Guild Wars 2

Since this weapon is used exactly nowhere (i will not except open world pve as a justification) it could stand to see some improvements, so here is my bucket of ideas:

-faster auto attack chain but with reduced damage (for pve maybe leave the damage the same since power necro is garbage in pve). Simply put you will never get to auto attack with gs in wvw or pvp since players will just walk away from you or interrupt you (while killing you in case of thief). I am thinking something akin to the ranger gs auto attack speed (1/2 – 1/2 – 3/4)
-reduce the cast time of death spiral to 1/2 sec: This would make the skill a defensive one since it generates life force and enough of it to enable shroud even if you have 0 lf.
-reduce the cast time of nightfall to 1/4 sec: Again this is a defensive skill so make it actually effective at defending you by making it faster, allowing the player to do a reflex blind when he sees a singular hard hit coming.
-change grasping darkness to function the same way ranger’s offhand axe skill 4 works.
You get to ground target it and decide how far it travels before it starts to pull on the way back, it would still do 1 hit when the claws return and pull but this way you could instantly pull/interrupt a enemy that is in full melee by casting the skill just behind him such that the pull is immediate. (just take a ranger to the pvp lobby and try off hand axe skill 4 vs a golem to get the gist of it).
-Change the great sword trait to: gs skills recharge 20% faster and you take reduced damage (~15%) while casting grave digger.

With these changes the only slow skill left would be grave digger but that’s ok since ppl would now actually use gs.

Honestly at this point I just want 1 of 3 things…..

- Auto attack chain is as fast as warriors or guardians.

- Skill 3 (death spiral) to be a 900 or 1200 range teleport or leap.

- Greatsword does more damage so that its actually good even if its slow.

I would even propose that the soul eater trait just siphons health with every attack again but nobody cares about soul eater at this point.

Actually about GS right the only change i want is soul eater healling for each hit reduce cd on gs abilities and increase in LF generation for each ability aswell. Nothing else needed

foste.3098:

Since this weapon is used exactly nowhere (i will not except open world pve as a justification) it could stand to see some improvements, so here is my bucket of ideas

Greatsword is actually part of the Condi necro meta now. Though it is utterly kitten that a weapon designed for power is used as a condi weapon.

Auto attack is fine as it is aside from the final attack. That needs to be 3/4s cast time since it is currently a dps loss to complete the chain. Bad design on Anet’s part.

As for Soul Eater, Anet needs to make it a viable option if we manage to gain 100% crit chance and 25 might without taking DD or CV (like in an organised party). Something like +10% damage from Greatsword attacks, life siphon on all attacks whilst wielding a Greatsword and 20% recharge reduction on Greatsword skills.

I definitely agree with the Grasping Darkness idea though. Making it stop and return to you instead of failing when it hits a ledge would be a great help.

Auto attack is fine as it is aside from the final attack. That needs to be 3/4s cast time since it is currently a dps loss to complete the chain. Bad design on Anet’s part.

Never understood the part in bold. Someone explain.

-reduce the cast time of death spiral to 1/2 sec: This would make the skill a defensive one since it generates life force and enough of it to enable shroud even if you have 0 lf.
-reduce the cast time of nightfall to 1/4 sec: Again this is a defensive skill so make it

I can agree with reducing the cast time but only to 3/4. The skill got a 66% damage increase and is the second strongest skill on the weapon. Has a coefficient of 1.98. If your target doesnt have max vulnerability it works out as 2.08.

I’d just prefer if they change gravedigger into a fast hiting skill (1/2 cast time) that does something close in damage (slightly higher, something like 600 base damage at level 80) to the third skill of the AA chain. This would make the reaper good in raid as power dps and not outstading in PvP since the hard hiting gimmick would be gone.

In short, I just ask for a frenziedcopter reaper.

I’ve been using Greatsword almost everywhere since it came out. The problem I think is in philosophy: Most people think that the Greatsword should be used as a DPS primary, when in actuality it plays most optimally as a Utility DPS secondary. If you treat the weapon like Staff, where it basically just exists to swap to, blow its cooldowns, go into Shroud to wait off the weapon swap CD, then swap back to your main weapon, then it tends to perform a whole lot better.

I can agree that Soul Eater is a hot pile, but I disagree that the weapon is “garbage that is unusable everywhere, even when it isn’t”.

Sigmoid.7082:

Auto attack is fine as it is aside from the final attack. That needs to be 3/4s cast time since it is currently a dps loss to complete the chain. Bad design on Anet’s part.

Never understood the part in bold. Someone explain.

The basic math, ignoring aftercasts…

Dusk Strike: 402 + 1.0 * power in .75 seconds
Fading Twilight: 484 + 1.2 * power in .75 seconds
Chilling Scythe: 503 + 1.4 * power in 1.0 seconds (plus chill, which we ignore)

That makes for 886 + 2.2 power in 1.5 seconds for the two-attack sequence, and 1389 + 3.6 power in 2.5 seconds for the three-attack sequence.

Normalize those to per-second values and you get: 577.3 + 1.47 power, and 555.6 + 1.44 power per second.

Aftercast doesn’t really move it that much, honestly, but … do you now see why it is considered a DPS loss, if you ignore chill? (If you don’t, and especially if you factor in three bleed stacks and an explosion every 8 seconds, it’s a different thing, but for pure power, that’s the size of it.)

So, unless the utility of chill attracts you, you get a DPS increase at 3k power of 4987.3 – 4875.6, or 111.7 by using only the first two swings of the auto-attack chain.

Obviously, in the real world where power is often less than 3k, it’s lower, and once you add 25 vulnerability and might it’s higher, and if you factor in crits it becomes even more complex, but that also means the difference is higher.

That’s about a 2.2 percent DPS increase, give or take, if you ignore the rest of the universe.

PS: the simple mechanical fix would be to increase the hitting power of the last swing to a power multiplier of 1.41, which makes it an even more marginal increase to complete the last swing (or 1.401, which is equal within 1 point of damage per second at 3k).

Thanks.

Although weapon attack have no base damage.

The final strike should be 1s and deal a damage cone in front of the reaper with a 600range.

Zero Solstice.9754:

I’ve been using Greatsword almost everywhere since it came out. The problem I think is in philosophy: Most people think that the Greatsword should be used as a DPS primary, when in actuality it plays most optimally as a Utility DPS secondary. If you treat the weapon like Staff, where it basically just exists to swap to, blow its cooldowns, go into Shroud to wait off the weapon swap CD, then swap back to your main weapon, then it tends to perform a whole lot better.

I can agree that Soul Eater is a hot pile, but I disagree that the weapon is “garbage that is unusable everywhere, even when it isn’t”.

Agreed. I think it’s the single best weapon the necromancer has access to in PvP environments, and have thought so since it came out. Its AA chain is good for landing a few hits for some quick burst before the slowness of the weapon starts to incur issues, with the occasional use of GD, but people expecting to cleave down waves with huge DPS or spam gravedigger into massive, consistent hits are simply not recognizing what the weapon is useful for and quite frankly amazing at.

The combo and utility potential on this weapon is hands down one of the best in the game. It’s not a PvE boss-killing hero of a weapon, but it wasn’t designed to be. You can’t and shouldn’t push top-tier damage on a necromancer so long as shroud offers as much stat defense as it does.

yeah lets give the first 1/2 sec of gravedigger an evade and cut the after cast to 0…
get your tear buckets ready…

GS is great after all its buffs. Superior to Dagger/Warhorn in every single way.

The slow auto attack is irrelevant. On Dagger you also don’t auto attack because you are much to vulnerable doing so.

You auto attack on Axe (range) in shroud (shielded by Life Force) or sometimes on Staff (range).

Skill 2, 3, 4, 5 on GS are absolutely amazing and have great utility.

GS5 > stow weapon > GS2 combo is probably not intended by ANet but works great.

Even on condi builds GS is strong. Ever fought a good GS/Staff/full signet condi Reaper in WvW? The damage and cc is over the top.

Yes dont ever auto attack with dagger thats a horrible idea to ever auto attack with dagger much better to auto with gs.

KrHome.1920:

The slow auto attack is irrelevant. On Dagger you also don’t auto attack because you are much to vulnerable doing so.

If you don’t auto attack with dagger why the **** would you even use dagger? It’s certainly not for dark pact and life siphon is not really worth it either. 2 utility skills that are at best anecdotics, of course you use dagger for it’s auto attack! This auto attack is almost on par with thief’s dagger auto attack but it’s garbage in your eyes… pity!

Sigmoid.7082:

Thanks. Although weapon attack have no base damage.

I’m just using the damage formula off the wiki, which I think is using … an exotic weapon with average damage for those number? Something like that, anyway, same as I was using 3k power just for the sake of the math, not because it’s exactly what anyone is gonna get.

Dadnir.5038:

… This auto attack is almost on par with thief’s dagger auto attack but it’s garbage in your eyes… pity!

Are you kidding right?
The whole sequence for thief is done in 1.68 seconds for a total damage coefficient of 2.75 + 6 seconds of poison;
The necro one is done in 2.04 seconds for a total damage coefficient of 2.8;
Dagger AA of thieves is 19% more powerful then necros (even ignoring the poison stack).

As for the Greatsword, the AA is just slightly less powerful than the one of dagger (dagger AA is 5% more powerful than GS one), but…
1) GS attack hit up to 3 tragets;
2) Shroud skills are 5% more powerful with the GS (shroud use the weapon strength of the equipped weapon);
3) GS add Chill in the last attack of the chain;
4) Life Force is generated from each target hit (dagger one is fixed, no matters how many targets you hit).

There is no real reason to use dagger over GS for his AA, you can use it for style, attack fluidity or for orther weapon skills (this is a joke, since all GS skills are overpowered).

By the way, I think GS is already too powerful, asking for more is absurd.

hash.8462:

By the way, I think GS is already too powerful, asking for more is absurd.

Most weapons, compared to dagger, are too powerful to be honest.

Lahmia.2193:

Most weapons, compared to dagger, are too powerful to be honest.

To be honest, Dagger AA is not that bad by itself, damage is good and comparable to the AA chain of warrior’s axe, only the thief AAs are superior (all of them… staff, sword and dagger, and by far), the biggest problem of the necro is the lack of damage multipliers so weapons need really good stats.
NOTE: If it was for me, I would add a Life Leech effect (with the strength of the Projectile/Dark Field Combo) to the 3rd chain attack of dagger, without other changes.

As for the others skills, I think Life Siphon (#2) is generally ok, Dark Pact (#3) is ok in PvP but nearly useless in PvE; all offhand weapons are more or less average.

Back to the Greatsword, I think that should be empowered only if you also empower the others necro weapons, otherwise we will have 1 good weapon but everithing else is trash.

hash.8462:

As for the Greatsword, the AA is just slightly less powerful than the one of dagger (dagger AA is 5% more powerful than GS one), but…
1) GS attack hit up to 3 tragets;
2) Shroud skills are 5% more powerful with the GS (shroud use the weapon strength of the equipped weapon);
…
4) Life Force is generated from each target hit (dagger one is fixed, no matters how many targets you hit).

Few things

• The GS auto attack as a whole chain is actually stronger than the dagger auto attack as a whole chain. Dagger is (0.9+0.7+1.2)/2.04 = 1.3725. GS weapon damage is 10% higher on average than daggers, at ascended level average weapon damage is 1100 vs 1000, meaning its auto attack is ((1+1.2+1.4)*1.1)/2.88=1.375. A clear example of dagger auto#3 vs GS auto #2. Both have coefficients of 1.2 but the GS is ~10% higher.

• RS uses a 2h Mace for is damage calculation. Its skills will always do the same damage regardless of what base weapon you have equip because of this. DS on the other hand does use your weapons base damage for its calculations which is why staff makes it ~10% stronger.

• GS auto generates less LF than dagger auto if you are only hitting 1 target. 2 or more it outclasses dagger greatly.

Sigmoid.7082:

…
GS weapon damage is 10% higher on average than daggers, at ascended level average weapon damage is 1100 vs 1000
…

You are right the difference is 10%, my fault.
Even more true, GS is OP vs all other necro weapons.

One of the problems is that in those balance patches ANet is balancing weapon and skill popularity, and not their power and usability.

Ok, I’ve made some test with the golem…

1) GS AA damage is exatly the same of Dagger AA (but just that, they differ by number of targets hit, the chill, LF generation and fluidity);

2) There are a few mistakes on the wiki, base attack speed of reaper shroud is 2.37s (2s with reaper’s onslaught) and damage is independent on the weapon used: both ascendent dagger, GS and ex. dagger scored about the same;

3) Untraited Shroud AA damage is 7% lower than Dagger and GS AA (if traided with reaper’s onslaught and dhuumfire is clearly higher).

damage is independent on the weapon used: both ascendent dagger, GS and ex. dagger scored about the same;

Its in the trivia section right the way down the bottom.

hash.8462:

Ok, I’ve made some test with the golem…

1) GS AA damage is exatly the same of Dagger AA (but just that, they differ by number of targets hit, the chill, LF generation and fluidity);

That’s odd. I tried the same test on the dps golem and dagger won by 1 second. I left out any traits that may have given one an advantage though (vampiric/vamp aura/deathly chill etc.)

Lahmia.2193:

That’s odd. I tried the same test on the dps golem and dagger won by 1 second. I left out any traits that may have given one an advantage though (vampiric/vamp aura/deathly chill etc.)

If you are using Spite, remember that you also have minor traits that give might and vulnerability when the enemy has low health, the higher speed and number of strikes per second of the dagger give it a little advantage here.
Remove Spite or add to yourself 25 stack of might and to the golem 25 stack of vulnerbility before testing.

hash.8462:

Lahmia.2193:

That’s odd. I tried the same test on the dps golem and dagger won by 1 second. I left out any traits that may have given one an advantage though (vampiric/vamp aura/deathly chill etc.)

If you are using Spite, remember that you also have minor traits that give might and vulnerability when the enemy has low health, the higher speed and number of strikes per second of the dagger give it a little advantage here.
Remove Spite or add to yourself 25 stack of might and to the golem 25 stack of vulnerbility before testing.

Aye I did try it will 25 might/vuln but tested it again and they killed at the same time. First test must have just been an oddity.