Guild Wars 2

So will there be any changes to staff 4?

Currently it no longer transfers conditions from allies — only yourself.
Also, it only affects a single foe in the mark.

How is it even a mark? All other marks affect an AOE region when triggered.
If nothing else, it was a good condition cleanse for your minions.

It still deals AoE direct damage.

But almost everyone agrees its just not a great skill anymore. OH Dagger 4 is a better skill in almost every single way (shorter CD, blind, and better transferring).

However, the reality is that they allegedly (according to Tyler Chapman) stealth nerfed the hell out of the skill, and accidentally took four months to let us know. The tooltip will be updated in a few months, most likely.

Bhawb.7408:

But almost everyone agrees its just not a great skill anymore. OH Dagger 4 is a better skill in almost every single way (shorter CD, blind, and better transferring).

Stop saying this. i dont want THEM to notice that and stealthnerf dagger#4 to kitten aswell.

RashanDale.3609:

Stop saying this. i dont want THEM to notice that and stealthnerf dagger#4 to kitten aswell.

Let’s be honest here. What actually happened was they somehow royally screwed up while trying to sneak in a small nerf, bugging Putrid Mark, and have absolutely no idea how to fix it.

probably ^^

The one buff Putrid Mark got (conveniently on the same day it was nerfed so hard) was that blindness is transferable too instead of causing a miss.

It’s still a blast finisher and a 5 target skill rather than 3, range is also higher than Deathly Swarm. And it always transfers 3 condis/target, not just one.
So idk.. I’d probably still pick Putrid over dagger.
I just don’t understand why it needed to be stripped of all the ally cleansing.

Btw mark cooldowns will be fixed on nov 26th.

Honestly, I understood if they had nerfed it to 3-5 from everyone, or more from you than allies. But it seemed really heavy-handed (when you consider ANet tunes very, very slowly) for them to go from a potential of 55 (11 conditions right? Idk, too lazy to check) conditions removed per cast… to 3. It was just too dumb to have no been an accident.

It used to be 11 because there was no torment prior to the nerf. And as far as I can remember the ally clease had a seperate aoe counter, not including the caster…?
So 5×11 from allies and 9 from yourself because you couldn’t use it while feared and it didn’t work with blindness.
Anyway, a lot… and now it’s just 11 conditions if you hit 4 targets.

With the condition meta during the past 4 month, I get that in hindsight anet doesn’t want to add more condition pressure to necros by restoring the mark, but they could add a minor form of ally cleansing without the transfer.

RashanDale.3609:

Bhawb.7408:

But almost everyone agrees its just not a great skill anymore. OH Dagger 4 is a better skill in almost every single way (shorter CD, blind, and better transferring).

Stop saying this. i dont want THEM to notice that and stealthnerf dagger#4 to kitten aswell.

They actively “fixed” dagger 4, so I doubt they would go back now and nerf it… but it is substantially better. Before it used to only transfer 1 per bounce, and now it is 3, which is pretty much a complete clear and then some in a group of people or minions.

One other advantage Putrid Mark still has over Dagger 4, its non directional. This can be a big help when immobilized or running away from a fight and trying to off load conditions that are slowing you, while slowing pursuers in turn.

But overall it was definitely over nerfed, and could use a little something given back.

Putrid Mark can still act as a total cleanse for you if you hit enough foes with it. It transfers 3 conditions per affected enemy.

But yeah, the loss of ally cleansing really made the skill pretty lame, even if it is the only attack in the game that ignores Blind.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Putrid Mark can still act as a total cleanse for you if you hit enough foes with it. It transfers 3 conditions per affected enemy.

But yeah, the loss of ally cleansing really made the skill pretty lame, even if it is the only attack in the game that ignores Blind.

Can someone confirm this? Because its been my understanding that it only transfers 3 conditions to one target, and has nothing to do with number of targets hit.

Bhawb.7408:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Putrid Mark can still act as a total cleanse for you if you hit enough foes with it. It transfers 3 conditions per affected enemy.

But yeah, the loss of ally cleansing really made the skill pretty lame, even if it is the only attack in the game that ignores Blind.

Can someone confirm this? Because its been my understanding that it only transfers 3 conditions to one target, and has nothing to do with number of targets hit.

I thought this as well…. I will have to add it to my list of things to check with the burning priority. I will try and do that today. Even dropping it into groups I feel like I only lose 3 conditions. I will verify.

lol you guys really aren’t using the staff much these days ^^
It’s 3 per target, always has been since the nerf.

flow.6043:

lol you guys really aren’t using the staff much these days ^^
It’s 3 per target, always has been since the nerf.

This is actually another issue. Why are the skill descriptions so vague that people aren’t clear what the skill is supposed to do?

flow.6043:

lol you guys really aren’t using the staff much these days ^^
It’s 3 per target, always has been since the nerf.

I believe I have publicly announced my boycott of staff :P I don’t use it in any of my power builds anymore (I really only used it for the ally cleanse). Frankly, I prefer Axe over it nowadays, and that shows how low my opinion of staff is.

I know the blind change was made so necros wouldnt lose to engies at least on the condi front. Often did I blow my insta-fear just to make a transfer in time , since you can lose 3 games before casting 2 skills on necro

The change however at least lowered the “hot potato” game between 2 necros.

They absolutely must restore the team aspect of the skill. It was very balanced cz they needed to be in the mark and as necro you are free casting from distance. So you make yourself more vulnerable for the next 25s. Needs to be 5x condi instead of full cleanse though Am i right?

Well, assuming flow is right (trust but verify, and I’m too lazy to verify right now), staff actually isn’t in that bad of a position as far as self-cleansing goes. 3 per person hit is perfectly acceptable imo.

I would really like to see the return of some allied cleansing though, 3 conditions off each ally (does not scale like yours does). It was such a good team-support skill, and in most PvP situations, you’re cleansing 2 allies at most.

I think the cooldown for the current version of putrid mark is unwarranted. I could understand why Putrid Mark was a 25s cooldown with its previous incarnation, but I think the cooldown should be reduced to 20s for what it is current (I also think that Chilblains’ cd should be reduced to 18s).

flow.6043:

lol you guys really aren’t using the staff much these days ^^
It’s 3 per target, always has been since the nerf.

Verified this. Sorry for the mistake here.

You are correct, it is 3 per target.