Guild Wars 2

Simple. For professions that I know by heart, I always craft my own builds and improve them over time. I believe that there wasn’t any case when I would play copy-pasted build that wins in tournaments (because that’s what meta in this game is) on my Necromancer. I ran similar builds, but because they came up during my gameplay.

If I play a profession that I don’t know as well as Necromancer or Ranger, I often get the general idea of one of the pre-crafted builds and then change everything I don’t like during test runs. That’s how I came up with Rezz Ranger and MaceBow for Stronghold for example.

Rauderi.8706:

caveman.5840:

everyone knows a asura will drink u under the table

don’t underestimate the power of a midgets liver

Only because they’re shorter than the table! XD

Charr get whisky. Therefore, Charr are superior.

That.

Aaand…are you the same guy who complained about Norn being neokittens?

Sigmoid.7082:

Rym.1469:

Looking at coefficients, we need a damage buff then.

>25% Executioner Strike 4.0 scale? You know, big numbers for pvp videos…

You do realise that skill can finish of a 24k Max HP target under 25% right?

Sure I do. But bigger numbers look even nicer.

Looking at coefficients, we need a damage buff then.

>25% Executioner Strike 4.0 scale? You know, big numbers for pvp videos…

Just nerf might duration. I care only for current synergy with Blighter’s Boon.

Triple the amount of jagged horrors and increase their health a bit and it will be fine

Atherakhia.4086:

The class sounds fun, but I’m really worried it won’t be competetive. Certainly not in a WvW setting.

Deep in my heart, I hunger for vision of 30 reapers walking into zergs, spamming Rise! with Death Nova, freezing servers and internet connections, covering whole garrisons with pulsing poison fields, over and over and over, as long as there’s 5 enemy players.

150 jagged horrors every 20 seconds sounds laggy and intimidating.

Reaper with GS is AoE spec. It isn’t made for 1v1s, that’s clear.

As for other Reaper variations, we’ll have to wait a see for ourselves.

I will take Chilled to the Bone.

Unless Lich Form is avalible

Baiting his escape cooldowns and then bursting with some massive chill with cover condi may be interesting.

But honestly, if they get previewed traits, Reaper shouldn’t be a big problem for a Thief.

Stacking sigils, sigil of force, instead of procs and swaps? Double melee as a WvW roamer with almost no mobility? I stopped reading there.

Have you heard about Thief and his Shortbow?

Holl.3109:

I fought rylock (who is in top 5 mes in da world) and lost horribly… (both when he was on shatter AND lockdown) )

Rylock is indeed a good mesmer, but perfectly manageable. We have roughly a tie, after first couple loses I was on winning streak.

Lockdown is pretty hard matchup, but at least for me, far easier than Medi Guard. Once you figure his rotation and interrupt him once, he loses all momentum. Unlike Gaurd.

Intriguing…
https://youtu.be/5GgflscOmW8

Dadnir.5038:

Slow is the second name of the Reaper GS. 1 hit every 2 second with autoattack while under this condition… This will be hilarious.

Heeerrrreeeeee! Dodge mee! If you can’t find the dodge button, open your game manual, go to chapter six and read pages 29-31. Goooodddd! Now find it on your keeeyyboarrdd! Not thiiss oneee, thee otheerr oneee! Presss it! Goooddd, you’ve evaded Reaper’s attack!

As flow said, your best shot is to probably find some decent Necromancer in game and invite him for training.

There are simply too many variables, especially for Condition Necromancer.

Spite looks like obvious choice if we’re going for best chill synergy as possible and raw damage.

Curses lack a bit compared to others. One great thing I see is PoC synergy with Necrocopter being on 6 second cd.

Death Magic seems like a very, very good choice. Must-have for Rise! shout, brings Putrid Defense (and poison is rather easy to obtain on Reaper), scalling off toughness and Unholy Sanctuary/Death Nova.

Blood Magic, idk. I have yet to see the numbers. Last time we got fixed it was 1 bonus hp on hit. But Transfusion working through Shroud looks decent.

Soul Reaping… Solid choice. If burning is still okay damage with power/little condi dmg stats, might be a decent pick. Perception looks strong as always. Not sure about FitG. This line has always been solid.

So far, 4/5 lines seem great for various Reaper versions. Could be DM and BM with Blighter’s Boon for some interesting tank/sustain playstyle, could be Spite and SR for most damage output.

As for Curses, I’m not convinced. That PoC is good, but not good enough on it’s own and Reaper looks like power-based for the most part.

Yeah, it looks a bit too oversized. I mean, I don’t know how does it look on other races, but for now you could slap national flag on it and go on parade.

Jrpg FF-style doesn’t really look good in this game.

There’s also a little problem. If it scales and you say it’s range indicator, then Asura Reapers would have advantage again.

Slow isn’t affected by Stability.

Slow should be just reduced on Necromancer anyway…

It’s more balanced in this matter than Chrono vs. Mesmer, I guess.

It has almost nothing really for Condition Necromancers. 15% less damage is okay, but we do get 10% anyway with DM. Or PoC with 6 or less seconds. We lose yet another traitline for it however, expose ourselves to melee and lose our only access to Torment.

It’s obviously aimed at Power Necromancers. Replaces the rather gimmick “spam #1” and that’s good.

Does Reaper overshadow Necro? Not really. It’s niche specialization. People are excited because it looks cool, but down to mechanics vs. reality, it’s not amazing I believe.

We’re missing sound of metal in connection with ground and Pyramid Hood. We already have Great Knife in form of Felblade.

Roll a Charr Necromancer. Problem fixed.

I believe that “Rise!” was crafted around the idea of Death Nova anyway, so Jagged Horrors are fine. They also spawn at enemy locations. They were meant to be dying right after creation.

If we change the route, I believe it shouldn’t be complicated Minion or anything utility-based. It should be incarnation of, let’s say, Bone Horror or Vampiric Horror from GW1, but en masse.

Kind of old Aura of the Lich feeling when you had enough corpses around.

We also have to say that, in current version, all shouts are incredibly niche. You don’t want to use any of them unless you are in middle of some zerg. Or fighting a Mesmer.

Let’s make “Rise!” for example create two or three minions base instead of one.

spoj.9672:

You get chill does damage instead though.

That’s also correct.

Eh, looking at it now, I guess I shouldn’t have hoped for much and just accept it.

To be honest, it looks like a fun spin-off alternative version of Necromancer. Has some good synergy with traits, is mainly an AoE Spec and good theme.

Animations look great, skill names apart from shouts are also good. I like the Gravedigger unique finisher-like bonus. It has kitten load of Chill and Chill on Chill when you Chill. I like this condition a lot.

Overall, it might be fun in PvE, PvP hotjoins and WvW.

But the thing I was hoping for the most was expanding the idea of Life Force and Shroud. When they gave the info that there will be alternative way to spent my Life Force, I got hopes up, that after suggesting it over and over for two years, I will finally get to play with Life Force more.
I had hopes that even if we get Shouts, they will have something unique to them. Let it be health sacrafices, interesting way to support allies, command your minions (got something like that, but not exactly what I’d like it to be), maybe some new conditions, maybe some unique boost to condition-play.

Maybe I’m sour, but I would lie if I told that I’m excited for Necromancer after this preview. We still have some time left, though, will follow.

Muchacho.2390:

Rym.1469:

Muchacho.2390:

Rym.1469:

-No stun breaker on shouts

Seems you didnt listen to the “you are all weak” shout being a stun break…

They removed it because “it was too strong”. Shown version is pre-preview.

No you are wrong they only said that they transfered the stun break from one shout to another…

Edit: From “Suffer” to " you are all weaklings"

Thanks for the correction, you’re right.

And honorable mention – We lose our only source of Torment as a Reaper.

It has potential. Incredible potential. Yep, it could get that reflect.

But Path of Corruption on 6 second cooldown, possibly even lower. That’s some serious boon conversion. If they didn’t remove Torment from Reaper’s Shroud, it would be useful option for Condition Necromancers even.

Muchacho.2390:

Rym.1469:

-No stun breaker on shouts

Seems you didnt listen to the “you are all weak” shout being a stun break…

They removed it because “it was too strong”. Shown version is pre-preview.

-No blast finisher
-No alternative way to spend the Life Force
-Heal that still will be outclassed by Consume Conditions. Hard.
-No stun breaker on shouts
-No alternative way to spend the Life Force
-No projectile defense, focus defense
-Still soaks the damage, now reduced by 15% if you manage to keep Chill on all attackers
-No alternative way to spend the Life Force
-No really interesting traits
-No direct boon support to allies, not even with might.
-Long cast times.
-No new Conditions on the Condition-based profession. No slow, no taunt

^ People complaining about Hammers were Necromancers, because Hambow was direct response to Necromancer Dhuumfire version. Now there’re no Condition Necromancers anymore so Hammer can be bad again. Even worse, everything in meta apart from Shoutbow has incredible tools and evades to deal with it.

I will sum the stream and the Reaper in 7 words, like the Seven Reapers:

It’s cool, see you on the Revenant.

Silv.9207:

Nick.9572:

Silv.9207:

anduriell.6280:

Silv.9207:

We asked for:
-Survavibility
-Support
-Mobility
-Stability

WE GET NOTHING OF ALL THAT THINGS. NOTHING!!!

We only obtain a little of Mobility but they already say: “Reapers may not be light on their feet…” and that mean that we’ll not able to flee from any dangerous situation, just like we actually are!!!

WHY THERE’S NO ONE THAT LISTEN TO US?

I would be very happy just with the bold ones. Necro is not a support buff class, if you are looking for that better play ele or guard.
But mobility (by teleport please), Survavibility and Stability (defiance bar please) it is basic to make this class usable. Right now in Silverwastes you can only see:
-Rangers because of the range LB. In SW the mobs moves too fast to follow.
- Guards, warriors and eles.
Some thiefs.
And that’s all. And if it wouldnt because of some mobs that does not allow them to get close even the ranger would be missing.

I don’t pretend to be a support class, but anyway Every songle class can give boons to it’s allies, we are the only one that can’t.
The Thief can give might, fury and swiftness to it’s allies when he steal, and we can’t give a little Might to our allies?

I don’t pretend to become a support class (but in GW1 there’s a support build for necro), I only want to make it able to give that 3-4 stack of might to allies and blast a ele/warrior firefield with a finisher to stack might with the others.
Nothing more than that give a little help to others with might or stack.

Because every class can stack vulnerability. warrior, ele, ranger, also guardians. We can do better, but we’re not the best choice because if you have 2 warriors you can obtain easy a permanent 25 stack of vulnerability on the enemy, might, firefield and the warrior give very high damage and have very good survavibility.

Why can’t we give a little might or have a little blast finisher?

Uh, well necros give protection. Try playing something other than minion master.

Necro can give protection but only with a spectral wall and only if the allies cross it. It’s not all that thing. I mean something better for pve like might and stability. And in spvp it don’t work well because the allies need to cross your skill. In www it can work when you put it in front of the advancing zerg.

Know your profession before posting.

GoogleBrandon.5073:

Laraley.7695:

Power based minionmancer spec for necros?

Yikes.

Just imagine it; a Celestial Shout Minion Mancer Reaper with perma-chill…

Death Novas everywhere, condi cleanse comming out of their nose while keeping everyone on the point due to their ability to drag and keep people in combat

Fearing the Reaper yet?

I would, but he needs more cowbell.

Seriously though, there’s nothing wrong with more minions. They should be more utility-based though rather than summons following Necro all the time. Like Flesh Wurm.

Minion siphoning all healing within radius from enemies and giving it back to Necromancer when destroyed? Minion similar to Risen Abomination, gaining Frenzy when Necromancer is hit, giving AoE quickness every couple hits and AoE slow on destruction?

You can use your imagination.

I would aim for Togo. We would need well-known Ritualist. I believe Togo is most recognizeable Rit in the story. Others are,hm, Razah?

This would be cool if it was a stunbreak, too.

And if Death Nova was affected by our crit chance and ferocity. But I guess the second one is kinda wishful thinking.

Silv.9207:

Gryph.8237:

yeah 10% damage is nothing. so instead of getting his with an 8k backstab, we get hit with a 7200 backstab? im not seeing amazing.

We’ll be always hit by 8k backstab, but then we can chill him, then the thief go in stealth, clean chill with the trait and turn back to deal another 8k of backstab

Not like Thief would care much about chill, they’re still half-immune to it.

I’m curious about the -% of damage taken from chilled foes. If it’s 10%, like Putrid Defense, it will hardly matter. If it’s 20-30% we can talk.

CrimeDog.5614:

Holy cow! I need to make a necro now. That looked tight.

Needs more cowbell, though.

Thinking about Dervish,

I would like some kind of building-up effect in Shroud, which we could then shatter and use to improve one of skills. Like Dervishes did with shattering their enchantments to improve Scythe attacks:

http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dervish_skills_quick_reference

I don’t know if ANet thought about that, but long time ago I was suggesting a trait/mechanic which was basically Endurance (dodge fuel) stealing.

I don’t know if people remember those, but:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Reckless_Haste
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Price_of_Failure

Something similar could work as a base. Let’s say, Taunt and Quickness for opponent, maybe some Confusion. Every time he strikes, he could either get a riposte with damage or effect like losing endurance and giving it to us.

I think it would fit that theme of “fighting a horror”.

Endurance drain could occur while you properly dodge an attack or when one of your attacks is dodged.

Papish.5806:

So i just realized ANET said the spec thats gets shouts, gets 6 of them. So does that mean we get a F2 shout? Because 6-0=5 skills and DS skills are classified as DS skills and wep skills with wep skills as to never double dip in traits.

Or maybe im just off in the deep end?

Edit: Maybe a use X% life force for X skill(shout) for F2?

4 utilities to choose from, 1 heal, 1 elite. Like DH.

I would be excited more about Chill if they finally fixed kittening Thief’s half immunity to that.

PowerBottom.5796:

well yeah, don’t u think ANet knows about blinds and blocks? Taht’s probably why they designed the Reaper with focus on teamfights – you’ll need immob’s and CC from other chars….

I like the concept of very slow attacks but big DMG, it could make teamfights more interesting. If the Reaper is actually good enough to warrant those probably big amounts of support he’ll need.

Kinda doesn’t work with the whole Horror-Creature-Analogy…. Jason Vorhees didn’t need a dude holding his victims down so he could hit them. xD

If that shiny gs spec won’t have some meaningful hard (aka block, dodge, evade, invuln) defense, it will suffer the same as Necromancers do now and keep out of any engagement with more than 2 players in PvP.

It’s PvE&Zerg spec I guess.

Vizardlorde.8243:

Rym.1469:

Vizardlorde.8243:

Rym.1469:

Shifu.4321:

Rym.1469:

Not to bash, but I’ll probably move to Revenant after what I saw.

No calls of resource management, interesting utilities (shouts ;/ ), risk-reward cast concept which just doesn’t work in PvP.

Might play it for some lulz or PvE/WvW still, but still Revenant looks far superior and fun with Mallyx conditions and energy management.

Necro has always been the simplest and easiest-to-use light armored class.

Not in PvP.

Well it is the easiest new player pvp light armored class power necro or minion master both rip newbies apart with ease.

I could rip newbies with my off hand only.

When I talk about PvP, it’s about playing on competitive level.

And meta powermancer is just a terrible, lazy design spec which happens to be somehow effective because it has powerful procs. Yet shares all problems with Condition Necromancer, apart from LF generation.

What I meant was if both players are equally bad/new the one playing the power necro or MM will win.

Then you generalized to the point that everyone is new player.

And even above statement is false. Power Ranger vs. Power Necro, Meditation Guardian vs. Power Necro, D/D Celementalist vs. Power Necro… Newbies.

Not to mention MM. Have you seen those recently? I haven’t, even in hotjoins. Minions die to Celestials within couple seconds from passive damage.

Besides, why do you judge profession by some duels of two new, fresh players? Shouldn’t we judge it based on best/at least decent performance?

I guess that you, sir, wanted to come here and stir, but failed to do that.

Vizardlorde.8243:

Rym.1469:

Shifu.4321:

Rym.1469:

Not to bash, but I’ll probably move to Revenant after what I saw.

No calls of resource management, interesting utilities (shouts ;/ ), risk-reward cast concept which just doesn’t work in PvP.

Might play it for some lulz or PvE/WvW still, but still Revenant looks far superior and fun with Mallyx conditions and energy management.

Necro has always been the simplest and easiest-to-use light armored class.

Not in PvP.

Well it is the easiest new player pvp light armored class power necro or minion master both rip newbies apart with ease.

I could rip newbies with my off hand only.

When I talk about PvP, it’s about playing on competitive level.

And meta powermancer is just a terrible, lazy design spec which happens to be somehow effective because it has powerful procs. Yet shares all problems with Condition Necromancer, apart from LF generation.

Shifu.4321:

Rym.1469:

Not to bash, but I’ll probably move to Revenant after what I saw.

No calls of resource management, interesting utilities (shouts ;/ ), risk-reward cast concept which just doesn’t work in PvP.

Might play it for some lulz or PvE/WvW still, but still Revenant looks far superior and fun with Mallyx conditions and energy management.

Necro has always been the simplest and easiest-to-use light armored class.

Not in PvP.

Not to bash, but I’ll probably move to Revenant after what I saw.

No calls of resource management, interesting utilities (shouts ;/ ), risk-reward cast concept which just doesn’t work in PvP and Chill which is still broken on Thieves.

Might play it for some lulz or PvE/WvW still, but still Revenant looks far superior and fun with Mallyx conditions and energy management.

Xzibit Arena Net:

Sup dawg, I heard you have good AoE. So I got you more AoE on top of your AoE and shouts which do AoE so your AoE is better the more AoE you do so with new spec you’ll do even more AoE apart from your regular AoE so instead of Trash Master you’ll bd Ultimate Trash Master.

First, I want to see this new traitline and then decide.

We don’t even know if it’s any condi or just straight foward GS Metamancer for PvE facerolling,

Have American Scientists from BuzzFeed proven this?

eyestrain.3056:

pvp lobby’s suggestion was Hot Gay Bob and i for one support it

FTFY

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Maybe they meant getting hit by nerfs.

Valid point.