Guild Wars 2

Moonsinn.5382:

Ok I Did It.2854:

Moonsinn.5382:

Aethelweard Rex – Guard
Trist Lockwood – Thief
Aelius Swift – Warrior

Your joking right, you seem to play 3 of the most OP classes in PvP and your QQing about a necro ELITE skill, yet you mention nothing about the instant trap spam pull push guard, the perma invis 3 hit kills thief, with more evades than any class, and the invinci warrior, that can neglect condis, do daze for days, and has massive burst damage,

But yes the necro Elite skill is OP

GG.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Skull_Grinder
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vault

Theres a good example of OP.

Actually, in ranked I only play core guard, this build.

Thief I only play in pve now, and I haven’t played war almost at all this season. My F1 key was getting worn out.

All of these, I’ve played since day 1

What we see here is a build with seven sources of block, an invulnerability skill, and three stun breakers and you’re having trouble handling one telegraphed skill?

The stigma of necros comes from the old world of Guild Wars 2. Luckily, for dungeons (literally the easiest part of end game) and fractals, necros are just fine. You might get some shifty eyes in later leveled fractals, but condition necros do just fine there.

In raids, they used to be meta, but now you’re better off finding a guild that does raids with good communication over pugs.

Just don’t expect a good time in solo pvp.

This is a big stretch, but here I go.

Considering that they are introducing the idea of fighting two dragons at once, presenting us with more interesting antagonists, and dropping hints of the Elder Dragons’ roles in maintaining the balance of magic in the world, it would be no surprise to me if Anet is attempting to complete the Elder Dragons’ story as quickly as they can.

Stand The Wall.6987:

why are people saying necro has no sustain? isn’t that what the 2nd health bar is? granted you have to land certain attacks to fill it up, but still.

As far as sustain skills go, it’s probably the hardest to utilize well. Outside reaper’s stability skill, there is little stopping others from locking you down (no good condi clear in ds) and putting you back to square one.

As a necro main, I took the new challenge as a pat on the head from Anet. They told me, “There there now little necro, I know that since launch, the others hated you in dungeons because you weren’t good at standing in one place and exploding might for others, ignoring the fact that you’re a solid and self-sustainable profession. We’ll make those glassy jerks eat their words.”

I think the big problem they would have to solve is redoing how armor operates from the ground up, and some features and detail would probably be lost in the process. I remember back at launch when you could preview different armor types at the same time, it made for some pretty hilarious and freaky results.

I would rather they keep the system they have now and make an effort to mix up the themes and silhouettes outside the typical formats. (as a light main, I’m jelly that mediums get all the cool coats)

eLfocus.8961:

Well true fact im playing Ranger and sometimes i can 1 shot Guardian if i catch him off guard but otherwise it’s burning machine 10-15k burning in few secs + insta blocking meanwhile i didn’t meant to offend Guardian players i used to tick the ones who make them to climb division easier cuz i see off chars daily with gear from the Heart of mists

That’s because if you catch them off guard, they’re just an ian :P

Palador.2170:

CMM.6712:

Coffietire.2783:

I’d like to see him come back too but in a weird way. I mean, how does he know about Aurene?!

It is possible for Tyrians to write and speak. /shrug lol

Yes, but none of the people that know about her would go telling everyone, right?

Personally, I’m going to guess that he has an agent in Rata Novus that has managed to beat Taimi’s security, and placed taps on all of her equipment. What she sees, he sees.

I’m thinking it’s something along these lines. I mean yeah we can write and read, but as far as we know, the commander, Marjory, Lazerus, and the Exalted are the only ones who know of Aurene’s existence. My theory is that there are some Order of Whispers agents who are betraying their institution and living a double life. One as an agent, and the other… as a black lion merchant!

I’d like to see him come back too but in a weird way. I mean, how does he know about Aurene?!

On the subject of Central Tyria exp, if you want to reduce that grindy feel, consider switching it up between world bosses and fractals.

On the subject of Central Tyria exp, if you want to reduce that grindy feel, consider switching it up between world bosses and fracials.

Famine.7915:

The way the legendaries are looking relative to the last one, the new gs is likely to be a giant popsicle stick.

Well we ARE the ones who use chill with our GS so…

All you meta boys tryin to talk kitten against meee?
Oh! I see you have a meditrapper, do you? You have a meditrapper do you?
I’ll put down my gs… I’ll put down my gs… I will put down my GS!! HAHA I got another kitten gs you kitten kitten!

It’s funny, the design around Signet of Vampirism, a skill released post launch, seems to suggest that someone thought signet passives we’re supposed to work in death shroud.

For some reason, I am facing some performance issues in some spots on the map, specifically in the area around Sorrow’s Eclipse and the frozen lake surrounding it. Reducing the game’s resolution and toning down other graphics options does not seem to increase performance.

It’s not as bad under water and I have no performance problems around the rest of the map or the game in general (excluding crowded areas).

I second the warhorn, the daze could prove useful when you need to break the break bar. If you plan on sticking with one armor set in your inventory, warhorn is also good for those times when you end up being alone.

Kanto.1659:

Making everything ascended gives almost nothing for a Viper build, btw, so unless there are high level fractals in the equation there is no rush.

While this is true, I’d say that if you are at least close to crafting a piece of ascended armor, it might be a good investment since linseed oil required to craft exotic viper gear is expensive.

On the flip side, venom sacs required to craft ascended rampager gear is hella cheap. So craft a piece or 2 of ascended rampager gear, use anthology of heroes to make it viper, and you make yourself a little more future proof.

Sounds fun! I’m guessing your opponents approach the battle with little care as they think a vanilla profession could easily be stomped.

I once had this idea for a ES. You’d get a rife or pistol and launch minions out of it like a cannon.

I don’t really run it any more, but this is a build I found very fun.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBIhF6kZTobTsdTwpGgDHssMYSTgKQEY6DEAKBxvwc4PE-TFSLABCoFAGlYis/AA6CGTJ4DqHktKOvo8AA-w

I call it the pack leader!

It’s not very good in the damage department, but you get to be super tanky with only some vitality and the toughness bonus from flesh of the master. Dive right into a huge mob of pocket raptors and start slaying to rack up tons of jagged horrors. Then maintain them using transfusion!

If you have stocked up a good bit of karma, here’s a cool way to make gold off of it.

• Step 1) Complete this heart event if you haven’t
  http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Teach_quaggans_how_to_raise_crabs
• Step 2) The heart merchant for that heart event sells cloth crab grabbin’ gloves, buy as many as you want (just make sure it’s a number divisible by four)
• Step 3) As all karma equipment are, these gloves aren’t salvageable. However, if you combine four of these gloves into the mystic forge, there is a high chance that they will turn into a salvageable level 45 glove set, which, when salvaged, will yield cotton or linen.
• Step 4) Sell the cotton and linen on the trading post and repeat this process as many times as you’d like.

This method is probably just as boring as playing the trading post and doesn’t pay off as much, but it sure is a lot less time consuming.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

2 years of maining a Necromancer… Nearly 3k hours logged… Stuck with it through all the down times…

I will have absolutely no mercy on the souls of my victims. Run or be harvested for your skin and blood.

YYYYYYYYYESS!
I too have been maining necromancer since launch. Besides ranger mains, no other profession mains can understand our years long struggle!

how 2 make plague awesome

Step 1: make plague turn you into a poison field
Step 2: change parasitic contihablabla* to a trait where poison fields pulse healing!
Step 3: enjoy reaper druid immortal duo meta

*that healing trait in curses line with the funny name that I keep forgetting exists

Thanks everyone for the responses. Since launch, I always wanted to roll a condi necro. It’s good to know that these play styles are starting to emerge using the skills I once likes but weren’t effective until now.

I won’t be missing my dark harvest, mainly because that’s an excuse to put it on my guardian!

From a raids stand point.

I have yet to be a part of a successful raid, not that I’ve been trying to be in a serious group yet though, as my guild is a rather casual one.

I currently have the gear suitable for a power build, but I’m seeing a few vids of successful raids featuring a condi necro.

So what I want to know, if I ever want to get serious about raids, should I stick with my current power gear or spend the time and money to play a condi necro?

I’m not sure about how optimal this is, but this minion build is hella fun in the new HoT maps.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQJAWRnMbCN1gtbCebC0biFcBLuK+FLjQtpAQLQKHsDuBA

Play it right and flesh of the master makes you immortal while your army of rats devours foes.

Since you mentioned blood magic, here is a variant that is similar to what I ran for a while.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBhQD7kZTobTsdTwpGgeTssMYTfgAQJQaCUBiAxvwc4PE
When you’re alone, take banshee’s wail. When you’re in groups, take vampiric presence.
Simply equipping only rise and bone minions means that you’re getting enough minions pumping out to satisfy flesh of the master without worrying about cluttering your skill bar or relying too much on AI. If you’re fighting a boss that relies heavily on breaking the break bar, feel free to switch chilled to the bone with flesh golem.
With reaper shroud, I feel that soul reaping, death perception, and vital persistence aren’t as important. Plus, if you’re full berserker and running both death perception and decimate defenses, you’re wasting precision.

Like I said, I’ve ran a similar build before (axe instead of dagger just for the range) and it is very satisfying in open world PvE. Run into a huge group of enemies, pick off most of them, and then let your giant army of rats trap the last enemy in a corner!

I wouldn’t put this in Anet’s defense because relying on 3rd parties to make your experience enjoyable is not good design, but this reallly helps you find the times when a lot of people will be posting fresh maps in HoT.
http://dulfy.net/2015/11/09/gw2-hot-maps-timer-famme/

• Equip death magic with all the minion traits
• Equip bone minions, rise, and you’re all weaklings
• Run into a huge group of mobs and start attacking
• Leave one alive
• Enjoy the show

It’s not the most effective setup, but it sure is the most entertaining.

My guardian is Asura and it is awesome!

• Running with a gs or hammer unsheathed makes them hoist it over their back while still holding it. Cute and badkitten!
• Speaking of hammer, when using hammer 2, they do a freaking front flip!
• When casting short sword 3, they jump in the air, float during the casting, and just go crazy with the blade.
• Triggering mace 3’s block makes them to a jump and a twirl.
• Keeping the theme consistent, when channeling staff 4, they freaking float in the air while rotating around the staff! Also, they twirl the staff over their head for the idle animation.

My only con is that it can be tough to make them look cool in heavy armor, but it can be done!

Even though I feel a tad cheated after getting ~75% of my elite spec done, I think this is a good compromise after I have experienced the hell that is Tangled Depths.

Something to keep in mind though, you’ll still need to get those hero points as you will need them to craft the new legendaries!

It’s really not that bad, it’s just lazy people and people who think that the elite specs are unplayable until you complete it that are complaining. I’m about 3/4 done with my main’s elite spec and it would have been more had I not been so distracted with Halloween.

Seriously, the first map is easy enough that you can run an incomplete elite spec, chill, and explore the map at your own pace, with skill points being exploration based goals.

It may be a good investment to put a few points into chaos, just enough to get reduced cooldown on manipulation skills. Blink is great for every game mode and having that on a lower cool down will make exploring and surviving alone a lot easier and fun.

As someone who has an ascended kharka shell that’s been sitting in the bank for years, I sympathize. Here is an idea I came up with, note however that I am not actually familiar with ranger.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWVn0rC1sgtsA2sCEtiFDBDurGWTrNdgTQLgJAM6Kdl8suA-TxSAABacBAES9go1EYkKOOqEEgjAgZK/m+BAwxhAon9HqRHAA-e

In this build, staff is not your main weapon, it will be used for a quick daze in order to proc ancient seed as well as refilling your celestial form(looking back, apothecary staff might be better than cleric in this context).

The new glyph elite is on a really low cool down, making it ideal for an elite skill based rune such as rune of the krait.

Short bow will be your main damage dealing weapon, but we have low base crit chance, so make sure you stick to the sides of bosses and swap your pets frequently in order to land those bleed on crits, speaking of pets, make sure you pick ones that are condition damage centric, as that is probably just as important as doing condition damage yourself.

This is what I’ve been rocking in the jungle.
(accessory, sigil, and rune choices aren’t final, just trying to work with the stuff the beta gave me)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBHhF6kZTolGsdTwnGgeTscMYT7gXwNI+GGEHiR9stVAA-ThSBABFpcgjTBgRK5wRVF6M/djaFooPoVlgxs/AAPBAA-e

The idea is to be both a brawler and support character. In group fights, with decimate defenses and target the weak, you will basically be critting all the time most of the time (as opposed to death perception) while still having traits and skills for support via high weakness up time, vampiric aura, some minor boon corruption, and wells. I think this build has the potential to be the ultimate carrier in dungeons.

Don’t worry too much about that, you should REALLY save all your transmutation charges for when you are level 80.

I think a part of me wants reaper hybrid to work purely because chilled to the bone + rune of the mad king = awesome

Sororita.3465:

Nice for PvE, i always prefer more defensive stats in addition to offense stats for WvW. Celestial gives both as well as giving you a bigger total in all to work with.

I play tanky power builds so i can’t stand anything too squishy. I run around with 3200 armor for instance….( 2800 power, 3200 armor, 25k hp, 200% crit damage).

Perhaps so, I tried a more defensive approach of this build (w/ carrion) in BWE2 and it was a tad frustrating. With a loss in power, you have to almost guarantee that grave digger crits.

Sororita.3465:

Greatsword is a power weapon through and through, though it does work well in hybrid builds. In order for it to shine, it really needs to have precision and ferocity as well as just pure power. For this I would personally use celestial gear, there’s just enough time to get all the time gated pieces required to make it.

During the beta weekends i tried this build out:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQJARWnc0AN3gN2Am3A0biljBLOHGEPiULhnwsKqnttCAA-w

The main strength comes when fighting boon heavy opponents ( Guardians, Elementalists, some Warriors, Revenants, Rangers etc etc).

With Path of Corruption, you’ll be able to corrupt two boons on a target into conditions every 5 Seconds, coupled with corrupt boons and you can pretty much devastate boon heavy opponents.

I would use Superior Sigils of Blight and Torment in your staff, they give a chance on critical hit to apply AoE poison and AoE Torment respectively.

Do not waste your whirl finishers in your Ice Fields. Chill is all nice and good but a lot of classes have traits that either reduce the duration of it or out right remove it. Use them on your poison fields ( Corrosive poison cloud and Chillbains). Everytime you use your whirl finishers in them, you’ll sent out poison bolts resulting in some nice stacks of poison.

I took your build and put some stats on it, let me know what you think.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQJARWnc0AN3gN2Am3A0biljBLOHGEPiULhnwsKqnttCAA-TVSLABVt/gEqqwqSoS1E4jSwXUi8gaF9o8AAdAAA-w

I compared this to full celestial and most stats stay the same, you loose armor and vitality and 1% crit damage while gaining a spike of power on the sword and condition damage on the staff.

ronpierce.2760:

Herald + Blighter’s Boon Reaper.

Enjoy the best time of your life.

Might be one of the few cases where RPing might be a viable tactic in PvP.

Those boon sharing builds roam with their god(ess), a terrible force of death. Through their shouts, up keeps, signets of inspiration, and undying devotion, they feed their master to make it an undefeated beast…. until that jerk hambow stuns it.

I’ve been working on figuring out a hybrid reaper and here is what I’ve come up with.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBLhF6kZToaTsdTw6GgeTscMYx3wg4RkKJ8EmVR9stVAA-TRTBABUcCA6b/hLOEAQ8AA0RVFqVC1seAzUCelSkbUroMlHooJAgjAAA-e

The idea is to go glass cannon while relying on weakness up time and blinds to survive, also remember that the new augury of death is going to siphon life. While the great sword does not have any baseline condition damage of it’s own, being able to tick a few conditions mid battle should be able to help it.

I ran pure power during BWE2 and I can not tell you how many times I used grave digger when I thought the enemy was at 50% health when they were really at 51.37444444% health. This is when that bit of condition damage really helps.

As far as damage modifiers in curses are concerned, I would much rather change barbed precision so that instead of extending bleed duration (plenty of opportunity to do that with runes and sigils + condi cleanse meta), you now deal increased damage to bleeding foes.

I’m actually wondering if nether would be a viable option really. With blood magic + reaper, there is a possibility that curses or death magic would actually be the better option.

With curses, we would get some boon hate, weakness up time, a crit chance modifier, and the ever so wonderful plague sending as well as the ability to use blood bond reliably. With the play style you mentioned, this would be a good option for trying to reduce the impact of your build’s short comings.

With death magic, we have putrid defense (reduced damage while casting transfusion!!!!), deadly strength (you mentioned crusader amulet), and your choice of unholy sanctuary (safety net) or corruptor’s favor (even more reduced damage while casting transfusion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Death magic might be the best option with what you are trying to achieve.

You might say that we need reaper’s might to synergize with blighter’s boon, but if you can get in a good group and avoid dueling too much, you might get all the healing you need. Also, since reaper shroud forces you into melee, spamming auto attack to heal off of might stacks might not be the best idea. Remember, infusing terror will also heal us.

Vital persistence sounds good, but again, we are forced into melee range and as such, we will be taking heavy damage to our life force anyways. Death magic and curses also offer ways to reduce damage (plague sending, weakening shroud, putrid defense, and corrupter’s fervor) while also making your build more versatile. Reduced cooldown also sounds nice, but reaper shroud cooldowns are pretty low anyways. Life transfer is 34 seconds with VP while soul spiral is 30 seconds without VP.

This is not to say that soul reaping and spite aren’t bad with the reaper, but I think it’s an all or nothing deal with these two when it comes to using them with reaper. Use both or none of them as it might be the only way they can be truly powerful with the reaper.

Clutural t3 chest, t2 shoulders, and nightmare court leggings might get you a similar, if different look.

If it can be from anywhere….. would hate to know that I was the WvW player whose bag dropped a precursor

Pirate crook looks pretty brutal!

I know this reddit post is concerned with necromancers but I think it applies here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3jdjtv/designing_challenging_content/cuoh8b6

Basically, the devs vision on what they want to be optimal for raids, outside speed clearing, is surviving. In the current PvE setting, this means ether exploiting AI so the big meanie doesn’t use its skill to burst you or you down it before it uses its burst skill too many times.
My theory on why the current meta is so popular to the point of almost becoming unwritten law is that this play style satisfies both speed clearing enthusiasts, grinders, and bad players. Anet basically wants to move away from this playstyle and hopefully the devs understand the factors on why it has worked and what they can do to prevent it. They have been touting their new and improved AI recently so I have my hopes.

Back to thief!

If this ideal situation becomes a reality, the thief can be in quite the awesome spot! Their access to blinds(def against burst), evades(def against aoe), and stealth(def against single target attacks) means that the thief could not only stick with glass cannon gear, unlike some other classes, and still excel at being self sustainable.

For outside spvp ( I’d recommend pure power for that), I came up with an idea that uses reaper shroud with some celestial gear.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBLhF6kjGoaTsdTwzGgeTsUMYx7wi4SkqJMFuVRBgvVBA-TFjEABe/IAgb/hjVCFieAAVC2hmAlUioiaFAcEAwS5BMqqw8JAAA-w

Since we need a decent ranged option that can effectively kite (I’m not good with the staff) I opted for the scepter. Condition damage is just shy of reaching 1000 (nothing some food can’t fix) while still maintaining good power and vitality throughout the build.

ps: sigils and runes were selected for purely entertaining purposes, but seriously, sigil of mishief + chilling darkness

If the reaper has plenty of life force to make good use of the new stability skill, perhaps.

If it doesn’t, you can pretty much go nuts as outside of reaper, the necro does not have a lot of defense versus crowd control.

If you don’t mind a small loss of ferocity, you can always try using soldier’s trinkets. You can then equip runes of the wurm to make up for the loss in ferocity.

Now when I use my howler, all I can think of is http://usercontent2.hubimg.com/5942725_f520.jpg