Guild Wars 2

LastDarkness.7390:

People seem to be doing their math as if the only character present is the Necromancer Solo. Axe necro is one of the few classes that can keep vulnerability stacked up and this adds to the damage all other targets are doing (Which is usualy +10% damage) this includes your minions.

By all means, please link to your math that shows that 10 stacks of vulnerability is more damage done than the Necromancer switching to Dagger or Scepter.

LastDarkness.7390:

I find Axe #1 skill to be fine, if I wanted it do more damage or attack faster I would use a differant weapon.

This makes no sense. If you wanted the Axe to do more damage, you wouldn’t switch to another weapon, because then you’d not be using the Axe, now, would you? If you wanted the Axe to do more damage, you’d tell the ones in charge of buffing it that it needed to do more damage, which is why this thread exists.

The whole “learn to adapt /shrug” mindset might work out for you in real life, but this isn’t real life. This is a product we paid for. We shouldn’t have to adapt to imbalance and bugs, the imbalance and bugs should be fixed by the people who created the product.

In every other industry, the customer gets to return a faulty product for a full refund or free repairs. I have not yet figured out why it isn’t like this in the video game industry.

GW2 needs another four months of QA testing.

KirinDave.6451:

And I am not sure why people are so obsessed with minion pathing. Only a few of them really matter. I’ve had a great time with my necro and I seldom use minions at all.

Well, duh?

If you don’t understand why people are so obsessed with the minion AI (or lack thereof), I suggest you try incorporating more minions into your gameplay. Go Minion Master for a couple of weeks and let us know how that worked out for ya.

KirinDave.6451:

I’m not taking the bait of spurious comparisons.

I don’t think the OP was trying to bait you with a spurious comparison. Seems to me that he was trying to put the minion AI issue into perspective for you. Minions are an integral part of the Necromancer profession and some of the minions are bugged to a point where it’s actually game-breaking. Just like it would be game-breaking for an Elementalist if Water Attunement didn’t work.

I was bored with the usual dagger/warhorn setup so I went axe/focus instead. Not optimal, but you can stack some nice vulnerability every time Reaper’s Touch comes off cooldown, and axe’s #2 has a shorter cooldown than dagger’s #2 (but no healing), so more stuff to do.

Like I said, it’s not optimal, but at least it allows you to get the weapon traits easily. Both the axe and the focus are in Spite, if I remember correctly.

Haltus Kain.4578:

Mazra.1625:

Haltus Kain.4578:

2) When fired, the rifle makes the iconic ‘bang’ that RL guns do. This sound occurs because of the bullet traveling faster than the speed of sound.

The “bang” from most guns come from the muzzle blast, not the projectile breaking the sound barrier. Most rifles and pistols are subsonic, meaning the projectile travels at below the speed of sound. What you’re hearing is super-heated gas rapidly leaving the barrel and colliding with the cooler air in the atmosphere.

Supersonic guns are easily recognizable because the projectile, when breaking the sound barrier, produces a loud “crack” rather than a “bang.”

Never heard that before, but looking into it, you appear to be right. I stand corrected.

To be fair, I had no idea what was causing the bang until I looked it up, but I knew that most guns fired projectiles at subsonic speeds. The C7A1 infantry rifle I used while in the military had a muzzle velocity of ~900 kph, while the speed of sound at ground level and at normal temperatures is around 1200 kph.

Thank god for Wikipedia, eh?

The Flamethrower #1 cone of attack is – for some obscure reason – tied to your camera’s movement (left mouse button) rather than your character’s movement (right mouse button).

Next time you’re getting “miss, miss, miss” on a structure, try moving your camera (left mouse button) so that it’s looking at whatever you’re trying to hit. They need to change it so the cone spreads out from the character’s front and in a straight angle out from the character rather than at whatever direction the camera is pointing.

This is also why you’re missing constantly while strafing away from someone. Your character is facing the target, but the camera is looking to the side, so the Flamethrower shoots to the side as well.

A final note on the Flamethrower: The fire animation is not linked to the actual damage cone. You can blow fire in one direction and damage stuff in another direction. It all depends on what your camera is looking at.

Completely silly design. Almost as silly as having kits replace your equipped weapons. How did these things slip through the beta?

Stumbled across an interesting quirk just now.

Patch notes say:

• Bomb Kit, Med Kit, Tool Kit, and Elixir Gun: These skills can now be equipped in the air.
• All kits can be stowed in the air now.

This is partially correct. You can stow kits in the air by using the kit’s secondary ability called “Stow ____ Kit.”

There’s a bit of a problem, though:

• Med Kit’s “Stow Med Kit” ability still doesn’t work – it just re-equips Med Kit.
• The “Drop bundle” hotkey (weapon swap) stows current active kit and switches to your weapon.
• The “Drop bundle” button’s effect was not fixed in the patch and still provides the error message “You cannot drop bundles while in the air!”
• You cannot stow the Med Kit in the air unless you switch to another kit.

I’m guessing they’re releasing these changes in chunks. You don’t want to change too many variables in the equation or you’ll end up with a clusterkitten of a mess.

Chicken.7912:

Jon Peters generally doesn’t seem to be the one to blame.

The guy who brushed aside three pages of verified Necromancer bugs by claiming that the Necromancer players should just “master Death Shroud”? I’d say he’s done his share to deserve the flak he’s getting.

The saddest part about this patch is that both the Engineer and the Necromancer got rear-ended something fierce. The only two professions I play. :’(

That is a fairly annoying bug.

Wasn’t it 100% before? I remember throwing Necrotic Grasp through Well of Blood and seeing the light effect every time before the patch.

Hey guys, these patch notes are irrelevant once you’ve mastered Death Shroud.

Haltus Kain.4578:

2) When fired, the rifle makes the iconic ‘bang’ that RL guns do. This sound occurs because of the bullet traveling faster than the speed of sound.

The “bang” from most guns come from the muzzle blast, not the projectile breaking the sound barrier. Most rifles and pistols are subsonic, meaning the projectile travels at below the speed of sound. What you’re hearing is super-heated gas rapidly leaving the barrel and colliding with the cooler air in the atmosphere.

Supersonic guns are easily recognizable because the projectile, when breaking the sound barrier, produces a loud “crack” rather than a “bang.”

Krisstina.7238:

ElixirGun has no DPS at all~

That’s a fairly inaccurate statement, considering four out of five of the Elixir Gun’s abilities deal damage.

OP, I use the Elixir Gun to great effect on single target fights where I need more survivability than the rifle alone can give me. That being said, the strength of a Kit Engineer lies in constantly swapping kits to get access to the abilities you need. For instance, the Elixir Gun’s Acid Bomb is fairly powerful, but it works best if you can keep the target in the area of effect, which can be done by using the rifle’s Net Shot.

To answer your question: You should also use the rifle/pistol because it grants you access to abilities that synergize with the Elixir Gun’s abilities.

GoneBatty.9048:

Because it doesn’t make sense. Why make the tankiest class in the game ALSO have the potential to be the highest ranged DPS in the game while still having more survivability base? It isn’t fair. I like fair, and that’s not fair.

The Warrior does more damage with his rifle because he lacks the utility of the Engineer. He can’t plop down a turret, or resurrect himself with an elixir, or switch between four weapon sets. If the Engineer, with a rifle, could compete with a Warrior, also with a rifle, in damage, the Engineer would win every time because of utility.

You’re trying to play your Engineer like a Warrior and you find it lacking. I don’t want to say that you’re “doing it wrong”, but you should perhaps look at what the Engineer can do that the Warrior can’t do, instead of just the other way around.

GoneBatty.9048:

Use Kits? But My dearest Ploppy, the kits don’t scale with my stats, and I crunched the numbers.

Huh? To my knowledge, kits scale with your stats, just not your weapons’.

I also fail to see the issue here. You want to play a sniper (whatever than means), and your conclusion, after crunching numbers, is that the Warrior outshines the Engineer for this purpose.

So, why are you still playing your Engineer then? Why aren’t you rebuilding your Warrior to be a sniper? There must be something tying you down to the Engineer, otherwise you’d have already gone Warrior and been a happy camper.

Get it? Sniper… camper… blah, dead crowd is dead.

Anyway, I’m not saying Warriors and Engineers are working as intended (what is in this game?), I’m just asking what’s keeping you here when it’s clearly much better over there.

Kits can be treated like weapon sets and swapped in and out of to allow the Engineer access to whatever abilities are needed at the time. They can also be treated as a specialization which the Engineer then creates an entire build around.

The thing I love about the Engineer is that you can switch out three utility abilities and it becomes a completely different gaming experience. Probably the most versatile and customizable profession in the game.

Necromancer doesn’t feel slow until you go under water and use Death Shroud.

What the kitten were the developers thinking?

Protection of the Horde from Death Magic.

You’re forced to take it (Minor Trait) and it gives you 20 toughness per active minion. Unless you’re a Minion Master, this is completely useless. Engineers get a similar trait, but theirs gives them 90 toughness just for equipping a shield.

Good times.

hackks.3687:

Mazra.1625:

1. I’d recommend using Death Shroud when you need to absorb damage and you have used your long cooldown abilities, like utility abilities and your #4 and #5 spells.

DS has a 10 sec CD, is instant, keeps all dmg from effecting your HP, and works while CC’d. Far better to hit it first, figure out what you’re dealing with, and then decide on which long CD you want to blow after

that’s just my opinion

You should know what you’re dealing with before you’re getting hit. The guy is level 41, so I assumed he was asking for help with leveling. Unless you auto-run into a pack of whatever while alt-tabbed out of the game, you should know what you’re dealing with and how to proceed the moment you initiate combat.

The 10-second cooldown is going to seem like a lifetime when you get knocked down and roflstomped by four centaurs or hammer-wielding enemies. Blow your cooldowns, pop Death Shroud and deal damage while you wait for your cooldowns to finish. If you run with Soul Marks and Mark of Evasion, you can prolong Death Shroud’s duration quite a bit by dodging and placing a Mark of Blood every 10 seconds.

1. I’d recommend using Death Shroud when you need to absorb damage and you have used your long cooldown abilities, like utility abilities and your #4 and #5 spells.

2. Life Blast’s damage is cut in half at about 50% Life Force, as far as I know. I’ve done some testing and the drop in damage seems to occur at 50% Life Force. I’d recommend using Dark Path at 50% and then popping out to regenerate Life Force for more Life Blast spam.

3. Mark of Blood -> Chillblains -> Putrid Mark -> Mark of Blood -> Death Shroud -> Life Transfer -> /dance -> repeat

4. Life Transfer is essentially free damage because it regenerates Life Force instead of spending it like Life Blast. As such, definitely use it on a single target, unless you plan on fighting multiple targets in a bit.

5. On multiple targets, use Life Blast a couple of times before popping Life Transfer, yes.

6. I use Dark Path just before leaving Death Shroud. It applies some bleeds and takes me within melee range so I can drop my Marks and Wells again if need be. If you want to kite something, I’d recommend not using Dark Path and instead just using Chillblains and swapping to your other weapon set for the second slow.

7. If you like Marks and Death Shroud, I’d recommend giving the Marked For Death build a go. To quote the guy who posted the build in the “Post Your Build Thread”:

The way the build works is that obviously you use a staff as your primary attack. Every Mark you put down is very large and every time a monster touches this mark you get 3% lifeforce. It doesnt seem like much but when you have 5 monsters on the mark you get 15% life force PER MARK. In events I’ve actually seen her lifeforce go from zero to full in no time at all.

Mark of Evasion from Blood Magic creates a Mark of Blood whenever you dodge (10 second cooldown). You can dodge in Death Shroud, which enables you to place a Mark of Blood and gain 3% Life Force per monster hit by it, without having to drop out of Death Shroud.

Pretty neat build for those of us who enjoy Marks and “mastering Death Shroud”.

Male Norn with a staff and the Shadow Helm armor piece.

Helm clips with the shoulder art when the staff is drawn (idle combat animation). The poor guy is staring into his shoulder armor.

I’d recommend turning the male Norn’s head slightly in that animation so that the helmet and shoulder art pieces don’t collide if they’re big (which they are on male Norn).

I love my staff’s utility, but I can’t stand listening to Necrotic Grasp’s sound effects for more than a few seconds at a time. As such, I carry dual daggers for when I need to not listen to “Goooo, goooo, chhhhew, chhhhew!” and for when I need to do damage to structures.

Can’t edit my post for some reason, but people mentioned a bug/feature where the Jagged Horror would die, continue to bleed and thus keep the Necromancer in combat for a period of time.

I have NOT been able to recreate this scenario. My Necromancer’s health appears to begin regenerating after the same delay, both when the Jagged Horror is still alive and bleeding and dead and bleeding or not present at all, as long as I’m out of combat.

In short: The JH self-bleed does NOT appear to affect the Necromancer’s combat status on/off toggle.

That being said, it’s late and I could be imagining things, because I’m pretty drunk right now, so feel free to enlighten me if you are able to recreate it.

I did some testing with the Reanimator trait and here’s what I found out:

• The Jagged Horrors in all my tests died approximately 7 seconds after appearing on-screen, losing health over 7 ticks before dying. Never close to 11 seconds, even when you take my poor math skills into account.
• When summoned, there was a period of time where the Jagged Horrors were digging themselves out of the ground and not attacking anything, but still lost health. The Jagged Horrors in my tests had around 50% health left—3-4 ticks of health bleeding—once they had finished this animation and were ready to attack.
• Due to the minion AI being sluggish, the Jagged Horrors would sit for one additional tick of health before attacking anything, leaving 2-3 ticks of health left.
• If summoned on top of an enemy target (melee range), the Jagged Horrors managed to land 1-2 hits on the enemy. If summoned further away from the enemy target, the Jagged Horrors would die while en route, doing zero damage.
• Due to the Jagged Horrors pulling aggro and getting one-shot by anything short of a rabbit, the Jagged Horrors in all my tests—when summoned on top of the enemy target—only managed to hit the enemy once.

Summary (TL;DR version): The Jagged Horror will last for about 7 seconds, summoning time included, and will hit the target 0-1 times, depending on the distance to the target when summoned.

Fairly disappointing trait.

Suggestion (wishing out loud here): Fix the effective duration (after they have been summoned and are ready) to 10 seconds or more and make Jagged Horrors explode on death (Putrid Explosion).

Most Necromancers (Minion Masters are the exception, I think) use the Bone Minions for Putrid Explosion, not their sustained damage. I compare the Jagged Horrors to the Bone Minions because they’re miniature version of those.

Jagged Horrors, as they currently work, are just short of being utterly useless except as cannon fodder that maybe soaks one hit. If they would explode when dying, whether from health bleed ticks or from incoming damage, they would at least be mildly useful as a surprise combo boost. Perhaps shorten the internal cooldown to 20 seconds, or allow two to be summoned before the cooldown activates (increase the cooldown to 40-60 seconds to compensate).

Addendum: Change Bone Minions to also explode on death. In my experience, Putrid Explosion tends to kill the Bone Minion that isn’t about to die.

The dance is one of the best things about the Norn. I love it when my big, masculine Necromancer Norn starts swinging his hips and snapping his fingers to Tom Jones.

I also love how people complain that Carlton’s dance doesn’t fit the “culture” of the Norn, and then they suggest Techno Viking instead. Because everyone knows that the old vikings rocked it out to techno music, right? /facepalm

For the record, traditional viking dancing was pretty similar to how the rest of Europe danced back then. Very awkward and not very masculine or “cool”.