Stamina Gear-Up PvE Horns of The Reach here we go!

Rataroto

I did a LOT of testing since the patch droped and I came up with a few conclusions that I assume (yeah I did assume it), that my fellow stamina players might be looking for. The entirety of the tests were done on a character without being affected by outside sources of buffs, basic gear/skill less tests and fully geared/self buffed parses were done, and all results were gathered here. I would also like replyes on you guys results and opinions about the patch here! Here you go:

Gear Combinations

Two-Fanged Serpent still the best major set for stamina classes, due to its high penetration. However when debuffs are applyed it loses its glory and falls behind Twice Born Star and Leviathan.
When Pairing with Two-Fanged Serpent: War machine > Vicious Ophidian > Night Mother's Gaze > Hundings > SunderFlame > Morag Tong
When Pairing with Twice Born Star or Leviathan (when Sunder, NMG and Alkosh are aplied): War Machine > Vicious Ophidian > Hundings Rage / Morag Tong

Testing done on vMA bow Trait

Precise didn't change at all, and even though Sharpened was nerfed, still wasn't enough for precise to catch up, so it still the weakest of the dps oriented weapon traits (RIP). Nerf to Sharpened was rough (but good in my opinion, it brought a lot of build diversity to the game). The two other contendents are Infused and Nirnhoned and these are the results:
Format of the data: Trait(DPS/Highest Hit)
Infused(3217/3744)>Nirnhoned(2721/3011) while staying on bow bar
Nirnhoned(3381/3734)>Infused(3317/3744) while casting and bar swapping
Conclusion: Here's how it works: Nirnhoned gives a high base damage, so the hail starts stronger, where as Infused has a lower base with a higher ceiling. However both ceilings are nearly the same. Thats why Infused is a static trait and suffers no change it has lower base but if increasses damage faster, Nirn on the other hand Starts higher and thus have a headstart on damage, making it so Infused is able to catch up to it due to time. However, Nirn is only able to keep its advantage if you bar swap early on the hail to get extra weapon damage from the front bar and be able to compete with Infused's faster growing numbers. All and all, both traits are the BIS right now, I think Stamina Templars, Sorcerers and Wardens make a better use of the Nirnhoned trait, and Stamina Dragonknights and Nightblades make a better use a static number due to its longer duration of backbar rotation

Moster Helmets

Monster Helmets finaly are a personal thing, due to all of them having unique balanced bonuses and 1/2 piece bonuses. Here's what I found to work well:
2 Stormfist - Highest AOE and decent single target, high Proc chance with a very big area of damage, however it only shines on fights without much movement, as the boss could walk outside of the radius, also has a 1 piece bonus to help stamina sustain.
2 Velidreth - Highest single target and a minor AOE - Still the way to go burst for pve and the second comer for pvp due to its high burst damage, and pretty much garantied hit on the middle spore if you're at least OK positioned.
2 Selene's (StamBlade Only) - Very high single target and aoe alike with a very low cooldown, however it only procs off direct melee damage, being that Rending Slashes' first hit, Light attacks, Heavy attacks, Surprise Attack, Killer's Blade, Venomous Claw's first hit count.
1 Kra'gh's and 1 Velidreth/ 1 Kena - Gives a nice combo of both penetration and weapon damage. The 2 piece Kra'gh's was never its strong point and Kena is very unlikely to shine due to the resource changes, so you get a bit of both and get very nice stats for yourself.
1 Velidreth and 1 Kena - So I heard you wanted Hundings' Rage 5 piece bonus with only 2 pieces of armor left? Very good to stack a lot of weapon damage witout wasting a lot of armor slots.
1 Slimecraw and 1 Velidreth/ 1 Kena - Weapon damage and critical chance!
1 Kra'gh's and 1 Slimecraw - Very unoticed combination, gives a few things that this patch took from us, critical chance from the thief and penetration form Sharpened trait.

Oreyn_Bearclaw_Beta

Thoughts on DW weapons and their traits? More importantly, does hundings become better against the rest assuming your DW weapons of the sets are less then ideal?

Rataroto

Oreyn_Bearclaw_Beta wrote: »

Thoughts on DW weapons and their traits? More importantly, does hundings become better against the rest assuming your DW weapons of the sets are less then ideal?

1 Infused Dagger with a poison enchant on it, and 1 Precise Dagger with a weapon damage enchant on it. Out of the crafted sets Night Mother is the strongest due to penetration, however if night mothers is already aplied Hundings will be better.

HatchetHaro

I actually found on my stam DK that 2pc Kra'gh's, Velidreth, and Spawn of Mephala are performing on par with each other in terms of damage. The only thing that distinguishes them from each other are their mechanics, all of which are good for different bosses and scenarios. Stormfist, on the other hand, seems to be underperforming.

Also, I think that Vicious Serpent should be better than War Machine on classes with higher-cost ultimates, such as DKs (Standard of Might).

Rataroto

HatchetHaro wrote: »

I actually found on my stam DK that 2pc Kra'gh's, Velidreth, and Spawn of Mephala are performing on par with each other in terms of damage. The only thing that distinguishes them from each other are their mechanics, all of which are good for different bosses and scenarios. Stormfist, on the other hand, seems to be underperforming.

Also, I think that Vicious Serpent should be better than War Machine on classes with higher-cost ultimates, such as DKs (Standard of Might).

pretty sure DKs casting dawnbreaker for warmachine get better results than DKs casting standard with vo, don't quote me on that tho

SmellyUnlimited

For StamDK's, Spawn of Mephala got a 10% damage boost too. I've done my own "testing," (rudimentary at best) and found that for StamDK's, Mephala performed better than other monster sets due to the DK poison buff, and the AoE damage/slow (which DK's lack). Paired with molten armaments, and potentially Sunderflame, your heavy attacks will BIS.

Izaki

Hmm don't really agree on the sets.

War Machine isn't BiS on all classes, only stamblade and stamplar so you can't just count it as first in all circumstances. Next in terms of damage would be VO obviously now that the additive scaling has been affected. Then its Hunding's/NMG (they all do literally the same DPS on most classes). You can't really include Sunderflame or Morag Tong in your ranking list since not all classes are good for using those sets.

Frankly when comparing 5pc sets other than TFS, I've always found Hunding's to be outparsing TBS (no matter which mundus I took along side the Warrior). Leviathan was worth it in the first 3 weeks of PTS but now, on live, its pretty bad.

Either way, I don't think that you can just rank sets for all classes at the same time. Everything also depends on the group and how the support sets are organized.

But if we take Two Fanged as the base 5pc set:
NB - 1. War Machine 2. VO 3. Hunding's/NMG/Briarheart
Temp - 1. War Machine 2. VO 3. Hunding's/NMG/Briarheart
Sorc - 1. VO 2. Hunding's/NMG 3. Sunderflame
DK - 1. Hunding's 2. VO (who even used this on a DK?) 3. Sunderflame/NMG 4. Morag Tong
Warden - no Wardens in my raid group