Scourge - Power Curses
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Contents
Overview
Power Curses Scourge brings high spike damage without sacrificing the boon removal brought by Devouring Darkness. This build focuses on spiking down opponents and consistent boon corruption.
Skill Bar
Weapon Variants
Staff/
Swap Axe/x to Staff for an 1200-range powerful ground game. Shines on 'pirate ship' scenarios.
x/Torch
Viable option for better melee AoE damage
Skill Variants
Utility
- Melee boon corrupt and damage.
- Ranged boon corrupt and barrier.
- For extra lifeforce and stunbreak.
- Defensive mobility and situational utility.
Specializations
Variants
- if running Staff.
Variants
- suited for melee ball style.
- if Life Force generation is an issue.
Variants
Use Spite over Soul Reaping for higher damage over long periods and spike boonrip at the cost of spike damage and lower cooldowns.
Variants
- for higher damage with less boon removal.
- for more boonrip
Equipment
6x
Superior Rune of the Scholar
18x
Mighty WvW Infusion
Consumables
- feast option with additional damage reduction.
Variants
Stats
- Replace "Berserker's" pieces with "Marauder's" for higher self sustain at the cost of damage. Bear in mind crit cap, using more "Cavalier's" to stay below 100% during Desert Shroud.
Sigils
- Extra crit/damage
- Extra boon rip
Runes
- High damage and better might uptime, strong if not using Dumplings.
- If fury and boons are an issue.
Food
- offensive food if kills are frequent
- defensive food for power-focused builds
Utility
- easier to obtain, minimal damage loss during Desert Shroud.
Usage
Elite especialization basics
- This is how the shade mechanic works: if you have no active shade () in the world, all your F2-F5 skills will proc around you. If you do have an active shade, all your shade skills, and related traits, will only affect the active shade area, not you.
- Therefore, depending on you group playstyle, you may not want to place a shade at all, and behave yourself like a mobile shade, doing damage while in melee, and benefiting from the barrier and cleanse. However, being able to 900-range spike can be superior if coordinating shade cooldowns, and knowing when and where to place your . The self support aspect of the shade skills is mostly irrelevant, since you run with dedicated supports in WvW zergs.
Shroud
- All of your shade skills will proc the strike of (F1), whichs means you want to instantly use then, as soon as you land your F1, to maximize damage. All of then hit up to 10 targets due to .
- Shroud traits proc as if the shade skills counted as that shroud skill.
- procs , and all of then proc and .
- Traits that proc on going in/out of
- , ,
- and can be used before landing a shade, for extra barrier and cleanse.
- will continue pulsing if a new shade is summoned at the location of the new shade so there should be no worry about repositioning shades when needed.
- Shade usage order (with enough life force)
- Using F1 ⇒ ⇒ ++
- Not using F1 (on melee) ⇒ ++
General
Scourge brings strong damage through his shade skills, barrier access and boonrip.
- Positioning, reacting fast and timing your dodges well are key. You don't have evade skills nor immunities like other classes, and your support classes won't be able to babysit you all the time.
- The weapon sets and combinations aren't an agreement. Axe/Torch for example has strong melee pressure, whilst Axe/Focus has an amazing single target spike. The way you choose between weapons is going to be based mainly in your playstyle and in what your group want you to focus on.
- Both your shade and wells skills are really important and shouldnt be used mindlessly. Coordinate these with your group to maximize its effectiveness.
- and are a significant part of your damage and boonrip outside of weapon skills and shroud. Try to cast then along with to benefit from the modifiers from Soul Reaping spec. Place then on top of the enemy group, along friendly and your team pressure.
- will be used for the group barrier share before and during extended engages.
- is the only stunbreak in the build. Don't waste if for the stability or the swiftness it gives. Can be also used when pushing melee for the boonrip trail it provides, but its not encouraged.
- is going to be dropped if the enemy is hard commiting into a melee push, to panic disrupt then. Can also be used offensively on melee, to stack AoE fields on top of the enemy stack and lock then down through corrupts and conditions.
Scepter
- is your most important skill and one of the reasons why you run the Curses spec. Try to keep it on cooldown when you are in range. You can pre-cast it in 1,200-range, while moving towards the enemy, to avoid downtime.
- Since it has a 10s cooldown, you should be able to cast it twice per weapon swap rotation, as your opener and finisher. It also is one of your main sources of life force in the build.
- provides good AoE damage and should be used constantly to maintain AoE pressure.
Axe
- is one of your most powerful melee skills, try to use it as often as possible for AoE boon corruption and extra damage on low targets.
- a strong life force generator and high single target damage skill. Useful for a quick downed cleave.
- is a rather strong filler for single target damage.
Dagger, Focus and Torch
- decent for melee damage and cleave as well as life force generator.
- single target CC. Use it to snare escaping players or interrupt channeled skills.
- for the extra AoE
Weakness and corrupt. Bear in mind the cast and animation time. - deals even more damage on targets with boons. Try to land it on squish foes, like weavers and scourges. It's also a boonrip, not a corrupt skill.
- and won't prioritized, being only projectile filler skills. Try to land on downed bodies, to ensure the projectile will connect, granting some life force and
Vulnerability stack. Use whenever you might need some condi clear.
Staff
- Staff auto attacks are low impact and its abilities relatively long cooldowns, so the best use of the weapon is to use its cooldown skills then swap out as soon as possible.
- Use and to build area condi stacks.
- and usage should be more careful, don't be afraid to leave them off cooldown when swapping back to S/D.
- is one of your limited anti-condition skills so use it carefully.
- Interrupt key skills with the fear of .
Weapon skills combos
- ⇒ Weapon Swap ⇒ ⇒ () if running Spite variant
- ⇒
- ⇒
- Add , and (if running Torch) in the mix for more damage.
Videos
- YouTube: Risen Howl(guide)
- YouTube: [eX] Demon Puppet(Strip/Corrupt Guide)
- YouTube: [KEK] Kharturr
Great, better DPS, scourge build when your team has enough sustain and you don't need celestial. Id run variant of the build by swapping out 1 force sigil for bloodlust and making it more reliable in harder fights by not using scholar runes. Don't run dumBlings.