Help with gear.
High Level fractals condi is very nice due to high toughness. But, zerk build is also very acceptable. The good news, you can swap relatively cheaply if you change your mind (spirit shards may be your biggest boundary there as they come in slow).
Personally I love the Condi builds, when they fixed condi’s to be viable I suddenly found myself liking ranger (sword back then was something I just couldn’t get used to). My friend though does almost exclusively fractals and sword+X.
If you do go power you’re going to want to get a Sword and an offhand (Axe most likely but they all have their benefits) ascended as Longbow is not a good standalone weapon, it’s solid in a rotation with quick draw though, or when you just need to range, but that’s not that often.
Anyways, both are good, and gearing condi is much tougher as you need to raid to complete the trinkets right now (in another 2months or so we’ll probably have more options, but for now just back, amulet, and 1 ring are available outside raids). There are alternatives though (Sinister/rampager/rabid in that order IMO) and change your sigils a bit.
Just like chrono, at end-game, your role is moderate DPS with great support (not just healing, but spotter/frost spirit/GotL) so your options for stat types are quite diverse… power, condi and heal are all viable depending on which encounter you’re doing (going full healing stats isn’t that useful outside of raids, not even in fractals). If you’ve got a regular group, you can tailor it to them rather than the ubiquitous “meta”.
Also, longbow isn’t a condi weapon… if you do go down the condi path, you’re looking at either shortbow or axe/torch.
Thanks guys, It’s nice that we can have alot of options but what would be ideal gear to make, if i want to play high level fractals and to be accepted in pugs if needed?
Thanks guys, It’s nice that we can have alot of options but what would be ideal gear to make, if i want to play high level fractals and to be accepted in pugs if needed?
Don’t worry about PUGs too much, they’re all over the place. One day you’ll have a guy telling you condi is the only thing acceptable because it’s the highest damage. The next power because it has additional utility and you can equip offhand staff to help heal when needed without losing a ton of damage. Then you’ll run into the guy who doesn’t want to use his own heal skill or avoid damage and wants you in full Healing gear.
Go with whichever you like the best, there’s a solid 3 options that are all acceptable, though I’d stick to the damage if you can handle it as you should never have to heal to the extent healing gear does in fractals, if you do you’re carrying a bunch of bad players very hard.
So basically Condi > Power in damage, but power brings reflects and extra support and is more free to make variations for certain situations. Personally I go Condi just because I find the rotation fun. It’s not all that hard but does take a bit of timing and it’s kinda easy to screw up big (forget to swap weapons, or hit it and lag then bonfire without making sure).
And my experience is pugs usually don’t care too much anymore, it’s not like old dungeons or raids where people demanded certain things.
I tried Vipers and didn’t much care for it considering the long bow has no conditions on it unless you put the sigals on and or trait sharpened edges ,hidden barbs ,Refined toxins,Poison master however you like .
I found Trailblazers more effective for my style.
You can always mix it up to.Your not bound to one specific Armour stat across your set.
I run several different ascended sets depending on the situation and type of play.
(edited by Mokk.2397)