Guild Wars 2

Chill of Death seems to be unique in being the only trait that damages a foe when they hit a certain threshold on health (I could be mistaken, I am not very familiar with engineer traits). As such, it made me wonder if it was possible to actually kill an enemy with a big enough hit from this trait. The wiki states that this trait is bugged to actually trigger at 15% health, but this makes the goal even easier to reach.

Proposed build:
30/0/25/0/15
Spite: Reaper’s Might, Chill of Death, Close to Death
Death magic: Greater Marks, Staff Mastery (these can be swapped out if desired)
Soul Reaping: Unyielding Blast

Weapons:
Axe (superior sigil of bloodlust)/Focus (superior sigil of Peril)
Valkyrie’s Staff (Superior Sigil of Intelligence)
Skills: Consume Conditions, Animate Bone Minions, Blood is Power, Signet of Spite, Animate Flesh Golem

Foods: Superior Sharpening Stone, Curry Butternut Squash Soup

Armor: Soldier’s armor, Exquisite Beryl Jewel in each slot
Ascended Soldier’s equipment, offensive infusions on amulet and back piece.
Offensive infusions are +5 Power(x4). Defensive are +5 Toughness(x2).

Total relevant trait and gear stats (counting food or sigil stacks, but not Might or Vulnerability):
4144.72 Power
1776 Toughness
1734 Vitality
1016 Precision
+46% crit damage
+30% condition duration
+25% boon duration

Note: Most effective on either a Dredge (as they spam exactly three boons, getting the maximum damage boost) or an Elementalist (who spam lots of boons, but typically have low armor/health)

To do: Use Reaper’s Touch, axe auto-attack, and Life Blast to build up vulnerability on the target. Use Blood is Power and Life Blast for Might. When the target is almost at 15% health, stop attacking and swap to staff, letting you minions drop him below the threshold for an automatic crit on Chill of Death. Target should have 25 stacks of vulnerability and you should have 15 stacks of Might no problem (possibly more)

Each minion that is active (normally 3) gives +20 Toughness and, thanks to the food and Deadly Strength, means 2.2 more power per minion. Minor, but should still be accounted for (4151.32 pre-might power if three minions are up, 4153.52 if Reanimator triggered recently).

Not sure exactly what it will hit for, but it uses the staff weapon damage (highest available) and has a 2.352 damage multiplier due to Close to Death and it being a crit. Counting the Vulnerability you probably have stacked to max, it is a 2.94 multiplier, with an additional 50% damage for each boon on the target (max of +150% damage).

Sadly, I do not have the resources to test and see if this would actually work, but I think it would be hilarious to kill someone without actually reducing their health to 0.

Thoughts? I’m sure the damage could be increased by dropping some Power focus and nabbing some more crit damage, but I am unsure of the cutoffs for max advantage.

On the bright side, it should be a somewhat viable build even if this trick doesn’t work out.

Just a note, this trait can proc in Lich Form, which as you can imagine would cause a huge amount of damage. It isn’t that crazy to see it kill someone, especially if the hit that triggered it brought them significantly below the threshold (like Lich can so easily do, hitting 5k easy).

Somehow I had forgotten about the ungodly power boost from Lich. Very worth swapping out, then.

Id imagine you will need beserker gear to even have a chance of killing with it. Dagger deals more damage than staff. Its a nice idea but I wouldnt build it anything like the way you have.

Id also say its more of a pvp style build concept.

Really hope you aren’t trying to put exquisite jewels in armour slots as that will not work. From what I see, otherwise, solid stats and such and a good idea.

Misery.9825:

Really hope you aren’t trying to put exquisite jewels in armour slots as that will not work.

Alas…

I see that happening quite often in Lich Form, once their health gets low enough they are just instantly downed after the final hit lands.

Here’s a quick screenshot. For the record, I just picked a random clip and the target happens to be a bunker ranger. That’s why the numbers are so low. The important part is the fact the trait hits about as high as Lich Form Deathly Claws, which means about 5k on a squishy target. Basically, if the trait triggers, the victim is dead.

It also works to some degree without Lich Form, though it’s nowhere near the guaranteed kill it is with it, even if both you and your target are glass cannons.

spoj.9672:

Id imagine you will need beserker gear to even have a chance of killing with it. Dagger deals more damage than staff. Its a nice idea but I wouldnt build it anything like the way you have.

Id also say its more of a pvp style build concept.

Valkyrie’s would probably work better, actually, as the Sharpening Stone converts some Vitality to Power and the Precision from Beserker’s isn’t really needed due to the Sigil giving an auto-crit.

Concept works better in PvP, but in PvE, I would like to see how well it works out. Especially since you can get the food buffs there.

As for the jewels, I did forget that jewels cannot be used in armor. I must revert to beryl orbs to keep that general setup.

It’d be even easier in PvE depending on the target. You can get much higher stat values for the big damage hits, and there are also a lot of targets with really low armor values.

I’d be very interested to see how strong of a mob that can be killed like this.

This trait only activates when you hit with an attack, minions and conditions can’t trigger it. The damage in the combat log lists the Spinal Shivers before the damage from the attack though, so you can say you kill something with the trait itself.
Going Lich Form in this setup and throwing any attack at all when the target is at 15% health is a sure victory regardless.

Would like to test if this means you can Life Blast a Guardian on low health and have the trait clear away Protection and Aegis for you before damage is calculated.

On a side-note, I tested the trait for a bit in the Mists. Be warned that if you stand outside 900 range when your attack hits (i.e. Staff autoattack, Life Blast) will give a “Out of Range!”-error and set the trait on cooldown. Spiteful Talismans does not affect range or cooldown.

In sPvP this does in fact make a fair number of kills for a power necro. If you are focusing a bunker that stacks up boons when low it can really make the difference in a failed burst vs. a kill. Don’t overlook the value of the chill either. If a high mobility target tele’s away from you as they are getting low you would struggle to gap close on them, but this can snare them at just the right moment to insure a kill.