Is this a legitimate direction now? I am intrigued by taking the Well instead of CC now, because if you run 6 in Blood Magic, you get the Vampire minor, plus Vamp Presence which aids the party and Vamp Rituals, which makes wells grant protection and siphon health. On paper it sounds great…but am I wrong?
It’s getting there. In the livestream they mentioned how they’re being cautious about the numbers (like a lot of Necro things) because they’re changing so much about us they don’t want to overdo it. The good news is that Anet sounds as if they’re open to increasing these numbers if they don’t perform as expected.
When I was obsessed with Wellomancer sustain, I was happy with 2000-2500 potential lifesteal from every well and 4500ish from WoB. Then I lost interest when WoB got nerfed to 5 seconds and the healing power modifier wasn’t buffed to make up for lost seconds and the Vamp procs.
Now every well will have the potential siphon of old WoB in a 5 second time frame and will work in DS. In WvW zergs you could be low health, throw down 3 utility wells into enemy zerg, pop DS and probably heal yourself 2/3 of your health just from utilities.
Vampiric+Vampiric Presence still feels a bit underpowered. Although now we can achieve 70-90ish siphon per hit (didn’t do math) regardless of stats.
On a build like this, what would you use for runes?
Honestly I don’t know until the patch comes out. Depends on the gear you’re running. If you’re zerging I’m assuming you’re power-based. I would suggest sticking to standard Rune and sigils choices that compliment DPS. Let the siphons stand on their own since they don’t benefit much from heavy healing power investment (or power investment, but you’re going to take a damage stat regardless). We also need to see if leech sigils and runes bonuses work through Shroud.
Now if you were focusing on support by taking healing power etc. I would suggest slightly different sigils (like Renewal). However, a good rule of thumb is Rune/Sigil choice should always focus on weapon sets and your main DPS stat for more damage, rather than your sustain/support traits and stats.
If you’re going Vampiric Wells, then Runes of the Grove are good syngery. +30% Protection duration nets about an extra second, and the Healing Power is useful for siphoning skills (traits…you might get 1 more health).
Plus, I’m a fan of the root. That root is actually infinite range, so in PvP, it can help you catch up to a longbow Ranger.
If you’re going Vampiric Wells, then Runes of the Grove are good syngery. +30% Protection duration nets about an extra second, and the Healing Power is useful for siphoning skills (traits…you might get 1 more health).
Plus, I’m a fan of the root. That root is actually infinite range, so in PvP, it can help you catch up to a longbow Ranger.
That root rune got banned on Angz duelling server for a month or two due to me exploiting it on Ranger focused on condi duration and broken long CCs with Moment of Clarity from Boar xD.
If you’re going Vampiric Wells, then Runes of the Grove are good syngery. +30% Protection duration nets about an extra second, and the Healing Power is useful for siphoning skills (traits…you might get 1 more health).
Plus, I’m a fan of the root. That root is actually infinite range, so in PvP, it can help you catch up to a longbow Ranger.
That root rune got banned on Angz duelling server for a month or two due to me exploiting it on Ranger focused on condi duration and broken long CCs with Moment of Clarity from Boar xD.
So? One small sub-group on one server using unofficial rules temporarily banned it. Is that really a reason to not use it?
If you’re going Vampiric Wells, then Runes of the Grove are good syngery. +30% Protection duration nets about an extra second, and the Healing Power is useful for siphoning skills (traits…you might get 1 more health).
Plus, I’m a fan of the root. That root is actually infinite range, so in PvP, it can help you catch up to a longbow Ranger.
That root rune got banned on Angz duelling server for a month or two due to me exploiting it on Ranger focused on condi duration and broken long CCs with Moment of Clarity from Boar xD.
So? One small sub-group on one server using unofficial rules temporarily banned it. Is that really a reason to not use it?
It’s just a fun fact. Rune itself is cool, nothing against it.
siphon cant crit cant be boosted by vulnerability and it’s not affected by damage multipliers, unless the numbers are HUGE dagger/warhorn are the only way to make it not garbage.
siphon cant crit cant be boosted by vulnerability and it’s not affected by damage multipliers, unless the numbers are HUGE dagger/warhorn are the only way to make it not garbage.
It will have its moments elsewhere. Working through shroud siphons will gain the benefit of Life Transfer channels. Which can end up healing 3-4K in siphons while in shroud, making the healing 100% effective. Also Marks hitting 5 targets and other AoEs (condi Staff+Scpeter/Dagger rotation), also do very well against enemy numbers procing siphons. Pretty much 300-500 healing potentially per AoE.
Of course Warhorn+Wells then entering DS (with a Life Transfer on top) will proc the most siphoning for your buck.
Vampiric presence being so much better than the old vampiric precision on low-crit builds, and working with non-damaging wells, is what puts the blood/death siphon build over the top from passable to actually strong. Honestly I’m afraid we’re gonna get nerfed when pug zergers start complaining that they aren’t killing us fast when they bring 5 targets.
If you’re going Vampiric Wells, then Runes of the Grove are good syngery. +30% Protection duration nets about an extra second, and the Healing Power is useful for siphoning skills (traits…you might get 1 more health).
Plus, I’m a fan of the root. That root is actually infinite range, so in PvP, it can help you catch up to a longbow Ranger.
Runes of the earth are basically the same thing, but give you better protection uptime and toughness, which scales your siphons much better than healing power. No root, but the earth aura is amazing when it pops during plague because they’ll be forced to try meleeing you through the blinds. Personally though, I’m gonna start taking melandru after the patch. Condibuff2stronk
Now that the warhorn trait is in blood magic line, I’d say a wells siphoning build using dagger+warhorn is totally viable. http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgQEpAGoA6w~
Something like this, basically you can go balls to the wall on the enemy with siphons, and your death shroud would automatically save you if you would take a finishing blow and start healing you in addition to your siphoning healing you in death shroud.
alternatively, when reaper hits, http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgQEdAGoBtQ~
You can also get a lot of healing from the vampiric stacking on your wells and greatsword attack’s additional vamp hits. Then every attack in death shroud will heal you in addition to the siphoning healing you.
I’m definitely going to have a Wells and siphon build going, especially when reaper pops. GS and either staff or D+wh depending on the feel of vampiric presence. Siphons have always been fun to play, and now they’ll be even more fun.
I’m curious if Soul Eater works with Reaper’s Shroud while holding your GS, like other similar traits.
If so, we could siphon something like 130 per hit on up to 5 targets, before even getting into Blighter’s Boon. Soul Spiral? 11 x 5 × 130 = 7150. That… Is a lot of health for one skill, while in DS and thus covered from ‘actual’ damage.
I came up with what I hope will be a fairly interesting Reaper build using Reaper/ Spite/Blood Magic. Focuses on executions, while using Blood Magic for sustain and some minor group support.
