Guild Wars 2

Which one is the way to go?! 2 weeks ago I saw people saying that condition was the way to go, now I see people saying that the Thief doesn’t have enough ways to apply conditions (as D/D) to be worth it to go with condition damage. That, and I see people saying that the Berserker set (pow+prec+critdmg) is better than the Carrion one (pow+vit+cond), and so on. I’m confused now, which one is better?? (for PvE and WvW)

I know it’s build dependant too but that included which one is the way to go? (also what about defensive stats? do we need any?)

My personal experience in dungeons…

The max 25 bleed limit is reached very quickly. This obviously depends on how your groupmates are spec’d, but when pugging, do you really want your major source of damage to be hamstrung?

I went a mix of berserkers gear and valkyrie. I still use death blossom for groups, i still drop caltrops for certain encounters. Going direct damage doesn’t mean you can’t use your conditions….

And direct damage is never blunted by your teammates builds.

why don’t you just try them both out and see what you like? both are viable. Berserker can produce some powerful direct attacks with a mainhand Sword or Dagger. Condition damage basically requires the use of Dagger+Dagger and Shortbow as your weapons so it has slightly less build flexibility, but it is still capable of significant damage.

Nefarious.2014:

My personal experience in dungeons…

The max 25 bleed limit is reached very quickly. This obviously depends on how your groupmates are spec’d, but when pugging, do you really want your major source of damage to be hamstrung?

I went a mix of berserkers gear and valkyrie. I still use death blossom for groups, i still drop caltrops for certain encounters. Going direct damage doesn’t mean you can’t use your conditions….

And direct damage is never blunted by your teammates builds.

So it is true that instead of everyone’s bleed ticking at 25, it just shut’s out any bleeding that someone wants to apply when the stacks are at 25?

The bleed limit is just part of the problem.

The fact that such a limited number of attacks add condition damage is far more detrimental. That and you are almost “forced” to use venoms to get the most out of condition damage builds.