Guild Wars 2

Been tinkering with a berserker build, and condition seems pretty impressive. So far, this seems pretty nice: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAseTjMdQnHW4B+dAnIWmCsjjQAYklUCOBtg3Tbst2C-TBSAABxs/Q0nBgAOEAip8DgHAQoq/MpSQC1HEA4AY3CX4dDM+4jP+6r3u7u7wDPcpAgYZF-e

The question is whether or not I should go for Arms for added Bleed and proc on crit in the above build or something with Discipline, with slightly quicker primal bursts and a bit more toughness: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAseTnMdAdeglCCefAciglyATpDE5iAJBgBQC4dw2YjsA-TBSAABxs/Q0nBAF1HEwhAAgHAAqq/MpSwxU+FA4AY36W3dDM+4jP+4j3u7u7u7ubpAgYZF-e

What are your thoughts?

Other than that Zerker is bad and should feel bad for existing, I mean. I’ve already seen that expressed quite succinctly, and while that opinion is as valid as my own, im just trying to work on a build here.

Imo, I’d expect Discipline to be the better route by a lot.

The benefits to bleeds that come with the Arms line aren’t that good, and your build’s tuned up on burns. Discipline helps you get your your burns out faster, plus you’re less likely to be locked out of the weapon set you want for long.

Burst Mastery over Heightened for this build too, I think. Pumping out those bursts is your money maker, and Burst Mastery will help with that.

This is for pve, right?

Correct. This one is for PvE.

I’d be interested in input for PvP or WvW, I suppose. I’d imagine more focus on condi cleansing and evasion?

I’ve kept discipline in both of my condition builds for PvE. The choices I’ve been stuck between is strength or arms. Discipline is too good to give up for a proper rotation for condition builds.
Edit: Sorry, didn’t notice this was for PvE lol
But I would go balls to the wall in PvE, it’s easy enough to dodge AI attacks. Go Arms/Disc/Berserker, plus mobs don’t really attack enough for confusion stacks to do the damage they need, so I wouldn’t run strength.

Mercurias.1826:

Correct. This one is for PvE.

I’d be interested in input for PvP or WvW, I suppose. I’d imagine more focus on condi cleansing and evasion?

The biggest weakness I see for pvp or wvw is condition management. You basically have the ability to remove one condi per swap, one condi through Shake It Off, and then the 6s of resistance you’ll get on the HS active, should you choose to use it.

That means any condi-based opponents would light you up, and they’d be able to do it before you generated much adrenaline to get one of your bursts off, though your high health pool will help mitigate a condi burst somewhat.

Your defenses against bursty direct damage and against cc skills is also low, so your best hope is that people focus other targets so you can start laying burn fields in the melee scrums.

Your burns will hurt like a mofo, but your condi diversity isn’t high. So groups packing frequent aoe condi clears will cut your output by a lot. So will opponents who know to step out of those fields.

Still, it can’t hurt to try it out. Swap out the banner for something else… maybe Fear Me, Outrage, or Endure Pain or something.

Other quick comments:

• You’ve exceeded +100% burn duration, so you can start swapping out some of your +% burn bonuses because they’re doing nothing for you
• I haven’t done the math, but I disagree with Syde’s advice. I think Burning Arrows will give you more damage than Arms will, or it’ll be close and the benefit of Vigorous Shouts will make Tactics a better choice than Arms for this build.

For PvE Tactics+Arms+Berserker LB is the best DPS. For PvP I wouldn’t recommend condi war but you can try. Idk if I would run arms though.

I’ll tinker with it some more, but you’re right that being one-note on a PvP or WvW Condi build seems sub-optimal. Thanks.

Mallis.4295:

For PvE Tactics+Arms+Berserker LB is the best DPS. For PvP I wouldn’t recommend condi war but you can try. Idk if I would run arms though.

Without getting too deep into the math, why would Arms have higher dps than Discipline on a Berserker condi build?

It seems to me that Arms gives some minor bleed advantages, and some fairly minor boosts to condi damge. But with burns being the focus of the Berserker condi build, and those burns being largely focused on bursts, Discipline improves the frequency of those bursts (reduced cd, adren conservation, adren on swap) thereby increasing your burn damage, which outshines bleed damage by a lot.

I don’t know if I have any condi warrior experience in pve, so where am I going wrong in my thinking here?

Choppy.4183:

Mallis.4295:

For PvE Tactics+Arms+Berserker LB is the best DPS. For PvP I wouldn’t recommend condi war but you can try. Idk if I would run arms though.

Without getting too deep into the math, why would Arms have higher dps than Discipline on a Berserker condi build?

Adrenaline on crit (by far the biggest and most necessary)
300-400 condition damage
4-5 stacks of bleeding
33% bleeding duration
Vuln on crit
Extra Fury
DD multiplier

vs

15% Burst recharge (practically useless in most scenarios)
Some quickness (get a mesmer)
Faster weapon swap (everything is lower damage than LB)

Got it, yeah. I watched your video in the other thread and immediately saw that getting to the burst wasn’t a limiting factor anyway.

To the OP, that puts Arms ahead of Discipline, but make sure you’re not using the Dire gear you had in your Discipline build. Mallis’ video gives tips, though I think you had Rabid gear selected for your Arms build so will at least have the condi damage and precision sorted. Be sure to review your Arms traits… I think you had Signet Mastery (which I normally love) and Blademaster, but you should have traits to boost your condi damage.