Guild Wars 2

Hahaha this is so awesome. All my favourite arguments being trotted out, only this time by necros.

Just dodge!
Don’t use berserker ammy!
Play one and learn how to counter it!

Still waiting for someone to run out my all time favourite that a thief once posted:
“You have to listen harder when you’re fighting us”

Yeah we’re probably a bit over the top atm. Expecting a change to either dhuumfire or terror. Not until the meta evolves a bit and people get used to the new abilities though. I saw one guy who was so scared of a 1s immobilise that he blew his entire endurance bar panic dodging DS5.

Shanks R Us.2489:

Mammoth.1975:

Shanks R Us.2489:

Um, I don’t mean to be a kitten or anything, but every time I’d run into a GOAT group, usually solo, I’d walk away from dead bodies thinking it was a PvE guild.

They were still one of the better BP guilds imo. There were like 5 wvw guilds between AR and BP who can actually fight, down to 4 now. Oh, also, try to contain your excitement about soloing stuff as a thief in wvw a little bit.

I’m an engineer…

It’s kind of cute how you automatically consider me a thief because I solo. You must be one of the zerg.

Or it could be your username.

Shanks R Us.2489:

Um, I don’t mean to be a kitten or anything, but every time I’d run into a GOAT group, usually solo, I’d walk away from dead bodies thinking it was a PvE guild.

They were still one of the better BP guilds imo. There were like 5 wvw guilds between AR and BP who can actually fight, down to 4 now. Oh, also, try to contain your excitement about soloing stuff as a thief in wvw a little bit.

If you didn’t run into spectral wall twice and there were no other necros around, you were probably doomed twice.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Doom

The only other way I can think off the top of my head to fear someone for 10 seconds without using any abilities twice is reaper’s protection.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Reaper%27s_Protection

Remember that you don’t need berserker to get big lifeblasts anymore, valkyrie is also an option. Plus I was landing hits above 4k with soldiers when I was messing around with builds. Whether valkyrie is appropriate to your build and playstyle is another matter, but keep it in mind. Likewise with soldier. The extra 20% crit damage on berserker only comes out to an extra ~10% damage on lifeblast crits.

Yeah I agree, it’s way too early to tell. Feels pretty OP though. I dueled an engi and shatter mes who are both better players than I am and won more than I lost. This is with a spec that’s just terrible for dueling. The pressure you can put on a bunker is just ridiculous, by which I mean you could seriously kill quite a few guards by pressing 1 really skillfully and then `, 5 at the right time.

On the other hand, everyone got new toys to play with so once things settle a bit we will have a better idea. I’m enjoying this right now, but if it turns out that even after the dust settles we’re still performing at this level, nerfs will be needed. Or everyone could run double/triple necro teams for a few months, which sounds about as fun as a fork in the eye. Welcome to Putrid Mark Wars.

Oh, and on topic: I was on one of my alt necros today, this one for testing builds, wearing starter pvp gear. I deliberately switched to my champ phantom title that I have never used before just to avoid people crying to me about necro fotm. First game I enter, some necro says ‘do you even play necro or are you just some fotm reroll?’ Give me a break.

Only spotted one nerf necro thread in the spvp forum so far. Took like 12 hours for the QQ to get started, can’t be that OP :P

Zindrix.1750:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Eh, you can run 2 lyssa, 2 Mad King and 2 of your choice too. Or 2 Lyssa, 4 Nightmare. Lets you get away with only one Giver’s weapon and still have +100% condition duration (I’d stick a sigil of paralyzation on one of them to increase fear too).

I might be missing something here. 2x Lyssa, 2x Mad King, 30% from Spite = 50%. Where is the other 50% condition duration coming from? (Including the Hemophilia and Lingering Curse traits in Curses?)

---

Separate question: If Sigil of Earth isn’t the popular choice anymore, what’s better assuming I still have a decent crit rate?

10% from givers weapon, 40% from pizza. If you want to stay at range as much as possible, earth is still good, or battle. Geomancy offers better bleed capability but it’s pbaoe, and there are options like hydromancy too.

galandor.1059:

This is so dumb lol, I am just destroying people, I mean, badly. Fear+Burning combo them into the ground lol

Pretty much. In WvW a doom crit can deal over 9000 damage now from terror and dhuumfire. I haven’t had a chance to try things out there yet, but I’m looking forward to it in a couple hours.

Nemesis.8593:

You guys are missing the point…

Necromancers were easy pray for such a long time, now that we are equal no one knows how to fight us.

At the same time… because we had to fight harder for every victory we obtained, every single one of you necromancers has a higher skill level then their “equal” adversary…
We had to be more skilled then our opponents just to be able to stand our ground… We had to use skill to not get killed by a heart seeking spamming thief… or a faceroll bunker elementalist, or a “i do my combo you die” shatter mesmer…

Hahaha don’t be that guy. ‘Necromancers aren’t OP, we’re all just super skilled!’

If we’re too strong now we will get toned down, and anyone who has a problem with it is being shortsighted. We weren’t far off the mark before, and we got a lot in this patch. I’ve won every 1v1 I’ve had since the patch, and considering just how out of practice I am, that says a lot, despite the small sample size.

As someone else said though, give the meta time to absorb it and see what happens.

A little bit of a letdown, as the info on the wiki seems to be wrong regarding the damage. Nonetheless, with this, burning, and the new doom duration on a 30/30/10 hybrid, I actually melted one ele before he even realised he needed to cleanse. Plus what do you say about an aoe immobilise?

+50% crit chance in deathshroud is as awesome as it sounds too. I tested i out with soldiers amulet, and the survivability you have while still having some big pressure available is really nice. Axe still lackluster in pvp though, dagger ftw.

Xenon.4537:

Mammoth.1975:

I highly doubt it applies 3 stacks a second. It would be reasonable to get 9 stacks on, which would have the potential to deal over 200k damage with 1400 condition damage and 30% duration. That’s magical christmasland, hitting 5 targets with 3 ticks each, none of which get cleansed, and all of which keep moving for the duration, but even 10% of 200k is significant for one ability.

3 stacks total seems more likely, which would apply 500/1000 dps to targets affected by it until they get cleansed. That would give it a 2s channel, assuming it applies one stack at the beginning of the channel.

Anything is possible of course, but if it applies 3 stacks a second, I’ll be bracing for nerfs as soon as it gets released.

I’m pretty sure it’s less than 200,000 damage lol.

At .11*condition damage+32 damage per stack per tick, with 13 seconds duration, ticking twice a second on moving targets, hitting 5 targets, 9 stacks would deal:

(.11*1400+32)*13*2*5*9=217,620 damage, or over 40k to each target.

3 stacks is still almost 15k each, 7.5k if they accept a 13s pseudo immobilise instead. It will need to be cleansed. The only other damaging conditions that stack in intensity are bleeding and confusion, and it does more damage than either, even on stationary targets.

Of course it’s very predictable and the application is on a long cooldown, so cleansing is easy, but hopefully it forces people to put a little more thought into their cleanses.

flow.6043:

Mammoth.1975:

As soon as you heal once, toughness is ahead.

That’s certainly not always true, situational at best.

Let’s leave DS out of it and assume that your necro only takes direct damage, which will be mitigated by armor.
The difference in damage mitigation for rabid vs carrion is about 20% (like 10% vs 30%… if I remember correctly)
Hp pools are 18k vs 24k. So the EHP with direct damage only will be 23,4k vs 26,4k.

Let’s assume that both players heal for 7k with Consume Conditions once before they go down.
That’s (18+7)x1,3= 32,5 for Rabid
vs (24+7) x1,1 = 34,5 for Carrion.

So, bottom line: taking direct damage only and healing once will still put carrion before rabid.
Only after a second 7k heal the EHP will change to 41,6k for rabid and 39,4k for carrion.

But: that is so far from actual gameplay.
Especially in PvP you’ll take a lot of damage in conditions.
Still, without considering DS and the vitality/lf-scaling, let’s say 50% of the damage you take is in conditions.
That means damage mitigation is cut in half for both prefix types.
With 5% vs 15% you’ll need to heal 5 times with Consume for 7k to break even:

Rabid (18+ 7×5) x1,15 = 60,95
Carrion (24+ 7×5) x1,05 = 60,1

Those are all very rough calculations, leaving out a lot of variables in actual combat (like healing from team members..).

But one thing is certain:
Better survivability with Rabid? That’s an illusion, especially with the condition heavy meta in pvp atm.

You’re estimating. I’m thus more inclined to trust the first set of numbers I saw, which did not estimate. When I choose between the 2, I choose carrion 90% of the time, but I accept that I’ll be squishier.

Gryph.8237:

Mammoth, please explain it to me, where a condition mancer who wants to get great marks and staff cooldowns needs to go into condition duration tree to augment his condition build? To me, going into spite never really helped my condition build that much, because it never did anything for a straight condition build that would argue replacing the need for the death magic tree (staff skills + toughness). I could see going slightly into spite, but not to augment duration, as I got plenty of duration, 2 fear tics, etc., without spite, and spite never increased damage that much on a condition build. now, to have a decent condition build, and want to add burning, which is a condition, you have to seriously limit death magic., aside from the fact that in pvp matches, conditions get cleansed immediately, thus duration for the sake of suvivability is a HUGE letdown.

I would ask that you point out my error, because perhaps it will make me a better player and i am not saying that in a condescending tone. Or please list a build that you think would adequately make a good condition build. Is 30/30/10 the new condition build?

I agree that the change doesn’t do enough to encourage condition necros to go into spite. It’s something though, and it’s definitely a buff for hybrids.

However, the ‘cleansed instantly’ argument is as tired as the ‘just dodge’ argument. If conditions were cleansed every 4 seconds, sure, but they’re not. If all your bleeds had 10 second base durations, sure, but they don’t. The value of condition duration is reduced by the amount of cleanses that are available, not nullified. It scales better than any other stat. That’s why it needs to be able to be mitigated by cleanses.

As an example, against a guard who is not getting cleansed by his team, any of your conditions that last less than 10 seconds are not being fully utilised. Any that last longer are inefficient. Being that scepter auto is some of the best pressure in the game against a high toughness player, especially one with protection up, and the bleeds have a 4s base duration, it’s something to think about.

PvE players are largely spoiled by their 40% duration food and have never developed a concept of the actual value of expertise. For pvp, it’s a very good stat. One that right now comes with some very bad major traits for condition builds (and even worse minors tbh), thus narrowing our build diversity. This is unquestionably a step towards addressing that.

I disagree with you on every point, but I don’t actually consider your post worth arguing with.

This is because most of what you said is self evidently wrong.

Dhuumfire gives condition builds a reason to go into the condition duration tree. It shows just how bad the problem is when people are failing to see that. I don’t think it’s enough, but at least it acknowledges the issue.

I highly doubt it applies 3 stacks a second. It would be reasonable to get 9 stacks on, which would have the potential to deal over 200k damage with 1400 condition damage and 30% duration. That’s magical christmasland, hitting 5 targets with 3 ticks each, none of which get cleansed, and all of which keep moving for the duration, but even 10% of 200k is significant for one ability.

3 stacks total seems more likely, which would apply 500/1000 dps to targets affected by it until they get cleansed. That would give it a 2s channel, assuming it applies one stack at the beginning of the channel.

Anything is possible of course, but if it applies 3 stacks a second, I’ll be bracing for nerfs as soon as it gets released.

I wish you weren’t being such a drama queen about it, because you actually have a valid point. The trait did need a nerf, and phantasm mesmers might have too (although I don’t think so). The way in which it has been done does seem a little off though.

Should have been made a tier 2 major or moved to a different tree, if not completely replaced. Putting it where it is only going to be picked up by shatter mesmers destroys both diversity and synergy.

ProxyDamage.9826:

Sigh…
…

You were told power is more effective than precision without factoring procs, you asked for data, you were given it, you responded with ‘but procs’ and implied that he was an idiot. Take a deep breath and think about what you’re posting.

I’ll add this to the argument: most procs don’t make up the difference anyway. You can get 2 or perhaps 3 extra stacks of bleed out of earth sigils, which doesn’t come close to making up for the difference in stat quality between power and precision plus the loss of other sigils (geomancy for example). You can get 30-50% uptime on another stack with barbed precision. If dhuumfire is a real thing, crit will gain a lot of value, but right now, carrion is simply better than rabid for dps.

I haven’t done the math on EHP, but I’m inclined to agree that rabid gives more survivability than carrion. The EHP calculations I saw had necro base armor/health right at the spot where toughness and vitality are worth the same in terms of EHP. As soon as you heal once, toughness is ahead.

spoj.9672:

Mammoth.1975:

spoj.9672:

Im tempted to post up some builds for the team comp and exact tactics, but I still wouldnt trust casual necro players to do it properly.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRBIbhG2IjW6elmxG9eCA6Ru46c0jjXmZqClD-j0xAYrioRT+DdyrIasthioxqrxUuER127ioVLFQEjBA-w

What would you change on that? I’d be interested in trying this out with some friends and since I know almost nothing about pve I’d love some advice.

That is the exact build id use on 3 of the necro’s. The gate controller necro would run 30/10/0/0/30 for stability.

Still not sure about elites though. If lich really is bad scaling in cof due to downscaling then i guess it has to be flesh golem.

Awesome, thanks!

That’s a pretty big nerf to terror unless there’s some change to marks. 10% of your fears won’t tick twice in 5v5, rng ftl. You could skip greater marks, but that’s even worse, particularly for a terror necro.

spoj.9672:

Im tempted to post up some builds for the team comp and exact tactics, but I still wouldnt trust casual necro players to do it properly.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRBIbhG2IjW6elmxG9eCA6Ru46c0jjXmZqClD-j0xAYrioRT+DdyrIasthioxqrxUuER127ioVLFQEjBA-w

What would you change on that? I’d be interested in trying this out with some friends and since I know almost nothing about pve I’d love some advice.

The 30/x/x/x/30 build with axe will unquestionably give the highest hits though, which is what I believe he was shooting for when he originally posted that video. 30k with one ability is 100b territory.

It’s not really a matter of opinion though, it’s about math. You need to strike a balance, but the balance is heavily weighted towards crit chance. 1% crit > 1% crit damage until you have 60% crit, which is when mixing in a balance of crit chance and crit damage becomes worthwhile. Once you have 50% extra crit damage (and you’ll be well above this with full berserker), crit chance is always worth more than further crit damage, until you reach 100% crit chance. You should include whatever buffs you expect to be running of course.

Another way to put it would be that for anyone in full berserker gear, 1% crit chance is always better than 1% crit damage, until capped at 100%.

This is complicated by the fact that 20 in SR gives 20% crit damage while 20 in curses only gives 10% crit, but in max berserker gear the crit chance still comes out ahead.

As for strength of undeath vs target the weak, assuming 4 target the weak necros, if they’re using locust swarm and stacking vulnerability, it’s a constant 8% damage boost, which is better than 5% above 50% LF for the strength of undeath necros.

Nemesis your build may be more balanced but I don’t think any of the points you make have a direct bearing on a 4 necro cof1 run. In that situation 30/30/0/0/10 would appear to be faster. If the group had someone buffing you guys that might change things for sure, but it didn’t. Similarly, if you were running a different dungeon things might change, but you weren’t.

Interesting. It actually seems like 3war/1nec/1mes could already be faster than 4war/1mes before the patch.

Evilzara.6378:

Yerffejy.6538:

Farout.8207:

Mjolniir.2541:

Great teamwork AR + BP simultaneously taking SBI’s Hills & Bay This morning.
Ain’t Communication great!

You do realize that it is always 2 vs. 1 in your home borderland right? What do you expect your opponents to do, leave because the third server is there? Get real…

I actually saw it as a plus side. Our EB zerg went to our… Gasp Borderlands!!!!!!!!!!!
HOOOOOOOORAY!!!!!!!!!
EB showed up, wiped both zergs, retook the map, and went on our merry way. xD

You forgot the part where we flipped two of your keeps which made you lose upgrades on both. Your EB crew was late lol..

GJ Anvil Pass, I’m as impressed as you.

anzenketh.3759:

Mammoth.1975:

airstu.2579:

BP held it for 80 hours, so that’s 320 score ticks of a bonus 25 points. = 8k point bonus (16K if you count it as points you didn’t get) earned through defense and communication. Or about 1/5 of the point difference between our servers.

Also not counting the insane amount of gold, badges and supplies spent on siege we destroyed.

Lost it at 4am to a zerg/golem rush. You weren’t the only one in bed asleep.

I’m not sure why you keep crediting it to communication, yak escorting, etc etc while ignoring the fact that numbers held it. All the rest made it possible to bring the numbers to bear, but without one, the other fails. As Straegen said, putting together the network that enables those numbers to be brought to bear is admirable, it’s just a little amusing to see the mental contortion act some of you go through in order to attribute victory through numbers to anything but those numbers. In fact, with those numbers available, all you really needed was one guy inside to call backup. All the yak escorting and manning siege 24/7 could have been skipped.

I didn’t really buy into it when that AR guy said the same thing earlier, but I’m starting to think he was onto something

The thing is though the small group of escorting of the yacks and constant defence make them able to upgrade to a waypoint which allowed the numbers to come in a lot faster then they would have otherwise. And the small numbers watching hills notified the zerg to arrive. The zerg did not arrive via spawn it arrived via hills.

So part of the credit should also go to the fact that the game is still not working as designed by locking out a waypoint when it is under attack no matter the circumstances.

I don’t know, when we got in we were out of supply, if they had to come from spawn it would only have been an extra 90-120 seconds. We wouldn’t have been in. I think it was sheer luck that we even got in through all that siege in the first place. How they failed to cap a single camp in all that time with the numbers they had before they called in the zerg is beyond me. At one point we had all of two guys guarding the north exit to stop them getting northeast camp.

airstu.2579:

BP held it for 80 hours, so that’s 320 score ticks of a bonus 25 points. = 8k point bonus (16K if you count it as points you didn’t get) earned through defense and communication. Or about 1/5 of the point difference between our servers.

Also not counting the insane amount of gold, badges and supplies spent on siege we destroyed.

Lost it at 4am to a zerg/golem rush. You weren’t the only one in bed asleep.

I’m not sure why you keep crediting it to communication, yak escorting, etc etc while ignoring the fact that numbers held it. All the rest made it possible to bring the numbers to bear, but without one, the other fails. As Straegen said, putting together the network that enables those numbers to be brought to bear is admirable, it’s just interesting to see the mental contortion act some of you go through in order to attribute victory through numbers to anything but those numbers. In fact, with those numbers available, all you really needed was one guy inside to call backup. All the yak escorting and manning siege 24/7 could have been skipped.

I didn’t really buy into it when that AR guy said the same thing earlier, but I’m starting to think he was onto something

airstu.2579:

Mammoth.1975:

Yeah, I just don’t know how exciting it all is. Drop siege, man it, call in overwhelming numbers when you’re going to lose. Pretty straightforward. Again though, it resulted in some very exciting action in game, so thankyou for that

If you aren’t prepared to dig in, scout, escort yaks and basically sacrifice the karma train, then you will not win the week.

Although you’re correct, this hills defense was not a good example of it. You were going to lose it anyway. The appropriate response would have been ‘if you can’t call in 2x enemy numbers, then you will lose the keep’. How did you end up losing it btw? I was in bed asleep.

Yeah, I just don’t know how exciting it all is. Drop siege, man it, call in overwhelming numbers when you’re going to lose. Pretty straightforward. Again though, it resulted in some very exciting action in game, so thankyou for that

I don’t know that I was as impressed by the hills defense as everyone else. 12-15 ACs and 3-4 trebs in a t3 hills are a pretty tough nut to crack if you can reliably call in 20 people to man them of course, but the real show was breaking through outer with 30 guys, setting up a beachhead on north gate, and getting zerged straight out. Not sure why they were hiding inside with near twice our numbers, but it certainly wasn’t what you’d call impressive. I don’t know, maybe all those guys ported in from other maps, but again, any keep is tough to take if you can call in 50 guys when needed and have twenty manning siege at any given time. Numbers are good in wvw, who knew?

I guess it showed commitment that SBI lacked.

Not trying to be overly critical, it was a hell of a lot of fun, but I’m not sure what there is to take from it except the stuff we already know only too well. Respond to calls for defense, numbers are good, be persistent. I guess ‘port in supply from other maps if you can’t leave the keep’? The fast repair on both gates when they had zero supply on the map was pretty good.

Mike.4618:

BTW, you’re not supporting your own argument with the assertion that people on SoS will just give up when they have to face real opposition for a few weeks, because if true, it would go some distance to explaining the 600 ppt TC is achieving.

Define “real opposition”. Do you mean totally impossible odds?

I already have. A closer matchup than the one you just spent months in.

Reiko.1560:

Mammoth.1975:

How many weeks in a row did you face SBI, who are 350 rating below you? Now you’re facing a server that is 150 above you and it’s all too much?

SoS facing 3 straight weeks of TC, SoR, and FA by Anet RNG math has artificially inflated the point rating to “you’re facing a server that is 150 above you and it’s all too much?”

Tell me this:

http://mos.millenium.org/servers/view/37 is actually comparable to
http://mos.millenium.org/servers/view/37/58 or http://mos.millenium.org/servers/view/37/69?

I’m not going to deny that SoS was T3.5 server in a T4 matchup but don’t try to make it look like SoS was ticking 600+ during NA primetime like TC does.

On the one hand, I agree with you that there’s an issue with the scores higher rated servers are expected to achieve. On the other, SBI spent a lot longer facing higher rated servers and had an even more dramatically inflated rating, as evidenced by the fact that they have been shedding rating at a furious rate since the new system was introduced.

BTW, you’re not supporting your own argument with the assertion that people on SoS will just give up when they have to face real opposition for a few weeks, because if true, it would go some distance to explaining the 600 ppt TC is achieving.

Don’t interrupt when the necromancer forum is having one of its traditional ‘great wailing and gnashing of teeth’ threads please Towelie.

Reiko.1560:

Chris.3290:

For instance, as much as I hate facing TC (I’m on SoS), I freely admit that it’s not a ridiculous matchup. Fort Aspenwood sucks a couple of matches, and we could switch places. Then we would be true T2 (though the kick-around dog of the tier).

I’m sorry but I think a 118k lead by Tuesday is pretty ridiculous. I think it’s great that the other 5 matchups are close… but at the expense of the other 3? What happens if we get another kitten matchup 4 weeks in a row? Hope that they get it right next week? I bought this game for WvW and I’ve been on the server since launch but it’s incredibly frustrating right now.

How many weeks in a row did you face SBI, who are 350 rating below you? Now you’re facing a server that is 150 above you and it’s all too much?

Straegen.2938:

…

I actually ran into a few [SFH] towards the start of the week and thought you guys were pretty good. Best group I’ve seen from either AR or BP so far.

Nuzt.7894:

Mammoth.1975:

Kodiack.2783:

…

Get used to us, we aren’t going anywhere.

That’s because you play for second

/yawn … really ? Common I’m sure if you all put your heads together you can form at least 1 IQ point to come up with new material.

Why when you hand us the obvious stuff?

Kodiack.2783:

…

Get used to us, we aren’t going anywhere.

That’s because you play for second

Andele.1306:

Mammoth.1975:

You’re trying to have it both ways again referring to guard scepters flight time followed immediately by talking about having multiple projectiles in the air on necro staff. The numbers account for multiple projectiles in the air anyway, they’re damage to damage calculations.

Difference is, Gscepter is the slowest projectile people can get and is the only one that cannot aoe (thus ones in the air are worth nothing since they cannot already deal damage to other things), while the damage does stack up with the short cast time, the flight takes ages and isnt worth the wait.
A good ranged dd auto attack has a form of multi hit ability and a nice damage to cast ratio, not a ability used to spend a second or two while you wait for your 2 to come back up.
And no im never having it both ways, is plain and simple 5 enemies, max power you can get, then go and tell me how much each attack hits.

All great points about the problems with scepter that have nothing to do with dps. Guard scepter is actually their second highest dps weapon with berserker amulet, even beating 3 of their melee options, and staff is their lowest, no matter what gear.

docbon.3486:

I’d like to start a petition to rename SE tower in Anvil Rock borderlands to Fort Rubble.

That was epic.

You’re trying to have it both ways again referring to guard scepters flight time followed immediately by talking about having multiple projectiles in the air on necro staff. The numbers account for multiple projectiles in the air anyway, they’re damage to damage calculations.

Andele.1306:

Mammoth.1975:

Necro axe, ranger axe, and guardian scepter are all in the top 5 dps dd ranged autos in the game, despite being some of the ones people complain about most. Ranger shortbow is there too, at #1 even nerfed and without factoring bleeding, and I forgot the other. Funny they didn’t revert the ranger shortbow ‘fix’ when they nerfed the quickness that was apparently causing the problem btw :P

Ranger – Max range longbow>Shortbow, Mid Ranged Longbow>Axe
Guardian – Stafkittencepters kittenty single target hit
Necro – Even frigging staff 1 spam (with its annoying sound) does more than Axe (just that you need to channel it for quite some time since unlike axe it aint instant hit), but just for good comparison, DS

So no not a single one of these weapons is in “top” dps (ranger shorbow can be put in if you run with proc sigil/frost spirit/dual fire field, but its no more a dd weapon but hybrid).

If you want top DDAAs from range its: Ele Staff, Ranger Longbow, Engie Rifle, Thief Shortbow, Mesmer Greatsword (and here would be ranger Axe)

Please don’t talk about multi target with guardian then single target with ranger axe. Single target is probably the least of guard scepters issues anyway. Where are you getting your numbers from? I think you’re right about ranger longbow, I might have discarded it due to it hitting about as often as our staff 1 at max range, and that would be incorrect. As for axe/staff:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Autoattack-DPS-and-cast-times/first

Fire ele staff is not #1, it is behind ranger longbow, and shortbow for that matter, due to the actual cast time of 1.4s. Likewise trick shot is not going to be a top dps attack with its actual cast time of .96s and .55 coefficient. I didn’t check any of your other numbers.

flow.6043:

True, it activates twice. Well of Blood + Putrid Mark gives 6 seconds retaliation, not just 3.

So it’s triggering twice, but only when the mark is triggered? I just tested this one in the mists and got zero retal when the mark didn’t trigger.

Necro axe, ranger axe, and guardian scepter are all in the top 5 dps dd ranged autos in the game, despite being some of the ones people complain about most. Ranger shortbow is there too, at #1 even nerfed and without factoring bleeding, and I forgot the other. Funny they didn’t revert the ranger shortbow ‘fix’ when they nerfed the quickness that was apparently causing the problem btw :P

On topic, change it to a snail that crawls towards the enemy and pukes on them if they’re disgusting enough to get hit by it :P

I love some of the concepts you’ve got happening there. The duration increase from your runes on your sigil of battle might stacks averages out to an 84 power/malice increase if you’re swapping constantly (admittedly not always going to be the case), along with 50 from the runes themselves you’re getting an average of 134 power, 134 malice, 25 precision, and 10% condition duration from your runes. On top of that you get an extra 4 seconds of 10 stacks every 30 seconds. That’s nice. The reduced cooldowns on staff lets you use 3 marks each swap with no waiting, and the LF generation from soul marks will often allow you to then DS immediately instead of screwing around with staff 1. When you don’t have the LF, at least mark of blood is up again quickly. It’s hard to justify taking staff mastery over reaper’s protection, or soul marks over foot in the grave, but this might be the build for it.

I would definitely give it a try. It’s a well designed build that stretches every last bit of power out of the selections you’ve made, but whether that makes up for skipping some of the slightly more powerful options I couldn’t say. For example, taking the last ten points in curses and picking up lingering curse would let you change a whole ton of stuff in the build that is largely dedicated to achieving the same result anyway.

I didn’t check your bleed durations btw, how many ticks do you lose from each bleed if you used something other than lyssa or hemophilia?

I stood in range of the siege designed to kill players and died. Fix plz. Rams are the only siege real men use.

Nerf ACs = keep 30 people in every keep and tower, or zerg around in circles pressing 1 on gates that never have defenders. Both sound fun and exciting.

fishball.7204:

Funny how you make assumptions about SoS without even having the slightest clue. We’re only losing 9 rating points at the moment according to MOS, this is our ‘expected performance’. Just because we’re ticking 90 ppt doesn’t mean we aren’t trying. Go take your trolling elsewhere.

That’s true, fair call. Nonetheless, the point that you’re in a closer matchup now than you have been for months stands.

BTW, you raise an interesting point, ratings volatility is greatly reduced this week. If things stay the way they are, I think you could expect to see the random range reduced within a few weeks. It could have something to do with JQ-BG-SoR being matched together though.

Lopez.7369:

I would take stale match-ups over a week of being on TC right now. The game is basically unplayable for a week.

I just don’t understand why the deviation was allowed to stay this large for this week’s match-up. It’s been a clear problem for the past few weeks. It should have been fixed by now.

I don’t know how the current TC-CD-SOS match-up is remotely acceptable to any developer. I know for a fact Blizzard would immediately hotfix an issue this big for such a major feature.

CD-SOS-SBI were matched for months and TC is closer in rating to SOS than SBI is. Your example is the system actually working. The problem is SOS got so used to easy wins that now they’re facing opposition more suited to them, they’ve all packed up and gone to PVE. CD is a different story, their matchup this week is rough.

Unless it’s been changed it only activates when the blast is triggered, despite getting the ‘area swiftness’ or whatever message when you lay it.