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I think terrormancer can make a comeback

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

I ran it Beta weekend. Depends on your playstyle. Some will prefer path of corruption, but I preferTerror.

Holosmith and Scourge damage.

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

Imagine for a second if there were no condi thieves, burn guardians, 1 shot shatter mesmers, and condi mesmers in HoT.

Now…imagine if they unleashed these same specs for the first time in PoF. What would people be saying? It’s the exact same extreme damage with arguably even more sustain, escapes, mobility, etc.

All they did in PoF was give both Necros and Engies an option to do the same. Obviously, they aren’t totally identical in damage and survivability, but it’s basically the same high risk/high reward style builds.

I totally understand people hating on the “cheese” aspect of high damage builds. I wouldn’t have gone that route with the expansion. However, if they want things more like a FPS, so be it.

Scourge is actually the model for a high risk/high reward build. Unlike some of these other professions, it’s impossible to get the high reward while also getting stability and scaling defenses like blocks, immunities, evades, stealth, escapes, etc. Thus, you have a build that is either devastating or one that has zero ways to stop zerg damage or cc while wearing cloth and having to fight in close range.

Holo can also get huge damage spikes, but less support and more escapes than Scourge. It’s far from as cheesy as the mesmer/thief/guardian builds that exist RIGHT NOW.

Scourge thoughts

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

Maybe you guys don’t play other professions, but it finally felt like Necros had a build that was similar to other professions. Condi thieves, burn guardians, chrono and 1 shot mesmers all were able to deliver extreme damage with even more escapes/immunities/blocks and other scaling defenses.

The extreme AOE damage is basically the quasi defense of Scourge because there is literally no defense to cc or zerging a Scourge compared to other professions.

Initial Impressions of New Elites

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

I like Soulbeast…a little clunky, but could just be learning curve…so many options with pets that it really makes the profession diverse without respeccing. The fact that ranger’s now have an ability to make attacks unblockable is bigger than most people realize. That’s huge damage from long range possible once people get used to the proper rotation. It can totally change the 1v1 matchup against many professions. Survivability may be an issue with Soulbeast, especially if you don’t take the full condi clear ability pet.

The direction they took with Scourge is interesting. They gave it zero defense to cc, stability or gap closer which you would think is typically needed for an on-point fighting class. I honestly thought it was going to be a disaster when they took away Death/Reaper Shroud too. Instead, they gave it extreme damage (ala Burn Guard/Condi Thief) as their quasi “defense”.

Since original release, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a player afraid to engage a Necro 1v1 on a point even though that’s what Reaper teased. Once people knew how to kite the range of reaper and dodge/block the RS3, it became a poor point holder and limited mobility profession that needed to be babysat. Scourge looks like it changed that, and I saw for the first time people avoid a necro 1v1 with shades on point.

I’m not sure if going the condi thief/burn guardian damage route was the best option for necro, but it does finally give the profession a role other than strictly corrupt bot. In fact, if people don’t take one trait (demonic lore), you have all the weaknesses I mentioned above without the damage as a defense. Thus, it’s literally 1 trait that makes this elite specialization viable or a total disaster. (I don’t think the healing versions of Scourge will be able to keep up with the huge burst and power creep of other specialties).

PoF is an all-out arms race! You could kinda see that at the end of HoT when 1 shot mesmers were brought back viable and condi thieves/burn guardians weren’t nerfed. It will definitely be a learning curve and take some time to see if the new direction works.

Holosmith and Scourge damage.

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

I mostly tried scourge and soulbeast and imho either scourge is ridiculously overpowered or soulbeast is complete garbage. Or both.
Spellbreaker and holosmith also seem to be overtuned and on a similar level as scourge.

I played both soulbeast and scourge. I think Scourge is better right now because of damage being their quasi “defense”.

Their is a learning curve to these specs. Nobody was afraid to engage Necros before 1v1, but now you get penalized bad for fighting on their terms. You have more to worry about than just RS3 in small range.

As a ranger, I took them down fairly well by staying far out of range and letting the new pets do most of the work from range too. The pets that immobilize and stun/knockback wreak havoc on necros as well. You just have to stay far out of range/kite then cc when in range.

One thing I liked about Ranger was the new pet abilities – especially ones that clear condi and make attacks unblockable. This was something you never could get reliably from pets on a ranger before and allows me to customize the pet selection pre-match with more strategy. It did feel a little clunky, but something that may work with more practice.

Holosmith and Scourge damage.

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

I mostly tried scourge and soulbeast and imho either scourge is ridiculously overpowered or soulbeast is complete garbage. Or both.
Spellbreaker and holosmith also seem to be overtuned and on a similar level as scourge.

I played both soulbeast and scourge. I think Scourge is better strictly because of damage being their “defense” now.

Their is a learning curve to these specs. Nobody was afraid to engage Necros before 1v1, but now you get penalized bad for fighting on their terms. You have more to worry about than just RS3 in small range.

As a ranger, I took them down fairly well by staying far out of range and letting the new pets do most of the work from range too. The pets that immobilize and stun/knockback wreak havoc on necros as well. You just have to stay far out of range/kite then cc when in range.

One thing I liked about Ranger was the new pet abilities – especially ones that clear condi and make attacks unblockable. This was something you never could get reliably from pets on a ranger before and allows me to customize the pet selection pre-match with more strategy. It did feel a little clunky, but something that may work with more practice.

PoF Mirage

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

Most people I’m hearing from are saying it’s pretty good to invincible with the right build and play style. Keep playing around with it. Every profession has its bugs right now. The necro portal is totally disabled because it’s so broke.

Scourge Demo Weekend Feedback

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

Some of you are drawing conclusions based on the damage output, which is really high right now for scourge. That’s fine, but the thing to look out for in beta is which profession got better survivability tools. Also, a lot of that damage is coming from just one or two traits.

Damage will get normalized across various builds and professions. However, survivability tools usually don’t…at least not for a good time period.

A couple months from now, I guarantee the issues in PvP will be more evident and revolve around three main problems….

1. No stability
2. No gap closer
3. Barrier < Traditional Shroud
4. Portal cast time

Enjoy the damage now while it lasts. Maybe the other builds/professions will get damage buffs and this game will become more like a FPS.

Scourge is a Hot Mess

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

Right now, the viability of Scourge comes from the damage. It’s in a very precocious spot because any tweaks to the damage will expose the lack of any stability, gap closer, and ridiculously fast degenerating barrier.

Mesmer can do similar, but slightly less damage with far more scaling defenses and mobility…plus…stealth and minions to distract targetting.

Rifle teef dmg

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

The damage is stupid, but this is the same group that gave us 1-shot mesmers, burn guardians, and condi thieves.

This is fine if they want a first person shooter style game, but they need to give every profession the same build options. It needs to be across the board if cheese is their intent.

Not impressed with Scourge

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

I dunno. There seems to be some pretty viable boon corrupt play in PvP. Feed from Corruption trait grants you any boon that you corrupt or remove from an enemy. And there are ALOT of ways with scourge to remove and corrupt boons. Aegis, Stability, Protection … I think it will be interesting.

I do agree that barriers decay WAY too fast, regardless what mode you are playing in. Need some dev. love there.

You must not play much. You realize that the range on all those Scourge “corrupts” is very small and none are unblockable except one. How are you going to corrupt a mesmer or thief’s boons when they are never in range long enough or constantly evading/blocking/etc? How are you going to corrupt constant blocking professions like guardians, revs and engies?

Again, even when you gain a boon, you can’t dictate what type it is…plus… you have to put yourself in harms way just to attempt a corrupt with short ranges. You’re FAR better off just running Corrupt Boons which is on a short cooldown, greater range, and UNBLOCKABLE, so you can actually RELY on it.

Scourge Demo Weekend Feedback

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

You guys are missing the worst parts of Scourge for PvP.

The ONLY gap closer is a cast time port on a THIRTY SECOND COOLDOWN and only 900 range. That’s beyond insulting. It’s actually far LESS mobility than a reaper with RS2, wurm, or walk.

Plus, there is ZERO stability. Even if you trait FitG, it now has a much longer cooldown AND huge life force cost.

You can’t have a cloth wearing class with no stability, no gap closer, no scaling defenses like blocks, immunities, evades, etc. and give them nothing more than 900 range.

You literally can be cc’d 100-0 or range killed 100-0. There is nothing to counter cc or close the gap.

You also have only ONE unblockable in the entire new stuff provided and it’s on a 30 second cooldown with a cast time…insane.

This is a pure PvE spec for niche comps. Barrier is a complete joke. It lasts 5 seconds even with the Punishment heal which means it’s already half gone and meaningless in 2.5 seconds. Wow!

This is even scarier than the Vital Persistence nerf. This is totally wasted programming for PvP unless stability and gap closing is added with much more barrier/less decay. It’s just stupid boon corruption everything with burning and torment added to everything.

They just repackaged a core corruption necro with even LESS diversity in how to deal with boons/curses. The irony is that a full scourge necro will die easily to curses unlike a corruption necro with consume conditions or signet necro with plague.

Next season starts 8/22 according to pvp tab

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

Dropping huge balance patches mid season is ultimately healthy. It helps ensures that the best players, those who can adapt and don’t just memorize a rotation someone else found, stay at the top. The only reason this is bad this time, is because so far some of the PoF specs look extremely overtuned, even compared to the original elite specs

I agree with you in theory, but it just defies everything Anet has done in the past. If they were unwilling to make even minor changes to obvious problems in prior seasons, how do they rationalize basically changing EVERYTHING mid-season.

On top of that, if they are going to change mid-season, why are we even on break now? What’s the point of the break?

Next season starts 8/22 according to pvp tab

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

It’s weird logic. They have countless seasons where nothing is done during the season to fix issues, yet they are now starting a season when virtually EVERYTHING will change in the middle.

It’s a head scratcher, but maybe they are starting to realize how the rankings get so skewed anyway by exploiters that it doesn’t make a difference.

condi thief untouched in balance patch

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

Condi thief was nerfed: remember the acrobatic trait nerf or at all the dodges nerf?

Condi thief has burst and this isn´t even a good one, you got warrior, guard and even fresh airs that have higher bursts. So the immob + poison + cc is what hurts some players, but there is one thing: sword thief has no dmg and on bow he has no immob….

So he can immobilise you and do no dmg or he can do a lot of dmg but you can run out of there xD

The only thief that still is broken is the D/D perma dodge thief with akrobatiks and this only if you run a 1v1 against him, so don´t 1v1 him on his point! you need too long xD

ohh and counters for S/D thief: D/P thief, Ranger, Engee, Warrior, Guardian, Condi Rev, Necro, Mesmer. Checks for S/D thief: Ele, Rev.

So his dmg is only good if the players have a too low reactiontime, means they can´t also dodge the f-skills from warrior bevore he got nerfed or worser after nerf xD.

Oh and Dagger autoattack does more dmg then any other Sword skill at the same time, to be honest: Sword/ dagger has one of the lowest dmg on thief (if i remember right 30-50% less dmg depence if condi or power)

means he fights you in a 1v1 over 30 seconds longer and only in teamfight he can burst you once all 40 seconds as high as a guard can do in 20 seconds.

So pls buff more the basic knowledge from our comunity, ty arenanet!
Edit: forgot some points, yes he is good at something: +1 means he can spike bether with one burst player. But he can´t burst himself so he needs a second player that attacks the same target and ofc, most metabuilds have more then enouth condiclans!

So why do you care if it gets nerfed? Why are so many thieves running it now? Just because you are bad at condi thief or can’t see the obvious doesn’t change the actual evidence of what’s happening in the game.

Let me guess…you actually do play condi thief even though you wrote a wall-of-text spin saying how bad it is.

condi thief untouched in balance patch

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

Again, whether it’s platinum or bronze, it’s a build that doesn’t help the game as a whole. It’s cheesy…just like 1 shot mesmers and burn guardians…no matter how you spin it being “balanced”.

I don’t blame the players for playing it because farming noobies or using it on a coordinated premade can make people think they are better than they are.

It’s up to Anet to decide if these type builds are REALLY what they want. If so, then every profession needs an equally viable cheese build too.

Necro is not the problem, Guradian is

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

Spiteful Renewal is perfect for Consume Conditions

Bitter Chill may be better in some builds that want a tad more damage

spiteful renewal does not compare to 25 stacks of aoe vuln on rs 5-4.

are you guys even srs with these comments
I mean super srs
srsly
wut
[/quote]

What’s your PvP rating? Do you even pay attention during a PvP match to know what you are saying or are you just pulling this out your…?

I won’t say anything…I’ll let you figure it out yourself. Just record one PvP match and re-watch it. Count how many times you RS 4. Remember, you need to build Life Force to even get to RS and RS4 has a 30 second cooldown. Thus, it has an even LONGER effective cooldown than Consume Conditions.

Next, look at the condition Vulnerability. Nobody dies from Vulnerability alone. You have to be facing more than one enemy in a small radius for RS4 PLUS have other teammates that can benefit from the Vulnerability to make the “AOE vuln” pay significant dividends on damage.

(It can also cover other conditions, but you mentioned “AOE 25 stack from RS4” as your evidence. If I were arguing your side, I would say that covering other conditions is a bigger deal, but it just shows how primitive your logic is.)

Nevertheless, in your recorded play session, count how many times you got 25 stacks of AOE vulnerability that you tout and which fights the vulnerability made a REAL difference.

In contrast, if you are clicking your heal, you are usuallly in trouble, so any T1 trait that gives you a nice boost to your heal plus condi removal is very valuable for PvP purposes. Plus, not every Necro build is chill spam…certainly Scourge adds none and even removes lots of Chill options that are in Reaper Specialization.

Thus, as I already said, you have two options now based on if your build needs more damage/condition coverage or survivability.

Suit yourself though and keep arguing that the trait is useless.

condi thief untouched in balance patch

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

I think all those builds are viable at a higher level. I also think that’s a good thing. More build variety is good and newer players aren’t run off by condi builds so much as any high damage build.

Allow me to explain. A condition build will so much less damage if a player builds to cleanse conditions. Likewise, a power build will do much less damage if a player builds in more active and passive defenses to power damage.

Newer players, however, don’t do either very well. Even if they do one they often don’t do both. So naturally newer players die rapidly and often. Then they hear misinformed people saying “conditions are cancer” and “conditions are op” and believe what they hear because well, if others think it it must be true, right?

I’d wager that most people who stop playing pvp do so because of the toxicity of other players who yell and scream and bully new players who, admittedly, need to learn how to play (both their class and pvp generally).

You’re pretty naive if you think a new player doesn’t get disenchanted by certain insta-kill builds. The condi thief and burn guardian builds are almost identical to the mesmer 1 shot power builds in terms of insta-kill.

The only “insta-kill” build that is somewhat balanced for all levels of players is a rifle warrior. It has large tells and none of the CC/immunity/stealth/mobility/etc that goes with similar other builds.

I’d be fine with all of these cheese builds being removed. It’s never good for any game to have such low TTL and be 100% dependent on certain cooldowns/reactions to survive more than a few seconds. This isn’t a first person shooter and even when teaming with an experienced player, it’s hard to help the new guy against these builds in time.

Necro is not the problem, Guradian is

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

I tried to watch your review of the recent changes and it was painful. I shut it off as soon as you said consume conditions doesn’t benefit from Spiteful Renewal. You literally can take 1.25 seconds to see that it DOES remove the vulnerability of Consume conditions.

And I have since made note of that mistake in a subsequent video.

However you missed the point of why I said it’s pointless to use with consume conditions. There is no real advantage to clearing the measly self-vuln applied by consume conditions. You much better off taking Bitter Chill on a consume conditions build compared to spiteful renewal.
Spiteful Renewal is only really worth taking on a YSIM build. The only time I would ever touch Spiteful Renewal with a Consume build is if I was running Master of Corruption, but there is zero synergy to support a spite/curses MoC build.

You also claim that Spectral Mastery is worthless because they buffed the base times, so the trait “isn’t worth it”…roflmao. You’re SERIOUSLY going to take spectral utilities and NOT take Spectral Mastery. You’re advising people to take +180 vitality versus getting huge life force everytime you use a Spectral Skill, longer durations on those skills (i.e. 24 seconds of Lich), PLUS shorter cooldowns.

Necros ran spectral heavy builds without touching Spectral Mastery even back when Spectral Mastery was 50% duration increase. Vital Persistence in both it’s new and old form has always been a better pick even for spectral heavy builds.

I didn’t think it could get worse, but it did. I’m glad you noticed your error, but you still don’t get it.

Spiteful Renewal is perfect for Consume Conditions because it removes something 100% of the time. Your primitive playstyle may not even note how advantageous it is. It gets you out of combat faster in some situations, removes a liability from Consume Conditions, can help with Master of Corruption builds, removes a vulnerability debuff that makes you even easier to burst down right after you use a heal…AND…you get an EXTRA 900 plus heal added to your consume condition that is guaranteed to benefit you 100% of the time.

Yes..it’s a good trait for YSIM too.

However, it’s sheer folly for you to sit there are argue that Spiteful Renewal is worthless for Consume Conditions (after not even knowing it worked at first). Bitter Chill may be better in some builds that want a tad more damage, but for people that want burst heal/survivability, it’s a great trait for only T1.

Once again…Every time you click Consume Conditions you will get an EXTRA 900+ heal GUARANTEED because of this trait and lose a 5% damage debuff…. THIS is what YOU are calling AS worthless.

I’m done trying to explain simple concepts to you. It’s too fatiguing and obviously you are happy with your “knowledge” of Necros…especially the importance of Shroud…so suit yourself.

FYI, Anet didn’t hotfix VP because the community was wrong, and you were right. Anet AGREED that it was overkill, hotfixed it, and proved that you are wrong. Nevertheless, feel free to continue your charade and pretend to know what you are talking about. It’s time for someone else to explain the obvious to you.

(edited by SPESHAL.9106)

Necro is not the problem, Guradian is

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

If by 90% of the community you mean a handful of people on the forum then sure. The VP change was blown way out of proportion.

You don’t die in PvP as a necromancer because of shroud degen. You die either because you where spiked while shroud was on cooldown, or because you where getting tunneled so hard that you where forced out of shroud. In neither of those cases does the shroud degen rate matter.

The only time shroud degen matters is for players that like to sit in shroud for enormous spans of time. However shroud-sitting is suboptimal play and makes poor use of Necromancer’s toolset.

It’s scary that people who have no clue what they are talking about will pretend otherwise and write stuff like this (and even make YouTube videos that mislead players).

I tried to watch your review of the recent changes and it was painful. I shut it off as soon as you said consume conditions doesn’t benefit from Spiteful Renewal. You literally can take 1.25 seconds to see that it DOES remove the vulnerability of Consume conditions.

You also claim that Spectral Mastery is worthless because they buffed the base times, so the trait “isn’t worth it”…roflmao. You’re SERIOUSLY going to take spectral utilities and NOT take Spectral Mastery. You’re advising people to take +180 vitality versus getting huge life force everytime you use a Spectral Skill, longer durations on those skills (i.e. 24 seconds of Lich), PLUS shorter cooldowns.

I don’t want to say your crazy, but just in the brief time of listening to your YouTube and what you’ve written here gives me no other option. You’re embarrassing yourself AND misleading others with bad advice.

Pathing issues need to be fixed.

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

Wait…does that mean the Flesh Golem is fixed after 3 years and won’t get hung up by one bump in the terrain. TBH, the pathing on that minion has forever been the worst looking and performing I’ve seen in any mmo.

Am I missing the condi side of the Scourge?

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

What you are missing is the gap closer and stability. It doesn’t matter how much damage you CAN deal – condi/burst – if you can’t land it.

Record a PvP play session and watch how many times you use shroud 2 and stability. Imagine all that mobility and stability gone and you will be doing 25-100% less damage per fight. Based on what I’ve seen so far, any profession can simply kite a scourge from range or cc chain them and there’s ZERO a scourge can do about it.

"Scourge will insta-die in PvP": A response

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

My question is how much “Barrier” can you stack… if you pop all barrier skills your looking at 10k + barrier(eZ) which is quite tanky given the low cool downs. With the added mobility (which i hope they drop the cast time…3/4s kitten …) and a bit of soft CC pressure Scourge may have decent 5v1 counter play, especially since most barrier skills are AOE allowing burst classes & support will be able to focus more on roles instead of watching their own HPs. But then again that makes Necro main focus since we bring so much to team fights…

You identified the main problem with the spec. It’s bring so much point support and nothing else that it will be an easy focus target AND it will useless in any other capacity. What’s the best way to kill a shade and necro support? Just kill the necro and you can now do that from range and/or cc without ANY counter by the necro…except maybe a 35 second cooldown portal.

Great change to vital persistence

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

I actually like this nerf. Tho i dont understand the spectral trait change. I think you are little too dramatic about this change. Ofc some unique builds were/could be running almost “permanent” ds form main focus build, but that doesnt promote healthy gameplay for necro in general. It also promotes smart and active use of ds/rs, unlike before. And little survivability nerf (while buffing spectral armor passive trait) wont make, the build that was viable before, suddenly completely unviable now.

Just wondering what other professions you play.

A thief is constantly in stealth, dodging, evading…a mesmer is constantly blocking, immune, stealthed…a guardian is constantly blocking…a ranger doesn’t even have to be in range to do major damage via their pet…etc.

THOSE defenses scale 100% against a one or ten opponents. Thus, a necro with no vigor, no evades, no blocks, no immunities, no stealth, long cast times, cloth wearing, little mobility/escapes, and has to fight primarily in melee range NEEDED to be in Shroud most of the time to be able to do damage while taking damage like other professions.

Even more importantly…they also need a gap closer and stability…to prevent from being 100-0 from range or a cc-chain.

I’m guessing you’ve never played against organized teams or any high level pvp. If so, you’d realize just how much this change impacts countless other traits, builds, and overall viability of a necro. Almost 100% of pvpers didn’t take this trait for no reason. It was REQUIRED!

Nevertheless, see for yourself and play Scourge too in beta. I’m happy to be proven wrong.

Great change to vital persistence

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

I have played since about a year after release and yeh this is the biggest nerf I have ever seen any class encounter, I dont think it is close. It is a comprehensive nerf to the entire class and the only build unaffected is a glass condi spec which you can still do well with. It is impossible to spec anything else now

I’ve played since day one. It’s not the nerf itself that’s the problem. They nerfed dhuumfire into extinction, but eventually came up with other things to compensate.

The REAL problem is that this many years after release they STILL don’t understand the importance of this trait…WHY it was in virtually every build…. and basically FORCED everyone to have Soul Reaping. When you read their exact words and logic, THAT’S what’s scary.

The reliance on VP was horrible design and should have been changed. You can’t have one trait that REQUIRED and impacted so many builds/traits/etc. However, what they did in this supposed “comprehensive” revision to fix the issue is beyond mindboggling.

You know what’s even scarier though is the design of Scourge. If any class can’t 100-0 a Scourge, it will be embarrassing based on what they’ve showed us thus far. There is no gap closer, no stability, and no chill…You are a cloth wearing support class that has to get in melee range of your enemy or super close to a shade for any benefit of the specialization. There are no scaling defenses (i.e immunity, block, etc) and anybody can just cc chain or kill you from range 100-0.

It’s basically a cloth wearing, banner, healing signet warrior with far less movement skills, blocks or immunities. And probably less healing and group utility too considering how small the radius of a shade is.

Great change to vital persistence

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

They are going to regret getting rid of shroud without getting rid of it totally for ALL builds. As you noted, there are just too many traits dependent on shroud and years of playstyle. It’s going to be impossible to balance both scourge and shroud.

You can see where scourge forced them to redo this trait so that it would be applicable to the new specialization, but you can also see how short-sighted and primitively they think with this nerf.

They clearly didn’t even realize how much it affects other traits as well as damage too. The LAST two things anyone would think to nerf on a Necro is their focus survivability and PvE damage. They did both. It’s not a 50% nerf, but anything over 1-5% is ridiculous and it’s definitely far worse than that.

It’s not that surprising though. Last patch they released Epidemic with a bug that anyone who played 10 minutes of testing would have noted. Thus, you can tell this is 100% theorycrafting from some spreadsheet of warped values of abilities and 0% common sense and actual testing.

condi thief untouched in balance patch

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

lol thief was buff and necro got gutted nerf to the ground

It wasn’t just their survivability that got nerfed. They nerfed a trait that almost everyone had to take in PvP just to be viable, but it also significantly reduces damage since the time you spend in shroud got reduced substantially (hence a nerf in PvE too).

It’s probably one of the biggest nerf I’ve seen since release on any profession given how many PvP builds HAD to take this trait and virtually nothing was given back in return.

Scourge is living up to its name. It’s killing necro viability in PvP by getting traits changed so that they apply to Scourge builds too. Unfortunately, Scourge won’t work in PvP because there is no gap closer, no stability, no shroud, no blind, no stun, no chill, etc. In return, you and the opponent have to stand close to a 180 radius dinky shade for sustain, defenses, dmg, etc.

Right now…Just record one play session as a necro and watch how disastrous it would be in every battle if you didn’t have Shroud 2 for gap closing, no stability, no chill, and no second health bar…instead you got to cc yourself within 180 radius of a shade for a small and rapidly depleting barrier, torment and cripple as your “tradeoffs”. It’s almost laughable. Literally, any profession can just pick you off at range or chain cc you 100-0.

If you thought banner warriors were useless/extinct in PvP, just wait…

Vital Persistence nerf

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

As I mentioned in another thread about how bad Scourge will be for pvp, it’s also devastating reaper and core necro now because they nerfed one of the required traits so that it will apply to scourge builds too.

It’s not just a big hit to survivability,…it’s a damage loss too.

I can’t imagine any designer sitting in a meeting and saying “Yeah…the one thing we really need to do is get rid of the one trait that almost everybody has to take to survive/do dmg in shroud…necros need less defenses/survivability/damage”.

It’s quite baffling.

Vital Persistence nerf

in Necromancer

Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

They actually nerfed one of alternatives:

Spectral Mastery: Duration increase has been reduced from 50% to 20%.

Yeah…this is the most comical part. Their “rationale” was that it was too strong compared to the other options, but then they raise the base time of spectrals and nerf the trait they said wasn’t good enough. /smh

Overall, I’m glad because raising the base time of spectrals is better, but it just shows the dumb logic used in their “rationales”. On top of that, it’s going to make the new vital persistence even MORE required if you go with soul reaping because fear and spectral utilities won’t be big parts of scourge build. The extra vitality will probably scale well with barrier and be necessary for scourge due to the lack of Shroud.

Nevertheless, for PvP, I can see a full spectral necro build working fairly well now. Lich is probably going to make a comeback since it’s 20 seconds and the LF building potential is huge with spectral grasp and armor. Even though the cooldown is longer on grasp, you will have a higher percentage chance of it hitting and thus getting more bang for your buck…just in LF generation.

Disclaimer: This is strictly my theory based on no testing yet.

My Issue With Scourge

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

Plus…the last thing a non-scaling cloth wearing support spec should do is get in melee range. This whole Scourge thing is clunky and counter-intuitive for anything but scripted PvE content.

Now you are doing the opposite. Just because I said the effects also happen on/around you doesn’t mean you need to be moving yourself into melee range of anything.

Wait until the 18th.

Although by the sounds of things you’ve already written the spec off so every conceivable bad scenario is extenuated and common place and any good scenarios/benefits are dismissed by perfect counters that will obviously happen 100% of the time.

Why are you so worried about what I’m going to do and what I think? I told you, if you don’t believe me, knock yourself out and see for yourself.

The PROOF will be in what YOU do yourself after trying it and seeing I’m right.

I play enough of the professions and have played necro long enough (since release) that I know if you take away death shroud AND the movement of #2 AND the stability AND the chill/blind/stun abilities of DS…that you’re going to be an even EASIER focus target if you’re just getting back fixed location small radius support/condis/barrier.

There’s a reason you haven’t see banner warriors and turret engies in the entire life of GW2 PvP (with the exception of 1 season where turrets were so ridiculous and had enormous range compared to these dinky shades).

Nevertheless, I look forward to your YouTube videos showing us how awesome it is…lol

My Issue With Scourge

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

I keep seeing quotes like this. F1~5 all read “around/near you and your sand shades.”. Bar F1 shades will only really increase the area you affect due to the flavour text “Targets affected by this ability can only be affected once per cast.

You dont have to be anywhere near your shades at all. Watch this you can clearly see the fear from f3 coming from the necro as well as the shades. Same at 7:03.

While technically true, it’s still exposes the literal uselessness against range. You don’t even have Shroud 2 to get into range. Are you going to blow a long cooldown portal to get close to ranged enemy just to give him a 1 sec fear that may be dodged, blocked, stability thwarted, etc???

Plus…the last thing a non-scaling cloth wearing support spec should do is get in melee range. This whole Scourge thing is clunky and counter-intuitive for anything but scripted PvE content.

Nevertheless, knock yourself out. Solo que with this in a Platinum division and see for yourself when the time comes. It’s a spec that’s WAY too focused on condis and even less survivability, stability, and mobility. You can literally chain cc a Scourge at ANY time and NEVER worry about stability. That ALONE makes it a PvP disaster.

My Issue With Scourge

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

It will NOT be a viable pvp spec for anyone solo queing. It’s based around shades, but guess what…how do you get rid of the shades…just kill the necro. Thus, Necros will be even MORE of a focus target (if that’s even possible).

The only difference now is that you won’t have stability or Death Shroud. You have ZERO scaling defense like blocks, evades, immunities or invulnerabilities. You even lose a fear unless the enemy is dumb enough to fight you within a small radius near the shade. It will have almost no sustain and any sustain you do have requires you to cc yourself to the small shade range. What are you going to do against a range attacker??? Just sit there? Leave the shade and your main source of abilities/damage/survivability?

It’s even simpler now to beat any opposing team with a Scourge necro. Engage him at the start from range before he even gets Life force built up , then place someone on him coming from spawn the rest of the game. He will either have to waste shades off node or have even less defense than a necro at spawn does now.

The team with the scourge necro would need someone specd for serious support and lots of coordination. Otherwise, it’s useless.

It would be impossible to lose a duel to a Scourge unless you are totally mindless. Someone with no stability, no scaling defense, and has to stay put in one small area for any survivability traits to work…just pick the necro off from range…roflmao

This spec is obviously meant for WvW and PvE, but the strange thing is that this wasn’t even needed for necro viability in WvW.

Shout out to the necros

in Necromancer

Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

Strictly solo-queing…got 1650 and 60-39 record.

It’s too much hassle to grind out 120 games playing solo (especially on Necro). If any necros made legend strictly solo-queing, my hats off to you.

Condi Thief Needs a Nerf

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

You guys should look up the stats for burst burning scrapper if you think thief is bad.

Yep…that’s a level of cheeze too…just like the full burn DH…however, with super mobile/stealth classes like thief and mesmer, there is an additional element of cheeze without enough counterplay at low levels. Nevertheless, the game would be better without those burn burst builds too.

Condi Thief Needs a Nerf

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

It counts as a cheeze build (which balanced or not at high levels) ruins the game for new players. They had pretty much rid the game of the worst cheeze builds, but for some reason brought back Mesmer and Thief cheeze.

If you run cheese, that’s fine, but you should be punished the same as a rifle warrior. Rifle warriors can cheeze new players, but they also can get owned by a player of almost any level. The amount of counterplay has to be equally proportional to the cheese.

Whats the plan for necros?

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

It’s hilarious reading wall-of-text arguments. It’s really not that complicated.

If ONE class is the ONLY class called out at the beginning of EVERY match to focus, then you have a problem…simple as that…nothing to argue.

Well…I take that back…someone will argue ANYTHING nowadays, so let’s play devil’s advocate.

Let’s assume it’s INTENDED for ONE class to be weaker than all others and subject to focus. Then, you would have to compensate by saying they should be OP against MORE than one opponent with full life force….or…at a minimum…OP against just 1 opponent with full life force. However, neither is the case.

Ok…Maybe the compensating factor is that necros have more mobility than others…nope

Maybe the compensating factor is that necros stomp better than others…nope

Maybe the compensating factor is that necros rez better than others…nope

In fact, they are near the bottom in all of those areas too.

Bottom line is simple…if you stop hearing “focus the necro” at the start of a match, then Anet did their job correctly….if you don’t, they failed and necros have a right to complain.

You guys can pull one outlier player here or there all you want and keep arguing, but if everyone is saying the same thing at the start of a match, then that’s as good as it gets for evidence of a problem.

The real reason for all of our PvP issues

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

The game is constantly in BETA. They do one patch every quarter at best and then don’t even tweak it during the month offseason for obvious problems. Then…after the season…they make huge changes again and the cycle repeats. It would be comical if this were presented as a case study of how NOT to do things, but it’s actually sad because they just never learn better.

New condi build [Daredevil] Patch 16.05.17

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

You could tell with the Epidemic hotfix that literally no testing was done internally. Just add this to the list of things not tested. Unfortunately, things like this run off new players pretty quick….zero effort…100% to 0%

Necromancer skills in PVP is poor

in PvP

Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

All you need to know about Anet with Necros is summed up in the Epidemic hotfix. If they would have internally tested it for 10 minutes, they could have noticed so it just proves they have NOBODY doing any testing.

Let's talk about the new patch, here.

in PvP

Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

This is by FAR the worst patch ever…and it has nothing to do with balance.

The problem is that all they did was NERF the playstyles everyone currently plays. The few buffs were so small and insignificant that it’s not going to attract players to come back.

For example…What necro is going to use plaguelands? It’s now just a well that’s far worse than the terrible thing it was before. You could use Krait ruins with the Chill shout elite and get far more bang for the buck instantly and on a much lower cooldown with no self-condis.

Nerfing classes never brings players back…I mean NEVER…even if it helps overall balance. It’s cardinal developer sin 101 because psychologically, people don’t EVER want to significantly lose what they like to play and practiced.

True…Anet painted themselves in a corner by making so many mistakes in the past that these nerfs are technically warranted, but it’s still a “solution” that doesn’t help the game except in a possible long-term scenario.

However, I’m pretty sure these changes won’t stand the test of time. It’s clear that they didn’t even test them. How on earth could they have tested the new Epidemic and not seen the obvious things that needed hotpatches??? It’s literally impossible to have played with it more than 10 minutes and not noticed the bugs. This shows they are either TOTALLY incompetent or don’t do ANY testing at all on things…even if they are totally revamped.

Why Population Is.. And Is Not... The issue.

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

It’s better than it used to be, but an algorithm with no pool of players to choose from is close to worthless.

They ran off players by ignoring PvP and doing balance updates once in a blue moon. Even obvious things get put off until the “next balance update”.

The other problem is that they believe people want to play a game that makes them win 50% of the time. Should good players win only 50% of the time? Should bad players win 50% of the time? I could see the logic if it led to close games, but it really doesn’t. All it takes is one bad player on your team or one group of mismatched professions for the MMR algorithm to be useless and the game a wipeout.

The long term solution is to…

a) balance the professions such that certain ones aren’t liabilities if stacked.
b) frequently update/balance the game to address anything missed in a)
c) take more profession specific feedback on the forums.

C) is often overlooked, but it’s really the most important. People want the game to succeed, but their #1 priority is their character. Most people play just one or two regularly, so the secret to getting popularity up is to talk to players about what they really care about. All these polls and general posts about sigils are nice, but it’s missing the forest through the trees.

Reaper has not won ESL 1vs1 before

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

Necro was the Apex of 1 vs 1 before HOT.

Now necro is the Apex of team fights in team situations.

You want a easy answer, HOT specs were not well thought out when it came to PvP. Which is why build diversity has been next to none since HOT came out.

Necro is definitely more viable in a team fight scenario, but ask yourself…what profession is worse to stack on a team?

I don’t have the stats, but almost every team with more than 1 necro is at a severe disadvantage (skill being equal). Maybe Anet has the stats on games won/loss with 2 necros on a team.

It’s a profession that is more viable in teams, yet it’s one you can’t stack.

There will always be outliers, but, on average, if you can find an engy or ele buddy to que with, then you will have more fun.

Reaper has not won ESL 1vs1 before

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

You shouldn’t have to ask that question if you play reaper.

Cloth wearing profession that has to get in melee range to do damage. Very little stability plus no aegis, blocks, immunities, or other scalable defense.

Also, you can’t build life force without taking damage/fighting, but you start with no life force so that means 30%-50% of your traits, defenses, etc are not usable. On the flip side, other professions start a duel with all their cooldowns up (or a warrior builds adrenaline in a fraction of the time – including utilities to insta fill it.)

Necros also have some of the longest cast times and cooldowns, so no profession is easier to interrupt and/or wait til cooldowns are blown. There is only one viable heal and it has a cooldown of 30 seconds, a cast time of 1 second, and even gives you a condition when you use it.

If you know exactly what you are fighting ahead of time, it’s possible to create a niche build to beat it. On the whole, there are very few viable necro builds for 1v1 compared to other professions. It’s just not a profession you can feel good about playing PvP in a 1v1 scenario unless you are far superior skill than your opponent.

A change to war that would be game changing

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

You’ve got a class with 100% immunity options, endless stability, PLUS they almost never have to click their heal skill. Those are 2 things that make them have so much sustain and outliers to other professions.

If you think about it, what exactly is their weakness. They can literally play any build they want while other professions have maybe 1-2.

How do you kill a guardian as a necro?

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

The bigger issue is that you are trying to fight ANYONE 1v1 as a Necro.

There’s a reason people who play Necro are extinct on duel servers. There’s also a reason why any team with more than 1 Necro loses far more times than other class stacking (maybe thief but Anet would have to confirm).

Even with full life force and all your cooldowns, you need to be extremely skilled to beat the kiting and sustain of other classes in a 1v1 scenario.

You just can’t play certain parts of the game and expect it to be equal as a Necro. You have lots of AOE pressure, so you basically need to always be around others and ideally have an ele or engy to support you. At the start of a match, you have to walk on egg shells to survive or risk screwing your whole team with an insta-death.

Don’t worry about beating a Guardian 1v1 (even though some of the suggestions mentioned will help). Unless you are vastly superior skill wise, he can still win by losing. Even if you have superior skill and win, it will take you longer to kill him than him kill you. Thus, you run a far greater risk of a +1 will showing up.

You’re better off not taking the risk in a 1v1 and instead going where you KNOW you will be supported.

Necromancer is awkward

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

In the history of MMOs, you’d be hard pressed to find a class weaker than Necros at the start of any competitive match.

With zero life force, a large percentage of all necro traits, defenses, and abilities are useless. You’re literally playing with half a deck.

How do you build life force?

Here’s the real kicker…you HAVE to put yourself in harms way and attack…even worse…you not only have to attack, but you have to BE attacked to build life force at any reasonable rate.

Oh…and you have virtually no damage at 1200 range, so you have to get in close range AND you wear cloth AND you have almost no stability AND you have zero defenses that scale against a zerg.

On top of that, you have the worst mobility for rotating and almost no support or bunker build. Virtually any class can 1v1 you by simply kiting or going toe-to-toe.

If a Necro is going to be so much weaker than every other class at the beginning of the game, then it needs to be OP when it has full life force and able to easily kill 1v2 with full life force. However, this NEVER is the case unless you bring up the most extreme mismatches in player skill.

The mechanics of necro in general right now have no synergy. They want you to build life force by being in big fights but they can’t handle being focused. They want reaper to be a strong melee fighter but it can’t get close to anything and win the fight. They want necro to mostly stay at range yet it has no disengage outside of flesh wurm so you’re mostly just having to just walk away and that’s it.

The condi damage is awesome, but when the source of it is so easy to abuse and force out/focus, it’s just not really worth it.

Condi Mesmer and even my condi Ranger has more condi burst than Necro. In fact, both are also easier to disguise/surprise. They also are nowhere near the liability that a necro is at the start (and midmatch too).

Let’s put it in the most simplest of terms…How many times have you seen any class run away from a solo necro sitting on a node? How many times have you seen a team say to focus someone OTHER than a necro at the start of a match? How many times have you seen a Necro with a clutch play, quicker rotation, or win a 1v2 compared to other classes? How many other professions need to be babied and supported by teammates (in a game where only 2 man premades max)?

If these things are not a problem, then you have perfect evidence why GW2 is not as popular as it should be. Some of the most obvious things in the game (with all classes) go totally unaddressed and ignored in PvP.

Necromancer is awkward

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

In the history of MMOs, you’d be hard pressed to find a class weaker than Necros at the start of any competitive match.

With zero life force, a large percentage of all necro traits, defenses, and abilities are useless. You’re literally playing with half a deck.

How do you build life force?

Here’s the real kicker…you HAVE to put yourself in harms way and attack…even worse…you not only have to attack, but you have to BE attacked to build life force at any reasonable rate.

Oh…and you have virtually no damage at 1200 range, so you have to get in close range AND you wear cloth AND you have almost no stability AND you have zero defenses that scale against a zerg.

On top of that, you have the worst mobility for rotating and almost no support or bunker build. Virtually any class can 1v1 you by simply kiting or going toe-to-toe.

If a Necro is going to be so much weaker than every other class at the beginning of the game, then it needs to be OP when it has full life force and able to easily kill 1v2 with full life force. However, this NEVER is the case unless you bring up the most extreme mismatches in player skill.

[Season 5] MEASURING SKILL & MATCHMAKING

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Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

I honestly do not know why people think 50/50 matchmaking is a bad thing. My best guess is that people just want want something to blame when they lose.

Are you serious?

How about maybe because you(Anet) created a grind based pip ladder system where a 50/50 mmr system is totally counter productive to how you are supposed to achieve progression.

I agree 50/50 matchmaking was bad for the pip system. That is why we tried 3 different styles of matchmaking for seasons 1, 2, and 3, and now revamped the system entirely. 50/50 will once again be best.

Glad you guys finally figured this out. It made no sense for the pip system.

Ironically, 50/50 matchmaking is always going to have about 50% haters. It helps those who are below average experience a better chance to win while making things more difficult for better than average players.

Should a good player only win 50% of their games? Should a bad player win 50%? Most people would say “no”, but it’s a Catch-22. Without 50/50 matchmaking, people would complain about having less competitive games.

My only concern is that even with forced 50/50 matchmaking most games were not competitive in the prior seasons. Thus, you have all the negatives of 50/50 matchmaking, but haven’t really seen the positives yet.

IMO, excluding pips and premades from matchmaking will help, but I suspect you guys are still creating mismatched teams from the very start by not factoring in class stacking/builds.

For example, your matchmaking can get lucky and find the EXACT SAME SKILLED players on both teams. However, if you put a couple necros on one team with no healer/rezbot then everybody knows what’s going to happen 90% of the time. The necros will get zerged in the initial team fight and the rest of the game is just a lopsided 4v5.

There is almost no coordination/synced builds with premades banned now, so it’s more important than ever to address obvious issues with class balance and stacking. Classes now need to be balanced for non-coordinated play or else you will only be solving one problem to create an even worse problem.

Too many quitters

in PvP

Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

Quitters are pathetic. Unfortunately, that goes for Anet too.

They hardly do anything to discourage quitters…PLUS…they routinely QUIT on any map that isn’t land based CTF.

Upcoming Ranked Arena Map Rotation Changes

in PvP

Posted by: SPESHAL.9106

SPESHAL.9106

A message from the PvP Team:

We wanted to give you a quick heads-up regarding some changes coming to the Ranked Arena map pool for Season 5.

  • Skyhammer will be added to Ranked Arena on a trial basis.
    • Reasoning: The current iteration of Skyhammer is a far cry from what it was when it was released in 2013. We’ve made an effort to remove gameplay elements that prevented it from being a competitive map, such as deaths from fall damage and unavoidable secondary mechanics. We’re looking forward to seeing how this map performs in the ranked environment and will be keeping an eye on your feedback throughout the season.
  • Battle for Champion’s Dusk (Stronghold) will be removed from Ranked Arena.
    • Reasoning: One of our main goals for the revamp of leagues is to make divisions a more accurate reflection of skill. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to achieve this goal when players can opt out of playing an entire game mode within the league system and never face a significant proportion of the PvP player base. That said, we’ll be removing Stronghold for Season 5 while we evaluate the game mode for ranked play for future seasons.

Let me get this straight…A map that has been in rotation for several seasons is being removed instead of fixed??? Now we are provided with even less diversity in game play versus more.

Just wondering…How many games/seasons do you really need to watch to see the issues and problems? Stronghold has been around a long time now.

Who sat around and said…“Yeah…this map is so bad and unfixable that we have to remove it even though we allowed it in Ranked for several seasons and awarded Legend from it.”

With this decision, it means you guys either seriously screwed up before now or aren’t capable of fixing whatever “issues” currently exist. Neither is flattering.

Why don’t you guys just fix things like underwater combat and maps with NPCs or any diversity from CTF?

I’d be pretty embarrassed that every attempt to do anything but land based capture the flag (courtyard, stronghold, raid on capricorn) has been a failure and unfixable.