Guild Wars 2

I toned down the clock on my system, which has cured the WHEA-Logger errors. Since that point I have no longer had any game crashes, though unfortunately I cannot conclude that it is fixed under SLI. A recent driver update came out for the video card, and the driver update flipped off SLI, which I didn’t catch until today. I’ll give it another week or two and see if I’m fully stable or not!

Can lower tier major traits be selected in the higher tiers? For example an Adept trait in a Master slot. The screen shot looks like each tier is locked to their respective, which severely limits build flexibility. I realize fewer options means it’s easier to figure out, but build crafting is an important factor to me, and going from millions of combinations to a few thousand is a bad thing in my opinion.

I am glad to hear that stats are being stripped out, though. While they were certainly less important than trait options, their spread favored some classes over others, and would be nice to see that factor gone.

Over half my fights in the last few days had someone (on my team) AFK or quit/dc at the start of the fight. Been fun not having a chance to win and losses accrue in my stats.

I’ve run my current overclock for 2 years now with no stability issues. I’ve been able to play a dozen other games with no crash issues, all but one of which are much more graphically demanding than this one. ONLY GW2 is crashing in SLI, and I’ve run GW2 with no issue up to this point just fine the same system on my old single card. I’m not even remotely worried about my current clock, though as I mentioned, I’m not ruling it out.

Side note is I’m have ASUS Strix cards, and I’m currently running it on the factory clock at this time.

As for “using full VRAM” – the 99% utilization is not 99% of the VRAM, it’s 99% of the GPU. A single card has more than enough VRAM for this game – I don’t think I’ve ever passed 50% buffer even on single card. The 970 issues of it being only a 3.5GB card rather than 4GB shouldn’t be a concern as I’m not pushing into the possible memory issues (where the last 500MB of the 4GB is much much slower than the first 3.5GB). In my research into SLI stability issues with GW2, I saw some report the same crashing issues, some not. Some report 0 FPS gain (or even a minor loss), and even more report gains from a dozen FPS to nearly double FPS (which is what I see). I want to keep that performance gain.

The GW2 Nvidia profile is how I am able to individually set graphic card settings by the game, and is why I can turn off SLI in GW2 only.

Whether I can play the game at 1080p at max or not on a single graphics card is a moot point – that doesn’t change the fact that it’s not running stably in a SLI setup. I have a multi-monitor setup (though I game on one monitor, other monitor is used for music, VoiPs, web browsing, etc), and already noted the frame-rate difference – my GPU has 99% utilization running a single GPU in just PvP. SLI fixes that, though I currently can’t use it.

Maybe a pipe dream would be that HoT will touch upon the DX12 APIs as that would likely fix most of the SLI issues, though considering this is a 2012 game that doesn’t use DX11, that’s unlikely.

As for the errors I get, it’s always different. Whatever texture(s) it trips over – here is the error logs of the most recent:

• Error Logs <—*
  Content is referencing a propID that doesn’t exist propId=‘1543321963280342662’
  Content is referencing a propID that doesn’t exist propId=‘1543321885970931329’
  Content is referencing a propID that doesn’t exist propId=‘1543321529488645762’
  Texture missing mip chain: 0×00ecaf

Not sure if you guys would care about the the stacks.

I did have two BSoDs while playing GW2 (and only GW2). Unfortunately the codes just point to software/driver issues without a way to tell what application. Action logs are blank, and memory dumps are several GB, so no way in hell do I want to sift through those. However while looking into the BSoD logs, I noticed some WHEA-Logger errors. I run a strong over-clock on my system, though the fact that the start of the WHEA errors coincides with my closing the house windows for the springtime heat (yay for AZ) and how hot my room gets (my room can hit 90F even with the AC on due to my room being a hot spot + electronics and AC sensor being in a cooler location), there may be a heat related issue on my CPU. I know GW2 is a CPU hog, and possibly those texture errors are from failing to pull on cache rather than VRAM (though that wouldn’t explain why disabling SLI would resolve stability issues). Also while my CPU is running hotter than normal, it doesn’t reach 80 C while gaming (105C is Intel’s safety trip temp, and I prefer to make 70s my load temp goal). I’ll work on ambient temp and possibly tweak the clock to fix the WHEA errors, though I still think that is unrelated to my GW2 stability issues. I’m not one to leave a stone unturned!

So a month ago I decided to do a major video card upgrade from a single Radeon HD 6950 to dual GeForce GTX 970s in SLI. Every game has worked flawlessly thus far with my cards – with the exception of Guild Wars 2.

GW2 has faced several issues:
First is I’ve seen posts on this, but no acknowledged “known issue”: Player icons in party windows flicker. Disabling SLI and running on a single GPU fixes this.

Second is MAJOR. GW2 does not know how to handle the shared Video Ram resources. My game crashes constantly with VRAM errors as the game is unable to call some resource. I’ve tried a variety of in game settings, with no change to crash rate. Only SLI settings made a difference:
- Nvidia recommended SLI: Random game crashes
- Forced Alternate Frame Rendering 1: game unplayable with single digit FPS
- Forced Alternate Frame Rendering 2: Random game crashes
- Single GPU/Disabling SLI: No crash issues

I want to be able to run GW2 with SLI – my framerate is more than doubled at max settings (we’re talking 10-30 FPS depending on load to 40-70+). SLI is becoming more and more mainstream, and with Direct X 12 bringing the possibility of completely changing the upgrade landscape to where when you get a new card, you can keep using your old card as well… soon a majority of players will be running SLI.

I have submitted about a dozen crash reports using the auto tool (I have skipped doing that on a vast majority due to crashes in PvP matches that I want to get back in asap), but I am willing to work with a dev or tech support doing whatever tests they would like. Would rather endure a hundred crashes and a few hours messing with clocks and settings so I can enjoy HoT in it’s full glory rather than toned down and/or choppy.

Yay for post character limits!

3) Trains. SW did look to address this with simultaneous events, though I comes the question of your “for what?” Events add to starting breach. Saving forts gives you access to NPC that you need to unlock achievements for gear and convenience. Breach means that forts won’t be poisoned so you can safely roam the map. Final fight gives rewards to use for money and chances at ascended gear. Be it level, stat, or item grind – after you’ve done the story aspect once, what is there left that the game itself can give you? And if it’s the story aspect being too light is the issue, they’ve already said HoT is going to carry the story will carry more strongly into open world. The fact is, though, the writing will always be finite – and if they put too much in open world you face the issue of people waiting around on the same cutscene or the same bit of dialogue for the 100th time… which is why they try and keep it instanced.

World boss trains would be limited by not having timers staggered, but I ask why is that important? World bosses are specifically meant to be mass events… either there are enough people to multi-train them all, or the less desired bosses would be simply skipped if there is not enough time to do them all.

WvW trains is something they spoke about repeatedly when reviewing the new WvW maps. Larger maps with more depth and lots of secret and isolated paths will make roaming a lot easier instead of the open ‘just a matter of time until the zerg spots us’ maps we have now. Add in the efforts of trying to give roamers a lot more to do with shrines, more worthwhile sentry takeovers and dolyak escorts, and events (though center event I have a feeling will just be a zerg fest), you’ll have a choice on how you want to play. While Edge of the Mists may not be open world, the map is still too small with too few chokepoints for a roam group to go unnoticed. Add in not enough real purpose for the zergs as there are not many objectives in the map, and you might as well go grabbing those few objectives in a single blob.

HoT will not end trains, but I do see them taking giving options other than trains to heart.

3.5) Static bosses are boring. I agree – Wyvern is obviously an effort in the direction of improvement. Teq is an example of a boss that doesn’t move much, but has interesting mechanics. I think the dev’s are going in the right direction, and expect HoT’s boss fights to be some of the best in the game. The dev’s going back and fixing the old fights is a different concern, and begs the question if redoing old content you’ve already played is better than new content… most would argue it is not.

4) “Stack here” – this goes back to the combo and res mechanics of the game. The stack on the commander, though, is for a good reason – commanders can see player count and supply count that way. Allows for them to know what and how many siege equipments can be built to assault a point or if a camp needs to be raided. That needs to stay. The stack for boss/dungeon fights I discussed earlier.

The OP brought up many valid points, but most those points I see as something that HoT is working on. But while I believe HoT will an improvement, it will not be making GW2 into a new game. If you’re not having fun now, you probably won’t be having fun in HoT.

1) Exploit Dungeon meta: I’ve never played a dungeon where the meta was not to take the easiest and cheesiest way to win. Whether it was “stand here in this spot” where boss mechanics were less or non-existent and range the boss. Bosses that you either just kite or kiss depending on if melee or ranged is their more dangerous mechanic. The ever popular tank and spank where you have the tank pull the boss to a certain spot that optimizes damage and safe spots for ranged characters to stand outside of all boss cleave/pbaoe spamming their meta rotations. Developers face the issue that they have to give a boss mechanics that allow you survive a fight and defeat the boss – random rampages means that boss fights would be a matter of RNG (luck) rather than skill. Predictable mechanics means once you learn it, the challenge is gone. I’ve fought Kholer multiple ways – just fighting in the middle killing adds as they pop up. Pulling him away from his platform to avoid adds and then just fighting him. Triggering Troll and have them fight each other and finishing them off when they’re low. And, of course, stacking at the edge pillar and killing him before his first windup. Stacking is favored in GW2 due to the combo mechanic being so small and downed state. The only way to bring a player out of downed state (outside of singular super long cooldown skills) is to be standing on them, so if you’re already standing on each other you can get each other up. It would take major buffing of combo range and adding ranged healing of downed players to limit the stacking mechanic. While I would like to see that happen, it doesn’t bother me – whether people stand in their own safe(ish) spots or together, the goal is the same in every MMO. I actually think the biggest problem of stacking is your second point.

2) Your point of instead of no trinity, it’s just the DPS pillar. This is mostly true, for the simple fact that it’s true in every MMO. The Trinity system has always been minimum number of tanks and healers you can get away with and maximum number of DPS players. Here those specific roles is more dictated by gear – you want to go as glassy as possible while still being able to survive, and fully glass would be the goal. This is not to say that individual DPS is the be-all-end-all as this game still has roles. Parties still want support and control along with DPS… Protection, Might and fury for players and controls and vulns on the bosses are pretty important. Necro’s problem in PvE is they don’t fill one of those three roles very well. They don’t bring party buffs of their own, nor do they have solid blast access to aid in other players combo fields for buffs. Their combo fields don’t help in party buffs. Their main control mechanic, fear, is not conducive to stacking and burning bosses as it makes it run away. They don’t have strong scaling modifiers, which is the key to top DPS in parties. Warrior is a good example where they are not top DPS, but the support role they play makes them still a good add. The defiance change coming up in HoT will help Necros a bit as their access to blinds and fears that will translate into a straight stun (or whatever the boss’ break mechanic is) making them fit more strongly in the control role. If their GS gives them blast finisher access and their specialization gives them some stronger scaling, I’d say Necro would be in a much better position for dungeon run parties.

On a power necro, a single 3s stability is not worth dropping DP for. However a stun break is extremely important – I would not suggest playing without having at least one in PvP. You’re inevitably going to get caught as there is more CC than dodges and not everyone can see invisible thieves. No, this change has put FitG on the map as a serious trait option.

On a power necro, giving up CtD and DP for FitG is a tough choice. DP is guaranteed crit, which also applies to your wells. Losing 25% crit chance and 20% damage (as well kitten power) against targets you want to finish off is a pretty big DPS loss. You’d also likely be giving up Vital Persistance for Near to Death to keep up Fury and stabs, and VP plays a big role in using DS for DPS instead of just survivability.

This is not to say doing those switches is a bad idea, but rather a DPS loss for a survivability gain. If you’re going against a CC heavy party, you WANT this change… but if you’re not going to be pingponged between a mesmer and engi, I’d say go for the DPS. You may want to use this in WvW considering the stab changes.

The real question is should Terrormancers be dropping Greater Marks for this.

Stealing an ele hammer would have been cheaper than 350 charged lodestones.

Heartseeker is a move that is based on the target’s health – above 50% it’s weak, 25-50% it’s strong, and below 25% it’s amazing. You really only use it for two situations: Closing the gap and killing blows. Early spam wastes the initiative that you could use for CnD + Backstab and Dagger 4 to cripple. You may also want to consider D/P. Pistol offhand offers a blind field for stunning, stealth without needing a target (P5 > D2), and an Interrupt if you notice they’re casting heal or a big move. D/P 3 is also a blinding gap closer that you should use over HS (so HS is used just to stealth and deliver a killing blow). D/P makes it more Initiative intensive slower to stealth than D/D, but the utility gained is more than worth it. The damage nerf CnD took in PvP pretty much sealed the fate on the combo.

As to why you see such small damage numbers, it’s mainly due to boons. Boons are 50% (if not more) of the Elementalist’s survivability. They have protection, which shaves off 33% of damage and is a huge hit against burst builds, vigor, and regeneration. And as they’re good at Might stacking, they often forgo glass and use Celestial to gain more survivability without completely forgoing DPS.

D/D ele is a super tough fight for D/D or D/P thieves – if you don’t get them down with an initial surprise burst, you’re not going to get them down at all (unless they are terrabad). Also be wary of their Shocking Aura – better to hold off for a few seconds than it is to get stunned and let them land a BS > FG combo on you. The situation you described was getting hit by Updraft. Updraft has a tell, so it’s best to dodge it entirely, but if you’re caught, Shadow Step to get away from the follow and break the knockdown. Updraft has a long cooldown, so you should have either killed the ele, or ran away before they’re ready to use it again.

Due to Eles and other boon heavy classes, boon removal is a MUST in PvP. Ready to burst that ele? You need to strip protection first. Thief has two major avenues of boon removal: S/D 3 and Bountiful Theft. S/D is a tougher class to play as it gives up a lot of its bursting power for much higher survivability and takes intelligent play to gain that survivability, but is a great counter to boon heavy classes. Bountiful Theft, though, is a trait – and one that you should take.

A D/P 5 (Black Powder) > D/P 2 (Heart Seeker) > Steal (with Mug trait) > D/P 1 (Backstab) is an amazing opener (try and land BS behind the target), and against a squishy target, can easily put them in range to be mopped up with HS. Having Steal traited with Bountiful Theft means that you should strip Protection to allow the combo to do full damage. Sadly as you get into higher level PvP people will be ready for the burst combo (especially if alone capping a point with everything off cooldown) so you’ll often find yourself whiffing the backstab. Luckily it doesn’t unstealth you if you miss, so if you’re quick, you can still get it off.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki is a great resource. It often contains suggestions about how to play the builds provided, and while it certainly isn’t the only way or even necessarily the best way to play/build classes, it definitely is a great place to start.

Nah – unload only has a 20% trigger chance. Smoke field + headshot would mean that you would be loading a double charge against their Defiance bar (blind + daze). Depending how effective blinds are against that bar, that combo would likely be vastly superior to clearing a defiance bar.

As for time limits on defiance – the current system does not have it. In mass events the high stack and lack of control on the type and timing of the CC landed makes it not worth the effort – better to just lay in the DPS and dodge the moves (or just range in safety). Depending on the effectiveness of blinds on bosses and their Defiance bar, all I see is bosses getting blinded every now and then, not stunned. Any uncontrolled blind spam to clear the defiance bar would pretty much just lead to a blind landing on the cleared move before any real CC move would land. Scales that were small enough that you could coordinate the CC move were small enough to handle the defiant stacks anyways without real concerted effort as they don’t regen. While blinds that would actually work on bosses would certainly be useful, there will be no build changes unless boss mechanics continue to have events that make interrupts a major goal.

I’d modify Shallow’s list to add thief:
- Vuln stacking (better than ele w/o glyph, about equal if they use glyph)
- Insane DPS with D/D (when supported)
- Poison (steal + SB field + finishing D auto chain if poison isn’t readily provided by others) along with Weakness
- The ONLY class that can refill Endurance bars of nearby party members for life saving dodges.
- Shadow Refuge ressing

Thief brings very strong defensive support to the party (I’d only rank Guardian higher), but weak offensive support (pretty much just vuln stacking). Ele brings extremely strong offensive support, and medium defensive support (water fields and swiftness). As PvE isn’t very difficult, killing faster is the most desired, so Offensive Support > Defensive support. This means that an ele would help the party more than a thief would. However once the party has that support, a thief is vastly superior to a second ele due to the useful abilities and top-tier DPS they can provide when supported offensively.

Thief and ele are a pretty amazing duo – Thief has spammable blast finishers to play into the ele’s fields, strong modifiers that buff them near the top of the DPS chain when supported (easily higher than ele)… especially when they pick up a conjure from an ele due to Improvisation. They actually out-DPS an ele with their LH, though unless it’s a short fight, it’s best to leave it to the ele as the hammer is part of their might + fury stacking rotation. You’re better DPS than the ele without LH than they are without LH, and sub-25% you’re the top DPS period with HS spam/rotations.

TL;DR – if the parties you run with often have an ele, go Thief. Otherwise ele is the better option (unless the party is Warrior heavy).

Stopping the Wyvern taking flight sounds just like stopping the Moa in Silverwastes – just with a bar to make it tougher. If blind applies against the bar, thief definitely would be a huge boon to such fights as their smoke fields + spammable interrupts would make them instrumental to keeping the dragons on the ground.

The question is – will they remove the general near immunity to blinds and make it a “CC” that resets the bar? Will it have 100% effectiveness? Will it stop the Wyvern from flying? How will the bar scale? How fast will it regen? Unfortunately this will take away the option of taking away the stacks to have an interrupt ready for the bigger attacks, which will hurt dungeons and solo/small champion fights unless the bar is easy enough to break and/or regens slow enough. Plenty of questions, and I’m sure will require some balancing.

I do hope Immobilize does not count. Blinds can at least stop an attack from landing (and situationally is worse or better than an interrupt as the time to finish the attack animation helps and doesn’t require the precise timing as all it takes is having the debuff on during the hit window). Immobilize does not stop attacks, most world bosses don’t budge anyways, and calls into question cripple and chill (and slow) as well. Blind can be considered a disable in a way and makes sense to apply against defiance. The others are movement control, and should be handled separately.

If you’re struggling with condis, you may want to consider going 6/0/2/0/6. 2 in Shadow gives you condi removal while in stealth, and D/P has easy stealth access. Panic Strike is also amazing and your steal will inflict Weakness. Better to shave a little damage and be able to survive long enough to kill or disengage than to be watching your respawn timer. Disengage is one of thieves major advantages – about to lose the 1 on 1? Leave and either reset the fight or go help the main battle. Being concentrated on in the main fight? Pop out SB to flip away and use your squishy tush to peel some enemies. Should be able to keep ahead of them and then stealth to fully disengage. They don’t chase, and it lets you reset and then go back in.

As for fights, Metabattle goes into some good detail about how to use your thief and common build matchups, so I won’t repeat that. Specifically about the situations you spoke of:

Mesmers: You are the hard counter to mesmer. With stealths and blinds (as blinding the player affects the clones too) to screw up their clones, you can effectively go in for the kill. With Steal and D/P 3 there shouldn’t be any reason you’re kept at range, and the build change suggested (which is also on Metabattle) will help with condis.

Rangers: Power Ranger is the most common setup, and you really only have 2 concerns: Entangle and Signet of Stone. With the build change, just stealthing counters Entangled, and Signet of Stone is your call to just stealth and reset the fight if need be. SoS has a long cooldown, so he won’t be able to save himself from the next burst. With a blinding. Save your steal for when he rapid fires as that not only lets you get to him but also interrupts the move due to traits. Closing the gap instead with D/P 3 or SB 5 (unless you’re coming in stealthed) has the advantage of blinding, which likely negates the common reaction of their knockback.

Guardians: They have long cooldowns, so it really is just a game of baiting them out. You have disengages, so you can go in pressure the cooldowns, back out for a second and head back in. Be wary of retaliation.

Turret Engies: Just bait them out. SB can hit multiple turrets with auto and cluster and poison fields on the engi. If they come after you, work to keep the fight off their turrets. If you kill enough turrets, then engage as normal. Save a stunbreaker for their box drop and be ready to disengage and repeat the tactic. In general, though, an engi that is just going to turret camp is a person out of the fight – 5v4 on the other two points or rotate with the main group to the point, so don’t waste your time on them alone.

D/D Ele: Unfortunately a D/D ele of equal skill or better will probably kick your pants. Save your steal for the finish of their might stack rotation, try to dodge ride the lightning so it’s stuck on a long cooldown making it tough for them to stick to you and be most wary when they’re in fire attunement as that’s their main damage spec. Unfortunately wind is their rest attunement due to lightning whip being a strong auto that also is quick for their signet heals. You can cross your fingers and hope they are not that good – but they’re a 1v1 to avoid. S/D thief is the only thief build I think that can stand toe to toe due to the boon steals and large amount of evades, though more as an even fight rather than a counter.

Staff Necros: Depends if they’re a power build or a condi build. Heavy condi pressure is tough to deal with as even stealth condi removal can only handle so much, but power necros should be lunch for you. They have so little mobility that you can engage and disengage them at will, so if they ever catch the upper hand in a fight, just back off and reset. He Liches – just stealth and let it burn off. He Liches against your party? Steal and watch as the Jolly Green Giant gets CCed and squashed. Just avoid red circles and Necros will probably be your easiest fights.

Hammer Warriors: Bow is your bigger fear than hammer. Pindown and fire field are more likely to hurt you. Hammer is pretty highly telegraphed and not the highest damage (especially as they’re likely a bunker build with a hammer). Just interrupt their attacks with P4 while laying in some pressure with auto attack and dodging when needed. Once they balanced stance, steal the boons and then lay into them. Likely they’ll then pop endure pain – that’s where you back off and recover initiative to finish him off once endure is over. Hammer warriors are more annoying than a real fear, though their innate HP and armor makes all warriors a tougher fight.

As stated, though, if 1 on 1s are your weak point, stay with the main group and finish those targets. Practice 1v1s with some guildmates if you can.

I completely disagree with thief being a bad PvE profession.

In open world I run S/P and D/P or D/D. S/P combo pretty much lets you just tap 3 to kill everything. If you’re against a tough target, just time your 3 for attacks as it is an interrupt and an evade. Dagger 2 to finish off near dead targets. But with 4 teleports (steal + Sword 2 + D/P 3 + shadow step), perma swiftness on kill, and dagger 2… you’ll have amazing mobility. I just chain off mobs to keep moving quickly.

D/D gives you one of the best single target DPS. Coupled with the Revealed trait, you just CnD > Backstab > auto until revealed debuff is gone > repeat. Work to keep yourself behind the target by the time your BS lands. Once target gets below 25%, either spam HS or HS > auto once or twice > repeat. By going D/D over D/P you give up some of the mobility and easy survival options the pistol offers for a solid DPS increase. But note that if you’re going against a target that has constant PBAoEs making it where you can’t stay on the target without constantly dodging out I’d suggest either S/P for the interrupt/evade so you can stick on the target. S/D also gives plenty of evade so you fight tougher targets, but I do think that is a weapon set better reserved for PvP as you’re giving up DPS and boon stripping usually isn’t a serious concern in PvE.

I’ll give you Warrior and Guardian is easier as making mistakes won’t get you killed like they would on a Thief (and even then, S/P 3 + malice allows you to just 1-button almost everything in the game with little effort and almost all trash dies to one or two presses of the button), but Thief is still the fastest open world class in the game. Warrior can try… Guardian might as well be a cripple. Add in that you can stealth past anything you don’t want to fight, and at 50% run speed + 3 non-combat starting teleports + speed enhanced leaps… it becomes no contest even with the Warrior’s generous access to leaps and sprints.

Then there is dungeons. Thief gives copious amounts of stealth for skipping junk you don’t want to fight, a reflect wall, a spammable blast finisher for buffing the party on combo fields, vulns and blinds all while being near-top DPS with support (better than that of warrior and more reliable than Guardian)

That said, you NEED to carry a shortbow. Shortbow gives you that great blast finisher, extra mobility options, poison fields if the party is lacking poison debuff ability, and ranged is still DPS when you can’t be on the target due to AoEs or other boss mechanics.

I’d also say you NEED a pistol. Offhand pistol gives you access to a spammable interrupt, a smoke field to blind the target and give easy access to stealth (via Dagger 2 or SB 2), and pistol also has great combos with your melee weapons. S/P 3 gives you an interrupt + evade + DPS move. D/P 3 gives you a mobility move to finish closing in on your target very quickly. P/P 3 is also one of your few solid ranged DPS moves, though I don’t find that required too often. I personally carry 2 pistols so that I have access to that ranged DPS option along with all the utility and mobility pistols provide.

You can certainly play as a S/D thief – but your PvE life would be much easier with S/P. So if you want to avoid pistol but still go for effectiveness, D/D. The addition of cleave to Dagger has greatly increased it’s trash killing ability, and CnD > Backstab > Heartseeker is still enough to kill even level 80 trash. It just happens to be that when you start getting larger amounts that it gets a bit tougher.

Though I do hope to see this disseminate to the other classes:

- Unroot the Guardian Sword 3 skill
- Give a proximity multi-target to Thief unload (because split targeting your dual pistols (especially if you point at front and back targets) would be awesome enough to almost forgive the confused weapon combo)
- Can we get a debuff that increases condition damage similar to Vulnerability? The corrupted version of Resistance (or vice versa for condition to boon) and I do think condi damage could afford the love.
- With the nerf to stability, could Torment be converted to Stability with applicable skills? Fear and Taunt would be logical conversions, though those are broken by the stun break.

Hard to speak too much without knowing the completed version of Revenant and any adjustments that could be made to other classes with these changes.

GW2 ‘regular’ and GW2 ‘Digital Deluxe’ are still the exact same game. There is no way they could make you have two accounts for the same game with the same logins. And the concept of making an account selection would just be a waste of developer’s time as the amount of people that will buy the game multiple times for themselves is minute and I can’t think of a single MMO that has done that. You simply have to create a second account to go with a second game.

However I will say the deluxe upgrade in the store has always been an utter rip-off. At the very most it should have cost just the difference between standard and deluxe editions, which is $20, or 1600 gems… but, nope! 2k gems. Then of course it has never gone on sale from anything I’ve ever seen, so when the games themselves go on sale, the price difference is even more glaring.

I would have bought the upgrade a long time ago had they priced it at 1600. As it stands, never touching it as long as they think their active players need to pay a premium even if I had enough gold to convert for it.

Was looking to come back to the game after well over a year, and my first time of playing again is those constant disconnects. Whelp, off to bed it seems.

The dilemma is that they used to, but people would have bots that would follow the yaks giving them rewards for doing nothing… which is what gold farmers cheer at. So to stop that, they cut everyone off, making Yak guarding 100% pointless unless you took it on yourself to give up XP, WXP, gold, mats, etc to make sure that yak gets there to get that upgrade.

However thinking about it, I’ve thought of a few rewards that would work.

Escorting a Yak earns you supply according to Bronze (2), Silver (5) and Gold (10). Essentially a way to pick up supply without going to a camp and aids that tower without draining it. I also consider XP and WxP as viable reward options as XP isn’t a big deal and WxP doesn’t help gold farmers… so if real players decide to try to bot some WxP, they can have it axed if caught.

Doing that would give escorting yaks not only some personal point, but additional strategic value even if the base is full.

TimeBomb.3427:

DevonCarver.5370:

AcFiBu.9624:

So when the ranks become account bound. Say my total rank is 400. does that mean I have 400 points to put into each character, or does it mean I have 400 points to split between all my characters.

It means that you have 400 points for each character and can spend them however you want on each.

Wait wait wait. This still leaves me slightly confused.

I was under the impression that if I have 400 points, and spend 50 on character A, I could only spend 350 for character B. Then I have none to spend for character C.

Are you saying that if I have 400 points account-wide, I can spend 400 for character A, 400 for character B, 400 for character C, and I can create a new character D, and spend 400 points on them? (Yes for 400 points per character; No for 400 points spread between all characters)

Thank you for the clarification.

To me the wording is clear that all WxP you earn is account wide, but they can be distributed uniquely on each character. So YES, it would be 400 points that you can spend differently on each character, not points that would be used up by each character.

Personally I’m excited about this and it will bring me back to WvW. Now not only can I play whatever class I want to or my party needs without being stuck with 8 low rank builds instead of one high rank which crippled my WvW abilities, but they took it a step further with being able to individually build the characters for the WvW. I cannot click +1 enough for this change.

My personal opinion of Necromancer:

PvE: Condi builds face the same issue as all other classes do: slow build up. This means that it’s very weak on trash as it is slower than Power. Bosses then face the issue of shortened conditions, but I’m able to self-stack to 25 bleeds. Rabid gear + Earth + Torment sigils means that each scepter swing can potentially slap on 3 bleeds + torment + burning. Add in Torment ticks and some respectable vuln stacking, and you are likely the strongest DPS on the target. Of course this all goes down the toilet the second condition removal mechanics or more condition users come into play… which leads on to the other option of Power. Necro can do respectable damage through power – but you face the fact that unsupported you do about 50% of the damage of an Elementalist. Once that support comes in, you pass Warrior, but are still short of Ele. Unfortunately in any build, you are coming into the party as the least supportive class in the game (you’re best being traiting blinds to chill and working towards a perma-chill)… so why take someone that has to work for their DPS and doesn’t help the party vs someone that has easy-mode DPS and helps the party? Luckily, all told, it doesn’t matter – PvE is easy; knowing the mechanics of your target is 90% of the ability to beat them and you could complete any PvE content naked (discounting weapons ofc), no trait points spent, on any class if you felt like it.

PvP: Necros are solid here – the PvP scale is within your bound of abilities and support isn’t quite as important as you’re not fighting targets with millions of HP. Conditions are currently the strongest spec mainly due to Dhuumfire. Locust is also laughingly beautiful for point holding. Just face the fact that you’re going to be top target because you have so few survival skills (most of those being conditions that they can cleanse) – just an HP sponge that WILL die if they target you. Though at least in PvP you can actually use Worm/Walk as escapes due to the static fight locations if you’re willing to sacrifice your killing power for running away (and subsequently put yourself out of the fight for half the game and be useless to your team if you plan on only entering fights when those long cooldown skills are able to be set up).

WvW: Necros are absolutely beautiful in WvW zergs – Just run Wells and staff and tag to your heart’s content. In roam fights of 6 or less, you’re still pretty solid since as long as you’re not fighting anti-condition builds, Weakness + Blinds + Chills + DS should keep you going. I’ve even won a fair share of 1vX’s. Unfortunately you face a cold fact: Necro is the only class with no scalable survival skills – no blocks, evades, invulns, etc – and what came close (spectral and non-rolling DS damage) has been stripped away. Add in the lack of real escapes that work in a moving WvW situation, and you might as well lay down and die if a group looks at you and you’re in combat mode.

TL;DR – Are Necro’s unplayable? Absolutely not – they have great AoE in both Condition and Power respects, and that can be used anywhere. And while meta can show what class may have the edge over another, Necro is still within the skill > build range as all classes are. Play what you want and have fun – I for one have all 8 classes

S/S is pretty rediculous – OH sword gives perma torments and a block that can keep a perma 4-stack bleed as well. MH sword gives you mobility and cc with even more bleeds. It is one of the hardest builds to 1v1 against with how easy it is to apply condition pressure in it. You swap set can vary depending on your goals – defense, cc, long range condition (LB), escape, etc… but really, it is a strong set.

In order of (imo) most powerful to least (ignoring cooldown factor):

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Arcane_Abatement :: (Based on Attunement) AoE damage + Burn + Fire combo Field or AoE Heal + AoE Condition cleanse or AoE damage + AoE stun + Lightning combo Field or AoE damage + AoE knockdown + Blast Finisher – No CD on any of them

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Protector%27s_Impact :: AoE damage + AoE protection + Light Combo Field – No CD

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Death_from_Above :: AoE damage + AoE knockdown + Blast Finisher – 1s CD

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Soften_the_Fall :: Cripple + Immobilize – 1s CD

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Descent_into_Madness :: RNG boon + RNG condition on enemy + Ethereal Combo Field – 40s CD

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Descent_of_Shadows :: Blind + Stealth – 8s CD

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Explosive_Descent :: AoE damage + Blast Finisher – 20s CD

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Toxic_Landing :: Poison + Poison Combo Field – 45 second CD

So as you can conclude – the more powerful the falling trait, the shorter the cooldown. Only reason I rated the Guardian fall over warrior/ranger CC is that protect can still be useful to you if no one is in range, and if you happen to tumble down stairs at fall damage… lol. Mesmer’s fall skill I would actually rate third to last due to the ridiculous cooldown, but the interrupt and how lucky you are on RNG can make this a solid fall skill. On the other hand, the Necro fall is weak even without a cooldown, and it’s on a 45 second XD

[Edit] – the fact that BBCode color codes don’t work and that “45” followed by “s” is censored is lame.

Definitely sad that I missed Jon Peter’s active discussion – glad it happened.

Siphoned Power - I actually did NOT realize that it had that mechanic of granting might whenever you get hit under 25%. Unfortunately as others and you have said, you’re in “execute” range – and damage rolls over through Death Shroud into a period where you can’t do anything. Pretty much if you’re pressured into that point, and getting hit on a level where that short duration might can be stacked at any respectable amount, you are dead. If the pressure is light and you’re letting yourself get that low, it’s still a loss. Condition builds don’t use DS for DPS, so it’s only used to huddle and cry in, or drop 3-5 (as 1 doesn’t help and 2 is too clunky). Power builds that use DS for DPS want to get into it at 90%+ for scholar runes and would lose 10% damage for less or dead… and of course face the fact they’re often squishier builds, so are even more likely to die from the DS drop while in the sliver HP range.

So while it’s nice to see that there is an actual thoughtful mechanic behind the trait, it’s still useless. I personally would prefer to see it go to on hit rather than low HP being hit with the current short duration. If it stays as a when hit, the might needs either much longer durations (I’m talking 20-30s) so there is payoff if you actually survive staying in the death range… or the threshold increased to 50% with a 10s might.

Siphons - At this current stage, they still suck. Their damage/HP gains are so small that they can’t even be considered sustain for attrition style play to go into the tiny damage. They face a double balance issue – the fact that it does DPs and HP, and also the fact that it applies to AoEs. In a stars aligned well bomb, it reaches the point you guys balance it around – where they actually can be a sustain (assuming your targets kitten around in the wells instead of actually play the game and leave the obvious red circle)… for 5s. After that, or any situation where you’re against fewer targets, you might as well not even have siphons. Due to this, siphon builds are sub-par most situations in both PvE and PvP will be non peak siphon situations. Blood Magic is only touched for Well-o-mancer or MM builds since the line contains some traits they might want in it.

So how do we boost siphons considering their max potential? Some thoughts are to axe their AoE capability with a timer so it can only trigger on one target and then be balanced around that. But then already lack-luster traits like Vampiric Rituals becomes even more useless. My personal thoughts is to change it to utility.

Siphons take endurance – this would be a major change that I think is a shot that Necromancer needs. More targets means more endurance – but then with more targets you’ll also need to dodge more. Necros face the issue of having no sustain that scales as spectral skills are instantly bursted through with more targets due to their internal cooldowns. No blocks, evades, invulns, etc where you can avoid any scale damage, they just die. Dodges are an evade type, and this would be a unique mechanic to give them better access to a survive skill that scales. This also would allow siphons to work in DS, so it makes it where a trait line is no longer made useless by class core abilities.

Side Thought - Make Terror do damage based on how ugly your character is…

spoj.9672:

Rennoko.5731:

spoj.9672:

What about spite minors? They need a rework aswell. Siphoned power mainly.

I really don’t mind that skill in theory. I think the threshold should be 33%, and I think the might should last longer, which would make it more reliable.

Really? For a 25 point minor? Please take a look at every other 25 point minor in the game. Even with 33% threshold and longer duration its not even worthy of an adept minor.

I would have to say no low health trigger point for a measily 5s Might would make it worth it (even 90%). It needs to either be worked where you doing damage triggers the Might (ie like you actually ARE siphoning power) in some stackable fashion, or completely scrapped for something else. If they make a new trait in the thread of every other Grandmaster Minor of any class, it’s 100% guaranteed to be better than the current piece of trash.

As for the other Spite minors – Parasitic Bond is actually good, and while Death into Life may be something most don’t care about (as most building into Power are not going to be heal builds), it’s still along the lines of other traits and is not completely useless as it still is boosting your heal skill a little bit. I have no real complaints about those.

OreoWolf.9564:

If it were to give swiftness as well, it would have to be at a decreased rate (4-5 seconds?) to prevent 100% swiftness just from popping in and out of ds every 9 seconds. This also can double down with Near to Death to give perma swiftness with an extra 10 point dump. Not optimal do take it over Deathly Perception or Foot in Grave, but a possibility nonetheless!

Keep the ideas rolling guys!

Actually when skills are duplicated into a trait mechanic, they are usually placed on the same cooldown as the original skill. Our “Enfeebling Blood” was a rare exception that is now being put on the original skill cooldown in the Dec 10th update. This means that if they were to have Locust Swarm cast on DS, it would likely be on a 30s cooldown – and personally I would take it even with that CD.

As you said, Speed of Shadows is pretty underwhelming. I have never taken and never will take the trait as I can get the same bonus permanently with a signet, or beat it with swiftness. If it were 50% it would become worth it. Or if they made it special and had it stack with other forms of swiftness (be it signet, dagger, or actual swiftness) it would be worth it. Or just complete changes like LS or other suggestions.

I personally am still sad that “Siphoned Power” has yet to see a revamp. Such an utterly useless minor trait, and it’s a Grandmaster minor at that. A chance of kitten might on hit would actually bring it into a real use level – you don’t have that power on opening (as it’s too short duration), but are siphoning it as you hit the target(s).

As for the other changes, I’m also not a fan of the bleed shaves, but at least the staff is limited to sPvP. Signet of Spite is a minor change due to the bleed only being a small part of the condition dump. My bigger concern is that if Dhuumfire is indeed changed/nerfed in any way, that these skills are brought back to what they were. Other changes are nice or not enough, but at least the right direction on bringing the traits to usefulness.

Ricky.4706:

nerf the torment runes now – unless the whole purpose of it is to create yet another inbalance for elitist players. – they issued the new torment runes mirroring the same stats as perplexity – if they nerf the perplexity runes – while putting out torment runes unchanged – then they are doing it on purpose.

Umm, there is a massive difference between perplexity and torment runes. Perplexity runes can cast 3 confuse stacks (15s cooldown) on a standard hit and 5 on an interrupt (NO cooldown) – and that’s OP even without the confuse duration. Tormenting runes only do duration with 2 stacks on heal with a 20s cooldown… you barely get 50% uptime from the runes let alone any stacking ability with them. And if the duration boost is the issue, then any runes that boost bleeding duration would need nerfs too.

No, Perplexity is alone in it’s ability to stack 25 of a condition on it’s own. The Confuse on Interrupt should be on a minimum of 10s, probably on a 20s CD.

If he had constant regen, then he either was traited for any movement impeding skills to give him regens (chills, immobilize and cripple – all of which you would have been casting on him) or for banners to do so. Regen + Signet + Adrenal along with condition duration reducing food/runes has allowed my warrior to basically ignore conditions as most condition users are not able to stack high enough to beat my passive regen before I can hit my Ire. The problem with the warrior you fought is that he was probably wearing tank gear so he didn’t have the killing power to back it up. ‘Luckily’ Hammer and regen warriors can back up their high condition survival and still be zerker gear as blocks and Endure Pain along with your Vigorous Focus (assuming you use this over Signet Mastery/Sprint) gives you great survivability over physical DPS as well.

Heck, I’ve fought a warrior build like this on my Necro that was on a zerk build – his blocks, stance, dodges and regen kept him up through my heavy damage until he managed to take me down just as he had a sliver of HP. To my elation, my full zerk could not out siphon his regen, so it was just a matter of leisurely walking back to me after my fear and pressing the stomp key.

Luckily despite Warriors having so much passive that it makes them super easy to play, most people you run across are super bad. I tend to run across these warrior builds in pairs and still win against them 90% of the time with my Necro solo. It’s just once they take that easy high survivability while keeping high damage with an inkling of how to play that they become trouble.

Jayne.9251:

What? You mean like stooping to pick it up? Mine doesn’t do that. It just loots and puts it into bags. There’s a function in options to set that up as well as hot key it. Regular F looting will do the animation though.

No, he means that dead allies are scattered around in zerg vs zerg fights, so you could find yourself start healing an ally. And joy of joys, I’ve even had skill lag apply to my ability to interrupt my healing process, so I was stuck over a body as a few enjoyed the free kill.

Personally I see zero reason to not have an auto loot function. It’s not a realism system, just a nuisance… pressing “F” does not add "F"un to the system. Now this would not resolve bag spawns while dead, but really I’m fine with that being as punishment for dying… it’s just the punishment of losing already earned loot as I prioritized actual fighting over spamming the function key.

Roam play a condi necro actually fairs a bit better as all your throwbacks, corrupts, and the fact they tick through dodges and blocks eats through people. But it doesn’t work well in zerg as often targets die before your condis tag the target. Personally I’ve landed with DS being my favorite in WvW play. Likely you’ll go 30/10/0/0/30 or 30/0/0/10/30. First one you want in zerg play as targeted wells is pretty important as you’ll be hitting lots of towers and keeps – you also want the ability to toss out the DPS for tagging. If you plan on roaming without hitting anything but empty keeps, 10 into blood for Transfusion is pretty nice party support… also gives the regen tick that can help a little bit for your own survival. Or if your party doesn’t seem to need it, weakening shroud is powerful (and also means you don’t have to retrait for zergs).

But yes, DS is pretty nice. If I’m not really paying attention and suddenly get hit for 15k by a thief combo, just pop DS and Life Blast > Fear > Life Blast > Life Drain (as life drain will channel through their inevitable invisi)… I’ve killed so many thieves that way. Hammer/Shield warrior knocks on your door? Lich Form and pelt them. Condi necro? Pfft, he’s just feeding your CC heal – just blast him until he goes DS – drop your DS, use Consume and fill your bar by laying into him as he just gave up his condition damage – the pop back into DS once his DS drops and finish him off. I’ve enjoyed roaming as a DS build… but realize you have some sad music to face in WvW – you have absolutely nothing to survive the attention of a group – no stealth, no escapes, no invulns, no blocks, no evades beyond your base dodges… so if you ever get “caught”, death is inevitable, and unfortunately there is no build that can help with that.

Personally I’d be happier if they took off the spectral skill cooldown – at least then it’d scale… kinda like a longer duration block, except on a longer cooldown, can be bursted through still, CCed still (unless you Grandmaster trait for the 3s DS stability), and condition stacks built up still… you know, screwed still, but slightly less so. But I’m sure people would say it’s unbalanced when the necro doesn’t die instantly when the zerg glances at them, as they go Shield Stance as it’s a 70% chance they’re a Warrior.

The scythe is debatable as they basically turn staves into scythes on necros.

I personally would want a great axe as it’s the classic weapon of an executioner. I also think the necro badly needs a cleave weapon. Though new weapons are not likely. I don’t want it to be a great sword as pretty much every class has it anyways. Hammer is one of the least used, but I have a hard time seeing it fit on a necro… perhaps the concept of it being close-range physical utility marks that do a lot more damage than staff marks (as it stands, mark damage is a joke and the only reason anyone would trait “spiteful marks” is power builds trying to eek a sliver more damage for long range DPS from safety in WvW over much more useful traits… would be nice if it actually had a real purpose).

Another thing I’d like to see is main hand focus. This weapon as having strong Torment stacking as it’s main draw – the fact that Torment seems to fit necro so strongly yet to have such weak access to it is funny to me (especially as it’s attached to a skill that STOPS the target from moving). Also there are no classes that can really stack it – the highest being Warrior with high condition duration to allow Impale overlap and runes for 12 stacks (thief might be able to push past 12, though the jump back hinders that). Necro being the class that can self stack to 25 I think would be fitting. Also giving it the Skull Fear that thieves have been stealing from necros for so long would be poetic – and a beautiful combo to go with Torment.

arKRazor.8654:

Devon Carver’s response on page 3
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Got-a-reply-to-account-bound-WvW-level/page/3

We will not be changing WvW ranks or WxP to be account bound. However, we are going to be implementing a host of changes that should make this seem less like some sort of punishment(a categorization I disagree with entirely) and more of a character progression system. The first step is the liquid WXP that is being added to the rank up chests which is account-bound. We are planning additional systems as well. Hopefully, as we continue to announce some of those changes, you will be happier with the system.

This personally saddens me. I do NOT see WXP as “character progression”. WXP are mainly abilities that apply to roles for WvW, not my character – siege use, supply, etc. The fact that I play roles that my guild or party needs rather than playing one character means that I CAN’T put all the WXP I’ve earned into those traits… so instead of being able to trait for siege damage and Ram use and supply use etc, I’m punished for my multiple character use and can only get a smidgen on each character. If all of the traits were actual character affecting like the guard attack/defense I’d understand… but it’s not.

Unfortunately the thought that account bound liquid WXP resolves this in any way is just not even remotely correct. Sure it means that those that only played one character could have a chance to still earn WXP for that character if they decided to frolic with a different class one day… but it does nothing for those that want to play multiple characters. I’m sure there are those that like having to cap/kill tens of thousands of things on each character and don’t mind that they have weaker WvW abilities than other people even though they’ve devoted more time to WvW than those other people… but until WXP only applies to character capabilities instead of WvW capabilities, not having it shared is bad.

Oh come on, just because blocks, evasions, and invulns block infinity people while our survival abilities can be cracked instantly by a train doesn’t mean that mass pvp is stacked against Necros…

It all depends on the situation on what you should bring.

OH Dagger: Condition strip and blind on 4. AoE Bleed and Weakness on 5. In PvE, conditions are not a big issue as predictable mob attacks allow you to avoid most applications. Blinds are always useful on trash, but nerfed to near uselessness on bosses. This leaves 4 as not that important in PvE unless you load utilities that self inflict conditions. In the PvP meta, condition removals are always nice, so that increases usefulness. For skill 5, 2 bleed stacks are ok, but the butter of the skill is the weakness cast. Unfortunately the long cooldown of the skill means it’s not that great for boss fights with duration hits maybe affecting one attack. The slow cast means it’s not worth it for the bleeds unless it’s a group of trash. In PvP, that weakness cast can decide fights.

OH Dagger verdict: PvE: Not that useful unless you have a build that self-inflicts conditions. PvP: Good for any build type as both skills are nice in PvP fights.

OH Warhorn: A cone daze on 4. A swiftness, AoE cripple and Life Force ticker on 5. In PvE, 4 can shut down a group of trash before you melt it. It also can help tick down defiance for a CC on bosses. In PvP, the usefulness of an interrupt is amazing. However the cooldown is long enough that typically you have to use it strategically as you’ll only get it off once in a fight. For that reason, it ticks down a peg in usefulness for PvP. For skill 5, the swiftness and cripple are OK for PvE, and good for PvP chasing. Really, though, the main advantage for this skill is its life force gain. Hit this to fill it more quickly, or this before DS for some solid tanking. This has definitely saved my bacon when I found myself low life force, low HP, and out of dodges. Because of this, 5 becomes a survival skill which is useful in any situation. However I would rate this a bit more in favor of power or DS builds. Power builds can better afford the trait that is a solid boost to WH that takes it from “pretty good” to “good”. DS builds want all the LF they can get.

OH Warhorn verdict: Useful in both PvE and PvP from the DS survivability increase, with the edge in PvP as interrupts and chase ability are more important there.

As for actually choosing between the two, WH is a no brainer in PvE unless you build around self-inflicted conditions. PvP it’s a difficult choice as the utility they bring are nice for different reason – personally I lean towards OH Dagger for s/tPvP as fights are small and the condition transfer and weakness hit to be huge; and OH WH for WvW as I find the survivability increase in mass fights to be much much more important.

Didn’t really touch into Focus as that was not asked about. This one is pretty much an absolute must for PvE – so if this is competing against WH or OH Dagger, drop them in a flash for this. Focus 4 is a 10-15 vuln stack along with passing regen to nearby party members. Such a massive party DPS increase shouldn’t be skipped. Focus 5 is not that amazing in PvE as boons are usually not an issue and the cast time is not worth it for just the chill… but it is a strong skill in PvP. Someone running? Strip their swiftness, slow them down and put their escape moves on longer CDs with one move. And if your target is boon heavy, this becomes a solid hitter. However when this is pitted as a weapon choice for PvP, the choice isn’t as clear as it is in PvE.

TL;DR – OH Dagger = Condition removal + Weaken target DPS. WH = interrupt + DS survival. Focus = Increase your DPS on target + Chilling boon strip. All are useful, just pick what’s most useful to you. :p

Yes and no.

Axe 1 has a broken after cast that takes 1-2 seconds, so unless it hit like a truck, it would be trash.

Axe 2 is like a kitten Rush in terms of how clunky it is in hitting a target (especially the long cast delay for the upswing)… but the ability to channel the charge makes it an amazing mobility move (I now use it for non-combat movement).

Axe 3 would be the OMGWFTMANA move. A massive AoE that interrupts, knock down, and sucks the target to you while hitting them 8 times… I wouldn’t freakin care if it did zero damage, I’d be spamming that sucker for wells or other awesome combos.

Axe 4 being an AoE fear would be a Terrormancer’s dream. The leap attack following it is rather useless and can even make the move harder to use… but then I’ve also used it as escapes in Costume Brawl.

Axe 5 as a skele minion summon. I would pet it and squeeze it and name it Jim Bob Skelator.

Now the Axe is something that could be reigned into a semblance of balance. The other weapons that are hinged of massive daze times, invulns and invisi… I just don’t think can be made to fit.

As for the costumes… yes, I’d love to use them as standard armor. But then I would also love to use swim suits as standard armor, so not sure if my opinion counts for those that want to fit lore or logic. :p

30 Spite is what most non MM/healer necros go (and even some MMs) simply for the Grandmaster trait. It gives conditionmancers fire on crit (which ticks over 1k per sec on strong condition builds), and 20% damage on a 50% target which is a strong DPS boost for power builds.

As % damage is the strongest DPS boost in the game, building around these boosts is the key for the best DPS. The meta DPS build for Necro is 30 Spite for the Close to Death, 25 curses for Target the Weak (another % damage increase) and crit chance (precision stat + DS flipping for fury) and 15 Soul Reaping for Last Gasp (a nice survival trait) and Unyielding Blast (which gives you some solid AoE when needed).

As for axe, yes it’s auto is solid vuln stacking. On targets without “unshakable”, it stacks vuln to 15-16 assuming uninterrupted attacking and you’re 30 spite for the condition duration. Focus 4 is enough to get you to 25. On bosses, however, you’re probably going rolling 5 in real combat situations from Axe auto. There’s a clincher, though – Axe auto is WEAK. If you’re solo, the Axe vulns don’t come close to covering the DPS gap of DS or Dagger. If you’re in a party, then comes the question of what’s more important: 5% party DPS or 75% more for you? Personally if vuln support is key, I’d much much rather burst vuln with focus and well, then apply it from DS auto… the longer vuln duration from the trait covers the slower attack even on bosses so it actually stacks higher while not costing you real DPS. Because of this, Axe auto is pretty much useless for any build. You’re giving up DPS to apply vulns in not even your highest stacking way. Essentially it’s a temporary use support weapon. Axe 2 you clap if you need some Life Force. Axe 3 is your support aspect – you basically hit Axe 3 for AoE cripple and retaliation. Pair this weapon with another support weapon – Warhorn for W5 or OH Dagger for a weakness cast and condition remover. You click your supporty stuff then switch to your REAL weapons.

Since “Axe” is not a real DPS weapon, Axe Training becomes a rather weak trait. The only place I see it is on a DS build that uses Axe/x and Dagger/x as that trait would buff your DS DPS… any other build type would be better supported by other traits.

TL;DR – Close to Death is worth it for any Power type build. Axe Training is only worth it to DS builds that don’t use staff as Axe itself is crap DPS.

Whether your run dagger or not is the issue. Dagger is still nice for it’s immobilize and siphon, both of which are extremely useful for a roam build or stopping that runner for your zerg. The concern I have is the Wells of protection trait is unfortunately weak. It’s a 3s protection on long cooldown skills – even if you were to slot every utility with a well AND trait for well cooldowns, you’d still only provide less than 40% protection uptime. A Guardian can do better than that in his sleep. And while you can argue in the aspect of what if there is no Guardian, there is the fact you’re giving up a much much better trait: Focused Rituals (Wells use ground targeting – 10 in Curses). The ability to drop those wells on walls or proper groupings is massively important in WvW if you plan on using a Well build.

I’ve tried playing Minion Master multiple times – pre-HP buff I found it pointless to try… if anything ever glanced at a minion, it died. After the HP buff, I now consider it useable to a point. As now they’re no longer 1-2 shotted, you have the opportunity to keep the alive with Transfusion and Well of Blood. Have them keep YOU alive with siphons. When stars align, it’s pretty solid DPS though I haven’t number crunched to see where it lands in the mix.

Unfortunately you face a big issue: Minion AI. I have had (and this is post update) it where not a single minion attacked my target. Had them run in random directions, off cliffs, stuck on walls/ramps, stuck on nothing (where even telling my Flesh Golem to charge and still would charge in place), etc. It doesn’t matter if number crunching shows shaving off some power/condition into MM is better DPS when I can’t be sure that DPS will be there.

So yeah, I still am not a Minion fan. They’ve been regulated to open world roaming where things die so fast I don’t bother to use utilities anyways or when I’m on a condition build and there’s an inanimate object to beat down.

It already lists “stunbreaker”. The key is that it DOES give one second of stability, leaving room for it to be a CC “dodge”. Just cast it when you see that skull crack or hammer swing coming and your evades are down and save them from even stopping you. But then now that they allowed stun breakers to interrupt knockdowns, that’s not as big of a deal as it used to be.

Actually DS is 80% up, and that’s what number crunches I’ve seen base it on. As I still almost never get touched (and Lich is there for when I eff up and get knocked out of DS early), my DS tends to last 40 to 60s depending if I use swarm during DS and if I have Reaper’s Precision traited. I have no issue slipping past 50% DS as 10 stacks of might > 5% boost (which you can’t give yourself with dagger). At that point I want to leave DS anyways to drop wells. Drop DS > swap to Axe (or dagger if I have inanimates to destroy where my DS crit doesn’t help)/Warhorn > Axe/Dagger 2 while running back to melee range > cast wells > Warhorn 5 > Swap back to staff (yes I use staff over slipping in focus – staff increases DS DPS, still gives me chill and regen casts along with a blast finisher… not too worried about vuln stacking as wells + Life Blast does that already) > Cast Staff 3 for the chill and field > Staff 4 to drop a blast finisher on poison to trigger Weakness and does pretty good damage > Back to DS as at that point I’m full.

I’m curious where you’re pulling numbers from. Whether you are supported with might or not makes a difference. And of course there is the big thing that most spreadsheets don’t cover: maneuvering downtime. You’re not going to be daggering Kholer’s face while he’s spinning. You’re not going to be standing in pbAoEs. Generally avoiding an attack is downtime, and melee tends to have that more than ranged. This is also why ranged is less than melee damage in most games as that + run up time is DPS range can do to make up for it. With DS vs Dagger being single % DPS argument, it slips into the fact that no spread sheet will prove it one way or the other. My own personal play time has shown me that DS has provided me with better DPS than dagger. Could be that the big hits and auto-crits of DS makes me feel better (and I can’t deny hitting for 11k with every attack makes me smile). Could be the ease of having a cushion against mistakes while still being 100% glass damage makes it where I know my DPS is more reliable. But the TL;DR is that there are more reasons than just the pen and paper numbers. But then there are more reasons to run dagger as well. I personally don’t think anyone is losing out by picking either build unless they hit the wall of any class that tries to go zerker: survivability.

spoj.9672:

Haha ok that was pretty funny.

In all seriousness I think I know what im talking about when it comes to power builds. Ive done the maths and so have a few others from the top dungeon guilds. If you want to maximise dps on a necro you go 30/25/0/0/15.

Actually there are also plenty of “maths” that prove DS builds under 30/x/x/x/30 does more than 30/25/0/0/15 Dagger until there is 5 or more unique debuffs on the target. Add in the fact that you’re now doing it at 600 range able to be out of the cleaves and more easily avoid AoEs while in a form that also cushions your HP pool making you even more survivable and more easily able to play a full glass cannon build makes it deserve even more nods as any DPS > dead. And even putting the argument of which build has the DPS depending on whom’s spreadsheet you look at in the Dagger build favor, the second you add a second target, the DS build automatically wins. Of course then there is also the fact that the DS build can also afford to trait drain to heal (which has saved pugs from going down) or however else you want to build, and I’m starting to think the argument is in favor of DS.

So, yeah, the question is have you actually played a DS build beyond a theory craft?

Generally I am fine with most of the necro traits.
Good Idea but weak
Curses
Toxic Landing (A) – Falling damage traits are on every class and are important. Unfortunately Necro’s with just a poison field on one of the longest cooldowns (45s) is laughable compared to everyone else’s. Other classes gain CC or self utility from their fall traits on much lower cooldowns. Personally I’d like to see this Toxic field also cast Weakness and be on a 25s cooldown.

Withering Precision (GM) – A trait that just sounds so awesome, but crippled to uselessness by a long cooldown. Eating up a trait for kitten weakness on a 20s cooldown is not worth any level let alone Grandmaster. I’d like this taken in one of two ways – simply lowering the cooldown to at least 10s, or something like 15% crit damage on Weakened targets.

Death Magic
Minion Master (A) – This skill is one I’ve always wished also reduced Minion skills instead of just the summoning. In fact, I’d be happier with it reducing the skill over the summoning timer….

Ritual of Protection (A) – So pretty – the ability to attempt to support your party a bit more… but a 3s Protection on long cooldown skills? Heck, Guardian hammer auto attack does that… it’s just something that casts less than 10% uptime is not even useable. What I would like to see is it to cast 2s Protection per pulse. That would put it on an actual party support level that also would actually have the concept of staying in your wells for the Ritual of Protection.

Death Shiver (M) – I personally find this skill redundant. In a build where you’d stay in DS for any serious stacking, you’d likely be traiting to apply vulns on your Life Blast… and even then, it’s small radius makes it difficult to use anyways. Now if this actually applied a chill…

Blood Magic
Ahhh, good ol’ blood magic. The line that ANet was to beef up and make it a more useable line, and instead made it basically the same with even less need to trait in the line. Onward!

Bloodthirst (A) – So here we are, faced with siphoning… damage and heals so small that most don’t consider it worth touching. We all hoped for buffs or more utility, but they flattened this trait to keep it unchanged. This should be returned to 50% to actually have an edge that might go somewhere.

Vampiric Rituals (GM) – This piggy backs off my issue with builds built around siphoning not being worth it, especially as they’re such a minor self-only sustain. What I wish this did was if it siphoned from up to 5 enemies and then applied that heal to up to 5 allies. That would tip the balance for me.

Traits I Plain Dislike
Spite
Siphoned Power (GM minor) – the concept of a single 5s might stack triggered at 25% as a Grand Master minor trait is an utter joke. Something like 33% chance of Might on Crit for that same short 5s Might actually would be a trait to consider without being OP.

Haralin.1473:

Make queues depend on WvW Rank all above 80 gets VIP Status and all <80 should wait cause that are all PvE gamers.

Now every one makes macros to stay in the borderlands for hours afking cause they know you need to wait years to come in.

Ummm, actually under the stupid split up WvW Rank system, that wouldn’t work. I have 6 chars that I regularly WvW with. If they were added up I’d easily be in 100s for rank, but as it stands my highest is 40something. To have any mechanic that would exclude those that try to keep the game fresh with multiple chars would just be lame – I already am frustrated with everything else in this game that isn’t alt friendly.

As for the achievements in general, honestly they are the best thing that has ever happened for WvW activity. For all those that flocked to top rank servers for the easy win deserve the days of wait… the tier 4 and below are fielding some of their first (consistently) full maps. There are faces I’ve never seen on our side and some even listen to the commanders. But then I guess I only face 10 min queues at peak times so far, so it isn’t bothersome. :p

Condition damage is no joke, and when you can build up 4-5k bleed ticks + 400 poison + 1k fire and the occasional terror and torment, your damage is up there… and you can do it at range and have it tick when the boss is doing anything but invulns. Has the additional advantage that if you built up a few mins of poison, if there is a party wipe, you can often get back to the boss before a regen. The only real issue is that it requires that ramp-up… a ramp up may be fine on bosses, but not okay on trash in late level fractals. There you have to melt everything instantly, which forces zerker builds.

As for the position of necro as a zerker, I think they’re actually extremely solid DPS. They bring massive AoEs with wells and staff. Both DS (traited) and Lich Form pierce and hit like a truck. Dagger is amazing damage. If a Power necro is supported, they tip into the best DPS in the game. Unfortunately a lot of the Necro’s support abilities are kitten in Fractals. Building for healing support does nothing when everyone is one-shotted. Blinds have always been fractionalized to uselessness against bosses and trash is just for melting. You can bring good condition removal for the party, but everyone should have themselves covered anyways. Boon stripping is pretty useless in PvE. You can eek in regens and protections for the party, but guardian does that 100 times better. So essentially you’re left with nothing but a stick to hit people with. While it’s true that’s more than enough for any PvE content, it’s hard to justify that stick when I can bring my warrior that can toss more party support along (flags + elite literally can carry parties) with his DPS and heavy armor. Or guardian for reflects, aegis, stability and protection. Or mesmer for content skipping. So unless those roles are already being filled where one of the top DPS with your necro is better than fitting into GW2’s own trinity… there is no meta argument you can make for Necro. However at the end of the day, what’s most important: Meta or having fun? Play what you want and have fun. And as long as you can carry your end as PvE is predictable and easily surmounted with mediocre skills, anyone that complains can stuff it.

Nice – With the boosts to Transfusion and Deathly Invigoration, it has placed Necro in a serious place for healing support.

I do have a few items of concern/suggetions for this build.

Traits:
I’d go 20 (V, II or VIII)-0-0-30 (VI, VIII, IX)-20 (III, VIII)

Power – I’d lower this to 20. The GM minor is utter crap for any build, and you can pick between traiting for Focus or Axe depending what you find yourself relying on most. You want to keep DS Retaliation as you’ll be flipping DS on every cooldown for both heal and retaliation.

Death Magic – It is true that you have plenty of channels on this build with D2, A2 and DS Life Transfer. But we need these trait points as there is a better minor and trait to get for your support build.

Blood Magic – Keeping 30, but I’d change Blood Thirst to Deathly Invigoration (because an AoE heal every 7s is <3). Ritual of Life is also debatable against Ritual Mastery… I’d personally lean towards the latter. You can swap traits out for siphoning traits if you’re solo.

Soul Reaping – We may not care about crit damage on a build devoid of any precision, but we’re here for the traits. Both Minors are great as they get you DS more quickly and increase survivability. In addition they add synergy to DS healing with lower cooldowns on your Life Transfer and the ability to flip DS more often for heals and retaliation.

With this, you should be able to keep up perma retaliation against a group of 3 or more along with your greater amount of heals.

Now onto your sigils.
Weapon swap sigils generally kill any sigils that have a cooldown due to their 9s CD and that sigils have global cooldowns (I did take a long break from the game, so please correct me if this has been fixed). Plus with no crits, sigil of blood is useless. If you play around with food/runes/gear to get your crit chance to 40%+, I’d drop weapon swap sigils for Generosity for a little more condition removal. On this build, though, would definitely change Blood to Force.

As for your swap, you can go Leech, which gives yourself 975, or Renewal that heals 5 people for 300.

Life is obviously due to wanting to increase your heals (though this can be worked for power or precision if you’re attempting to make crit work on this build).

So what would you use for runes? I’d personally lean towards Traveler for the boon duration, all stat and run speed (not that increasing duration on your cripples and chills hurt!). I’d probably also lean towards Precision stacking sigil with a little gear mix to get my crit chance to a usable level to bring my DPS from “moderate” to “pretty good”. But at this point I’ve diverged pretty far from your build. =P Possibly I should call this the “Dark Healer” build. Mwahaha. Of course I won’t actually post a build thread until I’ve thoroughly played it. Seems I have some cleric gear to get….

I’ve noticed no difference in mob responsiveness – dumb as ever. Constant grass picking while I’m fighting. Last night I even had my Golem standing staring at my target not attacking – so I told it to charge and it put it on cooldown while it continued to stare doing nothing. I’m happy they’re no longer 2-shotted outside of PvP, but they’re still not on the level to make me want to go MM.