Guild Wars 2

Yea, big crits don’t mean big dps. It’s pretty much been calculated and proven that on long boss fights, condition dps far exceeds power dps. Just cuz you saw a cool looking big crit doesn’t mean that the total damage you do over a period of time exceeds that of a build that puts out a lot of smaller damage numbers. You need to do more than say “omg I saw big numbers!” to prove high dps, especially when there’s a psychological bias that often incorrectly backs up this premise.

Everything we’ve seen so far has put power dps below condi on long fights and while the lower armor of some bosses may play some degree of a favor to power, you’re still arguing for a spot in a group that will usually be more likely to need a condi engi for the VG fight.

The Gorse points are really splitting hairs since there’s a dps loss that hits power builds when you pick up slick shoes too. I’m not even sure how you think that Gorseval moves too much for Napalm, especially with his huge hitbox.

So you can claim all this if you want, but the proof so far isn’t in your favor.

Group with condi engi killing VG with over 4 min left on timer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny5kJAkXfVQ

Group with condi engi killing Gorseval with over 3 min on timer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzJKRmci8pk

Group with condi engi killing Sabetha with over 2:45 on timer (tempest PoV):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuGKPIZsbps

Ven Zehn.6573:

Only class that’s easier than war to map on is ranger imo. War has solid mobility, and you can ignore pretty much every mob. Ranger only has a 1 up here because you can use pets to distract enemies while you commune.

Pets distracting enemies puts you in combat and you don’t have near as much mobility. Thief is the only other prof I’d put close to warrior.

Oh, as a tip for world completion: Stealth is really helpful for certain hero points in Orr. Stealth classes like mesmer/thief/engi can easily do this by themselves, but I believe you can also use either an Ash Legion Spy Kit or Harpy Feathers (search the wiki for these) on warrior.

Pretty much just equip GS with Sword/Warhorn and keep GS#3, GS#5, Sw#2, and Wh#4 on cooldown. Additionally, you can equip Signet of Rage to use on cooldown for more swiftness and Bull’s Charge for another movement skill.

Once you do this, you’re pretty much moving as fast as possible for any profession in the game.

OP: I see that your post history only goes back as far as Oct 19th of this year. Is it fair to say that you’re a relatively new player or are playing on a relatively new account?

If so, that may account for more of your victories than the minor shave bunker mesmers encountered. =P

Yup…as someone who’s played since release, having MMR decide your match-ups makes it just as hard to win games when you’re Amber rank as it does for the later ranks. The conflict between MMR and Ranks overall just seems to be causing so many problems…

I think the half-shaved look is pretty awesome personally.

I’m guessing this is this for open world?

If so, it should be be fine. However, consider this variant:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdEQJAqalUUhatY7Ww6Kw6FL3FFdqH7zOYD+gBg4B9D5AA-TRiAABXoEMI1fgZ/BoPhAA8AAkRPhAHIAHM/BlyPSBAx0I-e

There’s two changes – Flame Turret dropped for Elixir B and Inventions Line changed out for Alchemy. Here’s why:

- Using the Alchemy line with Elixir Gun and Elixir B allows you to stack up to 25 stacks of might by yourself.
– Toss Elixir B allows you to keep up stability when you swap to Elixir Gun so that you don’t lose might stacks.
– Elixir B supplements the loss of 25% movement speed for swiftness. It’s not 100%, uptime on swiftness, but it is a 33% speed boost when it’s up.
– Turrets don’t gain from your condition damage, so Flame Turret isn’t as much of a boost to dps as you would think it would be.
– Protection on CC and health regen from Backpack Regenerator are particularly helpful for the type of mobs you face in the new HoT zones.

Galbedir.9178:

Thanks for the feedback, pretty much what I guessed. Really is such a shame how every class is forced into using 1 build, 1 set of weapons. Cant understand how this is not more of an issue to devs. May end up going thief then, which saddens me, Really love the new Timekeepers rifle skin.

Yea, there’s not many professions out there that have multiple ideal builds, but that’s the nature of the content and isn’t really specific to GW2. Any time you have a really high difficulty type of content added, it will push players to go for the absolute ideal build. Sometimes a class may have multiple ideal builds (such as warriors having PS and Condi), but they’re generally for different roles.

I would say that power engi should be solid for Fractals now that they tuned down the toughness on high level mobs. However, for raids, power builds, while still strong, just get overshadowed by condi that just does all the same stuff power does, but better. The only real advantage power has is on short fights and trash mobs due to not relying on damage over time.

Also, keep in mind that you can still use rifle power builds in most places in the game. Raids are the only one spot where it really becomes an issue.

You can still run the old power meta dungeon build with either rifle or hammer (very little difference between the two), but they’ll perform less than a well played meta condition engi build (especially on the Vale Guardian fight).

If you really want you can drop a kit or two, but this will again be a big hit to your dps since max dps is only attained through 3 kit swapping.

It should still be technically possible to clear raids with something like this. It’s been proven that a group full of fully exotic geared players on budget gear can clear through all the raid fights.

However, doing this will just make the encounter harder for you and your group. While your performance at handling boss mechanics is the #1 factor in success, DPS comes second and a power-based engi is simply lacking compared to the condi meta.

I would offer two options for advice:
1) Get ahold of sinister trinkets from living story achievements and bandit crests (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ascended_trinket). Get the Insignia and Inscription recipes for Viper’s stats (exotic quality) from Auric Basin and craft 6 insignias, 2 inscriptions. Craft 2 rabid ascended pistols. Change the stats of your armor and pistols to Viper’s with the Mystic Forge. Be awesome as a Viper/Condi engi.

2) Give your berserker set to your thief and play the max dps thief build. While thieves aren’t in a great place for raids due to not doing anything particularly unique or ideal, they do still work well and can fit in a group that already has enough condi dps, ranged dps, and boon support.

I know that’s probably not what you want to hear…but it’s the reality of the situation. =/

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Ah Factions… the campaign that GW1 players either loved, or hated. There never seemed to be any middle ground for those one. Personally, I think it was my favorite, despite its flaws.

I’m not sure this was my favorite expansion back when I played GW1, but it’s the one I’m most tempted to go back to now. Sadly, I rolled an Assassin and Vizunah Square is pretty much a wall to progression as this is near impossible to do with nothing but henchmen (I don’t have hardly any heroes since my old account got hijacked and the player population is…sparse).

Urgoz’s Warden and the Deep were also some of the most fun high-end content I think GW1 ever had…

/nostalgiatrip

Basic statistics really should be made part of the core curriculum for public schools. .

Factions was a great expansion, but let’s also take off the rosy-colored glasses for a second.

As great kitten many of the features of Factions were, the inclusion of the Assassin profession caused a lot of problems in PvE. They were incredibly squishy melee class and often were more of a liability than a benefit to a group because of this. This was made even worse by enemy mechanics of the Afflicted (the most prevalent enemy mob in the expansion) which would cause an AoE explosion on death.

The end result was an expansion with a new profession everyone wanted to play, but also one that no one wanted in their groups. While the assassin became a viable profession later on at max level and even became a big part of the meta in areas like FoW, there was a really rocky path that killed a lot of players enjoyment early on.

There’s also the possibility of just going full decap:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASnUUB1ahVXBuoC0ehFLjiutf76Os6GmtSMZCgvD-TJxHABPXGIgHAQ47PAwFAAA

Considering how many bunker-heavy builds there are out there, I’ve found this to work pretty well.

But honestly, I can’t wait for this meta to change…

kuritsutian.2987:

NikeEU.7690:

1. Quickness
2. Alacrity
3. Banners
4. Grace of the Land and Frost Spirit and Spotter
5. Assassins Presence

So much for buffs, where’s the debuff list? I think those are as important.

I think you mean Vuln since that’s pretty much it and it’s a non-issue when you have 10 players and 1 target.

In a 5 person party, it may be worth considering traits that apply this, but there’s so many sources of small amounts of vuln that in a 10 person group, it gets capped without anyone even thinking about it.

30% sounds like a bit of an exaggeration. =P

However, I would agree that dropping EG for Blast would probably impact the build too much. If you really needed to fit it in, Slick Shoes seem like the better option since the toolbelt skills are so similar and it’s more of a switch from lockdown CC to knockback/decap CC.

That being said, I have seen some good decap-focused builds that run with FT, Elixir B, and Blast Gyro. Considering the bunker-heavy meta, that may not be a bad idea, but bunker mesmers will be really tough to control.

The changes look good…but I don’t think they’re enough. Not necessarily that rev/mes need to be nerfed more (shaves are good), but there’s also no moves to help the professions that are pretty much MIA from the meta.

This also looks more like a bug fix patch than a balance patch:

Durability Runes – Bug
Temple Meditations – Doesn’t seem like this was ever intended
Echo of Memory – Legit balance
Demonic Defiance – Legit balance
Radiant Revival – Legit balance
Coalescense of Ruin – Over 5 target cap on AoE sounds like a bug

/my2copper

harold.3526:

How cond Warriors take care of seekers management? o.o

Wild blow.

If you’re running both banners, take this over Shattering Blow at a very, very small dps loss.

It’s doesn’t compete with engineer’s FT Air Blast, but it’s sufficient in most groups.

Actually, I thought you could do Fractals at any level, but of course, you wouldn’t want to do anything above level 10 since those levels require agony resistance that you’ll only want to put on level 80 gear.

That being said, unless something changes in tomorrow’s patch, the experience you gain from Fractals is pitifully low.

Raids require level 80…but that’s the most difficult content in the game and I’d recommend being geared in at least exotics, but preferably in exotics + ascended gear plus getting very familiar with the best build to use in the content and how the fights work. Don’t expect to be able to walk in without a good understanding of the content, a solid build, and acceptable gear.

It works the same way that unequipping your helmet still works.

P/P is simply better for condi, but just because you use a hammer doesn’t mean that you won’t still be able to clear content, down enemies, etc.

Difficult raiding content is the only place I’d say that you’d really feel the impact.

Oxygen.5918:

Dahkeus.8243:

You’re using sword offhand and you’re using smoldering arrow, so there’s no benefit to showing the rotation if you’re going to show the wrong one.

Correct, however in my defense, the video is old (i.e. not optimised, but certainly not awful either), from when the theorycrafting had just begun. But it shows the important part, i.e. positioning, double dipping, and so on. Smoldering Arrow is a DPS increase because it provides 2s of burning while in a fire field on a 1/4 cast time, which is more DPS than Double Shot does for a 3/4 cast time. Pls dahkeus.

Dahkeus.8243:

If you like to camp longbow the whole time, that’s your choice, but it’s also a dps loss over swapping to sword+torch.

Yes, it’s definitely my choice, but not on fights where melee’ing is near impossible/too dangerous/etc. Certain Verdant Brinks dragon fights come to mind. Again, all is situational, even the whole build itself.

Not even where to start with you…you’re back and forth all over the place.

First you say that you posted to show the rotation…when you had an outdated and bad rotation. Now you’re saying that you posted the video because it shows how to double dip fire fields? That’s a valid point, but you really need a disclaimer to point out that this is about the only unique and relevant info in your vid when so much else in there is really just covered more accurately by Nike’s vid.

@ Warlord: The tactics burn arrow variant isn’t actually better for VG, but it is a bit easier to pull off if you’re learning how to take care of the lightning circles and aren’t used to dipping back to melee. However you can see how to maximize dps while providing the regen from banners in the standard version in the recent vid Nike posted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny5kJAkXfVQ

Oxygen.5918:

Dahkeus.8243:

Actually, this is the build link and video you should be looking to. What Oxy posted was not optimized and has since been refined:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAT8fnMdAtki1eAefA0hglpA74IEAGZKBhYQP490+artA-TBSFAB9r+zgKBR2CCAuIAEr8r3nAgS7H0uuBSBAzyK-e
Wild Blow can substitute Shattering Blow if you need breakbar assistance.

Utility skills come down to the situation at hand. I include a few choices in the written guide included with the video. In fact, I did include my video over Nike’s because it actually shows the rotation, not just a character sitting around for 15 minutes, which is more useful to someone trying to learn how to play versus “what” to play.

Deep Strike vs. Blademaster is more of a choice than optimisation; Deep Strike is better if you can’t/don’t want to switch off LB for obvious reasons (which I don’t because I like shooting arrows), and vice versa.

The same can be said about Blood Reaction vs. Heat the Soul.

Rabid backpiece was a mistake from my part over Rampager (oopsies), but otherwise, both builds are exactly the same, unless I’m missing something else?

You’re using sword offhand and you’re using smoldering arrow, so there’s no benefit to showing the rotation if you’re going to show the wrong one.

Yea, I know you have a personal beef with Nike, but like it or not, his rotation and information on what variant of the build as well as how to use the build is simply better.

If you like to camp longbow the whole time, that’s your choice, but it’s also a dps loss over swapping to sword+torch.

@ Anyone looking to clarify what rotation to use: check out Nike’s video at 19:51 – https://youtu.be/Q7wwxZ3Gv0w?t=1191

@ Anyone giving advice: Please stick to the facts and leave personal bias or preferences that produce DPS losses out of it.

Thaddeus.4891:

maxinox.6283:

softblackcarbon.1537:

Condi engi is considered the better class for VG because it is much better at running green circles than the other condi builds. Engis provide several knockbacks and ccs that reapers are missing, as well as water fields and blast finishers for aoe healing, both of which reapers lack reliably. Their condis still tick while they are running circles (though they do lose dps when they leave the boss, that is true), but the loss of dps is largely irrelevant in actually killing the boss as the timer is so lax. You’re much better off bringing the survivability and ease of circle running, than slightly more consistent dps with reapers from range and the number one thing that causes wipes is people missing/going down in green circles, rather than lack of dps. Lack of dps usually stems from other issues and not from losing out on dps when people run circles. Prioritizing the circle team’s survivability over slightly higher dps will almost always lead to more success in the fight.

tl;dr – engis are better because of the utility they provide, rather than their dps. They’re not the only class that can be successful though.

You may not play condi reaper so :
The condi nec can stay far from the boss and don’t drop DPS (you only go on the boss for KS4 and mushroom in P1)
You use Suffer! to kite red orbs
You use KS3 to CC red orbs when you are in green circle
You can use KS4 on green circle for heal or rally an ally on you

The survability of a necro is HUGE since you can go on KS on demand, it absobs damage if needed.

For the CC phase I always take a WH in my second set for the daze in addition to golem charge and KS5.

If you team have no trouble with the CC you can take the lich and your DPS will be FAR FAR HIGHER than engi.

In conclusion, it’s okay to have an engi for the knockback (other class can do this) but you can’t say “engi is the best for VG”

I very doudt that reaper with Lich have far far higher dps than engie. Do you have numbers or video to back up that claim?

Not saying it’s a bad dps. I think that condi reaper is very good. IMO both engie and reaper are on par in that situation, or at least very close. Keep in mind that when you say that :

‘’The condi nec can stay far from the boss and don’t drop DPS (you only go on the boss for KS4 and mushroom in P1)’’

The same can be said for the engineer. They have the same range of 900 so they can both stay relatively far from the boss and drop a bit of dps. The engineer only go on the boss for Bomb 2 and 3 and mushroom in P1.

Comparing an engi to necro on lightning orb duty probably has a lot to do with how many orbs end up over 900 range.

Engis are pretty reliant on blowtorch and bomb kit for a lot of their damage and both of those are generally not available when you’re on lightning duty. If they pop out at the right time, it may not be a big deal (i.e. if a circle comes up as soon as you’ve just put these on cd), but that will rarely happen. Even landing napalm can be tough with distant circles, but considering the long cd of this, it’s not nearly as much of an issue.

Engis can keep up some dps at 900+ range with mortar kit, but it’s significantly less than even grenade spam.

Chillomancer reapers can easily maintain their full dps rotation at range, but 900+ range is a dead stop to dps.

Which is more of an issue? From my experience, I’d say that engi is affected more by lightning orbs.

As for numerical proof, I haven’t seen actual charts or spreadsheets on this (and that would be tough considering the many factors), but I’ll quote DEKeyz from DnT on this since she’s pretty well known for diving into this stuff. When asked how reaper compares to engi, she said:

on a single target in a perfect world, this would probably rank 5-15% lower. However, epidemic can drastically boost its DPS vs groups well past those two classes. Also, necro rotations are so much easier than engi rotations, so the real world difference would be less or a necro may even pull ahead?

Source: comments section of – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRDyLvOiawc

Now, that wasn’t referring to the lightning orb role, but it’s still pretty applicable.

Honestly, I’d say that condi warrior is really king of the lightning orb role. It does require some melee for a max dps rotation, but it’s doesn’t lose much of this is delayed and the bulk of the rotation is almost as effective at 1200 range as it is at melee since it’s mostly scorched earth spam.

However, engi, reaper, and warrior are all pretty ideal for that role and I don’t see any reason for a group to exclude any of these if they need someone to fill a condi role that handles lightning circles.

Joxer.6024:

Oxygen.5918:
I am intrigued to play a condi Warrior and so far what you have posted looks great! Do you have a recent build you could link and one that is viable for raiding? Thanks heaps. I am new to this Warrior thing but am liking it!

Actually, this is the build link and video you should be looking to. What Oxy posted was not optimized and has since been refined:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAT8fnMdAtki1eAefA0hglpA74IEAGZKBhYQP490+artA-TBSFAB9r+zgKBR2CCAuIAEr8r3nAgS7H0uuBSBAzyK-e
Wild Blow can substitute Shattering Blow if you need breakbar assistance.

Welcome to warrior. It’s definitely a fun class and is in a great spot for raiding.

p.s. personally, I find berserker’s fury preferable to signet mastery since I almost never actually use healing sig and even though the fury from berserker’s fury is redundant, the extra adrenaline regen helps.

Ok…people here need to step away from the keyboard for a minute.

This thread is really pretty sad with so many people fighting over credit.

Oxy: You likely influenced the meta build and were on the right track with condi builds early on. If you really need to pat yourself on the back for this so much, please, do so somewhere other than these forums. Recognizing the potential of condi builds on warrior early on doesn’t make you a hero and there’s no trophy to win, so you really don’t need to make a big deal out of all of this.

Warlord: Yes, Nike new that condi was good a long time ago, but he clearly saw it as a niche for soloing (since it wasn’t good for anything beyond soloing back then) and when HoT came out, he was still looking to power for the non-PS meta build (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60QYi93PfJQ). It’s certainly possible and even likely that Oxy influenced Nike’s decision making on the condi build judging by the timeline and similarities of the builds.

Now, can we move on?

No, revealed didn’t kill thieves. The power creep killed thieves.

There’s a correlation between the increase in skills that produce revealed and the decrease in thief effectiveness, but there’s no causation between the two.

Correlation =/= causation.

Warlord.9074:

Are you guys new? Nike already had a video and build guide for condi war and said it was more DPS than melee on Lupi. Way before OXY even knew what a warrior was. If anything Oxy copied Nikes build that was already out.

Take a breath buddy. There’s enough people all hyped up around here.

Yea, Nike’s had condi builds for a long time and if you’re responding to my post, then I’m not insinuating that Oxy somehow opened his eyes to condi builds. However, I never saw Nike considering condi as a group spec.

Was he already considering this on his own? Would he have thought of this by himself? I have no idea, but up until after Oxy’s post, there didn’t seem to be any talk about using condi for things like raids or as a secondary warrior when PS was already present (Nike previously recommended a zerk build alternative for dungeons/fractals when a PS war was already in the group).

Also, if I’m understanding right, it seemed like Nike was insinuating that Oxy’s post played a role in why he started looking to optimize a berserker longbow build.

NikeEU.7690:

Azure.8670:

Warlord.9074:

Oxygen.5918:

NikeEU.7690:

Unfortunately, there are basically 0 encounters in the game where condi engie is better dps in practice than condi warrior. A supremely skilled condi engie is at best equal to an average condi warrior who understands the build. I say this as a main warrior, but its sad that the balance is so off that one of the hardest builds to play well in the game has a lower dps ceiling than one of the easiest, but thats been a GW2 issue since the start really.

That’s so far off your initial assessment of the condi warrior. I wonder what happened.

What? NIKE always said condi warrior was at least equal and stronger on gorse. His calculations were based on engi doing perfect rotations. Perfect rotations on engi ia hard. Good rotations on warrior is easy.

Oxygen had a post over a month ago about how powerful condi warrior is and he was laughed out of the building. Not sure if NIKE or not posted in it as I havent followed the thread recently, but I believe this is what hes referring too

No one laughed him out of the building, at least I didn’t. Basically, he posted an unoptimized build and said “this is good.” People said, “is it?” And he didn’t provide any proof of the build working in practice. That’s basically it: people asked for proof and he gave his usual lazy egotistical response saying no, do it yourself. if you want people to take your theorycraft seriously you have to do something with it.

Luckily for Oxy, I test things and I tested tested condi warrior at Gorseval and it worked really well, above expectations. So I optimized the build more and made a guide and taught the community about it by demonstrating it working insanely well in an organized raid team. Should Oxy have done these things? Probably. especially so if he wants a pat on the back and e-credit for the idea.

As far as me changing my opinion, my opinion originally was: this build is capable of decent damage but its a fairly niche build. against a moving boss with a small hit box its less DPS than a berserker selfish DPS power build. against big hit boxes or stationary bosses, it’s pretty amazing. Also, it only works in team comps where you can afford to bring selfish DPS. Someone else has to contribute might fury etc. So again, very niche. When Oxy originally posted the thread raids weren’t even out and the big niche (gorseval) didn’t exist so my position was that the build has potential but is too niche for most content we had at the time like dungeons or fractals.

When content was created that made the condi-berserker’s niche more mainstream, ofcourse you re-evaluate these things and update your position. As far as some sort of moronic accusation that I “changed my position, what gives?” I hope I adequately explained that. also, when rational people are given new information they change their conclusions. Only an idiot would ignore new data and defend old positions that fly in the face of facts.

tl;dr: as Keynes said, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”

So, would you say then that Oxy played a role in inspiring you to explore the full potential of condi war?

That’s kinda what it sounds like.

And don’t get me wrong…this doesn’t mean that he’s suddenly some meta-making hero that should be applauded. I mean, the discussion from his post, as you mentioned, was often handled in a less-than-productive manner. However, most great things have messy starts and if he played a role in getting the ball rolling towards this new meta build, then I’d say some credit is due.

And it’s not like humility is really a common trait with anyone on these forums anyways, lol.

For liking it better than GS or A/S? Not necessarily…

But just be aware that a longbow S/T berserker condi build will heavily outperform what you are running in terms of dps.

Honestly, I think it’s best to just avoid PvP until this meta passes.

There’s been a power creep with high power bunkers that’s just gone too far for too long.

I don’t think that engi is in a particularly bad spot right now compared to some classes, but your best bet is to either indulge in the cheesy super meta builds or just wait for something to bring back a more balanced field.

Skipping out on a balance patch before the league start was a terrible start.

But look on the bright side: People are still manipulating the league system for gain so much right now that it’s not like it means anything if you have a low rank.
(recent example: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3w7ptt/first_eu_player_reached_legend_doing_the_mmr/)

Welcome to MMOs! They cost money to run! And when you expansions come out, you pretty much have to buy them to keep up!

THIS IS NEWS! WOO!

Umm, isn’t this just the cele meta scrapper build, but with a rifle instead? =P

Not saying it’s a bad thing, but it just seems like it’s not really crossing the line from “Hey, try out the meta build with a rifle!” into “Hey, here’s a brand new build!”, hehe.

Tongku.5326:

Condi Engis are the bomb, and come in 2 distinct very good varieties, full condi (full kit build) and Burn (less kits, specifically focused on burning).

I personally prefer the burn one, problem with full condi engi is that by the time your conditions applied via rotating all the kits actually do some decent damage, many small targets are already dead. Whereas burn engis are more to the point and while may do a bit less on paper and in theorycrafting, they actually do far more in practical application due to not wasting so much time kit swapping.

By default they are also more flexible then the general condi engis and have more space for things other then kits.

Umm…wat? (deliberate mispelling necessary for this situation)

Kit swapping doesn’t lower your dps. Not tracking your cooldowns will, but you still need 2 of the 3 kits + pistol offhand to get your high dps burns (blowtorch, fire bomb, and napalm). Unless you’re just camping FT for that one 2 second (+duration) burn at the end of a long melee AA, you’re doing almost the exact same kit swapping except for grenade kit.

And if you’re doing anything mobile, like lightning circles in VG, you’re sacrificing one of your biggest ranged DPS sources.

And why would you even do this? You don’t need the utility spot for anything else. You have huge breakbar utility from powder keg, air blast, and detonating HT. Air blast alone is all you really even need for things like Seekers.

The only real practical dps loss you get from a straight meta kit build is not tracking your cooldowns and being late on a high dps burn skill, which is pretty much just as possible if all you’re doing is dropping grenade kit.

YaYa.5879:

Well it’s been a while since now the expension was released, so let’s take a look at group content so far. I am going to divide this in 3 pargraphes: dungeons, raids, fractals

Dungeons:
Dead. It seems like, instead of allowing the players to have a certain liberty to do whatever they want in a Huge world full of content. Anet decided to force us to…

Yea, stopped reading here. You haven’t been forced to do anything. Dungeons are still there. The rewards aren’t as amazing as they were before, but they’re still there.

Dolphin.2574:

Acewings.6872:

Carighan.6758:

Uh, wasn’t there the 50%-off-of-all-style-items sale?

Yeah, but they’ve always had like bank slots, home instance nodes, bag slots, etc discounted.

Basically all the important stuff.

So, The only year with no holiday sales, except for the ones they did have?

What the thread is titled: “The only year with no holiday sales”

What the thread should be titled: “Disappointed by holiday sales this year”

softblackcarbon.1537:

The way I see it, it seems like the two most popular condi classes are war and engi, though I’d actually say the condi classes that are good in the largest number of fights are reaper and engi. While reaper’s condi dps may be slightly (and only slightly) below war and engi, they can bring other utility (epidemic mostly XD) that’s quite useful on both the Gorseval and Sabetha fights. I’d argue they also out-perform condi warriors on VG as the hitbox is much smaller and the boss moves a lot more.

I’d disagree on reaper vs war in VG fight. Reaper has a 900 range, which means their dps effectively stops entirely if they have to hit a far lightning circle.

Also, the warrior fields aren’t generally that hard to land as long as you paint them in the direction the boss is walking to keep up dps. This gets tough with distant lightning fields, but it’s no more of a problem than a reaper who can’t reach the boss or an engi who is forced into mortar spam until grenades can reach again.

Warrior will also do amazing dps on the gorseval fight due to the large hit box and while it doesn’t have epidemic, you can still hit multiple targets if you use good directionality on fire fields.

Twigifire.8379:

Dahkeus.8243:

Yea, the key to being good at playing stealth in PvP is being unpredictable. As a former thief main, I’m in awe of how good Sneak Gyro is for PvP. It’s like SR on steroids.

It’s broken in multiple ways

(rubs temples)

Sometimes posts here just make my head hurt…

Anyways, would it be nice if it moved faster? Yea. I’d love if I didn’t have to wait for it when I had swiftness. However, I’m not sure it needs to be faster. It still easily merits the elite slot on a profession that the best selection of elite skills (especially in PvP), which says something.

Considering that it’s also sometimes beneficial to run out of the radius of the gyro to avoid attacks, it’s not always that bad that it’s slower than you.

Going back to OP:

If you’re trying to decide what prof to get a condi set on, I would say that you could look at it from 1 of 3 ways.

1) How many viable condi specs are there for the armor type.
– For medium armor, if you have a condi engi, your only other viable option is ranger. Condi ranger is less dps, but it does have spirits (recently fixed), glyph of empowerment, and grace of the land. However, with the nerfs to CAF regen, I don’t think it will ever be worth it to go ranger except maybe if you have an ele healing instead of druid. Check Pernix’s videos on youtube for ranger condi build stuff.
– For heavy armor, if you have a condi war, you won’t really ever have much reason to swap your condi armor to guard or rev. Condi guard doesn’t do anything a warrior does better (less dps and no banners) and rev is in a terrible spot for condi.
– For light armor, you could use the condi set for necro condi on gorseval for epidemic, then go condi tempest elsewhere.

2) Which condi build is best adapted for raids.
– Condi engineer tends to be the most popular due to how high dps the build is and how flexible it is to provide dps and breakbar support. However, warrior condi is up there as well and can bring banners at the same time.

3) Which condi profession has other useful builds.
– This is only worth considering if you’re willing to get multiple sets of armor, but a warrior does allow you to quickly swap between power PS war for might stacking and condi for higher dps and ranged support.

Overall, I’d say that the most flexibility for one set of condi armor would go to light armor due to condi reaper and tempest both being viable. However, condi engi and warrior are generally more accepted as being ideal.

Edit – So, apparently, ele condi uses primarily Sinister armor since you can only really apply burns and can get the duration increased easily through runes and even sigil if needed. Because of this, you probably wouldn’t want Viper’s armor anyways.

Those places were amazing…but I doubt that if GW2 brought those back that they’d feel anything like the original. It would be nice to see more GW2 story touch on those places, however…

Yea…I think I know it’s easy to get rosy colored glasses when evaluating a current meta vs one of the past, but it’s pretty kitten clear that there’s something wrong with the meta nowadays when you compare to back in those days.

edit that being said: Jebro > Blue. That’s the one improvement imo.

No idea on condi necro since idk if there are any traits that allow you to condi duration cap without trinkets.

However, the new PvP legendary back has Viper’s stats. I’m guessing the Fractals legendary is the same.

And, you know, it’s not a big deal to grind for a legendary back piece, cuz crafting full ascended in Viper’s and doing all the LS achievements for Sinister’s trinkets wasn’t a grind at all. =P

Stop and think about it for a moment. You’re not some anomaly. Other people get the same bad luck with teams. I’ve certainly had my fair share of terrible teammates. You’ll love games to it, there’s no doubt.

There’s nothing different about the matchmaking you face than the matchmaking other people face as well.

@ Engel: If I talked about something that didn’t apply to you, then I wasn’t talking about you. I quoted your post, but everything there wasn’t directed at you.

Look, I know you want to blame ANet because every game you get isn’t fair, but every game doesn’t have to be fair to pull ahead. Good players pull ahead because they win some of the games where the odds are stacked against them. They don’t have to win all of them.

And if you learn to communicate well with those teammates, you’ll see even more success. Call out where you’re going. If that thief insists on going straight to far then either back them up or adjust your strategy so that you don’t just run to a 4 v 3 at mid. Just because you know strategies that work great with a good team doesn’t mean you should follow the same strat when you have stubborn or ignorant teammates.

Engel.6029:

Dahkeus.8243:

Maybe you don’t. Maybe Sapphire is your skill cap.

You can’t blame everything on matchmaking.

Remember that other people are queueing into the same matchmaking situation that you are…

If you get stuck with a team that insists on feeding a zerg camping your home while you try to cap and hold 2 other points it’s not a skill issue on your part.

I sailed through amber and the first tier of emerald easy 2nd tier I got strings of premades, stuck with teammates who didn’t know how to rotate around a zerg, or a combination of both.

And you know what…other people get queued with bad teammates sometimes too.

And sometimes you get queued with people that are better than you.

These are hard facts to swallow, I know. Everyone likes to think that they’re god’s gift to PvP and that teammates are the ones holding you back from being in the Legendary division, but sometimes that’s just not the case.

Considering how much focus people here are putting on their 1 v 1 skills, I have a sneaking suspicion that there’s a reason people are having trouble winning…

rogerwilko.6895:

Dante.1523:

No you do not

3 condi engi
3 revs
ok

Here ya go:
2 PS wars, 2 staff tempest, 2 condi reapers (yes, reapers, not engis or condi wars), 2 heralds, druid, and a scrapper tank.

Yea, the key to being good at playing stealth in PvP is being unpredictable. As a former thief main, I’m in awe of how good Sneak Gyro is for PvP. It’s like SR on steroids.

Rising Dusk.2408:

This means that many pub groups will opt to require ascended because “why not”.

You can never trust those kitten ed ‘pub’ groups…they’re always drunk and causing trouble.

~.^

Good tips…but I doubt they’ll really impact the people you’re aiming this towards with that title…

StickerHappy.8052:

To all those saying “Just X loses, I have seen worse”

You guys gotta remember this is sapphire not amber.

losing 3 to 5 in a row, will not let you progress further. What if you you have 3/5 pips, then lose 3? So you are back at point A.

I am just highlighting the main problem and this will be worse in Ruby bec you lose tiers, losing 7-10 in a row will lose you 2 tiers.

So how do you progress vs 5 man premades, incompetent teammates, and vs Pro teams?

Maybe you don’t. Maybe Sapphire is your skill cap.

You can’t blame everything on matchmaking.

Remember that other people are queueing into the same matchmaking situation that you are…

Chapell.1346:

Please remove the Trebs it serve nothing in terms of defense and offense

Not sure if this is sarcastic, but if not, I think you may want to play stronghold a bit more. Having a person on the treb at the right time can make a huge difference in the game. They keep mist contended and obliterate doorbreakers.

A good person on treb can also give your team control over capturing supply at mid, but not many players can aim the treb that well.

Here’s some friendly advice:

• Just focus on playing better. If you’re raging about pips, you’re blinding yourself towards improving.

• If there’s a blatant, systematic issue preventing you from progressing, come and post about it in a detailed, constructive manner.

• Once you’ve done this, forget about what’s stopping you from succeeding. You’ve made your post and there’s nothing more you can do. If you focus your attention and energy on improving, the pips will come (at least until you reach your skill cap).

• Realize that you may not be the pro player you want to be. You may reach a point where you stop gaining ranks. If you let this get to you, then you’re not likely to see any change.

Really, success comes down to this: Play as well as you can and at the end of the game, ask yourself what you could have done differently. If your answer is “There’s nothing I could have done! The game is unfair!”, then you’ve already lost.

You will always encounter unfairness. It’s how you handle it that makes the difference between a pro and a scrub.

It needs to be opened when it’s fixed and not a moment before.

Sorry, but a working, fair game mode is more important than your handful of favor, even though I do hope that it can get fixed in time for your guild mission.