Well, I went for a pretty standard condition mancer build. I have some experience with it, and most of my experiences were good. If played right, you can get 3 people and bring them down. Here it is. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNArYbjMax7tbea07JEoH7CuAiRPKmjhZoKUOA-jkyAUAQyDE9BjABQkQShFRjtaWENWlMRUt6GzgHIhAWsGA-w
Some reasoning behind my choices:
Skills:
I noticed that the combination enfeebling blood, corrupt boon and epidemic some of its appeal lost, because many people go for some sort of CC. Basilisk venom killed me pretty often, or completely depleted my shroud pool. Which made me flay around like a fish out of water. So I switched blood is power for Well of Power, which is my stunbreaker and has the nice side effect of granting one second of stability (enough to leave a guardians ring of doom), and convert conditions into boons. Which gives me an additional way to get stability, the moment a thief uses skull fear or a necromancer fears me. I admit. It has a high cooldown, but it’s worth so much. Even after the nerf, corrupt boon is still a pretty good ability. It’s unblockable and hits hard, if timed right. It’s something I pop if an ele buffs himself and tries to run, or a guardian buffs himself pre-engagement.
Traits:
Spite:
I chose spiteful spirit, but I think Reapers Might is a nice choice too. I ran it quite a bit, to compensate for my lack of might since I discarded blood is power. But I feel much safer with spiteful spirit.
Chill of Death is something I don’t want to miss out on. It’s a very very strong trait, in combination with the rune of hydromancy on my scepter. I can keep people chilled for about 50-75% of the fight, which means they don’t move so fast (less kiting. I hate kiting people.) and it slows their skill usage. If I ran axe, I would most probably pick Axe Training, but I just feel much safer, if people get low and their heal goes on cool down for a longer time. Chilled is for me a way to get some space to breath, or heal myself.
Dhuumfire is basically a no brainer. With rabid trinkets I have enough precision, so every 2-3 hits of mine trigger it. And man, it deals an absurd amount of damage. Basically it replaced Terror for me. Which is still viable, but Burning isn’t blocked by stability. So the point goes to Dhuumfire.
Curses:
Since every minor trait in this line is mostly useless, except for chilling darkness and enfeebling shroud, I went for minor chilling and major enfeebling. Master of corruption is nice, but I don’t think I need the additional conditions, since I already run scepter. As I said, chilling darkness harmonizes pretty well with offhand dagger 4, not only can you get rid of conditions, but you can also chill again. And chill is our friend.
Withering Precision. Oh man. It was once useless, but now that it triggers also on critical strikes, it’s worth it. I survive so much longer vs. high crit / power targets, since it takes away much of their damage. Lingering curse or master of corruption would be an option, if you feel safer with it, but I like the little “Glancing, Fumbling” texts. It helps me keeping up my health & shroud for much longer.
Soul Reaping:
Gluttony is awesome. And your friend. You get more lifeforce and you can stay in a fight for much much longer. Also, Path of Midnight helps me get some mobility, with dark path and fear. It’s nice to be able to pick it. I don’t need unblockable marks, since I try to strip aegis with my scepter auto attack. (enough bleeds, so one not triggering won’t mess with the fight.)
Why undead runes? Because I like the additional toughness. I try to get a good mix of toughness and vitality. I started full carrion so undead was a nice way to get atleast some toughness. Now in combination with rabid, it gives me still around 26k health (that’s a healthy number), and 1.2k toughness.
Input is appreciated. And it’s my personal build, so it won’t be perfect at all. And yes. I know, most people run something like this ^^