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PvE Specific: Which professions work best in condition builds?


Kichwas.7152

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With a lot of characters, I'm thinking of going through the list and redoing a few of them. One quick path to making them distinct would be finding some to switch to Condition (a few are condition already, such as one of my Revenants).

To that end, which professions have the best 'toolkits' for Condition builds that are both strong and engaging to play?

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Well... all classes have condi builds. That is not a category. Personally, I prefer mirage, renegade and FB, but these are the 3 classes I play the most in everything (PvE, PvP, condi, power, support). I find condi engi cumbersome. Condi warrior mediocre. Condi necro slow. Not fan of condi ranger either nor thief. Condi elementalist is fourth on like to play list.

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For PvE the main thing i'd say is most important for condition play is the ability to fast stack damage.. last thing you want is to be wasting time slowly stacking conditions which is the main reason I give up playing a condi Necromancer in PvE a good few years back.. It's just too slow.

In most cases power gets it done much quicker which is why most just go with power builds and will often try to talk you out of playing condi in PvE but if you're intent on having a good condition PvE character then go for something that can stack lots high damage conditions like burns really quickly.Guardian and probably Engineer would be your best bet there.. maybe Ele too but i've not much experience with those classes, specially on condition builds.Revenant i've some experience with though, you can get a good bit of damage from Torment pretty quickly on them as well.

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@"Teratus.2859" said:For PvE the main thing i'd say is most important for condition play is the ability to fast stack damage.. last thing you want is to be wasting time slowly stacking conditions which is the main reason I give up playing a condi Necromancer in PvE a good few years back.. It's just too slow.

In most cases power gets it done much quicker which is why most just go with power builds and will often try to talk you out of playing condi in PvE but if you're intent on having a good condition PvE character then go for something that can stack lots high damage conditions like burns really quickly.Guardian and probably Engineer would be your best bet there.. maybe Ele too but i've not much experience with those classes, specially on condition builds.Revenant i've some experience with though, you can get a good bit of damage from Torment pretty quickly on them as well.

Here's a quick clip of condi weaver burst. This is with no power/precision/ferocity stat. Pure condi with 91% damage contribution from burning. It's not bad!

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Firebrand and Weaver are extremely strong when they focus on AoE burn stacks, so they are great in both single target and multiple foes fights. The Weaver has the edge in terms of stacking, and maybe at breaking defiant bars, albeit is harder to play than a FB. FB has better support while dealing that damage. Neither of them are great in mobility when fully specced to condition damage, tho.

Condi Herald and condi Renegade work well, but in a different way: Renegade has higher dps and specially single target damage, plus can be used both at mele and range, and has a strong bar breaking game; Herald has better sustain and mobility while in combat, but is not as great at breaking defiance bars.

From the other classes that I known less both Necro and Mesmer have strong condi AoE game. Probably the Mesmer is best of those two in terms of balance between damage/sustain/mobility.

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@AliamRationem.5172 said:

@"Teratus.2859" said:For PvE the main thing i'd say is most important for condition play is the ability to fast stack damage.. last thing you want is to be wasting time slowly stacking conditions which is the main reason I give up playing a condi Necromancer in PvE a good few years back.. It's just too slow.

In most cases power gets it done much quicker which is why most just go with power builds and will often try to talk you out of playing condi in PvE but if you're intent on having a good condition PvE character then go for something that can stack lots high damage conditions like burns really quickly.Guardian and probably Engineer would be your best bet there.. maybe Ele too but i've not much experience with those classes, specially on condition builds.Revenant i've some experience with though, you can get a good bit of damage from Torment pretty quickly on them as well.

Here's a quick clip of condi weaver burst. This is with no power/precision/ferocity stat. Pure condi with 91% damage contribution from burning. It's not bad!

Figured as much :)

I've not played much ele tbh last time I ran a condi build on Ele they only had 1 elite spec lol

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@Dadnir.5038 said:

@"Yasai.3549" said:Is this PvE or PvP?

I think the title of the thread answer pretty well this question...

Yeah. I notice a lot of threads get confused in the "that build is good/bad" argument when both are actually right because the CONTEXT is different for them and they spend a page of posts arguing before anyone notices one is talking PvE and the other PvP...

I'm a PvE player - with a grand total of 1 character set aside for 'casual WvW roaming' that basically runs soldiers and joins existing zergs or does dailies to try and unlock wardrobe items for my PvE characters.

I've got a condition-DPS based Revenant which I find a lot of fun to play, and looking to see thoughts on what else performs well and/or is enjoyed by people as condition in PvE.

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Every class has an OP condi build. What matters is the gear and difficult.Some gears are strong on condi damage like Viper, Grieving, Dire, Trailblazer.About difficult:Necro - EasyScourge - HardWeaver - HardTempest - MediumGuardian - Easy?Firebrand - HardMirage - EasySoulBeast - EasyDruid - EasyRenegade - EasyHerald - MediumBerserker - MediumThief - (Never tried)Engineer - EasyIt will strongly depends if you're a good player or not.

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@JohnWater.5760 said:Every class has an OP condi build. What matters is the gear and difficult.Some gears are strong on condi damage like Viper, Grieving, Dire, Trailblazer.About difficult:Scourge - HardWow. Its pure faceroll. Bind every skill to keyboard keys, keep punching the keyboard and you will achieve like 85% bench performance. Its probably the easiest class in the game.

Mirage - EasyOne of the hardest classes to play perfectly.

Renegade - EasyWhy am i not seeing a lot of 38k dps rens then? Unlike scourge this has ressource management and a rotation.Herald - MediumOn the difficulty level of scourge with insane sustain on top.Engineer - EasyLiterally requires the highest apm. Twice as much as weaver. Incredible hard to play properly without being a leech.

I agree with the rest.Best condi for pve is firebrand by far. The only condi being good and even very strong in fractals. Best selfbuffs for solo content. Good at almost every raidboss. The other ones are more niche but better in some areas.

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Ren is not that hard, the trick is to time well the weapon swap + legend swap to benefit twice the 2 sigils on weapon swap; once you get the move it is as faceroll to drain energy, as scourge in case.But yes Engie/holo is probably the hardest with a piano partition, muscular rotation with all kits and CD on differents skills, + heat + the big RNG + the fact DPS isn"t really high anyway despite the efforts.

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For PVE in general, I'm partial to a full Grieving Firebrand. The reason for this is because, unless you're fighting a champion level enemy or some really upscaled mobs, the time it takes to kill an enemy with a condi build is much longer than what it takes for a power build. Grieving Firebrand has the smallest (or one of the smallest) difference in performance. The extra power also helps against all of the old content with condition-immune enemies.

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Been running a Burn Renegade for quite some time with Balthazar runes on one of my Revs. It's downright delightful to play in open world; even solo'd a few HoT champ points with it. Currently tinkering with it to try and make it viable in WvW.

Condi Soulbeast with Dagger/Torch is always a fun one to play. Combined with Plaguedoctor gear and Apothecary trinkets and Nature Magic +Wilderness Survival lines it's got fantastic survivability and skill buffs.

I've heard good things about Grieving Firebrand (what Blood Red mentioned but I've yet to try it since I only just maxed out my first Guardian). Really looking forward to trying it out since I've had good fun with the gear on other builds despite how awful people have mentioned it is on everything but Firebrand.

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@"JohnWater.5760" said:Every class has an OP condi build. What matters is the gear and difficult.

Difficulty is always subjective.Furthermore, there are "OP" builds that just aren't used because it doesn't fit the image a player have of how the profession should be played.

I'd say that there is no specific profession that stand out in term of condition builds, especially in PvE. What matter isn't the "difficulty" or "gear", what matter is whether the gameplay match the player taste or not. And that's something that someone can only find by himself, not through other opinions.

@Nephalem.8921Scourge is just as difficult as any other spec, it's the spec whose dps depend the most on invisible traits ICD and yet won't achieve impressive dps on single target anyway reaching the ceiling at, what, 29k? I believe that it's just wrong to label a spec as easier or harder, all come with their own burden.

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@butt joint.3982 said:

I've heard good things about Grieving Firebrand (what Blood Red mentioned but I've yet to try it since I only just maxed out my first Guardian). Really looking forward to trying it out since I've had good fun with the gear on other builds despite how awful people have mentioned it is on everything but Firebrand.

That's because the main condition source of damage with FB are the burns (albeit has some bleeds with the axe) and they proc is not based in weapon skills but just in the passive effect of the virtue F1 (the F1 tome from FB is also extremely strong, even more with Radiant traitline (foes killed refresh F1) and Permeating Wrth from Vitues traitline (the burns proc more often and they are AoE). That combined with the physical damage from weapons and symbols and the quickness access and the very bursty nature of the burn damage makes an excellent PvE killer.

...But I'm not entirely sure about how great is the condi/hybrid FB at soloing PvE: at one hand, kills packs of mobs at blazing speed, on the other, is not that great at breaking defiance bars from champions and the top solo builds I saw are based on physical damage to achieve sustain. I'm slower with my power Herald killing multiple mobs than with my FB due the lack of AoE damage, but on the other hand my power Herald crushes the defiance bar from champions like nothing, and can deal with 3 bristlebacks at the same time whereas the FB struggles vs them...

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  • 4 months later...

@"Kichwas.7152" said:"With a lot of characters . . . To that end, which professions have the best 'toolkits' for Condition builds that are both strong and engaging to play?"

I just came here to get advice myself on the same topic. I've been playing for about 1 and 1/2 years and have a few level 80's, but don't have much experience in the way of my post-level-80 game or any aspects besides PvE, and then only with power builds. But I find that for the playstyle, skills and other aspects, I prefer the idea of condi builds. It's too bad it seems that the mechanics of GW2 seem to favor power over condition, in that sense, but that's another story. I found my answers. Thanks to everyone for that! <3

So the reason I'm adding my two cents is because sadly I have no advice to contribute to the discussion myself. I do have some input that should help clarify the OP's original intent and make more clear their question, as it appears that several people have misread or misunderstood the question. I've noticed several posts that say things to the effect that "any class can make a condition build". But the OP obviously already knows that. The question is which professions have specs that provide for feasible, effective condi builds, not just any condi build. For example, someone said:

"Well... all classes have condi builds. That is not a category."

There's nothing wrong with this, of course. It's just that this person apparently misread the question to be "which professions can create (ANY) condi build?" or "which professions are in the 'condi' category?" when the actual question is completely different. It's worth noting, of course, that this person did provide some useful info on which specs are usable/feasible, though.

Anyway, that's my two cents. I hope if anyone adds some helpful information that these two cents will make it easier to answer. Happy travels everyone, and be blessed! =)

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