Scourge - Condi DPS

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Condition damage and Utility

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on April 14, 2022 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A condition DPS and utility build for Scourge. While not the highest DPS build, this build provides decent sustained DPS and bonus AoE cleave with Epidemic. It also provides incidental support for its subgroup by generating Might, cleansing conditions, and overhealing allies with barrier.

Scourge is mainly a utility class and excels in encounters where it can play to its strengths, namely Epidemic and defensive support. It also deals relatively high ranged damage and isn't reliant on Might or healing, which makes it good for roles such as flak kiting at Sabetha.

Skill Bar

Scepter/Torch

Scepter/Warhorn

Utility

Skill Variants

Healing Skills

• Signet of Vampirism is lower healing, but higher DPS than Summon Blood Fiend. Be aware that it will hit the closest enemy rather than your target, so in some encounters it might end up being unreliable.
• Summon Blood Fiend can be taken for a minor personal DPS increase, but significantly lower sustain. The Blood Fiend can also be killed, leaving you without either.
• Well of Blood is the largest personal heal if you'd rather have safety than damage, and can heal allies without needing a target.

Utility Skills

• Epidemic if you need cleave. Even post-nerf it is a strong skill.
• Trail of Anguish If you need Stability.
• Corrosive Poison Cloud if projectile absorb is needed.
• Sand Swell - 900 range portal, useful for mobility on certain fights.
• Spectral Grasp is a 1200 range 5-target pull.

Never swap out Blood Is Power.

Elite Skills

• Summon Flesh Golem for more CC. It's a fairly large DPS loss to bring, but can be helpful in particular on encounters where the boss is unlikely to stand still long enough for all your pulses of Plaguelands to hit.

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Specializations

Specialization Variants

• Use Parasitic Contagion for self heal at a ~15% DPS loss.
• Take Sadistic Searing if you are running any Punishment skills.

Blood Magic Variant

Taking Blood Magic instead of Soul Reaping is a major DPS loss, but provides more support through minor healing and Transfusion. Should only be considered in training runs or struggling groups where you're desperate for the sustain.

Variants

• Blood Bond is higher DPS and offers a tiny bit of group sustain, but if you need Blood Magic you probably need Ritual of Life.
• If taking Ritual of Life, consider using Well of Blood as your healing skill.

Equipment

Head
Viper

Shoulders
Viper

Chest
Viper

Hands
Viper

Legs
Viper

Feet
Viper

Backpiece
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Accessory
Viper

Amulet
Viper

Ring
Viper

Ring
Viper

Scepter
Viper

Torch
Viper

Sigil

Sigil

Warhorn
Viper

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Equipment Variants

• If you want to save gold, a Sigil of Superior Sigil of Earth can be used on the warhorn. This is a minor DPS loss provided you swap back to torch as soon as you can.
• Rune of Superior Rune of the Lich gains extra damage in cases where there are additional sources of life force, thanks to the extra vitality. This allows you to spam shade skills more frequently, and it is also easier to obtain that Rune of Superior Rune of the Nightmare.
  • If using infusions, you should also switch 5 Malign infusions to Spiteful when using Rune of Superior Rune of the Lich.

Consumables

Food:

Utility:

• or

Usage

Opener

1. Sand Flare
2. Manifest Sand Shade
3. Blood Is Power
4. Plaguelands
5. Blood Is Power
6. Desert Shroud

DPS Priority

After the opener, just use skills as they become available, with the following priority:

1. Devouring Darkness
2. Haunt (if using Summon Shadow Fiend) and Desert Shroud off cooldown
3. Plaguelands
4. Harrowing Wave
5. Oppressive Collapse
6. Grasping Dead
7. Manifest Sand Shade
8. Scepter autoattack chain

Video Example

General Tips

• Use Desert Shroud ⇒ Blood Is Power wherever possible to transfer the self-condis to your target via Plague Sending.
• Don't let Blood Is Power reach maximum charges.
• Try to finish your autoattack chains.
• If using Epidemic, use it whenever there are enemies near the main target.
• Feel free to use Nefarious Favor, Sand Cascade, or Garish Pillar if life force is over capping, or to support your teammates with cleanses, barriers, and CC.
  • Be aware that in very low-pressure encounters, too much barrier can actually end up robbing the druid of CA generation, which in turn lowers group might uptime.
• The cast time on Plaguelands is pretty long, so it is efficient to "precast" the skill just before the boss becomes vulnerable.
• On encounters where the boss becomes Exposed, you can do a huge amount of damage by lining this up with Plaguelands.
  • Ideally you want Plaguelands to be finishing its 10th pulse as the boss becomes broken, which usually means casting it at the start of the phase, or as soon as you see the defiance bar appears.
• For some reason the presence of Banner of Strength changes which condis are transferred via Plague Sending. If you don't have this buff, use Plaguelands after Desert Shroud in the opener so that you transfer Bleeding instead of Poison. Alternatively, Rune of Superior Rune of the Nightmare will transfer one extra condition, allowing you to do your opening as normal.

Breakbar

• Oppressive Collapse
• Your best option without losing DPS are soft CCs such as cripple, blindness, and fear from Garish Pillar.
• Summon Flesh Golem is one of the strongest crowd control skills the necromancer has, but you give up Plaguelands by taking it.
• In emergencies, you can swap to warhorn for Wail of Doom.