8 replies to this topic

[Omniabsent12]

This build is a pretty common build that is designed purely around dungeon PvE but works just as well if not better for world bosses.   The goal is to offer your team as much support across the board as possible while still doing your share of damage and having fun (read:  Not spamming unload over and over)

I've found 3 great ways to play this build which are listed below.  If you have any improvements or questions I'd love to hear them as I'm constantly working on improving my builds and I have no doubt that there are things I haven't yet thought of.

First, there's the standard build which is:  http://gw2skills.net...DmC1n6fgs6MkpNB

I've taken Preparedness over Residual Venom simply because of the number of times I've only had a second or two to set up or finish a combo and the extra initiative pool has allowed me to do that and in general it just makes management of skill rotations so much easier.

Secondly, you can swap out either Skale Venom or Shadow Refuge for Smoke Screen on projectile fights which gives you a lot of protection and a very nice defensive combo field.  If you swap out Shadow Refuge at any stage, be sure to also swap from Shadow Protector to Infusion of Shadows.

Thirdly, you can also swap out one of the above for Ambush Trap, which gives you the additional poison damage, an additional target to soak up damage and with Corrosive Traps, you can stack even more Vulnerability on your target.  Alternatively you can drop Exposed Weakness from Deadly Arts and pick up Merciful Ambush from Trickery which is VERY situational but if you are farming a dungeon with a lot of AoE pulls, it's fantastic with a venom build and you also get the extra condition damage from the tree.

If you have a gear set that gives you a lot of survivability you could swap Leeching Venoms for Power Shots and get a little extra dps.

As for the offhand weapon set, I use P/P for the use of Black Powder when things get hectic but you could easily use D/D or D/P, each has it's own strengths but you'll end up using SB most of the time.

[neocekivanasilakoja]

I was wondering  - is venomshare really good option? Since, somehow I think venoms are too weak, and sharing them with others for few seconds is not doing that much at all. Is it better to spend those last points from Shadow Arts tree somewhere else?

[The Shadow]

neocekivanasilakoja, on 17 September 2012 - 12:39 PM, said:

I was wondering  - is venomshare really good option? Since, somehow I think venoms are too weak, and sharing them with others for few seconds is not doing that much at all. Is it better to spend those last points from Shadow Arts tree somewhere else?

Venoms are useless in PvE. Simply not needed and a waste of utility. Especially the ones in the OP's Build.

Traiting 30 points into Shadow Arts (our worst trait tree) to facilitate this is also useless and a waste of trait points.

Even traiting 15 points into Tickery isn't a wise way to spend your trait points as you get plenty of initiative simply from passive regen.

You can get vulnerability from critical hits (10 trait into deadly arts) and can poision using D/ autoattack. Thieves Guild is also kinda meh in group PvE.

Yeah, sorry but, bad concept, bad build, simply not useful in PvE,

[Lilitu]

Shortbow is great in pve because the #1 attack on the shortbow is the second highest damage ranged aoe attack which is guaranteed to hit all targets. The top one is lightning ele's #1. (This excludes area effects which can be dodged by the AI such as meteor shower).

I would recommend that the original poster rethinks residual venom however, if you combine it with leeching venoms it bugs and causes the shortbow to fire 4 x 3 shots that each heal you for ~350. Or 4,000 health healed for every venom you apply. That's probably the best self healing build in the game at the moment. It allows you do go high dps and not worry too much about survivability.

[The Shadow]

Lilitu, on 17 September 2012 - 06:20 PM, said:

Shortbow is great in pve because the #1 attack on the shortbow is the second highest damage ranged aoe attack which is guaranteed to hit all targets. The top one is lightning ele's #1. (This excludes area effects which can be dodged by the AI such as meteor shower).

I would recommend that the original poster rethinks residual venom however, if you combine it with leeching venoms it bugs and causes the shortbow to fire 4 x 3 shots that each heal you for ~350. Or 4,000 health healed for every venom you apply. That's probably the best self healing build in the game at the moment. It allows you do go high dps and not worry too much about survivability.

You're saying that the OP should exploit a bug...? O_o

[Lilitu]

Hmm, slight correction.. I just went out and tested it.
Residual venom doesn't change anything - when dealing with leeching venoms, the venom will heal you for every richochet unless it is the last strike of venom. I much have gotten confused before when testing with venoms with different shot counts.

Eg: spider's venom which gives 5 shots of poison will do 4 shots each with 3 ricochets for a total of ~4000 healing, and then a 5th and final arrow which will only do 300 healing regardless of ricochets.
If you add residual venom to this scenario, your skill now does 6 shots of poison. You will do 5 shots each with 3 ricochets for a total of ~5000 healing, and then a 6th and final arrow for 300 regardless of ricochets.

So The Shadow, I guess it's not a bug. It appears to be a feature since you don't have to take the trait to activate the bug. If anything the final arrow not providing the leeching effect is the bug. I'd say it's about as fair as signet of malice providing 3 heals when ricocheting.

Considering the shortbow fires roughly every second, and venoms are off the global cooldown...
You could effectively get over 11,000 healing out of (5*3+1)+(3*3+1)+(3*3+1)=36 shots by chaining venoms every 36 seconds. If you wear the +800 healing amulet in pvp that's 550 a shot, or nearly 20,000 health over 11 shots.  That's over 25,000 if you include signet of malice.  Ridiculous self healing.

That's pretty amazing burst healing, especially considering you've still got your initiative to blow on a water combo field if you find one.

Not to say this is what you should spec for, just saying venoms have a niche place in pve.

Edited by Lilitu, 17 September 2012 - 07:06 PM.

[The Shadow]

Lilitu, on 17 September 2012 - 06:54 PM, said:

Hmm, slight correction.. I just went out and tested it.
Residual venom doesn't change anything - when dealing with leeching venoms, the venom will heal you for every richochet unless it is the last strike of venom. I much have gotten confused before when testing with venoms with different shot counts.

Eg: spider's venom which gives 5 shots of poison will do 4 shots each with 3 ricochets for a total of ~4000 healing, and then a 5th and final arrow which will only do 300 healing regardless of ricochets.
If you add residual venom to this scenario, your skill now does 6 shots of poison. You will do 5 shots each with 3 ricochets for a total of ~5000 healing, and then a 6th and final arrow for 300 regardless of ricochets.

So The Shadow, I guess it's not a bug. It appears to be a feature since you don't have to take the trait to activate the bug. If anything the final arrow not providing the leeching effect is the bug. I'd say it's about as fair as signet of malice providing 3 heals when ricocheting.

Considering the shortbow fires roughly every second, and venoms are off the global cooldown...
You could effectively get over 11,000 healing out of (5*3+1)+(3*3+1)+(3*3+1)=14 shots by chaining venoms every 36 seconds.

That's pretty amazing burst healing, especially considering you've still got your initiative to blow on a water combo field if you find one.

Not to say this is what you should spec for, just saying venoms have a niche place in pve.

That is a lot of healing. Not much Dps though.

I'm very interested to see whether or not Anet keep it that way.

How do spider's + residual + leeching apply to Cluster?

Edited by The Shadow, 17 September 2012 - 07:07 PM.

[Lilitu]

Seems to vary depending on how many hits, and whether or not you detonate mid-air. It's not as good as just using ricochet though.
If I detonate it over that pile of golems I lose the whole stack of spider venom and appear to get 1 heal per stack I had (not the 3x as per ricochet). Skale venom appears to always apply the weakness to your aoe targets on the first cluster (however many you hit), then only 1 on the second strike if you have residual venom. Spider venom can last up to 3 clusters and is a bit weird. I've managed to poison up to 9 enemies with it using cluster. However clusterbomb works with venoms, it's weird... and not as useful as ricochets for leeching.

Edited by Lilitu, 17 September 2012 - 07:20 PM.

[The Shadow]

Lilitu, on 17 September 2012 - 07:19 PM, said:

Seems to vary depending on how many hits, and whether or not you detonate mid-air. It's not as good as just using ricochet though.
If I detonate it over that pile of golems I lose the whole stack of spider venom and appear to get 1 heal per stack I had (not the 3x as per ricochet). Skale venom appears to always apply the weakness to your aoe targets on the first cluster (however many you hit), then only 1 on the second strike if you have residual venom. Spider venom can last up to 3 clusters and is a bit weird. I've managed to poison up to 9 enemies with it using cluster. However clusterbomb works with venoms, it's weird... and not as useful as ricochets for leeching.

Oh then, not as useful as I thought it was going to be.

Leeching health is fine, but not that useful if you're not dealing much damage and with just auto you wont be.

Had leeching worked differently with cluster then it would have been imba.