I dont get it..everyone says condi scourge is imortal in PvE.

[Zahim.9036]

Lets start with that I'm 40+, bad with combos/rotations what not and I havent played GW2 in 8-9 years. But with lack of anything else to play I wanted to give GW2 a go again.

I am more of a solo player, enjoy the story missions, achievements, unlocking the map etc etc. So I wanted to try something considered easy. I used the boost I got with buying the expansions getting a revenant to 80 and finishing the PoF questline as a renegade. But all the switching and keeping track of energy and things like that was kind of difficult for me. Then I read that scourge was the supposed king of solo PvE and easy to play which sounded great.

 

So I started with a minion necro which was super easy. Not good dps but never really worried about dying and very few buttons to press. So after I finally unlocked scourge and bought a full set of exotic viper gear + sigils (strength/torment for weapons, tormenting on armor), I was considering getting trailblazer or celestial but people seemed to be on the opinion that was overkill since condi scourge is pretty much immortal as it is.

 

But I dont just get it..where is all the self healing/sustain suppossed to come from?  Sure I press F1 and get a small shield (around 1K), or I press F5 and get a larger shield (around 5K) . Healing wise I get like 170hp now and then from tormenting..and that seems to be it. I feel like I have less survivability compared to my renegade. I am doing the guide at https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Scourge_-_Condi_Scourge and these are my stats:

https://i.imgur.com/RAf8Cb2.png

 

I feel like I need to mash a lot of buttons and keep track of a lot of things (CD's, Shades, trying to place my AoE's) while I need to be very careful at the same time. If I try a bounty monster (which I was hoping to be able to solo) I die in like 10 seconds.

 

What am I doing wrong? Shouldnt I have more self healing from somewhere? Or should I just accept that I am trash at this game if I cant even play what is suppossed to be the best solo class without dying and go play something else?

 

[The Boz.2038]

Parasitic Contagion is *huge* healing, and runes of torment are a fair bump, too. Your barriers on F1, F3 and F5, as well as the heal, are fairly thick, too. Do not replace the runes with Lich, it is a downgrade. The F1, 3 and 5 are in your normal rotation, so you're going to be mitigating pretty much every hit you take with at least some barrier.

You still need to dodge from time to time, and much of your DPS is dependant on you being in near-melee range. 

Pack Epidemic when there's multiple enemies. Never replace the signet and the Blood is Power from your build. BiP is supposed to only be used in combination with your F5, to transfer over the extra conditions, too. Note that the F5 has no cast time; it can be used in the middle of casting BiP, so that when BiP lands, it triggers the tranfer of the conditions it gives you. 

You don't need to keep track of cooldowns in your head: they're all there for you on your bar, and weapon swapping or going into different modes is not required for this build.

[Zahim.9036]

Oh I will try Parasitic Contagion. I do have the runes of torment. To get the barrier I need to stand inside the area of the shades or will I get it anyway? I know that I will get it anyway for F5 at least.

 

Appreciate the advice on BiP+F5, didnt know that it didnt have casttime. Will try swapping for Parasitic Contagion and see how it goes.

[The Boz.2038]

For the F1, you need to be in the AoE. F3 and 5 give it regardless; you count as a zeroth shade for your F2-4 skill triggers, and F5 specifically affects you.
There's a rhythm to it. Timing your Fs is fairly important. Space them out by, say, 2 seconds, but try to keep to the 2 seconds. And definitely space out your F1s, so that you don't lay down 3 back-to-back, then find yourself with just one for 20 seconds later. Doing so will regularly inflict a fair amount of burn through Dhuumfire (F2-4 trigger F1's "strike", which procs Dhuumfire). Using your F2-5 spends life force, so use your scepter 3 and torch 4 to generate some more. Outside of those two, the signet will trickle some life force to you constantly, too. Also, yes, F1 is the only F skill with a cast time; the rest are instant, and can be used while doing something else.

[draxynnic.3719]

As an observation, renegade is also known for having a lot of self-sustain in solo PvE, so going from having a bit of experience with that to a build you're less experienced with could also lead to a bit of a dip in performance, since you're probably looking at builds that are close enough that familiarity with what you're doing can make up the difference.

[LucianDK.8615]

Also, not to forget equipment. A full set of Trailblazer items for solo, adds immense survival power. Add on tormenting runes and it gets even better.

[The Boz.2038]

I wish people would stop recommending Trailblazer for PvE. It's... not good, and will nurture bad habits of facetanking and noninteraction. There's one build in the game where it shines: the Weaver. On a Necro? Surviability overkill that sacrifices a hefty amount of damage.

[Bakeneko.5826]

1 hour ago, The Boz.2038 said:

I wish people would stop recommending Trailblazer for PvE. It's... not good, and will nurture bad habits of facetanking and noninteraction. There's one build in the game where it shines: the Weaver. On a Necro? Surviability overkill that sacrifices a hefty amount of damage.

It is very good for open world farming. It's bad for endgame PvE, but so is Contagion and torment runes, but yet you are suggesting it

[The Boz.2038]

Contagion is a trait, you can opt out of it and into the Good Endgame DPS pick. 
Whoever told you torment runes were bad on scourge was trolling you. They are a ~3% DPS loss compared to the literal best-in-slot alternative, at most.

[LucianDK.8615]

6 hours ago, Bakeneko.5826 said:

It is very good for open world farming. It's bad for endgame PvE, but so is Contagion and torment runes, but yet you are suggesting it

 

Trailblazer excells at soloing no contest, you do not need bleeding edge dps there.

 

I always switch to viper in a group, where survability is far less of an issue.

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

I want you (Zahim.9036) to answer one simple question if you're stilll not satisfied.

Do you want balls to the wall immortality, or to play a scourge? If first, I can help.

[Otto.6495]

On 2/11/2022 at 3:14 AM, The Boz.2038 said:

I wish people would stop recommending Trailblazer for PvE. It's... not good, and will nurture bad habits of facetanking and noninteraction. There's one build in the game where it shines: the Weaver. On a Necro? Surviability overkill that sacrifices a hefty amount of damage.

I totally understand this sentiment, and you're not wrong in general, but it's kinda the wrong advice in this particular case, for the person asking. He's specifically describing his situation and his limitations. He's not likely to strive to be an end game raider who will annoy you with his bad habits, he'll probably just play the game modes that he enjoys, most likely solo PVE roaming type stuff. And for that, it's totally fine if he leans on trailblazers for simplicity and comfort, and in his situation he's unlikely to even notice much of the DPS loss from going trailblazers instead of vipers.

 

One thing I will say to the OP, while some of the popular condi scourge builds can be pretty dang easy and have very high self-sustain and durability, it is not a 1 or 2 button build with passive durability. You have to play pretty actively and use all your buttons, but the reason why many people call it so easy is that you can pretty much mash the buttons in any order, and have it work out pretty well. Obviously when you are playing optimally, you're using the abilities in an intentional order and at intentional times, and that does make a difference. But just mashing buttons in any order can get you further than that would get you on most other classes/specs.

[taara.3217]

On 2/10/2022 at 7:06 PM, draxynnic.3719 said:

As an observation, renegade is also known for having a lot of self-sustain in solo PvE

But I think Ren is more player`s skill-dependent spec than Scourge and from context of TS question seems it can be issue.

[Nephalem.8921]

On 2/11/2022 at 10:14 AM, The Boz.2038 said:

I wish people would stop recommending Trailblazer for PvE. It's... not good, and will nurture bad habits of facetanking and noninteraction. There's one build in the game where it shines: the Weaver. On a Necro? Surviability overkill that sacrifices a hefty amount of damage.

It costs like 6% dps max. its incredible op on condi builds.

Edited February 13, 2022 by Nephalem.8921

[Sifu.9745]

With Trailblazer or Celestial gear you loose around 10% up to 15% dmg, but you get minimum 60% surivability in return. Of course you would take Trailbalzer or Celestial, who cares about 10% dmg loss. Especially condi Scourge is the last profession who needs power stats. You absolutely don't need crit, power and ferocity at all, if Scepter is your main hand weapon.

Condi Scourge with defensive stats is probably the third most powerful solo pve profession. The first is condi Staff Mesmer (Mirage), second would be condi Renegade and the third is condi Scourge.

If you really want an easy time with rotations, not bad dmg and crazy survivability just pick up condi (full Celestial or Trailblazer)Staff Mesmer (Mirage) or condi Reengade and you would be able to solo everything with not much effort. Scourge still requieres some more "presence".

Edited February 16, 2022 by Sifu.9745

[Methuselah.4376]

With full Trailblazer's, Tormenting Runes, raid skill setup and rotation, PC instead of LC, I am really unkillable in general PvE. Of course I switch to Viper's and LC for end game content, but the OP is not asking for that. I did Arah a few weeks ago and had around 10-15 Elite Spiders on me and not only did I survive but managed to kill them all. The trick is to keep pumping out conditions and spreading them as much as you can (hence Epidemic is a great asset there) with barriers helping ensure you have that bit of extra safety net. 

[draxynnic.3719]

On 2/13/2022 at 9:42 PM, taara.3217 said:

But I think Ren is more player`s skill-dependent spec than Scourge and from context of TS question seems it can be issue.

A little, but the point I was making is that they're close enough that going from some experience with tormenting condi rev to no experience with scourge might well feel like a drop in survivability in the short term, even if the player in question hadn't fully mastered the revenant mechanics.

[Daddy.8125]

Trailblazer would be getting to the absolute peak of survivability. However in most cases it's not worth the trade off as it's abit overkill in defense. 

Vipers + torment runes + contagion + barrier trait will keep you up through mostly everything. 

Pretty much use barriers as much as humanly possible, use sceptre torch don't worry about weapon swap.

If your still struggling, get trailblazer, it's a DPS loss you will likely lose some but thankfully necro has high solo DPS so it won't be that bad. 

Trailblazer will cut 15% of Ur DPS but a 60% increase to your survivability effectively heightening both your HP and toughness. 

Edited February 15, 2022 by Daddy.8125

[LucianDK.8615]

Trailblazer is for soloing. -15% dps is meaningless in solo.

[Daddy.8125]

https://hardstuck.gg/gw2/builds/necromancer/condition-scourge-r56/

Rune of torment gives you healing per torment application ( it's quite a expensive rune though ) 

If your still struggling swap your gear to trailblazers for added survivability. 

Rotation - sceptar + torch just press 1 to 5 in this order. Spam F1 F2 and F3 as oftenly as possible. And move out of red circles. 

Make sure to use F2 when using blood pact or plaguelands so u transfer the condis to the enemy or you will eat your own health. 

I found it extremely easy in vipers, but as a new player it's likely gonna be harder. When we say immortal we mean in a experienced players hand so it's gonna take abit of practice. 

 

Edited February 27, 2022 by Daddy.8125