Guild Wars 2

Hello,

The Forsaken Thicket got his birthday on November 17th with the release of the Spirit Vale. Raiding being introduced in Guild Wars 2 has been all but bumpy, making some people ecstatic, others cry in disappointment, or have them simply “meh” as they enjoy the game their own way.

How has people’s opinions changed/remained over the past year ? This Google survey should take 2 minutes and addresses the following aspects:

• Did you try the Raid; if not, why
• If yes, how far did you make it, how many LIs did you collect
• If you are still raiding, if not why
• Are you happy with Raids in GW2 / expectations.

Google surveys makes it easy to collect answers and visualize results, hence that choice over Strawpoll or other polling utilities. This has also been posted on the GW2 subreddit to get more answers (Here!)

Let’s see if this gets any interest, and happy birthday to the Spirit Vale !

> A Link To The Past Poll<

Less flashy? You sure about that?

I like those sigils and interrupt. Really gives a nice flavor to traps. Will include them on my guardian for sure.

However there’s too much support in your build for me. The valor traitline is superfluous in my opinion. I feel that all the heals fom sigil of Draining, Pure of Heart and Selfless Daring are more than enough, especially when combined all the defenses from traps, virtues and traited symbols. I’d hence swap Valor for Zeal and get some more beef out of those symbols and more overall damage. You gain a 17% damage modifier, more burns, more vulnerability, more damage from symbols… which is nicely synergetic with Writ of Persistence. Zeal adds so much damage to hammer that I don’t feel comfortable using hammer without it. I also like to use Traveller’s runes in open-world for QoL, but they also give you some condition damage and boon duration, helping for symbols and might generated from sigils. Also, using these runes basically frees a utility slot since you won’t need Retreat!.

Additionally, in open-world I’d still go with scepter/shield as second set if you’re really threatened. Stay in hammer, drop traps, survive with all available active defenses… Then if things get too hot, switch to scepter/shield, use #5 to knockback foes, heal and range safely for a while, shield#4 to get another aegis (and heal) and more protection, scepter#3 to immobilize if needed, and switch back to hammer when things have cooled off or until your traps are off CD. At this point, switching back to hammer should be safe enough and your HP should be back up.

Build

Thanks all for the feedback ! Good things.
General reply first about the (ideal) rotation I had in mind (for open-world at least, group settings might differ, didn’t think about that precisely yet) (might edit the OP also):

• Staff 2-5 to stack chill (current setup, stacks 11sec of chill with #3 and #5)
• Swap to scepter/warhorn, #2 then #3 for LF gain and Torment, wh#5 and CPC
• YAW for more might, get in Shroud, RS#4, RS#3mid-cast, activate toggle when in need of chill, and then AA for burning. The condi burst will be as powerful as it gets with the might stacks.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Snip

Great feedback, thanks ! I’ll try to address things in order.

• MoC with only CPC: to me, it seems like the best option among the 3 traits. Even if there’s only CPC. BiP is a good choice for sure, but I’d only take it if I had an offhand dagger.
• Basically, if I take dagger I could replace YAW with BiP. I’d still have access to might, but AoE, and some nice condis to transfer after BiP, and I gain the possibility of chill while on scepter/dagger. Interesting tradeoff. Warhorn and YAW gives me self might, weakness and also a stunbreak and siphon, no need to rely on transfers. In groups I’ll go with /dagger and BiP for sure, but alone I’ll still prefer the swiftness for QoL and sustain from warhorn 5 I think (which gives plenty of might in addition with chilling victory and sigil!).
  Warhorn 4, you say it’s useless. But daze does damage breakbars, no ? I assumed that, didn’t actually tested it.
• The GM for chill damage pales in comparison to Reaper’s Onslaught for me. Higher AS for more burning and reduced cooldown on RS skills will be better than a chill damage tick anyday. Especially since I plan on using the build in open-world at first where there’s going to be external chill application.
• I never planned on using RS4 in the ice field of 5 in fact! The poison is way too appealing, as you point out. As for chill being too short, well staff gives 11 sec of Chill already, then I have Suffer! and CttB if on scepter, or just RS5 if I have to stay in RS.
• For the sigils, I might change them on staff, yes. Maybe the Ice one to get more chill duration and geomancy for bleeds. #4 is enough to transfer condis, as I don’t stay in staff too much anyway. Thanks for feedback. However I think I’ll keep the strength one on scepter, since Warhorn 5 gives many hits to proc it enough to justify it. I don’t plan in staying in scepter too much anyway, it’s more of a transition set to RS after using CDs. If I end up using offhand dagger then no reason anymore to have the strength sigil, I agree.
• Maybe I chose Balth by influence from playing guardian. The burning reflex. As now, burning hits really strong – I don’t know if increased bleed duration makes up for it or not. Would like to see some precise math on that. On my scepter set, a stack ticks for 148 and poison at 151 (I shroud stats shroud for RS4), while burning is at 435, better than the two combined. 45% duration increase on burning damage seems more effective than 30% and 15% respectively on bleed/poison, even if there are more stacks of them. Balth also gives me quickness and some additional burn stacks. Not very precise math, but from that I think Balth runes are better.

Lynnie.7213:

Snip
Ima going carrion all the way.
Snip

Alone, Decimate Defenses takes too long to build proper crit chance; I only get it from RS auto. That’s why I prefer Sinister over Carrion here. But in group settings, then for sure I’d get carrion instead; perma 25 vuln is pretty much a given ! And group settings with warrior and herald will provide so many might as ZudetGambeous said that Chilling Victory will not be needed anyway. Also SR adept can be changed to Speed of Shadows instead for the same reason, same goes for Strength sigil.

Brayzz.6524:

Im not 100% sure how much condition:power this build does, but for runes I would take Rune of Flamelegion, 45% burn duration,+ power and 7% dmg against burning enemies.

Flame legion gives 30% burning duration, not 45. Also, I’m not sure the 7% actually apply for condition damage. Also, Balth gives AoE burning instead of single target burn for flame legion. Then, the difference between more power or more condi stats is debatable for sure. Without math, I can’t say which would be better. I simply prefer burning duration for the time being.

Arcades Saboth.5139:

I like your setup, it’s consistent.
What about using Terror instead of Master of Corruption?
Yes, Corrosive Poison Cloud is fantastic but it’s not really that helpful to trait it and it’s the only Corruption utility you are using (if we don’t count Consume Condition). The damage from Terror, on the other hand, is a nice damage burst.
Also I would use it Speed of Shadows and Fear of Death in conjunction with Terror: the idea is to enter Death Shroud more frequent but you don’t keep staying it too much, once all the burning is applyied you exit and use the scepter to add more conditions.

I thought about using Terror. I chose MoC instead because more frequent Poison burst, either from CPC itself or in addition to RS4. This will outdamage (imo) a fear burst from staff 5 or RS3.
I agree for Speed of Shadows, and I mention that it can be used if there’s enough vulnerability application already. Fear of Death is not worth taking over the CD reduction and LF sustain for me, by far. The reduction in CD alone is enough to cover the damage increase you’d gain by taking Fear of Death instead.

Ravezaar.4951:

I love the idea of Sinister Reaper and all things u can combine it with, but its so kitten hard to choose between Spite and Curses for 3rd Traitline ? I really dont know wich I can spare.

Curses give you access to bleeds on crit, higher crit chance, more condi damage based on precision and improved scepter – enough damage boost to cover for Spite GM (which applies to power damage only iirc). Spite gives you might, but you already get enough with Chilling Victory and YAW and sigils. Vuln application from Spite is not needed as SoulReaping does that already, and is already coming from other players in high amounts. For me, curses gives more utility and damage for this build.

Hey guys,
Necro main here for > 2 years, I’ve been thinking about how to bring my necro to HoT PvE in the best way. I share it to whoever needs some inspiration or wants to compare, but also to get some feedback on how to improve it !
I mean to use this build for everything in HoT, as it provides necro-tier high damage thanks to Sinister stats, good control through anti-projectile, chill, cripple and stuns, but also pretty good sustain thanks to Reaper traits and to simply being a necro with shroud.
Since enemies in HoT might require either condi or power damage, this build should manage in both cases. The only group utility is anti-projectile from CPC and RS2, rest is… let’s say, indirect from all the control. But it wouldn’t be a necro build if it wasn’t at least a bit selfish, right? Sarcasm aside, it’s really nice to finally have access to projectile destruction !

Post is organized as follow:

1. Traits
2. Skills
3. Gear
4. Condition application potential

Link to build for those in a hurry:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRUQNBmWD7kZTodTscTw5GgeTsUMYx7wh4RkqJMFuVRBgBQCA-TxRGABA8EA8V9nM2fAYlfodRA0V3QVKBJFAMzBA-e

>> Specializations and Traits
Curses: 3 / 1 / 3

• Adept: Chilling Darkness. RS2 gives blindness, so with this one we get a 3.5 sec Chill on a 5sec CD. Otherwise, Plague Sending is a nice option.
• Master: I take Master of corruptions mainly for CPC. This gives access to a Poison Field and lots of poison stacks, in addition to the awesome projectile destruction. That, on a 20sec CD. Self-conditions can be transfered using “Suffer!” or Plague Sending if traited instead of Chilling Darkness.
• Grandmaster: I take Lingering Curse. Parasitic Contagion would be nice for more sustain, but it doesn’t work through shroud. Also, I feel there is enough (and better) sustain through the Reaper line, as it gives you both health and life force.

• Minors give you bleed on crit, fury, and increase nicely your condition damage and critical chance. The latter would be increased by about 10% most of the time, from Bleeds, Poison, Burning, Vulnerability and Chill, but also from Cripple, Weakness, Fear and Torment occasionally. 10% on average seems fair.

Soul Reaping: 1 / 2 / 3

• Adept: Unyielding blasts for lots of Vulnerability. Can be swapped for either of the remaining traits if playing in a group or with enough allies to cap it. Otherwise, it adds power and condi damage and provides 2% crit chance from Curses minor.
• Master: Vital Persistence is a no-brainer. More sustain, better recharge on shroud skills. Other options don’t apply to this build.
• Grandmaster: Dhuumfire. In Reaper shroud, each AA-chain gives 3 burning stacks. Plenty of crit chance from gear and from Curses already (Targeting the Weak and Fury on Shroud).

Reaper: 1 / 2 / 1

• Adept: Augry of Death for shouts CD reduction. See utilities for those one I’m using. Also a nice siphon, which helps sustain. I don’t need more Chill application from Chilling Nova, and Plague Sending / Suffer do a nice enough job already to get rid of conditions on me. Better increase the rate of Chill, Might and Condi transfers from shout from a single trait instead.
• Master: Chilling Victory. Incredible synergy with weapons, GM and chill. Chill on foe ? Get stronger and last longer (not a sex ad)! See weapons for details.
• Grandmaster: Blighter’s Boon for incredible sustain. You gain boons a lot from Chilling Victory and YAW, which translates to many heals, either on HP or RS.

>> Skills

• Heal: Either “Your Soul is Mine!” or Consume Conditions. I don’t like the self-blind from traited CC, especially when I rely on RS AA to apply burning, so I’m leaning towards YSIM. But if you transfer the blind right away, it’s also a free chill thanks to Curses Adept. They’re both on the same CD on paper, but with Augury of Death YSIM can be reduced to up to 13sec CD. But seriously, 21% LF, ~4.5k + 5*125 siphon on a 13 sec CD at best? Yes please ! Condi cleanse can occur through transfering skills and sigils anyway.
• Utility 1: “You’re All Weaklings!”. A stun-break, potent might generator and weakness giver. You get might, you activate Blighter’s Boon also. Good utility and synergy.
• Utility 2: “Suffer!”. For Chills and Condi transfer. Mainly condi transfers, as there’s no other stuff for condi cleanse currently (sigils on option, though).
• Utility 3: Corrosive Poison Cloud. This skill is so good now it’s a crime not to take it. Combined with “Suffer!”, the self condis are not a problem and you make sure your foes stay in the cloud for many Poison stacks. If you go in RS and use #4, then you get about 30 stacks of poison easily. And since the foes are Chilled, you get advantage of Chilling Victory for sustain, and since that gives you might, Blighter’s Boon will heal you while you Burn your enemies with RS AA after that. Weakened, chilled, Poisoned and burning foes. I’ll stop here, getting carried away from the subject.
• Elite: Chilled to the Bone or Flesh Golem. CttB is nice for the stun/chill and stability it gives, but Flesh Golem helps melting defiance bars even more. Personnaly I go for CttB for all the synergy it offers (Chill -> might -> Blighter’s Boon, and Stability -> Blighter’s Boon + survivability)

If the build gets too glassy for you, maybe consider swapping one shout for “Rise!” to get some heat off of you. Especially with the new minion buff, even in this build it’s going to pay off ! This is free, as opposed to getting another armor set.

>> Gear

• Sinister Staff: for utility and all the condi from marks (bleeds, poison stacks and field, chill + fear/chill, condi transfer…).
• Sinister Scepter: for all the bleeds/poison/torment, and also for the LF generation. Dagger would be better for LF generation, but the amount of condi is nice. Relying on RS for power damage is better, as you apply burning along the way. So scepter it is for me.
• Sinister Warhorn: I chose Warhorn over offhand dagger because of the synergy with the traits. We have condi transfer from shout and staff 4 already, enough chill application to ignore traited dagger 4, and also weakness from shouts and CPC, and bleed application is more potent by using RS AA / scepter than dagger 5. In comparison, warhorn 5 gives swiftness, which this build lacks, but most importantly 10 AoE hits, which on a chilled target procs 10 times Chilling Victory. So 10 might stacks, 10% from Chilling victory in addition to 17.5% LF from the skill, swiftness, cripple (and +2% crit chance from Curses), 10 procs of Blighter’s Boon, Bleeds… What more to ask ? Warhorn 4 is an unblockable defiance-eater bonus.
• Armor & Trinkets: Sinister again. Condi damage with reliable power damage as bonus. Precision for both Bleed procs, sigil procs and reliable power damage. Sustain is offered by traits and RS in a significant way already, or by “Rise!” if you decide to slot it. No need to get another stat spread because you want sustain. For the rune, I chose Balthazar. It gives you 45% burning duration, Quickness, and AoE burning on heal (which is on a 13 sec CD at best, which is nice), and increased condi damage. I considered Aristocracy runes, but I think with Chilling Victory and Sigils of Strength it’s enough Might already.
• Sigils: To ensure proper self might, I chose sigils of strength on both sets. About 10 stacks is possible with the sigil, ~10 others from WH5 and a lot from YAW. This should be enough to maintain close to 25 stacks. The second sigils are optional: generosity for more condi transfers, or hydromancy to make sure you get chills (and procs on RS activation), but I think chill access is good enough (see below). I use Generosity over Purity because transfering a condi on foes can mean increased crit chance against them. Also the ICD is 9sec instead of 10.
• Food: Condi duration and crystals. Toxic crystals in this build are simply Tuning crystals + 10% condi duration, but they’re more expensive. Up to you.

>> Condition application

• Chill: chill is a staple of this build. Gives lots of might and lots of sustain through HP and LF generation. You get chill from: staff 3, staff 5 from fear, “Suffer!”, “Chilled to the Bone!”, RS 2, 3 and 5 (and Hydro sigils upon weapon swap/RS activation). I think that’s enough opportunities to apply some chill !
• Burning: from RS AA. In this build and with food, I can go up to 10-11 stacks of burning, thanks to Balthazar runes.
• Bleeds: from Scepter, staff and crits in general.
• Poison: huge potential for poison application with this build. RS4 gives 12 stacks by itself already. But RS4 also a whirl finisher; so in a Poison Field (staff 3 or CPC) it can apply 12 more stacks ! Add the stacks from CPC itself, Scepter AA and this gets crazy.
• Others: CPC and YAW give AoE weakness. Scepter also gives Torment through 3, and with the amount of different condi, the amount is not too bad. Cripple is applied from Scepter 2 and WH5, which coupled to chill means your foes aren’t going to move a lot.

Constructive Feedback always welcome !

In short, the reasons I went Flame Legion were that the rune is power-based, which makes it more reliable for me, and with food I reach the 100% burning duration easily.
The burn on heal from Balthazar runes is meh for me, as I don’t like to use my heal skill just for to get burning. Also, even if it’s on a 10sec ICD, the only thing that proc the rune is Shelter here, which is really on a 30sec CD. So, without considering burning duration, between a 3 sec burn every 30sec or a 1sec burn every 10sec, it’s more or less the same. The quickness every 90sec at best is not so attractive for me, the ICD is too high to feel a difference. I prefer my 7% damage against burning, which is close to 100% uptime in this build and hence more reliable.
I agree for the duration and free sigils, though. Might try with the Sigil of Strength as you suggested. Thanks for the feedback!

Hello guys,

While waiting for HoT launch this friday, I’ve been theorycrafting some builds that take advantage of the tools provided by the Dragonhunter. I’m mainly a PvEr, so the builds I’ll show you will be with HoT open-world in mind. Some may be applicable to other game modes, but it’s not my focus here.

This post contain 3 builds:

• Standard Berserker with the new damage modifiers
• Sinister burning guardian, taking advantage of the new tools from DH
• Immovable Knight, to face-tank everything with blocks and toughness but still deal nice damage.

Let’s try to keep the DH hate out of this topic and be constructive with the feedback !

Standard Zerk: Damage Modifiers
First one is straightforward. DH provides us with a lot of new damage modifiers, and this build tries to take advantage of all of them. It gets up to +75% damage !
Also provides party utilitity through F3, Fragments of Faith and Feel My Wrath.

Link to build

• Zeal: 2/2/3 or 2/2/2
  Modifiers: 7% vs. burning foes / 5% with GS / 10% in symbols
  Burning comes with Symbolic Power, LB#4 and Justice’s passive, which happens a lot with Whirling Wrath and Processing of Blades.
  Shattered Aegis as a GM instead of Symbolic Avenger actually sounds nice with Fragments of Faith/Shield of Courage. Maybe it’s a valid option now. Still, this build is about modifiers.

• Virtues: 1/2/3
  Modifiers: 20% unscathed contender, x% for x boon(s)
  Absolute resolution I take for condi cleanse. Indomitable courage can be swapped for Permeating Wrath for added DPS, but burning is already enough for the +7% from Zeal in my opinion. I opted for added aegis uptime/stunbreak instead.

• Dragonhunter: 1/2/3
  Modifiers: 10% to crippled enemies / 7-13% depending on distance / 10% from SoJ tether
  Adept is to personal preference. I like to take Piercing Light for Procession of Blades that now gives Fury for 8 seconds (40% fury uptime !) and hits relatively hard, and also for FoF for some aegis and great party utility. The daze is also nice to AoE interrupt foes and eat those defiance bars. Master and GM traits are no-brainers for this build.

• Utilities: (optional) – PoB – FoF – (optional) – FMW
• Heal: I chose Purification because of personal tastes; I guess many will chose Shelter over it. My reasoning is as follow: lower CD, and if triggers: blind + daze + regen. Higher risk, but nice rewards.
• Utility 1: Procession of Blades. Traited, this trap is basically fury, AoE daze and nice spike on a 20sec CD. Also, the number of hits ensures Burning on enemies for the 7% modifier. I see no reason not to slot this trap.
• Utility 2: Fragments of Faith. Stun break and stability giver, as well as Aegis for who wants it. For a zerk build, it’s always nice to have an “oh kitten” button when surrounded. Also provides nice party utility with the fragments.
• Utility 3: (Optional): I chose Signet of Bane for the added Power and KD on demand, but some might prefer WoR depending on the situation, PF for condi cleanse…
• Elite: Feel My Wrath. Simply an awesome party utility skill that gives Quickness and Fury. Combined with Procession of Blades, we have the potential of about 50% AoE Fury uptime (more or less, too lazy to math properly).

• Armor/trinkets/weapons:
  Weapon and trinkets are the usual Zerker stuff. I chose Traveler’s rune for open-world QoL in mind instead of Scholar, which is the DPS option here. The 6/6 bonus is easy to keep up given the range of LB and the amount of Aegis this build has.

Sinister Burning DH
This is the DH version of the burning guardian. The advantages of DH for burning over vanilla guard are:

• Increased SoJ procs that inflict burns and cripple in addition (= +10% damage) with Defender’s Dogma.
• Blocking also cures condition, and potentially reduces damage received.
• Traps: Fragments of Faith gives lots of Aegis for more blocks so more burning / condi cleanse / cripple. Procession of Blades hits a lot, which will increase the SoJ passive procs while giving group fury and dealing a nice amount of damage.
• F3 gives also more block than vanilla guard, especially nice in this build.
• Higher block access that will give burning througn Amplified Wrath.

Link to build

• Radiance: 1/2/1
  Inner Fire will have no problems in giving Fury. Radiant Fire is powerful for burst when on Mace/Torch, but also for burning nearby enemies. Also increases burning by 20% and reduces Torch skills. Amplified Wrath is especially powerfull with all the blocks available, but also from simply increasing burning damage.
  Minors give an almost permanent 10% critical chance increase. I don’t know if Justice is Blind actually works on SoJ (tooltip is not updated), but anyway this build relies on passive SoJ.

• Virtues: 1/1/1
  Unscathed contender because 20% damage is awesome, especially with the aegis available from the build. CC-heavy zones might require Retaliatory subconscious instead, to get more Aegis, hence more burning and condi cleanse. Supreme Justice and Permeating Wrath are no-brainers.

• Dragonhunter: 1/2/1
  Fragments of Faith and Procession of Blades are so important to this build that Piercing light is mandatory. For the Master, I chose Zealot’s aggression for Cripple and 10% damage, but Bulwark is also a sound option for more blocks. CC-heavy zones might warrant the use of Hunter’s Determination for more Aegis and burning. Hunter’s Fortification is the best synergetic option for GM.

• Utilities: Shelter – FoF – PoB – Purging Flames – Renewed Focus
• Heal: Shelter is a no-brainer given the utility of Blocks in this build.
• Utility 1: Procession of Blades. Traited, this trap is basically fury, AoE daze and nice burn and damage spike on a 20sec CD.
• Utility 2: Fragments of Faith. Plenty of blocks for SoJ projcs and burning stacks. Also a Stun break and stability giver. May be swapped for Retreat! instead for movement speed.
• Utility 3: Purging Flames: 3 burning stacks in AoE, condi cleanse, fire field. JI is an option too, but it has less utilities and is on higher CD. The gained mobility is not worth it in this PvE setting, for me at least.
• Elite: Renewed Focus. 3 sec invuln is always welcome, and the recharge of Shield of Courage gives access to more blocks. Or also access to Hunter’s verdict if needed, so that the passive procs are not jeopardized.

• Armor/trinkets/weapons:
  Sinister all the way, Flame legion runes and Smoldering sigils. We get 50% burning duration from sigils and runes, and with Radiant Fire we go up to 70%. Runes give 7% damage against burning foes, and gives a stack on a 10sec ICD.
  Scepter/focus is in my opinion the best choice for long-range fight, as Smite can give a lot of SoJ procs and focus offers 3 blocks for burning and Defender’s Dogma->SoJ procs. Long Bow is also a strong option as LB#4 gives a couple of burning stacks, and helps in keeping enemies at bay if required with all the cripple (which also gives +10% damage!). Other set is X/Torch, where X is either Mace or Sword. Mace with symbol I think would be better for more SoJ procs, and also for protection/small heals, but sword is also nice for mobility, of which this build is lacking.

Immovable Knight, in case things get too HoT
This tanky build may not please everyone and some might think “wtf dude, this is useless kitten”, but I don’t care. I like being the tanky guy sometimes, and I know I’m not alone. Especially if it’s for HoT open-world. This build is for blocking everything and surviving, while keeping a nice amount of power and precision. This build is if you want to last long in fights. Beware though, with that amount of Toughness, everyone will want a piece of you.
DH is nice here for Aegis access through Hunter’s Determination and Fragments of Faith, and the blocking advantages of Hunter’s Fortification and Defender’s Dogma.

With the toughness from ascended Knight’s gear, you get up to ~74% damage reduction when you have protection and no condition on you compared to berserker gear. Then, you still have all the blocks and heal on block and heals from Mace.
Math:Armor’s effect is based on 2600/Armor_rating based on the wiki. This ratio is 1.14 with berserker, and 0.62 with this build (when wearing the shield and after blocking an attack with Valor GM), which is 54% of the damage received if you’re wearing berserker. From that, you get 53% less damage under protection and if you have no condition on you (and 10% from signet of judgement). This amounts to ~26% of the initial damage that you’d receive.

Link to build

• Valor: 3/3/3
  The main Aegis traitline. Minors give you aegis when <50% health, recharge F3 upon ally revival (going to happen a lot in HoT at launch!), and give 2 stacks of might when you block. As for the Majors, Focus gets protection on each skill and 20% reduction. Especially nice for Focus#5. I take Stalwart Defender since I have Scepter/Shield, but get Communal defenses if you prefer Longbow for group Aegis. Retaliatory Armor gives more Toughness, but also Ferocity. With Knight’s gear, that’s over 300 points, which is nice.

• Honor: 1/2/2
  The traitline for sustain. Minors give Vigor and F2 passive endurance regeneration. Selfless Daring is insignificant. Majors gives you reduced CD for Mace with Invigorated Bulwark (or get Protective Reviver for more blocks upon revival), a nice heal on Aegis with Pure of Heart, and better Symbols for mace with Writ of Persistence. Other two GMs are also options, I cannot really chose one over the other. Pure of Voice is nice for the group condi cleanse and for more frequent Aegis on Retreat! if you chose it for the last utility slot, and Force of Will just to survive better if needed / increase Mace efficiency, although this might be insignificant.

• Dragonhunter: 1/1/1
  This traitline is to take advantage of the blocks. Piercing Light for more frequent FoF and the AoE daze (I consider AoE daze as a kind of light block, as it interrupts an attack in AoE), and the Hunter’s traits to get condi cleanse, less damage, and party Aegis when CC’d.

• Utilities: Shelter – Fragments of Faith – Wall of Reflection – (Optional) – Renewed Focus
• Heal: Shelter is a no-brainer: 2 sec of blocks !
• Utility 1: Fragments of Faith. Stun Break. Stability. So many Aegis, for so many condi cleanse and heals.
• Utility 2: Wall of Reflection. Aegis is fine, but against projectiles… There’s F3, but WoR in addition is a must-have in a tanky build in my opinion.
• Utility 3: (Optional). I personnaly chose Signet of Judgment for 10% damage reduction, and when activated a Weakness/Stun Break. Other choice is Retreat! for group Aegis/swiftness.
• Elite: Renewed Focus. 3 sec invuln is always welcome, and the recharge of virtues give one more Shield of Courage and another “oh kitten” heal from F2.

• Armor/trinkets/weapons:
  Knight’s all the way for Toughness, precision and power. You can face-tank stuff while hitting somewhat hard still.
  Mace/Focus is an excellent defensive combo for the protection/heals and symbol from traited Mace, and the blocks + protection from traited focus. Scepter/Shield would be the best range option in my opinion. Shield gives group aegis and protection on #4, and knockback+antiprojectile on 5. Scepter hits hard with Smite and provides an immob. Longbow would hit stronger against small single targets or groups and offer some nice control… I guess it’s up to preference. Both are valid choices.
  Rune is again Traveler’s for QoL when running around. Sigils are for more heals and sustain: Water for group heals, and Leeching is a 975-damage on-swap siphon, which is always nice.

Pompeia.5483:

I smell trolling of fire fields during a Tequatl burn phase. Just sayin’

People are already trolling with water and light fields. I wouldn’t be worried about that.

I own Frostfang, and I actually transmuted it to another skin at some point when used on my Necro. For me throwing an ice axe for a skill called “Life Blast” doesn’t make any sense and is really ugly. You’re accumulating Life force from surrounding corpses and enemies, and somehow that materializes as an ice axe or fiery dagger ? No thanks.

I’m not saying I’m against legendary effects, for sure not. Additional effects yes, like an ice trail to that Life Blast missile would have been perfect. Just don’t replace existing effects. Improve them with legendary-related ones instead.

I don’t like it. The way it moves with your character turning around…. Meh. I’d much prefer some kind of energy-ball aura-like stuff around your character instead. Would be much more fitting.

Arrange them similarly as the ground-targeted stuff. I think this would fit the “real” world of the game much better while remaining cues to which stuff is activated at any given time, both for the player and foes.

Nice Longbow and trait changes; it’s going in the right direction.

• Minor Traits: I don’t have anything to say about any of them. Nice synergies and different goals. Good job!
• Major Traits: like the new version of Hunter’s Determination. Bulwark is nice too, but the CD on Shield of courage is too high. I’d see 50/60sec, or maybe a recharge added to the trait. Dulled senses has great synergy with other traits and the new Justice, especially with the updated Zealot’s aggression. I like this.
• GM: Big game hunter is… Weird. Dulled senses seems much more efficient at applying vulnerability and is already doing that. With Zealot’s aggression and Dulled senses, Spear of justice already gives 3 stacks of vuln. BGH only adds an additional one… That’s redundant and lackluster. Only the 10% increase is really new in this trait, and this is clearly not enough for a GM trait. Also if you take Heavy Light instead, you knock back, gain stab, and since you knock back you inflict cripple, which gives 3 stacks of vuln. So it’s a tradeoff between 3 stacks of vulnerability and stab and a knockback between a single vuln stack and 10% damage. BGH needs a rework in my opinion.

I also have to insist on Traps… For a spec advertised as ranged support, giving us root-inducing offensive melee skills with the longbow is so… unlogical. I like the visual effects. But using them requires giving up so many supporty stuffs that I don’t really see myself use them.
As many have said, making the traps ground-targeted (even at 600 or 900) would be a huge step in the right direction. Then, they’re lacking support for a spec that is supposed to be supporty. Why not make them give a small advantage to allies that are inside them, like Fragments of Faith already do? Like something opposite to what traps do to enemies. Some examples:

• Test of Faith: now inflicts cripple… Add a small reduction of movement-imparing conditions on allies, or grant them swiftness?
• Procession of Blades: maybe give a couple of might stacks, or small-duration fury?
• Light’s Judgement: a light that punishes enemies, why would it not support allies? Add a regeneration buff to allies to it.

This would allow us to stay at range, control enemies and support allies. I don’t think this would make traps OP; allies would need to stand in the traps to actually get the buffs. Or maybe make this a GM trait.

Not so convinced about the changes.

• Overload times: cast times being normalized at 4 sec feels too long. Especially if Tempest is meant to be at the frontline. The recharges after overloarding are too much for the effect they give also.
• Overload fire being nerfed: don’t think it’s warranted. As other said, Lava font is already preferable to this. Pulsing might and burn is nice, but being locked out of fire overshadows those effects in my opinion.
• Heat Sync: this skill was one of my favorite because of the utility potential it had. Synergy within the class, and also with other classes. It opened nice teamplay perspectives. Now with only might, well, might as well stick with the usual fire field/blasts rotations. Much more efficient.
• Imbued Melodies: this change I simply hate and don’t understand the logic. I find the cooldowns on Warhorn quite high already. The previous iteration of this trait was hence mandatory for me. Overloading attunements are locking us out of them for a significant time. If the Warhorn skills are on a high cooldown, we’re going to be useless while overloads recharge… And the loss of stun-breaking allies is another loss of utility of the Tempest. Why change that ? You even say in your post that the changes are meant to increase Warhorn utility ! Doesn’t make sense to me.
• What about the Magnetic aura on Sand Squall ? This was a very welcome change, introducing a lot of possibilities for Warhorn-based support. Either selfish, or group-based with the aura-sharing. You’re missing on both your word and some nice synergy within the class and its Elite spec. I hope this will be changed. Maybe you didn’t add this aura because of the change to Imbued Melodies, but I’d rather you kept Imbued Melodies as before and give the aura to Sand Squall.
• Harmonious Conduit: so, now we are forced to have a crazy long recharge for overloads, while those recharge times are already disliked by many among us. I don’t understand the logic. The added stability is nice, I admit. But you want the Tempest to be able to go at the frontline. And the overload is a long channel, very easily interruptable. As many have said already, this stability is needed. So the other trait options are useless. What I get from that is that this stack of stability needs to be baseline upon Overload activation. Make this trait add a second stability stack and cooldown recharge, so that the other trait options are more attractive: either spec offensively with Tempestuous Aria, defensive/supporty with Earthy proxy, and more versatile/adaptive with Harmonious conduit giving more stability.
• Again on Overloads: would really like to see the cast times normalized to 3 sec. It’s still a long time and hence a risk to decide to overload, but low enough to warrant taking this risk… Especially given the current weak versions of Overload skills. The recharge time on the overloads are still way too high. As it is now, overload is too risky and too likely to be interrupted, and being locked out of an attunement when it fails… Can’t see using much overloads in their current state. I’d consider a 50% attunement recharge increase upon overload preferable: still affects your rotations and makes you wonder “is it the good moment to overload?”, but this time the answer can actually be “yes, I can take this risk”. Now, not worth it.

EDIT:

• Rebound: Forgot to talk about this. I like this new version. Nothing more to say.

I won’t add anything to the discussion (all have already been said, from what I’ve read), but I feel I need to give some feedback on this change. The more voice there is, the better.

I understand the reason behind the animation change, but then I don’t understand why mesmer GS hasn’t been treated equally. As for the animation itself, it feels clunky and like the beginning of a work in progress. Not even a work in progress. My guess would be that this wasn’t supposed to roll out when it did. The second hit is not a hit, simply. The whole animation is not smooth and does not make sense with the attack. And for the charr? I know they’re still a bit primitive, but I’m sure they know better than aiming their axe towards the ground to hit their enemy. That’s ridiculous.

As for axe being useless, well, given the change it received with the core specs, I won’t be using it too much anymore as it is already a subpar weapon, only good to have the #2 before going in shroud and the ability to equip a focus.

Belladonna of dreams since my sylvari has a matching glow, or the new legendary if I like it.

As long as we get creative weapon animations and not just plain swinging. Something as original as GS on mesmer!

Just tested it on other characters of other races. Apparently only Sylvari are having this bug. The other races have perfectly fine weapons. Sylvari being targeted specifically can’t be a coincidence !

Aaand I bought this outfit mainly for my Sylvari necro. Oh well.

Hello,

Bought the new Arcane outfit, and to my surprise the weapons are pretty misplaced.

Take a look on this album: http://imgur.com/a/pDYrZ

Screens were taken on the exact same position for comparison, except the first one to show the general problem with one-handed weapons. 2-handed weapons are placed much higher than normal.

Hope this can be fixed! I don’t like to wear my weapons in my armpits :p

Never used this trait as there’s no way the rare times it would hit an ally would be worth it. A better version in my opinion would be that the green ball splits into homing missiles towards teammates to heal them while the actual blast stays the same. That way it would be useful, and also quite nice to watch I think

I love the new heavy set and was considering it for one of my human heavy char, but once I noticed the shoulders being too high, I just can’t unsee it. The female version seems okay, however, which leads me to think this is not intended. Look at how high it levels with the face in both genders (pics from Dulfy’s):

Male: http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/gw2-carapace-heavy-armor-set-male.jpg

Female: http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/gw2-carapace-heavy-armor-set-female1.jpg

I agree with you OP. There should be more story to keep busy while levelling… While the game ils a prime example to attention to small detail given how many NPCs have dialogs, actions and whatnot, it lacks silver lining. The small thank you letters you gain from finishing a heart or completing a zone could be revamped to rectify that and make the levelling more enjoyable, I think… Maybe by changing the hearts into a regional story. Each region would still have hearts, but each would give you a part of a bigger story limited to their zone. That would make hearts more interesting the first time and subsequent times while keeping the freedom of doing whatever you want. A silver lining that makes you want to stay in the zone doing hearts to learn more instead of going somewhere else out now boredom.

@Nerelith

I know dervishes are not necromancers with scythes. I also know what a Dervish was in GW1 and how the necromancer differs between GW1 and 2. I was simply referring to the “balance philosophy” Shockwave talked about, and how the role he described was already filled by the Necromancer from GW2. I also didn’t say “we asked for the scythe first”, just that what he wants was best described by the current Necromancer from GW2 with the addition of a scythe.

Shockwave.1230:

Balance Philosophy

• Selfish boons, unlike Guardian and Elementalist.
• strong direct damage melee cleave, some bleeds / Torment
• soft cc (blind, weakness, chill, cripple) and some hard cc (short duration kd, pull behind?, immobilize wall?), and higher frequency access to swiftness to keep melee range
• noticeably fewer gap closers than the warrior
• get in, keep the enemy in and take them down before you go down.
• minor team support, via targeted condi removal (burn, chill, cripple, immob)
• weaker vs heavy ranged damage

Lore

• to avoid the issue of the Dervish being tightly coupled to the human Gods, Dervishes in Elona would have taught Wind Prayer and Earth prayers and Mysticism to the other races with the help of Asuran Elementalists (Vekk?) identifying the link between the prayers to the wind and earth magics .

Am I the only one that reads “necromancer” in his description? The necro is known to be selfish (Blood is power for might, Spectral Walk and Armor), has access to lot of bleeds (even Power specs have bleed on crits), DS gives torment. Soft and Hard cc, necro has the wells for this, staff marks, dagger 3 for immob, and the scepter for cripple, axe 3, focus 5…. It has a lot fewer gap closers than warrior (DS2, and a grab with Spectral Grasp). The philosophy of “get in, keep the enemy in” follows the same train of though and thus is also typical of necromancers. Swiftness… You have Spectral Walk, Signet of Locusts, Warhorn 5 and the Quickening Thirst and Speed of Shadows traits. For condi removal, Unholy Martyr helps along with a Well of Power and Plague Signet. As for weaker against ranged damage… This is vague to me, but given the low numbers of gap closers, I say it’s true as well.

What lacks is what many necromancers have been asking for for a long time now: a melee cleave weapon. You basically want a necromancer with a scythe. For the “dervish-specific” skills, well, humans have them as racial skills. For the other mechanics they had in GW1 (e.g. enchantments), it can’t be done in GW2.

And for the lore justifications… I am really not convinced. I don’t see Asuras teaching stuff to other races for one, and translating prayers to magic so that other races can use it doesn’t make sense to me.

The Megaserver in istelf sounds like a good idea to me. I’m from a very, very small server (Arborstone), and sometimes it feels really empty.
However, the world boss changes…. Well, to put it short: no more Tequatl, Karka queen and Wurm for me. I am never home before 8 pm, which means I’ll miss every event of the day. And since I’m not a member of a large guild, I can simply say goodbye to any “guild-started Tequatl” or similar. I am extremely disappointed in this. Why discriminate such a large part of your player base? Why prevent them from doing content? It’s not like there’s much to do once you’re 80. After removing a path from Twilight arbor, now you’re removing the possibility to do these events by limiting them to a certain class of players. Your feature pack is amazing, but this change is utterly disappointing to me.

I go with the Mini Toxic Hybrid. It fits the theme imo and is quite big. Screenshot below, took advantage of a wandering Tequatl

Just my two cents with a quick build that should suit your needs. Hybrid damage isn’t very good in my opinion, as it requires too many stats at once and forces you to sacrifice too much.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAndWjMap7Vama07JEJFRD1Ap49qFqHrD68hA-jgCBYLCiEEgkIQEBApqasJPCR1WFRjVtATViIq2boIa1yAkvFA-e

Skills: flesh golem, and bone minions as secondary pets. Why them ? They provide blast finishers to trigger area might on fire fields, and necros don’t really have access to those besides these minions.

Traits: in spite, the first trait gives you might with Life Blast, and the second trait is up to you. Either Axe training or Training of the Master (though with only two pets it might be a little bit wasted in my opinion). In Death Magic, your minions gets lower cooldowns and more health. This traitline also gives you your wanted toughness. In Soulreaping, Life Blast is further buffed with the first trait, the second one is whatever you want, and the last one gives you +50% crit chance while in DS, which is simply awesome. With the gear, you’ll have over 90% crit chance.

Gear: Berserker everywhere, except a few piece of Cavalier armor for added Toughness. If you feel you already have enough, just replace them with Berserker pieces. The rune I put in the slots was for the toughness again, but you’re free to change it with scholar runes or their cheaper alternative, ruby orbs (though I would not advise those, as they give precision and the 30pts in Soulreaping already gives you enough crit chance).

Hope it helps!

Saw those vids some time ago when I still considered a legendary for my Necro.
In both cases, Life Blast becomes a weapon throwing skill. This makes NO sense at all. We’re supposed to suck life force out of enemies, and somehow it becomes a dagger/axe? Not for me, I like things to be at least a little bit consistent.
Also, to me Incinerator does not fit, just like any fire stuff on the necromancer. Except if the flame stuff would be dyable in greenish tones to go along Dhuum’s fire. Dhuum was the king of the Underworld and I perfectly imagine burning enemies with spectral flames (similar to Spectral Wall, in fact, THAT would be nice and perfectly fit with lore!).
Remove the weapon throwing crap and give the possibility of having a “spectral flame” version of Incinerator. Only then are those legendaries worth doing.
And let’s not talk about rainbows on a necro…

Radically changed the look on my necromancer last week. I went for a more modern look… White lab coat and latex gloves. Now my necro is a crazy scientist experimenting on every life forms he stumbles upon !

Sjien.9768:

This is my Necromancer in his favorite Fractal, hope u like it !
https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/37217/Screenshot105645.jpg

Can someone tell me which dye this guy is using? I went through all the blue-ish dyes I could find and cannot put my hand on that one.

In the meantime, here’s mine. I’m trying to find a “frost tree” kind of look… Once I find a nice blue/ice dye to add to the T3 cultural. Any suggestion is welcome !