Guild Wars 2

CKres.4589:

How do you acquire viper gear?

From Auric Basin. First, you need 250 aurillium to buy the recipes for insignias, inscriptions, and exquisite jewelry. Then you need to buy the recipes for particular weapon bits. You can either buy these off of the TP, or get them via random drops from Exalted Chests from the Auric Basin meta event.

Once you have that, you need the specific materials. The insignias, inscriptions, and exquisite jewelry all need black diamonds. Black diamonds so far seem to be random drops from… basically anything. Airship Cargo, Exalted Chests, Crystal Caches, and Pods will contain them. The insignias and inscriptions also need leaf fossils, but those are cheap.

The individual armor and weapons bits all need linseed oil. 5 vials per component, 10 vials per piece of armor or per weapon. Linseed oil should be automatically unlocked as a recipe, but if not it requires 20 flax, 5 milling stones, 1 milling basin.

Currently, due to the release of raids, black diamonds are in very high demand. The Viper set was expensive back when black diamonds were 1g, but now that they’re 5g it is insane.

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Have you done calculations for Reaper Viper vs Reaper Sinister?

Viper is better as a rule of thumb. The only time this isn’t true is when you’ve reached 100% condition duration in your desired damaging condition. Once you reach 100% duration, use Sinister.

Demandred.7930:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

I bet you thought this was a question thread, didn’t you? Hah! I bring answers!

I decided to make an equation to check how much condition duration would be needed for Sinister to surpass Viper. It works something like this:

Sinister Bleed Damage x (1 + Condition Duration) = Viper Bleed Damage x (1.39 + Condition Duration).

You can substitute in any condition you want. I’m going to put in bleed

99 x (1 + Dur) = 88 x (1.39 + Dur)
9/8 x (1 + Dur) = 1.39 + Dur
9/8 + 9/8 Dur = 1.39 + Dur
1/8 Dur = 0.265
Dur = 2.12

Yes, fear my mighty maffs! Tremble before Algebra! Anyway, what that 2.12 means is that your total additional condition duration must be 212% from traits/runes/sigils before Sinister does the same condition damage as Viper. The more might you add, the larger this percentage gets, because the difference in condition damage between the two sets is always a static number.

Tl:dr RUN VIPER YOU FOOL!

I’m going by the principle, if you get silly results, you probably made a mistake Unless viper duration ignores the 100 condi duration cap , this comparison is erratic. The break-even point is then somewhere past 61% mark for 39% viper condi duration, depending on the relative damage difference. For your bleeds example, this is around 78% for 88 vs 99 bleed damage, around 85% for 133 vs144 (full might).

Edit: Thank you for this great thread, I really appreciate the explanation and there is some great stuff here (like the marauder -berserker comparison)! Just pointing out a small error on an otherwise amazing job.

Btw, I heard a 5% difference between Marauder and Berserker for eles from dekeyz, I wonder why these numbers are different (maybe she adds in more power buffs in her dps calculations?) Anyway, the point remains the same: the dps difference is quite small and the increase in dps uptime likely compensates for this for average players.

The very next paragraph you omitted says the following

Normally I would just say “Run Viper you fool!” and be done with it. But, there is an asterisk here. Or there might be. I’m not sure. Anyway, the issue is that condition duration is capped at 100%. Or it might be. This means that, although Sinister can never truly match viper in condition damage, Viper becomes redundant after that 100% threshold is hit. This is… actually quite hard to do. For Viper’s to start becoming redundant, you need to have 61.4% condition duration from traits/runes/sigils. And specifically condition duration, not just stuff like Lingering Curses

So please, before you levy a criticism, make sure I have not already covered the topic…

As far as the difference between marauder and berserker goes, the values that I have are the base values. Assuming no traits, no sigils (scholar runes, though), no outside team buffs, nothing. Walking around on this mythical null character, you will have 9% more damage in berserker gear. The reason why I go with these base values is twofold. #1: These values cannot be taken away from your toon. #2: The particular party composition and team buffs are up in the air and unreliable. Essentially, they are what-if scenarios.

The particular difference that closes the gap between the two is precision. Marauder has a higher crit chance than berserker, so everything crit dependent scales better. The ele has quite a few crit scaling things, including a precision → ferocity conversion. Power and Ferocity bonuses are also worth more, so warrior banners and empower allies have a bigger contribution. On the flip side, things like spotter have less of a contribution.

Really, there’s only 3 classes you would look at with Marauder: Thief, Guardian, Elementalist, with ele being the best candidate. However, this is all moot. In overworld PVE and legacy content, yeah Marauder might be an option. But any durability that marauder adds is irrelevant in the face of two little words: Enrage Timer.

Normally, the rate of failure compared between the two sets would put Marauder on top. But, with Enrage Timers, it is preferable to maximize DPS and hope for a more perfect run, then it is to reduce DPS and go for a safer run. The DPS limit is quite hard, with 9% reduction in damage being equal to 43 seconds off the clock. Though Marauder will lead to a higher melee engagement time, this is a “soft benefit”, in the sense that it can be alleviated on zerker with more skill or a luckier run. If some classes need marauder to do the raids, that isn’t a case for marauder. It is a case to not use those classes.

Hence, why it is I haven’t really put up any of my calculations. I have them saved, though:

Marauder: 2271 Power, 1087 Precision, 700 Ferocity, 579 Vitality
Crit Chance: 55.8
Crit damage: 196.7%
Crit Mod: 1.54
Effective Power: 3.497
EP Max might: 4652
Crit Mod Fury: 1.73
EP Fury: 3936
EP Max Might and Fury: 5226

Berserker: 2464 Power, 899 Precision, 999 Ferocity
Crit Chance: 46.8
Crit Damage: 216.6%
Crit Mod: 1.55
Effective Power: 3,819
EP Max might: 4982
Crit Mod fury: 1.78
EP Fury: 4386
EP Max Might and Fury: 5721

Add and subtract modifiers as you see fit. 9.2% difference base, 9.5% difference with max might and fury.

Mains are only a thing in PVP where you need to practice endlessly to deal with other players who practice endlessly.

In PVE, don’t worry about a main. Just play whatever.

Note here: if you are optimizing, it is always better to go marauder over viper. The 4-stat armor prefixes have more total points than the 3-stat armors, so a valkyrie/berserker mix will never be as strong as a marauder/berserker mix.

Gray.9041:

Possibly, but I did try the raids. I did a few runs, and eventually quit because I didn’t feel like I was contributing.

compared to mesmer sword, my boonstrip on steal is negligable.

thief doesn’t have any knockbacks, so at best I was slightly delaying the seekers – even busting all my stuns and dazes doesn’t match a decent guardian banish.

I’m going to stop here for a moment. The thing about a lot of these complaints about thieves is that they are either unfounded, or sometimes don’t factor things in. Case in point, I don’t know what the seekers are, but as far as movement goes, thieves have a 1200 range pull on a 20 second cooldown via scorpion wire. If it is a matter of lowering break bars, thieves are actually really good at it. Far better than my guardian is. My thief is the only toon I have that can brute force a break bar without having to rely on stacking debuffs for long periods of time.

For comparison, banish is a 750 launch on a 25 second cooldown. The two aren’t completely comparable, as one is a weapons kill and the other eats up a utility, but if the seekers are enough of a problem that a hammer guard is some big important thing that is needed over Longbow or Greatsword, then scorpion wire would be worth a slot.

Gray.9041:

If I wanted to completely stat-swap all my gear, I could’ve tried a condi build. but even then, the group would’ve been better off with a sinister engi, or even a condi ranger. and both would down less than me.

I have a condi ranger, and on him I go down twice as often as I do when running condi daredevil. Here’s why: condi rangers have no defense. While I’m throwing down bonfires and traps, I have no protection. Condi thieves are all defense. Between Death Blossom and Lotus Training, I’m utterly invulnerable for at least half of the time. On the venomshare build I get 8k ticks of poison on top of all of my other condis. On the condi ranger, I don’t get as high of ticks, and I am wholly reliant on my opponent standing still inside of my fire fields (which they don’t. surprisingly often).

Last I checked, condi engineer numbers are completely inflated. They’re calculated using unrealistic animation times and rotations, and if I remember correctly, assume canceling every aftercast and completely stationary enemies.

Gray.9041:

even DPS wise, I didn’t notice much on my end. I threw everything I had in often enough – but I never noticed my damage making a significant difference. not to mention, I kept having to break off to heal or evade, which dropped my dps quite a bit.

Raid boss bars are massive. You can’t see your damage like with other enemies. With the daredevil grandmasters and various weapon skill evades, thief DPS doesn’t drop while evading. How much you have to heal is a culmination of how good your healer is, and how good you are at avoiding damage. Maybe you just aren’t that good at thief. After all, if you’re trying to max out your damage, you should be running DA/CS/DD, not trickery.

Gray.9041:

Stealth – even if thief was the best stealth class (which is arguable) – is completely non-existant. at no point will stealth be useful.

Well, rezzing, but I would still ague that thieves are one of the best stealth classes, because of how easy it is to use. Getting stealth on an engi requires blowing several cooldowns using damaging explosives in a smoke field, which is prone to failure. Sneak Gyro is cumbersome and eats up the elite slot. Mass Invisibility requires dropping time warp, which is never a good idea. Thief stealth is easy: you use shadow refuge and then you’ve got 15 seconds of stealth, 20 when traited. Shadow Refuge also only takes up a utility, which means that if there is some other need-to-have utility, you can still put it one one of the remaining slots.

Here’s the thing: every time I take an honest look at thief, I don’t come up with all of these deficiencies that everyone else has. I’m getting a highly evasive, high healing class with respectable offense and good versatility. On my personal standings, the only toon I have that is outpreforming the Daredevil is the Reaper. The complaints people keep lobbing on these forums are usually unsubstantiated, illogical, myopic, or flat out wrong. It is always the same names, bouncing from thread to thread proclaiming thief dead for 5 months now.

The only complaint here that I actually agree with is that our boon strip is unecessary whenever there’s a mesmer around. That happens to be true of every class not named mesmer.

As far as low HP classes go, thieves are the difficult one in the Marauder debate. It really comes down to three things. This is from a PVE perspective.

#1: Thresholds of survival and healing capacitance. Health is restored after any fight, so any additional health after the minimum is excess. Thus, there is a certain threshold of health you need to hit. This threshold isn’t a hard number, as it is dependent on the fight, and can be thought of as a series of attacks, let alone one single attack. For example, while wandering around in HoT maps it takes 3 “volleys” from frog archers to take me down. Changing my gearset from zerker to marauder would increase this to 4 volleys, buying me that extra attack.

In long fights, this survivability threshold is governed by healing capacitance. This is the capability for your character to receive heals. Thieves have high personal healing, but low healing capacitance, which is why glass thieves are either at full health, or kissing pavement. A larger amount of health, while increasing the threshold, also increases the amount of healing received, which thieves to survive more attacks in the long run.

#2: Damage uptime. The advantage of a higher threshold + healing capacitance is longer engagement time. At low thresholds, once a thief reaches the one-hit-until-death range, they have to back off, or they risk dying. The cost of disengaging is dependent on how good the ranged damage is, and for thieves this isn’t good. So, by having a longer melee time thieves have a higher damage overall.

#3: Failure rate and skill level. The fact is that exchanging 9% damage for 50% more health makes an overall more efficient and powerful character. The only reason why this debate exists is because, in theory, it is possible to complete content without needing any additional health at all. But, if you shouldn’t happen to have that peak leet skill like most players, then the time for failure needs to be factored in. A death is the biggest DPS penalty you can suffer, since it involves all of the damage done being reversed and the additional travel time. A failure is essentially the same as doing negative DPS. While most trials are geared per fight, the fact is that time wasted on a failed fight is never reset. That time still eats away at the overall DPS of a gear prefix.

So, if you should find yourself dying, then Marauder will be better than berserker.

Previously, the question was this: “Do all 3 of the above advantages compensate for doing 9% less damage?”. But… things are complicated now. It is all due to two little words: Enrage Timers.

In a raid setting, individual survivability per fight doesn’t mean a darn thing. Either you have the DPS or you don’t. You die in 8 minutes anyway, so repetition and perfecting play with maximum damage are a necessity. Previously, these weren’t necessary. Because of this, the biggest advantage of a reduced failure rate is tossed out. Now, whether Marauder does more damage than Zerker is on an individual fight-by-fight basis.

So the question now is “Does the increased melee engagement time and higher healing capacitance make up for the 9% decrease in direct damage”. To that end, I’m not so sure. I haven’t set foot in raids, so I have no idea what the damage thresholds are like there.

I get the distinct feeling that this is a self-reinforcing problem. People think thieves are “bad” because no one takes them into raids, but no one takes them into raids because people already have the preconceived notion that they are bad.

Mesmer DPS all comes down to how well you can sustain your phantasms. If you’re fighting against an enemy that doesn’t kill your phantasms that often, then the DPS from x3 phantasmal swordsman along with yourself is actually quite good.

If you can’t maintain phantasms, then your DPS is quite poor.

Most likely not. Even when maxing out toughness, you’ll only take 63% of the damage you would have with no toughness. The boss’s damage doubles upon enraging, it is is worse than tanking the boss in full GC gear.

There’s a lot of debate because, at one point, it did affect salvaging. But now it doesn’t anymore.

Spin Echo.8263:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

You don’t get it. Your “immersion” is a fickle and irrational thing that is exclusively a you problem. Visual clutter in a game that requires visual cues is an everyone problem. You can get over your attacks not being as flash as you want them to be. Nobody can get over being unable to see.

Along the same lines, when I play GW2 on my netbook, I only get 10 fps which is unacceptable. I suppose I could reduce my texture settings to “low”, but I feel the existence of high-quality textures adds nothing to function, and therefore texture quality is likewise a “you problem”. By “you”, of course I mean everyone but me.

Anet, please disable all high-quality texture support with your next patch. Thanks.

1)Textures don’t obstruct view.
2)Visual clutter isn’t rig dependent

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

NecroN.8306:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

NecroN.8306:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Personally I don’t give a darn about my skills looking impressive. I want to be able to see what my enemy is doing, and I am tired of not being able to do just that.

Then go into your graphic options settings and adjust them so you can see your enemy. Do not make other people suffer when you can take care of your simple problem with a setting.

The whole problem is that, even with reduce effect LoD ticked, you still can’t see squat. Get any small group together and the game looks like someone is violently shaking a lava lamp in your face. It is rather selfish to demand that the notion of conveyance be ruined because you want the game to look like a back-lit tie-dye t-shirt is trying to eat your face.

Then you should be telling Anet to address this issue with the settings not breaking every players graphic immersion in the game.

You don’t get it. Your “immersion” is a fickle and irrational thing that is exclusively a you problem. Visual clutter in a game that requires visual cues is an everyone problem. You can get over your attacks not being as flash as you want them to be. Nobody can get over being unable to see.

Function takes precedence over form. The argument you have to make isn’t why it is I should ruin your immersion. It is why you should have the option to ruin everyone’s function.

I don’t understand why you think visual clutter is an everyone problem.

I’ll explain it simply.
1)It is a balance issue. Not every class is equally flashy.
2)This is an MMO. One player’s ability to see affects everyone around them.
3)This is a ubiquitous problem. How immersive that gigantic fireballs feel is strictly an opinion issue. Whether you can see a tell or not is not an opinion. It is fact.
4)Thus, particle effects and animation size aren’t like textures or shaders, as they directly affect the performance of players whether they acknowledge it or not.

Thus, this isn’t an aesthetics issue. This is a function issue. As much as I’d like to pretend that we live in super-everybody land where everybody can do whatever they want with no repercussions on anyone else, we don’t. Form and function in this instance are related.

phys.7689:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

NecroN.8306:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Personally I don’t give a darn about my skills looking impressive. I want to be able to see what my enemy is doing, and I am tired of not being able to do just that.

Then go into your graphic options settings and adjust them so you can see your enemy. Do not make other people suffer when you can take care of your simple problem with a setting.

The whole problem is that, even with reduce effect LoD ticked, you still can’t see squat. Get any small group together and the game looks like someone is violently shaking a lava lamp in your face. It is rather selfish to demand that the notion of conveyance be ruined because you want the game to look like a back-lit tie-dye t-shirt is trying to eat your face.

Ganathar.4956:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Personally I don’t give a darn about my skills looking impressive. I want to be able to see what my enemy is doing, and I am tired of not being able to do just that.

That’s great and all, but many people do care about visuals and with all these changes the professions are becoming more and more bland-looking. Fireball was one of the primary reasons why I initially got my ele to 80 before any of my other characters. It just used to feel awesome when you threw those impact balls of fire.

No matter what you prefer, there is no reason to not at least support the notion that all of this effect culling should be an optional thing for whoever wants it. If it becomes optional, Anet can cull effects from every single ability without any complaints whatsoever. This is a win-win situation, right?

It’s really not. Visual clutter is a mechanical issue that affects how people play the game. This isn’t a matter of preference. It is a matter of performance. Balance.. It affects not only how well I can see the game, but how well my teammates can see the game. The moment a teammate goes down due to an attack they can’t see (which happens all the time. Take newbies through AC and you’ll see it happen on Kholer at least half a dozen times before they finally see the windup), it becomes my business.

The fact is that having a game based around visual cues be obscured by flashy visual effects is bad design. It is inherently contradictory, and other people being fine with how nonsensical it is does not change this fact. Having a slider which scales up visual effects is the same as having a slider which scales up how badly you’ll play.

Narrrz.7532:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Personally I don’t give a darn about my skills looking impressive. I want to be able to see what my enemy is doing, and I am tired of not being able to do just that.

In that case, i strongly recommend you try GW1. It has much better pvp balance.

This.. isn’t really related.

you are wrong.

Not because you shouldnt be able to see what you want,

but because you think that your personal concept of what the focus of the game is should define everyones experience.

There is a large amount of people who would not want to play a very clear stick figure game. They want explosions and effects and textures etc.

This is why OPTIONS are the best solution.

And all that aside, making effects smaller doesnt actually make them clearer. If your design focus is clarity, you should not simply try to minimize effects, but redesign them.

Its kind of nonsensical to say an effect is clearer when it doesnt represent the effective areas, or types.

its a mistake to try to make effects smaller/less obtrusive if the goal is to be more clear and readable.

this is some small unobtrusive writing

http://jp29.org/cal371b.jpg

this is clear noticeable writing:
http://www.websitetemplatesonline.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/rules.jpg

the real issue stems from the fact that 100 people are doing things at one time.
the best answer would be a system that could adjust based on importance, but thats too complex.
a simplified effect system with a focus on clarity
and a normal effect system with a focus on visuals is probably the best solution

You’ve changed definitions in the middle of this post. Enemy tells and animations being obstructed is very different from diminished visual effects not being as apparent. If an attack’s animation doesn’t span the proper size, that is a different issue.

This isn’t about my concept of the “focus” of the game. There is a contradiction of design in this game: If you are expected to react to enemy animations, then having obstructing animations is bad design. Period. It is equivalent to making keybinds randomly not work, and players are arguing that they should have the option for their keys to not work because they want the game to feel more button-mashy and frenetic.

Altair.2905:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

NecroN.8306:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

NecroN.8306:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Personally I don’t give a darn about my skills looking impressive. I want to be able to see what my enemy is doing, and I am tired of not being able to do just that.

Then go into your graphic options settings and adjust them so you can see your enemy. Do not make other people suffer when you can take care of your simple problem with a setting.

The whole problem is that, even with reduce effect LoD ticked, you still can’t see squat. Get any small group together and the game looks like someone is violently shaking a lava lamp in your face. It is rather selfish to demand that the notion of conveyance be ruined because you want the game to look like a back-lit tie-dye t-shirt is trying to eat your face.

Then you should be telling Anet to address this issue with the settings not breaking every players graphic immersion in the game.

You don’t get it. Your “immersion” is a fickle and irrational thing that is exclusively a you problem. Visual clutter in a game that requires visual cues is an everyone problem. You can get over your attacks not being as flash as you want them to be. Nobody can get over being unable to see.

Function takes precedence over form. The argument you have to make isn’t why it is I should ruin your immersion. It is why you should have the option to ruin everyone’s function.

So what’s wrong with the slider option? It could very well turn down visual effects from others as well as yours from your point of view while maintaining it for others who like it so who cares if someone forgets to turn it off as it wouldn’t ruin your “function” at all.

Their view would be obstructed, they would play worse, and that would affect me.

NecroN.8306:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

NecroN.8306:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Personally I don’t give a darn about my skills looking impressive. I want to be able to see what my enemy is doing, and I am tired of not being able to do just that.

Then go into your graphic options settings and adjust them so you can see your enemy. Do not make other people suffer when you can take care of your simple problem with a setting.

The whole problem is that, even with reduce effect LoD ticked, you still can’t see squat. Get any small group together and the game looks like someone is violently shaking a lava lamp in your face. It is rather selfish to demand that the notion of conveyance be ruined because you want the game to look like a back-lit tie-dye t-shirt is trying to eat your face.

Then you should be telling Anet to address this issue with the settings not breaking every players graphic immersion in the game.

You don’t get it. Your “immersion” is a fickle and irrational thing that is exclusively a you problem. Visual clutter in a game that requires visual cues is an everyone problem. You can get over your attacks not being as flash as you want them to be. Nobody can get over being unable to see.

Function takes precedence over form. The argument you have to make isn’t why it is I should ruin your immersion. It is why you should have the option to ruin everyone’s function.

The “only walk around soloing random enemies” crowd isn’t a crowd. You don’t do that. You do events, or you’re next to other players, or other players will be around after you have left. The only time you’re ever alone is when you’re in an instance.

There’s quite a few problems with just having an optional slider. You could forget to turn it down. Other players will refuse to turn it down. Other players won’t be aware that it is an option at all.

Also, I never said I didn’t notice changes from the recent patch. You’re literally bring that accusation out of nowhere.

NecroN.8306:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Personally I don’t give a darn about my skills looking impressive. I want to be able to see what my enemy is doing, and I am tired of not being able to do just that.

Then go into your graphic options settings and adjust them so you can see your enemy. Do not make other people suffer when you can take care of your simple problem with a setting.

The whole problem is that, even with reduce effect LoD ticked, you still can’t see squat. Get any small group together and the game looks like someone is violently shaking a lava lamp in your face. It is rather selfish to demand that the notion of conveyance be ruined because you want the game to look like a back-lit tie-dye t-shirt is trying to eat your face.

Ganathar.4956:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Personally I don’t give a darn about my skills looking impressive. I want to be able to see what my enemy is doing, and I am tired of not being able to do just that.

That’s great and all, but many people do care about visuals and with all these changes the professions are becoming more and more bland-looking. Fireball was one of the primary reasons why I initially got my ele to 80 before any of my other characters. It just used to feel awesome when you threw those impact balls of fire.

No matter what you prefer, there is no reason to not at least support the notion that all of this effect culling should be an optional thing for whoever wants it. If it becomes optional, Anet can cull effects from every single ability without any complaints whatsoever. This is a win-win situation, right?

It’s really not. Visual clutter is a mechanical issue that affects how people play the game. This isn’t a matter of preference. It is a matter of performance. Balance.. It affects not only how well I can see the game, but how well my teammates can see the game. The moment a teammate goes down due to an attack they can’t see (which happens all the time. Take newbies through AC and you’ll see it happen on Kholer at least half a dozen times before they finally see the windup), it becomes my business.

The fact is that having a game based around visual cues be obscured by flashy visual effects is bad design. It is inherently contradictory, and other people being fine with how nonsensical it is does not change this fact. Having a slider which scales up visual effects is the same as having a slider which scales up how badly you’ll play.

Narrrz.7532:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Personally I don’t give a darn about my skills looking impressive. I want to be able to see what my enemy is doing, and I am tired of not being able to do just that.

In that case, i strongly recommend you try GW1. It has much better pvp balance.

This.. isn’t really related.

Leaa.2943:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

This is the first week of raids. Eventually people will go back to doing meta events.

But I do agree that the raid should have a separate waiting map..

They will release new wings every so often, this was already said, so the issue will not go away.

Issue coming back later does not mean the issue will not go away. You get periods of reprieve.

This is the first week of raids. Eventually people will go back to doing meta events.

But I do agree that the raid should have a separate waiting map..

Personally I don’t give a darn about my skills looking impressive. I want to be able to see what my enemy is doing, and I am tired of not being able to do just that.

Well, I’ve got some good news and bad news. Good news is, you’re about to get really good at the game. Bad news is, this is by smashing your head against a metaphorical rock until the rock breaks.

I faced a similar problem when getting the dungeon master achievement, in that the only groups that ever formed were either experienced meta +10kAR (which I wasn’t), or selling slots, which I wasn’t going to buy. So I did the following:

#1: Watched several videos on how to run the map, both in groups and solo.
#2: Formed my own group. This usually consisted of n00bs in masterwork level gear, as they are the only ones who would join.
#3: And basically carried my group as I meticulously overcame each challenge one at a time, for the first time.

Yes, it is painful. It isn’t as hard as it used to be, as the power creep from the specialization update and HoT have made things easier. But nonetheless, you’re basically going to have to either solo, or solo with 4 incompetent b00bs running amok around you. You’ll get around 250 tokens for running all 4 paths, so you’ll have to do it twice.

Although Anet wanted to de-incentivize dungeons, they didn’t want dungeons abandoned. In fact, the precise predicament you are in is what Anet wanted. Unique items only available via dungeon tokens.

I don’t think its the Gerent that is the problem. The issue is… everything else.

#1: Even is located on the most confusing map in the game. Players don’t know where to go, what is going on, or what is relevant.
#2: Conveyance is horrible. I’m still not sure what to do in each lane.
#3: It is a long investment. The entire meta event requires global map cooperation from start to finish, so any player who wants to clear the event has to clear their schedule for the whole thing.
#4: It is hard to organize. Getting everybody onto the same map cooperating is extremely difficult. The maps are still filled with explorers and hero point hunters, so while you’re setting up the event there’s about 5 people leading different groups to different HPs.
#5: Everybody is already turned off of the event due to how hard it is.
#6: Other than the achievements, there’s no clear reward for even doing the event in the first place.

Its really not that hard. You just have to be competent.

The base game is designed very plainly. After a couple of NPE updates, it became so easy that you win by default. No, really, try it. Go to Cursed Shore, walk up to any mob, and only use auto attacks. Don’t even move. You’ll win, no matter what gear you are wearing. Add on all the various abilities that come with the class, and the enemies aren’t even remotely close to a threat.

In HoT, that is only true sometimes. There are enemies who will beat you if they ambush you, or simply outright. Because of this, you need to take advantage of all of the little goodies that your class comes with. Things ranged weapons, CC, situational awareness, and defensive utilities/traits.

Mordrem snipers get a lot of flak for being OP, but they’re actually pretty easy.
-They’re utter glass, and die very quickly to counterburst
-You can juke their regular attacks
-Their damaging attack has a gigantic windup with a target over your head followed by a gigantic bright glowing trail on the ground. You can CC them, kill them first, juke the hit, walk sideways and wait it out.
-Reflection shreds them.

The only way to die to a sniper is if you just sit there and take it. This is an enemy you can defeat by walking.

Rayden.3695:

Ok so yeah, Marauder recipes atleast as far as exotic pieces go is done by discovery, easy peasy. The insignias are a bit pricey because of the ebony orbs but those things have been coming down in price pretty steadily.

For the discovery bits, do you use the normal armor pieces or oiled armor pieces?

I’ve done some math on the subject. Without getting into specific builds, swapping over from full zerker to full marauder will decrease your effective power by 9.2%, but increase your effective HP by 49.7%.

While it is possible to roam around in full zerker gear as a thief, it isn’t too much of a drop to swap out some bits Marauder.

I actually don’t know where to get most marauder recipes. For now, I’m assuming that it is done via recipe discovery like the other sets, as the only recipes I can find anywhere are for the exquisite jewels and base insignia/inscription.

Viper’s sets are gathered from Auric Basin. You have to gather Lumps of Aurillium to buy the base jewel, insignia, and inscription recipes. Then, you can get the specific recipes for each armor piece by opening chests underneath of Tarir, or buying them off of the TP.

For specific materials, Ebony Jewels and Black Diamonds are found in chests on these maps. So you’ll need Chak Acid, Pact Crowbars, and Exalted Keys.

They’ll just kick after the first wave of enemies, or the first boss.

I’ve been doing that treasure mushroom solo daily on my zerker reaper.

The class is the key. On a squishy class the mushroom is hard because all of the enemies will ambush you. On the reaper I find myself ignoring many of the enemies, simply because I out-heal them. The large AoE DPS from Nightfall + 2 wells also helps out a lot. The biggest factor is chill. While a regular treasure mushroom runs around frantically, a chilled treasure mushroom barely hobbles. The disabled mushroom doesn’t wander too far, so after you’ve killed the enemies around it, you’re free to bash on the shroom for awhile.

Its the dunning-kruger effect. He hasn’t responded to any of my points at all. His posts are poorly written and he ignores the point of many things. The reason why he calls everyone stupid is because he himself is not smart enough to get what everyone else is saying. It is never productive to argue against someone who’s arguing point ever includes some statement about how much they hate people who disagree with them.

Mallis.4295:

Increasing the count of stupid posts are we? DPS meters are a tool used to analyze DPS.

The only thing DPS is used for is discrimination. Picking one weapon over another, picking one gear prefix over another, picking one class over another. People will be using the DPS meters to discriminate against others constantly, regardless of the environment. The “need” to optimize DPS is wrong, because we already have a way of optimizing DPS: run GC gear and all damage traits/utilities. End of optimization. Anet didn’t build the raids to discriminate against classes, so any comp could do it.

Your example is poorly written, doesn’t make sense, and isn’t contradictory to what I’ve said in any way.

The thing about being an elitist in this game is that it is hard to do. You have to demand people ping gear, research all the specific classes to know what they do. then demand people run those specific builds. As to whether the player you are with is doing this, you have to take their word for it. In fact, most players probably won’t show up and deal with your nonsense. Because of this, there is a fairly heavy barrier that prevents players from being anal-retentive about everything.

Things like a DPS meter make it easy. You just look at the meter, and then if you don’t feel that someone is high enough, kick them. You don’t even have to know a lot about the game. Just glance at the meter, kick. Because it is so simple and easy, the amount of players who will start kicking will grow exponentially. Making it “personal” won’t help, either. Players will just demand you copy/paste the number. Don’t do it fast enough, kick

We’re not getting a DPS meter. The reason why is because DPS meters exist to discriminate. Anet doesn’t want you to discriminate against gear, classes, or even playstyle. Anet doesn’t want you doing DPS cals to find a perfect rotation. Most players are perfectly happy without a DPS meter, and Anet isn’t going to add one into the game just so a few people can satisfy their curiosity.

Probably WvW buffs.

On a venomshare build? Yeah you’ll regularly get 8k poison ticks.

Ronah Lynda.2496:

- When I decided to grind for the money to buy some legendaries out of the TP then they added new Legendaries so the old ones become obsolete. And the new ones made only by crafting. I despise crafting

I stopped there. The problem is that you aren’t thinking rationally. Anet can’t do much to fix that.

Maybe if you’re running a hybrid/condi build. As a fellow power reaper player, my advice to other power reapers is to stick with power. Even with no duration I already cap out vuln and have a high AoE chill uptime. If you wanted more chill, I’d just suggest Runes of the Ice. You lose the power/ferocity from scholar runes, but gain chill duration and a 7% damage mod against chilled foes, which is much more reliable than the scholar bonus.

I’ve been doing a bit of math, and Marauder might be a worthy investment for players who don’t want to go full glass.

It comes down to sheer bulk. While Marauder is basically a Berserker + Valkyrie mix, Marauder has more points. 3,362 total stats as compared to 3,087 of the previous 3 tiered sets (not including runes). This means that, while you could trade off to more durability by mixing Valkyrie and Berserker, it will be less efficient and less powerful then mixing Berserker and Marauder.

With Scholar Runes and no additional buffs, A full Marauder set has 3,497 effective power while a full Berserker set has 3,819 effective power. A difference of 9%. Most min/maxers will pull their hair out over that number, but for low HP classes that extra 579 Vitality is important. For low HP classes it is a 49.7% increase in effective HP. For mid HP classes, 36.4% increase. For high tier, 30% increase.

It isn’t optimal in a perfect comp, perfect play setting. But, 9% lower damage vs. 49.7% greater effective HP is a tradeoff that I won’t blame anyone for taking.

In max might + max fury situations, I’m getting effective polwers of 5,226 and 5,721, or an 8.6% increase by using Berserker over Marauder.

It’s called tough love. To go forward, you have to fight against everyone holding you back. You have to be firm, because you need them to either change their mind or go away.

It is inconsistent and kind of on a case by case basis. For necromancers, for example, lingering curses is not limited by the cap, but hemophilia is.

Personally I prefer Greatsword over Sword/Axe for ease of use, but if you can handle it S/A does more damage.

Nemesis.8593:

Have you ever formulated a 30 sec DPS rotation based on math… not the other way around, figure out the rotation then use math to calculate it’s damage ?

Maybe i’m doing something wrong but it is time consuming…

It is actually easier than you’d think. I’ve been on a couple of MMOs where this info was hammered out. For the sake of rotation making, there’s two steps:

1) Categorize each skills individual DPS. You don’t actually need a build to do this, either. What you do is take any skills damage, divide it by its total time (activation time + animation time + aftercast time + game tick refresh rate), and you get the skill’s DPS. For skills in a chain, take the total time of the chain.

There are three values that are important here. DPS is above. DPR, or damage per recharge, is how much DPS the skill does over its total recharge time (that is, recharge time + all the other times I listed above), and auto DPS. This step is mostly archiving. It seems like a daunting task, but if done once, you don’t need to do it again, sans balance updates.

2) Actually coming up with the rotation. Most of these are fairly simple logic checks.

A)If a weapon skill has higher DPS than the auto attack, use it when off cooldown. If not, don’t.
B)If a utility skill has a higher DPS than the auto attack, use it when off cooldown. If not, don’t.

C) When comparing similar weapons, you check an average DPS. Most of the time, this is just all the damage it will do divided by its longest recharging skill. There’s a second method, but more on that later. Once you have a weighted DPS, you go with the weapon that has a higher weight.

D) When comparing utilities, you use the one with the highest DPR. When checking buffs and debuffs, those act as a modifier to DPS, and so the overall “damage” any buff does is equal to the modified damage – unmodified damage. I.E. if a skill gives you haste for 5 seconds every 30 seconds, then technically that skill will do ((1.5 x Auto Attack DPS – Auto attack DPS) x 5 seconds) damage.

Once you have the weapons with the highest average DPS, and utilities with the highest DPR,then you have your rotation: Start with buffs, use short cooldowns first, use all higher DPS skills when they are off cooldown.

After all that, it is a traveling salesman problem. You take it to the field, see what works, and what doesn’t work, and you tweak as necessary. The specializations and gear, those work as modifiers to the above. After tweaking for awhile, you get a more comprehensive build. The more experienced you are at the game, the faster you can tweak builds. The steps above, that can all be done in a day, by hand. Heck, you can eliminate most low DPS options at a glance.

You’re probably wondering where those big random “max DPS” numbers come from. This is a “weighted DPS”, AKA the second method of comparing weapons. The weighted DPS is the DPS of all skills in a rotation, with each multiplied by the percentage of time that skill will occupy. So, for example: lets say in a very simple build the DPS rotation is 20 seconds of auto attacking at 400 DPS, 6 seconds of weapon skill 2 at 800 DPS, 4 seconds of weapon skill 4 at 1000 DPS. The weighted DPS will be 400 × 20/30 + 800 × 6/30 + 1000 × 4/30 = 560 weighted DPS.

This is where I disagree with a lot of DPS calcs. Most DPS calcs you see use 30 seconds, no matter what. I find this absurd, as there are many skills that take longer than 30 seconds to recharge. Personally, were I to calculate DPS I would use the recharge time of the slowest recharging skill as my base time. Because then, instead of calculating DPS for an arbitrary “fight” with an arbitrary travel time to fix any inconveniences, I’ll have DPS for an indefinite fight. I find indefinite fight values much more useful because, surprise surprise, I don’t actually know how long any fight is until the fight is over.

As for the applicability for all this math, I’ve always found it dubious. One of the biggest problems I have with how these DPS calcs are done is that the only numbers you ever see are the MAX EVERYTHING PERFECT COMP VEGETABLE BOSS numbers. Basically, numbers nobody will see. I’d prefer it if the DPS calcs were divided into 3 sections: Solo DPS, Max Might + Fury, Max Might + Fury + Team Buffs + Enemy Debuffs.

The rotation itself is useful as a Plan A, but not much else.

The task you have is more monumental. Factoring damage uptime is a far more complicated issue than just calculating DPS. Active defenses (dodge, block, aegis, etc) are a finite barrier that exists regardless of your stats. I find that, roughly, berserker gear has 50% higher DPS than soldiers, while soldiers has anywhere from 207% to 260% higher effective health, depending on class. That number sounds big, but the higher effective health translates roughly to receiving only 48% to 38% of the damage, whereas the higher offensive power of zerker translates to receiving only 67% damage.

The thing you have to prove is that, in the time that you spend not dodging/blocking/using active defenses of some kind (time spans which last 3/4ths of a second each time), that those extra single hits from an Auto Attack or those minor build tweaks to have less active defenses results in more damage. Or failing that, the frequency to which a player fails in glass cannon gear but succeeds in tanky gear is high enough such that the overall time a fight takes is equal. Or, failing that, that the healing provided by support builds increases the success rate or reduces the active defenses of other teammates enough to justify the damage loss from running a healing spec.

I’m not sure it is true, even for HoT. I said this in the comments of one of your videos, but youtube comments aren’t the best place for elaboration, so I’ll say it here: The zerker meta is real. Not because somebody in some obscure corner did some calculations. Because it simply felt better. It worked better.

If you dig though my posts far enough, you’d probably see where I first came to the realization myself. At the time I had an engineer with full Magic Find gear, and a full Knight Set. They had the same offensive power. I noticed, by accident, that I did just as well in MF gear as I did in Knights, especially when soloing champions or swarms of enemies. The extra toughness, it bought me a hit or two. It wasn’t really doing much for me. So, eventually I swapped it out for a full zerker set, and then was amazed with how great it felt, and how well it played. I was making less mistakes because the fights were shorter, and if I did die it was much quicker to get to where I was again.

Kulvar.1239:

@OP: Your wonderful facts fall when you consider:
- Condition duration focus make fights longer. A longer fight means that you’ll have to tank more damages from your opponents. Also, the next wave can spawn before you killed the previous one.
- Cleanse cancel Condition duration. So all your extra damage vanish.

These two reasons explain why Viper > Sinister against non-cleansing foes.

I can understand not reading every post when the thread is 10 pages or so, but this thread isn’t that long. Recommended reading material: Sinister Vs. Viper in short term

blakdoxa.7520:

Is expertise really fixed? I don’t see any patch notes for it…

Yep. I tested it out myself.

Eponet.4829:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

So I just noticed I’ve did the burn calculation wrong in the OP. That has been corrected.

Let me check. Viper’s weapons adds 7.5% duration, while giver’s gives 20%. So, full stats with Vipers is:

2066 Power
32.5% Crit Chance
1096 Condition Damage
1.1625 Crit Mod
2401 Effective Power
38.6% Condition Duration

Take away the weapon (7.5% condition duration, 205 power, 205 condition damage, 113 precision), and add the Giver weapon (171 prrecision, 171 vitality, 20% duration), you’ll get

Power: 1,861
Crit Chance: 35.3 (658 Precision)
Condition Damage: 891
Condition Duration: 51.1%
Crit Mod: 1.1765
Effective Power: 2,189
Bleed: 75
Burn: 270
Poison: 87
Confusion: 41, 105
Torment: 56

Viper’s has got the Giver set beat in effective power by 9.7%. For the conditions, I’m going to come up with an adjusted condi damage. Thiis the base condi damage time the duration. I.E. 75 × 1.51 for bleeds. It is messy, but it will do for now.

Bleed: 113 Giver, 122 Viper
Burn: 407 Giver, 417 Viper
Poison: 131 Giver, 137 Viper
Confusion: 62, 159 Giver, 67, 164 Viper
Torment: 85 Giver, 90 Viper.

Looks like pure Viper has got Giver’s beat, in both intensity and overall effect. However, this is at base. It is important to know that Viper and Giver’s have different scaling. The more condition damage you get, the more advantage giver’s gets. The more condition duration you get, the more advantage viper’s gives.

For example, at max might, bleed will do 182 scaled damage with Givers, but Vipers does 184. You may be saying “But Viper’s is still higher!” and you are right, but notice that Vipers is only 2 points higher, but was 9 points higher previously. Additional sources of condition damage may push Giver’s over Vipers. In fact, let me check the formula for that…

((C + 891) x 0.06 + 22) x 1.51 = ((C + 1096) x0.06 + 22) x 1.386
(0.06C + 75.4) x 1.51 = (0.06 C + 87.8) x 1.386
0.0906C + 113.8 = 0.0832C + 121.7
0.0074C = 7.9
C = 1,068

That is 318 points higher than max might. Include the rune set and a stacking sigil, and you just may achieve that number. When the Giver’s set is at 1,959 condition damage, it will match the Viper’s Set at 2,164. This is at base, so if you include other things (Sigil of Malice, Rare Veggie Pizza, other sources of condi duration), then the gap widens.

For example, the same calculation done again with Rare Veggie Pizza and a Sigil of Malice gets you a difference of

0.1086C + 136.47 = 0.1012 C +148
0.074C = 11.56
C = 1,562

Which.. isn’t a number I’m certain you can reach.

Tl:dr RUN VIPER YOU FOOL!

What about a class with primarily main hand weapon damage using main hand ascended viper, off hand exotic giver’s?

If Viper’s is better than Giver’s overall, then mixing the two just running an inferior piece with a superior piece. You’re better off using two superior pieces.

blakdoxa.7520:

The only problem I see with viper’s is that you have to wear a completely full set to get the most benefit out of it.

I’d still take giver’s or even stopping at 50% condi increase as long as I don’t have to rely on a single stat set. Having to rely solely on the CDs of your active/reactive defenses makes you very squishy and, really, only useful for range/kiting.

It couldn’t work for melee in pve but I can see this working for builds in pvp. I’ve already made a trap/burn guard with the amulet and it works pretty well for blowing up team fights or catching players off guard.

This is not true. You don’t need to wear full viper’s to get the benefit. It is just that Viper is superior to Sinister until you reach 100% condi duration, making it the best condi damage set given that condition. This is true on the marginal level. Even if you only have a Viper weapon, it is still better than a Sinister Weapon.

I also use melee glass condi gear in PVE all the time. My rev is wearing a sinister/viper mix, and my thief is wearing a full viper set, and I don’t have any problem using their condi melee weapons. I didn’t have a problem with a sinster axe/torch ranger, either.

But, durability is a legitimate concern. If you want a more durable setup, let me introduce you to Viper’s hardier brother: Trailblazer. Trailblazer is Tough/Condi Primary, Vit/Expertise secondary. It doesn’t have the power stats of Viper, but it does have the same condi duration and condi damage. So, if you want a more durable build, then you’d want to mix in more trailblazer pieces.

I haven’t done as much math with Trailblazer, though. For good reason: The offensive stats are normalized among classes, but defensive stats are not. Therefore, the efficiency of Trailblazer when compared to, say, Nomads, is different from class to class. Though the general trend is pretty obviously going to be that Trailblazer does far more damage than Nomad, with only slight decreases in effective health, making an overall more formidable set.

You can do the comparison pretty easily: Traveler’s gives 1066 toughness and 579 vitality. Nomad’s gives 878 Toughness and Vitality. Insert class values, then check scaled effective health (max health x armor / 1920).

doctordoak.2634:

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

I already talked about this. But I’ll reiterate again: In situations where condition duration reaches 100%, swap out Viper for Sinister.

Generally, anyway. You are faced with other build options. Depending on how many additional conditions you have. I know guards just use burn for damage, but last I checked guardians also run blind, vulnerability, immobilize, and Dragon Hunters use cripple. If your build has ample access to these ancillary conditions, then there is a second build option.

Currently, you achieve 100% burning duration via a set of highly specific runes/sigils/etc. If you use a lot of other conditions, you can swap out some of the more focused bits (I.E. the sigil of smoldering) for Viper gear, and replace them with other things (Sigil of Bursting, Sigil of Malice, Sigil of Corruption, Sigil of Earth, etc). It should make an overall stronger build. Assuming you use a lot of vulnerability already.

This is all build specific. My knowledge of condi guards is limited, and I don’t know what game mode this is being made for. So, given the options…

A) If you use a lot of vuln or other conditions, swap out burn specific duration bonuses for omni-duration bonuses, and use Viper’s to fill the gaps. Preferably the smoldering sigil, as the Runes of Balthazar are already a very strong set. This will result in a viper/sinister mix, with Viper Armor + Weapons and Sinister Trinkets. The armor + weapons will give 20% extra condi duration, covering for smoldering while also boosting everything else. Most importantly, your vuln stackinging will increase by 16.7%. Also, you can replace that Smoldering Sigil with something like Earth or Geomancy for extra bleeds.

B) If not… let me check some math…

Viper Weapon/Armor+ Sinister Trinkets
Power: 1,970
Precision: 738 (39.1% Crit Rate)
Malice: 1,193
Expertise: 309 (20.6%)
Crit Mod: 1.1955
Effective Power: 2,355
Burn: 316
Bleed: 94

Sinister Burn: 331
Sinister Bleed: 99

You’re probably wondering why I picked this setup. It is because the expertise nearly exactly matches that of the Sigil of Smoldering Bonus. Assuming no additional conditions, there’s a couple of things that can be used to replace it.

Sigil of Earth: Adds 1.64 bleed ticks per “hit” roughly. I can’t remember the exact math I used to figure it out before (it was complicated and involved logarithms). Or going by the “eventuality” measure, it adds 3.5 bleed ticks per second maximum against a single target. Using the lower number, this will outpace sinister smoldering damage if the average maintained burn stacks of a fight is less than 10.3. Again, I’m not experienced with condi guard, so I don’t know how much burn they sustain. Also note, this number doesn’t extend to multiple targets, so against 3 targets the sustained burn threshold is 3.43 on all 3 enemies.

Sigil of Bursting: This will increase the condi damage to 1,265, creating a 328 damage burn. This is below sinister burn by the smallest of margins (literall less than 1%), but it is still weaker than just going full sinister. However, in max might situations, this will surpass sinister, but barely.

Sigil of Corruption: This will surpass full sinister at any might situation… if you are willing to put up with the buildup and inconsistency of the sigil.

Sigil of Geomancy: This will inflict 4.67 bleed ticks per second to any enemies around you. The sustained amount of burns needed to be equivalent to this in full sinister is 29.2, on all targets. This will beat out full Sinister, if you don’t mind the cumbersome use of having to weapon swap at point blank range to use. For consistency, you can divide the sustained burns by how frequently you actually weapon swap at close range. So if you swap only once every 27 seconds, then the sustained burns is 9.7 on all relevant targets.

Sigil of Strength: Depending on how many targets you face, this will add anywhere from 2.3 to 9.4 stacks of might. Depending on group situation, this can either be a great help or none at all. At lowest values it is equivalent to bursting at no might.

Specialty Sigil: this goes here for WvW purposes, like condi transfers and stuff. Use if needed.

Now for the showdown: Geomancy vs. Corruption. Corruption at max gives a 355 burn, no might. The difference between corruption burn and geomancy burn is 39 points, and this difference is the same no matter the might situation. Now, Geomancy inflicts 4.67 bleed ticks per second, which requires a sustained corruption burn value of 11.3 stacks of burning to be equal to. Reduce this value as needed, depending on how frequently you swap weapons while at point blank range. So, Geomancy or Corruption is optimal, depending on what situation/playstyle you find yourself in.

This is in a general sense. You can remove a piece or two of viper gear to get 82% condi damage, which will cap at 100% with a super veggie pizza.

C): If you are in WvW and are running glass condi guard, then there is always the option to build for 100% duration without food, and use the food buff for something else.

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

Was that the change where they made it so you no longer need a team for the final personal story step? If so, no they are not the same changes.

I’ve been on-off of the forums for awhile, and in that time I’ve never seen anyone bring this up.

If you run through the first personal story again, the fight with Zhaitan is actually quite a bit harder than it was previously. I discovered this while doing the personal story on my new Rev.

#1: Zhaitan will now reach out and throw projectiles at you that are quite damaging and will knock you off of the turrets.

#2: The various heads of Zhaitan will reach out and pop up through the ship as enemies. There’s no spawn limit on these from what I’ve seen, and they can get quite overwhelming after awhile.

#3: Tendrils will spawn next to the turrets and continue to swipe you off until they are killed. No spawn limit.

This all culminated with me doing what I thought was impossible: I died to zhaitan. I decided to ignore the adds and just concentrate on firing, and then found out very quickly that the various tentacles of Zhaitain will overwhelm you.

So… what did everyone else think of these changes? Or am I the only one on the forums who bothered to take the rev through the personal story?

Um… no. When gold becomes rarer, it becomes more valuable. If you can’t make as much gold, then the gold you do make will be just as valuable as previously.

That applies for the gold to gem conversion, too. After a bunch of whales buy gems and trade it in to get rich, the price of gems goes down.

I’m not even sure why this is a question. But I guess I’ll answer: The easiest way to make gold is to find something that is valuable, then go and get it, then sell it.

Sounds like the reason why no one does this event is because… no one does this event.

Granted, I am terrified of this event. But not once have I ever zoned into a map that had a coordinated group of players. If I encountered a map that was making a push, I might try it.

Also, I’m not sure I have all the necessary masteries.

Karka shells are 10 silver each. If nobody is there, maybe it is time to take advantage of that and make a lucrative karka farm?

Besides, there’ still blooming passiflora and ori nodes.

I run around in full berserker, and I don’t see what the problem is. And no, this isn’t an “I’m so elite” bragging post. I’m actually quite mediocre at this game.

Most of the enemies die pretty easily. The really high damage ones like the frogs and snipers, they’re glass cannons in themselves. The frogs are pretty easy to kill, as a single reflect usually spells the death of them. If not, use a movement skill to close the gap and burst them down, but disengage and range when they go into a melee attack.

Smokescales are just a minor annoyance. They flip around a bit then drop a dodge field. Usually they die before the dodge field. The only complaint I have is that the champ mushrooms have an AoE that displays an incorrect field of effect, and it trips me up because I don’t expect the interface to lie to me.

My best advice, is to be aggressive. Running past things isn’t always easier than killing things. So, if you see a dangerous enemy ahead, be aggressive. Those frogs are surprisingly easy when you take the first move and disable/burst them down.

Also, watch your back. Enemies hide around corners waiting to ambush.

I don’t think the mastery gate for raids is too bad. They are, after all, the super high end-game challenge.

Tangentially related, the number of Black Diamonds required to make an equisite jewel was changed from 2 to 1 very recently

It would be nice to have a list of these changes.

Allvaldr.3425:

Unloveableone.6082:

People actually fall for this still?

Some people deserve to have their accounts stolen.

No, they don’t.

I finished making a full viper set. My wallet aches and my homework needs doing, but I’ve done it. I tested whether the expertise adds to condi duration or not.

It does. The bug is fixed. BUY VIPER YOU FOOL!