Guild Wars 2

Hey all, Sikari here. I haven’t said a whole lot on the topic of Reaper as I was feeling a bit grim about the situation, but this last update sparked a bit of hope for me. I started toying around with a build editor taking into consideration the changes and wanted to just discuss some new potential with you guys.

THE BUILD

Overview
So here’s a first “draft” type of build, of course this comes without testing so easily some things may need to be moved around, and I’ll discuss some of those lose ends.

Idea of the build is to be a strong well-rounded fighter, much like the Celesignet Counterpart we have today! The build focuses around high chill uptime with boon corruption, condition removal and might uptime similar to Signets, but with a shift in how you achieve that goal. Additionally, because Reaper Shroud 1 attacks significantly faster, we will use Dhuumfire instead for additional condition pressure.

Things to consider Post-Changes:
- Boon corruption in Curses with Path of Corruption just became a real thing. a 5 second cooldown AOE boon corrupt can now compete with Signet-corruption now that it can be used accurately much more often. The same change will also increase general defenses of the Reaper via blinds, and could bring Chilling Darkness into play as it gives Reaper’s Shroud a significant soft-CC for landing as many shroud 1 and 4 hits as possible. (2.4 second chill on a low 5.1 second cooldown!)

- Great sword damage and LF regeneration has been increased, and GS 5 now chills. Coupled with Chilling Victory, this allows GS to have decent LF generation and and impactful way to maintain pressure. Greatsword damage has increased, and GS 4 will no longer attribute to being kited as it can be used while moving. GS 4 will also now be usable as an additional chill, given the cooldown is ready from Chilling Darkness.

- I wanted to give Shouts a fair chance. With Your Soul is Mine giving front-loaded Life Force and increased Healing, it can now be used as a means of building Life Force prior to combat. Add in the fact that it’s a fast casting heal, sustaining yourself and re-entering shroud is a bit easier. Also, to keep condition removal in a solid state without using CC, I opted to try the newly improved, instant, “Suffer!”. Not only will this help remove pesky conditions, especially in teams, it is a 600 range 3.6 second Chill that helps close gaps. Now that it is instant, its uses are much more defined.

Build Changes/Considerations:
Some things are already considered flexible with this standard build set up, and for sake of discussion, I’ll post current considerations:
- Consume Conditions > YSIM
- Spectral Grasp or Walk > Suffer!
- Relentless Pursuit > AoD, without shouts or with (AoD is more for testing purposes. Still feels lack-luster, but I’d like to try anyways…)
- Death Perception > Dhuumfire. I BELIEVE Dhuumfire will be stronger, but I’d have to test it out.
- Soul Marks > Unyielding Blast. I feel LF generation should be fine, especially with Chilling victory, so I opted to take Vulnerability to boost damage and cover Burns and Chills.
- Plauge Sending > Chilling Darkness. I don’t recommend this, because you lack Signet-trait synergy and I find having a reliable Chill in Reaper’s Shroud highly valuable.
- Dagger+Warhorn > Greatsword. With the changes, I believe I could make Greatsword feel rather rewarding. D/k*ttenmains a viable and safe alternative.
- Spite > Curses. This would really be a different build all together, and more significant changes would follow, but a similar theme could be designed around Spite/SR/Reaper.

Conclusion
This is my starting point for next BWE. Feel free to weigh in, say what you like, what you don’t like, discuss the BWE changes and give me food for thought! Thanks, Necro Community!

I’ve thought a lot about this as well and I feel like I can weigh in on some of your ideas. I have a hard time dropping spite due to to its ability to power blighter’s boon and I have a hard time dropping soul reaping because of vital persistence (and dhuumfire is straightup better than death perception overall, even on a soldiers build its more DPS). I also do feel that curses is pretty much needed to make a celestial necro build work since you’re dead without permaweakness, but without the mightstacking, I’m still skeptical.

Overall though I’d say this builds is good but the lack of might may be the only biggest issue. I tried a very similar cele build with master of corruption, CC, CB, and Plague, which was decent but the damage was a tad lacking compared to meta necro.

The only other thing I’d suggest is maybe using you’re all weaklings over plague sig, and flesh wurm over spectral armor, should you prefer disenage ability over staying power on a node.

I agree with Spite being Incredibly hard to drop. Unfortunately, SR is basically mandatory, and Curses has beyond amazing Weakness, boon corruption, crit supplement and Chill synergy for Reaper. Chilling Force (as opposed to Reaper’s Might for Cele Ele) acts as a way to maintain Might in and out of shroud. Thing about RM is that it only takes advantage of the healing, which isn’t a major concern with the Weakbess uptime I will have. It’s still not as potent it Might but it is decent.

Frankly, since the ICD nerf, if they could just raise the Duration of the Might from CV to 8 or 10 seconds this would mostly be a non issue.

Biggest draws of Curses > Spite for me is:
- Condition damage and crit supplements
- A strong chill while in RS.
- Best AOE boon corruption possible, short of Spite/Curse/Reaper, which is likely not very viable due to lack of VP.

Most of your suggestions really hit more toward the “alternative” build that takes Spite instead of curses, which I haven’t fully delved into. Feel free to post a S/Sr/Reaper build of your liking here as well. I’m much more interested into curses at this point because I feel the new Death’s Charge will make Curses an absolute juggernaut.

I’m pretty sure that there’s still not enough chill for chilling force to be a meaningful source of might generation, and enough to support celestial amulet and strength runes.

You’ll want new runes and probably also a new amulet.

I wonder if you Shouldn’t try Grenth runes for the chill proc and chill on heal. If there’s not too much (nore than you need) chill with Grenth tunes, then there’s not enough chill. If the healing shout with trait and runes isn’t good enough, then it’s not good enough.

As for sigils, swap sigils are the way to go now that anet is testing “shroud triggers on swap sigils.”. Hydromancy is more chill & energy is more dodges.

Finally, get soul marks for your staff already. Staff has to do too much already, and you aren’t even running decimate defenses, so the vulnerability isn’t there.

nekretaal.6485:

I’m pretty sure that there’s still not enough chill for chilling force to be a meaningful source of might generation, and enough to support celestial amulet and strength runes.

You’ll want new runes and probably also a new amulet.

I wonder if you Shouldn’t try Grenth runes for the chill proc and chill on heal. If there’s not too much (nore than you need) chill with Grenth tunes, then there’s not enough chill. If the healing shout with trait and runes isn’t good enough, then it’s not good enough.

As for sigils, swap sigils are the way to go now that anet is testing “shroud triggers on swap sigils.”. Hydromancy is more chill & energy is more dodges.

Finally, get soul marks for your staff already. Staff has to do too much already, and you aren’t even running decimate defenses, so the vulnerability isn’t there.

What about svanir or whatever runes reduce chill duration on you by 50%? Think those would be any good? I’m going with ice for the 7% damage increase.

nekretaal.6485:

I’m pretty sure that there’s still not enough chill for chilling force to be a meaningful source of might generation, and enough to support celestial amulet and strength runes.

You’ll want new runes and probably also a new amulet.

I wonder if you Shouldn’t try Grenth runes for the chill proc and chill on heal. If there’s not too much (nore than you need) chill with Grenth tunes, then there’s not enough chill. If the healing shout with trait and runes isn’t good enough, then it’s not good enough.

As for sigils, swap sigils are the way to go now that anet is testing “shroud triggers on swap sigils.”. Hydromancy is more chill & energy is more dodges.

Finally, get soul marks for your staff already. Staff has to do too much already, and you aren’t even running decimate defenses, so the vulnerability isn’t there.

The problem isn’t chill uptime, my chill uptime should be at least decent. The bigger problem is the payoff. Since the ICD on CV (which was needed), the might Duration it gives is simply too low and not comparable to easier to manage traits like RM. I made note of that, however. Hopefully they will extend the duration of Chilling Victory’s might application to 10 seconds so that it can be a useful alternative.

That said, with Strength runes (45% might duration) I gain 1 for 14.5 seconds from Strength sigil (I use this > swap because Swap sigils are still balanced around the 9 sec icd, while in cases it can be more beneficial due to reapers shroud triggering them, SoS only has a 1 second ICD, while means its just as efficient regardless of swap mechanics. That alone has a decent amount of uptime, and is taken not only for Might, but for Blighter’s Boon, which increases average Life Force generation, and RS healing. Similarly, Chilling force is not only for the might (which lasts close to 8 seconds with the runes and can be triggered per target that is hit while chilled) it enhances life force generation and benefits Blighters boon further. While I might not hold a full 25 stacks of might this way, I should be able to maintain a substantial amount which increases all forms of damage I deal, grants sustained Life Force generation, including while in Reaper’s Shroud (see: Chilling Darkness). This is why I’ve opted out of Marks, at least to test.

With Unyielding Blast, Every attack has a condition to cover chills, Burns, and poisons, and quickly increases my pressure while in Reaper’s Shroud as, alone Reaper’s fast attacks can stack vulnerability quickly.

Augery of Death is probably useless, but, because it’s testing I’d really like to TRY to make the best of the following, in hopes that if they don’t hit the mark, they can be buffed rather than fading into uselessness:
- Augury of Death
- (Shouts)
- Chilling Victory (Force), which as it stands, does probably need a might duration increase.
- Chilling Darkness, especially with the new functionality of Death’s Charge.

Also, one thing I agree with, I will likely substitute Sigil of blood for Hydromancy on my Greatsword for said reasons.

One thing to consider with “Suffer!”, it is an active condition removal that does not stun break, meaning, it can be used to quickly give back fears which should apply additional chill and a more impactful way of removing it.

Grenth may work, btw, but I sort of feel like it’s overkill. While you might get more might stacks, naturally, they won’t last nearly as long to be impactful (less total damage, as there’s already a max rate you can utilize CV, and it would nerf SoS) and you lose the damage multiplier of Strength Runes.

Might not be a bad choice though if you want to try a slightly more sturdy Reaper with more utility or try out Deathly Chill though. As it stands, I’m fine with maintaining about 10-20 might with increased life force generation both in AND out of Shroud (which Reaper’s Might doesn’t do, as it’s only active while in shroud).

This build fits cele ammy better than spite. A build using spite would be better off with a solider ammy.

But the chill uptime on this build would be incredible and very punishing to fight against and its mostly aoe as well. It actually makes chilling darkness as a trait worth taking in the curses line. Grenth runes would be chill overkill though i do agree on that. I find this very interesting!

Guys, I’ve been trying to beat the drum for longer might time for Chilling Force in the official BWE thread. If you feel the same way, please post in support up there.

The build I am using is a bit different, but not totally. I currently run Curses/SR/Blood but plan to go Curses/SR/Reaper. I use Staff and Scepter/dagger with Dire gear and am built around Master of Corruption. I will be using Dhuumfire and Deathly Chill.

You guys bring up some really interesting rune choices, but since I like to WvW with this character and I am giving up blood magic, I feel like Traveler runes are pretty much mandatory.

Honestly, when lining up Curses and Spite, I’d have to say that Spite offers more to a condi build

Curses
-Longer Bleeds
-Semi-Passive Condi Transfer/Small chill on blind
-small amount of Fury on Shroud entry
-Boon Corruption/Terror
-Boosted crit chance/condi damage
-AoE Bleed and weakness on entering Shroud with weakness on crit
Spite
-Might on Shoud 1 (Pairs nicely with Dhuumfire)
-Condi Cleanse on weak foes/Vulnerability on Chill
-Vuln on weak foes
-Spinal Shivers on weakened foes/More Vuln in Shroud
-Might on striking Weakened Foes
-Might on signet use, boon corruption on signet use, more signet use

As you can see, there are some things we’d like to have in curses, but large amounts of might and vulnerability from Spite can somewhat compensate for that, and boon hate is still attainable in Spite.

To be honest i just dont think that there is enough Chill in the reaper or Necro in general for that matter to make any real use of Chilling Force(CF).

There are multiple things that limit that trait.
-We have virtually no chill application. Chilling Scythe does not allow for permanent application and that is not factoring in a 3s attack chain prone to be dodged interrupted and so on.

- CF has an internal 1s cd, coupled with a 1s swing after nimations. In average you will get 1 pip of might out of a 3s attack chain, some times 2, you are better off simply running signets.

-1% LF and 139 healing here and there when you manage to actually hit a chilled target is next to irrelevant, even worst they are crossed thus dont fit well toghether.

For Chill to be any viable on this weapon it should BASE cover the full attack chain and go above it when traited.

Apolo.5942:

To be honest i just dont think that there is enough Chill in the reaper or Necro in general for that matter to make any real use of Chilling Force(CF).

There are ways to increase chill uptime. I’d like to put that aside for a minute and focus on what the trait actually does and ask if it deserves to be improved (e.g. longer might stacks as I have been asking for). Considering you can get might stacks of 10 and 15s from Spite, I don’t see why these can’t be increased a little.

@Apolo
How is there not enough chill? In the build OP posted and replace with hydromancy sigls you would have 11 ways in which you can cause chill on a target for 2 or mores seconds at a time (12 if you count corrupting resistance). All of which are actually aoe of 3~5 targets. So you saying “We have virtually no chill application” is something i dont get.

Chilling victory is limited to 1s per target. You will be gaining 1~5 stacks of might every use which isnt bad. Considering you can aoe chill almost all the time you will be gaining might from it, the only reason why its not super perfect is because of the low duration.

You reference blighters boon and only limit it to self application. In bigger fights you can look to be getting boons from others making this a much better team fight mechanic which it is. Especially with guardians or elementalists.

Misguided.5139:

Apolo.5942:

To be honest i just dont think that there is enough Chill in the reaper or Necro in general for that matter to make any real use of Chilling Force(CF).

There are ways to increase chill uptime. I’d like to put that aside for a minute and focus on what the trait actually does and ask if it deserves to be improved (e.g. longer might stacks as I have been asking for). Considering you can get might stacks of 10 and 15s from Spite, I don’t see why these can’t be increased a little.

This is my feeling. Spite might on Ds 1 is just that, only in DS1, meaning it can never be used for Life a Force gain from Blighter’s Boon, where as Chilling Victory (Force, believe it was renamed to Victory though??) can be used with ANY attack but with a requirement, so in theory, you will average out as long as you have some decent uptime on chill.

The problem isn’t so much the functionality, it’s the low duration. 8-10 seconds when triggered would make it a reliable alternative to Spite’s Reaper’s Might that can be used in and out of Shroud. That’s the direction I’d rather push it, honestly.

Also, the weakness and 2 boons AOE converted, plus blind, plus 2.4
Second chill on every Death’s charge is an incredibly potent reaper sustain perk. It’s just such a powerful way to maintain pressure. Curses also pads the low crit chance with its conditions and conversions (gains crit chance per condition) and more condition damage baseline.Sustained Chill on Reapers shroud alone is valuable beyond belief.

You are going to get dissapointed, look at the Chill condition. Other than the Auto Chain, which only provides 1.3 thus you will get 1 hit at best every very likelly upwards of 4s. Everything else is on either 30s timer, 120s timer or requires you to switch weapons, thus loosing the AA.

In the bacum it honestly sounds terrible, in a world with condition cleansing and dodging it sounds down right unusable.

Sorry, ron, I wasn’t trying to derail your thread.

Apolo.5942:

You are going to get dissapointed, look at the Chill condition. Other than the Auto Chain, which only provides 1.3 thus you will get 1 hit at best every very likelly upwards of 4s. Everything else is on either 30s timer, 120s timer or requires you to switch weapons, thus loosing the AA.

In the bacum it honestly sounds terrible, in a world with condition cleansing and dodging it sounds down right unusable.

You don’t seem up to date entirely on the BWE changes.

I Just said this in another post but read the changes to chill duration on reaper abilities that R.Geesus posted.

Chilling Scythe – Increased chill duration from 1.5s to 2s.

“Suffer!”: This skill is now instant cast. Lowered damage. Increased chill from 2s to 3s

Shivers of Dread – Fixed a bug which caused this trait not function while downed. Increased chill duration from 2s to 3s.

Grasping Darkness: No longer poisons and instead inflicts chill for 4 seconds on hit. This skill now fires at your target instead of using your facing direction. This skill will no longer fire if your target is behind you.

those are base values and then this

Cold Shoulder – Fixed a bug which caused this trait not function while downed. Increased chill duration modifier from 10% to 20%.

so in OP’s build not using any chill duration you have the following

• Chilling scythe – 2.4s
• Nightfall + chilling dark – 2.4s on a 20s cooldown
• Reapers Grasp 4.8s on a 30s cooldown
• Suffer – 3.6s on a 19.5 to 30s cooldown
• Chilled to the bone – 9.6s on a 78 to 120s cooldown
• Hydromancy- 2.4s on a 9s swap but weapon swap for some reason works on entering RS :/
• Chilblains – 4.8s on a 16s cooldown
• Reapers mark + Shivers of dread – 3.6s on a 32s cooldown
• Deaths charge+Vital presistance + chilling dark – 2.4s on kitten cooldown
• Terrify – 3.6s on a ~17s cooldown
• executioners scythe – 1.8s~9s on a 25.5s cooldown
• corrupting resistance – 3s
• Ice field from RS#5 + RS#4 – 12 chilling bolts at 1.2s of chill each.

how is that not a lot of chill please tell me?? If you took grenth/ice runes or had a sigil of chilling those durations only get longer, even the auto attack would theoretically keep up 100% chill uptime.

Sigmoid.7082:

I Just said this in another post but read the changes to chill duration on reaper abilities that R.Geesus posted.

Chilling Scythe – Increased chill duration from 1.5s to 2s.

“Suffer!”: This skill is now instant cast. Lowered damage. Increased chill from 2s to 3s

Shivers of Dread – Fixed a bug which caused this trait not function while downed. Increased chill duration from 2s to 3s.

Grasping Darkness: No longer poisons and instead inflicts chill for 4 seconds on hit. This skill now fires at your target instead of using your facing direction. This skill will no longer fire if your target is behind you.

those are base values and then this

Cold Shoulder – Fixed a bug which caused this trait not function while downed. Increased chill duration modifier from 10% to 20%.

so in OP’s build not using any chill duration you have the following

• Chilling scythe – 2.4s
• Nightfall + chilling dark – 2.4s on a 20s cooldown
• Reapers Grasp 4.8s on a 30s cooldown
• Suffer – 3.6s on a 19.5 to 30s cooldown
• Chilled to the bone – 9.6s on a 78 to 120s cooldown
• Hydromancy- 2.4s on a 9s swap but weapon swap for some reason works on entering RS :/
• Chilblains – 4.8s on a 16s cooldown
• Reapers mark + Shivers of dread – 3.6s on a 32s cooldown
• Deaths charge+Vital presistance + chilling dark – 2.4s on kitten cooldown
• Terrify – 3.6s on a ~17s cooldown
• executioners scythe – 1.8s~9s on a 25.5s cooldown
• corrupting resistance – 3s
• Ice field from RS#5 + RS#4 – 12 chilling bolts at 1.2s of chill each.

how is that not a lot of chill please tell me?? If you took grenth/ice runes or had a sigil of chilling those durations only get longer, even the auto attack would theoretically keep up 100% chill uptime.

And Spinal Shivers is 5 seconds base, 6 with the minor trait increase

Also I have to add that this build has a lack of movement speed due to now warhorn, locust signet, or blood traits that give that as well, which is generally a build turn off for me since I hate being too slow to rotate well, although your chilling victory (this is the new name) usage seems powerful enough.

nearlight.3064:

Also I have to add that this build has a lack of movement speed due to now warhorn, locust signet, or blood traits that give that as well, which is generally a build turn off for me since I hate being too slow to rotate well, although your chilling victory (this is the new name) usage seems powerful enough.

True. Lack of swiftness is a meh-point, but at the same time, I have a feeling D/WH would work just as well with this build. Also, at the very least, we do still have RS#2 over base-necromancer as a slight boost in mobility. More often than not though, this won’t be your first choice for rotations. Also, I intend to use this more for Stronghold Push or Defense than necessarily strictly conquest where mobility won’t be quite as mandatory.

I don’t feel that I can comment on your build ron, as I have 0 experience outside of power necro builds (not keen on playing condi/hybrid builds). One thing I will note for your build though, is that Path of Corruption supposedly only applies to the main target of Shroud 2 (according to Wiki – how reliable that is can be debated).
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Path_of_Corruption

In the spirit of the thread, I thought I would throw out my current BWE build while I’m here. I tested this in the last weekend and was quite happy. I have a few changes in mind though, mostly to do with dropping YAAW for either WoC or NCSY (for more boon hate) and Lich form for Flesh golem (since I rarely use Lich – always saving it for that ‘perfect’ moment). I imagine the first thing most people will say is “you will get kited” or “no range”. Once the axe rework hits, I intend to try dropping dagger for axe if it is suitably ‘fixed’. Either way though, I pretty much only run D/W or D/F and carry staff for utility, so a lack of range is not new to me and having the tools Reaper offers I don’t feel this will be too much of an issue for my level of play.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBhQD7kjGolGsdTwzGgDHsgLYxXxuYYE6qFAaBRbt81HA-TpBFABCcBAe4BAIeZAGOIA1s/AAHBAA

I have also thrown footage of a match played with this build on Youtube so that you can see it in action. It was originally only added for a friend to see Reaper gameplay, so the video itself isn’t all that exciting. Match starts at ~1:50.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1wfSrpFp2M

- Ice

Since peeps are weighing in with builds, based of newest changes posted by Robert. I will be trying this version of power Reaper.
WvW Power Reaper Build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRMQNBhOD7kZTHN0uJWuJ4tJQvJWwFMpewO4GEXF/ihRorWAoFA-TVCBABccQF2T3zlq/AxDCINlgAcBA8S5XR7PwwRIIAACwNvZ2sNbzbezb+oH9oH9oHtbezjezjezSBwkWL-w

Might swap the runes for Hoelbrak and pick up Relentless Pursuit. The other change might be YaaW for a more reliable stun break.

Vydahr.4285:

Sigmoid.7082:

I Just said this in another post but read the changes to chill duration on reaper abilities that R.Geesus posted.

Chilling Scythe – Increased chill duration from 1.5s to 2s.

“Suffer!”: This skill is now instant cast. Lowered damage. Increased chill from 2s to 3s

Shivers of Dread – Fixed a bug which caused this trait not function while downed. Increased chill duration from 2s to 3s.

Grasping Darkness: No longer poisons and instead inflicts chill for 4 seconds on hit. This skill now fires at your target instead of using your facing direction. This skill will no longer fire if your target is behind you.

those are base values and then this

Cold Shoulder – Fixed a bug which caused this trait not function while downed. Increased chill duration modifier from 10% to 20%.

so in OP’s build not using any chill duration you have the following

• Chilling scythe – 2.4s
• Nightfall + chilling dark – 2.4s on a 20s cooldown
• Reapers Grasp 4.8s on a 30s cooldown
• Suffer – 3.6s on a 19.5 to 30s cooldown
• Chilled to the bone – 9.6s on a 78 to 120s cooldown
• Hydromancy- 2.4s on a 9s swap but weapon swap for some reason works on entering RS :/
• Chilblains – 4.8s on a 16s cooldown
• Reapers mark + Shivers of dread – 3.6s on a 32s cooldown
• Deaths charge+Vital presistance + chilling dark – 2.4s on kitten cooldown
• Terrify – 3.6s on a ~17s cooldown
• executioners scythe – 1.8s~9s on a 25.5s cooldown
• corrupting resistance – 3s
• Ice field from RS#5 + RS#4 – 12 chilling bolts at 1.2s of chill each.

how is that not a lot of chill please tell me?? If you took grenth/ice runes or had a sigil of chilling those durations only get longer, even the auto attack would theoretically keep up 100% chill uptime.

And Spinal Shivers is 5 seconds base, 6 with the minor trait increase

GS/Staff —- Reaper/Curses/SR….build cant cast spinal shivers. Thats why i left it off the list but this build makes the most of the chill mechanic and i think its something similar to what the devs were aiming for regarding to chill uptime. They did over nerf it last time but now it should be in an ok spot to be punishing enough with high reapplication.

Icetrinity.3804:

I don’t feel that I can comment on your build ron, as I have 0 experience outside of power necro builds (not keen on playing condi/hybrid builds). One thing I will note for your build though, is that Path of Corruption supposedly only applies to the main target of Shroud 2 (according to Wiki – how reliable that is can be debated).
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Path_of_Corruption

With Dark path it only does damage to the main target but chills targets around it. Death charge strikes all foes on that last blast that should proc PoC. So not sure on how its functionality will work because of this and that it technically has no “main target” because of how you can cast it.

This is what I plan on running:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRQQNArYWnc04ohmbwqbAvbA6NxixgFvDDiHRqlQUoWF9zCAHAA-TRyCABAcEAU4EA4syvjfAAXq+zEHCgZ2fQP9NjpEMAwBwu1tu7GY8xHf8xHvr3d3d3d3SBAzyK-e

This will give me 100% bleed duration, 50% standard duration, and 70% chill duration increases. At 2300 condition damage I do decent dps.

For the moment i’m still taking plague sending over chilling darkness, but if I find I can’t keep chill up 100% then I may switch over.

Does chilling force trigger on condition damage or only on direct damage? It just says “striking a foe” which is fairly vague. Mostly I am wondering if epidemic will trigger it on all 5 foes or not.

Either way I should be able to maintain decent might stacks and decent vuln on the target, while keeping them chilled and weakened most of the time as well. Hopefully the challenging group content has a use for high chill/weakness utility… too bad we don’t have a way to share might. If necros could share their might we would go from useless to one of the most desired classes in the game.

conditions dont strike foes, they tick. Striking a foe means doing white damage physical damage.

Sigmoid.7082:

conditions dont strike foes, they tick. Striking a foe means doing white damage physical damage.

Unfortunate but not unexpected. At least staff should be able to generate a significant amount of might now.

I still think chill condition damage is low for a GM trait, but hopefully they increase it further so that combined with the future scepter rework maybe we can finally have a meta PvE condition spec…

ZudetGambeous.9573:

This is what I plan on running:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRQQNArYWnc04ohmbwqbAvbA6NxixgFvDDiHRqlQUoWF9zCAHAA-TRyCABAcEAU4EA4syvjfAAXq+zEHCgZ2fQP9NjpEMAwBwu1tu7GY8xHf8xHvr3d3d3d3SBAzyK-e

This will give me 100% bleed duration, 50% standard duration, and 70% chill duration increases. At 2300 condition damage I do decent dps.

I’ve been running this same basic setup for some time now (with blood magic currently). It is so much fun, and I love that someone else is doing the same, though it looks like you intend to spend more time in scepter than staff. I have Parasitic Contagion and Soul Marks instead of lingering curses and unyielding blast. I believe I currently have plague sending, but plan to switch to chilling darkness for another source of chill. I will probably use relentless pursuit in the Reaper minor slot. I currently use Plague as an elite.

Gear-wise I am running all dire gear. Because I like to use my necro when I go into WvW, and because I will no longer have blood magic, I feel like Traveler runes are going to be a must have.

Not enough chill.

OP wants to run celestial amulet, which means he needs might stacks or it hits like a wet noodle. The Strength runes help a little, but he doesn’t have might stacks from signets or siphoned power and is trying to make celestial/might stacks work with just might on hitting chilled enemies.

Sigmoid.7082:

so in OP’s build not using any chill duration you have the following

• Chilling scythe – 2.4s
• Nightfall + chilling dark – 2.4s on a 20s cooldown
• Reapers Grasp 4.8s on a 30s cooldown
• Suffer – 3.6s on a 19.5 to 30s cooldown
• Chilled to the bone – 9.6s on a 78 to 120s cooldown
• Hydromancy- 2.4s on a 9s swap but weapon swap for some reason works on entering RS :/
• Chilblains – 4.8s on a 16s cooldown
• Reapers mark + Shivers of dread – 3.6s on a 32s cooldown
• Deaths charge+Vital presistance + chilling dark – 2.4s on kitten cooldown
• Terrify – 3.6s on a ~17s cooldown
• executioners scythe – 1.8s~9s on a 25.5s cooldown
• corrupting resistance – 3s
• Ice field from RS#5 + RS#4 – 12 chilling bolts at 1.2s of chill each.

how is that not a lot of chill please tell me?? If you took grenth/ice runes or had a sigil of chilling those durations only get longer, even the auto attack would theoretically keep up 100% chill uptime.

This is not enough chill because we had almost all of that same chill last week, and enemies weren’t chilled!

The only buffs since then are half a second on GS autoattack and a tweak to GS5 (still tiny range, sidesteppable, hard to aim, & longish cool down).

It’s not enough chill because OP has to chill an enemy and then hit that same enemy in melee to get might stacks. Necromancer / Reaper skills have aftercasts. Enemies have clears and plenty of time to clear, Reaper attacks are slow, and Everybody who has an immobilize reduction trait runs that trait (immobilize is OP, and these immobilize duration reduction traits affect chill too).

While a theory crafter can say “that’s a lot of chill,” 13 pennies doesnt equal a quarter.

& chill that doesnt hit Doesn’t count. The chill on autoattack isn’t 100% uptime, and it’s highly telegraphed on GS1 #3. The elite has long cast/too long cool down, the chilling darkness fields are tiny. I’m not sure you can count on RS2 working. Chill from staff has follow up attack issues. Terrify has tiny range and a 28 second cool down (and I’m not even sure the fear/chill on terrify will get used most of the time).

Frankly, I’m not 100% convinced that there’s enough chill even with chill runes.

Other than hydromancy swaps and zero cast “suffer” chill, OP is going to have a hard time counting on hitting chilled enemies to generate enough might to not hit like a wet noodle.

I think he’s got to find a different amulet/rune combo, or drop soul Reaping for spite.

Naturally i disagree with you on the not enough chill because there have been more tweaks than you listed and we are getting another 10% duration for free. Whats really changed is, well obviously uptime on application , but also ease of application as well. Before chilling dark was useless with RS#2 because it never managed to connect with the final hit where it blinds. With the change on that thats going to be a better source of chill. There is also suffer which is now instant cast and the change to shivers of dread, both now having a base duration of 3s instead of two. Lastly the grasping dark fires at your target so is more likely to hit as well as doing 4s of chill base.

Im still going to say in this build there will be a lot of chill because application is now more reliable and duration is higher than last iteration.

I will agree on two things 1) that it would probably work better with some different traits, rune and sigil. Grenth/Ice can be a thing giving you +50% chill duration. 2) not generating enough might to not hit like a wet noodle in cele ammy.