Guild Wars 2

It makes me a little sad. I liked it being a 10 point trait…

At least, it should be increased to 360 radius to compensate 20 points.

I was annoyed initially but then realised staff is now viable without spending 10 in DM so I don’t really mind. 180 is a decent area, though it should be merged with the CD trait.

SupahSpankeh.8452:

I was annoyed initially but then realised staff is now viable without spending 10 in DM so I don’t really mind. 180 is a decent area, though it should be merged with the CD trait.

Yes, and left at master level.

I still won’t take it though, because now that I don’t have to take rat, and +40 toughness, I don’t want to go back.

SupahSpankeh.8452:

I was annoyed initially but then realised staff is now viable without spending 10 in DM so I don’t really mind. 180 is a decent area, though it should be merged with the CD trait.

Ditto. Saved 10 points in DM now that I don’t have to take both traits to make staff feel viable as a main weapon.

they are ruining the necro build before it was perfect now i have to spend 20 trait points to get are u kidding i hate the minion master traiting for necro so they are making so that only minion masters can monopolize that trait DAMMIT

the problem is that i use another trait at the master slot which makes marks trait usless for me, and yes they should make em even larget or no1 gona use it

We need bigger marks to increase the chance of a ranger pet ruining them.

BTW – Guardian buffs, LOL!

Oozo.7856:

BTW – Guardian buffs, LOL!

P/D thief buff too…

AkiLeaves.2613:

It makes me a little sad. I liked it being a 10 point trait…

It made me extremely happy. Now staff is fully viable without it, and very strong with it.

I ran WvW last night without GM and honestly, I barely noticed not having it with the new base radius increase. I still need more play time with it though to determine if not having unblockable marks is an issue or not. So far I’m thinking it won’t be a problem. I’ve also ditched Staff Mastery for now, so it’s nice having an extra 20 points to use elsewhere.

Has got to be one of the most amazing buffs to Necro .

Staff is now useable without speccing into 10 points of DM.

The PvP Builds that use staff just gained 10 points they can spend elsewhere.

Coupled with the major DS buffs this patch, PvP Necros are even more powerful than before.

Tenderly.7019:

Has got to be one of the most amazing buffs to Necro .

Staff is now useable without speccing into 10 points of DM.

The PvP Builds that use staff just gained 10 points they can spend elsewhere.

Coupled with the major DS buffs this patch, PvP Necros are even more powerful than before.

You don’t play WvW, right?
You can’t use marks without “unblockable” trait and now you have to spend 20 points instead of 10 just for that, which is a pretty big deal for me.

Ciborio.1864:

You don’t play WvW, right?
You can’t use marks without “unblockable” trait and now you have to spend 20 points instead of 10 just for that, which is a pretty big deal for me.

^This

It’s not monopolized to MM Necro’s whoever thinks that, i always ran 0/30/20/20/0 in WvW for zergs, so my spec did not change at all in that mode.

As far as I’m concerned this is a nerf for WvW condition Necro.

I find the larger staff marks essential to the wider ranging terrain battles of WVW and unblockable is so very useful against guardians and warriors especially. For something like clearing walls, the wider marks are better coverage and hit more people, and again go through blocks which people often pop before heading up to a ledge.

Now if you are a roamer or small group player, then this is probably a viable option and even improvement. You don’t need the bigger radius to hit just one player.

However, for anyone that does use heavy on staff and likes it most effective its a clear nerf because the trait itself got no better, while moving up a tier. In my case it cost the very defensively helpful Reaper’s Protection, one of our best anti-focus tools when a fight opens.

It’s nice that the base marks are bigger now, but for moving the trait up it should have gotten a buff for those who still do take it. I don’t think the radius getting even bigger was the answer, they are already big at 240, but a great solution would have been reducing the cast times on marks by 1/2 or 1/4 second. Before they fixed the bug, traited Chillblains used to cast at I believe 1/3 second instead of 3/4, and it was very noticeable and very helpful.

I think this is a huge nerf. I didn’t take Greater Marks for the size, I took it for the unblockable aspect of the trait. Great for Reaper’s Marking through blocks and continuing your damage. Now I have to invest 20 points into the tree when there are better 20 point traits and no worthwhile 10 point traits (for me, anyway).

The funny thing is, necros have been asking for this type of change since last patch. “We didn’t need a damage buff we needed a survivability buff!” Well there you go. You gain 10 more points into the Toughness tree and you lose 10 points from your chosen damage tree. Happy?

What they should have done was merge Greater Marks with Staff Mastery into the Master tier like “Increases area of marks and reduces cooldown by 20%” and then keep Greater Marks as an Adept tier but make it say “Marks are now unblockable”, PLUS increasing the base size of marks slightly the way they did with this patch.

Look at the positive side of things now you have to get protection of the horde so in a way reanimator is abit more useful……..okay who am i/we kidding their still horrible.

Honestly I think this was a buff to staff focused builds (20 points in DM) in WvW. With greater marks you can effectively cover most of every tower wall during a siege. Now with the extra size “painting” the walls has been more effective. And for those that drop the trait due to it being a master trait, your range hasn’t changed one bit and now have the choice to move those points to a different trait line. The loss of unblockable kinda sucks but it didn’t really seem game breaking for me last night.

I do agree with Hanzo, They shouldn’t have messed with the size and merged GM and SM and moved it to a master trait. But then again that would have effect my current build much more then this change did.

While a.net may not have handled this issue as well as they could, not having to put up with reanimator is still a massive benefit in my book. Besides, the standard size for staff marks is actually fairly decent now, to the point where greater marks is no longer effectively a sunk cost for any staff build. And I refuse to chastise a.net simply because they chose a solution that wasn’t precisely what the community asked for – even if I would have preferred that solution. All told this is a step in the right direction.

I’m still hoping to see the staff traits merged though.

I used Greater Marks mostly for the size, so this is actually a buff to most of my builds.
…But for anyone relying on the Unblockable part of it it’s a nerf for sure.

I like how a 30/10/0/0/30 build can run Axe Mastery, Close to Death, Deathly Perception and ground targeted Wells and still use a staff for Putrid mark or Life Force generation.

Funny because I was looking at dropping GM anyway to get ground targetted wells back, and then they did this. Thanks arena-net!