Scavenger's Focus: Huh...?

Plague

Plague

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2005

N/E

Scavenger's Focus
For 24 seconds, your attacks deal +5...13 damage against foes suffering from a Condition.

This is a Ranger Wilderness Survival elite. My question is, does Scavenger's Focus deal +13 damage per condition on a target, or simply damage IF the target has a condition?

I ask because of these two skills:

Ignite Arrows
For 24 seconds, your arrows explode on contact, dealing 3...15 fire damage to target and all adjacent foes.

Kindle Arrows
For 24 seconds, your arrows deal fire damage and hit for an additional 3...20 fire damage.

At the same attribute level of 12, Kindle Arrows and even Ignite Arrows deal more damage than the elite Scavenger's Focus, and do not require a condition to work. All three skills are in Wilderness Survival.

The only benefits I can see are:

1) Scavenger's Focus works on any weapon, not just for use with arrows. (I guess for people using ranger as a secondary.)

2) Scavenger's Focus deals pure damage, not just fire damage, like the other two preparations.

I'd say those two "benefits" are pretty crappy. For one, an elite shouldn't cater to secondaries, so I'm throwing #1 out the door. As far as #2 goes, on the rare occasion that fire damage will do less damage than Scavenger's Focus will, the damage isn't even that great. And, there's the need for the enemy to have a condition. Rangers apply conditions through elites and preparations, so you can't actually easily apply a condition in order to even use Scavenger's Focus. (Perhaps using Pin Down or the new Poison Tip Signet from GWEN, but that's it.)

This changes if Scavenger's Focus does additional damage per condition. But not much. As I said, Rangers can't apply conditions easily without using a preparation or another elite.

Either way, this looks like a terrible, terrible elite that should be thrown out the window. Am I missing something here?

placebo overdose

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2007

N/

nope tons of ranger elites are rubbish but the good ones are great i am not complaining

HawkofStorms

HawkofStorms

Hall Hero

Join Date: Aug 2005

E/

Even if an elite shouldn't cater to "secondaries" the fact that it does is why the damage is low. A R/W thumper with a hammer doing ~35 damage a hit is good enough.

Onarik Amrak

Onarik Amrak

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2007

Astral Revenants

P/W

Yep, it's rubbish.

malko050987

malko050987

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2007

Arad, Romania

The Arctic Marauders [TAM] - now recruiting!

R/

Well, the extra damage is armor ignoring, while many foes have fire resitance. Can't see any other benefits to it, though.

Well, I guess you can use it as a warrior or sth. First use an attack to give them a condition, and then bash them with the extra damage from this. But then, there are much better alternatives. :/

You're much better off with another elite ^_^

Plague

Plague

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2005

N/E

At least I'm not the only one that noticed this.