Guild Wars 2

I’m just curious if anyone use GS reaper. If you do, is it for pve, pvp or wvw???

GS is a part of the Power Reaper build. It’s good for mapping, dungeons and low/mid Fractals. Only GS4 and GS2 are worth clicking really, you switch back to dagger or Reaper after using it but you do spam GS2 when your target is >50%. It packs quite a punch.

PS. You can also try using it in big-scale WvW in the glass cannon Wells build. Tho it’s a bit risky choice. Fun as hell tho.

What he said but I spam GS2 at <50%, I need to learn this other way

I see it as a purely ‘for fun’ weapon, there just always seem to be better alternatives for every bit of content. But, I love the big crits!

So it’s situational power weapon ??

I use it to enhance shroud. The sigils and stats on the GS help make shroud useful. When I’m not in shroud I switch to another weapon because, well, greatsword feels really redundant and weak on a reaper. Shroud already handles cleave damage and crits, and is good at attacking breakbars. I think GS shouldn’t overlap reaper shroud that much.

geekilo.8512:

So it’s situational power weapon ??

No. What he meant is that you can use it when you don’t care about optimal builds. If you care about being viable in PvP or top dps in PvE, you don’t whip out your GS.

If you really like the theme and enjoy the playstyle, I would only use it in:

• Story Instances (when not achievement hunting)
• Open-World PvE
• WvW Zerg Only

It’s sad but it is what it is.
____________________________________________

Edit: Unlike Bierzgal, I wouldn’t recommend it at all when doing dungeons or fractals. Unless you’re in a team that’s good enough to succeed in sub-optimal conditions and are fully aware beforehand. (And you’re not frustrated by targets constantly dying before finishing your auto-attack)

I think it would be nice if greatsword on necro was reworked. Some utility and mobility. Something to set it apart from reaper shroud and the other necro weapon sets.

Ithamir.5928:

geekilo.8512:

So it’s situational power weapon ??

No. What he meant is that you can use it when you don’t care about optimal builds. If you care about being viable in PvP or top dps in PvE, you don’t whip out your GS.

If you really like the theme and enjoy the playstyle, I would only use it in:

• Story Instances (when not achievement hunting)
• Open-World PvE
• WvW Zerg Only

It’s sad but it is what it is.
____________________________________________

Edit: Unlike Bierzgal, I wouldn’t recommend it at all when doing dungeons or fractals. Unless you’re in a team that’s good enough to succeed in sub-optimal conditions and are fully aware beforehand. (And you’re not frustrated by targets constantly dying before finishing your auto-attack)

Thanks ^^

Ithamir.5928:

geekilo.8512:

So it’s situational power weapon ??

No. What he meant is that you can use it when you don’t care about optimal builds. If you care about being viable in PvP or top dps in PvE, you don’t whip out your GS.

If you really like the theme and enjoy the playstyle, I would only use it in:

• Story Instances (when not achievement hunting)
• Open-World PvE
• WvW Zerg Only

It’s sad but it is what it is.
____________________________________________

Edit: Unlike Bierzgal, I wouldn’t recommend it at all when doing dungeons or fractals. Unless you’re in a team that’s good enough to succeed in sub-optimal conditions and are fully aware beforehand. (And you’re not frustrated by targets constantly dying before finishing your auto-attack)

It actually might be optimal in dungeons, dungeons don’t let condi really shine because things die so quickly, so it’s burst damage after 50% or even just starting with it and swapping to dagger/RS on trash might yield better results than condi. That’d carry over to low level fractals as well, but at least tier3 and onward easily condi, though power is still a blast to play.

For WvW zerg I wouldn’t recommend it either, not when you have Reaper shroud. I’ve dabbled with it and kept going back to Dagger/warhorn on offhand for quick LF regeneration and swiftness if I break off.

And quickly, it is something you’ll take playing PVE power necro, it’s just that so rarely is it optimal to play power necro in content that isn’t completely trivial (most of open world).

I do use GS in spvp, and I’ll tell ya, It ain’t easy.

GS2 is your biggest hitting skill but should be use after GS3. Dont even auto once you’re getting the reset on GS2 (hitting enemy under 50% health) and just spam GS2. GS autos are probably your least reliable form of damage on GS but can be done if you train yourself to wait out enemies cooldowns and use your GS5 well.

GS4/5 are utility. Use GS2 over GS4 when you can.

My usual rotation on GS usually looks like 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 (or) 4 – 3 – 2 and save 5 for clutch use

Since i use both GS and focus; using Focus 4 and swapping into GS3 will pretty much add a crap ton of vuln (24 if 1v1). Good for decimate defenses.

Use GS5 for ppl on ledges too. Rangers and whatnot trying to keep high ground.

you switch to greatsword go into inventory and double click your staff. pro esports strat right here

Ithamir.5928:

Edit: Unlike Bierzgal, I wouldn’t recommend it at all when doing dungeons or fractals. Unless you’re in a team that’s good enough to succeed in sub-optimal conditions and are fully aware beforehand. (And you’re not frustrated by targets constantly dying before finishing your auto-attack)

Well, you don’t really have an alternative. Unless you want to use a staff. GS has a part in Power Reapers rotation and it does it’s job. It’s not great but it’s not that bad either. And Power is far better in dungeons and lower fractals than Viper Condi. Condition is for higher fractals and raids (where Power is overall pretty bad, tho not unplayable).

You don’t autoattack with the GS e-v-e-r. You GS4=> GS2 and then switch. And if there is something that lives a bit longer you spam GS2 if it’s under 50% (popping GS4 when it’s off-cooldown). With Quickness from other teammates it’s pretty decent damage.

I wish Anet would rework GS. My suggestion would be

GS#1- Replace chill with vulnerability, and cut off about .5s in each chain attack.
GS#2- Reduce the cast time by .25s or .5s
GS#3- Replace vulnerability with chill- 3 stack of chill, and reduce cast time by .25s (make it easier to land GS#2 and better synergy with traits that effect on chill apply)

I use it in my viper’s/sinister spec instead of staff or WH for octovine, triple trouble, and other fights where you only have small windows to dps. (GS4-2/Shroud spam/GS 2 for 100-51%, GS 4-2 spam for 50-0%.)

In a perfect world I would carry around a set of zerkers/valk gear, but that’s not gonna happen and using the GS is better that just sceptering away on those bosses .

Picked it up for my small group WvW(around 5 people) power reaper build a couple days after HoT release. Dropped it only during test runs of condi builds, none of which lasted longer than a couple days before I swapped back to GS.

What build do u guys run with GS ?

geekilo.8512:

What build do u guys run with GS ?

The normal PS+2*banners ect build.. what else?

ohh you mean on necro.. ahh.. well………

geekilo.8512:

What build do u guys run with GS ?

The map exploration/low-fractal/dungeon build I mentioned (tho I do switch things around, like droping the pets for shouts etc):
- http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vRMQNBIhFakhGapxGbwoGYvxCugFfF7ilxpiQToKAd1CAtAA-TlBFABppP4KlgIt/o8DgnAQhq/IwpAAA-w

The WvW Wells glass-cannnon (also often switching non-Wells skills around):
- http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRMQJAWRnc0At0gVbC20A0biFcBD6qFAaBUph2wzKuK2FDjA-TVCEABtpJAgHAQO7Pko6PGcJA6QHwWKBJ4IAwkyPSBMwUL-w

I use it as a mystic forge filler

So when did we start hating GS? When Reaper came out, everyone was happy with it.

Mea.5491:

So when did we start hating GS? When Reaper came out, everyone was happy with it.

Probably just after everyone realised that mindless auto-attacking with Dagger 1 does more DPS than almost anything that GS does :P.

Mea.5491:

So when did we start hating GS? When Reaper came out, everyone was happy with it.

When Reaper came out no one really knew what the kitten they were doing with their elite specs. People mostly know what the kitten they’re doing now and thus its widely accepted that GS is trash.

It also helped that when Reaper came out, Reaper had Blighter’s Boon before it got nerfed to kitten.

geekilo.8512:

I’m just curious if anyone use GS reaper. If you do, is it for pve, pvp or wvw???

In sPvP as secondary weapon for its utility. You never autoattack with GS in PvP.

Mea.5491:

So when did we start hating GS? When Reaper came out, everyone was happy with it.

In sPvP people realised after 2 minutes in the first beta, that it’s worse than Dagger/Warhorn.

In PvE everyone was hyped because of Gravedigger’s big numbers – until someone noticed the ~2 second casting (+aftercast) time cutting the DPS in half.

Greatsword is, as others have said, good for some situations in PvE.

1. Gravedigger for bosses < 50%
2. AoE power for when you have 3+ mobs around you

Greatesword used to be a fair hybrid weapon before Deathly Chill was nerfed. Because condi was too strong in PvP when combined with long chills, the developers nerfed it into the ground. Now, GS has no value as a hybrid weapon and that was the main attraction of it over MH dagger, which is a pure power weapon. Gs was an alternative to scepter. Now, Necromancer is back to having only scepter for any sort of condi or hybrid build.

Easy answer: I don’t. <3

There is only one way to use it. Scrubs.

I use it everywhere as a power reaper because I don’t give a kitten about the PvE meta.

Twilight(4) and Grasp(5) are probably the best weapon skills accessible to the necromancer. Their only downsides are their long cooldowns, and GS suffers overall from a fairly weak 1-3 due it its sluggishness, particularly on the third hit of the AA chain.

I rarely use Gravedigger(2); unless I’m desperate or I can guarantee it will land. Usually I save it to punish an enemy who commits to melee. Use 3 for LF gain when I need it and as it’s convenient, since it generates a nice burst of LF, and I run a shroud-heavy build.

Since I run SoS, I can hop in and out of shroud almost 50% more often than those who take soul marks and can maintain substantial landspeed. This enables some very potent CC-heavy skill combos like Grasp → Shroud mid-pull → Infusing Terror → Executioner’s Scythe → Soul Spiral → Fear from IT release →

If they don’t flee→ Shroud release → CttB → (maybe Gravedigger depending on stunbreak use/class) → Death Spiral/Twilight → 2-part AA’s → Shroud → Death’s Charge to catch up.

If they flee → Death’s Charge → RSAA maintaining pressure via boosted mobility from SoS until Grasp is ready again.

Mind you, those are more or less ideal combos should at the moment of PvP there be no reason not to keep following that skill path. Players can be unpredictable, and as such you need to adjust what you’re doing to respond to what they’re doing. You can’t CC-train a warrior running lots of stability or a guardian off cooldowns who runs RF and the likes.

I at one point for duels ran Spectral Grasp for even more CC-combo ridiculousness

As I said on a previous post, they should have just given us an offhand weapon with Nightfall and Grasping Darkness, as well as 3 targets on dagger auto. It would have saved a lot of grief.

I use it purely for the sake of having a melee weapon available when doing events solo, even as condition spec. its viper stats with chill to bleed. it’s entertaining and does its job on weak enemies but have to do the whole auto sequence to be worth it. Not worth it for anything tougher than vets.

Lahmia.2193:

As I said on a previous post, they should have just given us an offhand weapon with Nightfall and Grasping Darkness, as well as 3 targets on dagger auto. It would have saved a lot of grief.

:O that would be awesome if Nightfall and Grasping Darkness are off weapon skills. But Anet doesn’t want to lol

Holl.3109:

There is only one way to use it. Scrubs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XvaUasILUY

You know as well as me that WvW scenarios are utterly irrelevant when talking about balance, man. Especially considering BB without dumplings.

I incorporate GS in both power and viper build. In power I rotate the weapons properly, and in viper build I take it for blind field and pull, sometimes vuln. You have to plan your rotation ahead though – spend 10 seconds waiting for weapon swap by rotating in RS condi attacks, utilities and then swap back to scepter and dagger to continue with deathly swarm. Talking pve here obviously.

For AB MM runs, I ran GS/Staff. Gravedigger was great for sub 50% health on the vines, breechers, frogs, etc. I run full zerk glass build, as well.

But against anything else out there, trying to tag something at sub 50% was a timing nightmare. If another player was beating on the target, I could maybe get a GD off once before the thing was dead. Then in WvW, trying to make GD viable was pretty rough sailing. Again, trying to get repeated GD’s on a target was painful.

The GS (and GD) is great! But really slow. If you can time it right, it hits pretty kitten hard. I switched up to a dagger/horn & scepter/dagger (for melee/range fights.) It seems like I’m killing things faster (altered my build so I stack might sub 50%) so the end result is pretty close to the same. Being able to hit things quicker, with that constant might going helps with moving target to target.

I’m not a build wizard, but this is what I’ve been running lately and it’s been doing ok:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQRBIhtG1JzmQ5mY7mg3mA9mYBXwmyCNhlA0AIA0CirifxyIA-T5QBgARHFAgXAw8+DAA

I typically run in some manner of group, so I have a few options in there to help folks around me. I do find I die a little more often than I did with GS/Staff, mainly because I’m not dropping into shroud as much as I had to with GS. I’ll need to work on that.

Here was my build when running GS/Staff:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQJARWnMbClbitbCebC0biluBj6DMCKUxLwK4Gc6BMACAA-TZAOAAw+DAA

I used shroud more often with GS/Staff. Staff at range, then shroud to melee distance, run out lifeforce, GS to either finish them off or back to shroud and repeat.

If u use gs in pvp u deserve to lose every game, gs is super slow with no range.
I dont see any necros running gs anyway in pvp, and thats for a reason.
Im sorry but gs its ment to pve , its just not possible to play pvp with gs with out dying like 10 times per game.
The weapon needs a teleport , some swifness and a reliable pull.
I think only nightfall its ok , rest i dont see it for pvp.
U need pure dps zerker to use gs, since is a power weapon, and since necros have no blocks or invuls , means u will insta die to another class.

I like my GS for my power necro. #3 for vuln, followed up by #4 and spamming #2 after 50% health. #1 to fill up CDs. #5 Is a nice pull with good damage, the CD is too long though.

Usually I use my GS to scratch my back and after that, I switch for a more practical weapon.

GS works fine in sPvP. It’s “viable” up to and into Legendary. Don’t let the necro forums get you down. <3

Dead.5829:

GS works fine in sPvP. It’s “viable” up to and into Legendary. Don’t let the necro forums get you down. <3

Just gotta know that timing and learn other classes’ tells. So viable only for people who want to put in that effort. Otherwise, it is pretty sub-par

Dead.5829:

GS works fine in sPvP. It’s “viable” up to and into Legendary. Don’t let the necro forums get you down. <3

Well if you are the better player then alot of things become “viable”.

Anything is viable this season honestly, competition is quite low at the moment since most people already got their legendary wings and didn’t bother with this season’s ranked play. I do think GS wielding reaper has a small “advantage” in that most other classes don’t have a clue about GS since it’s not used often. So you have the surprise factor until they learn how terrible & slow GS is.

With that said, I sigh and shake my head anytime I see a GS wielding power reaper in games. Because if I’m there on my condi reaper, I’m a direct counter to that poor sob and any stab he lets out gets corrupted into fear & condi stacks. Once stab is gone, then it’s just chain cc & condi stacks until QQ. No necro is easier to train down & kite than a GS wielding power reaper.

gavyne.6847:

Anything is viable this season honestly, competition is quite low at the moment since most people already got their legendary wings and didn’t bother with this season’s ranked play. I do think GS wielding reaper has a small “advantage” in that most other classes don’t have a clue about GS since it’s not used often. So you have the surprise factor until they learn how terrible & slow GS is.

With that said, I sigh and shake my head anytime I see a GS wielding power reaper in games. Because if I’m there on my condi reaper, I’m a direct counter to that poor sob and any stab he lets out gets corrupted into fear & condi stacks. Once stab is gone, then it’s just chain cc & condi stacks until QQ. No necro is easier to train down & kite than a GS wielding power reaper.

It’s a cannibalistic relationship between the builds, yes. The power build does stand a way better chance at fighting off Daredevils and in all likehood, DH’s, though. Power reaper gets all its damage and capability from boons, which it has worse access to than most meta specs, so the dependence on boon-hate from condi reaper will pretty much destroy power while in most cases not really doing much to the really guilty builds.

Such is the state of the game with so much boon nonsense, though. I’d prefer an environment with no boons and just class mechanics, but it’d defeat the purpose of most combo field use and would require a re-balance of the entire game inside and out, particularly elementalists.

GS needs to be used skillfully, and the build which uses it needs to be based on shroud and pretty much requires Speed of Shadows for the shroud swapping frequency bump. You can’t camp GS – it pretty much just won’t work if you do – but it has some absolutely amazing utility that is quite capable in the right hands and when weapon and shroud swapping properly.

DeceiverX.8361:

gavyne.6847:

Anything is viable this season honestly, competition is quite low at the moment since most people already got their legendary wings and didn’t bother with this season’s ranked play. I do think GS wielding reaper has a small “advantage” in that most other classes don’t have a clue about GS since it’s not used often. So you have the surprise factor until they learn how terrible & slow GS is.

With that said, I sigh and shake my head anytime I see a GS wielding power reaper in games. Because if I’m there on my condi reaper, I’m a direct counter to that poor sob and any stab he lets out gets corrupted into fear & condi stacks. Once stab is gone, then it’s just chain cc & condi stacks until QQ. No necro is easier to train down & kite than a GS wielding power reaper.

It’s a cannibalistic relationship between the builds, yes. The power build does stand a way better chance at fighting off Daredevils and in all likehood, DH’s, though. Power reaper gets all its damage and capability from boons, which it has worse access to than most meta specs, so the dependence on boon-hate from condi reaper will pretty much destroy power while in most cases not really doing much to the really guilty builds.

Such is the state of the game with so much boon nonsense, though. I’d prefer an environment with no boons and just class mechanics, but it’d defeat the purpose of most combo field use and would require a re-balance of the entire game inside and out, particularly elementalists.

GS needs to be used skillfully, and the build which uses it needs to be based on shroud and pretty much requires Speed of Shadows for the shroud swapping frequency bump. You can’t camp GS – it pretty much just won’t work if you do – but it has some absolutely amazing utility that is quite capable in the right hands and when weapon and shroud swapping properly.

I would imagine AoE utilities are beneficial as well, just in case of team tussles. CttB, YSiM, Signet of the Locust for out of shroud speed and some health… Probably wells for those who want to get the absolute most out of it, though I’m fond of Rise! and YaaW (Though Rise could be switched out, I think. Maybe not shrug )

When I was running power necro I camped dagger for movement speed and better auto damage. I’d swap GS when something dropped to 50% and just grave digger spam. I found this to work with mixed results as sometimes target would die early or for some reason my hit would miss the target I needed to hit.

I think it would be cool if we had a skill like Ele’s fresh air that allowed us to swap weapon sets on crit or something.

GS is good for pvp as hybrid or pure condition build as well.

geekilo.8512:

I’m just curious if anyone use GS reaper. If you do, is it for pve, pvp or wvw???

I don’t. Tried it out quite a bit but it cut my bags in WVW down to about 1/3 due to how slow it is vs other weapons and its utterly useless for roaming in its current state.

Its only use that I can tell is on stationary PVE targets where I could land all hits which is just too limiting for me.

Pyriall.1683:

GS is good for pvp as hybrid or pure condition build as well.

No its not. How could a weapon without any damage condition be good in a condition build? And dont say deathly chill. It may work for a hybrid build (which i heavely doubt) but certainly not for a pure condi build.

Chilling darkness along with Deathly Chill. There are several competent necros that play the build or its variant.

Maybe in casual pvp. Anything more and you’re going to be dragging your team down. At the end of the day Greatsword is a “if you enjoy it, use it” weapon.
Honestly it’s a weapon we should have had since day one (since we lacked a 3+ target melee weapon) in that time when power builds ruled Gw2 and dungeons were the main endgame.

Yes, Necromancer had such a huge handicap in PvE before Reaper that it still boggles my mind how any of us stuck it out.

Pyriall.1683:

Chilling darkness along with Deathly Chill. There are several competent necros that play the build or its variant.

I am pretty sure that wont work. Chilling darkness has a 3 sec cd and nightfall (the only blind on gs) has 4 pulses every 2 seconds that means the trait only procs from the first and the third pulse that means 2 stacks of bleed. Combine that with grasping darkness you have 3 stacks of bleed outside of the auto. I am pretty sure that is terrible for a condition build. Both Scepter and staff can pump out much more condition damage.

There is absolutly no reason why you would ever take GS in a condi build unless you want to mess around.