Guild Wars 2

Peoples can’t organize themself to do a team of 5 players and still play in solo screaming that this game is totally unbalanced just why they want to play a team based game as a single player, and you want to make them do a GvG?

If you think that they’re Unkillable Now you had to look at what they was in the past years with the Celestial Amulet and a tons of different OP builds that was discovered time by time. The last one with the Celestial Tempest: unkillable and with a insane dps in both direct and condition damage.

Now is a shadow of it was.
But still a powerfull shadow

There was, time ago, a solo queue sPvP section but everyone hated it why everyone was with “with the worst pug ever” and no one was happy why play with casuals is always a roulette that make you win or lose at random, with only few personal skills and a large amount of luck. Who had the best pugs or the best casual combination won the match easy.

Anyway remove the Team composition from a Team based PvP is like remove all the commanders and battle signals from WWW and prevent any guild raid group to play. why they make WWW unbalanced making rush all the time. The entire game section will lose it’s sense!

Is more good to ask for the opposit thing: make pugs and little teams to join Unranked but make only premades able to join Ranked, adjusting the reward and all.
That will force people to play with a sense, making teams to win, studying a strategy, playing classes with specific personal builds, organize entire sPvP guilds to find players to do ranked in a structured playstyle.

I vote for make Ranked sPvPa 5vs5 Premade only.
(basicly that’s the sense of a Team Based Structured Player Versus Player, isn’t it?)

Basicly now there’s only a little difference between a DPS that use direct damage or condition damage. They both can kill you. Just with different timing and better/worst in different situations.

Conditions have no mitigation in damage? Wrong!
There’s even more skills/boons/abilities/traits/amulets/runes that reduce Condition damage than direct damage, and frequently they Cance All the condition damage!
Examples:
1-Weapon/F1 Skills) A warrior can clean 3 conditions (with all the stack they have) every 3,x seconds landing his F1 while in berserker (everyone that don’t use that trait can’t blame if die against conditions). There’s a large amount of skills that clean conditions (every good build have at last 2 with a fast/decent cooldown and that clear 1 or, frequently, more conditions). Thief sword clean conditions. Elementalist have a large amount of clean condi skills in water, expecially combined with the trait for the regen that clean condi. Necro have the dagger skill 4 to Send Back conditions. Guardian Focus 4 clean conditions. And more and more and more weapon skills.
there’s a total of 11 Weapon Skills that clean/transfer/convert conditions for you and/or your allies.
2-Utility/healing/Elite skills) There’s a insanely large amount of utility skills that clean/convert/transfer conditions from you and/or your allies. A total of 46 utility/class mechanism skills that clean/convert conditions for you and/or your allies. They totally Clean All the damage the conditions will do, reducing they’re damage up to 100%.
3-Sigil/Rune) Different Runes reduce the duration of Condition damage, reducing the damage con conditions up to 25% without any need of skills or boons. Also some Sigils grant you the chance to clean or send back conditions.
4-Resistance)There’s 13 skills/traits/runes that gran Resistance, a boon that grant you a total immunity from any condition effect (then also damage), and some classes can spam it pretty well (example: Revenant)
5-Traits) There’s a total of 29 traits that clean/transfer/reduce conditions in damage or duration. With also 3 traits that Benefit from any condition you have.
6-Combos) Combos with Light fields grant you the chance to clean conditions on your allies.
7-Immunity) there’s different skills that make you Immune to any kind of skill, making you immune to both direct and new condition damage. is a thing really strong.

Then you have to count that there’s also all the condi/evade/block skills that make you miss your enemy and then reduce your condition damage. Just why yes, you can stack a lot of condi and then run, but your damage will not grow upand not be refreshed, making you lose a large amount of damage still if you’re dealing damage with your old skills.

Yes, sometimes conditions appear as an easier way to fight, but if you look to all the things that can cancel all the damage of the conditions that afflict you or that you stack on the enemy, you can see clearly that isn’t so easy to fight with conditions.

Conditions can appear to be Op, but only why you can see all that stack on you and fear them. But I can say that a good thief, guardian dps or revenant can steal you half of your hp with lesser skills than a condition user need to active to do that.

I play sometimes my guardian meditrapper and is insanely easy to kill someone if you make your burst rotation. LB 2, GS 3, 2, 5, traps, 5, and the enemy is barely dead.

Yes, the condition damage is strong and everyone still think that it had not to be strong enough to kill you. But ANet made conditions builds able to kill players and able to inflict a really good damage, still without any kind of “Burst”.

Basicly, direct damage is for Burst actions, to take down an enemy fast and end quickly a fight. Condition damage was better for longer fights, where you have the time to stack your conditions on the enemy to inflict your damage (why to inflict a good condition damage you have to stack different conditions and a lot of stack, not only press two buttons like everyone think).

If you die quickly in a team fight at 90% you’ve been focused and for shure 70-80% of the damage that take you down was Direct damage.

Condition damage is strong, but over 9 classes only 3 use conditions. There’s a reason, don’t you think?

Ajax of Telamona.6974:

Accept the truth ?
Do i have a different choice right now? Of course not !
I am not accept it but i have to live this . Fun? How u can have fun if u don’t like something?
you said anet tried to do this do that …..
Anet manage one thing : Making noobs look like heroes !
No real viable variety in builds .
Is fail .
I want back my right to choose a build different than this meta kitten and be viable.
I am not say be the best but Viable.
Probably anet won’t bring back core games. The reason is not the q time or all the other u said the MAIN reason is that if do that will accept the failure of her try.

Seriously: have you ever had a real chance to chose more than2 builds (if lucky) in sPvP and still be viable? How? When?
Before HoT I played a MM necro with a different playstyle from the main used in that time and that was way better than the meta, but that was a lucky situation. And how to talk about years of sPvP where if you don’t played that “meta” build you was not able to kill the always “meta” calsses, just like now?

The only time I saw a lot of build diversity in sPvP is more than 2 years ago, when everyone played anything and the “balance” was a mere hope.
But also then there was classes and builds way better than others and players that complained about that.

I play from the pre-release and no, I don’t noticed any kind of change in the amount of really strong “meta” builds you can do.

if you find the stronger build for your class, everyone will play it, just why no one want to be easy killed by others or don’t like to be killed as a noob for more than a week only why don’t play the “meta”.

nothing changed in the amount of real meta classes/builds since the sPvP grow up to a pretty good state.

And it will always be like that. In this game.

Yes, you don’t have any choice, you have only that situation and have to play with that.

The core clesses was not balanced before HoT and you want them back Now, after ANet made all that changes to the main core to balance different issues on the elite specializzation?

Are you serious???

They will never do that for different reasons:
1) that thing will break the community and make mmr even longer than now, making the game really boring
2) the core clesses have not a balance, they changed to fit better the new specializzation, making them unable to be used as a second chance for the pvp area
3) ANet plan was to make More Specializzations, to make More build diversity (but they failed to make the first and I’m shure that we’ll ardly see another elite specializzation too soon) and a turn back to the core class isn’t in they’re plans
4) the game IS HoT, you don’t even need to talk about HoT as an optional expansion, why it’s not. HoT IS the Main Game Now.
5) Why play an old totally unbalanced build if you can play an actual and umbalanced build?

At last, if you really want to play only with Core classes, you can go in Hot Join, make a new Room and name it “Core Only” and allow players to play only with Core class builds, kicking everyone that come in with a specialization build.

Accept the truth and have fun

If I look at the actual “meta” builds and at what classes/builds i fight during my matches, I don’t really think that there’s more condi damage than direct damage builds.
There’s a large amount of conditions, a really HUGE amount of them, but frequently they’re not Damaging conditions.

The Reaper had been nerfed by a really high amount reducing chill duration and removing chill damage (now inflict 1 stack of bleed… what a pain). if Reaper still work is only why can corrupt boons, then isn’t only why his build but why there’s too much boon spammer in this game and ANet wanted to make a counte for them. Reaper isn’t OP and is strong as a common direct damage build like the revenant or others.
There’s then mesmer, condi reven and condi warrior. Sometimes a condi thief.

But power shiro (still the best reve build), power engi, power thief, bunker ele,meditrapper guardian, they still play with direct damage.

Dont’ think that all the conditions you see inflict damage to you and don’t think that if you die fast in mid is why a condition focused you.
Direct Damage is still the best to burst down someone and to inflict damage. Then tehre’s the condi, that had been made strong enough to be compared to direct damage. Now with lesser bunker amulets than before.

Direct damage need more stats but also inflict more damage, expecially more Burst damage, that is basicly what kill you in a good pvp fight.
Condition damage can still be blocked/dodged/blinded/immune, and have also a boon that make it totally uneffective. And if you clean it immediatly it don’t only inflict it’s 70% of damage like if you had protection up, it will be totally removed and reduced to 0.
Also there’s much more skills, traits, runes and sigils that clean/protect you from conditions or reduce they’re durations than for direct damage.

Why players still insist to pretend that the Core main class need to be strong as the Elite Specializzation?
Didin’t know them that ANet Never wanted to make Core stronger as the Elite?

There’s 2 fast and easy reasons for this choice:

1) ANet announced the choice to release More Elite Specializzations, making the Core class a mere Base to improve the game by Different Elite Specializzations that will increase the Build Diversity, grant new Roles to all the classes, eventually Specialize the class into a pre existent Role they already fill but in a different or more focused way and force players into hard build choices to make different and strong builds based on they’re situation (PvP, WvW, PvE and all the roles/casistics they means). They’re as an Evolution of the main class.

2) They sell HoT and the main game only why there’s the chance to obtain that Elite Specializzations. Strip off the ES by HoT and no one will buy the game and everyone will play in F2P forever losing only a raid and 3 legendary weapons that was supposed to be the legendary weapons of the poor players but became much more expensive than the old ones. It’s marketing. no one make MMORPG of that level for free.

After that 2 really good reasons why ANet will never make the Core strong as the Elite, there’s the problem that they never announced any other Elite Specializzation and they probably will not announce any of them for still a long long time.

We have only to hope and wait for a better future and some new specializzations.
But put your hear in peace: the Specializzation is the Evolution of the Core Basic Class and the Core will never be strong as it’s evolution.

That build is never gone lost, simply is harder to use than other classes and for that reason only few used it.
The reason is tat it’s really strong, make you barely unkillable in 1vs1 and fear only few builds (and sometimes if the player is good enough don’t fear any build), but to play that build you need to be skilled, to know exactly how to fight any class and what skill evade and when.
The reason that made that build forgotten is that there’s much more easier builds that work better for 3v3-4v4 fights or are just lesser good but much more easier to play.

A good thief don’t fear any class (can ddoge easy any burst, can dodge CC and can dodge and clean conditions really easy), but need to be really a Good player to mastery that build.

You mean that you want to make vulnerability reduce by 50% condition duration or tick time just why it increase condition damage till 25% (with a full stack) ?
That don’t make sense

Furajir.3815:

All the same, if I have access to a block, I want to use it, if I’m chasing a reaper as a warrior, and he drops marks, I should be able to shield block, run through, drop zerker stance, and have a fighting chance, but no.

As it stands, I have to eat all the marks, then deal with everything the reaper is gonna hit me with as my stances fade.

It’s an uphill battle every kitten time. I’m super tired of it.

Yes, sometimes a wel placed mark can be really useful, but good marks have a high CD and you can still active berserker stance and stability and be happy, using your precious block not to go in melee with the necro but when the Necro go in RS, that is Melee, to fight you, blocking all his damage.

And if you’re a warrior and think that have unblockable markss is OP (and only 2 marks over 5 are good, but they’re damage is still Low), just look at your skills.
Example: Signet of Might: for 6 seconds all your attacks are Unblockable. CD 25 seconds.

You’re able to make ALL your attacks Unblockable (also your powerfull Burst damage skills) and you ask for a nerf to a single weapon that need a Trait to become unblockable and still is used for it’s utility (LF generation, condi transfer and fear) and not for it’s damage (that is really low).

Is the old story of all the people reporting Burn damage to kill them with 90k of damage.
And Burn at this time was seriously strong and a burn guardian was able to kill you faster than any actual condi build.
But, just think about that: why a direct damage class/build need to inflict you only 20-30k of damage to kill you when the faster condi build ever made had to inflict you 90k of damage to take you down? Is more than 3 times the damage.
That’s why even at that time condis needed more time to kill you, granting you more chances to heal, he healed and survive.

More or less the same is happening now. But with a necro that can’t kill you fast like a old burn guardian. More or less a necro actually need much more time to kill you with conditions.

Condition damage is dangerous? Yeh. It is. It’s a real problem, expecially in the hands of the only 3 classes that can kill you with it, and you also have to notice that they’re not pure condition classes why they use amulets and skills with both condi and direct damage.

“I’ve love how you get feared, chilled, bled, burned, (whatever) to lose a bunch of health( or use up all your condi-clears/stun breakers) for the “audacity” of actually hitting your opponent.
Its time to move on.”

What do you mean? Do you mean about that 1sFear every 60 seconds? Wow, a really OP rune…
Or chill every 30 sec with 25% chance when hit?
Or a second of burn by a useless rune why no one focus on burn? You have at last to pay attention if you fight a condi warrior that use a leap combo on a firefield to obtain fire aura, but out of that there’s only a bad rune that burn you when you hit him.

The amount of condis you can get by hit someone is barely useless, what are you talking about? Where’s them strong?

And even if you get a single stack of burn by hitting someone is only 250-300 damage, not so much amount of damage that can make you able to kill yourself just hitting someone.

There’s a insane fear of condition damage on the forum and in the game, but 70% of builds use direct damage. Then why everyone fear conditions if only few can use it?

And now it’s not even possible to make a real condi bunker.

Do you think that the mercenary is a bunker amulet? After years of Celestial?

Guys take a moment and think about how many condition damage you take during a fight and how many clases you see that use condition Damage.

There’s different classes that use Conditions, but only 3 that can use Condition Damage. Pay attention and look for the difference.

Reapers condi damage had been nerfed in this patch by a lot removing the chill damage (expecially for not top rank players), then there’s only the mesmer that had been buffed in condition damage, and some occasional revenants that play condi.
All the other classes play Direct damage and if they use condis they use immobilize, cripple, weakness, vulnerability or other no-damage conditions, or they inflict them but deal like 0 damage by that side.

3 classes over 9 that use conditions and only 2 can play it at best (not still shure about reapers, now they really need to convert boons to obtain a good damage, there’s no more space for pure condition build for them, they need to be corrupters. Then if you don’t use too many boons you’ll find them much more easy to kill now).

It’s still Direct Damage meta.

Or, to be more specific, Direct damage CC meta.

baylock.1703:

Sigmoid.7082:

Novuake.2691:

Brighteluden.2974:

Novuake.2691:

Please for the love of all that is holy, lets get rid of these…

Yeah, let’s nerf necro even more cause why not..it’s not like you can dodge and avoid taking damage from marks anyhow right? Because let’s face it marks do so much damage to begin with especially after the deathly chill nerf.

The latest changes wasn’t a nerf mate.

Explain how its not a nerf..

It was a nerf and big one no doubt about it and unlockable marks are totally fine has been in game from start ppl only notice it BC there is so much block in the game now (also reason why it is used so much now) small tip to ppl when you see necro on staff dont waste ur blocks it is l2p issue and i dont eaven play neco i play rev mesmer and ele

Actually a condition necro have 12 skills/sigil chance to inflict chill (with a top condi build). 16 if you use the focus, but is so bad that no one want to use it on spvp.

2 by shouts (utility+elite)
2 by staff (mark 3+5fear)
8 by RS combo 5+4+3fear
1 by traits
3 by sigils+rune

All that losing all your skills just to spam chill, losing all your skills just to spam 16 bleed.
If you want to inflict bleed is simply better to only AA, you will also inflict poison and convert boons, dealing more damage in lesser time than spend all your time to try to deal damage with chill.

And after you spam that 16 stack of bleed (that don’t even stack all at the same time why you need more than 8 seconds to inflict them all to the enemy), you have all your skills in CD and you will deal no more damage by chill, losing your old chill dps for a long time.

In PvE it can be a good thing why bleed stack and there’s foods to make it last longer and make you able to inflict more damage.
Against a training dummy you can still inflict a barely good damage, but against a player that dodge, block, move, evade, cc you, that’s a really Huge Nerf.

Actually how much time do you need to hit your enemy with chill to obtin that condition damage?
10 times? Nice, but you can’t hit the enemy 10 times with chill, unless your enemy is the training dummy. Seriously.

Example of a chain to inflict enough stacks of bleed with chill:
2 Chill by shouts (utility+elite)
1 chill from RS5
6 chill from Rs4 if you do a combo with the ice field (no more 11 hits, now it’s capped at 6)
2 by signets (weapon swap and a lucky hit at 30% chance)
1 by staff skill 3

Now you have spent all your chill skills only to stack 12 stacks of bleed on your enemy, dealing barely bad conditions damage and losing all your time following a low damage conditions.

No, in PvP that’s a really huge nerf to the necromancer condition damage.

The problem of the reaper is that it’s a melee shroud, making it really easy to fight for all the classes that can kite him.

The problem of the chill nerf is that the reaper never was a total condition damage, it was a Hybrid, with both direct and condition damage. If you look there was no one using Rabid, that is the best condition amulet and grant a large amount of synergy with different traits, but everyone used Carrion/Mercenary, why there was Power to inflict a good amount of direct damage, expecially with traits to increase the critical rate while in shroud or based on the enemy vulneravility amount, making the reaper able to inflict direct damage barely good as the dps build.

Actually we lose a large amount of our condition damage, if you don’t fight a class that use boons you can always convert into Damage conditions (a large amount of boons don’t inflict damage conditions when converted) or use conditions that you can reflect back (there’s a low amount of classes that use conditions).

There’s a lot of direct damage build, but the best direct damage build was the old necro shroud, but is too weak to compete with the specializzations (expecially for the lack of stability and mobility), forcing players to use the reaper, that is a really big problem to who want to use only the direct damage and not both cirect and condition damage why is melee and don’t grant you enough increased damage to face the risks that a pure melee build have.

Actually the best build I see is the MM, still with conditions but with a rework to Blighter Boons instead of chill.

Keadron.9570:

Honestly I just wish they would balance for 1v1 rather than group so they would all be close.

Balance for 1vs1 is really hard an will make it bad for team fights.
1vs1 fights and 5v5 fights are really distant in mechanics, strategy, builds.
You will simply find all classes good in 1vs1 but that when in a teamfight come up that 2 classes that can simply kill all the others easy, just why have more AoE (damage or cc) or better defensive skills that make them able to fight more opponents at a time than just one.

I prefer to build the game around a team of 5 players like the spvp actually is (still if the balance is bad) why match the playstyle of that game.

The main problem of build diversity is Metabattle and Unorganized teams.

Why premades win against pugs, still if sometimes they’re worst?

Simply stop to pick up the build from metabattle or the “meta” one and start to look at your team. Speak with your friends, make a strategy, chose the roles, make builds able to fight in the role you want to play and see how easy you will kill pugs!

Also, in that, thief and warrior aren’t bad, totally. Thief and warriors lack of the defensive skills of the other classes (unless if you’re a really good thief and know how to escape by danger with teleport and hide), but have much more mobility and damage.

A good daredevil can kill a “op” reaper in 1vs1 really easy simply spamming D/D skill n3 and some dodges with a viper amulet, making him unable to reflect conditions back and then unable to cover the amount of conditions they recive (thief weapon skills also aren’t affected by chill, making them ever better), also Rise minions will not hit you, then will not active they’re effect, anche if a condition occour, another dodge and it will disappear. (I tried it, is absolutly funny kill a reaper that think to be OP and see how much bad words will wishper to you XD)
Also the thief is the best decapper class ever and with it’s AA damage increased is really a danger for everyone that fall under 50%hp in mid (a good thief have to focus the enemies that are under Xhp and take them down quickly, then stomp and move away, waiting for another chance).
Thief is the best stomper/resser, expecially after the quickness stomp/ress nerf.

A warrior with a rifle can do really good as a range dps with a insane AoE damage every 2.5 seconds while in berserker. It’s a perfect way to kill enemies in mid from range while another player is tanking.
For whure, the warrior need a team that can support him, a tank and eventually a healer to help him when focused (a good ele can do both the reoles at once)

There’s a lot of ways to use your class and be still good.

There’s a large amount of builds able to fight in a good organized team, the only problem is that no one want to make a well organized team.

The balance is made for top tier pvp, not for low/mid pvp. And also is made fot 5vs5, not for 1vs1. There’s classes good for 1vs1 but also classes good for team fights.

If the balance was made for 1vs1 there was a 1vs1 pvp section, but there’s not, then the balance is made for 5vs5 team fights.

Isn’t that the old condition build that everyone used before HoT?
It’s really good and one of my favorite condition builds.
It’s good and work very well, I can agree.

Back in time that build was heavy countered by eles, necro, guardian and warrior , but actually there’s only the necro that can really counter that build, thanks to all the new specializzations and the brainless players that play only what metabattle say them to play.

Actually can be really a good choice and yes, that build don’t require the expansion why had been made before it.

Yes, the amount of CC that came from the actual meta classes can hut you a lot, but with a lot of teamplay a skilled player can still be able to do a really good job, expecially in the lower ranks.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRArf5dlsAhyhYzQwbIwPEHxDldDehH9mATaOUDgtsAA-TphAQBA4EAkhjAAELD8hDCgAeAAwY/BA
(that’s the link of your build)

The problem of the celestial will remain still if nerfed, expecially for the elementalist.
The main problem wasn’t that grant a little more bonus than the other amulets, the problem was that was able to make a class extremly versatile like the ele a hyper bunker with the damage stats of a dps.

I’m ok if you add back the cele, but you have to make all the classes totally unable to stack more than 12 stack of might by himself during a fight. Expecially about eles.

But ANet will never make a rework like that, then add back the celestial will only restore the old ele dictature and remove all the actual build diversity.

Yes, play only a cleric to be the best is bad, but there’s still different good builds and Roles you can try.

The necromancer is good, a really good class. But for shure is not OP or the stronger one.
A reaper is easy to burst down with 5 sec of focus, don’t have mobility, don’t have defensive skills, don’t give support to the team (only some condi absorption by plague signet, when not used). It’s damage is really good and combine direct and condition damage but can not be compared to other classes that can burst you down faster.

What make the Necro strong in this meta is basicly that is the only class that can kill Boon Spammers, or grant to the team a window to kill the enemy when he’s not overbuffed, converting they’re boons into conditions. Also can reflect condi back, but since that meta came up that ability don’t grant all that damage that everyone think, simply why there’s only few classes that use condition damage. Before HoT there was 5 classes on 8 that played conditions, now only 2 (reaper and chrono), plus revenant or some druids that want to play condi instead of the “meta” build.

The necromancer have not to be toned down why have a lot of counterplay.

The real thing that had to be toned down is the thing that make the necro so powerfull: Boon Spamming.

Is 1 year that the comunity ask for a boom spamming reduction but instead of reduce boon spam ANet increased the BS ability of different classes (example: Rangers, giving them the Druid specializzation) and also increased the Corruption ability of the Necromancer and added the mallyx Revenant (that can spam a Boon-Converter skill to convert boons into Confusion).

That made all the classes that can spam boons be Meta, but at the same time made the Necro a Meta class, and really strong one, for the single reason that in sPvP he Live on Boon Corrupting.
All the classes that can’t OverBuff themselves aren’t in the meta (Warrior and Guardian, for exmaple), the same for all the buiulds that can’t spam boons.
The only class that can’t spam boons but is in the meta is the necro, that can corrupt the enemy boons.

If you Reduce the boon spam you will also reduce the damage output and the efficence of the necromancer and at the same time make all the classes and builds that can’t be overbuffed all the time Viable.

Do you want to balance that game? Do the thing that we asked for a year (or more!): sto the Boon Spam!

Actually there’s only few classes that can play as a condi damage class.
Necro(Reaper) have to play condi just why if use only the direct damage inflict half of the damage (in spvp), but still if play only Condition damage. That’s the reason why necros don’t use Rabid (that will grant them to proc different traits and sigils) but chose to play mercenary/carrion instead, why they Need the direct damage to reach they’re full damage.

Then there’s some Revenants and some Mesmers, but the direct damage is frequently better, just why everyone use in it’s build all the condi clean skill that he can, just why the hate and the fear of condition damage is really high.

Actually the best damage is Direct Damage, nothing to say.

There’s then a large amount of NoDamage conditions that can be spammed by different classes and some secondary-effect condition spammed by other classes.

There’s a large amount of CC conditions in the game and debilitating ones.

Then if you fight a full team of reapers is for shure that you will find a large amount of condition damage, but out of that there’s really few classes that can use condition damage properly.

And if someone burst you down 90% isn’t why he’s condition damage but why he also use a huge direct damage or there’s other enemies that attack you at the same time with direct damage.

Sirendor.1394:

Silv… you’re embarassing yourself with your self-justifying reasoning.

If you PAY something and it makes it easier to WIN, that means you PAY to WIN. That is exactly what elite specs are.
1. You pay for them
2. You are stronger than people who bought the core game (B2P)
3. You can win easier

QED: Elite specialisations are P2W.

Silv.9207:

P2W: Buy Items in game with real money that are not included in the Main Game.

That’s right, exepting for a single thing that make it a BtP instead of a PtW:

HEART OF THORN IS THE MAIN CORE GAME NOW!!!

Go to the shop and see by jourself:
http://buy.guildwars2.com/store/gw2/en_IE/html/pbPage.heartofthorns?_ga=1.42065893.1133144091.1459592285

There’s NO difference now between old game and HoT, it’s all a Single Game and if you Buy it you have ALL the game, Old and HoT at the same time with no extra payment.

And anyway you can still overcome the Specializzation classes with a Core class, but it’s harder and not all the classes can do.
Try the engi bunker, the freshair ele, the mediguardian, the PUshatter mesmer, and more.

Anyway the warrior is really weak in that meta and you will still die easy with the Berserker specializzation, don’t make you wrong things thinking that with the Berserker you will kill everyone easy only why is a specializzation.

Kasteros.9847:

Silv.9207:

Kasteros.9847:

Silv.9207:

There’s a reson why Specializzations are better than the main class (not totally shure about the Berserker XD).

ANet simply want to sell HoT offering something better than the old game version and that “something” is the specializzation system. (more or less the only reason to buy HoT)

So… Gw2 has become P2W?! ^^ Cos atm. it looks like that. If u buy HoT u get access to OP specializations, otherwise u are kitten with core classes, cos they don’t stand a chance against new ones…

It’s a Buy to Play, not a Pay to Win, it’s a little but deep difference.
Do you wanna TRY the game? Play it Free!
Do you wanna PLAY this game, with it’s Full Potential? Buy it!

If you play as a free player you’re not playing GW2, you’re playing a FREE VERSION of GW2, a version that Don’t allow you to play all the game and don’t allow you to play at best.

Is it a Pay to Win? NO, ABSOLUTLY NO!
You’re still able to use a large amount of builds for every classes that work very good (try to kill the old engi bunker witht he actual meta, if you can! I’ve a friend that play that build and hold the mid 1vs3 all the time without problems, it’s still a OP build in conquest arenas but no one look at it why is without the Scrapper).

It was PtW if you had not only to buy the game (why actually HoT is sold with the main game) but also to buy gems to purchase equipment and items to make you strongher, like equipments that grant you +30% damage or damage reduction in spvp/www, items to sell at double the cost of items, buy with real cash a large amount of things that without it you’re unable to play like all the other players, still after you buyed the game.
But if at the moment that you Buy the game you’re at the same level of All the other players and there’s Not a Single Way that they can be Stronger than you (expecially in spvp, where the equipment don’t count and you don’t even need an exotic/ascended equipment to play or not even to reach liv 80), that’s called BUY to PLAY.

If you’re a free user you’re playing a TEST version of the game, just to TRY it and then chose to Buy it or not.

If you Really want to play GW2, Buy it. If you don’t want to buy a BtP game, continue to play withhout specializzations and don’t make noise if core can’t be played why too weak. (still why there’s a large amount of really strong builds for main core classes)

1. of all I BOUGHT a game and I;m not a free player. I own core version of the game – otherwise I won’t be able to type at forum right?
The point is that u can’t overcome expansion’s classes with core ones so it is either buy kittenty expansion or be out of league.
The point of gw2 was that it won’t matter what expansion u will be able to buy CORE content will stay as best as possible and now this content from CORE game isn’t giving me this feeling.
Once again it is P2W since u have to buy HoT that gives u over powered classes. Back in days before leagues I was one of few dragons that I got by playing warrior. Geez man I was in top 100 of EU… and now? I can’t do a kitten cos of unbalance. There is no way for a warrior to stand a chance against reapers or condi builds. He doesn’t stand a chance against DH either, cos DH is just aoe spammer, but when it comes to defending a point… well.. You can;t do much without zerker stance that WAS NERFED!
P2W apply to stuff that can be obtained and is better via real money i.e. HoT expansion that gives u much better classes. Or Can u tell me how to counter Reaper as Core Warrior without sacrificing all skills to counter condi reaper with kittentons of minions and be kitten with dmg. U know… balance means that u will be good at defence and good at attack, like any other class( for example Reaper – defence = DS, attack = condis and minions).

So to summarize. GW2 these days IS P2W as it sells better classes than core ones for real money. I would understand that if they would be balanced BUT THEY AREN’T! So in result IT IS P2W.

There’s a DEEP difference between buy items and equipment with real money or buy an Expansion.
In Every Single Game i played when a expansion came up everyone bought it why of it’s contents that grant them better things. It is always been and isn’t a incredible thing that happened only here in GW2.
OMG an Expansion!!1!1!1!!

P2W: Buy Items in game with real money that are not included in the Main Game.

BtP: Buy the game to unlock all the thing of the game, without spend other moneys to be at the same level of other players.

There’s a BIG difference, don’t you think?
-In the first case you have to eventually Buy the game (but frequently they’re PtW masked as FtP) and after continue to spend real money to keep your position, buy equipment, buy potions, and otain things that if you only play for free or play the core game you can’t obtain, and they’re things that if you want to go up in the game you Need or all the other players that pay with real money will kill you all the time without a chance.
-In the second case (GW2 situation), if you buy the game you have EVERYTHING.
At last if you’re an old player you have to buy the Expansion to play the main game like all the others, that’s true. But an expansion after 3 years of play don’t make that game a PtW!

I can gave you some reason if the Expansion was an Extra that you Actually have to buy After you purchased the game, but Actually the Main Game is HoT itself.
If you buy the game, you don’t buy only the old Gw2, you also buy HoT!

No, GW2 isn’t a P2W.
You just only have to buy an expansione one time and you’re ok for more or less 3 years (if they make another expansion with the same speed of that one).

I played from the release. I played for 3 years and spent 40€. Is exactly 0.9€/month.
Now I have to buy an expansion at 40€ (yes they had to sell it at a lower price to who owned the old version, but that’s businnes, buys!) and if they took the same time to make another (counting that they’re late still to what they wanted to do with that one, so late that they annunced a stop on the new Legendary Weapons release) I will play more or less the same time at the same cost: 0.9€/month.

Yeah, GW2 is sucking my soul away for how much I spent on it!

Seriously: a Expansion isn’t a PtW, only a BtP.

Only a single question: why have you 660 condition damage and some carrion equip if you’re using a build that totally lack of condition damage sources? You’re using a carrion staff, but the only condition damage the staff can do is a weak bleed (really weak) and 3 stack of poison (5sec) every 16 seconds.
It can be a choice if you at last use the trait to inflict damage with chill and burn in RS, but they’re not activated, then you’re totally without condition damage sources.
Isn’t better a Soldier instead of that Carrion?

Kasteros.9847:

Silv.9207:

There’s a reson why Specializzations are better than the main class (not totally shure about the Berserker XD).

ANet simply want to sell HoT offering something better than the old game version and that “something” is the specializzation system. (more or less the only reason to buy HoT)

So… Gw2 has become P2W?! ^^ Cos atm. it looks like that. If u buy HoT u get access to OP specializations, otherwise u are kitten with core classes, cos they don’t stand a chance against new ones…

It’s a Buy to Play, not a Pay to Win, it’s a little but deep difference.
Do you wanna TRY the game? Play it Free!
Do you wanna PLAY this game, with it’s Full Potential? Buy it!

If you play as a free player you’re not playing GW2, you’re playing a FREE VERSION of GW2, a version that Don’t allow you to play all the game and don’t allow you to play at best.

Is it a Pay to Win? NO, ABSOLUTLY NO!
You’re still able to use a large amount of builds for every classes that work very good (try to kill the old engi bunker witht he actual meta, if you can! I’ve a friend that play that build and hold the mid 1vs3 all the time without problems, it’s still a OP build in conquest arenas but no one look at it why is without the Scrapper).

It was PtW if you had not only to buy the game (why actually HoT is sold with the main game) but also to buy gems to purchase equipment and items to make you strongher, like equipments that grant you +30% damage or damage reduction in spvp/www, items to sell at double the cost of items, buy with real cash a large amount of things that without it you’re unable to play like all the other players, still after you buyed the game.
But if at the moment that you Buy the game you’re at the same level of All the other players and there’s Not a Single Way that they can be Stronger than you (expecially in spvp, where the equipment don’t count and you don’t even need an exotic/ascended equipment to play or not even to reach liv 80), that’s called BUY to PLAY.

If you’re a free user you’re playing a TEST version of the game, just to TRY it and then chose to Buy it or not.

If you Really want to play GW2, Buy it. If you don’t want to buy a BtP game, continue to play withhout specializzations and don’t make noise if core can’t be played why too weak. (still why there’s a large amount of really strong builds for main core classes)

There’s a reson why Specializzations are better than the main class (not totally shure about the Berserker XD).

The reason is:
ANet is pallnig to make More Specializzations!!!!!!!

ANet simply want to sell HoT offering something better than the old game version and that “something” is the specializzation system. (more or less the only reason to buy HoT)

But ANet is not planning to leave us with only one specializzation!
They want to make new specializzations every X months (we don’t know how much time they need to make a specializzation) and with that increase the build and game diversity.

But to do that right they had to do a faster work, release at last another specializzation in that months. But they’re occupied to fix all the sea of problems of the specializzations and they’re unable to balance the classes they made. Also why the system they use to create that build make them so versatile that is easy to make them OP if compared in sPvP or PvE. (I want a reaper or two in team when do pvp, but I don’t want to have more than one when I do PvE, for example)

They’re simply late on work, are bad to balance and aren’t good to plan they’re priorities.

That is it. Nothing more to say.

Anyway I’m losing my hope to see another Specializzation for my Necro in that first half of the year. I’m hoping they will release another specializzation before the 4° anniversary

Reaper is really really strong, one of the best spvp classes of the moment. But is still not OP.
But Why is so strong? Why ANet made it so strong? Why a lot of people say it’s OP?

-Shroud? No. The Shroud grant new powerfull skills (of you use the reaper) and grant you estra survavibility, but is both the only defence and the best damage a necro have, a thing that make it too risky to be wasted and frequently is better die than waste all the LF to survive 5 seconds more under a focus. And if you have it full you’re a god among mere mortals, but if you start a fight with no LF you’re a mere mortal among gods. It’s not a thing that you can “fix” and is the main reason why ANet was never able to balance the Necromancer, expecially in spvp.

-Condition Damage? No. Is strong, condition damage is really good on a Reaper, but what’s the difference between a necro and a reaper? Why before the Trait Rework system there was no one using condi necro (unless for Dhuum Fire glory moment) and now is the only way to play it? Why the trait rework made conditions be in stack, making burn really strong and the ability of the necro to send back the conditions a really good way to burst an enemy with his damage. The necro was unable to inflict good condition damage, but all the other classes was. Then redirect conditions against them was a really good way to inflict good damage and be “immune” to they’re high damage. But now there’s no more all that condition builds and the condition damage is no more strongher than direct damage.
Is hard to belive, but the actual meta is a DIRECT DAMAGE META. Just look at the builds in the metabattle: Power shiro herald, power scrapper, Shatter chrono. Then there’s a bunker ele and only one condition class: the Reaper. Then there’s direct damage thief, trapper guardian, a direct damage bunker or dps druid, eventually a direct damage warrior (I really love that funny oneshot build), and again teh Reaper.
Seriously: where the hell did you see all that condition damage? There’s Only the Reaper that play as a condition build! (sometimes the mallyx reve, but the shiro is better).
Then the Reaper isn’t OP why use conditions, also why the only reason he can play condition damage is why can Also use Direct Damage (Mercenary have the same amount of direct damage as of condi, is more a Hybrid than a condition build) and why Chill can inflict a good damage, reducing the problem of the necro to inflict damage (if you strip away chill damage from a necro you’ll see his damage reduced by 25-33%). Then he can convert boons, that frequently don’t give to the necro damage but soft CC (cripple), weakness and vulnerability, with sometimes bleed, a stack of burn or a stack of poison, that frequently don’t mean a big increment of the damage output.

-Survavibility? No. A reaper can be easy bursted down, expecially at the start of a match, when he have no LF. Just focus him and stomp. The reaper to survive is forced to CC the enemy and to kill him before be killed. Basicly in a common build the reaper have only a single escape button (the wurm) and then is totally without defence. If active the RS lose all his defence and is more easy to burst down and lose also his damage to survive a little longer (expecially in a a team fight situation).
In 1vs1 a good reaper can survive longer accumulating LF, starting with a full LF bar and using marks and eventually the spectral armor, but is still easy to burst down in a team fight why can’t protect himself.
Just Focus and Stomp.

Then why is so “OP”?

The answer is: Why Counter the Boon Spam with Boon Corruption.
That’s the only reason why the reaper is so strong in that meta. The only one.

Before the HoT the necro was the only classe able to kill eles and engis why countered they’re boon spam, making them weaker and focusing in direct damage, bursting them down, or reflecting the absurd Burn damage of the old cele ele build back to him.
Actually there’s elementalists, scrappers and revenants that spam boons all they time (expecially scrappers), and that make them a easy prey for a class that focus on the boon corruption.

Th only reason why the reaper is “OP” is why finally is a good class, with a good condi and direct damage (without both direct or condi his damage is heavly reduced, why play at his best with both the damage at the same time, with a mercenary “hybrid” build). But is still weak if you talk about the survavibility, don’t have any. Have not mobility. Have not AoE damage out of RS (and in RS have only skill 4 and 5, to spam poison or chill). Can’t hold a point in solo as other classes can do. Can’t be sent to steal a point. The Reaper is “bad” as always, is only more focused on boon corruption, taking under control other classes like engi, ele and reve.

The reaper is strong why the other best classes/builds focu on Boon Spamming, making him strong just by a Counter ability and not why is so much strong by himself.

Then, another time, there’s NOT a Condi Damage Meta. There’s a CC Condi spam Meta, is totally Another thing!
There’s only a class in the game that can really play as condi and is the Necro. Then all the other conditions you suffer was immobilize, weakness, vulnerability, cripple, slow, some collateral bleed and eventually confision, but there’s really a low amount of Damaging Conditions in the game.

If you look on you death screen during a match and see that a single condition inflicted you a insane amount of damage, then you’ll know that that condition is well balanced and not op why if it was OP it just needed to deal you the amount of your HP to kill you, not tree times more, just like a direct damage burst do.
Back in time, when Burn killed people with 80k of damage and everyone asked for a nerf, I was spamming on the form the same thing: Why a dps need only 20-25k of damage to kill you when a burn guardian need to spam 80k of burn (with also the direct damage to add) to kill you?
For the conditions on the reaper is the same think. more big is the numer, more time he needed to kill you.

The only reason the Reaper is strong at the moment is why keep under control the condi spam, there’s no other reasons to have a reaper in team out of make him remove boons from the focused enemy, no other reasons. Not why have a good dps, not why inflict conditions, not why have survavility or movement (that don’t have), not why can hold a point all alone (why other classes can do it better, in a high level spvp match).

reaper is OP? NO. Totally NO.
Is the right class in the right situation to counter the meta? (boon spamming and direct damage) Yes, it is. But still keep his weakness and can be defeated by a good player and different classes (daredevil, dragonhunter, a good herald or scrapper that know when Block/Evade and when CC and attack)

The reaper is balanced with the other classes, and even better, mantain a balance between the other classes, that is his main role in the ANet balance theory.

If you know how to play, the Reaper is hardly countered by daredevil, dragonhunter (if know how to face a reaper), the berserker (but need to know how to play) and is kittenered by any druids that know how to sustain more than they’re enemy.
Also the new Tempest build can counter a necro, with the same insane healing ability and a insane passive to remove conditions (1 condi every sec with condi remove from every regen -aura give regen- and trooper rune make him barely immune to conditions). Need just a little more time than before to kill the reaper, nothing more.
Ddirect damage Heralds also can burst down a reaper fast if theknow ow to play.

All the other classes can play more or less at the same level with a good build and a good player that use them.

Actually the reaper have 3 hard counters, 3 soft-counters and 3 that can fight and “easykill”.

It look balanced to me.

Rezzet.3614:

unblockable marks and wells+ Snap Cast = so much skill
heck even without snap cast they are all big aoe just sit on point dumping conditions and boon corruption

If you look there’s only 1 class that actually play full melee (engi scrapper), all the others play ranged or have a really good ranged option. Even the thief with the sinister have the chance to hit you really hard you with the SB or simply step in and out from your marks with the trick that clean conditions. or dodging your marks all at once.

If you can kill an enemy simply spamming marck and wells under your feets you’re shure that is a really bad player that don’t know what he’s doing.

Unblockable don’t mean OP. There’s other classes that have unblockable skils (revenant use a trait to makesome of his attacks unblockable, for example).

Have you ever seen a warrior or a necro that use his skill to make attacks unblockable?
if is so much strong on a weak utility weapon like the necro staff, why don’t you use it on all your skills with a simple utility?

That’s a troll post of a bad player, nothing more.

Condi transfer on AA is really OP like hell.
But all the other things can work, more or less.

My idea on DS:

1-AA) Invert the damage setting of the DS to deal more damage to distant enemies than to close enemies, making that a real Ranged chance to fight, and add 2 Poison(1sec) for a little condi damage. And make it a Projectile Finisher (20-40% chance)

2-Dark Path: make it an Area Target skill, then you hit, corrupt all the enemies in that area (180-220 area?) and stun your Target or a single enemy in the area (or all the enemies if that don’t make it too much strong), make a poison field (3 sec), that will work for corrupt the enemy boons and stun or as a teleport to escape and keep the range.

3-Doom) Is good enough to stay as it is. Insta fear with top range, not bad.

4-Life Transfer) Good enough, expecially if combined with traits, but add Stability at every Pulse.

5-Tanted Shaclkes) That’s one of the big problems of the DS: barely don’t inflict condition damage and the effect is really really weak, so much that frequently no one active it.
Change in: 1/2s casting, 2 pulses, AoE 5 target, inflicting 3or4 Torment (8s) when activated and at every pulse (for a total of 9or12 Torment); when activated, all enemies in 300 range are Immobilized for 1 sec. (to don’t make torment useless and to still be in line with a Ranged build). 40-45 sec cd.

That can make it viable.

The Marks are really good. But the damage is low.

The skill 4 (Putrid Mark), with the actual meta build (1050 power) have a power of 1050, and eventually with 25 stack of might (+750 power) have a power of 1500. With 20 sec of cd. And is the more “powerfull” skill in direct damage of the staff.

Ranger LB2 without any might have 2870 power with 10 sec cd. With might have a power of 3900.
Warrior rifle 3 have 2500 10 sec cd power with , 3400 with might.
DH LB 2 have 1900 power with 4 sec cd, 2600 with power.
Engi Rifle skill 3 have 1300 power 10 sec cd, 1800 with might.
Reve hammer 2 have 1800 , 2 sec cd, 2450 with might. Skill 3 have 1400, 1900 with might.
(I looked at ranged weapons in random classes)

Ok, putrid mark can be unblockable, but is not the best damaging skill ever!

About condition, the staff is a bad condition damage weapon, still with the damaging chill trait. (not counting condi transfer).
And is used at 90% why is the best Utility weapon of the necro and grant the best LF Generation.

Is unblockable? Good. But not OP. Not looking at the weapon it is.

Isn’kitten little too much?
5 seconds of immobilize+bleed every 10 seconds?
Applied really easy why the druid have a large amount of CC skills.
It break only with condi remove (if the root don’t immediatly re-immobilize you) or if you destroy the root.

It’s a Free Elite Skill (Entangle) but every 10 seconds on a single target.

I’m annoyed from druids that perma immobilize me just with that traits and then burst me down with the LB and the pet (the HoT ped still inflict a too much high amount of damage).

When I face them in 1vs1 I have to pay really big attention on they’re skills or I’ll find me perma-immobilized and easy bursted down. Expecially if the druid use the CC dps build, that spam CC all the time ad have a really high dps. (and still a really good survavibility)

Why someone have access to one of his elite skills every 10 seconds all for free?

Remove all the breakstun and stability effects from the utitlity skills of all classes and youìll see only CC in the game. Both www and spsp.

Sorry, I’m a Reaper and I seriously don’t know how you can spam conditions with the Staff…
Still if unblockable, it’s a weak condition damage weapon, used only why of it’s utility skills (condi transfer and fear) and why is really the best weapon to accumulate life force in sPvP (expecially why have a trait for that).
AA that don’t inflict condition, 2 bleed every 5 sec, 4s chill and 5s poison every 16 sec, condi transfer every 20 sec and fear (that also inflict 3s chill) every 32 sec. If you don’t accumulate damaging conditions in yourself to transfer to your enemy with Putrid Mark, the condition damage of that weapon is the worst of the game, still with the reaper traits for the damage on chill.

Unblockable marks fit perfectly the thematic of the necromancer and help to make that weapon viable.
The necro don’t have any really good defensive skills (only a protect+breakstun, a teleport wurm that frequently don’t teleport you where the wurm is and a shadow walk that is usefull only in few situations). The only defence of the necromancer is accumulate LF and kill the enemy before he kill you.
That’s why a unblockable weapon with utility skills is perfectly good and don’t make any real problem to the balance of the game.

Unblockable skills don’t make really big problems to anyone or you’ll see every reaper use “nothing can save you” to become unblockable for X seconds. But n oone use it and there’s a reason.

If you’re undefeated since you grabbed the reaper you’re probably a really good one or a really lucky one.

The Reaper specializzation made the necro viable in PvE and useful in Raids for his corruption ability.
Simply is funny to play and strong enough to be good in dungeon.

Jack, try that build, I fought some eles with similar builds with my reaper (I was necro since before the reaper specializzation, I’m not a meta follower) and is really strong and really hard to counter.
If you want you can try theMender amulet (lose toughness for precision and obtain vitality) or the Sage amulet (to add to power also a lot of condition damage, but losing in defence).

That is a really good build and work really good against condition classes (if you’re good you can kill easy a reaper in 1vs1 with this insane amount of condi clean and perma protection) and also good in team fights, healing allies and surviving a lot, while still doing good damage (not the best but still good, expecially if you lose defence to obtain offence changing the amulet, but is a personal choice).

Ele will al 100% be in Meta.

I’m really bad with ele, still when was OP XD

But I see sometimes eles in spvp and they’re good. Inflict really good damage, survive really good and also give support.

The only reason why there’s few ele player is why they’re no more Op and all the players that play only the Op class of the moment had moved to scrapper and druid. (and I love to find bad Reapers that think that is easy to play a reaper, then die really really easy XD)

The ele is a good class, DS nerf don’t made it useless and is still a really strong grandmaster trait.

They can’t kill any condi class they face and that made a large amount of players leave that class why thinking it’s bad. But actually is still a good class, so much better than mesmer and warrior.

If they can do that, then the scrappers will finally have someone that counter them

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

You still have the Best condi clean Passive Trait Ever and you complain that is weak????

The previous DS made good tempest to be virtually immune to contidions, that’s why they nerfed it.

Actually is really strong in 1vs1 and work really good in team fight. 1 condi cleaned every second? Yeah… is a weak skill… all the other classes have better condi removal trait… who need to clean a condition every second?

WTF, are you serious????

Yes, the previous DS was way better why made you totally Immune to imparring conditions and condition damage!

Is like a warrior had a trait that while over 90%hp is totally immune to direct danage and CC. Woult it not be OP?

Actually the DS is really fine. Strong in 1vs1 and really good in team fights. Noting to change.
it has not to make you immortal if you find a condi class, guys, it’s a passive trait, not a invincible shield to kill all your condi enemies with!

I was also happy if they simply nerfed to make DS make you immune to damaging conditions (torment, burn, bleed…..) but still suceptible to the other conditions (fear, immobilize, cripple, weakness, vulnerability….).
But actually is even better than that nerf I was proposing. Really better!

From the 75% up every sec qhen a enemy hit you you remove a condition… wooooah, I want it!!!

Then, if you really dislike it, give it to me, please <3

I use the Bladed Armor, is really amazing, with skulls and blades.

How to kill a reaper:
1) Use a Thief (best reaper-counter ever, since the launch of the game -with a break for the cele tempest-)
2) Use a dps druid and play ranged with Immobilize and Daze
3) Use a dragonhunter and take advantage from the Range to weak/kill him, then active invulnerability and burst him out of the RS or to death with Traps and GS if he come melee.
4) Use a funny killshoot warrior to simply burst him down fast (need some practice)
5) Use a scrapper to burst him down, CC him to hell and spam so much boons that he will never be able to corrupt them all. And you have also a lot of hide and block/immunity skills. And the Moa, that kitten moa! (Or Rampage, even better!)
6) Focus the reaper with your team and burst him down easy why don’t have defensive skills (out of that one-shot wurm)
7) Use another reaper and kill him XD (with my reaper I kill 80% of the reapers I find why only few reapers know how to kill another reaper)

Anyway the reaper isn’t able to inflict Condi-bomb like before. The amount of pure dps classes had reduced by a large amount the damaging conditions a necro can redirect against you to power up his damage and a large amount of your boons don’t becore Damaging conditions, only imparring (swiftness into cripple) or CC conditions (stability into fear), or not in a number high enough to become a danger.
Frequently the people see a lot of condis and think that the reaper is killing him, but they’re reciving low condi damage why that are all no-damage conditions.
The reaper actually have only 2 good skills/combo to inflict condition damage: Scepter 3 to inflict 7 torment, if you have 5+ conditions on you (a mallyx revenant can do much better with lesser problems) and the combo RS5+RS4, that stun and spam poison+chill. If you block/evade/immune/move away that 2 skill/combo the reaper lose a large amount of condition damage. That’s the main reason why every reaper play with Mercenary and not with Rabid. The rabid will be useful to crit and active sigils and traits to inflict conditions, but without the Power of the Mercenary your damave will be reduced by 30-50% (depending on the enemy).
But still without that combons is stil dangerous, pay attention.

Now you know how to kill a Reaper. Go and be happy!

Actually the necro isn’t OP. Strong, but not OP. Is hardly countered by thief, scrapper (that more or less counter… everything?) and good dragonhunters. And “counter” herald and druids, but only in a good situation. For a dps druid is easy to kill a reaper, just Immobilize and CC him to death while his pet and his LB kill the reaper fast with high direct damage. To kill a really good druid a reaper need to be equal or more skilled, and isn’t shure that the reaper kill him, expecially if the druid take the advantage of range and movement skils -staff-. (I’m talking in high level spvp, 1vs1 in a open space)

Actually I think that only the scrapper is really OP. Also the Druid can be OP, but only if used by someone that know how to play at best.

The Reaper is strong, but totally dependent from the team. If is in a good team can do really great things, be really strong and look like OP. But if isn’t in the best team he’s a only a good class. Just why is hardly countered by different classes and if focused can’t protect himself. A scrapper, a herald, a thief, can flee, protect, immune, hide and survive to the focus. A necro can only active the wurm once and then he’s dead.
That lack of survavibility make him hard countered by thief, dragonhunter, scrapper, dps druid (if know how to play against a reaper with immobilize and daze), and even Warrios. A good killshot warrior can burst down a reaper really fast (if good).
That’s why isn’t OP: strong, OP if in the right team that protect him, ress him and let him fight in range, weak if facing a team that focus with good/high dps or different classes that can use builds to counter him.
Scrapper, Druid, Revenant, they’re always good, no matter what classes the enemy team have, they at last will do a little worst but will not be totally countered.

Anyway that video show only a hylarious player that try to say that spam skills all around like mad can make him win all the matches XD
I really want to find him, Reapers like him are of my favorite prey XD

Scrapper, Druid, Thief, Revenant, Reaper/Tempest (depending on the team strategy)

Reaper/Tempest why there’s not so much condi damage builds in the game and that make the reaper weaker than the past season. Without condi damage to send back his damage has been reduced (in teamfight). But the reaper is really good to corrupt boons. There’s also the fact that the revenant can also corrupt boond, then there can be him in that role, doing better damage (expecially why don’t depend from Life Force) and with better survivability.
Tempest why is still viable in different builds, Diamond Skin is still a really Powerfull trait (expecially in 1vs1) against any class, expecially condition classes, also against a reaper (evade the first condi spam and scepter 3 or RS5, then simply heal to stay over 75% and kill the reaper easy). And the Tempest can output a really high damage and heal/support the team at the same time, with just a little lesser survavibility than before. (but need a good tempest)

Actually the “meta” is about Direct damage. That’s why you can Burst an enemy down with direct damage, while you can’t with condition damage.
You can be dangerous, spam some conditions, but if you miss your skills you will inflict low damage.
The reaper have 2 skills to inflict “high” condition damage: scepter 3 (7 torment if the enemy have 5 condi in him) and the RS 4, expecially combined with an icefield to spam chill. The best is to combine RS4 and corrosive poison cloud, but no one use it why chose other builds than the signet or the corruption make the necro totally fall out of the meta, losing his utility. (there’s much better dps than the reaper, with more damage and survavibility)

Then the only thing a reaper can do is use his skills to accumulate conditions and send them back to the enemy.
BUT the actual meta is more or less without condition damage builds and that make the necro unable to redirect high condition damage against the enemy (collecting conditions by signet of plague or random aoe condi, for example). That had already made the reaper lose a good % of damage, expecially counting that in the precious meta 50% of classes played with condi. (now only the necro and eventually the mallyx reve, but the shiro reve is actually a better dps why can burst down the enemy without making him redirect your damage on you —reaper--)

Actually the Reaper win not only for the condition damage but also why can inflict direct damage. That’s the reason why no one use rabid anymore and everyone use carrion or, better, mercenary. Witht he trait you can inflict good direct damage, making you able to play the condition damage and being able to kill someone.
If you play a reaper with no Power you lose from 1/3 to 2/5 of your damage.

Frequently i inflict more or less the same amount of condition and direct damage. Something like 100k direct damage and 150k of condition damage with my reaper.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNArYWnMbCtbid3AO3A0biFcBj6M0GiWQXtAQLIuK+FHjA-TRyCABGY+zhTBAAPAgZ2fQhjAgRK/uR9HU0HoqSQA-e

I sue that builod for solo pve. It also work for dungeons if you want.

As a secondary weapon I use the dagger for occasional condition damage, but commonly the warhorn is also good, also for the swiftness, godd for exploration.
There’s not really a PvE offhand weapon, more or less they’re all good.

There’s also the variation Sinister/Viper that work very well.

How to kill a Reaper:
Find a good point when you can see him come and you’re able to hit him with LB. If you start good you have 50% more chances to win the fight.
Spam traps before he arrive, then attack him from afar, if you have a breakstun use it hen he fear you with the staff, then start again to shoot. The range is the best enemy of a reaper, simply why hes ranged attacks are bad and his true damage come from Reaper Shroud, that is totally Melee.
And first of all, don’t use boons still he’s with his signets.
When he’s in the range of your traps and active them he will lose 1/2 hp if he don’t active the RS, then he lose a lot of it and his stability just to don’t be shotted.
Now you have boons from traps and your traps can be reactivated (expecially if traited for lower recharge time). Reactive them and use your F2 to move Away from him. When he’s in RS he’s totally melee and can’t hit you if you stay away, run always, don’t be immobile, don’t let him reach you. If he reach you dodge his skill 5 (really easy to avoid or block) and active your F3 if come melee and you can’t flee.
Now you swap to GS or Swod/focus (depending on your build) and simply burst him out of RS (he don’t have any defensive skill while in rs) and then kill him easy why without rs lose 1/3 or more of his damage.

Stay away, spam traps, block Rs5 and burst him out of RS protecting you with F3.

I’m a necro and find really hard against DH in positions when they can see and hit me from range. And there’s a large amount of that places in the game.

A good way to hold a point as a DH and kill easy avery necro that come to you is that:
Place all your traps in the point and then hide, making the enemy think that the point is empty. Then he will go in mid and your traps will take away from him 50%hp fast. Then you come and end the work. Easy and fast.
I tried that and is really funny XD
If a thief come you barely kill him before the fight start. (I downed a thief only with traps and was really funny XD)

A good DH can kill a reaper with positioning and taking the distance from him. Lose the point if you need, active the F2 to move away from him and flee if you need, just take the distance and burst him from afar.

That can happen by a bug that mix the reaper shroud skill 4 and the death shroud skill 4, because the basic skill 4 of necro shroud hit 9 times.
It has to be tested.

That female dark elf looks lime my teacher of inlay…

There was only 2 condi meta, some time ago: The Dhuum fire meta and before the release of HoT, when there was the fix of traits. The guardian was really strong with Burn, the ele much more. Everyone that was able to spam burn was good (the necro at this time was in meta only why was the only one able to kill an ele in 1vs1, then wasn’t in the condi meta why condi but only why a corrupter).

Actually there’s a large amount of conditions on the game, but isn’t a condi meta.
Every class take advantage of immobilize, blind, cripple, chill (still without damage), weakness, vulnerability, slow. All conditions that don’t inflict damage (chilled only traited by a reaper).
Then there’s only 2 builds that really work with conditions: chillsignet reaper and mallyx revenant. But there’s also some warriors that can deal really high damage with conditions (Sword Bers F1 is really good to burn burst someone). And some mesmers, but only few.

Then there’s some bleed from the thief, but is a collateral effect from the evasion skill spam (sometime too spammy.)

Condi meta mean that the damage dealt by conditons is higher than damage dealt by direct damage. Then, it’s not a condi meta.

Even the Reaper isn’t a pure condition build, expecially now. If you look at the main build, he’s using mercenary not only why have tough, also why have the same amount of power and condition damage, and about traits use also the one to increase critical rate depending on the vulnerability on the enemy. That why condition damage by itself is not enough to kill someone, or not fast enough.

With that build frequently I deal a little more direct damage than condi damage. Something like 170k direct and 150k condi.

There’s a large amount of conditions, but more conditions to CC and weak the enemy (also derivated by boon corruption) than conditions that deal damage.

I looked at a video of a streamer that screamed every time he was fulled with conditions crying why the conditions killed him. But looking at What conditions he was suffering was easy to see that he was killed at 70% by direct damage, there was only a lot of not-damaging conditions.

You have always to add in your build a condi clean more to clean vulnerability, immobilize, poison and eventually a damaging condition if you’re facing a condition build, but in that meta the only class that play “full condition” (why isn’t full, is half direct damage) is the necro reaper chillmancer.

Actually there’s a Direct Damage Meta.