Guild Wars 2

I remember it was about 1 year ago, when Necro/Reaper solo roaming started to fall apart for me.

It was about that time, when every subsequent patch buffed other professions stronger and stronger, till the point came when Necro/Reaper did not have a fair chance against other classes and their common roaming builds.

No matter what I did, how I tried, there wasn’t a single Necro/Reaper build that gave me a fair chance against most of the other roaming classes/builds out there. While I could spec to fight evenly against one enemy class/build, that same build would fail badly against other classes/builds. Reapers didn’t have a one roaming build that can fight most other builds on even grounds, which was available for many other classes and builds. Reapers had to spec heavily to have an even chance against a particular enemy class/build. And then re-spec again if he wished to have an even chance against a different enemy class/build. This wasn’t right for a roaming experience! If I had to spec and re-spec, I should just go PvP and duel!

Not anymore. Not anymore! With the buff to chill/bleed, we now have ‘one’ build (with many slight variations) that can fight evenly against most enemy builds out there. I’m not saying Reapers are OP now, because we are not. We are just able to fight evenly on the same level as other classes/builds out there.

I present to you my current roaming build. I stress it doesn’t make you invincible. It gives you a fair fighting chance against most other pros and their current popular roaming builds. Meaning you still need to know how to fight.

You will notice one of the utility is missing.
That is the free-style utility for depending on who you engage while roaming. Assuming you see your opponent from afar, and have time to change one utility.

• Option 1: Well of Corruption. Use this when you bump into berserkers, dragonhunters, tempests, scrappers, revenants.

• Option 2: Spectral Wall. Use this when fighting thieves.

• Option 3: Suffer!. Use this when fighting chronomancers

• Option 4: Spectral Grasp. Use this when fighting heavy kiting classes like druids.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQNAW7InMbCl3gd2A0biliBjaIMFKCx9whYSMKA8tKAA-TVSAQByUJ4YUa8RlB/T3gFuIAiRJGAeCA+Y/hHq+DpAWUaE-w

I hope you have a blast too roaming with Reapers.

This begs the question, are there other classes that need to adapt their builds on the fly depending on the opponent? If not, then there still needs to be some work done for the Necro class.

Oh look, a bog standard meta condi reaper relying on chill to generate massive stacks of bleed. Yawn.

Thanks for sharing. I look forward to ripping them to shreds with my power necro build:-)

I’m pretty sure the chill/bleed buff being added to WvW was a mistake. They’ll probably skill-split it when they get around to their next balance patch .. in like 5 years or whenever.

Swamurabi.7890:

This begs the question, are there other classes that need to adapt their builds on the fly depending on the opponent? If not, then there still needs to be some work done for the Necro class.

you do realize this is an MMORPG, not an FPS. There should always be counter to classes in this genre. The standard for this many classes normally is 3:3:3, meaning 3 they are powerful against, 3 they the same against, and 3 they are weak against.

If you are facing a class that counters yours, and average player should be able to win. if you are very highly skilled, you can still win, but there should still be a risk to you losing by losing focus. Some may frown on this handicap, but its what rpgs has always been built around, its part of the genre. When you try to streamline classes to be on par with each other, it really waters down the flavour of a game, and many classes lose out on niche roles.

Now when you face those classes you are are on par with counter wise, changing utilities /traits can be a great way to find an edge. There is many roamers out there who will look at peoples food buffs to see what traits to swap out and what utilities to swap out, some even go as far as swapping weapon sets. Generally i’ll draw the line at one trait, one utility to switch out, but rarely do even that as its hard to find roamers who will keep on coming out to fight solo anyways.

Swamurabi.7890:

This begs the question, are there other classes that need to adapt their builds on the fly depending on the opponent? If not, then there still needs to be some work done for the Necro class.

Specifically on my Necromancer, though also a vanilla Necromancer and not a Reaper, I always change 2 – 3 of my utilities before a fight depending on what I’m about to fight.

With my other 3 characters, their utilities are pretty much useful against anything, eg. Endure Pain, Lightning Reflexes or Elixir S. My Necromancer’s utilities don’t always have a point unless they’re being used against the right thing which is why I find it worth the effort to switch things out if I have enough time to do so.

I think you can swap out utilities before a fight on any class to gain an advantage but for the most part, it’s probably only going to be one instead of a few.

Relatively simple/easy to come up with build without any real twists and some suboptimal sigil and rune choices.

I don’t agree with the assessment that reaper utilities only have effectiveness against certain classes. Plague signet is a stun break with additional benefits against other condi specs. CPC is a projectile block while also creating an area of denial. Rise! gives great direct damage mitigation and also blocks projectiles and eats up potential cleave. Suffer! is a DPS boost along with a great kiting tool and also transfers conditions. I’d say necro has good options for utilities for a genericly useful build.

Deathly chill deserves to be changed from its current state in WvW. You say reaper isn’t op while roaming, I would argue it is right on the line of op. While you can kite one reaper which helps balance it while solo roaming, there is no disadvantage for a roaming group to take a second necro and there isn’t any DPS dropoff. That is an issue. Taking two necros in a group of five with some support makes a borderline unkillable group with insane damage due to the chill change.

My vote would be to make it back to something similar to how it was at the launch of HoT where chill does damage itself. That way simply stacking more chillmancers isn’t always the most optimal and has a damage trade-off.

This is why I play a hybrid/condi warrior. Necro is a ton of fun to play but the CC/burst potential of the warrior is just amazing.

Helly.2597:

Taking two necros in a group of five with some support makes a borderline unkillable group with insane damage due to the chill change.

See this way too much and naturally they run full bunker. Although STRM is not innocent. Lastnight we had a squad of 7 and 4 were condi reapers…

Helly.2597:

My vote would be to make it back to something similar to how it was at the launch of HoT where chill does damage itself. That way simply stacking more chillmancers isn’t always the most optimal and has a damage trade-off.

But that’s exactly why it was changed to its current iteration, and while we have splits between game modes, that won’t affect the core functionality of a trait/skill. That means they can only play around with duration, cooldown and number of stacks. If they change it back to chill doing damage again, that change will affect it in all game modes. And that would gut condi necros in pvp and pve.

Helly.2597:

Relatively simple/easy to come up with build without any real twists and some suboptimal sigil and rune choices.

I don’t agree with the assessment that reaper utilities only have effectiveness against certain classes. Plague signet is a stun break with additional benefits against other condi specs. CPC is a projectile block while also creating an area of denial. Rise! gives great direct damage mitigation and also blocks projectiles and eats up potential cleave. Suffer! is a DPS boost along with a great kiting tool and also transfers conditions. I’d say necro has good options for utilities for a genericly useful build.

Deathly chill deserves to be changed from its current state in WvW. You say reaper isn’t op while roaming, I would argue it is right on the line of op. While you can kite one reaper which helps balance it while solo roaming, there is no disadvantage for a roaming group to take a second necro and there isn’t any DPS dropoff. That is an issue. Taking two necros in a group of five with some support makes a borderline unkillable group with insane damage due to the chill change.

My vote would be to make it back to something similar to how it was at the launch of HoT where chill does damage itself. That way simply stacking more chillmancers isn’t always the most optimal and has a damage trade-off.

110% agree.

Yannir.4132:

Helly.2597:

My vote would be to make it back to something similar to how it was at the launch of HoT where chill does damage itself. That way simply stacking more chillmancers isn’t always the most optimal and has a damage trade-off.

But that’s exactly why it was changed to its current iteration, and while we have splits between game modes, that won’t affect the core functionality of a trait/skill. That means they can only play around with duration, cooldown and number of stacks. If they change it back to chill doing damage again, that change will affect it in all game modes. And that would gut condi necros in pvp and pve.

Yea but they only balance for PvE and condi reaper was getting shafted there because of conflicting chill stacks, so it won’t happen.

Operating on the pretense they’ll do anything for WvW in terms of class balance and design is setting yourself up for disappointment.

DeceiverX.8361:

Yannir.4132:

Helly.2597:

My vote would be to make it back to something similar to how it was at the launch of HoT where chill does damage itself. That way simply stacking more chillmancers isn’t always the most optimal and has a damage trade-off.

But that’s exactly why it was changed to its current iteration, and while we have splits between game modes, that won’t affect the core functionality of a trait/skill. That means they can only play around with duration, cooldown and number of stacks. If they change it back to chill doing damage again, that change will affect it in all game modes. And that would gut condi necros in pvp and pve.

Yea but they only balance for PvE and condi reaper was getting shafted there because of conflicting chill stacks, so it won’t happen.

Operating on the pretense they’ll do anything for WvW in terms of class balance and design is setting yourself up for disappointment.

Were you replying to me or Helly? If you replied to me, I’m confused.