Guild Wars 2

Ithilwen.1529:

I play a condi Mesmer.

Called it! Reaper is probably the hardest matchup in the game to win as a condi Mesmer because you are giving them everything they could want: lots of bodies to scale off of without much DPS, lots of ammo in the form of conditions, and poor ability to cleanse Chill and transferred conditions all in one package.

By its very nature, Reaper counters your build. The first thing you’re doing wrong is using a condition build against a Necro and not expecting it to be a very difficult fight.

Vydahr.4285:

Now, if the Rampage Warrior is +1ing a fight you’re already in, you’re a dead reaper.

There ya go. Fixed it for you

Depends what your cooldowns at that point are and if you have any teammate support or not. It’s possible to survive and even win, but it’s not usually in your favor.

Luclinraider.2317:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Luclinraider.2317:

But right now the amount of damage I’m putting out, with the amount of self sustain and survival I have, makes us monsters

Wasn’t that the point of the Reaper?

Lol! True…but balance doesn’t approve :P

To be fair, Conquest artificially raises the power level of Reapers because it’s harder to avoid them when you’re trying to contest a point. The spec has very clear strengths and weaknesses and does best in even fights (whether that’s 1v1 or 5v5).

Reaper is strong, sure, but I’m not convinced it’s OP when people have had less than ten days total to learn to fight it. It has clear, exploitable weaknesses, but those weaknesses are not the same as base Necro.

Gerrark.9870:

That GS5 though, yeesh. Still seems buggy in reference to terrain. In fact, a bug I notice in particular is that if the mob I’m targeting is between me and a wall, and that wall is within the 600 range of the skill, when the claw hits the wall it just disappears and my target is never yanked. Which of course really sucks, because that’s definitely a situation that does and will happen often enough to make this skill really bad (and easily counterable by other classes). I honestly just wish the skill would be changed if this is going to always be an issue. Something less fun and creative would still be better than something that doesn’t seem to work right half the time.

See, I have the opposite happen. The animation disappears into the wall, but the pull still happens right on cue. I haven’t had it fail yet in Verdant Brink.

Bhawb.7408:

Honestly haven’t faced one yet. I’ve dumped on a lot of Lich’s, but didn’t run into any Rampage warriors. On that note, I’ve barely faced any warriors period compared to the other professions.

I tried the build last beta weekend and would duel Rampage Warriors all right. Had to play defensively while Rampage was up, but between Nightfall and YaaW, you can pull it out and turn around for a kill.

Now, if the Rampage Warrior is +1ing a fight you’re already in, things get trickier.

Reaper was designed to thrive in target-rich environments and, like regular Necro, is still extremely tough to kill with conditions. Given the last several times I have seen Mesmers complaining about Reaper, they were always running condi builds, I’m going to hazard a guess that you were as well.

Here’s what it comes down to on that particular matchup: you are a condi build going up against a Necromancer that is also scaling up in sustain through the bodies you’re creating in an endless supply. As a condition Mesmer, you are giving the Reaper exactly what he wants.

Now, if a Reaper was winning a 1v4, the 4 sucked. Reaper can’t scale that hard without allied help.

Halcyon.5340:

It’d be amusing to see an army of 100 shambling horrors run over somebody. That would be a highlight video.

I still want to see a zerg of Reapers in WvW just run in with Death Nova equipped and pop Rise!

No bug. Just the nature of degenerating minions.

Dahkeus.8243:

Reaper is just overtuned. I know people love the eye-watering damage, but it’s really not balanced. Necros need more than just imba dps to be a strong, well-rounded profession.

What’s interesting is that when you look at actual DPS, Reaper is only about middle of the pack until someone gets low on health to kick off Gravedigger spam. Even then, it’s still not top DPS.

Is Reaper overtuned? Possibly, but I think it has more to do with people still figuring out that they can’t just brawl with the Necro and expect to win. Reaper was designed to thrive in teamfights, and that is exactly where it’s strongest, but even in those circumstances it has its weaknesses. The main thing that I think throws people off is that those weaknesses are not the weaknesses of a base Necro.

Reaper animations are all pretty subdued. Not sure what you’re talking about there.

Luclinraider.2317:

But right now the amount of damage I’m putting out, with the amount of self sustain and survival I have, makes us monsters

Wasn’t that the point of the Reaper?

tuman.6593:

I just want to compare our elite shout with revenant elite ability Jade Winds:
“Chilled to the bone!” – 1.25 sec cast time, 2 sec stun, 90 sec CD;
“Jade Winds” – 1 sec cast time, 3 sec stun, 5 sec CD.
Our shout deals 2.5x more damage and apply chill for 8 sec , as revenant its cost 50 energy, but anyway too much difference in favor of revenant, isn’kitten

Our stun also can’t be broken and we also get Stability for each foe hit.

Gnat.9405:

Link removed?

Link is in the first sentence.

At least with HoT mobs, I frequently interrupt my Gravedigger spam to use other Greatsword skills. Reading the fight to drop blinds, a pull, or generate life force is vital to doing well.

And this does extend to many of the newer bosses as well.

And during BWE1, it only reset by 80%. It was clunky as hellllllllll and just felt terrible to use exactly in the situation it should have been used.

Spartyr.6795:

I’d vote for the Guard to be totally invulnerable until Rytlock shows up, but as it stands he at least should be much harder to kill while mounted.

Rytlock shows up when you get the Guard to 50% health, so being totally invulnerable before then would mean you could never get him down.

I would also love to see the difficulty ramped back up to BWE 1 or 2. When things get hectic, you should have a really good shot at dying from regular mobs (not even Elite or champs, just regular).

Keep this! I haven’t even played a beta Ranger yet and I want to see a lot more of this!

Warscythes.9307:

As for the people not hitting the damage they should be hitting. You guys are running S/SR/Reaper right? Even without close to death I was hitting 11k crits. I honestly have no idea how you are maxing 8k gravedigger unless there is some really weird bug going on.

I’ve only been averaging 8k crits, but I’m primarily in Zealot’s gear that I banked. Soooo, yeah, that average makes perfect sense for me.

That’s the model used in the Chinese client for Bone Minions/Jagged Horrors.

So what do their Shambling Horrors look like?

If we’re judging only by the most recent balance patch, I would say Necro is his baby. Mesmers got a trait nerf and a QoL change on a skill to allow it to actually work all the time. We got very significant changes to two weapons and new functionality on an underused skill to make it a competitive pick.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

It is nice to have a civil argument.

The main thing I want to get rid of on Ventari is the time and energy tax to use the legend skills. You effectively enter Ventari with only 40 energy, since you have to use 10 to summon the tablet. You also pay in time before you can use any of the skills. Considering how overall one-dimensional this set is, it really is frustrating to be the only one with the tax.

Having the tablet instant-summon at your location when you swap is the simplest way to solve this, but I can see other options being possible solutions.

.

How about if the summoning of the tablet is instant and uses no energy?

This way no matter if you are close or far. You can give instant support.

I think the last thing they want is telling people if they don’t use invocation then any hard stun will lock them out if they switch to use their spec.

Imagine how absolutely cool it would be if you were falling and you swapped in the air and summoned the tablet before you hit the ground. Getting out a 6 K heal to someone who would have died when they hit the ground.

Would probably be the best course of action. I wonder if they could code it so the first summon after swapping to Ventari was instant and free, but if you used your elite and/or strayed too far from the tablet it still had the cast time and energy cost?

Tungsten Monarch.6058:

With the exception of a thief, any class can heal quite well if built right, even including the necromancer.

What I’m concerned with are the concepts of heal only builds for the 10 Raid. There are bound to be TRI FECTA groups who not only believe tank heal nukes are the only way to run a Raid. In the original Guild wars it was not the TRI FECTA’s that ran the best, but the Synergistic play style and builds. Thus you had Yellow-Way, Barrage Pet Ranger builds, Minion Factory’s etc that did the best job’s at clearing Domain of Anguish, or UrgozWarren, or even the Deep. Rather than just thinking what is best for Haling how about thinking what is best for Synergy. I’d like to see some builds like Blue-Way, Shout Way (10 Cleric Shout heal Warriors) or Druidway, or even Fire/Ice (Flame throwing Engineering medics with Cold life stealing Necros) … I mean honestly get creative, and the classes should be synergistic.

I’m pretty sure this is how ANet actually intends for us to be running Raids; with lots of cross-player interaction and combinations.

For example, Reaper has massive damage, but long cast times and/or decently long recharges. What does Chronomancer do again?

You don’t have to consistently outnumber it, though. Interrupt mesmers eat Necros of any variety for breakfast. Hambow warriors are a lot more viable than people give them credit for and wreck Necros (again, of any form) day in and day out. HGH Engies do well against the Cele Signet Necro.

There are a number of builds that can 1v1 the meta Necro and win. You can also easily out-rotate it. Let’s say you personally don’t think you can beat a Necro. You can just give up the point and give your team the advantage elsewhere, possibly nabbing the 2 point advantage. The Necro doesn’t have the option to do that; most professions could cap a point he just abandoned before he could reach a teamfight, making his rotation a poor choice

And yeah, Cele Ele can 1v2 just fine for quite a long time.

Basically, Necro can never be “the new ele” because the profession has very clear strengths and weaknesses that can also be avoided and exploited respectively. It is good at what it does, and Reaper takes that to a whole new level, but what it does not do is also very impactful on a fight.

It is nice to have a civil argument.

The main thing I want to get rid of on Ventari is the time and energy tax to use the legend skills. You effectively enter Ventari with only 40 energy, since you have to use 10 to summon the tablet. You also pay in time before you can use any of the skills. Considering how overall one-dimensional this set is, it really is frustrating to be the only one with the tax.

Having the tablet instant-summon at your location when you swap is the simplest way to solve this, but I can see other options being possible solutions.

nearlight.3064:

I have howler and I’m never letting go of my 1500g paperweight.

At least they haven’t removed the stat-swapping?

striker.3704:

Bhawb.7408:

striker.3704:

I can’tell really think of any point in PvE where Moa morph is used at all on players. We also don’the see any minion master enemies.

All transforms kill minions. This not only means Lich/Plague (pre change), and Moa, but also any of the transforms that are used in PvE to do various things to the player. The problem there is Necromancer minions are uniquely mobile with no duration, meaning a transformed Necromancer that is meant to not be able to attack at all can have a swarm of minions that deal with mobs for them.

However, now that they can make exceptions Moa should just be included alongside Plague/Lich, and leave the PvE issues to PvE.

yeah I understand all that, I thought the person I was quoting was saying moa had presence in PvE, which it doesn’t as far as I’m aware.

Every so often you see it dropped on bosses. Not a lot of them it’s worth using it on, as most of the really dangerous ones (Lupicus) are immune. Even then, Time Warp is just always better.

I prefer Sigil of Chilling or Hydromancy, myself.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aureate_Warhorn_%28skin%29

That’s what I use. Simple at first glance, but elegant.

I believe that, if you crit the mob you selected, even if you also crit another mob with the same attack, Plague Sending will transfer to your selected target. I could be mistaken about this.

If, however, you crit something else and do not crit your target, it will transfer to whatever you did crit.

Labjax.2465:

If ascended is required for raids, you can bet that it will be both easier to craft and there will be better gear in raids. And you can bet that ascended will either instantly, or gradually, become the new “exotic.”

Considering Colin said flat-out with no question that there will never be a tier beyond Ascended in power during the HoT announcement event, we can call bull on this right now.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

BlackBeard.2873:

Also, shadowshot.

That’s just a blind, though, for the damage the dagger needs to hit (and that is not unblockable, as I recall).

It is a melee attack, though, which would ignore projectile hate anyway.

Aomine.5012:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Aomine.5012:

If they add so many reflects and projectile blocks to all classes, how about adding a “reflection penetration” as mechanic as counter-play.

Seems like all the new specialization and class has immense access to long duration low CD reflects. It’s only fair that classes that rely on projectiles to get something like “reflection penetration”.

Although it’s not stated as such, unblockable attacks do ignore most projectile hate.

I have yet to see any unblockable projectiles in this game.
Maybe they should start adding them.

Dark Path and Mirror Blade are the only ones that come to mind as being natively unblockable, but Warrior has Signet of Might to make anything they want unblockable. Revenant can also make anything unblockable via Devestation trait line or Shiro.

There’s not much, but it is there.

Aomine.5012:

If they add so many reflects and projectile blocks to all classes, how about adding a “reflection penetration” as mechanic as counter-play.

Seems like all the new specialization and class has immense access to long duration low CD reflects. It’s only fair that classes that rely on projectiles to get something like “reflection penetration”.

Although it’s not stated as such, unblockable attacks do ignore most projectile hate.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Edit: Also, for necro: my brother didn’t mention a self-weakness when he was talking about how good they made the skill…he was just mentioning that it makes it really easy for him to 1v2 compared to before, especially if his opponents don’t know what they’re doing.

Probably because the Weakness on it isn’t new. The skill is much better now, for sure, but it does have drawbacks for the Necro. If he traits it to go down to a 20 second cooldown, he also Cripples himself.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Necromancer received it because they were literally the only profession without projectile defense, which is important not only in PvP but also in quite a bit of PvE. They are still the only profession without projectile reflection, until Revenant comes out (they also lack Reflection, but do have good blocking options).

…Did you even read my suggestion? Because you didn’t address it.

You’re right, I didn’t. And the answer is…not so much, no. Tool kit (Magnet!) and bomb kit don’t care, for example. Thumper/Flame Turret/Turret detonations don’t care. Flamethrower even can work out. Engineers have tools to deal with projectile hate, after all. It might behoove you to work some into your build if you keep running into the same issue.

Hint: Tool kit is very good regardless of the presence of projectile hate.

Also, in the case of Necro projectile destruction specifically, it also applies a long weakness on the Necro himself that nearly matches the field’s duration. Necros already don’t have much in the way of dodging, so you can capitalize on it.

Necromancer received it because they were literally the only profession without projectile defense, which is important not only in PvP but also in quite a bit of PvE. They are still the only profession without projectile reflection, until Revenant comes out (they also lack Reflection, but do have good blocking options).

And staff eles are hardly incapable of hurting a Necro hiding in a CPC. Lava Font and Meteor Shower don’t care one bit about projectile hate, for example. A lot of ele staff skills don’t.

splatticus.1278:

Dreaming serpent.5197:

Corrosive Poison Cloud also destroys treb shots in kylo, yet to be tested in wvw, but should probably destroy siege shots (treb, cata, ext)

I can verify, CPC destroys siege projectiles in WvW. Did some major mortar-blocking while we were ramming a gate.

I would not grow to rely on this feature, as it will probably get fixed.

That said, I imagine the reason it does this is actually because of the Catapult Mastery line, oddly enough. That bubble (and the upcoming Shield Generator) is intended to block siege projectiles, so anything that is not intended to block those probably has exceptions coded in (if skill=Fire (trebuchet), then destroy = no)) rather than coding to block everything else. This means that if projectile destruction gets added to a skill, they also have to remember to add in those exceptions or it will block siege.

Makes me wonder if Death’s Charge has those exceptions programmed in or not…

nekretaal.6485:

2 lost a lot of damage and cripple from lingering curses.

Actually, it gained damage with Lingering Curse.

Before, we had 7 second base bleeds, which Lingering Curse doubled to 14 seconds.

Now, we have 10 second base, which Lingering Curse raises to 15 seconds.

That, plus the additional bleed stack in PvP nets a 60% damage increase from bleeds on the skill.

Having a Blast finisher on Unholy Feast gives us the following using only Necro/Reaper skills:

AoE Retaliation (on top of the Retaliation you already get from the skill.
AoE Weakness
AoE Blind
AoE Chaos Armor
AoE Frost Armor.

All of those are very nice in-combat effects. Really, if Necros had better finishers, I would really work at using those combos in regular combat.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

554852kitten.1705:

I also found out last night while doing fractals that you can block unblockable projectiles with it, such as Mai Trin cannon phase. That seems a bit broken, but I thought it was fun. :p

I believe you can do this with all projectile destructions. It isn’t a block, it actually destroys the projectile before it hits you.

Siege weapons are immune, though.

Anchoku.8142:

Did Necromancer ever have a condi-meta?

Dhuumfire/predhuumfire.

Even so, Ravezzar is obviously playing at a very low skill level if condi builds are winning all the time.

Puck.9612:

Erindriel.2351:

So what prof / build is doing well vs heavy condi pressure? Preferably one that can kill people, rather than act as nothing but condi-cleanse-bot (like shoutbow)

Necro. Transfer their own condi’s back and watch them burn.

To be fair, this is nothing new. Necros have always been extremely strong against condi builds.

Other than that, Stance Warriors do a pretty good job with high cleansing ability and good damage. D/D celementalists do pretty well against condis, too.

octagon.6504:

Where does it say that new pets will be in HoT zones only? I couldn’t find any quotes to that.

Three posts above yours is pretty definitive.

Kinda you being bad if a Necro is bursting you that hard. Condi necro really doesn’t have burst ability.

Hexalot.8194:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Well, the wiki isn’t updated yet.

Currently the axe does 238 damage every 0.95 seconds. With a 10% buff, this amounts to 262 per hit, or 267 DPS. At 2 × 7 vulnerability per hit, this comes to 14.7 stacks of vulnerability sustained.

Life Blast does 345 damage within 600 range, and hits every 1.4 seconds. This comes to about 246 DPS. With unyielding blast, this comes to 14.3 stacks of vulnerability sustained.

This is… interesting. Rending claws now does more damage than life blast at any range. Unyielding Blast pierces, but Rending Claws basically bypasses any defense that isn’t a straight up block.

If anything, I’d say that axe is actually a decent weapon now.

In actual practice, the above isn’t true. If traited correctly, you can currently achieve 100% crit rate with life blast, which means its actual DPS will always be much higher than anything Axe can do.

Come Reaper, the same is true with axe. Hitting 50% crit chance from gear is fairly simple. Decimate Defenses will take it from there and actually synergizes with axe.

Or you want to use skills to support yourself right away, which is also common.

Summoning and moving the tablet both have the same cast time (1/2 second, according to the wiki). Assuming a 1/4 second to react, you aren’t going to hit a 3/4 second threshold anyway.

While you’re stealthed, you aren’t using energy. So swapping for energy is not worth it unless you plan on breaking stealth anyway.

Consider the following: you’re facing a Revenant and a Mesmer. Mesmer pops Mass Invisibility and both vanish. Now the Revenant swaps to Ventari: you see the tablet appear and you know where he is, but then the tablet moves. Did he move it over to the Mesmer? Did he just move it to empty space? You don’t know, and you just lost your tag on the Revenant himself. Alternatively, if it stayed where it was, are you going to hit anything if you hit that area? For all you know, the Revenant moved away and is stockpiling energy for weapon skills, not bothering with any Ventari skills at all.

Ventari Revenants that have party members stealthing them have mind games they can play, regardless of how the tablet gets summoned. My proposal lets them access truly instant cleansing or projectile protection for themselves, however, the value of which can’t be overstated.

My proposal also means that you don’t effectively enter Ventari with only 40 energy compared to any other legend.

Hexalot.8194:

Varonth.5830:

Blaine Tog.8304:

Here’s the issue with the Axe autoattack: there’s very little counterplay to it, less so now that the range has been increased. This means the damage can’t be too high or it becomes incredibly obnoxious. Without having done extensive testing, I’d estimate 10% is probably on the high end of balance-able. If Anet wants to improve the Axe further (and I suspect they probably should), they’ll need to give it something other than just additional damage.

Mesmer greatsword autoattack would like to have a word with you.

Great sword auto attack range is virtually point blank though.

Mesmer Greatsword auto has 1200 range…

Zatoichi.1049:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Fluffball.8307:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Poor Frost Spirit. That skill’s group viability just got destroyed.

Huh? It got buffed unless I’m missing something obvious…

It got changed to Vuln application, which most groups have maxxed out anyway. In Heart of Thorns, this will be even worse as it will be handed out like candy on Halloween. Frost Spirit now adds no damage at all to most groups.

-Storm Spirit: Changed the on-hit boon to now apply 3 stacks of vulnerability for 10 seconds.

facepalms I was mixing up spirits. My mistake! Yeah, these are pretty nice buffs all over.

Captain Unusual.9163:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Something to note now is that axe auto now deals a bit higher damage than staff auto. This is after accounting for weapon strength.

Aw yes, our midrange pure-dps weapon finally outdamages our long range support weapon. What a time to be alive.

I didn’t say it was good I said it was worth noting. Axe has a long way to go to be decent.

Fluffball.8307:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Poor Frost Spirit. That skill’s group viability just got destroyed.

Huh? It got buffed unless I’m missing something obvious…

It got changed to Vuln application, which most groups have maxxed out anyway. In Heart of Thorns, this will be even worse as it will be handed out like candy on Halloween. Frost Spirit now adds no damage at all to most groups.