Scourge - Blood Sage

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Focused on: Condition damage and Support

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Overview

A hybrid PvP Scourge build with a mix of condition pressure, bit of support, and exceptional rez power via Blood Magic.

Archival note: removed from play by the September 2019 shade changes

Skill Bar

Scourge-skillbar-bg.png
Staff
Scepter/Torch
Utility


Slot Changes

Heal

  • - if you need better condition management.

Utility

There are plenty of viable options for the remaining slot:

  • - vertical mobility, Punishment synergy.
  • - stun break, Stability Stability, Punishment synergy.
  • - protects against direct damage, breaks stun, helps with resource management.


Specializations

Variants

  • is a decent sustain bump, but you'll be forced to take to make up for the Life Force lost.


Equipment

Scepter
Torch
Sigil
Sigil
Staff
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
Amulet


Equipment Changes

Rune

  • - if your team provides you with a sufficient amount of Swiftness Swiftness then you may want to consider a rune such as this one for more damage.
  • - increases HP while also boosting the effectiveness of various Burn Burning related traits.


Amulet

Usage

Elite specialization basics

  • is replaced by shade skills, but shroud related traits still work. Life force (LF) is no longer drained passively or upon taking damage, but instead serves as a resource used by F2-5 skills (F1, which places the shade, is free).
  • adds a bit of range to the build and acts as somewhat spammable source of damage especially with .
  • If no shades are active, as F2-5 skills go off around the caster. If there is a shade placed, these skills will only go off around the shades, which heavily reduces your survivability if a shade is active and you're not standing on it.
  • will proc on every single shade skill, including Manifest Sand Shade.
  • Every shade skill inflicts Burning Burning (5s ICD), Cripple Cripple, and Torment Torment.


General

  • Playstyle: your role is to aid your team in larger fights by keeping the enemy team under constant pressure through condition applications, CC, and boon stripping whilst also supporting them to some extent (more about that below). Avoid 1v1s whenever possible.
  • Template:Gw2sigil's Quickness Quickness can be used in many ways, like pulling off the + combo better, or just getting your heal off quicker and with less risk.
  • The build has a lot of barrier applications, keep in mind that you can't have an active barrier higher than 50% of your maximum health, although reaching the cap should be more than rare.
  • Do not spam your staff marks on the ground while out of combat, as a single dodge can undo them all. Placing on chokes to detect enemies crossing in stealth is fine however, as it's a rather short CD and weak one.
  • Necromancer mobility/sustain is rather bad, so try to make use of the terrain with proper positioning. Make it hard for enemies to reach you especially ranged ones - pillars are your second best friend, right after a bunker Firebrand.
  • The build only has 1 mass cleanse by default: (potentially 2 if you took ). Hold onto them as long as you can.
  • Consider using before your heal for the Stability Stability while under heavy pressure.
  • is a rather powerful skill, but also easily avoidable. Don't just drop it randomly at the start of the fight, wait for the right moment - look for a situation where you can make your opponent overcommit. Place it on enemies trying to revive their downed teammate, or under yourself on low HP to scare them off.
  • is not only a great spike skill, but also a defensive one - thanks to the low cast time CB can be used to counterpressure targets. Someone's chasing you with Stability Stability and Might Might stacks? Turn their boons against them, right into Fear Fear and Weakness Weakness! It's also unblockable.
  • Even just a two skill chain of is already a decent burst combo, inflicting up to 6 different conditions and stripping at least 5 boons (potentially more with sigils).


Support

  • Blood Magic traits and Scourge mechanics make this build exceptionally good at reviving allies:
    • triggers , which restores both normal and downed health for all allies around you. This will also teleport downed people to the very first time they come in range of the skill. Channeling isn't interrupted when you begin to rez manually (pressing F by default), nor when you go into downed state, which means even if it won't fully revive you, it can still make it easier for allies to do so.
    • procs a Well that heals and revives.
    • cancels the regular downstate HP degeneration.
  • Try to share the barrier from and , plus the condition conversion of with as many allies as possible. They'll have to be in range of either you, or your shade for the latter two.
  • causes your barriers to cleanse 1 condition from allies.


Life force management

  • As your shade skills cost LF, being efficient at managing this resource will be crucial for both your damage and sustain. We're going to list all the sources and provide a few tips for getting the most out of them.
  • All staff skills generate life force:
    • is a rather weak skill and there's no way you'll be able to use it much under any pressure. It does however generate 5% LF per target hit, and you should use it for the occasional ranged poking. Alternatively, right after you won a fight (and no enemies are nearby who could rez their downed allies) you can use the downed bodies as batteries and just spam staff autos at them for a substantial amount of free life force.
    • Marks are unblockable and generate 3% LF each. and can be used freely for just pressure and LF building, while and are more powerful and should be kept for the proper occasion (Putrid for mass cleansing and Reaper's for interrupting).
  • On scepter/torch you have 2 such skills:
    • should be used with at least ~4 conditions on the target, both your burst damage and LF stacking benefits from the higher number of conditions on the target. Make sure that this skill lands by CCing the target with either or .
    • is rather straightforward, just try to hit as many targets as possible including Ranger pets and Mesmer illusions.
  • is an excellent defensive tool as it breaks stun, applies Protection Protection and generates LF for defensive abilities while under pressure.
  • gives LF whenever you successfully apply fear to a target (5s ICD). could almost refund its entire cost for example.


Related Builds


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 9 votes.
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3 stars
Hanz gave this build 3 stars • October 2019
Exceptional rez power (when you're not the first one to die, that is) and a bit of party support with barriers and condi removals, but necro is taken for the damage and other builds do that better. September edit: there's been a massive nerf to how shade skills work. The nec is now way more clunky, vulnerable, and less mobile.
5 stars
Azeth123 gave this build 5 stars • August 2019
This build is still very strong in the current season. Just make sure to stick with your firebrand. I highly recommend using well of corruption in the final empty utility slot because on many maps it covers the whole point and allows both you and your firebrand to bunker a point super effectively against an enemy scourge / firebrand. I often cover downed players with ghastly breach to punish any sort of res attempts, bonus if it also is on the point. Torment destroy people who are not watching their stacks. Torch 4 and 5 go a long way to stacking it high and torch 4 alone puts out serious numbers in a 3v3 fight on the point if you hit everyone. Use the long range of staff to start harassing enemy players on their way into points and through chokes. The best map for this is probably skyhammer because of the middle point's elevation and the choke points into mid. Swapping to staff, staff skill 5, and going for a rez has about 90% success rate if you dont waste time. Remember to utilize staff 4 against the enemy firebrand / scourge combo to throw those conditions back at them. Spam shades because they are overpowered, if you arent willing to learn the class, just piano the keys with 3 shades up on a point and blow everything up.
5 stars
Baescons gave this build 5 stars • April 2019
Still just plain better for many situations in ranked and can function in ats as well
5 stars
Blitz Berlin gave this build 5 stars • July 2018
Pretty much everything Xavoran already said before. I am loving the extras the Blood Line brings to the battlefield.
5 stars
Xavoran gave this build 5 stars • April 2018
I can definitely recommend this build. It's great for playing solo ranked, lots of support, ability to solo some classes. Only thing the build really lacks is mobility (take Sand Swell if this is a big problem for you). I know it's mentioned as a viable alternative in the post, but since the build is already very support-heavy, I really recommend going Desert Empowerment instead of Sadistic Searing in the Scourge trait tree. It's just an incredible extra amount of sustain and condition removal since you already run Abrasive Grit. If not running it all the time, at least consider swapping it in when against condition-heavy comps, it's really worth it!
5 stars
Voltaicbore gave this build 5 stars • March 2018
Agreed with other commenters who find this build strong in the current metagame. In some matches I even run desert empowerment alongside abrasive grit, which allows one move (the sand shade) to provide barrier, cleanse, and might to teammates (not to mention a token amount of burning for enemies). The constant sustain provided to self/allies, a similarly constant stream of condition pressure, superior boon corruption, and just not dying as easily as your opponents hoped make this a great build for scaring boon-heavy bruisers off point. Excellent as a node holder and team support, just have to be careful to survive/negate some of the big bursts that come your way at the beginning of fights.
5 stars
Rvbmedeiros gave this build 5 stars • February 2018
Agreed. Tested and confirmed. Lot more sustain and overall performance is better, as anet probably has planned to scourge.
5 stars
Derpster gave this build 5 stars • February 2018
With the recent nerfs to corruption from curses I'd argue that this should be the current meta build now. The increased utility is just more worth it.
5 stars
Elr198 gave this build 5 stars • January 2018
I agree with what Baescons said, this build right here is the support oriented role that Arena-net wanted for scourge, but actually ended up displacing with the superior firepower of condi scourge. Regardless, this build is quite potent, offering a respectable mix of condition damage, barriers for teammates, and substantial rez capability, as well as much higher personal sustain than shadefire. I think in the January balance patch this build will be buffed somewhat, and the shadefire variant will be nerfed to, hopefully, bring the two builds closer to equality.

Comments

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