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Longbow Should Pierce Baseline

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Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

I wish i could use my ranger in wvw, i mean technically i can no one stops me lol but lets be honest, its in a bad state. Soulbeast wont do much to make rangers viable in wvw, sad. Well anet never cared for rangers, never will. My Advice to anyone that have a ranger and wvw, reroll honestly. Must suck to hear commanders and guild yelling at you for bringing a ranger, seriously you are just a wasted slot in the raid.

Soulbeast might be just barely useful but it will depend very heavily on whether buffed maul and sic em stick around as well as how strong they keep scourge and spellbreaker.

Sharing dolyak stance is useful and buffed maul actually hits for a lot in a zerg but playing frontline and sharing boons on a 30s cooldown wasn’t very effective during the beta when necros and warriors were completely stripping all boons.

I could barely get off a handful of worldly impacts just from how quickly your stab evaporates.

The warrior bubble also blocks projectiles which will make longbow even less practical.

Doyak Stance is like a simple Guardian shout: Stand your Ground but lasts alot shorter.
(3 seconds for your party)

Negating chill/cripple is not a big deal in zerg fight, especially when enemies have lots of Guardians and Revenants.

Even the CD is the same, except we don’t have a stance cd reduction trait, and we need to grab a grandmaster trait to even share this with the party. Guardian’s shout can even trait it for them to remove conditions for the party.

Way to go Anet! We’re an inferior Guardian now!

I think the GM trait should be 100% stance duration share to allies and is currently weak.

That being said, you are missing a prediction of how the meta will go and some decent “unintended effects”. Reapers/Necros are already pretty freaking good at aoe boon stripping. And soon there will be spell breakers, which will be used a LOT in WvW too. If your organized guild group relies predominantly on resistance instead of evolving with the meta, they will be slaughtered. Sure, while pirate shipping, resistance can kind of make due but if you try to melee ball, guardian boons won’t be enough.

Bear and dolyak stance, especially if it was 100% duration shared, would actually be awesome here. An unstrippable stance that clears 2 condi and heals per second helps a lot. What makes it even better is dolyak stance preventing 3 non-damaging conditions from being applied. That means that condi clears are much more likely to actually clear the conditions that are killing your team because they won’t be wasted on cripple, chill and immob. It should in theory prevent deathly chill from applying 3 bleeds/vuln (reaper) and the rev chill to torment trait. In and of itself, it won’t keep a zerg alive but those are a lot better than a shout that only provides boons that can instantly be ripped.

Really just need that 100% duration share to allies for it to hit a point which it could be meta to bring 1-2 soul beasts per melee ball group

SoulBeast, thoughts and Suggestions

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Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

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Some of these are just brokenly OP.

Track the wounded with a 1 second ICD to teleport, knockdown and do dmg…. so basically constant knockdown on sword auto? What happens if I trait traps and plant them home. Instant self portal back to home while my enemy tries to decap and is knocked down in traps with no tell. That is rediculous. What happens with longbow 5 vs groups of enemies? Just random teleport around to anyone you hit and knockdown?

Griffon’s stance stuff isn’t a “beautiful combo.” It would be worst than perma evade thief.

Those two aside, I do like the idea of a trait that does something when you unmerge with your pet. Also agree with the general idea that new skills don’t feel beastly.

Power Soulbeast Grandmaster in raids

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Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

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First off most people aren’t setting records and just need to hit 20k on a dps meter in real scenarios to have a happy group. Second, and more importantly, we don’t even know if 2 druids will be used in mirror comps. 1 is sufficient for gotl to 10 people. Condi soulbeast loses a lot more DPS bringing frost spirit/spotter than a power soulbeast. That’s 33% less bleed damage just for spotter. Having to bring sun and frost spirit over 2 traps is a big loss. So you shouldn’t be comparing power soulbeast to tempest/DH.

Condi soulbeast compared to tempest/DH makes more sense as pure DPS spots and I think condi SB will be fine.

Power soulbeast is more about comparing 2 metas. Mirror comp with 2 druids or a new comp with only 1 druid and 1 power soulbeast that brings spotter/frost spirit so that those tempests and DH can actually hit 36k. If you ignore spotter and realize that 7% of that dmg comes from the power soulbeast, then just buffing 2 power DPS people is worth 5k for the soulbeast to be there. Buffing the other 2 ppl in the subgroup won’t be 5k but this changes the threshold to beat closer to 25k not 32-36k.
——————-

The general rotation is going to be something like Sword/Axe 10 seconds. Swap to GS for burst rotation for 10 seconds. Repeat. Use sic’em every other GS burst rotation.

More specifically, something like GS2, GS5 (Twice as vicious), GS2, F4, GS3, GS2, F1/F2 (ToV again) GS2 (maybe 1 or 2 auto fillers in there). Swap back to Sw/Axe. Axe 4 (ToV) Axe 5. Sword auto. Then use Axe 4 (ToV) right before going to GS again.

Maul 50% bonus and 2.1 second CD with alacrity and swapping to GS only when GS 5 is ready means that you rarely use that abysmal auto attack because you can use GS3, F1, F2, F4 as filler (not just filler they also hit hard and have CD that line up with this rotation from smokescale for example).

This means using your 14k benchmark that camps only GS for an entire golem is a horrible representation of what will actually happens because so much of that benchmark is waiting for GS2/GS5 and using GS1 while a soulbeat will hardly touch GS1. Using Sic’em for the 40% bonus during the burst means sic’em isn’t worth 10% but more because you are using it every other burst phase when the dmg is weighted higher.

Side note: Did anyone test if loud whistle buffed beast mode by 10%? Otherwise, I think BM will be dropped for power soulbeast in raids.

Viper's or Berserker's stats for Soulbeast?

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Don’t think Grievers will be worth it for Ranger/soulbeast. It doesn’t give any condi duration so you have to get it from Runes, Sigils, food and traits for the most part.

Grievers looks like it’ll synergize best with something like Rune of the flame legion: 7% power dmg, 175 power, 30% burn duration. 20% from sigil, 15% from food
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bowl_of_Fire_Meat_Chili
20-33% burn duration from traits (on classes that actually have one) and Grievers could work.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fancy_Truffle_Burger
There is also poison duration food but I don’t see any good poison runes that work for power/condo hybrid soulbeasts.

I don’t think grievers is going to work well for PvE dps rangers. Keeping my zerker and viper sets which I think will both be viable for soulbeast. Possibly a different set that comes out will be viable and I’ll just transmute my old healing set to it.

Druid's Future (Healer) - PoF

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Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

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While anduriell decided to post a decap rev for some reason…, they are right in that druid is really about spotter, spirits and gotl. A viper ranger or soulbeast can fulfill most of that. A viper druid/magi can fulfill all of that. Given that gotl hits 10 people but the rest of the buffs hit 5, I think it’s safe to say there will still be 1 druid and 1 ranger (likely soulbeast although maybe druid) in raids but not necessarily 2 druids nor would they necessarily be magi.

Magi druid won’t actually be the best at defending/healing the team though. Tempest is already better at raw heals. Same with Rev. Barrier is objectively better than healing in the same way distortion share is Op compared to healing: preventing dmg is a lot better than having someone fail a dodge and repair/res them. It will require a very skilled Scourge (on similar level to a chrono with good reflexes/premonition) to pull it off but could be worth it.

Ventair/Renegade is also likely to be some form of meta. Half the time you cast massive heals/alacrity. Then you legend swap and channel the elite:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Soulcleave%27s_Summit
which will also be decent healing and a damage buff and sometimes press F4 for more alacrity. Assassin’s presence also got buffed to 225 ferocity.

Seraph firebrand can also somewhat replace Chrono/magi druid depending. In small group stuff like fotm, I think it’s going to be the easy mode ideal carry class that can heal, do dmg (more than chrono), provide quickness and utility. For raids, a more burn DPS focused quickness bot that combos with the above Renegade to cover heals, quickness and alacrity in a subgroup could work. Then 3 DPS classes (zerker soulbeast with spirits/spotter) fill up the rest of that subgroup.

Druid seems safe. Likely base comps will be Druid, Renegade, Firebrand, Chronomancer, and Berserker. Other slots are to be determined.

That won’t happen. Either distortion share is required (and then firebrand/renegade aren’t essential to base comps for quickness/alacrity) or you drop the chrono. Given that minstrel chrono, firebrand and renegade all have heal potential, Druid also isn’t required for healing. You are also mixing a lot of power/condi dps in there when subgroups ideally focus on 1 or the other.

In raids 10% to 10 people is nice and “realistic” because stacking is easier. 1 warrior with 2 banners could also be a thing while dropping the second PS for another class that stacks might.

For 5 person groups, 10% dmg to 5 ppl is nice in theory but gotl and alacrity can easily fall apart in less organized groups as tightly stacking isn’t nearly as common (and sometimes lethal due to an instability) The other support classes are getting buffs that can compete with 10% bonus to 5 people that have a much better range which makes them more feasible.

TLDR: There will always be at least 1 Druid for raids (10% dmg to 10 ppl is too good to give up). Most groups will likely keep this as a healer although Viper is a possibility. It is extremely likely that there will be a 2nd ranger/soulbeast for spirits/spotter. This also depends on if distortion share is mandatory which shoves renegades and firebrands usefulness to the side.

For smaller group stuff, it won’t be “required” as there will be a lot more options in support classes that both buff and heal.

SBow skills and traits : Ranger vs Revenant

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I fully agree with you that Lotf should be on evade not dodge. It would synergize well with primal reflexes, strider’s defense and steady focus. Not to mention that ranger weapons have plenty of evades built into them. I also agree that the flanking bonus shouldn’t be required for base shortbow1/2 although I’m ok with the added flanking bonus on LotF (this increases base duration for 1/2/4 on top of also increasing 10% for all conditions).
————
That being said, I don’t agree with the rest of your post as there’s a major flaw. Going to focus on just PvE numbers although this is relevant for all game modes.

Condi Rev
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAFy0uEMLCo

Condi Ranger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hviYpadmETA

Bleed ticks from condi ranger range from 11k to 19k.
Bleed ticks from condi rev range from 800-1500 (Just geomancy procs)
So yeah… 33% bonus bleed vs 25% bonus bleed… not apples to apples.

While I get the impression you actually play ranger, I don’t get that with Rev. Energy is a much bigger problem than you state and it’s not subjective. If you spam just shortbow 2 on CD for max bleeding, that’s 5 energy every 3 seconds when you gain 5 energy every second. That’s 1/3 of your energy for just spamming that “low energy skill.” If you spam shortbow 3 on CD, that’s 10 energy every 6 second so that’s also 1/3 of your energy right there. Short bow 4 also looks like a good burst skill and that’s 15 energy every 8 seconds. Shiro for a 30 energy stun break, Kalla with “aoe sharpening stones” with 25 energy, heroic command which costs 20 energy, and a heal that costs 10 energy. You don’t just wait 6 seconds to get a stunbreak unless you do nothing but auto attack. There is also a glaring lack of mallyx/corruption which any condi Rev/renegade in PvE or PvP is going to take while you mention invocation, devastation and obviously renegade. Of mace/axe+staff, which weapon does the shortbow replace for PvP? Staff and a you have no defense. Mace/Axe and reflects will stop most of your condi application. Your hypothetical condi renegade with a shortbow doesn’t get to invoke 3 legends with 4 trait lines and spam all skills because “energy is subjective.” More importantly the bleeds aren’t going to hit anywhere close to what condi ranger/druid/soulbeast bleeds will.

Mirage Feedback - WvW Based

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As such, really rethink the way these work. At the very least I’d make them significantly stronger and remove the attack from clones (that is, they do the animation but it does nothing, not even apply conditions). Also means we’re less reliant on clones in WvW, where they last all of a single frame at the best of times.

As an example, the GS ambush should probably hit squishy targets for ~25% of their health, and hit the side targets for the exact same damage.

I have to +1 this. Too many ppl are saying make Infinite horizon baseline when I really think it’s the self ambushes that just need to be made stronger and clones can just look pretty and do some minor damage.

Start Mirage over from scratch, PLEASE.

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A good full rework isn’t happening nor do I think it should. The real question needs to be “What are the minimal changes necessary to make multiple different viable playstyles?”

Phantasms not using ambush skills intensifies the problem core mesmer had: Mirage suffers from an identity crisis with shatters, new clone mechanics and phantasms being an even worst contradiction in playstyle than before. Making infinite horizon baseline won’t fix any of that. It’ll just push the clone side harder. This also backfires even more for sword/GS users as clones do zero power damage.

Dune Cloak: Casts Sand Shards on completion of an ambush attack. Buff Sand Shards to 1.5 Coefficient, 3 bleeds 240 radius. Keep the 20% condi duration. Dune Cloak/Sand Shards is held back is because of the “instant damage” autocasts on gaining Mirage Cloak. Making it on ambush completion, negates that problem as enemies can now fairly dodge it. This would buff the sword and GS ambush attack on the power side. Clone ambushes were doing zero power damage anyways so it’s ok that it competes with infinite horizon. It helps WvW zerg/PvE tagging by giving illusionless AOE. In PvP, a Mirage can pick this trait summon illusions, shatter freely and focus on personal ambush attacks instead of clone ambushes. Could possibly reword it so that the 3 GS ambush beams could cause 3 separate sand shard procs.

Shards of Glass: Gain 15 endurance for each illusion shattered. The RNG is BAD. That being said, it’s supposed to roughly give you 1 Mirage cloak per 3 illusions shattered if the RNG is consistent and 1 mirage cloak is equivalent to 1 dodge. So IP proc = 15 endurance. 3 illusions shattered+IP = 60 endurance or slightly more than 1 dodge. It keeps the overall balance but has better usability of not chasing a mirror around and dodging when you want to dodge instead of RNG evade frames.

With the exception of the current Shards of Glass, the only source of Mirage Mirrors are deception skills. General consensus is that they disappear too fast and no one likes chasing them around. When it comes to fighting the Mirage, this also makes the noob “perma evade frames” complaints more prevalent. Would anyone be upset if the functionality of Mirage Mirrors changed? Example: After 2 seconds, Mirage Mirrors shatter (cast Sand Shards around it). So basically delayed PBAOE. I think it would make the class less aggravating to both play and play against. Wonderful Dev animation stuff that went into it stays.

Jaunt: Change it to 600 range. Make it 2 charges if 3 charges at 600 is too OP. Preserves the 1200 distance.

Without a doubt, there are some clunky skills and a few numbers could be adjusted with the spec as a whole. Like ambush window could be increased by 0.5 seconds. However, I think those changes would actually immensely help in making Mirage less annoying to play and also emphasize other play styles such as a shatters/selfish ambushes instead of just tunnel visioning on Infinite horizon and clones.

Soulbeast Demo Weekend Feedback

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@Kreed, I’m talking about the healthy % proccing not the actual bonus.

Has anyone tested if Oppressive Superiority is by % or by raw numbers? I would if I was able to log in but can’t.

Still has the same wording so I would assume it’s hard number values, not %.

But has anyone tested it?

Soulbeast Demo Weekend Feedback

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Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

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Has anyone tested if Oppressive Superiority is by % or by raw numbers? I would if I was able to log in but can’t.

Quantify says power druid not recommended

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So i saw the quantify build for power druid and it says that dps is still lower than condi Druids even after the nerfs, is that true?

I thought power druid builds were viable.

Condi is more damage due to condis ticking while you’re in the avatar state and thus can’t deal any damage, where a power Druid would go into the avatar state and lose all damage but what their pet is dealing.

The personal dps loss when you enter avatar is the same on condi as it is on power if you only use healing skills (100%). If you use CA5 the dps loss on condi is actually higher than the dps loss on power.
The damage that is ticking is the delayed damage from the attacks that you have hit before (on power the damage would have already been done). People keep coming up with this flawed logic that conditions deal damage while you do something else but you are not adding damage but instead you are waiting for your previously added damage to be applied:
Power attack that deals 5k damage: You hit it and the damage is done, you then enther CA for 10 seconds – 5k total damage done
Condition attack that deals 10*500, You hit and then enter CA for 10 seconds, after those 10 seconds you have done the exact same damage: 5k.
That said, condi druid still deals higher dps because power damage on ranger is lacking due to bad weapon skills and few damage modifiers.

Agree with your logic but it’s not a perfect representation. Axe auto on a condi build is filler that does really poor damage. It’s easy to replace a few axe autoattacks with CA4/2. For power builds, while certain skills are more bursty than others and worthy of quickdraw, the auto attacks are still a significant portion of damage.

All Mirage Skills and Traits

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So something I didn’t see anyone mention but I noticed since I had messed with the idea in an elite spec competition: bring back the beta sword leap where the mesmer actually leaped forward!

We can have a clone leap at them and stay behind (Sword 3). Or leap at the enemy and leave a clone behind (Sword ambush). Deception! Well… as long as they make the leaps look similar. Bonus of interrupt traits in PvP. Maybe illusions can also proc interrupts now? Space them out. 1/4 second daze means a lot of rapid short dazes in a row.

It just needs a PvE/PvP split on the damage. Otherwise, if phantasms get ambush attacks (will be able to test soon enough) Sw/Focus+Sc/Sw might be the better DPS option for power/hybrid Mirages in raids.

Developer Diary: Elite Specializations

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I’ve been saying from the beginning that phantasms will likely also be able to use ambush attacks when you give them mirage cloak. There was nothing, other than lack of gameplay, that suggested otherwise. (The only clones auto attack explanation was bs.) Reason WP and Anet are likely focusing on clones for videos is because clones don’t normally do real damage and the mirage is thematically about “deception and acting like a clone.”

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mirage
Basically the same hypothesis I’ve had since day 1:

1) First minor: Dodge gives mirage cloak to the Mirage.
2) False Oasis, crystal sands, and sands of glass (1 heal +2 utilities) give mirage cloak to the Mirage.
3) Infinite Horizon: When the mirage gains mirage cloak(all of the above), give mirage cloak to illusions (this means clones and phantasms).
4) Illusionary Ambush: Might be the only skill that gives mirage cloak to illusions without requiring the GM trait Infinite Horizon. Regardless of if this happens, IH is the obvious trait for PvE DPS mirages and is actually the 3rd utility that gives mirage cloak.
5) Not relevant for PvE but shards of glass can spawn a mirage mirror when you shatter —> touch it for mirage cloak.

When mirage cloak (all of the above) is gained —> Ambush attacks. Again, none of the actual facts indicate that phantasms cannot ambush attack as well.

Power Raid DPS:
Sword+Sword/Focus (maybe GS if the ambush is good enough).
Dueling, Illusions, Mirage.

Condi Raid DPS:
Scepter + Pistol/Torch.
Dueling, Illusions, Mirage.

Regardless of build, spawn 3 ideal dps phantasms then keep spamming mirage cloak for ambush attacks from both mirage and phantasms. Use Illusionary Ambush (or axe in condi builds when fights require lots of refocusing) to refocus phantasms. I also bought several sigils of energy for probably the better DPS rotation. Replace Sigil of air for power builds or some undetermined sigil for condi builds.

What might happen for condi builds: Pistol phantasms hit 5 times with the scepter ambush. Procs sharper images 5 times. Also has a 50% chance to proc DD for more bleeds.

Nothing to worry about for the PvE DPS ppl. It’s looking awesome.

All Mirage Skills and Traits

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No other class gives the same uptime of quickness and alacrity as chrono. A ventari rev at best sees 60% uptime on alacrity for a short burst of 30 seconds, then it only goes downhill.

Which is how it should be given that if a class is going to have absolutely miserable DPS, the very least the spec can offer is unmatched support.

Frankly someone else should give the uptime, though. It’s unhealthy to give classes fully unique effects unless (I like class-unique effects, on paper) all classes have these unique effects and are fully built around them.

That is to say, I wouldn’t mind a Chronomancer as the source of Quickness/Alacrity if Rangers are also the source of a percentage damage buff, Elementalists the source of healing, etc etc. But that’s a very problematic design for sPvP, where only 5 players exist per team, hence less than the number of classes.

Alternatively, give each effect a “primary” and a “secondary” class. Guardians already have some significant Quickness on their elite, so it makes sense they’re getting even more, we just need a viable secondary source of Alacrity. If healing were more useful in raids maybe Ventari Revs would bring that anyhow, remains to be seen whether PoF raids are designed better than the HoT ones though.

For that to happen, mesmers would need viable and competitive damage/healing builds in PvE, which they don’t.

Anet could fix the immense DPS build disparities by balancing autoattack DPS between weapons to begin with to set a healthy baseline of sustained DPS in PvE, but they don’t give a kitten about PvE class balance.

Which means that if they spread chrono’s unique utility to other classes, mesmer will be deleted from instanced PvE play as it’s the lowest sustained DPS class in game and provides no real healing let alone group support outside alacrity/quickness.

Uhh…
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/6szbmy/dps_benchmarks_power_mesmer_305k309k_power/
It’s looking like a power chrono with decent DPS and only alacrity can be a thing. Would work well enough next to a Firebrand giving quickness.

Confusion and Torment

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Is that a pve pvp split or in all game modes?

Base mesmer power dps for raids

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Yes, it’s great that we are almost on “worth mentioning levels of dps” after close to 5 years and less than 2 months before the release of an expansion with a new set of elite specialisations.

Oh wait…

Edit: Still has problem of wind up time etc… just stop the complaining that I know is coming. It’s just a “viable with some nice utility in there build.” Maybe mirage ambush on sword makes it better.

Viable means people won’t instant kick you for joining their pug raid. With all it’s limitations I wouldn’t call this viable yet.

On the topic of ambush and Mirage:

I’m sure the dps for mesmers will go up, god knows arenanet has had close to 2 years to work on the new elites. That’s great and I’m sure it will make for an intersting playstyle.

Then again ALL the classes are getting elite specialisations, some of them even with new toys like barrier. To assume a mesmer will have a raid spot based on purely dps at this point in time, well we will see.

Also once the initial expansion post release mumbo jumbo has died down, I’m quite sure there will be an extensive rebalance patch. I don’t see Mirage coming out of that one to well due to it’s mechanics and stealthy nature. Again, time will tell.

http://qtfy.eu/benchmarks/

Condi mesmer was “viable” at 25.8k. Condi across the board have also been nerfed. Tempest etc also got nerfed.

If I’m hitting 28.1k with an unoptimized build with a wind up time of ~12 seconds, that’s a lot more viable than condi mesmer (although I do need to test a few new traits despite food nerfs to condi). Also don’t even know if I actually got the rotation right. I’ll try it out with my guild group this week and see how it goes.

mistrust gutted

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Yeah the old ineptitude had the bug where the ICD affected both the blind and confusion application which made it a lost worst than it should have been.

New ineptitude, I can interrupt in an aoe and that causes a blind/confusion in an aoe. The shatter —> blind —> confusion now works no problem with no ICD in the way.

Base mesmer power dps for raids

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I don’t know. We don’t know for sure if the ambush attack works for phantasms or not.

If Ambush attacks do work for phantasms:
Domination would be dropped. It’s 15% more phantasm damage and 12.5% personal damage. That seems like a lot but I’m pretty sure that Fury and 150 ferocity is better for the swordsman. The new dueling GM is also better personal damage on top of shorter sword 2 CD and ferocity. Illusions is hands down better than both in this situation with phantasmal haste and 25% more phantasm damage. 9% personal damage isn’t the worst. Dueling and Illusions also reduces wind up time on swordsman.

If Ambush attacks don’t work for phantasms:
I don’t know. I would have to see the breakdown between personal and phantasm damage before saying anything. Dueling is unlikely to be dropped though as it has vigor which is important for the ambush spam unless you are in a group with a traited sun spirit. Illusions or Domination is undecided.

Base mesmer power dps for raids

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I’m not going to say meta or not as a lot of things changed. First build I threw together. I did 2 quick tests.

One was a Sword+P/Staff. 10 conditions on the boss. Summon 2 staff phantasms and then 1 pistol phantasms. Then just MoP every 10 seconds and sword 2 spam (try to not interrupt the auto). This hit 27.4k DPS. I figured this would be a hypothetical max DPS but not realistic. However…

I then tried Sw/Sw+ Focus. I used focus as it would be practical in raids for a pull. Focus 5, Sword 5, SotE, Sword 5. Spam 2 and MoP. Summon a 3rd swordsman when available. Didn’t continue to spam them. Just got 3 up. 28.1k on the first try.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAs8NnsICNohVoBmohFVDBtbaldKhMwIA-TxRBABPcSAoU9HAeAAmpEEP9CkpE7q9HlHkCQPlRA-e

I don’t think the gear is optimal and not sure about food. At 93% crit chance so more precision could be added. Probably ups the DPS a bit. Utilities are really minor DPS and could be changed to something else. Mistfire wolf etc could up the DPS more if you’re ok with those.

I guess the Devs knew what they were doing with phantasm might on sword 5. Just didn’t release the important trait at the same time >_>. Ramp up time on the new GM illusion trait is seems to make sword phantasms worth it compared to staff phantasms.

Edit: Still has problem of wind up time etc… just stop the complaining that I know is coming. It’s just a “viable with some nice utility in there build.” Maybe mirage ambush on sword makes it better.

Attachments:

Mirage F5 Discussion

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DuckDuckBOOM.4097

When Chrono was first announced, I mentioned I would have preferred a new set of F1-F4 and that CS should have replaced distortion. Especially given that Chrono in PvP is the “shatter spam” elit spec, it would make sense to balance them accordingly.

I also think Mirage should have received a new set of F1-F4. Illusion retarget could have been one of those like F3. F4 could proc mirage. I think it’s too late for this change to happen. What might be an “easier” fix to a greater availability to illusion retarget on all weapons is to have 1 utility skill reworked to have illusion retarget functionality.

Side note, I think this is the first discussion I’ve seen on Mirage that actually looks constructive instead of mindless bashing so ty for that.

The cloud descends

in Mesmer

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

As one Dev said of Alacrity, ( paraphrase,) It was too good to be exclusive to Mesmer.
I see that as the probable course for Ambush.

You mean the mechanics of thieves we’re getting? Sorry, bit amused by this, we’re the class used to make sure it’s not a unique mechanic (anymore).

Yeah I really don’t get OPs attitude in this situation.

We’re getting deceptions, a class of utility skills from base Thief.
The elite is basically shortbow 5 from thief in terms of mobility and use.
The ambushes are essentially stealth attacks that trigger on dodge/mirage. Ether barrage (Scepter ambush) looks almost exactly the same as the pistol stealth attack.

Between blink, portal, staff 2 and jaunt (new elite), and also just mechanics in general, the Mirage is basically “stealing” the role of D/P+SB thieves in PvP for mobile back cappers that burst people and run away.

“Boo hoo, the mechanics Mesmers stole from another class are going to be given away.”

If it’s fun and you enjoy it, keep playing. Whether other people have the mechanic too, as long as it’s balanced, shouldn’t affect you that much.

Infinite Horizon shouldn't be a GM trait.

in Mesmer

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Sand shards is kitten, nobodies going to care about a small amount of bleeding that you have to be in melee ranged to be hit by, whther a Mesmer is the one doing it or a Mesmer is doing it and the 3 clones you are nowhere near are doing it.

…. Instead we should be asking for a buff to Sand shards. That 180 radius is pitiful. Also think it needs more damage.

I seriously don’t get why so many ppl on the gw2 forum have the logic that get’s them to the state something along the lines of “It’s bad, so it should stay bad but buff the good stuff even more.”

Sand shards isn’t just the bleed, it’s also easy 20% condition duration in PvE. In combo with signet of midnight and the nerfs to all the condi duration food/utilities coming soon, that’s too good of a trait to have in combo with Infinite Horizon even if illusions don’t proc the aoe bleed because those illusions still benefit from the 20% condi duration boost.

3. The damage is already tied to illusions, see point 1. There is nothing in this spec that makes any significant damage come from the Mesmer itself.

In it current state if you don’t pick that GM trait then the new mechanics of the elite spec is having a dodge that is worse then Base Mesmer’s dodge. How is that good?

The new dodge can be used while channeling skills and not cancel the channel. Dodging is no longer a DPS loss. It no longer cancels a heal you might be casting. The new dodge, regardless of GM status, gives the Mirage an ambush attack too. At least for ether barrage, clones do half condi duration. Regardless of which ambush, clones do basically zero power damage too while the mesmer actually does damage. It’s factually better than base mesmer’s dodge in every way.

Infinite Horizon shouldn't be a GM trait.

in Mesmer

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Going to have to step in and disagree heavily with this because I want Mirage to be viable in all game modes and you don’t know what you’re asking for.

GM Trait: Dune Cloak: Use Sand shards when you gain mirage cloak. Conditions applied to bleeding foes have increased duration (20%).
Sand shards: AOE bleeds 2 stacks, 6 seconds, 5 target aoe, 180 radius.

If infinite horizon becomes a minor, all illusions get both an ambush attack AND sand shards every time the mirage gains a mirage cloak. That’s going to break balance for a few reasons.

1) The damage is currently balanced around one or the other of these GMs. Having both means that one, or more likely both, get nerfed heavily.

2) Infinite horizon looks easy to counter in PvP. All the illusions attack at the same time so 1 dodge will counter it all. The scepter, staff and axe ambushes (don’t know about the sword/gs yet) are projectiles and likely to be reflectable. Sand shards is instant AOE. Not OP if it’s just the Mirage. 4 procs of an instant cast aoe damage.. is a problem for Sand shard balance.

3) Mesmers have been asking for damage to be tied less to illusions regardless of PvE illusion issues in certain fights or WvW “My illusions blow up instantly and are useless” reasons. I see sand shards as a illusionless DPS GM while infinite horizon is the illusion DPS GM. They should remain mutually exclusive so that both can be balanced to be strong in their respective areas.

Especially for the WvW zerg players that want to DPS as a mesmer, infinite horizon can’t be a minor because they need something like Sand shards to work. Instead we should be asking for a buff to Sand shards. That 180 radius is pitiful. Also think it needs more damage.

Understanding ambush

in Mesmer

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

The way I’m thinking of it (and this is especially because the elite feels like shortbow 5 on thief and mirage is getting deceptions) is that the new ambush is basically like stealth attack but different. Each Thief mh weapon has an auto attack which changes when they are stealthed. The stealth attack is different for each weapon. Press 1 to activate stealth attack.

Likewise, the mirage has a unique kind of ambush attack for each main-hand weapon (7 total including underwater ones). These can only be accessed while under mirage cloak (this is not a stealth, there is like no extra stealth from what I can tell on this elite spec). So you have 1.5 seconds to press #1 to activate the ambush. However… Illusions (both clones and phantasms) can be traited to have mirage cloak

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/163637673
2:10:21
Those clones aren’t waiting for the auto and replacing the auto with the ambush. They are COMPELLED to. Like instantly, all 3 clones do the same attack as soon as he pressed dodge despite not all of them auto attacking at the same rate. He also isn’t auto attacking after pressing dodge. So those clones are using the ambush regardless of whether or not the Mirage presses 1. So I don’t buy the idea that only clones can use ambushes because “clones can auto attack but phantasms can’t.” If phantasms didn’t get the ambush, why does the GM trait say illusions? 3/4 second evade on phantasms and that’s it? I don’t buy it.

I think the reason WP is focusing on clones is because he somehow thinks that clones doing dmg is OP but not fully understanding the extent to which phantasms will also benefit. Also I think he just likes the idea of clones acting more like the mesmer because of “trickery.”

Raid meta with new elite specs?

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

https://imgur.com/a/KBwBS#BlxNVDG
For firebrand and quickness vs Chrono.

So sources of quickness on FB:
1) “Feel My Wrath”: 5 second base on 45 sec CD (Does have 20%CDR)
2) Liberator’s Vow: 2 seconds of aoe quickness on heal (12 sec ICD). The FB mantra heal gains a charge every 12 seconds so this lines up very well.
3) Stalwart speed: When you grant Aegis or Stability, grant 2 seconds of quicknes (5 sec ICD)

Assuming 100% quickness duration, no alacrity.
1) “FMW” is 10 every 36 seconds
2) Liberator’s Vow + Mantra heal is 4 seconds every 12.
This already is VERY easy 61% uptime on quickness for the team.

If stalwart speed is procced every 5 seconds, that’s 80% quickness uptime alone. Realistically proccing this once every 10 seconds is enough to hit 100% quickness uptime on a Raid team of 5. Big thing I want to mention is that this is a REALLY easy rotation.
Heal-6 every 12 seconds when the mantra charges up. Elite shout on CD. Somehow apply aegis or stability every 10 seconds which is not hard for a guardian to do. Their stability mantra has a 12 second recharge for aoe stability for example. It’ll probably do decent burning damage too. While I don’t know where it’ll be, it’s going to be better than Chrono dps.

What I think the meta will look like for casual groups/when distortion share isn’t needed.
Subgroup 1:
1) Chrono
2) Druid
3) Warrior(any elite spec, double banner)
4 & 5) 2 dps

Subgroup 2:
1) Firebrand
2) Ranger (of any variety although firebrand with Seraph gear can also heal so druid might not be taken)
3, 4, & 5) DPS

The second ranger is assuming spirits don’t get buffed to 10 targets. Spotter is meh in the end so if spirits are buffed, this is easy to drop. Reason I think 1 Chrono is “mandatory” is that alacrity isn’t just a direct DPS buff to the DPS classes but also an indirect buff to DPS classes via ensuring 100% (instead of 75-80%) on banners and better gotl and spirit uptime. Subgroup 2 will probably be better as condi. Loss of alacrity doesn’t hurt initiative for thief DPS nor energy for Rev condi DPS. Other classes are affected a bit more. Less certain on this. 2nd warrior is probably not needed as it looks like there are so many ways for a subgroup to get 25 might now. Idk if it’ll beat the current meta but it’s the closest I could see to an alternative meta choice.

Mirage dodge?

in Mesmer

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Adding to the List of stuff:

  • An interesting trait that recharges on shatter – source
  • The grandmaster trait that makes your clones strong – source
  • To go PvE Grandmaster – source

I’m an idiot and didn’t see it before, but that just said that when you gain Mirage Cloak, your illusions get it, which means phantasms. Phantasm build support?

Phantasms get it, but they don’t get ambush attacks.

Haven’t seen anything that says phantasms won’t get the ambush too

Mantra Update

in Mesmer

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Ty for the screenshot Me games ma. I suspected that was happening when I saw all the other charge skill mechanics but wasn’t sure. We’ll have to wait and see how the balance patch hits the 2 mantra traits that Mesmer has but it looks really promising.

So MoR is either blow both charges and have to wait 12 seconds +2.25 second cast time to get 2 stacks and bonus resistance
Or…
Wait 24 seconds for a 2nd charge to come back.

This basically solves a huge problem for PvP mesmers with mantras. Fight ends and I have 1 charge left. Do I blow it and wait for a full recharge while maybe getting caught with my pants down? Or go into a fight half kittened? Now you wait 24 seconds for MoR to go back to 2 stacks.

I’m assuming MoP for example will have a much shorter charge back than 24 seconds. So power mesmer can spam MoP regardless of base mesmer, chrono or mirage. MoD is a nice buff for all mesmer builds potentially. This and sword or ambush skills could make power mirage ok.

Small tweaks to mantras is going to increase its use, because it is fundamentally a crap mechanic.

This isn’t a small tweak. It’s a fundamental rework in it’s functionality.

Mirage dodge?

in Mesmer

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Btw Mirror seems to be those prisms that you can create that if you run into gives you the new evade, gives enemies weakness and does a absolutly massive 80 damage. Thats your kittening DPS spec people, a utility that does 80 damage and a weapon that does 600 and people are already calling it OP. kittening amazing.

My question to those people is how is any of this more OP than current DD?

Do you guys know what gear WP wore when he was playing with mirage? How can you talk about damage values? (but yeah 80dmg on the mirror is a joke tbh)

1k power (so base) ~1.5k condi dmg and ~50% condi duration.

The 80 damage isn’t where the dmg of mirror is supposed to come from. If anything, I think it’s meant to prevent the PU builds people are so scared of as the 80 mirror dmg will reveal the Mirage. The dmg of mirror is that it procs ambushes.

hmmm I can sort of see dueling/mirage and possibly illusions for another pvp condi spec, seeing how dueling gives vigor and synergise with bleed on dodging.

It could also work with raid if there are something else to buff dps. Condi mesmer dps is around 12k short from top, maybe something else could help? Haven’t seen any builds that can replace chrono’s utility in raid group though, so we either get >2 mesmers if dps holds up or falls back to our old job.

Decided to really absorb the wp video and think about raid builds further. The base condi mesmer, is as you say 12k behind. It also has a useless elite and utility spot as well as Chaos, which is really close to useless too. Furthermore, everyone acts like this is a clone spec. It’s not.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/163637673
2:10:11. Read the text carefully. The scepter ambush skill hits 5 times from both the mesmer and phantasms (clones do half condi duration) that applies 5 seconds of confusion or 4 seconds of torment base duration. So 100% duration with viper gear will be 10 confusion or 8 torment duration. The Ether Barrage hits 5 times! So 20 hits total from this skill every time you dodge with 3 phantasms up. 15 potential procs of sharper images too!

This doesn’t replace unload. Unload happens. And then you dodge and you and your phantasms do this barrage. And then you dodge again and they do the barrage again.
And then they unload again. Sigil of energy/perma vigor from dueling to keep dodging. And then you have utilities. If you’re really fast with the pause, I saw one called crystal sands which applies confusion and also forms another mirage mirror which gives another ambush attack. So now you have a utility slot and possible an elite (which has 3 charges) that can also proc more ambushes.

Regardless, there is no way this build doesn’t end up doing at least 5-6k more than base condi mesmer. I’m pretty sure it’ll be at least 10-20k more. Axe 3 is of course also great for allowing phantasms to refocus target.

Mirage - gearing?

in Mesmer

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

It’s going to be strange having zombie speed clones and no 25% movement speed (speculation).

Mounts…

Anyone else see WP talk on Mirage?

in Mesmer

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Theres a bit where he claims Mirage is massivly overtuned and makes out that he is about to do some crazy OP 4x Unload with scepter clones. The clones and Mirage attacks and does 600 damage each for a grand total of 2400 damage. If thiefs unload did 2400 damage thiefs would kittening riot and thats 1 skill that they can spam adnausium.

I know WP is more of a Lore guy but is he really this clueless about how the game actually plays?

Do you know what conditions are?

They are that thing that Unload also applies.

Serious scrub mesmer mistake or major failure at reading comprehension. Axe 3 is ILLUSIONS retargeting. That includes those unloading pistol phantasms because phantasms are also illusions.

Mirages axe

in Mesmer

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

This is the tripe people are calling OP

http://imgur.com/a/XjK5V

I can’t stop laughing

Didn’t those clones execute that chain very fast, and all at the same time?

The only OP thing is the insane amount of conditions which people will whine about in pvp.

But in wvw it’s going to be negligable if clones continue to die when sneezed on.

Fast nothing is still nothing.

Also notice how Axe 2 and 3 is single target? Couldn’t even give us a proper cleave weapon.

What are you talking about? Axe auto and 2 say 3 targets in the description. Axe 3 causes illusions retarget. Of course it has to be single target.

Mirages axe

in Mesmer

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Axe 3 says that all illusions retarget a new foe. That’s potentially 3 pistol phantasms with viper gear refocusing targets in raids which is a huge help for PvE DPS mesmer. As for condi mesmer, this line should easily replace Chaos. 100 condi dmg and 12% condi duration? Replace the few sinister pieces with more Viper. That’s not much to lose for how much this line can give. I take it back. Don’t even need viper gear. If you’re foe is bleeding, you have 20% bonus condi duration. That’s an even easier fix in raids. Less viper gear, more sinister.

Power is sadly left behind from what I can tell. Well… it’s actually hard to say that too. Initially, I thought the ambush skill would always be imaginary axes. But the way it’s listed with the auto attack chain and the way it’s split with the minor adept makes me think of sneak attacks on thief. So what I think might happen. When you dodge/mirage cloak, get an ambush attack. Infinite horizon GM trait would give all your illusions an ambush attack. If you are wielding a power weapon, that ambush attack does something power based. I hope it works that way.

Dodging breaks stun and removes 1 condition on one of the GMs! That sounds awesome for PvP. Going to go with sigil of energy and rune of adventurer are going to be extra important and that rune has condi dmg primary.

Nothing screams op and I would like to see the utilities but I’m hopeful.

New Ranger Specialization: Soulbeast.

in Ranger

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/path-of-fire/#specializations
Website has all the videos too. You get access to both the generic pet skills and specific F2 when melding. Probably F2 remains the same function. I’m guessing F5 to merge, F1 and F3 to do the other generic pet family skills. Not sure if F4 will still be swap while merged? Details will be there soon enough.

For the base ranger complaints: What’s more likely to get something like porcines buffed? Complaining about base ranger pets? Or complaining about the inherited skills in soul beast being bad? This isn’t a get rid of pets so pet balance doesn’t matter. It’s forcing pet skills to be more relevant to balance than ever before. Seriously don’t get some of the negativity here.

Overall, I’m loving the direction it takes. Not sure it’ll actually be condi or power focused as pets can do both. While mh-dagger will probably be pure power, I also think it’s likely that rangers can go A/T+SB soulbeast. Merge with a lynx to use Maul and Pounce instead of Axe auto attacks. I wonder if we could quickdraw a Rending Pounce?

GS also benefits from this. Instead of poor auto attacks, get a power pet merge to fill in downtime on GS2 spam. Certain weapons like sword/dagger combo or axes are also hybrid in nature. At least for PvE, the new stat of power/condi dmg main, precision/ferocity minor can help here a lot for Rangers.

Bad news about the next Mesmer specialization

in Mesmer

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Those look like clones not phantasms. Main hand axe, if following conventions, would only provide illusions of the axe wielding clone variety. However that picture looks like two clones with a bow so…
1) new weapon is bow not axe ( leaks have changed before)
2) conventions have changed for this elite spec
3) story npc mesmer doing npc things.
My bet would be on 3.

A+T/Sb viper cranger - dps problem

in Ranger

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Boons to pets is only 1-2k I think although that helps.

Stand behind your target for 10% crit and short bow 1,2.

Axe 2 can easily be cancelled if you press axe3 too quickly.

Make sure you’re following the basic rotation. Sb2,4. Torch 5 quick draw, 2,4,3… 2,5,3,4, swap. Sb2,4. Spam 2. Use 2nd cast of sb4 to time when to go back to a/t. Replace auto attacks with traps. Viper had priority over flame trap.

DH WvW - Pure Dire Build, Possible?

in Guardian

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

There is the AC killer build:
https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Dragonhunter_-_Condi_AC_Killer
I realize it isn’t rated high but going to discuss it a bit as I think a few variants can help it a lot. Before I knew of it, I asked a similar question as you and I had the extra gear to waste. I wound up stumbling into the AC kill build without realizing it although I do have some variants. First off, it won’t replace a Necro nor a traditional guard on your team. It’s only for zerg fights with necros already corrupting resistance/unorganized enemies. It tags stuff like crazy though. Here is my build.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAT7elsAhmhYvQwVIwPELDElVAsArpc4n9jf2PsgPIA-TFiAQBJ4CAAgnAQMVC6Q1f8nuBrs/gHV+BtDCApAUUaE-w

There are 3 main ways to burn people.
1) Proc the passive F1 like crazy. (there are ways to “break” the 5 target limit)
2) Purging flames (no target limit for a zerg that runs through it).
3) Rune of the guardian.

While people are saying condition duration doesn’t matter, rune of the guardian and the passive F1 have 1-2 second burn durations. This makes the high/100% burn duration important in that your burns will likely tick 2-4 times unlike other condition builds that have longer base duration conditions that won’t ever hit their full potential. Also needed for maximum AC killing. For condition diversity, DH is necessary with the traits I picked. Middle, middle, X for DH gives you cripple and vulnerability on passive F1. While not damaging, when resistance is stripped this will overload people’s condition cleanses because it applies 3 conditions in an AOE every time you proc the F1 passive and that will happen a lot. Again, this doesn’t replace the Necro, it just helps overload enemies with more conditions constantly while tagging noobs for bags. Wall of reflect is the magic F1 passive procs vs noobs. More projectiles reflected means more F1 procs and it scales up really well because it doesn’t have a target limit!. Purging flames also doesn’t have a limit in that if a zerg runs through it, an entire zerg is on fire! Rune of the guardian also doesn’t have a target limit in the sense that if you time your F3 at the front of a zerg and block a lot, you will burn a lot. These three are why I love this build for just tagging loot because it “break” the 5 target limit that most other builds have. Not just tagging though, damage is nice if the enemies don’t have resistance.

Longbow 4/5 and Scepter 2 are the main passive F1 procs when it comes to weapon skills and gives you the backline feel although weapon choice is really open to whatever you feel like. Torch 5 is for wrecking noobs and clearing conditions on allies if you can tank the 30 retal procs, or more so if the enemies don’t have retal, you can proc F1 10 times for 10 stacks of burning in an aoe that lasts 4 seconds. GS2, especially in purging flames, is great damage and GS3 gives some nice mobility but again, retal. Staff can tag stuff in melee and proc F1 well while bringing some more “traditional” support and CC. Purging flames is of course also condi clear on meta builds. Stand your ground is for the traditional guardian support people expect. Signet of Wrath for more condition damage could also be brought for AC killing.

When you need to swap to AC killing mode, swap DH middle, middle, X to middle, Bot, top. Longer F3 means more rune of the guardian procs vs AC to kill them. Rotate the F3, heal and elite to recharge F3 for constant rune of the guardian procs against siege.

TLDR, doesn’t replace a traditional guard but great for tagging zergs and killing AC when needed.

Useless Traits

in Ranger

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Strider’s Defense:
Personally I like the quickness because of the extra damage, maybe change the name to Strider’s Offence/retaliation though.

Another interesting change would be to remove the vigor on lightning reflexes and have it apply 2 seconds of quickness instead.

Coming at this from more of a PvE concern but I don’t like quickness. It’s the same reason that Shiro for Rev is bad in raids. Chronos already have that covered. Self quickness wouldn’t help power rangers there.

Strider’s Defense
Sword CDR 20%. When you evade an attack, you deal riposte damage in an aoe (5 targets). ~0.8 Power coeff. 2 second ICD.

() are the base power coeff of each skill. Evades with sword 2 (0.8) or 3 (0.8), GS 1 (0.75) and 3 (1.0), dagger 4 (0.2), staff 3, shortbow 3 (0.5), lightning reflexes (1.0) or just dodge could all proc it. So 0.8 is fairly strong buff to certain skills.

I don’t trust the ICD to be per target since Anet is super inconsistant about that but rangers, especially in wvw, need some cleave. A 5 target 2 sec ICD generically buffs aoe for rangers in zergs on something that isn’t a projectile and helps most weapons. It stacks with quickness in raids (Druid takes spotter, dps power ranger could take this). For PvP, I think it’s balanced. Longbow or GS spike don’t involve evades so you aren’t proccing them on the bursts. This would be more for the sustained 1v1 and if the damage is too much… they can just back off for a sec. It also requires taking skirmishing that doesn’t have any other defense traits besides buffing vigor/evades. Side note, I think LoyF should be changed to 10% bonus damage/condi duration on EVADE not dodge.

Scepter or Axe for Condi Roaming?

in Necromancer

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

I have two sets for wvw:
Cele+Reaper runes with A/D+staff for zerging.
TB+Antitoxin runes with Sc/W+Staff for roaming.

The antitoxin, sweet bean bun and relentless pursuit combo (-98% cripple, chill, immob duration while in RS) is really hard for me to give up when outnumbered roaming so I don’t usually run the shout runes nor the shout trait. The 360 radius of the shout runes is also much harder to land in small fights. No shout runes means a lot less pressure from my utilities which makes scepter all the more important. Lack of stability from Guards also means I bring more stunbreaks instead of shouts.

When it comes to cele vs TB, Cele is great in zergs when you are hybrid and spiking conditions, power dmg and corrupts. Aoe Burst is what matters to take people down. Condition duration doesn’t really matter here as if they don’t go down fast, there will be cleanses/heals. The condi duration from TB is great for roaming though as it helps immensely with overloading enemy condition cleanses.

Warriors Wicked OP for Necros in PvP?

in Necromancer

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Warrior-is-too-strong-in-PvP/page/4#post6557929

Still waiting for warrior mains tell me what exact build/class can actually deal with warrior without external help while not losing point. This is a legit question which i couldn’t find answer for so far.

I don’t win all fights but I have a decent chance at beating most warriors in gold3-plat 2 with condi necro in this and last season. Don’t use a meta build. Here’s mine:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBLhZ6kGRozGs8GwvGg/GsgLYxXxu4YE6qFAWARbtJwHA-TZhHABAcCAKb/BBOCAA/AA6vMAA

Overall tips vs warrior:
Minions are a no go. Too easy to proc adrenal health and condi clear on burst.

Warhorn 5 at the start of a fight! (Also good advice vs guardians and thieves to clear blinds). Do not get hit by the head butt in 1v1. If they shattering blow (I know not all warriors have it but I see it from time to time), corrupt stability with plague signet to interrupt their headbutt. If you do get hit by headbutt, plague signet and dodge or flesh wurm out immediately! If you don’t, warhorn 5 is still ticking and can clear blind from mace F1 and help crit and proc the auto plague signet.

If they block, use Warhorn 4 to interrupt it. If they have stability and are blocking, use Corrupt boon to fear them through the channeled block to interrupt it.

If headbutt/berserker mode doesn’t happen, it’s an easy fight. Corrupt resistance for chill —> vuln/bleed and win. RS3354 if you are going try hard and they will be dead in 5 seconds.

If the headbutt/full adrenaline happens, you need to clear the swiftness, quickness and fury from fatal frenzy. They only pulse once. After this, the only boons that are constantly applied are might/stability and maybe resistance from the stance. Corrupting stability that pulses every 3 seconds means constant fear (and terror) which chills and therefore bleeds/vulns.

While I’ve seen a lot of necros talk about how terror is weak now, the pulsing stability that came with HOT and the amount of corrupts in this build makes it amazing. This build can stack lots of vuln and might rather quickly so the repeated terror procs really add up. 1.4 seconds per stability corrupt in this build. That’s up to ~1.4k damage per second or almost 2k per corrupt. Adrenal health cant take it. The build has 5 corrupts and scepter auto corrupt which takes 2.4 seconds to complete. For 15 seconds, the berserker has stability pulsed every 3 seconds. That’s 15 seconds in which most warrior meta builds have no stun breaks and I’m free to terrify over and over. If I get warriors to this point, it’s game over for them every time. If this plays out perfectly, the warrior doesn’t even get a chance to decap.

Is it a glassy build that gets focused easily? Yeah. Have flesh wurm up before you engage. If a thief or DH might teleport after you, preemptively place 4 staff marks on the wurm as a trap. Rune of nightmare means less condi damage/sustain but more duration if you really want to fearlock a warriors even harder.

TLDR: Corrupt stability/resistance to fear and chill. Trait fear to terror.

I’ll just quote myself from a while ago. I actually wish that warriors still had the pulsing stability in berserk mode because it meant pulsing terror. Build is slightly outdated but general tips apply. Bring path of corruption instead of terror in this round of balance changes. Signet trait can be dropped for spiteful spirit. Power or condi, just bring multiple corrupts and time your auto attack for the pulsing resistance. If you couldn’t kill most warriors 1v1 last meta, you weren’t an amazing necro. If you can’t do it now… you aren’t as good as you think you are.

What in WvW, NEEDS to be fixed?

in WvW

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Food can reduce condi duration on you by 20%. Rune of hoelbrak, melandru, resistance, antitoxin, and nature’s bounty can reduce condition duration by 20, 25, 15, 24 and 15% respectively. That’s 35-45% condition damage reduction if you never use a cleanse. There are traits that reduce cripple/chill/immob by 25, 33 or 66% or just remove them outright. While not DoTs, these help ensure that your cleanses actually clear the damaging ones. At best, food reduces power damage by 10%. At best, rune of the scrapper has a conditional 7% power damage reduction. So should condi players complain that runes/food defend too well against conditions while runes/food don’t defend as well vs power damage?

Neither condition damage nor tb/dire are inherently broken. The condi reduction food/runes I listed used to also be meta at one point. I’m rather new to taking wvw seriously but the main reason I have huge condition diversity on my reaper (I’m mostly talking from PvP experience although I’ve seen this in wvw too) is because there is a huge variety of boons to corrupt which leads to “amazing” condition diversity. This is not entirely the Necros fault. Boon power creep means the counter class gets power creep.

That being said, I think reaper corrupts are a bit too strong. Mallyx revs have a chill to torment trait but the only corrupt that applies chill is resistance. That’s easy enough to balance imo. Reaper on the other hand…

Stability → Fear → Chill → Bleed/vuln
Fury → Blind → Chill → Bleed/vuln
Resistance → Chill → Bleed/vuln

Like seriously? Stability is fair, fear is a Necro thing but fury corrupts? Corrupting fury can apply 4 conditions! Too OP. Resistance corrupts to 3 conditions too. That hurts extra hard when someone relies on resistance instead of condi clears. Fury and resistance should just go directly to bleeds. Stronger boons could result in more stacks/duration of bleed. If most boon corrupts applied torment from Rev and most boon corrupts applied bleeds from Necro, I think this would fix a ton of the condi “problems” in both wvw and pvp. I also think resistance should be changed to reduce condition duration by ~30% instead of just ignoring them and letting them rack up. It could stack with food/runes.

Feedback: Pip Acquisition [merged]

in WvW

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

I’m mostly a PvE player since beta (like working on 2nd set of legendary armor) and very casually gained 330 WvW ranks since beta. I call BS on the “PvErs” and “new wvw players” complaining about the rewards.

Guild hall commendation vendor sometimes sells 1-3 WvW supplies. ALWAYS buy them daily if available. PvE players can also get WvW supplies from the Ley-Energy matter converter some days. It gives RNG bonus WvW exp and metabolic primers and sometimes a Wxp booster.
Celebration booster: 100% wvw bonus exp
Guild hall bonus: 10% wvw exp bonus
Outnumbered: 25% wvw exp bonus
Exp booster (Laurel or candy corn gobbler): 50%
Wvw Exp booster: 50%
Don’t just AFK with the outnumbered bonus, cap stuff. Kill yaks. Flip guards. Go up to a t3 garri and just murder the NPCS then walk away. I’ve gained about 110 WvW ranks in the past 2 weeks. 60 of them were two nights ago when I decided to join a wvw guild and run a proper wvw build AND POP ALL THE FREAKING EXP BOOSTERS. 60 levels in ~4 hours. If a new person decides to dedicate 20 hours a week to WvW and really try hard with a guild instead of just afking for pips, you can level really fast.

You should be in bronze within a week. I’ll probably hit Silver next week. Two more weeks and I’ll be at Gold. The “loyalty” bonus is now only 1 week required and gives 1 pip. Going to assume an average of 2nd place which is 2 pips. When you finally hit silver that’s 2 bonus pips. Gold is 3. Gold+”Loyalty”+2nd place = 20 hours a week to get max pips. Put in 1 month of effort! and you’ll be maxing out on pips per week. Will I reach max pips per week for the first month? I haven’t the first two weeks but I just hit mithril last night.

snip.

First thing of all, I don’t think anet owe me something, i just think the way pips are scale base on rank are way too high… a new player need to play 40+ hours in a week while someone in high rank only need 20 hours. thats 20 hours different per week… so people like me have to spend extra 20 hours more every weeks for just to get the same reward….

Don’t sit there trying to afk the outnumbered bonus or complain about rewards. Get gud wvw steroids and play the game mode. Don’t spend 40h a week. Just dedicate 20h a week and if you miss mithril/diamond for 3 weeks, you’ll be a grand total of… 1.3 week behind. You need the levels to even spend the tokens to begin with!

Useless Traits

in Ranger

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Most of these trait are huge power creep in the wrong way. I also don’t think CA should be completely reworked. Like if CA can be entered at will, how do you balance DC and CS for entering/exiting CA? It also even breaks PvE balance in that keeping gotl stacks up with be too easy for how strong of a buff it is as well as making Druid the best raw healer in the game on top of the best buffer.

Part of the diversity problem is that druid is such better sustain than ranger that it’s “required”. In order to build up CA, regen/signet of the wild/dolyak runes etc are “required.” Basically, druid is balanced around those constant tiny heals in order to build up CA. This doesn NOT mean any of these need nerfs/changes. It’s just that this both limits diversity in both utilities/traits picked but also druid being picked in general. Best way to boost base ranger survivability without breaking druid sustain is to give base ranger skills nice burst heals that are mutually exclusive with the small constant heals that charge CA well.

Relevant rune/trait to what I’m about to propose:
Rune of the tempest #6: AOE Heals for 1.1 (1.0) on stunbreak
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_the_Tempest
Monks Focus: Self heal for 1960 (0.4) and gain fury when meditations are cast.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Monk%27s_Focus
Proposed new rune:
Rune of survival #6: Survival skills heal 1.8k (0.5)


I picked survival skills and a rune to buff it for a few reasons. The survival trait already gives fury and clears two conditions. It would be crazy power creep to also give the trait a heal. Making it a rune means any future elite spec with survival skills has access to it. Also with a new expansion, if a new elite spec gets survival utilities, there will likely be a rune that buffs survival skills. So practically, I think this rune can happen. It also means no dolyak runes. Having full survival utilities on a rangers bar means no signet of the wild/shouts for regen. You would obviously want to bring wilderness survival which is mutually exclusive with the current meta Druid build. This in no way nerfs Druid which I think is roughly fine where it is as a pet buffing/support sustain build in the meta. However, it opens up a lot of diversity as it gives base rangers a different kind of burst sustain that isn’t OP. It’s safe to say it isn’t OP because guards already have this in trait form and it’s not broken healing. They have to choose between offense and defense when casting their meditations. Likewise, the ranger weigh the options of offensively proccing fury, remorseless, bleeds and quickness vs the 2 conditions cleared, heal and stunbreaks.

Regeneration druid build for raids question

in Ranger

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Going to talk about fury, pets and weapons before I talk about regen. Trust me, it matters. Tiger is the “traditional” meta raid pet for fury although it isn’t necessarily needed anymore. FGJ and SoI are enough to cover that. Have a power PS without FGJ instead of condi PS? You need some kind of fury. Ranger warhorn 5 fury is good enough if you quickdraw it a few times and let the Chrono SoI it. Need to bring a longbow for extra knockbacks? Can’t bring a warhorn. Need extra CC cause your team is slow? Double CC pets. Need pulls and reflects? Gotta bring an off-hand axe. Furthermore, some regen druids don’t bring a staff. This is for experienced groups where staff is enough. I bring regen+staff most of the time. Even as a staff druid, regen can be important as minstrel Chronos can prevent your CA build up if their healing is too high and pressure is too low which can greatly reduce gotl uptime. The two durations of regen to beat are 6 seconds (minimum to get past phantasms regen) or ideally 10 seconds (SoI).

All of this matters because there are 3 sources of regen and depending on what weapons/pets you need to bring, you need to swap stuff up.

1: Traited healing springs. The trait is MANDATORY as without the trait, the base regen is 3 seconds. With the trait it’s 6 seconds. Requires 67% boon duration to beat the chrono’s 10 seconds. 35% from trait/rune. Sigil of concentration “required” here. It’s possible without but so much stats are wasted. Mag tuning crystals are a nice boost. Last resort as this means less gotl uptime compared to the other sources BUT it also clears conditions well.

2: Traited warhorn is 10 seconds base. Any extra boon duration is about keeping as much uptime on regen as possible for when you can’t swap to warhorn. Or go try hard with the rotation and get double quickdraws while timing CA. However, try to focus too much on quickdraw here means gotl uptime also suffers.

3: Fern hound is the only pet I know of that uses your boon duration/healing power for the regen effect/boons in general. It’s base is 10 seconds. Already meets SoI at base and beats it with the nature magic/monk rune 35% bonus duration. Can only bring if fury/cc are covered. No extra boon duration is required as you basically spam F2. I find this gives the potential for best gotl uptime as the rotation is stupidly easy and you don’t need to worry about quickdraw.

So, for Sloth, I go Sword/Axe (don’t want that main-hand axe to kill my slubs)+Staff. Pulls/reflects ftw. Trait healing springs for the condi clear and regen. Tiger for fury because of axe instead of wh and wyvern for CC.

Matthias. Double CC pets because getting sacced is really bad. Warhorn and healing springs are both brought. Condi clear is nice. People also move around so much that I find both are needed to keep regen up and both might/fury suffer in this fight without warhorn.

Xera. Healing springs for condi clear and it covers your regen too. For inexperienced groups, you’re going to want to camp staff the majority of the time which makes warhorn tricky. I still bring it because the splits and moving around phases are made easier with warhorn as not everyone will stand on the healing springs and you should save it for condi clears.

Everything else, bring fern hound if fury is covered for easy mode gotl. Bring warhorn if the group might is low. Also if you just get bored and want to sword auto/try-hard. Both fury and regen happen with wh so bring a dps/cc pet. Bring healing springs for condi clear and make sure to trait it. I have sigil of concentration on my staff/warhorn regardless of which builds I’m running. Helps with might, fury, protection and regen uptime and 1 sigil slot for 33% boon duration is just way better than any other combo of seriously wasted stats.

Question about WvW

in Necromancer

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Scepter is a good condi weapon when you are fighting single targets. Brings diversity of conditions and boon corrupt on 3rd auto. Love it in pve, pvp and when roaming in wvw.

Assuming you are talking about this build:
https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Reaper_-_Shout_Reaper

The cele axe corrupt build is about zerg fights though not single target damage. Sc1, 3 and Axe1, 2 are all “useless” to this playstyle because they are single target and require a target. The corrupt doubly so because nobody has time for a full scepter auto to be wasted on 1 person when you should be chaining other skills together for multiple aoe corrupts. So what you need to compare are axe 3 vs scepter 2 for zerg aoe. Given how strong stability and resistance are, axe 3 is just better. Being able to hit axe 3 and then go into RS and then use RS2 corrupts 5 boons in an aoe in roughly the same time it takes for scepter to remove 1 boon against 1 target makes the boon corrupt on scepter laughable in zerg scenarios.

Carry a scepter and axe. When roaming/running to a zerg use the scepter. When in the zerg, swap to axe. The power damage also isn’t that bad on axe when using the cele gear but more importantly, the damage your zerg does is more important that a bit of damage you get from scepter 2 in an aoe. Corrupts will often do damage too anyways.

I have a hard time picking melee weapons

in Ranger

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

PS: fluuf please take a breath you seem easily triggered. Aand please go back playing pvp and wvw and stop expending so much time in raids…

Oh daaaaamn burn. Also https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Druid_-_Bunker_Druid and all the way back to like 4 out of 5 years ago cuz eura also used it before druid. I mean every ranger before you ever has been wrong but you’re the true seer. You know best!

Edit: Actually now that I think about it I think dagger has been meta non-stop since game launch. At every major anet hosted tourney since launch I think there has been a dagger wielding ranger. I really can’t remember what spirit rangers wore but i think it was SB s/d if if i remember that time correctly, it all blurs together.

As a none Raider PvE and WvW player i can say that i have no clue about PvP and the before mentioned raids.
But wouldnt you agree that a weapon that only performs well in one game mode need some design improvements?

Going to repeat myself from right above.


Minor thing but if you are running condi, some enemies are immune to burning in PvE. Benchmark wise, A/D+SB is like 1-2k behind A/T+SB. Thing is, you could even optimize the gear for this build to be more bleed/poison focused if you really want to try but it’s not necessary. Torch is of course aoe while the dagger brings an amazing evade. It’s not a horrible idea to keep a backup dagger around.

It’s not only good in 1 game mode. Having a defensive weapon that can have an amazing evade quickdraw is great when you are trying to solo/lowman harder stuff be it lupi or hero challenges champs etc. The fact that it’s only 1-2k lower DPS than max damage of the viper ranger isn’t a bad weapon.
http://qtfy.eu/build/ranger
Check condi druid. Even qt lists it as an option.

As for wvw, I think ranger has some greater problems with it’s viability there. Dagger isn’t to blame.

I have a hard time picking melee weapons

in Ranger

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Dagger is ridiculously bad in any sense, the extra evade in place (you don’t move which means probably will still eat part of the burst because the evade is so short) is not an excuse for the extremely bad weapon that it is.

Uh it’s a 1.25 second evade. Sword is 3/4th second. Dodge is 3/4th second. If you can’t time dagger 4 because of “evade is so short” then you are doing it wrong. You press 4 at a certain time for evade frames, not to distance yourself a certain length away from an enemy.

Minor thing but if you are running condi, some enemies are immune to burning in PvE. Benchmark wise, A/D+SB is like 1-2k behind A/T+SB. Thing is, you could even optimize the gear for this build to be more bleed/poison focused if you really want to try but it’s not necessary. Torch is of course aoe while the dagger brings an amazing evade. It’s not a horrible idea to keep a backup dagger around.
——-
Since I’m fairly certain the OP is talking about open world PvE, I like Sword/Axe +GS and trait quickdraw when I power ranger because ranger power autos are weak. GS2/2/5/2 is a nice burst from quickdraw. Axe4/5/4 is also a great burst. Then I have a ton of mobility and evades. I really hope ranger gets a nice bursty power weapon with the new elite spec though.

Condi Revenant runes and sigils

in Revenant

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

@Vitali
Hydromancy on a necro warhorn or second dagger is fine if you are running a non GS reaper build (old build/when you need to run blood to medic the group). The current GS/Sc/Dhuumfire rotation has very specific timing on weapon swap/RS that prevents hydromancy from being worth it.

@Main topic
So looking at the qT benchmarks, burning and torment are about ~31-34% of the damage each. Poison is ~10% and Bleed/geomancy is ~5%. Poison is capped but burning/torment going from 92% to 100%… really quick and dirty math 65% of the damage x 2/1.92 = 67.7%. So malice boosts burning and torment by 2.7% but you lose 5% of your damage from geomancy so at first it doesn’t look better… vs a golem. Few sinister pieces but more so the fact that torment should do more damage vs moving targets in real raid scenarios… it’ll be really close.

So in what way is condi viable in pve now?

in Revenant

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

To the OP, sorry about the whole hijacking thing. Condi is viable in general PvE and even in raids it’s looking to be a viable build when you focus on dmg.
—-
Nothing I’m saying requires coordination of TS/guild groups. If you think SoI is a 30 second CD that rarely happens, no you don’t know how it works. When a Chrono casts SoI 4 times within the first 10 seconds of a fight and then twice every ~20 seconds, that’s plenty of time to prime them with whatever boons you feel like if those boons last more than 5 seconds. Whether you like it or not, there is a meta of 1 druid, 1 chrono and 1 PS per subgroup. This is both a pug and a guild group meta for the most part. Sure there are minor deviations but that doesn’t change the fact that this already covers all the boons you discussed. Can other groups clear without that comp? Yes. Does that mean it’s good advice to tell a new player to ignore that meta? No, because it’s the most common one to run into.

All the meta condi builds can provide might while pulling off their rotation. Regen and fury can happen with most of them as well. Rev isn’t special here. Overloading fire is part of the rotation for condi tempest and gives might. The shout heal is also aoe heals if needed. PS warrior has might/fury with FGJ which is part of their rotation. Blood is power for reapers gives aoe might. Blasting might is easy at the start when red is invulnerable. Using a pet tiger is easy fury. Swap to a jaguar for easy might if you want that. Healing turret, healing springs for regen or signet heal for Necro are easy group heals. There is nothing special abouts the boons you are talking about. You aren’t enabling the other condis to focus on DPS if they are providing their boons through a normal rotation or pressing #6 when they feel like it.

So in what way is condi viable in pve now?

in Revenant

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Stop using “spreadsheet” as an excuse for not testing things yourself. If you don’t even know how often chronos proc soi, that’s a red flag of you don’t know what you’re teammates are doing. I know qt word isn’t final. As far as I’m concerned, the dps meters (which also include buff uptime etc) in real raids are what matter. I’ve done off meta builds. My herald had two ascended axes with sigil of air/strength depending on if I needed to proc more aoe might for my team.
“Proof from over a year ago”
 https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Raids-Burnzerkers-Meta-40-higher-damage/page/4#post5908768

Testing is fine. I’m not against it and do it myself regularly. The problem is people like you who seem to only understand what rev does without the context of a team. Telling someone Condi rev can bring might at vg red for example…

Condi tempest buffs might. Condi engi blasts might. Condi ps keeps on psing for might and fury at red. Even Condi necro gives might. Condi rangers are just as versatile as rev as they can swap pets to bring whatever boons are needed. What’s so unique about rev at red vg here? You can even send a power ps to red and the group will be fine with remaining ps buffing 6 other people.

The path of frustration is that testing builds is really expensive and it’s disingenuous to tell a new player that rev is fine and will be accepted in pugs easily when most pugs won’t. The recent patch has changed this…maybe. No thanks to you saying condi herald was already fine.

If your team is mostly power, you obviously drop sun spirit instead of frost.

So in what way is condi viable in pve now?

in Revenant

Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

Revs do need priming. Entire raid groups need priming to reach their max potential. The ranger/druid, chrono, warrior combo is really freaking good at priming the entire raid groups damage.

If you are talking about hammer DH, that’s replacing one of the two DPS slots.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/6ch3ot/qt_updated_benchmarks_for_all_classes_may_16_2017/
Hammer guard is at ~24k.
Condi Rev is at ~31k and would go higher with moving targets.
Condi reaper, ranger, thief, engi and tempest are in the 33-40k range.
The better question is why replace one of those DPS classes for a hammer guard when the druid can swap to stone spirit? Swapping frost to stone is losing 7% power damage but most of the condi builds… do mostly condi damage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWthrLV0sts&feature=youtu.be
For reference, about 78% of the damage done is burning for condi ele. 7% power buff isn’t much there.

If you are taking Rev, what are you replacing? The chrono that already provides alacrity? The protection from stone spirit? The tiger/warhorn? The might/fury generation of a warrior? If you replace one of those classes, your group DPS drops off like crazy. Like entire sub squad loses 20-40% damage. Realistically, you are replacing one of the two DPS slots. Don’t try to replace those 3 support classes.

Condi rev… with salvation and herald traited so that they can heal, perma prot and alacrity isn’t doing the 31k DPS of a focused condi dps rev. Not even close. If the only place your example is viable is Red at VG, that’s a really weak argument because that split is easy for 2 pure condi dps to kill red before 8 people kill the other two.