Guild Wars 2

SupahSpankeh.8452:

So Necrobusted guys, fancy testing this for us all?

1) Is the amount of HP available at 100% DS equal to our normal HP?

2) What impact does toughness/armour have on direct damage taken?

3) What impact does condition damage (bleeds, burn, poison in particular) have on DS? Does it do double damage, or are ticks rounded to the nearest full %?

1) There was a huge thread awhile back on the mathematics behind Deathshroud because people had figured out Soul Reaping was doing nothing for DS. After the eventual patch fix we worked out DS-HP is 120% of your max health + soul reaping or;

(Max Health x 1.2) x 1.SR
SR referring to your Soul Reaping points

A ungeared Necromancer with 30 points in soul reaping for example;

(18,372 × 1.2) x 1.3 = 28,660 DS-HP

2) I’m not sure on the specifics of Toughness to Damage Reduction, however this site seems to have the formula down. You can play around with your Toughness levels to get the right %

3) All conditions deal double damage whilst your in Deathshroud, on top of the natural -4% / -3% /sec deduction.

Blind CC Necromancers are currently the ‘hot’ build for the WvW meta in large scale team fights. A minimum build is usually 0/20/10/20/0 with the additional 20 depending on your playstyle.

Next weeks T2 match-up going to be insane Kaineng vs. Fort Aspenwood vs. Tarnished Coast

Oh T1? ill make a guess now;
1st – Jade Quarry
2nd – Blackgate
3rd – Sanctum of Rall

Wipped this up for arguments sake. Any other keep/ stonemist safe offensive spots feel free to add.

When i run MF Fractals i always use the tanky rare 80 set (toughness, vitality and magic find) so I’m not a burden on my team.

With everything else Rabid based i do fairly decent bleed damage but my main focus is on keeping vets and bosses perma-weakness’ed and crippled/ chilled whilst keep allies rezzed (Ritual of Life anyone?)

OreoWolf.9564:

Conditionmancers are very strong counters to the current meta elementalists if played right, and our power well builds melt mesmers (Can be hard to keep them in one spot tho). Your welcome

Yea pretty much that, but the only problem is you cant be both at the same time.

Once one truly masters Deathshroud, one will be unstoppable.

All other classes can keep there perma-stealth, impossible mobility and cleanses, high health regen, long invulnerability and blocks and straight up take no damage…

we have the the promise of a Dev that a mastered deathshroud is unstoppable…

Wait until the Elementalist changes to water field, use Corrupt Boon, win. Mesmer’s are the true superior class to counter Necromancers, unless your heavy direct AoE damage its very hard to land hits on them.

Necromancer downed states are not the best compared to specific others, but there also not the worst.

Life Leech is actually very strong, in wvw ive been in situations were I’ve gone down in a guild vs guild fight and kept alive from spamming this skill long enough for a ally to rally me. Add in 50% downed damage trait and 10% food, you can pretty much guarantee being rallied.

Fear is not what it use to be before the Fear nurf (instant boss CC long enough to be rezzed) but its still quite useful in PvP. If the enemy is not smart enough to try to finish you right away it buys enough time for Fetid Ground. Change would be to make it an AoE around you.

Fetid Ground if your able to use it before you die does very heavy AoE damage and poison. This has rallied me in fights untold amount of times. Change would be a shorter cooldown.

I’ve found were all our WvWers are

I don’t understand, are you promoting AoEs being stronger the more targets they hit? that’s what caused them to be nurfed to a 6 player target limit in the first place.

Quite simply they need to remove the cap and introduce scaling damage from the center of the AoE. 100% from center to 25% at edges, fixes all problems and discourages heavy stacking.

What i recommended was a condition based trait & skill layout I merely said i also run in magic find gear (trying to point out its a joke dungeon compared to others such as arah, and you can afford too once you get the hang of it)

I was also only comparing the stats given from the 6-piece Armour set not a full condition build. Rabid gives 315 condition damage with +13 from Food & + 15 from Undead which is +16/ sec bleed damage per stack.

I run magic find in fractals because firstly fractals is the worlds most easiest dungeon and secondly its a farming dungeon.

Full condition armor, as a high stat, adds 16 more in bleed damage which is nothing in 3 minute boss fights. I don’t run with pugs, i have a set fractal group and we all have no issues doing 30-1h 20+ FoTMs.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5|b.1o.h1.8.1o.h5|6.1c.h1h|0.b1n.0.71n.0.71n.0.71n.0.71n.0.71n|4w.d1i.2w.d1e.3w.d1e.1q.65.1q.65.2w.d1e|5.u27b.0.a6.p3a|g.d|e

That is the build i use for 1-29 Fractals (no Armour on as its not on the calculator) and as you see for a hybrid support and damage dealer its far from being “dead weight”

I’ve played full zerker Necromancer for 2000+ hours now, but when it comes to dungeons/ fractals i ALWAYS use conditions.

Scepter/ Dagger + Staff with 0/30/0/10/0 would be the standard minimum for condition in dungeons, this is what i would recommend:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNArYWjMal7tbqb87JgpCdH9gYjTmmR5sD

I typically run fractals in the rare 80 “Strong Conjurer” armour set (Toughness, Vitality, Magic Find) with 5 superior pirate, 1 major pirate and have no issues what so ever although higher levels (30+) requires exotic gears.

Build offers high condition and medium direct damage, AoE healing and perma-weakness.

I’m actually very interested in this idea soloing Lupicus challenge that everyone seems to be doing.

I’m also quite surprised no-ones said the obvious, Death Shroud. It acts as a block on command for any amount of damage so long as you can get 10% life force every 10 seconds.

Would just need to find out what would be more effective when fighting, Power or Condition. My thinking is a fully geared out Rabid Condition build with 100% bleed duration (Pizza, 2 Afflicted, 4 Mad King and Curses II) would be the best bet.

Score update @ 7AM GMT.

Nemesis.8593:

What i was trying to illustrate is that if you have to stay range… you have to stay range, therefor there will be no close up well of suffering and reaper’s touch. There will be just max range DPS spam, when you can get close… you do get close and run wild.

While i do agree that Lich Form 1 spam is higher DPS especially if you have vulnerability on the target from other sources, and you get to pierce multiples… but at the same time it only lasts 20 seconds. Dagger 1 spam can be done… for ever…

Any smart person (in PvP at least) sticks as close to there target as possible in Lich Form to minimize missing Deathly Claws and to land Chilling Winds.

Lich is also 30 seconds, not 20.

This, mandatory order-in Pizzas and shifting left is a typical Friday night for Sanctum of Rall.

Andele.1306:

Ascii.9726:

Your Lich vs Dagger 1 test was invalid, you used Well of Suffering & Reapers Touch on the Dagger spamming but not on the Lich spamming.

A 10%-15% difference doesnt really matter since in a team scenario they will both be upgraded by 25%. Lich is still the strongest attack in game (just by base damage to power scale), but one can come close to the numbers with other means.

15 attacks with an average of 46k per hit, he if had done a fair test he would of dealt an additional 103k damage which would of been 12/13 attacks and therefore 12.5 to 13.5 seconds (5 to 6 seconds more then the dagger.)

Columba.9730:

well their implementation of stealth in this game is the most laughably overpowered stealth I’ve seen in 20 years of mmos. Most thieves know it too.

You clearly never played Perfect World International

Score update @ 9:30AM GMT

The only problem with Life Siphon is it hits like a wet paper bag and channels slower then a tortoise.

Axe 3, DS 2, DS 3 and Staff 3 pretty much ensures the enemy will be less mobile then you in a fight.

Your Lich vs Dagger 1 test was invalid, you used Well of Suffering & Reapers Touch on the Dagger spamming but not on the Lich spamming.

shizo.5698:

The 25 points in Spite are solely for Target the Weak, this trait is a beast, like Close to Death just with almost 100% uptime.

You can wield axe/dagger+horn in the 2nd weapon set and take Banshees Wail, Runes of the Pack would actually complement this.

The 15 points more in Spite would only increase your damage for15% around half of the time (when you crit) + another 5% if your lf is over 50%.

From a group PvE point of view Target the Weak would be superior most of the time (8 or more conditions). From a PvP aspect though 10 additional points in Soul Reaping is much stronger, with Furious Demise you’ll be sitting on 70% – 80% critical chance.

The 10 additional points is also 2,249 DS-HP.

Is this a theory build or do you have the build right now (if so please post a screenshot of your stat window)

Zerker Necromancer is mainly for roaming wvw solo, dropping 10 points Curses and putting on Soul Reaping would be a +15% damage boost +10% Life Force pool boost at the cost of 4% critical chance.

With no warhorn offhand Spectral Walk would be your only mobility, making 20 points in SR a requirement for 20% off its CD.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAndWjMah7VaqbM8JAoH5ibtxHQmmR5wD;TMALRGFMJA
(Copy & Paste)

The levels of lag and culling issues this match-up reset is something I’ve never experienced before, and ive been on every reset night since beta weekends.

At one point an hour into reset on Jade Quarry Borderlands, SoR (TW) and JQ (PRX) guilds of about 50 each passed each other on a path up to a camp and didn’t render for each other at all, by panning behind camera we saw each other after passing.

Add in consistent lag issues of 5+ delays at all teamfights (usually reserved for meta events and SMC fights) and your getting to the point were Tier 1 WvW primetimes are becoming unplayable.

This is all post “culling fix” too…

I do hate to say it but this is quite a big nurf to power Necromancers. Running dual Superior Sigils of Battle myself i would swap twice whilst in DS to pump up #1 before dropping out @ 50%.

Deathshroud isn’t like a fixed item (Engineer kit, environmental weapon) were they come with there own stats, its based of your own stats (damage from attack and health from vitality + soul reaping) so weapon swapping should still be allowed in Deathshroud.

From purely a non-sPvP race skills point of view:

Asura for any condition based build. Pain Inverter gives access to Confusion and a decent amount and helps fill that missing utility slot you’d otherwise take epidemic with.

Charr for any power/ direct damage based build. Battle Roar gives access to Fury which otherwise would only be obtainable by blowing your Deathshroud Fury (and leaving you wide open with no buffer for 10 seconds) or using Runes of the Rage (as i do)

If Blood Fiend dies, you get no chunk heal. The buffs were made to Blood Fiends life siphon not survivability or AI making it just as unreliable post-patch as it was pre-patch.

PvE yes, the additional damage helps farming, dynamic events and if your a good dungeon runner you’ll avoid most damage all together.

PvP no, unless its for solo roaming with a heavy minion focused build, and even then i would advise against it.

Corrupt Boon when they turn to Water Attunement and just be heavy on the Chill (Staff 3, Deathshroud 2) to mess with there skill cooldowns, D/D Elementalists have a very strict skill cycle.

Connargeddon.6719:

Be wary, fellow necromancers. My friend got it as a drop, gave it to me since I helped him grind his hall of monuments on guild wars 1, and I’ve learned that, well, it has the same animation problem with the sycthe staff skin.

I’m starting to think anet likes to mess with us. the TWO staves perfect for us, gets animation problems. XD

I do think with some weapons (mainly certain staffs such as the Final Rest) they need to turn off the scythe animation caused by attacking.

Humans only have the visual looks and wide customization going for them right now.

Asuras are quite generic in look, but have much stronger race skills. Pain Inverter gives you access to Confusion (5 seconds) and grants Retaliation (5 seconds) which fills that missing utility slot you would over-wise fill with epidemic.

When solo/ duo roaming in WvW i typically run a 30/15/0/0/25 build using a mixture of Berserker and Valkyrie gear and swapping between wells and corruption depending on who I’m about to engage.

When assisting a Zerg, swap out Lich Form for Plague Form and change Curses V to III, Spite VI to V, engage with Axe-3 & 5, double tap F1 and into Plague Form and you become a Retaliation monster Blinding and Chilling every second for 20 seconds.

When roaming, try to stick to high cliff edges. Necromancers can escape quite easily by jumping off edges and either Deathshrouding before landing, or double tapping Spectral Walk before landing to reset your distance fallen and avoid damage all together.

The drop-rate seems uncommon to rare at best now. With the staff now around 30g/50g sales prices ’im expecting to see it alot more.

I’m sure everyone knows what I’m talking about by now, but for those who don’t heres an example of the extreme lag the game suffers from.

Since the second part of the F&F expansion, this lag has increased in frequency due to the masses of people flocking to every meta event in all the zones.

Now i have a high-end spec’ed computer with a strong internet connection which makes me shiver when i try to think of them casual players on the minimum requirement trying to complete these events. These giant ‘epic’ dragon battles and groundbreaking event systems we was promised 6 months ago have been reduced to a 1FPS lag fest taking15+ seconds to cast a skill.

I’m sure we all know this isn’t bound to just PvE, but also in the case of WvW. Stonemist Castle battles have this same effect on the servers and sometimes even just general large scale garrison fighting. I think the only place free from this curse is Structured PvP.

Usually i can grit my teeth and play through such times, but after speaking to alot of other hardcore gamers who have played through the hype phase, alot are looking to a certain game currently in beta that promotes its server capabilities and ability to have hundred of character models on screen with no lag or culling and see it as a cause for a mass exodus for GW2 apon its release.

When will these servers be updated?…

Okaishi.8320:

If you’ve got so few people, it has little to do with tactics. Sure, you can send one person to stand guard (idle) at every tower and keep, but it’s not fun and you’re not playing WvW for something like that. I don’t mind them changing the amount of people that cause orange swords, but 25 is just too high. In my opinion, 10 or 15 would have been way better and requires more tactical play. Because with the limit at 25 you often don’t even have to worry about causing orange swords on the map.

If you have too few people, either so does your opponent making the whole argument of ninjaing invalid as you can do the exact same thing or the enemy is a stacked server and notification or not you’ll be out-manned and it will make minimal difference.

Ilesyt.7084:

You’re in a higher tier where you have the people to put in towers and still have enough people.
During the day this is an absolute hell. And during the night where we have about 5-10 people tops defending this is even worse!

If you don’t learn simple coordination and communication tactics now, you will never move up the rankings. This change now forces servers to interact more with each other to progress, it is called World vs World after all and not Group vs Group.

If your against a system like that you shouldn’t be in WvW in the first place.

Change is perfectly fine.

Patch ensures you have to leave scouts at high value objectives rather then relying on simply pressing M, it also splits up the usual 50 man roaming zerg into smaller groups to attack and defend respectively.

If your having trouble with the new system, you need to work on your guild or server coordination…

So with the latest F&F patch, the Final Rest loot tables seem to have been fixed and also they can now be bought and sold on the Trading Post.

Final Rest can be obtained from the Shadow Behemoth meta event that triggers every 2 hours in Queensdale (Check GW2Temple for a server by server countdown) it has been reported by a developer the odds are around 0.05% and is currently being bought/ sold for 75g / 140g

Copy [&AgGgSwAA] into your chat window for a preview or search on the TP.
Happy Necroing!

The event has just started up in the last 2 minutes, the 2 hour timing seems way off as Ive been tabbing in and out every couple minutes whilst browsing the forums.

Seems to be fixed now though, ill check again in the next 2 hours!

I have been semi-afking in Queensdale waiting on the Shadow Behemoth event for close to 5 hours now and it has not started up nor the pre-event leading up to it. I’m not sure if the recent patch to the event has changed something;

• Queensdale: Fixed a bug in the “Shadow Behemoth” meta-event where the portals could become untargetable.

Sanctum of Rall server.

Big buff to Axe 1 & 2 skills, beautiful for any zerker Necromancer. Another 10% damage on Ghastly Claws coupled with the x1.5 + CD multiplier on critical hits.

EnRohbi.2187:

I didn’t take the patch notes to read “Retaliation used to be able to affect 25 players in an area and now only 5” so much as “For every individual player, Retaliation can only stack duration 5 times now instead of 25”.

You also seem to have missed the part about Righteous Indignation now preventing all condition damage, how do you propose the major guilds beat it?

Retaliation is not considered Condition Damage, its True damage. You never ‘inflict’ Retaliation on an enemy so they cant be immune to it.

dabomb.4056:

I couldn’t care less about righteous indignation, now i gotta try new builds to neutralize thieves as retaliation is my favourite way of dealing with them.

The change is not to single target Retaliation, the “stack” they speak of is the amount of Retaliation hits a person would take per skill they cast.

Example, I used an AoE into a crowd of 50 people all with Retaliation i would be hit back 25 times, now its only 5 times.

This only effects large scale fights, there’s been no change at all to small scale and 1v1’s.

Ruprect.7260:

Not almost impossible, it will be impossible. You can start at 4:59 and run and get as many camps as possible and they cannot be taken back before the tick. A good tactic would be to send small groups to all the camps at 5:00 and cap them all and you are guarantted them for the tick.

Retaliation was the main source of killing a buffed Supervisor. Previously Retaliation had a 25 stack limit, meaning when the Supervisor swung her hammer into a zerg she would be hit back a maximum of 25 times with different players Retaliation.

This has now been changed down to 5 stacks, previously a guild zerg could stack light fields + blast combo and take a supervisor in about 20 seconds, now your looking at about 3 minutes.

Not impossible, but only doable by the major guilds.

You’ve missed out;

• Reduced the number of maximum of stacks of Retaliation allowed to five (was 25). Duration still stacks.

This is a PvE change but affects WvW alot as stacking on a Righteous Indignation Supervisor and spamming light fields + blast finishers will now take 80% longer to kill them.

With the change to Righteous Indignation coupled with the change to Retaliation (Supervisor will only get hit by 5 Retaliations instead of 25 per Supervisor attack) supply camp raiding @ 4 mins and below will be the new meta for PPT as they will be almost impossible to take back before PPT reset.

Ruprect.7260:

•Using stealth no longer resets NPC aggression tables.

Does this mean no more hiding thieves it towers/keeps to res mesmers.

That simply means monsters previously aggro’d onto a Thief will re-engage the Thief as soon as he leaves stealth assuming his aggression score is higher then that of the monsters temporary new target (the one it switched too when the Thief stealthed)

Cappy.2786:

March is the so called “WvW patch”,im sure they will add it then

As do we all… There is just no reward at the moment in team WvW, you earn more loot and experience by 2 man camp raiding then you do following your guild.

Do we know exactly when the next big patch is in March, i think i remembered the Developer saying it was the first week as it was put off for testing.

Official word would be helpful!

I remember a Developer talking about Badges of Honor being able to be turned in for more rewards in WvW (mainly Ascended gear) and them adding more rewards into WvW as a whole.

Has this been added with this patch or is this due in yet another delay to the overall WvW patch.

Calm down boys.

This was truly JQ’s might and skill to achieve +695… and not SoR and SoS not WvWing anymore until BG moves up.

Changes to Rending Claws and Ghastly Claws much approached by all Axe users, another 10% damage on Axe-2 is huge.

Loving the fix too Chill of Death too, Power Necromancers can finally run VI, X, XII traits and have an effective Power trait, stripping 3 boons, chilling and doing 150% damage at 25% health.