Guild Wars 2

The recent changes to Jagged Horrors pretty much killed Death Magic as a trait option for raid condi Necros and made Necros pretty undesirable for raids in general, save for on a couple bosses (Sab, Sloth, Mat maybe).
I’d like to propose a change that would make the Horror build usable again, but also prevents it from getting too crazy dps-wise.

Just limit the amount of Jagged Horrors you can control to, lets say, 12 and make it so that whenever you spawn a new Jagged Horror the oldest one dies. Also, put an additional clause on the Death Nova trait that increases the limit to 18 or something.
The numbers would need to be tweaked ofc, I just picked random ones to give an idea of what I mean.

Thoughts?

lead.7543:

looking at chat log, it seemed that people enjoyed the match!

I had a blast for sure. I think nobody took that game very seriously

So… this just happened :^)

I don’t PvP much, but this was definitely the most ridiculous ranked game I’ve played so far. Ended up being full 5 Necro vs. 5 Necro chillfest (all the non-Necros relogged eventually).

Matchmaking working as intended?

I have 3 1/3 sets of (mostly) ascended gear on my Necro at the moment.

• A general purpose Berserker’s set for open world, story stuff and pug groups
• A Viper’s set for raiding mostly (asc. Rabid back piece and exotic Viper’s rings/accessories because RNG loot is a b*tch)
• A Valk/Zerk set with Furious Maintenance Oil for maximum deepzzz in well organized groups (only used it at VG so far when we had too many condi players)
• A set of Cavalier’s trinkets to swap in for holding aggro at VG/Gorseval

I really hope I don’t have to add another set anytime soon, because right now, including food to complement different builds, all of this eats up ~50 inventory slots permanently (see below =P).

Yeah, there is more verbal abuse going on right now, at least in ranked games I feel, but that was to be expected or was it not?

Idk, I only PvP casually and I don’t let random dipkittens that feel the need to rage in chat ruin that for me. I either just ignore them, reply with “friendly” troll comments à la “luv u 2 m8”, turn off chat altogether or just block them if they e.g. feel the need to bother me via whisper.

Also, don’t take stuff people say on the internet too serious. Sometimes it’s hard to separate a genuine insult from banter, trolling or sheer stupidity. I personally prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt and believe it’s the latter three in most cases.

anduriell.6280:

Is that the people’s fault?

Yes. People are kittens sometimes and there is not much the developer can do about it (except for a more aggressive ban policy maybe).

anduriell.6280:

What could be done to solve this issue?

Play with friends, turn off chat, block people that annoy/insult you, don’t try to argue with them and most importantly, don’t be a kitten yourself

spoj.9672:

Even if you cant maintain the scholar bonus for much at all. Its still one of the best choices. Its the only runeset that has no wasted stats for necro and a damage modifier.

^ this, you don’t have to maintain the 6th bonus at all times for them to be worthwhile.

Also, attempting to maintain the scholar bonus as much as possible can help to improve your game-play, as you will need to be more aware of things like positioning, Shroud management, which hits you can take and which you have to dodge etc.

Yamedo.2561:

life leech sucks

Wow, that’s… like… reverse necrophilia =P

I’ve been playing condi Reaper successfully at all three bosses.

It’s not particularly outstanding at VG, but it works well for my group since condi dps usually is not an issue at all. We run 3 condis: 2 engis + me on condi Reaper or someone else on condi Berserker depending on the rest of the comp. Kill times stay mostly the same (~2:30 min. left), so it works just fine either way I guess.
At Gorseval, I play it for clearing adds fast with Epidemic mostly, but it is not over-performing there either imo. You can probably replace it with another aoe heavy class, which is what we are considering right now (4 Tempest hypu).
It really shines at Sabetha though. It’s great for baiting Flak Shots, Epidemic helps clearing adds/bouncing cancer back from the Champs to Sabetha and Jagged Horrors are kittening op here. Killing cannons is not a problem either.

Haven’t tried the double condi Reaper Epidemic stuff yet since I’m the only regular Necro player in my guild, but from what I’ve seen so far it works great for both Gorseval and Sabetha.

Also, Transfusion has been really, really nice just in general. It takes quite a bit of pressure off of the healer and can grab downed people out of aoe fields/lit-up areas at VG for fast and easy reses if something goes wrong.

All in all, I’m happy with filling a condi DPS/support-ish (yes, Necro support :o) role as a Reaper.

+1 A balance split between game-modes definitely has to happen eventually.

With more and more specs presumably being released in the future it will get progressively harder for the devs to maintain decent class balance across PvE, PvP and maybe WvW (I have no idea if that mode even is supposed to balanced at all tbh).

In my opinion, mainly balancing around just one game-mode and “kinda” shoehorning in a bit of extra balancing for another mode that plays totally different simply won’t cut it in the long run.

Junkpile.7439:

Dude using some weird magi gear and telling that he is casual. Something is wrong if you need to make new gear just to clear content. Would be nice if gaming skills would mean more than class and gear.

Skill > gear. Not that a good group comp and appropriate gear is neglectable, but understanding mechanics, playing your class well, proper positioning, dodging the right attacks etc. etc. are THE most important things when comes to succeeding in raids. I have people in my group that are not in full ascended gear and we beat VG consistently with over 2 min. left on the timer.

Besides that, I think a lot of people misuse the term “casual” for when they actually mean “bad player”. Playing the game casually =/= being a bad player. Neither does playing the game hardcore mean you automatically are a particularly outstanding player.

Raids are for people willing to learn, to improve and coordinate with their teammates. Whether or not you are casual or hardcore has very little to do with that in my experience.

yelle.7165:

I don’t think that’s it their fault, that you do only swamp and molten boss fractals. You have a choice now, you just choose todo these. When I’m doing my daily fractals I tend to choose different fractals on all tiers unless I want todo them real quick.

There is no incentive to do anything else but the fastest/easiest fractals to get your dailies done asap right now and there is also no incentive (other than the one-time achievement, which doesn’t even given you a title or something) to do any of the higher level fractals either.

So yeah, I think it is their fault. It is just bad design.

MadRabbit.3179:

grinding to get full exotic

Not to discredit your stance on this matter, I respect your opinion, but if you consider gearing up a character in full exotics grinding, you might not be part of the audience raids are targeted at.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/lookingfor

There are tons of guilds of all flavors (from casual pvx to hardcore) out there looking for people to raid with. Just apply for one that fits your needs and see how it goes.

LucianDK.8615:

So you give up Decimate defenses as a daggermancer

You don’t have to, you can go Spite/BM/Reaper, Dagger/x and Greatsword. I’ve been running without Soul Reaping for a while now just fine.

darianturner.8096:

Interesting build. Do you have any video or guide for this?

You can check out the guide from [NA]‘s Necro here, it’s a pretty similar build.

darianturner.8096:

Are really berserkers bad for raids? I love it for events and all, but I can understand that isn’t that good for raids…

As such Reaper DD builds aren’t bad at all. It’s just that other classes can fill the power DPS slot better at the three raid encounters we have so far, but it all comes down to the classes the group you are running with has available anyways. If you already have enough people playing condi, by all means, go for a power build then =)

Maxzero.4032:

rogerwilko.6895:

there are those who think condi nerco = crap :
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Condition-engineers-in-new-raid/first#post5777965
so where is the truth?

The gulf between Engineer theoretical DPS and actual DPS is massive. You see a lot of claims of what they do but not a lot of actual data of what they actually do.

As someone who plays both condi Necro and condi Engi fairly regularly, can confirm that. Engi can get pretty insane if you achieve to play it as close to the optimum as possible, but it requires practice to get there. If you just picked up condi Engi, you probably wont do +20k dps (or whatever it is these days) from the get-go just by mashing your buttons.

If you have the choice between a capable Necro player and a kitteny Engineer player, take the Necro.

[Edit] If you are searching for a showcase of what proper epi abuse and a good build does, you might want to have a look at this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3uyisk/condition_reaper_crazy_damage_potential/

@Aenesthesia: From personal experience, Engineers, if they know what they are doing ofc. They ramp up their damage much faster.
Just in case this isn’t clear to you, I was joking around by making a deliberately exaggerated comment =P

Well, I wouldn’t call it overrated, it is pretty kittening good at what it does. It is just a highly situational skill and some people use it wrong, that’s all.

#CondiNecroMeta2015

@Blaine: I know that you shouldn’t measure the strength of class solely by its performance in speed-runs and the like, but now that the first raid wing is out and people care a lot more about efficiency, I think class balance is more important than ever in PvE. Please don’t get me wrong, this is no “self-hatred”. I play Necro as my main character since launch and I think we are in a very solid spot right now. We can do power DPS, condi DPS and tanking just fine, but I also think we still don’t really stand out in any of those roles and that bugs me (maybe a bit too much ) I guess.

@Dadnir: Yeah, lacking support is definitely still another big issue and the reason why we now have this “Blood Magic or bust” thing going on, which limits build creativity even more. But that is an issue that should be discussed separately I think.
Also, as someone that plays both condi Necro and condi Engineer (both in ascended Viper’s/Sinister gear), I don’t share the sentiment that Necros can out-damage a halfway decent Engineer player. I mean, yes, condi Necro is definitely surprisingly stronger than I original thought it was and yes, condi Engineer might be a bit overrated, but as far as I can tell and as long as the circumstances of the fight do not heavily favor the Necro in the first place (mobs moving around all the time e.g.), I can still put out more damage with it than I can with my condi Necro and I’m not particularly amazing at playing condi Engi. That’s just anecdotal of course, but without a proper DPS meter (or similar tool) supported by the developer, my own testing and discussing things with other people is all I can trust in. A version of Dhuumfire that can be effectively used to boost DPS in our condi builds would bring us far enough to catch up I think, which is why I wanted to have a discussion on this in the first place.
I also agree with you, however, that encounter design is an issue as well, but I feel it is becoming better now with raids and just HoT in general.

Mortifer.2946:

But….that’s what everybody wants from me. I was told guardians are worth kitten in healing or tanking, because now we have revenants… and that i should be glad if i get accepted into raid as a ranged DPS….
edit: I CAN tank, but I was told by people on forum and in game that I will always be inferior to revefarts.

People want Revenants as tanks? O_O
Well, that’s a new one for me…

Besides, I think Guardians/Dragonhunters are quite decent at tanking. Probably not as good as Chronomancers, but still, absolutely good enough to not get kicked. If your guild does that to you, you should probably find a new one.

@Blaine: I think we are more or less on the same page since I can agree with a lot of what you say. I just wish it was different and wish I could use the trait to boost my condi output effectively.
I think it would be nice if, for ONCE, we could say, “in general, Necromancers are the BiS class option for X” and I think that X could very well be condi DPS if only we’d get another buff to what we have now. I think it is something our class kinda deserves after 2 years of being in a very poor spot PvE-wise.

But, as I said, maybe I’m wrong and Dhuumfire does what it is supposed to do and I’m just too stubborn to acknowledge that =P

Blaine Tog.8304:

Power builds lose damage by swapping into DS/RS as well, which is why they get Death Perception to help keep their damage up. This is the same idea.

Ironically, power builds sometimes use Dhuumfire for this, because extra crit chance from Death Perception more often than not is wasted on Reaper X)

Well, you can just gather/buy the materials and craft them yourself or ask a friend/guild member that can craft them if you don’t have the recipe unlocked. You will save ~20s per crystal that way.
Also I don’t think you always need use the best available food at all times. I feel right now it just is very important in raids, because people are still learning and figuring stuff out, which means you need all the help you can get if you want to be successful.

@Blaine Tog: Yeah, maybe I’m misunderstanding the intended purpose of Dhuumfire, but that doesn’t change my opinion that Dhuumfire doesn’t do the best job at preventing loss of condi pressure (in PvP maybe it does, idk) and that I wish it WOULD bring our condi damage to the next level =P
Also, I don’t think there are any “holes” in a rotation that heavily relies on auto-attacks. With the build I’m running at the moment I haven’t really been forced to camp Shroud for longer periods of time just for survival and I also don’t think doing that is a good idea anyways, because a) your healer can’t heal you up in Shroud, b) the loss of condi application I mentioned above and c) because camping Reaper Shroud for survival entails that I have to stay in melee range, which could be the nail in the coffin if I take an unexpected hit that kicks me out of Shroud.
The Scepter build I’m using now is generally a very safe build to use. If you accidentally stayed to close and feel you have taken to much damage, you just back off a little bit, get out of the fray and keep auto-attacking with Scepter + casting #2, #3 on cooldown and cast your utilities + transfers when available until your health is back up. The only important thing you will be missing out on is maybe one or two Soul Spirals and that’s about it.

But maybe you are right and changing Dhuumfire really isn’t the way to go. Maybe it is the Curses Adept and Master traits, or maybe also Unholy Martyr as the Blood Magic GM trait condi option, which is, to put it lightly, not the most useful trait ever if you ask me.

Altoid.9104:

10% duration > 100 condi damage unless you are already hitting cap.

Yup, but keep in mind, if you are using Sigil of Malice (10%), 5x Nightmare Runes (15%), 1x Black Diamond (0.6%), the Amulet you can get from the HoT-story achievements with Viper’s stats (4.7%) + Viper’s armor and weapons (21.6%) and good food (30%) you will sit at ~82% overall duration and push your Bleeds and Chills to the cap via traits. So you can very well sneak the 100 condi damage from the 5th Nightmare Rune in without lacking duration =)

Edit: If I’m not mistaken, this will net you ~50 condi damage and 25 power, at the cost of 4.7% overall condi duration (which is wasted on Bleeds and Chills) and 37 precision (~1.8% crit chance), so it isn’t really that big of a deal I think.

This is what I’m currently using for fractals and raids:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAR4NjM0QNN2SDs3YBXwmyCNhqQ8VcLOGhGABgWAA-ThRBABXt/o8DPdDPcRAA4JAQp6PmpEkUAiNsC-e

The blank utility slot is your “flex slot”, I usually use Signet of Spite as my default option. If you lack projectile defense you can replace Well of Corruption with CPC and use “Suffer!” in your flex slot to get rid of the self-weakness. Well of Power is a solid stun break and condi removal for your group. If you don’t like to use minions or if the Golem messes with aggro management you can take “Your Soul is Mine!” and “Chilled to the Bone!” instead and trait Augury of Death for cd reduction and a bit of life-steal. Lich Form is also still pretty solid for high burst in short fights I believe.
If you run a lot with PuGs you might want to adjust your traits a bit more depending on the group. You can e.g. take Bitter Chill and Rending Shroud if your group is lacking vulnerability application, or Decimate Defenses if you don’t have enough crit chance boosts (Banner of Discipline/Spotter). Also, If you already have another Necro with Blood Magic in your group (edit: or two for PuG raid parties that is) you can spec into e.g. Soul Reaping instead.
For food, the Sweet and Spicy Beans is just something I’m testing currently for Chill up-time. It’s probably not needed and the overall better option for damage is Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup.

@Tim: Changing it to proc Burning when entering Shroud would certainly be an interesting change and would help PvE condi builds a bit that don’t want to camp Shroud, but I’m not sure it would be enough to justify taking SR over BM for group content. Regarding PvP balance, as I noted in the op, I’m a PvP scrub so can’t really comment on that Aren’t many people already concerned/mad about how strong the frostfire Reaper build currently is?

@pierwola: Hmm, do people currently take Foot in the Grave at all in PvE or PvP? I’m under the impression that this trait is not very popular atm, regardless of game-mode (WvW maybe, idk, but WvW seems pretty dead on my server anyways).

@Azzumy: Regarding your first point, granted I’m sure you can make a working condi/hybrid build purely focused on Dhuumfire for general PvE, but what I’m mostly concerned with are competitive condi builds for group content, i.e. high level fractals and raids. As I said in the op, I tried to come up with a competitive build that incorporates Dhuumfire into its rotation, but it just was inferior to more or less pure Scepter/x builds in situations it really mattered (aka longer fights). The Dhuumfire build I tested was great for strolling around the open world, in short fights and for cleaving down trash, but fell flat on its face in long boss fights due to problems with Bleed and Burning up-time and sometimes also life-force issues.
I might be wrong about this, but I think we are almost there to be on par with other top condi classes already and a good change to Dhuumfire could be that little thing we are missing. I’m not claiming what I suggested is that change and absolutely needs to happen btw., that’s why I made this thread and want to have a discussion with you guys =)
Regarding your second point, the way I see it, for group content Blood Magic is pretty much a must right now, because it is our only option for a little bit of group support. Unless ofc there already are enough other Necros filling this spot, which probably means you have too many Necros in your party anyways I agree that Spite and SR are great for solo or low-man game-play, but as a condi Reaper I don’t think there is much choice in trait-lines atm if you want to maximize your damage and be competive with other classes.

@Lynnie: Yeah, a good number of people have been suggesting that too and it would certainly help if you just want to build for maximum personal condi deepzzz. Depending on how big the buff to duration would be, dropping Blood Magic for Soul Reaping might totally be a valid option then, but I’m not sure if this a is realistic thing to ask for because of PvP balance. Again, I don’t know kitten about high level PvP, but I feel this would be an issue probably. So if you have a more informed opinion on that then me, please go for it =P

Dadnir.5038:

I’m a bit lost in your argumentation…

Your saying :

In conclusion, I think it is fair to say that Scepter builds and Dhuumfire currently are mutually exclusive if high and consistent condition DPS while also bringing some support/utility to your group is what you are going for.

So I expected you to bring up a solution that make them viable together but… You end up bringing the 2 of them in direct competition for the curse GM spot…

Why do you want to introduce an option as a GM trait in curse for power build? Don’t get it wrong but if they were to do so, a part of the community would ask for “power” option as adept and master.

I actually acknowledged that in the edit I did shortly after the original post. As I said, I think Lingering Curses and Parasitic Contagion would have to be changed/re-balanced as well and since I’m not the biggest fan of either of them I’d be fine with that.

Dadnir.5038:

I believe that what you really want have nothing to do with dhuumfire. I believe that you only want to be able to use lingering curse and weakening shroud together. The issue is that weakening shroud belong to curse because it’s a skill that have it’s maximum efficiency when you flash your shroud while Dhuumfire is a trait that allow you to have an interesting output of condition damage while staying in shroud (something that the community asked for : a condition damage option in shroud).

That’s a pretty interesting assumption lol. I don’t currently use Soul Reaping in any of my PvE builds, just in PvP.

Dadnir.5038:

So what you suggest would create 2 kind of issue :
1- Actual people that want to play dhuumfire in a power build will complain that they are out of option in the curse spec.
2- The shroud will again become something useless for condi spec due to a lack of condition on it’s auto attack.

1. I am an actualy person =D … Joking aside, all PvE power builds for group content I have seen recently neither use Curses nor Soul Reaping. I think having a GM trait in Curses that benefits both power and condition builds would open up a good secondary trait-line choice for Necros in groups that already have another Necro with Blood Magic. It might also bring something similar to the old Shoud flashing builds (Spite/Curses/x) back for casual runs and soloing.
2. Not really, not any more “useless” (it is not, Soul Spiral is great) than it is now imo. With the changes I suggested you would still apply burns via crits in and out of Shroud and not just with your Shroud #1. It also wouldn’t really hurt builds without much Precision, because if there is one thing Necros don’t struggle with, it is getting a high crit chance, which also happens to be one of the sub-themes of the Curses line

Dadnir.5038:

Now, if they really wanted to make dhuumfire relevant, they could simply buff it’s base duration to 4s oor keep it as it is and be affected by the lingering curse condi duration buff (bringing it up to 4.5 seconds). Sadely it’s obvious that it would create another imbalance leading to people saying :
“You shouldn’t use dhuumfire without lingering curse! This would be to great of a dps loss!”

You mean Lingering Curse working in Shroud in general or specifically just with Dhuumfire? Buffing the base duration wouldn’t really solve the main problem I have with the trait, namely that I can’t really use it effectively in condition builds.

Disclaimer: These observations and suggestions mostly come from a PvE perspective.
I only play PvP casually, so if you have a better idea of the state of condi Reapers/Necros and Dhuumfire in high level PvP than I do, please feel free to share your thoughts on the suggested changes with us to get a more holistic view on this topic.

During the past week I tried really, really hard to make Dhuumfire work in my condi Reaper build for PvE group content and it just didn’t work out for several rather simple reasons:

• If you are playing a condition build you will have to pick Scepter as your main weapon
• If you want Dhuumfire to do anything you will have to sit in Shroud auto-attacking for a significant amount of time
• If you sit in Shroud auto-attacking you lose out on condition application from your Scepter, off-hand and Utility skills

I tried to make it work by creating a rotation that results in a roughly equal amount of time spend in and out of Shroud, but the end result was worse than staying mostly on Scepter and only “flashing” Shroud for #4, the mobility of #2 and additional Chill/CC if needed.
On top of that, Dhuumfire is pretty much the only reason you might want to take Soul Reaping as a condition Reaper, survivability concerns aside maybe. On the contrary, it makes you lose out on the support and utility from Blood Magic, or (if you are not playing in optimized groups e.g.) the self-might and vulnerability stacking from Spite.

In conclusion, I think it is fair to say that Scepter builds and Dhuumfire currently are mutually exclusive if high and consistent condition DPS while also bringing some support/utility to your group is what you are going for.

I’m sure there are multiple ways you could address this issue, but in the But of Corpse thread someone made a suggestion that I personally really like:

• Swap Dhuumfire’s position as Soul Reaping GM trait with that of Weakening Shroud as a Curses GM trait
• Make Dhuumfire work more like Incendiary Powder again, i.e. inflict Burning on critical hits

For this to happen the new/old Dhuumfire probably would need to be a bit weaker than Incendiary Powder (because of the nature of our Scepter auto-attack e.g.). A direct copy-pasta would be overpowered I guess. What I would suggest is:

• Reduce the duration bonus from 33% to only 20% to be more in line with Barbed Precision and Cold Shoulder
• Reduce the application from 2 stacks to only 1 stack per critical hit, but in return give the Burning higher duration (don’t know how much higher would be appropriate tbh), I think that would fit in well with the “slow but consistent ramp”-theme Necro has

I know Weakening Shroud has its own issues, but that way there would at least still be a decent GM option for condition builds in Soul Reaping that is also tied to Shroud and a usable version of Dhuumfire for Scepter condi builds in Curses.

Edit: What I forgot to mention is that in my opinion this would give power builds a decent GM trait option in Curses because of the high base damage of Burning. A problem that I also forgot to bring up is that Dhuumfire and Lingering Curse then would be competing with each other as condi DPS GM traits, with Parasitic Contagion still left in the dust, which means something would need to be changed about those two traits as well.

Let me know what you think. Feedback is always much appreciated.

Cogbyrn.7283:

Skoigoth.9238:

The group that did the World first Sabetha kill had a Valk/Zerker Reaper on their team, so we can’t be in that bad of a spot right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnGbi-SA-b4

In before “they would have been better off if he played <insert other class here>”.

Yeah maybe, idk, I’m not a very good theorycrafter I think =P But does it really matter right now where raids are basically about being able to complete them at all for most people? Seeing that you can in fact complete the raid with a Reaper and don’t totally screw your team with your class choice is quite frankly good enough for me.

The group that did the World first Sabetha kill had a Valk/Zerker Reaper on their team, so we can’t be in that bad of a spot right?

Tbh, I don’t really see the point of directly comparing power DPS Reaper to condi Reaper when comes to raid group composition without any additional information. If my group is missing a condi guy I am of no use to them if I show up with my power build just because it has “better DPS”. The two builds fulfill different roles (or three builds if you include Reaper tank) and it comes down to actual group comp to decide which one is the most appropriate to use.

On the topic of condi Reaper vs. other condi classes, I wont argue numbers with you here because I could also only deliver anecdotal reports, which is pointless imo.
I strongly advise you to get up off your butts, get that viper’s gear if you don’t already have it and test stuff for yourself Just do a couple casual practice vale guard fights with your group or go into a pug and test different builds and different classes back to back. That helped me personally a lot to get a better grasp of where I was standing DPS-wise in relation to my condi Engineer, what I was probably doing wrong with my build and how to improve upon it.

Condi reaper is very competitive Lopez, it just took people a while to figure things out I think. For me personally the biggest mental block was to let Dhuumfire go and now my build feels a lot better. And by a lot I mean A LOT.

Also, I just had a look at reddit and found this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3tsazq/na_necromancer_raid_builds_tankpowercondi/

We might actually be a “meta class” now :^)

So far survivability hasn’t really been an issue for me on Necro compared to other classes I tried raiding with. We have a high base health pool, Shroud, access to life-steals and since Scepter builds are doing the bulk of the work from a distance you can also sit at a relatively save range most of the time, which should make it even easier to survive. Try to make sure you stay close enough to still profit from group buffs, pay attention to the seekers, try to not stand on top of your tank and you should be fine.

If dps really is the issue with your group, you might want to think about switching to more offensive gear. I don’t know if this will be helpful to you, but this is what I’m currently testing for raids: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAr4dnM0AV3gN3AmbCs3gFjBb6oFDeBx7wh4RM6nFAOAA-TByBQBLU9HrZDg0U+hl1HAwJBYf6FY2DA4MKBJFwiKrA-e

@spoj, I’m confused as well. At first I thought chills get replaced or overwritten by incoming chills with longer duration. Then I did some testing back during BWE and came to the conclusion that no actual replacing of stacks seems to be going on. Then someone here on the forums pointed out to me that is not the case and that old chills indeed get replaced by incoming chills with longer duration. Now you seem to confirm the conclusion I drew from the bit of testing I did again.

So… how the kitten does this actually work? =P

Glad you guys are back to doing the podcast again \o/

I want to comment a bit on the topic of condition Reaper in PvE, especially raids, since I got the chance to play around with it a bit on Friday. It was on WP’s stream btw (I am “that darth guy” =P).
I was only able to play Reaper for ~30 min. before I switched to condi Engineer, per “request” I might add, but playing both classes back to back gave me a better idea of how they work out in the Vale Guard encounter respectively.

I tried out a Scepter/x build with Dhuumfire (Viper’s/Sinister gear) and I have to say, I’m inclined to agree with Blackmoa on this one. The more I play around with it and try to make it work, the more “shoehorned in” Dhuumfire feels. It just doesn’t really work as well as I wish it would and Soul Reaping just feels inferior to Blood Magic in group content =/
As I already mentioned elsewhere, I really think this trait would need to work more like Incendiary Powder (i.e. be less tied to Shroud) to become a truly good option for Scepter condition builds in PvE.

In general, condi Reaper definitely feels a lot safer to play than condi Engineer and condi application is much more consistent in the main part of the fight, especially when your tank is struggling to keep the boss in place for some reason or in phase 2 and 3 when boss needs to be moved around more anyways. The damage output didn’t feel too far off compared to when I tested it last time, but that could be attributed to the mobile nature of the encounter and just the fact that I didn’t keep up with my rotations as well as I should’ve (which hurt Engi more than Necro ofc), so you might want to take that with a grain of salt.

Anyways, those are my thoughts on this matter, I’ll definitely give condi Reaper another shot in raids once I get the opportunity and don’t feel like dying anymore X)
I’d also really like to hear more opinions on the Dhuumfire issue in particular. I think it is one of the problems with the core spec that are still holding us back in PvE right now.

@TheLastNobody: I’m not exclusively talking about the healing aspect of Druid (I really dislike how people reduce this spec to “healing only”), but more about the 25% – 35% flat damage boost a Druid brings to his party and this is not even accounting for Spotter or the Burn procs from Sun Spirit.
Druid is a great support class that also brings respectable personal DPS in both power and condi builds, has good utility and it also still is the best-in-slot class for dedicated Healers as far as I’m aware, regardless of nerfs/bugs.

Anyways, we should probably stop this discussion here since we are going massively off-topic X)

Kain Francois.4328:

(If you’re curious, now the title of bottom-tier belongs to Rangers.)

I’m not sure why people keep saying this, but right now Ranger/Druid is better than ever and a very versatile class too.

If anything, Thief is now “bottom-tier”, at least according to all the Thief players complaining (justifiably so, probably) about how nobody wants a Thief/Daredevil in their raiding groups.

Apolo.5942:

I think that dps meters would bring little to no benefit to the game and much like the non existent zerk meta, create a false sense of elitism.

I disagree, if used correctly it would achieve the exact opposite, because we would be able to actually SEE who is pulling their weight and who is not.

Cogbyrn.7283:

The game needs damage meters.

Yep, even a tool for measuring just personal DPS/Healing etc.etc. to avoid discrimination would be nice…

I feel the main problem with condi Necro is that our two main damaging conditions are tied to two different auto-attacks. Engineers however have theirs tied to several high damaging skills across multiple weapons and kits. Alacrity makes that even better and if you play like a freakin machine Shrapnel Grenade basically becomes your new auto-attack. I Just wish Dhuumfire would work more like Incendiary Powder (like it used to), that would solve a couple problems imo =/

Aaand, to not go completely off topic, I recently left my guild at a rather inopportune moment and the group I was planning to raid with instead doesn’t have enough people for two teams, so no Necro raiding for me until I find a new guild I guess T_T

TheLastNobody.8319:

Aldath.1275:

So, am I the only one on the whole GW2 population who enjoys NOT to skip stuff on dungeons and fight my way thru? …

I’m actually with you on this one. While it is easier to skip most mobs I’ve found it equally as fast just to fight through some. One example being the exploders in Arah’s inquest path.

I enjoy skipping very much, even when I play Necro. It’s OK to have different preferences regarding game-play

On topic, yes, Necro is a lot better in PvE now for sure, mostly thanks to Reaper and the trait rework prior to HoT (new Blood Magic e.g.).
Sadly, I think the core class still has a lot of problems holding us back and I doubt these issues will be addressed anytime soon. But, you never know, maybe Geesus has a surprise in stock for us with the December patch.

Yep, still bugged probably. I also tried to go for the blighted pods below the platform the bosses spawn on, but it’s pointless alone and puts the event at risk if too many people go down.

Yeah I remember that comment from reddit (I believe it was Colin?), not sure why people interpreted that as “gtfo zurkers” though =P

Hmm, weird, I was never under the impression that anet has a problem with the “zerker meta” in particular, yet a lot of people seem to think they do. Did I miss something?

Huh, I somehow missed this thread, very nice and informative video! +1

Your build is not too far off from what I have settled on for group content now. Link to my build for reference: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNArYGnMbiN3AmbCs3glgBLuI2EjiUXhtwvKKBEAaAA-ThiAQBQU9ntZDw1U6BtTAQXWfAAHCAAqPIaPBAQqMgNKBJFwiKrA-e

I’m not sure about my Rune/Sigil set-up tbh. Would be interesting to know if maxing out the duration of as many condis as possible wins out over more condi damage overall.

Also, I found myself using Spectral Grasp from time to time. I think it is very useful in condi Reaper builds as it gives you a strong CC, additional life-force generation and helps with the chill up-time if that should ever be a problem.

Bump. Yep, still bugged. I really want those harpy feathers for my Revenant

In my opinion, a simple damage buff to Vampiric Aura and a trait that increases the condition damage of the group, similar to Spotter, Empower Allies etc., would be preferable and probably also easier to balance.

To change that we’d obviously had to launch a full-blown propaganda campaign to further our cause.

#necrosarenottheenemy #minionlivesmatter