Guild Wars 2

Zombie Fury.5804:

25 stacks of vuln and 20 stacks of might my grave digger is only hitting 8k crit WITH zerker so yeah idc what people on this forum say they did nerf it pretty hard

What are you hitting with it?

Try relogging, quitting the game completely, switching gear and specs, deleting that character, etc.

Seems ludicrously hard to kill so far. Now if only teammates will stay close enough that I can cleanse them. >:(

Definitely could use a final art pass for coloration, but they’re easier to pick out compared to bone minions now!

It’s a beta. Anything is possible. I suggest those of you feeling like things are off take pictures and describe the situations.

Edit: Especially of your combat logs.

Still getting high gravedigger hits on the test dummies using zerker gear.

Zombie Fury.5804:

Good to know you gutted the damage values of reaper …it can’t do anything special now typical power build now is greater then what it’s now become. Struggle with anything at all but when I switch back to my old build it’s like someone put it on easy mode. why nerf reaper into the ground revert the damage nerfs

Either someone didn’t change gear or is drunk…

I was already using CPC in BWE2 to whirl out those poison bolts. Now it’s going to be even better.

Is it Friday yet?

Or the 23rd?

Lily.1935:

I’m already finding plenty of reasons never to run curses as it is. I don’t need this extra push.

Or… do you?

Are you using Signet of Spite? If so, it won’t give you your passive while in shroud, and that’s likely what you’re seeing.

They could always make Plague Sending have a 2 second cooldown! That way you can transfer constantly without worry!

If nothing else, having the self-harm be confined to damage that we can mitigate through self healing and shroud would be better than something like Weakness, which nerfs damage during a pve encounter.

Narrrz.7532:

Good Asura

Edit: not to minimize the actual numbers balance. But i recently posted a suggestion on how to change the autoattack to fix it, which still seems like it would work, so it seems redundant to also address that here.

That animation on my Asura Necro made me use axe even though it was an awful weapon. It was just… entertaining. I always sniffle when I see a gif or old video of it.

spoj.9672:

I was hoping for some address to the corruption and Master of Corruption issues. CPC change is nice and all. But 6 seconds of self weakness holds it back so much. Especially now that the duration of the field is lower so the self condi is almost fully neutering you for the fields full duration. The corruption concept needs a drastic overhaul and i really hope it happens before HoT.

Kind of feels like in order to use corruptions fully (especially with MoC), we have to have them paired with plenty of transfers (ideal) or consumptions (less ideal). Which… I don’t think we have quite enough of, or they’re not as ubiquitous as they should be (LF on offhand dagger, transfer on focus, plz).

But would adding more make us more overpowered against enemies using condis? If so, we could really use some sort of mechanic that works on our personally-induced conditions rather than enemy-applied.

Or, you know, make the effects of the abilities so good (and so good for your group) that self-hurt is worthwhile.

The blood bond, signet of vampirism, CPC, and Signet of Spite changes/fixes are extremely welcome.

The axe changes are ok, but I was hoping for more of a damage buff to Rending and Ghastly claws OR more damage modifiers in traitlines (not just for axe).

The scepter changes seem nice for choice between which grandmaster to take in curses, but I don’t know that they’re a solid enough buff.

I was also hoping for a Parasitic Contagion healing through shroud buff. :’(

Gee definitely seems to balance in a methodical manner, so this may not be everything that’s on his mind. If nothing else, I look forward to seeing Robert’s reasoning for leaving other changes out and/or why he sees them as not necessary.

spoj.9672:

mistsim.2748:

Robert Gee.9246:

Lich and Plague form was more of a clear cut issue of “hey, let’s not punish minion masters for pressing their elite”.

this is reasonable.

Surely this same notion should be applied to corruption skills.

But minion masters don’t take many corruption skills, right?

Passive 100% uptime unblockable sharing would definitely be OP.

NCSY doing it (perhaps through Augury?) would be neato, but I really, really, really don’t want that shout to get nerfed. It’s so much fun right now.

Lily.1935:

Interestingly, the reaper’s scythe auto has higher DPS than life blast. At least its supposed to. Which is actually a frightening thought.

I think you mean the best thought >:)

Lily.1935:

life blast is slow. Life blast’s damage is absolutely insane. it hits like a truck and keeps hitting again and again getting stronger and stronger each time it does thanks to spite. But because of this it tends to be a slow but strong projectile

If only the successive cast time was actually 1s for each blast. :’( That aftercast is a killer to the dps.

Cool man, see you on launch day.

As an aside, saying something on a trait is ‘free’ feels disingenuous Unless that particular trait is overtuned to include the ‘free’ thing, you’re giving something up in order to take it. This holds true even for the minor traits, as they’re part of a choice when picking which traitline(s) you will have equipped.

I feel like those saying GS isn’t ‘good’ in pvp didn’t… actually pvp with it during the last BWE.

I would settle for seeing the recharge timers of my utilities and heal (though ideally also weapon skills, but I understand the UI issues there) and being able to receive more healing (not from the slotted heal skill) while in shroud.

Seeing timers is just an obvious and helpful QoL improvement.

It’s great for pulling people that are standing still, coming at me, or trying to kite while attacking. I have two problems with it, though:

1) It’s not effective when trying to grab a fleeing and fleet enemy. You almost have to chill someone BEFORE they’re going to turn and run, just so that they won’t get out of range of Grasp before the projectile lands.

2) Using it when there is an image, pet, minion or pet rock between me and the target. Why is it (and Dark Path) so easily body-blockable?

If it wasn’t a projectile, had a basically instant effect after the cast time, and Spectral Mastery wasn’t a borderline impossible trait to take in pvp, then I wouldn’t think it needs anything else.

Watching those MLG stomps makes me want Infusing Terror back so, so, so, so, so, so, so much. Being able to reliably stomp things made for a glorious weekend. sniffle

Silverkey.2078:

no seriously, if bleeding is what keeps this skill from being stronger, then I don’t think anyone would complain if the bleeding is completely remove. The “blood” from the name of the skill is the caster’s blood anyway.

8 stacks 10s might on a 20s CD and self-inflicted 4 stacks of bleed and I buy it.

Or a toggle that gives you a 1-2 s bleed and a decent duration might at the same time, then when you release the toggle, you cause a decent amount of direct damage plus an additional effect? That way, you’re applying a consistent amount of might, rather than a “half the time” burst.

Oh wait, that’s a necromancer version of a facet.

Sure, YOU may see it as pathetic, but this is a similar argument to what was made for Reaper shouts having cast times. They have a lot going on, so were seen as too powerful, internally to Anet development. We’ve seen how those have changed since being used externally, by players, during the BWEs.

Perhaps BiP was the same way. Internally, it was seen as powerful enough (burst of might + 2 bleeds, 4 if the self was transferred). Externally, less so. It just hasn’t received the same BWE feedback → iteration process.

I’m really, really hoping that staff gets some tweaks as well. I feel like it only looks ‘acceptable’ because axe and scepter are just abysmal.

I am actually pretty curious if it’s just the bleed damage that prevented BiP being comparable to might sharing of other classes. Herald was super impressive for buffing allies around me in the last BWE.

The only time I felt like I was losing something with Reaper was this

Bhawb.7408:

I get that, but they can’t just randomly slap stability onto skills in a random balance patch.

I mean… they caaaaan.

At this point, I’m most excited about what they do with that core class balance patch. Reaper felt fantastic last BWE.

Lynnie.7213:

I can’t wait for next BWE, i am not even logging in gw2 anymore.

Same :’(

Open game
Log in
Get daily login rewards
Play 1 pvp match for dailies
Log out
Try to login to beta character, get denied
Sigh sadly
Close game

Zenith.7301:

It would be nice if infusing terror stayed after getting out of death shroud though….

^ it’s enough of a negative to not be able to trigger the fear, at least let the stab pulsing stay for things like stomps and Gravedigger.

I… completely forgot about Renewing Blast. Now I’m a little sad. : (

Zenith.7301:

Abilities with cooldowns should not be a DPS loss to mere autoattacking.

I agree with everything but this. Abilities with cooldowns and secondary effects other than damage can be designed so that those secondary effects are why the ability is used, not the damage. For instance, death pact; I want to use it for the immobilize, not just the damage. Designing so that every ability does more damage than the auto attack also gives rise to simply using every ability as soon as it recharges, which is whack-a-mole without the random spawn points. The chain system for auto attacks is interesting, or could be made more so with more effects on them (for instance, the Daredevil whirl on staff).

Unfortunately, the reverse is currently the issue with dagger MH. You almost only want to just auto attack, with casts of Locust Swarm whenever you can. : ( I’m sure there’s a healthy middle ground, such as what you said: reducing the channel and increasing the damage of siphon (and pooooossibly changing the health threshold of Quickening Thirst).

My main question regarding these and the last iterations is: was the idea of having X procs per Y seconds dropped as a form of ICD? Seems like things such as Chilling Nova, Soul Eater, and Deathly chill could have improved function with an ICD like that.

I quite enjoyed Soul Eater with Death Spiral, but I’m sure it was an awkward trait to balance between the varying cast times and hits per second of the greatsword abilities. Having the lifesteal on Gravedigger may overload that ability with ‘all’ the damage the GS puts out (which it already kind of is, but SE helped mitigate this somewhat).

I would still very much like to see Nightfall either follow the Reaper around like an aura so that it has a longer realistic effect duration in mobile fights OR be a long range ground targeted aoe so we can throw it at kiters in order to both catch up to and blind them OR be a leap + cast on impact. Any of the above would make it feel like we get more out of it than 1-2 of its pulses.

I would also like to see another chill field available. Currently, the only one is from Executioner’s Scythe, which seems to function more as an opener or mid-fight set up for burst rather than an execute (stun + only field to proc chilling bolts). The much maligned ‘Suffer!’ may be a good spot.

I’m really looking forward to these changes though, especially the new model for Rise’s minions :O Reaper was an absolute blast in BWE2.

jacim.5904:

As I said there is no point in taking both of them in PvE seeing how if you are playing in a party makes lots of boons go to waste.

Then in a situation where you have outside crit% gain, don’t take both. In other situations, both together work well. Dhuumfire can be subbed for death perception, even on a power build, if it would take you significantly over 100% crit. Chilling Force can be subbed for decimate defenses as well. I know it won’t be min/maxed in scale, but it will still increase your damage.

It suffers from the same too-low-floor that Augury and the shouts are/were suffering from. The vamp is actually pretty incredible on Death Spiral to 3 targets, but terrible on, say… anything else as the others hit too infrequently. It could really use x procs per y seconds and an increase to the amounts.

The recharge reduction is fantastic on Gravedigger hitting 5 enemies (even above 50%), but awful when you hit just one (even under 50%).

If you hit 1 target 5 times in ~10 seconds, you’re getting 15% off other recharges in that time.

If you hit 5 targets twice in 10 seconds, you’re getting 30% off recharges in that time, which is quite good considering how long the other cds are.

Did you feel that Deathly Chill was doing enough as is? I felt it was ok, but middling. It would be much more effective if the damage stacked along with the duration increases of the chill, but that might be OP as well?

Nothing about Reaper felt op compared to anything that’s currently out there or will be after the other elite specs. Think it ‘soaked’ up damage while doing too much? Probably didn’t play a Rev, Daredevil, or Warrior.

Gravedigger doesn’t do too much damage. It’s a lot in a single hit, but has both a hideous aftercast, long cd if that single hit doesn’t land / is above 50%, and is the only thing on GS that hits hard (aside from standing inside nightfall for all 4 pulses). I think people were just shocked to see that number come out of a necromancer and are reacting to the ‘newness’ of things.

Being able to stomp effectively is just bringing necro into parity with other class abilities that already existed through stab on demand in RS / with CttB.

The only nerf I could see being necessary is either new Rise minions taking the place of old, so you can’t double up (or was this a bug?) and/or CttB having less effect in order to receive a lower CD. Maaaaaaybe BB receiving x procs per y seconds (and an increase in healing to normalize situations away from feast or famine issues).

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Be patient.

Andlat Helsonr.1284:

• AUGURY OF DEATH – I am just not the biggest fan of shouts, and believe that Relentless Pursuit is a mandatory trait for PvP, thus I never really played with this trait. Perhaps people might be interested in taking it for PvE if a shout or two become strong for that game mode.

I quite like the shouts now. My only gripe is the CD on Chilled to the Bone, and the lackluster transfer floor of Suffer (only sending off 1 condition if around 1 enemy). If Suffer transferred, say, 3 conditions minimum, with up to 2 more OR 3-5 conditions, split among enemies, I would feel much better about not bringing Plague Signet. As it stands, 1v1 against an enemy that can stack burns + one other condition when Suffer is your main transfer is less than decent.

CttB feels like a fantastic opener to a fight, especially with the reduced cast time, I just wish it could be used in more fights. Reducing the power through lowering the duration of the stab, the length of chill, etc might be a way to balance for a lower cd. Playing a Shiro Revenant for any length of time showed how CttB is somewhat lacking for what it’s supposed to be doing.

Augury itself could also use the same heightened floor rebalance that the shouts got. Maybe 15% normal + up to 4% per target hit.

Andlat Helsonr.1284:

• RELENTLESS PURSUIT – Absolutely mandatory in PvP. If you do not take that trait, you are likely not going to have a fun time.

I feel like this would be fixed by making ranged necro weapons actually good. When running Augury , I was only really sad about long durations that didn’t get sent off by Suffer.

Andlat Helsonr.1284:

• SOUL EATER – For PvE – once you get to the point where you can spam Gravedigger, you do not really care about the quicker recharge of other abilities. For PvP – you rarely manage to land enough attacks to make it worthwhile, and will probably get better sustain for yourself through the chilling force combo with Blighter’s boon.

I’m of two minds about this one. Decimate Defenses is just… always good. Chilling Force is great with Blighter’s, but unimpressive in its might duration. Soul Eater vamp is FANTASTIC when GS3 can actually land on multiple targets, proccing 18 times. The vamp is not good with everything else, though. I feel like it should probably be changed to be a much bigger vamp amount, but have an ICD.

The CD of it really needs to be changed to something else. As you said, under 50%, you’re not really using another ability. Everything is probably dying after a couple of casts. I could see it being strong when you actually do want to stop to use Death Spiral or Nightfall more to mitigate damage or maintain vuln on things that won’t be dying immediately. If not becoming just a stock 20% reduction in CD, I could see it instead being that each GS skill reduces the CD of other GS skills by X% (maybe too good on Death Spiral).

Andlat Helsonr.1284:

• DEATHLY CHILL – not the biggest fan, this is definitely by far the worst grandmaster trait we possess. Unless the damage is really quite something, the other two options just outclass it.

Agreed. If this was some sort of separate condition that stacked based on chill application, it might be pretty good. As for now, it’s basically 500-700 dps added to your chills, which, while not bad, is nothing compared to other condis. Aaaaand if you’re condi, you probably want Blighter’s Boon to help with your LF generation or Onslaught to give you more Dhuumfire procs in Shroud :/

Andlat Helsonr.1284:

• REAPER’S ONSLAUGHT – excellent in PvE for obvious reasons. Quite reasonable in PvP, especially when combined with Dhuumfire. If Blighter’s Boon gets nuked, I will run to this trait instead and hope for the best.

I absolutely loved this trait, especially with Transfusion and how strong Soul Spiral is. My only complaint was that with the power disparity between gravedigger and… everything in RS, I wasn’t finishing people very often while in Shroud. I’d liked to see the recharge reduction work outside of Shroud OR Shroud to do enough damage I don’t want to drop it and finish someone with my GS.

Andlat Helsonr.1284:

In Conclusion
Aside from some minor issues and some number tweaking work with the traits – I believe that Reaper is good for shipping. I have not had so much fun with an MMO character for a long, long time, and I believe that Robert and Co have done a fantastic job with it.

Agreed! I really loved playing it this weekend. To the point that I didn’t even get around to… anything but Reaper and Herald. I think Reaper is almost good to go, with some minor changes to itself and some major changes to baseline necro weapons.

datawais.7209:

I wanted to agree and reiterate the Vital Persistence baseline with a nerf to Spectral Mastery. I feel pigeon-holed into 3 trait lines and losing out on the support options/sustain with Death Magic and Blood Magic lines. I think that’s the most major issue I have with the mastery so far.

Otherwise, I think Reaper is shaping up to be the best, and most needed mastery.

While I would love for Persistence to be baseline, I felt just fine using Blood Magic over Soul Reaping all weekend as MM or even normal Reaper.

Silmariena.6205:

Quickening Thirst : Increases movement speed for while wielding a dagger. Dagger skills recharge faster if activated while above the health threshold. —-—> Increases movement speed for while wielding a dagger or greatsword. Dagger and greatsword skills recharge faster if activated while above the health threshold. Or something like that…
+ stability sharing from shout.

I like you.

The snapshot is from the last BWE. While this is unfortunate, it makes sense: they want progress to carry over between all of the BWEs.

Tommyknocker.6089:

Oh I agree for a survivability standpoint here, but because blighters boon procs only when you have a boon applied to you it doesn’t synergise very well with blood.

I do agree that it’s less good with blood, or at least with a blood + sr build rather than spite over sr.

Once I switched from BB and DC to Reaper’s Onslaught, I haven’t gone back. The new iteration is great and synergizes very well with blood.

Using Infusing Terror seems to not stop stomps or other channels, and Nightfall being so quick, followed by stomping, is fantastic. I ALMOST FEEL LIKE A REAL CLASS.

nearlight.3064:

As a cleric MM reaper its so easy to keep shambling horrors alive if they enemy has poor AoE, to the point where I can get like 7 or 8 of them up forming an army of little kittens.

I see them making new ones despawn old. All those vamp strikes get pretty ridiculous. I’m glad that MM reaper actually feels good though!

Tommyknocker.6089:

Blood magic has very little synergy at all with reaper, and it again becomes the age old decision of surviving for a few more minutes or killing things in a few seconds.

Vamp presence/strikes on Death Spiral is pretty strong, great on Rise’s minions, on Nightfall is ok, and presence is good for your group in general.

Transfusion + Soul Spiral + Reaper’s Onslaught cd reduction should be great, unless there’s a hidden ICD on Transfusion.

Deathly Chill actually seems a pretty great effect. I think the real issue(s) with it are that it doesn’t stack, and it’s contending with Blighter’s Boon and (oh my lawd, it’s so amazing) the new Reaper’s Onslaught (which also increases your condi output through soul spiral, and RS autos if you’re running SR).

This expansion is earning the absolute most ridiculous posts from the absolute most ridiculous people.