Guild Wars 2

Hi there,
this weekend i did some testing of the new necromancer ability, the scourge. I did use it quite as it was delivered without much changes in equipment nor skill. Except I used the axe together with the torch. I did run with my guild in a midsize zerg. The portal feature was disabled, so I took back the well of suffering in that slot.

Impression summary:
I think the scourge has potential, but it is harder to play than a common straight forward necromancer/ reaper. Its power depends hard on the sand shadows. and this is hard to play. And: you don’t have a “second live bar” while in shroud.

The main problem to me was the use of the sand shades. If you watch the video of the scourge there is one thing perfect for this: the enemy don’t move! You can easily set a circle of sand shades and then play your keyboards damage line. But even there is one thing harder than usually: while you normally play the fighting skills on the keys 1-9, now there is additionally the keys F1-F5! That needs training! Without looking on the keyboard, even f1 is hard to meet blindly.

But in wvw,
targets unfortunately have a tendency to move away. I did not find a trick to keep the sand shadows with me, so they needed to be set again and again and setting sand shadows does not mayor damage itself. But it is essentially to have at least 2-3 shadows out to do mayor damage. And then you ned to run uch more for your live than in a shroud. The shroud works automated: once cast, it is just there. Having the sand shadows that way would be a big easement.

Further questions:

- How can I recognize sand shadows of enemies? do they look like mine? Are they even visible to me?
- can I “kill” my sand shadows to raise them on a other place? Or can I even move them somehow?

Some suggestions / ideas:
- make sand shadows stay with me in a circle once i casted them. Don’t give me the burden to keep them alive and cast them again and again.
- give me the opportunity to place the "circle of sand shadows elsewhere, similar to the “Ventari’s Will” of the revenants were thy move the tablet.
- While surrounded by sand shadows, I like to have a constant pulsing barrier to me, to give me a kind of equivalent to the shroud.

Thats my thoughts so far. As I said, there is potential, but it’s very hard and more complex to play atm and as it is forget about the “second life bar”.

What’s your experiences with the Scourge?

hm, at least I was hoping that someone would agree or disagree or could answer the questions.

The problem with Scourge, I feel, is that some of the mechanics it uses are not explained at all. Many players looked at the shades and just thought “cool” and then started to count damage numbers, then posted quickly about how useless Scourge is.

Yet, others consider it most OP class for WvW, that would totally change every group fight, and if not heavily nerfed will rule the WvW scene for years. There are traits and skills that pop bonuses one after other endlessly.

As I said, I feel the class needs more time. Players need to learn how to play it and the class mechanics need to be explained better. The short weekend just was not enough.

FogLeg, I totally agree with you about the class learning needs more time. However, alone with the extension of the “in fight” used keys to F1-F5 it becomes more difficult to handle and to get used to it. Fight rotations are more complex and heavily depends on the fight dynamics, if the target is moving on, you’ll need to adjust the sand shadows for optimized fight. To me, this is just not fun to play, compared to the easy use of the shroud. (therefore see my suggestions in the first post)

And yes, the class is overpowered, since I saw the first guild zergs in wvw containing almost just necromancers and guardians.

Gondolph.7201:

FogLeg, I totally agree with you about the class learning needs more time. However, alone with the extension of the “in fight” used keys to F1-F5 it becomes more difficult to handle and to get used to it. Fight rotations are more complex and heavily depends on the fight dynamics, if the target is moving on, you’ll need to adjust the sand shadows for optimized fight. To me, this is just not fun to play, compared to the easy use of the shroud. (therefore see my suggestions in the first post)

And yes, the class is overpowered, since I saw the first guild zergs in wvw containing almost just necromancers and guardians.

yet noone cries about guards huh ? give me a break…. Necro the only class needs nerfed the moment its meta in something am i right ?

Scourge might be a bit more complex than old Necro but other classes are much complexer still. Ele, engi and the new guard Firebrand have a lot more skills to weild, so even though it’s a bit rough now I think you’ll get used to it pretty fast. You cant move your sandshades but you can place a new one rather quickly if the enemy repositions.

For WvW i really think its a good idea to use the grandmaster trait that makes it so instead of 3 small shades, you have 1 big one. It increases the area of the 1 shade by a lot and you’ll be able to move it around fairly constantly and hit a lot of people with it.

Gondolph.7201:

However, alone with the extension of the “in fight” used keys to F1-F5 it becomes more difficult to handle and to get used to it. Fight rotations are more complex and heavily depends on the fight dynamics, if the target is moving on, you’ll need to adjust the sand shadows for optimized fight. To me, this is just not fun to play, compared to the easy use of the shroud. (therefore see my suggestions in the first post)

I don’t find that part a problem myself. The game should reward more complex skill rotation with stronger class. So, Scourge is more difficult to handle but can be stronger if you can pull it off successfully. That actually sounds like it is well designed class.

Of course what is too complex and too much trouble is different for each player. I do not like to play some classes because there is too much going on for me to have fun, yet other players find those same classes amazing. Same way, Scourge may not be for everyone, but it does not mean the class needs fixing.

As a mesmer since launch, I found scourge’s ‘play with the F-Keys too’ not too difficult to do. I just found myself using the wrong ones at the wrong time, because while I can hit F-keys like a champion, I often had to stop and re-learn what each one did to refresh my memory. Because they’re nothing like shatters. xD

AngelDiscarnate.5489:

As a mesmer since launch, I found scourge’s ‘play with the F-Keys too’ not too difficult to do. I just found myself using the wrong ones at the wrong time, because while I can hit F-keys like a champion, I often had to stop and re-learn what each one did to refresh my memory. Because they’re nothing like shatters. xD

Good for you about hitting F-keys like a champ. I think I’ll need a dedicated gaming mouse with a decent number of thumb buttons to be able to play classes like mesmer, elementalist, and the new scourge xD

FogLeg.9354:

I don’t find that part a problem myself. The game should reward more complex skill rotation with stronger class. So, Scourge is more difficult to handle but can be stronger if you can pull it off successfully. That actually sounds like it is well designed class.

Of course what is too complex and too much trouble is different for each player. I do not like to play some classes because there is too much going on for me to have fun, yet other players find those same classes amazing. Same way, Scourge may not be for everyone, but it does not mean the class needs fixing.

I see your point and can agree somehow. Yet still the handling of the sand shadows ist very tough with moving targets. Look at the A-net preview videos: You’ll hardly find such stationary enemies in wvw (except some castle lords). if you are not able to take your sand shadows with you, you’ll loose efficiency and this class will be probably loose a lot of fun.