Guild Wars 2

Yes I did test it and it has the same 50% reduction. The loss of LF on 4 makes it feel a bit less tanky, plus its melee which means you take more incidental damage. However, if you aren’t very quickly bursted out the LF gain from AAing in RS will fairly quickly make you effectively last longer, plus things like RS 5 → RS 4 pairs with chilling force to allow you to gain some LF by applying a lot of chill and then AAing a lot.

Overall DS is more resistant to burst and incidental AoE because of DS4+ranged, but overall RS can be made tankier with LF on AA and trait combos.

Well i hope the Buff to RS AA LF Gen is enough then cause tho I didnt do testing to see exactly how it depleted and i take your guys word for it. It felt much squisher in RS compared to DS even in1v1 situations. At first I tought it was frustration from poor GS lF-Gain but at the end of BWE I felt the drain in RS was to fast….

Tho I guess DS#4 and the fact that DS is range and RS is Melee is key factor here, will test and try more come BWE2, also made Ascended Valkyrie to boost my LF-Pool abit.

Ravezaar.4951:

Well i hope the Buff to RS AA LF Gen is enough then cause tho I didnt do testing to see exactly how it depleted and i take your guys word for it. It felt much squisher in RS compared to DS even in1v1 situations. At first I tought it was frustration from poor GS lF-Gain but at the end of BWE I felt the drain in RS was to fast….

Tho I guess DS#4 and the fact that DS is range and RS is Melee is key factor here, will test and try more come BWE2, also made Ascended Valkyrie to boost my LF-Pool abit.

The difference is DS #4 with the gluttony passive gives 30% LF if you hit 5 targets or 6% per person.

RS auto attack would only give 6% per complete chain on 5 targets or 1% per target while being in melee so you would feel the effect of damage more thus it feeling like it doesnt last as long. With the change the full auto chain should give 9% at 5 targets with gluttony or 1.8% per target. After your 3rd auto chain, 7.5~6.5s into the fight you would have gained more lf from RS auto.

Taken with chilling force you can extend your shroud duration to extreme lengths under the right conditions. Sitting at a max of 19% per auto chain.

Which assumes you can even complete the auto chain on players successfully. The warrior mainhand axe is also amazing when you pull off the atutoattack chain, but it’s not used for the very reason that landing the full hits is easier said than done in a zergball of CC barrage which infusing terror won’t really mitigate.

Zenith.7301:

Which assumes you can even complete the auto chain on players successfully. The warrior mainhand axe is also amazing when you pull off the atutoattack chain, but it’s not used for the very reason that landing the full hits is easier said than done in a zergball of CC barrage which infusing terror won’t really mitigate.

Warrior mainhand axe is a bad comparison. Its auto attack chain is to long and its cone of attack to narrow to compare to RS auto.

Its relatively easy to complete the auto attack of RS because of how fast it is and how much range it has. This goes for any and all game modes.

Yeah, if the frontline of the opposing zerg doesn’t play guardian/warrior pinball with your reaper shroud while you’re trying to go through the autoattacks =/

With the nerfed Infusing Terror, this seems to be the case.

Zenith.7301:

Yeah, if the frontline of the opposing zerg doesn’t play guardian/warrior pinball with your reaper shroud while you’re trying to go through the autoattacks =/

With the nerfed Infusing Terror, this seems to be the case.

Doing WvW last beta and watching others videos of it, from my experience , that isnt the case and its quite easy to do with the right people and the right approach. Dont be such a pessimist

There should also be some good changes for us and some choices to make build wise on what it is we really want to be picking up as a reaper so should be more fun next beta.

Zenith.7301:

I hope they transfer the projectile absorb, make it a reflect, and move it to Soul Spiral. A less than 1 second duration charge is pretty weak as far as absorbs go, you need sustained projectile defense not a 1-2 second duration put on a leap that displaces you and doesn’t protect you from more than 1-2 projectiles.

I mean, they had the same issue with the dragonhunter deflecting arrow.

I see the projectile destruction on Death’s Charge as making reapers more likely to reach ranged enemies, who will have a harder time knocking them back with something like Point Blank Shot.

As for long-term aoe projectile hate, Gee stated he was experimenting with that being elsewhere.

I think adding it to Soul Spiral would overload that skill.

I feel like the removal of poison from Grasping Darkness will make chill too easy to cure. Anyone else agree?

Also, I think it might be interesting for Reapers to be unstoppable during the third swing of the auto-attack.

Freezaen.5124:

I feel like the removal of poison from Grasping Darkness will make chill too easy to cure. Anyone else agree?

Maybe but changinig the poison to chill was definitly the better choice. Having a chill on a pull is more useful. After all you want them to stay close.

thanks for all the awesome changes, can;t wait to try out my weakness condi reaper

Hi Robert, the changes are very welcome and actually needed, right now although fun the reaper is very underwhelming.

I still think Reaper needs more chill application to be able to hit anything.
The class has no movement and don’t have almost any access to swiftness or any kind of teleport/shadowstep.
Because the RS is melee and the only damage mitigation only affect chilled foes the trait line Soul Reaping is mandatory.
And i’m not going to talk about the casting times in GS, that although is thematically coherent with the specialisation it makes very hard to land hits on anything with that.

I would make this changes in the Reaper trait line minors:
Shivers of the dead: When you inflict chill you also apply slow (1 sec). Each enemy can be affected just once every second. Or if that’s not possible 1/2 second ICD.
Cold shoulder: Critical hits get a change to inflict chill and chilled foes do less damage.
33% chance on critical to inflict chill (2 secs)
10% reduction damage from chilled foes.

The idea behind this changes is:

• The chill become baseline in the class. Chill is needed to avoid continuous burst from foes. Also avoid the foes to just run away from you to disengage and recover what i foresee is going to be this class doom.
  The skills that teleport/shadowstep/leap aren’t affected by chill so the enemy player still has got ways to disengage, just not running away from you.
• Slow application is for an active melee damage mitigation. We have slow casting to our most closed foes should as well. Because of the very short duration as soon as the foe disengage would be free from the condition.

Ill give more in depth feedback once the weekend is over. But first impressions of the changes are good. Reaper now compared to last beta is like night and day.

Although right off the bat ive noticed one problem. New gravedigger is much better. I still think its too clunky. But damage wise its now decent. However its become better damage than executioner scythe even when foes are below 25% health. I dont think this is right. Executioner scythe needs to have a big impact. I would make the 25% damage at least equal with gravedigger and maybe buff the chill or icefield duration or stun slightly to make it an impactful skill again.

spoj.9672:

Ill give more in depth feedback once the weekend is over. But first impressions of the changes are good. Reaper now compared to last beta is like night and day.

Although right off the bat ive noticed one problem. New gravedigger is much better. I still think its too clunky. But damage wise its now decent. However its become better damage than executioner scythe even when foes are below 25% health. I dont think this is right. Executioner scythe needs to have a big impact. I would make the 25% damage at least equal with gravedigger and maybe buff the chill or icefield duration or stun slightly to make it an impactful skill again.

Or make Exec Scythe instantly finish a downed player (but increase the cd if you used it for that).

Shiki.7148:

spoj.9672:

Ill give more in depth feedback once the weekend is over. But first impressions of the changes are good. Reaper now compared to last beta is like night and day.

Although right off the bat ive noticed one problem. New gravedigger is much better. I still think its too clunky. But damage wise its now decent. However its become better damage than executioner scythe even when foes are below 25% health. I dont think this is right. Executioner scythe needs to have a big impact. I would make the 25% damage at least equal with gravedigger and maybe buff the chill or icefield duration or stun slightly to make it an impactful skill again.

Or make Exec Scythe instantly finish a downed player (but increase the cd if you used it for that).

That only applies to pvp. It’s a change I think should be done, but the damage of the skill still needs to be upped.

Reaper Shroud damage in general needs an increase.

Greatsword

The buffs were good. Won’t be beating a DPS revenant or elementalist, but it’s a step in the right direction, as Gravedigger is very good now. I’m frankly more concerned with the mob attack patterns and this weapon basically being interrupted constantly by CC.

Greatsword 5 is still clunky as hell and unreliable to land as a pull. Why not make it a targeted reticle and it basically pulls target caught in that reticle to you?

Reaper Shroud

Simply put, its damage is so terrible and below greatsword that I will never use this form except to turtle and maybe stun with executioner’s scythe.

The reaper auto is truly pitiful damage, making reaper’s onslaught kind of a wasted talent.

Soul Spiral similarly does too little damage.

In fact, the only skill I can speak positively about is executioner’s scythe. It’s a pretty good and much needed stun/chill.

Reaper Shroud also depletes too quickly and it’s hard to keep up with its autoattack unless you’re fighting a ton of enemies to land your cleave with.

The Heals

This one of the necromancer’s most glaring flaws. The shout heal barely budges my health up, it’s too low in healing.

In fact, the necromancer is merely a damage sponge with little potential for recovery in protracted combat.

If I am kept in combat like in any holdout mission, I’m just slowly wearing away as I can’t seemingly bring up my health relative to the damage new mobs are doing.

By comparison, my revenant pops shiro’s daggers and the glint heal and he’s back to full constantly.

Something needs to be done about our heals. We can’t sustain ourselves with the new damage going out. We’re basically forced to camp reaper shroud, in which we do completely horrendous damage.

Buff well of blood and the shout. Reduce the cast time of well of blood, consume conditions, and the minion heal. Increase the healing value of all these heals or reduce their cooldown.

The shout heal has a low cooldown but miserable healing. I won’t be using it for now.

Well of Blood should be made a water field and remove conditions on pulse. Consume Conditions should basically convert the conditions into boons or grant life force per condition consumed.

The Shouts

You’re All Weaklings or Suffer are the shouts I may consider using, never more than one. I’ll use well of suffering and well of corruption, and then either of the two I have mentioned. Shouts simply provide no group utility and I see no point in sacrificing my aoe damage potential or group support for some mediocre selfish shout effects.

Chilled to the Bone can be reduced to 45-60 second cooldown and it’ll be good. Jade Winds fromthe revenant will most likely eclipse it in group content as it fulfills more or less the niche CttB does but with a far lesser cooldown time (due to the revenant mechanic).

Rise! suffers for the very reason minions suffer, they’re aoe fodder and immediately cleaved. Until you give pets aoe avoidance, this shout will never be used.

Traits

Nothing much has changed. The traits outside Decimate Defenses are not particularly good for PvE. No damage modifiers or group support traits, purely selfish PvP gimmick traits.

Augury of Death won’t be used because shouts are not used, and it’s of little value against single target bosses. Chilling Nova is quite frankly underwhelming, it does so little of worth in PvE.

Relentless Pursuit is of no interest to PvE players— the cripple/chill/immobilize conditions will be immediately cleansed.

Shivers of Dread is still terrible with how little access reapers have to fear and the cooldown on infusing terror. Slap a 10% damage modifier against chilled targets on this trait.

Cold Shoulder similarly is very weak in a PvE setting. It should make chill decrease enemy damage to you and allies. Give the necromancer the niche of reducing damage to allies by slowing down foes’ damage output with chill.

The grandmaster I’ll use will most likely be Deathly Chill, which is pretty mediocre, but not useless as Reaper’s Onslaught has no benefit whatsoever with the current damage of reaper’s shroud. Reaper Shroud is a DPS loss over greatsword, so I’ll never use it unless I’m on the verge of death waiting for my heal.

On an unrelated note, Blood Magic’s Life From Death could use a buff. Exiting death shroud shoul give 25-50% health back to downed players, not a pitiful 5%. Quickening Thirst should apply to Greatsword and Spear as well.

*The problem with Reaper is I’m already giving up my only utility traitline, Blood Magic, because Soul Reaping and Spite are mandatory to maintain DPS.

Thus, I won’t be getting Last Rites or well cd reduction and protection. And while Vampiric Presence is incredibly weak and should be buffed alongside siphons in general, at least it was the only buff aura I could offer my group.

With reaper I’m sitting in reaper/spite/SR, only because to use a greatsword I need to take reaper, otherwise I’d dump that bad PvE traitline in an instant and pick Blood back up.

If I had a choice, I’d be using the greatsword with Spite/Blood/Soul Reaping and keeping the original death shroud over reaper shroud in PvE. I’d dump reaper shroud and the reaper traitline and wouldn’t miss those for PvE.*

Zenith.7301:

The Heals

This one of the necromancer’s most glaring flaws. The shout heal barely budges my health up, it’s too low in healing.

In fact, the necromancer is merely a damage sponge with little potential for recovery in protracted combat.

If I am kept in combat like in any holdout mission, I’m just slowly wearing away as I can’t seemingly bring up my health relative to the damage new mobs are doing.

By comparison, my revenant pops shiro’s daggers and the glint heal and he’s back to full constantly.

Something needs to be done about our heals. We can’t sustain ourselves with the new damage going out. We’re basically forced to camp reaper shroud, in which we do completely horrendous damage.

Buff well of blood and the shout. Reduce the cast time of well of blood, consume conditions, and the minion heal. Increase the healing value of all these heals or reduce their cooldown.

The shout heal has a low cooldown but miserable healing. I won’t be using it for now.

Well of Blood should be made a water field and remove conditions on pulse. Consume Conditions should basically convert the conditions into boons or grant life force per condition consumed.

Your soul is mine is actually a fairly good heal compared to our others. The healing/cooldown is the highest, only beaten by CC with a few conditions BUT it also gives LF and its CD can be drastically reduced with the shout trait (without blinding yourself!)

But in general yes, necro’s healing are weaker than other classes which have less HP… so in healing percentage of full life this is even worse…
But you know… it’s probably because the shroud is OP…

Silverkey.2078:

Zenith.7301:

The Heals

This one of the necromancer’s most glaring flaws. The shout heal barely budges my health up, it’s too low in healing.

In fact, the necromancer is merely a damage sponge with little potential for recovery in protracted combat.

If I am kept in combat like in any holdout mission, I’m just slowly wearing away as I can’t seemingly bring up my health relative to the damage new mobs are doing.

By comparison, my revenant pops shiro’s daggers and the glint heal and he’s back to full constantly.

Something needs to be done about our heals. We can’t sustain ourselves with the new damage going out. We’re basically forced to camp reaper shroud, in which we do completely horrendous damage.

Buff well of blood and the shout. Reduce the cast time of well of blood, consume conditions, and the minion heal. Increase the healing value of all these heals or reduce their cooldown.

The shout heal has a low cooldown but miserable healing. I won’t be using it for now.

Well of Blood should be made a water field and remove conditions on pulse. Consume Conditions should basically convert the conditions into boons or grant life force per condition consumed.

Your soul is mine is actually a fairly good heal compared to our others. The healing/cooldown is the highest, only beaten by CC with a few conditions BUT it also gives LF and its CD can be drastically reduced with the shout trait (without blinding yourself!)

But in general yes, necro’s healing are weaker than other classes which have less HP… so in healing percentage of full life this is even worse…
But you know… it’s probably because the shroud is OP…

Completely disagree about shroud. I’d trade shroud for active defenses that don’t gut your damage and HP recovery any day.

Reaper Shroud is useless to me. I’d trade it for death shroud, and better yet I’d trade both shrouds in general for the active defense mechanisms of other classes.

Necromancer has no lasting power in PvE. You absorb damage and that’s about it, it’s an uphill climb after your health is low and you life force is depleted while wiating between heals that barely move you up.

I had a far better time on my Revenant and Guardian.

Zenith.7301:

Silverkey.2078:

Your soul is mine is actually a fairly good heal compared to our others. The healing/cooldown is the highest, only beaten by CC with a few conditions BUT it also gives LF and its CD can be drastically reduced with the shout trait (without blinding yourself!)

But in general yes, necro’s healing are weaker than other classes which have less HP… so in healing percentage of full life this is even worse…
But you know… it’s probably because the shroud is OP…

Completely disagree about shroud. I’d trade shroud for active defenses that don’t gut your damage and HP recovery any day.

Reaper Shroud is useless to me. I’d trade it for death shroud, and better yet I’d trade both shrouds in general for the active defense mechanisms of other classes.

Necromancer has no lasting power in PvE. You absorb damage and that’s about it, it’s an uphill climb after your health is low and you life force is depleted while wiating between heals that barely move you up.

I had a far better time on my Revenant and Guardian.

It was meant to be ironic. This is what devs use to say about shroud being super strong but necros didn’t know how to use it.

I also want to comment on the chill on our third attack of the autoattack chain.

It won’t work. With current mob design, I have to interrupt my autoattack chain pretty constantly to dodge.

You need to divide the chill all across the first and second autoattacks in the chain and account for the fact that most of the really slow necromancer greatsword attacks will need to be interrupted to dodge often.

I’m not really digging this slow, suicidal feel. The necro does not have enough mitigation outside death shroud to have such a slow weapon. Nightfall does help against melee, but with the amount of lethal archer/ranged type mobs you’re really a sitting duck.

Greatsword 5’s pull should actually function like temporal curtain and revenant sword 5, a pull that interrupts with a knockdown state. Right now it pulls the target to you but it doesn’t interrupt their actions; it just slides them to you.

Of course this might be less frustrating if the necromancer could actually healm himself worth a kitten and poison didn’t utterly cripple him.

“Reaper Shroud also depletes too quickly and it’s hard to keep up with its autoattack unless you’re fighting a ton of enemies to land your cleave with.”

This makes RS very hard in alot of situations

Zenith.7301:

Greatsword 5’s pull should actually function like temporal curtain and revenant sword 5, a pull that interrupts with a knockdown state. Right now it pulls the target to you but it doesn’t interrupt their actions; it just slides them to you.

Ehh it does knockdown and interupt. It is just a bit buggy and it doesnt work sometimes…

Muchacho.2390:

Zenith.7301:

Greatsword 5’s pull should actually function like temporal curtain and revenant sword 5, a pull that interrupts with a knockdown state. Right now it pulls the target to you but it doesn’t interrupt their actions; it just slides them to you.

Ehh it does knockdown and interupt. It is just a bit buggy and it doesnt work sometimes…

Yeah, realized later ;(.

I just want it to work like temporal curtain/binding blades, it’s just an inferior version of those.

Íd say to Devs that imho this is the top3 issues with Reaper :

1. Reaper Shroud drains to fast
2. Reaper Shroud drains to fast
3. Reaper Shroud drains to fast

no matter what Gear and Build this is still the truth

Reaper shroud draining too fast wouldn’t even be so bad if our heals weren’t total garbage.

Bug I’ve discovered: Suffer will miss due to Blind, unlike all other transfers.

Bug I’ve discovered: can’t use gs5 if you’re not facing a mob but staying still (normally the char would turn around after clicking the skill if you’re not moving)
this also applies to gs3

Sublimatio.6981:

Bug I’ve discovered: can’t use gs5 if you’re not facing a mob but staying still (normally the char would turn around after clicking the skill if you’re not moving)
this also applies to gs3

This explains why those 2 skills felt so awful, buggy and unresponsive during my bloom solo.

Deathly Chill doesn’t feel like a GM spec. I also think Deathly Chill should allow GS to be used as a condi-weapon. Perhaps make it like this:

Chill deals damage and last longer. GS auto-attacks apply chill. Applying chill to a foe with 5 chill stacks will apply Torment instead.

Anyone know when reaper shroud will be updated underwater? Like when will it be more like plague blast

I said it after Beta Weekend #1 and I’ll say it again:

The damage reduction from cold shoulder needs to be divorced from the chill requirement.

Chill is too hard to maintain on a target (and, currently, won’t even stick to important PVE targets like champs, bosses, or apparently anything with a “break bar”) for the extra survival that Reaper needs to be in melee with a Greatsword and a Shroud that is 100% close-quarters.

Having our specialization’s damage reduction tied to a fickle, finicky condition makes that damage reduction completely unreliable. Reaper isn’t even supposed to be using his auto-attack (easiest way to apply chill) against a sub-50% target.

My proposal remains “Receive 10% less damage from targets within range 300.” to keep that “Oh crap, the monster is on top of me!” feeling.

If people are still complaining that Reaper Shroud melts too fast, then that can be further baked into the trait: “Receive 10% less damage from targets within range 300. Damage reduction and range double (20%, range 600) when in Shroud.”

Endlos.4852:

My proposal remains “Receive 10% less damage from targets within range 300.” to keep that “Oh crap, the monster is on top of me!” feeling.

If people are still complaining that Reaper Shroud melts too fast, then that can be further baked into the trait: “Receive 10% less damage from targets within range 300. Damage reduction and range double (20%, range 600) when in Shroud.”

That’s an equally terrible idea since reapers don’t get any protection against ranged combat.

Tim.6450:

Endlos.4852:

My proposal remains “Receive 10% less damage from targets within range 300.” to keep that “Oh crap, the monster is on top of me!” feeling.

If people are still complaining that Reaper Shroud melts too fast, then that can be further baked into the trait: “Receive 10% less damage from targets within range 300. Damage reduction and range double (20%, range 600) when in Shroud.”

That’s an equally terrible idea since reapers don’t get any protection against ranged combat.

It could just be “You take 10% less damage while above 75% health. The bonus doubles when below the threshold”. Voila, fixed.

Although I don’t know why we keep asking for more mitigation when our problem is not mitigation, but RECOVERY.

If regen and siphons/signet of vampirism heals worked on shroud, water field blast healing.

And buff our heals, they are just bad. Buffing life force won’t change anything other than making you stay in reaper shroud for longer periods of time until you come out and die regardless because you can’t heal up.

Zenith.7301:

Although I don’t know why we keep asking for more mitigation when our problem is not mitigation, but RECOVERY.

It’s a related, but separate issue. I’m not saying our heals are or aren’t in a good place. Honestly, I’m not even saying our mitigation is or isn’t in a good place.

All I’m saying is that we currently have a trait that gives us damage mitigation that is contingent upon the presence of a status effect that can’t be applied to ‘difficult’ or ‘important’ PVE targets and is hard to maintain on any other target unless we sacrifice our ‘correct’ rotation just to keep reasonable chill uptime. That is flawed design. It’s only a step above “Take 10% less damage from blind foes” and then logic would say “But, if the foe is blind, it doesn’t hit us anyway, this trait’s function is useless!”

Is giving us reliable 10% damage reduction going to magically fix everything and anything wrong with the class? Of course not. But, right now, the damage reduction on Cold Shoulder is near-worthless. It might as well not even exist.

spoj.9672:

Sublimatio.6981:

Bug I’ve discovered: can’t use gs5 if you’re not facing a mob but staying still (normally the char would turn around after clicking the skill if you’re not moving)
this also applies to gs3

This explains why those 2 skills felt so awful, buggy and unresponsive during my bloom solo.

Yea this is really annoying, also the 600 range limit is very bad and should be buffed to 900.
This is the only thing i do like to see changed on reaper rest seems pretty good.

Sinzaku.2980:

spoj.9672:

Sublimatio.6981:

Bug I’ve discovered: can’t use gs5 if you’re not facing a mob but staying still (normally the char would turn around after clicking the skill if you’re not moving)
this also applies to gs3

This explains why those 2 skills felt so awful, buggy and unresponsive during my bloom solo.

Yea this is really annoying, also the 600 range limit is very bad and should be buffed to 900.
This is the only thing i do like to see changed on reaper rest seems pretty good.

But that 300 range increase should keep the same cast speed

Sinzaku.2980:

spoj.9672:

Sublimatio.6981:

Bug I’ve discovered: can’t use gs5 if you’re not facing a mob but staying still (normally the char would turn around after clicking the skill if you’re not moving)
this also applies to gs3

This explains why those 2 skills felt so awful, buggy and unresponsive during my bloom solo.

Yea this is really annoying, also the 600 range limit is very bad and should be buffed to 900.
This is the only thing i do like to see changed on reaper rest seems pretty good.

I would still like to see the other trait line give us something to compete with spite as the might gain is just to good to give up and the +20 damage is just icing on the cake. Also chilling force is just to weak to compete with decimate defenses with it’s 1s cool down. GS 4 should be an aura that follows the caster and please shave off some of the aftercast and make the gs more fluid.

If all these could be done I would be a very happy gs wielder.

Reaper felt really strong. Just make Chilling Nova feel less random and more impactful. Right now, it feels like a sigil with a long icd.

Yea I like the Reaper and have some hope for the Necro after lost all for the Necro over 3y. There are some things that could be better but overall Reaper feels solid.

Greatsword

The AA could still need more LF-Gain due to the fact that landing it is just very random with such a slow cast time. Graspinig Darkness is buggy but you know that so I just say 600 feels abit short, maybe try 900.

I love the “new” GS feels like a Weapon for me and I can even use with suceess in both PvP and in 1v1 situation.

Reaper Shroud

I would say AA is issue here aswell, maybe a slight increase in dmg ? I just feel like u cant afford to NOT take Blighters Boon so Reapers Onslaught never really gets traited and as Power Reaper u downto 1 GM trait by default. Deaths Charge is buggy but rest of RS Skills feels good for me now.

Biggest Issue with RS and entire Reaper is RS drains to fast, just way to fast for it to be a reliable mechanic. Plz look into this.

Shouts

I use the Elite most of the weekend and plz reduce the CD 120s is not viable, it just isnt in any game-mode situation. I know u want a “game-changer” but at 120s its not. I find myself NOT useing any of the other shouts much in PVP and sadly where they can be best used in say WvW I always goes for Wells instead.In a 1v1 situation I felt vs some classes Nothing can Save You works but thats about it.

Traits

I always take Relentless Pursuit over the other traits in adept, its just to good imho. I like all of the Master traits but if u want more to take Soul Eater you need to increase its Value. Already staited that in Power Build Blighters Boon is a must due still poor LF-Gain on GS I feel I cant be without this GM Trait and Reapers Onslaught then never really gets used.

Tnx Robert and Devs

Reaper made Necro fun to play again, truly

My personal review on BWE2 REaper.

Greatsword
This weapon feels so much vastly improved over the first BWE that it’s hard to believe it’s the same weapon. Gravedigger is extremely satisfying to land, Death Spiral is easily capable of hitting 2 targets, Nightfall being castable on the move is wonderful, and Grasping Darkness, despite what others have been saying, has been really reliable (aside from usual pull issues with terrain).

My only gripe is the auto attack, specifically how backloaded the chain is. The final hit, which is virtually never reached, has the damage, chill, and most of the life force gain. In PvP, at least, it never lands due to people either kiting, prompting the use of another skill, or forcing me to dodge. Shifting some of the power to the first or second hit would be welcome. Perhaps reducing the chill on Chilling Scythe to 1 second, but having Fading Twilight also apply 1 second of Chill will solve this issue. Total uptime of Chill from the chain remains untouched. Alternatively, adding a cripple to either the first or second strike can help without upping chill uptime or related traits.

Reaper’s Shroud
Surprisingly, this is where the bulk of my complaints come in. While I don’t mind entering/exiting Reaper’s Shroud proccing weapon swap sigils (getting this on death shroud would be cool too, but I won’t be upset if we don’t have it on either), I do mind the 1 second cooldown before you can manually exit. There are a number of times when I found myself wanting to flash Shroud but had to deal with this awkward delay that interrupted what I wanted to be doing (usually interrupting a stomp or revive). Foot in the Grave was the most common one I wanted to flash for, but Life From Death was common as well.

I also am not enjoying how it is locked in weapon strength. At bare minimum, it’s strength should scale with what quality of weapon you have equipped.

The damage output is also a little low for the auto and Soul Spiral. Not much of a change is really needed here; I’d say 10% more should be plenty. Given that we have to build up life force to even use the skills, they can have a bit higher reward than normal. Executioner’s Scythe I don’t see as much need to change. Even though Gravedigger will always outdamage it, Executioner’s Scythe has utility Gravedigger lacks. Still, it would be nice to up the coefficients so that striking a target below 25% does outdamage Gravedigger, even if this really only applies to Champions/Legendaries/epics, since anything less is dead regardless from such a hit.

Shouts
I admit to being skeptical of shouts before the weekend, but after the changes, they all actually felt really good to use. They are not without critiques, though, and “Suffer!” definitely has some bugs to work out.

• “Your Soul is Mine!” needs to heal for more at base and scaling. It’s close to being good right now, but it needs just a biiiit more. I’d say even upping the base to around 4.5k and the scaling to ~.7 would be plenty.

• “Suffer!” needs to transfer Blind. Also, interactions with various CC effects needs to be looked at. Transferring Taunt is interesting, but I don’t think it’s intended. I think it’s still acting as a stun break. On the other hand, if it was changed to transfer a CC effect or condition to each foe hit, that would make it a great competitor to Plague Signet, where each one has distinct strengths instead of trying to fill the same niche.

• “Rise!” could use some tweaks on Shambling Horrors specifically. Simply put, they need to last longer. Now, this could be done by removing the self-degeneration (put a hard cap on how many you can have if necessary) or by giving them more health. Given that they usually are taking half of your damage, their own damage, and constantly losing health, they just aren’t around long enough.

• “Chilled to the Bone!” feels really good to use now. I do feel the cooldown is a bit too long, but if the unbreakability of the stun is intentional, I can see it being a bit longer than it would be otherwise. 90 seconds might be worth testing during the final beta and, if that’s too low, you can push it up a bit more before release.

Traits

• Shivers of Dread has one annoying quirk in that it makes the already poor downstate for Necros even worse. If your opponent is standing on top of you when they go to stomp, your downed Fear won’t get them out of stomp range, so they can stomp as soon as the Fear ends. Not sure what can be done on this front, but if possible, I’d like to see it addressed.

• Cold Shoulder going to a 20% duration increase was exactly what was needed. Thank you.

• Augury of Death is really feeling like a good trait to pick, now that shouts are more worthwhile. It’s not for every build, but it definitely feels good when you do pick it up.

• Chilling Nova I can’t really comment on due to not using it.

• Soul Eater’s desirability did not improve with the Greatsword changes. I feel like the basis of the trait is fine, but numbers (especially the cooldown reduction) really need buffs. I just didn’t notice the cooldowns being any shorter than when I was playing without it.

• Chilling Force felt much, much better since we had improved chill uptime.

• Deathly Chill really feels worthless still. It’s a nice idea, but it just won’t compare to Reaper’s Onslaught or Blighter’s Boon. Reaper’s Onslaught synergizes nicely with Dhuumfire for much more damage and Blighter’s Boon gives condition builds the much-needed life force possibilities. Needs significantly more damage and/or additional effects.

Oh yeah im still not too happy about locked weapon strength to exotic two hander (If you are going to lock it, lock it as ascended an two hander and do it for both RS and DS) and the 1 second cooldown on RS entry. However i do really like that it procs weapon swap sigils on entry and exit.

@Drarnor: Personally, I think “Suffer!” should transfer 2 conditions to each enemy hit, that way it’s a little more effective 1v1 and in team fights. Though, 1v1 is much less important in this case

@Drarnor you forgot my Fav shout “nothing can save you” … I kinda like vs Warrs + Guards

I loved this in the first weekend, I still love it now. I’m afraid I bug-reported a feature because I didn’t realize GS 2 got an instant recharge on low health foes so I thought it was a glitch I was spamming it on a champ in an event … I really like that change, though, it means adding a bit of awareness to a fight and making decisions about whether to use the 2 or to hold off briefly to avoid the cooldown. I also really like the change to Rise!, because it adds to the toughness of the profession. This weekend I ran through HoT events with Reaper, Berserker, Daredevil, and Tempest, and everyone felt so squishy except for Reaper.

Reaper played with wonderful fluidity. I used GS/Staff and Rise, Suffer, Nothing Can Save You, and Chilled to the Bone. I avoided the heal shout because I don’t care for heals that depend on hitting enemies, plus the heal Well benefitted allies as well as myself. I was able to dive in and out of Shroud pretty much at will. The change to Shroud 2 let me stay in the fight (and not go plummeting) much more easily. I didn’t feel it was OP like Fiery Greatsword, at least I didn’t see such amazing numbers off it that I wanted to pin every enemy to a wall with it. It did make a nice gap closer.

And of course all the animations are jaw dropping beautiful. GS4 is maybe a little off, I am not sure how to describe it. Too matte? Too pixelated at the edges? I’d like a little more elegance in the spiral shape and a more vivid green to it, I guess. But it’s still wonderfully ominous and all the others are perfect, both in and out of shroud.

As someone not very good at keyboard dancing under pressure, I appreciate the more measured pace of Reaper play. Daredevil was super exhausting, Berserker and Tempest somewhat so, but Reaper gave me time to think about my moves without feeling any loss of effectiveness.

I already have three 80 necros. I feel a pressing need to make a fourth because I love my Norn Reaper and the look I put together for her so much. I’ve already been daydreaming up her backstory so she can fit into RP. But meanwhile I’m going to get more and more hero points on my sylvari necro so she can be a Reaper asap in HoT, and I can see Reaper turning into a main profession for me (right now I go to Mesmer by choice for Fractals and Dungeons). This profession is a solid hit for me, a complete thrill and joy to play.

Ravezaar.4951:

@Drarnor you forgot my Fav shout “nothing can save you” … I kinda like vs Warrs + Guards

If I didn’t have notable feedback, I didn’t post anything. I was really focused on skills and traits that changed or, in the context of Chilling Victory and Augery of Death, the supporting environment changed.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Ravezaar.4951:

@Drarnor you forgot my Fav shout “nothing can save you” … I kinda like vs Warrs + Guards

If I didn’t have notable feedback, I didn’t post anything. I was really focused on skills and traits that changed or, in the context of Chilling Victory and Augery of Death, the supporting environment changed.

Fair Enough

Vydahr.4285:

@Drarnor: Personally, I think “Suffer!” should transfer 2 conditions to each enemy hit, that way it’s a little more effective 1v1 and in team fights. Though, 1v1 is much less important in this case

What if it could also send CC effects? Pushes it away from just being “Plague signet that is either better or worse depending on people hit” and more into its own niche.

Bhawb.7408:

Vydahr.4285:

@Drarnor: Personally, I think “Suffer!” should transfer 2 conditions to each enemy hit, that way it’s a little more effective 1v1 and in team fights. Though, 1v1 is much less important in this case

What if it could also send CC effects? Pushes it away from just being “Plague signet that is either better or worse depending on people hit” and more into its own niche.

So… Basically this? Makes it a fairly heavy skill in terms of what it does, but doesn’t seem overpowered. Just powerful

“Damage foes around you and chill them. Transfer conditions and CC to each foe you strike.

Damage Damage: 259
Negative Effects Transferred: 2
Chilled (3s): -66% Skill Recharge Rate, -66% Movement Speed
Number of Targets: 5
Radius: 600"

Vydahr.4285:

Bhawb.7408:

Vydahr.4285:

@Drarnor: Personally, I think “Suffer!” should transfer 2 conditions to each enemy hit, that way it’s a little more effective 1v1 and in team fights. Though, 1v1 is much less important in this case

What if it could also send CC effects? Pushes it away from just being “Plague signet that is either better or worse depending on people hit” and more into its own niche.

So… Basically this? Makes it a fairly heavy skill in terms of what it does, but doesn’t seem overpowered. Just powerful

“Damage foes around you and chill them. Transfer conditions and CC to each foe you strike.

Damage Damage: 259
Negative Effects Transferred: 2
Chilled (3s): -66% Skill Recharge Rate, -66% Movement Speed
Number of Targets: 5
Radius: 600"

Nah, would only need to transfer either one CC effect or a condition to each target hit. Transferring a Daze is already a stunbreak on steroids. It doesn’t also need to transfer up to 9 conditions on top of that.