Guild Wars 2

Why no body use this skill? Is there somethings that i should know?
I many situation i think is really usefull in WvW!
For me one of the most important is when the enemy escape and we can’t reach for our low mobility.

Frost.1503:

Why no body use this skill? Is there somethings that i should know?
I many situation i think is really usefull in WvW!
For me one of the most important is when the enemy escape and we can’t reach for our low mobility.

I am curious of the same, I use it but I suppose others do not so widely use it for the following reasons.

1: the given traits most use doesn’t allow for the pickup of the cd trait and spectral skills have high cds especially S-armor.

2: grasp does 0 damage dispute its cooldown.

3: grasp is a projectile (last I checked.) thus is is absolutely possible to easily waste it due to dodges weird/slow travel time which seems to make it miss easily (since it doesn’t appear to home in.) Ontop of this aegis blocks and projectile reflection easilly counter it.

The third is likely the biggest reason, its the lack of reliable usage that probably scares most off it since its entirely meant to yank people in but can every so easily miss.

But whats more traits relative to spectral skill seem shallow (but them I’m not a major necro player.) And scattered to the far winds, 1 makes you gave a flat 5% LF and increased duration of use (which the duration enhance does 0 to grasp) for using spectrals while another in a different line sets the cd trait and unless I’m forgetting one there aren’t any others other then outright alternate triggers like hitting 25% hp but none that add or enhance their performance.

So weighed against the other spectral skills grasp has an unsavory cd time frame simply to drag someone kicking and screaming to your feet, the chill doesn’t really do much at current for most either, despite having larger cooldowns the other spectral skills last for a few seconds and give you more Lf base don their function IE being struck.

Skillful players can certainly make use of grasp but the reason for its under-usage is due no doubt to the weight of its cd in contrast with its low success rate when other spectral’s outperform on a more stable rate.

Sorry this was so long but I hope it was informative and helpful to your question. I myself do use S-grasp on my necro alt cause it helps makeup in some small part for necro lack of mobility plus my necro actually is designed around a chill heavy focus grasp supports.

Yup, problem 3 – all the slow non-homing projectile issues is what makes it not commonly used.

It has been a solid like top 5 pick for 3rd utilty beside 2x stunbreaks, but realisticaly you can only use it <600 range and need to think/setup stuff not actually firing it when you need a gap closer.
And randomly miss/obstruct/sidestep/bodyblock/blind/block/dodge are just too common and u get 0% LF in those scenarios.

You just cant have a skill that does zero more than 1/10 times, and grasp fails around 50%.

Flumek.9043:

Yup, problem 3 – all the slow non-homing projectile issues is what makes it not commonly used.

It has been a solid like top 5 pick for 3rd utilty beside 2x stunbreaks, but realisticaly you can only use it <600 range and need to think/setup stuff not actually firing it when you need a gap closer.
And randomly miss/obstruct/sidestep/bodyblock/blind/block/dodge are just too common and u get 0% LF in those scenarios.

You just cant have a skill that does zero more than 1/10 times, and grasp fails around 50%.

Thankfully if you run the trait for extended duration you also get a flat 5% lf for using spectral skills which makes it not a total waste but that really isn’t much. In my chill build it still serves a purpose for LF if i don’t snare people with it, but anet COULD do with an update tweak on grasp so its not so dead useless even for a skillful player.

Galeskyring.9617:

Flumek.9043:

Yup, problem 3 – all the slow non-homing projectile issues is what makes it not commonly used.

It has been a solid like top 5 pick for 3rd utilty beside 2x stunbreaks, but realisticaly you can only use it <600 range and need to think/setup stuff not actually firing it when you need a gap closer.
And randomly miss/obstruct/sidestep/bodyblock/blind/block/dodge are just too common and u get 0% LF in those scenarios.

You just cant have a skill that does zero more than 1/10 times, and grasp fails around 50%.

Thankfully if you run the trait for extended duration you also get a flat 5% lf for using spectral skills which makes it not a total waste but that really isn’t much. In my chill build it still serves a purpose for LF if i don’t snare people with it, but anet COULD do with an update tweak on grasp so its not so dead useless even for a skillful player.

Nope,
If it doesnt hit you will still get 0 lf , it is the only spectral skill that does so.
But like you said, those 5% dont matter, its just the unreliability of the skill that hurts

I really don’t like the skill personally. It doesn’t really stand out or make me want it in any of our builds for PvP. Useless in PvE. It just has a long cd, it misses way too much, it’s not fast enough, and when it does land you just get a single pull with chill and some extra lifeforce.

There just isn’t enough it would do for me to justifty its use. I think the only time I slot it is to troll people pew pewing on a tower or keep wall in WvW.

It’s just way too niche of a use and when you have utility skills the versatility of the skill is one of the most important things, especially for necros as our axe is borked, scepter and dagger is a lot of 1 spam, and staff has never really been about damage even though putrid mark can hit quite hard but you shouldn’t just be spamming that. Our utility skills really are needed for what little sustain/pressure we can put out. Moreso than other professions I believe.

Also it’s like thieve’s scorpion wire, you almost barely see them slot that besides trolling people on skyhammer, even then that’s just thieves goofing off.

L Step.8659:

I really don’t like the skill personally. It doesn’t really stand out or make me want it in any of our builds for PvP. Useless in PvE. It just has a long cd, it misses way too much, it’s not fast enough, and when it does land you just get a single pull with chill and some extra lifeforce.

There just isn’t enough it would do for me to justifty its use. I think the only time I slot it is to troll people pew pewing on a tower or keep wall in WvW.

It’s just way too niche of a use and when you have utility skills the versatility of the skill is one of the most important things, especially for necros as our axe is borked, scepter and dagger is a lot of 1 spam, and staff has never really been about damage even though putrid mark can hit quite hard but you shouldn’t just be spamming that. Our utility skills really are needed for what little sustain/pressure we can put out. Moreso than other professions I believe.

Also it’s like thieve’s scorpion wire, you almost barely see them slot that besides trolling people on skyhammer, even then that’s just thieves goofing off.

Actually engi is just as bad, if you lock necro and engi 6-0 slots they are probably a bit more helpless, 3 weapons only the pistol can be dueled cause the others are shield and rifle.

Like necro engi relies extremely kitten utility to do anything, cause that’s always where their F1-4 come from.

No heal no F keys utility or elite a necro would pretty much always beat an engi cause better weapon loudout and swap power while engi can only load 1 set and rely on turrets/bundles to back em up. Necro is a small notch above engi in reliance on utility for anything.

The utility reliance pecking order easilly has engi higher to be honest just for clarity x3 no weapon swap power and F key needs 6-9 keys to get toolbelt relative skills. But yeah flip those keys on necro falls when it comes to things like mobility.

which will only get worse if anet goes ahead with the movement change they mentioned.

Galeskyring.9617:

L Step.8659:

I really don’t like the skill personally. It doesn’t really stand out or make me want it in any of our builds for PvP. Useless in PvE. It just has a long cd, it misses way too much, it’s not fast enough, and when it does land you just get a single pull with chill and some extra lifeforce.

There just isn’t enough it would do for me to justifty its use. I think the only time I slot it is to troll people pew pewing on a tower or keep wall in WvW.

It’s just way too niche of a use and when you have utility skills the versatility of the skill is one of the most important things, especially for necros as our axe is borked, scepter and dagger is a lot of 1 spam, and staff has never really been about damage even though putrid mark can hit quite hard but you shouldn’t just be spamming that. Our utility skills really are needed for what little sustain/pressure we can put out. Moreso than other professions I believe.

Also it’s like thieve’s scorpion wire, you almost barely see them slot that besides trolling people on skyhammer, even then that’s just thieves goofing off.

Actually engi is just as bad, if you lock necro and engi 6-0 slots they are probably a bit more helpless, 3 weapons only the pistol can be dueled cause the others are shield and rifle.

Like necro engi relies extremely kitten utility to do anything, cause that’s always where their F1-4 come from.

No heal no F keys utility or elite a necro would pretty much always beat an engi cause better weapon loudout and swap power while engi can only load 1 set and rely on turrets/bundles to back em up. Necro is a small notch above engi in reliance on utility for anything.

The utility reliance pecking order easilly has engi higher to be honest just for clarity x3 no weapon swap power and F key needs 6-9 keys to get toolbelt relative skills. But yeah flip those keys on necro falls when it comes to things like mobility.

which will only get worse if anet goes ahead with the movement change they mentioned.

The engi weapons have nice roles though. The rifle alone is full of cc and has some mobility and a cleanse. The shield has cc and a reflect, the pistol has condis and cc, they’d probably lose in a 1v1 but already they’d be better in any team setting. Our weapons are some of the worst designed in the game imo, and we need utilities to help compensate more. Engi kits are just so broken it makes their weapon sets seem lackluster when really they’re amazing for the most part.

But yeah my point just is even if we weren’t the worst without utilities we are definitely near the bottom imo. I really just can’t justify utilities like spectral grasp. Especially with a lot of nec specs, you don’t want people too close to you atm. It’s like when that dev said necro wants to get hit and everyone laughed at him.

• Limited number of utility slots: Spectral Armor, Walk and Wall are all typically more useful. And there are non-spectral utilities that are better too.
• Spectral Trait placement: One competes with Terror, another with very good DS traits. Most builds that go into those lines are better with other traits.

Few people run it because like all pulls, it’s unreliable. There are also a lot better utilities that could be used in it’s place.

However, I have been running a Spectral conditionmancer for a very long time, triple Spectral’s + both traits and I very much enjoy Spectral Grasp.