Siphoning/Cleric TANK
Real tanky, Works well in wvw groups as support you will always be the last to die. You will be right up on the front lines with the warrior and guardian. You can kinda face tank supply camp supervisor with the buff. Your damage will be less than average compared to most builds. This build is still lots of fun to play. It feels beter than the condition mancer survivability wise. Without the staff you can’t clear the siege above the gate or do much while hitting the door except run rams or stack up on the DPSers and drop wells and heals for the peps running the rams or just kitten strength the door. You might want to switch out the trinkets with rabid coral emerald or what ever you like, just to up the DPS.
Healing power is unfortunately rather weak. I would recommend using Soldier and/or Knight gear. As for your build, it looks good- I’d drop 5 from Spite into Death (so many good Death Majors) and also look into running Dagger/Warhorn + Staff. Staff provides much needed utility and AOE damage, while the axe still leaves much to be desired.
Thanks for the replies guys.
So I take it then, that Siphoning Health does not scale with healing power (think I just recently read that somewhere)? That sucks. In that case I will most definitely go with mostly Soldiers gear over clerics (vit over hp, and more power).
I do see more use out of staff rather then axe over all, but I was just thinking I could switch it out for siege and zergs, but use axe for more small scale 1v1 type situations…or is staff still more viable in that regard (for kiting and cc)?
Also, with the dagger, warhorn seems weak compared to focus. Focus has shorter cd’s, regen (for this tanky build), vuln for more dmg, and still some cc with chill. While I only see use in warhorn for swiftness and traveling (which I would most definitely switch in when needed). Thoughts?
Finally, for slot skills:
I was thinking well of blood, suffering, and corruption—with last slot trading out usually between another well, spec walk, or signet for travel. Also did you see my Q on elite? is the flesh golem at all good or should i just go for lich form (as i’m power, less condition)?
-Correct, it does not scale with healing.
-Staff is of great use in smaller fights too. Axe is essentially a moderately longer range, weaker version of the dagger. The devs did a poor job properly differentiating the two and you really don’t pick much up using Dagger/X + Axe/X. Even dropping Mark of Blood + Chillblains is a damage increase over using the dagger if the bleed/poison can go to full duration. Staff autoattack is nice for 3+ mobs too. And of course, don’t discount the blast finisher on putrid mark (weakness from chillblains and retaliation from well of blood) You’ll quickly learn to target the further mob away and position yourself so any other enemies are between you.
-If you run the staff (Mark of Blood) plus Full of Life (5 pt blood minor) plus the 30% boon duration boost via 30 Death Magic you won’t be hurting for regen. Vuln is useful in groups, but when you get into a really large group then Vuln will be capped at 25 stacks anyway. The chill/boon removal is situational outside of SPvP anyway.
Compared to Warhorn. While Wail of Doom definitely needs some work (needs to either be a stunbreak or instant and on a shorter cooldown) Locust Swarm is my favorite offhand skill- it gives Swiftness, lifesteals when it ticks, gives life force, and is a great skill to use in brief moments when you have to dodge away and are out of dagger range. Cast that puppy so you make up for damage lost while out of melee range.
-Slot skills. 90% of the time the only utility well I use is Well of Suffering. The rest of the time I run Spectral Walk (This + Locust Swarm = 100% Swiftness uptime) and either a minion (I like the Shadow Fiend) or Signet of Spite just for the passive power bonus (I never activate it) If you really wanna micromanage use the fiend until it dies- then when out of combat swap to the Signet, then after the cooldown on fiend is up swap back and summon it to repeat. You’ll want to run Well of Power and/or Darkness in certain situations and definitely in dungeons, but for doing events/farming they’re largely useless.
Hope that helps. I’ve been playing this build for only a month now, but it’s more fun and the best all-around build I’ve played. Sure you could be tankier, or do more damage, or have better range, etc. But this has the best all around viability.
(edited by Draehl.2681)
I run Dagger/Warhorn and Axe/Focus. I like to use the warhorn4 to interupt NPC healing animation works good on Ellies with there long animations also. The only reason I use warhorn is to free up the slot skill for another well. instead of , spec walk, or signet for travel. D/W and A/F this combo is great for single target burst in small group play. The cycle is dagger 3 immobilize. dager2 life syphon. switch, axe5 chill. then axe 2 swich dager2 life syphon= dead. Lich form goes good with the power.
BTW I love this http://gw2buildcraft.com/