Guild Wars 2

Hey fellow necro that can’t stop playing this ANet forsaken profession.

Base necro is so bad: zero stability, can only deal average damage in zerker while throwing everything else through the window… Since HoT I tried a non-reaper build, played one “game”, sweared to never do it again.

By the way, tonight I enjoyed power reaper with this build and it was refreshing to last long enough to actually annoy people. I was probably lucky enough to have good mates (or terribad opponents) because I did 6-0. (Did one game with you )

You can choose the hamburger/pizza path for a quick death (bonus: gov gets less tax money from you), or go the salad/avocado/lemon/cashews way and live long enough to see who will destroy the planet first: corporate greed or ISIS (not recommended).

You shouldn’t expect anything besides a worse experience post patch. How much worse is for you to decide, but before you do, I want to remind you that being pessimistic is the best way to be positively surprised.

Apparently that thought crossed many minds. It’s still a band-aid solution, not fixing core issues, but a more fine-grained one. Because we all know the “balance” team won their war against players: All hail Golems!

If I had to balance PvP with just amulet tweaks, I would remove those with strong healing power like Cleric, Magi and Mender.

The reason to remove dedicated healers is that some skills (or stances/statuses, like blur) can already entirely negate damage while ALSO dealing (heavy) damage. Bread and butter. But on top of that it’s ALSO possible to receive heals! Bread, butter and the dairywoman’s kitten .

Now, because of this sustain reduction, it’s possible to reduce the burst capabilities of classes with very high active defense uptime (like chronomancers and heralds). That could give a chance for their opponents to survive and possibly fight back a bit. So I would remove: Berserker, Viper, Assassin and Sinister.

If I wanted to promote higher level of play, I would drastically reduce healing while under an active defense status, like 25% max. That would open more skillful plays when there’s the “risk/reward” to receive full heals while vulnerable.

Necro is a tad too strong, let’s butcher them; Rev and Mesmer rule supreme, let’s slap them on the wrist, gently.

Sinzaku.2980:

next season will be trash if they dont do something about it :/

My white faith stuffed the balance team so much that now it can only go sideways, sorry guys ._.

Mutaatti.2789:

It’s just more teamfight class than before patch.

You mean: clinging to others like a parasite to survive ?

Chase.2798:

helseth is a guy

I knew it! A girl can’t be on her period 24/7!

I’m still horrified by the RS3 uptime being halved. Power Reaper, the slow movie monster that gets knocked back to death.

Moa needs the same buffs as foefire lords. Insane power creep buffed every profession but moa, that’s just unfair to that ever growing population. If you follow the evolution, at some point there will be more moa than mesmers.

To all the moas of the world: RIOT!!

EDIT: sorry I’m too emotional on this matter to be constructive ._.

I tried something based on Asherah’s feedback, and it’s working surprisingly well: I’m very resilient and can dish tons of damage at the same time. Power necro done right is fun.

Now, keep in mind that even if I faced good players, most of them are currently testing odd builds as well. So, to know if a build is good, we will have to wait for a more stable meta.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBIhF6kZTobTscTwdTgeTsgLYUdh2wzKuK2FDjQXtAQLA-TJRGABlfIAA4EAgwTAAo9HAA (amulet is the new demolisher)

Being able to enter shroud every 7s (easy with all the life force at disposal) greatly helps to survive. I like the strength sigil for extra blighter’s boon regen, and the quickness on swap to land gravedigger in a split second. Either sigil works well with shroud as well (more health back and quick RS 4 or 5), which is not the case with the 2 leeching ones, but you’re almost guaranteed to get an extra 2k health on exit.

Next session I should try to replace leeching for battle and/or nullification. And replace a shout for the unblockable one in case I face multiple mesmer/rev: even if I find that shout lackluster (should be instant) the CD is rather short.

I wish that what OP said about PvP, replay value being much higher than any PvE content, was a factor to assign dev time. We could then see more emphasis on PvP dev time such as (split) class balance, (re)design, and new content/QoL, like the bare minimum quality of life of having a free for all area in the mists for everyone to fight each other while waiting in queue.

Otherwise, I like that this patch introduced more nerfs than buffs: it’s a first in probably 2 years! But it’s not enough, keep them coming, other things are in deep need of a nerf. But, please, rebalance some of the harshest ones, like the gutted Deathly Chill, after you already gutted Blighter’s Boon, leaving no fallback. I even saw some reaper going back to base necro (which is horrendous).

Just halving chill damage and reducing chill uptime would have been a good start. Also, the stability nerf (8/20 to 5/25) hurts like hell and is totally unwarranted: necro needs stability, and this one is limited to shroud as it stops pulsing outside of it. Isn’t that a big enough limitation ?

Anyway, I hope to see another patch quickly after the feedback of this week.

I forgot the chill on blind has a 3s ICD… Deathly Chill is ultra garbage.

Anchoku.8142:

The Runes of the Reaper might be useful on condition/shout builds if they are chained.

I just wanted to remind you that reaper runes have a range of 360. And we’re talking about ONE miserable bleed per chill.

If you really want to go scepter/GS troll build, I would try curses for the chill on blind trait (GS4, RS2) and get both Plague Form and Well of Darkness.

Another butchered grand master. One bleed per chill, capped to 5 bleeds ? There’s stronger adept minors.

Also, now that RS 3 uptime went from 8/20 to 5/25, it’s even more dangerous to go power in my opinion.

This game has potential for being e-sport, but since it’s on maintenance mode without any significant changes ever happening again, here are my top suggestions:

1. Make a separate game, PvP only, using the same mechanics that everyone love. That way, skills will be balanced around PvP and PvP only.

2. Achieve balance. Not only within the tier list but also in general (balance the amount of CC/stun break, damage/active defense, nerf/buff) to avoid the atrocious power creep (and skill spam) this game currently suffers from.

3. Add more PvP mods: king of the hill, capture the flag, moba/stronghold, arena/deathmatchs, free for all rings/areas while waiting in queues…

4. True skill based ranking, no pip farm. Something fine grained and transparent (visible Elo rating).

5. A matchmaker that prevents class stacking or role stacking (matchmaker should detect if someone is damage dealer, bruiser, tank, support/healer, jungler/pusher, etc…).

I can’t go back to CC with it’s atrocious cast time and CD. Price for condi cleanse is way too high and it’s not reliable enough.

YSIM provides high amount of LF so I can stay longer in shroud waiting for the next YSIM or putting extra pressure (especially when RS2 can AoE corrupts 2 boons every 5s). With CC I really feel naked, being always LF deprived…

If opposite team has more than one condi, I switch YAAW or Rise for plague signet. Otherwise, soldier runes + shout trait + staff 4 + passive transfer (+ Suffer) is more than enough to deal with average condis.

A little off topic but playing soldier/shouts (or just Suffer) is very handy when you need to land the elite but just got blinded.

Yes moa is broken: you’re locked out of your profession for 10 freaking seconds. Once in moa there’s 0 counterplay. Did I say it lasts 10 freaking seconds ?

But these threads are hopeless because ANET doesn’t give a kitten.

Apparently there’s technical difficulties anet isn’t willing to work on, so queuing outside of mistanamo might never be possible again.

That said, how complicated is it to add a free for all zone where everyone can fight everyone ?

Chase.2798:

I believe in april

They will be late for april fools, but they will deliver, for sure.

You seem passionate about the game. Don’t be. You will only be left with frustration and anger. ANet doesn’t care (they don’t even have a CM to monitor these forums, so nothing we can say here will ever reach them, ever) and they won’t do anything but spouting big lies (they seem to do OK in that department: I believe they failed in politics before ending at ANet).

Silverkey.2078:

Here shows the problem of global power creep: the scepter AA is not broken, everything is. Power creep chain:

1. everyone has insane amount of CC
2. to balance it, many have perma-stability
3. to balance it, reaper got constant corrupt boon

Same thing with damage:

1. everyone has insane damage
2. to balance it, many have perma-protection
3. to balance it, reaper got constant corrupt boon

So if you want to fix scepter AA (and I think it should be fixed), you should also remove the boon orgy. And if you do that, you should also significantly tone down damage and CC.

#anetpleasefixpowercreep

Exactly. This, can’t be stressed enough.

But community managers NEVER come here. So, that crucial information will NEVER reach a higher level. Anyway, it doesn’t matter, because the balance team will NEVER put ANY effort.

Failures “leave” ANet (good riddance), but without fresh blood, I can’t see anything changing anytime soon.

What do you mean by “next” ? I’m still waiting for the first !

Personally I play wanderer/curses more for support, and mercenary/spite when I get enough support to play aggressively.

Both are valid options but I feel more comfortable and more functional with wanderer/curses.

Main reason is I can’t play without at least 3 shouts anymore (and it’s mostly 5 lately) and soldier runes are fantastic in team fights (I believe it carried some) but also good in 1v1 against ele burns or druid’s root, or getting rid of blind when I cast elite shout, all without burning big cooldowns.

I lose a lot of sustain if I go nightmare runes, and the fear proc isn’t that good: close to useless in team fights, and against thieves I can already survive long enough in soldier, or it doesnt make a difference in 1v2.

If I go mercenary without nightmare runes, my conditions are pretty lackluster. And I don’t care much about power in 1-2v1-2: I know I will never take down a good player on bunker ele alone, and that power is wasted outside of shroud (high shroud coefficient, retaliation on shroud enter with spite).

So yeah, I’m more on the support side. It works wonder in solo q (61-13 so far, reached diamond this week-end). I only switch to mercenary/spite when I have 3 support/bunker like tempest/scrapper/druid, and can go melee more freely.

Main build for reference: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBLhZ6kZTobTscTwdTgeTscMYULhnwsKqnttCAx3wfYRE-TZxFABlXGIhTBgQ7P0wRAAgHAAA

When I mentioned putting on a black strap-on to pleasure my mini Rytlock, I was told I was being racist. But I suspect that person to be an insecure charr.

Maybe you should take the time to read the trait properly. =^.^;=

Just to nitpick: you need at least 4 screenshots for a solid proof. Match history before and after, pips before and scoreboard right before victory to check for potential d/c.
EDIT: wait, you need a 5th, scoreboard after victory to check teams.

morrolan.9608:

To me it appears that there are not enough designers working on balance, maybe even only Karl which is a frightening thought.

Designers also working on balance is an issue. These 2 fields require different skills and mindset.

It’s not a build, it’s a deconstruction.

I expect other rules in the coming months, like forbidden traits or skills, restricted profession/amulet combo, anything to compensate for the complete lack of balance.

By the way, today is one of the 8 days anet discuss balance in a year. Morning is dedicated to watching season 1 finals. Afternoon is for analysis and, if time permits, some number tweaks. And please, don’t feed them bananas or peanuts, they need to concentrate.

What I expect:
- DH —> Increased trap damage and invulnerability duration (0 DH in finals).
- Druid —> Increased pet damage and immobilize on pet’s auto-attacks (1 druid out of 20 spots).
- Thief —> Increased staff damage coefficient, energy regeneration and mobility.
- Mesmer —> Halved CD on Signet of Humility.
- Warrior —> Bugfixed tooltips.

Crossing fingers

A community manager posting in the pvp forums ? Got lost ?

Is dev team aware that it will be hard to remove the Marauder amulet to reduce Scrapper’s tankiness ? At some point they might have to take a look at the professions themselves to actually balance the game.

I expect minor power creep like a necro axe buff of +2% at the price of 3 new bugs.

Or another change with amulets, like the removal of Marauder because it’s a bunker amulet (in the hands of engineers).

PvP is all about advertisement. Bahahalance patchs have only one goal: to make pro league entertaining to watch, certainly not entertaining to play. In a pay to play model, anet only needs to sell the game to win. It doesn’t matter if victims shortly notice this game is full of rubbish.

Companies these days go for short term benefits. It may not seem wise at first but if you look closer to the gaming industry, the offer is more and more overwhelming. Average players don’t invest much time into a game before switching to another.

I may be wrong somewhere, but that’s what it looks like to me.

Crystal Guardian for 12-15 golds:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/7/72/Crystal_Guardian.jpg

Oh but they ARE magicians. Just the worst kind, turning gold into kitten.

Still waiting for a balance patch since june 2015. Instead, the game keeps getting more and more imbalanced. But what are the alternatives ? There’s MOBA everywhere: 647 characters with 3 skills ? BnS that forces PvE to have decent PvP, and that’s only 1v1 and 3v3, as other game modes are pay 2 win and requires non stop gear grind. Crowfall is coming in 12-18 months.

I want to murder the guys in charge of balance at anet. They are the worst people ever. And I just learned they have QA for PvP. I guess she gets banged daily by the higher ups to be of any value to the company.

Oh they also have community managers, but they never come here, NEVER.

Warlord.9074:

darthnius.3496:

Does Anet learn from anything they do??
I feel like when they said HoT Launch is a balance patch

The answer sadly is no. If anet learned or listened to players, then they would have to admit they were wrong or not knowledgeable enough without player input. Thats not going to happen.

Depressing truth. I wish GW2 PvP was a standalone fully esport game, with an actual balance team that understand what power creep is. Now, the game is in such a bad state that I don’t think it will ever recover (too many things to shave).

Sigmoid, I tried something like this build and had fun with the amount of corruption (mercenary instead of celestial).

Used it when there was not much condi pressure from enemies. Otherwise I would have used different utilities/traits.

Who needs petrodollars to build a 830 meters tower in Dubai when you can have failures at ANET making “balance” patch for my tower to pierce the sky ?

What are you talking about. Overall this patch adds even more power creep. Apparently, when you are a complete failure, you work for ANET on balance.

I am happy to make new players leave pvp only because it punishes anet, otherwise I pity those unfortunate players that thought GW2 pvp could be a fun experience when you start.

To play “focus the necro”. And it’s working great: necro has never been meta in 3.5 years, bare 2 weeks of dhuumfire.

Bunker meta wasn’t too harmful for necro so they were able to secure a spot in 3-4 teams out of the 16 pro teams, to mostly enjoy downstate (apparently it’s cozy down there).

But now, the insta gib meta is coming, and players (do they actually play the game?) think necro will be top pick, some even talk about 2 necros in a team, entertaining forums for sure. To them I want to say: rest assured, ANet is watching, and has always nerfed them in less than 2 weeks.

If you wonder why, I think Colin Johanson and Jon Peters once tried PvP together, and got killed by a necromancer. That or the complete lack of active defense. No, wait, I’m lying, they have dodge; but energy sigil is getting trashed and they have 0 vigor.

I’m done trying with anet, so I do with what we have: traited shout heal can be used twice for at least 10% LF before engaging in a fight. I’m now expecting a nerf.

1.2m against an almost full bunker team, using this build: http://tinyurl.com/z9m2emu

Instead of reducing the amount of dodges some classes can get (thief, revenant’s Riposting Shadows, high vigor uptime for tempest and scrapper), they hurt those who have the least active defense and need it the most (like necromancers) in order to reduce the dodge spam others can do.

I suspect it’s another lazy way to (badly) balance.

Worst part is: we can’t even get high on catnip. ;_;

Dahkeus.8243:

Valkyriez.6578:

Evan Lesh.3295:

Before there was a ready check there wasn’t a problem because you’d just hop into the match once you finished loading. Of course this meant more AFK players.

The servers were completely rewritten at the end of 2014, and now there more sophisticated requirements to getting the PvP servers in sync with the game servers wanting to pause/destroy your roster when you hit load screens. The more people queuing outside the mists without fixing this, the more likely people will start seeing problems like ‘random’ dishonor.

How much money do I need to transfer to your bank account for you to fix this issue Evan? I has PayPal.

If there was a kickstarter, I’d throw down some $.

Oh my, I recently wished GW2 was kickstarting features. I think it would be the only way to get real dev time on PvP.

You forgot Cavalier:

1200 toughness
900 power
900 ferocity

With 3 shouts (heal, 1 utility, elite) and shout trait + soldier runes, you get a pretty solid/sustainable base.

I would also go with well of corruption: It’s unblockable, more reliable than corrupt boon (which is stopped by grass or god knows what, and self inflicts poison), and is just perfect for conquest (less on foefire though). It also provides some life force to complement the spammable heal.

Also, blood magic might come back, with which crusader amulet has some appeal. Not to mention that even with a 0 healing amulet, a reaper’s transfusion with vampiric aura heals for 4-5k.

Shroud being forced to soak damage is bad. It would be better to control it like an F2 on/off activation or just replaced by active defense skills, possibly shroud skills requiring LF, but not limited to.

Also, the idea to remove this “2nd hp bar” is to partially get rid of balance issues where we are too strong with a full LF bar but slaughtered if empty.

Another balance issue is that shroud’s absorb doesn’t scale. It’s strong in 1v1, but weak in teamfights. That’s why we need active defenses. Especially in this never ending power creep game where each “balance” patch adds more and more damage, while shroud can only soak up a set amount.