Disease: What is it good for?

shinta_himura

shinta_himura

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2006

D/

I'm currently trying to adjust to the avatar changes, and I've been wondering... Just how useful is disease? Compared to Balthazar's aura which can dish out incredible amounts of burning, what good is Grenth's disease effect? Also, is it useless in PvP?

Wrath of m0o

Wrath of m0o

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2005

Boston Ma.

Is That Your Build[HaHa]

P/W

Disease : See "Darwinism"
It's gods way of saying we are not all created equal.

No really, inflicted fleshy targets suffer 4 health degeneration, and spreads like the plague. I know a few necros that swear by rotting flesh. Kinda makes me want to break out my old Anthrax - Spreading the Disease album.

Steps_Descending

Steps_Descending

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2007

IN my pocket plane. Obviously!

Little Tom's Pocket Plane [THom]

Me/Mo

Probably weaker than AoB's burning, but still constant (even throught heavy removal) dot on everything. It's probably not too bad, accept it dowsn't synergise with ele/para.

Wrath of m0o

Wrath of m0o

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2005

Boston Ma.

Is That Your Build[HaHa]

P/W

Quote:
Originally Posted by Steps_Descending View Post
Probably weaker than AoB's burning, but still constant (even throught heavy removal) dot on everything. It's probably not too bad, accept it dowsn't synergise with ele/para.
Barbed Spear + Signet of Infection ??

Kaleban

Kaleban

Jungle Guide

Join Date: May 2005

Hot as hell Florida

[Wckd]

Me/

Quote:
Originally Posted by shinta_himura View Post
I'm currently trying to adjust to the avatar changes, and I've been wondering... Just how useful is disease? Compared to Balthazar's aura which can dish out incredible amounts of burning, what good is Grenth's disease effect? Also, is it useless in PvP?
I would say its MORE useful in PvP than PvE. Why you ask?

All your targets in PvP are the same race, so its able to spread. In PvE you commonly face mixed groups or different creature type mobs will frequently patrol near each other.

But burning is ALWAYS effective except against a few very specific creatures like Destroyers and Burning Spirits, plus does 7 versus Disease's 4 pip health degen.

Of course, AoG allows almost constant re-application of Disease, so the multiple creature type issue isn't really all that bad.

It would depend I guess on your team synergy. If you have Burning causing Paragons in the midline, then taking another Burning skill like AoB won't really help, as degen from multiple conditions don't stack, so you'd be better off with AoG. The reverse is true if you have Disease spreading Necros, take AoG.

S4br3t00th

S4br3t00th

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Feb 2011

France

IGN> Answer Is No

Mo/

As for PvP, it's not useless at all...
It's still 4 pips of AoE degen that reapply every so often and covers things like cripple or deep wound. It makes trying to remove those harmful conditons require skills like Draw, RC, or FF... all of those infact :/
That plus the noticeable life steal and dark damage conversion make AoG very potent at dealing damage (as much at least than adrenaline and burning would IMO). Vampirism helps with durability more than lousy armor for which you just need to swap weapons :/

For PvE I suggest you stick with balthazar, as mobs don't change weapons, and are often weak versus light damage and immune to disease, unless against destroyers...

MithranArkanere

MithranArkanere

Underworld Spelunker

Join Date: Nov 2006

wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigo

Heraldos de la Llama Oscura [HLO]

E/

I used it last night against destroyers a Avatar of Grenth build.
Some cracked armor here, some deep wound there, disease all over the place, plus quite some life stealing, and you can be in the middle of a bunch of destroyers in HM without needing much healing.
Every 20 seconds, my health jumped up with Grenth's Aura.

And along mystic corruption, you can even use disease against humans while also removing disease from your allies.

jazilla

jazilla

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2006

Guernsey Milking Coalition[MiLk]

E/Me

I think they did the stuff with disease and dervs being able to remove it so its more viable in PvP. I like the change.

Cale Roughstar

Cale Roughstar

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2007

Canada

Guy In Real Life [GIRL]

W/E

Disease can be quite strong in PvP. Tainted Flesh Necros go in and out of vogue from time to time, but will never really go away simply due to how strong it is. You can also take a look at some of the matches from yesterday's MaT to see just how strong disease can be.

AngelWJedi

AngelWJedi

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Sep 2008

orlando,florida

Society of Souls [Argh]

Rt/E

considering i seen more grenth then balth dervs in pvp i say its good. xD alot of gvg i watched had least one with them. o.O

dagrdagaz

dagrdagaz

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2010

NL

E/N

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaleban View Post
All your targets in PvP are the same race, so its able to spread. In PvE you commonly face mixed groups or different creature type mobs will frequently patrol near each other.
Hmm, but in PvP, u would also risk infecting yerself (not yerself if u run AoG ) and teammates then.


I would have preferred if AoG does Poison to nearby foes (instead of Disease to adjacent foes)

DRGN

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2005

In Memorium [iBot]

Mo/A

Quote:
Originally Posted by dagrdagaz View Post
Hmm, but in PvP, u would also risk infecting yerself (not yerself if u run AoG ) and teammates then.


I would have preferred if AoG does Poison to nearby foes (instead of Disease to adjacent foes)
Which is why teams without AoG that run Disease often run Tainted Flesh.

Bandwagon

Bandwagon

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2010

D/

Disease is just like poison but it can spread to nearby targets that share the same creature type.

In PvE mobs die so fast that degen is pretty minimal in usefulness. If anything Balth's and Grenth's "end on enchant" effect synergizes effectively with Reap Impurities + Mesmer's Fragility with bunched up foes.

Tyris Requiem

Tyris Requiem

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2009

UK

W/

Well in PvP

Grenth's Avatar is strong not just because of the disease but numerous other things combined.

For starters scythes and the +damage lifesteal on Grenth lets them pump out damage like crazy. U can also stack with grenths aura which allows a derv push right up into the lord pit and not die. On top of this your scythe does dark damage. since there is no +armour mod against this damage type monks can't make full use of their shields. Then finally we come to the disease which stacks up with all the other degen from blood necros and rangers. Since the disease from grenth lasts only 5 seconds it doesn't really get much of a chance to spread but its still adds 8 damge per second over 5 seconds and in condi-pressure builds this really adds up.

In PvE I herd people are too busy abusing Sand Shards, Pious Renewal, Vow of Strength etc to care about grenths avatar.

IronSheik

IronSheik

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2008

Wolfenstein: Goldrush

Zombies Go Nom Nom [Nom]

N/

I find disease to be an incredibly good PvP condition. In fort aspenwood as a EoE bomber, although gimmicky, disease helps to lower all humans on both teams and kill gunther faster.

As far as grenth goes, I agree the disease is moot when compared to burning, but grenth is for life steal rather than the disease, it is just a bonus.

Defiling Treekiller

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2009

Stopshovelling were not Dead yet[WURM]

Mo/Me

i run rotting flesh in FA all the time and at 16 death with +1 from AotL it lasts for 28 secs. i find its a good source of pressure on healers when you spam it everywhere as MoO said spreading the disease was a great album, you just need to be able to live through it on yourself

drkn

drkn

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2009

Wroc??aw, Poland

Midnight Mayhem

Me/

PvE - waste of a slot for skill that would kill mobs faster.
PvP - adding a pressure, mostly for the monk(s). Not only DoT, but also kind of a mind game, especially in RA, as monk has to plan his spells and energy better.

novawhiz

novawhiz

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Mar 2006

A/

Nothing but cold hard armor ignoring OP caster damage matters in PvE so disease is pointless.

In PvP disease can be used for pressure and covering other conditions like daze

Axel Zinfandel

Axel Zinfandel

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2007

Northeastern Ohio

LaZy

P/W

PvE- eh, degen is mostly useless against enemies save burning if you are running something that synergies with it (ToF!, SF)

PvP- what everyone else said

.HunTer

.HunTer

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jan 2009

W/E

Well,Kurzicks seems to like it in FA,especialy when I'm monking.
They like to spread the disease on the luxons,then get it back,and then spread it to the whole fort.

I suppose it's ok for Luxons to use it,it's a great weapon,since most kurzicks get disease and RUN BACK (argh )to the fort,thus spreading the disease to the NPCs

Chthon

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Apr 2007

Back in the day, disease was decent pressure thanks to its AoE nature. After much power creep, you'd need a really large mob (or a really terrible PUG) for disease to make that much of a difference in your DPS.

The new combo that a-net is pushing pretty obviously is Disease + Reap Impurities. Reap it off some guys for AoE damage and they just get infected again by their teammates before Reap is even recharged. So you can just keep on spamming Reap for the nice AoE.