Guild Wars 2

Melanion.4892:

I have a feeling that there’s been some sort of directive not to address the forums again. We had a nice run where Anet was actually fairly communicative, but we’re back to the old ways. What a shame.

It sure seems like it. The hyper communication of pre-HoT is plainly dead. It’s pretty sad, I was hoping that was the model of the future.

That doesn’t really make sense because they were Spite/Soul Reaping/Reaper. What sort of support could they be doing with which Cele would actually help?

The Ace.9105:

There is a reason why oRNG uses 2 condi revenants and almost everyone in top pro league uses them.

Seriously, the level of denial around here is crazy. How much more evidence do you need that nearly every team having one and some teams having two?

The meta is changing at an alarming rate.™

So everyone said Cele was bad and we should go Power or Condition. What do you guys think about the builds we saw in the NA Pro Leagues?

The first round should have been all new teams and the old teams should have had a bye. They sort of did that with Qualifiers but it isn’t really the same.

Wait, does this mean the Lords in Stronghold can bleed out? I thought they had to be stomped?

If not make us stomp All lords.

I don’t understand how you could design a map with so much verticality at the same time as you are introducing Gliding and then not allow gliding in that map. Every cliff reminds me of the new Maguuma zones but then you jump and fall to your death. I can’t even begin to understand how these things could have been developed at the same time.

DavyMcB.1603:

I have a more simple solution. One word…

Downstate

I was thinking this yesterday while playing Stronghold. All the other PvP NPCs should be patched with down state. It seems even more interesting on Foefire.

Here’s my Valkyrie build. I tried to only focus on two things stacking Vulnerability and stacking Might. 25 of each is not unheard of in a real game. I know it isn’t the condi “meta” but I’m having enormous success at my scrub rank level. A note on Suffer, it is amazing in team fights but barely works 1v1 use it appropriately.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBIhZ6kZTo2GscTwbTgeTsgLYxVxvYYkqL0GeWQXtAQLA-TJRGwAAeCAPLDAa/hAnCAA

PS Shroud is life shroud is love.

I run a very similar build with Staff instead of Greatsword. It is godmode against some comps. Super condition heavy comps will tear into you after your one condi transfer though.

I don’t agree that this is a glassy build like Gayvyne called it though. Valkyrie amulet is surprisingly survivable.

nearlight.3064:

NeXeD.3042:

Blaine Tog.8304:

Bhawb.7408:

I’m not suggesting we do. But just adding a huge amount of HP (we’re talking even glass Necro builds starting the game with essentially 30k+ HP, a Soldier build would have closer to 45-50k HP) isn’t going to lead to fun or skillful defense, all it does is create the same stat check as now, but delayed: do you have enough burst to burst the Necro? If yes do it. That’s exactly where we are at now, except you’ve just made it a higher number. There is nothing more skillful on the Necros part, they just have a ton more passive defense.

Perhaps I’ve misunderstood the issue, then. Are Necros perpetually focused in sPvP matches, or is the hyperfocus limited to first fights, after which they tend to tank a more nornalized amount of enemy player aggro?

Perpetually.

Yeah the culturally accepted pug group targetting mentality tends to prioritze targetting necromancers, rangers, and mesmers, though for mesmers its more because people don’t want to get confused by clones, so thats why mesmers tend to take stealth to deal with that. Now that ranger has druid, they can deal with focus fire a bit better, though thats dependent on having enough astral force to become godmode sustain for a bit.

In reality though, thieves/warriors should be focused first, since they literally die like flies if you breathe on them too hard (well after the warrior’s stances are up).

Nah, Thieves and Warriors die to cleave. You shouldn’t focus them. lol

NeXeD.3042:

Blaine Tog.8304:

Easy fix: give us 50% Life Force to start. As I understand it, sPvP teams like to focus the Necro not so much because we’re so important to take out or even so easy to kill, but because we’re easiest to kill before we’ve had a chance to build up our primary defense.

I dunno if that would be enough or too much, but it’d be a start.

Thank youuuu. Finally someone else understands it’s not because we are more or less dangerous than other classes. It’s strictly because our survivability is completely tied to our lf. If you focus the necro he can’t build lf. Give necro something like glints heal

Ohhhhhh I like this. A heal that turns damage into LF would be amazing. Something like Defiant Stance on Warrior.

NeXeD.3042:

Dristig.9678:

posthumecaver.6473:

Run with Cavalier armor and SR/Blood Magic/Death Magic, 2 wells and take one for the team.

In all the matches I am top damage received but it took the enemy team so much time to kill me because that armor and constant protection, my team decimates the other team.

And when I drop my 2 wells, quickness and %70 crit chance in DS, actually you don’t want to be on me but hey, Necro is an easy kill isn’t? Reverse psychology

How are you getting quickness?

Either sigil of rage sigil of speed or he is using chrono runes.

Yeah, since he mentioned wells probably Chrono runes. I forgot about those.

posthumecaver.6473:

Run with Cavalier armor and SR/Blood Magic/Death Magic, 2 wells and take one for the team.

In all the matches I am top damage received but it took the enemy team so much time to kill me because that armor and constant protection, my team decimates the other team.

And when I drop my 2 wells, quickness and %70 crit chance in DS, actually you don’t want to be on me but hey, Necro is an easy kill isn’t? Reverse psychology

How are you getting quickness?

Even with the improvements to Reaper we are still faced with a PvP reality of being the primary focus target. What would it take to put the pressure somewhere else?

OP, are you playing Thief?

I’m shocked they didn’t get the balance patch out before this tournament.

Why is this a problem? Run the Orb win the map seems like the right approach for a CTF style map.

Leave Spirit Watch alone. It’s the closest to a CTF map we are going to get.

Meh, I still use it for the swiftness.

meow one twenty.4376:

Soul Eater prevents enemies from respawning when killed by GS.

It LITERALLY eats their soul.

1) Add Downed Execute to Grave Digger. (same mechanic as Daredevil Elite but on 0 cooldown)

2) Make RS2 an Evade and 900 units.

3) Make RS4 block melee hits and reflect projectiles.

4) Change Blighter’s Boon back. (please really do this one)

Post your ideas! I’ve heard enough about nerfs, let’s get crazy!

What are you trying to accomplish with this build? Far point assaulter? Home node defender? Mid fight support? What?

It seems like you just focused on chill uptime and survivability but how does that help your team win the game? Chill alone is not going to win games. You have no escapes or stun breaks and are not going to be a serious condition threat.

I play builds just for fun too but this is approaching a Boot’s Bad Build.

I think you are theorycrafting really hard. You gotta get out and play playa!

Though if I was theorycrafting I would probably use the shout heal since you took Augury of Death. I’d also switch to scepter since you are condition based now.

This seems like a really unthreatening build. How do you get kills? I’d imagine it makes more sense as a condi build.

meow one twenty.4376:

ArtemusHunter.9521:

Dristig.9678:

Why do some people say that Chill has a 5 stack cap and others say it has only duration? Is it split in each gamemode? I’ve never seen it stack at all so I’m sort of confused.

People say it because that’s the case. Check the wiki out. As well as the patch notes the wiki points to. They changed it in July for some reason. I think.

I think he was just confused about intensity stacking versus duration stacking.

Exactly that. I thought people were claiming to see a little 5 in the corner on some game modes.

Why do some people say that Chill has a 5 stack cap and others say it has only duration? Is it split in each gamemode? I’ve never seen it stack at all so I’m sort of confused.

I main Reaper. It is reasonably well balanced. It is one of the only classes that scales well in team fights and while outnumbered. I think that gives an impression that it is OP. 1v1 is actually harder than 1v2 most of the time.

This is because of the cleave mechanics that Reaper has over base Necro and the way Life Force works. In a 1v1 situation it is pretty easy to be starving for LF. In a team fight or 1v2 all the cleave you have in Reaper Shroud can make me feel like I’m never going to run out of LF. This is especially true against minion or pet builds. Cleaving down all minions from a minion master necro or downing a Ranger pet or mowing down all of an Engineer’s turrets or killing all mesmer illusions before they are shattered is really powerful and it feeds LF generation like crazy.

Reapers can probably do things that you can’t do on a good dueling class but they are surprisingly handicapped in duels.

Honestly more than trap damage Trapper Runes need a ICD on the 6th bonus. No way should DH be stacking stealth and dropping invisible traps.

ArtemusHunter.9521:

Really? That sounds like its kind of broken when compared to the other conditions.. :/

It is! It really needs to be changed so that Chill adds a second damaging condition that can stack and behave like other modern conditions.

This just seems like a weak condi build. I don’t see how the meta Carrion build isn’t better in every way.

This is coming from someone that doesn’t even like the condi build. POWA REAPA FO LIFE!

I’d love to see some video or something. I’m finding against low MMR people almost anything works on Reaper. At higher levels you get focused and CCed in coordination and except for Flesh Worm I don’t see any counters for that?

Dadnir.5038:

Dead.5829:

Do you ever find you prefer Spectral Mastery to Vital Persistence, or do the cooldowns of the spectral abilities not bother you?

It’s simple :
Vital persistance is a trait you use when you are not expecting a lot of incoming hits. With this trait you are a glassy shroud necromancer. Best use in small scale battle with low aggro/focus on you.

Spectral mastery is a trait that you use only if you expect a lot of incoming hits. With this trait you are a balanced shroud necromancer. Best use in large scale battle with high aggro/focus on you but balanced to low incoming damage (mostly WvW zerg v zerg situation). You then use SA and SWalk for survivability in highly dangerous area and otherwise use SWall, SG and lich form when you are out of the dangerous area.

I gotta disagree with this. I like Spectral Mastery a lot but I certainly don’t feel like it makes me more tanky. In fact, it’s pretty easy to prove it makes you LESS tanky because on average you will be in Shroud for shorter periods. As long as you equate being in shroud to tankiness then any time you don’t take Vital Persistence you are LESS tanky.

I swear there is more to this. I used my GS exclusively in PvE tonight and was getting really good longer distance pulls even on inclines. I even managed to pull groups of 3 mobs into one cleave pile several times.

With this change is it worth running in a PvP power build? You get a bit of Condition Damage out of might stacks alone.

It’s a pretty cheap move but I bet it is an expensive fix from a dev perspective. On the bright side it can only affect 2 boons every 28 seconds.

Shadelang.3012:

Dristig.9678:

Wait, is this just Signets of Suffering? Is it working on the passive effect of Signet of Vampirism? OP’s post is so full of whine I can’t really make sense of what is happening.

EDIT: Oh I see it now so it requires the trait Signets of Suffering and it only works on Signet of Vampirism? What about other Signets?

I can verify what hes saying. Its something ive ran into in pvp for a few months now. Any time I bring it up its called a L2P issue (you can’t learn to play something that cant be counterplayed haha). And yes it seems to just work with signet of vampirism procs. Either the heal skill or the passive proc from the trait. Both seem to go through I believe.

Im assuming this is because a heal skill CANT miss for obvious reasons. So in that respect niether can the offensive portion of the heal. Which I believe is how this started happening.

It looks like it requires both Signets of Suffering trait and only works on the Signet of Vampirism active effect. I’m guessing you’re right that a heal can’t miss. The range thing is the only interesting part because OP didn’t get the Vampirism Stacks. I wonder if the Necro in the video had him targeted?

TLDR:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAU8enMdA1dgVhAmCCciglpA74IEAadKdtIXP4902avtA-TpBFwACeAA22fwxBBYxRAoaZAAXAAA

Wait, is this just Signets of Suffering? Is it working on the passive effect of Signet of Vampirism? OP’s post is so full of whine I can’t really make sense of what is happening.

EDIT: Oh I see it now so it requires the trait Signets of Suffering and it only works on Signet of Vampirism? What about other Signets?

I’m running a sPvP power build in scrub league and I’m having a lot of success with Valkyrie. When I run Soldier instead I feel like I really notice the DPS loss and don’t feel much more durable. I’m wondering why the “meta” more popular builds seem to use Soldier. Anybody else seeing this? Thoughts?

NeXeD.3042:

Reaper’s onslaught speeds up stomps?

Yeah I need to see some evidence on that. I’m not seeing it that way.

NeXeD.3042:

I’m not sure I’m playing the same game as everyone I see talking about reaper on the forums…

POWER reaper seems to be the way to go for me, condi reaper seems ok in 1v1’s maybe slightly stronger than power but it has a huge drop off once it’s a teamfight. And the only reason it might be a little stronger in 1v1’s is because power reaper is just easier to kite.

GS is good I don’t want to sound like a kitten an tell everyone to l2p but I get matched against pretty good opponents regularly and I’m able to use GS effectively. It’s just a bit situational but I seem to put myself in situations to use it. Your not going to be spending most of your time on GS and you might think I’m nutz but I go full melee gs d/w with 3 shouts 2 signets marauders amulet and hoelbrek runes spite,curses,reaper. This brings me to curses…. it’s an amazing traitline even on power builds I don’t see how anyone could possible think a transfer that corrupts and stacks might, another corrupt, and aoe weakness and weakness on crit could possibly be bad.

Only issues I’ve had with my build has been rangers and daredevils ( regular theives get eaten alive) and the occasional DH catching me when I don’t have a stunbreak.

With the shouts healing me, sol healing me, 2 condi transfers condi duration reduction from hoelbrek and the constant might spam, weakness spam, plenty of precision due to fury marauder amulet and target the weak, boon corrupts for those pesky boon spammer and plenty of cc courtesy of gs, d/w, and of course the damage reduction from reaper line the constant weakness and of course Rise all contribute to what I have found to be the best Power reaper build available.

Can you post your build? It sounds very similar to mine. I’ve run D/W with GS a lot. All melee is a big gamble but I love the utilities and situational buffs it gives.

I’ve been playing PvP with Axe/Focus instead of Staff and have been pleasantly surprised. With the 10% damage talent Axe 2 really lays into people now. Additionally Axe 1 can’t be body blocked so anyone that stays in range takes continuous damage. On Reaper at least I’m enjoying axe more than I expected.

Cogbyrn.7283:

Dristig.9678:

Spite Faceroll I actually play:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAR3dnc0AV2gt0AebCs3glaBLeLOGXjUjh5Q1CqrFAmBA-TBCEABJcBAg4gAko6PbpEkp9HlfG8AAaTHAAHBAA-e

Fixed that for you.

EDIT – I meant that in a playful way, because after even just a few hours in sPvP games, I find it really amusing how the “everything I don’t play” category is lumped under being faceroll/braindead.

I actually play all those builds. It just depends on what I feel like doing. I play a signet/shout build in sPvP. Want to talk about faceroll… lol

Javonovich.5280:

What is this face roll build that everyone is using to dominate the jungle? Bc I sure could use some help!

IMO the most faceroll build is the minion build with Death Magic instead of spite. Take the toughness stacking traits and it’s sort of hard to die. I still use full berserker in that build, BTW. Howeve, the best balance of faceroll and “support” is the blood magic build that includes fast ressing and wells. You can pop everyone up that falls in the meta events and give them Protections while also stopping them from bleeding out.

Minion Faceroll:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAR3dnMbCV2gd1AebCs3gFqBTKAUySZxdwSYKkqEUDuUA-TRCEABJcBASZ/hEV/ZLlgMp8zgHAgEHEg20NAwRAAA-e

Wells Faceroll:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQJARWnk0At0g10AebCs3gFvBbqBEASAxJwIYFkqDECGUA-TxhFABDcBAA4BAYkyvR2f4MdADq+TVKBBA-e

Spite Build I actually play:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAR3dnc0AV2gt0AebCs3glaBLeLOGXjUjh5Q1CqrFAmBA-TBCEABJcBAg4gAko6PbpEkp9HlfG8AAaTHAAHBAA-e

Arkrath.1407:

snip

Looks interesting. Possibly luck, how many crits were you rolling out? What was your playstyle?

More crits than I expected. Decimate defenses seemed to be pulling it’s weight for sure.

I was far point assaulting and teamfighting at mid. I was able to pull off some Gravediggers in teamfights and Chilled to the Bone -> Gravedigger was pretty strong. I had no ranged at all but as I was staying on points and comfortable LoSing people it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. The 86% reduction on movement impairing effects was pretty amazing. I barely had to use stun breaks because of it. I stayed in shroud a LOT. I was 2v1 then 3v1 then 4 v1 on their home point before they downed me on one of my far point assaults. At least one of those was a completely useless ranger. It was very interesting. I think it is one of those unranked hero builds though because I could see a coordinated team really ruining my day. I had a Guardian running around with me and putting Aegis on a Reaper is disgusting.

I think the key is to not level up to high. Power still works in lower brackets. lol

So I ran a Soldier build last night with Blighter’s Boon and though I had some initial LF generation problems I was able to tank mid while downing all sorts of people. I think I was with a group of particularly low level people because I was at 215 points and the next closest person was 160 but it was pretty fun. Take a look at the build. Did I just get lucky?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBIhF6kGRozGsyGwbTgeTsgLYxZxvYYkqL0GeWQXtAwCA-TJhHwACeCAMLDA4UAMa/BA

Thanks, you brought a smile to my face.

Luke.4562:

A lot of people lack taste and artistic coherence.

This is the best you can ever get out from an human Necromancer, in both pieces combination and colors.

What legs are those? I’m worried they are ones that look very different on female…