Guild Wars 2

When I got my hands on the beta I did what I like to do, I looked at the numbers and I did the math. I used a stop watch for the cast times (meaning that there might be inacuracies there) and I calculated the coefficients for damage. The damage was indeed as horrible as people were saying and I will try to suggest possible changes for skills in both damage numbers and other things. Keep in mind that the Coefficients were calculated in Verdant Brink with the gear available from beta and not in a PvP lobby.

If you want to read a version where I can spell, it is available here, on Google docs.

Greatsword

• GS#1, The auto attack, it has coefficients of 0.85/0.95/1.1 per strike and a total cast time of 3 seconds, which means that the coefficient/second is 1.03. It also applies a 1.75 second chill on the final strike. The coefficients should be increased to 1.2/1.3/1.6 making the coefficient per second 1.37. The chill should be increased to 3 seconds and a small 3% LF gained per enemy hit on the final strike.

The reasoning behind the huge coefficient increase is that it should be able to compete with the dagger, which has a 1.33 coeff/s and it generates large amounts of LF on auto attack. With the chill and damage increase as well as the LF gain the greatsword becomes better on paper. However I noticed that you had to interrupt your own attack chain with the greatsword quite often to dodge knockdowns and such, and it means a DPS loss, if someone blocks it or blinds you, the same thing happens. These small downtimes has a large impact on the slow heavy hitting DPS of the greatsword making it a high risk, high reward weapon.

• GS#2, Gravedigger. It has a two second cast and a coefficient of 2. It lowers cooldown by 80% if it hits a downed target or anyone below 50% hp. Buff the coefficient to 3.0 and bring back the 100% reset. 5 seconds cooldown.

This means that it will essentialy be a in PBAoE lvl 3 Eviscreate every two seconds if a target fullfills the requirement. You could say that it is way to strong but doing runnig the calculations shows a coeff/s of 1.5 which is a full 0.27 coeff/s weaker than a lich auto attack, and the long cast warrants something extra if you hit it.

• GS#3, Death Spiral gives 2% LF regen per hit and it applies 12 vulnerability over 6 hits that lasts 10 seconds, with a maximum of 3 targets. Cast time is 1.4 and total coeff is 0.9 giving it a coeff/s of 0.64. 10 second cooldown. However the targeting seems to be very wonky.

The damage of this skill is not the damage, but rather the vulnerability application and the LF gain. I feel like if they fix the targeting issue, it will be in a really good spot.

• GS#4, Nightfall puts down a small area on the ground that cripples and blinds for two seconds with one pulse per second over 4 seconds for a total coeff of 0.7. Make it follow the Reaper around like Locust Swarm or increase the area alot. 25 second cooldown.

The skill is very nice in it’s effects but it does nothing when your foe decides to walk out of it, which happens too often for me to even want to use it anymore. If it follows you around that problem is solved and with a larger area the problem won’t be as severe. It feels a bit like a smaller version of the old untraited wells that were dropped where you stood.

• GS#5, Grasping Darkness sends out shadow trails in a cone in the direction the Reaper is facing . The targeting should be changed to either an AoE that you throw the claws to (similar targeting to Warrior GS#5, Rush.) or simply be based on what you have targeted. When the trails reaches the maximum distance large claws pulls everything along those trails in front of the reaper and applies 4 seconds of 3 stack poison to them as well as dealing damage with a coeff of 1.0. It also grants 4% LF for each foe struck with a maximum of 5 targets. It has a 1 second total cast time. 30 second cooldown.

If they fix the targeting the skill will be good, nuff said.

Reapers Shroud

• RS#1, The Auto Attack, it has coefficients of 0.6/0.6/1.2 and a total attack time of 2.5 which means 0.96 coeff/s. Make the coeffs 0.8/0.8/1.6 and give them LF generation of 1%/1%/2%. It generates 1% LF per target hit on the final strike to a maximum of 5 targets. In addition to this it can be traited to give 1 might per strike, and apply vulnerability and burning on hit.

The reasoning behind the large amount of LF generation is simply that we take a whole lot of beating there, we need it if we want to stay there for any period of time. The damage increase brings it in line with the Dagger#1 plus the many traits that affect RS#1 makes it a strong skill.

• RS#2, Death’s Charge is a 600 units leap that blinds for 3 seconds on impact in a small AoE and deals damage with a coeff of 1. Similarly to GS#5 it is based upon the direction you are facing and it always travels 600 units. Make the skill like Warrior Sword#2 or Guard GS#3 in its targeting and traveling behaviour. 5 seconds cooldown and 1.4 second total travel time and aftercast.

Fix the targeting and the skill is really good.

• RS#3, Infusing Terror is an instant cast 3 second stability pulsing every second for 8 seconds to you. You can with a ~0.5 cast remove the stability for a one second fear in an AoE around you. Remove the cast time to fear, and make it a stun break. 17 sec cooldown.

While the stun break might be a bit over the top, the instant fear would not. In normal DS we have instant cast fear and there are plenty of time where I wished that I had that while I played reaper.

• RS#4, Soul Spiral it has a 2.9 second channel despite the tooltip saying 2 and deals damage with 11 hits in an AoE with a total coefficient of 2.8. Currently the coeff/s of 0.96. If the the spin had the tooltip duration it would have a coeff of 1.4/s which is what it should be. Each hit also applies 4 second of poison. It has a 34 second cooldown.

It is stronger than gravedigger due to the poison and multitude of hits making it fine to have a lower coeff. The skill seems to hit 12 times sometimes giving it extra damage and poison. No problem with that but it should probably be fixed. The actual channel time is 2.9 seconds and not 2, fix that and the skill is really solid, even without buffs. If the tooltip is corrected to 3 seconds it should have its total coeff buffed to 4.2.

• RS#5, Executioner’s Scythe has different coefficients on three thresholds, which are; target is above 50% hp, below 50% and below 25%. The coefficients is 1.53/2/2.55. Change the coeffs to 1.5/2.25/3. It also has a 1.5 second stun and chill with a Field of Ice on the ground for 5 seconds. 25.5 second cooldown (according to my tooltip, make it 40 for reasons later and lessen my eye cancer).

This scaling makes for one of the strongest nukes in the game against low HP targets and the stun makes it quite desirable. The coeff increase is there not because it was hitting for low amounts, but rather to bring it in line with the rest of the changes I’ve suggested, One would die with the old coefficients below 50% in most cases as well.

Shouts

• Heal: Your soul is mine! heals for 3,954(+0.27*healing power) and deals damage with a coeff of 0.33 but it is at a 20 sec cooldown and it grants 4% LF per foe struck. A life drain per foe hit of 300 damage and 300 healing(0.1 scaling) and a base LF generation of 6% should be added. It has a 0.75 cast.

The skill is quite powerfull already mainly due to the low CD, but it competes with CC, which is also very strong. Personaly making the suggested changes would make me consider which one to use more carefully, rather than defaulting to CC. The life drain serves to add some damage to the low base damage and it also adds healing that scales with enemies.

• Rise! deals damage with the coeff of 0.33 and summons Jagged Horrors for each foe struck. Make it Summon Flesh golems instead of jagged horrors and give it a coeff of 1. It has a 1 second cast time and a 40 second cooldown, remove the cast time.

This might be one of the worst skills that Anet has put into GW2. The damage is low, cast time and CD is long and it summons Jagged Horrors. Untill they fix minion AI it is Flesh Golem or bust.
On a serious note it is harde to judge the power of a skill that is all about a mechanic that does not work properly. I’ll leave this skill to be judged when they fix the AI.

• Nothing can save you! has a coefficient of 0.33, buff the coeff to 0.5 and strips up to two boons from each foe struck. For each boon removed this way they get 5 stacks of vulnerability for 10 seconds. It also grants unblockable attacks for 4 seconds with a 1 second increase for each foe struck this way. The shout is unblockable. It has a 35 second cooldown and a 0.5 cast time. Reduce cast time to 0.25.

This shout seems very PvP centric and could probably do with the cast time reduction. The small damage buff is there to bring them in line with the ele shouts damage wise.

• Suffer! chills foes for 2.25 seconds, deals damage with a 0.66 coeff and transfers one condition per foe struck with a one second cast time and a 30 second cooldown. Reduce the cast time to 0.25 and increase the chill to 4 seconds.

The elementalist Flash-Freeze applies more chill, deals more damage gives you frost armor and has a lower cast time. But it doesn’t transfer conditions and has a 5 second longer cooldown.

• You are all weaklings! is a shout that has a .75 cast time 0.33 coeff and 30 second cooldown. On activation it grants a single stack of stability for one second and it stunbreaks. It gives 4 stacks of might with an additional 4 might per foe struck which lasts for 5 seconds. It also gives weakness for 6 seconds to each foe struck. Increase might to 8 seconds and lower the cast time to 0.5.

The skill is very strong in optimal scenario, but it that will not happen often, in addition to that it is competing with signet of spite, Well of suffering and corruption, which is a pretty standard setup.

• Elite Skill: Chilled to the bone! It has a huge 2 second windup and a 120 second cooldown, after that comes stacks two stacks of 10 seconds stability per foe struck, a two second stun, 8.75 a second chill and damage with the coefficient of 1.32. It needs a cast time of 1 second, preferably with a cooldown of 90 sec and a coefficient of 1.5 slapped on top of it.

The damage probably could get buffed and it would be nice if it had a lower cooldown, but what this skill really needs, is a cast time of one second.

Traits

Minor Traits

• Shroud Knight: Grants access to the specialisation.

Good stuff, right there.

• Shivers of Dread: Inflict 2.25 second of chill when you fear. Change the chill to 3.0 seconds

The chill numbers are low across the board, 0.75 second extra might not seem like much, but if you invest into chill it becomes better.

• Cold Shoulder: Increases chill duration by 10% and reduces damage taken from chilled foes by 10%. Buff the chill duration to 20% and increase the damage reduction to 15%.

The 20% chill starts to matter when you stack up with increased chill food and gear and I find it logical that the strongest individual chill buff should be found on the specialisation that supposedly is masters of it.

Adept Traits

• Augury of Death: Reduces recharge of shouts by 7% per foe struck. Add “increases effect duration on shouts by 12% per foe struck” or it adds Fear for 1 second to each shout, ICD 8.

Right now this is competing with Relentless Pursuit which is incredibly strong, no matter how you look at it the 7% recharge along with lackluster shouts cannot compete with it. That is why I suggest increased effect on them, suddenly those effects start to last a long time, and maybe they are worth it then with the recharge reduction. The added fear idea is nice mainly because it gives you fear to proc

• Chilling Nova: Critical hits against chilled foes sends out an explosion that chills neaby foes. 2.25 chill duration 0.4 coeff. 15 sec ICD. Buff the chill to 3 seconds and reduce the ICD to 8 seconds.

This trait is once again competing with Relentless Pursuit which is super strong compared to the worthless trait that was chillnig nova. This ought to fix some of the problems.

• Relentless Pursuit: Reduces the duration of Chills, Immobilize and Cripple by 33%, the effect is double while in shroud.

It is good, short and sweet plus feels like the balanced brother of the Shade trait.

Master Traits

• Soul Eater: Adds life leech to greatsword skills and a 3% recharge when you hit something with gravedigger, up to 15%. Life leech is 52 damage and 49 healing (it has scaling but it is so low that is can be neglected). Increase the life leech to 110/100 and the cool down reduction to 5% per foe hit.

• Chilling Victory: Grants 5 seconds of might when striking a chilled foe and 1% life force. Increase might duration to 10 seconds.

The reasoning behind the doubling in the effect is that I found the effect very weak when I tested it and it fits nicely with the other might on hit effects.

• Decimate Defenses: 2% crit chance per stack of vulnerability on your foe.

Short and Sweet. Again. This is just perfect, no changes.

Grandmaster Traits

• Blighters Boon: Gain 1% life force when you gain a boon outside of RS, gain 133 (neglectable scaling is here again, around 0.1) life in RS. Increase the healing to 175.

I felt like the healing component was so minimal that I never really noticed it, even while standing beside a guardian.

• Deathly Chill: Chill deals damage with a coefficient of 0.08 if the target is below 50% hp it has a coefficient of 0.12. It scales with condi damage. Increase the condi scaling from 0.08 to 0.12 and 0.12 to 0.18.

This should make the skill better for condition builds and it makes it equal to roughly 1.5 burning stacks in damage in full condi gear.

• Reaper’s Onslaught: Gives 15% increased attack speed in RS and resets the cooldown on RS#2 if you kill anything. Remove the reset on RS#2 and reduce RS#5 by 100% when you kill something with it or reduce all RS cooldowns by 5 seconds when you kill something. (Bugged at the moment, felt like it should be noted).

The first effect is nice, and it has good synergy with Dhuumfire and similar traits, the second part belongs in the redundancy corner, it already has a 5 second cooldown. I don’t like it, I never found a use for it in PvP and I want to use the Executioner’s Scythe. Go on a dunking spree in PvP á la Axe and enjoy.

That was all the feedback that I had, it might be a bit overtuned, but I feel like it it better for it to be a bit overpowered and then nerf it carefully into line rather than the other way around. The feedback I’m the least sure about is the shouts part, as it is quite different from a DPS calculation, you have to vallue a utility versus another, which is something I’m arguably not so good at, so take that with an extra grain of salt. On another note, make the shouts sound file start playing during the cast so that it ends when the skill is cast, rather than at the end. It would make it feel more smooth.

Great suggestions. Some of them sound a bit nuts like the Reaper’s Onslaught change resetting ES CD by 100% on kill but man would that be fun.