Guild Wars 2

Ok, I’m going to try this again. I will be posting all my videos to this thread and keeping an eye on it discussion-wise. So feel free to post any comments/suggestions/questions you have in this thread. As long as Anet doesn’t move it to Community Creations again, this will be my thread for my videos.

Anyways, I have a new video out (Volume 41). Hope you all enjoy

Video
Video 2
Video 3-Commentary
Video 4
Video 5-Commentary
Video 6
Video 7
Video 8

Nice video again. You stow your Elite and make people waste things, you wait for dodges to Shroud 2/GS pull, you are always trying to LoS and get good positioning, and I think one of the things I really have to work on that you do well is Shroud swap bursts, which you manage carefully.

(Sure it’s what a good Necro should be doing, but it’s worth mentioning anyway because to me, knowing and actually doing are different)

I’m slowly becoming convinced that Soul Reaping is not truly necessary (there’s also a Necro running without SR in sPvP). You can get burst LF from Shouts, you get great Weakness uptime with Spite + Curses traits + the pressure just from going into Shroud (the Rev ate all of it), and there’s generally more safety from corrupting boons than lasting that much longer in Shroud. Since if you’re caught out of position, no amount of Shroud will save you.

I haven’t built a Viper set yet, but it’s got that bit of Power to add some spike, and if you have an offensive style of play, it seems to pay off. Having support does help though!!

Playing Necro is just different from other classes, in that the way you look for openings isn’t to kite out CDs (usually) but to be aggressively pushing corruptions and keeping your momentum. Sometimes I see protection/stability and I lament the fact that if I were on Necro, that would be the opening I needed.

I think the monkey bamboo is too OP, it’s providing camouflage to achieve Necro stealth. Expect a nerf. I shall take away your secret sauce!!

Ralkuth.1456:

snip

Thanks man I appreciate it. Always nice to have people who clearly put some thought into what they’re seeing.

You’re spot on with what you’re saying too. In theory necro has some of the best potential to cancel cast to bait cds since the animations are so long, but it is tougher to pull off during fights just due to what you’re having to think about. Whenever I’m fighting, I generally am always trying to move myself to a position that I think will give myself an edge until I see an opening. It seems silly to do stuff like ring-around-the-rosie on a house to kite someone, but it wins fights. Shroud bursts are something I really learned when I first picked necro up by playing baseline necro since I had to rely on them for burst damage much more than you need to for reaper. Mistiming them can kill you very quickly, and I’d be the first to say it happens to me along with every other necro.

I totally agree with the SR analysis. This build is basically a WvW altered “procmancer” build from SPvP. In the end, some necros really love that extra LF to give them a boost in fights. For myself, I find the extra corrupts and the sheer amount of pressure you put out with curses/spite combo is too good to give up.

It is interesting cause Vipers does well in outnumbered fights while solo roaming moreso than it does in duels. People are much more likely to underestimate your damage when you use vipers and you end up being able to swing fights by downing people in the initial burst. Support really does help and I’m lucky to have Thorp whos a kitten support ele (shameless plug for his youtube channel).

Again I agree. As necro you do your best by turning the opponents openings around onto themselves and resulting in them over-extending. The number of people who underestimate the amount of boon corrupts I have especially on the signet build, really is amazing. When I see an enemy pop stab I am almost glad since I know I have the ability to turn that against them. For me, using your corrupts well especially against other necros really is important. If a necro uses their DS stab early in a fight I always try to instantly corrupt it since it breaks up their entire combo usually.

Haha monkey backpack was carrying me there no doubt. I love that spot, people don’t seem to like to pan their cameras it seems.

Ralkuth.1456:

Nice video again. You stow your Elite and make people waste things, you wait for dodges to Shroud 2/GS pull, you are always trying to LoS and get good positioning, and I think one of the things I really have to work on that you do well is Shroud swap bursts, which you manage carefully.

This really, hobo you are amazing. The more I watch you the more I am convinced I don’t need SR hahaha

I would second the above thoughts on the workability of non-Soul Reaping builds.

I’ve not tried it much myself since I use unblockable marks more often for larger zerg fights, and rarely use my necro for small scale fights.

But I have been on the receiving end of spite+curse build in small scale fights on my Guard and it is devastating. It does so much damage that I get downed in one well-timed shroud burst. Usually the window when I have used F2 and F3 on my Guard and before I reset with my elite. I always tell myself to reset early especially if the enemy group was heavy on condi fighters. But always end up holding out and then regretting XD

Oh…and if I may add, I actually had the chance to fight Helly’s vT guild twice recently.

First time I was on my guard with 3 other roamers.
Fought vT’s Elementalist + Revenant duo.
4 vs 2.
They killed one of our thieves and forced the rest of us into a mutual retreat…

Second time I was on my Necro with 4 other roamers.
Fought vT’s Necro + Elementalist (It was Helly I think, looked like his Charr, unless he has a twin in the guild).
5 vs 2.
They killed me before going down themselves shortly after.

I was ashamed. Dying in a 5 vs 2 lol. But at the same time I also ascertained that their teamwork and skills were very good and I wasn’t anywhere near their level XD

Holl.3109:

This really, hobo you are amazing. The more I watch you the more I am convinced I don’t need SR hahaha

Thanks Hollts. Yeah it took me a while to make the leap to non-SR build, but honestly I don’t know if I can even go back now. The sheer pressure output in spite/curses is overwhelming and a ton of fun.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Snip

Yeah soul marks are great for zerg fights since it bypasses all that random aegis that comes out. Man the burst output of the spite/curses build is no joke, especially if you’re a boon heavy class like guard.

If it was a char it was probably me with the ele. What is funny is me and the ele were probably kicking ourselves for not winning it haha. Ele and necro duo is one of the strongest duo roaming comps currently without a doubt. Very difficult to fight against unless you find a way to cc the ele and train the necro at the same time.

Well… new video is out. Somehow had some good fights immediately after I made that previous one so decided to toss a new one together.

Video 2

Video 2 @12:45, aerial sneak attack on Necro. This is how you NvN boys, you out-thief and jump that kitten with a giant scythe. #subtlety

Signet build has truly disgusting corrupt output (most of the video consists of people going from yellow -> red -> dead, great focus from your team), and that snazzy might is just icing. In fact I’ll call you a walking font of corruption right now. It looks pretty unforgiving to pilot though.

Charging into mobs like that, does your Ele suffer from frequent heart attacks?

Nice video again. Gotta mention good target calls.

What’s your favourite class/spec to explode with your corrupts?

Hey Helly,

First of all very nice videos and very well played Necro!
Haven’t play GW2 since almost 3 years because of the Necro play style that wasn’t how I wanted to be.
Your videos and play style changed my mind and I returned and bought HOT yesterday.

By the old days, the Necro i used was the Terrormancer with full Rabid gear.
Lot of things have change now I can see (use of GS etc.). Just a question relating to your gear, any particular reason your nor going full viper? espacially on the “ring” “earing” and “back”.

Ralkuth.1456:

Video 2 @12:45, aerial sneak attack on Necro. This is how you NvN boys, you out-thief and jump that kitten with a giant scythe. #subtlety

Signet build has truly disgusting corrupt output (most of the video consists of people going from yellow -> red -> dead, great focus from your team), and that snazzy might is just icing. In fact I’ll call you a walking font of corruption right now. It looks pretty unforgiving to pilot though.

Charging into mobs like that, does your Ele suffer from frequent heart attacks?

Nice video again. Gotta mention good target calls.

What’s your favourite class/spec to explode with your corrupts?

Haha. Yeah I personally love the signet build, absolutely destroys certain classes if you time things right. It is fairly rough if I solo roam and there are a lot of thieves out, since the fact you’ve got so many corrupts means nothing. Group fights, if I position well it really does well since as you mention it lets us call a target and just blow it up through burst and corrupts quickly. Not always easy, but its one of my favorite builds ingame.

Haha I think Thorp should hate me for how often I charge in like that, but most of the time he’s encouraging it so maybe he just likes the pain of having to support me.

Warrior without a doubt is my favorite class to blow up especially with the signet build. They all think they’re invincible with their pretty little stances then boom suddenly they’re dead and don’t know what happened.

eden.5796:

snip

Thanks and welcome back!

For the gear, short answer is I don’t have a good reason for not using full viper for everything.

Long answer is I have values in my head for each of the stats. In this case, I have personal values that I wanted to have for prec first (~20%) and then I wanted a power stat around 2k without might. I hit the prec mark through the viper gear I have then I was free to put in more carrion gear (great since the vit effectively has double the impact due to shroud). Then I put just a few tankier pieces mainly for the vit and some token toughness. The Dire/rabid ring was what put me at the right crit value which is really why it was kept.

I tried signet corrupts but people around me were dying like flies so I had to go shout trooper. Nothing Can Save You! is pretty crazy.

Justine.6351:

I tried signet corrupts but people around me were dying like flies so I had to go shout trooper. Nothing Can Save You! is pretty crazy.

I’ve started to love that shout

Justine.6351:

I tried signet corrupts but people around me were dying like flies so I had to go shout trooper. Nothing Can Save You! is pretty crazy.

Haha well people dying like flies isn’t a bad thing. I do love that shout too, shreds dhs with the rip and unblockable. My only qualm with it (and why you don’t see it often in my vids) is that it isn’t a true corrupt. You only get the vuln stacks from it, which is one reason why I love the locust signet since it has basically the same function, but corrupts and can act as a secondary heal if you hit three or more with it.

New video is up, hopefully everyone enjoys. As before, this commentary isn’t so much focused on the individual skills I use but instead focused on what I’m thinking in the fights and why I move certain ways.

Video 3-Commentary

3rd Video:

@8:27 we should remember that with no pressure, Necro/Reaper is the absolute king of cleave. You don’t have coordinated CC/Pressure/Invuln… you’re not getting that rez. You’re all going to go down.

@9:14 a tidy Shroud swap burst. The bit of Power that you have is really nice on these squishy targets because you can proc Spinal Shivers that much faster.

I winced @12:20 when you did the clean GS + Shroud Swap (and at other points in the video as well). Actually, the video as you point out, has a lot of collateral Thieves and other things who aren’t pressuring you but staying next to you (and eating all of the AoE corrupts you spew out).

@13:18 Let them come toward you, but make it difficult and force them to choose to use a mobility skill just to get to you in time (so you can watch people try to hobble away). This is of course with ample LoS to avoid ranged attacks. You also talk about Stability, and earlier against a Thief you counted Steal CD to make sure Chilled to the Bone’s Stability can be used safely – this is one of the steps in moving away from skill spam and into the realm of duels and counters (and becoming a better player). I’m still trying to improve here.

@15:58 you basically have to try and calculate 10 seconds in advance whether you’ll need that swap burst or mitigation, with this decision made easier with support.

The most efficient way to deal with a Necro is massive ranged damage like full glass Rifle Warrior/Power LB Ranger which don’t even need to be near you. They also don’t have to do much more than remove most of your Shroud and let others finish you off. Because there goes 60%+ of your pressure and all your mitigation. This is also why Ele is so good – they give you the projectile hate you need to ignore them and get to cover.

Ralkuth.1456

Snip

I barely even have a comment. Again your analysis and write-up is spot on.

I’m always shocked with players who underestimate and play down necro strengths in fights. You would think people would know better at this point. The players who eat my GS pull and don’t punish my shroud flashes are sadly the majority of players.

Necro ele pairs extremely well due to the reason you mention along with the synergy with aura sharing frost aura. The aura punishes people such as rangers who just ping away at you while the bleeds stack up.

Rapid fire OP!

Oh wait I die to bleeds ;-(

I wonder if anyone can be fast enough mechanically to Shroud 2 counter Ranger LB knockback.

I’ve seen this twice in sPvP but I’m not sure if he had stab from Foot in the Grave, but he was definitely reacting.

Ralkuth.1456:

I wonder if anyone can be fast enough mechanically to Shroud 2 counter Ranger LB knockback.

I’ve seen this twice in sPvP but I’m not sure if he had stab from Foot in the Grave, but he was definitely reacting.

Many LB rangers open with PBS for obvious reasons. Idk if LB is used in high rank play but I don’t think it is so it’s not too difficult to predict it as opener. Alot will guess dodge PBS as opener once any LB un-stow animation starts. So it’s not surprising if a reaper makes double use of shroud 2 as gap closer and projectile denial as it can’t really be wasted against LB.

Ralkuth.1456:

I wonder if anyone can be fast enough mechanically to Shroud 2 counter Ranger LB knockback.

I’ve seen this twice in sPvP but I’m not sure if he had stab from Foot in the Grave, but he was definitely reacting.

Honestly it isn’t that difficult to dodge it if you’re focusing on the ranger. If anything dodging it is the better option than going into shroud and getting 3 off in time (though it would be fairly impressive if you could do that on a regular basis.

First, let me say those videos were well done. You had some excellent team play/comps with your allies and good solo fights as well.

But man, Deathly Chill is just so broken in WvW… Enjoy it for now— I’m still shocked it hasn’t been given the PvP treatment after all this time.

Julius Seizure.4985:

First, let me say those videos were well done. You had some excellent team play/comps with your allies and good solo fights as well.

But man, Deathly Chill is just so broken in WvW… Enjoy it for now— I’m still shocked it hasn’t been given the PvP treatment after all this time.

Thanks!

And I couldn’t agree more. When they made the change I told my guildies I bet it lasts 1 week before they patch it. Yet they seem to think its ok that I can do a swap combo and get 25 stacks of bleed in 1s. I understand why it needed a buff for PvE, but anet should just revert it to pvp levels in WvW. I actually really like their leaked change for the expansion for deathly chill, assuming the new spec gave some average/decent condi options.

New video is now out! Only group roaming this time. We were running a bit more than we normally would, but we got some good fights in against guild groups and larger groups.

Video 4

Helly.2597:

New video is now out! Only group roaming this time. We were running a bit more than we normally would, but we got some good fights in against guild groups and larger groups.

Video 4

There are a lot of tasty comments over at the video. Nice gameplay again cheeky jumping.

Ele does an amazing job of keeping you up, the team coordinates to stomp and get you rallied, you have great positioning for your AoE spikes… and other stuff I might have missed.

Oh yeah, I saw a Charr Viper Necro crowd-diving, just when I thought I saw it all already. stares off into the distance

Some things I liked were the shroud swap bursts (as always), build changing, and the sneaky stealth Elite. Axe and GS aren’t bad weapons on their own, and is so much more effective in a group setting than scepter and staff due to the AoE boon corruption. The LF generation is also important, and we shouldn’t forget that Shroud has a 50% direct damage cut built-in, which can be considered to scale better the glassier you are and the more vitality you have.

Ralkuth.1456:

There are a lot of tasty comments over at the video. Nice gameplay again cheeky jumping.

Ele does an amazing job of keeping you up, the team coordinates to stomp and get you rallied, you have great positioning for your AoE spikes… and other stuff I might have missed.

Oh yeah, I saw a Charr Viper Necro crowd-diving, just when I thought I saw it all already. stares off into the distance

Some things I liked were the shroud swap bursts (as always), build changing, and the sneaky stealth Elite. Axe and GS aren’t bad weapons on their own, and is so much more effective in a group setting than scepter and staff due to the AoE boon corruption. The LF generation is also important, and we shouldn’t forget that Shroud has a 50% direct damage cut built-in, which can be considered to scale better the glassier you are and the more vitality you have.

Haha I was extra jumpy idk why. Probably cause the comp we were running was getting to my head making me think we were invincible (which wasn’t really entirely untrue).

This video is really on the supports for the fights. No way we pull off most of those fights without some really good play from Thorp (ele) and Punch (guard). Looking back at the fights I made a lot of mistakes, but they covered for me and let us win the fights.

The build changing and fact that we have multiple weapon sets that pair well with hybrid builds (staff/gs/axe all go well with scp/wh) really is an underrated aspect of necro imo. Not many other classes have so many choices in a single build itself for weapons each fulfilling a slightly different need. They also both have great lf generation (as you mention) with axe 2 and gs 3, which allows for you to do those dives in to punish the opponents (as you mentioned as well). I personally find staff extremely lackluster in those situations since you end up using the marks on the opponents clump and then you stand there saying to yourself “Now what.” Even moreso if you don’t have shroud up.

You can also see the disadvantages of some of the builds as well. The fight at desert swt against the guild group that consisted entirely of guards/revs/necros was not the fight to be using the signet build (in fairness we hadn’t seen that group on the map before). The signet build shines in duo/trio roaming where you are facing 5-6 at a time. If you position yourself poorly (of which I am entirely at fault for for that fight), you get punished hard on it. If I hadn’t been a dumbo and really thought through my approach to that fight, the build would have worked fine but with my headon approach it was punished by the opponents (thank you Punch, Loyal, and LSD for carrying me).

The more i watch ur vids the more i think elementalists need the nerf hammer. Entertaining vid none the less with good gameplay.

miguelsil.6324:

The more i watch ur vids the more i think elementalists need the nerf hammer. Entertaining vid none the less with good gameplay.

Thanks.

I’m on the fence about an ele nerf right now. In larger fights and against the guilds we fight they usually have some support eles in there, but they either aren’t effective at healing so we can ignore them or you can just train them down and after their invuln and blink are gone they’re usually just food.

The biggest counters atm to ele are thief and condi necro which are huge parts of the roaming meta currently it seems. So the tools are out there. I view support ele as sort of like necro. If you ignore the class and focus something else or don’t handle it correctly, it is insanely strong. It easily swings fights onto the side that shouldn’t be winning (the outnumbered side). But it does have a huge lack of stability and without water up doesn’t have a ton of condi cleanse which can doom it.

Then again I think support ele is a huge reason why we have a prevalence of condition builds in the meta right now. The fact their prot gives -40% effectively counters most power burst specs and has promoted the condition builds that are popular right now. I think if you nerf support ele and condition builds (cough deathly chill), you might start seeing more power specs out there. That could be a very good thing.

i thimk condi damage should never be as efective as power because theres so many ways to avoid deny power damage unlike condis. know the classses and their rotations cleanses etc and you can get condis on people with100% duration that will burn them easily while you focus on defending urself or runnings away.

i guess thats why myself and most people say condi builds are cheese and easy mode, but sad truth we are being forced upon it.

miguelsil.6324:

i thimk condi damage should never be as efective as power because theres so many ways to avoid deny power damage unlike condis. know the classses and their rotations cleanses etc and you can get condis on people with100% duration that will burn them easily while you focus on defending urself or runnings away.

i guess thats why myself and most people say condi builds are cheese and easy mode, but sad truth we are being forced upon it.

I disagree with the thought that Condi should never be as effective as power, but I think condi is clearly overtuned currently in WvW. You shouldn’t be able to condi burst people 100-0 in a few seconds without having to be full glass, but with the balancing currently we see dire/TB specs bursting players down with conditions. The main offenders are the stat sets and the dramatic buffs anet made to conditions to make them viable in pve. I would fully support a reversion to a cap of 25 for damaging conditions in WvW along with a deathly chill nerf/tweak. It would make it so taking more and more condi classes isn’t beneficial.

I also think that if you have as much knowledge of the opponents classes as you attribute to that condi player that a burst player can be extremely impactful as well. The issue is more that atm a bad Condi player has a much larger impact than a bad burst player. And that needs to be addressed, whether it’s armour nerfs or trait changes to nerf Condi application.

Video 5 now is out. Mix of commentary and just clips. Let me know what you think as always.

Video 5-Commentary

Annnd video 6 is out. Had some time to roam during the week which I normally can’t due to work. Any comments/questions/complaints/riddles are welcome.

Video 6

Video 7 now out. As always feedback is welcome.

Enjoy.

Video 7

good stuff buds

Tick.1605:

good stuff buds

Thanks Ticks. I appreciate it.

Good fights as always. You guys really make it look easy.
And I used to think your opponents were easy.
But when I actually fought you guys, I realized I was as easy looking as those opponents on your video XD
Like my friend who always reminds me when I get critical of others, good players have a tendency to make their opponents look average.

Been wanting to ask though, your thoughts on what mix of classes would you recommend to have in a 5-man group comp for roaming and fighting outnumbered? I noticed at least in your latest video that you were without a Revenant which I’ve been hearing from others that they are one of the best class to have in a roaming party currently.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Good fights as always. You guys really make it look easy.
And I used to think your opponents were easy.
But when I actually fought you guys, I realized I was as easy looking as those opponents on your video XD
Like my friend who always reminds me when I get critical of others, good players have a tendency to make their opponents look average.

Been wanting to ask though, your thoughts on what mix of classes would you recommend to have in a 5-man group comp for roaming and fighting outnumbered? I noticed at least in your latest video that you were without a Revenant which I’ve been hearing from others that they are one of the best class to have in a roaming party currently.

well let me start it out,

2-3 reapers
1 tempest

EremiteAngel.9765:

Good fights as always. You guys really make it look easy.
And I used to think your opponents were easy.
But when I actually fought you guys, I realized I was as easy looking as those opponents on your video XD
Like my friend who always reminds me when I get critical of others, good players have a tendency to make their opponents look average.

Been wanting to ask though, your thoughts on what mix of classes would you recommend to have in a 5-man group comp for roaming and fighting outnumbered? I noticed at least in your latest video that you were without a Revenant which I’ve been hearing from others that they are one of the best class to have in a roaming party currently.

Haha thanks man.

As far as 5 man comp goes I think 3 spots are automatically taken with 2 hybrid/condi reapers and 1 ele. Usually the rest we fill with whatever we have online at the time, support guard is a good choice since it opens up easier rezzes and gives group stability. We also sometimes like having a boon share mes since it really ups the necro damage with the quickness it gives out. Condi revenant is probably one of the best to put into the comp, but we don’t always have our rev players online so that’s why you don’t always see them.

The best 5 man comps in my eyes currently for outnumbered are:
1. 2 necros, support ele, condi rev, support guard
2. 2 necros, support ele, boon share mes, support guard
3. 2 necros, support ele, boon share mes, condi rev

All 3 of those are tied for “best” comp currently. You still have a weakness to ranged pressure, but those group comps would allow for the largest groups to be taken on.

Also new video is now out.

Video 8

Hope everyone enjoys!