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GW2 Staff the new bleed king?

Wowzah! Those Necro buffs (and a few nerfs) completely took me by surprise. I did not notice they nerfed the hell out of exploding your minions. Guess its time to trade that ability out now for the insanely buffed Well of Suffering. The DPS is actually going to be a down tick from the dual exploding 2k minions, but with my power, I anticipate the Well probably ticking in the 3.5 range, so it's almost a wash. The cooldown is far worse though, but the ease of use will be far superior. I'm just excited because I had a great time in the stress test even though I was using sub-optimal DPS measures apparently. So, more DPS for me. I did notice the cooldown on Corrupt Boon seemed much longer, but that's okay, it was overpowered on a 25 second cool down.

Regarding the Staff v. Scepter. I'm glad they nerfed the Scepter. I didn't like that any doofus could faceroll the keyboard and be an elite condition-mancer. It's still really easy, but this makes a player research and work for his build. If you stack the +15% bleed runes on your armor for 45% bleed, take the +20% Hemophilia trait, take the +33% Scepter Conditions trait, and stack 10-20% from Spite traits, you're Scepter bleeds are still lasting 9-10 seconds, which is plenty. So, it really doesn't change that playstyle, if you spec for it, you can still face roll quite easily. And you're still going to be able to keep the poison damage and healing debuff going. So, there is some added value there. Plus, you can keep the dagger in the off hand for a few more bleeds and the ever-important condition transfer ability and blind. I always spec'd the dodge Mark of Blood as well, loved that ability as a freebie, so always had that even with Scepter.

The buffs to the Staff were needed to even bring it into the equation, but it's really lame it overwrites the dodge Mark of Blood, or vice versa. So, I just see Staff as being an equally enticing option for condition-mancers now. I never even considered the staff prior to this because the Scepter was too strong with just spamming it plus the utility of the offhand. So, I always went with axe as the secondary for some degree of burst damage. And I still don't see any reason to take both the Scepter and Staff. It looks like you pick the one that matches your build. I think the Scepter is as viable as it has ever been though, you just have to spec for it now.
 
Based on my calculations the Staff far outperforms a Scepter-stack-bleeds attack. I assumed the following:
  • My build has almost 50% crit chance
  • Hemophillia - 20% bleed duration
  • Lingering Curse - 33% condition duration boost
  • I did not take sigils into account
  • 16 seconds to apply damage before a condition wipe (this may be too long)
Staff attack sequence:
Mark of Blood (6 sec CD), Putrid Mark, Chillibrains, Necrotic Grasp (auto attack until next Mark of Bllood)

Scepter attack sequence:
Spam auto attack (Blood Curse, Rending Curse and Putrid Curse) to build bleeds and poison condiition damage.

According to my analysis the Staff out damages the Scepter 6238 to 3567. I find this hard to beleive. Where is the error in my number crunching?

Worksheet
5DJIr.png
 
I love it Bhak!

Give me a bit to tinker around with your data and some spreadsheets of my own. The first potential issue I see is that you're using all the abilities of the Staff, while just using the original ability for the Scepter. That's not completely representative as you'll have the offhand dagger bleeds. But that's only another 2 bleeds. Another aspect is the utility running with the scepter provides, specifically having the condition transfer on the offhand dagger, which really complements Blood is Power. 4 more bleeds. Finally, the last major issue is that, at least in my opinion, any good Scepter build will have the dodge mark of blood, which seemed to me to be a Mark of Blood every 5 seconds or so. This is pointless on the Staff since it overwrites. And since you can use the dodge Mark of Blood while spamming the auto attack with Scepter, it should probably be factored in.

Keeping everything the same but factoring the dodge Mark of Blood in, would basically just be adding 3325 to 3567 for 6892 damage. Though, I still think Enfeebling Blood has to be factored in once as well.
 
The trait to drop Mark of Blood is not tied to a weapon so it should not be considered right? Can you drop a MoB with the staff and then another with the dodge?

When I look at weapons on the Wiki it does not list a base weapon damage. Is there one? If so I assume it stacks ontop of skill damage.
 
16 seconds is on the high side especially in group combat. In 1-1 situations it may not be depending on your foes build/profession.
 
Bhak said:
The trait to drop Mark of Blood is not tied to a weapon so it should not be considered right? Can you drop a MoB with the staff and then another with the dodge?

When I look at weapons on the Wiki it does not list a base weapon damage. Is there one? If so I assume it stacks ontop of skill damage.
Click to expand...

It's not effective with the Staff because they overwrite each other, so it's not viable, you can only have one at a time. I'm not sure if it resets the cooldown though. It is an absolute necessity with the Scepter, and I would argue there is no way in hell someone takes a Scepter Condition build without getting the Mark of Blood trait, in large part, because of your initial spreadsheet.

As for weapon damage, I think they're all similar. The Power attribute is what really increases the initial impact of the weapon.

I do think 16 seconds is high end, but I think it's at least somewhat common, especially due to cleanse cooldowns. Personally, I'd look at stacking bleeds fast and furious with 10-12 second durations with the intent that the initial batch will get cleansed, but then I can just reapply. Which is why I like Utilities with lower cooldowns like Blood is Power.
 
I updated the worksheet to make it more clear. From what I see the staff kicks ass on damage but I still would want a Scepter/(your choice) in my weapon selection.

ivzqP.png
 
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