Disclaimer: These observations and suggestions mostly come from a PvE perspective.
I only play PvP casually, so if you have a better idea of the state of condi Reapers/Necros and Dhuumfire in high level PvP than I do, please feel free to share your thoughts on the suggested changes with us to get a more holistic view on this topic.
During the past week I tried really, really hard to make Dhuumfire work in my condi Reaper build for PvE group content and it just didn’t work out for several rather simple reasons:
- If you are playing a condition build you will have to pick Scepter as your main weapon
- If you want Dhuumfire to do anything you will have to sit in Shroud auto-attacking for a significant amount of time
- If you sit in Shroud auto-attacking you lose out on condition application from your Scepter, off-hand and Utility skills
I tried to make it work by creating a rotation that results in a roughly equal amount of time spend in and out of Shroud, but the end result was worse than staying mostly on Scepter and only “flashing” Shroud for #4, the mobility of #2 and additional Chill/CC if needed.
On top of that, Dhuumfire is pretty much the only reason you might want to take Soul Reaping as a condition Reaper, survivability concerns aside maybe. On the contrary, it makes you lose out on the support and utility from Blood Magic, or (if you are not playing in optimized groups e.g.) the self-might and vulnerability stacking from Spite.
In conclusion, I think it is fair to say that Scepter builds and Dhuumfire currently are mutually exclusive if high and consistent condition DPS while also bringing some support/utility to your group is what you are going for.
I’m sure there are multiple ways you could address this issue, but in the But of Corpse thread someone made a suggestion that I personally really like:
- Swap Dhuumfire’s position as Soul Reaping GM trait with that of Weakening Shroud as a Curses GM trait
- Make Dhuumfire work more like Incendiary Powder again, i.e. inflict Burning on critical hits
For this to happen the new/old Dhuumfire probably would need to be a bit weaker than Incendiary Powder (because of the nature of our Scepter auto-attack e.g.). A direct copy-pasta would be overpowered I guess. What I would suggest is:
- Reduce the duration bonus from 33% to only 20% to be more in line with Barbed Precision and Cold Shoulder
- Reduce the application from 2 stacks to only 1 stack per critical hit, but in return give the Burning higher duration (don’t know how much higher would be appropriate tbh), I think that would fit in well with the “slow but consistent ramp”-theme Necro has
I know Weakening Shroud has its own issues, but that way there would at least still be a decent GM option for condition builds in Soul Reaping that is also tied to Shroud and a usable version of Dhuumfire for Scepter condi builds in Curses.
Edit: What I forgot to mention is that in my opinion this would give power builds a decent GM trait option in Curses because of the high base damage of Burning. A problem that I also forgot to bring up is that Dhuumfire and Lingering Curse then would be competing with each other as condi DPS GM traits, with Parasitic Contagion still left in the dust, which means something would need to be changed about those two traits as well.
Let me know what you think. Feedback is always much appreciated.
(edited by Skoigoth.9238)