(edited by Anubris.8591)
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Yeah, not sure why, but it does seem to work better now. Also, no ground targeting graphic sucks, but action camera does an ok job of helping with that.
Did you select target before you hit the button? All hits connect all the time for me. Turn on auto target select if youre having so much trouble.
I’ve seen GS #5 work on inclines several times.
Yep. I tested it on the steps in the center part of auric basin. Seems to work pulling enemies from higher terrain.
It seemed buggy before where the claw would go into the steps, but no claws would return.
The claws seem to spawn properly on top of the steps for the returning animation of the attack and pull enemies down.
Also, previously, the claws sometimes would just knock down enemies instead of pulling them towards you.
I haven’t had that happen to me yet today.
Dang…guess I’m finally losing it…. = (
Somehow the pull seems to work better now. I tested it a few times shooting it at inclined terrain, and it seems to spawn on top of the terrain, instead of in it (like it used to). Need to do more testing on players to confirm.
GS seems to be working better for me now in PVP.
AA seems to land more often now – especially when I mash on 1. Feels like range is farther. And it seems like after missing an attack (e.g., enemy moves out range) the follow-up attack is quicker causing less drop or restarting of AA combo chain.
Gravedigger animation seems smoother somehow. Doesn’t end abruptly. Can’t put my finger on why this is. Did the reaper always do a double spin?
GS 5 seems to “spawn” the claws on higher terrain now if you shoot the claws into an incline. I feel like it connects more than it used to.
Is it just me?
Can someone confirm?
Maybe I’m just delirious from praying every night that GS gets fixed = )
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Cool. All the more reason to dump GS/Power builds for condi in pvp.
Flumek, you’re exaggerating for effect, and it isn’t helping the discussion in any way. You don’t have to like the GS, but just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it’s bad.
What exactly is he exaggerating?
Chill reduces damage taken, increases enemy cooldown and keeps enemy in melee range. I think that’s important. Don’t you?
The gap closer GS 5 doesn’t work and AA never lands the final hit for chill. So no chill application on a weapon designed for chill application.
Sounds pretty god awful to me.
Hah. Yeah warriors. Sorry guys… Reaper GS is pretty lame too… but RS is pretty good so I guess that makes up for it…
Yes, please, directional ground targeting (skill-shot) would be perfect.
Also please fix how it goes through the ground/terrain when fired uphill.
Robert asked for suggestions a while back regarding the animation. So hopefully he won’t forget about this.
Not related, but can we get axe 3 to apply chill = )
I find the cooldowns are too long and don’t make for good rotation with RS like other weapon sets such as staff do. I can have my staff out only and take on many mobs hop in and out of RS and always have at least something on my staff off CD.. You can’t do that with GS unless you want to go 11111111111111111.
My staff cooldowns for 2 – 5 are 4.75, 16, 20, 32. For GS, my 2 – 5 cooldowns are 8, 12, 25, 30. That’s pretty comparable, and Mark of Blood spam isn’t doing you a lot of good if you’re Power-specced, which I’m sort of guessing you are if you’re using GS (though you don’t necessarily have to be).
Also, I don’t think it’s a good idea to evaluate a weapon based on “can I only use this weapon, and not a completely new and different weapon set that can provide me new opportunities and fresh cooldowns?”.
It’s not about “can I only use this weapon.”
That’s a stupid question.
Weapons are supposed to give us different skills to fulfill different objectives while in combat. And having two weapon sets supposedly gives us two different objectives or roles while in combat.
Right?
GS was supposed to help us support our teammates in group fights with cleave damage from GS auto, apply chill and increase our defenses (also GS auto), and maybe close gap or peel enemies off friends with GS 5. Well, GS auto is broken. GS 5 is broken. We have no chill, no aoe cleave damage.
So that role that GS was supposed to fill is not filled. GS is a complete broken failure.
As for the second weapon set, it fulfills a different role or objective right?
For example, dagger could have better single target damage output, and may be a better choice for fights where there aren’t so many enemies (1v1, 1v2, or many v 1 or 2).
Axe could also be a secondary weapon set to apply vuln from a distance in sitautions where it may not be smart to immediately jump in with GS. Also, it could be used to damage enemies while closing in before switching to GS.
Staff could be another option for fear, chill, poison and bleeds for those running a hybrid power/condi build.
I don’t think anyone ever thought about only using GS and ignoring second weapon sets.
It’s just that as it is, GS doesn’t fulfill it’s intended purpose in pvp and probably should be chucked aside for dagger-which cleaves 2 enemies, and which 3 allows for immobilization and gap closing.
And what about LF generation? A least dagger auto works. With GS auto and GS 5 failing, I have to rely on GS 3 for LF generation. I’d take dagger auto over GS 3.
if you want to play with gs as you used to play with dagger/warhorn pre hot, than youre right…., gs doesnt rly work, its weaker
gs offers a new, unique way of playstyle, wich is different from dagger/warhorn, but not worse…, learn it and get used to it
How does one get used to a weapon where the auto and gap closer never works?
I don’t see why dagger and gs can’t fulfill melee damage builds in different ways – dagger better single target damage and mobility/speed and GS less single target damage but better aoe damage and defense with chill applications.
I mean isn’t that what the GS was supposed to be? A cleave weapon that complements team play by debuffing and conditioning enemies with chill? It doesn’t do any of that.
It’s a PVP failure.
GS #1 isn’t the only source of chill. GS #5 chills as well, as long as it hits (even if it doesn’t pull because of whatever bugness). GS #3 has a longer range than GS #1, and you’ll have to combo abilities to keep someone in GS #4. Even if you don’t you create several seconds of space, which in PvP can buy you key time. You can’t just run up and land GS #2 on anyone watching their screen, sure, but if someone dodges your really short cooldown nuke, that means they have 1 fewer dodge than before, which matters for a class with slow casts. If anything, them dodging #2 is fine, and you can probably even use #2 to reliably sheathe the ability, forcing a dodge without even forcing your full cooldown to switch into a different ability/combo.
As far as why I don’t use autos much, it’s because often, weapon abilities have been set-up to DS spike for me. Dagger #3 into Focus #4 into DS #1s with a DS #3 to keep the CC chain going when the immob is about to run out. In WvW with condition duration being broken, I would throw a Dagger auto chain in after #3 for the additional damage, but otherwise I’d only really use it to man-up against a Thief when I was at a comfortable health level and they were keen on only using dagger against me while revealed.
Part of it is because I switch weapons frequently. Maybe it’s because I started as a Warrior who couldn’t give up Fast Hands, but I’m always switching weapons and taking advantage of what isn’t on cooldown on the weapons. If GS goes on CD with 3 – 5, I’m in Staff applying more chill, clearing condis, fearing. Once those tools are on CD I’m back in GS. Throw RS into the mix, and my 2 – 5 abilities are regularly off of cooldown in all 3 ability sets. I also go into Shroud almost on cooldown (though I should work on managing shroud-procs for sigils to get more out of my Energy sigils), so that’s more time for GS abilities to cool down without using GS #1.
I’ll use Shroud #1 for no-cooldown pressure, but almost never other autos. I hardly ever used autos on my Warrior, because there was always something else I could be doing. The only reliable source of pressure I’ve seen on an auto for Necro is Scepter, and I actually have to force myself to remember to auto, because I’m so used to not worrying about it. Dagger autos aren’t bad, but they are still very short range, so you’ll probably only get 1 cycle in before they backpedal or sidestep out of range. Otherwise, I don’t see a difference really, so long as you are able to use your mouse to continually face a target.
GS #1 may apply chill, and maybe it should be a reliable source of chill. What if they extended the 3rd hit into a cone in front of the Necro at some larger distance, like 300 – 400? Sure it’s still 1 second, but it’s easier to land and forces a dodge if the enemy doesn’t want to take the chill/damage.
I’m not sure a faster AA would even really solve the problem, unless it was Dagger-fast.
I think I made that same suggestion in another thread. Give GS auto third hit a cone aoe. Or make it castable without target so the whole chain doesn’t reset when chasing enemies who slip in and out of range.
At least that way I can do the first two hits, and if it misses, I can use stab or something else to try to close the gap and land the last hit.
I hardly ever use Staff auto. I basically never used Axe auto in PvP when I used Axe. I hardly ever used Dagger auto, besides a few special cases. I’ll situationally use GS auto.
I’m arguing that nothing with GS is different from other weapons for me, so I’m trying to understand your playstyle, especially for PvP. Facing up against many classes in an auto-battle outside of Shroud sounds like a ticket to downed state, and if they are blowing dodges on your autos, that just means you can more easily land other abilities right after they dodge, like a GS #5 into GS #2 or something.
I’m just trying to understand why you’re spamming autos on an advertised slow weapon.
Because GS auto has chill and chill is tied to class mechanics and class theme.
Also GS auto isn’t even blocked or dodged. It being so slow causes enemies to move out of range before the chain even completes.
Which causes the chain to RESET.
So no, you’re not forcing anyone to dodge or block with GS auto. They just move out of the way.
Regarding GS 5, its even worse than GS auto. There’s no ground targeting and the skill clips with terrain. Good luck getting that to connect ever in pvp.
So what you’re left with is a weapon that’s built around chill application never being able to land a chill. EVER. In PVP.
Funny thing about GS 2 gravedigger is that I cast it a few yards before coming into attack range so the twirl completes right when I’m closed into an enemy. Result is that I can sometimes land it when people aren’t pay attention.
It’s kind of bonkers that I have better luck landing a slow wind-up finishing move than an auto attack chain. Great…
Last thing, GS auto serves an important cleave damage role (hits 3). If it’s broken like it is now, I might as well run dagger and hit 2 targets with auto.
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I definitely think it needs to be better, but it doesn’t need DPS. Basically every GS in the game has a utility AA that is just used for filler, and I think the rest of GS is really solid (get rid of 2’s aftercast), all GS really needs is a slightly better AA, especially along the line of speeding it up a bit, since I think the rest of it, particularly the 2 skill, get across the idea of “slow but huge effects” well enough to not have a glacially slow AA.
I agree that that AA doesn’t need a damage increase in the sense that the numbers shouldn’t be changed. But making it easier to land will increase effective damage in PVP. And I think that’s okay.
More importantly, it would make playing GS so much more fun.
The thing is, I feel the GS1 AA gives the weapon its weight and feel if you know what I mean. Popping into GS to only use its utilities and possibly get a gravedigger off feels kind of hollow.
Only 3/5 skills working is pretty bad imo. What’s worse is the two skills which are key to having fun with GS in PVP (AA and GS 5) are broken.
I was looking forward to chilling things with GS 1 AA and peeling enemies off my teammates with GS5 claws… eh well…
I love the GS look and the whole reaper feel, but in practice, when I’m honest with myself, PVP with GS isn’t that fun – even in team fights where it was supposed to shine even more.
The only reason I came back to GW2 was to pvp with a GS as a necro.
And I’m sure many felt the same way. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wanted to be a dark/death knight of sorts.
So yeah… whacking away in Reaper Shroud doesn’t really fulfill that fantasy…
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Regarding GS4, yeah, I think they should increase the radius and get rid of the growing bigger and bigger part.
The radius feels too tiny initially, and towards the end, feels too large… I would just make it the size of the radius after the first increase/growth.
It’s not that everything needs to be fast, but GS is worthless when it’s impossible to land the two most important PVP GS skills (1 and 5).
If Anet doesn’t want to touch the speed of GS 1, then they should just reduce it to two hits OR allow chill on the first hit.
I find that the last hit on GS1 misses so much not so much because people dodge it, but because the ramp up is so long that enemies move out of range and thus reset the GS1 auto chain back to the first hit. I basically run around and perform the first or second hit of GS1 over and over.
The problem arises even in team fights where there is a lot of movement. I heard it’s even a problem in PVE.
GS1 is the only reliable source of chill, and with so many of our mechanics tied to it, it’s pretty class-breaking to have it so impossible to land the final hit.
What’s even worse is that the only other GS skill which applies chill is even more broken. The claws are shot straight ahead and go through uphill terrain instead of pulling enemies.
What’s worse is this skill is slow because there’s a delay between the time the claw is sent out and the starting of the backwards pulling part of the claw. What this means in a PVP setting is that you will shoot out the claw, and because people are moving all the time, the pulling part never connects because the enemy already moved out of the area.
GS1 and GS5 both suffer the same problem of being too slow.
Cut the initial animation from GS5 and it might be useful even though it will miss everytime on uneven terrain. Or increase the aoe size (hit box) meaning increase the range AND the size of the cone.
Reduce GS1 auto to two hits and perhaps give the chilling strike a bigger aoe or cone aoe to make it easier to land.
Honestly, ideally I’d like the GS1 auto chain to have movement attached to it. I think the Scapper has something like this. With each button press, the reaper will make a small leap towards the enemy and then strike. Make the chain not dependent on having a target. Increase the size of the aoe on the last hit.
Think Riven from League of Legends.
As for GS 5, ideally, I think I’d like Anet to just scrap the pulling mechanic. If GS1 is working as intended (landing chills) then there’s not that much of a need for a claw pull. Maybe a short ranged stun or knockdown or whatever.
As for the notion of GS only being viable in “team fights,” I dunno, even in team fights people move around. People don’t just clump up for you to wail on them. So if GS1 is broken, I think I’d rather save my self the trouble and use dagger.
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I found that you can cancel the third hit on the GS 1 auto chain by pressing esc or hitting the weapon sheathe button. In 1v1’s I try to cancel it at the last moment and hope my opponent wastes a dodge. Doing so puts it on a tiny cooldown, and you have a small time frame to execute the third hit again before the whole chain resets. I’ve found this technique somewhat helps land the third hit in 1v1’s when things aren’t too hectic. In group fights I just spam the chain and hope it lands – which it does occasionally.
This isn’t directly related to GS pvp, but if you haven’t, turn off auto target. Auto target really helps to land RS 2 (spinning copter attack thing), but makes it useless as an escape tool. When you are close to enemies and hit RS 2, auto target seems to select a nearby enemy and will make you dash towards him or her. Turning it off will allow you to control where you’re going.
I normally just click an empty spot on the screen to clear me of any target selection, and then hit RS 2 to dash away. I usually can do it at least twice before RS wears off, and if I still haven’t got away, I just use warhorn 5. I think you’ll find this helps survivability in pvp immensely.
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Ah, apparently “Susan” is bringing down the servers for maintenance. Welp. Was fun while it lasted!
Apparently someone at anet broke something because the game went from super laggy to eeveryone in pvp is attacking at double speed! Haha… and you know what? The crappy new axe 1 animation actually looks decent when sped up double-time!
Sorry for the clickbait =P
I think shroud is a bad class mechanic and should be completely reworked. But, if that’s not possible, I think adding some chill to axe skill 3 and perhaps buffing it in some other form could go a long away to alleviating some of your gripes (which I share… ).
But yeah, shroud mechanic is kinda whack. I think getting rid of it and replacing it with several different class abilities and allowing the player to intelligently pick which to use would be a better design and more fun for the players.
I’m just making stuff up but maybe let the necro decide on whether to spend life force to (1) utility – aoe fear (2) dps – add conditions to attacks as well as a flat dps increase (3) defense – health bubble which if not fully depleted by damage in the next 5 seconds will result in the necro being healed for X % of the health bubble.
Gameplay revolving around staying in shroud for as long as possible is not a fun mechanic imo.
I would really like to be more successful in PVP using a power reaper build with GS, but such a build really lacks mobility. I think a rework on axe skills could really benefit such a build.
What does everyone think of possibly adding a chill mechanic to one of the axe skills? Perhaps replace cripple on axe 3 with chill?
I could see myself using axe/focus or axe/horn as a second weapon set in my build. Focus would add additional debuff and chill (the vulnerability is kind of overkill though) and horn for additional mobility would be cool. Axe 1 would keep vuln up and provide reapers with the ability to pressure from afar while trying to close the gap. Axe 3 to chill (maybe update the range to 750 to match grasping darkness). If it’s dodged then switch to GS for G5 – grasping darkness.
What does everyone think?
(Also, I humbly request an update on the axe 1 animation.)
So that’s what’s been going on… I was wondering why it gravedigger sometimes goes to cooldown even though I hit someone was down.
Gravedigger goes on cooldown even though I hit enemies with less than 50 percent health or is in down state in pvp. Been happening all day. =/
Oh, and I completely forgot to mention this.
Shivers of Dread is completely worthless to far too many builds. If you don’t bring staff, rely on RNG corruptions, or a very select set of skills, you have an entire set of minor traits that give, in total: +20% chill duration, 10% reduced damage from Chilled enemies, 3s AoE fear every 28s. That’s awful, like, approaching Death Magic minors level of awful.
That isn’t totally true. The chill is there to keep them in Melee range instead of your fear moving them out of range of your melee skills. So it is basically a requirement if you ever plan to shatter RS3. I agree it could use an additional effect but the current part has to stay.
Problem is you dont want to use fear when trying to keep close to people. Its counterproductive. I didnt mind it at first. But since trying the raid its just got on my nerves. I was trying to use RS3 to disperse the red seeker orbs on the raid boss but it was completely inneffective due to that trait.
The other Reaper minor is also pretty terrible. Chill uptime still isnt great unless you completely build around it. Which is a poor decision. It needs something extra. Like bonus damage on chilled foes.
Maybe the trait could change fear to make enemies cower in place instead of run away? Something similar existed in WoW.
Or even change it to a charm like effect where enemies walk towards you. I kind of like the latter because, in a PvP setting, it would create a real sense of fear for the enemy. Imagine getting fear/charmed and watching helplessly as your avatar walks towards the reaper to eat damage…
Or, in implementing the first solution, they could just make chill root/freeze an enemy in place if an enemy is feared while also under the condition of chill.
The enemy would literally be “frozen in fear.” Fits thematically, lore and build wise, and fixes the problem.
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Robert Gee in a different thread said he welcomes suggestions for alternate animations for the Axe 1 Animation (“A1A”). So I was hoping we could gather some feedback, and with any luck, get an A1A that is superior to the current one by the time HOT launches (or shortly thereafter).
Here is my two cents:
Make the A1A a variation of the Ghastly Claw Animation (“GCA”). Here’s the breakdown of the animation sequence:
(1) Necro raises its right hand towards the enemy and releases its grip. Hand is turned comfortably at a diagonal, slanted 45 degree angle with the thumb pointing up and to the left. Axe follows the hands positioning.
(2) Axe does a quick double upward swing. The red claw animation on the enemy syncs with the axe animation – cutting from bottom right upward towards the up left region twice.
(3) Reverse sequence (2) to (1) to return to starting position. Repeat (1) to (2), then (2) to (1) for continuous attacks. Modify arm, hand, and axe positioning and movement as needed for attacks made while moving to and fro.
Robert, will this work?
What does everyone think?
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