Trying out Dual Swords builds

[misterman.1530]

Tried a condi reaper hybrid that sort of worked, but am having more success, roaming in WvW, with a Dual Swords Cele Condi Harb (that's a mouthful!). Just 2 swords and a staff. Pistol was too slow anyways. Seems to work well. Three Elixirs and I had Signet of Undeath - but swap that out for other utility skills while I've been experimenting.

Build is fluid too - Curses, Death Magic, and Harb is what I currently have.  More mobility than a regular harb and it appears a bit more damage with the 2 swords (along with the mobility, of course).

I will try swapping out DM but for now it seems to work:
DM: Shrouded Removal, Deadly Strength, and Unholy Sanctuary

Anyways, just thought I'd share. Odd build, I know, but seems to work for now. Further testing required.

[XECOR.2814]

You are doing 0 damage pressure with 2sword and staff on cele harb.

Its the harbinger shroud thats putting in work.

Better off playing pistol torch/ sword wh.

Or pistol wh/sword sword 

Or pistol torch or wh/staff like usual.

Make sure you have cleansing sigils tho.

[misterman.1530]

The Sword is only for roaming mobility, nothing more. I cleanse by being in Shroud (Death Magic: Shrouded Removal), using Elixir of Bliss, and Putrid Mark (Staff Skill 4).

It's still early, but it seems I am killing NPCs and players quicker than with Pistol/Torch or whatever other Harb build I've tried.

 

Edited March 20 by misterman.1530
missed end parantheses

[Lonewolf Kai.3682]

Swords seem to build life force rather quickly too, so there is that. I’ve noticed I’m able to stay in harb shroud for a lot more than before. 

[XECOR.2814]

That's cool if it works for you but its not the best build since swords have no condi components and damage is heavily reduced due to not being full power build and swords already having low damage.
Harb has better builds for roaming, similar case for Reaper even if you want to use swords.
But if its fun, its all cool anyway.

[Lonewolf Kai.3682]

9 hours ago, XECOR.2814 said:

That's cool if it works for you but its not the best build since swords have no condi components and damage is heavily reduced due to not being full power build and swords already having low damage.
Harb has better builds for roaming, similar case for Reaper even if you want to use swords.
But if its fun, its all cool anyway.

I know, I know, bow down to the Meta. 

[Flumek.9043]

well thats the point.  swords are just bad  vs human enemy

[Maultrace.5761]

Aside from a pack of trash mobs, are they actually better than any weapon at all?

Are they really just... there for the sake of it? No sarcasm btw, i'm genuinely curious, it just bothers me that the weapon theme which had a whole expac for itself, ended up as a nothing burger.

[Flumek.9043]

Honestly, I think  its intentional. 

The game suffers from massive powercreep  and since 2nd xpac , theyre playing it safe.   Most new weapons are mid to low tier  even now.

[mirage.8046]

if these swords were melee, they'd do a lot of damage like greatsword, but because they're ranged, they can't compete for that much DPS. look at what happened to guardian's scepter in the 2019 patch when it got nerfed because it was outpacing sword, a melee weapon. sword has range, boon corruption, and mobility so those justify the low damage. 

off-hand sword is truly a hybrid weapon because it works well for condi as it does for power. main-hand sword is best for power (it's not strong enough to replace scepter on condi reaper).

[ZephidelGRS.9520]

Dual Swords have interesting synergies with condi Reaper that make it such a sleeper build. They apply Bleeding faster than any other Necro weapons, faster than even Scepter, thanks to their interaction with Reaper’s traits. I’ll have to check how it benches, but Swords might be just the thing to push condi Reaper out of meme tier build. 

Edited March 27 by ZephidelGRS.9520

[Asek.1869]

On 3/27/2024 at 6:46 AM, ZephidelGRS.9520 said:

Dual Swords have interesting synergies with condi Reaper that make it such a sleeper build. They apply Bleeding faster than any other Necro weapons, faster than even Scepter, thanks to their interaction with Reaper’s traits. I’ll have to check how it benches, but Swords might be just the thing to push condi Reaper out of meme tier build. 

Hi could you attach build for condi reaper with swords, trying to make something with them for instanced content but my pHarb is doing 35k dps only.

[Tinker.6924]

I see very little synergy between the sword abilities and reaper with respect to bleeding or condi damage in general.  There is a reaper trait that triggers bleeding when you inflict chill and another trait that inflicts chill when you inflict fear (with the other trait it would trigger bleed) and there are sword abilities that inflict chill and fear but the abilities that inflict those conditions are a very small part of the sword attacks.  To get any condition damage with swords you have to give up a lot of traits.

It would make way more sense to pick weapons that inflict significant damage causing conditions already and that means scepter or pistol with torch and something else offhand.

I love double swords for open world and instance pve power builds, but they are a backup to the greatsword main gun.

 

[Joxer.6024]

On 3/31/2024 at 3:42 PM, Asek.1869 said:

Hi could you attach build for condi reaper with swords, trying to make something with them for instanced content but my pHarb is doing 35k dps only.

https://snowcrows.com/builds/open-world/necromancer/condition-reaper

 

oops....they did say instanced...ah well.  😉

 

Edited May 21 by Joxer.6024

[misterman.1530]

On 3/24/2024 at 4:42 PM, Flumek.9043 said:

well thats the point.  swords are just bad  vs human enemy

Works well chasing down roamers in WvW. Only issue is with really good, constant stealth thieves. Everything else it works well.

[SleepyBat.9034]

On 3/25/2024 at 1:50 PM, Flumek.9043 said:

Honestly, I think  its intentional. 

The game suffers from massive powercreep  and since 2nd xpac , theyre playing it safe.   Most new weapons are mid to low tier  even now.

Thief weapons have been mega-cracked. Insane power damage and condition spam. Also, I'm tired of getting boring support weapons for Engineer. At this point, we have like 4 weapon sets devoted to support.

[Flumek.9043]

2 hours ago, misterman.1530 said:

Works well chasing down roamers in WvW. Only issue is with really good, constant stealth thieves. Everything else it works well.

The point was - that the reason why you can "chase well"  non-human and/or stealth teef enemies - is not because of swords.   Its the cele stats and quickness being a 50% dmg mod  for shroud.

For example in PVP, i really tried making swords work and from memory:

60% of time im using swords to run away,  30% for OOC mobility  and 10% of time am I actually winning and "chasing". So lets repeat again, and really slowly:

Swords.     Are.    Bad.

Edited May 24 by Flumek.9043

[misterman.1530]

6 hours ago, Flumek.9043 said:

The point was - that the reason why you can "chase well"  non-human and/or stealth teef enemies - is not because of swords.   Its the cele stats and quickness being a 50% dmg mod  for shroud.

For example in PVP, i really tried making swords work and from memory:

60% of time im using swords to run away,  30% for OOC mobility  and 10% of time am I actually winning and "chasing". So lets repeat again, and really slowly:

Swords.     Are.    Bad.

Sword main hand skill 3 has two closers. Let's me get real close.

And let me repeat: Unless you are very, very good I would take you out 1 v 1 with dual swords. It all depends on rotation. I stack tons of condis. Unless you hit me hard right at the start and take me out, you will die from the conditions. As I've said, works well.