Scourge - Death Perception vs Dhuumfire?

[Verdis.8472]

I'm trying to get a condi build that uses D/T & Staff, so I can still deal good close range damage plus LF regen. I'm really not that keen on sceptre as a weapon so any tips people can give to make this idea viable would be a huge help.

 

SO i'm using Curses and SR traitlines and I've noticed Curses has the Target the Weak trait. Since i'm going to be condi focused i'm assuming i'll get a hefty crit chance increase. Would it be beneficial to take Death Perception in SR then, so my dagger auto can crit? Or would Dhuumfire do more overall? I mean Dhuumfire would only work during the shroud.

[Methuselah.4376]

There is never really any good reason not to take Dhuumfire on Scourge when nearly half of the spec's potential damage depends on it. Why dagger? It is a power weapon, and the only condi application it has is the self bleed on 3 which can be transferred. Scepter is FAR superior in terms of condi generation. I understand you don't like scepter but why shoot yourself in the foot like that?

 

The only thing I can think of is switching staff for offhand dagger so you have your offhand generating condis (the condis from the staff, while a decent burst, don't last long enough even with expertise). This way, your main hand dagger can generate lots of lifeforce which can be spent on extra shroud skills for more Torment + Burn while transferring the self bleed from dagger 3 without disrupting your dagger attacks.

 

But then again, I am very rigid with these things so maybe someone more imaginative can work out a good build for you. However, I do stay my course that Dhuumfire is better on Scourge than Death Perception.

[Verdis.8472]

That's valuable input, thanks! I just prefer the more get-in-their-face gameplay that dagger offers. Also the fact i can't find a scepter i like the look of doesn't help. I do want to get to raids and have seen support builds posted that use dagger, so I thought it must be a possibility.

 

The main reason I was using staff was for Soul Marks and the general range of the thing to get out of heat if need be. Does OH Dagger really do anything condi-wise that's worth it? the transfer could be useful as you've said, but other than that?

If I was to take scepter, what would my OH and second set be? Also what prefix would you recommend? I saw Vipers mentioned, but I was confused since that's got precision and condi's can't crit. I figured it was for the dagger.

[Egorum.9506]

Torch I'd the best oh, followed by wh. Torch has cc and great dps, wh offers cc and lf generation. Try axe out for mh.

 

Also, you can burst very hard with a hybrid build using death perception.

[Methuselah.4376]

Dagger 5 applies weakness and bleeding which is very worth it. The usage of dagger in raids is on the OH. In raids, the set up is scepter/torch with OH dagger on the second set. Dagger offhand enjoys slightly better performance on condi reaper due to Deathly Chill and Chilling Darkness synergy. For open world and T4 fractals I use scepter/torch with staff for utility and group control.

 

I do very much get you on the scepter looks, very few are nice IMO. I am currently using Mordant Scepter which is quite nice. Bloostone Scepter, Primordus Scepter, Wayward Wand Scepter, Abaddon Scepter and the Eye of Rodgort are also nice. The legendary is meh and I find it very unfitting for necro (was hoping for a nice new scepter legendary).

 

If you do prefer to get up close and personal, I do recommend power reaper. I am running a secondary necro as a power reaper and she uses GS and Axe/Focus. However I also had her on GS and dagger/warhorn which is great but at a loss of the nice range that axe/focus provides for those fights where range is paramount. I mean don't expect to do raids on power reaper, but played right it is very tanky even on berserker stats. And with power reaper Death Perception is, of course, superior.

[Sephylon.4938]

>Does OH Dagger really do anything condi-wise that's worth it?

OH dagger offers condi transfer of self condis of bip and plaguelands, and some bleeds from dagger 5.

 

>If I was to take scepter, what would my OH and second set be?

What most condi scourges use is scepter/torch and x/dagger as the 2nd set with x meaning no weapon. Though I've been told that scepter/x + x/torch is more damage, but I just like the condi transfer and bouncing blind of dagger 4.

 

Now a rant when it comes to support scourge:

Support scourge isn't really that useful in raids, it's more useful in fractals from my experience. We just offer nothing worth while in raids when compared to other support classes; druid (perma 25 might to 10 ppl+spirits+spotter), healer ele (one of the best healers in game+auras+rebound), heal rev (group alacrity), bs wars (banners+empower allies), or chrono (perma quickness+alac) I'll even toss in healer fb (perma quickness while maintaining decent amounts of dps). Barriers are completely miss or near useless; we either put it when its not needed and it just disappears while mitigating nothing, or it mitigates most of 1 hit of a 3 hit auto chain. The bullet hell from vg ignores barriers ans do does the damaging auras. The most a support scourge can do for a group is offer bursts of 25 might while doing epi for trashmobs. Best boss to use a support scourge in raids in my opinion is sloth due to our condi cleanses being useful there along with a short cd transfusion to pull people out of poisons. I haven't played the new raids yet so I can't speak for that.

[Verdis.8472]

I actually came from Power Reaper, but i'm pretty bored of it now. Plus after that SR trait rework it never felt as good to play. Scourge feels overall more interesting and I like not being in shroud all the time.

 

Man y'know, every build I've wanted to try and be in this game always seems to be the one that doesn't synergise. Like D/D & P/P on a Thief. That's a cool weapon combo, but because of the condi/power separation it makes no sense to play. So i'm stuck playing something i don't want to and trying to force myself to enjoy it. It's becoming disheartening tbh. So is the S/T x/D build the only option for raiding?

[Methuselah.4376]

For Raiding pretty much.

On the subject of Power Reaper, I quite frankly don't use Soul Reaping since they changed the functionality of Vital Persistence. I prefer Spite/Blood/Reaper with Well of Blood, Signet of Spite, Well of Suffering, Well of Power and Lich Form. Fantastic sustain with very good damage. Now I am trying a Minion Master build with Spite/Death Magic/Reaper. While it has less sustain, enemies tend to target minions first and minions pull condis from you. Of course this is all for open world PvE.

[Sephylon.4938]

If you're pugging yeah, pretty much. If you're with a guild, one of my guildies was using a scepter/torch staff heal necro on cairn. It's doable if you play with people you know.