Guild Wars 2

So these are the changes we got today:

I think atm I am just happy that GS and Reaper Shroud power skills seem to have gotten a buff. Whether it’s enough or not, I have no idea.

What are you guys’ thoughts?

It’s like they didn’t touch the class, which may be a good thing. I don’t think it makes necro any more or less viable than it was yesterday.

Quite happy with the buffs too as I’m digging playing Power Necro lately. Reaper Onslaught getting a crapload of ferocity is great.

Surprisingly, no nerfs for the necro, epidemic was not even touched despite all the controversy around it for the last couple of months.

Hats to Anet for listening to good feedback!

I am happy with the buffs for Reaper! =)

Well, they buffed the power necro but i think to little. Still will be not take to raids.

My post got eaten nice, so I’ll keep it tl;dr

It’s not enough
It’s a step in the right direction by them acknowledging there’s more issues than just lacking raw damage, instead trying to tweak cooldowns and aftercasts too.
I’ll always take GS buffs since I highly enjoy playing it.
Deathly Chill buff is pretty juicy actually.
I’m majorly kittened at engis getting pinpoint distribution reworked into a 150 condi party-buff when that should’ve been something for necros, but at the same time it’s at least engi who got it since they’ve been in a kinda tough place too in PvE.

Gonna need more tweaks, even for skills that are already okay to good to make them even better, death magic needs some love badly and there’s still a decent amount of traits that need to get looked up, possibly going through a full rework and/or having the goal of making the necro more of an actual buffer through debuffing. (Unique debuffs on mobs which help the party for example)

While I can’t complain about buffs it’s sad to see that there still are no changes to Deathshroud which is the main thing keeping me from using core necro. Some of the other buffs don’t fix the reason the skills were hardly used.

Well of darkness is still not worth the slot. 5 aoe blinds are not worth taking before our other defensive skills.
Spectral wall is fun but rarely practical.
Spectral Grasp is still to slow and unreliable for it’s cooldown.
Deathly chill is still bleeds.
Reapershroud buffs are nice and Reaper’s Onslaught is better but I can’t see this being enough to make me want to use shroud offensively.

And at last core necro still only has 1 second of stability outside of shroud or transforms.

But hey at least power reaper got something which was more than I thought would happen. Gonna be more fun using that.

I will be testing the new dps with my friends, but there are some interesting venues worth exploring with trait/rotations for raids. Possibly even something new for PvP, but that’s yet to be determined.

It would be interesting to see what the dev behind these changes thinks of GS’s usability and position in PvP and PvE right now.

@leman- Please do let me know the result of your testing.

Nonetheless !! Quite happy with this power necro changed.

DTATL.9641:

While I can’t complain about buffs it’s sad to see that there still are no changes to Deathshroud which is the main thing keeping me from using core necro. Some of the other buffs don’t fix the reason the skills were hardly used.

Which is weird, since death shroud is the main reason I prefer necro to reaper. Reaper shroud and the traits have always underwhelmed me, though the ferocity buff makes a compelling case to try it out on some fractals.

Tbh as a Necro main and mostly a WvW player the fact Epidemic didnt get nerfed says alot to me, have Anet just given up on the game-mode ?

The buffs to Power Reaper is fine but I give them all back for a faster AA on the GS, but yea thats just my view. Nice tweaks and buffs to that weapon however and Ferocity on Onslaught is intresting, we see if it can compete with Blighters Boon tho.

Condi necro is likely going to completely dead in sPvP. Zero buffs, and all our counters gots buffs. Oh and eles have more cleanses.

I feel like the necro changes where long lost season 2 changes.

Hesacon.8735:

DTATL.9641:

While I can’t complain about buffs it’s sad to see that there still are no changes to Deathshroud which is the main thing keeping me from using core necro. Some of the other buffs don’t fix the reason the skills were hardly used.

Which is weird, since death shroud is the main reason I prefer necro to reaper. Reaper shroud and the traits have always underwhelmed me, though the ferocity buff makes a compelling case to try it out on some fractals.

I too prefer deathshroud to reapershroud but it’s not hard to see that you shoot yourself in the foot by using it. The only good skill is doom, the rest are clunky and underwhelming. It’s also hard to give up Chilled to the Bone! the only real access to stability outside of shroud. I wish deathshroud was better.

Gravedigger: The aftercast of this skill has been reduced by 0.2 seconds.

Not sure if 0.2 will make a notable difference..but we’ll have to see

Death Spiral: The damage of this skill has been increased by 20%.

Nice buff, cannot complain

Nightfall: This skill now converts boons into conditions from enemies it hits.

Boons converted to conditions – 4, pulses 4 with interval of 2 seconds…Considering boons aren’t fully an issue in pve anymore, this only really hits wvw n pvp.

Well of Darkness: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 45 seconds to 35 seconds.

Still not worth taking tbh, other things can do a much better job with a much shorter cooldown

Spectral Wall: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 45 seconds to 40 seconds.

Not even a thing anymore so..5 seconds buff wasn’t needed

Spectral Grasp: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 25 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP only.

Again..this hasn’t been a thing for ages and still isnt in pvp

Grasping Darkness: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 30 seconds to 25 seconds. Increased damage by 30%.

This is a lovely nice buff tbf…when it hits

Well of Blood: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 35 seconds to 30 seconds.

Nice buff to the heal when traited…can’t complain..Now we have 3 good heals (Yes, the well heal is good)

Ritual of Life: The well created by this trait has been renamed to the Lesser Well of Blood and will continue to use a 35-second recharge.

Okay.

Deathly Chill: Increased bleed stacks to 3 for 5 seconds in PvE only.

Nice mini buff to condi..shame it’s not in pvp as well…But…it still doesn’t address the main issues Necro has.

Reaper’s Onslaught: Now grants up to 225 bonus ferocity while in a shroud, based on effective level.

This is imho a brilliant buff…225 is amazing.

Life Rend: Increased damage by 17%.
Life Slash: Increased damage by 17%.
Life Reap: Increased damage by 12.5%. Increased life-force gain from 1.5% to 2%.

Nice..it’s a nice buff, can’t say much more then that

Death’s Charge: Increased damage by 30%.

Nice…was needed… it’s ok

Chilling Scythe: Increased life-force gain from 3% to 5%.

Will have to test to see the big difference

Overall… Not enough…Really not enough for Necromancers to be considered in Raids still.
We still don’t bring enough to the team to be considered.

Why the lifesteal mechanic wasn’t worked on and increased I’m not sure, but it’s a question i’d love to see a dev answer.

leman.7682:

I will be testing the new dps with my friends, but there are some interesting venues worth exploring with trait/rotations for raids. Possibly even something new for PvP, but that’s yet to be determined.

It would be interesting to see what the dev behind these changes thinks of GS’s usability and position in PvP and PvE right now.

From what I have briefly tested for pve (sr, reaper, spite):
- Shroud 2-4 are a dps loss compared to shroud 1 (with dhuumfire)
- GS has higher dps than shroud overall despite the auto attack being weaker
- Overall dps is still trash compared to other dps classes and probably behind condi nec which also got minor buffs.

I’m honestly happy at the moment, since I’m a Power Reaper. GS is my favorite weapon, interested to see how Reaper’s Onslaught fairs with that Ferocity bonus compared to Deathly Chill (I’m probably going to stick to using Deathly Chill though). I’m just happy to see we didn’t get a nerf, we actually got a baby-buff which is better than nothing and that Gravedigger aftercast tweak has me a bit excited to test it out, since it’s honestly my least favorite GS skill atm.

They buffed a weapon that no one uses.. GG anet.. way to make reaper viable in wvw.. buff a melee weapon that no clothie should ever be using.

PVE dps increase.
Very good, hopefully enough to make us a healthy choice for the dps spot.

PVE group support.
Still nothing. So were selfish only dps, that does medium tier dps.

PVP dps increase.
Ill take it, but its minor. Damage was never lacking, its always ladning your skills and enemy defenses that are problems.

PVP " RELIABLITY " changes.
NOTHING.

• We have 2 pulls – both dont work. DH has 2 pulls – both work 100% when they should. Ok 1 is now actually dodgeable
• HEALING. No passive healing allowing 1v2 kiting. Still interuptable. Healing well still not unnfered from math test fail and no blast to combo it.
• No get out jail cards , basic mobility , were still glass and we get 100-0 even in 1v1
• Free kill at start with 0 lifeforce , extreme min/max difference
• RELIABILITY aka FORTUNE TELLING : you still praise RNG that your skills land, that enemy is bad, that no random blind comes up…

Its decent patch, PVE poeple will love it, I just dont want my actions in high PVP to be outside of my control and my combos being filled with unintended counterplay.

Only considering wvw/pvp buffs for power here~
In my honest opinion the deathshroud buffs are over the top. The GS corrupt was basically all needed to make gs really viable in spvp.
GS/A will prevail in pvp now … and welp the dmg you press out in wvw on gs is kittenin insane now.
They buffed the wrong stuff for wvw imo, we need stab or mobility not mooore dmg.
Gs4 buff is good tho~

trueanimus.4085:

They buffed a weapon that no one uses.. GG anet.. way to make reaper viable in wvw.. buff a melee weapon that no clothie should ever be using.

Only Condi Necros would be the only ones NOT running GS. Any Power Reaper worth their salt knows GS is the strongest power weapon in our kitten nal. By your logic, Thieves should also be Light Armored and not allowed to use Staff as a Melee weapon since going Monk on your enemy requires strength in the first place, which contradicts the Thief’s role as an Assassin.

The GS buff was probably needed, but the weapon was still usable and strong beforehand. Just because YOU never used it doesn’t mean ‘no one’ used it.

Erzian.5218:

leman.7682:

I will be testing the new dps with my friends, but there are some interesting venues worth exploring with trait/rotations for raids. Possibly even something new for PvP, but that’s yet to be determined.

It would be interesting to see what the dev behind these changes thinks of GS’s usability and position in PvP and PvE right now.

From what I have briefly tested for pve (sr, reaper, spite):
- Shroud 2-4 are a dps loss compared to shroud 1 (with dhuumfire)
- GS has higher dps than shroud overall despite the auto attack being weaker
- Overall dps is still trash compared to other dps classes and probably behind condi nec which also got minor buffs.

Have you tried using wells/GS4 then getting the bonus Ferocity in RS for a few seconds while the aoes pulse then leaving RS for more gravedigger?
The bleeds on chill might still be better for power GS builds though.

sadly all attack speed increasing traits are still worthless when you got quickness.

Okami.7049:

Only Condi Necros would be the only ones NOT running GS. Any Power Reaper worth their salt knows GS is the strongest power weapon…

Power Reaper dead in PvE.

This is over 4 months of work. lol.

What do they do all day? I have never seen such a lack of effort in a game before.

Mocrassar.4317:

Okami.7049:

Only Condi Necros would be the only ones NOT running GS. Any Power Reaper worth their salt knows GS is the strongest power weapon…

Power Reaper dead in PvE.

Power Reaper is the main choice right now, Condi’s been dead far longer than Power my friend. And if your only thought on PvE is ‘raids/fractals’ then you have a LOT to learn about PvE.

Nothing for spvp condi builds. In fact we got weaker due to even more anti-condition stuff being put in.

I guess we just have to wait for the Meta Overlords to review these changes, how ever I’m hoping it opens a place at the table, if it doesn’t I’m walking and taking my wallet with me.

Flumek.9043:

PVE dps increase.
Very good, hopefully enough to make us a healthy choice for the dps spot.

PVE group support.
Still nothing. So were selfish only dps, that does medium tier dps.

PVP dps increase.
Ill take it, but its minor. Damage was never lacking, its always ladning your skills and enemy defenses that are problems.

PVP " RELIABLITY " changes.
NOTHING.

• We have 2 pulls – both dont work. DH has 2 pulls – both work 100% when they should. Ok 1 is now actually dodgeable
• HEALING. No passive healing allowing 1v2 kiting. Still interuptable. Healing well still not unnfered from math test fail and no blast to combo it.
• No get out jail cards , basic mobility , were still glass and we get 100-0 even in 1v1
• Free kill at start with 0 lifeforce , extreme min/max difference
• RELIABILITY aka FORTUNE TELLING : you still praise RNG that your skills land, that enemy is bad, that no random blind comes up…

Its decent patch, PVE poeple will love it, I just dont want my actions in high PVP to be outside of my control and my combos being filled with unintended counterplay.

In pvp this patch was a huge nerf to necromancer. It got nothing to fix its issues

ZombieSlayeR.8702:

Only considering wvw/pvp buffs for power here~
In my honest opinion the deathshroud buffs are over the top. The GS corrupt was basically all needed to make gs really viable in spvp.
GS/A will prevail in pvp now … and welp the dmg you press out in wvw on gs is kittenin insane now.
They buffed the wrong stuff for wvw imo, we need stab or mobility not mooore dmg.
Gs4 buff is good tho~

No it won’t prevail in pvp because the cast times are too long and its melee. So you will go into a team fight and get destroyed. and CC chained.

I have to agree with the PvP sentiment that others expressed – tested the GS/Shroud on golems and it feels like there are some okay skills in there (GS3 and GS4 stand out, minus the wonky animation on #3), but honestly most of it is still too situational to make it worth taking.
Not to mention that you can’t really skip staff or warhorn so that’s not enough. Other than that there’s really nothing much.

trueanimus.4085:

They buffed a weapon that no one uses.. GG anet.. way to make reaper viable in wvw.. buff a melee weapon that no clothie should ever be using.

That is exactly why they are buffing it. If only a low percentage of necros uses it (because that nobody uses it is a lie, plain and simple) they have to buff it to bring it to the same powerlevel of the other weapons to create more choices and builds.
Seeing comments like this I am totally glad that they almost pay attention to these forums, because the game would be extremely stupid taking """"feedback"""" like this into account.

On the topic at hand, I am glad that they buffed it, I like to use it on PvE and maybe it would be more desired now in PvP given that it now corrupts boons on AoE and deals more damage and gravedigger is more responsible. I will test it for sure.
On the hand…. almost every CD buff is useless, I mean Spectral Grasp could have 5 seconds CD and I won’t use it at all (hillarious that they decided making it 20 seconds CD on PvE would be OP so they only did it on PvP). Others are highly appreciated, like Well of Blood or Spectral Wall (I still have hopes that Terrormancer will come back to PvP).

What the hell does GS buff brings us in raoming, if every nub is faster than you as GS necro, and you can never hit any enemy…

next useless balancing…

Zero.3871:

What the hell does GS buff brings us in raoming, if every nub is faster than you as GS necro, and you can never hit any enemy…

next useless balancing…

Why they should only balance for one of the many aspects of the game? No wonder why devs stopped chatting with us in the profession forums a long, long time ago.

Really excited for the GS and shroud changes for power necros and cant wait yo try them out in a raid. The Condi changes help a little with ramping and burst dps with RS 5+4.

Need to see how the numbers actually fall out in a real fight and not theoretical. I hope people start taking Condi necros again and being at least ok with power necro in raids if they can perform.

Zero.3871:

What the hell does GS buff brings us in raoming, if every nub is faster than you as GS necro, and you can never hit any enemy…

next useless balancing…

Roaming with GS on nec requires a lot of skill its just all about baiting ur enemy … besides that u can bug gs 5 into ds or dodge to cancel the cast time to 1/4s … gs 4 helps alot with cleave now too … its not what we wanted but its rly good nonetheless

Reaper and wells…

Will condi-copter be good enough for a raid slot?

Anchoku.8142:

Reaper and wells…

Will condi-copter be good enough for a raid slot?

condi-copter?

As a power Necro, I am happy with the changes, especially the Grasping Darkness cooldown reduction, it’s now 20 sec with trait.

bearshaman.3421:

Anchoku.8142:

Reaper and wells…

Will condi-copter be good enough for a raid slot?

condi-copter?

Gravedigger spam -> copter.
Gravedigger spam in dark field -> condi-copter

Answer to Anchoku : most likely “no”

Necromancer: “Hey, I’d like to bring a Reaper wells bui-”
Raid leader: “No!”
Necromancer: “But the light and dark f-”
Raid leader: “No!!”
Necromancer: “What if I stand next to-”
Raid leader votes to kick

leman.7682:

I have to agree with the PvP sentiment that others expressed – tested the GS/Shroud on golems and it feels like there are some okay skills in there (GS3 and GS4 stand out, minus the wonky animation on #3), but honestly most of it is still too situational to make it worth taking.
Not to mention that you can’t really skip staff or warhorn so that’s not enough. Other than that there’s really nothing much.

Nightfall is disgustingly good now though for handling nodes. Also Soul Spiral with Onslaught and DPerceptions is basically 100blades but better.

Crinn.7864:

leman.7682:

I have to agree with the PvP sentiment that others expressed – tested the GS/Shroud on golems and it feels like there are some okay skills in there (GS3 and GS4 stand out, minus the wonky animation on #3), but honestly most of it is still too situational to make it worth taking.
Not to mention that you can’t really skip staff or warhorn so that’s not enough. Other than that there’s really nothing much.

Nightfall is disgustingly good now though for handling nodes. Also Soul Spiral with Onslaught and DPerceptions is basically 100blades but better.

necros have been soul spiral bots since summer.

and greatsword even with unlimited damage would still be greatsword.

On the bright side of things, both condi and power specs have similar dps benchmarks now.

Aktium.9506:

On the bright side of things, both condi and power specs have similar dps benchmarks now.

Awww yeah! we can now fight with condi mesmer for a spot in the team!
Future is looking bright.
uuh, wait a second…

But seriously though it’s nice that neither condi or power is massivly better than the other. So we are at least balanced by ourselves.

DTATL.9641:

Aktium.9506:

On the bright side of things, both condi and power specs have similar dps benchmarks now.

Awww yeah! we can now fight with condi mesmer for a spot in the team!
Future is looking bright.
uuh, wait a second…

But seriously though it’s nice that neither condi or power is massivly better than the other. So we are at least balanced by ourselves.

I’ll take what I can get. It’s not a nerf, which is about as good as we can hope for.

I think they took the 0.2 seconds off the wrong end of Gravedigger. I appreciate the thought and either way it’s still a buff, but the windup is more frustrating to me than the after-cast.

no major nerfs, I’m happy.

pve tldr: power rotation still same, reaper’s onslaught still useless, condi got buffed a little

Aktium.9506:

On the bright side of things, both condi and power specs have similar dps benchmarks now.

With or without epidemic bouncing?

Eponet.4829:

Aktium.9506:

On the bright side of things, both condi and power specs have similar dps benchmarks now.

With or without epidemic bouncing?

Without.

Bouncing Epi would require you to run 2 Necros. A single Necro is enough of a detriment so one should never even bother to factor in Epi. Not to mention only one gets to ping it back to the boss.