Guild Wars 2

Very anecdotal. It would be more accurate to have him AA you while you have 0 toughness, then AA you while you have 1200 (or whatever you want) to determine average damage reduction.

Azukas.1426:

Helbjorne.9368:

Jugnificent.2061:

Helbjorne.9368:

Azukas.1426:

Helbjorne.9368:

The MMR system in itself is also quite flawed. I’ve ran into Gold players that still didn’t know that as a thief they should go home

That’s not flawed MMR. The problem is you actually believing thief needs to cap home on opening split.

It was an example to show lack of game knowledge in ‘higher’ rankings. If that was your takeaway from everything that I wrote, I pity you.

Thief capping home is more of a mid MMR thing. As you get higher thieves tend to stealth mid or go far. Thief is not that good at holding home if the enemy sends someone there on initial split. At middle range MMR people seem to focus on doing home/mid splits (probably wisely so) and higher MMR tend to do 1-3-1.

Right, but the emphasis is on players being at higher MMRs and still not knowing what to do in matches (ie chasing around map, not contesting Bell, Svanir, Artifacts, etc.).

I wrote the original post on mobile while taking a break from boarding up the house for Irma, so the writing is a bit sloppy, but the points are still there.

Was all voided when you said thieves cap home on opening split.

Anyways be safe with Irma on her way and good luck to you and your family.

Yes, everything else, which are all prevalent issues constantly being brought up on the forums, is null and void because of one mistype.

What are your system specs and in-game settings? Do you have any other programs running while you’re playing?

They’re working on fixing the knockback into terrain bug, not sure when we’ll see the fix pushed though.

I was a druid main back in WoW, and it was because I was able to do everything I wanted in one character. It was the jack of all trades, and that’s how I feel Engi is.

Although not all builds are optimized or even viable, there’s still the ability to play whatever role you want across the many kits, and I like having the option to play differently from day to day on the same character.

Jugnificent.2061:

Helbjorne.9368:

Azukas.1426:

Helbjorne.9368:

The MMR system in itself is also quite flawed. I’ve ran into Gold players that still didn’t know that as a thief they should go home

That’s not flawed MMR. The problem is you actually believing thief needs to cap home on opening split.

It was an example to show lack of game knowledge in ‘higher’ rankings. If that was your takeaway from everything that I wrote, I pity you.

Thief capping home is more of a mid MMR thing. As you get higher thieves tend to stealth mid or go far. Thief is not that good at holding home if the enemy sends someone there on initial split. At middle range MMR people seem to focus on doing home/mid splits (probably wisely so) and higher MMR tend to do 1-3-1.

Right, but the emphasis is on players being at higher MMRs and still not knowing what to do in matches (ie chasing around map, not contesting Bell, Svanir, Artifacts, etc.).

I wrote the original post on mobile while taking a break from boarding up the house for Irma, so the writing is a bit sloppy, but the points are still there.

Azukas.1426:

Helbjorne.9368:

The MMR system in itself is also quite flawed. I’ve ran into Gold players that still didn’t know that as a thief they should go home

That’s not flawed MMR. The problem is you actually believing thief needs to cap home on opening split.

It was an example to show lack of game knowledge in ‘higher’ rankings. If that was your takeaway from everything that I wrote, I pity you.

Omcrazy.4756:

CrashTheGrey.1492:

Alatar.7364:

I have never addressed or responded to posts about how Anet targets people to bring them down, because when someone actually thinks/ believes that, then there is absolutely no chance to reason with such person.

I completely agree with the Scenarios and Opinions that you have stated, but truth is that this is a purely Human factor and it is never ever going to change because people are of many personalities and characters, even the most curious thoughts are to be found amongst us.
Funny is that I have seen tons of posts where OP/ people actually blamed Anet for toxic people as well. This alone is a proof that anything is possible with human mind, thus there will forever be toxic people same as people willing to help out.

Toxic people exist in any competitive game in large amounts…. However.

ArenaNets multiple failures to properly balance and support PvP content has arrived at a much smaller pool of players to be matched with. Match quality has suffered because of this smaller pool of players and this does plenty to really bring out the toxicity.

ArenaNet’s power creeping, the ESL drop… Consistently this company has caused people to discount PvP as an absolute joke. It doesn’t stand up to other titles. In addition to simple toxicity, there is a giant sense of apathy.

I’ve seen this mentioned before. That GW2’s pvp doesn’t match up well against other similar games. I’ve played a lot of MMOs over the years What pvp is actually better? I’ve seen mention of some being better mechanically like maybe BDO (never played) but from what I’ve heard its extremely p2w so…

Partially just asking so I have some ideas for what MMOs to check out with friends. We tend to pvp exclusively.

From my perspective GW2 is pretty reasonably balanced and has a pretty high skill ceiling. Yes, top top ranked teams might gravitate to certain classes more than others. That’s how any game goes with different classes, its impossible to perfectly balance everything. But it seems a lot better than other popular MMOs I’ve played like FF14 and WoW. Most classes are fairly well represented (except Revenant).

Yeah, BDO quite easily has the best combat out of any current gen MMO, however the game is a complete cash grab, and I would highly suggest people steer clear of it. GW2 balance is pretty middle of the road; there are some builds that are crazy strong, others that are extremely weak, and everything in between. The skill cap in GW2 is decent as well, but a bad player with a good build can outperform a good player with a bad build, so take that with a grain of salt.

The biggest issue I have with matchmaking is that we end up matched with players from every rank. I’m Plat 1 and had a match where there was a Legend duo on the other team, and a Silver player on mine. Granted, it was during off-hours, but the rank gap should never be that large. I understand it’s to cut down on queue times, but I would rather wait longer to have a more balanced game. As it is, I would say only 20% of my games are even matches. The rest are blowouts on one side or the other (blowout being 500 to <300).

Another issue with matchmaking is the MMR gain and loss is based off the likelihood of you winning or losing a match (based on the average team MMR), but it doesn’t take into account blowouts, afkers, trolls, ragers, etc. While no system can account for this, because the MMR gain/loss varies based on whether you were “more likely” to win or lose, you have matches where you win and gain 10 points, and matches where you lose and lose 20 points. Because of this, it makes maintaining your rank quite difficult, even with a 50% winrate.

The MMR system in itself is also quite flawed. I’ve ran into Gold players that still didn’t know that as a thief they should go home and focus on decapping, Plat players that chased around the map instead of fighting on point, etc.

Not to mention all the trolls, afkers, ragers, flamers, etc. that go unpunished. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people flaming/raging in game, I’ve reported, then I see them doing the same thing the very next game. Obviously reports aren’t instantaneous, but if it’s consistent behavior for that particular person, they definitely shouldn’t still be playing ranked.

Lastly, because the only game mode we have is conquest (stronghold is a meme), it incentivizes cheesey builds such as the recently popular Ventari Rev that allows you to 1vX on point for extended periods of time.

After 5 years the only real thing that has changed with sPvP is adding rankings, and that took them 3 years to implement. We don’t have CTF, or DM, or even KOTH, all of which are fairly standard arena-type game modes. sPvP, along with WvW, feels abandoned by the devs, despite the fact that quite a few people really enjoy these game modes but don’t play them because of these many issues.

Yeah, had it been ranked you’d probably get flamed by both your team and the enemy team, and it wouldn’t be passive aggressive either. Death threats, racist remarks, and telling you to kill yourself are all pretty common.

ButterPeanut.9746:

This was voted upon by the community because the alternative was 5 queues steam rolling everyone else in solo/duo scenarios.

There are daily ATs for 5 man organized team play.

This. No one wants to be solo queued against a 5-man.

Merc The Forgotten.5610:

Hyrai.8720:

Aurelian Omenkind.2470:

I think OP is referring to the part of Black Lion Trading Company HQ in Lion’s Arch that shows vendors behind locked gates. Those haven’t been open for a long time. I think it begs the question as to why they still have them there if they never unlock those gates. Long time ago, you could still buy the old, expensive skins (fused, jade dragon, etc.) from those vendors for like 10 tickets. Now the gates are permanently locked. What’s the point, Anet?

i know what the OP is referring to, and again:
the doors are locked for the same reason, those skins are locked if you want to buy them directly through double-clicking the BL tickets. They are literally LOCKED

of course its sad for you, OP, that you spend so much money on BL keys, just to find out you can’t buy those skins. But tbh that wouldn’t have happened if you had informed yourself before spending all that cash.

Well there use to be a time that the doors were not locked. I can’t be updated in every detail of the game or change or undocumented change….

If you’re spending hundreds of Euros buying keys to get a particular skin, you should probably make sure that content is available first. This is definitely on you.

Stalkingwolf.6035:

Games are the only type of art, that maybe denys you to use it until the end ;-)

That would be like you buy a book and in the middle of the book it changes from english zu chinese.

If you’re claiming that the solo designed story content is the equivalent of a person with no knowledge of hanzi trying to read a book written in it, you should probably try playing with your monitor turned on.

kin korn karn.9023:

Cos he didn’t have you blocked, he just had “Invisible” active. You could’ve blown up his mailbox, but yeah, whispers don’t go through.

Next time someone harasses you continuously, right click their name in the chat box and click “Block.”

This. Just kittening block them if they’re harassing you. No one wins a flame war on the internet.

WARIORSCHARGEING.2637:

Einlanzer.1627:

WARIORSCHARGEING.2637:

Daroon.1736:

The reason I specifically asked about build templates was because with 9 new elites specializations coming, coupled with the fact that the recent direction of the game has been towards harder ‘group’ content that requires players to be easily be able to switch builds to get into groups – A build template system should have been something the Dev’s considered as an essential game system that they should have developed years ago in anticipation of where they were taking the game, rather than something that players wanted and ‘not a priority’

This and all the other examples we have had over the years of ‘things’ introduced to the game without proper thought or planning which resulted in them either being abandoned or having to find ‘fixes’ after the fact, really do sum up the state of the game.

Anet needs to work on ensuring that underlying game systems and mechanics are in place, before, not after introducing content.

it is refreshing to hear some one saying it besides me . not only that but I fully agree with you on these things . and think anet should had the forethoughts to do so . but I think we both can agree that is not the case.

Yeah, I agree this is an ongoing problem with them. It’s short of a “shoot first, then ask questions you never answer later”.

very true and I agree with that thought fully . its like asking for a nice steak and getting pizza

I think a more accurate analogy of how ArenaNet has handled content versus features, bug fixes, and profession balance is more akin to ordering a delicious NY strip steak with grilled asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes, but when it comes time to get your food, they bring the steak without the sides. When you ask the server where the sides are, they say they’re coming, then 15 minutes later they return with the grilled asparagus, but it’s cold. Then when you ask about the mashed potatoes they say they’re not a priority at the moment, then they return with an uncooked potato 20 minutes later, along with an advertisement for the filet mignon they’re adding to the menu next week.

Ardid.7203:

The weapons MUST be improved, fixed and balanced on their own. Rifle have to be repaired so it properly works with vanilla engie, pistols and shield HAVE to be balanced so they become desirable outside any Elite Spec.

I think that’s a fair statement as well, and hopefully we see some buffs to rifle with the PoF balance patch. Although a lot of damage for base Engi comes our kits, we shouldn’t have to run a kit to be able to put out damage.

Unfortunately, that’s the case with most professions; they’re bottle necked into a few builds while the rest of the abilities and weapons collect dust. I think that almost all base professions need a buff/rework so that they’re more competitive and on par with elite specializations.

vorpal.1497:

The duo legend issue is tied to the way the matchmaker expands its low rank tolerance after like 30 seconds.

Oh okay, I wasn’t aware of that, thank you!

Freedj.8650:

They definitely didn’t abandon the game mode. They try and add rewards and stuff to make it more appealing to people, and even added ATs recently (although that’s a bit of a bag of worms in itself).
The point i am trying to make, they are definitely putting effort in to improve the game mode, I just don’t think they have enough folks on the team who really play PvP enough to pick up on some of the more nuanced but still extremely impactful problems.

When I said abandoned I meant no longer putting any developmental effort into it. Adding incentives to try to entice people into playing sPvP isn’t the same as addressing core issues such as matchmaking, balancing, or adding new content such as new maps, game modes, etc.

I mean kitten, it’s been 5 years and still no death match? No capture the flag? Stronghold was a flop. The strategy for each conquest map is the exact same, regardless of whatever other mechanics they added, and has lead to this garbage bunker meta. It’s just poor decision after poor decision filled with self-fulfilling prophecies.

Just came to say there’s a lot of great suggestions in here. Let’s hope ArenaNet reconsiders their poor decision to not include other weapons with the Heat system so we’re not railroaded into using sword.

vorpal.1497:

Have the amount of rank points for a loss depend on the score: close match = minimal loss, blowout = large loss of points to discourage players giving up after the first fight.

Invalidate 4v5 and return us to the lobby with a major penalty to the d/c

Do not “expand” the matchmaking tolerance until like 5+ minutes of queue time

There I fixed matchmaking for you

Except when we’re being punished for facing people far outside our skill range and having a blowout. I’m in low Plat, I played a game against a duo legend group yesterday, lost 500 – 84, and lost 18 points. What kittening sense does that make?

The whole system is kittened from matchmaking to the rating system, and ArenaNet isn’t going to do kitten about it. They abandoned sPvP long ago.

joneirikb.7506:

Iirc the reason for the tone down of effects, was so you could actually see what was going on in sPvP back when they still tried to make it esport.

Think it was the one and only time I really cared about the whole esport thing, since I loved that change.

An option for it would be fantastic (as with all the else)

They could have made sPvP extremely competitive, but for whatever reason they abandoned that endeavor. From what I understand the pro players and sponsors saw what a joke the balance and design team was and dropped support for the game, but you’d think that would push ArenaNet to address those issues and design flaws, but instead they just abandoned it.

We haven’t seen any significant changes to sPvP in 2 years, matchmaking is kittened at the moment, there are ridiculous ‘cheese’ builds that haven’t been addressed, multiple professions still have terrible trait synergy and build diversity, the list goes on and on…

ArenaNet please.

Matchmaking has been kittened this season anyway, so it’s going to feel like you’re playing with Bronze players regardless. Even at Plat there are still people that indecisively run around, fight off point, go solo into 1v4s at mid, etc etc.

I hear you there man. Went on a 12 game lose streak, and only in 2 games did we have more than 250 points. It’s actually why I decided to roll off Necro; I just feel Necro is far more team dependent than the other classes.

Even though they excell in team fights, without solid frontliners to peel, they just get hard focused and nuked off the map, and positioning can only go so far.

WARIORSCHARGEING.2637:

Ramoth.9064:

WARIORSCHARGEING.2637:

I find no need for this at all in spvp or pvp . when these people start in map chats with their so called Wheel Commands I fully put them on the blocked list . as they have no need place in this game type . and just bring more problems then need or worth .

What do you mean by fully put them on the block list? Can you half put them on? Quarter?

I mean just what I said and you can not do such things as you suggest . just put them on block and move on more important things to deal with . like winning the match with out a bunch of unneed map chat text flying past your eyes while trying not to loose .

Have you ever played a game with a chat wheel? It’s typically a message that is displayed in chat and an audio clip. There’s nothing “flying” past your eyes as you so put it.

If you’re so offended by people trying to communicate with you why not just turn your monitor off?

Pings are not the same as wheel commands. I can’t ping someone to decap far, or to rotate off home, or to hold mid. I can ping these things, but that’s all it is, a ping, and without context they have little meaning, even if there is a little check mark and a little caution symbol available.

As for the guy that doesn’t want to communicate with his team and blocks all his teammates, good luck with that.

Tanner Blackfeather.6509:

I don’t think it necessarily is a matter of insecurity in ones own gender identity or sexuality for all players uncomfortable with playing a different gender. If you deeply view the character as an extension of oneself, a sensation vaguely similar to gender dysphoria (though weaker and more distant) when it doesn’t match ones identity seems reasonable.

Pretty much this. I view my character as an extension of myself, and model all my characters after myself as a result. Playing a non-Humanoid male in any MMO just doesn’t feel right to me.

That being said, there’s a lot of unnecessary hate and presumptions being tossed around regarding everyone’s character preference. Everyone is different and has their different reasons for playing whichever characters they play.

Exciton.8942:

Completely untrue.

First of all, a lot of builds are not viable not because of condition spam. D/P thief alone can push out tons of glassy power builds.

Next, out of 9 classes. Let’s see how many actually have power build as meta
Tempest=power meta
Reaper=both condition and power are viable
Chronomancer=condition/hybrid meta, power semi-viable
Daredevil=power meta, condition viable
Scrapper=power meta
Druid=power meta
DH=power meta
Warrior=both power and condition are semi viable
Herald=power meta

So 6/9 are power meta. Th rest can mostly play power as well.

As for you, power reaper is not worse than condition by any means. It is reaper greatsword that is underpowered in PvP. But you have to accept some weapons are just better than others in PvP, right?

Last, melee build is not suicidal. Scrapper is the best example. They melee a lot and are the most sustainable class right now.

Back in the days before HoT, it was much more difficult to stand on point for most classes. Now almost everyone has the ability to stand on point at least briefly.

Half the professions you listed as being in a power meta, although technically power based, aren’t based around damage output, which is what I was referring to when I said power builds; I should have been more clear. Druid, Ele, and Guardian typically go bunker/support nowadays in sPvP, at least from what I’ve seen in Plat.

I didn’t state that other builds weren’t viable because of condition spam, but rather that we shouldn’t have to play another class to counter the meta (as was suggested by the second comment), regardless of whatever the current meta happens to be.

I think that in a world of perfect balance, every profession would have a viable means to play whatever role they wanted to, but each profession would go about achieving that goal by different means. That was the original goal of GW2; to get rid of the holy trinity and have each profession able to be self-sustained and play each role, but that sadly is not the case.

I’ll never not be salty about greatsword though. Sure, we can go Axe/ Staff Power Reaper, but we’ve had those weapons from launch. Greatsword was supposed to be the latest and greatest, but it falls flat in both PvE or PvP.

Krysard.1364:

No one should ever sit on a point, whoever does that is throwing the game as the rest of the map is left 4v5.

That’s not true whatsoever. A good Bunker Guardian/ Ele/ Druid that can hold a point 1vX until the rest of the team can rotate is invaluable, especially in solo queue.

Grasping Darkness inherently cannot be perfectly fine if it has a known bug, and although there are ways to play around it, we shouldn’t have to. My suggested change to Grasping Darkness would allow it to retain its function and just change it from a frontal projectile to a targeted ability.

I’ll lower the radius on Nightfall, and as for the boon corrupt goes, you’re right. I think maybe lowering it to 2 boons would be better? 3 is still incredibly strong now that I step back and think about it.

As for AA 1/2, they’re not quick as far as greatsword autos go. Both Warrior and Guardian greatsword have a flat .5s cast time for their entire AA chain, Ranger has 2 .5s and a .75s cast time, and Mesmer has a 1s and 1.5s cast time, but it’s ranged. We have the slowest melee greatsword AA chain, and that’s why I think we’re better off with just the one ability (as seen in our staff) where we can instantly apply chill to foes without having to run through our first two abilities which offer no utility and hardly any damage.

That being said, if they also applied chill that could work, but the damage output would still have to be increased and it would take away from the utility of the third strike, which I suppose could be changed to Vulnerability? Or a guaranteed critical? I don’t know.

What would you want changed to gravedigger?

Any thoughts on updated suggested changes?

Capture the flag or king of the hill would be really fun. Heck, I’d even take a deathmatch.

To be fair, having to play a different class just to counter the meta shouldn’t be a thing. All classes should be viable with multiple builds (Condi, Power, Support, Bunker), but unfortunately that isn’t the case with GW2.

The kittenty thing about this Condi meta is playing a melee build is suicide. I despise Condi Reaper. Absolutely despise it. Playing Greatsword Power Reaper is so much more satisfying to me, but it’s countered by just about everything right now. If you want to win, you have to play the meta, play against bad opponents, or know your off-meta build so well that you can counter the meta with it.

I’m really, really hoping that this balance patch that’s supposed to be coming with PoF brings balance back to PvP so both Power and Condi are equally competitive, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

And before anyone says it, yes, there are viable Power builds, but they’re few and far between.

Power Reaper

This is the build I currently use, and while not exactly meta, I’ve really been enjoying it. It forgoes tankiness for massive damage output through Might stacking and the 2540 Base Power, 97% Crit Chance, and 225% Crit Damage while in Reaper’s Shroud.

Basically you want to try to keep them at range with Axe/ Warhorn and gain Might stacks until they’re below 50% HP, then swap to Greatsword and use Grasping Darkness to pull them in and Chill them, Death Spiral for the 12% damage increase, then Gravedigger with full Might stacks for the execute. It’s not uncommon to crit for 12k+ when they’re below 50%, usually resulting in an instant down.

Reaper’s Shroud with the 97% Crit Chance and 225% damage and Might stacking through Chilling Victory allows you to be able to nuke groups of enemy players with your autoattacks alone. The build has decent life force gain through Spectral Armor and Lesser Spectral Armor alone, and through Chilling Victory you’ll be able to stay in Shroud longer during teamfights.

Overall, it’s a pretty selfish build, but you’ll be able to get a ton of kills and 1vX effectively if you play it right and don’t get hard CC’d, as the build offers 0 stability (which can be changed by swapping to Foot in the Grave at the cost of damage output while in Reaper’s Shroud).

CrashTheGrey.1492:

I would recommend you spam some rounds as every single class and learn the In’s and Out’s. Try out meta/relevant builds and understand how the classes work and what they have access to. It gives you a much better platform to interpret situations and calmly react to the insane volume of “stuff” that happens in your average team fight or even smaller interactions.

This is probably the best advice here, and advice I need to heed myself. Learning what each class is capable of and their strengths and weaknesses is going to help out a lot when you start climbing the ranked ladder. Even after a few hundred matches I still have moments where I ask myself “What the kitten just happened?” after getting blown up.

Of course, the block function would have to block that person’s wheel commands as well, so the rest of us don’t have to hear that kitten.

(Although as others have mentioned having a 5 second or so cooldown would prevent spamming)

One of the biggest issues in both ranked and unranked sPvP is the lack of communication within a team full of randoms. Having wheel commands to be able to tell your team to push, hold, retreat, and call out home, mid, far, objective, etc. would be extremely beneficial to the PvP community as a whole, would allow new players to get familiar with what they should be doing and when, would free up time from typing, and would reduce toxicity by minimizing frustration due to lack of communication.

There are times where typing out things like back, home, etc. does work, but most of the time in sPvP we’re engaged in combat, and sneaking off to try to communicate with the team is detrimental.

It could be implemented as simply as holding down a hotkey, then moving the mouse in whichever direction the chat command you wish to relay is in (as seen in our ping system). The message would be relayed in chat and via audio in whatever language is native for the client, so people that don’t speak the same language could still effectively communicate.

What is everyone else’s thoughts on the matter?

Alright, it’s a long read, but I completely redid the skills based on suggestions here and elsewhere in the Necromancer forums. I think they’re all really solid suggestions, and as someone mentioned in another thread, I think the older traits need to be adjusted to synergize with greatsword more, seeing as there isn’t a lot of trait synergy with greatsword or power builds in general, but that’s a task for another day.

grave of hearts.7830:

Theres a bit of a conflict here between what people want and anets whatever philosophy they have about reaper.

Prince Vingador.8067:

Gs is too slow, needs to be faster, needs to have a teleport or a fast speed skill.

Yeah, that’s the issue; most people that PvP want the greatsword to be faster and don’t care about the ‘vision’ of the class, but as you stated Grave of Hearts, if they want to keep the slow, lumbering, horror theme, it definitely needs to be buffed to compensate.

Yeah, unfortunately it is listed as a bug on the GW2 Wiki, and has yet to be fixed. ANet couldn’t give two kittens less about Necro.

Vitali.5039:

The best way to improve PvE damage while not breaking the PvP scene is to work around critical % (that we already have) and ferocity (our ferocity is a joke), like recently happens to Guardian’s Radiance trait line.

Yeah, I saw that from your post and it’s a start, but it doesn’t address the other issues with greatsword (ie. everything listed in OP), and to take that trait in PvP we’d lose out on our very few sources of Might gain or critical chance.

Arche.7326:

Every time I see people suggesting buffs and fixes for reaper its always reducing cast times. I will disagree with that this will be a good way to solve the problems for two major reasons.

First off, it will cause homogenization of professions, which means that despite having different abilities the resulting playstyle will be similar and that there often will be abilities on jobs filling the exact same function albeit with different flavour. The end result is that things will seem and feel similar and end up bland.

Second: It goes against the design vision of the Reaper as a slow moving movie horror, while Anet arguably failed at actually making it perform like one. Mostly due to extremely underwhelming numbers in practice and a host of traits which underperform. I think it would be a shame to just abandon that vision in favour of homogenization when the simplest fix is a relatively simple potency adjustment on the skills.

That makes sense, and in the case where a slow moving movie horror is the vision for the elite specialization and greatsword, the numbers would have be adjusted quite dramatically to make up for long cast times. The autoattack chain, Gravedigger, and Death Spiral are the only real sources of damage (Nightfall and Grasping Darkness’ damage is quite low, as they’re CC abilities) and would have to be increased, and if they were to retain those long cast times, I think the range would have increased as well. 130 and 170 is extremely short when you’re trying to chase down a mobile class, and if they’re just a hair out of range the attack misses. This of course is an issue that all melee players face, however other classes have mobility and hard CC to be able to keep their opponents in range.

An alternative approach would be to remove the autoattack chain altogether, and make the third strike, Chilling Scythe, the only attack for 1, and slightly increase its damage. This would allow us to maintain the vision for the specialization, and would make staying with a target much easier (as although the class has numerous sources of Chill, they are on long CDs and once cleansed we’re stuck playing the chasing game).

I think the reduced CD on Gravedigger is still a solid suggestion, as although it can be traited to bring the CD down to 6 seconds, the other 2 traits are extremely valuable, and our damage output depends on them. The big issue with greatsword is opponents >50% HP; once under we can usually keep them under and secure the kill.

The suggested changes to Nightfall I think are necessary as well, although perhaps changing it to an aura instead of a ground targetted ability and keeping the current range would be better than just increasing the range, but I don’t know if that would border OP (at least in PvP, not really all that useful in PvE anyways).

Unfortunately, even with these suggested changes, DPS would still be quite lacking in PvE. As you mentioned, ANets desire to use the same numbers for PvP and PvE makes Necro extremely difficult to balance.

Vitali.5039:

Helbjorne.9368:

Vitali.5039:

Vitali.5039:

My power related dream list changes:

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

click on the quote to see it

To me the increased damage should come from underused traits that are in the same tier of our best survival and support traits, to increase PvP’s build variety.

To me we should be able to increase our damage at the cost of self survival, to make it balanced PvP wise.

While gaining additional damage through traits would be great, we already have extremely limited survivability; we have no blocks, no evades, no invulnerability, and the best heal we have is on a 30s cooldown. We have Rise and a few forms of damage reduction, but Rise can be nullified by a few AoEs. That leaves Shroud, but even Shroud just acts as a second health bar (in terms of survivability), and offers no active defenses.

I’m not saying that Shroud should be changed (as I don’t think it should), but I don’t think lowering our survivability is a viable option either, especially when the reason I suggested separate damage scaling is because the damage greatsword puts out in PvP is already decent (albeit clunky), and that PvE is the area in need of a flat damage buff. Fully buffed Power Reaper puts out ~24-27k DPS on a target dummy, whereas Condimancer can pull upwards of ~30-33k DPS (and mind you that’s with BiS gear on a dummy, not in real scenarios).

But I digress, the point of this post is to address greatsword, and not the myriad of other issues with the class or Power Reaper as a whole (as there’s already quite a few other threads that address those issues).

To me blocks, evades and invulnerability shouldn’t be locked in a e-spec but putted into core skills.

The most important thing is to not have too much damage for the durability and damage in the same build (see warrior’s balance history) to have one aspect nerfed to the ground.

I don’t think they should be either, I was stating that because Necro already has such low active defenses, lowering passive defenses to buff damage (as you suggested) would only hurt the class further. But again, this is about greatsword, not the overall class.

Vitali.5039:

Vitali.5039:

My power related dream list changes:

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click on the quote to see it

To me the increased damage should come from underused traits that are in the same tier of our best survival and support traits, to increase PvP’s build variety.

To me we should be able to increase our damage at the cost of self survival, to make it balanced PvP wise.

While gaining additional damage through traits would be great, we already have extremely limited survivability; we have no blocks, no evades, no invulnerability, and the best heal we have is on a 30s cooldown. We have Rise and a few forms of damage reduction, but Rise can be nullified by a few AoEs. That leaves Shroud, but even Shroud just acts as a second health bar (in terms of survivability), and offers no active defenses.

I’m not saying that Shroud should be changed (as I don’t think it should), but I don’t think lowering our survivability is a viable option either, especially when the reason I suggested separate damage scaling is because the damage greatsword puts out in PvP is already decent (albeit clunky), and that PvE is the area in need of a flat damage buff. Fully buffed Power Reaper puts out ~24-27k DPS on a target dummy, whereas Condimancer can pull upwards of ~30-33k DPS (and mind you that’s with BiS gear on a dummy, not in real scenarios).

But I digress, the point of this post is to address greatsword, and not the myriad of other issues with the class or Power Reaper as a whole (as there’s already quite a few other threads that address those issues).

I recently made the swap from Staff and Scepter/Dagger Condimancer to Greatsword and Axe/Warhorn Power Reaper for sPvP, and I’ve been really enjoying it, except that greatsword feels extremely underwhelming. I can understand that the entire premise of Reaper is to be constantly in Reaper shroud, but at the same time a new weapon should at the very least be a lateral move from other weapons, not a downgrade.

I also understand I’m about 2 years too late, and that if they haven’t changed anything in the past 2 years, it’s unlikely they will change anything now, but there’s always hope.

I removed my previous suggestions and explanations to shorten the post.

Let’s give this another shot based off some of the suggestions in the thread:

Greatsword

1. Chilling Scythe - Cleave foes in front of you and chill them.
Cast Time: 1s (no change)
Cooldown: 0s (no change)
Damage: 705 (1.8) (increased from 565 (1.4))
Chilled: 2s (no change)
Life Force: 3% (decreased from 5%)
Number of Targets: 3 (no change)
Range: 180 (up from 130)

Reasoning: Removed first two attacks in chain because they served no purpose (applied no debuffs, did minimal damage), increased base damage and Power ratio of Chilling Scythe to compensate for long cast time, increased range to compensate for long cast time and to fit Reaper ‘scythe’ theme.

2. Gravedigger - Perform a huge swing that deals heavy damage. Recharges if it hits a downed or low health foe.
Cast Time: 1.25s (no change)
Cooldown: 6s (reduced from 8s)
Damage: 1,320 (3.4) (increased from 1,210 (3.0))
Health Threshold: 50% (no change)
Recharge Reduced: 100% (no change)
Life Force: 5% (increased from 0%)
Number of Targets: 5 (no change)
Range: 220 (up from 170)

Reasoning: Reduced cooldown because damage per second above 50% is abysmal, increased base damage and Power ratio, increased range to compensate for long cast time and to fit Reaper ‘scythe’ theme.

3. Death Spiral - Conjure a drill of dark energy on your blade and dash forward, rending the armor of foes in front you.
Cast Time: 1s (no change)
Cooldown: 12s (no change)
Damage (6x): 880 (2.2) (increased from 798 (1.98))
Vulnerability (10s): 10 stacks (decreased from 12 stacks)
Life Force: 3% (increased from 2%)
Number of Targets: 3 (no change)
Range: 280 (increased from 220)

Reasoning: Added dash to provide a small gap closer and fit ‘drill’ theme, slightly increased damage and Power ratio, decreased Vulnerability stacks to compensate for dash, range slightly increased.

4. Nightfall - Surround yourself with shadows, damaging and applying conditions to nearby foes per pulse. Gain Life Force for each struck foe.
Cast Time: .5s (no change)
Cooldown: 16s (decreased from 25s)
Damage: 320 (0.8) (increased from 282 (0.7))
Blind: 2s (no change)
Crippled: 2s (no change)
Boons Converted to Conditions: 3 (decreased from 4)
Number of Targets: 5 (no change)
Life Force: 1%
Pulses: 4 (no change)
Interval: 2s (no change)
Radius: 300 (decreased from 360)
Combo Field: Dark

Reasoning: Changed from ground targeted ability to aura around player as the area of denial created was so small and easily avoidable, decreased cooldown as 25s on a melee ability is far too long, slightly increased damage and Power ratio, decreased amount of boons converted to compensate for change to auro, removed ‘growing’ effect and made radius a flat 300 which is slightly larger than furthest ranged melee ability.

5. Grasping Darkness - Toss out spectral scythes at a targeted foe, Chilling them and nearby foes and pulling them to you. Gain Life Force for each struck foe.
Cast Time: 1s (increased from .75s)
Cooldown: 18s (decreased from 25s)
Damage: 680 (1.4) (increased from 524 (1.3)
Chilled: 4s (no change)
Life Force: 4% (no change)
Number of Targets: 5 (no change)
Range: 800 (increased from 750)

Reasoning: Changed from a directional projectile ability to a targeted ability as the directional portion is bugged (GW2 Wiki), decreased cooldown as the kit has no significant gap closer, slightly increased damage and Power ratio, slightly increased range.

Alright, I’m pretty confident in this one, and think they’re solid changes based on feedback from this thread and elsewhere on the forums. Let me know what you think!