Guild Wars 2

I’m gonna wait on the professional theorycrafters for the actual numbers but man, Robert Gee kittening nailed it. I feel like a killing machine finally. Gravedigger feels smooth as butter. Great pay off for the wind up. The AA is doing wonders on 2+ targets. Nightfall is so effortless to land now and just feels awesome. Grasping Darkness hasn’t failed me even once so far. Death Spiral has the perfect little cone that never gives me any trouble. And don’t even get me started on the already wonderful reaper’s shroud. It now synergizes with itself and the traits even more. Death’s Charge is just beautiful.

Not to mention I’m doing all this with the crap armor from the beta chests. If I had prepared gear in my storage this would be nuts. Maybe this is what it feels like to be an elementalist or a warrior? idk its just so fun. I honestly don’t know how the numbers look, obviously we’re not a icebow 4 levels of amazing but the sheer fun factor is what I’m here to praise.

What can I say man, I’d tell you take take my money if I hadn’t already given it to you.

Wow, didn’t even notice until now, but the new warhorn sounds are sick. So deep and sinister.

edit: i guess this isnt new, but i haven’t played with sound for a while until this beta

As of now, my only complaint is that the Nightfall animation isn’t as cool as it used to be. I like being able to use it while moving, but I miss the sword stabbing animation. It should be a whirl finisher now.

Really? Grasping darkness works just fine for you?
For me the animation sometimes bugs out and it hits when it shouldnt and doesnt hit when it should…
Well atleast it is better then before…

Also nightfall still doesnt have an aoe indicator. The new animation of nightfall is fine in my opinion.

I think I may just convert from Thief to Mancer. This is so much fun, I can’t even… I haven’t had this much fun since the first time I played Thief. That says something >.> Best Elite Spec in my opinion (gonna check out Chrono next).

My biggest frustrations with reaper are:
- SR line reliance, I feel like without Vital Persistence you just cannot stay in shroud… And it interrupts skills sooooooooo much.
- Chilling Victory definitely needs longer might Duration.
- GS still seems a bit slow and isn’t as good as dagger/WH (pvp, PVE maybe another story).
- Reaper is too reliant on other trait lines (which having Reaper breaks the synergies necessary from the Base-Necromancer) and has traits that rely too heavily on other trait lines, such as Decimate defenses which is nearly useless without Spite/Soul Reaping.

So, its MUCH better than it was, but still has questionable life force, leaving RS feeling a bit weak/clucky. Boon reliance, might stacking and Vuln all seem to require Spite/Soul Reaping. Generally speaking, feels too holed into Spite and Soul REaping for the build.

Yea sorry, Im speaking entirely from PvE perspective.

Yeah, PVE wise, I’d be totally happy with reaper overall. PVP still bugs the hell out of me… Its… It’s getting there, but SRS Reaper is miles ahead of other mixes. Reaper has way too much reliance on those two trees.

Ohhhhh Grenth I’m loving this, granted I only played it for PvE, but I just FEEL so much stronger now as reaper. The change to Reaper’s onslaught was brilliant! And I can generate might and vul so fast now it’s near ludicrous! As for the chilling victory, I wish to redact HALF of what I previously thought, and say that only the LF generation should have an ICD, but not the might generation aspect.

Also, I think that the cast time of Gravedigger should be reduced to one second, and the auto chain should be brought down to 1/2, 1/2, 3/4. It would still retain the slow but heavy hitting nature they want to go for I think with GS I think with the very distinct animation on the third swing, and the little windup of Grave digger and nightfallz

The shouts though, NOW I can see using them, the shambling horrors though, those just need to create Dark Bond on Creation I think and lasts till they’re destroyed. If you wanted to you could make it so we get 10% damage reduction for each one made if you did that.. I love the buggers, but unless they’re constantly attacking, it doesn’t stay long enough to be worth Cooldown.

Oh Grenth I just wish I had access to my ice runes right now!!!! Agggggh!

Honestly not having issues, but haven’t been able to play much. Greatsword is actually doing really well for me, played a game as Reaper MM with hydromancy sigils and ice runes, and people were pretty constantly chilled, which meant I was generating a lot of LF via Chilling Victory and Blighter’s Boon.

Big things I’m noticing so far is that dropping out of RS really needs to not cancel abilities, it is just overly clunky with how long the cast is, whereas DS its really just 1/4 that get canceled. GS might still be a bit clunky, but I’ll have to play more, it is definitely much more usable now.

Also, Soul Eater just can’t compete imo. Blighter’s Boon basically requires Chilling Victory to proc well unless you rely on teammates, and together they give a lot of sustain. The CDR on it needs to be fixed, it can’t rely on Gravedigger hits, otherwise the healing is okay, especially since it can stack with Vampiric and Vampiric Aura for around 125 siphon per strike.

Definitely positive changes all around though, its just a matter of addressing things that still need tuning. I’m going to have to wait on personal testing though because GW2 appears to be crashing my GPU for some reason.

after playing a bit around in the silverwastes I came to the following conclusions:
-Rise: felt vey nice it was a nice migitation tool, the instant cast made it feel fantastic. It made me feel my reaper shroud alot tankier.
-Suffer: I really wanted to put it in my utility slot but it just isn’t good enough.
-Deathly Chill: The damage when under 50% was nice but the damage above not. I’m not sure if it is good enough on its own since it got a serious boost due to curses (target the weak and lingering curses) . It also doesn’t help that the necro condi builds have an extremly long ramp up time which makes the occurence of the boosted damage rather low. So up the damage a little bit (5%~10%) and either change the threshold to 75%~66% or lower necro ramp up time.
-chilling force: might was noticable but not great. longer duration may be needed.
For the rest good job.

ronpierce.2760:

My biggest frustrations with reaper are:
- SR line reliance, I feel like without Vital Persistence you just cannot stay in shroud… And it interrupts skills sooooooooo much.
- Chilling Victory definitely needs longer might Duration.
- GS still seems a bit slow and isn’t as good as dagger/WH (pvp, PVE maybe another story).
- Reaper is too reliant on other trait lines (which having Reaper breaks the synergies necessary from the Base-Necromancer) and has traits that rely too heavily on other trait lines, such as Decimate defenses which is nearly useless without Spite/Soul Reaping.

So, its MUCH better than it was, but still has questionable life force, leaving RS feeling a bit weak/clucky. Boon reliance, might stacking and Vuln all seem to require Spite/Soul Reaping. Generally speaking, feels too holed into Spite and Soul REaping for the build.

I agree with all of this especially the part about about total reliance on certain trait lines to work. I tried going with death magic, but the synergy is just to strong with spite. If you don’t take soul reaping you don’t get vital persistence or gluttony, two traits that help majorly with sustain in melee.

Blood magic has very little synergy at all with reaper, and it again becomes the age old decision of surviving for a few more minutes or killing things in a few seconds.

If chilling victory had no cd and it lasted longer it might stack might as well as reapers might, but the question still remains will it be worth giving up decimate defenses for.

The choices you get within the reaper line for the most part now are a good example of how the whole class should play. But IMO giving up spite and soul reaping is, at present, to high a price to pay for what the other trait lines offer.

So what some of you guys are saying is an easy improvement for necro build diversity is to make vital persistence base or at least the 50% degeneration base?

I think they should split vital persistence into two. Keep the death shroud recharge increase at SR but increase it to 25%, make degeneration base.

Deathly Chill actually seems a pretty great effect. I think the real issue(s) with it are that it doesn’t stack, and it’s contending with Blighter’s Boon and (oh my lawd, it’s so amazing) the new Reaper’s Onslaught (which also increases your condi output through soul spiral, and RS autos if you’re running SR).

The reaper? A kittening killing machine. It’s amazing. Really my favorite with revenant.

Still on the fence about “Chilled to the Bone!”. It doesn’t feel as powerful as it should be for an elite. Maybe if it encased targets in a block of ice for 2 seconds instead of a stun that can be broken out of it would be worth it. I really want to love it but can’t.

So I played reaper in pve and pvp in pve (almost full zerker) gravedigger did around 13k a crit. In pve i went with knights stats( i thought toughness for survival) and what i did was in large fights focus on one under 40% and spam the kitten out of gravedigger that way i killed 3 while 2 were trying to res the third i downed and killed them. Gravedigger skill of the year.

As a cleric MM reaper its so easy to keep shambling horrors alive if they enemy has poor AoE, to the point where I can get like 7 or 8 of them up forming an army of little kittens.

nearlight.3064:

As a cleric MM reaper its so easy to keep shambling horrors alive if they enemy has poor AoE, to the point where I can get like 7 or 8 of them up forming an armor of little kittens.

Yeah, Renewal+Transfusion+Life from Death is around a 12k AoE heal.

Tommyknocker.6089:

Blood magic has very little synergy at all with reaper, and it again becomes the age old decision of surviving for a few more minutes or killing things in a few seconds.

Vamp presence/strikes on Death Spiral is pretty strong, great on Rise’s minions, on Nightfall is ok, and presence is good for your group in general.

Transfusion + Soul Spiral + Reaper’s Onslaught cd reduction should be great, unless there’s a hidden ICD on Transfusion.

nearlight.3064:

As a cleric MM reaper its so easy to keep shambling horrors alive if they enemy has poor AoE, to the point where I can get like 7 or 8 of them up forming an army of little kittens.

I see them making new ones despawn old. All those vamp strikes get pretty ridiculous. I’m glad that MM reaper actually feels good though!

Using Infusing Terror seems to not stop stomps or other channels, and Nightfall being so quick, followed by stomping, is fantastic. I ALMOST FEEL LIKE A REAL CLASS.

Dead.5829:

Tommyknocker.6089:

Blood magic has very little synergy at all with reaper, and it again becomes the age old decision of surviving for a few more minutes or killing things in a few seconds.

Vamp presence/strikes on Death Spiral is pretty strong, great on Rise’s minions, on Nightfall is ok, and presence is good for your group in general.

Transfusion + Soul Spiral + Reaper’s Onslaught cd reduction should be great, unless there’s a hidden ICD on Transfusion.

Oh I agree for a survivability standpoint here, but because blighters boon procs only when you have a boon applied to you it doesn’t synergise very well with blood. The boon you get with spite (might) procs every time it is triggered (RS1) making might stacking VERY easy. This also heals you when in RS for large amounts.

Blood magic has regen on mark (8 sec CD), well of blood revive only (regen), and vampiric rituals (protection on long CD). All of the other abilities in blood don’t count as a true “boon” (vampiric is not a boon) and thus don’t synergise well with blighters boon to give both life force and healing.

Edit: In order to compensate I would suggest a boon at in addition to other bonuses for the other lines:

For example in DS/RS only:

Curses: Replace furious demise with fury for 2 seconds (stacks by duration) no CD
Death Magic: give soul comprehension retal for 2 seconds (stacks duration) no CD
Blood magic: give vampiric a regen for 2 seconds (stacks duration) no CD

Soul reaping could be left alone, but you could add something here as well

Spite would still be preferable to 90% of all players (15 seconds of might per proc) , but not only could the numbers be tweaked but some players may find the other lines usable this way.

I just came out of PvP with side by side comparison on Rev and Reap. With both of these classes (and my playstyle/build choices…which are questionable at times I suppose?) I was able to ambush and destroy 2-3 players at a time before they knew I had killed them. From a PvP perspective, I think Reaper is just fine. Perhaps a tad strong. Definitely not nerf ready in any aspect, but with what I have experienced on Reaper it’s like playing Anubis in Smite. Once you stop running and kiting and just to the good old “Turn and Burn”, people die extremely rapidly. I scared myself at points. I’d just be swingin and boppin along then I see this random “5000” damage marker pop up at the end of Reaper Shroud 2, or my Reaper 4 would skyrocket into 11000 damage. Or even more remarkable was that moment they decided to stay in place and rez, and I got a 2v5 pentakill-esque clip. Pro tip, when the Reaper comes blast them apart. Or I will kill you. >=D All at once, with no mercy. How is Reaper in pve? I might become a Necro main (or Revenant) when HoT releases at this rate.

Side note- Whichever Developer made Reaper and Chronomancer and Revenant is a GENIUS. All 3 have themes, experience the themes, and can push what they do to the extreme =D. It’s fantastic and hilarious.

Side note- Whichever Developer made Reaper and Chronomancer and Revenant
They are two dev the one with chrono and reaper is robert gee and it’s a cool guy, the one who make revenant is roy and it’s really cool guy too. They are my favorites devs and classes too. In a pvp perspective this night i was amazed with the reaper and revenant. Chromancer make me joyed the last week end too. Really not an easy choice for pick a main.

Stop just stop with the OP kitten, it’s 3 hours in and there is no way in hell anyone has figured out all the counters nor can it be judged yet. I frakin hate people who jump to stupid conclusions this early on because it isn’t reality, please stop it!

Tommyknocker.6089:

Oh I agree for a survivability standpoint here, but because blighters boon procs only when you have a boon applied to you it doesn’t synergise very well with blood.

I do agree that it’s less good with blood, or at least with a blood + sr build rather than spite over sr.

Once I switched from BB and DC to Reaper’s Onslaught, I haven’t gone back. The new iteration is great and synergizes very well with blood.

Dead.5829:

Tommyknocker.6089:

Oh I agree for a survivability standpoint here, but because blighters boon procs only when you have a boon applied to you it doesn’t synergise very well with blood.

I do agree that it’s less good with blood, or at least with a blood + sr build rather than spite over sr.

Once I switched from BB and DC to Reaper’s Onslaught, I haven’t gone back. The new iteration is great and synergizes very well with blood.

I will try it.. i got all weekend after all.