Guild Wars 2

So I’ve been a condi build for most of my time in GW2. I’ve tried a power build and a tanky power build and I’m now trying out a hybrid.

I keep going back to the condimancer though. I’m pretty much Lopez’ conditionmancer with a few skill changes and I’ve been able to do most content and feel comfortable. Got my dungeon master achiev and I’m mid 20s fractals.

Now that my gear is pretty much where I’m at. With ascended gear and full undead runes and traits my condition damage is well over 1600.

Now my question is: is it worth it to not trait into death magic and start going into spite for more condition duration and some power (and a couple nice traits along the way).

I found that I liked being able to spike a bit with hybrid and still maintain decent bleeds on my own but did not like the squishiness of the all out hybrid. Also, I’ve got all this Rabid gear so i’d rather stick with a rabid play style.

So I’m looking for some convincing to stay the course or if there is any merit at all into branching out into other trait trees as long as I maintain 1600 condi damage.

I think it would help to supply some more info:
1) What is this build for (PVE, dungeon,WVW,PVP)?
2) What is your current trait allocation?
3) What weapons & utilities do you use?

You’d need to get a mainhand axe or dagger to make a hybrid build work. You’d also need to trade out some of your Rabid gear for Carrion (which still has condition damage as primary). There’s no point in going power if you don’t use a weapon that can take advantage of it, and there’s no point in taking a power weapon if you don’t have that much extra power.

Check out the “Facemelter” link in my sig for my approach to a hybrid build.

Signet of Spite is never worth it no matter what build you run, the tradeoff is not worth the cost. There are a multitude of other utilities that provide a better return on investment.

Bas.7406:

Signet of Spite is never worth it no matter what build you run, the tradeoff is not worth the cost. There are a multitude of other utilities that provide a better return on investment.

He is referencing the spite tree not the spite signet.

Rennoko.5731:

Bas.7406:

Signet of Spite is never worth it no matter what build you run, the tradeoff is not worth the cost. There are a multitude of other utilities that provide a better return on investment.

He is referencing the spite tree not the spite signet.

Haha, okay I should have read his entire post first. Doh, I always tell people to read thoroughly before posting, and just breezed through his post ;p.

lettucemode.3789:

You’d need to get a mainhand axe or dagger to make a hybrid build work. You’d also need to trade out some of your Rabid gear for Carrion (which still has condition damage as primary). There’s no point in going power if you don’t use a weapon that can take advantage of it, and there’s no point in taking a power weapon if you don’t have that much extra power.

Check out the “Facemelter” link in my sig for my approach to a hybrid build.

I think you misunderstood (my fault I’m sure since i’m not articulating well)

I want to stay rabid conditionmancer (I tried hybrid and don’t like it so much) but now that I am well past the 1600 condition damage mark, should I drop some of the points in death magic and go into spite for extra condi duration and power and some good traits?

Is there any thought on the benefits of doing this or just staying as a 0/30/30/10/0 condionmancer.

Okay, I see what you mean.

One way it would benefit you is that the extra condition duration would “free up” some other trait slots or runes. For example, are you using +condition duration runes or sigils? Well, if you put points into Spite, you are now free to exchange those runes or sigils for something else. Same idea if you are currently using the Hemophilia trait.

The early spite line has good traits for added survivability in longer fights. See spiteful removal, death into life, parasitic bond.

Since you are not a minion build nor a bunker build I don’t see much reason to keep the 30 points in death magic. I would say leave 10 in there for Greater Marks, maybe 20 if you really want Reaper’s Protection or Staff Mastery.

Yeah that’s how I’ve always felt with Death Magic that I had a ton of points going into a line that didn’t give me much but added toughness, which gave me more condition damage because of my runes of undead. Now that my condition is high enough I feel like I can expand the build a bit into spite and give me a little more direct damage, but still give me the survivability of the rabid set.

This build is what I’m thinking:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNArYWjMap7tbKb8bKCpCPbqQ2gU8edF9gYBLZA;TkAqmMNJay2krJZTrKGVMXA

So Does the trait “Close to Death” effect Condition damage? I could easily lose the Blood magic points and go a full 30 into Spite if that trait helped conditions

I use a 30/30/10 100% condition duration build for WvW with rabid gear and some giver weapons. Works well enough but I run pain inverter which you may not have (100% duration – 10s of 3stack confusion).

roamzero.9486:

I use a 30/30/10 100% condition duration build for WvW with rabid gear and some giver weapons. Works well enough but I run pain inverter which you may not have (100% duration – 10s of 3stack confusion).

Does Close to Death work on condition damage?- it’s the grandmaster trait in Spite.

1. Close to death doesn’t do jack for condition damage. Same as any other things that increase damage by . Only condition damage period.
2. For instance if you wanted to run spvp and aim for 100 bleed duration for barbed then yeah.
I run 30 spite 30 curses and rest in greater marks… simply to have my 2 ticks from barbed.
Tbh theres nothing else I really want as full condition in spvp… mark of evasion is nice… But I’m too squishy and if I end up using it… I’ts probably close to me getting rolled so its pointless. Dagger cd would have been nice but not exactly a game changer either same for staff cd…
Aside from spvp however… there is little need to bother with spite just to get 30% condition duration. Get food… it offers longer duration w/o needing trait points.

OK.. my math could be way off, but....

With 5 points in spite 5% duration, that’s enough, with the 20% bleed duration and 33% scepter bleed duration traits, to get across a threshold for getting those extra ticks for scepter and mark of blood.

I forget the actual math on it all...

so I go 5-30-25-10-0

It works for me, I could be wrong.

Ezeriel.9574:

OK.. my math could be way off, but….

OK.. my math could be way off, but….With 5 points in spite 5% duration, that’s enough, with the 20% bleed duration and 33% scepter bleed duration traits, to get across a threshold for getting those extra ticks for scepter and mark of blood.

OK.. my math could be way off, but….With 5 points in spite 5% duration, that’s enough, with the 20% bleed duration and 33% scepter bleed duration traits, to get across a threshold for getting those extra ticks for scepter and mark of blood.I forget the actual math on it all…

OK.. my math could be way off, but….With 5 points in spite 5% duration, that’s enough, with the 20% bleed duration and 33% scepter bleed duration traits, to get across a threshold for getting those extra ticks for scepter and mark of blood.I forget the actual math on it all…so I go 5-30-25-10-0

OK.. my math could be way off, but….With 5 points in spite 5% duration, that’s enough, with the 20% bleed duration and 33% scepter bleed duration traits, to get across a threshold for getting those extra ticks for scepter and mark of blood.I forget the actual math on it all…so I go 5-30-25-10-0It works for me, I could be wrong.

Ok, this works for me too. I kind of want to go 10 into spite to get might on life blast for the periods of time on boss fights when I’m at 25 bleed stacks. Pop into DS for fury, pop off a few life blasts to get a few stacks of might then stack my bleeds again.

Even with 10 into Spite I’m well over 1875 toughness and the 1600 condition damage mark.