Guild Wars 2

Yeah, about the only class that can really compete with a Ranger underwater is a necro. Crazy long-lasting poison carries over to Lick Wounds as well and they have a lot of interrupts underwater to stop the pet.

To be fair, the only thing that will ever come anywhere close to having even 40 bleeds on it is a giant PvE boss. Any player is dead by then.

The dragons are all immune to condition damage anyway (this DEFINITELY needs to change), so removing the bleed cap as-is would do nothing to them. Other bosses can just have their HP scaled to compensate, though this scaling must be dynamic with the number of players (roughly 10% of the player population at any given event is probably a condition build, ANet would have better data to draw this on)

So I was helping a couple of guildies and another pug through Twilight Arbor explorable and during the final fight I, well, the screenshot says it all, I think.

Mr. Sparkles was the only one that had gone down so far in case anybody wants to know.

Lysico.4906:

The bug is where you can throw your pet up on a tower or off the wall to attack

But it is a bug and Anet said it will be removed at some point.

But it is fun to throw the panther up there with stealth and let him go to town.

Really? I thought they said it was intentional.

grave of hearts.7830:

Yeah well if you dont mind guys dont boast with fake numbers.
Pve wise the class isnt bad,pvp wise you are the primary target of the entire enemy team because you are the easiest target and you cant do a thing about it.

Edit: And about that systained dps…………you probably forgot to mention it involves holding a main dagger and beeing in the frontline as a clothie.

On the contrary, it means standing wherever I want with a scepter and being able to take anything that gets thrown my way.

This has been mentioned a lot before, but the trait actually works perfectly. While the tooltip and targetting reticule remain unchanged for all but Chillblains (we have no idea why), all of your marks are properly affected by the trait. They are all at a 240 radius and they cannot be blocked.

Honestly, Necro build efficiency depends on the rest of the team. Axe/Focus power build is excellent in a team that is high in the straight damage department, but terrible for one that is condition-heavy.

Condition necros and condition mesmers work very well together thanks to the lack of overlap with their damaging conditions and the Necro being able to spread the mesmer’s single-target love.

In general, I would suggest finding a more versatile build. Remember to swap your utilities (and some major traits!) out between fights in dungeons. Epidemic is amazing, but against Lupicus, it’s a wasted skill.

Mark of Evasion for 2 bleeds, Blood is Power+Deathly Swarm for 4 bleeds, Grasping Dead for 3, Enfeebling Blood for 2, Mark of Blood for 3.

Assume about 2 Sigil of Earth procs for 2 more and you are still only at 16 bleeds with our most rapid bleed stacking cooldowns spent. Geomancy sigil adds another 3 for 19 stacks (must be done as late as possible to maximize sigil of earth procs due to cooldown). Dark Path possibly for another 3 bleeds gets us to 22, but we’ve blown every cooldown we have that bleeds and some of the stacks are falling off now unless you invested well into bleed duration.

I don’t count Barbed Precision because the duration is so low, it doesn’t really work for stacking.

It’s possible to get to the cap as a necro, but it requires very specific sigils and skill order as well as blowing the majority of your cooldowns. Overall, not worth it. Takes about 6 seconds to do as well.

If a necro wanted to relieve pressure on the Monk in GW1, he would be a necro ranger running Melandru’s Resiliance and Foul Feast. The more conditions that were put out, the less work the Monk had to do. Was really funny how it worked, actually, and almost nobody did it. I did it in AB all the time with PUGs and the monks loved it. How many 4-man PUGs go entire AB’s without having a single person die?

Frank.7452:

I’d like to give a big shout out to the Dragonbrand player who was good enough with a mortar to hit the trebuchet spot in Klovan. Attached is one of the many misses, just to demonstrate how unfair this trebuchet spot is.

Whoever this guy was, can you give lessons? The Mortar is really tough to use and I know a lot of players would appriciate some tips.

CHIPS.6018:

Thieves’ AoE stealth is the best team support skill in wvw.

Veil is better (no target limit), but the biggest strength of that skill right now is abusing culling.

Even without culling, it’s a strong skill, but that issue makes it completely broken.

@Nijjion: Well of Blood is an AoE heal that has a 4.4 healing power ratio to allies an an additional 1.0 to yourself. No other healing skill in the game does that much. Light combo fields also mean projectiles and whirls are lots of condition cleanses.

RedFalcon: Reading your posts in this thread make me wonder if you have ever even looked at the necro’s skills and traits and what they actually do or if you just play your warrior all day and go “I don’t notice what that necro is doing, he must be useless”.

Numerous AoE blinds, weakness, bleeds, poison, interrupts, and chill drastically decrease the threat that enemies pose. For condition control, nobody does it better than a necro. Darkness fields may not be as good as Smoke, but they are a lot more accessible and still have definite impacts. Vulnerability stacking is best from a necro (thieves can also hit the cap quickly, but it eats all of their initiative to do so). Epidemic lets them spread the love like nobody else can (I’ve easily hit 12-13k sustained dps with epidemic, which is more than just about anyone else can do).

On top of that, group protection and perma-regeneration as well as the best group healing skill in the game (Well of Blood)

No, not all of these can be used in a single build, but the majority can.

Oh, and the DPS of a necro may not be as high as some other classes, but it is sustained. Interrupts, dodging, reviving, and healing hurt our DPS significantly less than other classes.

Retaliation probably didn’t work because the Thief was running Signet of Malice. When they heal each time they hit you, it counteracts the Retaliation damage. The good news is that the retaliation was also counteracting their healing.

As for Dark Pact failing, I’ve never had that happen unless they dodge.

Dungeon bosses have Defiant, which Fear no longer bypasses. In other words, you can only CC them if they currently have no stacks.

I haven’t tried it yet, but I would imagine the Reef Drake is a good pet for dungeons.

Red Falcon.8257:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Why would anyone choose a thief? They offer less group support, no group buffs, you spend more time reviving them than they spend dealing damage, so they cut your groups DPS to the point where they might as well not be there. What’s the point of playing a thief over these other medium armor classes? No one would choose a thief for their dungeon over a ranger or engineer.

See how easy this is? Reason why is because you are flat-out wrong on almost all of your points.

You’re kidding right?
Thief has access to stealthrez, anti-aggro with stealth, a wall that blocks projectiles on low CD, blind fields, blind spams, area weakness/poison… on top of high DPS.
You have either been playing with REALLY bad Thieves or you don’t know anything about Thieves if that’s what you know about them.

It’s called hyperbole. I know that thieves offer a lot to a party, but on paper, they don’t look that great for group support. Likewise, on paper, a necro doesn’t look that great for bringing stuff to a party, but in reality, they do.

Why would anyone choose a thief? They offer less group support, no group buffs, you spend more time reviving them than they spend dealing damage, so they cut your groups DPS to the point where they might as well not be there. What’s the point of playing a thief over these other medium armor classes? No one would choose a thief for their dungeon over a ranger or engineer.

See how easy this is? Reason why is because you are flat-out wrong on almost all of your points.

Necromancers offer lots of sustained damage and lots of damage mitigation that applies to the whole group. That plus their unparalled condition control makes them valuable in dungeons. Necros can take and hold aggro for a long time, relieving the rest of the party to deal their damage rather freely.

HiSaZuL.2843:

Lets discuss highest backstab crit each one of us saw…
Im so far sitting at 19k… was a while back tho.
Oh did I forget to mention… I was full toughness… >_> with MM toughness. I hate respecing for wvw. And i refuse to play conditions in pve too. Anyway point is. With all my minions and tougness gear and spec and so on… it was 19k hit. Just 1 hit… for 19k…The little guy didn’t even render until he simply mauled me down while I was in downed state which followed shortly after that backstab lol

Pretty sure that this damage is impossible now, even with 25 stacks of Might (which thieves can not reach on their own).

wizzard.1295:

Curios, why not using well of blood as healing? since you’re heavy on other wells.

Probably because Consume Conditions is up more often and his build otherwise lacks condition cleanse (Putrid Mark alone I don’t feel is enough). He could probably use Well of Blood just fine, though. 7 seconds longer cooldown, but it heals for a lot more and works with his siphoning traits.

We’re pretty much on all NA servers. Yeah, we won’t be able to do WvW stuff, but other than that, anything is fair game.

Straegen.2938:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

The sad thing is that it is really, really simple to fix all of these items and not remove them from WvW use. Just add a 30 second global cooldown to bundle consumeables.

People need to realize that the effect isn’t what is broken or un-fun, it’s the spammability of said effect. A global cooldown removes the spamming (which is the only broken part about them).

Giving a thief an extra stun every 30 seconds is just OPing an already extremely powerful single target class.

Then make it a 1 minute cooldown. Doesn’t matter on specifics so long as it is long enough that you are highly unlikely to see more than one or two of these in a fight.

The sad thing is that it is really, really simple to fix all of these items and not remove them from WvW use. Just add a 30 second global cooldown to bundle consumeables.

People need to realize that the effect isn’t what is broken or un-fun, it’s the spammability of said effect. A global cooldown removes the spamming (which is the only broken part about them).

Zenith.7301:

Bring your necro and I’ll show you on a ranger what actually debunkers. Your power necro is subpar; don’t fool yourself. Not all bunkers rely on boon stacking to hold a point.

They either rely on boons or lots of healing. Either way, a necro busts them pretty well.

Lunatic.9314:

I’m wondering what rings can I use until I get the fractal rings?

Cleric’s rings would probably do fine. They’re pretty easy to come by and give power and toughness. The Healing Power will work with Parasitic Bond, Consume Conditions, Life Siphon, and all that regeneration you will be getting.

Just remember that they are a placeholder.

I vote for But of Corpse. I really like that one.

Another option would be “Dead Again”

These consumeables do NOT need to go. They need a universal 30-60 second cooldown.

Is one gear going to save someone from dying in a 1v5 scenario? Not likely. Someone would have a stunbreak or when the stun wears off, the five kill the one anyway. Can it buy that one person some time? Yes. Is this gamebreaking at all? No.

Are 50 gears going to save someone from dying in a 1v5? You had better believe it! Is this gamebreaking at all? Oh yeah.

See, the problem isn’t with the item, the problem is with the frequency of use. Throwing a long global cooldown on these bundle consumeables would fix the problems without having to remove them. Since it would be global, they couldn’t chain together multiple consumeables to get the same basic effect.

Spy kits need to stay removed, though, due to allowing memsers to stay hidden for unreasonable amounts of time even with fantastic sweeping by their opponents.

Magiofdeath.2745:

Yeah, I thought we had a night presence too. I’ve been hoping we’d get EB blue keep at night at least once, so I can check that off my Necro’s WvW mapping tasks (my necro IS my WvW player mind you and not just doing wvw for the mapping, but might as well get it done, in case I ever actually finish PvE crap on her), but no dice. DB has an amazing day/morning presence and a pretty good night presence.

Well, eventually you will be blue and can get it then, I guess.

Shroudstomping doesn’t work in sPvP. Haven’t bothered trying it in WvW or tPvP.

Sethorus.9231:

I find necros very underwhelming but that is due to lot’s of bugged traits

Only bugged trait I’m aware of is Spiteful Talisman (PvE, it doesn’t affect Reaper’s Touch). If you know of any others, please share.

lisamee.2408:

Sadly, the ingredients used in most crafted items sell for more then the finished product because resources are so scarce. Crafting in GW2 was not developed to be what most players love about crafting.

It has more to do with the player-driven economy than ANet’s design failure. The raw materials are in high demand, both to make the items for personal use and for leveling up the crafting. The finished products on the TP, however, are in much less demand and in enormous supply.

Combined, it means that the majority of foods are impossible to sell at profit. Eventually enough people will realize it is cheaper to buy the item off the TP than make it themselves and the demand for the finished good will rise while supply drops.

This will probably take a year or two is my guess, and honestly, that’s being optimistic.

Slan.5496:

You can bring a stun breaker. So what? Maybe the thief hits you with the fear, then uses basilisk’s venom after you blow your stunbreaker. .

Do stunbreakers even work on Basalisk venom? It isn’t a normal stun (bypasses defiant, for one).

It is wrong that thieves can get better skills from a profession than that profession has access to. They really should not be able to do so. If Thieves stole a 1 second AoE fear, that would be fine. We have Reaper’s Mark which does the same thing plus some damage.

In WvW, at least, a Norn is the best choice if you want to avoid being seen. Yeah, that sounds really odd, but Become the Snow Leopard gives you a good duration stealth on a pretty low cooldown.

As an aside, try throwing Putrid Mark at your feet when you have a thief that stealthed with a skull. He pops it and you get feared. He heartseeker’s to you…and gets feared (releasing you from fear and any other conditions in the process). Another way to turn the tables on those who think necros are easy pickings.

If I’m not mistaken (correct me if I am), most condition removal skills and traits remove the most recently applied condition. With the situation you are describing, it will usually be the fear.

Magiofdeath.2745:

What’s SAD mean?

Singles Awareness Day

Happy SAD everyone!

nerva.7940:

fyi, with about 1k healing + compassion training + natural healing + SoW you get 200 HPS as long as your pet is alive. with regen on (especially if u have Dwayna runes), you get close to 500HPS. if you pop your SoN, you’ll have almost 1K HPS. think about that.

Yo dawg, I heard you like regen.

So we gave you a trait and a signet so you could regen while you regen while you regen while you regen.

The infusions you get from Laurels only give +4 to a stat and give no agony resistance. The infusions you craft give +5 to the stat and the +5 AR.

If it’s worth it or not is your call.

The 250 ectos thing only gives +5 AR to the backpiece itself (not the infusion slot). If you don’t plan on going through fractals, this isn’t worth it.

Iehova.9518:

I am getting the runestones 5 at a time, and the lodestone and tier 6 totals keep rising as I do all the rest. I also have the Sigil of Ice waiting.

Doing it wrong. Runestones come last.

No, I don’t think I am. As I am getting the gold for the runestones, I am getting other things that I need from drops. Same reason you do the mystic clovers first: failures usually give you other stuff you need. You are making progress on multiple parts of the legendary simultaneously.

Why would I spend lots of gold on lodestones and T6 materials when I am certian to get some as I farm up 100 gold? It makes no sense to buy materials now only to sell more later (at a possibly lower price).

I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t stack with all other boosters. All of the other boosters stack with eachother.

lettucemode.3789:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Should also be noted that that 75 extra attack the dagger has only applies to the dagger skills and none other. If damage is what you’re going for, Focus is the way to go. Besides, the main point of spinal shivers isn’t the chill (which is nice), but the boon stripping.

Your weapon damage applies to everything you do when you have that weapon set out.

They don’t apply to utility skills. I can garuntee that (or, if they do, the tooltips don’t reflect it). I’m pretty sure they only affect the damage dealt by the weapon skills they grant you.

@Zenith: Putrid Mark doesn’t care if you are anywhere close to it. It will transfer your conditions. Allies must be on the mark for it, though.

plasmacutter.2709:

anything that involves carry over distance will be mesmer first, unless they cause portal to drop any carried bundle. (which would make COF p2 a pain)

This Orb doesn’t follow the normal bundle rules, so I don’t think this will be the case. However, they did say that teleporting makes you drop the orb, which Portal may count as. Ride the Lightning is out due to being a weapon skill, so eles won’t be as good as people think.

Warriors, on the other hand, have Bull’s Charge that should work to move quickly, since it’s a utility skill.

Should also be noted that that 75 extra attack the dagger has only applies to the dagger skills and none other. If damage is what you’re going for, Focus is the way to go. Besides, the main point of spinal shivers isn’t the chill (which is nice), but the boon stripping.

Reaper’s Protection in particular is hilarious if you have terror. What he thinks is going to be his big burst moment instead gets him hurt heavily (1200/second for 3 seconds is not difficult to achieve) and resets the range advantage that you want.

I can see how it would work. You wouldn’t use the dagger offhand for damage, just control. Axe is very much a single target weapon, but between Unholy Feast, Deathly Swarm, and Enfeebling Blood, you can seriously discourage anyone else from stopping you from getting your one target. Deathly Swarm is still best saved for condition control instead of a blind, but nobody likes being blinded.

Karma :p Now that the Orrian Jewlery boxes are available, one can never have enough karma.

I’ve started running reef drake/jaguar on my ranger. While I’m not at the required level yet, I’m looking forward to the “crits bleed” trait that applies to both. My armorfish underwater doesn’t get it, but that thing’s purpose is to be crazy hard to kill (and they are) and stun. For underwater, I plan on swapping that major trait anyway.

If anything, my complaint with Beast mastery is that Natural Healing is miles ahead of Insticntual Bond. Would be nice if they buffed Instinctual Bond to make it worth taking.

Blix.8021:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Iehova.9518:

Zumy.6318:

I dont force you to agree with me, buddy.

I just don’t understand your point of view, friend.

Let’s see if I can explain it better.

I had to put a ton of work into getting up to 30 gold (which mostly got spent on equipping myself with the runes and weapon types/stats I wanted). Asking me to save up 100 gold feels like a task I will never see the end of.

However, I’ve been buying icy runestones in groups of 5 and keeping them in my bank. It feels a lot more manageable to do so as I feel like I am making real, measurable progress. I know that I am putting in no less work (and probably some extra due to waypoint costs), but it feels far more manageable this way. I refuse to play the trading post, so that much money is a lot of work.

If you feel like 100g is something you’ll never see the end of I don’t know how you think you’re going to get a legendary

Simple, because I can do it piece by piece and track my progress. I already have all components for the Gift of Mastery, save the bloodstone shard (but skill points come real easy), I have Gift of Metal, Gift of the Sanctuary, and all 77 clovers. I am getting the runestones 5 at a time, and the lodestone and tier 6 totals keep rising as I do all the rest. I also have the Sigil of Ice waiting.

Other than the precursor (dungeon tokens→exotic axes into the forge are my current method and will continue to be such until all that is left is the precursor), I am making very noticeable progress. That is why I think I will get a legendary. I can see that I am making progress.

Looking at it as “raise 5 gold 20 times” is far more plausable than “raise 100 gold”. It’s the same thing, but it seems like it is much closer.

Plague form does almost no direct damage. Flesh Golem regularly hits for 600+.

I think Fleshie wins the damage race over the duration of Plague, let alone the 3 minute recharge.

Even condition builds don’t use Plague for damage. They use it to become an unkillable ball of fun for 20 seconds.

Lich form auto-attack is the highest damage auto-attack in the game. It’s so high, in fact, that ANet capped its damage -.-

It’s understandable why, though. In PvP, Lich Form on a power necro was practically an auto-win.

If you’re using the wurm as an escape, you summoned it somewhere safe some time ago. Spectral Walk is great for jukes, even without any cliffs.

And yeah, Specrtal Grasp is good, usually better than Dark Path (I’d rather make them come to me than go to them most of the time), but Dark Path is more reliable in 1v1 situations due to its homing and fewer terrain problems. It can also be used for escapes on a mob or a straggler. I haven’t been counting how many times they have saved me, but the escapes a necro does have are very good, they just require thinking more.

It definitely still applies in combat. People just don’t think it does because they forget how drastic the slowdown from out-of-combat to in-combat is.

Out of combat, no speed buffs is 300 u/s. With Signet of the Locust, it is 375 u/s.
In combat, no speed buffs movement is 210 u/s. In combat with Signet of the Locust is 262.5 u/s.

You actually lose more movement speed when you enter combat if you have the Signet equipped than not, so the greater difference leads people to believe the signet doesn’t function in combat. You still have a very noticable mobility advantage over your opponents, though.