Bone

Good stuff, Kintari. Condi PS can be fun to play and, after a while, its rotations feel kind of rhythmic. Out of curiosity, what is your food and sigil setup in this video? I ask because the max DPS setup for condi PS involves using veggie pizzas and earth sigils. However, in practice, that gear/food load out makes maintaining 25 might in an actual raid fight a bit more difficult. The alternative of fried golden dumplings and sigils of smoldering certainly helps top off the might, but does hinder your DPS.

It is an interesting idea, Mold. I will note that Banner of Tactics improves boon duration by 10%, a boost equivalent to Bountiful Sharpening Stones. On a related note, I have been fiddling with the idea of a single-warrior raid group. I think it's possible for one power PS using commander's armor, strength runes, and dumplings to keep the group capped at 25 might stacks. This, of course, assumes two things: 1) other classes (druid, elementalist, rev) kick in a little might now and then, 2) the boon splashing of a warrior in his/her own subgroup would eventually hit all raid members. For the setup to be worthwhile, the DPS of one sub-optimally geared warrior and one replacement would need to exceed the DPS of two warriors. However, it would free up a spot for another class and its unique party buffs. Any thoughts on this? Is it worth the fiddling?

He makes a good point that using all boons will overly inflate certain professions' damage. For instance, PS Warrior has a trait in the Tactics line that bumps damage 1% for every boon on the bar. Adding all of them would distort Warrior's DPS readings.

Ummm, holy shit. That said, is everyone testing with unrealistic (re: ALL) buffs now? When I was working the golem yesterday, I used only the realistic buffs and boons common to previous rotations tests.

A few thoughts: 1) The buffs to condi PS are great. Increasing the might application of "For Great Justice" and the added condi boost from Deep Strikes make condi the clear warrior build winner at most fights. Additionally, that two warriors can now cover all four banner types will seriously aid team sustain. We should still take two of 'em. 2) The damage bump to Jalis' hammers lead me to believe that Rev is, once again, a very solid DPS choice. Plus, the group would get the Assassin's Presence boost. 3) Power Necro changes still strike me as inadequate. Without increasing the attack speed of GS across the board and boosting its group utility, power Necro still seems like a lesser option than thief, elementalist, thief, or condi ranger. 4) CC should never be a problem. 5) Condi engie sounds like the Space Jam. 6) Since the 10-player effect was not extended to Spotter, spirits, EA, and other indispensable group buffs, I don't believe this patch necessarily frees us from the tyranny of the mirror comp. There might be greater flexibility, but we still likely want to double up two or three classes. Still, a step in the right direction, ANet.

Here's a quality video of a Rev in magis/clerics gear kiting the hands:

1. A recent thread on reddit has me really intrigued by a Revenant handler (see what I did there?). If we're into this strategy, I'd be happy to convert some spare gear into a kiting set (if no one else wishes to do so): https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/5tvlzy/revenant_meta_the_ultimate_kiter/?sort=new 2. I also think power is the way to go with the possible exception of condi ranger. 3. Scepter DH seems ideal for the fight. It could melt the demon chain stanchions, excel at add control, and do great burst damage on Deimos. 4. The fight is 12 minutes long, right? If we routinely hit enrage while also succeeding at most mechanics then, yes, ditching a magi druid makes sense. But I'd like to see how much sustain the group needs before going whole hog on DPS. Maybe I am being too cautious here, but the fight has a Matthias endurance test vibe that makes magi druid tempting. 5. Do you mean it spawns on the player closest to the tank? (I imagine this is what you mean.) Or one removed from that? Just clarifying.

Our CM run last night looked exactly like this guide. Just as smooth and short... So unclean.

That is a fantastic map, Mold. Well done. Looking at it, I wonder if it would be possible to more-or-less stay rooted in two squares for the first 75% of the fight. You would just alternate between the safe zones and reclaim an adjacent tile when necessary. For example, if we occupied the easternmost middle two squares, moving and (re) claiming orange when necessary, we wouldn't need to kite the Overseer around the room. The burn would be much faster. Under 25% we'd have to be mobile, but the first 3/4 of the fight seem to allow a more stationary approach than we took last night. Or, perhaps a quadrant of squares is necessary and I am overstating the ease of claiming nearby safe ones. In which case, this localized strategy is bunk. Still, I think we can move a lot less.

After getting a taste of the new raid wing last night, I crave more. Looking ahead to next week, are we still committed to clearing the other wings in addition to working on BotP? I have the urge to devote all of our raid team time to rock candy demons, wizard chess, etc., but will follow the wishes of the squad majority. Thoughts?

Congratulations, Maia! That is impressive progress. I do hope you'll join some guild fractal runs in the near future. Also, thanks for posting that guide. Deroir always puts together lucid, helpful videos.

Shocked, I say, shocked. The new raid wing will come out with the next Living Story chapter on Tuesday, February 7th. Get your mind right: http://massivelyop.com/2017/01/31/guild-wars-2-head-of-the-snake-living-world-episode-coming-february-7th-plus-new-trailer-and-heart-of-thorns-sale/

That is pretty wild. One of the more interesting aspects of that video was the condi Ranger's POV on cannons. He/she would strike them a few times, stack condis, then depart well before the cannon went kaput.

In a post this afternoon, Mike O'Brien somewhat forecasted the content release schedule for the next few months: https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Quick-note-on-Ep4-bundled-updates/first#post6476203 My reaction? Pick up the fucking pace on items 3 and 4. Yikes.

A balance patch might drop a few weeks after the next LS update, but that would be late February at the earliest. The more troubling bit o' news was that legendary armor -- ostensibly tied to the next raid wing -- won't debut until ** possibly ** LS chapter 5 . . . which would be three months after the February release. So we're looking at mid-2017 before we get the good stuff. I am tempted to say "bring on the raid comp weirdness." A party of power necros, healer guardians, might stacking druids, and condi revs = new meta for the down time.