Guild Wars 2

Hye.

I’m actually playing a Thief as Venom sharing support in WvW

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQJAVVlUmaNnaS0E/5EB3DnC1n6VgsaPupNjJAl

And i’m wondering what is the more efficient to play with :

- Maximum Power or maximum Condition damage
- Playing with Hide in Shadow (for condition removal) or Signet of Malice

Thanks for advising.

1. max power imo, conditions are easly removed
2. malice if you daggerstorm a lot in their zerg, else his

1) Please edit your link. It doesn’t seem to be working.

2) Usually +Power is better. Any of the shared copies of Spider’s Venom use the recipient’s +Condition stats, so there is little point to focus on it yourself unless that’s your devoted build (which isn’t a typical choice for Venomous Aura).

3) It depends on your +stats. If you’re running some type of gear that lacks +Vitality, then definitely take HiS since conditions will eat your alive. SoM can be nice in certain situations, but you’ll be dealing with incoming damage spikes and you’ll want to heal yourself up ASAP. I’d also assume that you’ll often use Basilisk Venom, which tends to have more synergy with HiS than you would find with SoM.

4) Depending on whether you use Basilisk Venom as a pre-cast or mid battle, Superior Runes of Lyssa is another condition removal option. I use both HiS and Lyssa on my S/P Thief (which is mainly for PvE). Just remember that there is an unmentioned 50 second cool down on the proc from using an Elite ability.

Hmm… I’ve not used those before. Do the ravens count like pets or as an ability under your control (similar to a Ranger’s warhorn)? Assuming it’s under your control, it could be usefull. My only worry is dealing with condition damage, since you wouldn’t be having access through either your heal or armor runes.

Updated link

I’m using Carrion gear, Soldier’s Shortbows, and Mad King Runes.

So you’ll have high health, decent +Power, and high +Condition damage. With that high of a health pool, you might be able to just ignore conditions as you attack and heal with the Signet. However your lack of condition removal still gives me issues. You won’t have much that you can do to counter incoming effects, which is something that I always consider to be a requirement. I realize that not everyone feels this way, but that’s where I stand on the matter.

I’ve been playing Venom Sharing in all enviroments for quite a long time now. Some tips I can give you:

- Replace Basilisk Venom for Thieves Guild. Basilisk Venom is not good for sharing (the effect doesn’t stack), it’s a skill intended for bursters you won’t get good enough use of it. Thieves Guild instead benefit from your venom sharing and most times you’re not going to share with the max of 5 targets as the range is close so this way you get good use of it. Spider Venom with leeching does around 2K+ aditional damage (the leeched damage is added to the attack number) so that means 4K+ extra damage with your 2 buddies.

- The only 2 venoms worth using are Spider Venom and Devourer Venom. Ice Drake isn’t worth his recharge time. I would recommend replacing it with Shadow Refuge, probably our best skill overal and no doubt the best support skill we got. It allows for easy scapes, ally resurrection, healing, extra auto-healing due to Dark Field health stealing (Sneak Attack 100% combo*5 chance + Dark Field + Spider Venom can return a good chunk of your HP).

I highly recommend a Carrion set with P/D and Shortbow. Shortbow is a great support weapon, it has the best combo finisher in the game and the poison field also keeps your opponents in 75% of their damage due to Lotus Poison trait. It also is great for travelling and getting shortcuts and is excellent for “tagging” in events (the more targets you tag with a hit, the better the reward and more drops you will get).

Shortbow is a great weapon, but is great as secondary weapon, you should always focus more on your primary weapon. The one I’ve been using is P/D. It works great with the build and I recommend the following to increase its efficency:

- Replace Shadow’s Embrace for Infusion of Shadow, this way the “technical cost” of Cloak and Dagger is 4. This is important as the main strategy with P/D is using CnD and follow with Sneak Attack. You lose a bit of condition remocal but I’ve never had big problems with that and most times a well timed Hide in Shadows is all I need.

- Get just 25 in DA instead of 30 (the extra use of venoms isn’t that great for a 3rd tier IMO), and get those 5 points in Trickery for +50 Condition Damage and most importantly, 15 total initiative.

- Get 3 Krait Runes and 3 Afflicted Runes, this way you still add to your condition damage (some would recommend 2 of each and 2 centaur, but you lose a lot of condition damage doing that) and also put in your Pistol and Dagger 2 sigils of agony. This way your Bleeds will last 7 seconds instead of 4 (15%and15% from runes, 10%and10% from sigils and 25% from Deadly Arts for total of +75% increase). With bleeds only full seconds matter so having 80% duration would be the same than 75%.

For the Shortbow I recommend either Sigil of Energy to replenish Stamina, or Sigil of Corruption to stack more condition damage.

Continue in next post.

Some recommendations about using the build:

- If you’re in a party try to look at your allies HP when you’re sharing your Spider Venom as it can heal them 2K. Also try to get as many allies as you can as each ally is an extra 2K your SV will heal AND damage.

- Use P/D sequence only when it’s safe. If there are hordes of enemies and a lot of area attacks it isn’t safe. Despite the extra Vit from Carrion equipment you’re not a tank so avoid getting killed (you’re supposed to be the support, not the one needing support). If the situation is too dangerous keep your Shortbow in hand, trigger as many Combo Fields as you can (specially Water Fields, you can heal 1400 HP per Cluster Bomb to everyone in range) and keep weakening all your enemies thanks to your #4 skill which is more or less like applying Protection but targeting enemies instead and you’re able to maintain it all you want. If you’re in the middle of a lot of red circles and you don’t know what to do, spam Shortbow #3 and you will evade everything without wasting stamina.

Know when to use your Shadow Refuge, and remember that some times you don’t need to be the one going inside the refuge, sometimes if you see allies resing other allies is a good idea to throw it and shoot the opponent to get his attention instead of jumping inside the refuge (sometimes the downed ally will attack breaking stealth, and a big monster or opponent players will target him with AoE attacks destroying him and the stealthed guys that were helping him). Shadow Refuge also heals so sometimes you can throw it in the middle of an event with many downed players and help ressing multiple targets at once without even pressing your F key.

If you’re going to use your Thieves Guild, try to use your venoms after summoning them. Sometimes I forget about it and use them in sequence and then my Thieves, which means lost potential as you can share with them. This is specially useful in solo-play as you would be wasting your traits otherwise. I’ve been having a lot of success with this build in all enviroments even with the low condition removal. If you’re interested try it in the mists as all equipment is free there, I highly recommend it and is a great support build when you know your place in the field and how to use it.

Lokheit.7943:

I’ve been playing Venom Sharing in all enviroments for quite a long time now. Some tips I can give you:

- Replace Basilisk Venom for Thieves Guild. Basilisk Venom is not good for sharing (the effect doesn’t stack), it’s a skill intended for bursters you won’t get good enough use of it. Thieves Guild instead benefit from your venom sharing and most times you’re not going to share with the max of 5 targets as the range is close so this way you get good use of it. Spider Venom with leeching does around 2K+ aditional damage (the leeched damage is added to the attack number) so that means 4K+ extra damage with your 2 buddies.

- The only 2 venoms worth using are Spider Venom and Devourer Venom. Ice Drake isn’t worth his recharge time. I would recommend replacing it with Shadow Refuge, probably our best skill overal and no doubt the best support skill we got. It allows for easy scapes, ally resurrection, healing, extra auto-healing due to Dark Field health stealing (Sneak Attack 100% combo*5 chance + Dark Field + Spider Venom can return a good chunk of your HP).

I highly recommend a Carrion set with P/D and Shortbow. Shortbow is a great support weapon, it has the best combo finisher in the game and the poison field also keeps your opponents in 75% of their damage due to Lotus Poison trait. It also is great for travelling and getting shortcuts and is excellent for “tagging” in events (the more targets you tag with a hit, the better the reward and more drops you will get).

Shortbow is a great weapon, but is great as secondary weapon, you should always focus more on your primary weapon. The one I’ve been using is P/D. It works great with the build and I recommend the following to increase its efficency:

- Replace Shadow’s Embrace for Infusion of Shadow, this way the “technical cost” of Cloak and Dagger is 4. This is important as the main strategy with P/D is using CnD and follow with Sneak Attack. You lose a bit of condition remocal but I’ve never had big problems with that and most times a well timed Hide in Shadows is all I need.

- Get just 25 in DA instead of 30 (the extra use of venoms isn’t that great for a 3rd tier IMO), and get those 5 points in Trickery for +50 Condition Damage and most importantly, 15 total initiative.

- Get 3 Krait Runes and 3 Afflicted Runes, this way you still add to your condition damage (some would recommend 2 of each and 2 centaur, but you lose a lot of condition damage doing that) and also put in your Pistol and Dagger 2 sigils of agony. This way your Bleeds will last 7 seconds instead of 4 (15%and15% from runes, 10%and10% from sigils and 25% from Deadly Arts for total of +75% increase). With bleeds only full seconds matter so having 80% duration would be the same than 75%.

For the Shortbow I recommend either Sigil of Energy to replenish Stamina, or Sigil of Corruption to stack more condition damage.

Continue in next post.

Thanks.

I would say Mad King Runes are more effective thanks to “Ravens”, power+, condition duration+, and Bleeding duration+, don’t you think so?

Also why not spending the 25 points in Acrobatics for stamina regeneration and Might bonus for exemple instead of Trickery?

If I could use more trait points (probably with expansions and level increase we would get some more) I would spend them in Acrobatics, but as it is that build gives me excellent results and I don’t miss acrobatics too much in the 25-0-30-0-15 setup.

About the runes I prefer the combination I said. In my setup it allows for the 75% increase (with mad king runes you would need those extra 5 points in Deadly Arts to reach a full second as the increase is only 25% intead of 30%) and you get more condition damage from that combination. The ravens are fun but I prefer that combination, specially if using Thieves Guild (which I highly recommend as I said) as you’re not triggering them too often.

if you go 30/x/30 I would consider going 100% condition duration (take the appropriate runes, and a giver weapon with Rare Veggie Pizza) while focusing on power/crit. I would also move the 10 points in trickery into critical strikes, and run S/D as your second set.