Scourge - Alacrity Support Plaguedoctor DPS

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Overview

A Scourge heal support build that brings easy full Alacrity uptime, very high Fury uptime, and high (with the possibility of full) Might uptime to its subgroup, solid amounts of healing, and the signature support Scourge resurrectability. Most of the healing comes in the form of barrier—which is great for maintaining Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar uptime and doesn't get reduced by Agony—and Regeneration, and as such, this build isn't amazing at burst healing. This is not a problem most of the time as even should the combination of barrier and regen fail the ease of resurrection should make most things recoverable.

This build also boasts a very solid amount of condition removal between Nefarious Favor and Abrasive Grit as well as decent Protection from Herald of Sorrow.

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Skill Bar

Scepter/Torch

Staff

Utility

Weapon Variants

Dagger will make life force generation extremely comfortable at the cost of requiring you to be in melee range of the boss.
Warhorn can be very useful for some extra CC.

Skill Variants

Healing

Sand Flare for extra AoE barrier generation and boon corruption at the cost of regen and ranged heals/rez.

Utility

Signet of Undeath is good life force generation and a ranged rez.
- That said, with the Fear of Death + Eternal Life combo you probably don't need Signet of Undeath. You definitely don't need it if you take a Dagger. You do lose out on a potent (if costly) ranged rez, though.
Blood Is Power for extra DPS and very good Might generation.
Well of Power for condition cleanse and extra Might generation (plus a stun break and a small amount of Stability).
Trail of Anguish for Stability.
Spectral Grasp is amazing for CC, especially for any fights with adds because you can do it inside the boss's hitbox to hit it five times.
Epidemic can be useful in certain specific encounters.
Corrosive Poison Cloud can be useful in certain specific encounters.
Note that Desiccate is the sole source of Fury in this build so if you replace it you'll lose that.

Elite

Plaguelands offers the most damage on encounters with no CC requirement.

Specializations

Trait Variants

Vampiric Presence for some passive healing.
Soul Marks can be useful if you're hurting for life force generation.
Vital Persistence for some extra self-sustain especially if you're tanking.
Soul Barbs and Dhuumfire increase damage if you don't need the extra life force generation.
Both Herald of Sorrow and Desert Empowerment are necessary as they are the backbone of this build's Alacrity generation. Never touch them.

Specialization Variants

On many encounters Signet of Undeath will allow you to use F3 and F5 off cooldown without the need for Soul Reaping.

In combination with Blood Is Power, Plaguelands, Fell Beacon and more aggressive gear (see below), you can double the damage of this build without significantly reducing the healing capability.

Equipment

Head
Plaguedoctor

Shoulders
Plaguedoctor

Chest
Plaguedoctor

Hands
Plaguedoctor

Legs
Plaguedoctor

Feet
Plaguedoctor

Backpiece
Plaguedoctor

Accessory
Plaguedoctor

Amulet
Plaguedoctor

Ring
Plaguedoctor

Scepter
Plaguedoctor

Torch
Plaguedoctor

Sigil

Staff
Plaguedoctor

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Equipment Variants

Rune of Superior Rune of the Monk if you already have it and don't want to swap is fine, but the sixth rune bonus of +10% outgoing healing doesn't apply to barrier so it's less useful for this build.
Rune of Superior Rune of the Rebirth can allow you to survive otherwise lethal mechanics and revive your entire squad, saving them from a wipe.
Marshal's is substantially lower Concentration but is easier to craft and the lower BD doesn't really impact this build very much.
Harrier's on the other hand gives you an insane amount of Concentration. You'll lose out on a bit of DPS given that Scourge is mostly geared towards Condition Damage but this is a healer so except for extremely optimised environments you shouldn't care so much about it.
On the other hand, mixing in some Viper's increases DPS by a very respectable amount. Play with what works best for you.
Sigil of Superior Sigil of Water instead of Concentration. Will impact Might generation, though.

Celestial Variant

Scourge allows you to run a wide range of prefixes, but if you can afford to run toughness then Celestial stats offer the highest damage while still bringing healing power, concentration and vitality.

Head
Celestial

Shoulders
Celestial

Chest
Celestial

Hands
Celestial

Legs
Celestial

Feet
Celestial

Backpiece
Celestial

Accessory
Celestial

Amulet
Celestial

Ring
Celestial

Scepter
Celestial

Torch
Celestial

Sigil

Staff
Celestial

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

You could mix in Seraph's stats for more damage if the loss of life force from vitality won't be a problem.
You can swap in Plaguedoctor's stats if you need to get your toughness below a certain level to avoid tanking.
Rune of Superior Rune of the Tempest offers very similar damage, but more of every stat, which may be appealing.

Consumables

Food

if you want some extra Concentration.
for extra DPS.
offers high damage while still giving you a 10% healing modifier.
- The same is true of , though it trades a little damage in return for more of every stat.

Utility

if you need the extra healing.
to go all in on DPS.

Usage

Healing

Manifest Sand Shade, Sand Cascade, Sandstorm Shroud, and Serpent Siphon (plus Sand Flare if you take it) are your big sources of barrier and should be used roughly off cooldown.
- Do remember though that your allies can only get up to 50% of their total health in barrier.
Garish Pillar basically off cooldown for the pulsing healing to your allies but you might wish to save it if you'll need to rez someone or for CC.
Serpent Siphon and Well of Blood will provide full Regeneration uptime if used off cooldown.
- Mark of Blood can also help with it.
- Dodge every now and then for the regen from Mark of Evasion.
If you're taking Life from Death then Sandstorm Shroud also does healing.

Boons

Using your barrier skills off cooldown will basically guarantee full Alacrity uptime with a good fifteen or more seconds of leeway.
Desiccate, Oppressive Collapse, and barrier application (via Abrasive Grit) are your main sources of Might; spam them.
- Blood Is Power and/or Well of Power are more sources of it if you take them. BIP in particular will almost guarantee 25 stacks.
Using Desiccate off-cooldown should guarantee full Fury uptime, given its reduced recharge due to your permanent Alacrity, but it can get tight otherwise. Even without being very dedicated to it, though, it does provide very high amounts of it, and if someone else is generating a little bit too it should be comfortable.

CC

Charge (necromancer)
Oppressive Collapse
Garish Pillar
Reaper's Mark
Chillblains
Grasping Dead
Spectral Grasp if you take it.
Wail of Doom if using a Warhorn.
Dark Pact if using a Dagger.

General Tips

You should always have at least one Shade active from Manifest Sand Shade for the bonus Concentration and Expertise from Sand Sage.
If you're using the Scepter, try not to interrupt your auto-attack chain for the high damage dealt by Putrid Curse.
- Bunch uses of your other weaponskills and utility skills to use them all together so as to avoid interrupting the auto-attack chain.
If you're not taking Fear of Death and Eternal Life you might need to be a bit aggressive with life force generation. Feast of Corruption, Harrowing Wave, Desiccate, and Necrotic Grasp are your friends.
- On the other hand, if you take a Dagger main hand you will never need to worry about life force ever, at the cost of needing to be in melee range of the boss.

Encounter Specific Tips and Variants

Bastion of the Penitent

Hand Kiting

This build can be modified to kite hands for Deimos while still using the default Plaguedoctor's stats, making it possible for the tank to run very low toughness.

Staff

Utility

Life force generation will be mostly handled by Eternal Life, Spectral Armor, Lich Form, and the myriad dying spirits and hands, so you don't need to worry about that. It's a tricky build to run, however, and requires some precise timing and practice.

For the hands themselves, you can very comfortably stack five of them; between the insane amounts of barrier and Regeneration you can generate and Spectral Armor, the damage from them is just actually not a problem.

Try to always use Spectral Armor just as the hands are spawning to get the full benefit of the Protection and life force generation.
Use your barrier skills and Garish Pillar off-cooldown.
You can start casting Sand Swell just after the fourth hand spawns to get out of the fifth and instantly get some barrier.

Now, the main problem is Mind Crush. The only way you have to deal with it is the Aegis from Serpent Siphon. However, that gets eaten by a single hit of the hands, and Mind Crush does overlap with them, so if you're getting hands just as Mind Crush is coming you will need to either have very precise timing about the damage ticks or to walk around a bit so that they hands don't have time to hurt you.

With the Alacrity this build provides you have two Serpent Siphons per Mind Crush cycle, so use one to tank the Mind Crush and then the next one for some extra barrier and regeneration.
Right after the instant-down of Mind Crush you will start getting ticking damage for 70% of your max HP which won't get reduced by Protection. Well of Blood is your best healing tool for the heavy damage so stay in it for the full heal. Sandstorm Shroud will also heal you due to Life from Death, as will Garish Pillar because of Transfusion.
If you can run Rune of Superior Rune of the Rebirth, that will give you some more breathing room to mess Aegis up. That said, it has a 90 second cooldown, so it's only available for one out of three Mind Crushes; it really should mostly be a clutch option rather than something you rely on.
- If you find yourself with too much extra life force and struggling to always survive Mind Crush, you might want to take Death Magic for Unholy Sanctuary instead of Soul Reaping. Scourge's Shroud skill doesn't save you from downing but in combination with Rebirth it's easier to deal with the immediately incoming damage.

Some more general tips:

You can use Mark of Evasion and your staff's Mark of Blood on the spirits that start spawning to kill Saul to get some extra regeneration for yourself. The hands themselves don't trigger Marks, though.
If you're finding yourself not needing so much pure healing, taking Blood Bank can be a nice source of some extra barrier.
You can also use Lich Form for some extra temporary vitality so that the hands effectively do less damage to you. This isn't a good escape from Mind Crush's ticking damage though because it's based on a percentage of your max health not on actual values, and you do need to take care when you use it since you won't have access to your healing Utilities—but you do still have access to your Shade skills.

Scourge - Alacrity Support Plaguedoctor DPS

Contents

Overview

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