Guild Wars 2

In my opinion focus is currently (actually even since the release of gw2) underperforming as an offhand. In almost all cases i would rather take warhorn over focus. The problem is that spinal shivers has a in my opinion a unreasonable long casttime for what it does.

Dont get me wrong the effect is not a bad by any means but a single target spell that does mediocre damage (1.25 coefficent with 3 boons), some boon removel and some chill is not good enough to justify a 1.25 second casttime (just compare it to other 1.25 second skills like gravedigger or chilled to the bone). Infact i would even go so far and say any single target skill that has a casttime longer then 3/4 seconds is useless against any decent player that pays attention to you. Yes you could set it up with a hard cc but i dont think a skill with a 1.25 damage coefficent at best is worth the setup.

Because of this i think the best improvment that focus should get to bring it in line to warhorn is to give spinal shivers a casttime reduction to 3/4 seconds.

Spinal Shivers should probably have a 1s cast time, just due to the fact that it is such a huge swing in the flow of the fight; the enemy goes from fairly strong (3 boons) to taking a large amount of damage + boon stripping and chill in one cast. Might want to look at the damage a bit as well.

The other thing that has to happen is Reaper’s Touch needs to be a 100% projectile finisher, just like the Mesmer equivalent, with a better boon.

For #4 just make it a direct heal and increase projectile speed,#5 reduced cast time and corrupt boons. Spinal Shivers is somewhat overrated except CoD because you don’t have to stop attacking and carry a low link weapon. OH dagger needs help as well it’s WH> all no matter the build.

I always thought Focus #4 could use a better projectile, but that’s about it. #5’s cast time is a bit long (to the point where I’ve seen people recognize the animation and dodge, then get hit anyway because it was still casting), but it should definitely be at least 1 second.

I always preferred Focus over WH personally for the boon strip, extra chill, and burst potential with #4. It pairs nicely with dagger since landing an immob meant they were about to experience hurt, especially since #4 would gain the additional crit from Death Perception if you swapped immediately into DS. The cooldowns were long and the range was long, which helped catch that Swiftness enemy who is trying to run, suddenly making them lose swiftness AND be chilled at 1200.

I really don’t think it needs much.

I think spinal shivers should have a lower cast time but maybe less chill. Make it far more usable. Odd idea but think it should have a flip over skill so the trait interaction can be the same as guardians and their radiant fire trait. If it flipped over to something else would incentivize taking spiteful talisman and the weapon in general. Would be to much effort to do those since would mean a new skill to balance and code.

I always loved the spiteful talisman trait as well as the focus. Shivers is a powerful skill, and considering how reaper’s touch will interact with Decimate Defenses from the reaper line, in a 1v1 situation I personally see dagger/focus being a choice weapon set alongside the Greatsword.

Quick and dirty build where this sort of thing would be shown as an example: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAodRjM0QTNWdDm3A7NWyFs4qYX8LCFAaArgoMw9qeB-TBCBAB7pPwiTAQlq/cmSQsU+BwTAoo9HC4QAEA4A43+23hD88zP/8zP3v/+7v/+bpAiYMA-e

Mercurias.1826:

I always loved the spiteful talisman trait as well as the focus. Shivers is a powerful skill, and considering how reaper’s touch will interact with Decimate Defenses from the reaper line, in a 1v1 situation I personally see dagger/focus being a choice weapon set alongside the Greatsword.

Quick and dirty build where this sort of thing would be shown as an example: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAodRjM0QTNWdDm3A7NWyFs4qYX8LCFAaArgoMw9qeB-TBCBAB7pPwiTAQlq/cmSQsU+BwTAoo9HC4QAEA4A43+23hD88zP/8zP3v/+7v/+bpAiYMA-e

I get why you’d think focus would be good for reaper but I think having locust swarm is more valuable on a reaper

Let’s compare Reaper’s Touch with Mirror Blade, one of the more similar skills.

Cast time: identical.
Recharge: 18s for RT, 8s for MB. Large advantage to MB.
Range: identical.
Direct damage: RT has a coefficient of 0.75 vs 0.7 for MB. However, Greatsword has 22% higher weapon strength than Focus (given equivalent level and rarity), so MB actually does ~14% more direct damage per hit despite the lower coefficient. Opposing that, RT has an additional bounce and thus may still do more total damage.
Boon granted to allies per hit: RT grants 5s Regeneration, MB grants 3×10s Might. Advantage arguable, but personally I find the Regeneration to be a bit lackluster and would prefer a different boon, so I would give the advantage to MB.
Vulnerability applied to enemies per hit: 4×10s for RT, 3×3s for MB. Advantage to RT (duration benefit mostly canceled by the higher recharge of RT, but can stack up to 12 vuln on a single target/20 total on multiple targets vs 6/12 for MB).
Number of bounces: 4 for RT, 3 for MB. Advantage to RT.

RT grants life force per hit, while MB obviously does not. However, MB is a 100% projectile finisher per bounce and is unblockable. Advantage to MB.

In short, RT has an additional bounce, more Vuln application, and grants life force, but MB has a far shorter recharge, a more useful boon, is a 100% projectile finisher on bounces, and is unblockable. Total direct damage ends up being fairly similar, can go either way depending on the situation (MB does more per hit but RT has more hits).

Personal suggestion: reduce the recharge of Reaper’s Touch to 15s and replace the Regeneration boon with a different boon (Fury?).

I also support the reduction of Spinal Shivers to a 1s cast time.

Personally I think Focus is fine and after the range buff its really strong. Now having said that I don’t mind a buff to cast time :P but I’d prefer to leave regeneration because the vulnerability stacking is already good for damage output imo.

Focus 5 just needs a cast time reduction, the function of Spinal Shivers is a good one. It’s what power necros take from Spite tree almost always so that tells you it’s good.

Focus 4 can get a velocity increase as it takes too long for the projectile to reach its target. The idea sounds good on paper, and it’s great they increased focus to 1200 range. But the slow projectile kinda ruins it. In fact a QoL change would be to take away the projectile and just make it like any cast. It can still be dodged because cast time is slow for what it does.

Otherwise Reaper’s Touch as a function is ok as it does set you up for a burst on a target. Between you and the target it’ll bounce back & forth twice, so that’s vuln + damage + lifeforce. It’s not bad, I just would like to see it made more reliable.

For all those who say RT should have an other boon. I disagree i always liked that i get some healing out of it. So if it really needs a change maybe make it into direct healing instead of an other boon? A 100% Projectile finisher or/and higher velocity would certainly improve this skill alot but i dont think that RT is the problem of our focus.

For spinal shivers i am not convinced that a reduction to 1 second casttime would be enough but it certainly would be a big improvement.

Reaper’s Touch would be way way better with fury. The regen is bad, it’s clearly an offensive weapon with two skills that hit relatively hard. Regen is probably the least desirable boon on focus. Also, spinal shivers would still be bad at a 1 second cast. That’s just a 1/4 second reduction, which is not enough to make it hard to dodge at all. I’d suggest they remove the trait chill of death, which is cheap auto proc BS that carries our burst, and compensate by taking spinal shivers down to a 1/2 second cast or less.

zapv.8051:

The regen is bad, it’s clearly an offensive weapon with two skills that hit relatively hard. Regen is probably the least desirable boon on focus.

This. Regen has absolutely no place on the skill, regardless of whether or not the healing is nice. It is a fully offensively focused skill, with a defensive boon slapped on.

zapv.8051:

Also, spinal shivers would still be bad at a 1 second cast. That’s just a 1/4 second reduction, which is not enough to make it hard to dodge at all. I’d suggest they remove the trait chill of death, which is cheap auto proc BS that carries our burst, and compensate by taking spinal shivers down to a 1/2 second cast or less.

The point isn’t to make it impossible to avoid, which is what 1/2s would be, at that point it only has a cast time so you can’t cast it at the same time as other abilities/while CCed. It changes fights in a very big way, it can’t be less than 3/4s, and even that is pushing it for an impactful ability. If any change would be made its to bump up the damage to push it more properly into the roll it is meant to full.

Bhawb.7408:

zapv.8051:

Also, spinal shivers would still be bad at a 1 second cast. That’s just a 1/4 second reduction, which is not enough to make it hard to dodge at all. I’d suggest they remove the trait chill of death, which is cheap auto proc BS that carries our burst, and compensate by taking spinal shivers down to a 1/2 second cast or less.

The point isn’t to make it impossible to avoid, which is what 1/2s would be, at that point it only has a cast time so you can’t cast it at the same time as other abilities/while CCed. It changes fights in a very big way, it can’t be less than 3/4s, and even that is pushing it for an impactful ability. If any change would be made its to bump up the damage to push it more properly into the roll it is meant to full.

Well, maybe I just have better reactions then most people, but I can dodge most of the 1/2 second casts consistently (assuming I’m not stoned). 3/4s would be fine as well, but 1 second isn’t enough of a change for me. Also, I feel like it would be more justified at a 1/2 second if as I said chill of death is removed. Damage might be another nice option. I like that you currently get rewarded in pvp for removing more boons, but in pve this also makes the skill useless. Maybe it could deal it’s top damage both if the foe had 0 boons and 3 or more, and thus be more useful in pve.

Bhawb.7408:

zapv.8051:

The regen is bad, it’s clearly an offensive weapon with two skills that hit relatively hard. Regen is probably the least desirable boon on focus.

This. Regen has absolutely no place on the skill, regardless of whether or not the healing is nice. It is a fully offensively focused skill, with a defensive boon slapped on.

zapv.8051:

Also, spinal shivers would still be bad at a 1 second cast. That’s just a 1/4 second reduction, which is not enough to make it hard to dodge at all. I’d suggest they remove the trait chill of death, which is cheap auto proc BS that carries our burst, and compensate by taking spinal shivers down to a 1/2 second cast or less.

The point isn’t to make it impossible to avoid, which is what 1/2s would be, at that point it only has a cast time so you can’t cast it at the same time as other abilities/while CCed. It changes fights in a very big way, it can’t be less than 3/4s, and even that is pushing it for an impactful ability. If any change would be made its to bump up the damage to push it more properly into the roll it is meant to full.

Given that mirror blade is less than half a second before the projectile comes out and is 100% dodge-or-lose if you’re playing glass, i’m having some real problems seeing how 1/2s cast time on spinal shivers would be a problem.

As far as the regen goes, I don’t consider it a problem for a weapon to be able to fill multiple roles. Personally I definitely think that a defensive boon on the bounces has a place, as some sort of mitigation is pretty mandatory when playing with offensive stats.

Perhaps something that would fit the theme better is if the scythe popped an AoE blind around yourself or your ally when it hit them.

While I like Focus, I agree that it needs changes. Not large, sweeping ones though.
Faster cast for Spinal Shivers and a different boon for Reaper’s Touch should be fine. I’d also take a look at the cast time of Reaper’s Touch. It feels pretty slow.
Regarding the MB vs RT comparison. RT deals around 44.5% more damage when fighting alone against a single target and he does not evade/block any hit. Not including might gained from MB.

I actually really like the Focus… but it clearly has some issues.

My wishlist:

4 (Reaper’s Touch): Add a minor direct heal to allied hits, cause the skill to prioritize the original target for bounces. It’d also be kinda cool if it were a Whirl or Projectile finisher, but I’m not too hung up on that.

5 (Spinal Shivers): Drop cast time to 1 or 3/4.

The only thing that needs to change in my eyes is that #5 should be able to be casted while not facing your target. Then it wouldnt matter what the cast time was, your body would be able to hide part of the animation.
#4 is fine as is. You guys are asking for too much. That skill hits really hard, gives tons of vuln and life force. Yeah classes should have ample oppurtunity to dodge it.

Stand The Wall.6987:

1. is fine as is. You guys are asking for too much. That skill hits really hard, gives tons of vuln and life force. Yeah classes should have ample oppurtunity to dodge it.

Reaper’s Touch is passable as is, that doesn’t mean it actually functions as well as it could. The Mirror Blade comparison is valid, and slight improvements to the skill in order to increase its combos with the rest of the class (finisher) and further improving focus’ identity as a damage/debuff weapon (regen to something else offensive) are large QoL improvements without making large power changes.

Son of Urza.1692:

Let’s compare Reaper’s Touch with Mirror Blade, one of the more similar skills.

Cast time: identical.
Recharge: 18s for RT, 8s for MB. Large advantage to MB.
Range: identical.
Direct damage: RT has a coefficient of 0.75 vs 0.7 for MB. However, Greatsword has 22% higher weapon strength than Focus (given equivalent level and rarity), so MB actually does ~14% more direct damage per hit despite the lower coefficient. Opposing that, RT has an additional bounce and thus may still do more total damage.
Boon granted to allies per hit: RT grants 5s Regeneration, MB grants 3×10s Might. Advantage arguable, but personally I find the Regeneration to be a bit lackluster and would prefer a different boon, so I would give the advantage to MB.
Vulnerability applied to enemies per hit: 4×10s for RT, 3×3s for MB. Advantage to RT (duration benefit mostly canceled by the higher recharge of RT, but can stack up to 12 vuln on a single target/20 total on multiple targets vs 6/12 for MB).
Number of bounces: 4 for RT, 3 for MB. Advantage to RT.

RT grants life force per hit, while MB obviously does not. However, MB is a 100% projectile finisher per bounce and is unblockable. Advantage to MB.

In short, RT has an additional bounce, more Vuln application, and grants life force, but MB has a far shorter recharge, a more useful boon, is a 100% projectile finisher on bounces, and is unblockable. Total direct damage ends up being fairly similar, can go either way depending on the situation (MB does more per hit but RT has more hits).

Personal suggestion: reduce the recharge of Reaper’s Touch to 15s and replace the Regeneration boon with a different boon (Fury?).

I also support the reduction of Spinal Shivers to a 1s cast time.

You forgot the most important detail

• mirror blade homes and is regular flying projectile
• focus#4 doesnt home and is hovering projectile aka it gets pebble stuck

Game engine is our biggest hardcounter.

Reaper’s touch is mostly fine I think. I would like for it to be a projectile finisher.

The boon seems a bit out of place like others have commented. Protection would be better than regeneration I think, or an offensive boon like fury or might. Not too fussed about it though.

Spinal Shivers needs a cast time reduction. No more than 1 sec, 3/4 sec would be ideal.

Flumek.9043:

You forgot the most important detail

• mirror blade homes and is regular flying projectile
• focus#4 doesnt home and is hovering projectile aka it gets pebble stuck

Game engine is our biggest hardcounter.

Reaper’s Touch doesn’t home? The Wiki article says that it does. I suppose the article could be wrong. Can’t comment on the other, haven’t tested that in particular, but if true that’s another huge disadvantage.

Son of Urza.1692:

Flumek.9043:

You forgot the most important detail

• mirror blade homes and is regular flying projectile
• focus#4 doesnt home and is hovering projectile aka it gets pebble stuck

Game engine is our biggest hardcounter.

Reaper’s Touch doesn’t home? The Wiki article says that it does. I suppose the article could be wrong. Can’t comment on the other, haven’t tested that in particular, but if true that’s another huge disadvantage.

It does home. The hovering thing is the biggest annoyance, but its meant to be a touch skill anyways so thats passable.

People keep saying projectile finisher this, blast finisher that but it’s extremely irrelevant since necro doesn’t have proper fields to benefit from it.

No, dark field life steal is not good enough. Neither is 3 seconds of weakness.

robertul.3679:

People keep saying projectile finisher this, blast finisher that but it’s extremely irrelevant since necro doesn’t have proper fields to benefit from it.

No, dark field life steal is not good enough. Neither is 3 seconds of weakness.

Whether or not our fields have the strongest finishers is absolutely irrelevant (and wrong). Finishers are a huge part of expressing your skill in the game. Any moron can press buttons, but combining skills in such a way that the result is more than the sum of the parts, which is exactly what finishers provide, is a way for the game to have depth to its mechanics. Not only is it important for solo play with your own build, but it is the biggest contributor to group play. Completely denying that from Necromancers is bad design.

Also, a dark field + Reaper’s Touch would provide up to 920(0.12 scaling) extra damage, and 808(0.4) healing.

Sorry I meant from the perspective of skill use value not immersion roleplaying clever-combo value.
As in, doing something useful not just feeling satisfied and non-moronic while pressing those buttons.

Nope, combo finishers aren’t the biggest contributor to group play. Party-wide buffs, cleanses, positioning and coordination(more than blasting a field) are all much more important.

Ruduce Spinal Shivers to a 1 sec cast. Make Reaper’s Touch a 100% proj finisher and change the regen to 5 secs of Fury on ally bounce. (Even the trait knows this is a power weapon. :/)

Yay. Focus is now fixed.

Cogbyrn.7283:

I always thought Focus #4 could use a better projectile, but that’s about it. #5’s cast time is a bit long (to the point where I’ve seen people recognize the animation and dodge, then get hit anyway because it was still casting), but it should definitely be at least 1 second.

I honestly Loled even though it is only sad….

robertul.3679:

Sorry I meant from the perspective of skill use value not immersion roleplaying clever-combo value.
As in, doing something useful not just feeling satisfied and non-moronic while pressing those buttons.

Nope, combo finishers aren’t the biggest contributor to group play. Party-wide buffs, cleanses, positioning and coordination(more than blasting a field) are all much more important.

Every little bit counts. If your RT does 1000 more damage in a Dark Field, that’s skill use value. Yes, general team-play, positioning, and coordination are important, but combo fields give 5 people the potential of more than 5 people. That’s what he’s talking about, and it shouldn’t be so easily dismissed.

Son of Urza.1692:

Let’s compare Reaper’s Touch with Mirror Blade, one of the more similar skills.

Cast time: identical.
Recharge: 18s for RT, 8s for MB. Large advantage to MB.
Range: identical.
Direct damage: RT has a coefficient of 0.75 vs 0.7 for MB. However, Greatsword has 22% higher weapon strength than Focus (given equivalent level and rarity), so MB actually does ~14% more direct damage per hit despite the lower coefficient. Opposing that, RT has an additional bounce and thus may still do more total damage.
Boon granted to allies per hit: RT grants 5s Regeneration, MB grants 3×10s Might. Advantage arguable, but personally I find the Regeneration to be a bit lackluster and would prefer a different boon, so I would give the advantage to MB.
Vulnerability applied to enemies per hit: 4×10s for RT, 3×3s for MB. Advantage to RT (duration benefit mostly canceled by the higher recharge of RT, but can stack up to 12 vuln on a single target/20 total on multiple targets vs 6/12 for MB).
Number of bounces: 4 for RT, 3 for MB. Advantage to RT.

RT grants life force per hit, while MB obviously does not. However, MB is a 100% projectile finisher per bounce and is unblockable. Advantage to MB.

In short, RT has an additional bounce, more Vuln application, and grants life force, but MB has a far shorter recharge, a more useful boon, is a 100% projectile finisher on bounces, and is unblockable. Total direct damage ends up being fairly similar, can go either way depending on the situation (MB does more per hit but RT has more hits).

Personal suggestion: reduce the recharge of Reaper’s Touch to 15s and replace the Regeneration boon with a different boon (Fury?).

I also support the reduction of Spinal Shivers to a 1s cast time.

I guess I replied too fast. :/ +1

Good analysis and great solutions. Literally exactly what I’ve thought for a while. The recharge reduction vs 100% proj finisher change could go either way purely depending on utilities/situation.

Rob Gee plz read this!

I was tempted to say ‘Geesus plz read this!’, for effect….and now I have.

Blast finishers are literally the basis of entire sets of play in every game mode. WvW coordinated fights are heavily based around coordinated fields and finishers, just as much if not more so than any other buff. There are also entire PvP builds that exist solely because of field/finisher interactions, like D/D ele. And fields/finisher group buffing are a huge part of PvE, they provide both pre and during fight buffs to the team, plus things like Engi have heavily depended on the use of combos to fill their niche (engi’s use as a meta build was partly due to it being able to fill a certain level of stealth in lieu of a thief).

The combo system is inarguably a huge part of the game. It goes beyond just being a way to express skill, the game wouldn’t be remotely the same (in a bad way) if it were not for the existence of the combo system. Yes there are other ways to buff allies, but combos heavily dominate coordinated team support. And that is ignoring the very large addition they have to individual play.

Bhawb.7408:

Blast finishers are literally the basis of entire sets of play in every game mode. WvW coordinated fights are heavily based around coordinated fields and finishers, just as much if not more so than any other buff. There are also entire PvP builds that exist solely because of field/finisher interactions, like D/D ele. And fields/finisher group buffing are a huge part of PvE, they provide both pre and during fight buffs to the team, plus things like Engi have heavily depended on the use of combos to fill their niche (engi’s use as a meta build was partly due to it being able to fill a certain level of stealth in lieu of a thief).

The combo system is inarguably a huge part of the game. It goes beyond just being a way to express skill, the game wouldn’t be remotely the same (in a bad way) if it were not for the existence of the combo system. Yes there are other ways to buff allies, but combos heavily dominate coordinated team support. And that is ignoring the very large addition they have to individual play.

And that is why I agree with the 100% proj finisher sentiment for Reaper’s Touch. And even went so far as to argue that it (adding 100% proj finisher would be as good/equal to reducing the CD by 15+%). Surely you aren’t advocating adding a blast finisher to Spinal Shivers? That would make one hell of an OP, ‘must have’ skill (not to mention traited CoD O.O).

Bawb, are you in the right thread? I think the 100% proj finisher idea has already been driven home…

Blast finishers are probably more for Unholy Feast. Definitely not Spinal Shivers.

Chill of Death is strong, while Spinal Shivers is bad. The only real difference is cast time. It also means that they do have something they can tune to improve Spinal Shivers without buffing Chill of Death.

Tman.6349:

And that is why I agree with the 100% proj finisher sentiment for Reaper’s Touch. And even went so far as to argue that it (adding 100% proj finisher would be as good/equal to reducing the CD by 15+%). Surely you aren’t advocating adding a blast finisher to Spinal Shivers? That would make one hell of an OP, ‘must have’ skill (not to mention traited CoD O.O).

Bawb, are you in the right thread? I think the 100% proj finisher idea has already been driven home…

The quote chain that put me on that directly said there was no need for a finisher because we can’t use it.

robertul.3679:

People keep saying projectile finisher this, blast finisher that but it’s extremely irrelevant since necro doesn’t have proper fields to benefit from it.

No, dark field life steal is not good enough. Neither is 3 seconds of weakness.

Reaper Shroud 5 + Blast would be great for teamfights and MM’s. I would actually love to see four Frost Armored little minions hanging out by their master.

Alright well I can get behind the aforementioned changes; mainly #4 acting as a homing projectile finisher, and #5 cast time reduced to 1s.
I would love it if we could start the cast of #5 without facing the target (very much like dagger#3).

Reaper’s Touch:
Make it skill #5 with 25sec CD.
Gain Spectral Shield for 4s. The damage from next 3 attacks are converted to healing(fixed amount), similar to the Druid “Sublime Conversion”. Or give LF and if its full the rest is converted to healing.
Traited in Spectral Mastery negates 1 additional attack and the shield last longer.
Remove the Regeneration and Vulnerability. Grant 3% LF and additional 1% per absorbed hit.

Spinal Shivers:
Make it skill #4.
Keep it the same, but lower its casting time to 1s. or even 3/4.

well doubt i’d be adding anything new that was not mentioned but here just for publicity i guess

skill 5
Lower cast time to 1

Make it corrupt boons instead of remove aka axe treatment

Adding a tiny aoe radius like mesmer mantras would make dis better skill for both power and condi builds but not really needed.

make it a blast finisher.

skill 4

Projectile does not seem to be reliable at range and that needs addressing. making it a mirror blade carbon copy would be nice

Increase projectile speed and make it a projectile finisher

Reduce cooldown to 14 seconds instead of 18

Replace regen to fury

Apply 1 stack of might to the caster and 1 extra vulnerability stack to the target if the target has no boons, or gain x amount of health for each bounce that affected targets with no boons

The focus needs more raw power if it is going to compete with the warhorn’s lifeforce generation and control or dagger off hand’s defensive weakness and transfer utility

Now that guardian shield is fixed (and pretty good!) focus is probably the worst offhand weapon in the game. And somewhere anet agreed it underperformed but chose to buff the range (meaningless!) instead of addressing the real problems.

I’ve posted my thoughts elsewhere, so I’ll ask this Question:

How come Focus underperforms so significantly to all to the other attacks with a bouncing mechanic? (Mesmer, GS2. Guardian Focus 4….)

nekretaal.6485:

Now that guardian shield is fixed (and pretty good!) focus is probably the worst offhand weapon in the game. And somewhere anet agreed it underperformed but chose to buff the range (meaningless!) instead of addressing the real problems.

I’ve posted my thoughts elsewhere, so I’ll ask this Question:

How come Focus underperforms so significantly to all to the other attacks with a bouncing mechanic? (Mesmer, GS2. Guardian Focus 4….)

I agree, the range buff was really unecessary because you should never cast focus 4 at max range anyway. I don’t think focus 4 underperforms that much, it is pretty good, but needs to give an offensive boon and maybe travel faster to really be comparable to those other great skills.

The reason no one runs this weapon is completely because of focus 5. I could deal with focus 4 not giving fury, not gamebreaking. I can’t deal with having a skill that will always get interrupted or dodged and doesn’t provide obscene damage.

robertul.3679:

People keep saying projectile finisher this, blast finisher that but it’s extremely irrelevant since necro doesn’t have proper fields to benefit from it.

No, dark field life steal is not good enough. Neither is 3 seconds of weakness.

Necromancer has quite a lot of access to fields. In fact, every single utility category provides a type of field (except for minions if you don’t have death nova). Even then, GS has a dark field built into it, and reaper will give a lot of access to a chill field with RS 5.

Necromancer however, is sorely lacking in finishers (no finishers on focus, scepter, axe, dagger main hand, dagger off hand, very few finishers in utilities).

From the short time I played reaper in the 3 BWEs, I found the ability to use finishers, even if they’re just whirl finishers, a huge game changer. It lets you get a little extra something out of what you and your allies do, and adds up very quickly.

Also, 3 seconds of weakness is nothing to scoff at. especially if it’s on a projectile that can apply it 2-3 times, the same goes for the leeching bolts.

striker.3704:

robertul.3679:

People keep saying projectile finisher this, blast finisher that but it’s extremely irrelevant since necro doesn’t have proper fields to benefit from it.

No, dark field life steal is not good enough. Neither is 3 seconds of weakness.

Necromancer has quite a lot of access to fields. In fact, every single utility category provides a type of field (except for minions if you don’t have death nova). Even then, GS has a dark field built into it, and reaper will give a lot of access to a chill field with RS 5.

Signets have a field? Shouts have a field?

I’m gonna explain.
Proper fields means highly useful fields such as smoke, water, fire. Sure, all fields are useful to an extent but you can’t really compare the benefit of poison and dark to fire and smoke.

@Bhawb I never said combo field+finisher isn’t very important. You said it’s the biggest contributor to team play and I disagreed and provided examples of other things far more important.

On the same note, d/d ele isn’t completely built around combo synergy. Not at all. They got 2 fire fields that are pretty short in duration and 2 reliable blasts. The earth dodge from evasive arcana might not always be available since you gotta dodge stuff outside of your rotation(or maybe in water for the extra sustain) and nobody really uses churning because it’s risky and easy to dodge anyway.

They only had so much might because of the now nerfed fire traits, and long ago from OP battle sigil(also nerfed).

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

striker.3704:

robertul.3679:

People keep saying projectile finisher this, blast finisher that but it’s extremely irrelevant since necro doesn’t have proper fields to benefit from it.

No, dark field life steal is not good enough. Neither is 3 seconds of weakness.

Necromancer has quite a lot of access to fields. In fact, every single utility category provides a type of field (except for minions if you don’t have death nova). Even then, GS has a dark field built into it, and reaper will give a lot of access to a chill field with RS 5.

Signets have a field? Shouts have a field?

signets, no, shouts, yes. (the signet that resses downed allies should create an ethereal field now that I think about it, it would make sense and help a signet in need.)

striker.3704:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

striker.3704:

robertul.3679:

People keep saying projectile finisher this, blast finisher that but it’s extremely irrelevant since necro doesn’t have proper fields to benefit from it.

No, dark field life steal is not good enough. Neither is 3 seconds of weakness.

Necromancer has quite a lot of access to fields. In fact, every single utility category provides a type of field (except for minions if you don’t have death nova). Even then, GS has a dark field built into it, and reaper will give a lot of access to a chill field with RS 5.

Signets have a field? Shouts have a field?

signets, no, shouts, yes. (the signet that resses downed allies should create an ethereal field now that I think about it, it would make sense and help a signet in need.)

Shouts dont have a field unless you count the fields the “rise” minions, traited with death nova, give…

Muchacho.2390:

striker.3704:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

striker.3704:

robertul.3679:

People keep saying projectile finisher this, blast finisher that but it’s extremely irrelevant since necro doesn’t have proper fields to benefit from it.

No, dark field life steal is not good enough. Neither is 3 seconds of weakness.

Necromancer has quite a lot of access to fields. In fact, every single utility category provides a type of field (except for minions if you don’t have death nova). Even then, GS has a dark field built into it, and reaper will give a lot of access to a chill field with RS 5.

Signets have a field? Shouts have a field?

signets, no, shouts, yes. (the signet that resses downed allies should create an ethereal field now that I think about it, it would make sense and help a signet in need.)

Shouts dont have a field unless you count the fields the “rise” minions, traited with death nova, give…

No chilled to the. . .
Wait, I thought it created an ice field, weird. Nvm.

I prefer that spinal shivers be a useful chill generator and boon ripper. I don’t care for the damage. Reapers touch has damage.

Anet shoul keep the boon rips and chill, & lose the bonus damage and lower the cast time to .25

If “they are being conservative with the skill because it hits like axe skills,” then nuke the skill entirely. It has no business bein in the game if they are going to treat the skill like that.

nekretaal.6485:

I prefer that spinal shivers be a useful chill generator and boon ripper. I don’t care for the damage. Reapers touch has damage.

Anet shoul keep the boon rips and chill, & lose the bonus damage and lower the cast time to .25

If “they are being conservative with the skill because it hits like axe skills,” then nuke the skill entirely. It has no business being in the game if they are going to treat the skill like that.

Honestly instead of losing the damage, I’d love to see the skill corrupt 3 boons instead of simply removing them, make the cast time like 1 second or .75 seconds.

However, removing 3 boons+chilling on a .25 second cast time would simply be too strong, as the lost damage is negligible. This is why the trait chill of death gets so much hate.

In fact, buffing spinal shivers in any way is gonna be an issue with chill of death as that would inadvertently buff chill of death as well (unless they forget to update it like they did spiteful spirit). Chill of death isn’t a trait that really needs any buffs.

striker.3704:

nekretaal.6485:

I prefer that spinal shivers be a useful chill generator and boon ripper. I don’t care for the damage. Reapers touch has damage.

Anet shoul keep the boon rips and chill, & lose the bonus damage and lower the cast time to .25

If “they are being conservative with the skill because it hits like axe skills,” then nuke the skill entirely. It has no business being in the game if they are going to treat the skill like that.

Honestly instead of losing the damage, I’d love to see the skill corrupt 3 boons instead of simply removing them, make the cast time like 1 second or .75 seconds.

However, removing 3 boons+chilling on a .25 second cast time would simply be too strong, as the lost damage is negligible. This is why the trait chill of death gets so much hate.

In fact, buffing spinal shivers in any way is gonna be an issue with chill of death as that would inadvertently buff chill of death as well (unless they forget to update it like they did spiteful spirit). Chill of death isn’t a trait that really needs any buffs.

The skill is still single target in a game where nearly every other skill cleaves or is AoE. It ought to be really strong. .75 cast is still too long. This weapon is up against Warhorn!

Also the cooldown needs to be looked at. Right now the cooldown is too long for use as a reliable boon ripper or chill generator.

The lost damage isn’t negligible. That’s 66% damage removed.

And Chill of Death is a cheesy proc effect that nerfs the damage potential of every other necromancer damage skill (and was also responsible for the necromancer downed state nerf). I will trade good spinal shivers for chill of death in a heartbeat.

striker.3704:

nekretaal.6485:

I prefer that spinal shivers be a useful chill generator and boon ripper. I don’t care for the damage. Reapers touch has damage.

Anet shoul keep the boon rips and chill, & lose the bonus damage and lower the cast time to .25

If “they are being conservative with the skill because it hits like axe skills,” then nuke the skill entirely. It has no business being in the game if they are going to treat the skill like that.

Honestly instead of losing the damage, I’d love to see the skill corrupt 3 boons instead of simply removing them, make the cast time like 1 second or .75 seconds.

However, removing 3 boons+chilling on a .25 second cast time would simply be too strong, as the lost damage is negligible. This is why the trait chill of death gets so much hate.

In fact, buffing spinal shivers in any way is gonna be an issue with chill of death as that would inadvertently buff chill of death as well (unless they forget to update it like they did spiteful spirit). Chill of death isn’t a trait that really needs any buffs.

They can reduce the cast time of Spinal Shivers and Chill of Death would be completely unaffected.