Guild Wars 2

http://imgur.com/a/FlIj0

I included both the Reaper elite specialization and the Scourge elite specialization in the link above so we can do an easier comparison. I think we can actually draw accurate inferences by comparing both. I think it would be more accurate this way because Anet might model the relevant effects after the Reaper traits.

The traits

• 1st trait: Shows the weapon.

Reaper = Greatsword

Scourge = Torch

• 2nd trait: Shows the new shroud.

Reaper = Reaper Shroud

Scourge = What the hell is that? This? http://imgur.com/a/WqqJD
Monster bear shroud? Just kidding…looks like a devourer of sorts

• 3rd trait: New skill

Reaper = Shout healing skill

Scourge = A burn-based healing skill? Perhaps something like healing based on damage done to enemy or ‘burning’ up your shroud for healing etc. That was what I thought if I matched trait for trait. But the color of this trait is different. It doesn’t look like a new skill color. It looks more like a normal trait. I think this trait position is swapped with the 13th trait. The healing skill was moved to 13th. And the burn condition boosting trait was moved here. See trait 13. The 13th Reaper trait is a Chill condition-boosting trait. This 3rd trait on Scourge looks like a burn condition-boosting trait.

• 4th trait:

Reaper = Shout-boosting trait

Scourge = A trait that boosts the new type of skills we are getting…It looks like a man standing between two shadows that could be summons…but I’m thinking more and more its going to be like the mesmer’s themed manipulation skills. I’ll explain more later.

• 5th trait:

Reaper = chilling nova aoe damage trait. Doing a round of aoe chill damage on chilled targets.

Scourge = looks like a needle marking a spot/cross. Hitting a target. Perhaps it works the same way as Reaper. If you hit the enemy under certain conditions, he will take more damage or you inflict vulnerability etc.

• 6th trait:

Reaper = reduce movement impairing conditions. Defensive.

Scourge = Looks like a simple bleed icon. But if we follow the Reaper’s theme of a defensive trait, it might mean blood transfusion. As in you gain blood/HP.

• 7th trait: Very important! Shows what new condition focus we are getting

Reaper = Inflict Chill on fear

Scourge = The whole image looks like a ‘burning fire’ image with a scary face and I’m guessing its going to inflict burn on fear.

• 8th trait:

Reaper = New skill you are all weaklings shout. Defensive.

Scourge = New skill. It looks like an AOE regeneration channeling skill. Defensive. Or it could be he is encased in an AOE fire field that does cleanses or heals or something. Or an AOE convert all conditions into boons.

• 9th trait:

Reaper = New skill chill shout. Offensive.

Scourge = WTF IT LOOKS LIKE WE ARE GETTING A MOBILITY OFFENSIVE SKILL!!!! PLEASE MAKE THIS HAPPEN! I’m guessing he is riding on burning speed to move swiftly. Burn yourself to gain swiftness? hahahaha.

• 10th trait:

Reaper = Grave digger. A booster for new weapon.

Scourge = Looks like a ball with concentric circles and swirling auras inward. Probably reduces recharge on new weapon torch. Not too sure what skill though.

• 11th trait:

Reaper = Chilling victory for life force gain against chilled enemies.

Scourge = Looks like a bubbling image…like poison…or its so hot and boiling its burning? Burning would seem to fit the theme more. Gain life force on burning?

I would really like to see this done too. I don’t really get why I can’t see my server mate’s rank and can only see the enemy’s rank.

Chinchilla.1785:

Um, sure it would be lovely to place it in PvE places for theme and such but…look at in pure game play.

Why would you need a specific tower for “early warning” in the current game mode? People can literally just type in map/team chat. Especially consider that it requires someone to be in the signal tower anyway…again just say it in map chat if you’re in the area.

From a technical perspective, I do believe there are some caps on rendering distances so it could only extend vision so far anyhow. Not to mention none of the current maps are designed for the inclusion of another objective which would require even more work. All for a mechanic that is easily rectified with map/team chat? Not worth it in my opinion.

I was thinking of removing team chat and giving that option only to the scout in the tower.

In medieval times, large empires used signal towers placed at strategic locations within their empire’s large expanse of land to provide early warnings against any enemy incursions. When a soldier in the tower spots an enemy from far, he would light a bonfire and the smoke would be seen by other towers down the line and they would start lighting their bonfires too all the way back to the main garrison to alert the commander.

Would it be viable to have such signal/scout towers in WvW? If yes,

• Where should they be positioned? Somewhere away from the main roads so enemies have to detour a distance to take it?
• How strong should the structure be should an enemy force try to take it? And if they do take it, the enemy will not be allowed to hold the structure unless they leave players stationed in it. Allied players can still re-occupy the tower without having to force their way in if there are no enemies stationed in it.
• Should it provide a wider field of vision to the player that is stationed in the tower?
• Should there be a limit to the number of players allowed into the tower?
• Should we remove cross borderlands team-chat and make this option available only to the scouts that are stationed in these towers?

In this video I’ll first do a step-by-step commentary on how to fight a Staff Daredevil that clears condi on evade as a Hybrid (Condi) Reaper. I’ll then show you the fight at normal speed at the end. Also, Spectral wall and “Suffer!” shout will help you a lot more against a thief.

I hope you find it helpful!

Justine.6351:

Lahm.7056:

The reason condi mesmers and thieves are thriving and remain at the top of the food chain…

Condi mesmers and thieves are useless in group fights.

EremiteAngel.9765:

I would argue that Deathly Chill be kept as it is in the current meta.

My reason is simple. It promotes extreme build diversity.

Extreme build diveristy as in every reaper dealing damage through chill centric builds? Sounds quite diverse?

Honestly, WvW has many aspects. Solo roam small group roam pug zergs guild groups small fights large fights etc. Which mode we care about can be different from one another.

• Are condi reapers a problem for pug zergs? Prob yes since they are less organised. Are condi reapers a problem for guild zergs? Prob no since they are usually good enough to share invulnerability and resistance and stab with loads of boon coverage through their mesmers and revs. So…should we nerf condi reaper to cater to the less organised pugs or should the pugs try to get better with their commander?

• Are condi mesmers and thieves a problem for large fights? Prob no since they are mostly single target killers. Are they more a threat as a Zerg tail chaser chipping off the Zerg from behind? Prob yes against pug zergs since they are highly bursty and able to disengage easily. Prob no against guild zergs because they usually defend their own and leave no men behind. Should we nerf condi mesmers and thieves including their mobility and disengage so that the tail of the pug Zerg doesn’t get hunted and killed or should pug zerglings stick closer to their commander so they don’t get picked out? Or pug commanders not leaving their men behind?

• Are condi reapers a problem for small group roaming? Prob yes for pug group roamers who just happen to come together and don’t really call target or share boons or support one another and each goes after their own enemy. Prob no for Organised small group roaming where they are usually just a smaller version of organised guild groups with all the boon share and support.

The list could go on for all the various game modes. And condi any class is usually a problem for less Organised groups which unfortunately is the majority of the pug players.

Also regarding my point on extreme build diversity, if the means of damage equates tothe lack of diversity to you, then no condi class has any diversity. If you notice, anet is giving each class it’s own unique damage condition and means to apply it. Every condi class has to take that one trait that amplifies their unique condi damage and means to apply it.

For us reapers, just by taking that one trait, I am not forced to pick anything else. I don’t even need curses now which was previously important for condi builds. I can diversify and choose different traits and utilities and weapon types and still be competitive. Are other condi classes as diversifiable as us? Prob no. Although they can be equally bursty, they prob only have that few condi builds to play with.

I would argue that Deathly Chill be kept as it is in the current meta.

My reason is simple. It promotes extreme build diversity.

When you have a strong trait capable of ensuring you are able to compete against most enemies, you have the freedom to customize the rest of your build and are no longer pigeonholed into one or two builds.

Is the trait over-tuned though. No. Not really. Mesmers, Thieves, Warriors, Rangers, and now Revenants are all equally capable of condi bursting with loads of covering condi for a long while now and with even more mobility and survivability than a necro.

For once, I feel like any build that I like playing to suit my play-style is competitive on my necro. I only need to take that one trait and the rest could be anything I like. Even the curses trait line isn’t necessary anymore for a condi build. I could pair spite with Bm. Dm with bm. Soul reaping with dm. And so on.

I don’t know about u guys but I have been very excited about this diversity available to us now.

Mesmer is another class who can load high bursts in short durations with loads of covering condi and they have been around for a long time too.

For example, okay I want to play a condi Reaper. So I will take Deathly Chill. Everyone takes Deathly chill. But it isn’t the only thing that defines your build and play-style.

I play a shroud flasher build. So I take Shroud flash boosting traits.

Others I see take Deathly Chill too but play Curse + Spite for maximum carnage and boon destruction with off-hand focus and focus traits.

Some take Curse with DM for minion condi build or a more defensive turtling build.

And then the utilities too. Every condi Reaper takes Deathly chill. But some go more defensive with spectral armor/walk/wurm. Some are more aoe heavy with wells or CPC or pure shout builds.

Deahtly chill might be a must for condi Reaper. But it is only that one trait there. Still many ways to build your Reaper to suit your style!

Would a Curse (parasitic contagion) + Blood Magic siphon traits create a heavy sustain Condi Reaper? Or would it work better with Death Magic (minions) + Blood magic traits? I don’t know, I never tried. But if you like sustain, why not explore this possibility too? =D

Dawdler.8521:

EremiteAngel.9765:

I like to think that necros are actually one of the few classes with quite a number of viable builds for WvW which we can explore and experiment further.

I’d like to think that too, but here’s two words that completely void what you think: deathly chill.

Its a good reply though.

hmm…well…even though deathly chill is a strong trait and probably a must have for a condi Reaper, there are many other ways you can build that condi Reaper. What other traits/utilities etc. to support the play-style that you like? There are many variations which I love about necro.

Also, power Reapers definitely still have a place which wouldn’t need deathly chill =D

Analyzing my reply above, you will see points like these that go through my mind:

Play-style What sort of style do you prefer? A juking necro that is harder to lock down in a group fight? A heavy AOE pressure necro to support your team? A shroud flasher? Perhaps Boon corruption is King to you? Or Sustain style is the right way? and so on

For example:

• You like a Juking Necro that is hard to lock-down because your enemies are organized and like to target you first. Perhaps look at more mobile utilites like Spectral walk, Wurm and consider weapons like Warhorn.

Synergy What are the traits and utilities that synergize and makes your build stronger for your play-style?

For example:

• ‘shroud flashing’ (meaning entering shroud and exiting almost immediately usually after one or two skills to benefit from certain traits like fury on enter or stability on enter or protection on leaving or casting a certain skill on enter etc.) Perhaps you want to take more shroud entering/leaving related traits in your build?
• Chilling darkness trait has good synergy with path of corruption trait making your Reaper shroud skill 2 (does blind at the end) a deadly and versatile skill. Perhaps you want to take the faster Reaper shroud skills CD trait to maximize this Shroud 2 skill further?
• and so on

Compatibility How compatible are your armor and weapon choices and stats to your style and build? Are you using any ‘less useful’ stats that doesn’t contribute to your build? Are you financially strong enough to change them? If no, would you need to re-look at your build based on the armor and weapons you have?

For example:

• “…Assuming you are going to run full trailblazers (which can work pretty well too) and don’t intend to raise your crit chance…” then don’t use traits “which has limited uses without a higher base crit chance”
• If you want to go a sustain is king play-style, and had chosen the Blighter’s boon trait, would you want to think of using food or runes/sigils that gives you a ready access to boons to maximize this trait’s sustain?

I like to think of Necros in this way. We have such varied capabilities. We could be a jack of all trades (mix and match a few styles) or a master of one path (perhaps fully maximizing a single deadly play-style to achieve a sole purpose).

Hope the above helps!

My reply to the reddit poster as below:

I think its important to have a flexible mind when thinking about WvW because the things you can do there is so varied and there are so many different types of enemies you will encounter. So don’t be afraid to change up your build slightly if you see the enemy from far and have time to do so. Even changing one utility skill helps greatly sometimes.

Okay, on to your build.

Boon corruption is a very unique set of skills on a Reaper that should be exploited to the fullest.

• Your build lacks boon corruption which would limit your prowess in zerg fights and even when solo/roaming against boon-heavy enemies.
• Your build has decent but limited condi management (staff 4 and healing) which would mean when you fight condi enemies, you will need to kill them fast within the uses of your two condi removal skills which can be quite challenging with the amount of condi spam on many classes these days.

Assuming you are going to run full trailblazers (which can work pretty well too) and don’t intend to raise your crit chance, Some changes you could try is:

• Drop terror trait for path of corruption. Simple boon corruption there to exploit. Terror’s damage is not that great and quite easily negated by all the stability/resistance/stun-breaks if you can’t corrupt their boons first. Chilling darkness trait has good synergy with path of corruption trait making your Reaper shroud skill 2 (does blind at the end) a deadly and versatile skill.
• Drop weakening shroud trait (which has limited uses without a higher base crit chance) for parasitic contagion which can give you decent sustain in small group roaming fights.
• Drop chilling nova trait (which has limited uses without a higher base crit chance) for Relentless Pursuit.

Play-style: Looking at the general direction of this build, without the speed of shadows trait and other traits that benefits ‘shroud flashing’ (meaning entering shroud and exiting almost immediately usually after one or two skills to benefit from certain traits like fury on enter or stability on enter or protection on leaving or casting a certain skill on enter etc.), I would suggest staying in shroud as long as you can maximize it, with your shroud auto (burning) and reduced cooldown shroud 2 dash to blind, chill, bleed and boon corrupt. Leave your shroud 3 stability on (meaning don’t use the 2nd cast Fear unless you really intend to interrupt or chain a combo).

Utilities-wise, for a start, use what you are most comfortable with. As you fight though, depending on which class/build you face, you will find certain utilities useless and others more useful. I’ll suggest taking the below 3 utilities that I find pretty helpful against most enemy classes/builds.

• Plague Signet is quite a useful all-round skill. Stun break against non-condi enemies and transfer condi against condi enemies.
• Corrupt Boon is a low-CD utility that will help you exploit a necro’s unique niche too.
• “Suffer!” shout is another low-CD utility that is pretty helpful in many scenarios. Can be used as bleed damage and can be used to clear condi, especially in small group roaming.

Runes Traveler runes if you are mostly running with friends and they don’t have swiftness to share just for the QOL. If running alone, probably Grenth or Krait.

Sigils any on-hit or on-swap sigils that do bleed or chill or some other condition damage would do fine. Definitely no on-crit sigils though due to your low crit chance.

Zerg when you are running to your zerg, just change your utilities. Plague signet to Well of Corruption and Corrupt Boon to Epidemic. Then you are all set!

I amended your build slightly so it looks something like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBmWD7kjGo8GszGwcTgeTsUMYx/whYSMKA8tKAUPhpwtC-TFyFQBH4gAwRlgJ4CAAgnAQCV+hi9HSnuh8p+DhAUMHA-w

I thought of posting this here to help show players how to approach the necro class when building for a stint in WvW.

Recently a player asked on reddit:

• “…I currently have a set of full trailbalzer’s gear but I’m having a hard time finding a build I’m comfortable with. I’ve tried both the shout reaper and chill reaper on metabattle.
  Looking for something solo / roaming with excellent sustain, that i can still take to a zerg and have some minor utility (fears)
  After a few hours playing tonight, I’ve come up with this:
  http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBmWD7kjGooGs3Gw4GgeTsEMYxFxlYUk6KsF+VRJgAQDA-TFBAhAzKBB0NAp+DoyPA-w
  Anyway, appreciate any advice!”

Metabattle is probably a good place to go for any instant ‘workable’ build especially if you have little experience and no idea where to start. But perhaps, it is not a build that you are comfortable with and doesn’t really fit the play-style you envision. I like to think that necros are actually one of the few classes with quite a number of viable builds for WvW which we can explore and experiment further.

With that said, I’m showing you my reply to the reddit poster’s question above. It shows what goes through my mind when I look at a build and what the reddit player is hoping to achieve in his build and his preferred play-style. Hopefully this helps more players learn how to approach their own play-style and come out with a build that appeals to them! I learned how to think and approach my builds and play-styles thanks to the many seniors on this forum who had previously helped me out with their great advice too (like Flow, Hesacon and many others). So I’m giving back to this awesome forum and hope it helps lots more Necro lovers take big strides in WvW.

Hello all. In this video I’ll show you some practice duels I had with a friend who uses full zerk LB/Staff Druid (which is very rare in roaming these days as most run tankier sustain Druids which is more forgiving and requires less skill). He wrecks me the fastest among all the druids I’ve fought XD

You’ll see the same Shroud Trick I showed in my earlier video to prevent the druid’s knockback + root combo. As before, this gives you a fighting chance against Druids. Just much harder against a LB/Staff Druid. Hope it helps more Reapers out there when they face Druids!

Tom.6478:

When there are 2 rams pounding on a door, is it appropriate to use your personal skills to damage the door?

I see some doing nothing, and a few that are attacking with sword, bow, or whatever.

Is it just helpful in a very small way?

Also, if its only a very slight helpful thing. Do you get some kind of benefit if you do some damage even if very slight?

I used to think PvD is useful only if your zerg is large enough (20+) and you are attacking a normal gate or reinforced gate, but not a T3 Fortified gate.

I was running around with Mag the other day and with around 20+ men, they PvD the enemy’s T3 Fortified EBG keep (both doors, inner and outer) and got in without the use of any siege, all the while under enemies’ AC and AOE fire =/

OloAp.6184:

Hey…I rarely post on forums…but seeing as the rifle warrior u were vs was me….you beat me on the second duel because u kept closing the distance between us. Closing the gap when going against a rifle warrior is the key to beating them…rifle thrives when there is a big distance…easier to land gun-flame and kill shot….i remember dueling you…one tough necro

Thanks haha. You wrecked me again the 3rd time we fought though. Even now as I rewatched the video, I can’t help but think I got lucky the 2nd time. Still can’t think of a good way to engage you lol…
Can’t out-damage you from range, closing gap on you just puts me in range of your mace shield combo which is also deadly XD

I think WvW would be fine as long as we can spread out the active and skilled guilds evenly across different servers so that there will always be competitive fights around.

The thing is that two condi reapers fighting one another are always going to stack massive number of bleeds when they transfer it back and forth.

This doesn’t happen when you fight other classes! Against other classes (if they know how to fight), I’ve never gone beyond 25 stacks of bleed (And this is achieved only if they eat heavy combos from me, in which case, the burst is very reasonable and they either clear it or die). And that is only around 3K damage per tick which many other condi classes are capable of bursting!

AHMA and I think LATE guild? went back to BG?

AHMA/AWE (their original guild name i think) is finally giving MAG’s Hasax led MGR guild/pug group a titanic fight during SEA prime.

MGR finally has an opponent who can fight on par with them during SEA! Its so much more fun now the fights! Its really high level stuff watching AHMA/AWE and MGR going head-to-head with their guild/pug mix zergs. Watching both commanders trying to out-wit and tear at each other.

Its the most fun fights I’ve had for a while.

I have friends who love EOTM more than WvW and vice versa.
Each has its own flavor and lure for different groups of players.
I hope both stays active for a long while to come.

KrHome.1920:

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

tbh any fights where a GS reaper are involved are not as hard as condi or even axe (range dps). GD is really strong, thats no secret, but it’s too telegraphed and slow so its easily avoidable (the nerf to warriors headbutt got nothing on GD’s clunkiness). If Aney sped GD up a bit, then maybe GS can be viewed as a more serious DPS choice.

Staff+GS are the weapons to go against a thief. On reaper you want to avoid being jumped at over and over again and peeled to death.

Put a staff mark (4 (damage) or 5 (fear)) at your feet and autoattack with staff (you won’t hit him due to the slow projectile, but he can’t shadowshot you without being punished hard and you outrange and outdamage his shortbow, so it is at least a stall situation). When he comes close to dodge through your mark shroudburst him. He will disengage and you put another mark at you feet. When you run out of marks, swap to GS and use nightfall.

In a marauder reaper vs. marauder thief matchup the necro staff auto deals 2 – 3k damage and staff4 about 4k. Staff 3 and 5 are nice CC. A chilling nova / chill of death / air sigil proc on a staff attack hurts a thief. With all these procs even a simple staff auto can cost him 1/3 of his HP.

GS + staff due to its lack of constant pressure is the worst weapon combo you can run on power reaper for any matchup except thief, since this class is ulta squishy and the need of denial areas to limit its mobility.

Side note: P/P thieves are a different story! Axe/focus and an aggressive playstyle is the way to go here.

P/D thieves who utilize headshots are also, unfortunately for reapers, a whole different story

I think desert BL is a good example of Anet being flexible and willing to listen to the player base.

While not everyone likes the desert BL, some do. And allowing for a mix of alphine and desert is a great move.

Personally I don’t like it for playing WvW but I think its great for taking beautiful sand themed screenshots.

I hope the possible upcoming desert themed maps in the expansion is as beautiful as the original desert bl with all the lush oasis in the middle of the map.

As a WvW Reaper main, I would say that PvP is a lot less forgiving for Reapers than WvW…fighting on point is a huge plus for Reapers.

Hey all. Just wanted to ask how important you felt it is to use infused rings and backpack in WvW for roaming and zerging.

I checked the prices and its not really cheap and you need to do PvE fractals to get them…

Are the extra stats worth it?
Does it just make you feel good or does it actually matter in combat?

For those still salty, there is a post in WvW forum on teaching people how to fight a thief. Maybe pro thieves here can go share more there so people will be be less salty =D

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Please-teach-me-how-to-fight-a-Daredevil/first#post6581639

Randulf.7614:

Sometimes. I only really play 2-3 toons regularly. I enjoy all my toons, the issue is I have this mindset that I must progress each one through the story in the right order, trying to complete everything as I go along. With another 6-7 toons, that becomes a chore and i lose motivation.

I also dont raid, pvp or wvw. So apart from my fractals char, all my toons are essentially set up for the same game mode.

They do at least all look frickin awesome in my eyes and that’s the most important thing, right?

Right..?

If looking awesome is important to you, as it is to me, then this website here is for you:

https://gw2style.com/profile.php?id=10733

Is she the smallest asura in recorded history and why is she so much smaller than the smallest asura we have available?

How many characters do you have and do you play all of them on a regular basis?
Is it a waste to not play them?

I got 20+ character slots myself but only play 4 to 5 of them on a regular basis…feels wasted seeing all my other characters sitting around in the slots and not having much play time XD

• General tips 2

19) while EA a good cleanse for the thief, it is overrated by far too many. Once people can discipline themselves into not attacking once the bomb on you will see a whole lot of those thieves drop.
A thief using combinations of PR/Trickery shadowstep and SE for cleanses is more dangerous as not only are some of those cleanses specific to certain conditions , but they can better control when they will clean a condition.

20) a lot of DD’s now run the trait that tricks (such as the heal thats widely used nowadays) now remove condis as well so its not safe to assume that of they have no condi’s then they wasted their siggy and/or shadowstep. Condis are the bane of DD’s I will admit

Hello folks. I compiled some recent fights including wins and losses while roaming in WvW. Some pre-May patch, some post-May patch. Hope its entertaining if not insightful!

so…has anyone tried this at reset? how did it go?

I saw an enemy necro do it to one of our guild catas earlier. He did it alone and stacked around 20+ bleeds and took out around 40% of our guild cata’s HP.
Not sure if he dropped other wells/fields but one necro taking out 40% HP of a siege is pretty strong…

PvE can get very boring when you have max level characters and less incentive to play the end-game PvE contents that you may like (which can be just 1 or 2 types) due to the daily cap on the rewards you can get if you repeat the same event/game-mode again. Perhaps a player is only interested in one or two game modes in PvE and is discouraged from continuously playing those game modes due to the reduced rewards and then feels like there is no other thing to do in PvE to keep him in the game.

For example, if I love fractals, why can’t the same maximum rewards be given to me even if I repeat the same fractals again and again for any level? Putting a daily cap on certain levels getting bonus rewards discourages a player from playing other levels because it might be seen as a waste of time and less rewarding. This player then leaves the game after doing the daily fractals because perhaps none other PvE content interests him.

The same applies for world bosses. Perhaps a player loves going on a world boss train for the entire day but doesn’t do it because the rewards are capped at once per day so after he completes the train once, he leaves the game because no other modes interests him.

Removing the daily caps will allow players to not feel short-changed or discouraged by lesser rewards when repeating the game mode that they love in PvE. Not everyone loves to do varied PvE contents for all the dailies. Perhaps some only prefer to do dungeons, or raids only, or fractals only etc. Putting a daily rewards bonus cap discourages players from repeating the game mode that they love because there is that implied sense that you are better off spending your time elsewhere for better rewards.

Actually, if we add epidemic to the anti siege strategy, it should be called the plaguelands virus outbreak.

Imagine infecting a siege with stacks of plaguelands. Then epidemic to transfer the stacks to nearby sieges and enemies.

It becomes a virus outbreak worthy of the elite name plaguelands!

Also to add, assuming the elites stack, which they should,

Don’t underestimate the damage of the New plagueland. It is far superior to our current wells. Just taking the first condi pulse bleed alone, one reaper would stack 9 bleeds at the end of the elite. 10 reapers = 90 bleed stacks. Add 10 epidemic to it and neighbouring sieges get 900 bleed stacks. And all these bleeds tick over time. And then there is chill stacking which increases bleed stacks even more due to reaper trait.

Also to add, Don’t underestimate the damage of the New plagueland. It is far superior to our current wells. Just taking the first condi pulse bleed alone, one reaper would stack 9 bleeds at the end of the elite. 10 reapers = 90 bleed stacks. Add 10 epidemic to it and neighbouring sieges get 900 bleed stacks. And all these bleeds tick over time. And then there is chill stacking which increases bleed stacks even more due to reaper trait.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Assuming plagueland is a stackable aoe field, it can become a very deadly anti siege weapon if you gather enough reapers to cast at the same area in WvW. I expanded more on this in the WvW forum using grave of hearts spectral walk bomber idea.

Also, Imagine 10 reapers plagueland final pulse plus 10 epidemics O_O

Casting many epidemics with your reapers on the siege might even kill neighbouring siege and enemies towards the end of the plagueland pulses when the condi had stacked crazily. The more reapers you have the crazier it gets I suppose.

Imagine 10 reapers plagueland final pulse plus 10 epidemics O_O

Assuming plagueland is a stackable aoe field, it can become a very deadly anti siege weapon if you gather enough reapers to cast at the same area in WvW. I expanded more on this in the WvW forum using grave of hearts spectral walk bomber idea.

anduriell.6280:

yeh sure.. will spectral walk get you inside the keep\tower?

Usually siege is close to the wall anyway… So you can condi bomb from the walls and no need to use that weird elite. People and their theorycrafting…

Problem is if the enemy had sufficient numbers and mind to aoe bomb your walls, they would deny defenders like yourself the luxury of attacking their sieges from the walls. The chances of you dying if you continued to stand on the wall is high. And how much continued pressure can you put on the sieges in such cases?

I assume though that plagueland is a stackable aoe so 5 reapers casting on same spot will make condis stack 5 times per tick. 10 reapers will make it tick 10 times. So if you gather more reapers, the aoe siege denial will be even deadlier.

grave of hearts.7830:

Pve wise doesnt seem as good,but i think this looks nice for a phase in phase out style for wvw.
Spectral walk into a fight,drop shouts and plaguelands and spectral walk out or go with spectral walk+wurm combo for even more gap increase.
Time will show but right now i like plaguelands more than plague,mainly because it opens the option for bomber teams.

I thought this bomber idea was fabulous.
I expanded it a little in the WvW forums but gave you credits.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Plaguelands-Bomber-The-Anti-Siege-Reaper/first#post6591766

Also PvE wise, I thought of things like World bosses where most of them are static for long periods and will allow plagueland to be used maximized though I suppose these PvE fights are not that crucial in terms of skill choices.

Still, I can also think of many instances in Fractals where the bosses/mobs are static. The problem is, would taking plaguelands be better than the golem which can do breakbar?

Firstly, credits goes to the SoS commander grave of hearts whose post here in the necro forums made me think hard about this bomber concept.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/LONG-LIVE-PLAGUELANDS/first#post6591252

I think many necros, especially vanilla necros (not so much reapers because they got some stability) felt short-changed by the lost of plague form. Plague was a crucial get out of trouble or get into the enemy zerg skill for many vanilla necros. Now that it has been replaced by plaguelands, is it still viable in WvW? How do we maximize this elite?

Some ideas were shared on the necro forums. For example, using it to hold choke points on stairways or gateways or emergency portals or lord rings.

Then the SoS commander above mentioned bombers. While his idea seems to gravitate more towards open field bombing attacks, which may require a lot more coordination to make the enemy stay in the plagueland, like immobilize, aoe stuns etc., it got me thinking.

What other thing in WvW is static? SIEGE WEAPONS (except for um…golems)

Problem is if the enemy had sufficient numbers and mind to aoe bomb your walls, they would deny defenders like yourself the luxury of attacking their sieges from the walls. The chances of you dying if you continued to stand on the wall is high. And how much continued pressure can you put on the sieges in such cases?
Imagine 5 or more Trailblazer or Viper condi Reapers using the spectral walk to jump down into the enemy siege and casting their elite Plaguelands before using spectral walk to get back out into safety again. They would essentially leave a pulsing no-entry area and deny enemy access to their siege and destroy the siege too. Add a mesmer invis veil to allow the reapers to jump down undetected would be even better.

Spectral walk can be activated to return you to the original spot even if you are stunned. The crucial point is not getting stunned while casting the plaguelands elite. Here the mesmer can help because invis veil will make it harder and slower for enemies to react until its too late. Also, if you are using plaguelands elite for pulsing condi, you would probably want to go reaper instead of vanilla necro because reaper has that bit more condi potential. And reaper has that stability thing. Muahahaha.

I assume though that plagueland is a stackable aoe so 5 reapers casting on same spot will make condis stack 5 times per tick. 10 reapers will make it tick 10 times. So if you gather more reapers, the aoe siege denial will be even deadlier.

Casting many epidemics with your reapers on the siege might even kill neighbouring siege and enemies.
Imagine 10 reapers plagueland final pulse plus 10 epidemics O_O

Don’t underestimate the damage of the New plagueland. It is far superior to our current wells. Just taking the first condi pulse bleed alone, one reaper would stack 9 bleeds at the end of the elite. 10 reapers = 90 bleed stacks. Add 10 epidemic to it and neighbouring sieges get 900 bleed stacks. And all these bleeds tick over time. And then there is chill stacking which increases bleed stacks even more due to reaper trait.

Anyone thinks this idea is feasible? Try it and let us know! Bringing the anti-siege condi Reaper to a new level.

I think depending on the game mode, the new plague lands will be seen as good or not. I think it’s mostly good in PvP for holding points. Good in PvE content with static bosses like in certain fractal map.

In WvW, it’s really a trade off.

Bad in that we lose a means to survive when caught out of position when we previously could use the insane survivability of plague form to escape back to our Zerg.

Bad in that we lose a mobile tank and tag for loot bags option especially for vanilla well necros during fights in narrow areas where u can’t really kite but need to run through the enemy Zerg with your commander.

Good in that we now have a very potent condition well for condi reapers to fight on point at chokes. For example holding a Tower or keep or smc lord ring circle. For example bombing a stairway choke point or a gateway or the emergency portal.

Hello fellow Necros. I recently did a video on how to fight a Daredevil that cleanses condi on evades.
Could any of you advise what I could have done better?
I lost most of those fights but felt I could have just done that bit more and win it.
Thanks in advance!

I’ll be showing you in this video how to fight a Daredevil that clears condi on evade as a Hybrid(or pure condi) Reaper in WvW.
I was lagging due to the video capture program so some of my skills timings were off. But the gist is there and I hope it helps!

Much thanks to the folks who provided tips in this thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Please-teach-me-how-to-fight-a-Daredevil/first#post6581639

I’m currently practicing to get better myself!

I finally killed my 2nd good Daredevil as a hybrid Reaper. I defined good as someone who used to kill me for fun meaning I died almost every engage previously =/

I learnt from the general tips section points 11 and 18 and the Reaper section point 3.

It was a Staff DD.

Stopped attacking after I loaded him with around 6 bleed stacks each time. Doesn’t even have to be a lot of bleeds. just around 6 stacks and stopped attacking each time. He kept dodging and dodging, probably hoping I would hit him lol…
It was really my most convincing win on my hybrid Reaper against a DD.

The first good DD I killed was a Sword/Dagger DD but it was more luck and felt less convincing than this win. This win it felt like I controlled almost the entire fight just by not attacking lol…he was forced to burn his shadow step even though he wasn’t stunned at all just to clear the condi…then he died in the follow up burst.

It would probably still be an uphill fight against even better thieves but hopefully more practice can help give me a fighting chance.

Man did it feel good when I could feel myself in control of the entire fight when previously I was just chasing shadows and spamming my skills.

Thanks for the tips guys!

Edit: And seems like a very good point from Jugglemonkey above on the geomancy and hydro sigil to enter shroud with. It would make it much easier to burst the thief and stop attacking after.

I’m rather new at fractals but had a terrible experience a couple of days ago.
I was with a friend in the party and we opened it to 3 others to do T4.

Nearing the end of the fight, 4 of us died while the last member survived and killed the boss. The chest spawned and instead of ressing us so that we can take the chest, he proceeded to stand around like a king and refused to ress us as if he was saying “I carried you noobs”.

This left me flabbergasted that such behavior was allowed to exist in game without a proper countermeasure like auto-ressing all party members if the final boss is defeated so we don’t have to go through ‘begging’ this last remaining pro to ress us.

Abelisk.4527:

Ele main here, I’ll try to provide tips on how to fight a Daredevil.

I’ve tried my hand at Daredevil, both playing D/P meta, Staff acro, and a mix of both.

If a Thief goes D/P, they will generally be more vulnerable but more mobile if they take dash. D/P Thieves generally have better damage compared to Staff especially when the Thief takes DA instead of Acro. Even though staff has easier bursts than D/P (vault), it is weaker since it gets to hit less than D/P.

Mind you that staff DDs tend to use staff 3 a lot. Begin autoattack animation -> steal -> staff 3 -> kite is something you will see a lot when dueling staff acro thieves.

Just try to remember these things:

- A Thief’s defense is their mobility
- Wasting their Backstab is crucial
- Don’t give them a chance to use Black Powder if they’re near you
- If they blocked an attack at close range with Bandit’s Defense, dodge since they may use a counterattack which can CC you and let them rip off a nice chunk of damage with Vault or other means
- If you’re condi and you deliver a burst, don’t attack them. If you notice their condis completely removed then they may have wasted their Signet of Agility and Shadowstep. With those two gone the Thief is slightly weaker and less agile.

The most dangerous part of a Thief is when they’re in stealth. If they’re running Basilisk Venom and they steal you, they can interrupt you even if you had 10 stacks of Stability for quite a while so save those stun breaks.

Now for some Fresh Air Elementalist tips:

- Tempest doesn’t scale well against Daredevil. Even by taking Harmonious Conduit, their steals will interrupt the Stability. In theory Tempest is good because it supplies AoEs which should counter a Thief, but unlike Dragonhunter, Overloads are really long channels which basically tell a Thief, “Interrupt me!”

- I tried running Fresh Air Tempest but it does not work. Fresh Air core ele is the best you can take.

- Your main attack will come from Air. Electric Discharge + Sigil of Air + Scepter 2 is generally what will do the big damage. Phoenix from Fire works pretty good too, just make sure your Phoenix is aimed at slightly behind your Thief if you can do that, since you may hit the Thief 5+ times with the skill (but it’s unlikely the Thief will take your Phoenix).

- As someone said above, you can use Arcane Blast for huge bursts. Electric Discharge + Sigil of Air + Lightning Strike + Arcane Blast is a deadly combo. It’s easy too.

- Contrary to popular belief, Lightning Flash is not necessary!! This is especially true if dueling a Thief who can teleport to you after wasting your LF. Thieves catch up to you no matter what so it’s best to have a stun breaker instead of LF. I would take Armor of Earth, Mist Form, and Arcane Blast or Arcane Shield.

- When swapping to Air attunement make sure the Thief isn’t dodging or blocking. Your attack will go right down the drain.

I’m sure there are more tips but that’s all I will say for now.

I don’t play ele much so I can’t really comment on that. But your general tips are very insightful kind Sir. Thanks!

Since some time ago when the core of TC’s fighting force transferred away, and TC became oppressed practically across all time zones, I became acutely aware of one thing.

WvW needs Mercy and Sportsmanship.

On a large server macro level, when a Server has a commanding lead in terms of points and even kills, I think it is merciful and of good sportsmanship to actually allow the weaker/weakest server to grab some of their own structures back instead of camping their structures and spawning grounds and preventing any chance for recapture.

This type of beating them into the ground behavior in a non-competition period is I feel due to the lack of fights elsewhere and not really because you want to thrash a server badly.
With that in mind, I would think it to be reasonable to give the badly losing server some breathing space. Let them build their small army back and then give you some fights (even if terribly one-sided ones).
Doing otherwise will just stifle most losing servers into leaving WvW and in the end you have no one to fight either.

Bringing this Mercy and Sportsmanship to a smaller micro level, when you see enemy players with Recruit or bronze ranks trying to flip a camp or even trying to take down a guard sentry (I use trying because sometimes I see them die trying), understand that most likely they are doing their dailies or taking their first baby steps into WvW. If the structure is not crucial to your server at that time (example, you already have maxed keep and that camp isn’t going to do you anything really good), let the poor soul get his camp!

I bumped into a recruit earlier trying to take a camp and he ran off the moment he saw me. I felt sorry for chasing him off. I’m sure some of you would have such experiences too or even be a recruit once yourself.

Show some mercy and sportsmanship! Thanks!

As a WvW veteran roamer, I’ve always been awe-struck by players who spiked with Dragon Finishers. It was always a very heart-quaking moment when I see an ally spiking an enemy with a Dragon Finisher or even when an enemy spikes me with one.

Do you guys think we need more finishers that are even more awe-inspiring and fear-instilling? Perhaps increasing the PvP levels to allow for the introduction of more finishers.

I think there has been an age-long debate on whether the strongest roamers that have entered WvW are actually veterans from the PvP arena.

You generally see the good roamers sporting PvP wings or Dragon finishers. Those are generally seen as symbols of being a skilled fighter and awesomeness. Especially the Dragon finisher spike creating an unavoidable quake of terror in the opponents’ hearts.

What are your thoughts on this? Are the strongest roamers actually veterans from the PvP arenas?