Was wondering what everyone's thoughts about bleed damage?
I went a bleed spec on my thief, decked myself in orange items and did some dungeons and fracs. I was thinking about it and I really don't think it's that good. (On my thief) I have not played a necro to 80 so not sure what it's like for them. But mine was only ticking for about 116 damage. And I think my auto attacks alone out damage that for my other spec.
What do you guys think about it?
I use bleeds stacks with condition builds on my necro and love it. It not the pure capability to bleed but the ability to apply several conditions and have some of them stack well. One of our guildies runs a thief that is heavily condition built and uses traps like mad for bleed and other conditions. While it is not a popular build by the masses we have have a blast running with him in WvW and dungeons and it works for him.
Long story short if you like bleeds maybe focus some energy on the conditions build with armor, upgrades, traits, etc..
I should start off that I don't think speccing for bleed only (or mostly) is a good idea. It's too easily countered, while other damage is not.
I think that the official forum (forget which section though) talked about how they did a calculation and showed that in dungeons at least bleed damage builds aren't as effective. So if you're talking spefically dungeons, I'm not sure its that great, dps is king there imo.
For sPvP, bust is really king, or really tankly builds. At least when I played it more often. Maybe the metta has changed.
For WvW, most people and builds (save few, oddly enough lots of thieves) have condition removal, so in a 1on1 situation most of your damage will be mitigated. I hope you're prepared never to beat an elementalist in a fight, ever. I can remove about 5-6 consitions in the first 10 seconds of a fight, so I can take of conditions put on by a group, let alone one guy. And then 2-3 conditions every 10 seconds. So your bleed damage would basically do nothing the entire time and if that's your whole build, you're putting yourself at a disadvantage.
Now, and this is key, bleeds and conditions DO have a purpose. I use them all the time. Pop churning earth and teleport into a group, that's 3k damage and 8 stacks of bleed...either they're letting that tick for a ton of damage or much more likely, they will use their condition removal. And that's why I'm doing it, forcing them to blow as much of their utility skilsl right away...in a group fight, I can throw on some cripples, bleeds, chills and burns...and that'll eat up your utilities. But my build is actually not condition heavy, (didn't spec into it) I specced for defense and some power, that way I can stay on my feel and deal out DPS.
JM2C
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Originally Posted by Zaalexx Sephitroth
Well there are a few ways to play a necro, but a condition master is prob the best one. Condition necros (that can mess up my boons as well) are the only two clesses/builds I have trouble with in WvW. Condition build thieves are more of a nuisance...as in, I have to kill this thief real quick before I get to where I was headed to.
I'm sure that the build can work though...the most important thing is the person behind the keyboard. If you know the build, maximise it and it fits your playstyle, then you will do well. So OP, if that's the build that is FUN for you and you like it, then you'll make it work...just in my opinion ,its prob not the optimal build for the class.
I specced into condition damage and got all condition damage gear. I just don't feel it does enough damage in a dungeon then my auto attacks from my direct damage spec. Bleeds ticking for about 116 damage, compared to 4k auto attacks. 2k to 3k autos with my short bow.
Even in WvW or sPvp I feel I do more damage with my direct damage. I can burst people down and not watch them remove my bleeds.
I did the same thing for my Ranger and I've been having a hard time myself. I have everything thrown into Condition Damage and use bleeds and I feel really weak at times. I love throwing traps right now but I am wondering if I should be switching to Condition Duration after seeing this and start using poisons and cripples and whatnot. Condition Damage is mainly for bleeding right? (I always get the two mixed up...lol)
Conditional damage effects all conditions which do damage (bleed, burn, poison ect). It's not specific to one type, nor is it useful for just one type. The same can be said for condition duration, all of them will get use out of it, though it is able to effect non damage conditions where as condition damage can only effect damage conditions. Regardless, both are useful depending on build and desired focus of skills.
Maybe this is what you were really asking, but the way you asked was a bit confusing for me.
Yeah, sorry...you gave me more insight on this though. I read somewhere that Condition Damage was only useful for bleeding whereas Duration was only useful for Poison and Cripple or something like that and it really confused me.
So Condition Damage simply increases the dps, but Condition Duration simply increases the length that the dps is in effect. That makes sense then. But what would be optimal then? Damage or Duration?
Damage.
I think the most important, and fun part if you ask me, is to experiment. Do not be afraid to re trait, change armor, jewels, weapons, upgrades ( sigil's and ruins). You may find some shocking results with simple changes, and you may find certain builds compliment one group (ala WvW or Dungeon) and another build is far better suited for PVE or general group runs. It is cheap enough to re-trait to make it fun to try, and if you put any time into gathering stuff or crafting you are sure to have a whole host of weapons, armor and upgrades to mess with.
Have fun and do not be afraid to go against "the internet experts" as a lot of it may really hinge on your group if you have a regular one. It a game after all enjoy it and play it.
As you say it more the person behind the KB than the build itself. It took me far longer than I had imagined to really master the conditionmancer but now that I have it down, it is far and away my play style of choice. As I said earlier it also matter most that I have a great group and guild that allows me to play a strong support role like that.
Unlike some of the other posters I am a necro and will never deal 2K+ per hit in auto attack, but some in my group do. So it is my role to manage my survive-ability and ensure that when they do 3-4K of damage that the enemy is slowed, poised, bleeding, blinded, and crippled for long duration's to maximize the impact of those huge attacks.
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