The Solar Beam hits 3 times per cast which is very nice if you’re trying to proc sharpened edges. While testing with krait runes, earth sigils, and condition duration food, I was able to maintain around 7-10 stacks of bleeds without Quickening Zephyr or Sharpening Stones. This is quite nice compared to the shortbow considering that the attack:
(1) cannot be reflected
(2) doesn’t require flanking
(3) has 1200 range
(4) pierces without trait.
Conclusion:
1. We would have had a nice (perplexity?) rabid druid builds if some of the staff skills could apply conditions.
2. Shortbow is weak considering a non-condition weapon can almost keep up with bleed application.
you can add the fire spirit with sharpening stone as combo condi and get entangle. I can stack 25 to 30 bleeds with LB just because Skirmish have a good trait for bleed and add earth sigil to have more chance to drop bleed along with agony. get pets that immobilize or bleed targets, since now that they have 1k condi damage their bleeds stack with us now. I’ve been running condi long bow for a long long time and it is the best dps condi you can get and to top it all has a good cc and survival.
you can add the fire spirit with sharpening stone as combo condi and get entangle. I can stack 25 to 30 bleeds with LB just because Skirmish have a good trait for bleed and add earth sigil to have more chance to drop bleed along with agony. get pets that immobilize or bleed targets, since now that they have 1k condi damage their bleeds stack with us now. I’ve been running condi long bow for a long long time and it is the best dps condi you can get and to top it all has a good cc and survival.
Yea I’ve tried sinister LB. The staff is especially nice because you don’t have to deal with reflects. It is a nice alternative for long distance bleed stacking if you haven’t tried it yet.
you can add the fire spirit with sharpening stone as combo condi and get entangle. I can stack 25 to 30 bleeds with LB just because Skirmish have a good trait for bleed and add earth sigil to have more chance to drop bleed along with agony. get pets that immobilize or bleed targets, since now that they have 1k condi damage their bleeds stack with us now. I’ve been running condi long bow for a long long time and it is the best dps condi you can get and to top it all has a good cc and survival.
Yea I’ve tried sinister LB. The staff is especially nice because you don’t have to deal with reflects. It is a nice alternative for long distance bleed stacking if you haven’t tried it yet.
drop skill 5 it cannot be reflected and re position. your normal crit adds bleeds by a good chance for any attack even from condi like burn crits and other ones. check it if you havent noticed. try dropping a flame trap or viper’s nest and it will include a bleed when it crits.
you can add the fire spirit with sharpening stone as combo condi and get entangle. I can stack 25 to 30 bleeds with LB just because Skirmish have a good trait for bleed and add earth sigil to have more chance to drop bleed along with agony. get pets that immobilize or bleed targets, since now that they have 1k condi damage their bleeds stack with us now. I’ve been running condi long bow for a long long time and it is the best dps condi you can get and to top it all has a good cc and survival.
Yea I’ve tried sinister LB. The staff is especially nice because you don’t have to deal with reflects. It is a nice alternative for long distance bleed stacking if you haven’t tried it yet.
drop skill 5 it cannot be reflected and re position. your normal crit adds bleeds by a good chance for any attack even from condi like burn crits and other ones. check it if you havent noticed. try dropping a flame trap or viper’s nest and it will include a bleed when it crits.
Yea, done all that before. Not a fan of traps. But condition LB definitely works. The topic here is mainly focused on an alternative condition application the additional things the druid brings.
Yea I wanted to try sinister gear but couldn’t during the beta. I think dogs might be a better option since you can proc Ancient Seeds with their knockdown skill?
Yea I wanted to try sinister gear but couldn’t during the beta. I think dogs might be a better option since you can proc Ancient Seeds with their knockdown skill?
I was thinking of that, but the KD is on a 40s CD whereas the glyph is on a 30s, figured it would only be used once every 30s at best anyway in groups of enemies. Ball em up, Entangle, GoE. I really made this for max bleed stacks in PvE, I would change quite a lot for WvW/PvP. If it were for roaming, I would totally use the dogs with ancient seeds. Although I would change a lot for a roaming build.
Yea I wanted to try sinister gear but couldn’t during the beta. I think dogs might be a better option since you can proc Ancient Seeds with their knockdown skill?
I was thinking of that, but the KD is on a 40s CD whereas the glyph is on a 30s, figured it would only be used once every 30s at best anyway in groups of enemies. Ball em up, Entangle, GoE. I really made this for max bleed stacks in PvE, I would change quite a lot for WvW/PvP. If it were for roaming, I would totally use the dogs with ancient seeds. Although I would change a lot for a roaming build.
I’m finding the ancient seed a little glitchy My vines sometimes spawn too late and misses the target.
I thought you were exaggerating with 10 stacks but I thought about Mesmer laser beam 3 tics @ 1.5sec channel. This thing feels faster then that but not sure.
Anywhere from 7-15 stacks of bleeding depending on luck and ofcoarse fury. With sharpening stone its brushing 20. Rampager stat / earth sigil / accuracy sigil.
I’m going to think about replacing either lb or sword/torch with staff after seeing this in action. Ty for making this post OP.
…I’m finding the ancient seed a little glitchy My vines sometimes spawn too late and misses the target.
I think getting them to work with Primal Reflexes and a Hydromancy Sigil should be more reliable since they would be chilled 1st, but it still sucks that they do not appear immediately.
im wondering if i should go rabid or sinister…rabid worked fine, sinister would probably work even better as long as your pet can tank – but i dont wanna craft a sinister just to find out that i need rabid in hot….
im also wondering if rampager is really worth it..yes you have a higher chance for the bleed stack but your giving up on damage…i usually prefer defensive or offensive stat as primary instead of supportive ones (healing power being an exception in some situation) – thoughts?
what i found during my testing
- depending on the pet and only using earth sigil, rabid gear, staff autoattack and the pet – no utility yor weapon swapping i usually got 7-15 stacks of bleeding depending on the pet…
- using axe and potentially dagger i got easily 20-25 stacks with the same limitations
- bristleback is not necessarily the best pet to apply bleeding and i think i would give the edge to the lynx regarding stacks of bleeding and crit chance, tiger is nice too but the fury application is a bit wonky (tiger could be nice on a greatswrod valkyrie build tough)
- the smokescale has a lower condi damage and low crit rate but what is really nice is that it is very tanky which is good as a ranged guy, its autoattack has a bleed and it has a knock down to trigger ancient seeds, and with companions might i could easily – without any effort or further skills get its might to constant 15…
- I agree staff would work better as a condi weapon – there is a staff redux thread which has good ideas
The “debate” over rampagers and sinisters is (for sharpened edges ranger):
Does the weapon naturally deal conditions?
Does the weapon scale well with power?
Shortbow, use sinisters
Longbow, use rampagers
Staff, use stat gear that compliments your other weapon swap
Note that even if you go sinister LB (or rampager shortbow) you can always roll Sigil of perception instead of sigil of corruption. Can always take sigil of accuracy over sigil of bursting.
Defensive stat main is kinda wasteful. You should not need +1400 toughness or +1400 vita, hp. Its partially why celestial is strong stat set. Not only does it give you more stats overall, it gives you just enough defensive stats overall.
Using Full Ranged Ranger. Immune to reflects.
Just disrupt and keep poking with staff from afar. When you see the opportunity, drop the Sublime Wall, swap to Longbow and watch how enemy reflects suddenly became useful for you.
Haven’t tested it for more than 1 game. Looked fun but the concept is still why Ranger is considered bad in PvP … He does not contribute by anything at all except damage. No stomps, no point contribution, no revives… But the Staff offers that fast hop-in ability with several glyphs to achieve that.
The problem was always to get back away.
My vines sometimes spawn too late and misses the target.