Guild Wars 2

Hey guys.

I’ve been playing with a lot of builds in my time of GW2, and I want venoms to actually work.

Don’t start with saying they suck, I know the current state of them.

I know this has been attempted many times before, but I can’t seem to get the idea out of my head :P

I like the idea of playing with venoms/poison, to smear my blades with venoms before I attack my enemy.
Venoms need a buff, or changed so that we can get more utility from the venoms.

Anyways, here is my build:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoYVnMJCFNhNNBePB8PhjWiiPEHRRoDgDYB6L2T8oA-TVyBAB/t/AAPAAW0Hw8JAgMlgjp8bH1fw4QAYxRAgUAwMsC-w

Since it’s a hybrid, I was thinking about a good mix between condi damage and duration, and power.
I’ve chosen Carrion as the most used gear, as it gives us more HP (which we lack from the gecko) power and condition damage.
I have 70% condition duration, almost 2k power (with 5 stacks of might I get 2100 power and 1200 condition damage).

Anyways, I feel that it lacks a stunbreak, (maybe changing Skale Venom for Shadowstep/Inf. signet) and if “Potent Poison” trait is worth it over improv or executioner (does executioner proc condi dmg as well?)?
I’ve focused the build around poison as you can see for my traits and sigils. Poison has a 90% increase in duration and does increased damage (thanks to my trait) and all dagger attacks inflict poison (30% chance).

Skelk Venom can be pretty strong with reduced cooldown and leech from Leeching Venom trait (deals damage, heals you and gives you might).

Is the cele trinkets worth it, or should I go for something else? I feel they are a good addition to the build as they give me a little bit of everything.

I’m up for any feedback!

Edit: changed out Potent Poison because poison was over 100% with this trait, and that’s overkill (it don’t stack over 100%, right?).

Wen’t for executioner instead, or improv, depends on the situation/mood

I play a d/d build leaning more heavily to condition damage. It too uses venoms but here are a few things you might consider.

1>Durations do not extend beyond 100 percent. The 10 percent intensity bonus in game terms amounts to maye 2 or 3 extra stacks. While your build a hybrid the executioner kicks in at enemy damaged to 50 percent health. That kick in does not apply to the Condition damage but will to your regular attacks so might be more useful over potent poison BUT

2>Improv is a great skill with that reset. If your venoms can reset you can really load on conditions BUT you are heavy on the venoms meaning the chances of a utility result quite low.

Consider the following.

How often will you use DB over your regular attacks? DB is great for loading conditions as it a triple attack. RFI works great in a build that uses DB a lot because it a stunbreak, a gap opener and allows more DB with that extra INI. This in turn stacks more bleeds which might be useful than more Venoms. Depending on your style of play RFI might be better a choice then Skale.

SOM is also worth considering as a heal. Again depending on your style of play. If you rely on DB a lot you get 3 heals for 150+ off that SOM. If it never used actively this goes on as long as you attack albeit with a lesser heal when attacking a single target with other attacks. Skel has quite a long cooldown While running for its 5 attacks you get some nice healing but than have to wait. It a tossup here.

Your 21 percent crit chance is not all bad in such a build and can proc some on crit effects. I would not go for sigils here but another food choice worth considering and that the cactus Fruit salad. Same durations but procs a nice 350 point heal and life steal every 1 second. Again this heavily favors an attack style that uses DB. The effective crit chance jumps since it a triple attack which procs that heal more.

Now if you had RFI in place of Skale as example and kept all the rest the same you now have a Trick venoms and a deception on your utility bar. IMPROV will then trigger 60 percent of the time reseting one of those utilities and nudges out executioner IMHO. The double use of stolen items can be so very handy here.

On the other hand if NOT relying on DB a lot and focusing on using your INI for the power side of your attacks The SOM a poor heal choice and skelk might be better.

Other then that since you go for a hyrbrid I see nothing worng with the choice in trinkets and it certainly worth a try to see how effective the build is. I might consider an on kill stacker for either power or corruption over DOOM as you have a pile of sources of poison and one more stack will not make a lot of difference on a weapon swap. Even Sigil of perception useful here as you can stack up precision to kick in more of your Crit damage given you have no fury. (most people that use doom are not looking for the damage from one poison stack but a source of posion to inhibit heals)

Thanks for the many inputs babaz, much appreciated. I went for sigil of perception for doom, with this my crit chance got up to 32%. Not bad. and tried SOM as heal while spamming DB. It’s really a great blood stacker! Also tried with RFI, for improv to kick more often. Had good success with these changes, think I will keep it this way.
Will update build link after I try som more. Not on my computer right now