I run with two PvE armor sets, one zerk and one condition, and accept that I can’t support both fully on the jewelry. It helps tackle me some of the worse PvE encounters but I know I’m not getting the best dps in the ideal situations.
You never see them because they’re bad. Zerker is optimal in 99% of PvE, making any other set practically pointless, unless you don’t have the skill to survive with zerker.
You could run P/D with Carrion (maybe mixed with some Rabid), a carrion sneak attack might very will hit harder then a berserker’s backstab. Then again, berserker has lots of little add on bonuses that can really add up. On the other hand, condition duration increase can do a lot for the bleeds on sneak attack.
Anyway, I think if you intend to do conditions in PvE you should get high condition damage specs or your bleed stacks will hurt those of other condition players.
20/0/30/20/0. All dire armor so health close to 20k and armor over 3k. . I use Runes of the noble to stack might (which tends to run at 16 stacks without much of a problem) and get the power over 2k+(3k+ attack) with 2k+ conditions.
D/d seems to be the best weapon set as you can stack bleeds and then use the AA for direct damage and finish with a decent heartseeker or Bs.
You then have to “play by ear” what to put on the toolbar dependent on the type of fighting you are doing. At times I have run all venoms with share in zergs using p/p but usually I have a mixture of skills there.
I tested him in Jormag and other areas of PVE late at night. I took out two crystals on my own with no one else around without once coming close to dropping. What i found about pure condition builds is it was hard to do direct damage on those crystals (or on walls or siege in WvW) whereas when there a lot of creatures the DB aoe and high condition damage would take out groups of those trash mobs faster then a pure zerker build.
At the end of the day it whatever you have the most fun with and what suits your style.
