Guild Wars 2

Disclaimer: plz be constructive otherwise ignore me pz and ty.

Reaper still needs things and the mentality i’m using here is “incentivise me to use it” in terms of skills and traits, so when it comes out and if it is OP (or not) they can nerf it there and then. Otherwise things may never be played no matter how much they buff it.

So ill start with what it needs (for me to use it) in terms of under powered traits IMO.

Augury of death-
-Add a LF% gain on enemy hit, increase siphoning for each hit, or transfer a condi on hit (for allies as well). otherwise the other adepts far surpass this one.

Soul eater-
-Siphon life on all attacks not just Gravedigger and give it a increase GS attack speed like Shiro’s rapid laceration’s. Instead of Siphoning you could go LF gen but I doubt that would happen.

Deathly chill-
-Only thing I can think of is to make chill stack intensity but that could ruin chill in some ways. otherwise increase damage of chill plz.

Now time for skills

“your soul is mine”-
-make this skill generate 20% LF on each hit otherwise it will never see play ever. even if each hit did generate 20% LF I will probably us consume conditions. this would give it a chance of being used.

“Nothing can save you”-
– how much does this actually do? I can’t see myself run this over other skills because it doesn’t do much at all. Either add an immobilize to this or fear because it is weak right now. also make it corrupt more than 2 condis (maybe 3-4).

“Suffer”-
– This was the most useful shout IMO because it chilled and condi cleansed. It just helped. I do think it could apply more conditions though like bleed or torment. Plz make this a stun break.

“you are all weaklings”-
– This was okay. It could have longer lasting might still. otherwise fine.

“Rise”-
– Just make the minions last longer or decrease the CD. In a minion master build it’ll get used but aside from that it won’t see much action.

“Chilled to the bone”-
– how is this better than lich or plague? I don’t see it. maybe if it was instant activation but right now I wont use it over lich.

Shouts in general need to be instant activation and Reaper shouts need 1,000 damage each. It’s a flavor/quality of life thing and I would use the shouts if they were like this.

Reaper shroud-
– It’s perfect do nothing to it in it’s current state. maybe an slight increase to auto attack otherwise it’s godly..

GS-
-As long as it is this slow it will never see competitive play. It needs to have a traited speed increase or a flat speed increase.

AA- this could be faster

GS#5- have this ground targeted and 900 range plz. it would fix alot.

If all these changes took place necro would be great and if they are OP they can nerf them later. This wold solve any problem’s I have with reaper atm. Again this is what I would like to see happen IMO so take it as you will. plz be constructive so that We can all enjoy the game and so the devs can figure out what to do.

I can’t agree with you on most things here. For example, “Suffer!” is the weakest shout we have. It’s a Plague Signet that trades reliability (both in conditions transferred, where it has the same max, and in range) and a stunbreak for a bit of chill. It doesn’t even natively have a shorter cooldown to make it worth slotting instead.

Likewise, Augury of Death is already very competitive at the Adept level. “Your Soul is Mine!” is already quite a good healing skill, especially when traited. Even without traiting, YSIM out-does Consume Conditions in healing/second up through two conditions, and that’s actual healing, not including the life force. Factor in that at a half-second shorter cast, it’s much less likely to be interrupted. It’s competitive as-is.

Really, the only things I agree with you on are the Soul eater trait being underwhelming and Reaper Shroud being quite good (though perhaps needing a bit more damage on the auto).

I’d like to see a cast time reduction or haste attribute on Soul Eater. As it is it’s rather underwhelming, and Great Sword requires far too much planning and careful execution to be a strong choice in PvP thanks to those extremely long cast times.

I thought the damage overall was excellent. Landing it was another story. There is a lack of utility too.

Pyroen.2086:

Disclaimer: plz be constructive otherwise ignore me pz and ty.

Reaper still needs things and the mentality i’m using here is “incentivise me to use it” in terms of skills and traits, so when it comes out and if it is OP (or not) they can nerf it there and then. Otherwise things may never be played no matter how much they buff it.

So ill start with what it needs (for me to use it) in terms of under powered traits IMO.

Augury of death-
-Add a LF% gain on enemy hit, increase siphoning for each hit, or transfer a condi on hit (for allies as well). otherwise the other adepts far surpass this one.

Soul eater-
-Siphon life on all attacks not just Gravedigger and give it a increase GS attack speed like Shiro’s rapid laceration’s. Instead of Siphoning you could go LF gen but I doubt that would happen.

Deathly chill-
-Only thing I can think of is to make chill stack intensity but that could ruin chill in some ways. otherwise increase damage of chill plz.

Now time for skills

“your soul is mine”-
-make this skill generate 20% LF on each hit otherwise it will never see play ever. even if each hit did generate 20% LF I will probably us consume conditions. this would give it a chance of being used.

“Nothing can save you”-
– how much does this actually do? I can’t see myself run this over other skills because it doesn’t do much at all. Either add an immobilize to this or fear because it is weak right now. also make it corrupt more than 2 condis (maybe 3-4).

“Suffer”-
– This was the most useful shout IMO because it chilled and condi cleansed. It just helped. I do think it could apply more conditions though like bleed or torment. Plz make this a stun break.

“you are all weaklings”-
– This was okay. It could have longer lasting might still. otherwise fine.

“Rise”-
– Just make the minions last longer or decrease the CD. In a minion master build it’ll get used but aside from that it won’t see much action.

“Chilled to the bone”-
– how is this better than lich or plague? I don’t see it. maybe if it was instant activation but right now I wont use it over lich.

Shouts in general need to be instant activation and Reaper shouts need 1,000 damage each. It’s a flavor/quality of life thing and I would use the shouts if they were like this.

Reaper shroud-
– It’s perfect do nothing to it in it’s current state. maybe an slight increase to auto attack otherwise it’s godly..

GS-
-As long as it is this slow it will never see competitive play. It needs to have a traited speed increase or a flat speed increase.

AA- this could be faster

GS#5- have this ground targeted and 900 range plz. it would fix alot.

If all these changes took place necro would be great and if they are OP they can nerf them later. This wold solve any problem’s I have with reaper atm. Again this is what I would like to see happen IMO so take it as you will. plz be constructive so that We can all enjoy the game and so the devs can figure out what to do.

Man. Okay. Wow. This is some pretty overdone stuff.

In PvE, if you’re running shouts, Augury is pretty nice. But, to be honest, none of the adepts are too exciting in PvE, so augury is pretty on par.

I don’t agree with this on Soul Eater. The GS is meant to be a heavy, slow weapon, with high risk and high reward, giving it haste would just require it to get nerfed into basically a 2 handed dagger.

Agree that Deathly Chill needs a bit of help.

YSIM: I suspect that you’re fairly new to necromancer, or you’d recognize why 20% LF per hit on a 5 target skill would be the most powerful skill in the game by a huge margin. 100% life force every 13 seconds is not balanced. The only possible reason you could think the equivalent of a 15k-20k heal every 13 seconds is reasonable is that you don’t really know how to use DS well.

NCSY: It’s good at what it does, which is be a pvp-focused boon strip/damage setup skill. I’ll admit I haven’t used it for more than a couple matches, but it feels perfectly viable for what it’s designed to do. It already strips 10 boons and applies 10 vuln to each target, and the unblockable attacks tend to really catch people by surprise when they’re expecting to be safe for a few seconds. No one dodges Gravedigger when they’re blocking.

Suffer: Actually agree that this would be a good stunbreaker, and I like this one more than most people here seem to. Nothing I’d really change about it, maybe slightly higher chill duration.

YAAW: y=Yeah, this one’s good too.

Rise: I’ll be honest, I really don’t care how good this skill is, it’s just so kitten fun to run around with a dozen undead horrors.

CttB: How is it better than Lich or Plague? How is it worse? How is it even comparable? They have no similarities whatsoever. Comparing it with our elite transformations is like comparing Dagger 2 and Scepter 2, they have nothing in common aside from their location on your skill bar.

I don’t think you know what flavor or quality of life mean. Flat damage buffs are not quality of life or flavor changes. And, aside from the heal and elite, they are all instant cast.

Agree with RS comments.

Disagree about GS. It being slow is the whole point. I’d prefer if the weapon remained as slow as it is, but got additional damage, to keep it as a high-risk, high-reward weapon. If you want something quick and reliable, use dagger. Don’t try to remake Greatsword into something it was never meant to be.

As for GS5, I agree about the ground targeting, and would like more range, but Robert Gee commented a while back that it can’t get more range, because the skill is way more complicated under the hood than it seems like it should be. Changing the range would basically require them to rebuild it. I’ll settle for it being more reliable.

I would want:

Increase speed on GS, or, a crazy idea, make it the first GS swing that has multiple “mini-hits” when you swing. think of him “forcing” the sword deeper. (useless in pvp in current state)

Increase life force gain from Blighter’s Boon, but give it a 3s cooldown. Increase heal.

Reaper Shroud:
Either, but not multiple:
(1) Make reaper shroud not count as a weapon swap
(2) Nerf Enfeeble
(3) Nerf Sigil of Geomancy in PvP

In addition, give the #2 more damage per hit but less hits, and nerf the poison stack duration on the #4 by about 2-4 “total” stacks. However, in combination with the above nerf, I would only go so far as 2 of the stacks. That’s about 10-15%.

The #3 I would increase the fear duration when you break your stability, as a trade for less damage in pvp.

5 is good and usable in current form. Frost Armor combo is a nice bonus.

Chill damage: With above nerfs, Chill damage will be ok as is. Without above nerfs, I would just make chill ONLY deal its damage when the target is below 50%. More counterplay, and it’s a solid nerf to a trait that is immensely powerful in the necromancer’s current state.

Dhuumfire: Make it give 3 stacks of burn for 3.5s on hit, and have a 10 second cooldown. Makes it easier for Death Shroud to use, and nerfs the Reaper Shroud by about 2-3 stacks.

Lastly, I would make the trait that gives the 50% shroud duration a passive, and make the trait only reduce the cooldown of Shroud abilities by 20%. Still a powerful trait, and removes the “mandatory” shroud duration…

WITH THAT, though, Life Force generation would need a nerf.

Please don’t do all of these as severe as I mentioned… or if you do, only pick a few.

Captain Unusual.9163:

I don’t agree with this on Soul Eater. The GS is meant to be a heavy, slow weapon, with high risk and high reward, giving it haste would just require it to get nerfed into basically a 2 handed dagger.

Not really, it depends on how it’s done. I proposed 1 second of quickness for every gravedigger landed on an enemy above 50% HP. Since gravedigger has a 1s aftercast, 0.5s or quickness are always spent in halving gravedigger aftercast. The other 0.5s of quickness are spent in halving the time of first attack of the auto-attack chain (Dusk Strike is 1s between cast and aftercast). The quickness up-time is 15.6% and only when the enemy is above 50% HP. It pretty much only removes a bit of the clunkiness of the auto by jump starting it making GS a slightly better DPS than dagger even when the foe is above 50% HP.

I have to say I’m not in favor of a lot of these proposed changes. I think most of the shouts and traits are pretty good as they are.

Additionally, GS won’t get faster. I know, at its current speed, it probably will never be a “good” PvP weapon, but it’s very unique and fun in its current, slow, powerful form. As much as I like to be effective in PvP, I’d prefer this stays as it is. No attack speed buff, except maybe a /small/ one on Gravedigger (possibly by eliminating or highly reducing aftercast) if it were combined with a limited number of cooldown resets.

What that being said, what the greatsword needs MORE of to be competitive in PvP is reliable control. It has been suggested that it should receive a 1s chill on the 1st and second swings of the AA, and I think this would be an excellent step in the right direction. I would further add that the 3rd swing should have an increased radius of effect, as it’s so hard to land in PvP. Perhaps an AoE frost nova animation and a range of 200-220.

I do agree with you in that I would love to see GS#5 become, as you mentioned, a ground targeted skill, though 600 range would be fine if not for the other bugs this skill has. However, this has been requested before and the dev response seemed to insist this skill is very complicated to fix, implying we unfortunately won’t see this change.

Only thing i would change from my experience in this BWE3 is RS#2. Sometimes it doesn’t work as intended, specially if the ground is not leveled. Like a hill/ramp or something.

Jackalrat.5493:

What that being said, what the greatsword needs MORE of to be competitive in PvP is reliable control. It has been suggested that it should receive a 1s chill on the 1st and second swings of the AA, and I think this would be an excellent step in the right direction. I would further add that the 3rd swing should have an increased radius of effect, as it’s so hard to land in PvP. Perhaps an AoE frost nova animation and a range of 200-220.

I like these ideas.

@OP: Like many others, I don’t agree with your shout evaluation at all. Suffer is trash. The rest is somewhere between good and ok. NCSY for example synergises really well with Decimate Defenses. Rise is kind of an “active defense” type ability. And the rest are solid abilities.

My biggest gripe with shouts was: Even with trooper runes + Curses or DM, condi removal felt kinda low/unreliable against heavy condibursts (esp engi). But that’s rng burn removal at it’s best.

@GD Haste: As I see it, making GS faster would be against the design of the weapon and granting quickness when hitting with GD would overload this ability even further. If it gets any haste or attack speed buffs then they should occur when GD is negated and not when it lands.
This way the weapon kit is not as reliant on GD as it currently is.
Alternatively, if you want to associate Soul Stealer with life leech, it could grant a short duration life steal buff, when an attack is negated.

Early high level Pvp tests, eg Nos vs Phantaram streams, suggest that the Reaper is poor at high level pvp and also a downgrade versus the necromancer.

The main problem with Reaper is inability to pressure kiting enemies.

The biggest things that need to be done to help the reaper are

(1) Fix Axe (and scepter and focus), but especially axe
(2) longer chill durations

Right now the Reaper spec is DOA in high level Pvp (and I don’t just mean the greatsword which nobody expects to ever be viable).

As for weak traits, you missed “Shivers of Dread,” which ought to be combined or merged with anything else because it just doesn’t do much in an actual game.

The shout trait and greatsword trait should be totally reworked. Nobody will take them in their current state. The shout trait ought to be as powerful as the guardian trait (converts conditions to boons) or the warrior trait (heals) and not just some meaningless cooldown effect or lifesteal. The greatsword trait will never be taken in its current form (no need for cooldown reduction on gravedigger spam & no lifesteal synergy with other traits). The greatsword trait should be scrapped entirely & replaced with something else (my suggestion is conditions).

If they’re going to buff GS auto, I think they would need to buff RS auto as well, from a PvE standpoint as enemies in PvE don’t dodge your attacks.

Or just reduce the coefficients on the GS AA but increase the attack speed.

nekretaal.6485:

Early high level Pvp tests, eg Nos vs Phantaram streams, suggest that the Reaper is poor at high level pvp and also a downgrade versus the necromancer.

What’s next? Testing a LB Ranger in melee?

Yes, scepter, axe, focus still need a lot work, but reaper was made for group fights not duels.

Charblaze.6958:

nekretaal.6485:

Early high level Pvp tests, eg Nos vs Phantaram streams, suggest that the Reaper is poor at high level pvp and also a downgrade versus the necromancer.

What’s next? Testing a LB Ranger in melee?

Yes, scepter, axe, focus still need a lot work, but reaper was made for group fights not duels.

I wonder if they tried a Condi-reaper, which is arguably one of the strongest specializations out there.

This are the most overpowered suggestions we have seen in this forum for a long long time. The only suggestions that are somewhat good are the GS skills. Somehow this seems like you copied some warrior traits and mechanics and slapped them onto the reaper. You cant compare lifeforce and adrenalin. You cant compare buffing shouts to damaging shouts. You cant give an adept shout trait a ton of different functions, putting it into line with the warrior shout trait. Thats not going to work.

nekretaal.6485:

The shout trait and greatsword trait should be totally reworked. Nobody will take them in their current state. The shout trait ought to be as powerful as the guardian trait (converts conditions to boons) or the warrior trait (heals) and not just some meaningless cooldown effect or lifesteal. The greatsword trait will never be taken in its current form (no need for cooldown reduction on gravedigger spam & no lifesteal synergy with other traits). The greatsword trait should be scrapped entirely & replaced with something else (my suggestion is conditions).

Augury of Death is already quite strong. If I’m running more than two shouts, I actually have to try and justify taking Reaper’s Onslaught instead. Even at only two shouts, it’s a debate.

Soul Eater, on the other hand… yeah, that’s bad.

Brujeria.7536:

This are the most overpowered suggestions we have seen in this forum for a long long time. The only suggestions that are somewhat good are the GS skills. Somehow this seems like you copied some warrior traits and mechanics and slapped them onto the reaper. You cant compare lifeforce and adrenalin. You cant compare buffing shouts to damaging shouts. You cant give an adept shout trait a ton of different functions, putting it into line with the warrior shout trait. Thats not going to work.

This.

As for high level PvP, 1v1s are really bad for Reaper. The specialization as a whole wasn’t designed to 1v1, quite the opposite it was designed for teamfighting. Beyond that, I had done a lot of 1v1s using an actual 1v1 Reaper build and did extremely well, but I wasn’t using any shouts or GS, just RS plus traiting, because the rest is really awful 1v1. Now, will Reaper necessarily work in the highest PvP tiers? At the moment they won’t likely be meta (at least not in any special way except using the traitline as an improvement in otherwise “core” necro builds) simply due to the overall lack of teamfighting. If teamfighting ever becomes meta Reaper will meta-ize quickly.

Soul eater needs definite improvement, other than that I’m pretty happy with the state of reaper, myself.

Having said that, I go for fun factor, not 100% optimal DPS

nekretaal.6485:

Early high level Pvp tests, eg Nos vs Phantaram streams, suggest that the Reaper is poor at high level pvp and also a downgrade versus the necromancer.

What you are saying might be true except….
1. Reaper is not and has never been designed for 1v1. So that is not really going to make Robert H Geezus change a thing.
2. Phantaram has more experience playing a d/d (I think) than NOS has playing a reaper. Once again, not a very fair and balance analysis. Or it is as fair and balance as fox news and MSNBC is, if you live in the states.

But more important, the Reaper in theory is designed to enjoy fighting multiple opponents, a 1v1 fight from those two means nothing.

BTW I am not suggesting that the reaper doesn’t have issues, because it does. However, using a 1v1 match is not a good way to drive your point home.

If Reapers need help at high end PvP, then we should definitely get help. Like it or not, Anet is pushing the PvP esports scene. So they do care about what people say about these tournaments. So if Reapers truly need to get better for high end PvP, then I support boosts to Reapers so they become viable.

I never liked calling signet necros meta in the first place just because 1 player and 1 top team used it. Would like to see Reaper get a chance to really earn a spot because they are viable, not just a niche or liability like most people called signet necros.

Most of those changes seem a bit overpowered. The 20% life force on Your soul is mine is ridiculous. I like the idea of stunbreak on suffer, but that is probably all I agree on.

gavyne.6847:

If Reapers need help at high end PvP, then we should definitely get help. Like it or not, Anet is pushing the PvP esports scene. So they do care about what people say about these tournaments. So if Reapers truly need to get better for high end PvP, then I support boosts to Reapers so they become viable.

I never liked calling signet necros meta in the first place just because 1 player and 1 top team used it. Would like to see Reaper get a chance to really earn a spot because they are viable, not just a niche or liability like most people called signet necros.

I am not saying they don’t need help, but you are offering no suggestions. Opinions are only relevant or useful when you back them up with something. Saying high end PvP doesn’t really mean much.

People’s perception change all the time, so if you want to say something. Do it but say something of substance. I mean people at some point thought hammer warrior would never be viable and yet…

about GS.. how about making the first swing of the autoattack an instant activation (like thief sword) so you would have a fast and easy to land first swing of AA. using this after GS#5 or a dodge roll you should be able to land at least a couple AA hits in pvp, even if its just the first part of the AA

maybe putting the chill on the first fast swing to keep the foe close could help to land the slow auto chain or maybe gravedigger right after first swing. so it would enable a little bit tactical play…

it would result in a little bit more dps from auto but in my opinion would make a huge difference in pvp especially if chill (2s) was applied right on the beginning.

If Anet is not going to give Reaper some desired party support abilities, then this profession should be the best at DPS. Otherwise we will never have a spot in Raids.

vicious.5683:

If Anet is not going to give Reaper some desired party support abilities, then this profession should be the best at DPS. Otherwise we will never have a spot in Raids.

At 1st unlock utilitybar in shrouds. 2nd add F2, F3…. maybe F4, to use lifeforce in different ways..example:

F1: Deathshroud
F2: Reapershroud
F3: Necrotic Intervention (uses the lifeforce kinda healpool. Heals allies with less then 75% life, up to max 75% of their life)
F4: Dark Impact (the lifeforce degenerates with 10%/s, grants Dark Impact aura to nearby allies. Dark Impact adds extra damage to allies attacks, amount based on 5% the necromancer’s max hitpoints)

Or kind like that. Just some Quick ideas what necromancer’s could do more with their lifeforce for groupmembers.