I’d add to that list that you can trait for nice life force regen and unblockable marks if you choose.
900 range on axe would be nice.
Even allowing a portion of regular healing would be pretty cool.
When you think about shroud as a substitute for the active defenses offered by other classes, it does make about as much sense as saying, “ok, guardian, you get aegis that blocks damage from the next attack, but you can’t heal while it is active”.
Staff skills are amazing as they are and don’t need a revamp. The notion that it is a support weapon is completely subjective on your part.
I really feel this trait would better benefit blood magic, attached to the second minor in that line. The only thing is I’m not sure what we’d put in to replace it in curses.
Absolutely not. We shouldn’t be forced into taking blood magic to get any kind of sustain and this trait is themed perfectly to go with heavy condition builds, which is also offered in Curses. I’ll be running Curses/Soul/Reaper and that trait is a key component. Now, adding a siphon component, on the other hand, would be awesome.
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The timing of the animation is off with my Charr as well (doesn’t sync with when resource is actually collected). Unsure if that is related or not.
Rodney Dangerfield
Look man I’ve been saying this for like the last week ,but there are still a bunch of people in these forums that have zero sense and keep fighting against when its the most logical choice. Just remove energy cost of weapon skills and the class instantly gets 100% better.
Seems reasonable, honestly. It isn’t like the weapon abilities don’t have CDs already. and the ones with shorter 2-3s cool downs could be tweaked slightly if necessary. Or they could reduce anything under 10 to zero, 10-14 to 5, and 15+ to 10 (if they wanted to keep a cost on the bigger attacks).
Regardless, if the weapon skills are going to have an energy cost, they should be BIG hitters. On any other class, using a weapon skill doesn’t potentially lock out using a utility or an elite. That’s fine, and a neat idea, IF that weapon skill is sufficiently rewarding to use.
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I am actually looking forward to tomorrow to see what roy and co had in mind for the herald. I like what i saw so far, but there are still 3 facets and all of the traits missing for the big picture. I am also not against that super shield skill that holds us in place and leaves us vulnerable behind, i just wonder can we break that cc after its use with a certain trait in invocation if we switch the legendaries ?
I don’t see why not. After all, that requires that the bar be taken down to zero. You will still have 25 stacks of vulnerability on you in a situation where you are already being focused. Pretty cool way to turn the tide of a battle, potentially.
Rather than thinking them like the traditional signets, think of them as abilities ala auras, or, using bards since Roy did, songs, that you use only one at time. If you use all, you burn through your energy rather quickly. Sure they are signet-like, but I don’t think he meant for their passives to be “on” all the time.
In all honesty, let’s watch the POI to see how they work first before judging.
Yeah, I love situational abilities, so Herald seems right up my alley.
Well, I bought a shield skin yesterday specifically to play a class that doesn’t exist yet, so now it HAS to be amazing.
Asura. Normally I like the funky short races, but I’ve had trouble getting into playing one on the two characters I have tried so far. Hoping third time is the charm.
Entirely possible one of the Glint auras has condition removal, perhaps paired with resistance on activation. We shall find out tomorrow.
Try them all. See what you like.
What if you could re-activate a legend (sort of like an elementalist overload) you were already in to gain increased energy generation for a period of time? This would represent a deeper channel of that legend and could be accompanied by a glow or some visual effect. Once the duration ended, energy generation with that legend would be reduced for a period of time (not forcing legend swap, but making it beneficial).
I would see the cooldown being long enough that you would want to use this in a tactical way rather than always on cooldown, something like 3x the duration, so that if you used this on both legends back to back, you’d be in real trouble if still under pressure.
Thoughts?
Note that I think you shouldn’t have to do something like this function as a profession all the time, but it could help give a way to generate more burst or get out of a bad situation.
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Cool. Looking forward to it.
I love Revenant from a thematic standpoint. There are some great skill animations that a lot of fun to use (especially hammer for me). But right now the total package kind of feels like that neat niche build you came up with that seems really cool but doesn’t quite have the punch you had hoped.
In particular, I feel like trait line synergy is lacking. I’d like to see supplemental effects based on blind/torment/vulnerability/etc that build in some synergy between the lines.
At any rate, I can’t wait to see what the elite spec has in store and what other changes there are moving forward.
I think it is worth noting that characterizing the elite specs as “a complete class rework” is not correct. I think many wish that it were, actually, and it has been noted by some that some of the issues with Reaper really are issues with Necro as a whole.
if you want to play condi build you chose wrong class. Ele can tick 10-12k+ without vuln stacks and 25 might plus dagger skills also do 1.5k+ dmg. with 25 might and 25 vuln you tick way more than 15k. with Reaper you can put around 8 burn stacks and tick around 4-5k
I’ll play what I want, how I want to play it.
You’ve fallen victim to one of the classic blunders. No, not that you should never fight a land war in Asia. Where’d you get that idea? You think I should be concerned with what you think about my choice. Or about the meta. Well, I’ve got news for you, Mr. GoPlayanEle, I don’t. And I’m fortunate enough to have found a guild full of like-minded people.
So I will keep on playing my corruption necro (there, I said it) that I love to squishly bits and I will become a corruption dhuumfire Reaper when the expansion comes out, and I will have ALL THE FUN doing it. And woe be to he that gets in my way.
Muwahahahahahahahah!
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So Spirit Shards is more or less important for all things Mystic Forge related, like Legendary Weapon crafting, ect.?
Yes.
The new system is actually relatively simple once you get used to it. It is both more and less flexible. You get a specialization slot at levels 21, 45, and 71. Ultimately, you will have six traits in each, the three minors, plus your choice of one major trait at each tier (no more partial investment into lines or equipping a trait from a different tier). The skills for each trait line are learned in a specific order now, but no more completing events or paying gold to unlock them, just points. One nice thing is that you can get access to grandmaster traits MUCH sooner (as early as 21 if you have the points).
It’s based on WvW population. Even if you are on different servers, you can do anything together that you would like to, aside from WvW.
Reaper Shroud is darn-near perfect, so much so that I will use it even if everything else remains the same. But the goal should definitely be for shouts and GS to be just as much fun as RS.
I wouldn’t say that. After all, I run Curses now and use Parasitic Contagion, not Lingering Curse (isn’t this trait broken, anyway?). The need for sustain only increases by dropping Blood for Reaper. For me, it will be Curses/Soul/Reaper, hands down.
I just don’t see the point in putting in so much effort to make this condi build function.
I love my Condi necro, but it has always felt like it was missing something. I used shroud mostly for defense and utility. I get almost nothing out of shroud offensively. Reaper shroud is an entirely different animal in that regard.
I am going to love having Reaper in WvW. I was already tough to kill because of my high health pool, but I had to turn and run at the drop of a hat. Reaper Shroud will let me deal some serious damage if somebody wants to get in my face and has some mobility too. Same goes for PvE: there are many situations where you have to fight in something’s face, even if you would prefer to be at a distance.
Is it the best build/method/whatever? Probably not, but it is fun as hell and that is what matters most to me.
Put on Valkyrie gear or something without any precision. Your crit rate at level 80 would be 4%, so it should be pretty obvious against an enemy with a bunch of vulnerability stacks.
>Piercing Light: Awful, condi traps are not a thing. Bleed is also the weakest condition applicable and is only used as a cover condition via geomancy. Even in condi guard, you would be sacrificing a 3 stack burn skill or condi removal in order to run this and traps are far less reliable than the other utilities. Needs entire rework. -A
Procession of Blades is a 3-stack burn skill with Supreme Justice, while also doing significant damage and applying up to 10 stacks of bleed. Can’t say I love all of the traps, but this one works for me.
and in Guild Wars 3, some Quaggan shows up with Caladbolg because reasons.
And proclaims himself Pact Commander.
Great writeup. As a Guardian hammer fan, love the second suggestion for the AA. There’s a big, slow, attack chain that really feels like it has an impact.
My only other comment is that some of the great sword animations felt really strange to me and the feedback was lacking. This was especially true with Death Spiral. The sword kind of waves around I wasn’t sure where it was actually hitting.
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.
Mesmer F5 gets added on top of F1 through F4.
Ele overload gets added on top of attunements.
RS should get added on top of DS.
DH should receive similar treatment.
I’d rather see F5 removed, because it allows for insane condi spikes, but that probably won’t happen.
Yeah, I wouldn’t necessarily go using Mesmer F5 as a justification for anything. the problem is you get something great at little cost. While I can totally see the appeal of wanting both shrouds, you run into a similar problem. Making the player choose between the two makes a lot more sense from a balance perspective, though I wouldn’t be opposed to having DS available as an elite skill (as I have suggested for Mesmer F5).
The easiest change would be to leave it as is if you have no target, like a lot of skills, but then also allow it to be targeted.
That would be fantastic. Give this guy a cookie.
Burning can be effective in a power build because it is so strong compared to other conditions that it adds some dps even without a ton of condition damage. My impression (from various forum posts over the last few months) is that the trait has been used more (though still fairly rarely) on power builds than condition builds.
Ah okay, my bad. I was thinking versus players.
Then yeah, in the case of PvE it would probably be quite nice. The fast application of Burns is exceptionally better than classic Life Blast.
It’s all good. My understanding is that most Condi necros don’t use it because blast is such a slow attack. The main reason I started a thread was to remind people to take a second look at it. It won’t be for everybody, but it fills a really nice gap for me.
I was having so much fun, I could easily see my necro becoming my most played character.
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In case you didn’t know, my understanding is that if you click th power icon on screen, it will cast at your location. Maybe not ideal, but it’s an option.
No idea if the onslaught trait is broken. But if it isn’t currently working, this will only get better.
The cleave and faster attack speed is certainly nice, but without all the cover conditions that base Necromancer can provide, I feel like it’s not going to hurt as much in the end. It was the first thing I tried and although yeah, it can be pretty brutal if your opponent lets you wail on them a bit, I still feel like Dark Path -> Dhuumfire/Life Blast -> Tainted Shackles -> Doom is a lot more painful and quicker to chain together than just Dhuumfire -> Terrify -> Soul Spiral, imo of course. Maybe after Reaper gets buffed some (which hopefully it does), it will be better.
Well, to be honest, the way my build currently is, I’m not really getting much out of death shroud from a damage standpoint. Utility yes, but mostly I pop in for a moment and pop back out. For me, this will provide a nice bit of burst. Bear in mind, I’m not thinking from a pvp perspective (which I think you might be). But I think this could be good fun in PvE and blob WvW. I also like dropping reaper 4 onto a poison field from staff..
Interesting. Fwiw, I’m in full dire (maybe that’s what you meant, since I’m not sure why you would pick rabid). Also using reaper’s onslaught instead of Blighter’s Boon, but I didn’t try without to see if the difference really felt noticeable.
does it work well in pve? i’ve loved power reaper w/ valk gear and blighters boon for sustain…
will give it a go…..just wish we had a burn duration rune to choose from….but maybe the undeads are good enough
I didn’t do any dungeons or anything like that, but I don’t see why not. Because I’m going to wind up giving up blood magic for Reaper, I’ll probably wind up using traveler runes.
If you are playing a condition necromancer and haven’t given Dhuumfire Reaper a try, I suggest you give it a shot. The faster attack speed plus the ability to hit three targets per swing takes this from a trait that most people don’t seem to use to one that can dish some serious pain.
I wasn’t sure Reaper was going to fit all that well with my build, but now that I’ve tried this, I can’t wait for the expansion to arrive.
I hate to sound like a broken record, but I will keep beating this drum if necessary. I think the biggest issue right now is that the shatter, which I think the vast majority will agree is very strong, is basically a freebie. Making the shatter an elite skill would give it a much higher opportunity cost by taking away 2x time warp. In fact, I think many would keep Time Warp instead. I hope they will consider that option if they think something needs to change.
Not a whole lot to say, really. Overall, it seems “ok”. My favorite thing by far is Procession of Blades. Perfect.
I like the bow as a potential companion to scepter with a role in dishing some extra aoe damage with 4&5. But the cooldown on bow 5 is much to long for what it is and I would very much like to see the number of individual hits by bow 5 be increased dramatically. From that standpoint it is rather underwhelming.
I’ve been primarily using it to swap between ranged and melee.
the addition of weapon swap has been an improvement to how the Revenant plays.^ This
Agreed, and while there can and should be more synergy between trait lines, the argument the OP is trying to mak has nothing to do with weapon swap since the original beta allowed a single weapon but two stances (I.e. One stance would be in a worse situation since there’d be no possibility of pairing the most appropriate weapon).
I was playing shiro/jails yesterday with swords/hammer and felt there was modest synergy between the different sets. Overall, though, the utility skills all feel underwhelming to me on the whole.
I love the Revenant from a thematic standpoint and I do think there are things that are fun, but the inability to tweak utilities to suit our play style still feels like a problem.
I think maybe the answer lies in a rework of the trait lines. I think the traits should incorporate a plethora of effects that work together, that allow us to push the limited options in different directions. For instance torment and vulnerability could have secondary effects in other trait lines, crating more synergy between them.
They probably follow a ground path, so edge of a cliff means the path is invalid → no hammers. Hopefully they change it to simply being a pbaoe
I don’t know how it works, but if that were the case, the benefit would vary depending on the recharge time of the power in question, which you could test by trying something with a longer recharge (e.g. time warp)
Seems like a pain to test, really… I hope the answer is yes though.
Are you using Rabid or Carrion for your build?
Will be using Sinister on live, but Carrion since that wasn’t an option.
Regular defender gets the cd reduction, but I haven’t tested the version from the trait.
The build I’ve been theorizing (and got to play today) has a much more aggressive power/Condi hybrid slant, substituting chaos for inspiration (bountiful disillusionment being the key) and making use of that with shattered strength to stack massive amounts of might
right now there’s very little opportunity cost to X*2
Precisely why I hope they will consider dropping gravity well and making the shatter an elite before they consider neutering it.
Before they go making any changes to F5, I hope they will consider simply making it an elite. I like the skill and want to keep it. Putting it into the elite slot would give a much greater cost of taking it (vs none currently) and help justify how strong it is.
As for other classes, I am no expert in guardian, but it seems that in general, a-net is quite good at designing amazing staff skills (mesmer, necro and ele staff are some of the best weapons, I think it is fine also for guardian) but awful at designing scepter (scepter is I feel the clunkiest of mesmer weapons, somewhat same for necro and ele).
Lol, I’m such a weirdo. I use scepter on Mesmer, necro, and guardian. Though it has become secondary to staff on my necro.
It’s great on a Guardian!
I hate to admit it, but that actually made me laugh out loud (and yes, scepter 1 on guardian is a thing of beauty).
At any rate, there appear to be some of us that do like Scepter 1 (on Mesmer), which was what the OP asked. I wouldn’t mind an increase in the projectile speed and a bit longer torment, but I like the unique position it has in the Mesmer kit as an AA that creates clones.
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And just like the hissy fit that came with giving a free copy of the game to new players, having new characters have access to additional options for free while the characters of veteran players have to pay for those options will set off a firestorm that ANet doesn’t need or want.
There is a way new character appearance options come into the game and as a nice bonus it even helps pay salaries at ANet. Don’t expect them to shoot themselves in the foot for the privilege of giving their work away for free when they have a working model for monetizing this exact sort of labor.
I think there are ways to do it while making most everyone happy, if it were something they (ArenaNet) wanted to do. For instance, they might add some new exclusives, “retire” some older exclusives to open use, and credit any character using one of the retired styles a free makeover kit.
Yes, but that is kinda silly.
<snip>The problem of course is that the developers probably didn’t expect that 3 phantasms up would be a thing (because if PvE was hard enough, that would never happen). But it currently is and while a condi build would be otherwise very potent with duelist, we cannot go for it with the scepter…
Well, maybe it’s just me, but I think the real issue here is that we could use another main hand option for phantasm builds. I’m shattering all the time, so scepter works for me.