Guild Wars 2

I came here hoping for gameplay.

All of this sounds lovely on paper. In practice, the greatsword doesn’t deliver the chill uptime you seem to be hoping for in any reasonably competitive PvP environment. Myself and many others dearly wish this wasn’t the case.

After the buffs come in, I could see your proposed build being pretty effective. Let’s hope your effort in theory crafting pays off.

I like a lot of the things you’re saying, and agree with most of your points about Reaper shroud. I would prefer to see skill #2, as suggested elsewhere, become a channel the Reaper can end prematurely so the skillshot aspect of it remains the same but you can still avoid the overshot, as I enjoy this feature and find it essential to balancing the large damage pay off. I agree that skill #5 is excellent, but its targeting needs to be improved, as it seems unable to deal with moving targets at all. Its slow wind up time gives a player plenty of time to escape with a skill or dodge. Simply stepping slowly to one side shouldn’t be sufficient.

The issues with maintaining chill on your target via the greatsword, as you described it, also presents issues on multiple fronts. Not only can you not keep up with most foes, but you cannot maintain the 15% damage reduction that seems to be essential to keeping the Reaper alive for any amount of time. As I described in my own review, the Reaper drops faster with Valk and Soldier ammies than my powermancer does with Marauder simply because of the positioning demands of melee.

Only other issue is that you didn’t seem to address the problem of life force generation on the greatsword. I don’t feel the life force generating traits will be sufficient, and this should simply be added to these skills themselves. It does not need to be equivalent to the dagger, but it should not rely totally upon landing GS skills 3 and 5, which are very unreliable in a PvP scenario in their present forms.

Good post, though. We’re generally in agreement about the directions this spec needs to be taken in. Thanks for sharing.

@ Endlos
You raise a really good point about the chill damage reduction not being a reliable source of survivability. Unless they make the chill uptime far more reliable, simply making it a constant DR to all targets in range would be a good fix.

@EzJester
I agree with what you’ve suggested, and the alternatives you’ve described would be quite acceptable.

Glad so many agree the greatsword skill set can’t stay where it is if there’s any hope for it to have a place in PvP.

If I wasn’t clear enough in the orginal post, I should reiterate that my concerns principally lie with the greatsword skills.

However, in general, I feel a light armored melee class without strong mobility, stealth, or heaps of control really needs to have more active sustain than Reaper brings to the table.

I wouldn’t totally lose hope. Chronomancer is doing well in PvP, and both Tempest and Dragonhunter are more viable than the Reaper currently is.

Misguided.5139:

I’m not much of a pvp guy but wanted to commend you for spelling out what you feel the issues are so clearly and in such great detail. Nicely done.

Thanks for saying so! It’s nice to have the effort noticed.

I have to say I am not personally a fan of this idea. One will just end up always being the preferred choice.

They need to be balanced separately. Reaper needs to stay melee-oriented to keep its theme intact. If you want a ranged necro, just don’t play the Reaper.

Your post is a lot like the one I just made. Large, comprehensive, and many of the same points. We agree just about all around.

We’re basically best friends, now. Thanks for the post.

I am all but certain we’re going to see some greatsword buffs, likely due in part to members of the community expressing their impressions in a thoughtful, clear manner such as this.

Edit: I’d also like to say your suggestion to make Death’s Charge channeled is the best solution to that skill’s awkwardness I’ve heard so far.

punahou.3986:

ok—— so what?
you using dagger— really no different than not being a reaper at all.

Use a GS and come back and post your results. Lets not be happy because of reaper shroud, as it brings noting to the necro— you can go DS and get the same results.

He does use a greatsword. Watch the video.

Also, I don’t think he’s trying to show himself as having done super well, rather just some fun clips of Reaper shroud. This video, if anything, highlights the reaper is only really useful when the foe is outnumbered, and kind of struggles to do much in a real fight.

Thanks for posting this. Glad to see some beta weekend footage hitting the forums. I wish I had recorded some myself, mostly to showcase how unsuccessful the reaper is.

The damage numbers from Reaper’s Shroud are nice. This is the one area Reaper is doing well in. As you essentially identified in the video, making the greatsword even remotely viable is a tremendous struggle.

Thanks again for the post.

CONCLUSION/TLDR
The Reaper is struggling to perform well in SPvP, largely due to how miserable the greatsword is. Its overall performance is undeniably poor. This recognition is all but unanimous among the community. This Elite Spec has had many people excited for HoT, and is definitely among the major selling points. Do yourself a favor, ANet, and give this lump of dirt a spit shine.

Ability Breakdown Cont.
Greatsword
So, here we’ve come to the core of why The Reaper is in such a bad place. Basically all of these skills need to be considerably improved.

1. This skill needs love on all fronts. Either the speed or range need to come up considerably, as currently you are lucky to land 1-2 autos when fighting a remotely scrappy opponent (by which I mean anyone who understands “walk away from the damage”). Hits seem very few and far between on stationary targets, and are doubly so in SPvP. Additionally, the oomph just isn’t there when they finally do connect. Simply put, this attack should hit harder than the dagger if it’s to feel at all satisfying. Also, a small amount of life force generation here would be a good choice (and perhaps something that doesn’t belong on skill 3, as I’ll get into).
2. This skill is perhaps the biggest offender of all. Essentially, this should replace the auto attack as your filler once you have a target in range who is below 50%, but it really fails to do its job. Like the AA, it’s very slow and has terrible range. Additionally, one of the greatsword’s biggest drawbacks is that it lacks any form of reliable life force generation, and I feel this would be the skill to put it on. Perhaps something to the effect of “Generates 3-5% life force for each target hit below 50%.”
3. I like where this skill is headed. Excellent animation, and the vulnerability stacks are crucial to many Reaper builds in SPvP, which frequently want to utilize Decimate Defenses. The problem is this skill feels far too close range, and landing it is quite a challenge. Additionally, its life force generation feels very tacked on, and doesn’t seem to fit the mindset of the skill. I would say remove the life force generation (and roll it into 1 and 2) and perhaps give this skill a short-ranged, targeted dash mechanic. Nothing akin to warrior charges or even elementalist’s dash, just a little 200-300 range dash to help close the distance when this drill spike comes out. I could see this being a very good-looking animation, and the Reaper is currently in no danger of becoming “too mobile.”
4. I don’t dislike this skill, and find it to be relatively effective vs other melee. I think it would be a good place to grant The Reaper another defensive boon, as he is currently unable to be the frontline brawler we have been hoping for. Perhaps a brief protection tacked onto this skill would suffice, but some compensation for the low range and immobilization effect on the caster would be appreciated.
5. This skill’s issues are almost entirely a matter of targeting. Much like the Reaper Shroud 5, it rarely seems to ever connect on opponents who are moving, though it is somewhat more reliable. It was mentioned on the forums that this ability uses unusual targetting and I would prefer to see this attack either simply use a target function or have a somewhat broader cone to compensate for its tendency to brush right through your target but still result in a miss.

Ability Breakdown
Reaper Shroud
In general, the Reaper Shroud skills are in a much better place than the Greatsword skills, so I’ll begin with them.

1. This skill is in a good place, but I don’t feel it should be the only source of in-shroud life force generation. LF should also come in larger doses from a more intentional source. In general, a melee shroud needs more health generation to function in SPvP, as it is more susceptible to damage due to complications of positioning.
2. This skill has merited some complaint on the forums due to its awkwardness, largely from the mandatory travel distance as opposed to a direct target functionality. Personally, I am okay with this skill. Not because it’s as good as it could/should be, but because so many other abilities of this Elite Spec are in a far worse place. If this were to be improved, giving it collision detection or a simple target functionality might be desirable. (Edit: Another player suggested making this skill an interruptible channel. I also like this idea a great deal, as it maintains much of the skill-oriented element)
3. This skill is also fine in its current form, and it should be mentioned that it’s excellent to see Necros get a decent source of stability. Perhaps allowing it to also break stun would be a wise choice, making it more reactionary and less “Always pop this upon entering shroud.” In general, I don’t feel that would be too strong, as controlling and kiting The Reaper is currently far too easy.
4. As mentioned previously, I feel like this might be a good place to put a sudden burst of life force generation to aid with how easily Reaper Shroud seems to be damaged away compared to Death Shroud.
5. This skill is probably the least functional of all of Reaper Shroud’s skills. I totally understand it is very powerful by design, and must thus be difficult to land, but it seems to be behaving very strangely in a way that reminds me of the old Warrior GS 5 skill (before its targeting was improved). If your opponent moves at all, even if you remain in melee range and facing them, this skill is likely to smash into the ground a couple feet behind them and do nothing but leave an ice field. A powerful execute with a stun should be slow, so the windup time can stay as is (or receive only very slight reductions), but the targeting of this ability clearly needs work.

Data (Not exactly scientific, but a clear trend emerges…)

After testing several trait, amulet, and utility loadouts, I found myself infuriated by my inability to perform well with this class against remotely competitive opponents. Any situation my Reaper seemed to succeed in felt very much like, “Well, anyone could have done this with nearly any loadout, even terribly non-viable and non-synergistic ones.” I consistently felt like the least useful member of my team, really only providing backup damage when someone else was doing the heavy-lifting. This is very opposed to my Well-oriented Powermancer, with whom I constantly feel like a tremendous asset. Once I started to notice this trend, I opted to start recording scoreboards for comparison:

5 Consecutive Matches as my Powermancer

5 Consecutive Matches as my Reaper

• These scores were not doctored or cherry picked. They all represent a sincere effort to contribute. I could have gone on to record many more, but 5 of each seemed sufficient.
• For every bad game shown as The Reaper there were probably 5-10 I played before I worked out a build, and many of them were far worse. They occurred before I decided to start documenting my miserable failure.
• I am aware that Powermancer has been around longer, thus I’ve had more time to master it, but that doesn’t seem a sufficient explanation for such an enormous discrepancy.
• I encountered several other Reapers, as you’d expect, and their results were quite similar. I saw many sit at 0-15 points, almost always at the bottom of the scoreboard. This trend was so consistent, I started to see comments like, "Reaper (and Revanent, but that’s for another nerd to go into) isn’t ready for unranked. " and “GS Necro on our team – GG we lose.”

Preface
Much of what I am about to say has been said before, but I spent a fair bit of time and thought putting this together. As someone who is (was?) really excited about The Reaper, its current form has been such a tremendous disappointment that I am desperate to see it buffed. To this end, I’m throwing my voice into the vast pond of forum whining the Reaper has… well… wrought. A few points I want to make before I continue:

• This only concerns SPvP. I have not bothered with other game modes, and they are not taken into consideration for this post.
• This post only concerns Reaper builds utilizing the Greatsword, as I feel the “Just use the dagger + warhorn/staff.” solution is pretty unacceptable (though currently the most optimal way to play this Elite Specialization due to Greatsword’s wet noodle status).

Overall
I will go into far more depth for every specific ability, but here’s a jist of things to come:

The Good

• The Reaper animations are excellent. Especially those used for Reaper Shroud.
• In general, the theory behind The Reaper mechanics is spot on, and will appeal to many players. I doubt I’m alone in wanting to be the Pyramid Head on the battlefield, slowly lumbering toward your target, compensating for your lack of utility and mobility with crushing damage and daunting fortitude.
• Overall, Reaper Shroud is relatively satisfying and while not as powerful as Death Shroud, far more effective than the greatsword skills Reaper currently gains.

The Bad

• The Reaper does not seem to have the sustain in battle required of a slow moving, light-armored, melee class which is relatively devoid of mobility (when compared to, say, a GS Warrior, Guardian, or Ranger). I felt I died much faster as The Reaper (even though I consistently ran tankier amulets) than I do as a traditional Powermancer (Marauder or Zerker ammy). To parrot many others, my shroud seemed to vanish almost instantly upon casting.
• The AoE cleave effect that was described as a major asset of the Reaper is largely absent, particularly from the greatsword, due to its terrible range. I understand it was functioning (due to a bug) at the same range as the dagger, but I suspect even a range of 170 will be insufficient. It will likely need to have the most range of any melee weapon in the game to compensate for its low speed.
• For whatever reason, my Reaper appears to be stuck in the “in combat” status for an absurdly long period of time in a way I have not experienced on other classes. I strongly suspect some bug, perhaps with a greatsword skill, is keeping players in combat far too long.

The Ugly

• Almost all of The Reaper’s abilities are unacceptably slow for SPvP, to the point where evades aren’t necessary to counter it, but simply identifying that an attack has been activated and choosing to walk away. Anyone who attempts to face a competent player, particularly with the Greatsword (shroud is far less guilty of this flaw) will immediately recognize this
• While Reaper Shroud does excellent damage, Greatsword numbers simply aren’t where they should be. The damage output, even on a stationary target, is clearly surpassed by the dagger’s AA, though not by an enormous margin. The adjustments here could be small, but not something I expected to be needed. Honestly, this is the one thing I expected to come out of the box in excellent shape.

Reaper traits are fine. It’s the greatsword that is terrible, which I notice you’re not using in said video.

Just to clarify, that is currently the better way to play reaper. I’d take dagger over axe, but both are better than the greatpotato.

A lot of good points and ideas in this thread.

Personally, as a PvPer, I am more in favor of speed and range being added to the greatsword skills, as I feel this is what they lack most. It’s hard to say if the damage is even viable, as hitting targets is so difficult. (tbh vs decent players it’s not “difficult”, it simply won’t happen)

I just want to say that the reaper is total garbage in PvP. I really wish this wasn’t true, but it undeniably is.

Reaper shroud is fine.

Greatsword is way too slow, has terrible range, and no reliable life force generation at all. I feel squishier running valk as reaper than I do with Marauder (hell even ’zerker) with dagger.

Damage per hit is fine, IMO. It’s the range and speed that are the issues. Simple enough.

The range + speed is so poor that players effortlessly WALK away from the reaper GS AA. I don’t mean they dodge, they just walk away when they see the swing winding up, and it usually will get them out of harm’s way.

I, for one, am hopeful that the greatsword will be buffed to be PvP viable.

It doesn’t even have to be great. Just not absolute garbage, please.

I would not be worried about Reaper getting nerfed atm.

In every match I’ve been in, reapers have been getting stomped by anyone who knows what they’re doing. The forums are awash with QQ about the weakness of this spec.

Considering how much of the reaper’s kit needs help right now, Death’s Charge is personally the least of my concerns. TBH, all of DS is pretty boss.

The greatsword on the other hand is about as effective as a foam noodle…

I am strictly referring to PvP. See my first post for suggestion on how to visually compensate for the high range greatsword needs.

I have to agree. The greatsword is immensely subpar.

I’d like the weapon to stay slow. It’s unique. The problem is no attack with it ever lands because its range doesn’t compensate for how slow it is. People don’t need to dodge, they literally just walk away.

If the attacks are going to be this slow and this telegraphed, the range needs to exceed basically all other melee attacks in the game by a large margin in order for this to be remotely PvP viable.

While watching the livestream I was constantly like, “Why is he just not meleeing them?”

It’s because the attacks are so slow that people literally just walk out of the tiny radius before they land, completely canceling the attack but still using the whole swing time. The range on basically every GS skill needs to be increased to I’d say 200-250 (possibly 300) for this weapon to be worth anything in PvP. Give it the impression of some shadow cleave and this will work/look just fine, and the weapon can stay hilariously slow. I get the powerful, slow impact is a desired feature but it needs the range for that to be a viable approach.

It still won’t be amazing, but this is basically required.

I don’t know how well this will work, but basically the goal of this build is maximize vulnerability stacks asap. I’ll run with the well that inflicts vuln and the shout that inflicts vuln. This will let me run the soldier or valk ammy but still have a solid crit chance.

http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgQFaAHoBvQ~

Here’s my personal tier list for difficulty, by which I mean skill-needed-to-play-class-optimally (not just which classes might be imbalanced atm):

Very Easy -
None. This game in general has a high skill cap. Compared to most games, every class in GW2 PvP has a very high skill cap.

Easy -
Warrior, Ranger

Average -
Guardian, Necro, Mesmer

Hard -
Elementalist, Thief

Very Hard -
Engineer

I main a necro so no ele bias here.

Dagger should not out melee DPS reaper IMO.

Here’s why: Dagger hits fast, procs more, and builds life force. Greatsword auto attack and Gravedigger need to be huge, slow burst with comparable DPS. It would really be stupid if Reaper didn’t at least do comparable melee DPS to current Necro.

Also, you kind of lost me at, “Dagger isn’t a good weapon.”

I sort of agree that players can spend a long time being untouchable. Guardians, Warriors, Mesmers especially…

It gets kind of obnoxious to have a player be like block block block immune immune immune miss invulnerable invulnerable block block – WILL YOU PLEASE TAKE SOME DAMAGE NOW?

That being said, I will take this over games where you just…get targeted and take the damage. Period. Like WoW and FFXIV.

I know it’s tacky to care about the scoreboard, but I do it anyways.

Why is killing a player on a contested, neutral point worth 5 points while killing them in the middle of nowhere is worth 15?

Should really just make all player kills 15 points and call it a day.

I have to parrot SpellOfIniquity.

Mesmers as a class are just terrible for PvP. Massive spam of distracting AI and constant stealth? S’just not a design conducive to fun.

Someone a ways above me suggested powermancer…

No. If the ele is worth much of anything, he’ll win that 1v1. Cele/sig necro is a different story, but don’t try to play nukemancer like it’s a serious 1v1 build vs the tankier meta builds.

I’m not saying powermancer can’t win 1v1s, but it mostly exists to blast a few unsuspecting, unfortunate cap zone huggers.

At an optimal level of play with the most effective builds (cele/sig for necro atm) it’s only slightly weaker than the other two classes.

But we’re in the best place we’ve been in ages so let’s just be happy.

I have definitely noticed a lot of Mesmers in this patch. I’m not quick to cry OP, but I suspect their absurd brokenness is a factor. Y’know of /some/ variety. :P

I can’t help but feel that class was sort of a mistake in its conception. It does not have a mechanic that is remotely conducive to fun. They’re either blocking, invisible, evading, teleporting across the map, or so surrounded in clones that picking them out is just a headache. (or, God help you, any combination of the above…)

… … …hmm.

Let’s nerf necros.

Maybe I’m just too low tiered to see this, but in my experiences eles and mesmers have high enough of a skill cap that they just don’t seem so overwhelmingly broken.

Every now and then one who really knows his stuff will kick my teeth in, but when it’s only the best 5% of players, is it really so broken?

Pretty sure I was in that game. My Necro is Ombei, and I was the player with 200ish points at the end (pretty good match for me).

Were you the thief Soy Latte? You were pretty upset in chat, iirc (assuming that was you).

Three things. Awkward team comps win ALL the time in pickup games.

Secondly…that thief on your team (whether it was you or not) was the squishiest player I have ever attacked. I won’t say thieves are doing super great now, because that doesn’t seem to be the case, but an issue with the losing team in that match was builds, coordination, and player skill.

Third, there are many builds out there which do awful things to necros. I’ve been 100-0’d in CC lock I cannot escape by eles and engis due to the lack of stability. Don’t even get me started on guardians. If they’re not blocking or totally immune, I’m blinded…and usually on fire. Some classes/builds are better/worse against particular classes/builds.

It could be thieves need a buff, but let’s not start kicking around the easiest class to shutdown in the game.

Edit: If this wasn’t the right game, ignore the match-specific points.

As a casual shark SPvPer, it’s pretty rare I see something on the forums I can call out as bullkitten.

“Rampage was the standard elite for GS warriors prior to the most recent update.”

That’s bullkitten. I’m calling it. Almost every warrior ran the elite signet. Rampage was very easy to avoid, and the swiftness and fury had a better pay off. They just did. Almost every GS warrior ran with the signet elite. Period.

I won’t say that current rampage is totally balanced. Not because it seems impossibly broken, but because I don’t have the data to fully support that statement. Obviously it’s stronger, but it doesn’t seem any worse than lich form (or Moa bird for 1v1).

I’ve played a LOT of GS warrior, but am a Necro main, thus do not really care if warriors get nerfed or not. I’m unbiased but well informed on this topic. Rampage simply was not good before this patch.

Also, as stated, if you just spam 1 in rampage you are definitely doing it wrong.

As mentioned, there is absolutely NO REASON that underwater combat shouldn’t be available for private rooms for those who want it.

That being said, if you put that abysmal crap anywhere that someone is forced to participate in it, you’re worse than Hitler. Legit.

I was certain I’d come to the forums to see a plethora of anti-necro QQ with how my fights have been going.

Not a peep! Everyone keep QQin’ about the Mesmos.

I’m actually having fun..
…on several classes.
My Necro isn’t worthless anymore.
My glass cannon GS warrior definitely isn’t worthless anymore.
The list goes on.

All of these appear to be some pretty serious issues. This barely even feels like GW2, even. Fix it nao, A Net. cracks whip

I just wanted to throw my hat in the ring: I love the reaper!

I’ve wanted a class like this for a long time. To have it pop up in the perfect gear-treadmill-free MMO is just icing on the cake.

The primary reason for improving the scoreboard is so you can socialize with players who seemed to perform well. I’ve had a few invites to form duo and trio queue teams after some good matches, but it rarely happens because there’s almost no meaningful record of who did or did not perform well.

I have played quite a bit as a zerker Guardian, zerker Warrior, and a zerker Necro. I can say that as a power necro, I have to outplay the hell out of any other build to win my fights.

I thought I was just unusually bad until I realized other Necros were almost universally a pushover, and comprise my easiest fights. Whether I’m playing a necro or not, I often target them first because they simply cannot avoid damage. They just have to eat it.

If you run power necro, you will be the first target. You will be the easiest target to stick to (no real stability, no real escapes of any kind, no reliable source of invulnerability) and you will die. Many 1v1’s will be very difficult unless you have a sizeable life bar, which you won’t start the fight with. Blinds, weakness, blocks, interrupts, and crowd control will make you a marshmallow with zero dps.

So IMO the weakest class atm is a Necromancer with a power spec, but obviously I’ve not played everything.

kdaddy.5431:

If you serious about pvp you dont care about the scoreboard just the team end scores. I understand your complaint but i honestly dont think its a big deal.

Example is your tim duncan and im manu ginobli. Were the best players on our team, we know it the other players know it. We win the match and score the lowest points, does it matter?

You know that, of course, that is not usually the case. 99% of players don’t know one another, and the scoreboard as is eliminates opportunities to get noticed in solo queue. My first thought when I see 280+ is “How much did they stack cap?”

@Random Weird Guy
All true points you’re making, none of which I’d dispute. However, “It cannot be perfect” isn’t an excuse for it to be terrible.

I’ve been playing for a couple years now, and keep coming back every few months for all the things done right in SPvP. However, among other issues, the scoreboard in SPvP is abysmal and always has been. I know, from the rest of the content, that A. Net can do better than this. I used to make an effort to get a high score, but trying to do so actually encourages some habits that will quickly annoy your team (i.e. stack-capping and rushing to auto attack a zerged-down player once or twice for points when you’re needed elsewhere on the map).

First of all, the scoreboard only very loosely reflects an individual’s influence on a win or loss. Everyone with at least moderate SPvP experience has had games where they’ve done well (perhaps even carried a win) and scored low as well as games where they really didn’t help much at all and got 1st place simply by standing in particular places at particular times, regardless of contribution to captures and kills.

This can be attributed to bizarre design choices with point allocation. For instance, a random kill in the middle of nowhere (“skirmisher”?) gives the same points (15) as a kill on a capture site. Ironically, the only kills not worth 15 points are those which occur on or adjacent to neutral capture sites, which are some of the absolute /most/ significant kills that occur relative to securing a win (likely the most significant, honestly). Possibly worse than this, the current scoreboard encourages stack-capping (2+ people needlessly sitting on a capture site for points) even though it does not increase capture speed.

Most importantly, though, there is a wealth of hidden information. No Kills/Deaths recorded, no player damage/healing/mitigation, no representation of time spent interacting with objectives…

ANet seem(ed/s) interested in having GW2 SPvP recognized as a popular, competitive scene and, if this is ever going to be the case, they need to take a few hints from games that are very successful in this endeavor. Other PvP MMOs, MOBAs, FPSs, and competitive RTS games /all/ have more informative scoreboards than GW2 SPvP and don’t suffer for it.

TLDR: Scoreboard has been an uninformative waste of space in SPvP for a long time, and this is pretty inappropriate considering it forcibly takes up 75% of my screen at the end of every match, as if to say, “LOOK AT ME.”

It’s probably true that there’s more to be done with the build than I’ve currently managed. I intend to keep at it. Granted, I sincerely doubt I’m playing the other zerker classes near top effectiveness, either, and they do seem a lot easier to pick up and do well with.

Appreciate the input.

Jelzouki.4128:

Let me explain it to you:

A power necro is all about positioning, if you position yourself well you can do lots of damage with the right combos.

BUT

A power necro under focus will die faster than anything in this game.

Seems like these tremendous positioning requirements are so pronounced in the necro because it’s so weak. Good positioning will benefit /any/ class, but it’s considered mandatory for a necro because they’re not powerful enough to be be useful when even small mistakes are made.

So, I’ve been playing exclusively SPvP for a couple years on and off. Rank 45ish after numerous 2-4 month periods of not playing. Relatively casual; I don’t do ranked and I don’t play with a serious SPvP guild. Therefore a lot of my input could be taken with a grain of salt and I’m open to being completely wrong, and would like others’ opinions.

I’ve ran a power necro for about 2 weeks, and have had a mixed experience. Refined a build I felt comfortable with (basically what you see on meta battle with minor tweaks) and found generally staying alive and doing my job to be relatively difficult as opposed to playing a zerker warrior or guardian. As a power mancer, I seem to be obliterated by thieves and rangers almost immediately.

Honestly, the power mancer seems to have very little going for it. The extra healthbar provides a relatively small amount of survivability vs invulnerability, high regen, invisibility, or high mobility, which are the survival techniques of the other zerker builds. I feel a warrior can passively regen his healthbar more quickly than I can actively build life force (in a way that’s remotely safe).

I suspect this opinion is shared to some degree by the comments I see on necro forums and from other classes. I’m a bit disappointed, because I genuinely prefer the flavor and theme of the necromancer, but find the gameplay of the other zerker builds far more enjoyable and it seems to simply be because they’re just more viable. My warrior is fun, but I’m playing the class rather begrudgingly as my preferred class choice seems undeniably weaker than all the zerker alternatives.

Curious what other SPvPers are saying about zerker necros in comparison to other zerker classes? Am I missing something, or are they the worst of the bunch?

Thanks for the input.

PS – I’m aware I could play a terrormancer, but as a player tend to prefer direct damage builds.

As someone who has been playing a lot of power necro recently, I find power rangers (I laugh every time I say that…) to be impossibly hard to deal with.

As a necro, I have no block, reflect, invulnerability, invisibility, or any real counter for this immensely long range burst other than dodges, which run out quickly. When a power ranger isn’t blasting me for 50% of my health (Zerker build) from twice my range, he’s invisible or invulnerable. I’ve been seeing 1-3 of these builds on both teams every match.

I’m not going to say “omg it’s so OP and takes no skill” but I will say they were a disproportionately great source of death for me and seem to suddenly be quite popular.