GW2 WvW Scourge Training Guide Part 1: All the Things
Channel: Caelin Augustus
Date: 2021-08-27

A Scourge training guide for the [PUGS] guild.

Just about everything you ever needed to know about Scourge in GW2 WvW. Quick ~16min introduction to Scourge at the beginning. Start there. Detailed basics and advanced info after that. Apparently it needs to be said for those who are brand new to youtube, you can use the Table of Contents below or the in-video markers to skip to sections you want more info on. 

Corrections and clarifications are noted in the TOC.

Personal Note: These videos are heavily catered to the needs of PUGS guild. There are other builds, gear choices, and rotations that many people will tell you are better choices. I don't necessarily disagree. Much of the length of this could have been avoided if I hadn't felt the need to dance around several political factors within that guild. Nevertheless, I think the detail that resulted will be very helpful to anyone who really wants to dive into the class and understand it, and with a little experience if they read between the lines they'll figure out the best choices.

Part 2 Link: https://youtu.be/-QjM2sanyL8

0:00 Intro  
01:50 Scourge 101 Basics
17:00 Strips & Corrupts
 - Corrupts are a form of strip, strips are not always a corrupt. Most people use these terms fairly interchangeably, including me.
25:45 Strip Spiking & Team Cohesion  
28:45 Expectations of Guilds: Wells on Call (and maybe Breach and Shades, too)  
34:25 Well Placement  
 - I forgot to mention commander calls of "on the head" and "on the tail." On the head means lead wells into the front of the enemy squad. Tail means definitely try to kill the stragglers in the back.
37:57 Shade Mechanics  
 - I forgot to mention early on that while it's 2 targets per shade (including yourself), there is a total target cap of 5, not 6 or 8. So that might have made my discussing prioritization a bit confusing.  
52.15 Life Force Management  
56:29 Weapon Skills, Movement, Energy Sigils, Triple Dodging, Staying Alive  
1:05:40 More Weapon Skills, Single Target Sniping  
(1:27:45-1:28:35 Traits, Gear, and How they affect Playstyle)
 - I repeatedly will mention blocked projectiles. I don't mean blocks via Aegis. I'm referring to things like Wall of Reflect that block incoming projectiles or reflect them back at you.  
1:27:45 Scourge Traitline  
1:39:15 Curses Traitline 
1:44:05 Soul Reaping, Staff, Shroud Mechanics on Scourge  
1:49:02 Back to Curses, Absorption and Nullification Sigils  
 - Terror doesn't technically "trigger" off Fear, it only affects Fears you inflict. I'm really just using that as an opportunity to talk about triggered effects.  
1:55:52 Gear Stat Choices
2:01:59 Torch
2:05:15 Spite Traitline, Finishing Downs, and Murdering Unsuspecting Firebrands  
 - When discussing Awaken the Pain, I incorrectly state the amount of power from Might. It's 40 power per Might stack with Awaken the Pain instead of the normal 30.
 - With Dread I also incorrectly thought it was recharging the F4 shade skill Garish Pillar, but it was in fact F3 Sand Cascade. So you can give out more barrier with this. That just makes it suck even more.  
2:28:35 Wall Play and Barrier Support  
- I wrongly stated that you can't use scept3 on attackable walls, only axe2. You can and probably should, it just doesn't give much Life Force so I stopped using it for that.  
- Also, I suppose it should be obvious that you can also use other weapon skills, like foc5 and axe2 against people who get near the edge, just like scept3, they're just usually not very effective. With axe2, for example, they'll just dodge back and most of the damage will not hit. While foc5 can do a nice hit in this situation, the rest of the axe/foc set are not very good here, so I camp scept/dag.   
2:36:52 Review  
2:43:33 Outro

=================================
Creation Date: 2021-08-26
Original Posting Date: 2021-08-27
Technicals: 1920x1080/H.264/AAC/30fps
Licensing: CC - BY NC SA - Free for non-commercial reuse and adaptation with attribution.