Guild Wars 2

I’d say that crafting a warrior build to duel strictly Necromancers is kind of…useless?

I mean, most of Warrior builds (especially in WvW!) carrying Longbow and some strong condition removal from CI or Zerk stance/reflects shouldn’t have much ofma problem against most Necromancers.

If you insist, pack some CC and just interrupt the heal.

Immobilize works great against Necromancers, especially popular Power builds. Immobilize while in DS, sit on his back, interrupt Life Transfer, Necro sists duck because Blasts don’t work, same Dark Path. Deathly Swarm doesn’t work, autoattacks too. The only options are Putrid Mark (which you can predict quite easily because 90% of Necromancers do the same thing, #3 into #4, even under pressure. So if you see Chillbains, dodge and no transfers will save him.

Fear Me is your ranged heal interruption if you don’t have one on weaponset.

Turrets are made of metal. They transfer heat, but are not exactly “burning”. Only thing that could happen is melting while placed in fire field.

As I’ve never used Greater Marks after they swapped that trait somewhere in 2013 to Master and I didn’t find neither Transfusion or RProtection that amazingly useful in current meta, I’ll probably remain in 0/6/2/0/6 for now. Also, not a fan of Soul Marks after changes to Mark of Evasion. Besides some bonus LF at the start of the match, I feel like it’s so marginal in my playstyle and does virtually not much at all. MoE change killed it for me.

FTIG Allows for safestomping which is a thing, makes it faster to deal with turret boredom plague, allows me to use my beloved Epidemic everywhere I go.

So yeah, that was a pretty cool change, although doesn’t make Condimancer suddenly 100% more viable for tPvP. Stupid Medi Tardians ;> .

Trait is 100% optional, viable, influences playstyle and rotations, has counters, has synergy but doesn’t force it and is up to personal preference. Imo, one of examples of well designed GM trait.

Condition Epidemic certainly looks like one of the best options for defense. Considering people are likely to escort with support builds (like bunker guardian), we could be strong defense against both the player and minions.

Right now, I’m looking at first minute rush tactics with my guildies:

Shoutbow, Epidemic Necro, D/P Thief, Celementalist, Guardian Support/Mesmer Condition Shatter.

Kind of a rush strategy with that. We’ll see how many bombers we can spawn at the same time.

We think that the best placement for Condimancer would be either near the Trebuchet or near enemy’s entrance to supply. Treb shots for aiding teamfights or shorter travel time for Thief (since it’s rush) for help, longer time frame to annihilate minions, supply denial/info, possibly one of the heroes.

^ I guess someone really enjoys 6/6/0/2/0 LB Rangers, because with those restrictions, it’s all what you can expect.

Make sure to get Mercy Runes then.

Madisonlee.9641:

I was really excited to see a new koth room open especially with tournaments since the other one is so incredibly restrictive. Also I love your new thief build too!

However I then checked your rules and it’s almost the same thing as the other room from what I remember :x

I understand all the rules, like the no bunker amulets (you forgot knight on your list I think?) but let me talk about your mesmer class specific rules just as an example, because class specific is where it starts to get annoyingly restrictive IMO

Mesmer: No Restorative Mantras trait- really? I don’t know anyone that uses this, but is this going to make a non-bunker mesmer into AIDS?

Mesmer: No Prismatic Understanding trait – this one everyone agrees with

Mesmer: No similar Prismatic Understanding permanent protection variants (I.E. 3 in Chaos, 3 in Inspiration)- that adds up to like 3 seconds of prot every 15 seconds, is that going to turn the mesmer to AIDS? :/ Fine if you think so, but you’ve just banned any build passed 3 points in those lines (because they are minor). That’s annoying.

Mesmer: No Phantasmal Defender utility- I can understand this

Mesmer: No Phantasmal Disenchanter utility- I CAN’T understand this- at all.

Mesmer: No Phantasm Mesmer- This one is a bit iffy, what exactly are you considering a phantasm mesmer? Are we banned from picking ANY phantasm traits at all? For example I believe many shatter mesmers pick the phantasmal fury for the GS phantasm. If all phant traits are off limits, that’s pretty annoying.

Anyways that’s just my two cents, I’m happy someone is making a new room but I hope you choose to lower some of those class based restrictions as some don’t make sense IMO

I think many still remember the disgusting days of Phantasm Mesmers from two years ago, spawning couple iZerkers and iDuellists then running in loops.

People may overreact now.

Gern.2978:

I’ve always detested escort missions in games, frankly I’m surprised to see so many people who enjoy them.
As an avid dungeoner, I really don’t think the AI systems of this game are up to snuff to make this game mode fun. NPC’s get stuck, attack the wrong thing, and just plain behave in a manner that sucks all the fun out of whatever they are supposed to be making enjoyable.

But here AI is programmed is such way that it doesn’t have to react much. Once spawned, it charges untill it has to stop before some gate and doesn’t follow besides gate guards.

An what’s wrong with that?

Did you expect naval battles of players mounting swimming kittens firing lasers from eyes and having …cannon… at rear?

Might be the beer, but you get the point.

Exedore.6320:

Jekkt.6045:

elemental attunement changes suggested by him are horrible, would destroy most of the non d/d builds as they heavily rely on that protection.

I’d like to see your reasoning.

d/f and d/d are the builds which rely heavily on the long protection duration because they’re in close combat often. Focus in the d/f build still gives it strong sustain even with less protection duration. Scepter and staff builds rely more on kiting and positioning to survive than taking hits for an extended time, so they won’t see a huge impact from slightly lower protection durations on earth swap.

why does mesmer need a nerf?

These weren’t major nerfs. The change I proposed to Halting Strike is in line with toning down other procs.

Shatter mesmer is fairly strong currently, but kept in check by thief. In toning down thief burst through reduced sigil damage and providing better stat selection, mesmer won’t be nearly as vulnerable to thief and will see wider play.

doom counters celestial, that’s why it’s used, why would you reduce the duration, even if it hits squishies too but that’s just a bonus.

The builds which predominately use Sigil of Doom are the celestial builds. Damage builds typically don’t use the sigil because they won’t last in drawn-out fights against a sustain build anyway. So by your reasoning, celestial builds are keeping celestial builds in check. They can do that without Sigil of Doom, which hurts other sustain builds and is a another obstacle for damage builds.

Also, keeping poison access restricted to professions abilities creates a more varied PvP environment; if poison is so powerful, a build which can apply it often becomes more enticing when compared to builds which can’t apply poison at all.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

cleansing ire is also working as intended, already balanced, there is no need to remove “embrace the pain” from cleansing ire.

Cleansing Ire has been a problem since it was introduced and still is. The condition clear it provides is one of the strongest in the game.

The key problem with Cleansing Ire is that it allows condition clear regardless of how well the warrior is playing because of the “Embrace the Pain” (gain adrenaline when hit) component. That component also keeps Adrenal Health (regenerate health based on adrenaline level) going strong. By removing the Embrace the Pain component, defensive builds have to land attacks in order to keep clearing conditions at a high rate. At the same time, this change also reduces their use of burst abilities, which provide a lot of damage.

Offensive builds won’t be restricted as much, because they’re generating adrenaline from attacks. This also makes choices more relevant between fast attack / multi-attack weapons, slow single attack weapons, and abilities which grant additional adrenaline.

The problem is, without Embrace the Pain, Warrior really struggles hard to keep any adrenaline. If Warrior was allowed to strike as many hits on any profession as on Necromancer, there would be no problem. But try getting adrenaline on S/D Thief, Mesmer or Engineer.

The thing that needs tuning is Combustive Shot. None of the other burst skills is as easy to land and scoring good Skull Crack or Eviscerate should be rewarded.

At the same time, we would have to tune some of the meta specs, too. Atm, the Thief’s greatest weapon, the shortbow, is able to nullify effectiveness of most full melee specs, along with Thief goes the Mesmer.

Believe or not, but I say that many Warriors would be grateful if you freed them from the burden called “Cleansing Ire Longbow” and went full melee in a second after. But sadly, reality hits, in current metas you simply need the Longbow for meta effectiveness.

Embrace the Pain is simply required.

I think you have too much time and you sound like a american history production about Holocaust. Overhyped and skipping most of facts.

Are Asuras Masons because they have bunch of triangles?

Are WvW Trebuchets a glorification of biological weapon, because they use cows that cause poison? Are they linked to Charrs, who are also somehow based on Mongols, who used biological weapon (corpses) for the first documented time in 1241 during the siege of Legnica?

Conspiracy, racism everywhere, I tell you.

Rolisteel.1375:

The EU top leaderboards is all about engineers -> thiefs -> warriors -> elementalists -> rangers -> mesmers. that have about 54% to 70% win rate guardians is somewhere between. i don’t really know their names from leaderboards. after that comes the necros as last with about 51% to 57% also playing premades.
maybe im wrong but can’t find any necro names that have more than 57% win rate even with premade gaming.
An active forumer guy said in necro forum that good necromancers can do about 60% solo ranked.
so every necromancer players that bad then cant do 60% with premades?
i only play solo and i only have 51-52% win rate usually.
Why there aren’t any necro with 70%-80% win rates but every other class have! Someone should look at it something is wrong! Maybe only Nos or Zombify can do something better but they have kitten good teammates that really boosting them. but they are playing NA so i don’t know what they are able to do in EU as i hear EU is stronger than NA. maybe i’m wrong.

There are good Necromancers in EU.

But most of them play other professions currently, don’t have time for tournies, lack initiative for serious gaming and such.

EU meta for the most part is copy-paste of top teams compositions and incredibly stubborn.

And always lacked in Necromancers with some more experience than fotm reroller.

Justine.6351:

I’m the only one who likes entangle + Madking runes? ;-(

It’s gamebreaking for 1v1 duelling servers and useless in any other situation imo.

Mace Shield Greatsword. In other words, Skullcrack.

Or, against Power Necromancer, Mace Disrupting strikes Condi.

I already did. Sylvari female warrior works nice with Braham’s spiked shoulder fur.

Just hope that Primordius expansion won’t do similar things with rats, because I’d miss out on some story forever.

Jasher.6580:

How is everyone forgetting the Beastmastery Ranger builds where the pets hit like trucks and they had perma regen and were super bunkery?

That was the best of both worlds.

My Necromancer with Epidemic loved that build. I could hug you and praise you for running that. Such a boost to condition burst!

I liked when Corrupt Boon had it’s full strenght. Shutdown of pesky D/D clerics and bunker guardians. Bait cooldowns, CB, watch them melt and panic.

Aaand when Epidemic had no AoE limit. That was crazy.

Rolisteel.1375:

you use sa wurm and cb as power nec or condi?

As Power. I switch SA to Epidemic when I’m playing condition.

You can at least exclude Necromancer.

I don’t ever use any wells in PvP. Too unreliable, don’t fit my playstyle and traits.

SA, Wurm, CB. Ave.

We will have to see. I’m sure we will have a lot of fun on Tuesday.

I’d say that they really done well with this game mode, I’m not sure if it wouldn’t work better as 8v8 or 6v6 though. As it stands now, every player has to fill multiple roles scattered around the map and it could push Necromancer out of game and make thief mandatory in yet another game mode before we kick off.

But hey, that’s why we have open beta.

Tristan.7430:

Bhawb.7408:

I forget if Corrupt Boon was also nerfed along with this?

yes, it was nerfed few months after dhuumfire release.

5 boons is OK for me, but i dont get why stability have lowest priority

No. It was nerfed together with introducement of Dhuumfire, Shackles and other stuff. They also changed Spectral Wall and added dperception that patch.

Sebrent.3625:

Aside from golems, Siege is immobile … golems are slow.
If your side is unable to take advantage of this fact, then you deserve to be mowed down.

I imagine with the winding paths, etc. coming with the new maps that we might see even more open field siege as there are likely to be more choke points.

People can learn and adapt … or they can stagnate.

There are no rules stating that siege is only for towers/keeps/etc.. There is no reason for a smart group to not take advantage they can to win.

If someone beats you … sorry … unless they used exploits, you got outplayed (or zerged down, lol)

I will always use proper siege whenever I can. There are no “Proper” fights. If I place AC, you place ballista and counter me. Or stealth some players, flank me and destroy the immobile siege before I react.

Bam. RTS rules apply.

Nerfing oRNG?

Two quick things:

1. Don’t nerf Ring of Warding. Nerf it’s combo with JI if you like.
2. Slick Shoes getting and ICD on knockdown.

Staff doesn’t really work on weekends I believe. Testing beta without support on weekend could be pretty bad. So they’re doing it during the week.

^Rektangle.

/15charrs

Personally, I’d like to see Taunt on Interruption. Some ICD, some duration. Makes sense that when you interrupt, you angry the other side.

And Mace, obvious defensive weapon, would work quite well with that.

Hello,

So, we got an annoucement for Stronghold Open Beta running next Tuesday: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-stronghold-pvp-public-beta-is-coming/ .

I thought that now, because we’re after most recent balance patch and we already got a lot of recorded footage of how the gamemode looks like, we’re ready for some basic theorycrafting.

Now, of course things will not stay the same once HoT hits (hopefully!), but besides scouting the new map we could already test some basic thoughts and check what role Necromancer may be best at, what works and what doesn’t.

I’m leaving a link to the “Stronghold Overview” by BLU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzzKbrj4EZ8

Let’s start, shall we?

First thought – Necromancer defending the base. The main point about defense is killing the Bombers and the Archers – NPCs. We do really shine at taking care of multiple NPCs at the same time thanks to both Wells and Epidemic. Side role could be operating the Trebuchet, because it’s quite close to the gate:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Champion%27s_Dusk_map.png

Looks amazing guys!

We will try to organize some people and run early tests for both builds and tactics we’ve already thought out in guild. If someone is up for a little testing and fun, make sure to message me!

See you on Tuesday.

zapv.8051:

Dawdler and the OP just made it clear as to how bias can destroy someones judgement as Sabwa said.

I remember “Blue Magic” from American Gangster.
Good stuff, good stuff.

Regular Power Well build won’t do amazing against good thieves.

Wells are just not that amazing against mobile targets, though they can act as self-defense.

In general, Shortbow is the most powerful weaponset Thief has. Once they swap out to melee set, that’s your chance.

Golem isn’t really that awesome for roaming on WvW.

Often you’ll really need that huge burst denial or safestomp.

As I say, Epidemic will not work for everyone, playstyles and preferences do differ. I always loved that skill, so if I have a chance to use it, I do.

Personally, SoS never attracted me, ever. It’s 1v1 bomb and that’s it. I feel like I can 1v1 without it. As for Spectral Grasp, I like it, but it’s same like last one or two years – still slow projectile, still getting obscured multiple times and because current meta has so many evades, vigor, it gets randomly dodged too many times for me to really consider it.

Covis.6037:

Arantheal.7396:

If I read sentences like:
“My parrot with rocket turret won 1v1 vs thief while i was just standing on a corner”
“That’s why Khylo gets so little votes :>”
“While I’m sure I wouldve lost more if I were playing my main classes.”
“If you cant beat them, join them.”
…then I know that this guy was right:
“ITS DEFINITELY A L2P ISSUE.”

/cry /sarcasm /tell him /please.

Sshhhhhh!… Mom, get the camera!

Staff Elementalist will just kill it way faster and easier.

Even as full Condi Necromancer, killing Turret Engi can take quite a bit of time. Relying on staff condi damage is just silly, because it doesn’t do enough damage, you have to move in. Grenade Condi Engi has it way easier there. If turrets were not immune to Conditions, Condition Necromancer could just steamroll even two turreters at the same time with Epidemic equipped, similar to Minionmancers. But they’re not, and while you pose a threat, you still take damage.

Again, most of the times it’s an option, but you’re better off with some elementalist taking care of it. Destroying all the turrets and forcing engi off point+ being durable, bringing more support and mobility if needed.

Another thing is what Brandon brought up – I don’t know NA scene, but on EU there’re really, really few Condition Necromancers with some experience and time/team avalible.

I switched Spectral Armor to Epidemic. As described in other thread, despite all doomsayers, it works surprisingly well in this meta. Yes, there are tons of cleanses, but lack of bunker guardian means that if you Epidemic and fear, it can wreck.

It’s not glory days of Epidemic, when I could wipe entire teamfight with a single one because nobody besides guardians and eles in water had any reliable condition cleanses, but it forces cooldowns. Many cooldowns. And because of all those celestials, it’s not only your conditions, but also theirs + PoC helps.

Decap Engineer was much more troublesome. Playing as a Condi Necro was nightmare, if you didn’t stack ton of conditions before they reached their cool zone, it would go over and over, reset after reset.

Personally, I find “1v1, no help far” heroes way more useless and annoying to play with.

When I queue alone, I’ll sometimes be forced into a role I shouldn’t have because random comp lacks better candidate or simply teammates are not clever enough. So sometimes I’ll do the dirty job as profession really not into point holder’s job like Necromancer and then find myself stuck, because if, on khylo for example, you leave close undefended as such slow and immobile profession to help your random team at mid, even a blind, slow-thinking thief will notice it and manage to run through the map and decap it even though you’re already on way back.

Soloq has it’s own rules. People usually care for their own performance, not efectiveness of entire team.

Ultimate Farminator.

unlucky.9285:

so what do you do against a thief who just keendp interrupting you? every time i come up against a good thief they just interrupt me do 7k damage while i cant do squat then stealth try to bs me wait till i start to cast………… anything really……….. then its yay another free 7k damage and so on and so forth…

cant even get a staff mark off

D/P spamming #3 and Headshot runs out of resource really fast and it usually occurs when they’re sure going for a kill, mostly in outnumbered/necro focus situations. Instead of running away, turn very aggressive. Corrupt Boon, Fear, everything you have. It will push them out of their comfort zone 100% and you’re likely to land a kill or at least get room to breathe.

zapv.8051:

The only real reason to run it is to get another utility, but SOS and epidemic are the only ones I’d consider and their both to weak with the amount of condition removal in the metagame currently.

Epidemic has it’s uses. I recently came back to testing that and surprisingly, even in celestial meta, it does work and sometimes it can work really, really well. The lack of STG of bunker guardian, PoC and the fact that celestials in your team also apply various conditions+downed cleave instead of stomping right after, Ranger pets, Engineers. Now it’s not only your conditions, they stack up really quickly. Good Epidemic+Fear might not wipe out entire team like in the old days, but it suddenly puts mega pressure, forcing cooldown after cooldown, is hard to deal with as a zerker and is on low cooldown. Not to mention if you have Ranger with EBond you can almost triple your condi pressure.

It may be not perfect for every situation or everyone though.

That’s why Khylo gets so little votes :> .

Rising Dusk.2408:

Low Demand on Player Skill / Knowledge / Timing
- AI Builds (Turret Engi / Minionmancer / Spirit Ranger / etc)
- Power Necromancer
- Shoutbow
- PU Mesmer

Medium Demand on Player Skill / Knowledge / Timing
- Bunker Guardian
- MediGS Guardian
- Condi Necromancer
- Condi Engineer

High Demand on Player Skill / Knowledge / Timing
- CeleDD Elementalist
- CeleRifle Engineer
- Fresh Air Elementalist
- P/D and S/D Thief
- MediHammer Guardian
- Shatter Mesmer

I didn’t cover everything but I covered a lot. Some of these builds are on the edge of one classification into another, but this is generally how I see things in the current meta.

It really depends on what you consider part of player skill with a class. I included rotational knowledge with a build because knowing where your class belongs (in the team fight, roaming, defending 2 points, etc) is important. Some are better at certain roles than others. Complex mechanical rotations are definitely more demanding of player skill, which is why double kit CeleRifle Engineer and CeleDD Elementalist are tougher mechanically to play.

Another factor is “how easy is it for you to be bad at this build”. Most high burst glassy builds are very easy to be terrible with, meaning you get burst easily or you rely on getting in/out of combat reliably. It’s easy to say that a Thief is braindead because it hides in Stealth a lot, but knowing where to be and how to effectively rotate on a Thief is something I see a lot of even high-tier Thieves be ineffective at. It’s tough to always be in the right place at the right time.

I think builds that have minimal mechanical complexity and typically sit on or around points and are very defensive are extraordinarily forgiving of a player being awful and are very rewarding even in spite of that. Meanwhile, I consider things like Power Necromancer very braindead to play because they rely on spamming the 1 key a lot and have extremely simple burst rotations (if any at all). It gets even sillier in Lich Form.

Medi Hammer and P/D Thief demanding, Condition Necromancer medium in this meta. Alright.

I’m not sober after easter party either.

Just last game, 22:00 UTC I believe, I encountered strange thing. My game randomly dc’d during match with no problem on my side, quit to Windows and before restarting, it said “Downloading”. It only appeared for second or two, but was there anything to download?

In almost 3 years I haven’t seen anything like it. There was no new build announced, checked the chat, my game can’t be more fully installed and patched, but still it kicks me out of game to download something.

After we (luckily) won the match, the game started to freak out, bouncing me between mists and Khylo map 2 or so times when I tried to leave.

Hope it helps and won’t happen again.

Chill would be reasonable on applying weakness.

Not to mention that pathing for AI in GW1 was 1000% easier. No jumping barely any teleports, clear movement and attacking while moving.

I look for legendaries.
If guy has one, I trust him.

If he had enough money on credit card to buy a legendary, he will surely have some to buy the judges and match, too.

:3

It’s a little bit harder, but, in theory, good way. You either save Shroud for CC break or use it more offensivly, trying to use PoC on cooldown. Choice between more pressure and more defense. I like this design.

Other meta builds however don’t make such choice, because both defense and offense are almost part of the standard rotation. Except of Shatter mesmer who does, but many don’t consider it that meta.

Trait is good, requires some thinking. I adore it against Overcharged Shot when Engi CCs himself, giving you free cover for some ability, like Path.
But I don’t think it’s gamechanger. Back in Hambow era, it would be. 100% sure. But currently I feel that if you get focused by two or more it doesn’t matter that much anyway and many cele meta build are not that hard CC heavy, immobilize is bigger problem.

Well balanced trait I say.

RtW could affect all ranger projectiles. Throw Torch, Path of Scars, Crippling Talon, pet projectiles.

Spectrals are more in way of defense and PvP. Although Spectral Grasp can be handy even in PvE sometimes for pull, but that’s niche.

Corruptions are… well designed and certainly most interesting part of Necro, imo, but they simply lack sometimes. Power PvE builds use Blood is Power as far as I know for might, sometimes you may use Epidemic (Wurm adds) to spread conditions or vuln. I heard about people using Corrosive Poison Cloud in some fractal runs.

As for PvE advices, hit on spoj’s guide.