Buran.3796

> @"Ajji.6031" said: > I tried this build : http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Firebrand_-_Solo_Firebrand > > They say it has a ton of defense and heals, but I die super easily. I have a mix of dire and trailblazer gear and do great damage. > That build (and the one from Wooden Potatoes, which has some similarities) aren'r really a good "solo" Firebrand builds. Both, no matter if run based on power or condi starts, are based in the same concept: spam the Sword of Justice and the Tome of Justice AoE attacks and pray for enemy deaths to proc the Renewed Justice trait. It worked fairly well when at "regular content" in Open World before the Mantra of Solace healing were nerfed to death, because yes, you could one shoot swarms of mini raptors and forged minions and the aegis procs and healings provided enough sustain. But against enemies with larger HP or evades, or high bursts of damage, like a few veteran Smokescales, Bristlebacks or fire Djins, never did that good, and much less now. Those builds are more oriented towards instanced content inside a group with team support and searching to max damage, and to to survive soloing events, champs or bounties, in other words: that's not a "solo" build. For solo content I usually run a condi based DH with full trailblazer and 4 meditations which has a lot more sustain and condition cleanses, but delivers much less damage: is good at open world and vs some champs and most of hero points but too slow to solo most of bounties. Now, as you ask for a capable Firebrand build to solo PvE, so far the best one I've tried is this one from Lord Hizen: Build: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?PWwAEd3lVweYSMPmJW+PrvKA-zRhYbBFMEiIYwQBOiaSPnzICVQ6SBNeAEYPQ61MiRLA-e A more simplified version (stat wise) with similar atributes but easier to build up (since has less stat mix and marauder + cavalier is simpler and can be used also in WvW in other builds): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWwAEd3lVweYSMPmJW+PrvKA-zRhYbBFAGEoYUzOCy7MiQFkuUQjHAB2DkeNjY0C-e Now, first of all: I advise you to get the exotic gear to test the mechanics before investing resurces into crafting ascended gear. This is a fairly complex build in terms of game mechanics, closer to a Elementalist or Engieneer in terms of keystrokes x minute, and that gameplay style could disturb people expecting a more relaxed gameplay based on the "expected tankiness" of the Guardian. Easiest way to get the exotic armor with any stat distribution is in the PvP tracks (but NOT using this build). Hizen explains very well the key points and offers examples, but I'll make you a fast summary: * The stat distribution provides you high power and crit damage, the precission is provided by traits and skills. * The build also provides you high armor and decent base HP; those are to prevent being one-shooted, not to tank damage. * The build is power based because Litany of Wrath escalates much better that way. Your tankiness arrives from your sustain in the form of LoW, the blocks and the protection and regeneration that comes from that blocks. * The boost in damage comes mainly from two sources: retaliation, which procs fury and might, and quickness, which is crucial to keep the dps. * The build is also rich in sinergies: Symbol of Wrath creates a light field which can provide Light Aura with Leap or cleansings with WW; Symbol of Vengeance can proc cleanses with Shield of Wrath. Aura of Light provides damage reduction and retaliation... * You need quickness to maximize those combos; you get quickness enetering and exiting from the tomes and the mantras from Mantra of Potence. * The Mantras of Lore provide cleanses and regeneration, the Mantra of Liberation stability and retaliation. If you do the rigth timing with the quickness and retaliation procs everything works together: you get high boon stacks with long duration, your damage is high and also your sustain, you proc Light Aura oftenly, etc. Fail at transitions and everything starts to fall apart: lower damage, slower gameplay, less protection uptime, skills more oftenly under cooldowns...

> @"LucianTheAngelic.7054" said: > Why do I always see you only recommend one or the other? Shortbow + Mace/Axe work better in tandem than they do just having one or the other. Mace/axe works fine on Mallyx/Kalla with viper gear as well. It’s ideal to have both > > I wasn't fan of the Kalla summons nor the short bow design since PoF release and barely touched it for more than 2 years. Then after the big balance patch in February and some buffs Renegade started to become a thing in PvP, and about a month ago some open world builds and this thread picked my interest and made me to test some variants: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/119084/open-world-pve-shortbow-renegade-condi-vs-power#latest Due I have the PvP legendary armor and several legendaries (swords, staff, axe, even shield... ) I did change stats, runes and sigils to try viper Renegade, trailblazer Renegade, zerker renegade, trailblazer Herald, power Herald and other variants without bothering about the cost. Tested them vs some PvE and WvW characters handled by the A.I., such as charr sentinels, the veteran Hwarg, the giants from the Elon Riverlands and even some bounties (albeit judging the performance vs bounties is hard due the ramdomless of the Unstable Magic). I was trying to make a fair comparison, albeit is not entirely feasible to me since I'm much more used to use the core/Herald skills. And those are my thoughs after 3-4 weeks testing: * Snow's Crows viper Renegade with Nightmare runes and short bow & mace + axe and Invocation (2,1,2), Corruption (1,3,1) & Renegade (2,2,2) has the bigger dps. It reaches spikes over 55 stacks of torment and keeps well over 30 all the time. Kills faster any thing doesn't require you to evade attacks, and requieres a fairly elaborated chain of attacks. Doesn't have energy problems due Charged Mist, but is terribad at damage mitigation and self sustain. Can be argued that is not a problem in a raid or fractal with other memebers filling support roles, but doesn't change the fact that other builds can do the same task at slower pace, whereas that build can't solo the content others do. * Nike! DNT's build is very different: trailblazer Renegade with the same Nightmare runes but Corruption (1,3,3) Devastation (3,3,3) and Renegade (2,2,2). Is more defensive, because uses Permeating Pestilence instead of Diabolic Inferno, so can ditch conditions easier, and has the Battle Scars triunvirate of traits to ensure enhanced sustain. Is designed to use only the short bow, because instead of complex rotations relies in the sb auto attack and Sevenshot 90% of the time; that's why despite lacking the Invotacion traitline and Charged Mist doesn't struggles with energy. But loses a lot of stacks of torment due the absence of the mace. In exchange, has a huge boost in both armor and HP, and much better sustain. What I like less about that one is the reduced mobility once in combat. * Paper Roll's made two videos with two open world Renegade variants: one is a condition one with Corruption (1,3,1) Devastation (3,3,3) and Renegade (2,2,2), using trailblazer stats + Traveller runes and short bow & mace + axe, with either Kall + Jalis or Kalla + Shiro as legends. Again a similar concept as the one from Nike's, sacrifices the damage from the runes to get more mobility, and the pulses from Mallyx are replaced by the perma-stability provided from Mallyx, which also is more tanky. * But I found more interesting the power Renegade variant Paper Roll's made: a mix between Diviner and Cavalier (with some Zerk, Valk and Marauder pieces) with rune of the Earth and Invocation (2,2,2) Devastation (3,3,3) and Renegade (1,3,2) using short bow and both swords and Kalla + Jalis. Now starting from the stats: instead of that weid amalgama one can just use berserker in the weapons and devote thefull armor to cavalier and the trinkets to commander (or viceversa) and use the Leadership runes and you'll get the same or better damage with much better boon duration (Earth only benefits protection, and is his build reaches 55%, my stats rearrange provide 47,7% to everything, more HP nad more armor). This is a different approach: since we no longer need the Blood Fury or Heart Pirecer for condi damage in the Kalla traitline it opens All for One, which with the concentration we have turns Kalla in a permanent source of protection, paired whith Jalis, which gives permanent stability and a lot of damage mitigation. The increase of the cost in energy is founded by Charged Mist, due Corruption is no longer needed so Invocation comes around, and the best thing is that Rapid Flow is also on the table so the mobility while fighting is also greatly increased. I think that this is the best build around because has the best mitigation, is paired with the best ones in sustain and mobility, has excellent energy management and has great access to stability and cleanses, and does all those things without losing too much damage. Can also swap from range to mele without losing to much damage (at single target). Now, the short bow is a pure hybrid weapon: in the auto attack most of the damage is physical, but with viper and a condi build the condition can be rised up to 50% of the damage; in the other skills most of the damage comes from conditions and buffing the physical damage it can reach ~40% of the whole damage. If you go physical damage with the Renegade build and the short bow (which I'll recomend), then the two swords are way better that the mace (mace is more oriented towards conditions: even at full zerk the condis do more damage than the hits if they aren't removed). In the physical damage build the swords provide i-frames, which helps with the lack of blocks in the short bow. If you run a condition based Renegade, the mace and axe help offensively, but provide no defense: with condi Herald you can use the healing as a block, and pair mace + axe / mace + shield to get an extra block, but with Renegade there's no shield and the damage from swords in a condi build will be lackluster (same as with the staff, but that one at least blocks, blinds, cleanses and breaks defience bars). Short bow + mace & axe in a fractal? Sure, you're probably covered if you make mistakes. Short bow + mace & axe soloing things in OW? Why? Regular mobs will die before they reach mele range, and if I have to face tank a champion or legendary bounty I'll chose either power Renegade with swords, condi Herald with swap to shield or even power Herald (I've done 60-65% of solo bounties with power Herald despite the subpar damage and my lack of familiarity with unstable magic until recently). That's why I'm not fond in mace and axe with the short bow. They work great offensively, not that much for defense. But may be a thing of lack of experience. So far I'm liking more the physical variant. And in PvP roaming I do use Jalis + Shiro sb + staff; thing work differently there and the boons have much shorter duration: blocks/evades are a must.

For viper stats the build which probably works the best is Mallyx + Kalla, but with short bow as the main weapon. Mallyx + mace & axe is more suited for Herald spec + trailblazer gear. For physical damage with Renegade spec the best builds came probably from Kalla + Jalis with a mix between cavalier and commander stats and sb + swords. This is almost the same build as the one from Paper's Roll (same overall stats) but stronger boon game due the rune of the Leadership: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmwAUxzltQHMNqhlROsN6hNSfMDKgJ11/rF-zRZYBJ1AY4wOC68MiVF0rUwjngA6t47rF-e For PvP/WvW with Renegade i think that sb + staff and Shiro + Jalis works the best at roaming. Small group roaming can favour a more tankiness approach, but going solo the lack of Shiro would take a hit.

I already use keyboard keys in my mouse ("alt" for the evade, "i", "l" and "o" for the #8, #9 and "select target"... But the mouse doesn't known when I swap a legend and as I said they have different functions in different order. ANet just should do their work.

> @"Leonidrex.5649" said: > technically you could switch your hotkeys and rearrange the keys and it would be the same, just img off skills would be in different order How? By default Glint has the breakstun in the #7, Shiro and Mallyx in the #9, Jalis in the #10, etc. The same with the other skills. Why no, INSTEAD, you known, could ANet fix the bug? Like if they were competent conding their own game, or something...

> @"TeqkOneStylez.8047" said: > This comes down to Warrior VS Guard grand finals imo Guardians have only decent builds at core and DH at the moment: Firebrand is weak at every role. On the other hand, Revs have power Herald, condi Renegade, condi Herald, power Renegade and some bunker options (Ventari doesn't count: is subpar). Warrior at the moment has a good support build which is tanky and does damage, but the class lacks in top placed build variety.

> @"Obtena.7952" said: > so what's the problem if they do a 3 month patch cycle or not? If you believe what you say, you realize it's irrelevant how often they patch. If they did a patch every day ... we wouldn't have more viable builds because the problem has nothing to do with balance. It's related how the game is designed. More cadence of patches will mean more variety: chances of builds, weapons, skills and traits which are underused to emerge making them useful, even if happens randomly. Is very evident in PvP: before the changes in the patch of February Renegade was fairly weak, a healing Warrior build wouldn't work, etc. Changes motivates players to explore and experiment; lack of changes settles the things for months and makes the things more boring. Is not irrelevant how much they patch. The one which started this thread deleted the Firebrand from an entire game mode, so new changes (of any kind) could only make the things better for them and for people which like to play that spec, and the same happens withj other classes.

> @"memausz.7264" said: > Ask yourselves this question - why is it that no other condis in the game and no other direct damage attacks in the game, even combined, match burn dmg? That's how I know all of you are wrong. * Chill is more lethal than most of other condis. * Confussion counters enemy's gameplay in a way in which other condis can't dream off. * Poison counters healings. Lately I've been playing a burn DH which is the opposite of the trapper: runs full meditation (aside from the heal) and cleanses 11 conditions each 32 seconds; lacks the burst of the trapper but harcounters it entirely. Playing also power Herald, I think that the core burn Guardian is stronger than the burn DH trapper: that's just a pure glass cannon. But is funny that ANet turned FB into garbage just to see how Guardian players come in revenge with a PvE build (because yes, Sword of Justice is a dungeon/fractal/raid skill). Just happens that a lot of players aren't that different from the A.I. from a dungeon...

> @"Obtena.7952" said: > Again, you realize this game CAN'T be balanced over a huge range of builds right? That's not the devs, that's the way the game is designed. No, balance is not the key, because always will be better and worse specs and abuilds, but if they plan to release a patch every 3-4 months as always they shouldn't try to PR that they will increase the pace, then keep it as always and remain silent.

> @"Virdo.1540" said: > the dmg nerf on hammer wasnt that huge. But its indeed destroyed due to bugs Is not the damage, neither the bugs, but the mechanics: CoR followed a target and did it well; they could just shave damage, increase cooldowns, etc. Instead, they changed the nature of the attack, so now it doesn't follow anything, is cancelled if you cast it while strafing or moving backwards or if you move the character more than 30-35º beyong the initial path of the animation... If just garbage in a weapon which was always very bad at dps in PvE, useless in PvP and also lost the quickness provided by Impossible Odds, loang time ago. Is also bugged like hell, because (as can be easily checked with the loadout fiasco for the Revenant class) the way in which the legend skills and the animations are coded in the Rev is different from the other 8 classes, and the main designer of the Revenant leaved the ship years ago. They should redo entirely the weapon (they already botchered the staff so badly that the shield now seems almost decent and is oftenly used, even in PvP):. Also, and talking about PvP: the short bow is finally not only viable but meta, something that the hammer never achieved.

> @"Obtena.7952" said: > Yup, we can think of all kinds of awesome things and imagine how wonderful the results would be. Then we can come off our clouds back to the ground and look at what is real for the last 8 years. > > What happened in the last 8 years is that GW2 had some awesome moments, and some bad ones. The developers which started the game aren't the same that remain, and some choices are clearly been worse than others. Also, what is the reason to have a forum if not to give feedback? Or do you think that ANet goal is to be the next Wildstar? Is not like they have half dozen of other franchises to be able to afford losing the game, as happened to Blizzard with Starcraft II, Diablo III or HotS...

> @"LordTemujin.5498" said: > My feeling with the latest patch and the constant nerfing of and especially CoR. is that the revenant is slowly but surely dropping away of the meta ... replaced by Dps guardian or simply more scourges/reapers?. ? I wonder...i am in need of your advices and comments on this. I assume that you're talking abut WvW, because hammer has been crap at every other game mode for at least year and half. Yes, is now even more blatant and I wouldn't use Rev's hammer in a zerg (or even Rev as a class for long range damage). They should redo the weapon into a mele bunker thing related to Jalis, imo. But ANet doesn't support WvW and neither reads the forums so we are talking here about if a tree makes noise in the woods if falls with no one around... Thankfully I didn't craft The Colossus or Sharur.... lol, imagine the feelings!

> @"Obtena.7952" said: > Nothing I see happening is different than what has happened over the last 8 years. It's always had it's ebb and flow, better or worse. > > Even if you are right and there is a clear decline over the last 2 years ... so be it. That's the reality of LOTS of MMO's in this stage of their lifecycles. I mean, you say you don't even spend a dime since PoF release ... so you aren't exactly part of the solution here are you. > Actually, some MMOs improved over time: FF XI/XIV or ESO, albeit I'll conceed that is not the norm. But is not only PvP or WvW, as was said, PvE is also taking a hit in terms of support and direction. ANet ditched dungeons to focus on fractals and then raids and then strikes, but aside from Fractals (which are also affected by this slow pace), the others seems also fading in terms of actualizations. I think that ANet could give better support to PvP/WvW releasing patches more frequently, and providing new achievements and rewards (as cosmetics) to give them new life until the expansion arrives. I also think that they could revamp dungeons adding the new mechanics from the expansions (unstable magic, new skills for bossses, etc...) adding a harder mode with new rewards and achievements to appeal new players in a time in which more or less ascended gear is the norm. Dungeons weren't killed because they were unfun but because they destroyed the rewards. Firebrand decrease in popularity and usage isn't due has bad mechanics or poor design, but just because they shaved the numbers too much. How can be changing a few numbers each 2-4 weeks so hard to do? Even if they make mistakes, if the pace of changes is high, is easier to nerf overperforming things than having 3-4 months of gap between balance patches.

I think that your sustain will greatly improve replacing the signet heal by Litany of Wrath. The meditation has shorter cooldown even untraited, and despite you main source of damage are the burns, with the gear so full of power (carrion and grieving) your healings would be better. That build is very straightforward and powerfull for open world PvE; it would perform well in terms of damage against regular minions, veterans, silvers and even some champions and open events. The main headaches will arrive if you try to solo large events, bounties and other "dangerous game" preys: you have very limited access to cleansings, no stun breaks and very narrow mitigation windows. Despite the large HP, is a full glass cannon build, which will face some problems intrinsec to that kind of design.

> @"Obtena.7952" said: > > @"Buran.3796" said: > > > @"Obtena.7952" said: > > > Some things are not good in PVP ... fair or not, that what should be expected because no amount of balancing ever changes that. It's been this way for 8 years ... why would anyone expect anything BUT that? > > > > Well, Arenanet told us that the reason of the large February patch which entirely revamped how the damage, cc and sustain worked in PvP was to put the things in line to a larger support to the balance and the game mode in the form of more often and consistent pace of patches. So players of course expected that. And then ANet turned the previous glacial pace into something even slower... > > I mean, I don't know if you have looked around since February, but there IS a global pandemic raging ... yes, how _unreasonable_ that Anet has slowed down since then. We are talking about programming. Yes, the pandemic had repercussions for the developers, as temporaly delaying the audio of the living story episodes. No, I don't think that the covid-19 had any causality in how slowly the balance patches has turned out, or how they are being unable to honor they words. Programming is one of the jobs best suited to adapt to an environment of home lockdown, remote work and videoconferencing.

> @"Shroud.2307" said: > Shortbow and Mace can both work, so I'm not saying they're useless or won't do damage. Hammer is just flat out better for the spike and range it provides even if compared to Shortbow its DPS may be a bit less _(which I'm not certain of. Hammer may actually still be more)._ I don't think Mace is even a question unless you're full Condi and the zerg you're against is bad enough to let your Condi's tick. You think that an enemy zerg able to cleanse conditions can't see the telegraphed 1.75" cast of Drop the Hammer? Also, Phase Smash: one thing was spamming CoR when actually did damage and didn't cancel itself when you move beyond 30º while the animation, and another entirely diferent animal is try to land hammer #3 once each 12 seconds while the enemy farts aegis. And I'm not saying that the short bow is great (I think that there's better classes and weapons for the pirate ship meta), I'm just saying that currently the hammer feels to me as wielding 5 useless skill slots, at every game mode, with no exceptions.

> @"Rhyiann.8461" said: > Hello, I have been trying to play a different Class than the ones I have tried up to this point but I love ranged classes. I understand that I can turn a melee class as warrior into ranged but I still dont know how can that happen since there are restrictions to weapons for classes. Is there proficiency to be acquired along the way so that a warrior or a thief can use a ranged weapon? and at what level will that happen? Thanks Aside from Rangers and Engineers, those are some strong and powerfull ranged builds for high end solo playing and dangerous game: *Pistol Dagger Trailblazer Deadeye: extremely high single target dps, good mobility and sustain, very evassive (credit to Lord Hizen for the build, gameplay in his YT channel). http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PawAoijlZw6YQMQmJOuOfvOA-zRJYkRJfZ0YI0bB49BIclwrBEfaA-e *Short bow/swords power Renegade: huge sustain, extremely tanky, good AoE cleave, playable both at range and mele (credit to Paper Roll, gameplay in his YT channel). This builds also works with commander + cavalier stats replacing Rune of the Erth by Leadership runes, I find this Renegade variant better that the ones beased on other stats, my preferences would be: commander + cavalier > trailblazer variants > viper vraiants > berserker variants. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmwAUxzltQHsNyhpRNsM6hNSfMDKgJ11/rF-zRpYBJ1gVQIiBBBroTogDFhBZWGxWB9mCycCCIbx3XL-e *Double staff Rabid Mirage: perma evade, protection and regeneration, maybe the strongest of the three, can melt PvE content literally without a blink. Again cretdits to Lor Hizen for the build (gameplay at his YT channel): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAYZlZwwYVMEmJWyP+PNA-zRIYcUxXGZmChUB6dACXP8Wqy3C-e Those are for now the strongest solo PvE RANGED builds which I saw; any of them can deal with most of champions and a lot bounties at range without the need of other people, so can level Fractals and raids effortless.

> @"Obtena.7952" said: > Some things are not good in PVP ... fair or not, that what should be expected because no amount of balancing ever changes that. It's been this way for 8 years ... why would anyone expect anything BUT that? Well, Arenanet told us that the reason of the large February patch which entirely revamped how the damage, cc and sustain worked in PvP was to put the things in line to a larger support to the balance and the game mode in the form of more often and consistent pace of patches. So players of course expected that. And then ANet turned the previous glacial pace into something even slower... And by the way, is not only PvP or WvW (WvW didn't have propper support since the HoT release): if you take a look at PvE, becomes evident that the developement of content for GW2 freezed: not only new playable content but also minor patches and fixes.

> @"Obtena.7952" said: > > @"Buran.3796" said: > > > @"Obtena.7952" said: > > > > > Seems like a very reasonable way to fix what you recognized was the truth about symbols. > > > > ...But what really did was deleting the Firebrand from PvP. Both core and DH are way stronger than FB now. > > Yeah ... that happens all the time. What else were you expecting? That's how the meta changes in a game like this. I was expecting that ANet made honor to their word of releasing balance patches more oftenly (instead one each 3-4 moths as usual) so if a class is removed from PvP due inferiority the ban doesn't last 6-12 months as happens currently. I don't expect from a class to be good at all roles (dps, +1/roaming, support, tank... ) but if between core and 2 specs it fails to be decent at any role... That's not fair for the players. Also, the meta didn't change since February: it remains the same, is just that progressive shaves in sustain, support and damage to Guardian (and specifically Firebrand) pushed out the class replaced for others "not as bad". Firebrand moved from being able to chose amulet to be forced to use at least 500 healing power to work, to need 1000 to "don't bother, doesn't work anymore, please swap class or leave the match". This is not a MOBA with 100+ characters which need seasonal rotations... I mean: I don't main Guardian as before HoT, but when I play the class I use mostly either power DH or burn DH, and with Firebrand (which is arguably weaker in competitive game modes), I never use mantras due how poorly they perform. Firebrand has an amazing imaginery (visuals, sounds, skills) design which is now entirely wasted because how weak it feels...

> @"Vayne.8563" said: > Just saw this. As an interesting aside, Orson Scott Card described Lord of the Rings as a milieu book. That is to say Frodo isn't actually the main character...Middle Earth is. It's not Frodo's story alone, but the story of the last days of the fourth age of middle earth. The reason why it has so many endings and why it doesn't end until the elves leave and the age ends is because Tolkien is telling the story of Middle Earth. > But The Silmarillion is also a book centered on the landscape, and choral in terms of characters. And was interesting from start fo finish, whereas I couldn't read again the first 100 pages and the last 100 pages of The Lord Of The Rings if my life hanged on it.

> @"Obtena.7952" said: > Seems like a very reasonable way to fix what you recognized was the truth about symbols. ...But what really did was deleting the Firebrand from PvP. Both core and DH are way stronger than FB now.

> @"Yasai.3549" said: > Hammer will be used until it is removed from the game : > 1. Because it is the longest ranged Power based weapon. > 2. Revenants have literally nothing else which can match it for its intended use of Ranged Power damage. > > Some people might go like "durr but Shortbow" but durrr Shortbow doesn't even come close to Hammer when it comes to zoning range and striking power for POWER damage. Disagree. In a train chain melee group, both mace and short bow are stronger, because mace is way faster and cleaves better, and shortbow with the piercing trait and brutality is way more effective than any cc from the hammer. And in a ranged group, chances are that you'll be running a Necro if you want AoE damage, not a hot garbage hammer Revenant. Also, if you're ganked while trying to reach your zerg and one of your weapons is a hammer, you're dead (even if ganked by an enemy healer; that crap can't 1 v 1). Hammer is a joke at every game content (as much as it hurts: I started maining Guardian in 2012 with gs + hammer and swapped to Rev with hammer + sword & shield in HoT, and is depressing to look at the state of both hammers in both classes in 2020) .

Colors doesn't bother me. The fact that half of the weapon animations and a lot of skill icons are robbed from other classes does. Speaks low effort at volumes.

The whole complaint is absurd. I kill DH and Renegades plenty of times riding a power Shiro with near 0 cleanses and running zerk amulet. The times I die, is my fault due making mistakes. No build is broken in this meta of underpowered damage.

> @"Rokeb.3815" said: > Paper roll has published a new condi renegade build, quite similar in some respects to his power one. I'm a bit surprised he didn't make more comparisons to his old build. I just saw the new video and read the posts. The condition variant works fairly similar with the main change being replacing the stats for trailblazer and Invocation by Corruption. The condition variant does more damage, faster (the fastest killing is with Shiro but Jalis is quite close in time), but compared with the one based in physical damage is less tanky and has less "forgiveness": * Because loses Rapid Flow becomes slow moving while in combat; to compensate that uses Traveler runes which deals less damage than Nightmare or Torment. This isn't dealbreaker because with Traveler still deals damage more faster than the physical variant and +25% movement speed is not as good as swiftness but is quite good given the circumstances. The problem is that also loses the Cleansing Channel, so to balance the weakness towards condi cleansing gives up the sigil of Bursting to get cleansing through sigil of Generosity which, again, is fine because even without it deals more damage than the physical damage build. Now, since the build uses trailblazer stats and there's almost no critical chance (~7%), relies on fury (+20%) and Brutal Momentum (+33%) to use that cleansing. Then, with Jalis fury is only granted with Endless Enmity. So: with Jalis you start at 40% crit chance if your endurance bar is full, but if you evade your crit chance will fall to 7% unless you already have fury, which only happens if you strike a foe below 50% HP. Also, without fury you won't get vigor. That means that against a powerful single target sometimes the only reliable cleanding will be the Jalis heal (which is very good but happens only once each 30 seconds). With Shiro access to fury is more easily achieved thanks to Riposting Shadows, but a lot of damage mitigation is lost. * Then there's a second handicap: this condition build is as energy intensive as the physical one, but has no Charged Mists. If you look at the fights, you'll see that the HP falls below 30% more often than with the physical one despite having 550 less points of armor and 5850 less HP points. I think that is mainly due two reasons: first, you only have two sources of vulnerability to benefit from the life siphoning from Battle Scars (Icerazor's Ire), whereas the physical build has plenty of vulnerability stacked on the swords; the second reason is due the Charged Mists trait from Invocation gives you to spam more skills and stay under protection and damage mitigation for longer. The condi build uses Heartpiercer to increase the bleeding damage a 25% and pierce targets; the physical build doesn't rely on condition damage except as an extra bonus, therefore can afford to use All For One so all Kalla Skills provide protection (Jalis has the hammers and Rite of the Great Dwarf for mitigation and healings in every skill as traited, plus starting at 75 energy in each legend swap puts it in a more comfy stance). So: I think that the physical version is stronger. Has better pace in terms of energy spents, more damage mitigation and sustain through healings and life siphoning. Also, for mace + axe condi Herald works better because Torment runes provide huge sustain with those weapons and Mallyx but the benefit is mostly lost if you use a short bow with the Renegade. In both Herald and Renegade the most damaging builds come from viper stats, but in terms of sustain and being tankier trailblazer stats are better for Herald and for Renegade a mix between Cavalier/Diviner with parts of Commander/Marauder works the best.