Hello fellow Scourges-to-be.
I’ve been mathing out what I want for my Scourge’s “damaging as much as possible while still supporting with barriers” build idea.
This got me thinking, there isnt really a 3 or 4 stat combination in game that exactly matches what I’d desire.
The following is an example of the “best” stat combination I could come up with:
If my math is correct, that combination allows me to hit 100% condition duration.
Now, with that said, if we had an alternative to Trailblazer to equip, I’d love to have:
New stat combination:
Mystic – Condition Damage and Healing Power, Vitality and Expertise.
With the above combination, I would be able to trade off that excessive Toughness for some much desired Healing Power to pump out stronger barriers. If my theoretical “Mystic” stat combination existed, my build would have 1356 Healing Power, with the same stats more or less on that sheet minus the toughness. The condition damage would be slightly lower due to the loss of toughness for the crystal’s conversion.
With the above stats, my trait for Scourge would be:
Fell Beacon – This would give me the remaining condition duration along with the 15% from the shades’ minor trait to achieve 100% condition duration.
Desert Empowerment + Sand Savant – The primary traits for the entire build. This would allow me to pulse out 2669.35 Barriers across 10 members of my raid each time I use Manifest Sand Shade at no cost every 6.6 seconds with Alacrity.
This also, at a very low realistic cost due to my vitality, would allow for me to use Sand Swell on all 10 members for 3141 additional barriers, with a 6.4 second recharge, or 4.2 second recharge, at a meager cost of only 2487 Life Force per use, which is literally nothing with my vitality.
3141 + 2669 = 5810 barrier easily applied across the entire raid of 10 people.
Want an interesting number to compare that to? 5822.5 is the minimum “max” barrier a base health Elementalist, Thief, and Guardian can receive.
So to put that into context, every 6 seconds with Alacrity, I can keep the entire raid’s worth of “squishiest” possible people completely max barrier for any incoming spike.
On top of this, I would be able to heal 5 allies around me with Transfusion (which will be spammed off of cool-down, which is 8 seconds in this build with Alacrity) for a continuous 700 damage each pulse, or 6289.2 healing per use to 5 targets, myself included. Bonus effect: I would be able to pull Downed allies to me every 8 seconds, and quickly revive them with my Blood Well trait.
Additionally, each time I use and then complete Desert Shroud, I would heal everyone around me for 2748 and partially revive them for 10% if downed. I can use Desert Shroud every 10.5 seconds, and it ends after 6 seconds, so once its rolling I will do this heal every 10.5 seconds.
As for the offensive portion of the build, every single time I use any of my Sand Shade abilities, I will apply a 10 target area Burn for 6 seconds and a Torment for 4 seconds. My Desert Shroud will apply 7 Burns for 6 seconds each every 10.5 seconds.
All of the above Shroud skills are instant cast, with the exception of Manefest Sand Shade.
This means that in addition to the above, I’m doing my normal necromancer condition damage applications, admittedly weaker than they could be due to not taking Curses, but they still are not insignificant damage applications.
With all that taken into account, I could easily see my build functioning as a mass enemy condi murder machine that also supports its raid with a mass barrier application machine. And this isnt even considering the Utilities or Boon Corruption effects that can apply more torment. I still have a strong Epidemic option as well in addition to the above.
This build would do amazingly well on encounters with a significant number of adds that you want to burn down while sustaining your group’s defenses
Here are some raid situations I’m looking to use this on:
Xera: Easiest thing in the world to cleave down her crystals and adds while still protecting allies and contributing to boss damage.
Bandit Trio: So much aoe to make cleaving down the adds that much faster.
Sloth: Slublings mass genocide and avoiding his Shake damage in case mesmer flubs the distort
Gorseval: cleaving all of his spirits to avoid entangle being eatten by one, and also hitting all four of the split phase spirits for great aoe damage + Epidemic to make quick work of that phase or any orbs in the area. Also, during the ground pound, I can keep the entire raid topped off with barrier spam to allow the dps to have less retaliation damage coming in.
Sabatha: easily dealing with any of her adds so they don’t accidentally kick someone into the flame wall, and also Epidemicing her underlings to spread those condis to her once she comes back in. Barriers can let us ignore a few bad aoe time bombs as well.
Vale Guardian: Laughing at all greens and just eating the damage and healing right back up thanks to barriers.
Mathias: Assuming I can prevent a potential one shot from his big nuke, the barrier uptime might prove useful. The constant area healing and condi cleanse on entire raid will help a lot with ice phase. The entire fight is just a slow burn survival fest, and the ability to revive people almost instantly and pull them out of kitten with Transfusion will be godly.
Cairn + MO = Complete easy mode with this build + the in combat portal (if they fix its duration) will be invaluable in letting people get to where they need to go with minimal dps loss.
