Guild Wars 2

Anyone else feel this line is superbly underpowered?

Problem 1: There is nothing worth delving into here for PVE/Dungeon builds. not 1 trait i go….hmm i NEED to have that for my build! residual venoms and panic strike? well venoms is just a bad build and for obvious reasons and panic strike is ssssssssooooooooo PVP. next tier down (20 pts) we have improv/dual mastery/quick venoms which all sux. srry even at 36s theres no venom worth taking. dagger mastery is ok for 5% dmg but….i dont think i have to put 20% into that. 5% isnt a make or break thing….would rather have a nice utility boost or somethign that helps drop condis/heals/etc.

Problem 2: There is the same problem in pvp. people only take DA for the extra power that comes with it. nobody else cares about the traits. mug is actually better than both the 30 point traits COMBINED. and mug isnt that strong. its good just not collossal like a GM trait should be.

Solution?

Improvisation= If you have mug equiped each venom/trick/deception/trap skill you have equipped has a 20% chance to refresh. Each chance is separately rolled.

panic strike= same as before but .5s daze.

theres ways to fix it and make it really sting. but u guys get the point. any ideas> or do u believe DA is amazing as is?

maybe im off but it always confused me why so many traits were condi based, i know it has condi duration on it, but it really has no usefull “power specifice” traits to it other than a select few. When i make a power build i normally never put any in DA other than 10 sometimes for mug when it fits the build. The only time i peek at DA line is condi based for venom cd and such. Which seems off to me honestly i make up for all my power in gear. Never really had any ideas on how to really improve it but in power based builds of any kind i make i never stress over grabbing FOR SURE anything in DA, if anything at all. Honestly only in s/d i run mug at all.

exactly. the only thing that makes sense is the daggery mastery at 5% extra dagger dmg. but sword is also a power only weapon and sword has no boosts anywhere. there should be real boosts in traits that are related to power. they dont have to be dmg related but theyshould match power builds.

It is widely known that DA traits are trash. But it gives huge passive damage boost with power (like 8 might stacks) and exposed weakness, which has almost 100% uptime in any fight.

Panic strike is a good option to have in PvP. It is extremly powerful in combitanion with unload and pistol whip glass builds.

Residual venom isn’t worth grandmaster tier as it is now. It could be worth it if it worked with basilisk venom as it should, but it doesn’t.

I’m going to argue that Deadly Arts are rather great. I go 25 points in. I use the vulnerability on crit trait and the increased dual weapon skill damage by 5% trait, since I run pistol whip. The 25 trait point is an amazing dps boost as well considering nearly every battle you’re in your target will have some form of condition on it.

I run S/P and it works wonders for me. Even if you ran D/D, there’s a great dagger mastery trait in the second tier trait for a good dps boost. 5% is a lot more than you think. Not to mention, the trait line itself gives me 250 power, which is also a massive boost in damage.

I just downright disagree with you about he trait line in PvE. I don’t pvp enough to argue otherwise, however.

I actually like the Poison causing weakness a lot (in wvw you can puke weakness all over the place instantly with bow in zergs), and Mug is great of course. Sundering Strikes is awesome as you can stack a large amount of vuln, especially with pistol whip. I don’t like having no Support skills to carry pugs so don’t really use it further than 10 if at all in PvE. Kinda the same thing for PvP, you end up with weak healing or low crit dmg. If anything though it’s great @ 25 points at most, so it really needs a better Grandmaster.

I like Deadly Arts up to 15 points but everything after that just sucks.

It’s a shame really because the passive damage increase from Power is amazing but the traits are just so poor. Venoms are a niche, especially for Power builds and the cooldown reductions etc. just aren’t that great.

The passive things like +5% damage are just weak in general and shouldn’t ever be considered. I mean 5% damage increase for a single ability….almost every Sigil and trait is better than that.

Ill admit to loving the 15 pts for weakness, but only in pve i run it. Outside of that its mug or i just dont touch the line at all. The +xxx power is whatever and easily made up in gear or runes so that has no pull for me