Guild Wars 2

As a Sword/Sword + Longbow condition Warrior, mostly for WvW roaming, what would you choose:

40% crit chance and around 20k HP
or
~15% crit chance and around 25k HP

Basically, full Rabid or full Dire? And why?

Full dire. Because the only thing you get from precision is a chance to proc a measly 6 second bleed from the minor trait in arms. On top if that, you already have 23% crit chance with full dire, and 33% with a sword. You also have high fury uptime with SoR, this making it 53%.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAT8cjMdU4ZVIOewJagkgC5onBnDgK4mVuFZBA-TFyCABAcBAoa/BA1N4p6PTcEASUJYWK/k4hAQKAIWDA-w

This build is tried and true. Practice might stacking off your bow. I commonly sit at 10 stacks (without SoR) thanks to arcing arrow and savage leap. 30 arms may seem weird at first, however it does get you that extra condi dmg, and furious is an amazing trait. You can literally spam your f1s left and right

Always trying to perfect the build…and constantly making tweaks.

Question: Only thing you get from precision is a chance to proc a 6 second bleed from Precise Strikes?

How about:

1. every time you crit, your damage is increased by 50% (base damage for a crit)
2. Sigil of Earth. Another bleed on a 2 second cooldown
3. Sigil of Torment – another layer of conditions

There are numerous nice choices for sigils that proc on crits.

I am trying to find the right combination of EQ by including Rampager for some pieces…an extra layer of damage. The better player you are the more pieces you can add.

Forzani.2584:

Always trying to perfect the build…and constantly making tweaks.

Question: Only thing you get from precision is a chance to proc a 6 second bleed from Precise Strikes?

How about:

1. every time you crit, your damage is increased by 50% (base damage for a crit)
2. Sigil of Earth. Another bleed on a 2 second cooldown
3. Sigil of Torment – another layer of conditions

There are numerous nice choices for sigils that proc on crits.

I am trying to find the right combination of EQ by including Rampager for some pieces…an extra layer of damage. The better player you are the more pieces you can add.

50% of 0 is still 0. Since you have no power then that doesn’t do anything for you. Sigil of earth is nullified by sigil of geomancy. Sigil of torment is ok, but then you give up either corruption or doom for it.

Hi,

Both are good. Basically, going rabid instead of dire makes you lose 5k HP, but allows you to:

• Better benefit from traits based on critical hit: Precise Strikes (to get more bleed stacks), Furious Speed (to get swiftness in combat), Rending Strikes (to get vulnerability, for condition coverage), Furious (to get adrenaline),
• Better benefit from on-crit sigils, so getting access to a larger build diversity,
• Going for some hybrid build at a later time, without having to invest in a different set – for instance equipping berserker trinkets on top of your rabid armor. Your critical hit chance would be as good as in a direct damage build, thus allowing for optimized hybrid stats, and unrestricted trait usage (i.e. getting Forceful Greatsword or Sharpened Axes if needed).

In short, it depends on the build you intend to use, and how frequently you intend to change it. Use dire if you want to stick to a standard condition build, and use rabid if you want to experiment / switch builds regularly. And of course, you can have both sets as well (I happen to have many of them myself).

HTH.

Carpboy.7145:

Forzani.2584:

Always trying to perfect the build…and constantly making tweaks.

Question: Only thing you get from precision is a chance to proc a 6 second bleed from Precise Strikes?

How about:

1. every time you crit, your damage is increased by 50% (base damage for a crit)
2. Sigil of Earth. Another bleed on a 2 second cooldown
3. Sigil of Torment – another layer of conditions

There are numerous nice choices for sigils that proc on crits.

I am trying to find the right combination of EQ by including Rampager for some pieces…an extra layer of damage. The better player you are the more pieces you can add.

50% of 0 is still 0. Since you have no power then that doesn’t do anything for you. Sigil of earth is nullified by sigil of geomancy. Sigil of torment is ok, but then you give up either corruption or doom for it.

Sigil of Earth >>>> geomancy. Not even close. I have Doom on one of my weapons and I preload corruption stacks

Sarcasm inc

100% of your damage is conditions? Using your link sword 1 does 212 damage. When it crits it does a little over 300 damage. my Sword 1 can hit for 800+

As mentioned also I try and sprinkle in a little power with Rampagers to make it even more noticeable.

You lose some survivabilty, but the damage is off the charts with Rampagers/Celestial combo sprinkled in.

I was very similar to your build a few weeks ago. As luck would have it I came across an Ele with Diamond Skin who laughed as I watched the ‘Immune’ spam as he danced and laughed at me. A little later that day it was an Engineer who caused the same message because he was immune to conditions at 25% health. Figured a slight adjustment was in order.

On a side note. No other class or build has given me as much success vs thieves. They absolutely melt. That alone makes it worthwhile to me to have some power and more crit chance sprinkled in

So you use a hybrid build, not a pure condi. I use a pure condi. Obviously full dire will suck with a hybrid. Arcing arrow and final thrust (even above 50%) are more than enough to get DS eles below that 85% threshold

Personally I would say for pvp of any type definitely go with full dire (actually I would go with dire + apothecary with shout heal).

1. at 40% crit, your actual chance of procing bleed from precise strike is 13.2% that’s 1 our of every 8 hits. This is pretty pointless.

2. If you have fast hands (you should), most of sigil should be on-swap, so on-crit sigil is a non-issue for you.

3. In terms of hybrid build, I have been a lot of test of these for pvp, they don’t work nearly as well as pure condition or pure power. If you really think you would go with this, then use some rabid pieces.

4. Higher vitality actually increase your chances to win a lot more, because you can stay in the fight much longer. And for a conditional build this is what you need for your condition to tick.

WvW and PvP are two completely different animals. My comments were based on the OP ….WvW roaming.

Well spvp doesn’t have dire anyway so rabid is the only choice

When I say pvp I mean a general meaning of player vs player which includes WvW. Of course if sPvP actually have dire, I would much rather use dire.

If you get on crit sigils like fire, air, generosity, go full rabid. If not, go Dire.

Thanks for your answers everyone, currently I’m full Rabid and I’m doing just fine. But then I realized that I have a very particular playstyle that consists of kiting around with sword 2 as much as I can (well, it depends on what class I’m up against) while my carefully placed Impales, Pin Downs and Fan of Fire do the job (by carefully placed I mean to never ever miss them) while I’m dodging around a lot (double energy sigils, vigor on stances and so on), that means low uptime on my target.
I’m also running 0/2/6/0/6 and I’m realizing that I’m doing very little use of Precise Strikes even with 40% crit chance (60% with fury), so those additional 5k HPs could come in handy.

On the other hand, I don’t feel squishy at all on full Rabid right now. And those direct damage crits could start to add up after a while, but I’m not entirely sure about this one.

With all that said, could I get even better with Dire gear on? I made this thread becouse I just came from sPvP not many days ago, so I’m kind of poor, I can’t afford buying different kinds of gear very often and I’d like to know what you guys think would entail an optimal performance considering my playstyle described above.

See you around!

Make sure you get a few sword autos in to stack dem bleeds. Make good use of flurry as well, as its an awesome finishing tool. It pretty much has to be followed immediately by a savage leap to land tho. Also with 30 discipline i imagine youre using burst mastery? If thats the case you can combo combustive shot and immediately swap to sword to immob them while theyre sitting in your fire field.

The way i play it is really up in your face, even the bow i rarely use at >500 range unless im chasing with pindown. And you get a lot more out of fan of fire at point blank anyway, since all 3 arrows will hit. Make sure your using doom sigils, as that extra condi is invaluable. And if already you feel tanky with rabid, imagine how much more tanky youd be with an extra 5k health (almost 1/3 of our base)

Carpboy.7145:

Make sure you get a few sword autos in to stack dem bleeds. Make good use of flurry as well, as its an awesome finishing tool. It pretty much has to be followed immediately by a savage leap to land tho. Also with 30 discipline i imagine youre using burst mastery? If thats the case you can combo combustive shot and immediately swap to sword to immob them while theyre sitting in your fire field.

The way i play it is really up in your face, even the bow i rarely use at >500 range unless im chasing with pindown. And you get a lot more out of fan of fire at point blank anyway, since all 3 arrows will hit. Make sure your using doom sigils, as that extra condi is invaluable. And if already you feel tanky with rabid, imagine how much more tanky youd be with an extra 5k health (almost 1/3 of our base)

Hehe I was almost rank 60 just before the 15th patch with hundreds of tournies under my belt, I definetly know the Warrior ways, but advices on how to play more effectively are always welcome regardless, so thank you. =)
Let me clarify a little bit on how I play given some particular circunstances:
I kite around with sword 2 as its low CD allows me to play the lamest way possible, 90% of the builds in this game require melee range to apply most of the damage ‘that matters’ (spikes, set ups, etc.) and most of the time your enemy wastes CDs just to chase you down while you regen up with Adrenal Health and Healing signet. You have 3 incredibly good CDs to set up condi spikes, Balanced Stance, Endure Pain and Berserker stance, this build is incredibly effective to set up crucial spikes with Pin Down and Flurry, forcing a dodge is really easy with just Savage Leap, then torment, some burning and bleeds here and there are enough to waste a couple dodges and a heal. Then, you’re set.
Also, the newely added casting time to Pin Down was a significant buff to me, I can cancel it/fake cast it now to force a dodge or if it’s going to get blinded/blocked. While kiting, I immediatly swap to longbow and while I’m halway on turning to my enemy I can start casting it, when it fires, it takes most enemies by surprise (even skilled ones).
I can definetly exploit the terrain now, something I couldn’t do before on sPvP maps due to points getting contested.

And yeah, of course, I consider double doom sigils a must have. I consider burst mastery a must have too as it has lots of sinergies within the build: stronger overall Adrenal Health, more reliable condi removal with Cleansing Ire (longbow specially), more versatile use of burst skills as it allows combos such as Combustive Shot>Savage Leap>Flurry as you said, this is also complimented perfectly by Fast hands, Versatile Rage and Versatile power.

Anyways, just to not go offtopic here, you guys definetly convinced me, I’ll be using some of my (few) precious gold on a full dire set!

Hi,

Khenzy.9348:

Anyways, just to not go offtopic here, you guys definetly convinced me, I’ll be using some of my (few) precious gold on a full dire set!

Another way could be to run the Crucible of Eternity, the tokens of which can be used to buy dire gear, from its dungeon vendor. Each path can be completed in about 15 minutes when you’re familiar enough with it, and apart from the usual gold reward, you’ll also have a chance to loot charged cores/lodestones, which sell very well on the Trading Post.

If you’ve never run dungeons before, you’ll find out that there might be some bad attitude there from so-called elitist players (a bit like in certain PvP matches). If you want to make sure everything goes smoothly, state in your LFG that you look for a mentorship. If you have time though, you can also try and run it the normal way, with people willing to discover the paths, like you (for instance PvP friends), and enjoy the experience!

HTH.

Exotic dire is actually one of the cheapest on TP.

how about Carrion gear? is power really useless in a condi build?

Elegie.3620:

Hi,

Khenzy.9348:

Anyways, just to not go offtopic here, you guys definetly convinced me, I’ll be using some of my (few) precious gold on a full dire set!

Another way could be to run the Crucible of Eternity, the tokens of which can be used to buy dire gear, from its dungeon vendor. Each path can be completed in about 15 minutes when you’re familiar enough with it, and apart from the usual gold reward, you’ll also have a chance to loot charged cores/lodestones, which sell very well on the Trading Post.

If you’ve never run dungeons before, you’ll find out that there might be some bad attitude there from so-called elitist players (a bit like in certain PvP matches). If you want to make sure everything goes smoothly, state in your LFG that you look for a mentorship. If you have time though, you can also try and run it the normal way, with people willing to discover the paths, like you (for instance PvP friends), and enjoy the experience!

HTH.

I did a couple of runs and I enjoyed it but I’ve got tired of it really fast…

bigmonto.4215:

Exotic dire is actually one of the cheapest on TP.

… So I decided to buy the entire set from the TP, but man did it cost me quite a bit, if 6 gold a pice is cheap to you… darn. Luckily, I had enough Laurels to get ascended jewelry relatively fast with litte to no gold investment.

After trying it out quite a bit, I started to get many more PMs than before. Such as the ss I attached below. I’ve got like 6 or 7 from different people in a single day. Hey! it was usually half of that when I was on my Rabid set.
This time it was from an Axe/shield + Greatsword warrior I defeated with relative ease. He said that it felt like I had 30k HP and 2000 toughness (close enough!). He procceded to call a bunch of people to finally kill me, nonetheless, it took them a whole while to down me. I’m not criticizing him though, he was a cool and respectful guy on chat (I didn’t take screenies of the whole conversation, evidently).

So, all in all, I definetly feel much tankier, the damage is about the same and I make lots of people rage or I instigate entire parties just to kill me, that’s a good sign in my book.

A lot of players build anti-condition now. If you go with Dire, you will run into a few nigh unwinnable situations. Rabid gives you enough “hybridity” to avoid such things.

I can name 3 professions/specs that I couldn’t kill when I was wearing rabid: Ether renewal eles with 30 in water (or with diamond skin) that play defensively , healway trooper runes shout guardians and typical zerg warriors with trooper runes, PVT gear and sword/horn that decide to kite me around until horn/shout CDs come back up. Any of those can’t kill me either.
Rabid or Dire, that won’t change regardless. ^-^

Flissy.4093:

A lot of players build anti-condition now. If you go with Dire, you will run into a few nigh unwinnable situations. Rabid gives you enough “hybridity” to avoid such things.

You could use Dire armor, Rabid everything else with Strength runes for some nice hybrid power.