Guild Wars 2

So I have to ask, have any condition thieves tried Perplexity Runes yet? As a little Asura Thief, I’ve been very tempted to try them out while running p/d, d/p and Pain Inverter (racial skill that causes confusion). I’d try it myself, but I’m strapped for cash, and I couldn’t seem to test them in sPvP.

In case you don’t feel like looking up the rune stats:
(1)+28 Condition Damage
(2) 15% Confusion Duration
(3) +55 Condition Damage
(4) 20% chance to cause Confuion on hit (15s CD)
(5) +100 Condition Damage
(6) +15% confusion duration. Causes 10s of Confusion on interrupt.

A guildy who plays a thief has told me that a thief can keep 25 stacks of confusion up with these runes. How?

The thing with P/D builds is they usually have low initiative gain and to make this work you really have to spam headshot which makes you unable to use CnD or BP-HS combo to gain stealth.

25 stacks of confusion is not possible unless the inner CD is broken? Or some other bug.

There is no CD on the 6th rune bonus. He mentioned steal is one of the interrupts.

I was thinking about the 4th bonus actually. How many confusion stacks does the 6th bonus apply? I really doubt you can get 25 stacks on someone.

Pistol whip probably.

the 4th rune is a 3 stack which lasts for about 6 seconds with the +duration. and the 6th is about 11 seconds with the +duration.

just put a 20 stack on a brown bear but it’s not as easy as spam444444 because you have to interrupt the npc/player otherwise it won’t trigger the effect. in a normal fight you can apply like 8-13 confusion stacks without wasting all your ini. it’s not that strong because of the confusion nerf but it seems like the two necros i just fought didn’t like it at all

Yeah, I’m having trouble getting actual numbers on how many stacks a thief can realistically maintain. Everyone seems to way over-estimate it… or maybe they really are that nice? If so, I expect Anet will nerf them.

As for initiative, if I’m willing to give up Cloaked in Shadow (blind) for Infusion of Shadow (initiative) if it nets me more condition potential. Plus, it seems like a better trait for d/p since you already have Black Powder to blind them when you stealth.

Edit in response to Jekkt:
That sounds pretty good. 8-13 stacks is more than enough for me to try these runes out!

So the 6th bonus is only a single stack or?

I think you’ll lose a lot of damage by going D/P though. The pistol AA and sneak attack will give you most likely a better damage out put. These runes might actually work with a P/P hybrid build with stealth utilities. Well, maybe not :P

25 stack is possible but you won’t keep the stack up in a real fight. at least it makes p/p a bit more viable for conditions. the 6th is a 5 confusion stack per interrupt.

5 stacks wow that does make a change. With givers, pizza and stuff you’re looking at 20s of 5 stacks per interrupt. Along with additional 3 stacks for 75% of the time. kitten , I really do want to try out a p/p hybrid build. But yeah pulling of those interrupts is quite hard.

I did some testing with this runeset.

- The 4th rune’s confusion is a base 5 second duration.
- The 4th runeset’s “on hit” description is you hitting the target, not getting hit, like so many other rune bonuses.
- Damage for the 4th runeset’s 3-stack confusion is ~1100 damage (per each skill use on the enemy’s part) for ~1720 condition damage. That number went up when I gained stacks of might, and other sources of +condition damage.

My opinion that this runeset is actually pretty good (better than the torment runeset), even if you don’t use the 6th rune for the interrupt confusion. My build focuses on dumping as many conditions on my target as possible, to try to keep my bleeds up more often. This adds another condition that will effectively be up 2/3rds the time with my +75% condition duration, and the +30% confusion duration from the runes.

It’s pretty much a snap to drop 8 different conditions on a target now.

Vulnerability (CnD)
Bleed
Poison (sigil of doom)
Torment (Shadow Strike)
Confusion (Runeset)
Crippling (Uncatchable)
Blindness (Cloaked in Shadow)
Weakness (Lotus Poison, but every 20 seconds only)

Wtb access to burning please.

The 4th Slot will only do around 500 or so in World vs World, its basically a Rune version of Pain Inverter somewhat.

the 6th slot one is 5 stacks, and does around 835 damage per skill use You really only need 10% duration with Rare Veggie Pizza to make it around 15 seconds Duration.

most people will clear it well before then, but a few people without condition removal won’t.

(This skill builder doesn’t have Perplexity runes yet)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYQQRAqa6YlUmKNncT6E+5EB3Dnm0m694rk1saFwJA-jEyAItioRTLgpKDRjKAmCLiGrmBTlSEV75LiWtUAQsGA-w

In theory, with Slight of Hand you could daze your target, apply 5 stacks of confusion and 15 seconds of poison, and gain fury, might and swiftness for 10 seconds. This can occur every 18 seconds… I think I just found a new build to test!