40 replies to this topic

[Dahk]

Isms, on 09 September 2012 - 07:14 AM, said:

I understand, that 5 more points in Skirmishing taunts me every time I look at this build. But honestly, what would you drop for it? If you don't have a reliable condition removal, you're severely hindering yourself; if your arrows don't pierce targets, your limiting your group dps abilities (this one is still up for debate according to your play style, teams you face, etc.); if you drop quick draw, you're hindering your evasive abilities (as well as the obvious other utilities from poison, daze, cripple).

As far as the thief runes go, precision isn't a trait that you need. The extra bleed from "Sharpened Edges" on crit is extremely low, and isn't worth investing into precision for alone. Thief runes also do not effect your condition damage, as these runes are made for power builds, which this is not. I chose afflicted because almost all of our damage comes from bleeding and poison, and the 15% increase in duration is an obvious choice.

Hmm, I'm not sold on piercing arrows personally, so that's what I would drop.  I mean, I can see how it can in some situations help group DPS, but it just seems too situational to me and a 10% dps increase not only works in all situations, but also works in the most important situations: when you need a specific target to go down.

Thief runes do bring some condition damage (+57 total), but I can see your point when condition is the key.  Is the death nova from the 6th rune really that good?  I haven't tested it, but it would be tempting for me to go 5/6 afflicted and bring a 6th with a stat I liked for the 1st tier such as Grenth.

p.s. I know I'm criticizing a good bit of this, but I just wanted to say that this is still one of the best builds I've seen on these forums so far.

Edited by Dahk, 09 September 2012 - 05:25 PM.

[Skolops]

Dahk, on 09 September 2012 - 05:18 PM, said:

Hmm, I'm not sold on piercing arrows personally, so that's what I would drop.  I mean, I can see how it can in some situations help group DPS, but it just seems too situational to me and a 10% dps increase not only works in all situations, but also works in the most important situations: when you need a specific target to go down.

Thief runes do bring some condition damage (+57 total), but I can see your point when condition is the key.  Is the death nova from the 6th rune really that good?  I haven't tested it, but it would be tempting for me to go 5/6 afflicted and bring a 6th with a stat I liked for the 1st tier such as Grenth.

p.s. I know I'm criticizing a good bit of this, but I just wanted to say that this is still one of the best builds I've seen on these forums so far.

The biggest issue with that 10% flanking boost is that most of your DPS is from bleeds.  This means you aren't seeing much benefit from that 10% boost.

[JROH]

Skolops, on 09 September 2012 - 09:17 PM, said:

The biggest issue with that 10% flanking boost is that most of your DPS is from bleeds.  This means you aren't seeing much benefit from that 10% boost.

I agree, I don't find 10% damage bonus to be all that useful at all. Even on high power/crit builds, it doesn't do it any justice. And the argument is 10% extra damage from behind, or doubled damage output for 2s every 20s. It's the closest thing to a burst a ranger has, and can easily spike people down that last 25% hp or so depending on what build is being run.

[Isms]

Dahk, on 09 September 2012 - 05:18 PM, said:

Hmm, I'm not sold on piercing arrows personally, so that's what I would drop.  I mean, I can see how it can in some situations help group DPS, but it just seems too situational to me and a 10% dps increase not only works in all situations, but also works in the most important situations: when you need a specific target to go down.

Thief runes do bring some condition damage (+57 total), but I can see your point when condition is the key.  Is the death nova from the 6th rune really that good?  I haven't tested it, but it would be tempting for me to go 5/6 afflicted and bring a 6th with a stat I liked for the 1st tier such as Grenth.

p.s. I know I'm criticizing a good bit of this, but I just wanted to say that this is still one of the best builds I've seen on these forums so far.

The 10% damage bonus from flanking only applies to your physical damage (I believe others have already responded). Honestly for the runes, the death nova does seem extremely weak, but you can feel free to drop it if 25 stats of any choice feel important to you. Regardless of what happens, neither will make much of a difference.

[FBRin]

Isms, on 09 September 2012 - 11:21 PM, said:

The 10% damage bonus from flanking only applies to your physical damage (I believe others have already responded). Honestly for the runes, the death nova does seem extremely weak, but you can feel free to drop it if 25 stats of any choice feel important to you. Regardless of what happens, neither will make much of a difference.

Do we know if this applies to all generic % increases to damage like the full end, 90%+ hp, and force sigil? I use force sigil on my axe/torch setup but if it only applies to physical damage that's out the door lol.

[Skolops]

FBRin, on 09 September 2012 - 11:36 PM, said:

Do we know if this applies to all generic % increases to damage like the full end, 90%+ hp, and force sigil? I use force sigil on my axe/torch setup but if it only applies to physical damage that's out the door lol.

Easy to test.  Take the sigil out, put a bleed on the dummy, see what it is.  Put the sigil in, put a bleed on the dummy, see if its more.

[Hendrik de Tovenaar]

Would you mind explaining what type of armor I should use when trying to build the condition set?
I assume it's Power and Condition Damage (don't know what 3rd should be), but I would like to be absolutely sure.

[Danthin]

Hendrik de Tovenaar, on 27 September 2012 - 08:08 PM, said:

Would you mind explaining what type of armor I should use when trying to build the condition set?
I assume it's Power and Condition Damage (don't know what 3rd should be), but I would like to be absolutely sure.

In the type of build he posted.. precision/crit is more important for the increased bleeds.  In general though power, precision and condition damage is good.  So you want to go with something like Rampager's for pure offense or Carrion's for some vitality.  You could also mix and match some sets to get a little more well rounded in PvE/WvW.

This might help too:

 ExoticStatDistrib.png   256.74K   34 downloads

Edited by Danthin, 27 September 2012 - 08:23 PM.

[Hendrik de Tovenaar]

Awesome, good to know I was thinking in the right direction.

Runesets; Is there any in particular that supports this set best, or does it depend to much on what type of gamestyle you have?
I still have a few pieces of Pack lying around (not knowing if they fixed the 4th bonus yet) but it seems the Centaur set would do particularly good aswell.

Any suggestions?

[Danthin]

Sigil of Superior Agony
Sigil of Superior Earth
and my favotie Sigil of Superior Hydromancy (in the warhorn.. chills people around you when you swap to the weapon.. very powerful)

I personally run the conditional removal sigil in my shortbow (one that comes with the mystic shortbow) because we need all the condition removal help we can get

Rune choices for a condition based build are:

Rune of the Afflicted (not great.. but cheap)
Rune of the Nightmare (very good)
Rune of the Thief (probably not as strong but good if you need some precision for picking something like Carrion's armor)
Rune of Lyssa (more well rounded with some condition duration increase)

[Garethh]

Yeaah, you say traps a niche sort of spec, but, quite frankly, it more looks that way because you just set it up in a extremely niche manner.
You are throwing all your survivability in one means, taking physical dmg and hoping your enemy can be kited or out dps'd with conditions.
With no answers to CC or immobilizes or snares, no vigor and only that tier 3 trait to deal with conditions (yet you have lowish vitality) it seems allot of specs or duo setups can really throw out things you can't deal with.

I'm not saying it won't work, in some matchups especially if you know exactly where the enemy is coming from and what they have, you can probably manage or at very least stall for a deal of time (with the high toughness + possible protection)... but thieves/mesmers/other better rounded rangers or condition specs all will easily have the upper hand when it comes to spec.

Edited by Garethh, 29 September 2012 - 09:56 PM.