I couldn’t find a central feedback thread, so I’ll just leave this here and trust a mod to merge it if a central feedback thread turns up
Specialisation: Reaper
Overall:
- Was it fun: Yes, very much so.
- Did it change how I play necromancer in a meaningful way: Yes. Necromancer has alway felt like a medium-range class, and Reaper really puts the necro right up in their enemy’s face, and the dogged pursuit aspect is an interesting playstyle.
- Reaper Shroud is a fun.
Mechanic (Reaper Shroud):
- Reaper Shroud is a great mechanic – very much in the style of reaper shroud, but different enough to feel new. the melee focus works with the reaper’s theme, and all of the skills are useful at one time or another. also, a kitten scythe – what more can you ask for?
- Life Rend -> Life Slash -> Life Reap : a really nice basic attack chain, with a good number of targets.
- Death’s Charge: the reaper is a slow moving spec, so having this long-range dash is really nice. also the animation is really well done.
- Infusing Terror: this skill really helps with the whole unstoppable feel of the reaper, and the pulsing stability makes it hard to slow the reaper down.
- Soul Spiral: a nice AoE attack, with decently high damage. the high cooldown means you won’t use it more than once per shroud, which is probably fair.
- Executioner’s Scythe a really nice finishing blow – high damage, a short stun, and it does more damage against weaker enemies, making it a perfect last-hit move. the ice field is also a nice addition.
Weapon (Greatsword):
- Overall: The greatsword is a nice heavy hitting melee weapon, which gives the necromancer a decent high-damage close-combat weapon.
- Dusk Strike -> Fading Twilight -> Chilling Scythe: a nice, slow-moving auto attack chain, but the damage buff from the last beta has really brought the DPS back into line.
- Gravedigger: another slow-moving attack, justified by the high damage and awesome animation. another of the better against weak enemy moves.
- Death Spiral: a good set-up skill which does decent damage and applies a nice chunk of vulnerability to an enemy. makes a good opening move.
- Nightfall: a nice change to the rest of the greatsword, this skill helps with defending, providing some damage mitigation on an otherwise all-in offensive weapon.
- Grasping Darkness: an interesting gap closer, which keeps the slow moving theme going by pulling the enemy to you, and not the other way round. fits well with the theme and works well with the specialisation.
Skills (Shouts):
- “Your soul is mine!”: the heal itself is nothing special, but the damage is nice, as is the life force generation.
- “Nothing can save you!”: a really nice counter against a defensively-buffed enemy, and the unblockable is really nice.
- “Suffer!”: the chill and condition transfer are nice, but it really shines when combined with the deathly chill trait.
- “You are all weaklings!”: a good self-buffing skill, and the weakness is just a nice bonus. really helps the reaper shine in solo play.
- “Rise!”: this is another good shout, covering both defence and offense, and works really well against multiple enemies. the shambling horrors make good distractions too.
- “Chilled to the bone!”: an AoE stun is never something to sniff at, but this works really well with the reaper.
Traits:
Adept:
- Minor – Shroud Knight: gives all the Reaper stuff, not much else to say.
- Major – Augury of Death: an interesting take on the X skills recharge faster the better you are with the shouts, the more you can use them.
- Major – Chilling Nova: helps to spread chill, which is a nice touch.
- Major – Relentless Pursuit: takes the unstoppable horror idea and turns it into resistance to movement-imparing conditions. simple enough in theory, but it fits really well.
Master: - Minor – Shivers of Dread: more chill. lots of chill kicking about. still, getting one condition from another is a nice idea.
- Major – Soul Eater: a little lifesteal on each greatsword hit. the numbers a kind low though – and even though it is on every greatsword hit, it’s let down a little by the fact that the greatsword is a very slow weapon – it could handle some more lifesteal-per-hit without becoming too strong.
- Major – Chilling Victory: this is a nice might-stacking skill, and really does shine when up against several opponents. the life force generation is also nice.
- Major – Decimate Defences: I like the idea of this, but the tooltip seems to be lacking some info – is there a limit to how high this can stack? how long does it last? also, testing this in game I don’t see any change to my critical chance when hitting an enemy who is suffering from vulnerability. bugged possibly?
Grandmaster: - Minor – Cold Shoulder Longer chill – and we’re now seeing a bunch of extra effects on chill which synergises really well with some of the other skills/traits reaper has.
- Major – Blighter’s Boon: rewarding the reaper for having boons is an interesting move, as we’ve not seen necromancer being this boon-focused before. rewarding that playstyle gives reaper a different feel, which is nice.
- Major – Deathly Chill: makes chill do damage. normally, this wouldn’t be such a big thing, but with all the chill Reaper gets, this is actually quite big. also makes chill quite a bit more useful in PvE, which is nice.
- Major – Reaper’s Onslaught: this one’s gonna provide some incredibly satisfying videos. this trait means that all those once-per-shroud skills have suddenly become once-per-kill skills, and that means killstreaks. It benefits a reaper who is doing well, which is nice, and really helps in outnumbered situations.
Overall, the Reaper feels like a really nice Elite Specialisation. it turns the necromancer from a more distant class into an upfront in-your-face kind of enemy, and give it some quite capable melee options. the skills work well mechanically and thematically, and I’m really looking forward to playing more after launch.