Guild Wars 2

Nemesis.8593:

Oh my god… seriously… OH MY GOD… i have no absolutely no words to describe this…

Are you seriously going to put the calculator on TOP of the boss’s HP so we won’t notice he is actually at half HP… in the first fight (as you can see by the party members on the left), which was the weakest one because i had weakness on as i was doing my highest burst, and i posted it on purpose just to bait people in… since i knew that’s what people were expecting… and after the screen goes black… i proved your expectations wrong…

You’re going to calculate my DPS for half a fight… before i even go in Lich Form under Timewarp ?…

Necromancer’s DPS increase by 20% after the boss goes under 50% health… and i saved up Lich Form and Timewarp to skyrocket my DPS towards the end…

I am speechless… i can’t believe the lengths at which you people go just to invent bullkitten about my video…

HAHAHAHAHA… OH MY GOD !… HAHAHAHAHA…
I saw how people are already laughing because they believe it ahahahahaha… SPOJ ACTUALLY BELIVED THAT… HAHAHAHA…

Dude… thank you… just got home, checked the forums… hahahaha… can’t stop laughing…

Jesus Christ, dude. This is why a lot of people just can’t take you seriously. The very second someone challenges your analysis of something you start doing this. There is no scientific method at all to your process, is there?

flow.6043:

Why would this be specific to the Reaper? And why would this be cause for a nerf now when it has been in the game forever?

Kravick.4906:

Lachanche.6859:

this is a terrain inherent bug it can not be fixed without some drastic changes to the phisics engine.

now i want you to think about this: what do you think is more likely, a drastic overhaul of the phisics engine or a change to the reaper ?

Nerf the Reaper (or necro) for all game modes because there are some places they can get more life force? Yeah, no.
It’s more likely that the terrain would be changed, or that the map would be dropped from rotation.

Besides, how would this nerf to necros look like anyway? Remove all life force regeneration?

Its not just the one map this happens, though. There are places in ALL maps that necromancers can do this.

The point is, ANet has always taken the path of least resistance. There is a huge history of them doing this, even all the way back to GW1. ANet balances this game a lot around its PVP modes, because its to much work to separate the skills as they originally said they would.

ANet still sees themselves as a competitive E-Sport franchise (which is laughable TBH), and a bug like this is rather embarrassing for them. They’ll likely take a sledge hammer to this in order to save face like they’ve always done. I do not see them redesigning the physics engine, or redesigning the maps to solve this. I see them reducing the amount of LF Reapers gain in order to compensate, and leaving the rest as it is.

Its not just the clocktower. There are places all over the maps in all the PVP maps that you can siphon LF from like this. Its only readily apparent now because of GS/Reaper cleaves. ANet has a history to consider as well.

Are these at all viable now for PVE/PVP/WVW? I’ve been a way for a while. I realize its not likely meta, but is it something that you can at least get good mileage out of?

Your link is broken, but honestly I don’t need to see it to believe it. I’ve been Moa’d before and found that its auto attack does more damage than a lot of classes baseline auto attacks, and the extra range pretty much makes it impossible to get away from.

First thing I do when I get moa’d isn’t to run away, but to run up and punch the mesmer in the face for more damage than I could have before.

pepsis.5384:

Kravick.4906:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Reapers-tanky-due-to-infinite-life-force-bug/first#post5467950

Sooo, yeah. This bug is kind of serious.

Let me get this straight. A known bug will get a class spec nerfed? Where is the logic in that? Wouldnt they simply fix the bug instead

Taken from the other thread.

Lachanche.6859:

this is a terrain inherent bug it can not be fixed without some drastic changes to the phisics engine.

now i want you to think about this: what do you think is more likely, a drastic overhaul of the phisics engine or a change to the reaper ?

WoodenPotatoes is awesome, however I cannot recommend Nemesis. I’d love to go into details but I don’t want to turn this into a bash post. I’ll just say that there are certain biases and a major lack of mathematical evidence when it comes to him.

Miku is another one to look for if you like elementalists.

Major problem with the pets in this game (this affects necromancer minions as well) is that they’re incapable of attacking and moving at the same time. This makes it nearly impossible for them to hit a moving target like players can. ANet said that they can fix this, but won’t because currently animals/minions do not have an animation for moving while attacking, and they don’t want to break the aesthetics of the game.

I want to see this on my charr.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Reapers-tanky-due-to-infinite-life-force-bug/first#post5467950

Sooo, yeah. This bug is kind of serious.

morrolan.9608:

To the question in the subject: poor balancing, taking too long to make balance changes, and the lack of timely smaller iterative balance changes.

I’m really going to have to go with this. If you look at other PvP based games (MOBAs for example), you see updates and balance changes like this almost on a weekly basis.

Good for them. Instead of crying about “OMG XYZ IS OP NERF IT!”, they adjusted their tactics and roflstomped them because of it. This is how PVP should be.

Nemesis.8593:

Do i not keep saying i am working on part II… What do i keep saying…

Ohhhh you’re ignoring what i say because you are trolling… oh man… you got me good there…

No, I’m not trolling. I want to see the complete thesis written out like everyone else does here. You’re missing a lot of information, and you refuse to acknowledge anything that pokes holes in your hypothesis, even out right insulting these people. This is bad science. You’re not even willing to show us actual math that doesn’t rely on assumptions. There are no assumptions in math, and your math is full of them.

Nemesis.8593:

Kravick.4906:

Nemesis.8593:

:)

10.000 views on YouTube = 30$, working 3 weeks on a video for 30$ is mental… unless of course you are not doing it for the money…

If i was here for the money… i would even be here… literally…
Minecraft earns you 100x more easy.

I’m still waiting for you to show me the base numbers on that DPS of warrior vs necro that I asked for almost two years ago.

Pay me and i will show you, otherwise i am afraid i am just too busy with my own agenda, to be able to invest time and effort in satisfying everyone’s curiosity…
This is free content, take it or leave it… but you are not entitled to anything except an opinion…

You can always do it yourself… record a warrior run, record a necromancer run… manually add the damage done, divide by the time… and post it here for all to see…

Come on, do your part and help the community get to the bottom of this… what do you say ?

I’m sorry bro, but this is why I cannot take you seriously. The burden of proof is on your end. And if you aren’t even willing to show us the complete thesis, then its obvious you have no proof to show.

Nemesis.8593:

:)

10.000 views on YouTube = 30$, working 3 weeks on a video for 30$ is mental… unless of course you are not doing it for the money…

If i was here for the money… i would even be here… literally…
Minecraft earns you 100x more easy.

I’m still waiting for you to show me the base numbers on that DPS of warrior vs necro that I asked for almost two years ago.

SlyDevil.3952:

Kravick.4906:

I found the ascended sinister stat amulet, but where are the ascended sinister rings/trinkets found?

Living Story says hello. You can also check the bandit crest merchant, Im not sure if they appear there before or after the LS achieves.

Well yes, thats where I found the amulet, but I’m not able to find the rings and other trinkets.

I found the ascended sinister stat amulet, but where are the ascended sinister rings/trinkets found?

I took a break for a while. Obviously a LOT has changed since I’ve been gone. Played around with a few things (new mortar is awesome!), but I’m curious to know what the new PVE zerk build is now.

Yeah, this isn’t fixed. Downloads at a wopping 50kb a second and slowly goes down from there until it his 0kb a second and eventually it times out with connection error. Then I have to start task manager to force close the launcher, because at that point it never reconnects and I can’t close the launcher any other way.

It has been doing this since the last three patches. Using AT&T U-Verse, located in the Columbus Ohio area. My data is likely being routed through Chicago, and I’ve been hearing rumors that the data being routed through that area is being throttled to hell and back.

I do not understand why people are asking for 100 gem increments. That is only going to create the SAME problem as we have now. At the minimum, we need a 50 gem increment as well, because there are tons of items in the gem store that cost 150, 250, and 350 gems.

I see what you did there. +1.

Ok. So wheres the news regarding NA side of things? No offense, but I don’t care about China. Honestly, I’m actually mad at the chinese side of things. They brought us such disasters as the NPE.

The biggest thing holding back shortbow on ranger is the conditional bleed application. If it didn’t have the stupid flanking requirement, you’d see more people using shortbow with condition builds.

The thing holding axe main hand back is the fact its auto attack does pathetic damage. The auto attack needs to be buffed. Its also a weapon that doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is it a condition weapon? Is it a power weapon? It sure as heck isn’t a utility weapon. Both stats scale horribly with this weapon. The number two skill is horribly designed. In order to effectively use Splitblade, you have to be standing at point blank range for all the projectiles to hit. So its a ranged weapon that… requires melee range to use properly? Right… Winter’s Bite. Eh, I don’t know what to think about this skill. Its pretty underwhelming. First, the projectile is so slow, good luck ever landing the skill on anything other than at point blank range. Second, the attached pet component is incredibly badly designed (all attached pet components on ranger weapons are bad design, IMO). Good luck having your pet actually land an attack since they are completely incapable of attacking while moving at the same time. Personally, I think 3 seconds of chill isn’t enough. Should be 4 seconds baseline. The projectile speed of Winter’s Bite needs to be improved as well.

Sword main hand, this is an obvious fix. Remove the stupid leap component on auto attack and more people will start using it. The fact the auto attack locks you out of being able to dodge is a no brainer. It is the main reason I refuse to use the weapon on my ranger. I have no problems with how the other two abilities on sword main hand work. They’re great and I love them. The auto attack leap is the only reason I refuse to use this weapon. NO ONE should need to turn off their auto attack to effectively use a weapon. Spamming one button over and over again to circumvent a poorly designed game mechanic is not an excuse for having a poorly designed game mechanic.

Greatsword. The auto attack needs to do more damage. Its just bad. Rangers have no good melee weapons. Sword auto gets you killed, greatsword auto does pathetic damage. The other abilities are fine on this weapon set, I think.

Also, since we’re on the subject of rangers, devourer pets as a whole are useless. Do less damage than spiders, and their F2 skills offer nothing to compensate for the lack of damage. This is a real shame, because I love the concept of devourer pets.

The biggest thing holding back shortbow on ranger is the conditional bleed application. If it didn’t have the stupid flanking requirement, you’d see more people using shortbow with condition builds.

The thing holding axe main hand back is the fact its auto attack does pathetic damage. The auto attack needs to be buffed. Its also a weapon that doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is it a condition weapon? Is it a power weapon? Both stats scale horribly with this weapon. It sure as heck isn’t a utility weapon. The number two skill is horribly designed. In order to effectively use Splitblade, you have to be standing at point blank range for all the projectiles to hit. So its a ranged weapon that… requires melee range to use properly? Right… Winter’s Bite. Eh, I don’t know what to think about this skill. Its pretty underwhelming. First, the projectile is so slow, good luck ever landing the skill on anything other than at point blank range. Second, the attached pet component is incredibly badly designed (all attached pet components on ranger weapons are bad design, IMO). Good luck having your pet actually land an attack since they are completely incapable of attacking while moving at the same time. Personally, I think 3 seconds of chill isn’t enough. Should be 4 seconds baseline. The projectile speed of Winter’s Bite needs to be improved as well.

Sword main hand, this is an obvious fix. Remove the stupid leap component on auto attack and more people will start using it. The fact the auto attack locks you out of being able to dodge is a no brainer. It is the main reason I refuse to use the weapon on my ranger. I have no problems with how the other two abilities on sword main hand work. They’re great and I love them. The auto attack leap is the only reason I refuse to use this weapon. NO ONE should need to turn off their auto attack to effectively use a weapon. Spamming one button over and over again to circumvent a poorly designed game mechanic is not an excuse for having a poorly designed game mechanic.

Greatsword. The auto attack needs to do more damage. Its just bad. Rangers have no good melee weapons. Sword auto gets you killed, greatsword auto does pathetic damage. The other abilities are fine on this weapon set, I think.

Also, since we’re on the subject of rangers, devourer pets as a whole are useless. Do less damage than spiders, and their F2 skills offer nothing to compensate for the lack of damage. This is a real shame, because I love the concept of devourer pets.

Ele underwater skills lack quite a bit of punch. I’m used to playing necromancer under water. Power or condition built, necromancers are absolute juggernauts of destruction when under water and have absolutely no problems soloing entire groups of things. When I did that place for the achievement a few months back, I was able to swim in, tank like 5-6 risen at a time (things aggro through the floors), and blow them all up in a matter of seconds with my necromancer. I swear, I would cut off my left pinky if it would convince the devs to give necros the ability to use their under water skills on dry land.

Took my ele there to unlock the water grandmaster yesterday. Whole different story. My ele barely survived against a single veteran when under water. Yes, I am using proper rotations and not camping a single attunement (I took the time to learn each attunement). I also have an exotic trident, full exotic gear, and full ascended trinkets. The place just wrecked me. If I faced two risen, I was guaranteed to go into downstate at least once. Any more than that and I’d just die. Veterans were like mini bosses, and if anything aggroed during a fight with a veteran, it was over. This is contrary to how my necro was just making everything down there her kitten, and quite literally curbstomped the entire ship like it was nothing.

Is this possible to make a viable condition build for elementalist? If someone were to build a condition set, what would be better? Rabid, Dire, or Carrion? Which weapon set would offer the most condition damage application? Or is an ele condition build just a pipe dream?

Xcorpdog.2840:

juno.1840:

It appears that you have to start the arcane brilliance cast while in a field for the blast to count at the end of the cast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umdKnfTye2w

Here’s a video I whipped up detailing how it’s behaving, it has nothing to do with being in the field while starting the cast.
This is more for people who don’t wanna read Kravick.4906’s wall’o text.

It does, actually. You can easily test this by dropping Healing Rain under you. Stand at the edge of the field and cast Arcane Brilliance, then step outside of the field before the skill completes. You will now be standing out side of the field and still blast finish Area Healing.

Now do the same, but this time stand outside of the Healing Rain field. Cast Arcane Brilliance, then step inside the field before the skill finishes. Notice that you will not blast anything, even though you completed the skill while standing inside of a combo field.

This behavior is contrast to how every other blast finisher in the game works. Every other blast finish in this game blast finishes based on when the skill ends, and what field is under the blast finish when the effect goes off. Arcane Brilliance does the opposite, and its oddly confusing with how the skill currently works.

I had this happen to one of my characters. This was solved within 3 days by sending in a support ticket. The first one bounced back saying that “Oh yeah, we checked everything and its totally against the naming rules!” So I sent them back a reply asking them which part of the name was inappropriate so I don’t make the mistake of reusing the inappropriate part again, and the second response said there was nothing wrong with the name at all and they reversed the name change.

That is the only advice I can give. Make sure you force them to answer specific questions, or you’ll likely just get an automated response, which I suspect the first reply to my ticket was.

This thread is based off of a discussion that we had here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Arcane-Brilliance-not-blasting-fields/first#post4481614

Currently, this skill functions in an extremely odd and confusing manner. I can’t tell if this is a bug, or if it is intended for this skill to function in this manner. The exact details are discussed in the link above, but the summary is as follows. This list is regarding the Elementalist skill Arcane Brilliance:

• The skills damage component is point blank area of effect.
• The skills blast finish component is ranged, and centers on whatever you have targeted. The exception to this is if the target is NOT ATTACKABLE (Is green when targeted) to the player or you have no target, then the blast finish component is centered on the player.
• The blast finish only considers where you are standing when you initiate the skill, rather than where you are standing when the skill finishes.
• Even though the skill only considers where you are standing when you initiate the skill, if the combo field disappears before the skill finishes, you do not get a combo blast effect.

With the way all the other blast finishers work in this game, this is contrary to how things normally work regarding blast finishers.

The tool-tip does nothing to even hint at how this skill actually functions, and is counter-intuitive with how the rest of the skills/blast finishers in the game function.

I propose the following:

• Make the blast finish component centered on the player at all times regardless of who or what you have targeted.

OR

• Make the skill’s damage component do its damage around what you have targeted so that it is more inline with how its blast finish component actually functions. I am not proposing that the skill become a targeted AoE, but rather an AoE around what is targeted. IE: No targeting circle.

AND (applies to both changes above if one is made)

• The skill detects and applies its blast finish component based on where the player/NPC targeted is located at the end of the skills cast time, rather than at the beginning.

Personally? I would prefer the first option, which I believe to be its intended functionality. I would much rather have the blast finish component be centered around the player at all times. This would make the blast finish component more inline with its actual damage component (point blank area of effect), and make it a lot easier for players to blast combo fields using Arcane Brilliance (more controllable blast finishing). I would also much rather have the blast finish component detect the field you are standing in at the end of the skills cast time, rather than at the beginning, as all other blast finishers function currently in the game. It is my personal opinion that this skill would be more inline with how its tool-tip represents the skill this way, and would be far more intuitive and less confusing then the way it currently functions.

This thread is based off of a discussion that we had here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Arcane-Brilliance-not-blasting-fields/first#post4481614

Currently, this skill functions in an extremely odd and confusing manner. I can’t tell if this is a bug, or if it is intended for this skill to function in this manner. The exact details are discussed in the link above, but the summary is as follows:

• The skills damage component is point blank area of effect.
• The skills blast finish component is ranged, and centers on whatever you have targeted. The exception to this is if the target is NOT ATTACKABLE (Is green when targeted) to the player or you have no target, then the blast finish component is centered on the player.
• The blast finish only considers where you are standing when you initiate the skill, rather than where you are standing when the skill finishes.
• Even though the skill only considers where you are standing when you initiate the skill, if the combo field disappears before the skill finishes, you do not get a combo blast effect.

The tool-tip does nothing to even hint at how this skill actually functions, and is counter-intuitive with how the rest of the skills in the game function.

I propose the following:

• Make the blast finish component centered on the player at all times regardless of who or what you have targeted.

OR

• Make the skill’s damage component do its damage around what you have targeted so that it is more inline with how its blast finish component actually functions. I am not proposing that the skill become a targeted AoE, but rather an AoE around what is targeted. IE: No targeting circle.

AND (applies to both changes above if one is made)

• The skill detects and applies its blast finish component based on where the player/NPC targeted is located at the end of the skills cast time, rather than at the beginning.

Personally? I would prefer the first option. I would much rather have the blast finish component be centered around the player at all times. This would make the blast finish component more inline with its actual damage component, and make it a lot easier for players to blast combo fields using Arcane Brilliance (more controllable blast finishing). I would also much rather have the blast finish component detect the field you are standing in at the end of the skills cast time, rather than at the beginning. It is my personal opinion that this skill would be more inline with how its tool-tip represents the skill, and would be far more intuitive and less confusing then the way it currently functions.

Calestian.1598:

it works everytime but its a bit weird. if u dont have a target, then the blast finisher happens on urself, but if u do have a target, the blast finisher happens exactly on the target. so for example if u want to do lava font and arcane brilliance and u have a boss targeted, the lava font must be under the boss as well, same with any field.

Yep, just tested this. You’re right. However, theres a small abnormality. This is only true if the target is hostile or attackable (red/yellow). If the target is non-hostile (green), it will blast around the player instead, which I believe is where the confusion is coming from. Furthermore, if you blast a water field like this at a distance (water field is under your HOSTILE OR ATTACKABLE target), the effect goes off around the targeted NPC and not yourself.

I’m not sure I really like this design. Arcane Brilliance is not a ranged ability like Arcane Wave. If it was a targeted ranged AoE (requires a target to do damage at range, but isn’t ground targeted like Arcane Wave) like Arcane Wave, I would say it should stay as is, but since Arcane Brilliance is point blank AoE, I think the blast finisher should always center on the player.

Also, there is another oddity regarding Arcane Brilliance. Even though you must be standing inside the combo field at the beginning of your cast to trigger a blast finisher with Arcane Brilliance, if the combo field happens to disappear before you finish casting the skill, you don’t get a blast combo. Honestly, I believe the blast combo effect should be based on where you are standing when you finish casting Arcane Brilliance, and not where you are standing when you begin casting it. It just doesn’t make sense how this skill was constructed.

If anyone wants to test this for themselves, its very easy to set up. Equip a staff. Stand far enough back so you don’t aggro your target when casting Arcane Brilliance. Just drop a combo field (Healing Rain or Static Field) under an attackable target. Activate Arcane Brilliance with the attackable NPC targeted while it is standing inside of your combo field. Watch as the combo effect activates around your target (Water splashes, the wind effect from blasting lightning fields to get swiftness, etc).

Spurlock.1260:

Thanks for the info guys. I guess i should have mentioned this is for leveling purposes. I’m only lvl 12. Is that build still applicable? I have been using staff anyway so far and it’s great except for how insanely squishy i am.

I’ve leveled with Dagger / Dagger, Scepter / Dagger, and Staff. I found staff to be a lot more efficient in terms of killing things and not dying. It has a nice balance of crowd control and damage so you’re able to juggle multiple mobs at once. I found Dagger / Dagger very difficult when more than two mobs were involved (you just die way to fast) even though it will burst better than staff. Not to mention, staff just keeps you mobile (IMO) better.

Wyrden.4713:

Cries Of Sorrow.5864:

That build is incredibly slow to traverse the wild wasteland, 1/10 would not recommend.

burning retreat, goes further than rtl , is affected by swiftness

then he has fgs too, for 60 s every 180 s travel.

Burning Retreat is also on a much lower cool down, at 16 seconds, with that build. Compared to RTL at 40 seconds, its better.

Cries Of Sorrow.5864:

That build is incredibly slow to traverse the wild wasteland, 1/10 would not recommend.

You mean signet of Air isn’t good enough? Some classes don’t even have a move speed signet at all. I find this set up is extremely fast and adequate for traveling. To each their own, I guess.

I can’t give you the best, because for open world, “best” is subjective to ones personal taste. I can, however, give you a meta build that works for everything PVE.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWnMISZDW3AuMAdEIgAQCHIygRzEWKTp3A-T1BBwASUCaU5HgLAAO1fqt/QKdEBeAAAA-w

Its a staff build. This is the second highest DPS an elementalist can achieve. The highest DPS build requires a lot more effort, and revolves around stacking might and spamming lightning hammer 1 over and over. Its boring. This build, however, is very close behind the lightning hammer build, and its a lot more fun and interactive, at least in my opinion.

I will state up front that some of the runes/sigils in this build are a bit expensive. Especially runes of strength. Because I’m poor as hell and can’t afford runes of strength, I use Ruby Orbs. Instead of using sigils of force and accuracy, you can use sigils of fire and air. They’re cheap and work well. They also fit the theme of elementalists if you like that sort of thing.

This video will explain how to use the build (its very simple). Its very informative and covers everything, including viable alternatives.

Forgive me if this topic has been discussed before. I would do a search, but the search function hasn’t worked in over a year at this point.

I’ve noticed that Arcane Brilliance often doesn’t trigger its blast finisher when I’m standing in combo fields. I do know that you must have been standing in the field when you first activate the skill for the effect to trigger, rather than when the skill finishes its cast and goes off. The skill must begin its casting when standing in the field, etc, for it to work. However, I’m still noticing that it doesn’t seem to reliably blast properly. I’ll be standing in a field, cast Arcane Brilliance, then not have the finisher go off.

Is there another quirky requirement to reliably have it go off, or is this skill just bugged?

If you look, you’ll notice that charr have shorter fingers. Especially the final digit, which is just a paw (hand?) pad and claw growing out of it.

I really have no idea, though. Funny, this topic reminds me of a certain NPC in The Bane (arena/fighting pit) inside the Black Citadel that talks about how she absolutely hates balling her hands up like that when fighting. She’d rather use her claws and feels awkward without using them.

So I’m finally getting around to leveling an elementalist to 80. It is now 71. I have tried Staff, S/D, and D/D. Universally, I have noticed that a -lot- of skills are incredibly underwhelming for damage. It is always a struggle just to kill things without getting killed in return. None of the other classes I have leveled to 80 (Ele and mesmer are the only classes I have that are not level 80) all have a much, MUCH easier time in PVE.

Is it just me, or is this class severely underwhelming for damage?

And before anyone says its a L2P issue (It very well could be, I don’t know.), my typical rotation is as follows:

D/D: start in Air, RTL to target, Shocking Touch, Updraft (if able), Switch to fire, Burning Speed to target, Drake’s Breath, Ring of Fire, Fire Grab, Switch to Earth, Earthquake, Churning Earth and pop Arcane Shield at the same time. If I don’t have Arcane Shield up, I will typically be downed before Churning Earth goes off. If NPC is still alive, switch to water and pop everything waiting for Fire to come off attunement. My heal skill will be used at some point during that rotation depending on HP levels. This all happens in about 5-7 seconds give or take. This combo doesn’t even kill most NPCs at level 70, and I’m left auto attacking in whatever attunement is left. If I am fighting more than 2 NPCs, I’ll just get absolutely destroyed. If I do kill them, I’m left at about 20-30% of my HP, and thats after using all my healing abilities.

S/D: Start in Air, Lightning Strike, Blinding Flash, RTL to target, Updraft if able, Lightning Strike again, go into fire, Ring of Fire, Dragon’s Tooth, Phoenix targeted just behind the target so it hits them going out, exploding, and on the return, Fire Grab, Switch to earth, Earthquake, Churning Earth while popping Arcane Shield (or I’ll die), go into water, pop everything waiting for cool downs. Again, I’ll heal where needed. Again, more than 2 targets and I get my kitten handed to me.

Staff: I really don’t have a rotation here. I’m honestly not sure what to do with this weapon. I know its good for WvW but it doesn’t seem that great for killing random NPCs with as nothing stays still long enough to be hit by anything but auto attack. (Possible L2P issue here.)

My traits are put in Fire, then Air, and any left over put in Arcane. I still do not have all of them unlocked (THIS NEW TRAIT UNLOCK SYSTEM IS REALLY REALLY BAD!)

What am I doing wrong? or is this class like mesmer in that its complete crap until you get all your traits and exotic armor?

Bhawb.7408:

No they didn’t. They said we’d have it first.

Yes, they did.

Bhawb.7408:

Its not the “necro condition” it was first introduced on Necros with suggestions as to what it should do from us. It was never a “necro condition” though.

Yes, its not the necromancer, condition, but you know why people are calling it the necromancer condition. A developer came to these forums and said that necromancers would have the most access to torment. Instead we ended up with the least.

Honestly, I’ve always thought that the rifle auto should be shortened to 600 range, given increased damage the closer you are to the target (an over all damage increase for Hip Shot, it can use the Blunderbuss firing blast animation, and possibly made to hit up to 3 targets), and that Rifle should be turned into a pseudo melee weapon ala shotgun style combat. The weapon already lends itself to this style with Blunderbuss, Overcharged Shot (under 400 range), and Jump Shot requiring you be within melee range to get the full effect, and Net Shot compliments this amazingly by allowing you to immobilize someone to set up Jump Shot to Blunderbuss combos. Tool Kit is a poor substitute for a close combat weapon as it does less damage and even less vuln stacking (with adept level trait) than bombs.

Rifle isn’t even our long range weapon. Were forced to take grenade kit for that, regardless of build. If Rifle was suppose to be our long range weapon, then having an auto attack with all of our other abilities on the weapon at less than 500 range is useless.

Over all, this change, in my mind, would allow rifle to become a stand alone weapon that we could make builds around, instead of being constantly forced into taking kits just to function normally like the other classes.

alchemyst.2165:

Kravick.4906:

Shinjo.6092:

Death Shroud shields your hp from being damaged, and rangers have Signet of Stone combined with Signet of the Beastmaster in addition to “Protect Me”. I never said that other classes have evades similar to what thieves have; only that they exists for other classes as well (although one can probably make a case that the amount of evades Blurred Frenzy and Whirlwind attack provide over time is comparable to some of the evades on thieves’ weapon sets, there’s too many other things to consider to make this comparison legitimate).

Death Shroud is not a viable form of mitigation. If necromancers had the same evades/blocks/invulns of other classes, then yes, I can see the whole “second HP bar” as a valid argument, but as it stands, it is a horrible, badly thought out substitution for an actual defense. Case in point. Guardians have 11k HP as base, yet because of their mechanics and boons, make far, far better bunkers than necromancers ever will be.

umm…

So you’re saying a kitten ton of extra HP and not having it transfer to damaging your health pool the whole time isn’t viable? (WHILE shooting arms at people for 3k a hit.)
You’re basically invulnerable for X seconds…

Absolutely. Another example are ranger pets, which range in HP from 20k to 50k. Most of them will get two shot in instances by boss mobs because they cannot dodge, block, or evade. When these pets die, ranger damage drop by a good 30-40% depending on what they’re traited.

GW2 is designed around twitch movement and dodging attacks or activating abilities that block damage out right at key points in time. Necromancers don’t have these abilities. Instead they get two dodges and DS. Can you name one viable bunker build that necromancers have? No, I didn’t think so.

Shinjo.6092:

Death Shroud shields your hp from being damaged, and rangers have Signet of Stone combined with Signet of the Beastmaster in addition to “Protect Me”. I never said that other classes have evades similar to what thieves have; only that they exists for other classes as well (although one can probably make a case that the amount of evades Blurred Frenzy and Whirlwind attack provide over time is comparable to some of the evades on thieves’ weapon sets, there’s too many other things to consider to make this comparison legitimate).

Death Shroud is not a viable form of mitigation. If necromancers had the same evades/blocks/invulns of other classes, then yes, I can see the whole “second HP bar” as a valid argument, but as it stands, it is a horrible, badly thought out substitution for an actual defense. Case in point. Guardians have 11k HP as base, yet because of their mechanics and boons, make far, far better bunkers than necromancers ever will be.

The profession forums are largely ignored by anyone at ANet, I agree. If you want them to see anything, you have to post in the Balance Discussion forum now. They avoid the other areas completely.

Actually, the necromancer has suffered far worse than you think. The ANet parents broke several of the necromancers other toys in an effort to make the other children feel more loved, then ANet later broke the necromancers greater toy so the other children would stop complaining about how awesome that toy was, but then never bothered to go back and fix the other toys that ANet had broken, leaving the necromancer with less toys than what they had to start with.

So sad.

Mesmers also get access to bleeds via trait.

I haven’t read all of it, but he is right about necromancers not being an attrition class. Necros, IMO, are one of the worst attrition classes right now, if not the worst. Necros are amazing at burst damage (this includes condition builds), but as far as out lasting an opponent, the longer the fight drags on, the worse a necromancer becomes.

maeggle.6021:

That’s very much untrue. Condition necromancers are mostly ranged and have several ways to keep distance (chill, cripple, fear, torment pressure), boon control (boon ripping and corruption) and ways to heavily reduce both direct damage (weakness, blinds & crowd control abilities) and condition damage (condition transfer, consume condition and all the counters which also apply to mitigation of direct damage).
A conditionmancer may use deathshroud as a damage sponge or to apply some conditions via #2-#5 (and maybe dhuumfire via life blast), but life force isn’t usually used for life blast, so after all you got more life force to play sitting duck in deathshroud than power builds which require you to use life force for damage.

No, its very much true. This may be how ANet sees it on paper, but in practice, the necromancer is the least attrition class of all the classes currently. I’m not gonna say necromancers are so broken that they can’t be played. Its got some decent builds, and it is workable, but this class is very, very badly designed. The last minute changes that completely redesigned Death Shroud at the last second saw to this.

Once someone gets on top of a necromancer, there is very little they can do to keep them off. Fear bombing someone with terror isn’t exactly reliable against anyone who understands the games mechanics, since it double dips and is broken with both condition cleansing and stun breaks, and is also reduced by condition reduction food/runes.

Warrior is far better at attrition because of Healing Signet and their high base toughness. Thieves are actually the best attrition class in the game right now because of the Shadow Rejuvenation trait. A condition built thief with this trait is the ultimate attrition build. Rangers have superior attrition builds because of the bajillion evades, insane synergy with Apothecaries/Settlers stats, and 100% vigor up time they can achieve. Plus their pets do fixed amounts of damage regardless of what stats they’re using. A properly traited and built mesmer has some pretty insane attrition thanks to invisibility and the general confusion (not the condition) they cause with clones and good positioning. Engineers are the second best attrition class in the game, hands down. Healing Turret plus all the leap skills they get can boost them from near death all the way back up to full every 16-20 seconds. Nearly everything Guardians have is built for attrition in mind. Practically half of their builds/skills have built in healing components to them, along with skills that grant invulnerability/blocks/aegis. Elementalists still offer up greater amounts of attrition than a necromancer.

Necromancer is the class I’ve devoted most of my time too. Necromancers are not an attrition class. They’re a burst damage class. Yes, even the condition builds are all about delivering condition bursts. If the burst fails, or your opponent brings enough condition clears, a necromancer simply flails its arms around until they eventually die. Necromancers do not have the sustain for prolonged fights. Siphoning is terribly broken and underpowered for this purpose. Blood Magic is the worst trait line necromancers have, and death shroud scales horribly against multiple targets. The more people there are in a fight, the worse death shroud becomes. The necromancer heal skills are dreadfully underwhelming against classes that aren’t necromancers. Condition builds on other classes stack mostly one or two different conditions. Maybe a third with a lesser degree of up time. This leaves necromancers with a huge health pool, but only a 5-6k heal to compensate. The other classes get massive 7-8k heals, some of which are on a shorter CD than Consume Conditions. Well of Blood wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t have that 40 second cool down attached to it. That skill is clearly designed around the well cool down trait, which you guessed it, is located in the worst trait tree and requires at least 4 points to get. If that isn’t enough, healing power as a stat is completely useless to a necromancer because they have some of the worst healing power co-efficients attached to their skills thanks to death shroud. Oh, and death shroud prevents all active healing and healing over time effects. So much for attrition.

In condition builds, death shroud is actually a DPS loss, since none of the skills are capable of sustaining themselves with any degree of reliable up time. Necromancer condition builds having the worst LF generation. That makes it impossible to recover from you run out in of LF in a fight, which is extremely easy to do. Once a condition necromancer has run out of LF, they’re dead in the water and very easy to kill.

Ok I’ve ranted enough.

xil.5140:

Kravick.4906:

I have never seen a precursor.

How much of that 8k hrs are afk though…

I do not log in to AFK. I actively play the game. If I am not playing the game, I log out. Most of that 8k is in WvW, though. Its not exactly farming the traditional way, but killing players for loot bags is still farming I guess.

The original log in screen was better. I loved that sound it made when the insignia showed up on screen before the song played. Watching that video, I got the same chills up my spine when I first logged in the beta the first time.

I was sad when they changed it.