Condi Scourge cleaving?

[aetemes.2603]

Hi guys so I have been experimenting with my scourge builds revolving around condi...and I was really annoyed during my experimentation and I didn't really know why.

Then I realised that opposed to my firebrand/ranger/thief/even mesmer??...my ability to like apply significant amounts of condis around is...weak?? or am I doing it wrong?

Epidemic?...that and the plague cloud ultimate?? is it me or it's just a weak ulti?

I dunno I guess I thought necro would be the lord of condis, spreading the plague, ...but it's kinda bleh and lots of single targeting (kinda hate scepter) and ground targeting over and over (like using the untraited small shades is painfull?). Is it because scourge is a hybrid support?

Advice? Thanks.

[sokeenoppa.5384]

Think about PvP for a second, the small capture point. Now think that ur enemy team has a scourge but your team doesn't have 1. That capture point is filled with AOEs that Stack conditions on ur whole team, scourge is not a top dps ur right but the amount of damage conditions is still pretty great, now dont forget all the non damage conditions that necro farts out, weakness, chill, cripple, Immo, blind, vulnerability etc etc and last but not least, boon corruption. Basically everything necro does corrupt your boons to conditions aswell. So that PvP circle is the plague land where your group just cant sustain no matter how much condi cleances your party has. You need to Focus the scourge down before you can even try to capture that point.

In short: in PvP scourge is the living plague that you need to eliminate really fast before his AOE spam wear ur team off.

[aetemes.2603]

I tested some more.

Ok I take it back...I think because I am used to seeing big numbers on a specific condi I felt weird. Also I feel...epidemic is the key to make the condi cleave strong it seems. Just not used to the idea of focusing one target then epidemic. That with the "weak aoe condis being thrown around" makes it strong.

That with being able to be tanky/supporty just through talents is like super awesome. I get it. Thanks!

[Anchoku.8142]

@"aetemes.2603" said:I tested some more.

Ok I take it back...I think because I am used to seeing big numbers on a specific condi I felt weird. Also I feel...epidemic is the key to make the condi cleave strong it seems. Just not used to the idea of focusing one target then epidemic. That with the "weak aoe condis being thrown around" makes it strong.

That with being able to be tanky/supporty just through talents is like super awesome. I get it. Thanks!

Epidemic is very highly situational. Necromancer has almost no condi-cleave without it but Epi can be ridiculously powerful in PvE when used against add's on bosses. Of course, Epi can also be completely worthless. It does absolutely nothing but copy conditions to other targets so the actual target receives no damage or soft CC.

[Methuselah.4376]

Time was that scourge could melt groups of enemies before even taking epidemic into account. Sadly it's been nerfed to hell. Scourge can still cleave a lot with shade placements and epidemic (which also has been nerfed to hell).

[aetemes.2603]

@Methuselah.4376 said:Time was that scourge could melt groups of enemies before even taking epidemic into account. Sadly it's been nerfed to hell. Scourge can still cleave a lot with shade placements and epidemic (which also has been nerfed to hell).

I see!...thats why epidemic feels kinda ...ughh..its such a long cast and slow projectile that it only really shines in not so frequent situations.

So scourge been adjusted a lot ok...I didn't know that...that's like my druid when it was nerfed it's really annoying in comparison to how it used to be.

[XECOR.2814]

For pve: Curses 213 Scg 222.

Spectral Grasp, torch4, F1-F5-F2-F3, Scepter2, Scepter3, Epidemic.

[Methuselah.4376]

@aetemes.2603 said:

@Methuselah.4376 said:Time was that scourge could melt groups of enemies before even taking epidemic into account. Sadly it's been nerfed to hell. Scourge can still cleave a lot with shade placements and epidemic (which also has been nerfed to hell).

I see!...thats why epidemic feels kinda ...ughh..its such a long cast and slow projectile that it only really shines in not so frequent situations.

So scourge been adjusted a lot ok...I didn't know that...that's like my druid when it was nerfed it's really annoying in comparison to how it used to be.

Ye it's been nerfed a lot, to the point I prefer support scourge over damage and started learning other classes for condi damage.

Epidemic once had no projectiles and affected the recipients instantly, though it had a limit to the amount of condis it transferred. The change to projectile was a nerf in delivery (especially if your target dies before the projectiles land, nullifying the skill) but a buff in transfer as that limit was removed. Unfortunately due to epi bouncing, anet nerfed the best skill in a condi necro's arsenal quite hard. It's still good, and were it introduced to the game as it currently is it would be thought of as an excellent skill, but alas those of us who remember the skill in its god tier days find the current iteration borderline rubbish.

[Agrippa.1693]

It's really weird: you would and should think of the Necro being an absolute condi king ... right?!?? Well in PvE it's actually benchmarking the lowest condi dps of ALL classes. All classes benchmark at least one condi build that puts out higher DPS than the Necro does... But for some kinda reason that's all fine for ANet, cause it has been for so long now!

Edit: before anyone is going to explain, I know the whole reason IS Epidemic, it has the niche possibility to really pump numbers up towards all the adds your damaging. But in the PvE endgame (Raids, T4 fractals) it's really overrated, cause the endgoal is ALWAYS killing the endboss, not its adds!!!

I can remember asking for nerfs to epidemic back when it was still 100%, so ANet could finally justify buffing the Necro, so it would become that condi King it so much deserves to be. Well we know what happened there, the fist part happened, they accidentally forgot the second part ...