Guild Wars 2

Ran it today and wow….truly sad.

Honestly Death Shroud was the thing for me, on Necro. Is why I played it. It may be a toon I just let languish as it seriously is awful now. Fun is gone for me.

Electro.4173:

I don’t for a second buy that it was for balance reasons. They would have changed it long ago if that was really the case. Its clear they changed it because Scourge doesn’t have a shroud in a traditional sense, so there’s no life force decay, and thus that skill would have been mostly useless with Scourge (that’s very likely also why they changed Speed of Shadows to not reduce Shroud cooldown). They want all traits to (for the most part) play nice together and not have one trait / spec make others useless. I’m actually completely on-board with that, I think its a good philosophy. Changing it to Vitality lets it benefit all specs, albeit not nearly as much as the old DP benefited Death / Reaper Shroud.

Baffling that they didn’t make it at least partially baseline for Death and Reaper Shroud, though. At least cut the decay by 33% or something, if cutting it by 50% for free would have been too much. The reason so many people took the trait, hell, the whole Soul Reaping line, is because Death Shroud decays too fast by default to account for using it as an offensive tool while also having it sliced apart by damage. It was bad being pigeonholed to lessen that issue, but not having any option at all and just having it decay that fast by default with no option to reduce the decay whatsoever is worse.

I can only hope they hear the criticisms and adjust the decay at some point.

I can’t agree more they should have make it baseline with 33-40% and change the trait to gain vitality and toughness or gain stab by pulse 1 every sec for 5 or 6 secs on a 15 sec cooldown maybe… the point is they should me it baseline and rework the whole soul reaping trait line

Probably just going to run blood magic instead. My blood magic reaper build is Much better at staying alive anyway. Though not quite as good at dealing damage.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Thief: (let us buff your weaker areas to compete with the other stronger areas)

The Daredevil specialization has largely taken over the Power-based gameplay that used to be the domain of the sword, so we are giving sword (and sword-related traits) an enhancement in order to ensure it has some unique utility to offer. Tricks and signets are also receiving several changes to help them compete with the very powerful utility skills offered by deceptions and physicals. Finally, we are also reassessing some traits that we felt were either lacking in power or not offering enough diversity in choice.

Necro: (let us nerf your stronger area to make your weaker areas a competitive option)

One of the biggest changes for necromancers in this patch is the change to the Vital Persistence trait. Previously, this trait reduced the rate at which life force decayed while in shroud and was too powerful compared to the other two traits in the same tier. We’ve changed the functionality of this trait in order to provide a different option that is easier to track and is more competitive with other traits in the same tier.

What’s funny is that they completely obliterated all purpose of ever playing any of the signets on the thief, and in turn heavily nerfed the niche purpose CS had in PvP environments as well.

It’s clear: ANet has no interest in balancing their game but is fixated on nerfing core to sell their next expansion.

I’m not buying it. I said I’d stop purchasing anything from ANet until they fixed the blunders from HoT. I intend to hold myself to it because the game is quickly moving further and further to the point where it’s not worth the time or money investment, nor is ANet deserving of the funds for releasing such a low-quality product in terms of how mismanaged it is.

Tried Vital Persistence today and it has clearly been nerfed, hard.

One thing I do not understand is why Fear of Death was not reworked. “… too powerful compared to the other two traits in the same tier.” Really? I count only one other trait in that tier of Soul Reaping, plus one placeholder for a third trait. Necromancer Fear up-time, as a condition, is so small compared to other conditions that I cannot take it seriously for either sustain or dps (with Terror). Fear is more useful as an interrupt, now that it actually counts as one,

Anchoku.8142:

Tried Vital Persistence today and it has clearly been nerfed, hard.

One thing I do not understand is why Fear of Death was not reworked. “… too powerful compared to the other two traits in the same tier.” Really? I count only one other trait in that tier of Soul Reaping, plus one placeholder for a third trait. Necromancer Fear up-time, as a condition, is so small compared to other conditions that I cannot take it seriously for either sustain or dps (with Terror). Fear is more useful as an interrupt, now that it actually counts as one,

now is really worthless just like the 2 other traits ^.^ change to blood magic to run some test because the whole trait is just not worth it

Crinn.7864:

Honestly I like the change. Firstly for classes that are limited by a resource (in this case LF) traits that make resource managing easier will always drown out all other options.

Secondly having the vitality buffer from the trait opens up our amulet options. Berserker necro might be a thing. Also toughness amulets like rabid and demolisher might be worth playing with.

Its your opinion, and i respect that. But you’re so wrong it hurts. Saying the earth is flat may sound nice but it is still wrong.

Bottom line is, they basically killed shroud with these nerfs. Having a vitality trait does NOTHING to support anything else we have. Toughness was potentially worth playing before, but this doesnt matter. A necro who cant support his shroud at anytime ever is dead weight. If you think opposite, go into PvP or WvW and test it. Watch how steamrolled you will get.

No shroud cd reduction. No passive ms buff while in shroud. Shroud decays faster. No alternatives. Why even go into shroud now????

WoW, Anet you really screwed up this one didn’t you, Like 5 seconds of shroud IF it doesn’t get ripped right away. Please explain to me how in WvW Necros get stabs now, and as a power necro why would you take my DPS state away?!?! Whoever thought of this needs to be fired right away, because clearly, THEY’RE STUPID!

Relwin.7569:

I wouldn’t rather say that devs are bad or so. I think they know what they do.

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH

great joke, mate!

Relwin.7569:

I wouldn’t rather say that devs are bad or so. I think they know what they do.

PFFFFFFFFFFFFF BAHAAHAAHAAAHAAHAAHAAHAHAHAHA…oh my back…

Ya wow. If this what meant to make me anxious for PoF it was a complete failure. It just showed me the lack of thought or maybe the desperation? behind the next expansion. Neither is an attractive quality nor does it inspire confidence.

My thread Titled: Vital Persist nerf = buy Expac, was wiped from the omniverse. Keep up the banter guys maybe someone will do something about this disgusting downdate. Like apologize and change a minor trait or somethin.

Sophie.6098:

WoW, Anet you really screwed up this one didn’t you, Like 5 seconds of shroud IF it doesn’t get ripped right away. Please explain to me how in WvW Necros get stabs now, and as a power necro why would you take my DPS state away?!?! Whoever thought of this needs to be fired right away, because clearly, THEY’RE STUPID!

It’s 4% per second…

In 5 seconds you’ve only lost 20%

When I saw the patch notes I literally cried. I absolutely hate this change, it’s horrible. I am beyond sad and disappointed… My build just feels weird and ruined. First time in many years I want to quit my Necro main. I honestly just lost all the motivation to play the expansion. I am utterly disgusted by this nerf.

Ramoth.9064:

Sophie.6098:

WoW, Anet you really screwed up this one didn’t you, Like 5 seconds of shroud IF it doesn’t get ripped right away. Please explain to me how in WvW Necros get stabs now, and as a power necro why would you take my DPS state away?!?! Whoever thought of this needs to be fired right away, because clearly, THEY’RE STUPID!

It’s 4% per second…

In 5 seconds you’ve only lost 20%

That’s assuming you don’t use any skills or take any damage.

Serenity.6135:

Ramoth.9064:

Sophie.6098:

WoW, Anet you really screwed up this one didn’t you, Like 5 seconds of shroud IF it doesn’t get ripped right away. Please explain to me how in WvW Necros get stabs now, and as a power necro why would you take my DPS state away?!?! Whoever thought of this needs to be fired right away, because clearly, THEY’RE STUPID!

It’s 4% per second…

In 5 seconds you’ve only lost 20%

That’s assuming you don’t use any skills or take any damage.

It doesn’t make what she said any less false. Unless she actually only had 20% to start with.

Mea.5491:

When I saw the patch notes I literally cried. I absolutely hate this change, it’s horrible. I am beyond sad and disappointed… My build just feels weird and ruined. First time in many years I want to quit my Necro main. I honestly just lost all the motivation to play the expansion. I am utterly disgusted by this nerf.

What can i say ?

just came back to GW2 like a week ago to play my Power Reaper GS/Axe

and now they hit me in the face with this load of BS of a “Balance Patch”…….

Serenity.6135:

Ramoth.9064:

Sophie.6098:

WoW, Anet you really screwed up this one didn’t you, Like 5 seconds of shroud IF it doesn’t get ripped right away. Please explain to me how in WvW Necros get stabs now, and as a power necro why would you take my DPS state away?!?! Whoever thought of this needs to be fired right away, because clearly, THEY’RE STUPID!

It’s 4% per second…

In 5 seconds you’ve only lost 20%

That’s assuming you don’t use any skills or take any damage.

and ? its still bassicaly an indirect Buff to all the condi builds againts us….
its not like Condi is meta or anything am i right ? its a HUGE nerf…

vicious.5683:

Flubbernaut.9584:

But what if I want to run reaper? What about f2p players? Are we not as important?

Necromancers as a whole are not importan to Anet. It’s common knowledge and you must be new.

People need to stop with these stupid comments or stuff like “no one at A.Net plays Necromancer” in their puddle of self-pity. You can apply and read these comments to EVERY profession, in each sub-forum when stuff got nerfed.

That being said: I agree with the general disappointment nontheless. Whenever I used Soul Reaping, Vital Persistence was a nobrainer to pick.

@spectral mastery: I assume they nerfed the 50% duration increase because they increased the duration of the skills themselves.

Mahou.3924:

vicious.5683:

Flubbernaut.9584:

But what if I want to run reaper? What about f2p players? Are we not as important?

Necromancers as a whole are not importan to Anet. It’s common knowledge and you must be new.

People need to stop with these stupid comments or stuff like “no one at A.Net plays Necromancer” in their puddle of self-pity. You can apply and read these comments to EVERY profession, in each sub-forum when stuff got nerfed.

That being said: I agree with the general disappointment nontheless. Whenever I used Soul Reaping, Vital Persistence was a nobrainer to pick.

@spectral mastery: I assume they nerfed the 50% duration increase because they increased the duration of the skills themselves.

by 2 secs….

Brokensunday.4098:

Mahou.3924:

vicious.5683:

Flubbernaut.9584:

But what if I want to run reaper? What about f2p players? Are we not as important?

Necromancers as a whole are not importan to Anet. It’s common knowledge and you must be new.

People need to stop with these stupid comments or stuff like “no one at A.Net plays Necromancer” in their puddle of self-pity. You can apply and read these comments to EVERY profession, in each sub-forum when stuff got nerfed.

That being said: I agree with the general disappointment nontheless. Whenever I used Soul Reaping, Vital Persistence was a nobrainer to pick.

@spectral mastery: I assume they nerfed the 50% duration increase because they increased the duration of the skills themselves.

by 2 secs….

I never said it was a good change, did I?

I guess you could trait Spiteful Signets and then use Signet of Undeath and then you still have half the benefit of Vital Persistence?…

I don’t run VP but it’s a super popular trait for a reason. I had hoped this patch would come with buffs for Death Magic so we might have had an actual choice for defensive traitlines. Is Death Magic now the best option for survival even with an effectively nonexistent Master Minor?

They could’ve “balanced” it slightly by making the decay 3%, but no, it’s gone completely. Vitality in return is insignificant because you’ll lose a percentage of life force in shroud.

Alternatively, they could have buffed life force gain to compensate, and they’ll say the 2 and 1 second buffs to spectral armor and walk will help you gain more, but come on; those skills have a 1 second internal cooldown.

If they really wanted us to use those two skills (which, by the way, is discouraged with the additional nerf to the spectral cooldowns trait), then they need to take away the internal cooldown.

Brokensunday.4098:

Mahou.3924:

@spectral mastery: I assume they nerfed the 50% duration increase because they increased the duration of the skills themselves.

by 2 secs….

Old
Specral Walk. 8 →12s
Spectral Armour 6→9s
Spectral Wall 5→7.5s

New
Spectral walk 10→12s
Spectral Armour 8→9.6s
Spectral Wall 6→7.2s

Essentially no difference in the traited version but the base versions are better overall.

Since launch, this trait has existed, and several years ago, they bumped it to -50%. They did that for a reason. Now suddenly, the ENTIRE trait can be removed? I am left to assume that the dev team that designed the trait back in 12 and buffed it in 2013 has quit the game, and whoever is in charge of designing the current necro balance hasn’t a clue about how power necro works in pvp/wvw.

It’s not just reaper that’s been nerfed, bye bye the old power ds builds, which still had some great situational uses. Insane in the membrane folks.

cobracommander.5861:

Since launch, this trait has existed, and several years ago, they bumped it to -50%. They did that for a reason. Now suddenly, the ENTIRE trait can be removed? I am left to assume that the dev team that designed the trait back in 12 and buffed it in 2013 has quit the game, and whoever is in charge of designing the current necro balance hasn’t a clue about how power necro works in pvp/wvw.

It’s not just reaper that’s been nerfed, bye bye the old power ds builds, which still had some great situational uses. Insane in the membrane folks.

this they have no clue how necro works

This is really huge nerf. The plus side is the 180 vitality outside of shroud, but they need to give us at least two times more vitality to get even close to the previous effectiveness.
Again, as we asked million times, !!! Why not make the degeneration 33%(instead of 50%), put it baseline and meld the Shroud skills cd reduction with other less useful trait…
For example:
- Gluttony: Increase LF gain by 10% and decrease LF drain by 33%.
- Speed of Shadows: Gain swiftness, remove conditions and reduce DS skills recharge by 20%
- And then Vital persistence can be something else completely.
This change is just lame and i hope they change it in the near future…

If they hadn’t design an necro elite specialization without a proper shroud they wouldn’t have the problem to change the existing shroud traits…

a solution could be:
- keep the new version and reduce the rate of life force decay and shroud recharge generally
- revert to the old version and add the following: (scourge) skills which use life force use 50% less and the recharge of the skills is reduced by 20%
- revert to the old version and design a proper shroud for the scourge which can profit from all shroud traits

I see a lot of people hoping this will be reverted. Sorry to pee on your collective bonfires but that isn’t going to happen. You will be stuck with this situation for at least 2 years

Agreed. But screw condi i started with that and like many decided its a slowgoing playstyle. Screw Scourge. Screw it all i tell ya

What saddens me the most is that they ignore the whole necromancer community. And i can bet my never equipped twilight, that they will nerf it way more in the next balance patch.
with out even reading feed back from us .
So as a main necromancer since prophecies i have grown a lot of hate towards the balance team.
And ever since the necro hate i’ve been searching for other mmo’s where necroish classes shine

Ghostt.1293:

And ever since the necro hate i’ve been searching for other mmo’s where necroish classes shine

Diablo III

Jeez, hats off to anyone who still mains necro, even through all these balance changes by the egg heads @ anet.

Soul Reaping was nerfed. It was good so it got trimmed.

Were there any changes to Death Magic?

You know, out of all these changes this patch. I’m actually surprised that anet still hasn’t made ANY changes to off-hand dagger yet. Apart from Condition builds in PvE the weapon is woefully kittenty compared to other off-hands like Warhorn. Maybe if they just gave it a 2-4% LF gain on each hit for Deathly Swarm or maybe an extra condition converted on Enfeebling blood you’d see more use for it in PvP. Weird changes this patch.

- make it baseline
- make it baseline weaker version, 3%
- increase all our LF abilities by 50%
- decrease all enemy abilities by 50%

So whats your choice and future vision arenanet?

“Swap necro or kick”

Flumek.9043:

- make it baseline
- make it baseline weaker version, 3%
- increase all our LF abilities by 50%
- decrease all enemy abilities by 50%

So whats your choice and future vision arenanet?

“Swap necro or kick”

Most likely in about 9 months they will make it baseline but it will be like 15% slower (not 50%), so still complete garbage

Anchoku.8142:

Soul Reaping was nerfed. It was good so it got trimmed.

Were there any changes to Death Magic?

Death magic is now better than soul reaping despite not being touched.

Soul reaping is now the worst traitline. Absolute garbage with no contribution to whatever the necromancers needs.

Lich form is even more useless than ever.

Plaguelands is worse than it’s former form. (from past patch)

Nerf after nerf. Bet the next nerf will be our shout elite skill and spite traitline.

Kirnale.5914:

Soul reaping is now the worst traitline. Absolute garbage with no contribution to whatever the necromancers needs.

Lich form is even more useless than ever.

Plaguelands is worse than it’s former form. (from past patch)

Nerf after nerf. Bet the next nerf will be our shout elite skill and spite traitline.

I wouldn’t say plaguelands is better or worse than plague, they’re completely different skills that perform different roles. I do miss its tankiness in wvw, but plaguelands can clear a room in pve.

Spectral Mastery seems to have inconsistent behaviour.

Last Gasp and Spectral Armor will cause 6s of protection, but 9s traited (+50%)
Spectral Walk, Wall, Grasp have no changes for their boons or conditions. I’m pretty sure at least Walk benefited from increased duration before.

Let’s be honest, this is a “run Scourge or die” change. If it was so powerful, it could have been nerfed to half its effect, but no. If other traits were the problem they could have been buffed, but no. If this trait was so powerful, it could have been moved to the ultimate column and compete with something useful, but no.

Straight up useless trait as it is and necromancer, which relies on shroud to stay alive as it has no vigor, no blocks, no mobility, terrible healing, etc., feels awful to play. What’s more, I’m certain Scourge will not fly as necromancer is not built to function without shroud. The barriers decay too quickly but they will still require shroud generation and perfect timing. There’s no sustain outside of shroud because necro was built with shroud in mind, so we’re getting a lesser, clunkier form of shroud and a nerf to shroud itself because raisins. Fun, great fun.

Hesacon.8735:

Kirnale.5914:

Soul reaping is now the worst traitline. Absolute garbage with no contribution to whatever the necromancers needs.

Lich form is even more useless than ever.

Plaguelands is worse than it’s former form. (from past patch)

Nerf after nerf. Bet the next nerf will be our shout elite skill and spite traitline.

I wouldn’t say plaguelands is better or worse than plague, they’re completely different skills that perform different roles. I do miss its tankiness in wvw, but plaguelands can clear a room in pve.

Pve is uninteresting. Reason is, you don’t really have a place in PvE besides fractals. And fractals can be cleared with every class. You are lacking in raids, and thus, are not welcome. Pvp is different. We could use the elite skill to overcome the lack of stability and burstphases in wvw, as well as spvp. Now we got something everyone can get out of because its so tiny, and provide next to none in active defense, of which we were lacking in the first place.

Kirnale.5914:

Hesacon.8735:

Kirnale.5914:

Soul reaping is now the worst traitline. Absolute garbage with no contribution to whatever the necromancers needs.

Lich form is even more useless than ever.

Plaguelands is worse than it’s former form. (from past patch)

Nerf after nerf. Bet the next nerf will be our shout elite skill and spite traitline.

I wouldn’t say plaguelands is better or worse than plague, they’re completely different skills that perform different roles. I do miss its tankiness in wvw, but plaguelands can clear a room in pve.

Pve is uninteresting. Reason is, you don’t really have a place in PvE besides fractals. And fractals can be cleared with every class. You are lacking in raids, and thus, are not welcome. Pvp is different. We could use the elite skill to overcome the lack of stability and burstphases in wvw, as well as spvp. Now we got something everyone can get out of because its so tiny, and provide next to none in active defense, of which we were lacking in the first place.

I tried dropping plaguelands on points in spvp and find it gets interrupted too easily and if you try to cast anything while you’re trying to drop it, it won’t drop.

The only real use I’ve found from Plaguelands (and it’s a good one at least) is on stationary or mostly stationary bosses and in chokepoint fights in WvW. It’s a pretty good skill in those conditions but other than that it’s not really.

Hesacon.8735:

Kirnale.5914:

Hesacon.8735:

Kirnale.5914:

Soul reaping is now the worst traitline. Absolute garbage with no contribution to whatever the necromancers needs.

Lich form is even more useless than ever.

Plaguelands is worse than it’s former form. (from past patch)

Nerf after nerf. Bet the next nerf will be our shout elite skill and spite traitline.

I wouldn’t say plaguelands is better or worse than plague, they’re completely different skills that perform different roles. I do miss its tankiness in wvw, but plaguelands can clear a room in pve.

Pve is uninteresting. Reason is, you don’t really have a place in PvE besides fractals. And fractals can be cleared with every class. You are lacking in raids, and thus, are not welcome. Pvp is different. We could use the elite skill to overcome the lack of stability and burstphases in wvw, as well as spvp. Now we got something everyone can get out of because its so tiny, and provide next to none in active defense, of which we were lacking in the first place.

I tried dropping plaguelands on points in spvp and find it gets interrupted too easily and if you try to cast anything while you’re trying to drop it, it won’t drop.

Sadly, it’s true. With the necro being the main target, you will get interrupted like every 0.75s. Plaguelands, compared to plague, have a too long casting time. Even if you manage to drop it off, it’s not like it helps you survive their relentless attacks, and yes, they will keep attack, knowing there is plaguelands below them. And you can hardly combine it with other AOE skills because of the amount of interruptions. The amount of interruptions was one of the main reason I stopped playing spvp since last year.

I quit the game over this, that’s how bad it is. Reaper was the class that kept me playing the game.

If you want real change, write an or tip to one of the bigger gaming sites. This will force Arena Net’s hand. Make them respond whether they want to or not.

That’s what I am tried to do.

This is the most ridiculous nerf and it’s clear they opted for a quick, lazy way of going about it. I’d be ashamed to have my name on it.

power spec got destroyed on reaper and or core just for the excuse that the traits have no synergy with scourge??? like what why not buff the other traits and add something like what they did to the trait?