Hybrid Scourge - Expertise Good or No?

[KROW.2673]

@Anchoku.8142 said:I am tentatively concluding Scourge does not have a power build. Next, I plan to work on support builds. After all, Scourge was clearly designed to provide support and condition bursts. With any luck, Arenanet will further improve Reaper's power and dagger's dps on the next balance update.

I also felt the same way about it, with it being primarily a Support/Condi spec. But I like to challenge the norm lol and I've heard they intend to nerf Reaper Condi even further but buff its Power. Dagger, no clue and I'm honestly not a fan of it so I can't really say too much on the matter.

[Dadnir.5038]

@Okami.7049 said:

@Anchoku.8142 said:I am tentatively concluding Scourge does not have a power build. Next, I plan to work on support builds. After all, Scourge was clearly designed to provide support and condition bursts. With any luck, Arenanet will further improve Reaper's power and dagger's dps on the next balance update.

I also felt the same way about it, with it being primarily a Support/Condi spec. But I like to challenge the norm lol and I've heard they intend to nerf Reaper Condi even further but buff its Power. Dagger, no clue and I'm honestly not a fan of it so I can't really say too much on the matter.

Again?... Seriously, why nerf something that's just slightly weak in the current state of the game to make meaningless buff since the very reason why reaper is bad at power is because core necro do not support power builds properly? Nerfing condi reaper lead nowhere, it just reduce even more (if possible) build variety.

[KROW.2673]

@Dadnir.5038 said:

@Okami.7049 said:

@Anchoku.8142 said:I am tentatively concluding Scourge does not have a power build. Next, I plan to work on support builds. After all, Scourge was clearly designed to provide support and condition bursts. With any luck, Arenanet will further improve Reaper's power and dagger's dps on the next balance update.

I also felt the same way about it, with it being primarily a Support/Condi spec. But I like to challenge the norm lol and I've heard they intend to nerf Reaper Condi even further but buff its Power. Dagger, no clue and I'm honestly not a fan of it so I can't really say too much on the matter.

Again?... Seriously, why nerf something that's just slightly weak in the current state of the game to make meaningless buff since the very reason why reaper is bad at power is because core necro do not support power builds properly? Nerfing condi reaper lead nowhere, it just reduce even more (if possible) build variety.

And I couldn't agree more. ANET needs to quit trying to force Necro to be a 'Condi' class and they also need to quit limiting our options in terms of builds and playstyles. I hate Dagger/Warhorn with a passion now yet it LITERALLY is our only solid weapon combo. I don't care what their vision for the class currently is, as a whole their vision is clearly wrong. GW2 is about playing your way, hence the whole open-world thing. But there's no point in playing 'your' way when the only OPTIMAL way is to literally run the same exact build as everyone else. And no, ANET, costumes don't count as 'diversity'. They need to either grow a brain and quit making the game so linear or get a new team, cuz I don't know about you but I know I'D be better at balancing and I'm not even a professional programmer/designer. It's not hard to buff certain elements to be useful and fun in PvE while locking said elements when in WvW and/or PvP. Tedious, annoying, maybe a bit of a nuisance yes but that's no excuse. Right now, if you want to actually have fun doing damage, you have to play specific classes outside of your playstyle and comfort zone which is NOT how any MMO should function. Thieves have insane amounts of Evades and Endurance, Warriors have access to practically every weapon in the game, I mean every class is unique in its own right without looking at 'who should/shouldn't DPS'. ALL classes should be able to DPS equally, no ifs/ands/buts. Necro is not just about Poisons and Bleeds, Reapers are about collecting souls and cutting the enemy down. So I fail to see ANET's logic behind pushing us to be all Condi and nothing else. Especially when all other classes have far more options and do everything we do better.

This is best for a different thread though, so that's all I'm going to say on the matter.

[Vitali.5039]

To balance those Palawa builds is no Joko ;)

[Justine.6351]

The thing to understand about condition duration is that;

• the more you have, the less meaningful additional amounts become.
• in pvp settings, shorter duration conditions benefit more than longer duration conditions.

[KROW.2673]

@Justine.6351 said:The thing to understand about condition duration is that;

• the more you have, the less meaningful additional amounts become.
• in pvp settings, shorter duration conditions benefit more than longer duration conditions.

So, if: > Duration = Quantity <

Doesn't that mean Condi Damage is far more important than Duration? In other words, I've started viewing Condi Damage and Duration the same way I view Power and Ferocity: it's a balancing act. Too much of one leads to not enough of the other, which means 3k Power with only 214% Ferocity is no better than 2.5k Power with 229% Ferocity (not being specific here, just showcasing a concept). In the case with Condi Damage and Duration, the more Damage the more burst but the less sustained damage while more Duration means more sustained damage but less burst. I also know that to get higher Expertise, you're going to wind up sacrificing Power or Condi Damage (since this is a Hybrid Build) which means you're trading heavier damage while having less stacks for more stacks while dealing less initial damage. Or am I way overthinking this?

Hopefully I didn't confuse anyone, but that's kind of the best way for me to explain my thinking right now. More Condi Damage = heavier hitting Condis but less stack stability (you have to constantly apply stacks to keep them on the enemy) while more Duration = a larger stack of Condis thus granting you a larger 'grace period' should you become hard CC'd and can no longer continue to apply stacks.

EDIT: fixing general errors