Guild Wars 2

Scourge would be very strong to broken in wvw where you can have a backline and stack barriers. In sPvP it seems like a staff ele. Absolutely reks people that stand in red circles, but is a free kill for people that fight smart.

1) Scourge has too much damage.
Every 16s + 60s you brute force a decap. Outside this period it is useless and is freekill.

2) I dont like 2/3 of scourge damage comes from specific combo of 2x GM traits, rather than actual abilities.
it pigeonholes buid choices, as well as keeps other playstyles and abilities underpowered

3) I think scourge needs dmg nerfs and support buffs.
Damage should be moved away from dhuumfire procs and become more allround even for non dumbfire builds.

The barrier support actually feels like something. We can do a weaker version power rezz of druid/scrapper + we can offer some “healing and cleanse” like tempest.
Now compared to above 3 we still lack: self survival, passive heal while kiting, mobility, general utility like stealth+reflect+blasts

4) Holosmith + rocket boots = nike warrior
The in-out playstyle is probably incredibly fun and not every casual clicker dev playtesting duels at keep may pull it off.
Still , I dont like being on recieving end of superspeed + stiblity. There is little counterplay as the designed ways of chills and pulls are all stupidly unrealable.
Its worse than fighting a thief

5) Holosmith damage is maybe okay
Not dodging and tanking all the big stuff was a given this weekend. So maybe few % changes

the bunker/support role build of the scourge was amazing

holding 1v3 a point with barriers , amazing res with teleport…. new support in the house.

the condi dmg stacking is too high with burning atm.

Imagine for a second if there were no condi thieves, burn guardians, 1 shot shatter mesmers, and condi mesmers in HoT.

Now…imagine if they unleashed these same specs for the first time in PoF. What would people be saying? It’s the exact same extreme damage with arguably even more sustain, escapes, mobility, etc.

All they did in PoF was give both Necros and Engies an option to do the same. Obviously, they aren’t totally identical in damage and survivability, but it’s basically the same high risk/high reward style builds.

I totally understand people hating on the “cheese” aspect of high damage builds. I wouldn’t have gone that route with the expansion. However, if they want things more like a FPS, so be it.

Scourge is actually the model for a high risk/high reward build. Unlike some of these other professions, it’s impossible to get the high reward while also getting stability and scaling defenses like blocks, immunities, evades, stealth, escapes, etc. Thus, you have a build that is either devastating or one that has zero ways to stop zerg damage or cc while wearing cloth and having to fight in close range.

Holo can also get huge damage spikes, but less support and more escapes than Scourge. It’s far from as cheesy as the mesmer/thief/guardian builds that exist RIGHT NOW.

messiah.1908:

the bunker/support role build of the scourge was amazing

holding 1v3 a point with barriers , amazing res with teleport…. new support in the house.

the condi dmg stacking is too high with burning atm.

I did it too but that is only vs bad players testing beta builds without amulets probably.

Against real players i still often “random died” because of no stab, no enemy scourge. I also think id almost instadie against a ton normal mettabattle builds.

That is without mentioning how much slower a support necro is, and how little utility it brings compared to lets say druid.

Its only benefit is that it may be good at silver/gold level of play and facetanking with group – instead of coordinating stealth for ex.

Flumek.9043:

messiah.1908:

the bunker/support role build of the scourge was amazing

holding 1v3 a point with barriers , amazing res with teleport…. new support in the house.

the condi dmg stacking is too high with burning atm.

I did it too but that is only vs bad players testing beta builds without amulets probably.

Against real players i still often “random died” because of no stab, no enemy scourge. I also think id almost instadie against a ton normal mettabattle builds.

That is without mentioning how much slower a support necro is, and how little utility it brings compared to lets say druid.

Its only benefit is that it may be good at silver/gold level of play and facetanking with group – instead of coordinating stealth for ex.

dont forget portal which was disabled.
in group fight i had with him we had no problem protect him while he buffs us constantly with barriers.
as you say still too early

Crinn.7864:

Dirame.8521:

Crinn.7864:

What?

Scourge has less defenses and worse disengage than Reaper, and reaper was already considered a glass cannon.

Also Scourge has enormous trouble dealing with ranged attackers. It’s got a lot of melee hate though.

One Skill. Poison Cloud. What was that about Ranged attacks again?

Also when we learn how to manage Barrier, we could possibly even outlive Reapers.

Because CPC obviously has 100% uptime. CPC is delay mechanic, it doesn’t change the outcome of the matchup, it just buys you 8 seconds. Assuming of course the circumstances of the fight don’t force you to abandon the CPC early.

Also learning how to use Barriers isn’t going to solve Scourge because Barriers are the least of Scourge’s problems. The problem of Scourge is that it lacks the target control, and counterplay options of Reaper. You don’t have the CC options of Reaper, you don’t have the mobility of Reaper, you don’t have the stability of Reaper. Scourge’s counterplay options are limited to the F4 fear, and Path of Corruption. Oh and thanks to scourge’s boonhate being rips rather corrupts, Scourge can’t even use stability conversion for target control as well as reaper can. Scourge’s counterplay options are essentially limited to trying to burst down the opponent before the scourge dies.

Scourge’s design is basically ye olde Procmancer taken to the extreme, and just like Procmancer it’ll only really work with a dedicated support duo, and be trash elsewhere.

I don’t know why you think Scourge can’t convert Stab into fear. You know we still have access to Corruption skills like Corrupt Boon and Well of Corruption right? And I’m actually saying this because I used them in the Preview weekend myself so I know they work and work well.

And 8s is a long time in PvP. That’s enough time to make a Deadeye think he’s got you, only for him to be overloaded with conditions and dropped in 10s flat.

You can watch some gameplay I’ve shown against dragonhunters where I pull a full reversal on Dragonhunters with just Core Necro.

All this is being judged over a weekend of play. It’d be better to see a month of play before getting panties in knots.

Kam.4092:

All this is being judged over a weekend of play. It’d be better to see a month of play before getting panties in knots.

the prob with that is the devs will make balance changes according of these 2 days of testing feedback from the players…

that means Necro will turn trash tier again like allways….

Kam.4092:

All this is being judged over a weekend of play. It’d be better to see a month of play before getting panties in knots.

This guy gets it.