Guild Wars 2

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

So yeah, remove smoldering, viper’s gear to 82% duration, replace with corruption or geomancy depending on playstyle.

Should have already mentioned that my other sigil is corruption. Were you operating under the assumption that my other sigil was something else?

Either way, thanks a lot for the response. It feels like I’ve narrowed down what I should do quite a bit. I don’t think there is a better food or rune in terms of “bang for my buck,” so I think it’s down to the sigil change vs. just running full sinister (out of pure convenience). The problem with the Geomancy sigil is I don’t typically swap much especially in a boss/champ fight. I might try some of these sigils out on the heart of the mists golem. BTW, I’m talking mostly PvE, and I haven’t really been considering other conditions, though I probably should be!

Edit: Between my main 2 weapon sets and my most-used utility/elite skills, I have 1 blind on a 15 second cooldown and 1 vulnerability (3 stacks) on a 20 second cooldown. I tend to believe with the way I currently play, it isn’t worth considering those when doing these sorts of optimizations

I have a problem. As a Guardian, I have +85% burn duration from the Rune of Balthazar (45% burn), Sigil of Smoldering (20% burn duration), and Radiant Fire (trait, 20% burn duration). I made a pair of Viper weps to test out.

With my Ascended Sinister greatsword (exotic sinister armor), here is what my char tab looks like:
0 expertise
0.0% condition duration
85% burn duration

With Ascended Viper Scepter+Torch (exotic sinister armor), here is what my char tab looks like:
118 expertise
7.86% condition duration
92.86% burn duration

That’s all great and everything, BUT my problem arises when I eat the 20% (or even 18%) condi duration food

With food, with the Sinister weapon set,
0 expertise
20% condition duration
100% burn duration

With food, with the Viper weapon set
118 expertise
27.86% condition duration
100% burn duration

I’m pushed over 100%. When I have the food buff, burn duration is 100% with BOTH the viper and the sinister weapon set. That means that with food, the viper duration is completely useless!

Now I’m not sure what to do to maximize DPS. I can’t use these same runes, sigils, food, traits with Viper gear because I’ll go over 100% and waste valuable stats. So, I could

1) Use all sinister gear and sit at 100% burn damage with the current food, sigil, rune, and trait buffs I have.
2) Use some Viper gear, and swap out the duration food for another food
3) Use some Viper gear, and swap out the duration sigil for another sigil
4) Use some Viper gear, and swap out the duration rune for another rune
5) Use some Viper gear, and swap out the duration trait for another trait (this one isn’t a real option because this trait would be important even if it didn’t have the duration)

By far the easiest of those options is to just say “screw Viper,” run all sinister gear (option #1). Does anyone have any input on this? But, maybe there is another sigil that could benefit me more, maybe sigil of bursting?

Min/Maxers have it rough. No one understands us =(

Note: I can clarify if any of this doesn’t make sense