Guild Wars 2

So May 16th 2017 we got :

Life Siphon: Gains 20% increased healing if cast while you are bleeding. Deals 20% more damage to bleeding foes.

Dark Pact: Increased damage by 20%. Now inflicts 2 stacks of bleeding on you for 10 seconds.

And June 20th 2017 we got even more so with :

Life Siphon: The base healing of this skill has been increased by 25.7% in PvP only. Life Siphon is an extremely long channel, opening the necromancer up to all sorts of punishment from enemies. We have increased the heal to better offset the risk taken.

Dark Pact: The damage of this skill has been increased by 33% in PvP only.

I’m pretty sure these change won’t change anything and player that already used dagger will still use dagger while player that don’t like using it will still not use it. Dark pact main use was not damage but it’s ability to immobilize it’s foe. As for Life siphon the channel time and it’s range is what limit this skill, I’m not sure more heal is the right answer.

Overall I feel like this whole update defy logic more than anything else.

That’s true, the siphoning skill problem is more the channeling than the heal itself. But is good to have higher heal, still if only in sPvP where only few players use it.
Dark Pact boon corruption is good but then ANet chose that apply a Self-Bleed stack was a way to compensate the boon corruption and was granting you 20% more healing. That’s a problem in sPvP and WvW because make you unable to disengage from a fight and a heal/condi build will never be able to benefit from that heal anymore. Also the 33% damage is good but unnecessary. But more damage is always welcome.
Life Siphon, that skill’s problem is casting then make it faster should be better than increase his heal, expecially in sPvP. A casting reduction of 33% should make it viable and grant to the necro the chance to not be always interrupted, also because the necro have really poor access to stability and breakstun skills.

While the dagger auto is very good n’ stabby, #2 has a cast time that you can’t really cover with CC, and #3 risks a 1-second cast time and long CD to cast 1 condition that can get removed easily…

Both skills need a rework. It needs a revamp like the Guardian’s Shield.

But don’t worry about it guys. Whatever we want for the Dagger, we’ll get it on the Torch.

Theyre too lazy/busy to do meaningful reworks or animation changes.

Same with warrior torch. Its clunky but deals lots of dmg. Solution ? More dmg

1) Our dagger didnt get the thief speed up or dmg boost.
2) We need a target in LOS to heal , others have AOE self heals to use behind cover…. oh and its still slow after the 4years animation speed up and has no stab/invuln cover
3) The dagger was always 111111 pray for 3 111111
The boon corupts are ok, but more of a patch to cover power creep of condi/cleanses.
The main problems like range, cast time, blind spam and dont even get me started on everyone having soooo many defensive CDs that the “infamous immobilize stacking” isnt even a thing anymore
4) the dagger trait sucks

…aaand with all that, dagger is still better than trashsword.

I’m all for experimenting with underdeveloped weapons. We’ve gotten 3-4 axe buffs in the past few months, making it a functional weapon in both pvp and wvw.

I still can’t see ever using dagger, but if they take the axe route of slowly buffing it until people actually use it, that’s a good thing.

If it gave stability for example.

Dagger 2 and dagger 3 are just not good enough in wvw due to short range and long cast times. I ended up dumping dagger/x for gs.

Axe is just miles ahead of dagger.

Personally i think a mobility skill would help mh dagger alot.

While i think the first pack of buffs with the bleed synergy are pretty cool especially trough that GW1 vibe the weapon is still in an awkward spot.

The selfheal of skill #2 is the real purpose of the skill in my eyes but we dont have the stability nor the defense to make much use of it.

Skill #3 has a too long CD and a slightly too long cast time for what it does. I would love a sequence skill so that if you hit an enemy with it, you can reactivate the skill again within 5 or so seconds to shadowstep to the initial target.

Muchacho.2390:

Personally i think a mobility skill would help mh dagger alot.

dark pact teleporting you to target in 1200 range would be rad!

Dagger will likely see more play once again when we get more viable options outside of Reaper’s Shroud. Death Shroud synergizes better with it, any ranged or semi-ranged future Shroud will.

Cutting the cast time of Life Siphon is definitely the way to buff it, although the bonus heals and damage are welcome.

Muchacho.2390:

Personally i think a mobility skill would help mh dagger alot.

Mobility in what way? We have the Quickening thirst perk.

Flumek.9043:

Theyre too lazy/busy to do meaningful reworks or animation changes.

Same with warrior torch. Its clunky but deals lots of dmg. Solution ? More dmg

1) Our dagger didnt get the thief speed up or dmg boost.
2) We need a target in LOS to heal , others have AOE self heals to use behind cover…. oh and its still slow after the 4years animation speed up and has no stab/invuln cover
3) The dagger was always 111111 pray for 3 111111
The boon corupts are ok, but more of a patch to cover power creep of condi/cleanses.
The main problems like range, cast time, blind spam and dont even get me started on everyone having soooo many defensive CDs that the “infamous immobilize stacking” isnt even a thing anymore
4) the dagger trait sucks

…aaand with all that, dagger is still better than trashsword.

It’s true. The daggers are much quicker, can do more DPS, and has better all over synergy in Vanilla builds than Reaper, even if the range sucks.

Hesacon.8735:

I’m all for experimenting with underdeveloped weapons. We’ve gotten 3-4 axe buffs in the past few months, making it a functional weapon in both pvp and wvw.

I still can’t see ever using dagger, but if they take the axe route of slowly buffing it until people actually use it, that’s a good thing.

If it gave stability for example.

I have played with the axe since it’s buff and run a Power/Precision/Toughness M/M necro. I still don’t think it adds up to the dagger builds. It can only hit one target at a time, can only hit once at a time, has a lower base damage, slow as hell, and the vulnerability condition it inflicts still doesn’t kill things quick enough, even with all it’s synergy build perks.

Maybe some of these out of left field changes will make more sense with the new specs? I dunno.

Zeivu.3615:

Muchacho.2390:

Personally i think a mobility skill would help mh dagger alot.

Mobility in what way? We have the Quickening thirst perk.

Mobility in the from of a leap, teleport etc. Skills that can be used as a gap opener/closer. Quickining thirst is hardly enough if most professions run with perma swiftness or a passive 25% buff anyway. It would help mh dagger alot in WvW roaming.Not that i expect something like that from Anet since we are supposed to be one of the slowest professions but one can dream…

I would increase damage on all three MH skills and add a boon steal on Necrotic Bite. Adding Taunt to Life Syphon and Slow to Dark Pact would be nice, too.

Dagger was the only viable power weapon before greatsword, axe’s buffs, and HoT creep. Now, it less effective

Honestly, I think that giving more damage or more heal is pointless. The only thing that the dagger need is QoL change.

By removing the cast time on the 3rd attack of the dagger auto attack, you achieve better result without tweeking numbers and it will obviously feel better to use.

By reducing channel time of dagger#2, one will obviously hit faster and thus heal himself for more, also reducing a lot the defensive hole left by the channel time.

By cutting down the cast time of the dagger 3rd skill one will be able to use it more easily and achieve the result that he seek instead of seeing himself dodged or blocked.

It’s good to leave counterplay for others but it’s also good to realise that skills that leave to much hole for counter play don’t need more damage but just some QoL fix so that it feel rewarding to play.

When you got a tomato stain on your white shirt, you don’t put more tomato on it so that it become a pretty red picture, You wash the shirt. Our dagger skills don’t need more tomato juice on them. Our skills need to feel usable in a fight and allow us to have an harmonious gameplay flow.

Dadnir.5038:

It’s good to leave counterplay for others but it’s also good to realise that skills that leave to much hole for counter play don’t need more damage but just some QoL fix so that it feel rewarding to play.

Our skills need to feel usable in a fight and allow us to have an harmonious gameplay flow.

Anet testing is done by clicking casualists who go by mentality “haha that was fun cz random stuff happened”.

They never consider the high end meta that dpends on LOS, cast time, projectile travel, FACING on start, facing on end/hit of cast, clarity of animation, blind block unblockable counters…

..and then on another class you can have every signle ability be an instant PBAOE it takes them 2 years to do number tweaks, they wont dip into this territory for another 100

I would like to see the self poison removed by the skill 3 and also the boon corruption. instead put a Leap with 600 range that when hit your target immobilize it.
that will make it useful to flee fomr dangers or to catch an enemy.
That will probably never happen but i can still dream.

The skill 2 need his casting reduced. In sPvP is impossible to use it when you need and hope to end it. It’s a channel-to-the-enemy skill, then is interrupetd by the enemy CC or if the enemy go in stealth, go back an obstruction or flee away.
I’d like to see it more like the Axe skill 3 but that heal for every enemy hit. The dagger is more a single target weapon but that should resolve different problems in the PvP area.

Silv.9207:

I would like to see the self poison removed by the skill 3 and also the boon corruption. instead put a Leap with 600 range that when hit your target immobilize it.
that will make it useful to flee fomr dangers or to catch an enemy.
That will probably never happen but i can still dream.

The skill 2 need his casting reduced. In sPvP is impossible to use it when you need and hope to end it. It’s a channel-to-the-enemy skill, then is interrupetd by the enemy CC or if the enemy go in stealth, go back an obstruction or flee away.
I’d like to see it more like the Axe skill 3 but that heal for every enemy hit. The dagger is more a single target weapon but that should resolve different problems in the PvP area.

Dagger 2 doesn’t care if the enemy stealths during the channel or not. No channel skill does.

Unlike most, it doesn’t even care what your facing is once the channel starts.

Dagger is shorter range than greatsword with less cleave, less CC, less power dps and less condi dps. The siphon looks good on paper but Reaper has its own sustain tools, particularly extended shroud capability. It does hit faster, though.

For a 130 range weapon that cleaves one extra target, it should pack more punch but this is just the core versus elite imbalance affecting all jobs. Axe was buffed to the point where it feels solid, to me, as a ranged weapon. Dagger has been buffed but in a strange direction that does not seem to bridge the core/elite disparity, at least in my hands.