanting focus without axe. Build traits around your weapon and skill setup. Then try it for a while.

I was thinking more of dagger warhorn, scepter focus for a hybrid setup.

I don’t feel like in PvE it would be worthwhile in the majority of situations. You get vulnerability, which is nice, and regen which is nice. But how often do you actually get to meaningfully strip boons in PvE? Not very often. Most boons are done by trash mobs, and its better to AoE them down than strip a single one of them of boons, or by bosses, which tend to have constantly re-applied boons, not long duration rarely applied ones.

In PvP or WvW I see where it could be useful.

The reason would solely be for the vuln. But then hybrid/condi builds are mostly sub par in most encounters in pve. Which is why going scepter dagger on a hybrid is a bit pointless. The vuln will help you and your groups direct damage alot more than a few extra bleeds.

It’s not solely for the vuln, if you are close enough to get all 3 bounces off focus 4 and hit feast of corruption at the same time, not only is is a sizeable damage spike, but you get a ton of LF back too. and don’t forget, while in pve boon stripping is still in it’s infancy, focus 5 does still have chill, which is still useful quite a bit. Here is a build I been playing around with using scepter/focus:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.0|b.1o.h1o.d.1m.h2.0.0.0|b.1h.h4.g.1h.hd.0.0.0|1b.7g.1b.7g.1b.7g.1b.7g.1b.7g.1b.7g|1o.62.1o.66.1o.66.1b.66.1b.66.1b.62|k24.u29b.0.0.k39|2i.1|3r.3u.43.3x.4g|e
it absolutely melts everything. I developed it for the initial scarlet invasions, and while my condis might get swallowed on the champs, on the trash it’s downright amazing (even moreso now that not as many people do the invasions anymore). You can do away with hemophilia for something else if you want, I know some people refuse to use it but I’m lazy so I like every extra bleed duration I can get lol. Also, epi isn’t 100% necessary, but it sure makes for more aoe power.

With your full buffs going (13 stacks of might-assuming you hit the signet in time- and fury) and at least 3 or more condis on the target, your effective power is roughly 3700 while still maintaining at least 107 dmg bleed ticks. Also, I just like horn for the off-set because I always hit locust swarm before DS if I plan on staying in it for more than a flash dance for fury to help maintain it a tad longer but really you could run staff or w/e you feel comfortable with.

Oh forgot to mention for the Op: yes I’ve used it in dungeons, but I’m afraid my fractals isn’t very high right now so I can’t give you a fair measuring of it there but it works amazing in dungeons too even when condi stacks are capped because you still have strong effective power and can use the scepter and focus for good CC control.

That build looks interesting Nay. I have a few questions if you don’t mind.

What do you generally achieve as far as bleed stacks go?
This is a clear hybrid build and I’ve only seen the one Nemesis offered so I don’t have a huge perspective on variants.

As far as gear goes, did you choose rabid over rampager for a particular reason? Have you tried it with a berserker mix in the trinkets?

Have you used staff as offset with this build?
Thanks!

I like the Focus for generating Life Force, since Scepter’s Life Force generation is horrible.
Then again I only really play Power and Hybrid builds, I just plain don’t like pure condi builds in PvE.
I dunno if there’s much sense in using Focus in a pure condi build in PvE.
(There might be? At some bosses at least.)

I like how using Focus allows you to use Life Blast in situations where there’s already a ton of condis on a target.
Depending on the situation you might get enough just from deaths, though.

i use it for my hybrid build because staff as a ranged option in dungeons is terrible.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRAoY7djMah7Zbeb87JEoH5i7BixMOmgh+A8A-jgCBYhYYLIIMDimEI0UFCakFIJfFRjtArIasqbYKYER1SBAz0I-e

Gnat.9405:

That build looks interesting Nay. I have a few questions if you don’t mind.

What do you generally achieve as far as bleed stacks go?
This is a clear hybrid build and I’ve only seen the one Nemesis offered so I don’t have a huge perspective on variants.

As far as gear goes, did you choose rabid over rampager for a particular reason? Have you tried it with a berserker mix in the trinkets?

Have you used staff as offset with this build?
Thanks!

Bleed stacks usually stay steady around 12-15 if done right although in perfect circumstances you can almost max them out. As for gear, rbid offers a little more survivability, and a high enough crit rate can be achieved without going for the more glassy rampagers (I use rampagers on my d/d hybrid though, strangely enough lol). I have thought about zerkers in the trinkets, especially if you were aiming for higher crit dmg I suppose it would work. I’d have to do some testing to see which ones you could sub in for without losing too much condi dmg. As for using staff, it depends on my group actually. If I feel like I’ll need more group support I’ll bring it. Otherwise, it’s actually a lot slower and harder to get good bleeds off of. Also, you can put in plague instead of flesh golem on bosses or harder encounters.