Guild Wars 2

Can anyone explain to me why some reapers pick mercs over wanderers?

The difference in condi pressure is literally night and day. Shroud 4 dmg for example on my setup goes from 5500 to 8800 dmg.

With ènfeeble + the crit u gain from wanderers you literally have a 100% weakness uptime on ppl who train u. Which imo more than makes up for the hp loss.

So what build/setup would u use where mercs is more usefull.

The Corruptionmancer sPvP build uses Wanderer over Mercenary due to “Barbed Precision” and “Target the Weak” in the Curses line. It is one of the two/three top sPvP builds right now (aside from Signet and Shoutmancer). You will easly find it on MetaBattle.

I use either mercs or vipers with my build. It is just the standard signet with reaper shroud that most necros are running.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Reaper_-_Signet_Chillomancer

Im guessing you use corruptions rather than signets in your build, for that case wanderers is a great choice, and what i typically run with the corruptions build.

To answer your question, mercs amulet is a far better choice against tempests. Thats about it. You need that power to be able to chunk them below 75% hp so your condis will stick. I typically swap to mercs amulet and take the trait that increases crit chance when striking vulnerable enemies when i see a few tempests on the other team. Also consider taking sigil of frailty on scepter for the extra vuln and condition cover.

I dont care about metabattle. I want an explanation, why do ppl use mercs over wanderers. The damage output difference is absurd. Defense wise the 100% weakness u get from the enfeeble trait easily outdoes the extra 4000 hp when u get trained.

Thor Rising.7850:

To answer your question, mercs amulet is a far better choice against tempests. Thats about it. You need that power to be able to chunk them below 75% hp so your condis will stick. I typically swap to mercs amulet and take the trait that increases crit chance when striking vulnerable enemies when i see a few tempests on the other team. Also consider taking sigil of frailty on scepter for the extra vuln and condition cover.

With the old DS sure, with the new DS not so much. I actually think the extra condi pressure means you drop him below the 75% mark faster. With a proper condi overload it will take quite some time to clear with the new DS.

Even if that was indeed the case…it would be super situational. Only when fighting an ele 1v1 PLUS he has to be above 75% hp.

Locuz.2651:

I dont care about metabattle. I want an explanation, why do ppl use mercs over wanderers. The damage output difference is absurd. Defense wise the 100% weakness u get from the enfeeble trait easily outdoes the extra 4000 hp when u get trained.

B/c it’s not demonstrably better in every single condi build. I can think of at least 5 ‘how to build’ reasons that would make merc better. Bursting thresholds was one that was already mentioned. Taking Spite instead of Curses was also mentioned. Enemy comp was also mentioned. I’ve still got a few more if it’s still not clicking.

Locuz.2651:

I dont care about metabattle. I want an explanation, why do ppl use mercs over wanderers. The damage output difference is absurd. Defense wise the 100% weakness u get from the enfeeble trait easily outdoes the extra 4000 hp when u get trained.

You don’t care about meta yet you ask why people run something in it. We can’t help it if you don’t like the provided answer.
Apart from the Corruptionmancer build, Mercenary is way better. The ONLY reason for people to use Wanderer is to go Curses. Other than that Mercenary is better in almost every way. People often go Spite instead of Curses for Boon Corruption and Might and Vulnerability stacking. Also, more Vit = more HP = more Life Force = more Survivability. Plus, why would someone want bare Precision without Power or passives to support it? Makes no sense. Also Wanderer does not really provide more pressure. The numbers or the skills are higher cause the duration is higher. But if something ticks for, let’s say, 1000 damage it will still tick for the exact same amount. It will just last longer (and Nightmare rune is pretty much enough for condi duration). The “damage output” or pressure are neither better or absurd just ’cause the numbers on the skills are higher.

Wanderer is fine in a proper build that supports it, but in most of the other builds Mercenary is beyond better. If anyone would want an alternative for Mercenary it would be Carrion, not Wanderer.

Ugh, people still thinking condition duration does not increase the damage of conditions, just makes them last longer but ticking the same?

Cause that 1050 power is worth as much damage as both the precision and condi duration especially with crit traits. You are tankier and deal way more burst damage. My soul spiral does upwards of 7k direct damage along with condi damage.

Locuz.2651:

Can anyone explain to me why some reapers pick mercs over wanderers?

The difference in condi pressure is literally night and day. Shroud 4 dmg for example on my setup goes from 5500 to 8800 dmg.

With ènfeeble + the crit u gain from wanderers you literally have a 100% weakness uptime on ppl who train u. Which imo more than makes up for the hp loss.

So what build/setup would u use where mercs is more usefull.

I choose Wanderer because damage boost helps me against Revenants,Engineers,Rangers and Dh.

Because Toughness+Vitality that scales with Life Force. Also, the gain from Precision is minor and you can trigger the “on crit” effect with either Spite Vuln+Decimate Defenses or Curses Target the Weak+Fury.

Condition builds in GW2 PvP are not about DoTs providing sustained damage over long periods of time you find in many other games. Pretty much every single one Condition build up to date has been about overloading target with 9999 conditions and bursting it down within seconds. Condition Duration really doesn’t make that much difference if you kill target within 10s.

Because enough and extra survival.

Merc or rather any reaper kill combo has enough damage on its own to win a fight.
The thing is always
-how do i make my enemy eat a full spin to win, rather than
-my enemy tanked a full rs4 and lived and healed with 3k hp

Your enemies/obstacles are:
-cleanses and transfers
-blind block evades etc PREVENTING HITS IN FIRST PLACE
-chill uptime

Any reaper can mantain a 200% chill uptime, so there is less need to go overkill with duration, instead the added survival of merc will
-prevent you getting burst downed
-you will be able to afford more counterpressure with trades

Tldr
Wanderer = somebody gets oneshot in 20s
Merc = you probably live and kill at 30-40s
Any Reaper = instant decap 1v1 and instant kill 2v1
Merc > wand

This is a meta choice and should be swap depending on your opponent team comp.

If they got a lot of resilient conditions builds, you switch to mercenary. If they are light on condi aoe classes, you take wanderer.

Wanderer burst easier but is countered by META anti-condi builds.

Look at Noscoc play. He always adjust is build on the fly.

Bierzgal.2341:

You don’t care about meta yet you ask why people run something in it. We can’t help it if you don’t like the provided answer.
Apart from the Corruptionmancer build, Mercenary is way better. The ONLY reason for people to use Wanderer is to go Curses. Other than that Mercenary is better in almost every way. People often go Spite instead of Curses for Boon Corruption and Might and Vulnerability stacking. Also, more Vit = more HP = more Life Force = more Survivability. Plus, why would someone want bare Precision without Power or passives to support it? Makes no sense. Also Wanderer does not really provide more pressure. The numbers or the skills are higher cause the duration is higher. But if something ticks for, let’s say, 1000 damage it will still tick for the exact same amount. It will just last longer (and Nightmare rune is pretty much enough for condi duration). The “damage output” or pressure are neither better or absurd just ’cause the numbers on the skills are higher.

Wanderer is fine in a proper build that supports it, but in most of the other builds Mercenary is beyond better. If anyone would want an alternative for Mercenary it would be Carrion, not Wanderer.

1] I was saying “because its on metabattle” is not a real answer. While that might be a totally perfect answer for u.

2] More vit is great. But with enfeeble/curses combined with wanderers youll have near 100% uptime off weakness on ppl that u hit. + with the extra condi pressure u force ppl to play defensive quicker.

3] Precision = for enfeeble. + u can play with on crit traits and sigils.

4] To illustrate the extra pressure ill leave the dmg òf some of our skills here for u.

Soul spiral:

Wanderers amu: 8854 dmg done over 6 secs.
Mercenary 5511 dmg done over 4.5 secs.

Chilled after fear trait

Wanderers: 2914 dmg over 5,25 secs
Mercenary 2191 dmg over 4 secs.

So thats 1.5 and 1.25 extra secs for 35% extra dmg. Whats 1.5 secs? Its nothing. Its not like u can keep 100% uptime on condis anyway. If that was the case extra condi duration would be useless, but it isnt.

Add to that that autoattack dmg from wand for example allready does so much extra dmg that u force ppl to use cleanses/heals before u use your actual condi burst rotation.

Most of the points were already listed. Diamond skin would cleanse all of those conditions. With Wanderer’s amulet, the conditions stick around and do more damage over time, but if they are cleansed, then it technically isn’t more damage.

Having Power gives more versatility. Builds with massive condition removal won’t hard counter you when your direct damage is actually quite decent.

Some builds just don’t benefit from precision at all. You don’t need critical hits to do anything on a Reaper UNLESS you go into the curses line. Then every crit matters (and 13% of precision gets added to condition damage). The Spite trait line has nothing in it that requires a critical hit.

It’s simply based on your build. If you don’t need critical hits, then the mercenary amulet gives you the same toughness as Wanderer’s, same condition damage, 1050 power and some extra vitality too. It simply depends on the build.

Locuz.2651:

2] More vit is great. But with enfeeble/curses combined with wanderers youll have near 100% uptime off weakness on ppl that u hit. + with the extra condi pressure u force ppl to play defensive quicker.

If you have Curses with either of those amulets you’d have to factor in Furious Demise and Target the Weak. So even with just 4% base crit chance, you’ll be able to get the occasional 30-40%, enough to reliable proc weakness or Plague Sending. Also, you’re casting Enfeebling Blood on Shroud entry and you can corrupt might into weakness.
All of that combined means there’s no reason to assume wanderer’s improves your weakness uptime over mercenary.

The only true upside of an innately high crit chance is Barbed Precision because it doesn’t have an icd. Also, Barbed procs are short enough for wanderer’s extra condition duration to make noticable difference even against classes with frequent cleansing.
However, in terms of overall damage, the extra power of merc easily adds up to more than wanderer ever could with more reliable crit procs.

Since Energy sigil is now meh, you can run Intelligence+Geomancy on Staff and proc on-crit effects with ease and with even some control over them.

Precision in HoT just isn’t the best stat overall.

I take merc amulet just for the power. I run with spite instead of curses so I don’t need the crit. I do, however, still get plenty of crit chance from traits. For instance, RS 5 and 4 together can put all 25 stacks of vuln on a target. Then with 50% crit in shroud, I can run around doing high direct damage in shroud while my other condis are still ticking.

I mainly run my build this way because some classes have really good condi cleanse. On a wanderer build, that could possibly hardcounter me. On my merc build, I can still take him down. So as for your question, a merc amulet could be more useful for say a signet build, but it also depends on your enemy comp.

I prefer Wanderer’s amulet over Merc, depending on the build I am running, straight condi wise, I prefer it. If I use Merc I switch to d/d and or a/w .. power doesn’t benefit scepter/staff. Pre HOT the majorit of condi necs ran Rabid gear, and Carrion wasn’t really touched, but then this was during thief/warr times and toughness was most sought after.

The only reason a nec really wants Merc amulet is just for the vitality which stacks with shroud. To me though while some will say it’s mandatory. I find Vital Persistence to be enough as it’s also a passive defensive feature built into your shroud when you take damage. You won’t face tank with impunity but it gets the job done, especially when you’re dropping AOE’s everywhere.

So there you have it, most necs will argue take merc amulet for the vitality, they say power but really it’s laughable with scepter/staff. You will not drop a bunker ele below 75% health with only 2000 power, and barely any ferocity. Diamond skin does remove a con per pulse but the ele still takes damage with what ever condi pressure you put on them, don’t forget to corrupt their boons, and watch for their heals so you can intrupt them. But the power from Merc doing anything to a bunker ele? No. I If you go Merc it’s for D/D or A/W weapon specs, or even GS if you’re feeling spiffy. Benefits mostly MM necs imo, or corrupting necs who use axe and dagger. Or hell even core necs cause their lifeblast will do modest damage? per hit.

Wanderer’s is good for the condition duration, it’s like 33%. Precision benefits necs if you go curses, and can even stack on sigil of earth, torment, nullification or even generosity. Most necs are using sigil of ice though which does not rely on a % to hit but torment is good for a condi cover, and earth increases bleed intensity. Nullification for even more boon stripping, and generosity for the lulz.

EDIT: One more thing, despite all the cleanses people say are in the game, that is true but most condi classes can stack cons on auto attack, and the longer they last the greater the condi intensity, the more damage they will take. All conditions deal true damage, and condition cleansing can only recharge so fast.

Crimson Shi.5047:

Pre HOT the majorit of condi necs ran Rabid gear, and Carrion wasn’t really touched

Rather the opposite actually.

I run curses and merc. The condi defense is fantastic and the crit chance you get from the minors in the curses tree is enough to reliably proc Weakening shroud and plague sending. I find that you don’t need the extreme amount of might from Spite, which is the only real reason to take Spite in a condi build. I do pretty well against other meta reapers because of that switch to curses.

I don’t pick wanderers because of stuff like Diamond Skin. If you don’t have the power damage to help take them below the health threshold on it then your condi application is seriously mitigated. Wanderer is also kinda glassy and if I wanted to go in that direction I’d pick Viper or Sinister.

Personally I play wanderer/curses more for support, and mercenary/spite when I get enough support to play aggressively.

Both are valid options but I feel more comfortable and more functional with wanderer/curses.

Main reason is I can’t play without at least 3 shouts anymore (and it’s mostly 5 lately) and soldier runes are fantastic in team fights (I believe it carried some) but also good in 1v1 against ele burns or druid’s root, or getting rid of blind when I cast elite shout, all without burning big cooldowns.

I lose a lot of sustain if I go nightmare runes, and the fear proc isn’t that good: close to useless in team fights, and against thieves I can already survive long enough in soldier, or it doesnt make a difference in 1v2.

If I go mercenary without nightmare runes, my conditions are pretty lackluster. And I don’t care much about power in 1-2v1-2: I know I will never take down a good player on bunker ele alone, and that power is wasted outside of shroud (high shroud coefficient, retaliation on shroud enter with spite).

So yeah, I’m more on the support side. It works wonder in solo q (61-13 so far, reached diamond this week-end). I only switch to mercenary/spite when I have 3 support/bunker like tempest/scrapper/druid, and can go melee more freely.

Main build for reference: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBLhZ6kZTobTscTwdTgeTscMYULhnwsKqnttCAx3wfYRE-TZxFABlXGIhTBgQ7P0wRAAgHAAA

Wanderer/Curse and Mercenary/Spite are both really good, but you need to adapt your utilities every game to your opponent team.

You will miss the 5k hp of the mercenary vs high condi pressure or cancerous meta comp with high sustain but Wanderer/Curses is really powerfull i remember some games where Soul Spirale in a poison cloud just kill 3 guys in a team fight support ele included

In term of utilities shout are really good because instant when signet are telegraphed so only use plague signet vs high condi team (2 necro + rev condi or mesmer), “suffer” almost every game because it is one more source of chill and a good dispell in team fight, “rise” is a must have vs power rev and for sustain in general, poison cloud vs high sustain team (except on foefire because mid point is too large) and vs druid and finally “boon corruption” because it is a powerfull spell for killing focus target.

In conclusion, you will never have good mobility or good sustain as a necro player but if your team care about leaving you some free cast frame you can do a lot of damage in team fight.