Bone

Glorious. Clap * Clap * Clap

If you ran a Herald for facet of nature, would that enable the Chrono to go full berserker with scholar runes? Perhaps that wouldn’t be a net gain.

Thanks a bunch, Ser! I appreciate you keeping the site looking spiffy.

That is a pretty sight.

Sickhouse. At last, the motivation to finish Chuka.

Continuing a conversation from last night, here's what a quickness bot Firebrand build might look like:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRAnf7fnsADdBjFBDWCBEEhl4BzaD8CeUVBgtU9a/lWT3pA-jhhAQB2c/RJoFPJAAU/AEV/BkK/AwTAgUA8srC-e

The intent behind the build is to distribute support duties to DPS, and maybe variety for variety's sake. Pair this FB build with a DPS chrono (who is only responsible for alacrity) and you'd cover the two most important contributions of a typical support Chrono. Would it be worth making two players responsible for the boon/effect duties usually performed by a single player? Maybe. A crude calculation of net gain or loss would be to compare the cumulative DPS of a) minstrel Chrono + full DPS Firebrand, and b) DPS alacrity Chrono + quickness Firebrand.  If b) is greater and the quickness/alacrity uptime comparable, then it would be worth experimenting.

Now, some notes about the quickness FB build. (*I have not field tested this thing, so my observations are preliminary.)

- Quickness FB ditches some pretty major damage modifiers in the firebrand trait line in favor of two quickness enhancers. Also, dropping Balthazar or Renegade runes hobbles your DPS a bit. It seems likely that quickness FB concedes at least 10k DPS to play this way, though, again, this is untested.

- Sword might be worth bringing over axe for some fights if the group needs the extra blinds from Symbol of Blades. Doing so costs some burning application, but for a fight like Sabetha in which the thugs' annoyance can be mitigated by blinds the swap could pay off.

- The very limited range of mantras sadly restricts quickness FB's viability to a few "stackable" fights. The problem is not how much quickness FB generates, but the way in which it generates quickness . . . via dinky radius and cone of sadness. 

- I know some people advocate bringing "Stand your ground!" or other stability-granting skills that activate the Stalwart Speed trait. This seems unnecessary.

- The quickness FB build requires a concentration sigil. Blerghhh. 

I don't know Chrono well enough to say, confidently, that it will synchronize with quickness FB without issue. So I throw this out to the guild. How does the build look? Do raiders want to try it? I am ready and willing to bring this speed-reader to the next raid night, but only if others are up for it.

Let me know your thoughts.  

I also run the viper's/aristocracy/geomancy/malice gear load and concur with Pyro's assessment. The build's damage potential is strong and, I suspect, its might uptime vastly superior to the qT version. While the viperstocracy (new word!) version does slightly less DPS than their nightmare/trapper setup, it also allows for easy gear switching to a full DPS build. By using weapons with geo and malice sigils, condi PS converts to condi DPS warrior simply by slotting in Renegade runes and changing two traits in the Tactics line.

Thanks, Maia. I am eager to try power spellbreaker in the havoc lands.

Transferred, geared, and ready to check out the wvw scene.

I'd prefer to play condi rev (which is now blazin' trails in new gear) but can also bring warrior or guard (also geared).

Thanks for posting these, Maia. You're making it easier to track the balance changes on the road.

The house looks terrific, Snuck! What a transformation. Congrats on completing all that work. 

I support this as well. Dedicating a night to WvW would be delightful, and I've long hoped to get into roaming/havoc-wreaking.

Mold has it right. I am on Henge of Denravi (along with Ser and Fred). After playing in the mists a decent amount the past few days, I found the HoD WvW scene rather pleasant. Active but without long queues (25 peeps for EB during peak hours) and surprisingly little hostility amongst the players. The server held its own in big and small skirmishes. But, small sample size and all that. I am not particularly loyal to HoD and would be willing to transfer to a server that can accommodate as many of us as possible. However, I have no desire to seek out the most competitive, hardcore server. And trolls are not reason enough for me to relocate (sorry, Pyro). We have enough under our guild bridge as is.

Looking forward to hearing from others.

That looks delicious, Ser! 

Several times we journeyed to the wrong part of the map thinking it safe. 'Twas not. And several times many people were down and doom appeared imminent. Yet we survived. We lost an orb at the mini game, neglected a bloodstone shard, and altogether skipped the final trip to the pillar's edge. We lived wheh we shouldn't have. But Xera probably owed us one.

What runes do you use?

Nice work, gang.

Agreed, this is a great repot. I'll resume Boomslangin' on Monday and would love to tackle some CMs.

This is stellar recon, Maia.

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: