Guild Wars 2

I really enjoy the condition playstyle of LB + Sw/T (with Phalanx Strength). However, I am new to 80 and only have Berserker Exotics with Ascended Power/Prec/Fer amulet & ring from Laurels. I realize this isn’t optimal at all, but the only Condition Damage gear I seem to find is Rampager’s.

Is the Condi build completely reliant on Ascended gear or should I re-gear with Rampager exotics? I already have to learn the dungeon/fractal mechanics and I’d rather not be a complete drag on the group with a poorly optimized setup as well.

Thanks in advance!

You don’t need ascended for anything in this game other than fractals for agony resistance. I have 8 characters with multiple builds each. Mostly all exotic. I only do small man fights and duels in WvW and being full ascended won’t be a big difference in damage or sustain.

Again, this changes if you’re doing really high fractal levels due to agony, though.

I formerly ran full Rabid gear and it worked out quite well for me, I recently made the change to full Dire with Dire+Rabid Jewelry and Backpiece relying on Fury for about 30% Critical Chance and its working out nicely.

You can get Ascended and Exotic variants of either.. to be honest the difference between Ascended and Exotic gear in terms of performance is still marginally quite low.. so unless you plan on min-maxing.. you can safely stick with the cheaper Exotic gear until you can commit.

Personally, I didn’t like Rampager when I used it.. the performance was rather.. lackluster for me. You can always go to Heart of the Mist first and crunch some numbers, see how it feels before you go shopping/crafting. ^_^