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Returning: Is PVE DPS Necro viable?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

Link your videos, along with context around what they are proving. I have no idea where your videos are to even look them up.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Returning: Is PVE DPS Necro viable?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

What i say now is literally nothing compared to what i received back when i was putting out guides. Everything i was saying got ridiculed by these people, Spoj was among them… i even had entire threads dedicated to me.

Unfortunately what I’ve seen of Spoj almost everywhere has been civil. What I’ve seen of you has been sputtering and prideful. Guides are going to be ridiculed. You should be able to back them up, not hold grudges for years.

Secondly… i was right then, and i am right now…

It’s easy to claim we were right in the past with nothing to support it. Again, pride and ego running rampant. If only you’d tone it down, more people might listen.

ArenaNet said necromancers are fine, i said necromancers are fine… Spoj, Nike, Sesshi and a few others said necromancers are weak compared to staff ele and condition engineers.

The community would have never believed that in the first place if it wasn’t for the Icebow which was doing all the work for them.

Great, there are two sides to a discussion, so you can point/counter-point. What’s the issue exactly? That the community believe the other side?

Icebow is an ability a class has. If it takes that class above and beyond, that’s legitimate. Again, pride and refuting data because it makes you upset.

My friend… you really don’t get it. No one ever said “advertised numbers do not match reality” until i made those 2 videos… now they all try to sugar-coat it and go back on their claims.

Without these videos they would have continued pulling out numbers of 20K DPS condition engineer, 25K revenant and so on… which people do believe, despite the fact that Spoj admitted those numbers do not match reality… also he said he never advertised such numbers, even though he did as you saw in the videos.

I bet they did. I can’t trust your word because there’s an incredible amount of bias to your perspective. So much so that I’m inclined to believe the opposite, unfortunately. I don’t want that to be the case, but it is.

However… as i see it, i think i am too late… It’s going to take people more then year to finally realize they don’t do even half of what was advertised to them, in the best case scenarios… worst case they just die nonstop, have like 1K DPS overall, and blame everyone else.

At least now i can publish a few proper builds in peace without being ridiculed, i don’t think they would dare to trash my work like they did in the past… ever again.

Again, messiah complex and believing yourself infallible. How am I supposed to trust someone with such a heightened sense of self? Whatever your work is, I hope it is scrutinized. Everyone’s work should be. When spoj releases an evaluation of the data he’s collected, along with what rotations he has deemed optimal, I hope it is scrutinized as well. Heavily. I hope everyone takes everything they see and tests it, runs their own calculations, and draws their own conclusions. That’s how it should be done, and that’s how the best players will do it.

MMO communities have hardly ever been able to handle advertised numbers, in any game. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t figure out what our theoretical upper bounds are and how we might achieve them to further our gameplay.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Will Stability be Getting a Buff?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

I think that guilds should win against blobs if they have lot’s of guardians and they know how to spam 1.

I really enjoyed this line, personally. Cheers.

I also kind of like the idea of the AoE CC only applying to X players before dissipating. I’m surprised they’ve allowed certain AoE to have infinite potential while the rest of the AoE is severely limited.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Every day i play GS, its worse

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

I find the cooldowns are too long and don’t make for good rotation with RS like other weapon sets such as staff do. I can have my staff out only and take on many mobs hop in and out of RS and always have at least something on my staff off CD.. You can’t do that with GS unless you want to go 11111111111111111.

My staff cooldowns for 2 – 5 are 4.75, 16, 20, 32. For GS, my 2 – 5 cooldowns are 8, 12, 25, 30. That’s pretty comparable, and Mark of Blood spam isn’t doing you a lot of good if you’re Power-specced, which I’m sort of guessing you are if you’re using GS (though you don’t necessarily have to be).

Also, I don’t think it’s a good idea to evaluate a weapon based on “can I only use this weapon, and not a completely new and different weapon set that can provide me new opportunities and fresh cooldowns?”.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Returning: Is PVE DPS Necro viable?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

Spoj is trying to evaluate our abilities to determine what the most effective rotation might be. Nemesis, you’re just spitting in people’s faces. And please stop using “… for free…” in your posts. It makes you sound like you want to be some sort of sleezy salesman who nickel and dimes everyone for any service provided.

I also wouldn’t trust you to add up the numbers properly, anyway. At this point, based on your demeanor, I honestly believe you would fudge the numbers just to make someone look bad. Objectivity is at the heart of good data analysis, and you have a personal vendetta against some people.

I personally have an inkling Necro will carve out a niche in raids once the content releases and people start to get creative. However, what Spoj is doing is also interesting and important. Anything that helps you better understand a class is cool and should be shared.

You don’t have to agree with anything. But if you disagree, you can do it constructively. Steer the discussion in the proper direction, ensuring people know that rotations should often be more considered priority lists of abilities, as moving in a fight can disrupt a strict rotation based on cooldowns. You can help identify what the optimal rotation is, then show empirically with your videos what the “real DPS” of that would be, if you want to avoid doing a mathematical calculation of optimal DPS. Demonstrate what a rotation against a dummy looks like, then maybe highlight how that might change in a fight with dodging/melee-hate phases, etc.

That is, of course, if you care that much about Necro. If you only care about trying to make others look bad, you’ll just keep doing what you’re doing, hating on every thread you can find, even when someone just tries to pipe up with something people can get their hands on and work with to draw their own conclusions.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Returning: Is PVE DPS Necro viable?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

Nemesis, every post you make is destructive and serves only to try to undermine someone else.

If you want to disprove them, try doing it constructively. Show us what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. Everything you have ever said has required me to take your word for it, from your ability to calculate DPS on videos to your claims of “REAL DPS” numbers. Honestly, I have no reason to trust you, and won’t until you make more of an effort to contribute instead of undermine.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

GS is viable in PvP, the problem is the AA.

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

GS #1 isn’t the only source of chill. GS #5 chills as well, as long as it hits (even if it doesn’t pull because of whatever bugness). GS #3 has a longer range than GS #1, and you’ll have to combo abilities to keep someone in GS #4. Even if you don’t you create several seconds of space, which in PvP can buy you key time. You can’t just run up and land GS #2 on anyone watching their screen, sure, but if someone dodges your really short cooldown nuke, that means they have 1 fewer dodge than before, which matters for a class with slow casts. If anything, them dodging #2 is fine, and you can probably even use #2 to reliably sheathe the ability, forcing a dodge without even forcing your full cooldown to switch into a different ability/combo.

As far as why I don’t use autos much, it’s because often, weapon abilities have been set-up to DS spike for me. Dagger #3 into Focus #4 into DS #1s with a DS #3 to keep the CC chain going when the immob is about to run out. In WvW with condition duration being broken, I would throw a Dagger auto chain in after #3 for the additional damage, but otherwise I’d only really use it to man-up against a Thief when I was at a comfortable health level and they were keen on only using dagger against me while revealed.

Part of it is because I switch weapons frequently. Maybe it’s because I started as a Warrior who couldn’t give up Fast Hands, but I’m always switching weapons and taking advantage of what isn’t on cooldown on the weapons. If GS goes on CD with 3 – 5, I’m in Staff applying more chill, clearing condis, fearing. Once those tools are on CD I’m back in GS. Throw RS into the mix, and my 2 – 5 abilities are regularly off of cooldown in all 3 ability sets. I also go into Shroud almost on cooldown (though I should work on managing shroud-procs for sigils to get more out of my Energy sigils), so that’s more time for GS abilities to cool down without using GS #1.

I’ll use Shroud #1 for no-cooldown pressure, but almost never other autos. I hardly ever used autos on my Warrior, because there was always something else I could be doing. The only reliable source of pressure I’ve seen on an auto for Necro is Scepter, and I actually have to force myself to remember to auto, because I’m so used to not worrying about it. Dagger autos aren’t bad, but they are still very short range, so you’ll probably only get 1 cycle in before they backpedal or sidestep out of range. Otherwise, I don’t see a difference really, so long as you are able to use your mouse to continually face a target.

GS #1 may apply chill, and maybe it should be a reliable source of chill. What if they extended the 3rd hit into a cone in front of the Necro at some larger distance, like 300 – 400? Sure it’s still 1 second, but it’s easier to land and forces a dodge if the enemy doesn’t want to take the chill/damage.

I’m not sure a faster AA would even really solve the problem, unless it was Dagger-fast.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

GS is viable in PvP, the problem is the AA.

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

I hardly ever use Staff auto. I basically never used Axe auto in PvP when I used Axe. I hardly ever used Dagger auto, besides a few special cases. I’ll situationally use GS auto.

I’m arguing that nothing with GS is different from other weapons for me, so I’m trying to understand your playstyle, especially for PvP. Facing up against many classes in an auto-battle outside of Shroud sounds like a ticket to downed state, and if they are blowing dodges on your autos, that just means you can more easily land other abilities right after they dodge, like a GS #5 into GS #2 or something.

I’m just trying to understand why you’re spamming autos on an advertised slow weapon.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Liquid Xp

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a bummer to lose that XP. It also sounds like hoarding XP games the system a bit if you fast-track achievements during seasons with it, circumventing the nature/design of the achievement in the first place. If someone doesn’t play enough to earn an achievement, then they simply don’t get that achievement. Everyone isn’t entitled to everything in the game.

ANet could have handled this better. That much is true.

But if you’re hoarding 50 levels of WvW XP, I have the impression that those 50 levels don’t mean much to you. If you really, truly cared about those 50 levels, maybe you would have consumed the XP to get them before now. I’m at level 317 or so, and I clicked every single little bottle I saw in my inventory when it was in my inventory, just because I like gaining levels in things. I do the same with luck. And with the re-org, by the looks of it they severely reduced the amount of points needed for certain things, opening up much more flexibility in distributing points. My points are in several new places now. Why would you horde 50 levels when your points are being refunded anyway? That makes no sense.

If they increased the level cap, and turned tomes of knowledge into XP boosts in order to avoid people just instantly hitting the new level cap, I can imagine people might get upset. However, that games the system and detracts from the intent of a player working towards a new cap, so it’s really not a bad decision.

Willful ignorance of upcoming changes also isn’t an excuse, regardless of the fact that ANet could have handled this better.

And don’t tell me clicking on a box multiple times is “tiring”. Please. I won’t believe you actually think it’s an arduous task.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

GS is viable in PvP, the problem is the AA.

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

While you may think it’s cool to talk down on other players and tell people “don’t use GS auto attack because x x x x”, you do realize we’re all necros/reapers and some of us are trying to get Greatsword to become better and more viable.

So next time you decide to be cool and post against the idea of increasing GS auto speed, please think twice before posting. Thanks. Just because you don’t use it for X reasons, it doesn’t mean GS shouldn’t be better for those that do want GS to become better.

I can’t help but get the impression you’re telling people to not disagree with you. Should we always agree with all ideas that make everything better, despite it maybe not being necessary?

I was sincerely wondering how often people run around trying to auto in melee as a Necromancer, outside of shroud. Even with Dagger I found I rarely had a good opportunity for it personally, and it was never my main source of LF generation. With GS #3 potentially getting 12% LF on a target, I’m surprised to hear the auto is considered the way to generate.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Liquid Xp

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/earning-hero-points-in-world-vs-world/

They announced this days in advance. As much of a bummer as it might be to some, it’s dishonest to claim that they swept the rug out from under you with no warning.

And if you expect a game company to send an in-game mail to every single character with all of potential changes in an upcoming game, your expectations are at fault.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

GS is viable in PvP, the problem is the AA.

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

Do people really run around AAing each other in PvP that frequently, and is 5% LF over the course of 2.5ish seconds really generating you reliable LF from melee range? I feel like I very rarely AA unless it’s Scepter, and on a rare occasion Dagger. I’ll AA in DS/RS, but I’ve happily ignored AAs for other weapons without thinking the weapon is totally unviable in PvP.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Are solo players discouraged by Anet in WvW?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

It’s unfortunate too, because I personally think the new Borderlands map is gorgeous. They put a lot of love into the intricacies of the design, so I’m hoping things pull out of the doldrums and people start to enjoy them.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Returning: Is PVE DPS Necro viable?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

Snip

The build is interesting, but I have misgivings about it dealing more damage than a valkyrie/spite reaper to enemies above 50% health. Taking deadly strength into account, you still have about 12% less power than a valkyrie/spite reaper. And you also lose the might stacking component of shroud 1.

That’s where furious sharpening stones come in, the total offensive conversion is 24%, the incredibly high ferocity makes up for the power greatly.

edit: So since i don’t think i elaborated on my theory, i will now, My theory is basically that with this amount of conversions (24%) you can achieve same-or-greater damage with no loss to defense, where losing defense is the norm with berserker.

Traits / party buffs affecting toughness also convert, By default, you’re getting 180 extra toughness thrown in to convert, and up to 700 (480 with just corruptor’s, 700 or so with a minions build running flesh of the master).

Say you have a guardian giving his passive buff, the guardians is 150 toughness, 24% of that is being converted to offensive stats when with a berserker build it would be 6% with ordinary stones, with near no difference to offense.

I’ve hit upwards of 4.5-4.6k armor with this fully-buffed, that is what i mean by not losing defense.

I didn’t know Furious Sharpening Stones existed, but now that I do, I might have to go back to some Cavalier action.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Nerf to Condition Foods!

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

As I pointed out in the other thread, I’m wondering why Sweet Bean Buns didn’t follow suit, as they still provide very large boosts.

I do think this is a good idea overall. 40% buff for well, almost anything, is just too much for a single consumable.

I was really happy about the changes to food reducing +/- to 20% instead of 40%.

Then I saw the Sweet Bean Buns, and now I’m really sad again. Why does this food have to exist? -40% condi duration was as detrimental to the game as +40%, as one just forces the other to have a fight that isn’t almost broken.

A hair’s breadth from being super happy with a change, and they leave this garbage in. I hope it gets changed.

Bean buns were a rare drop from a one off event. (Iirc) so don’t stress. The price of them is already nuts and it’s only going to get worse.

Haha, that actually is a relief. The food represents everything that made me sad about food in WvW, with both + and – duration, but luckily it’s a limited supply that will most likely dwindle fast.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Are solo players discouraged by Anet in WvW?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

Take camps/temples/sentries/escort yaks/kill yaks/destroy siege/kill roamers/tag waypoints+keeps/scout

There’s plenty for Roamers to do, this content isn’t intended for solo play. I don’t see a single roamer taking on a group/party of players unless its a bunch of clueless sub-levels.

It’s not about whether there’s something to do. I used to take camps/kill yaks/etc. back in the old Borderlands. It’s about the odds of running into other roamers on such an enormous map. I can take camps all day, but if I don’t run into any other players, the experience is watered down.

I’m a bit concerned the size of the maps is going to lead to local zergs just circling around each other taking objectives without any fighting, since responding defensively will take a fairly significant amount of time.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Reaper in WvW

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

after playing for awhile now ive found the reaper to be almost utterly useless in wvw and pvp, it is slow kitable and easily avoidable, I love what they tried to do but for me its a huge miss considering I look at wvw as endgame, if you want to play the new OP “must buy xpack” class then go for the rev hammer thrower. Ive played over 5000 hours on necro and to be ballparked into an even slower and dumber spec that everyone can run from and laugh at has just about drawn the last straw for me.

wouldn’t chill be good for frontline with soft CC? Need stab from ally but I imagine it to be a nice addition to the hard CC train. What am i missing

It will immediately get cleansed from all the group cleansing flying around. And without BB from allies now we can’t sustain ourselves in the Zerg as a front liner.

In roaming, with most roamers being thief, meaner, Nike warrior or elementalist, they’ll just run the moment you enter reaper shroud and use a leap of teleport since they’re no longer affected by chill. Even with RS 2, you won’t have enough range to catch them. Afterwards they’ll just kite you till you exit and then nuke you. Chill should really affect the range of movement abilities again, that change screwed us over. .

It sounds like people are adapting to Reaper, but you don’t want to adapt to their adaptation and further the evolution of the matchups.

Get busy adaptin’, or get busy dyin’.

Nothing gives me constipation more than this type of post. The guy has 5000 hours, this is not someone who just jumped into the class and is wondering what the F1 button does.

I think i have a way to solve this problem. Taunt, a high range (2k units) Aoe ground targeted taunt as well as a skill similar to a ward.

So you assume that someone who has potentially spent 4000+ hours doing the same thing against the same sorts of classes will automatically and instantly adapt after a few days to a completely new build, against completely new builds?

I don’t care if someone has 10,000 hours played. Time spent doesn’t mean a person is infallible. Also, if you take a hiatus, you’re usually rusty when you come back, as well. Sometimes a new perspective kicks you back into gear.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Nerf to Condition Foods!

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

As I pointed out in the other thread, I’m wondering why Sweet Bean Buns didn’t follow suit, as they still provide very large boosts.

I do think this is a good idea overall. 40% buff for well, almost anything, is just too much for a single consumable.

I was really happy about the changes to food reducing +/- to 20% instead of 40%.

Then I saw the Sweet Bean Buns, and now I’m really sad again. Why does this food have to exist? -40% condi duration was as detrimental to the game as +40%, as one just forces the other to have a fight that isn’t almost broken.

A hair’s breadth from being super happy with a change, and they leave this garbage in. I hope it gets changed.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Are solo players discouraged by Anet in WvW?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

I’m not going to judge WvW too harshly at the moment with the release of HoT still only a few days past. However, the size of the Borderlands really has me concerned that solo roaming will consist of much larger periods of down-time. Sure there are smaller objectives scattered around (shrines and what-not), but I don’t really see how I’m going to run into other roamers with any frequency whatsoever.

It isn’t that I’m opposed to a larger-scale map making zerg movements mean more (as it takes longer to make moves, longer to get places, and therefore adds meaning to death), but I’m not sure how roaming is going to pan out. If that was a sacrifice to make the larger-scale fighting more meaningful I can see that decision making sense, it’s just a bit of a bummer for me personally.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Reaper in WvW

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

basically it doesn’t matter about anything when it comes to builds or skill, because the simple fact is everything the reaper does, is just to slow, it’s like fighting with one hand tied behind your back.

I’ve been landing slow abilities that everyone claims will never hit anyone since the game released. Warrior Hammer, Necro Focus, Necro Dagger #3, etc. You aren’t always going to be fighting a professional player, and there’s a lot you can do to work with slow abilities.

People rule out skill with such speed that I wonder if they even really tried in the first place.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Reaper in WvW

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

Ah good so my build is solid, so it’s jut my skill. Admittedly I am rusty and very used to the base necro’s range, but am excited for reaper as it gives me what I really want. And I’m not really looking to chase down people per say, more of just forcing them to stay in an engagement when I know they want to just run. I hate gankers, despise them, which I know you think ,“then why are you roaming?” Specifically because of that reason, so I can turn the tables on them….plus killing thieves and mesmers has resulted in some hilarious hate mail while on my necro :P

I’ll try and work on my rotations and read more into what they’re doing. Thanks for the advice.

I’m not trying to say you’re playing poorly, or that your build won’t need any changes. However, I think people often get wrapped up in builds, and they forget about the nuances of the fight itself. I always blame my skill first, then once I feel satisfied that I am performing somewhat well, I look at what I am really struggling against to figure out if it’s a build thing. So for example, if I’m being Blind spammed, I look at what I’m trying to do (maybe land DS #1s or other slow attacks) and try to incorporate more channeling abilities to negate that issue.

Kudos to you for sticking with what you want stylistically, though. It might be rough against certain classes/builds by nature of the beast, but that doesn’t mean you can’t perform well. And unfortunately, forcing some classes to stay in an engagement out in an open world is almost impossible. Makes me sad, but if a Thief wants to get away, he’s going to get away from me, so I have to surprise him into the ground with a combo/etc.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Reaper in WvW

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

I appreciate you outlining your build, but I think you need to forget about your build for a minute. It looks like you have mobility tools and pull tools, along with condi transfers/cleanses. So let’s leave it at that for a minute.

You mentioned that people will use a teleport/leap when you enter RS, then kite. Do they also cleanse chill when you enter RS? Are you timing chills so they are applied when you enter RS to slow them down? Are you using Swiftness before entering RS (with Spectral Walk) to try to catch them?

What other tools are they using to kite? When you exit RS, what sort of burst are they applying, and is their timing on the burst obvious? If you take the 25% run speed with Shroud, it also means you are getting the 30% recharge reduction, so you have 7 seconds before you can go back into shroud. You can pretty comfortably dodge twice within that timeframe, maybe use Staff #5/GS #4 to help negate/control the bursts, but it all depends on what your opponent is doing exactly.

Also, how much damage are they doing when they kite you? If not much, and if the pull utilities like Spectral Grasp aren’t working out, you might want to try swapping for Spectral Armor, or otherwise attempting to maximize your LF generation in case you need to sit in RS while your cooldowns come back.

Maybe when they run away, you run away too. Just use RS #2 in the opposite direction and force them to close the distance. If they don’t want to fight, don’t fight. It sounds like you’re fighting on their terms, which is giving them the advantage. If you force them to blow teleports/leaps to catch up, then turn and start going to town, you may flip the tables. I know it might sound annoying, but if you want high mobility to catch people who run, Necro isn’t your jam.

I think a better use of time than analyzing your build at the moment is analyzing your opponents’ builds. What are they built for? What abilities do the most damage? How are they using them to counter what you have? Sometimes it isn’t your build, but your execution that can turn a fight. I’m not saying it is going to be easy, and if you really want to shine, you might have to switch your weapons around. However, if you simply love GS and Staff (which is probably going to be my combo in WvW, too), then it’s just a matter of taking the time to learn what they’re doing that is killing you. I also used to frequently swap utilities based on what class I saw in the distance, so it might be a matter of tailoring your abilities to the class you’re fighting as well.

That’s my generic advice, anyway. Often, especially if I’m using a new weapon set/build/haven’t played in 6 months, I’ll find that I’m focusing much more on what I’m doing than what the opponent is doing. Sometimes it works if the opponent is doing generic things and I remember a burst or two that I evade, but often against the meta builds, I end up thinking back to the fight and saying “What exactly did they do that killed me?”, and I have absolutely no idea because I was thinking more about what I was doing. It might benefit you to, in a fight, just do some simple, generic ability combo while watching them very, very closely. You’ll probably lose, but your awareness of what is happening grows incredibly, and the next time you fight you might have already thought of something to take the fight further.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

So whats everyones Reaper gonna look like?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

I had no idea that this hood existed, but I’m super happy that it does. I think I’m pretty happy with the current state.

Attachments:

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Reaper in WvW

in Necromancer

Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

after playing for awhile now ive found the reaper to be almost utterly useless in wvw and pvp, it is slow kitable and easily avoidable, I love what they tried to do but for me its a huge miss considering I look at wvw as endgame, if you want to play the new OP “must buy xpack” class then go for the rev hammer thrower. Ive played over 5000 hours on necro and to be ballparked into an even slower and dumber spec that everyone can run from and laugh at has just about drawn the last straw for me.

wouldn’t chill be good for frontline with soft CC? Need stab from ally but I imagine it to be a nice addition to the hard CC train. What am i missing

It will immediately get cleansed from all the group cleansing flying around. And without BB from allies now we can’t sustain ourselves in the Zerg as a front liner.

In roaming, with most roamers being thief, meaner, Nike warrior or elementalist, they’ll just run the moment you enter reaper shroud and use a leap of teleport since they’re no longer affected by chill. Even with RS 2, you won’t have enough range to catch them. Afterwards they’ll just kite you till you exit and then nuke you. Chill should really affect the range of movement abilities again, that change screwed us over. .

It sounds like people are adapting to Reaper, but you don’t want to adapt to their adaptation and further the evolution of the matchups.

Get busy adaptin’, or get busy dyin’.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Reaper from an Outsiders PoV

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

That’s odd because before Necro was a short range melee brawler with a focus on AoE and it’s been replaced by the revolutionary new Reaper who is a short range melee brawler with a focus on AoE.

Your generalizing is showing to the point where I think it is illegal in at least a few states.

@OP: I agree and am enjoying Reaper thoroughly so far.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Weapon swap and you <3

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

i hope they remove entirely the proccing on DS/RS. it removes control from energy sigil management. its horrible

Why don’t you just use RS after dodging instead of using weapon swap after dodging? And if you use RS while your sigil is on CD (within 9 seconds of swapping weapons), then it doesn’t affect the CD, right?

I’m sure your muscle memory is programmed to play with weapon swaps, but now you have an additional option. Just practice.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Returning: Is PVE DPS Necro viable?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

I … guess I will just go back to playing witcher 3….

Nooo! Don’t let the forum drama put you off. Necros are fun! They really, really are.

Agreed. Two people having a disagreement on a forum shouldn’t stop you from enjoying a game. You’ve gotten some solid feedback. If you want to go out and wreck things, do it. And you can take comfort in the fact that whenever you want to see two people argue again, all you have to do is put spoj and nemesis in a room.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Returning: Is PVE DPS Necro viable?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

@OP: if you love you some Necromancer, you can make it work. Ranged Power is probably the only place you’ll feel really lacking. Ranged Condi will most likely work for you if you like Condi.

I’ve always thought GW2 theorycrafters were too aggressive in their assertions, but maniacally trying to debunk anything they have said at any point without context just makes me really really sad.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Berseker reaper with Dhuumfire ?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

Adding up all the damage ticks in a video is a really awkward way to try to calculate, and I’m not even sure it would accurately identify condition damage. Without meters, it is an extraordinarily muddy science. Not nearly enough to try to pick fights on a forum.

And Dhuumfire on a zerker build is very justifiable.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

First Reaper nerf of the expansion!

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

I am sorry, but I don’t trust anyone who claims they played perfectly and capped on potential damage. The screenshot doesn’t suggest to me you couldn’t have done better.

No no i didnt mean record max

I meant a good higher end for what is achievable on average. Ill actually now take a lok at the screenshots ive been doing and ill post my statistics.

Gotcha. It’s definitely interesting to see how people end matches, so long as the context is there. Thanks for sharing the data!

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Idea for Blighter's boon

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

I just wanted to say I like this idea as well.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

First Reaper nerf of the expansion!

in Necromancer

Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

I am sorry, but I don’t trust anyone who claims they played perfectly and capped on potential damage. The screenshot doesn’t suggest to me you couldn’t have done better.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Returning: Is PVE DPS Necro viable?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

I don’t know how well I would trust people yet. Regardless of the fact that people think they are masters after 3 betas, it is pretty early to tell for sure.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Berseker reaper with Dhuumfire ?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

As for the one who came up with the build, hard to say. I played a part, spoj played a part, I think Bawb played a part, too.

It was part of the theory crafting that we were going through. On a shroud focused reaper (spite/soul reaping/reaper), the reaper is capable of stacking 25 vulnerability and 25 might by himself. This leads to a bit of an issue regarding the grandmaster trait in soul reaping. Decimate Defenses makes Deathly Perception obsolete. Foot in the grave, while being a very nice utility on its own, isn’t always necessary. The end choice was Dhuumfire.

At maximum might, a zerker reaper hits for about 248 per tick. Last time I did any calculations, a reaper’s onslaught boosted auto attack had about the same DPS as the greatsword auto attack… before factoring in Burning. I’ll do a quick check…

I just did a quick check. With onsalught, I’m getting a total attack chain time of 2.075. Round up or down as you see fit. With no gear equipped, this comes to a raw tooltip DPS of (235 + 235 + 469) about 438. The sword auto attack does 469 raw tooltip DPS (391 + 469 + 547 over 3 seconds), and the dagger does 473 raw tooltip DPS.

I call it “raw” because it doesn’t include anything else. No might/vuln/chill/life force generation. Just the basic numbers. From this, you can see that sword auto attack is roughly the same as the dagger auto attack, while also being about 7% higher than the Reaper Shroud auto attack. Now, we can acquire a few things from this. In particular, how much effective power you’ll need for Sword Auto to do more damage than Shroud Auto:

Each Shroud Auto chain stacks 3 × 3 / 2 stack of burning, coming to about 4.5 stacks sustained. This is 1,115 additional DPS. We can find the point where the 7.077% ,difference in direct damage between sword auto and shroud auto is equivalent to 1,115 DPS. First, we take the tooltip difference between greatsword auto and dagger auto (31), then divide 1,115 by it (to get 36). This is the scalar multiple that needs to be applied to direct damage. Direct damage scales linearly with power, so at 2000 power you’ll be doing twice the tooltip damage (in our case, 62 extra damage). So, since 1,115 is 36 times larger than 31, we will need 36,000 effective power.

Effective power here is your power after taking into account all multipliers. Sigils, rune bonuses, might, crit damage, vulnerability, group buffs, etc. To put it into scale, I’m not sure the necromancer can get higher than 20k effective power. Heck, I just did a quick calculation on my zerker necro, and without group buffs I’m maxing out at 14,178 effective power. Special note here, vulnerability affects the burn damage as well, so you can disregard it in the “how much power will I need” calculation for this particular case.

This means that, with reapers onslaught and dhuumfire, Shroud Auto Attack has higher DPS than the Greatsword and Dagger Auto Attacks. Now, is this the best DPS rotation? Good question. I never compared anything other than auto attacks. If there is a rotation that I don’t know about that does more damage, but neither involves nor can’t be improved upon by Reaper Dhuumfire, let me know. If I’ve made a mistake in my calculations, let me know.

EDIT: Side Note: gravedigger might need a buff. I just timed it, and I am getting 2.5 second total activation times. This puts it at exactly as much damage as auto attacking. This was only a quick check, though.

That is in theory my friend…

Using theory Spoj claimed 13.4K DPS on his dagger 1 build, without timewarp or minions… yet when i calculated his real DPS at the Arah Wraithlord fight (which is really really easy fight btw) he was around 7K.

Math… does not match… reality.

Anyway… i didn’t have high hopes for the expansion, but they actually manage to create something amazing… and now they are systematically destroying it with all these nerfs.

They just nerfed the entire Verdant Brink map… if they continue at this rate, the entire content will be finished in a month even by casual players… then the same players who cried “too hard OMG” will cry “OMG no end game, you suk ArenaNet” and then move on… just like last time.

I think this is it… if history repeats its self, there is no way ArenaNet can come back a second time from it.

How did you calculate his DPS? With math, or using a reliable meter? How reliable has the meterms proven to be, and what tests wereally performed to ensure accuracy?

He took an ancient video of mine where I had no ascended, suboptimal sigils/consumables and was only a quick recording of a casual run to demonstrate some big crits on dagger. It was also before ferocity nerf btw. So I’m not really sure how that counts as a credible counter arguement to a calculation I made a long time ago with maxed out buff assumptions and no dodging….

I just wanted to confirm he used mathink after lambasting math. Calculating off of a video also sounds incredibly iffy, like eyeballing an amount of water poured by someone else into a barely marked glass and stating your eyeball is 100% accurate.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Remove duration from rise

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be GW1

Actually it does. GW1 worked because all of its systems supported its design. GW2 would need an overhaul to go back and approach GW1. Picking and choosing mechanics and smushing them together from both games would be a recipe for disappointment.

Rise! is designed to be a cool down with minions, not a minion ability. Shoehorning it into a minion ability doesn’t sound like good design to me.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Remove duration from rise

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

50 horrors is your recommended cap? I personally prefer horrors that don’t degrade but last a set duration.

This isn’t GW1.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Berseker reaper with Dhuumfire ?

in Necromancer

Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

As for the one who came up with the build, hard to say. I played a part, spoj played a part, I think Bawb played a part, too.

It was part of the theory crafting that we were going through. On a shroud focused reaper (spite/soul reaping/reaper), the reaper is capable of stacking 25 vulnerability and 25 might by himself. This leads to a bit of an issue regarding the grandmaster trait in soul reaping. Decimate Defenses makes Deathly Perception obsolete. Foot in the grave, while being a very nice utility on its own, isn’t always necessary. The end choice was Dhuumfire.

At maximum might, a zerker reaper hits for about 248 per tick. Last time I did any calculations, a reaper’s onslaught boosted auto attack had about the same DPS as the greatsword auto attack… before factoring in Burning. I’ll do a quick check…

I just did a quick check. With onsalught, I’m getting a total attack chain time of 2.075. Round up or down as you see fit. With no gear equipped, this comes to a raw tooltip DPS of (235 + 235 + 469) about 438. The sword auto attack does 469 raw tooltip DPS (391 + 469 + 547 over 3 seconds), and the dagger does 473 raw tooltip DPS.

I call it “raw” because it doesn’t include anything else. No might/vuln/chill/life force generation. Just the basic numbers. From this, you can see that sword auto attack is roughly the same as the dagger auto attack, while also being about 7% higher than the Reaper Shroud auto attack. Now, we can acquire a few things from this. In particular, how much effective power you’ll need for Sword Auto to do more damage than Shroud Auto:

Each Shroud Auto chain stacks 3 × 3 / 2 stack of burning, coming to about 4.5 stacks sustained. This is 1,115 additional DPS. We can find the point where the 7.077% ,difference in direct damage between sword auto and shroud auto is equivalent to 1,115 DPS. First, we take the tooltip difference between greatsword auto and dagger auto (31), then divide 1,115 by it (to get 36). This is the scalar multiple that needs to be applied to direct damage. Direct damage scales linearly with power, so at 2000 power you’ll be doing twice the tooltip damage (in our case, 62 extra damage). So, since 1,115 is 36 times larger than 31, we will need 36,000 effective power.

Effective power here is your power after taking into account all multipliers. Sigils, rune bonuses, might, crit damage, vulnerability, group buffs, etc. To put it into scale, I’m not sure the necromancer can get higher than 20k effective power. Heck, I just did a quick calculation on my zerker necro, and without group buffs I’m maxing out at 14,178 effective power. Special note here, vulnerability affects the burn damage as well, so you can disregard it in the “how much power will I need” calculation for this particular case.

This means that, with reapers onslaught and dhuumfire, Shroud Auto Attack has higher DPS than the Greatsword and Dagger Auto Attacks. Now, is this the best DPS rotation? Good question. I never compared anything other than auto attacks. If there is a rotation that I don’t know about that does more damage, but neither involves nor can’t be improved upon by Reaper Dhuumfire, let me know. If I’ve made a mistake in my calculations, let me know.

EDIT: Side Note: gravedigger might need a buff. I just timed it, and I am getting 2.5 second total activation times. This puts it at exactly as much damage as auto attacking. This was only a quick check, though.

That is in theory my friend…

Using theory Spoj claimed 13.4K DPS on his dagger 1 build, without timewarp or minions… yet when i calculated his real DPS at the Arah Wraithlord fight (which is really really easy fight btw) he was around 7K.

Math… does not match… reality.

Anyway… i didn’t have high hopes for the expansion, but they actually manage to create something amazing… and now they are systematically destroying it with all these nerfs.

They just nerfed the entire Verdant Brink map… if they continue at this rate, the entire content will be finished in a month even by casual players… then the same players who cried “too hard OMG” will cry “OMG no end game, you suk ArenaNet” and then move on… just like last time.

I think this is it… if history repeats its self, there is no way ArenaNet can come back a second time from it.

How did you calculate his DPS? With math, or using a reliable meter? How reliable has the meterms proven to be, and what tests wereally performed to ensure accuracy?

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

First Reaper nerf of the expansion!

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

I totally see why they made this change, but this sort of analysis and approach doesn’t seem to apply to other classes, which is what gets me the most. Not that I’ll ever stop playing Necro, it is just something I’ll never understand. It’s almost like, in a way, Necro is the only class they do care about, since it is broken down all thoroughly for balance where other classes are allowed to fester in their silliness.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

First Reaper nerf of the expansion!

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

So much for our tank role in raids. I don’t see how we can reliably tank without this trait.

Guess we need to push for more damage instead.

To be fair, just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. We’ll see how it plays out, but people need to not give up to truly explore it.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

First Reaper nerf of the expansion!

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

I’m now wondering if there are any plans in motion to provide the Necro with more robust team support reception, since people really seemed to like that about BB.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

First Reaper nerf of the expansion!

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

I haven’t been able to play because the expac released the day I left for a trip, but it kind of sounded like BB of old was going to be a nightmare to balance in a team setting. it’s just unfortunate that was Necro’s main in to receiving team support, it seemed.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Berseker reaper with Dhuumfire ?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

This should be a time of open exploration and testing of all kinds of different builds and possibilities. To stifle this early expac renaissance out of some sense of pride is a disservice to the growth of the class.

And it sounds like Dhuumfire with Zerker might not be so bad with even rudimentary analysis, if you go soul reaping.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Will necro still be worthless as a roamer?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

Of course you can roam, every class can, but you will have a 10 times harder time than a mesmer for example. You should ask yourself if that´s a clever thing to do. If i were you i would spend a few days in eotm, level a mesmer and join the condi pu aids force, this will spare you some headache.

You mean it’s clever to roll what everyone else rolls, do what everyone else does, regardless of how much fun you have doing it?

It’s clever to avoid having a bit of a difficult time while you push yourself to become better at what you enjoy, instead of just wallowing in metaocrity?

Nothing forces you to improve like adversity. If you die to someone else, it doesn’t mean that person is better than you. It doesn’t mean you’ve failed as a human being. It doesn’t mean you’ll never win. So grab hold of your bootstraps and go get better. A few weeks back I was about to go to bed, but instead dueled a Thief and eventually an Engi repeatedly in WvW for about an hour and a half. I lost every duel, but I recovered so much more of what I lost during my hiatus than any other regular hour and a half of roaming, or even winning, would have approached.

If you’re worried about dying, roll a class that doesn’t die. Necros die as roamers. It doesn’t mean it’s a worthless roaming class.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Will necro still be worthless as a roamer?

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

Necros can also easily obliterate camps on their own in a really short amount of time. Condi and Power both work, and it’s going to be even easier with Reaper.

If you want to just pick any fight, then have the option to bail the second it looks like it is going south, don’t play a Necromancer, because you’re probably a Thief/Mesmer/Warrior at heart. I personally don’t care if I die, and I enjoy Necro mechanics above the others, so I stick with Necro.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Trapper Runes - Eternal Stealth.

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

Also, if a Thief sees someone running at his Black Powder, can’t he just move away until his abilities are appropriately cooled down? Then you never actually have a chance to fight the Thief. They’re either stealthed, or they’re away. Relying on the Thief to play like he’s brainless doesn’t seem like a good counter to me.

Terrible design that shouldn’t exist.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

WvW and the Heart of Thorns Release

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

I’m surprised so many people pre-ordered HoT solely for Friday-night WvW reset.

Also, if people want more ANet communication, you’ll have to spend less time ripping apart every little thing they say, even if you don’t agree with it. Some people have approached it well, many others have failed miserably and represent a potentially large reason why less communication happens.

I also, personally, never liked reset being on Friday night. I will say though that lunch time on Saturday seems a bit odd/awkward.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Unblockable Marks Blocked in WvW

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

Well doesn’t that just make all the sense in the world.

Move along, nothing to see here.

(Thanks guys!)

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Unblockable Marks Blocked in WvW

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

Has anyone else run into the “Blocked” pop-up when spamming marks into a WvW zerg with Soul Marks traited? I am going to keep an eye on it, but I could have sworn I saw it a few different times.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

BWE 3 Reaper Specialization Feedback Thread

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

…Death walks amongst you. Well, more of a loping jog, really…

SUPERIOR RUNES OF THE REAPER

(1) +25 Power
(2) 10% Chill duration
(3) *
50 Power*
(4) +15% chill duration, 25% chance when struck to cause an AoE frost nova (cooldown 90 seconds)
(5) +100 Power
(6) +5% damage to chilled foes

((suggestion for new profession-complimentary runes for HoT))

I would like to see Ferocity over Precision, as we have a reliable way to upkeep 50-100% crit chance.

How’s that?

Death Perception + Decimate Defenses + a large amount of personal Vulnerability application. Focus #4 alone, if you hit 3 bounces on 1 target, would give you 12 stacks of vuln, and 25% chance to crit on that target.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

Focus needs some changes

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Posted by: Cogbyrn.7283

Cogbyrn.7283

Focus #4 also instantly gives you 10 stacks of Corrupter’s Fervor if the hits land, giving you 300 toughness and reducing condition damage taken by 20%. If you go into Shroud immediately after casting with Death Perception, it also gains a 50% chance to crit every time it hits.

If you’re going to compare to Guardian’s focus for some reason, and you bring in Guardian traits, at least speak to the traits that Focus #4 interacts with as well.

Alduin Nightsong, 80 Human Necro
“He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”