Guild Wars 2

You know, at the time I hadn’t realized that my suggestion was a bit too similar to steal; my bad. Suppose the “best” thing to do is remove the teleport piece altogether or reduce the range to 150 and maybe even increase the cooldown to 40s. Thanks for pointing out that glaring mistake.

I had an idea, and I do believe I’ve seen similar ideas, to give the necromancer an F2 ability. Typically, it’s been to grant both shrouds on a shared cooldown, but I think it could be more interesting if it was something else entirely that could only be unlocked by equipping at least one of the following traits:

Hand of Fate: Seal your foes fate (40s cd).
-Range: 150
-Targets: 1
-Cast Time: 1/4s

The traits that grant/modify the ability would be generally weaker ones, gaining an additional effect with their base functionality:

Unholy Fervor: Hand of Fate makes your foe vulnerable.
- 8 vulnerability (12s)

Spiteful Spirit: Hand of Fate damages your foe and grants you retaliation.
-Damage: x
-Retaliation (18s)

Parasitic Contagion: Hand of Fate transfers conditions and poisons your foe.
-1 poison (15s)
-Conditions Transferred: 2

Reaper’s Protection: Hand of Fate fears your foe.
-Fear (2s)

Unholy Martyr: Hand of Fate siphons health and lifeforce from your foe.
-Siphon Damage: 1500
-Siphon Heal: 1200
-Lifeforce: 10%

Dhuumfire: Hand of Fate burns your foe.
-2 burning (6s)

Soul Eater: Hand of Fate damages your foe and grants you a frost aura.
-Damage: x
-Duration: 5s

Perhaps this could work? Perhaps not?

Edited for (removal of) similarity to the Thief’s Steal mechanic. A similarity I had originally failed to see.

So I toyed around with it in various game modes, and, overall, it’s not too bad. At the very least the gameplay of near constant shroud/skill uptime is a bit more interesting than spamming conditions left and right (though it is somewhat just spamming shroud skills). Thanks again for the tips, everyone.

Thanks for the tips; suppose I’ll give it another go.

I’m getting a little tired of using/leaning on condition/hybrid physical-condition damage builds, so I was looking for a, largely, shroud based alternative. Reaper’s Onslaught seems like it would be useful here (obviously seeing it only affects shroud), but I feel sub-par without some conditions and that I’m ultimately shooting myself in the foot by not taking Deathly Chill. I’m by no means the best player (hence the name) and pretty casual, mucking about in all game modes, but is the trait, and build I suppose, even worth taking? Or are there other alternatives/thoughts entirely?

Perhaps:

Spectral Siphon: Leech lifeforce from your foe, gaining lifeforce and health based on your shroud’s capacity (24s cd).
-Initial Health: 3000
-Damage (x8): 50 (per tick)
-Health below 100% lifeforce (x8): 100 (per tick)
-Health at 100% lifeforce (x8): 200
-Lifeforce (0-25%) (x8): 4%
-Lifeforce (26-50%) (x8): 3%
-Lifeforce (51-75%) (x8): 2%
-Lifeforce (76-99%) (x8): 1%
-Range: 900
-Cast time: 1/4s to 1/2s
-Channel: 2s
-Interval: 0.25s
-Targets: 1

I’ve been teetering around an idea in my down time and figured I might as well add it to the bunch.
Poltergeist (or something more suitable): Haven’t thought of a good description, but I wanted something more mobile and potentially “caster/summoner” like in some way. The E-spec grants access to swords (main hand) and “tricks” for utility skills. The tricks are broken up into two sub-categories:
-Harrowing Blades: Thin, shadowy blades that jut from the ground (similar to Mind Stab: Mesmer greatsword 3) leeching health and lifeforce from up to three targets in a 180 radius. (Note: blade skills get an equivalent skill for underwater combat)
-Phantoms: Shadowy figures that are impervious to damage but are still susceptible to impairing conditions and cc. All phantoms fade after 10 seconds if they do not successfully strike (includes blocked attacks) a target or have their sequence skill activated (when applicable).

“Poltergeist’s” Shroud Skills:
1. Whispering Twilight: “Breathe” festering shadows onto your foes, periodically inflicting conditions (something similar to Cleansing Fire: Guardian torch 5)
-Damage (x6): x
-1 stack of poison (2s)
-1 stack of torment (4s)
-Number of Targets: 3
-Range: 600
-Channel time: 3 seconds
-Interval: 1.5s ( about every third hit conditions are applied)
2. Ghastly Blade: Summon a blade at the target location, leeching lifeforce from foes (12s cooldown).
-Damage: x
-Lifesteal Damage: 35
-Lifesteal Heal: 30
-Lifeforce: 6%
-Targets: 3
-Range: 900
3a. Dismay: Teleport to your foe and fear them (32s cd).
-Damage: x
-Fear (1s)
-Number of Targets: 1
-Range: 900
3b. Despair: Teleport to your foe, fearing and crippling them.
-Damage: x
-Fear (1s)
-Cripple (4s)
-Number of Targets: 1
-Range: 900
3c. Dread: Teleport to your foe, inflicting heavy damage and fearing them.
-Damage: x
-Fear (1s)
-Lifeforce: 12%
-Number of Targets: 1
-Range: 900
4. Mournful Dusk: Channel the shadows, damaging and tormenting foes around you (50s cd).
-Damage (x15): x
-15 stack of torment (5s)
-Number of Targets: 5
-Radius: 600
-Channel time: 1 3/4s
5. Withering Blades: Send out several blades in a line before you (28s cd).
-Damage: x
-Weakness (4s)
-Number of Blades: 8
-Range: 900

Sword Skills:
1. Rending Shadows: Cast out three projectiles in front of you, inflicting poison on the first projectile, torment on the second, and confusion on the third.
-Damage (per projectile): x
-1 poison (4s)
-1 torment (5s)
-1 confusion (6s)
-Range: 1000
-Projectile chance: 20%
2. Harrowing Blade: Summon a harrowing blade at your targets location (8s cd).
-Damage: x
-Lifesteal Damage: 35
-Lifesteal Heal: 30
-Lifeforce: 1%
-Number of Targets: 3
-Range: 1000
3a. Festering Omen: Inflict your foe with a festering omen, inflicting conditions and generating lifeforce while it’s active (35s cd).
-1 torment (2s)
-1 confusion (2s)
-Lifeforce: 2%
-Range: 1000
-Interval: 1s
-Duration: 10s
3b. Bane of the Chosen: Teleport to your target, corrupting two boons and gaining fury.
-Damage: x
-Boons Converted: 2
-Fury (8s)
-Range: 1500

Trick Skills:

Traits:

I’ve been teetering around an idea in my down time and figured I might as well add it to the bunch.
Poltergeist (or something more suitable): Haven’t thought of a good description, but I wanted something more mobile and potentially “caster/summoner” like in some way. The E-spec grants access to swords (main hand) and “tricks” for utility skills. The tricks are broken up into two sub-categories:
-Harrowing Blades: Thin, shadowy blades that jut from the ground (similar to Mind Stab: Mesmer greatsword 3) leeching health and lifeforce from up to three targets in a 180 radius. (Note: blade skills get an equivalent skill for underwater combat)
-Phantoms: Shadowy figures that are impervious to damage but are still susceptible to impairing conditions and cc. All phantoms fade after 10 seconds if they do not successfully strike (includes blocked attacks) a target or have their sequence skill activated (when applicable).

“Poltergeist’s” Shroud Skills:
1. Whispering Twilight: “Breathe” festering shadows onto your foes, periodically inflicting conditions (something similar to Cleansing Fire: Guardian torch 5)
-Damage (x6): x
-1 stack of poison (2s)
-1 stack of torment (4s)
-Number of Targets: 3
-Range: 600
-Channel time: 3 seconds
-Interval: 1.5s ( about every third hit conditions are applied)
2. Ghastly Blade: Summon a blade at the target location, leeching lifeforce from foes (12s cooldown).
-Damage: x
-Lifesteal Damage: 35
-Lifesteal Heal: 30
-Lifeforce: 6%
-Targets: 3
-Range: 900
3a. Dismay: Teleport to your foe and fear them (32s cd).
-Damage: x
-Fear (1s)
-Number of Targets: 1
-Range: 900
3b. Despair: Teleport to your foe, fearing and crippling them.
-Damage: x
-Fear (1s)
-Cripple (4s)
-Number of Targets: 1
-Range: 900
3c. Dread: Teleport to your foe, inflicting heavy damage and fearing them.
-Damage: x
-Fear (1s)
-Lifeforce: 12%
-Number of Targets: 1
-Range: 900
4. Mournful Dusk: Channel the shadows, damaging and tormenting foes around you (50s cd).
-Damage (x15): x
-15 stack of torment (5s)
-Number of Targets: 5
-Radius: 600
-Channel time: 1 3/4s
5. Withering Blades: Send out several blades in a line before you (28s cd).
-Damage: x
-Weakness (4s)
-Number of Blades: 8
-Range: 900

Sword Skills:
1. Rending Shadows: Cast out three projectiles in front of you, inflicting poison on the first projectile, torment on the second, and confusion on the third.
-Damage (per projectile): x
-1 poison (4s)
-1 torment (5s)
-1 confusion (6s)
-Range: 1000
-Projectile chance: 20%
2. Harrowing Blade: Summon a harrowing blade at your targets location (8s cd).
-Damage: x
-Lifesteal Damage: 35
-Lifesteal Heal: 30
-Lifeforce: 1%
-Number of Targets: 3
-Range: 1000
3a. Festering Omen: Inflict your foe with a festering omen, inflicting conditions and generating lifeforce while it’s active (35s cd).
-1 torment (2s)
-1 confusion (2s)
-Lifeforce: 2%
-Range: 1000
-Interval: 1s
-Duration: 10s
3b. Bane of the Chosen: Teleport to your target, corrupting two boons and gaining fury.
-Damage: x
-Boons Converted: 2
-Fury (8s)
-Range: 1500

Trick Skills:

Traits:

Dead.5829:

Hell, give me another button right next to Shroud that lets me bite someone for a kittenload of damage and healing and possibly a stun. Something. Please.

That’d be neat. Though I would exchange some of the siphoned health for lifeforce. The trait could be renamed to “Mister Sandman” or some kitten and be an F2 ability.

Thanks for your thoughts. Honestly, I was thinking you could attempt to out-sustain the damaged received from my suggestion for Unholy Martyr through siphons, but I certainly see more benefits for lifeforce from self corruption. Regardless, I mostly would like to see the downed/drowning (or something similar) piece implemented, particularly for a fully offensive healing skill i.e. Life Leech.

These two traits sound thematically interesting and seem to be useful, but in use, well, they aren’t stellar. They’re certainly not bad, just not GM worthy. I personally think they should be though:

Spiteful Spirit: It was touched on this patch, but it doesn’t offer anything to sell itself as more useful than Signets of Suffering or Weakening Shroud. So why not change that?

-Entering shroud casts “Unholy Feast” (now dubbed “Spiteful Spirit” since the patch). When Spiteful Spirit strikes an enemy gain fury and consume all stacks of vulnerability on you, healing yourself.
-Fury per stack: 0.5 seconds
-Healing per stack: 75

Unholy Martyr: The name fits the trait-line, but the effect would be better suited elsewhere, at least the condition part.

-Receive a percent of nearby allies’ damage, gaining lifeforce when damaged in this way. Downed/Drowning skills can now be used in your skill-bar.*
-Percent: 10%
Lifeforce: 1.5%
Number of Targets: 5
-Radius: 600
*Life Leech could be used as a Healing Skill, Fear/Feeding Frenzy as Utility Skills, and Fetid Ground/ Death Curse as Elite and/or Utility Skills. (I personally like the downed/drowning skills of the class and would like to use them outside of being half dead)

Opinions? Better suggestions?

With healing through shroud, or at the very least partial healing, I would like to see a miniature epidemic (3 targets instead of 5) tied to it that can be activated beyond a passive on crit/entering shroud effect (though if it got either of those I wouldn’t complain). That or combine it with another wanting trait, like Unholy Martyr.

I agree with focus 5 getting a cast time reduction, but I also think it would be interesting if it corrupted boons in addition to the increasing damage per boon removed. Or, if I remember someone suggested this before (but I don’t remember who), if the 5th skill corrupted one boon but with a petty cooldown (though it could be a touch too “spammy”/spastic for “skillful” play).

As for skill 4, maybe retaliation or fury instead of regeneration?

I don’t think axe is a bad weapon overall; my biggest beef is that it’s pretty kitten boring to use. I’d like to see the auto, or any of the skills for that matter, get a chain or sequence tacked on. For the auto, I’d keep rending claws and add two skills after, perhaps:

-Rending Talon (or any fancy, thematic name that’s better*): inflict vulnerability and briefly (2 seconds) cripple your foe with a shadowy “scythe” stemming from the axe

-Ghastly Talon (see above*): Slash up to three foes at extended range (1200) with a shadowy “scythe” and gain life force (3% per foe?)

That being said, Spiteful Spirit needs something beyond a cooldown removal if nothing is done to Unholy Feast. Something that caters to furthering our boon corruption potential.

Ah, well nevermind then; that’s “good” to hear that it’s working properly.

Regardless of the state of curses, I agree it needs some help (mostly with switching and adjusting a couple traits), but has anyone tried using terror recently? I’ve kittened around with it and noticed it seems to do less damage the more conditions on the target (which is like the opposite of what it’s supposed to do, right?). Has anyone else noticed this or have I just misread the numbers?

Going with the general consensus of unpolished animations that were either recycled or somewhat off-putting, I actually felt the skills and traits were fairly decent overall (albeit I’ve just recently dusted off my thief after around a year long break). That being said, I was hoping for a change to steal but I guess unique dodges work. I was thinking it would be a nice touch if each dodge had a different effect when in stealth:

-Lotus Training: Daggers inflict additional conditions and do more damage from behind (maybe poison and confusion?)

-Unhindered Combatant: Short range teleport (500 compared to the given 300) that blinds (doesn’t break stealth)

-Bounding Dodger: Additionally causes daze and cripple (I couldn’t think of anything more interesting at the moment)

Anyways, that’s my two cents.

Guess I’ll give my thoughts on the Dragonhunter as a Necro main who recently started playing as a Guardian. Overall, especially compared to what the Reaper did for the Necro, it’s underwhelming. That being said, it certainly could work (even with the name “Dragonhunter”, since every character, as others have pointed out, is a “dragon hunter” by default).

The Traits: Since they’re being updated there’s not much reason to comment on them. Though, even with the upcoming changes, they feel rather bland overall. For example:

-Big Game Hunter: Instead of just increasing the damage of Spear of Justice, it could give a couple (2) additional Spears of Justice to throw on the active.

The Virtues: I like the idea of more active, physical virtues (it was the main, if not only, draw to the specialization). However, I think there could be some slight improvements:

-Spear of Justice: Increase the damage a little (I’m no math whiz so I won’t say more).

-Wings of Resolve: Increase the leap range to about 900 and add, even if it’s in a trait, an evade during the leap.

-Shield of Courage: Add some deterrent to melee attackers (maybe they’re inflicted with slow when they attack while the shield is active?).

The Bow: The only interesting skills were 3 and 5 in my opinion, but the weapon overall did decently though it certainly wasn’t exhilarating.

-Skill 1: I think it could have a longer cast time while doing notably more damage without the cripple effect. Aesthetically speaking, I would prefer the glowing arrow to be a beam of light with a heavier sound effect. Or, as someone else suggested (I don’t remember who), Skill 1 could be a three part chain.

-2: Since I practically made skill 1 replace this, I suggest skill 2 be the crippling and knock back skill. Maybe it could be replaced with a volley of shots in a line that cripple enemies they strike and knock them back if they’re within the range threshold.

-3: This skill is being updated so I have no comment at this point in time other than that I like what it’s designed to do.

-4: I’m actually bummed that they’re planning on removing the burning since i enjoy the current iteration of the skill.

-5: The skill has a pretty decent effect but the cast time and slightly too long cool down does it no justice.

The Traps: Not my cup of tea, but they do have a connection to the “hunter” part of the name. I do find it strange that the traps are placed at the player’s location while the bow is designed to keep enemies at range with no explicit skill that would bait them towards the traps (at least from what I can tell). Actually, my biggest gripe with the traps, besides weak-ish effects, is that the effects are too literal. I’d rather they allude to the name instead of practically screaming it. For example:

-Dragon’s Maw: Instead of forming an actual dragon’s head around the enemy it could, mostly for kittens and giggles, cause the player to toss out an over-sized, rusted bear trap that has a similar effect with a lower cool down. (Though this is mostly for a laugh like I said.)

Anyways, that’s my two cents.

Going with the general consensus as it seems, I have to say that the damage is a little low for the cast times (which are a tad long) across the board. As for the specifics, I’ll start with the traits:

Traits:
-Chilling Nova: Could use a cool down reduction to at least 10 seconds or a buff to the effect, especially the chill duration to about 4 seconds.
-Soul Eater: Honestly, the life siphon is just too weak; it should siphon at least 100 points of health to provide any sort of reliable sustain (plus it does say soul eater not soul “nibbler”).
-Chilling Victory: I get the potential it has so I suppose an internal cool down is needed, but it should generate at least 2% life force.
-Deathly Chill: The base damage and scaling just need better numbers (I’m no math whiz so I’ll leave it at that).
-Reaper’s Onslaught: The attack speed increase is fine when it works, but the recharge of Reaper’s Shroud 2 is redundant since it has a low cool down. In my opinion it should recharge or partially recharge RS 5.

Reaper’s Shroud:
-Besides numbers, the only thing I can think of is increase the range and make Terrify on RS 3 instant. Also, RS 5 is unreliable at times so making it consistent would be nice. I forgot about RS 2 which should stop at your target instead of rushing past them.

Great Sword:
-GS 1: Increase the damage while keeping the slower hits, it should be different than the dagger for how it deals out damage, but Chilling Scythe’s cast time should be 3/4 of a second and have an increase to the chill time to about 2 1/2 seconds.
-GS 2: Increase the damage some and bring the recharge back to 100%, the slight delay is awkward imo.
-GS 3: The animation appears to give it more range, which I think it should, maybe 250-300 instead of 170.
-GS 4: I like the skill as is, but I’ve read some others’ ideas of making it a teleport, which could be interesting.
-GS 5: My favorite skill, although unreliable at times, I think it would be more useful to reduce the damage (mostly the poison damage) and reduce the cool down to 20 seconds so that it can be used more often while staying somewhat hard to land.

Shouts: Imo, shouts don’t fit the Reaper (except for Your Soul is Mine! and Rise! but not necessarily for their effects), regardless, the main thing to make them more useful, except for the elite, is to have a more impactful base effect regardless of how many people you hit. The elite could use a shorter cast time and cool down.

Anyways, that’s my two cents.

Yeah, I see your point, I’m just hoping to be able to get a lot of them going at any point in time. In reality, I’m hoping to be able to do something like in Dishonored, if you’re familiar with the game, with the rat skill the protagonist had (if you don’t know the game, it summoned a swarm of rats to mercilessly swarm and potentially devour your foes).

I would but I feel the balance of stats and the 25% movement speed increase from the Runes of the Traveler, which is what I’m currently using, are greater than one jagged horror every 60 seconds (plus I’m not a true Minion Master build so that’s also why, but if I switch to that build in its entirety I may consider those runes).

I made note of that, but I mean beyond just the shout, I guess it would mostly be for kittens and giggles than significant value (though they can be effective at times).

I just realized, despite playing as a necromancer for about a year, that we can readily summon every minion at will, but jagged horrors can only be “summoned” through a trait, Death Nova, or use of Lich Form (and potentially through the shout “rise!” when the reaper specialization is released). Why is that? Honestly, the Devs should just create a default skill, one you wouldn’t have to unlock through hero points despite being a technical “minion skill”, with the sole purpose to summon jagged horrors every 2-3 seconds. So if some kitten wants to spend 30 seconds summoning them to have a small army of 10-15 jagged horrors he/she should be able to. In all seriousness though, why aren’t jagged horrors treated like the other minions?