Guild Wars 2

Howdy folks. If you know who I am, fantastic; if you don’t, I’m a former ANet QA guy. Won’t go into my releases for personal info reasons. CAUTION: Wall of Text incoming.

I want to start off with how much I’m absolutely in love with the Reaper Necromancer Elite Spec. I’m a huge fan of Greatswords and Shouts (my Warrior and Guardian are both GS Shout spec because it’s a total blast to me) and seeing that proliferated to Necro (my third favorite character) gave me a huge amount of joy. Let me start with that first!

• Attack speed on the Dusk Strike combo (skill 1) seems slow. While it hits decently, it feels like the odd man out in combat when other professions are cutting under you in speed. That said, the life force gain on this baby is top notch.
• Gravedigger is a fun skill, but takes a lot of timing to pull off well. I think the recharge reduction is a little high; it could be halved at most, instead of a .8s recharge when hitting a downed/low health foe. You might also hit copyright issues with the name. :P
• Death Spiral is absolutely amazing. I love everything about it, from the vulnerability and for how it really siphons health with the Siphon HP on Greatsword Hit trait. It’s such a satisfying landing, too. My drill is a drill that will STEAL YOUR SOUL!
• Nightfall is strong. Real strong. Turns the Necro into an unhittable lifesteal machine. Synergy there is great with Gravedigger, and it saved my butt quite a few times on those dang Mordrem snipers (more on those later).
• Grasping Darkness… feels the worst out of the Greatsword setup. It rarely hits where you aim it, the pull is not visually communicated well as to what’s going to be pulled, it’s pretty useless in most of Verdant Brink (lots of un-pullable enemies there) and the description is super vague. “Applies a condition” should read “Applies poison” because that’s what the skill does. Poison. Hit detection can be improved and I feel like the range is quite poor for something meant to get stuff in melee range. You can actually hit things with Dusk Strike at its max range. Why bother?

The new Shroud looks as cool as it feels, but has one large hole in it from my POV.

• Life Rend combo hits hard, hits wide, and feels satisfying. Nothing like that scythe coming down on your enemies.
• Death’s Charge is the rotten apple that spoils the bunch here. The mobility on this skill is so incredibly high for a zone like Verdant Brink. In other parts of the game I’m sure this skill would shine and be real fun to use, but on the precarious perches of the Brink using this skill is basically asking to take a dive off a cliff. I found more often than not that if I wasn’t facing down my attacker eye-to-eye, the projectile deflection would not work. I had to be dead-center, 12-o-clock on my target. This skill feels clunky, unpredictable, and not up to snuff with the rest of Reaper’s Shroud.
• Infusing Terror is great. It grants Stability, though I feel like Stability should be a standard thing in Reaper’s Shroud given that it’s an Elite spec. The 1s fear on this skill’s detonation doesn’t really cut it in group fights. One second doesn’t give enough time for the enemy to scatter, let alone give you enough time to fire off any other skill in your setup.
• Soul Spiral is love, man! Mix this with Executioner’s Scythe and you really lay down the AoE. Coupled with the Life Transfer heal trait and this helicopter-scythe makes for some really fun support/damage mixers.
• Executioner’s Scythe feels more like a Mark-maker attack than a Scythe attack. The stun is really not that easy to land and I got a lot more use out of using this as a Cold field than I did anything else. Looks super cool, to boot.

I didn’t get a chance to mess with the other 3 available Elite Specs, but given how solid Reaper came out I have high hopes for them. Tempest especially looks cool, but I didn’t get the time to roll up more than just my Necro.

(Continued in next post!)

This brings me to where the beta weekend really fell short, which was all of the events in the Verdant Brink. The story instances were fun, and allowed me some nice insight into the new group’s dynamic — and it was AWESOME to see my very own character belt out orders instead of using Trahearne as a mouthpiece for once. However, every event I ran this beta weekend in Verdant Brink was bugged in some capacity. As former ANet QA, this stuck in my heart more intensely than anything else. On top of that, some of the enemies in this area are just not intuitive as to how frustrating they’re going to be or how hard they hit. I’ll go in to this below.

• Mordrem Snipers are dirty jerks. Their Targeted debuff is not up long enough for me to react to it (yes, I dodged, I’m not Gohan). If I get the drop on them, I can dodge their attack — but the attack takes up 2 dodge rolls and hits hard enough to drop over half of my health off of me if I miss one dodge roll. If I don’t dodge at all I’m a dead man. (Disclaimer: Full Carrion necromancer.)
• Stoneheads are big, annoying health bags. They look intimidating but they’re nowhere near as fearsome as they look.
• Mordrem Teragriffs need to have a cooldown added to their Charge skill. It lands players on their butts for 2-ish seconds, and they can get stuck using it over and over. This means doom for anyone trying to solo one as they basically just run you over like a deranged go-kart until you die.
• Pocket Raptors. They’re cute. They’re cute until they swarm you like a bunch of hornets. I like them visually. I dislike them mechanically. They’re evil and seem to have a multiplicative aggro radius.

And the events:

• Every single Mordrem Breacher event was broken. The snipers did not shoot at the Vine Tenders, which meant that players had to coordinate (not something that came easily) to kill all of the Tenders at the same time and then blitz the Breacher.
• The event wherein you had to place explosives at the base of a huge vine at Shipwreck waypoint actually got me stuck in the base of the vine. I had to wait for the event to end to get out, as I was not allowed to waypoint due to being in combat.
• The event to protect Skybreaker as she plants explosives takes far, far, far too long. I have an 80 engineer and I’m confident I could place the bombs in half the time as Skybreaker. The group I was a part of ran this event for 25 minutes before it finally completed.
• The event immediately following that broke. Laranthir and Skybreaker walked past the waypoint and froze, not moving. They can’t even be downed (which sometimes jogs the ‘memory’ of the event and gets it going). Event completion is something I know I looked at on every event, and this level of breakage is really difficult for me to forgive.
• The Colossal Vine event was completely broken. The vine itself couldn’t be damaged, so it blocked off any content in that area indefinitely.
• Itzal food baskets never filled up with grubs/worms/food. 20 or so players and I all dropping food into these baskets in every method we could think of didn’t get us a complete. 2/5 of those baskets are toast, because 3/5 filled successfully.
• Whether you’ve realized it or not, giving easy access to multi-part events via Mastery objects is actually excluding players new to the zone. Seeing someone with Itzal mastery bounce right up a mushroom and take part in an event while I spent so much time taking the long route that I missed it is incredibly discouraging. Once that zone loses its newness, are there plans to expand the mastery objects further into the game so that “progress” is actually useful to players who might not be as quick at advancing? I sincerely hope so. I don’t want to see the Mastery system go the way of Guild Missions.
• 40 minutes of nightfall and playing King of the Hill with the Mordrem seems a bit long to me. A lot of the events I was most interested in only happened during the day, and I felt it a slog to wait through 40 minutes of “hold Points A, B, and C.” Something more could be happening here, perhaps even events to alleviate the constant assault on one of the points.

Despite my complaints, I’m loving the narrative and the new life breathed into gameplay here in HoT. I can’t wait for more. I’m hoping the next Beta weekend will have a round of event/bug fixes that don’t require every event in Verdant Brink to require a workaround or dismissal as broken, though. My favorite part of GW2 is being able to bring my skill and profession to a cool event and contribute, and when the events are almost ALL in disrepair, my fun drops to zero. Keep on keeping on, guys, thank you for the effort. Just swing the QA stick a little harder at your events.

TL;DR
Reapers are fun. Events are almost all broken, which isn’t fun. Mastery seems convoluted and exclusionary. Enemies could use some balance. Loving it despite the complaints.

Also, to conclude: I’ve been gone from GW2 for quite some time. 2-ish years despite playing since launch. I got burned and burned out pretty hardcore, and I have high hopes for HoT. GW2 is still very near to my heart, and I hope that some polish is done here to help with the current issues I’m seeing.

Also, to add, a clearer description could be used on all fronts of the new Necromancer shouts. Many of them say “apply conditions” or “apply a condition” without actually denoting what condition is being applied. The only way to really see it is to actually look at the conditions applied when they land.

And please, add an icon for the condition damage from chill dealt with the trait Deathly Chill same as other conditions. Now just is showing the numbers so you don’t know where it comes from.

I felt mobs were designed in such a way as to not allow you to just run through and not care about aggro but instead make you pay attention and learn their mechanics.

Snipers typically came 1 in a group, they really hurt but have low hp. a reflect devastates them and a knockdown or stun usually gives you enough time to get in range and burst them down. Unfortunately, every class has a reflect of some kind except for necro (and thief’s is on the elite), and necro doesnt have much for a long range CC, though it has some mid range CC. I probably would have been either running spectral grasp (a pull is an interrupt) or flesh golem for the knockdown. This, i feel, is an issue with necro and not with the mobs themselves.

Similarly with pocket raptors, once you figure out how to deal with them on a given class, they arent that bad.

That Guy.5704:

I felt mobs were designed in such a way as to not allow you to just run through and not care about aggro but instead make you pay attention and learn their mechanics.

Snipers typically came 1 in a group, they really hurt but have low hp. a reflect devastates them and a knockdown or stun usually gives you enough time to get in range and burst them down. Unfortunately, every class has a reflect of some kind except for necro (and thief’s is on the elite), and necro doesnt have much for a long range CC, though it has some mid range CC. I probably would have been either running spectral grasp (a pull is an interrupt) or flesh golem for the knockdown. This, i feel, is an issue with necro and not with the mobs themselves.

Similarly with pocket raptors, once you figure out how to deal with them on a given class, they arent that bad.

This is why I put in a disclaimer that I’m a full Carrion necro, not something built for toughness or reflect. However, I also feel that having to burn both of my dodges to avoid the Snipers is a bit harsh. All of the other things in my setup that I can use to negate projectiles (such as Death’s Charge) take long enough to cast that the sniper’s already landed a good chunk of his volley on me, and it hits hard enough to really make the fight a pain.

EDIT: Really? Censoring this word?

vince.5937:

This is why I put in a disclaimer that I’m a full Carrion necro, not something built for toughness or reflect. However, I also feel that having to burn both of my dodges to avoid the Snipers is a bit harsh. All of the other things in my setup that I can use to negate projectiles (such as Death’s Charge) take long enough to cast that the sniper’s already landed a good chunk of his volley on me, and it hits hard enough to really make the fight a pain.

EDIT: Really? Censoring kitten -n-a-l?

Yea, I do understand that, like I said though, I think a part of the issue is in the necro itself not the design of the sniper or even your build. lack of options for this kind of thing, long cast times or close range requirements. These issues then necessitate a double dodge. I ran around with a tempest most of the weekend and by the end, all I found I needed to do for a sniper was either icebow 5 or magnetic aura which a tempest has 3 sources of (if traited for it). my main (engineer) I will probably run a pistol shield in the new maps for the block and daze. Run in with a shield 4 reflect and then knock down when I get close. I could go on with other classes, necro just needs some reflect/CC to feel ok in this map. I played reaper for a little while and readily admit I havent done much with a necro in the base game and so had little experienc with it anyway, but I went back to playing either an ele or revenant after not too long.

Luckily Robert Gee posted somewhere about looking into the axe and scepter for reaper and as I remember one think he mentioned was either a block or reflect.

That Guy.5704:

vince.5937:

This is why I put in a disclaimer that I’m a full Carrion necro, not something built for toughness or reflect. However, I also feel that having to burn both of my dodges to avoid the Snipers is a bit harsh. All of the other things in my setup that I can use to negate projectiles (such as Death’s Charge) take long enough to cast that the sniper’s already landed a good chunk of his volley on me, and it hits hard enough to really make the fight a pain.

EDIT: Really? Censoring kitten -n-a-l?

Yea, I do understand that, like I said though, I think a part of the issue is in the necro itself not the design of the sniper or even your build. lack of options for this kind of thing, long cast times or close range requirements. These issues then necessitate a double dodge. I ran around with a tempest most of the weekend and by the end, all I found I needed to do for a sniper was either icebow 5 or magnetic aura which a tempest has 3 sources of (if traited for it). my main (engineer) I will probably run a pistol shield in the new maps for the block and daze. Run in with a shield 4 reflect and then knock down when I get close. I could go on with other classes, necro just needs some reflect/CC to feel ok in this map. I played reaper for a little while and readily admit I havent done much with a necro in the base game and so had little experienc with it anyway, but I went back to playing either an ele or revenant after not too long.

Luckily Robert Gee posted somewhere about looking into the axe and scepter for reaper and as I remember one think he mentioned was either a block or reflect.

Ideally I’d like Death’s Charge to not spin you so far forward. If it wasn’t such a high-mobility skill in a low-mobility area I’d happily have swapped to Shroud to spin my scythe and block that attack. Unfortunately, there are about 2 major land masses in Brink that don’t lead to a cliffside death if you use Death’s Charge.

Only mobs I have problems with are the snipers….everything else I can literally face tank with my cleric/healer ele and revenant…what they added for ‘difficulty’ is essentially: most mobs chain KD non-stop, have huge burst that also is spammed, and that’s about it; they are not particularly hard, just annoying. Over all, I feel this weekend was a complete waste of time testing; most things are broken so that does not bode well for HoT.

vince.5937:

That Guy.5704:

vince.5937:

This is why I put in a disclaimer that I’m a full Carrion necro, not something built for toughness or reflect. However, I also feel that having to burn both of my dodges to avoid the Snipers is a bit harsh. All of the other things in my setup that I can use to negate projectiles (such as Death’s Charge) take long enough to cast that the sniper’s already landed a good chunk of his volley on me, and it hits hard enough to really make the fight a pain.

EDIT: Really? Censoring kitten -n-a-l?

Yea, I do understand that, like I said though, I think a part of the issue is in the necro itself not the design of the sniper or even your build. lack of options for this kind of thing, long cast times or close range requirements. These issues then necessitate a double dodge. I ran around with a tempest most of the weekend and by the end, all I found I needed to do for a sniper was either icebow 5 or magnetic aura which a tempest has 3 sources of (if traited for it). my main (engineer) I will probably run a pistol shield in the new maps for the block and daze. Run in with a shield 4 reflect and then knock down when I get close. I could go on with other classes, necro just needs some reflect/CC to feel ok in this map. I played reaper for a little while and readily admit I havent done much with a necro in the base game and so had little experienc with it anyway, but I went back to playing either an ele or revenant after not too long.

Luckily Robert Gee posted somewhere about looking into the axe and scepter for reaper and as I remember one think he mentioned was either a block or reflect.

Ideally I’d like Death’s Charge to not spin you so far forward. If it wasn’t such a high-mobility skill in a low-mobility area I’d happily have swapped to Shroud to spin my scythe and block that attack. Unfortunately, there are about 2 major land masses in Brink that don’t lead to a cliffside death if you use Death’s Charge.

hmm, maybe the suggestion here is to make death’s charge stop progressing forward if you reach your target? If you could death’s charge in place when on top of your target, it would be a nice damage boost for necro too (even though reaper seemed to have pretty decent damage in shroud).

vince.5937:

• Death’s Charge is the rotten apple that spoils the bunch here. The mobility on this skill is so incredibly high for a zone like Verdant Brink. In other parts of the game I’m sure this skill would shine and be real fun to use, but on the precarious perches of the Brink using this skill is basically asking to take a dive off a cliff. I found more often than not that if I wasn’t facing down my attacker eye-to-eye, the projectile deflection would not work. I had to be dead-center, 12-o-clock on my target. This skill feels clunky, unpredictable, and not up to snuff with the rest of Reaper’s Shroud.

This was my only complaint about the Reaper spec. This skill seems like it would be much better off being a shadow step. It accomplishes the same goal of closing the gap, but alleviates a lot of the pain points that spiraling recklessly through the air causes.

I would love to see it changed to shadowstep to the target and apply chill to the foe and nearby foes. Even if it doesn’t do much damage, this would make a lot more sense with the reaper spec being built around chills and vulnerability and it would be a hell of a lot easier to use than the current design.

That Guy.5704:

vince.5937:

That Guy.5704:

vince.5937:

This is why I put in a disclaimer that I’m a full Carrion necro, not something built for toughness or reflect. However, I also feel that having to burn both of my dodges to avoid the Snipers is a bit harsh. All of the other things in my setup that I can use to negate projectiles (such as Death’s Charge) take long enough to cast that the sniper’s already landed a good chunk of his volley on me, and it hits hard enough to really make the fight a pain.

EDIT: Really? Censoring kitten -n-a-l?

Yea, I do understand that, like I said though, I think a part of the issue is in the necro itself not the design of the sniper or even your build. lack of options for this kind of thing, long cast times or close range requirements. These issues then necessitate a double dodge. I ran around with a tempest most of the weekend and by the end, all I found I needed to do for a sniper was either icebow 5 or magnetic aura which a tempest has 3 sources of (if traited for it). my main (engineer) I will probably run a pistol shield in the new maps for the block and daze. Run in with a shield 4 reflect and then knock down when I get close. I could go on with other classes, necro just needs some reflect/CC to feel ok in this map. I played reaper for a little while and readily admit I havent done much with a necro in the base game and so had little experienc with it anyway, but I went back to playing either an ele or revenant after not too long.

Luckily Robert Gee posted somewhere about looking into the axe and scepter for reaper and as I remember one think he mentioned was either a block or reflect.

Ideally I’d like Death’s Charge to not spin you so far forward. If it wasn’t such a high-mobility skill in a low-mobility area I’d happily have swapped to Shroud to spin my scythe and block that attack. Unfortunately, there are about 2 major land masses in Brink that don’t lead to a cliffside death if you use Death’s Charge.

hmm, maybe the suggestion here is to make death’s charge stop progressing forward if you reach your target? If you could death’s charge in place when on top of your target, it would be a nice damage boost for necro too (even though reaper seemed to have pretty decent damage in shroud).

Potentially, yeah. That’s just for my necro feedback though. There’s still the outliers of mob difficulty and event failure.