From what I see in the stream (the only i’m able to see) the streamer AA the golem but he’s not using soul reaping and there’s no way to see how Dhuumfire work.
Make it act on Every AA will be too much, granting too much damage to the necromancer. It’s a trait that work while in Shroud and is balanced around that.
Be able to use it even outside the shroud will make that trait OP and at best we’ll obtain a huge nerf of it making it bad even for the core class and the reaper.
The scourge concept is Not to be a DPS but a Support. That will cut our dps more than increase it.
A class like the Druid was able to fight at high level of damage even with a little more defensive statistics because HoT pets are Insane and the ranger survavibility is not chained to it’s Mechanic but to Active Skills.
With Barriers as the Only defensive ability (because we lose the Shroud meatshield to obtain a weaker but AoE version of it), we are Forced in a Lot of scenarios (expecially sPvP) to chose more defensive equipment, weapons and traits, obtaining more or less Nothing new to increase our dps.
No damage combos (we can waste all our Fx skills to spam stacks of 2 sec of torment, but is Nothing if compared to the Reaper 5+4 combo that can inflict more than 35k of damage in PvE), no Fields, No Combo Finisher.
The Scourge is more like a Weak version of the Tempest than a dps elite.
(edited by Silv.9207)
Holy kitten. Dhuumfire+Sandshades if gonna be op
If compared to reaper AA? Not at all.
You need to active Fx skills to make shades do something and active Dhuumfire, then that trait will be barely good.
I don’t see any real reasons to use Soul Reaping trait with the scourge. At best for a 20 sec cd breakstun+stability, nothing more, expecially after the Huge nerf to Vital Persistence and SoS.
Dhuumfire will add a little damage, but nothing more.
Better make a more support oriented build.
You will counter condis using shades cleaner F2 to clean 2 condis every 5 seconds and the old utility and weapon skills to send back or consume conditions.
Yes, the shroud granted better survavibility as a sponge, but while always outside the shroud we can active more frequently our condi transfer skill, granting us a better survavibility against condis.
Barriers are just bad and we’ll be Forced to chose Healing power and eventually Vitality to increase the amount of barrier we can obtain from every skill.
The only problem of that skill is the casting time. That reduce it’s effective distance if we’re running and with the amount of CC in this game we’re easly CCed before able to cast it, expecially now that we have only a single trait to obtain stability with 20 seconds of CD (using FoG with desert Shroud). We also can corrupt/convert/remove a random stability to obtain it but it’s not really a thing that we can rely on.
Other problems can be the range and duration. The mesmer portal is strong because the mesmer have 5000 of distance to active it a second time to make him and allies able to use it and 60 seconds of duration.
That mean different things: a mesmer can active it out of combat and then instantly reactive it and eventually flee from a really bad situations, totally free and shure to be safe.
That portal is Totally different: the start point is where you are and you istantly teleport to the chosen location (really different from the mesmer portal), the range is 900 and the place you teleport to can be a not-safe place, any teleport skill of this game have 1200 distance (unless the guardian sword that is 600), making that etleport subpar to others if used as a movement skill. The casting time can grant to enemies a huge chance to stop you and in WvW/sPvP that happen frequently (there’s a lot of daze/stun/fear in all the other classes skills and some make builds around that). That’s not a movement skill, it’s a portal to help allies to move around. Is more useful for a PvE Jumping Puzzle than for a sPvP/WvW area. After the cast it can be used to “jump around” evading the enemy, but a lot of them have huge mobility and really strong Ranged Weapons. A ranger will laugh about that jumping trick. Also the barrier will be gained only once for player or once every 5-10 seconds (as the necro spectral wall or mesmer temporal curtain).
Another thing is that if I run away from a dangerous place I totally don’t want to turn back there and the Scourge is a mid ranged support elite, then you will not stay in melee range but already in range. If the enemy come to you there, you will not chose to turn back there only to be killed.
We have to see it in action because we can’t know how good a necro can do using that.
If you like WvW there’s no problem to use a Necromancer. You have to stay in the zerg or with someone because any thief or mesmer can kill you easy, but in the zerg a necro is really strong spamming conditions (also using with Epidemic, I love it still if got nerfed).
In sPvP you can find hard times using a necromancer.
Actually the necromancer is only supposed to spam boon corruptions and the Reaper Shroud combo 5+4 to spam poison, chill and vulnerability, with also a good damage. Outside that, you’re the easiest class to kill, you can hardly do a 1v1 against any other class (we’re only able to kill ele and engi because they spam boons and we can corrupt them, also they don’t have enough burst to kill us before we’re able to do anything, as the other classes can do).
A necromancer that know how to play can be a great resource for his team but NEED Support and without it a necro is dead and can’t do anything useful.
At the start, you can feel a little frustrated (and also at higher ranks…) but if you learn to play that class, and find good players to play with, is funny to play and will grant you some satisfactions.
The necromancer is the best class I played, is funny, the mechanic is a little clunchy but good, the theme is great and deep in every skill and build you can use.
If you like to be the one that doom an enemy to death debuffing him while the others kill him easy and fast, that’s your class.
There’s a coming Expansion and a lot of things can change in the next days, but the necro is the best themed class of all.
Only a thing: If you’re a super pro player that like powerplay, perfect classes able to do the impossible and play in that 1% of the game that require only the best class and build, the necromancer isn’t for you.
In PvE is not required in any party, all the other classes can do things better and the only thing you can do better is survive longer with the shroud. Nothing more. Worst damage, no support and no might stack for allies (only for you). But you can still do great things.
ANet just nerfed our Corruption ability by a lot, looking to the Scourge.
The problem is that the Scourge don’t corrupt boons but Convert boons into torment and cripple. That grant us the damage we never had from the corruption mechanic but also reduce our support and strength in sPvP.
One of our main corruption build had been nerfed to the ground: Signet Build.
Signets no more corrupt boons, but also don’t grant Might, that is a huge nerf to our build. Actually there’s not so much reason to chose Signets or that Grandmaster Trait. Signets never granted anything to the necromancer until the corruption effect. Now that the corruption is gone there’s no chance to Signets to be used anymore. Only the Plague Signet is useful, but Not if traited because when traited we’ll carry too much conditions from our allies while in shroud and totally unable to clean/send back that conditions (basicly killing ourselves).
But the Spiteful Spirit now convert 2 boons instead of 1! Wow…
The problem is that also Speed of Shadows got nerfed and by that we’re unable to use this trait as it’s best, because we’re able to use it every 10 seconds and not every 7.
With the Scourge that will be even worst because the Desert Shroud have a 20 sec of cooldnown. Maybe that’s the reason behing the SoS nerf, to make players unable to spam that skill too easly.
Now, talking about the Boon Convertion of the Scourge, in WvW will be good to inflict damage and remove stability, but in sPvP, where boons are more precious, corrupt Protection into Vulnerability, Stability into Fear and Might into Weakness is our main trick since Years and also one of the Few things that keep us alive in a fight.
Now the Scourge isn’t able to Corrupt boons with his skills, only to Convert them.
It’s not really bad, the scourge have a lot of Expertise by himself and a Powered Torment, but it’s also not the best (depending on the scenario).
In sPvP, that make the Scourge main damage mechanin Weaker than the Revenant Mallyx Convert mechanic.
The scourge is basicly weaker than a core class (Revenant Mallyx), lose a lot of his team offensive support becoming worst than the core necro to corrupt boons (we can still use core trait and skills, but I’m talking about the main scourge mechanic as it “should” be played).
The scourge will be a better defensive support but if we want to be also able to Really Corrupt Boons we have to ignore more or less all the scourge Convertion skills and use the scpeter AA and the Corrupt Boon, without even be able to use our Signet Corruption Build, because is no more.
A Huge DPS will be good also in sPvP, making our lack of defence a counter for a damage able to kill people before they kill us.
But anyway the scourge don’t have enough survavibility to bè good in sPvP, then there’s nothing ti talk about.
The scourge (as it is now) isn’t a sPvP elite.
There’s Few boons on PvE mobs, enough to Active a punishment but only one and not all the mobs active boons.
If we have to use that skills to inflict damage there should be more and more boons on that mobs.
Bosses will spam more boons but there’s also the boon corruption of Mesmer and Warrior (and other scourge) to compete with.
Punishments shall grant us few more damage but not enough to make me chose them instead of other skills.
That’s also because anet can’t make mobs spam boons all the time only to make a elite viable, all’ the other classes would be in disadvantage.
Another “problem” of this skill is that it’s Not a Minion. Summon a sand snake but it’s not a minion, only an AoE hit.
If that skill become a Minion that inflict minimal power damage and 2 sec of torment every hit (maybe every 0.50/0.75 sec), with an Active skill that corrupt a boon AoE and grant a Barrier to allies in the same AoE (CD 30 seconds), it will become more viable for a Minion Master build, that will be really good with the Scourge traits.
Blood magic and death magic with scourge an you obtain a perfect bunker/support build with minions and boon corruption.
One of the iconic skills of the necromancer are Minions and every elite should have a Minion skill.
After the PoF Power builds will be made with Reaper and Condition builds with Scourge.
There’s no need to force a trait only to make it work with a Power build when everything on the scourge scream “Conditions!”.
Yes, a Power build with the Scourge should be interesting, but there’s still a chance to play Power using the Dagger/Warhorn, eventually in the old vampiric bunker build, making it work using defensive equipment and still being useful for someone spamming barriers and few heals (with blood magic trait).
Like in other classes, that elite will be made for Condition players. Guardian, Revenant and Mesmer obtained a Condition elite, then the already existing one will be made even more for Power damage. At the same way Thief and Warrior will obtain an even more Power oriented elite because they’re already existing elite is good enough to grant them to inflict high/good condition damage.
The Reaper will be reworked and the only trait that make us able to inflict damage (Deathly Chill) will inflict Power damage instead of Bleed, making condition builds impossible with that elite and forcing players to chose it for power builds.
Make the Axe viable for a Condition build is not the answer, it’s a Power weapon and there’s no need to make it a hybrid one or waste a trait to make it barely viable for a elite that don’t need it.
Punishmet skills have to punish you if you spam boons and that’s ok. But there’s also other ways ti punish you, other reasons.
Also, if I corrupt stability or might I want to inflict Fear or Wekness, not Tormento+Cripple.
That punishment skills are good but chained to that design that force us to don’t be able to do anything good if the enemy don’t have anything ti corrupt.
And that make this skills bad
Another boon corruption skill, yeah!
Basicly, the scourge is totally useless in any PvE enviroment and if you have more than 1 in your party they will fight each other to corrupt boons and be able to do any kind of decent condition damage, fighting now also against the warrior dagger AA that corrupt boons.
The skills itself isn’t bad, inflict poison, grant a barrier and corrupt a boon; the problem is that the Poison amount and duration is really to rework because you will inflict No damage with a skill like that, the barrier amount is low and the boon corruption will never work in a PvE enviroment.
I did the demo and the monsters occasionally have a boon, but last for few seconds and they don’t spam it, making you unable to increase your dps using the enemy boons.
A bad skill, nothing more.
The deathly chill that inflict 1 bleed is only in sPvP, in PvE and WvW you inflict 3 bleed every chill. And is like this since ever, at last in sPvP.
That’s true, people like to overreact (I’m in this side), and tomorrow we’ll be able to see how will be that new elite in PvE, WvW and sPvP.
My hope is big but we’re necros and ANet don’t like when we inflict high damage or obtain survavibility, then I don’t bet on the High condi dps side, not with that elite.
But maybe a good support should be a way to make a spot in Raids and Fractals for the necro.
Can someone explain me how Demonic Lore works, like if I use scepter 3 and apply 7 torment does that mean I will apply 7 burning as well for 3 sec or just 1 burning for 3 sec?
You inflict 3 sec of butn and the trait have an internal CD of 3 seconds.
It’s good but the best of it is the +33% to torment
Actually the reaper is a hybrid elite, but with PoF the Scourge will be the Power based elite
To say scourge will be a power based spec is laughable. Everything we know about it suggests it is a condi/support boon rip spec, specializing in dealing torment and burning.
I write Scourge instead of Reaper, I’m sorry XD
Only a little mistake.
The scourge is mainly condition, everything of that elite scream “conditions!”
still if that condition spam is not so much if compared to the actual reaper.
But the elite, the F5 and the torch used at the same time will grant a huge condi spam, still if for few seconds
In sPvP the necro may be better with Power than with Condi, depending on the situation, the enemy team composition and your team composition. They’re damage is not so different (frequently I inflicted more damage using a Power build than using a Condi one).
Compared to all the other classes, we’re the worst dps/burst class in this game, expecially compared out Power builds with other classes Power builds.
In PvE the necro have the worst dps of all and that’s the main reason no one want a necro in high level Fractal or Raid.
In WvW we’re good with condi, one of the best using the reaper combo with chill→bleed.
The power build isn’t bad using wells, but it’s till underperforming if compared to all the other classes builds.
Actually the reaper is a hybrid elite, but with PoF the Reaper will be the Power based elite and the Reaper will be reworked to make it more Power friendly (mainly changing the Deathly Chill from spam bleed to inflict direct damage).
Scourge will be condition, but also Sopport. That mean that the condition dps of the necro will be nerfed. No more OP traited combofield (no more finish combo at all), no more Dhuumfire easy to use (Shades do something only when you active a Fx skill, then you’ll no more able to use it fast as when you AA with the Shroud), it’s main condition spam is Corrupt Boons into Torment and that make it really weak against PvE mobs, classes that use no to few boons and have to chose to corrupt boons or transform them into Torment+Cripple (a scourge will not be able to corrupt stability into fear or might into weakness to reduce the enemy damage while using his Punishment skills, for example).
Also Fx torment last for only 2 seconds and Utility torment last for 4 seconds (but boons to corrupt are needed to inflict torment).
Expecially in PvE, the Scourge condition DPS will be seriously Weak if compared to the actual Reaper.
it’s a pure support elite and not intended to inflict huge damage.
(edited by Silv.9207)
There’s some changes that count as buff and nerf at the same time.
Signets with improved effects that last even in shroud? Buff!
Plague Signet that kill you while in shroud because you don’t have Active skills to remove conditions? Nerf!
Signets that no more corrupt boons and grant might? Huge Nerf!!!
Speed of Shadow that remove imparring conditions and grant swiftness? Buff (maybe only to fight druids, but still a buff)
SoS that no more grant Shroud cooldown reduction? Nerf (huge nerf for different builds and no more so good to make a SoS/SpitefulSpirit combo)
There’s also different buff to traits no one use and no one will ever use at all like:
Life from Death (expecially after SoS that don’t grant shroud cd reduction)
Terrifying Descent (I didn’t even know it was still there)
Spiteful Renewal (no one will take it with reaper because Bitter Chill is too good, let’s see with the scourge…), and that also can be considerated a little nerf because you go from 5 sec CD to 18-35 sec CD of a healing skill. increase the threshold from 25% to 33-50% (eventually increasing the ICD to 6 seconds) should be a better fix. But now look as the meditation trait on heal for guardians: add heal and clean a condition.
Soul Eather (good, but there’s both Decimate Defence and Chilling Victory, they’re way better than SE, the healing is low and the LF isn’t enough but still better than nothing, and help to fight the lack of LF generation of this weapon)
Grant PvE traits and skills to sPvP is good, granting a little better effects. But that’s not enough to make them really strong. Anyway, it’s still a sort of buff, that’s true.
The only big buff I see is Spectral skills with increased duration even without the trait (that with the nerfed trait become the same as before while traited using the “old” version).
There had been different buffs and nerfs. The Huge nerf to Vital Persistence had already been fixed reducing the LF degeneration by 25% and that’s good.
The other things can be good buffs and prepare us to the Scourge.
We’ll have to see how the Scourge will interact with this traits, because Plague Signet is a suicide while in Shroud using the Death or Reaper shroud, but will be really good while using the Scourge because that elite can use all the weapon and utility skills (because don’t have a “real” shroud), making that signets really strong for him.
The Scourge also have enough Might Generation and Boon Corruption to don’t need the old effects of Signets of Suffering and that will work perfectly.
Everything had been done to make Scourge work better with the current traits, not for make the core class or the reaper better.
We have still to see the changes to the Reaper when the expansion will be released (they can’t kill our only source of good condiiton damage until the expansion release).
In common PvE is good.
In top fractal is good only with a full necro party because to inflict enough damage need the condition combo of the Icefield to spam bleed but the other classes dps is weakned by that combofield (compared to a more useful Fire field spammed by an ele or a war).
In Raid is trash. You can be tolerate but more than one necro is a waste.
In the end, no one want a necro in a high level PvE fractal/raid.
In WvW is really good! need some practice but is really good.
In sPvP is trash. You need a babysitter All the time and in an organized team it can be done, but it’s a solo/duo queue, then if you don’t play with a friend that use an ele to support you there’s not a chance to survive in a teamfight.
A good necro can do good things, but it’s one of the worst class to do sPvP.
With the actual nerfs to the Signet Corruption build there’s even lesser viable builds to use and if you want to use the Spite Signet you have to Not take the trait, or you will carry all the team conditions even while in shroud, killing yourself.
Thief have a high dps in PvE, then it’s viable in almost all the fractals and raids, is one of the top class in sPvP and is the best WvW roamer class.
The necromancer is really funny to play, but if you want something strong to play with the thief is better.
It’s probably like that, we will obtain good things from the next expansion.
There also will be a rework for the Reaper, to make it totally Power based.
The problem is that now the necromancer is total garbage until the expansion. We have to play more than a month with the worst necromancer ever appeared, with traits reworked without any wisdom (plague signet that steal 2 condi while in shroud is a suicide) or made purely to make Scourge better than the Reaper and Core (Vital Persistance)
We can only hope. Also because pre-Hot the necro was not so bad, able to kill all the enemy condi spec. Right now the necro/reaper is worst than the necro pre-hot.
Till the expansion we can do nothing more than play with what we have.
Spectral Armor grant 8% LF every 1 second (because have and internal cooldown), then it’s not truly scaling with the number of opponent and for shure don’t grant more LF based on the enemy hits. But for shure is the best defensive skill of the necro because you can enter the shroud and use that effect to adsorbe damage better.
That mechanic will be Totally Useless with Barriers because you obtain a Fixed amount of Barrier (based on your healing power, and maybe vitality) but you’re not directly using your LF as defence, then increase it while using a Barrier will not grant more survavibility at all.
That’s one of the Big problems that reduce the Scourge Survavibility.
Also, while in Shroud the enemy Power damage inflicted to you is Reduced by 50% (is not applied to Conditions). That make Barriers even Worst because the shroud damage reduction is Not applied to Barriers. To obtain that effect you have to use the F5 to enter the Desert Shroud, otherwise the barreris suffer the 100% of the enemy damage. But otherwise, you can obtain this damage reduction even using Only the F5. But that’s not enough to make barriers good as shroud (in a defensive way)
The Portal have a good range (900 isn’t the best but still a good range) and you can active it and be teleported to the chosen location, obtaining the barrier and opening the way for your allies. Then you’re able to use it again to come back and then go again, as you can do with the portal. That looks similar to a teleport, with 3/4 sec of casting and lower range.
The main problem of this skill is the Casting. It’s not Istant and with tons of CC in game, an obvious animation and the total lack of stability (you can obtain it only using FitG trait or stripping it from your enemy), be interrupted while using this skill is really easy. That make this skill not perfect as a defensive skill. A common Teleport was better for our self defence, but that’s a skill that grant also to allies a free way to go and then have a long casting to be used.
Another problem is that in a team fight you can’t use it to flee in a Totally safe spot as the mesmer can do with the Portal. A mesmer can active it and then use it as a “oh crap!” skill to Totally flee from the fight and be able to disengage and obtain his hp and cd back, while the enemies are still fighting. It’s an Huge advantage that this skill will never obtain.
We’ll be able to use it as we always wanted to use the Wurm, but keep in mind that 3/4 sec are half of the wurm casting speed but still will not grant you a so big movement if you’re already running, expecially with swiftness.
Scourge will obtain different good things but it’s survavibility will be seriously bad if compared even to the Core class, expecially for the Spectral Armor/Walk LF generation while in Shroud powring our meatshield strategy.
The scourge gameplay will be totally different from the Necromancer and the Reaper, you have to kite More, to Run More, have a Better Position. But any enemy with a Teleport will catch you easy and fast anyway. And then all your barriers will grant you half of the survavibility of a core necromancer.
Untill you’re able to move and flee, there’s not so much problems but when the enemy immobilize you or use a teleport you will regret to don’t have the old Death Shroud.
Ditching shroud should have been a way to add mobility, blocks, invulnerability, and other things that scale with being focused.
Why?
We already have the second lif… oh…right…
Umm no. Desert Empowerment and Sand Savage work together. Desert Empowerement has no cooldown, and Sand Savant makes your shade count as 3, so you get 6k barrier every 10 seconds for spawning it, and 2k every 8 second with shade skill 3, equals to 8k AOE barrier every 10 seconds. We dont know if the barrier numbers are baseline though, or with invested healing power, but that is the intention behind the trait.
Same thing with Sadistic Searing and Unending Corruption, if you pick either of these traits and sand savant you cause 3 stacks of burning AOE or corrupt 3 boons AOE every 10 seconds.
Ok, that’s true. I was thinking only about the F3 Sand Cascade and not about the Trait.
well look at spellbreaker, that is most defiantly a wvw or spvp spec. deadeye screams wvw, lok back at HoT, the druid was build for raids. not every spec needs to be useful in all game types.
The druid is insanely strong in sPvP and since the release obtained a healer role, with also high dps. That class was made for raids but was one of the best in sPvP since HoT release and right now is one of the best class at high tier.
Anyway, that elite is not meant to be played in small scale PvP but to Large PvP areas like a WvW zerg.
The Fx skills work on you also without shades and that’s the only good thing in that mechanic.
I really like this elite, the theme and the animations, but it’s totaly bad in sPvP.
I will try and play WvW for the first tine since years (I hate the WvW).
The only problem is that in WvW if someone catch you alone you’re doomed. But in a zerg there’s a chance to survive and be useful.
[quote=6678019;Brujeria.7536:The shield is decent, especially if you trait for the big sand shade, that alone is a 8k shield every 10 seconds alone.[/quote]
You can be hit by all the 3 shades using the F2 or an ally can be hit by you and all your shades, but the effect is granted only Once. You will obtain only a 2k barrier, nothing more (with zero healing power).
For the other things, I agree.
One of the best thing using shroud instead of barrier is that you can use the Spectral Armor while in Shroud to obtain a sort of immunity (8k every sec while hit is really good ti hugely mitigate the damage, is similar to a immunity skill, expecially in 1v1).
About the damage reduction, maybe while you use the F5 you obtain it, but it’s all theory.
Anyway the combo Shroud+Spectral Armor (expecially if traited to 9 seconds) will make even the Core class obtain more survavibility than the Scourge.
Also the Barriers grant a fixed amount of damage adsorbtion, while the Shroud grant a full meatshield.
Scourge have lesser survavibility via meatshield strategy (the only we have, still using the scourge, they only called it Barrier…) but grant it to allies and that’s his strength.
if someone manage to don’t be heavly focused and don’t die every 5 seconds, there’s a hope to use it in sPvP as a support, but the hate against the scourge will be so high that it will be focused at 100%. Easier to kill and more dangerous to let alive. Not a chance to survive in a teamfight.
2 Punishment skills (Dessicate and the Elite Ghastly Breach) have a radius of 300.
Also Trail of Anguish have a unknown radius, probably only right back to you (the skill seems to be a weak copy of the Engineer Slick Shoes).
We have skills with Small radius on an elite that don’t have any defensive skill and lost his shroud to obtain a weak meatshield barrier. And that skills are normal(some are weak) and Heavly focused on the Feed from Corruption trait.
The theory of this class is stay in a Safe Place, spam Shades and grant barriers to his allies using this shades as an extension of himself, granting him Range and a Safe Spot to work as a backline supporter.
The problem is that the radius of this skills means that you Have to stay in the fight to active them.
Right into the fight.
With No defensive skills.
Maybe we’re supposed to enter the fight, spam our skills and then turn back using the portal? That also have a 180 radius to hit the enemy (but is a defensive skill so there’s not a real problem about that)
Can I ask, ANet, why there’s low radius skills on a elite without any defensive skill?
Also you Corrupt Boons into Torment and Cripple. That mean that if you corrupt Stability you will NOT obtain Fear!!
And that make that skills Bad!
The only reason that Corruption is good is to convert stability into fear and might into weakness, there’s no other reason to use them! (unless to remove resistance, then it’s also good a kind of corruption like that)
More I look to Punishment skills more I see that there’s huge problems on them when associated to the necromancer playstyle (expecially when Weakened by barriers).
Shades attack when you active a F1-5 skill, then when you cast another shade or active a Fx skill they Hit, activating Dhuumfire.
That’s the theory.
That also is a big problem for the shades because you can active them only few times and using your mechanic skills (losing defensive skills to inflict Poor damage).
Active a Fx every 5-20 second to inflict 3 stack of torment for 2 seconds is not the best skill ever, but is still possible. You also need LF to summon and active Shades.
There’s also to know how they work and interact with traits with F5 because the Desert Shroud last 6 seconds and spam 7 torment.
The shades are activated only Once? They continue to inflict the shroud 1 torment Plus they’re torment? They continue to spam Dhuumfire while the skill is active because they hit the enemy?
Also, Dhuumfire will inflict only 1 burn on a target still if 3 shades hit it?
There’s a large amount of things that we need to know to say if that elite is strong or not.
For example, 1 Burn every time you active a shade skill will make Dhuumfire really weak, up to 3 will make it good, 1×7 activations of Desert Shroud will make it really good, 3(or 4 counting you)x7 activations of DS will make ti insanely OP.
There’s too much things that we have to know to say if lose the shroud will grant us good or worst things
The problem of the Celestial was not (only) the overall amount of Stats, the problem was that different classes was able to maximize themselves in both survavibility and damage becoming unkillable. Whyle who was unable to do that was totally kept away from the meta. If you wasn’t able to spam Might, Protection and/or Regeneration you was off the meta, no matter what.
Also Everyone will turn back to Celestial if possible, without exeption. That amulet was too good and every class will make bunker/hybrid build with it just because it’s too good.
Add back the Celestial amulet will only delet our DPS/Burst meta and turn back to the Bunker meta.
The bunker meta was seriously Boring.
Everyone think that it was better than now, but it wasn’t.
Be more skilled to kill someone? NO.
If the enemy was an ele or a decapper engi you had to be in 3 to kill him and the fight was of 3+ minutes. I don’t think that something like that was called “Skills”, even because any decent player was able to play a ele and last for Minutes before die, even against 3 players.
I seen different times when two eles found themselves fight in 1v1, then stop fighting and just stay in on the point doing nothing because there was not a single way one of them was able to kill the other one.
Is that what you mean for “more skilled”?
The Bunker Meta was funny but also Boring as hell.
We asked for years to change the meta and now you want to have it back?
If you don’t think that in the actual meta you need skills to win there’s something wrong and you’re a incredible Pro or a N00b.
Timing for burst or for active a defensive skill, Disengage, Positioning, Teamwork, there’s a Lot of things you need to do to kill the enemy.
I find out that to survive and be a good player in this meta you need to be seriously Better if compared to the Celestial meta.
Celstial is too good because grant ALL the statistics. And that make you Stronger than if you have 3 stat maxed.
Do you remember the Mercenary amulet and how much everyone cryed because was “too strong”?
It was strong not for the overall amount of statistics but because granted both Vitality and Toughness. That granted a more equilibrated and then Better defence.
Reduce the amount of weak spot is the best thing you can do in a game like that because you can just spam might and fury and you’ll be strong as if you use a Berserker amulet, with all the defence of a Celestial user.
I don’t want the Bunekr meta back and add the Celestial will only make EVERYONE use it.
It’s too strong, grant too much, cover all the weakness of different classes and make them insanely strong and force the gameplay into a Bunker meta.
Eles disperatly want it back only because they was insanely OP with it and was able to be Unkillable and spam out so much damage that was stronger than a Berserker user (seriously).
I don’t want to have to bunker meta back only to make a class happy. the ele is still the top meta and make teams win by himself. No need to grant him to be OP again.
Don’t add Celestial back, Pleas NO.
No, the icon was kept the same to don’t make players know if someone was using core or elite. That was made to don’t grant you an advantage. You are able to know if the enemy use a core or a elite build, changing your gameplay before the fight.
The game is interesting if you can’t know exactly what’s the enemy build. You have to face it, look to his weapons and then try to figure out what’s his build.
Anyway, looking to some classes, if you see a Power or a Condi weapon you will know exactly what’s the enemy build. For example, the Reaper will be mainly Power, losing his condition trait (they make it work for Power and not for Condi) and if you see it use a scepter it is a Scourge and not a Reaper (at 90%). Or you can know if a guardian is a DH or a Firebrand looking to his Virtues.
You don’t need to nkow Everything. That game is supposed to grant you the chance to play Every Role with Every Class and there’s not a real reason to make you know if the enemy is using an Elite or another directly targeting him or directly in the minimap.
Also some elites will be stronger than others in sPvP and there will be a difference between them in numbers.
Looking to the Scourge, if the elite stay as it is you will see few of them in sPvP.
In PvE and WvW the Scourge will be really good (maybe not in raids or top fractals, but who know…).
In sPvP his defences are lower than the Reaper and even the Core necro (for different reasons and skill combos), and his damage output will not be enough to justify a similar lack of survavibility.
There’s different things about that “mesmer” mechanic adapted to the necro that we need to know before make real suppositions.
In sPvP the new things granted by the scourge are that you can obtain the corrupted boons from your enemies and you obtain a Portal, that’s the only reasons that I see to play a scourge. It have lesser survavibility than the core necro and the dps will not be so much higher than using the actual Reaper combo. Also the strategy of the Scourge is to corrupt boons all the time and nothing more, living you with only a Portal to escape from the death (if the enemy don’t CC you to the hell as they already do, still if using the reaper we have different ways to obtain stability). I see it as the easiest class to kill ever made in this game. Let’s hope that I’m wrong there will be enough Barrier, Heal and Support to survive and support our allies, making of us a real support class and no more a “corrupt and die” bot.
I’m not positive about the Scourge mechanic because I mainly play sPvP, but I’m curious to discover how different trait combinations will work on it.
Before HoT I made a really strong hybrid build and with the Scourge I should be able to bring it back, then I will to try it.
Some builds will highly benefit from the Scourge, others will do way better using the Reaper. Also because ANet will change the Reaper traits to make it more Power oriented, forcing all the players that want to play Conditions to chose the Scourge.
Healing grant us a chance to use the trait Transfusion to heal our allies every few seconds, looking to the low CD of the Fx skills (8 seconds if is the skill 3 that active that ability).
Also force us to play with Support equipment (with healing power), making us unable to spam Barriers at top strength with Carrion.
A win win situation for a Necromancer is too much to ask to ANet. We’re not so beloved to ask something OP as other classes obtained in a lot of situations.
Actually that is the only Healing based rune with also Condition damage and that can make it a good rune for the Scourge, that basicly need Healing as primary stat (is a support with barrier strength based on healing) and Condition as a secondary stat.
Anyway there’s different runes and new runes will be added with the new expansion.
I don’t like so much the actual healer runes, then that one can be a choice.
Vitality also fight conditions and affect your amount of LF, then Vitality is better.
I’ve seen a lot of this complaining about scourges having no stability, but every boon we corrupt can become ours, and since everyone else bleeds stability…
In WvW, that can be really good.
In sPvP you will obtain it only during a team fight because in a 1v1/2v2 the enemy will Never grant you a such great boon. No one eill grant you a free fear and stability.
That will make the necro feared and hated more than now and every focus will be more hard than ever. Alse because we will be more killable than ever.
But yes, in WvW that trait is marvelous.
If that come true, Immunity Skills will recive a Huge nerf and there will be more space for a necromancer in PvP.
We fight with “this mechanic” since the game release using the meatshield Shroud, then we already have things to come along with it.
If the other classes lose they’re Immunity skills in favor of Barriers all the game should be re-balanced.
The necro will be able to fight at the same level of a warrior in terms of defence.
The Reaper had a Minion skill and we’re missing one for the Scourge, then it’s probably a Minion.
A undead sand snake?
“-weaker mechanic offensive “combo” than the Reaper (in sPvP with the RS4+RS5 and Deathly Chill a reaper can spam up to 25k of damage over 9 seconds, while in PvE and WvW the damage can grow up to 65k over 9 seconds. The Scourge inflict lesser than 19k of damage on a Moving target with Powered Torment and few Burn over 7 seconds
Would love to see the math you used to get this one."
Just logged in, put on the best condi build, looked to the skills and combos and did math thinking to how much Torment/Burn the class can spam using his Fx skills (unless F1 but thinking that he start with 3 shades). I didn’t added Dhuumfire but there’s a chance that any Fx can active the Shades, granting it’s effect and inflicting 1 Burn for every skill activation (don’t know if when they hit with the F5 effect they inflict another burn), but anyway thinking that they inflict 1 burn still if all the 3 hits (or that trait will be seriously OP in the hands of a scourge, granting him too much damage).
About defensive skills i mean skills that stop the enemy to kill you: Block, Invulnerability (even only against Direct damage or resistance), Evade, Stealth (you still feel AoE but in 90% of situationa stealthed class can flee and evade a lot of hits), even Mobility skills that Can’t be Negated.
We have only SA that grant Protection, SW that make us run and turn back to our enemy to get killed at demand, Spectral Walk can be ignored with Stability or Resistance, the Worm can be killed and half of the time there’s objects between you and it and you’re not teleported on the right place. Also, compared to the Reaper, you lose the Rise!, that adsorb a lot of damage and is good to fight different classes (like revenant for the sword skill or guardians to active traps).
For stability we can use Foot in the Grave and nothing more.
feed from Corruption is seriously insane as a trait and in WvW will grant us great things, but in sPvP will grant us poor effects, expecially while fighting in 1v1. A skilled player will never active Stability fighting a necromancer because will only grant him a Fear, then there’s not a real way to obtain it from a decent player, also classes like thief, ranger, mesmer and guardian don’t use Stability (maybe the guardian with his passive trait) and if can obtain it they will not active it anyway. Better 1 secon of Fear than a breakstun that grant to the enemy another Fear.
Maybe I am a lot too much pessimist, but thinking to a sPvP enviroment that elite really lack of what can make it useful. Not becuase can’t do a great role but because the role will Not Change at all from the one we actually have, the strategy si the Same since Years: Corrupt Boons and Die (maybe Powered but still the same and will still make us killed, as always) and there’s not a single way that elite can survive better than even the Core class to a Focus.
And I can tell you that we will ge focused even harder because the scourge will be able to corrupt more, obtain more Spam of Powered Torment and obtain tons of Boons, but at the same time will be Easier than Ever to get killed.
The Portal will be good but there will be for shure a ICD for the Barrier and more likely you will not be able to obtain another Barrier from it after the first one (or that will be too much for a 20 sec skill).
I really want to see the last Utility skill that we don’t know and then Try that elite specializzation to see how it will work in a real fight.
In WvW that elite will be really good, but I’m more interested in sPvP and in that area that elite will probably be “meh”, if not trash.
Scourge problems:
- no stability
-no defensive skills (unless a portal that we still have to see)
-no Combo Finisher (we lose the Leap and the Whirl from the Reaper to obtain nothing)
-no Stun (we lose the RS5 and the Elite of the reaper, then we have only the warhorn as a Cc different then Fear or Immobilize)
-no movement skills? (we lose the leap but obtain the Portal. To see it’s range, casting time and more in a real fight)
-worst Lf generation (compared to the Reaper the Scourge lose a lot of LF generation, also becoming chained to boon corruption)
-Worst meatshield defence (barriers are only another version of the Old meatshield strategy, nothing more. But you can’t use your full LF to survive, the barriers last for a fixed duration and have decacy, you can’t use the Spectral Armor/Walk trick or the unholy marthyr to generate LF while in shroud and you also lose the 50% direct damage reduction that you have while in Shroud)
-Highly chained to corrupt Boons to his Defensive and Offensive strategy, that will not work against a class that use few boons ro don’t use any (and there’s a large amount of builds that don’t rely on boons anymore, expecially because of necromancer corruption ability). Basicly, if the enemy don’t have boons you do Nothing.
-Chained to the area, can’t play freely moving all around because need to stay near his Shades to obtain a good effect, more or less as the old Turret engi, only a little mobile. That is seriously a Big problem for a class without any kind of defensive skill unless Spectral armor and a Portal (that also strip him away from his controlled area…)
-Mechanic damage output chained to Static Shades (that may grant a lot of damage in a static fight like a PvE boss but a really low damage in a common PvP fight. But for shure will be good in WvW zergs as a long range build using Shades and Punishment while in shorter range)
-weaker mechanic offensive “combo” than the Reaper (in sPvP with the RS4+RS5 and Deathly Chill a reaper can spam up to 25k of damage over 9 seconds, while in PvE and WvW the damage can grow up to 65k over 9 seconds. The Scourge inflict lesser than 19k of damage on a Moving target with Powered Torment and few Burn over 7 seconds -from the end of the execution-, using all his Fx skills -starting with all the 3 Shades- and using ALL the Fx skills, then also losing your defences to inflict damage.
-Weak Support, easy to ignore (expecially if compared to other classes and to what the necro was able to do also before, the Scourge don’t grant anything better than another class can do. No better might stack, no better condi clean, no AoE CC. the only thing that grant is a Barrier with a decacy that in PvP or sPvP will be totally Ignored because will stop maybe a single hit and not even it’s total damage if is a strong one)
That’s all the things i think about the possible problems of the Scourge, expecially if compared to the Reaper.
The Scourge is good, will grant more tactic and are control effects, a Little support and a good condition damage. But I dont’ think that the damage output will be so strong to justify a similar lack of any kind of barely decent defensive skill and the support granted is low and will be just ignored in a lot of situations.
that Elite (as it is now) will not grant us any new Role, any spot in raids, any victory in sPvP, any strong damage…
I can’t belive that ANet proposed us that elite…
On the paper there’s so much problems and lacks on this elite that there will be for shure problems while in play.
Maybe it will reveal to be strong and with few fixes the support and the damage will grow stronger and everyone will want a Scourge in team for support and/or damage. But if I look at it for how is right now… I will never want a similar class in my team.
We already have Dhuumfire that spam burn with F1 skills, maybe with every hit of shades, granting us to spam up to 3 burn every time we summon the third shade and eventually when we active any other Fx skill because they react hitting the enemy with torment and cripple (if they don’t do strange things as they always do, that can be possible).
If you add another burn with every torment we’ll be able to spam up to more than 6 stacks of burn every time we active a Fx skill and that’s a little too much (expecially with Desert Shroud because we can active it and then continue to active the F1, increasing teh torment/burn spam)
If the mechanic is the same as the mesmer and we can spam shades spamming the F1 skill, we’ll be able to inflict up to 3 burn every 1/2 sec (depending on cast and aftercast) only with Dhuumfire, if you add another Burn for every hit that willl be seriously too much. 3 F1 skills with all the shades in game and any kind of enemy will die without mercy with 18 stacks of burn spammed in 1.5 seconds. A little too much, don’t you think?
Deathly chill is a strong trait, expecially in PvE, but spam Bleed and Bleed inflict lesser damage then Burn and in sPvP is well balanced inflicting only 1 bleed/chill.
3 stacks of bleed inflict just a little lesser damage than a stack of burn, but that’s another PvE/WvW balance problem that we’re not here to discuss.
That’s the only possible (and wise) reason for this ICD.
Also the main reason to take this trait is increase the damage of Torment, that is already a really goo thing, while the Burn is only a complement to make it even stronger.
All the actual shroud traits will be easly used on the F1-2-3-4-5 of the Scourge. Maybe Transfusion will see it’s buttone switched from 4 to 3 in scourge because the F3 will grant the Barrier to allies and seems the defensive “support” skill of the class, or maybe directly to F5 because last longer enough to grant the time for all the healing stacks. Dhuumfire may affect all the Shades hits, granting us a burn when a shade hit the enemy while we active a Fx skill (maybe only one still if the enemi got hit by more shades, but that will make this trait totally useless), the same for Unjelding Blast and Reaper’s Might. PoC may be added to F2 and make you convert a conditions into boon for allies and boons into conditions for enemies.
Traits that work while you’re in shroud or when you enter or exit it will perfectly work with the F5 because you tecnically Enter the Desert Shroud still if you mantain your skills and all.
I don’t think that there will be any kind of real rework, at last a different address for a lot of traits between core/reaper shroud and scourge fx skills.
A lot of that traits will become totally useless because all the shades count as 1 for the skills fomr F2 to f5. Maybe shades will count as 1-2-3 using F1, but when using the other skills you will shurely inflict only 1 Burn/vulnerability and obtain 1 might because the desctription itself say that the enemy can be affected by that skills only Once per cast (a thing that is not write on the F1).
The thing that I want to know now is: will we be able to Recast a Shade still if it isn’t disappeared?
That will grant us to cast it and inflict 6 stacks of Torment and 3 of Burn every 1/2 or 1 second (depending on the skill cast and aftercast) and build up 3 stacks of might.
That seems legit to me, also because the main mechanic come directly from Mesmers and they can cast new clones/phantasms removing the oldest one. That will grant us to continuously spam that hits and obtain a good amount of damage.
That will make you spend all your shroud fast and will prevent you from using your weapon skills but our weapon skills are not so good, unless for the scepter 3. The only problem is that this Torment last only 2 seconds and to be competitive we have to be able to spam a lot of it.
We’ll see what will be of it in the next weekend when we’ll be able to put our hands on it.
The other problem is: 3 shades activated with Desert Shroud will inflict up to 21 stacks of Torment over 6 seconds (still if not ticking at the same time because they last only 2 sec, it’s still 21 stacks of -trait powred- Torment).
Not usre how you are getting 21 stacks here.
One thing though its that scourges will have an insane amount of boons and a bunch of area denial.
Im also eger to see the skill changes they will make to the other traitlines since they all have to be changed to work differently. You cant have abilites that work when enterign or exiting shroud or while staying in shroud presumably. Also at least transfusion will be able to heal us now.
21 stacks of Torment(+Burn) are the combination of 3 shades that tick 7 times the Desert Shroud. Every tick make you and your shades inflict Torment and if that’s calculated as a hit for the Dhuumfire you will also spam 21 stacks of Burn. Still to see what ANet will do about that.
Conditions will be nerfed, then that combo will be weaker that will be right now.
About entering the shroud, you can enter the Desert Shroud, then when you active your F5 you obtain every trait effect as if you enter death/reaper shroud, the same when the Desert end. That also will grant you all the passive effects as when you are in shroud (50% critical rate, dhuumfire, condi clean from death magic, condi steal+LF from bloodmagic………). Also i think that your shades will obtain that effects all the time, making them perfect to spam Dhuumfire and eventually to use the sanctuary to clean conditions from your allies and obtain LF.
Everything is possible and also will perfectly work for a support shroud.
About transfusion traits, we’ll finally be able to obtain heals from them and be healed by our allies.
Well… torment… From the look of it, the main source of torment of the spec are the shard which are caped at 3 with a 15 second cd between each other and, yes, static. Those shard passively apply 2 second torment (probably every 1.5 second like plague form use to). Theoretically against a static target you can maintain 6-8 torments stack and burst it to a lot more by burning all your cool down. It’s undeniably good for pvp area denial, the utilities are usefull for wvw zerg support but for PvE… Let’s be honest, for pve you’d rather not take the 33% torment damage trait. That would be a waste. I think that keeping with the bleeds as main condition and only relying on torment and burn as secondary damage conditions will be the PvE path of damage and most likely the trait that will be taken is the one that only allow 1 shard but on a shorter cool down and with a greater efficiency.
Shades are static and that’s a problem, but in sPvP shades can be a chance to obtain some kind of area control, like the engi turret.
The main problem (a really big one) is that this Shades attack ONLY when you active a F1-2-3-4-5 skill… That mean that if you don’t active any Fx skill your shades don’t cast any kind of skill, doing no damage.
The other problem is: 3 shades activated with Desert Shroud will inflict up to 21 stacks of Torment over 6 seconds (still if not ticking at the same time because they last only 2 sec, it’s still 21 stacks of -trait powred- Torment).
The same for the Burn if you use Dhuumfire! You will stack up to 21 stacks of Burn! (plus few more with the scourge traits).
I didn’t add the torment/burn granted by you (other 7 stacks of each) because only a fool will run into the mid with a elite specializzation like this one. if with the reaper is already a risky thing, with scourge you will only die for nothing.
That will grant us to spam an INSANE amount of Torment+Burn and will make the Scourge Feared by everyone!
That will also increase even more the “kill the necro first” game, with now a elite that don’t grant us any kind of survavibility.
Only the teleport seems to be good, but you can’t compare a single teleport to all the teleports and leaps the other classes have.
I already see thieves searching for scourges with they’re new shining Rifle and they’re Malice to burst us down in few seconds with damage and CC without granting us any way to survive.
But without the Desert Shroud you will do absolutly nothing with that Shadows and they will stay there doing nothing and looking to you dying near of them.
That elite have the potential to inflict a really Insane condition damage and corrupt boons all the day long (and also obtain teh corrupted boons, that is the real strength of this elite!), with few easly ignored support abilities (still if it’s a support elite…).
The thing that make me fear is that there’s nothing to keep that support elite Alive.
That Elite Specializzation will bring a new thing to this game that never was before: the first Support Class that Need Another Support Class (different from himself) to Survive!
A really new achievement for this game that we didn’t even wondered about.
(edited by Silv.9207)
No stability, no shroud meatshield, skills with casting, barriers with low hp and casting, only a single portal to move that seems to teleport TO the target and Not away from it, no block/inv/evade at all…
I don’t see how that elite can be good sPvP, it’s so easy to kill that right now I can say that any barely decent player will kill every single Scourge easy and fast if nothing change.
I hope to be wrong, but that elite lose ALL the Reaper defensive skills, the Shroud meatshield and don’t grant any new way to defend yourself. Not even the portal seems to work to defend yourself but only to catch the enemy as a gap closer.
Barriers can grant you up to 12k hp, but you have to Cast them and they degenerate or disappear in few seconds, making you totally unable to protect yourself from any kind of assoult (expecially from anyone that use CC skills). Basicly, you do Better with the current death or Reaper shrouds than with that new Barrier machanic…
That’s really Sad because that specializzation focus is on Support and not damage, making you inflict lesser damage and dying quickly.
We’re already the easiest and faster class to kill of this game, how can we play with a specializzation that make us even more killable?
About the swiftness, we already have the warhorn if we want swiftness and that buff never make our emeies unable to kill us because all the other classes have insanely stronger movement skills than us. Any mesmer, guardian, warrior, ranger…basicly everyone… can catch us really easy with teleport, leap and immobilize skills, that’s the reason for the necro is so easy to kill in sPvP: if you see one and you’re a decent player there’s not a single way a necromancer will flee from you (may be with the wurm but you can kill it easy and fast before start the fight).
The same I can say about the Cripple. We actually play with tons of Chill to keep our enemy near us to hit him with the GS or slow him to be able to flee… That strategy ever worked? NO, it don’t!
Every single class can catch and kill us easy because teleports and leaps aren’t affected by movement imparring skills (unless immobilize).
I really like that new Elite Specializzation, i like the theme, the skills, the graphic effects and the torch, but i don’t see a future for it in sPvP and as a sPvP player I’m really really sad.
I still see no survavibility in that elite specializzation.
Our class problem is not boon corrupt or manage conditions, we are “bad” because we’re too easy to kill. And that elite don’t grant us any kind of survavibility. More than that, that elite make us even easier to kill than before!
If we look to the total of the Fx+heal skills we obtain more or less 12k of barrier. Basicly If someone chose to kill us we have to spend a lot of LF and our heals only to die faster than before.
I’m a little sceptic about the use of that elite in serious high level sPvP…
There’s some really interesting skills and in PvE (or eventually WvW zerg) that elite will find a good spot in every team.
Shades seems interesting But…if you don’t active a Fx they do absolutly Nothing…and that make them barely useless…even if traited with dhuumfire…
The shades can be good only if you enter the Desert Shroud, granting to them and you to spam torment+Burn, otherways they’re Totally useless to inflict damage.
But there’s another problem about that for the sPvP: 180 radius.
You’re forced to play with a Pure Glass build and to inflict torment you need to stay near your enemy? Really?
That can be good if you can spam your shades all on the mid, active the DS and then run away, making that combo really OP. But there’s another thing that come to my mind: that shades…have they a HP bar? Can the enemy destroy them? If yes: too weak and useless. If no: insanely OP and soon hugely nerfed.
The other skills are good and grant different kind of support to the team. Boon corrupt, condition convert for allies, weak barriers, swiftenss and might.
More I look to that skills more I see that there’s a Huge spam of Cripple, Boon Corruption/Convertion and lesser survavibility than before, with a decent amount of damage but not so much more than what we can do with the actual Reaper Elite Specializzation (expecially for the Fx abilities).
The thing I see more than all is that we don’t obtain any real new role using that elite…
We obtain few really weak barriers and nothing more. We can clean conditions from allies instead of steal them to send back to the enemy with Plague signet, but that’s only a different way to do the same thing as before, we can grant 5 might every 16 seconds, but actually we can grant 10 might every 20 seconds if we want, we obtain boon corruption and cripple spam but we can do the same right now, only with different skills… Also looking to the amount of Cripple every skill inflict there’s a chance that ANet want to force us to use that cripple+swiftness from our skills to defend us, as they wanted to do with chill… a thing that never worked and never will work…
In a sPvP area I see this new elite with pessimism. No survavibility at all, no new role, no enhanced damage. The only good things I see are the elite (because spam Slow), the torch 5 that grant a knockdown (I found it in another post) and the trait that grant you all the boons that you remove/convert, really huge thing if you fight against a ele or a scrapper, but actually only Few classes rely on boons to kill someone, expecially a necromancer, and in PvE mobs don’t use boons…or at last they actuually don’t use boons. It can be really strong in WvW, where you can corrupt boons all the time long.
All the other things are really good but don’t grant us all that Support, all that damage or any kind of survavibility that I expected from a Support Elite Specializzation.
I hope to be too much pessimist or that elite will be Really Bad for sPvP and not so good for PvE.
(edited by Silv.9207)
They had to do something new and the only new mechanic you can do with a necro is remove the shroud.
They did the same thing to the ranger, making him adsorb the pet to obtain it’s power.
I’m not shure about it’s survavibility in an enviroment like sPvP, we’re already slaughtered all the day still with the shroud, I hope there will be a serious amount of movement and defensive skills to grant us a chance to survive in sPvP without our old meatshield mechanic.
But that’s the only thing that scare me, I really like the theme and the new role. Finally we’re able to cover our biggest lack and obtain a way to support our allies in some manner.
Support builds are frequently defensive, then we’ll obtain ways to survive better… I hope…
And the new elite specializzation is a SUPPORT elite!!!!
I’s without the Shroudn, then I hope that these new crowd control, area damage and defensive skills and movement skill will be good enough to keep us alive where we can’t survive not even with shroud (expecially in sPvP…)
Reaper was made to be a Power AoE spec, not a DPS. The difference is that the GS damage is only a little better than the dagger and in different situations worst (if you miss a gravedigger or two your dps will fall under any dagger/warhorn combo), but the GS and the Reaper have more AoE skills. The GS AA hit 3 enemies, the same for the Reaper AA (instead 2 of dagger and 1 of DS, still if can pierce the taget) and them both have good AoE skills like RS 4 and Gravedigger (that is really strong when you’re able to spam it, still if slow and useful only in really few PvE fights…).
The Reaper was supposed to be and Unstoppable AoE Power elite. The elite have stability on the elite (that can grant a Lot of stab stacks) and at the release the RS3 granted stability for a really long time, then nerfed by a large amount during different steps.
Also the Chill damage had been Nerfed. That nerf was only for sPvP, in truth, because in PvE and WvW spam tins of bleed is more effective than spam chill that don’t stack and make your damage come up after a lot of tine if there’s anyone other than you that use chill (even with a secondary effect like the ranger axe or the guardian hammer trait). Now had been buffed and finally grant a good damage in PvE and WvW, but in sPvP is still underpowered if compared to before the change.
We didn’t obtained any dps elite spec, only an AoE spec able to inflict a little more damage than what we was able to do before, with a finally good way to obtain stability.
That elite should grant us a real dps or a way to support our allies.
I hope to the support because that will bring a real different playstyle to the necro and is the only thing a necro totally miss in any kind of possible build.