Guild Wars 2

Josh Davis

PvP Community Coordinator

“The 6/6 bonus on Runes of Perplexity now have a 8 second cooldown. This was excluded from the patch notes, but we’re in the process of getting them added.”

“Thought you guys would like to know.”
aka Grouch

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Perplexity-runes/page/9#post3235286

its about time.

8 seconds is not bad, people were saying 30 seconds for some reason

even 8 seconds…. “eh”…. id rather see it knocked down to 3 stacks or somethign. just me tho. still its much much better than 30

8 seconds huh? That seems like the time for warrior burst skills to come off of cooldown and channel…. interesting…..

I ran a condition build last night for fun. Just exotics, one ascended amulet.

Perplexity runes, p/d, caltrops and poison trap.

Those runes are just stupid.

I’m going to change the traits tonight, for a little more condition clear, health and try just spamming DB non stop.

Only class who was an issue were warriors who didn’t want to stay and fight as my mobility was awful. I also had no stealth escapes….so better 1v1, but tougher to escape from adds.

Still way more powerful than 90% of the rune sets out there. It should have been 20-30 seconds.

Confusion damage is a too high considering how easy it is to stack it for various classes and the fact it activates on nearly every action.

I was watching my stack hit for 1k per action on some ranger yesterday…that’s more than my auto attacks.

Would these runes be good in a PD/DD defensive condition build? Seems like it, and they are pricey but not too pricey.

phaeris.7604:

Confusion damage is a too high considering how easy it is to stack it for various classes and the fact it activates on nearly every action.

I was watching my stack hit for 1k per action on some ranger yesterday…that’s more than my auto attacks.

Confusion was already Nerfed and wasnt an issue until these runes came out and people started to abuse them.

phaeris.7604:

I’m going to change the traits tonight, for a little more condition clear, health and try just spamming DB non stop.

How does DB work with Perplexity Runes? There’s no interupt with D/D…

Yeah I’d love to hear more about your build phaeris.

kurtosis.9526:

phaeris.7604:

I’m going to change the traits tonight, for a little more condition clear, health and try just spamming DB non stop.

How does DB work with Perplexity Runes? There’s no interupt with D/D…

The number 4 slot gives a 20 percent chance of confusion on hit. Three DBS all but guaranteed to lay down 3 stacks. Couple this with a single daze you can get 6 stacks. 2200 base condition damage means that is 1380 confusion damage on use of skill. (The daze would come from daze on steal trickery line)

Now if you get 12 stacks bleed with the DB which is quite easy and a poison you can generate 1800+ damage per tick bleed 300 poison or 2100+ per tick. If that target has those confusion stacks on him he hit for 1380 more. Miix in a couple torments using scale venom and you got nasty condition damage going on.

Which is why DD and deathblossom so handy.

Would you use them over the scavenging runes in the (very nice) build you posted the other day? They’re certainly a lot more expensive.

yes ppl use 4 runes of perplexity just to cover up their bleed condition

Qaelyn.7612:

Would you use them over the scavenging runes in the (very nice) build you posted the other day? They’re certainly a lot more expensive.

Well In PVE no. I steal gunk enough times I can get confusion on easy but of course I am mostly in wvw now.

What I like about scavenger is while I would lose about 100 Condi damage which is not all that great, I am rather liking the leech . That extra 1k life every fifteen seconds and 1k damage after a heal is giving me a wee bit more staying power in an intense battle. The 5 percent chance on hit that happens is sort of a bonus to that and I find this gives an extra 2k heal and damage every 20 seconds on average. The heal is about what mug gives you and the damage is a bit more then mug.

While this anecdotal and not a real test, since I stared using scavenger I have gone many nights in WvW where I was not downed once and kept my condition stack through the entire night. When I was on perplexity I did not have that same sort of luck. It could be I am just getting better since I was in the Perplexity set. Given scavenger so cheap there no reason not to use them and once you feel much more confident with the build trying one of them other ones.

I might well end of using Perplexity or Torment BUT as I stated, the ultimate goal is to get Noble. Further as more Perplexity is being used, you will find people deal with it better when they get it cast on them and they can minimize the damage. It still great as that cover condition for your bleeds which remain the main source of damage.

With Noble I can likely keep 15 stacks of might on

I even went grenth for a time. Not bad but I wish the freeze happened before the roll on withdraw. Really any of the condition damage type runes work well depending on your style of play.

What he said!!

Basically I ran perplexity, d/d and d/p for the daze.

Dire gear. 30pts in trickery, rest didn’t seem to matter where I put them damage wise. Depends on what extra survivability you want.

Start with daze, switch to d/d spam db and you get the bleeds and the 2nd stack of confusion. I ran caltrops/poison trap utilities (one slot used speed insignia ). elite was grenth or daggers..varied on the foe.

Basically you go all in. Drop caltrops, poison trap, and just load bleeds,confusion and poison quiickly. It took absolutely no skill.

I’ve gone back to power build now. It’s just feels more in control. The perplexity build was just mash buttons and no planning. It did destroy mesmers though..which was fun.

I’m a new player still struggling to get a handle on thief, so what’s “no skill” to you sounds pretty darned good to me.

I’m going to try the 10/0/30/0/30 build again. Right now I’m running an almost entirely defensive 0/0/30/20/20 build, and I’m getting quite accustomed to using PD and DD. When I duel (in sPvP) I rarely beat anyone, but I also rarely get beaten. Even when I do die, it’s because I chose to re-engage after stealthing, rather than running away.

I would like to edge a bit higher on the offense. But my goal with my thief is scouting and ranging in WvW so killing players is secondary.

I do see the value in enhancing steal with 10 in DA and 30 in the Trickery. But the extra health, dodging, initiative recovery and Descent of Shadows in the Acrobatics line, not sure I could give them up.

Maybe I could try 0/0/30/10/30.. the daze on steal and shortened steal recharge do seem really tempting. But man, giving up on 2 extra initiative every 10 seconds and also on more dodge rolls… tough call.

>>I’m a new player still struggling to get a handle on thief, so what’s “no skill” to you sounds pretty darned good to me

Oh to be fair a condition build does in fact take skill as far as the survival side goes though the higher armor makes it more forgiving but that said when trying the direct damage builds my issue was a;ways using CnD just at the right time. That requires perfect timing.

I could never do that at just the right time and had a devil of a time then maneuvering behind the target for that backstab.

I have problems enough with those bloody jumping puzzles yet will watch people fly by me making jumps and walking on ledges as I inch along

Some of us are not built for that instant twitch.

I also have to admit always being broke because while I play every profession and have all but an engineer to 80 , well over 80 percent of all my time online is with my thief. It just the most fun. I have built and rebuilt him several times and will probably do so again. MY lockers are stuffed with gear for alternate builds all for the thief. I do wish it was easier to make this account rather then soulbound.

What I have to do more of is get involved in smaller scale battles more in Wvw> When I first started they were much easier to find as you could often roam alone and find one or two people alone or roam in a group of 5 and find a like sized group.

Now you no sooner start an engagement like this when another much longer group stumbles on your battle and wipes you.

BTW I did use a 0/0/20/20/30 build for a time and had and used a lot more dodges. I switched to this later build soon after the changes to thief announcement. I also used apothecary armor. It had way more staying power but the damage drop was noticeable.

Ahh ok, when I said ‘no-skill’, i didn’t mean completely brainless, but in comparison to using a d/d build it took far less work and timing. As mentioned the high toughness means you have a lot of room for error, whilst in my d/d power setup one mistimed c+d can mean game over.

I just don’t find the condition setup very rewarding in terms of game play though. The same reason I don’t like playing necro/engineer/guardian or basically any class you just spam aoes and hope people walk into them.

I find nothing more rewarding than landing a c+d on an invisible foe who’s trying to backstab you. HIgh risk high reward!

No I agree it requires much less skill, and I have no problem admitting that right now that’s what I need.

I prefer the high-risk high-reward backstab playstyle too, but.. I can’t pull it off right now. And I want to also play more the sneaky thief in WvW where the goal is not to fight but to escape.. and high defense with conditions fits better there.