Stat question

[TOAD.4718]

Say I’m building a necromancer using scepter/warhorn obviously bleeding/poison and life stealing would be a huge part of the build so I’d take 

condition damage

healing power

expertise

precision

 

correct? Or would I need or have to have power in there? Still learning.

 

[Scalacious.4139]

There are only two forms of damage in this game: Strike and Condition.
If you attack with a weapon or any skill, you always deal strike damage. This type of damage is modified by your power. Some skills scale a lot with power, some to a lesser degree (like CC skills or skills that apply conditions).
If an enemy has a condition, like poison or bleeding, he takes condition damage. This type of damage is modified by your condition damage stat.

Now to your specific scenario. Scepter on necro is a weapon that applies a lot of conditions, therefore you want to have a lot of the condition damage stat, as you said yourself. Warhorn on the other hand does not apply damaging conditions and is more of a power weapon, the lifesteal from Locust Swarm even scales with your power, not your healing power. If you want to focus on conditions, the dagger would be better in your offhand. Or you choose to focus on the scourge elite, which allows you to use the torch, which is an excellent condition damage offhand that applies a lot of burning.

[Zyreva.1078]

1 hour ago, Scalacious.4139 said:

There are only two forms of damage in this game: Strike and Condition.

Technically life steal is it's own type of dmg, despite scaling with power. However since it is more supplementary and never the main source of dmg, in practise builds focus only on one of the two main dmg sources you mentioned, so you aren't completely wrong.

1 hour ago, Scalacious.4139 said:

Warhorn on the other hand does not apply damaging conditions and is more of a power weapon,

Would classify it more as an utility weapon that can be viable in different kinds of builds (you have 2 offhand weapon slots after all).

 

@TOAD.4718

"Scepter/warhorn necromancer" isn't a very accurate despription of what you are looking for. Which specialisation (core is generally not that great) do you want to play? Which role do you want to fullfill? And which game mode and content are we even looking at? Because again, different content and builds have very different requirements and often need different stats.

[Jukhy.2431]

• For condi dps builds it's condition damage and expertise. The latter is capped at +100% duration and that is usually the aim for the conditions the build inflicts.
• Healing power is for support/ hybrid builds that do healing, regen and/or apply barriers. This is usually accompanied by concentration which increases the boon durations (also capped at +100%).
• Precision is usually taken for power dps builds along with ferocity. Ofc power, precision and ferocity can help to get more damage out of condi builds but they are not the priority.

On my necro I have two separate build layouts that use scepter: condi dps scourge and support scourge. When I want to make new build I look up a build from metabattle and then customize it a bit to my personal taste.

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

The strongest DPS stat combination for condition builds is Vipers (Yassisth's is the viper's prefix for ascended).  That is, however, going to be a bit of a condi glass cannon.  So you might consider swapping in something with vitality or toughness for a greater ability to tank damage in solo-PvE play.  In group content, highest toughness is what many bosses will focus on, as well as you will have designated healers to sustain you so you can focus on DPS and mechanics (meaning glass cannon is generally the way to go for DPS roles in organized group content like strikes and raids).  The wiki has a good page to help you find the "right' stat combination that you are looking for:  https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Attribute_combinations

[TOAD.4718]

7 hours ago, Scalacious.4139 said:

There are only two forms of damage in this game: Strike and Condition.
If you attack with a weapon or any skill, you always deal strike damage. This type of damage is modified by your power. Some skills scale a lot with power, some to a lesser degree (like CC skills or skills that apply conditions).
If an enemy has a condition, like poison or bleeding, he takes condition damage. This type of damage is modified by your condition damage stat.

Now to your specific scenario. Scepter on necro is a weapon that applies a lot of conditions, therefore you want to have a lot of the condition damage stat, as you said yourself. Warhorn on the other hand does not apply damaging conditions and is more of a power weapon, the lifesteal from Locust Swarm even scales with your power, not your healing power. If you want to focus on conditions, the dagger would be better in your offhand. Or you choose to focus on the scourge elite, which allows you to use the torch, which is an excellent condition damage offhand that applies a lot of burning.

I was trying to do more of a bleed/poison condition build with some siphoning life that could do Open World and World boss stuff but wanted to avoid using a great sword even on swap. Didn’t really want to do pistols either.

Edited December 1, 2022 by TOAD.4718

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

21 minutes ago, TOAD.4718 said:

I was trying to do more of a bleed/poison condition build with some siphoning life that could do Open World and World boss stuff but wanted to avoid using a great sword even on swap. Didn’t really want to do pistols either.

With scepter on Necro, you can be a condi god.  Warhorn 4 is a decent (not as good as it used to be IMO) CC.  Dagger off-hand is good for transferring your conditions onto your target (I think that is dagger 4, but it's been a long time since I did dagger off-hand).  In my opinion, Scourge is the best elite spec for condi DPS necro with scepter/torch and warhorn in the off-hand swap (it's what I run in raids when I'm on condi DPS Necro).

Since you're somewhat new to GW2, don't forget about your runes in your armor and sigils in your weapons.  A big chunk of your stats can come from your runes and sigils.

[TOAD.4718]

1 hour ago, Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294 said:

With scepter on Necro, you can be a condi god.  Warhorn 4 is a decent (not as good as it used to be IMO) CC.  Dagger off-hand is good for transferring your conditions onto your target (I think that is dagger 4, but it's been a long time since I did dagger off-hand).  In my opinion, Scourge is the best elite spec for condi DPS necro with scepter/torch and warhorn in the off-hand swap (it's what I run in raids when I'm on condi DPS Necro).

Since you're somewhat new to GW2, don't forget about your runes in your armor and sigils in your weapons.  A big chunk of your stats can come from your runes and sigils.

Well I am trying to avoid scourge too. I’m doing some RPing too. So I’m trying to juggle a few things plus make it Open World viable. Here is KINDA what I have atm.

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSjAsilRwCZgMOGJW8TvrLA-e

 

My idea was to simplify things for myself by rarely using shroud mostly for removing and redistributing conditions while still keeping bleed on as many foes as possible. Does that make sense?

 

So I’m wanting to avoid. Pistols, Greatsword, Scourge and minions. I guess that info would have been helpful from the start.

Edited December 1, 2022 by TOAD.4718
Adjusted build

[Scalacious.4139]

13 hours ago, TOAD.4718 said:

Well I am trying to avoid scourge too. I’m doing some RPing too. So I’m trying to juggle a few things plus make it Open World viable. Here is KINDA what I have atm.

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSjAsilRwCZgMOGJW8TvrLA-e

 

My idea was to simplify things for myself by rarely using shroud mostly for removing and redistributing conditions while still keeping bleed on as many foes as possible. Does that make sense?

 

So I’m wanting to avoid. Pistols, Greatsword, Scourge and minions. I guess that info would have been helpful from the start.

 

Okay, based on this information, I modified your build a bit.

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSDFsE1aYZFsQGIjjRiFzj66C-zRJYkRP/YUoA6kD6HAA-e

 

I would change Blood Magic to Death Magic. This gives you a lot toughness, defensive boons and longer poison effects on enemies. I would switch some traits in the Curses traitline. It is very usefull to run Master of Corruption, since you are using a lot of corruption skills. Also, I would change Lingering Curse to Parasitic Contagion, which lowers your condition damage a bit, but heals you for a percentage of your bleeding and poison damage, which in my opinion fits the theme of your lifesteal build better than running Blood Magic or Signet of Vampirism, since they both scale better with power.

On the topic of stats, I would choose a combination that gives you primarily condition damage with some toughness and vitality. Toughness makes you harder to kill and and vitality gives you more health as well as a greater life force pool. The best choice is the trailblazer combination (great bonus to condition damage + thoughness, small bonus to vitality + expertise), but equipment with those stats is quite costly. A cheaper alternative would be the dire combination (great bonus to condition damage, small bonus to toughness + vitality).

And now for the icing on the cake: superior runes of the undead. If you slot 6 of those bad boys, you gain even more condition damage and toughness as well as a bonus to condition damage that scales with your toughness! Meaning you deal more condition damage while beeing even more tanky.

[Linken.6345]

You can get all pieces trailblazer by buying bladed armor from verdant brink - the chest.

If you want the chest easier then pve (random drop from night boss or t4 meta) you can do spvp/wvw reward track for it.