Guild Wars 2

lordkrall.7241:

Daddar.5971:

I’ll just say that if PvE players had to go into WvW and clear every sentry point (or capture every camp, or every tower, or every keep, or SMC 65 times) we’d hear a lot of whining. I’m sure you’d be able to do it, but you’d resent the requirement.

You mean a bit like having to do WvW for world completion?

They’re pretty comparable. As a generally PvE player, I’m hoping they can come up with a fitting way to acquire the necessary Hero Points in WvW. It seems like the current availability of skill points won’t be enough.

Whenever someone uses the phrase “slap in the face”, I always wonder when the last time was that someone gave them a good slap across the face. Because almost inevitably, they need another one.

Re: projectiles passing on through-

It’d be somewhat unique to the Necromancer. Since it doesn’t destroy or reflect the projectiles for others, it’s selfish. Mechanically it’s still largely inferior to the destruction / reflection of other professions. It’s perfect, and I desperately hope it isn’t implented.

I’m interested to hear how long it takes to get larger structures to T2 & T3. If T3 can happen in under 6(?) hours with zero dolyak caravans, we may see more lock-outs on the bottom tier matches when one server manages to sweep a Borderlands for the night, or something.

I think the only major thing I’m still hoping for is some form of Endurance interaction in Blood Magic. I think it could fit well with the self-sustain vampire option (Drain endurance from enemies?), or vigor could be available somewhere in the minor traits.

I suppose it could also show up in the Death Magic line since that seems to be the other “For Defense” line? But Blood Magic just seems like it should be the self-sustain line, and getting dodges back faster seems like a form of sustain that’s high in demand for Necromancers.

Do you mean from the previewed changes? I’m pretty sure they explicitly removed that one because it rewarded taking mantras and then not using them. Their replacement for the damage multiplier was the new Ferocity bonus on the updated Harmonious Mantras, since that gives a damage bonus immediately after using any mantra.

While I think you can make a good argument for putting the revealed debuff on stealth expiring, the current interaction has destroyed Shadow Refuge.

The slowdown is pretty harsh, since Axe wasn’t exactly breaking the meta before hand. Hopefully they’ll cut down on its wind-up, somehow? Or buff it’s damage per swing. (If they did change the damage values, I can’t tell.)

But from a visual perspective, I don’t mind the new animation. Better economy of motion.

Hm. I kind of prefer the new animation, from a visual perspective. My Charr always looked like he was flailing when he used axe before. Now it’s a bit more under control. I wish they’d put a stronger carry-through on the backswing to emphasize the second hit, but eh.

Bhawb.7408:

Imo give it a 1s ICD per target (so people like Necromancers don’t end up healing them with weak-but-fast-hitting attacks that generate a lot of hits over a small period) and make it a true siphon, that deals damage, and works while in DS/RS.

This way it won’t be turned off, it has a niche that isn’t filled by Blood Fiend since it actually stacks up with Retal and isn’t just a passive heal over time, and isn’t totally awful against more than one enemy. But ANet will never go for a removed ICD without a massive nerf to its healing because of all the effects that deal very small amounts of damage each hit, but hit a lot.

Honestly this just makes me think a trait that makes retaliation siphon life (Proc vampiric?) when activated would be really funny and kind of appropriate.

KashimKudal.2961:

The passive of signets still work in DS. As far as Plague Signet- I suppose it’d have to be confirmed or I’ll simply test it in PvE today. Even if it only pulls 1 every 3s that’s still quite abit of LF sustain along with Unholy Martyr and AA. Either way it’d be a nice part of a build.

Currently, they don’t. To my knowledge, they never have. Start rethinking your build.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Softspoken.2410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Name one Necromancer skill that has visible blood spatter.

It depends on your definition, but readers might consider Blood is Power, Dark Pact (on the player character) and in a sense, Life Siphon.

visible blood splatter

Which means, red blood. Splattered in the air or on the ground upon hit with a weapon.

Yeah, those first two cause a red-coloured splat effect.

I mean, it’s no Sweeny Todd or Kill Bill, but it’s still blood. Turns out that creatures don’t just geyser the red stuff when you nick them.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Name one Necromancer skill that has visible blood spatter.

It depends on your definition, but readers might consider Blood is Power, Dark Pact (on the player character) and in a sense, Life Siphon.

The really interesting thing about chill is how differently the devs and the PvE playerbase value it. This is because in PvE, the things Chill does either aren’t as valuable, or aren’t there.

• Significant movement reduction – Well, me and my friends are melee stacking on this guy, they weren’t moving anyways
• Longer cooldowns – I’ve been told that many enemy skills don’t even have cooldowns. Even if they did, adding 5-10s on the cooldown of their big skill can actually be hard to notice unless you’re really looking out for it. Short of bosses, players don’t need to long-term anticipate most skills anyways, since they can read the wind-up tell and dodge.

However, against other players? Chill is crushing. Delaying someone’s major DPS skills will mess up their rotation, and increasing the cooldown between their heals makes it much easier to drag your opponent down. Dropping their movement speed to 1/3 of normal also makes your opponent a sitting duck.

I’m actually curious though: are there any bosses that Chill has a noticeable cooldown effect on? Longer burn phases, or less one-shot attacks?

I got the impression that the only attack that was a forced root was Nightfall, which is the one that (currently) drops a 3s duration damage field. I am not 100% sure, but I think it was the only time self-rooting was actually mentioned in the stream.

For the record: I use the signet in PvE dungeon running, because I barely need a heal as it is in most dungeon runs and technically it’s additional damage for the group.

But as for what I actually came in here to say: if Vampiric Aura becomes a full thing, I’m really, really hoping it can be added to the combo interactions with Dark combo fields. Going from 3s duration blinds to an aura that adds damage & healing would be a potent upgrade, and make Dark Fields & wells be way less feel-bad in terms of covering up other fields.

From a UI perspective, the skill could “flip” after its first cast so you have the familiar activated ability on your bar. This might improve Bone Minions if they also instantly aggro to whatever enemy summoned them, since you could then just spam the explosions immediately after the shout because they’re summoned directly beside the target. Otherwise the skill would only really make sense if it activated all the minions simultaneously. (Shade -> Haunt rush, Bone Fiend -> Immobilize Spam?)

You could also summon Flesh Wurms and get up to 5 consecutive uses of Necrotic Traversal. Which sounds kind of ridiculous, but also kind of fun?

I swear I’m the only person that thinks “Disabling your enemies to keep them from harming your allies” is called Control, not Support.

Would Permeating Wrath be something like Chilling Nova? Especially since they were discussing making it pulse the burn around your foe, instead of around the Guardian.

spoj.9672:

I was hoping one of the shouts would reflect projectiles. At the moment they are lackluster.

Adding a Magnetic Wave-like effect to one of them could be pretty fun and useful, and partly address the way that Necros are unable to interact with projectiles.

I’m not a huge fan of that interaction being elite-spec only, but shouts do feel like a plausible source.

Rym.1469:

But the thing I was hoping for the most was expanding the idea of Life Force and Shroud. When they gave the info that there will be alternative way to spent my Life Force, I got hopes up, that after suggesting it over and over for two years, I will finally get to play with Life Force more.

As much as I like the Reaper and all the reveals of today, I can agree with this. I thought they were going to expand the interactions with Life Force so it would be a more flexible resource. Maybe like how the Revenant will use the Mists and the Thief currently uses Initiative. There’s a lot of stuff that could still be done with Life Force design-wise, and it still feels like missed potential.

Fortunately, some of the changes seem to reduce the annoyance of staying in Death Shroud. Siphons going through is big, and that new Altruistic Healing-esque trait going through DS into the life pool is also a good omen.

Things that I’m still concerned about:

• Curses – Will this trait line get a grandmaster that isn’t condition-only?
• Blood Magic – Please make sure to include options that aren’t HP-equivalents. Vigor/endurance manipulation and allied condition control come to mind.
• Allied Condition Transfers – Related to the above, please consider changing some transfers from high uptime but slow, gradual transfers like Unholy Martyr to one-shot powerful transfers like Signet of Renewal since they work better with self-to-enemy transfers and bulk cleanses. They also offer more player control than waiting for a passive proc.
• Healing in Death Shroud – You threw us a much appreciated bone with siphons, but are other sources such as regeneration and allied heals being considered?
• Is there a chance that Vampiric Aura will replace the current Blinds granted by certain interactions with Dark Combo Fields? Because that would boost their value tremendously.

Finally:

• Reaper looks amazing, and I’m so glad to hear that you’re looking at making Blood Magic the support option for Necromancers. I agree with your judgement that trying to satisfy that demand with Reaper wouldn’t have worked very well.

I didn’t expect this Points of Interest stream to answer my concerns, since my worries are more about the base class, and this stream was about the elite specialization. So the comments and asides about things like Blood Magic were a very pleasant surprise.

Thanks Dulfy, you’re a credit to the GW2 community.

In my opinion, the two biggest surprises?

• There might actually be a condition spec in Reaper, since the new Death Shroud can do rapid AoE burning, and traited chill will presumably scale with condition damage.
• Blood Magic was singled out as a trait line that’s still under heavy work, and siphons now heal through death shroud! Progress!

The shouts look like they run a pretty wide spread for what they can do. A chilling condition transfer, minion summon, AoE weakness & might spike, Boon rip & unblockable… Something in there for everyone, really. And the new elite skill is such good control.

Yeah, it wasn’t nearly as long as I was afraid of. The 1-chain as a whole is pretty long, but each individual attack wasn’t too bad.

With any luck, neither will Alacrity.

Necromancer is actually pretty easy to level! Death Shroud can provide a good safety buffer when levelling, so you can get away with a few more mistakes than Mesmers. I’d recommend staff, dagger/warhorn for levelling, since that tends to give you a fair amount of damage with some flexibility for things like swiftness and CC.

I’ve been told minion master is a pretty solid build for levelling, since it adds damage and lets the minions tank for you a fair amount. But otherwise, for utilities I’d recommend Well of Suffering and Spectral Armor. They’re both 1 skill point, so you can get them immediately, and they provide a lot of power and defense.

rapthorne.7345:

The Mesmer and Guardian forums have had active ANet posts in them since their spec/elite spec reveals.

Us? Bugger all.

The sheer level of developer bias is so evident and so disheartening.

This attitude and reaction is a huge reason they generally don’t post in the profession subforums at all.

Captain Unusual.9163:

Bhawb.7408:

We don’t even know what the greatsword does, we need to chill out.

That’s exactly what the greatsword does, according to the blog post.

Then it’s alarmingly ineffective, based on the amount of threads generated here before the actual reveal of the new skills and (possibly) traits.

Edit:
If you’re talking about bouncing staff attacks, and you’re talking about the words around 3:08:30 in this video (I don’t know how to imbed timestamps into these urls, sorry) then they’re still talking about the Illusionary Elasticity trait on Mesmer.

I get that the hype train is off the rails, but come on guys.

I’d say Blood Magic, but that implies I was taking Blood Magic anyways.

Maybe it’s too optimistic, but I think that the trait reworks could still manage it. I mean look at Engineers: their lines were explicitly nowhere near done at the first preview. There’s still time for the Blood Magic line to get some alteration before the trait system hits.

They should have done it sooner, but I think that with everything else that’s getting shaken up, this is a likely time for big changes to a trait line like Blood Magic.

I maintain that while the specialization could have given that option, it would be better for the class as a whole to have impactful support options in their core trait lines, such as Blood Magic.

Edit: As Eggs said, we also don’t know all the skills yet. But even if the shouts turn out to have no allied support options, I’m okay with this specialization. I’d prefer the support solution to come from the core specializations, not one that’s only available at level 80.

Cogbyrn.7283:

EDIT – I don’t see why the damage redux from Chill from the Elite spec wouldn’t stack with Prot. Two different things. I really wouldn’t be surprised if Bunker Necro became a thing based off of an initial look.

Also for consideration: Putrid Defense, Death Nova, and Rise!.

As for the specialization in general:
So they did go with reaper. A little general, but that’s fine. What are they going to call the specialization line though, I wonder? We already have “Soul Reaping”.

The change to Dark Path looks really good. Death’s Charge will definitely have less maximum range (Probably 600 at most, compared to the technical 1200 of Dark Path) but it will move you even if you miss. Considering Dark Path’s all-or-nothing nature, it’s a major improvement.

I also saw a short range, but projectile-less pull in there, which also appeals. Lots of chill everywhere, which is great. Shouts seem interesting: they’re the new PBAoE skillset since Wells went ranged by default.

Still a bit annoyed about the focus on slow, long wind-up attacks. I get that they want that to be a Necromancer characteristic, but it’s still kind of annoying.

Doesn’t address a few other problems I have with the profession, (Glaring vulnerability to CC despite the design goals painting Necro an “all-in” fighter? Rather lacking methods for group support? Healing generally being in conflict with the class design?) but I don’t really want it to. I want those changes to come from the baseline profession, or the defensive core trait lines. (Blood Magic, Death Magic)

The skill’s always been a modification of Life Transfer, not a general change to siphons. It’s still a pretty good AoE heal, even if you don’t invest in Healing Power.

I’d appreciate something like this. Trip wire in particular could also just have an internal counter that causes the trap to break after it targets 5 different opponents. If you do it that way, the duration could be a lot longer than a 1-second window, which makes its effect a little more consistent.

Oh, sorry. For some reason I thought the health gain would be based on the percentage of your health pool, which is not at all what you were getting at. And because of the way that Death Shroud does it’s “half damage” thing, I always think of it as having a size from 120%-156% of your health pool, so that’s why some of my numbers might seem a little weird. (It’s probably more correct, if more complicated, to think of it as 60%-78% of your health pool with 50% bonus damage reduction)

Anyways. Taking that into account, the power level seems a lot more appropriate, since it’s shifting half of the damage prevention potential from Death Shroud to the generally more useful health pool. And I’m glad you’re planning on it being a major.

For a clearer wording, perhaps “Half of the life force you gain is received as healing instead. Healing incurred this way is doubled. No effect while in Death Shroud.”? At least, it doesn’t seem to do anything in Death Shroud as you have it written.

Man, I saw this thread title and got interested because I thought it was going to be a breakdown on how mobility is actually unnecessary for 90% of the fights in this game, which is why standing in one spot with melee weapons is so very good in PvE. (By comparison it’s kind of bad in PvP / WvW unless you’re also using control tactics to pin someone down for those high-damage channels, which at least requires some amount of combo)

Edit: Also, random tripping? Sakuraaaaiiii

My gut instinct is that it’s a little too strong. Personally I would say that 1% of life > 1% of life force, even if the static amount of life force can theoretically soak a larger (1.5x?) amount of damage. So this is increasing the value of life force generation by around 50%, to me. (1% lf -> 0.5% lf &1% life)
By comparison, Gluttony only improves life force generation by 10%. Maybe Gluttony could stand to be buffed, but this still seems a little too good.
All that said: I’m not confident on how to balance the numbers of something like this.

I like that it’s generating health in a way that’s tied to life force, so it promotes the usage of life-force heavy tactics like spectrals as recovery tools. There’s also strong potential for interaction with other trait lines.

I dislike a trait that’s using tradeoffs to balance itself in a minor slot (which is where Vampiric currently is). Since it’s on a minor slot, people may have to pass up some really good traits for their build if they feel that this interferes with it. For example, if a major build archetype wanted all the life force possible and didn’t expect to make use of the health, this would hamper the build.
That situation may not arise, admittedly. Still, a trait that makes you lose something seems like it should be entirely optional to a core specialization line.

I think I’d be less hesitant about Endless Stamina if the Thief had slightly broader Vigor access. Maybe in exchange for some of the defensive things in other lines?

It’s just that right now, it looks like Thieves will get vigor from one of three traits, including feline grace. Having the grandmaster minor boost its effectiveness means that minor only really matters insofar as the Thief has access to the boon. To me, the new Feline Grace doesn’t feel like it’s enough to make Endless Endurance feel strong, so to make use of it you’re either taking Vigorous Recovery, or you’re combining Acrobatics with Trickery for Bountiful Theft. Which aren’t awful traits or anything, but it seems kind of restrictive.

If there was one or two other ways to get small bits of vigor (A utility or two? Maybe a weapon skill somewhere that’s not seeing a lot of play?) the grandmaster would be much more desirable.

Don’t Stop might have the same problem, but the current 5sec ICD means it’s not as vital to have consistent swiftness uptime, as much as it is to have periodic access. Which Expeditious Dodger can provide.

Ragnarox.9601:

Softspoken.2410:

anduriell.6280:

velocity.4621:

tome ideas?
anything will do…just add passive 25% movement speed….i care more about that…
please?

It is said the heavy armour class should get movement signet/trait. Does the warrior have anything like that?
Right know you could use traveller runes or shout build to permanent swiftness.

I think our lack of speed is a annoyance but seems right for a guard. You aren’t supposed to run from a fight anyway.

I don’t think the Warrior has any traits or skills that add a passive 25% movement speed… There’s a few skills that have good swiftness uptime, and one trait that gives swiftness on crit. There are also other traits that reduce cripple / immobilize and such, but they don’t actively speed you up, per se.

But movement speed like that isn’t just for running away, it’s also valuable when trying to keep up with a target who is trying to escape.

They have, wearing melee weapons gives them 25% movement speed passive.

Ah, thanks! I missed Warrior’s Sprint in the list since the text description doesn’t say “movement” or “25%”.

Ragnarox.9601:

Softspoken.2410:

Vikkela.7261:

I admit I am jelly, they can finally break the chains of traveler runes when they go roaming

Softspoken.2410:

Probably because Guardians have Retreat! as a utility skill.

This is a joke, right?

Nah. It’s a relatively low cost skill that gives a good bulk of mobility. It provides swiftness instead of a 25% boost, with all the pros and cons of that. But it costs no trait points or rune slots, and doesn’t require a specific weapon either.

I find it a plausible contribution as to why Guardians don’t have access to an always-on 25% movement speed ability.

Dude do you even play guardian? Comparing Retreat skill to a 25% moving trait is ridiculous.

Ah, if we’re comparing it solely to the trait, then it favours the Mesmer. I thought we were talking about profession-wide movement options, where the 25% movement traits are usually quite limited in scope. (Necromancer one only works in Death Shroud, theif one only works in stealth, elementalist one only goes up to 10% in air, I think?). But often these classes get their 25% movement boost from a signet passive, (Locust, Shadows, Air) which costs a utility slot, much like retreat. (There’s a difference in that you don’t actively use the slot for passive signets, but you also only get a 25% speed boost, not 33%.)

The other thing about Mesmer is that it had rather poor access to swiftness. Off-hand focus gives a fair amount of swiftness, but it doesn’t apply when you’re already under the effects of swiftness, even if you’ve only got 2 seconds left on the stack. So it can’t be used to maintain a swiftness stack, only start it. Beyond that, the other option was Signet of Inspiration, which is relying on a random proc to consistently grant swiftness.

About as authoritative as the Banshee prediction.

I just wish the pull on Spectral Grasp was more reliable. While I feel like it’s pretty good at connecting (the projectile isn’t that slow, guys) it will basically never drag an opponent up-hill or over small objects. I like the shadowstep suggestion, except I think that removes the “Pull you over the edge” functionality that currently acts as its best usage scenario.

anduriell.6280:

velocity.4621:

tome ideas?
anything will do…just add passive 25% movement speed….i care more about that…
please?

It is said the heavy armour class should get movement signet/trait. Does the warrior have anything like that?
Right know you could use traveller runes or shout build to permanent swiftness.

I think our lack of speed is a annoyance but seems right for a guard. You aren’t supposed to run from a fight anyway.

I don’t think the Warrior has any traits or skills that add a passive 25% movement speed… There’s a few skills that have good swiftness uptime, and one trait that gives swiftness on crit. There are also other traits that reduce cripple / immobilize and such, but they don’t actively speed you up, per se.

But movement speed like that isn’t just for running away, it’s also valuable when trying to keep up with a target who is trying to escape.

Perhaps Ambrosia? Have a drink and disregard your opponent’s puny attacks.

It could have something to do with Bristleback specifically. You can see Chaos Storm & Blurred Frenzy later (32:50ish) but it’s much harder to tell what’s going on.

I’m guessing that the visual effect is over-scaled on the Bristleback though. Like when you use certain attacks on giant enemies (large air elementals for example) all the effects on them are way bigger than they should be.

Dadnir.5038:

Nobody though of the obvious Dragon Shroud ?

Shhh they’ll hear you!

I just can’t imagine this destroying Thieves any more than the reveal effect on Sic ’Em, or the way that stealth-busting traps were going to remove the profession from WvW.

I’m still really excited for Illusionary Reversion and Chronophantasia, albiet for different builds. Being able to preserve phantasms for one more attack after shattering them is nice. Or even just cashing in three phantasms by shattering them all twice in rapid succession.

Vikkela.7261:

I admit I am jelly, they can finally break the chains of traveler runes when they go roaming

Softspoken.2410:

Probably because Guardians have Retreat! as a utility skill.

This is a joke, right?

Nah. It’s a relatively low cost skill that gives a good bulk of mobility. It provides swiftness instead of a 25% boost, with all the pros and cons of that. But it costs no trait points or rune slots, and doesn’t require a specific weapon either.

I find it a plausible contribution as to why Guardians don’t have access to an always-on 25% movement speed ability.

The design of the new Siphoned Power is a step in the right direction, in my opinion. It just needs a different might duration or internal cooldown.

The old trait was pretty questionable since you had to let yourself get so low and have a good chunk of life force to make use of it. But the new trait will give you a couple stacks of might for attacking a low-health target, which is generally good strategy. Here’s to hoping they change the numbers so it can stack to an appreciable amount, rather than just being 2 stacks of might.

Edit: Clarity.