Guild Wars 2

Professor Sprout.1560:

Did some testing against the lord+soldiers+caster group in the Heart of the Mists. The lack of any stability or stunbreaks, coupled with the long cast time on Sand Swell means that, as many predicted, it’s very hard for a scourge to survive against foes that can chain CC attacks together.

We could really do with a stunbreak and/or some stability on our shade skills.

This is pretty much how I felt when I tested the class and unless something drastically changes there is no chance of me ever playing Scourge.

Overall I am disappointed with alot of the new elite specializations across the board. Mesmer is about the only one that caught my eye, everything else looks like they tried to over complicate things with zero consideration taken into the cohesion of new elite spec with the base professions traits and abilities.

The changes are pretty much par for the course for Necro. I never really expected a whole lot so at least they met my expectations.

Currently im finding it harder and harder to motivate myself to log in and play the game. With WvW feeling a bit stale and even with the new tournament its not going to change much as alot are just burnt out on it. PVE other than living world is pretty much stale and other than the initial few days enjoyment of living world it’s starting to wear thin.

Now with these new balance changes which would be welcomed if I knew in a couple of months time there was going to be more. But 6 months between passes there needs to be more meat on the bone other than what we are getting. So with Necro being stagnant and it being the class I play the most I find it very demotivating considering all the time spent by people on the forum giving really useful feedback and seeing it pretty much being ignored.

Hopefully one day I will see siphons become viable or some player feedback being taken into consideration when having these balance passes but until then im pretty much taking a break from GW2. By my estimates I wont be missing much to the class as im sure it will now remain stagnant for another 6 months. Anyone that thinks that after 6 months of inactivity that what we received is more than enough is living in a pipe dream.

We got small changes to a useless skill and trait which still pretty much make them still useless. Small buffs to a skill and trait which make them still good. Fix for DS that should have been in before launch but as such we all used the naughty method for doing it anyway. And then a few weapon tweaks and a change to Lich which will probably turn out to be a nerf as I know what school of maths the devs went to if you look at their siphon calculations that they consider viable.

If your looking for Berserker armor and weapons your best bet is to run the train in EOTM to build up cash and badges. Although you don’t want PVP there pretty much isnt much PVP action in there anyway and its mostly following a large group to the various towers and doing alot of PvD.

Once done dive into main WvW and head to the armor master and weapon master and buy the gear there. It may not look that great but thanks to the wardrobe you can skin it easily plus you don’t have to pay the large prices for the stuff on the TP. Overall it should cost you around 10 gold and no more than 1400 badges and if your green in EOTM the badges and cash are easily achievable in quick time.

Only issue after that is getting the accessories which are really expensive and some runes and sigils which can also be expensive.

1. PVP wise it really depends on what you are doing, if it is WvW then I find this is where the Necro as a class shines the most. I dont do sPvP or tPvP simple because ive played that game mode in other games to death and I wanted something different, so I spend most my time in WvW.

But from what I hear and see Necro’s are good but not great in xPvP and I tend to find that the higher up people get in the rankings the more the classes shortcomings start coming to light. But early doors you won’t have a problem just higher up it will be alot more challenging than it would be if you played certain other classes not to be mentioned as to not derail the thread.

2. I couldnt really say to be honest im sure there are PVE friendly guilds out there but if you do plan doing PVE with the Necro it is our worst mode of play. So if you can’t find a guild who is happy to do dungeon runs with you then you need to have thick skin for those who will kick you out of dungeons after seeing you are a Necro. It does happen so just be prepared for it.

3. You do not need to spend a ton of money to be successful but you will need some to get what you need. You can get exotic weapons and armour depending on your stats in Orr at the various temples for karma points which you tend to find is in no short supply.

If you don’t mind doing the karma train in EOTM you can gain tons of Karma and lots of Badges and inside normal WvW it has vendors that sell various exotic weapons and armour also for some badges and some cash.

WvW vendors are the best place to go if you’re looking for berserker gear as people tend to waste tons buying the weapons and armour on the trade broker. You can get exotic soldiers, knights, carrion, clerics, berserker and rabid weapons and armour at the merchants inside WvW.

The only time it starts getting expensive is if you are looking for ascended weapons and armour. And if you’re really a glutton for punishment you can go through the joy in obtaining a legendary weapon. But that is really expensive and about as much fun as being poked in the eye with a sharp stick.

Ascended trinkets can be slowly obtained by doing dailies and monthlies to obtain laurels. Or you can do fractal runs which would be the quicker way of obtaining them. Good part is that ascended items are now account bound so if you get a set that more than one character can use then they are easily transferred between characters.

What I find the most expensive items are now runes and sigils, you tend to find that these are skyrocketing in price. I dont know if its because numbers are dwindling or people are getting more greedy but the prices for the most common ones have gone up considerably higher than when I first bought mine.

4. Solo-wise for me my Warrior was by far the easiest class to level up and the one I use in WvW if im looking for a more relaxing evening of it. At the moment I feel they are the class that alot of the others strive to get near to in terms of completeness so if you want to run solo then run a warrior as there is not alot you can’t do with them.

5. The Death Shroud skill makes use of life force and life force scales with vitality so therefore the more vitality you have the longer you will be in DS. You also get more life force by putting points in the Soul Reaping tree along with various other DS benefits. Soul Reaping tree has a master trait that allows you to reduce the cooldown on DS (Near to Death) and also a adept trait that reduces the amount of life force drained by 50% (Vital Persistence) just remember that taking damage will increase the drain of lifeforce.

6. Minions are bugged therefore I wouldnt waste my time building around them just now until some sort of a fix is implemented. You will just waste alot of time trying to get them off spectator mode. Go into heart of the mists (xPvP lobby style area) you can try out various builds on the golems there and see what you prefer as the gameplay differs between condition and power, plus sigils etc are free in there to try out. Also learn to master DS it is your one and only life saver so get used to using it.

I must be lucky because GW2 runs great for me and the only time I notice a dip in performance is when 3 large zergs are fighting together. Other than that its pretty steady and my rig isn’t bad but it isn’t great either. 2gb 560Ti, i7 2.8ghz and 6gb DDR3 and bar the graphics card the rest was bought 4 year ago and in computer terms thats a long time to go without an upgrade.

Dont get me wrong i have turned down a few options in order to try and help more in WvW like shadows but I don’t need ultra shadows. The engine may not perform great in large scale combat but it’s far better than you think when you compare it against other games.

Just take a look at TOR they had to scrap their version of open world combat because of the limitation of their engine (couldn’t get it to work). Tera’s alliance v alliance is just a complete lag fest and thats without as many players on screen as GW2 can handle before bottling out. Then there is TSW which is even worse, it stutters really bad again when a cluster is together and sometimes it stutters even when there is just a few players on screen.

Altho ESO may run better thats because the animations look like your character is trying to hold in a fart and run at the same time. Then the armour is very basic so they designed things for the large scale combat but in turn it doesnt look as pretty. You can even go back to Warhammer Online and even in that the lag got horrendous when there was alot of enemy all clustered up in the tiny Tier 2 castle area.

Dont get me wrong there are a few tweaks that need done and all is not rosy but it’s not that bad compared against other games i’ve played.

spoj.9672:

I dont believe we will get anything remotely useful.

But if i had any optimism I would say finishers on some weapons. Siphoned power rework. Cooldown, cast time and aftercast reductions. Withering precision rework/change/move. And maybe boon on DS trait changes.

But i dont believe we will get any of these as every other major balance patch has been a major disappointed and never addressed the things we have asked for or what we sorely needed.

#NoHope

Yep this +1. If I was optimistic I would hope for what you put but i’m more a who drunk half my beer type of person rather than yippee i’ve been given half a beer.

So I really don’t expect anything useful for Necro in the next balance patch. Unfortunately the whole GWEN thing has pretty much ruined our chances of seeing any major changes as I suspect they will think we are in a great spot. Problem being is for WvW that is true but for PVE we are really in need of some changes.

spoj.9672:

Why would you ever delete an 80? Its painful enough to level a new character. :P

Especially under the new trait system its even more painful to level a new char. Im just glad the ones I disliked I still kept therefore everything bar the new elites is unlocked.

That way if I ever feel like playing Mesmer, Ranger, Guardian or Ele I can still go back to them.

I think you partly answered that question yourself. For me I main Necro as it is the class that I have the most fun with as I no longer do Dungeons, Fractals etc with Necro its mostly all WvW.

I play games to have fun and therefore I like to pick the class that provides me the most fun as my main. You have said that Ranger is the class that provides you the most fun therefore I would be more inclined to say go for Ranger. It’s not as if your Necro is suddenly going to be left on the streets with a cardboard sign looking for a new home.

It is always going to be there for you to go back to. But if you’re looking for the one which would benefit the most from ascended items or is more viable in WvW then id be more inclined to go with Necro. But then I must admit ive never been a fan of the Ranger class but as flow said if you can find a middle ground for both classes then ascended items are account bound so you might get away with having the one set for both.

Of course if you’re a Shamy Ranger then it might be hard to work that into a Necro build.

Had already voted yesterday before I seen your post and you were one of the ones who I voted for.

There used to be a bug quite a while ago with one of our elites can’t remember if it was plague or lich that allowed stability to continue on when you exited out of it. That got fixed so now when you exit or the transform ends it will remove the stability.

Bhawb.7408:

Its already dropped like 4g or something, and I imagine it will drop more.

Yeah i just checked the price here http://www.gw2tp.com/item/24714-superior-rune-of-strength and seen they were around 16/17 gold before patch and now they are around 9/10 gold.

For the runes I could see that one coming. Just like perplexity and lyssa it was pretty evident that these runes were going to get hit and quite rightly in my opinion.

If you were daft enough to spend nearly a 100 gold on them then you’re probably not going to be a happy bunny today as I suspect the price will drop a good bit.

There is alot of If’s and But’s to both side of the coin, yes if you have regen on you then you risk it getting corrupted the same way if you’re using standard attacks for siphon and get stunned/interrupted then you lose out on healing also.

So there is a positive and negative to both sides and for me if it was a choice between bloodthirst or mark of evasion then I would select MOE as I just don’t see the boost given with bloodthirst making that much of a difference. But to be honest when I run a MM build I normally select neither of them because I prefer Transfusion its just too good at keeping your critters alive to pass it up.

I haven’t had the dying instantly happen to myself but I am having DS just randomly exit out on its own without running out of lifeforce or me telling it to.

I do get the immobilize bug its becoming more frequent and it is a right royal pain in the proverbial. Especially in WvW when you clash with a zerg as there is nothing worse being caught in the stampede because you cant move. At least I now know how a hedgehog feels when it see’s those oncoming headlights and it stands between the two headlights and prays its not a reliant robin and they can survive it going over the top of them.

Sors Immani.8429:

It’s an annoying bug, but I’ve found that allowing the life force bar to fully deplete is enough to get Life Blast working correctly again.

Exiting out of DS whether its by depleting the lifeforce bar or by exiting out manually fixes the problem. It does appear to be random when it happens which is a bit of a kicker, only reliable method ive found to replicate it is fight a champion/lord in EOTM or WvW.

Yeah its definitely an annoying bug and funnily enough I notice it happening more in WvW or EOTM against champ lords. Its almost as annoying as someone knocking them out you’re well just as you place it down.

spoj.9672:

Can you list those 1 shot mechanics.

I could but I wont. I don’t think me listing these will have any bearing on each others opinion on the matter.

Which brings me back to the original post of that we are just going to have to agree to disagree. I doubt there is going to be any sweeping changes to the way PVE works so I doubt the current Zerker meta will change anytime soon.

Until then I shall stick to WvW as currently its the gamemode that I enjoy the most when im not face hugging doors.

spoj.9672:

Scarran.9845:

…but I definitely do not think it was meant as the only way of optimally doing dungeons.

There is only ever one optimum. You wont change that.

That’s true but id prefer not to have the same one for every single encounter/content. I would be happy if certain dungeons required a bit of a mixup from the norm rather than just Berzerker/straight out damage.

I think it is feasible but first they need to deal with those 1 shot mechanics that alot of the bosses have. Currently there is no incentive for going anything other than full DPS and these one hit kill shots just cement that fact. If you are going to die in 1 hit regardless then you may aswell go full out dps. Then they can start bringing normal damage up for the bosses and trash mobs so that you get more sustained high damage making it more challenging and harder to compete in DPS only gear.

Will it prevent those at the top from using DPS, I doubt it but if you raise the skill ceiling it means those that are really good can stick to their style and those that aren’t will have to adjust. I dislike the knee jerk reaction that ANet does every time someone yells out that its too hard and dumbing down content is never good for anyone.

I wasnt planning getting involved in this build diversity discussion as all it leads to is derailment of the thread and a flood of posts from both parties who should just agree to disagree on the matter. Its quite evident with comments of if you dont like it leave that there will never be a middle ground to work towards to try to make all happy.

What gives you the right to take hold of a particular gamemode in an MMO and then tell anyone who disagrees to get lost. I think that is both arrogant and absurd and if that is the attitude of those at the top then I shall stick to the bottom rung thanks very much where people are willing to discuss change to accommodate others.

But saying that all the current builds use berzerker gear and that there is diversity is simply an oxymoron. That is not diversity when only a few traits/points are altered around yet still being pigeon holed into the same gear as everyone else. I think it is ignorant to think that the developers designed one particular game mode to use only one particular set of gear out of the many that exist.

It just so happens due to various reasons and flaws that this is the most optimal method but I definitely do not think it was meant as the only way of optimally doing dungeons. As for the whole debate of whether or not altering berzerker gear will harm or benefit the game…no one knows that.

Will it knock a few noses up top out of joint….im pretty sure it will. But people will either move on to the next FOTM build or as they say quit, but you can’t pull a high figure out of thin air because unless you are able to predict the future no-one knows what will happen. But in my eyes PVE is not working as intended and until there is more gear diversity it will always be broken.

NeXeD.3042:

Hell make sov work in ds. That might make the thing use able in certain builds heavily trait ed for ds.

I had mentioned this in another thread and I feel that allowing SOV to work within DS would help improve this heal alot. I know if they done this I would consider spending my 25 points to actually unlock the thing.

Right now it serves no purpose as the other heals are far superior and alot more viable but changing it so that SoV works within DS im all for.

I would just like for them to provide a method of dealing with stuns, immobilize, knockbacks etc whilst in DS or not be as squishy outwith DS.

How can you wear something down when you’re in DS and have nothing available to deal with incoming CC that prevents you from either attacking or getting close to the target/targets and if you exit out of DS you just feel too squishy.

So either make our siphons viable so outwith DS we are able to mitigate the damage we take better because of lack of boons or provide us with a method that when in DS we don’t spend alot of it flying through the air or rooted to the spot.

My take from what they said in the Ready Up is that they believe we are in a good place for attrition but they did mention the DS levels may need to be looked at being raised to provide better sustainability. They feel we should be a class that the longer the fight goes the stronger we get but my opinion is that the longer the fight goes the weaker I get.

The other take I got from this video is they do not want us to have sustained AOE damage and for me im taking that it means there is little to no chance that we would ever get a cleave weapon. Also for reasons like the Guardian they do not want us to have alot of mobility as with our large health pool and DS it would make us too overpowered. Altho not ideal I can see where they are coming from regarding mobility and can see how providing us with mobility could tip the scales alot in our favour.

The Necro’s greatest benefit was discussed as being boon ripping/manipulation which is great in WvW and PvP but practically null and void in PVE. So our greatest benefit is one that is useless within PVE and providing they dont want/envision us having access to alot of boons along with no sustained aoe I just don’t see the current state of no Necros in dungeons changing anytime soon.

They do appear to place a great emphasis on DS and altho it was nice to hear they are gradually upping our physical damage outwith DS. It makes me feel that our main class mechanic is like an anchor around our ankles preventing the class from progressing too much because of it.

The changes in the recent patch where a baby step in the right direction but to be honest the system is still a long way away from ever being as good as the old one.

I said it before the new system stinks of them trying to prevent people from levelling solely by crafting. But by trying to fix one problem they have caused alot of others as when you start reducing the levelling diversity it is no different than being directed by quests and told what you need to do like in other games.

I still dislike the whole unlocking traits individually and I also dislike moving when you obtain traits to lvl 30 and then every 6 levels after that. The reason being is that the game already restricts how many skills you can have on your bar so traits was that other diverse way to keep players interested by experimenting and feeling progression etc. When you start restricting traits and increasing when you get points there is no small sense of reward for progressing your character.

In other games when you level a character you look to see what new skills you achieved or place points in strength, dexterity etc to improve your character. In this game there is no skills trainer so the only other form was traits and when you take that progression away it makes levelling your character feel very stagnant. The only other game that I felt this way was STO as when you levelled you felt like nothing was changing until 10 levels later you got a new ship, it made levelling very tedious.

Will there be more changes to the current system? Yes I believe there will be changes I doubt they will ever roll it back as its rare that a developer admits they made a mistake and it’s even rarer that they roll back that mistake. My guess is there will be a good few months of tweaks to the system but it will never be back to the system that I knew and had fun with.

The reason I enjoyed levelling in GW2 was because I could decide how I wanted to level when I logged in each day without feeling any worse off because of it. That has changed because now if I decide I want to level by crafting or I want to run in EOTM to level up I will always be missing traits until I decide to either do the event required or buy them.

Without changing the system back and to continue to do tweaks I hope they aren’t cutting off their noses to spite their face. We will soon see how much of a detrimental effect this new system has on player retention for both old and new.

If they are going to allow us to heal in DS i’m unsure whether having our main heals is the way to go. I think at the very least siphons should work within DS or id even take SoV passive and active life siphon actually heal you when you’re in DS it might even make it useful altho the jury is out on that one.

Right now our best method of survival negates any siphons that we have which is counterproductive to taking them. Or if you do take them you dance around the fringes hoping that nothing spots you so that you can get the most benefit out of the siphons.

I have noticed this happening also and ive only really seen it crop up after they messed around with adding Dhuumfire to it via the trait.

I do not use the Dhuumfire trait but what normally happens is your attacks will register at first and then nothing. Doesnt matter how close I am or where I move to none of the attacks even register but it only appears to be lifeblast that is affected as the rest of the skills within DS hit.

In the end I just have to exit out of DS.

zapv.8051:

People always say this, but until they actually test it we won’t know. Your saying that it is your opinion, based of no factual statistics or data from this game because siphons have always been terrible, is that siphons are set up to be either op or useless. I personally can’t see how that is true, there is always a decent sized middle ground, and most traits sit in that middle ground.

You’re misunderstanding what I was actually trying to say. I never said that it could only be overpowered or useless, you seen that sentence and jumped on it like a dog with a bone. What I did infact say was that its a thin line and all it would take is for the maths to be slightly off and then it would fall into one of those two categories.

If you deal with any mathematical equation if you do it wrong your either going to be higher or lower than the correct value. I never said that they won’t ever get it right or that they shouldn’t implement it but if it is done then initially I feel it is going to fall into one of the two categories of underpowered or overpowered. This is because there is so many different aspects of playing Necro and alot of different traits that can influence how useful or how bad a Siphon is if you make it work within DS.

I would happily be wrong and admit humble pie if they added it and the numbers where bang on but going from past experience in this game I am very doubtful of that. Any siphons added or altered have always been edged on the side of caution, but I do believe something needs to be done to make siphons viable not just for our class but for other classes also.

This is one of those thin line topics where all it would take is for the maths to be slightly off and its either useless like Unholy Sanctuary or way too overpowered as we can constantly keep our health topped up.

I wouldn’t mind if they added a trait like Unholy Sanctuary that allowed you to heal yourself via siphons. But at the cost of each heal received counts towards a certain percentage of that heal depleting your life force. That way it gives you a choice, you can have healing in DS but the more you heal for the quicker you deplete your life force bar.

I think that way it will balance itself out without having to tweak the numbers too much and without making siphons anymore useless when you’re not in DS. I know I would happily give up a portion of my life force if it meant that my siphons actually healed me within DS.

Unfortunately when PVP is involved for some people it just can’t be that they got beat by the better person or that they were the reason why they got beat.

So far ive seen posts where people are being called lame for running a Minion build as its overpowered and easy mode. I have seen people who run Terror builds called overpowered because they can fear you to death. I have also seen complaints about us having DS because the second health bar makes us too overpowered. Now we have people calling Power builds overpowered. Whether it be due to their own professions shortcomings or the player playing them, some people just can’t take a defeat.

So what build do they want us to to play? A build with no power, no conditions, no minions and no DS. That pretty much leaves you with death by emoticon as thats about all you can do once you remove those. Either way I wouldnt pay too much attention to those whispering overpowered as unless they are on the winning end they will never ever be pleased.

All the best Forsaker from what ive seen from Arken streaming WS if your into sPVP then you will more than likely enjoy the way WS has done things in PVP until you come across a medic j/k.

Alot of WS combat system is about skill rather than the unavoidables that inherit some of GW2’s combat. Mostly all the skills apart from CC, Stuns etc have telegraphs so it provides the means to dodge the damaging attacks. The problem being im a WvW person and I dislike sPVP and I don’t see anything in WS that would warrant me paying a subscription especially for a game mode that I hardly play. I didn’t find the PVE side of it to be any better than GW2 actually I found it to be more cumbersome as the beta test I had tried allowed for the age old kill stealing.

I have seen your stream a good few times and its sad to see a good Necro leave but at the same time I understand why you’re leaving. You arent the first going to WS and I doubt you will be the last, have fun in WS.

I run a build pretty close to this one myself only I go for the full 20 into Curses for Reapers Precision. With the crits you get off from your Well’s and DS4 it pretty much keeps your lifeforce bar topped up when you’re in the mix.

The only other thing I noticed was in the build window it says you took Spectral Mastery but you have no Spectral Skills. I have Vital Persistence on mine but I keep swapping it with Unyielding Blast as I can’t decide which I find better.

As for Deathly Perception or FiTG its really personal choice, I find if you’re lacking crit chance your best going for DP but since the build you have is around the magic number I like for Crit Chance I would stick with FiTG. It isnt the longest stability and sometimes it can be frustrating as ive found there is a small delay going into DS before Stability comes up, but there is nothing worse than doing DS4 and getting ping ponged right at the start of it, so it suits your rotation that you do.

Also if you don’t mind micro managing your utilities between zerg fights you can swap out signet of locust for spectral armour or some type of stun break. With the Hammer train that normally goes on in WvW its handy to have at least one up your sleeve otherwise you’re going to have to pray your DS lasts out the wave of hammers. Then you can swap back to locust when you need it.

Bhawb.7408:

I just thought of this when seeing that my weapon swap CD was shown while in DS. I know I’m not the first person to say this but why not bring it up again: what about showing your heal/utility/elite skill CDs while in DS. They’d still be unusable, but you’d at least be able to know exact when things come off CD (allowing you to make better decisions, especially with your heal).

The one big issue I see with this is the way that DS is coded, but I think they could work around that fairly easily by taking a “snapshot” of the CDs right as you go in, and then displaying your CDs from there (since Necros don’t have anything special that’d really affect the CDs).

This is definitely something that I would like to see as I can’t think of any other class whose main mechanic hides their utility bar so they cannot see what there cooldowns are and manage the situation accordingly.

Right now if you want to make sure you do not exit too soon you’re stuck with the 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi mechanic of counting in your head or just dumb luck you timed it right. There are times if i’d known that certain utility skills were still on cooldown I would not have exited DS quite as early.

I have tried all 3 builds and to be honest ive that many armour sets ive probably tried most builds at this point.

Healmancer was one that I ran for a long time which was Cleric with Well’s and in WvW it was great for large scale combat. It didn’t hit hard but what it lacked in power it made up for with survivability and I was normally one of the last few remaining when the zerg wiped. The problem being is the fact you can’t hit for anything and when inside a zerg it may not matter as much but if you get caught on your lonesome either running to a camp to get supplies etc then you’re more than likely going to be dead. It doesn’t have the ooommphh to scare the enemy away it is basically about survivability. But it is a fun build but not one I run anymore just because I prefer to have more damage. You could spec to gain more damage but then you lose out on your heals and the way siphons scale at the moment in order to make them sort of viable you need to get the healing power up quite alot.

Chillmancer is one of those niche builds that came along and passed just as quickly. Not really viable for anything and personally not one I would recommend going a full spec into. I tried it and altho it seems fun on paper, in practice it really isnt that good compared to other builds that the class has.

Fearmancer is another build I liked and to get the most out of it you’re looking to go into Curses for Terror and have condition gear. The problem with this build is its mostly suited for small scale combat in WvW. The larger you go I find the less conditions have as an impact, the problem is that Power can give you more bang for your buck than conditions can in a large scale environment. It is a fun control build and with spectral wall you can have some fun, just don’t blow the wall on the initial pass as the enemy tend to have stability up then and it gets wasted. If you plan running in EOTM this can be a really fun build as that map has the ideal setup for it. Dont get me wrong it can be run in large scale combat, I just don’t find it as effective as a proper power build.

But it all depends what you plan doing when in WvW for those 3 builds. I dont do alot of dungeons or PVE as I find them boring but normally its all about the damage in PVE content and none of those builds excel at that, so dont expect to get into any “l33t” speed runs if you select one of those builds.

It is the Warlock Outfit (Male version of Witches Outfit) which was available in the Gem store for Halloween.

The new wardrobe means alot of the town outfits can now be applied to combat stuff. Im now regretting not buying it, but hopefully it will come back around again.

Here is the wiki for it with pics at the bottom

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Witch's_Outfit

Nerelith.7360:

<snip>

That isn’t what you are saying is it? maybe I misunderstood you?

Yes you did misunderstand what I was trying to say. I am not saying you are not entitled to your opinion and you can post as many likes as you want.

But when the aim of most of your posts in this thread seem to be trying to disprove others who dislike the new trait system as if it is a court of law rather than a forum. You are not just posting your like for the system and why you like the system you are trying to rubbish those who hold the opinion that the new trait system isn’t that great.

I posted I disliked the system I did not quote your original post in my original post trying to counter everything you said. Because I understand there are some people who like the new system, just like there are people who dislike the system. I also understand that it has been stated the forums are the minority but law of averages state that for every so many dislikes there should be at least a not too bad ratio of likes. So far out of 11 pages of posts outwith yourself there has been little in the way of the system is great and nothing needs done about it posts and I could probably count those in one hand.

There are numerous other feedback threads with people who like and dislike the other changes and those appear to a much better ration of dislikes to likes. So if the system is that much of a success then why is this feedback thread so lopsided on the dislikes. But again im pleased for you that you enjoy the system and I hope you have fun levelling your alt/character.

Nerelith.7360:

<snip>

This seems to be plenty of options.

I get it, you really like the new system and it has been proven by the numerous posts in this thread you have done advocating it. The thing is some of us do not like this new system and thats our opinion and the thing about opinions is that everyone has one.

Does it make your enjoyment of the game any less by us disliking it?……nope. I have stated why I dislike the system and I understand that you like the system. For those of us who dislike the system we have stated the reasons why we dislike the system. But constantly posting trying to alters people’s opinions just because it differs from you is wrong.

I dislike brussel sprouts, it doesn’t matter how you try to mix them up, alter them I will still always dislike brussel sprouts. I dont need someone trying to force brussel sprouts down my throat just because they enjoy them and I dont. That is the way your posts are coming accross, I understand that you disagree with alot of the posts in this thread but no matter what you put I am still going to dislike this new system because that is my opinion and im entitled to it whether you agree with it or not.

I hope you have fun with the new system levelling but myself I would rather not put myself through what the new system brings.

I have waited a few days in order to try the changes out before commenting, to give them a test rather than jump in straight away.

But I could give the new system a year, 2 years or more and it still won’t change my opinion on how awful it is. There is a few problems with the new system and more so it basically destroyed the levelling diversity that was once had. Maybe this was the reason for the change so that you cannot craft your way to lvl 80 and have everything you want. But previously when levelling my alt I could craft some levels, I could quest some levels, I could even dive in and do some WvW and zerg some levels and at the end of the day once I hit that magic spot I bought a book and got my traits. I never felt like I was any worse off because I wanted to try out the other content that the game provides but now you do feel like you are being punished.

I could choose how to level the way I wanted each day depending on what I felt like doing and not be any worse off for it. This current system if I craft levels I miss out on traits, if I go into WvW im as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike and I still miss out on traits. Not only is your character worse off but your now being gated into certain content, being shepherded around like sheep to set content. I had the choice before what map I wanted to level in, what events to do and not to do and I was not any worse off for my character build.

But despite the new traits being linked to events that at some levels are not viable for your character’s current level, they have also taken away any little bit of progression you get to feel by altering when you gain trait points. I really do not envy new players coming into the game as gaining a new trait point every level may not seem like much but its those little things that set small objectives for you whilst levelling. Now levelling feels very stagnant and levelling now feels more like a chore because that little bit of progression has been taken away and as such when you level up you go…….what did I get?……oh that’s right nothing….I need to wait another x many before my next trait point.

I do have alts but I have no desire whatsoever to log in with them and level them up under this new system. For me I never had a problem with the old system and levelling methods and for me this new way is a large step in the wrong direction.

Cogbyrn.7283:

Scarran.9845:

Dhuumfire is one which is getting adjusted but still is going to be a pain if timed right.

I just wanted to comment that a Grandmaster trait should be a pain if used properly. One of the main problems with Dhuumfire right now isn’t just the damage, but the fact that it’s free damage that you can get on attacks like Scepter auto. Give it more counter-play and it goes from just being high free damage for no reason to timed damage for a very specific reason.

I agree with you on both points, I would like to see alot more traits changed so that you can react to them in combat but be punished if you mistime it. There is too many traits that other classes also have that people can do nothing about.

I admit that I dislike Dhuumfire with a passion and feel I would rather have had more ways to apply torment than to apply fire. Fire is one of the hardest hitting conditions you have in the game so when you give it to a class that can easily apply as many conditions like Necro can and then make it on crit then it was obviously going to tilt the scales too much in our favour.

But again we arent the only ones, the only reason Dhuumfire gets singled out more than Incendiary Powder which is similar is that we can overload people more with conditions and in a short space of time than engineer can. But again IP is another one of many traits that the game has that need to be changed so that it gives you some sort of viable way to react to it.

To be honest the comments the op receives are what gets on my nerve about pvp. Unfortunately some people just can’t take a beating and look to fire any old excuse back in order to try and alienate certain builds. Are there certain traits and skills that are overpowered…too right there is. Dhuumfire is one which is getting adjusted but still is going to be a pain if timed right. Signet of Spite is another one that needs less variety of conditions applied but bolster the remaining ones slightly, but other classes have similar overpowered traits or skills.

My view is play the way you want to play the majority of classes each has a build that people complain about…whether it be PU Mesmer, Decap Engi, Dhuumfire Necro and most recently MM Necro has been getting flak or HamBow Warrior or maybe any warrior build j/k. Spirit Ranger or even a Shamy Ranger has been getting flak recently in pvp and the last one off the top of my head I can think of is Stealth DP Thief. That is just a few so other classes aren’t short of builds that are greater than others whether people choose or don’t choose to run these builds is upto them.

I don’t give grief to the person running these builds when I get beat as the complaints are aimed at the wrong person. If you have issue’s with certain builds it should be more aimed towards the developers to balance things out. Who am I to turn around and tell someone how to play their character? If they enjoy it and have fun then that is all that should matter, personally I do not run Dhuumfire because im not a fan of condition builds.

If I was running a condition build I would take Dhuumfire as its like asking a 3 legged horse to run a competitive horse race. Why on earth would I want to go into a fight worse off when other classes have the same OP builds but because people choose not to run them it is suddenly my fault. I applaud those that don’t run these builds but don’t complain to the person using it when you get beat because of it, complain in the profession balance section or complain to the developers who haven’t balanced things out yet. It’s not a popularity contest so if its what you enjoy playing then keep playing it, myself I prefer power builds.

Souldestructor.9576:

Scarran.9845:

Im on the fence when it comes to the new skill on one sense im pleased were getting something that will heal our health whilst in DS. But on the other hand it confirms that we will never ever get it so that regen and heals from party members will effect our health pool.

I have been thinking how I could fit this new trait into my build and to be honest its a nice addition but the loss I get from having to go 30 points into DM far outweighs the benefit but it will be nice for those bunker builds if they eventually find a use for them in the game.

Otherwise I shall wait and see what other changes we have in store, but as I said i’m pretty much on the fence about it until we see if its a proper heal or a signet of vampirism heal.

If you didn’t read you won’t be going 30 points into anything with the new trait system bro sorry to reply so late didn’t get a chance to look at this. you’ll be putting 6 points in instead and the trait system will be reworked too so no more 70 points to put anywhere. Read what they put down before reading traits. It’s gonna be like GW as they said.

I did see that the points are changing and read all about the trait changes but whilst typing it out my brain was still in old trait points mode rather than new trait points mode. I can guarantee it won’t be the last time I make that mistake when talking about traits, thats until I get to use the new system.

Whether its 30 or 6 points it still wont matter as with my current build going fully up the toughness tree will lose too much damage for that GM trait to be viable. That is also taking into consideration the changes to crit damage with this new ferocity stat. I just envision me taking points out elsewhere in order to get a small health regen. Unless you know that you’re not going to be getting focused on or you know you can last a long time in DS I just don’t see a need for using this trait.

Thanks for pointing it out though.

Having spent time looking over the traits I feel the developers have missed a great opportunity not only for our class but also some of the traits for other classes are a bit lackluster.

I agree with Spoj in that the class overall I feel is in a not too bad place for PvP and WvW but in PVE we are lacking and I was hoping that the new traits would shore up this gap.

Parasitic Contagion – I actually find this one to be an interesting trait and I think it will have alot of viability in the 30/30 builds and it is one that I find could make way into condition builds probably more so than the dhuumfire change if im being honest.

Path of Corruption – For me I wouldnt find a need for this, its very situational and a bit lacklustre for a GM trait that not only relies on your DS being off cooldown but also relies on Dark Path being off cooldown. I dont know where the number 2 came from but 3 would be alot better for the cooldown, I suppose they balanced it under the assumption you could combine it with focus to strip 3 and then convert 2 boons. It is definitely a PvP orientated trait but I wont find a use for it but I imagine some will.

Unholy Sanctuary – Again ive stated before im on the fence about this one, I can see it being really useful in bunker builds and it does shore up the lack of health regen when in DS but it pretty much set in stone that allies will not be able to heal us when in DS. I would have liked this skill to be in the BM tree but I can see why its in the DM tree just feel it would be better in the BM tree . It’s definitely going to be a skill worth taking for those who wish to bunker and it is a skill I can see some builds make use of.

Unholy Martyr – Another skill I wont find a use for, 1 condition every 3 seconds pretty much makes the condition pull useless and all it will take is for a wrong condition pull (immobilise) and your pretty much upto your neck in it within PvP and WvW. A stationary necro is pretty much a dead necro, it might have its uses in PvE if you use vital persistence to extend your DS time. But it is one that I would need to test in order to form a better opinion of it, to see how viable it is.

Soul Reaping – Not really a fan of this one, not only do you need to line up your shot, you need to try and let your allies know to stand still and stop moving or else the slow projectile will miss. Add onto that if your front line Necro you really will not have a use for it as the enemy is going to be right in front of you and allies at the side or behind you. I just dont see a need for this one at all and I would have preferred a means to deal with conditions whilst in DS like lifeblast transfers one condition per attack. Having it transfer 1 condition per attack on lifeblast would have had nice synergy with Unholy Martyr and also allowing us to deal with our lack of condition management whilst in DS.

Overall I can see what the developers are trying to do by making DS alot more viable when your inside it and trying to give us tools to make use of it. Unfortunately for me I think it was a missed opportunity but again its hard to cast a full judgment unless you test the traits out and see what is viable and what is not.

Im on the fence when it comes to the new skill on one sense im pleased were getting something that will heal our health whilst in DS. But on the other hand it confirms that we will never ever get it so that regen and heals from party members will effect our health pool.

I have been thinking how I could fit this new trait into my build and to be honest its a nice addition but the loss I get from having to go 30 points into DM far outweighs the benefit but it will be nice for those bunker builds if they eventually find a use for them in the game.

Otherwise I shall wait and see what other changes we have in store, but as I said i’m pretty much on the fence about it until we see if its a proper heal or a signet of vampirism heal.

To be honest I don’t really get how they worked out the pricing structure that they did. I would have thought the cost would be split up in accordance with the league structures.

That means that if you want to transfer to a gold league server it would cost you the more expensive amount. Silver league is the middle amount and if the server is Bronze league then it would be the cheapest.

I understand that during the tournament they do not want people transferring to the servers in the first 3 places so I realise the cost there but outside of that I don’t understand why 1-12 is the most expensive when there is going to be a separation making some silver league servers be at a disadvantage. I mean who is going to spend 2400 gems on moving to a silver tier server who is on the way down when they can spend that same amount and go to the number 1 gold tier server, I just dont get it.

If it was me choosing then I wouldn’t mind having FiTG moved to the 20 point mark but it isnt me making the decision and in its current form it wont ever happen.

The reason being is that everything is decided on scenarios that are obscure and exist only because they can do on paper but in reality they don’t make much sense. For this it will be if you stack to 100% boon duration by using a mixture of runes, armour or trinkets and food you can get that timer upto just over 6 seconds stability without sacrificing too much other stats. And they will not want us having 6 seconds of stability on hand every 10 seconds without sacrificing alot of other stuff.

In reality going that route means you wont hit very hard but that will not matter at all when it comes to balancing decisions as you can still get your crit chance up enough to make use of the fury in curses. And to go slightly off topic I agree with Rennoko that I am not expecting much in the balance patch, they have cried wolf too many times in the past in relation to these patches that im now skeptical about the wait and see how great the patch is response we normally receive. But I will be happy if im proved wrong on either of the above.

Unfortunately skill lag is also back for myself, it has gradually been getting worse since the start of the new year and since the introduction to EOTM the skill lag has went through the roof.

What I have found tho is it is far worse in normal WvW than it is in EOTM but thats more than likely because its not normal to get huge 3 way fights in EOTM as most of the time its a karma train.

But it is worse than what it previously has been for me and along with skill lag I am also having a few oddball issue’s. Weapon skill lockouts is one of them and it used to happen very rarely to me that my weapon bar would lockup and nothing would fire, now its happening alot more frequently. I have discovered that one of the weapon skill lockouts can occur if you have picked up someone elses banner and the timer expired when you had it, cycling elite skill normally fixes this.

But I am also seeing when using utility skills that use marks that you click to fire the skill off and it shows the cast animation etc but at the end nothing happens. It isnt lag per say as its happening outside of zerg v zerg combat. At first I thought I had accidentally cancelled it by dodging etc but it has happened a good few times that I was watching out for this and it just doesn’t fire off the skill.

To be honest confusion not so much but torment is the one that I would like to see more of given to us. Its strange that Thief who already has good mobility has the thing attached to a weapon that can be easily applied over and over again.

Yet the class that needs this skill to try and help kill classes that run away gets it on a skill that uses a long cooldown.

Just to add to this thread that im also getting random DC’s and my fiance is also getting them. She appears to be having it worse off than me though as she is lucky to get an hours play before it DC’s her.

Myself it happens 1-3 times a day and all at random periods but I tend to see the huge lag spikes then notice nothing firing off and everything stops and then I realise im about to get dc’d.

My machine and my fiance’s machine are in different locations and we are on different ISP’s and use different security software.

If it helps in on EU and the server is Piken Square and this only came about for me when EOTM was introduced.

I for one hope that the fake note are not entirely fake as the changes look to be good. But the little guy with horns on my shoulder keeps telling me….im playing Necro and we don’t get patches that are as good as that.

But it does give me a glimmer of hope that on balance patch day we might actually be getting stuff worthwhile rather than the good stuff taken away. Im pleased with the fix to DS though as ive lost count the number of times that delay has cost me. Plus if the siphons scale properly with Healing Power it might actually make siphon builds more viable than they currently are.

I must admit that im not exactly happy that some of the amenities that were conveniently accessible in one place are now scattered over those loading screens that everyone loves to enjoy before entering a zone. But I could get all of those back if infact I bought a ticket off the gem store.

The problem being is that there isn’t any information on whether Lions Arch is staying this way or being put back to the way it was. So if I bought the ticket and then 2-4 weeks later suddenly Lions Arch is back to normal I wouldn’t class that as a purchase well spent. But at the same time I am not impressed that alot of the previously found facilities that were in Lions Arch are conveniently left out at the same time that a pass was added to the gem store.

I understand that you are in the business of making money but someone somewhere seen this as an ideal opportunity to fleece the community out of some money. It doesn’t come across any other way when you see the development time that obviously went into creating the balloon rather than being spent getting the missing facilities moved to the keep.

I must admit I had my concerns with the EOTM map especially as my main was Necro and with stability shortage I thought id be thrown off the edge more times than not.

But to be honest I thoroughly enjoy the map, on one hand you get the tactical situation of not following that player onto a bridge as you know you’re going to get pulled and blasted off the edge. To watching what skills you use so you don’t send yourself flying over the edge like I have done a couple of times with my engineer.

It is alot of fun and maybe because its new it doesn’t feel as stale as what the normal WvW maps feel like. Fighting is alot more enjoyable as you try to position yourself around the map to give yourself an advantage. NPC’s use certain siege equipment which means that a tower with a few inside can delay or put off the zerg for long enough to give their team a nice advantage.

Yes its still a zerg mentality but thats never going to change and there are a few bugs to iron out. Plus its really more emphasis on attacking than defending because its far more rewarding to take stuff than defend stuff. But overall I am really enjoying the map and to be honest I didn’t think I would, so it was a nice surprise.

I really don’t understand some of the negativity posted in this thread. What impact will having this option available be to those people who don’t have a problem with the loot issue?

I understand that its easy to loot and I myself don’t have this problem but would I prefer having an autoloot option available….yep I would. Just like I never had a problem running around hitting F previously to pick up all my bags or rebinding a key to use AOE autoloot before it was made easier to use. Did it bother me they then added it to the loot options so that you could autoloot using your standard interact key…nope, as it made it easier.

This is obviously an issue for other people and I can’t really think of a reason why I would not want to have this option available. I remember when driving to somewhere unknown where I had to use a A-Z map in the glove compartment to find my way around, now I can punch it into sat nav on my phone. Both end up with me reaching my destination only now its alot easier for me to get there than before. And for those that don’t like Sat Nav the A-Z map is always readily available.

Same goes for having this loot option, if you don’t need it then don’t use it, but if you do need it like some do…then why not have an option available for it? In the end all its going to do is make things a little bit easier.