Guild Wars 2

Here’s my understanding of them:

Minions can help put out a lot of damage, but tend to be very single target. They can also soak some damage for you (especially if they body block projectiles) but that comes at the cost of then reducing their damage.

You can’t control minions as well as a Ranger can his pet (it’s Attack My Target or nothing, really) but they do follow pretty well. You also don’t have quite as many tools as a ranger does to heal your minions, but you can also resummon your minions much more frequently than a Ranger.

From what I’ve noticed, they’re perfectly suitable for PvE stuff and even dungeons. You just have to be aware of your minions and desummon them (Swap out the skill) if you’re trying to sneak around. Once you’re in a fight, they’re gold.

Edit: I just remembered, there are a few fights that still punish for minion usage (usually by contributing extra AoEs) such as Subject Alpha in CoE path 2/3, and SE path 3 with the fire & geyser dredge mid-boss, for example.

nortagemdrol.9071:

It’s a shame that dungeons are all about speed clears and making money. I cleared SE path 2 last night for the first time and the last boss was a great challenge and a lot of fun.

Ugh. This is my pet peeve with SE: what I consider the best boss fight of SE explorable is in the worst path to run.

Frankly for me, SE 2 is just too long to be fun.

Dasorine.1964:

tbh I’d rather they introduce 4-5 skills for single wielded weapons (for everyone as well)

Silly how we get an “off-hand light” skill but no ones going to be using off-hand light due to lack of 2 skills and stats

The entire reason off-hand light skills exist is for about the first 5 levels of the game, so the thief isn’t stuck with just 2 skills if they don’t get an off-hand weapon from an early monster drop.

On the larger subject of more weapon sets for the thief, I vehemently disagree. 3 mainhand 2 offhand is 6 different sets, and all of those combinations have distinctive play styles due in no small part to their #3 skill.

First path cleared. Time was about 42 minutes, essentially no skipping, only one player ever defeated that I noticed (who managed to be revived during the fight) and an all around solid run.

Andele.1306:

Softspoken.2410:

Andele.1306:

Bhawb.7408:

There is just no way that you can make an elementalist have that kind of accessibility without completely pooping on the balance at higher levels.

F3-4-5-F1-3-4-5-F4-3-4-3-5-Pop arcane shield = Ele version of Rage Signet – Bull’s Charge – Frenzy – 100B

I’m really not sure what your point was with that post?

You just compared a 13 skill sequence involving two attunement swaps to a 4 skill combo available on one weapon, in a conversation about accessibility. So you’re agreeing…?

Its the same type of hard hitting combo, only on a full aoe basis, the elementalist is designed to be a attunement swapping class so no, i just pointed out that you can do just as much with the ele as with the warrior, its actually even more accessible than the warrior setup because it doesnt require any utility slots selected and keeps the enemy cc locked for the duration.

I think we’re working on different definitions of accessible, but thank you for clarifying.

I recognize this thread!

But anyways, 1h mace. Or 2h hammer.

Andele.1306:

Bhawb.7408:

There is just no way that you can make an elementalist have that kind of accessibility without completely pooping on the balance at higher levels.

F3-4-5-F1-3-4-5-F4-3-4-3-5-Pop arcane shield = Ele version of Rage Signet – Bull’s Charge – Frenzy – 100B

I’m really not sure what your point was with that post?

You just compared a 13 skill sequence involving two attunement swaps to a 4 skill combo available on one weapon, in a conversation about accessibility. So you’re agreeing…?

Majora.6028:

I shouldn’t need to worry about running from the Waypoint to the Howler King without dying. I never worried about that before. I could easily make it, without even getting hit. Now I’m lucky to make that first left turn without 15 things tackling my kitten to the ground. Oh, dodge roll, you might say. We all did. Everyone but the thief got their kitten handed to them.

Reasons to clear trash mobs. Especially the second time.

Quarktastic.1027:

I can’t wait until they buff up CoF. The QQ will be glorious.

I shall drink of the tears of the CoF Farmers.

Drinking the tears of AC farmers was hilarious, but then I was hit by terrible remorse about all the exotic gear I could have bought with them instead.

For prefixes… Coroner, embalmer, corruptor, gravedigger, torturer(?), anatomist?
For suffixes… the terminal, the decayed / the decaying, the putrescent, the grabby, the mummified(?), the undying.

That’s all I’ve got. Hopefully something you like comes to mind!

Well, that’s annoying. Consider it added to the list.

My personal theory is that there isn’t a clean “isChanneling” check for characters, so traits like Dark Armor have to be programmed to recognize specific skills. And there’s just a lot of skills that got missed.

Bhawb.7408:

I’ll need to look into that. I’ve used this mic a lot before, I’m wondering if it is dieing or something from use, since I have used it for duo-queueing in LoL for half a year, and my partner has never mentioned something. But I will definitely see what I can do about that, I’d like to think I’m actually saying things important enough you should be able to hear them

Ah, I don’t mean to imply you can’t be understood! I can always tell what you’re saying without issue. But there’s just some static that’s getting brought in with it, that might be worth taking the time to track down and eliminate.

The problem with the skill, in my opinion, is that most of what it offers you can get in other places. Enfeebling blood and chillblains are two solid abilities that are on weapon sets a conditionmancer is likely to have anyways.

In any case, CPC is really more about control than damage. BiP is all about damage, between the long bleed stacks and the might it gives you, and will just outshine CPC in terms of damage almost any day, especially if you’re packing epidemic. (And why wouldn’t you bring epidemic as a conditionmancer?) CPC gives healing, damage and endurance reduction while also being a bit of area control by making a long-lasting No zone.

It’s also kind of hard to land multiple ticks of, (Pulses every 3 seconds, not every second) but that’s not as much of an issue in PvE against npc opponents.

Anyways, in summary: if you’re wanting damage, BiP > CPC, every time. Only take CPC if you really want poison & weakness, but can’t get it from your weapons.

As much as I hate to interrupt a “No I know more than you do” fight… Well actually I love interrupting that. Could you two not drag it into who knows more about / has a better history in a different game?

That said, I don’t mind when the hosts question a player, especially when it leads into an explanation of why. For example, the comments “Necro minion builds are very strong 1v1” and “Necro minion builds aren’t viable in tPvP” made an interesting pair. But then there was the explanation was that there was so much mobility from other classes, but not in necros. So a minion necromancer wouldn’t be able to catch / force a 1v1 fight where they excel, but would get dragged into a 2v1 or 2v2 fight (because there tends to be at least one quick-roaming foe in the equation) where the “All on one” nature of minions would start to be a liability.

I mean, don’t be contradictory in every point, but if the hosts are surprised by an opinion, it’s better to ask why a view is a particular way than to just allow / deny.

I wanted to point out though that Bhawb’s mic / software / something tended to cut or have static noises or pop throughout. I know you can’t really control the guest’s audio, but the hosts need to come through clearly.

Since the “How much health does your life force equate to question” is still here (yay!) I wanted to point out that the thread Arvid gave, while great, predates the fix to Soul Reaping that made it actually yield bonus life force. I highly suspect the way calculations work have changed since then, since the numbers I’ve gotten with personal testing aren’t getting my life force damage mitigation anywhere close to 120% of my regular HP.

What if instead of it being 120% of your regular hp and conditions doing double damage, conditions always took the correct amount of life force, but direct damage was taking too little…?

Edit: With some minor testing, I’d guess the base pool is equivalent to 60% of your health, with direct and condition damage behaving normally. 30 points in soul reaping increases it to 1.3 * 60% = 78% of your health.

Here’s one of my last tests:
I have 30 points in soul reaping, and a health pool of 22,372. (Heart of the Mists, a few runes and 30 points in Blood Magic)

Cast spinal shivers on Thief sparring NPC, then immediately go into Death Shroud from 100%. This time I took 8421 in direct damage before using doom and dropping out of death shroud (doom is just so I know where to stop counting in the combat log) and run away. As I drop death shroud, I also check the recharge on spinal shivers. In this case, it was still showing 10 seconds to recharge. I chose to interpret this as anywhere from 9 – 11 ticks of degeneration, to allow for error in timing / observing. I also had 13% life force remaining.

So I lost 36-44% life force to time degen (Vital Persistence not equipped) which means I lost 43-51% of my life force to 8,421 direct damage. So my life force pool is anywhere from 16,512-19,584 hp (against direct damage).

So my life force pool is equivalent to anywhere from 73-88% of my base health. Removing the bonus from Soul Reaping, I got a base pool equivalent to somewhere within the range of 56-67% of my regular health.

For all of these, I believe the true answer to be close to the middle of the range (assuming 10 degeneration ticks) which is why I believe the basic pool provided by death shroud to be equivalent to around 60% of your health.

Targuil.3741:

Softspoken.2410:

I think he meant the might from Blood Is Power can only last 20 seconds. I was under the impression that bonus boon duration maxed out at 100% for any given boon, so with BiP’s base duration of 10 seconds, you can’t stretch it past 20 seconds.

There’s definitely sources of Might that last longer.

I’m not entirely certain boon duration is capped though, so don’t quote me on that.

BiP has base duration of 12 seconds, not 10.

WELP.

(Reasons to look up everything all the time.)

Dual.8953:

Aberrant.6749:

Or you could just learn to counter that very simple & predictable strategy instead of crying out for more HS nerfs…

Chill, Dagger mainhand has plenty going for it. An adjustment to HS won’t break it.

The funniest part of this is that chill is a pretty good counter to HS, since it reduces the leap distance so severely.

Pendragon.8735:

Bas.7406:

Interesting tidbit 2: Might can only hit 20 seconds,

Not sure what you tested for this, but I use a Signet of Battle on my staff and with 10 Points in Death Magic, it lasts 22 seconds.

There is also a Might trigger on the Pirate Runes which I use for farming and that one lasts 30 seconds.

I think he meant the might from Blood Is Power can only last 20 seconds. I was under the impression that bonus boon duration maxed out at 100% for any given boon, so with BiP’s base duration of 10 seconds, you can’t stretch it past 20 seconds.

There’s definitely sources of Might that last longer.

I’m not entirely certain boon duration is capped though, so don’t quote me on that.

Edenwolf.6328:

Ok so spam staff 1 and DS 1, thats a mighty strong long range power option :P

If you want direct damage, Life Blast with piercing / vulnerability stacking (and with might stacking, if you’re into that) is a legitimate ranged strategy. The major caveat is just keeping your life force above 50%. At that point, it outdamages the staff and axe auto-attack. (Ranged power options) It even out-damages the dagger chain if you’re hitting more than one target.

ragas.1843:

to check if are being affected by this bug is simple put any mark from the staff on the floor then use plague and it should be the same size of the staff mark, if is bigger like happen on norm’s are being benefited by the bug if your plague is small then the staff mark you got the plague aoe bug.

Just to clarify, this test requires you to have the ‘Greater Marks’ trait selected. In the event you don’t have the trait / 10 points in Death Magic, you can also use any well to generate a circle with the appropriate (240) radius.

Even then, that only shows you exactly how big the indicator ring is. In my experience, that ring has not been strictly accurate, although it’s possible for you to get lucky and generate a ring that is actually 240 in radius. I highly urge the ‘inch towards the mob’ test to see if it is / is not accurate for your character.

Brennus.1435:

Five casual players who hit 35 on their first toon should expect multiple wipes on this dungeon. Because the game allows a level 35 a headstart on the tokens does not advertise, “FOR LEVEL 35 PLAYERS HURP.” The dungeon rewards tokens that will get level 80 exotics. Not level 35. Level 80. What did you expect from it? A cakewalk saying, “Here are your free level 80 exotics because this is a ‘starter’ dungeon?”

Well technically you can use the tokens for level 35 rares. But I get what you mean.

LastDay.3524:

Softspoken.2410:

Edit: The only way to increase your life force while in death shroud is using #4 (life transfer).

iirc a Locust Swarm cast before entering DS persists and continues to fill your Life Force as it hits things.

Oop. Yes, yes it does. Only was definitely the wrong word there. After testing, it turns out you can still get life force from spectral grasp if you get into DS before it connects, and I’d bet the life force on crit trait & signet of undeath’s passive all work. So there’s a couple ways.

spoj.9672:

Pretty sure conditions dont damage you in DS. I often switch to DS to wait for burn to run out if my heal is on cooldown. And it doesnt seem to drain my lifeforce any faster as far as i can tell.

They do. The self-bleed from BiP boots me out of Death Shroud noticeably sooner than if I just let it drain out from natural degen, especially on a high condition damage, low vitality build.

Mogturmen.2638:

In my opinon, with fear, even if the mob was rooted in place, they ought to turn away from the crowd and stop attacking for the duration of fear.

True. I’m not certain whether the relevant rooted mobs turn, or don’t turn, but I’m inclined to guess that they stop attacking at the least. And if they don’t… I’m of the opinion they should. (I can get being immune to movement, but having fear not disable when a daze would prevent the attacks is overly punitive.)

Dredlord.8076:

Softspoken.2410:

I guess the dirty secret of well of blood is that the massive initial heal has nothing to do with the well effect. After all, if an ally is inside the well when it’s first cast, they don’t get that same starting heal. They just get the smaller pulsing ones.

The description could do with a “Wells apply protection within their area of effect” clause I suppose, to clarify to what protection is applied. But as it is, the trait acts pretty consistently: be inside a well when its cast, receive protection.

exactly my point I am glad you were clever enough to figure it out. It would be stupid if the heal worked that way so why does this one trait work that way when combined with another trait.

I use the trait and drop a well and get protection.

Now I select another well trait to increase it’s range BUT it doesn’t help me at all because now I have to ground target it on me to get the effect of my first trait.

Even an idiot can realize that doesn’t make any sense.

If it is a poorly written tooltip and the skill is working properly then this is just another bit of evidence of the lack of synergy our traits have. Our traits are actually working against us now?

Except there still is benefit: you can now drop wells on allies and give them protection without putting yourself in harm’s way, or wasting the time it takes to run into the correct position.

Frankly, the whole thing is a natural progression of game mechanics / systems. The trait adds an effect to your wells, as evidenced by the way it affects allies. If you’re not inside the well, you can’t complain about not receiving its benefits.

What I was trying to explain about the skill well of blood is that it just uses a big heal at the same time it casts the well, but the heal and the well are two separate effects. So a trait that only affects the well (ritual of protection) will not proc on the initial heal, because the initial heal isn’t a well.

I feel like I’m wasting my time typing this out; mostly I’m here because people are specifically quoting me. It won’t be enough in the future.

Edit:

Even an idiot can realize that doesn’t make any sense.

You know, I’ve thought the same thing about a lot of what I’ve read in this forum. Usually though, I keep that thought to myself because it’s disrespectful to the extreme.

The Crossing. Just knowing there was a time it was available for about 20 gold makes me cry. But I didn’t have a Necromancer at the time.

I can get behind this somewhat. There is the issue of letting it charge through walls / up cliffs / into usually inaccessible areas though.

You could probably get around that by making the golem check that it has a clear (short?) path to its target though? I don’t know, I’m not on ANet’s programming team.

Not having to micro-manage your golem’s position so that the charge isn’t blocked by an errant corner is a really solid ‘quality of life’ change to the skill though. So I applaud trying to make that happen.

Kuldebar.1897:

tooltips in GW2 are hosed! :p

Generally, yes.

Often. They’re not as descriptive or responsive as they could be, that’s for sure.

Softspoken.2410:

That seems pretty correct to me, really… After all, it applies protection to everything inside the well. It’s not like the tooltip says “Gain protection for 3 seconds when casting a well”

Dredlord.8076:

It’s more likely a bug. Something that wasn’t thought of when making the ground target trait.

it isn’t consistent with the way the heal works, if I make the heal well ground target I don’t have to be in the well to get the main heal.

The description says Wells apply protection when cast.

I guess the dirty secret of well of blood is that the massive initial heal has nothing to do with the well effect. After all, if an ally is inside the well when it’s first cast, they don’t get that same starting heal. They just get the smaller pulsing ones.

The description could do with a “Wells apply protection within their area of effect” clause I suppose, to clarify to what protection is applied. But as it is, the trait acts pretty consistently: be inside a well when its cast, receive protection.

That kind of sucks big gree..well that bites.

I was hoping it and had originally assumed it would apply to the caster of the well.

I’d like to see that 3 seconds of protection apply on cast to the Necro and the players in the well.

Think about how life siphon works on the well trait. Is it the same principle?

It’d be nice to see the 3 seconds apply to the caster no matter what, but buffs always feel nice when you’re receiving them.

The life siphon on well trait siphons from targets inside the well when it pulses, but the caster doesn’t need to stay inside the well. Just like a signet of malice thief with caltrops.

I know it’s rude to point out typos, but I lost it at “well of surfing”. The most bodacious utility skill.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Or to better phrase that, why is so much in the game immune to fear, especially in dungeons? I can’t even count the number of times I run into enemies that are immune to this key necromancer ability. None of the other professions seem to have this issue of enemies being immune to their unique abilities. Why are so many of the dungeons designed against fear?

Fear is pretty weak to begin with. It doesn’t last even nearly as long as that annoying costume brawl fear (if it would, I might use it more often). And I’ve even seen common bandit riflemen (in Caudecus Manor explorable) simply shrug as I tried to fear them away. That’s just absurd.

Do the devs hate fear?

I just hope you’re not including creatures with Unshakeable / Defiant as immune to fear is all.

I think some of those riflemen in CM are literally immobile. You can’t pull them or make them move from whatever spot they start in. Usually the ones in the most annoying spots are like this. (Long hallways filled with traps.) I don’t know if they can still act through the fear duration or not though.

Devs hate abilities that break events, like being able to pull / push mobs over cliffs. In my mind, Fear has to be equated with a short-duration push at the very least (chain-fearing with extended duration for 5 seconds of running is sort of an edge-case) so if the mob is immune to knockback / stun, I can see why it’s immune to fear.

Edit: The veteran jade colossus, like many earth elementals, has stability. I think that Grawl Shaman does too, actually (That golden silhouette buff icon)

I do have one concern: does the debuff still pop up on the condition bar and tick through? I’m just worried that the damage from Terror is getting blocked here as well, but I know that on enemies with defiant stacks the fear condition still shows up on the bar.

Essence Snow.3194:

So just out of curiosity what is this supposed to be showing? Exp players on lvl 35-40 alts, who are familiar with the new changes, non-pug, with green lvl gears?

It’s supposed to be showing that the dungeon is completable with the stats and abilities a level 35 character provides a player.

It is not trying to prove that you can play like an idiot and still easily complete AC, which seems to be what people are starting to demand. (y u no undergeared with 0 communication???)

Just as a recommendation? If you haven’t specifically tested the range, I suggest you do so. Just go into plague form and inch towards a stationary mob (yellow ones tend to be lethargic enough to do this) and watch how far they can get inside / from your circle before they start feeling the love.

It feels a little self indulgent, but…

• In addition to its other effects, Signet of Spite applies a 1 second fear.
• Corrosive Poison Cloud now applies one second of poison and weakness per pulse, pulsing every second for the duration. It is also front-loaded with an initial 3 second poison and weakness.
• Spectral Grasp now pulls a full 1200 units at max range.
• Spectral Wall will now apply protection to units even if they already have protection, but will only do so once. (The duration of the protection has been increased.)
• Blast finishers activated by Summon Bone Minions’ active skill Putrid Explosion will now apply their effects immediately.
• Spiteful Talisman now alters skills in PvE correctly.
• Chill of Death now activates underwater.
• Dark Armor now activates on Frozen Abyss (Trident 5) and Wicked Spiral. (Spear 2)

A subtle blend of buffs and fixes.

If you ask me to choose between signet of spite and plague signet, I will choose plague signet every time. I just don’t really like the mix of conditions from spite that much, and the huge recharge just kills it for me. Meanwhile, plague is an interesting / fun gimmick especially when you’re loaded with condition removal / transfer.

Gear wise, are you planning on stacking up healing power? I’m not a huge fan of deathly invigoration unless you’ve got some serious healing power or the 5 second death shroud trait to back it up. You could remove 10 points from blood magic and put them into death magic for the ‘cleanse condition on death shroud’ trait, which is yet another condition removal to make sure plague signet doesn’t turn against you.

Also… I’m not totally sold on the “life force drains more slowly” trait for this kind of build. Correct me if I’m wrong, but death shroud is only hurting your damage output, so you should be using it defensively, at which point the drain speed matters less since most of your life force will get used up blocking damage. I’d switch it for the 15% shorter recharges on death shroud skills, to get more healing transfusions.

That’s what I’d change and why, in any case.

That seems pretty correct to me, really… After all, it applies protection to everything inside the well. It’s not like the tooltip says “Gain protection for 3 seconds when casting a well”

CHIPS.6018:

It works even better with healing power.

20% Boon Duration gives an additional second of regen. At base & level 80, that’s 130 more healing. 200 healing power gives 200 * 0.125 healing per second, so that’s 25 healing * 5 seconds for 125 additional healing.

So if you take the 1% boon duration : 10 healing power ratio you see in the trait lines, they scale nearly identically.

Granted, healing power is much easier to stack because it’s available as a stat on every gear slot, as compared to boon duration which is effectively traits and runes only, but then you’re not really having to choose between boon duration and healing power.

I think I’ve forgotten what this thread is supposed to be about by now, would someone care to remind me?

Bas.7406:

75 percent are Asura’s? I don’t think that’s even close.

I would say a larger portion are Charr and Humans. The last BoC All-Necro event had 18 people and not one Asura.

Or maybe there were Asura there, but you overlooked them? Hard to see the little guys sometimes. :P

As to the bug: yeah, it’s annoying. I like to be able to trust AoE circles exactly, and with plague form I especially like to know if I can inch over a little bit to get that other mob.

Bas.7406:

The only one that poses a negative is the 400 channel you would lose the spot normally used for Greater marks. But you could go 20 in Death (not preferred) and pick it up anyways.

Or commit the ultimate crime and not use a staff at all.

(You’ll never take me alive!)

Leo G.4501:

Softspoken.2410:

Do you have to be 35 exactly? I’d love to participate, but none of my characters are in the right level range just now.

I’d think retraiting yourself to be like a 35 (25 points, nothing above adept) and unequipping say, your rings & accessories would be enough in most cases to make a character functionally a level 35.

Not enough experimentation has been done to prove this one way or the other. With dynamic level scaling, it’s possible the traits are only difference while stats are the big unknown. From what has been mentioned from past testing (before the update to dynamic level scaling), there is a gap created by level but it’s unknown if this is directly tied to trait points spent or some other factor.

To extinguish any doubts, it’s probably best to just get as close to the minimum level as possible, so level 30-40 would be ideal.

Honestly all I need is a stat spread from a “true” level 35 in level matching greens, and I can remove equipment as necessary to get below that level.

But I recognize that for legitimacy, a “true” 35 is probably needed.
Edit: wow just read the other “AC is doable thread” and yeah, people are out for blood. I’ll sit this one out, since I think an 80 that’s working under enough handicaps to be a 35 would still compromise the run.

Edenwolf.6328:

im gonna post a video here if im able, demonstrating the innacuracy of it.

I’d very much appreciate it! Sometimes a recording can show a subtle link that I simply can’t catch on to the first time around. I just don’t have the resources to record all of my game play.

Boons still apply and tick through: however you cannot receive healing while in death shroud, so regeneration effectively does nothing. Other boons like retaliation, might, protection, etc. still work as usual.

Edit: The only way to increase your life force while in death shroud is using #4 (life transfer).

Edit 2:

iirc a Locust Swarm cast before entering DS persists and continues to fill your Life Force as it hits things.

Yeah I don’t know what I was thinking. You just don’t get life force from deaths. (And things like the spectral armor / walk effects, because you lose them once you go into DS)

Jiiub.7135:

Plague form as a Asura does actually have a smaller Radius, the area shown when using the skill is the actual range..

Managed to test this exact thing with an Asuran guildmate from But of Corpse:

The active area of Plague Form on an Asura is larger than the AoE indicator. Significantly so. Enough to make it actually match the 240 radius listed on the skill.

Dalent.9358:

Unless my Blood Fiend can passively heal, or it’s healing from its own criticals, Reaper’s Touch does bounce to minions. I have not been able to actually see if the Blood Fiend or other minions get the Regeneration boon due to the game constantly crashing, but I will get back to you when I have that information.

I still can’t get this to work. I can have blood fiend face-tanking an enemy, use reaper’s touch from about 750ish range, and the spell won’t bounce. The blood fiend receives no regeneration, and the enemy mob still has only 4 stacks of vulnerability.

Edenwolf.6328:

if your going to test, make sure to test in pvp or wvw on players and test multiple times as it works sometimes. Seems to be about 50/50 chance.

Gonna take a moment here to specify something about how I test skills in general:

The reason I don’t test in live PvP / WvW is because there is a lot of defensive options that come up very quickly when you’re fighting other players. There are surprise blinds, aegis, blocks, dodges, invulnerability and evasion frames that I simply cannot control for.

Where I do test is in Heart of the Mists, because I’ve always had it asserted to me that that place functions identically to PvP zones, and the sparring NPCs generally provide enough mechanics and predictability to see if a skill works in a general case.

Edit: Turns out you can use Plague Signet to transfer conditions even while facing directly away from your target, as long as you have them selected when you use the active.

Do you have to be 35 exactly? I’d love to participate, but none of my characters are in the right level range just now.

I’d think retraiting yourself to be like a 35 (25 points, nothing above adept) and unequipping say, your rings & accessories would be enough in most cases to make a character functionally a level 35.

EDIT: Or is the access to various skills that you might not have unlocked yet considered an unfair advantage? (At level 35 you’d probably have around 50 skill points if you were a dedicated hunter of them, which pretty much bars the 30 point elites from being used.)

Anyways, send me a message in case I forget to find this thread again.

Invictus.1503:

They have a pretty great dialog with their Ranger representative. I’m jealous. Would love to see that type of open dialog for the necro

Oh wow. You were not in the ranger forum for the last two months.

Whether or not the dialogue was good / on par or whatever then, the crying was insane. It reminded me of a stage the necro forums went through.

As far as I can tell, deathly invigoration is just barely stronger than a pulse of well of blood. And transfusion doesn’t scale with healing power.

CHIPS.6018:

Traits:
Fear of Death – Bug: Fear is not applied to foes when downed. (LOL!)
Death’s Embrace – Only benefits Life Leech, 1 skill out of 3. Takes up 1 important trait slot. I repeat. This trait, taking a trait slot, only benefits 1 skill out of 3 that can only be used when you are downed. This got to be the single biggest running joke for the necro.

Wrong. Twice!

Fear of Death is functional, it just has a short range. It procs in both the Heart of the Mists and open world PvE.

Even if Death’s Embrace only benefited life leech, that would probably be good enough because it’s the skill you use 90% of the time you’re in downed state.

The problem is, fetid ground is a beast of a skill. The wiki doesn’t note it, but it pulses damage like well of suffering / corruption, and has damage (before the trait) somewhere between the two, but I think closer to well of suffering. Unless you get the trait, at which point it does more damage than well of suffering, while also stacking poison.

In a skill that takes about 1/4 of a second to cast, and always casts at the location of your opponent. It’s well of suffering with ritual mastery, poison instead of vulnerability, and it can be traited for 50% increased damage.

As much as I dislike the conflict of interest between staff & minions, you have to remember that toughness increases the effectiveness of healing applied to yourself, sometimes more than healing power does.

And of course, you can still use staff without the traits that support it, even in a minion build.

Honestly? I just don’t like sword. I keep thinking that #2 is a leap forward, not a leap backwards then forward, and #1 makes me stick on targets but doesn’t let me get to targets easily. I do like #3 though.

I would never say it’s bad though. It has a lot of really good tools in it, but I think it just works slightly backwards of what I expect.

Bumping this because I just ran into this event again on a different character. Or rather, ran into the “Gathering Water” section, because I can’t clear it to see if the escort back to camp event is working.

Porgar and Rupek have now become completely suicidal. They will run directly to any hostile mobs in the area, despite not having any attacks or defense mechanisms, and despite their goal being ‘gathering water’ from the oasis they are standing in. Currently though, they just intercept every attack possible. You literally cannot peel enemies off of them because they will run directly on top of the enemy again, then complain about getting hit.

It may have always been like this, but I think before they had a solid knockback skill or something that helped them at least put up a fight. I mean I know the point is that the ogres in this area are kinda pathetic but this is a little much.

So… Please look into this.

I really hope nobody jumps on you for this. I think “Why isn’t this fun?” is always a worthwhile question.

I feel like I have to ask though: is your equipment at-level greens? I feel like that’s the baseline for dungeons to not just destroy your character based off of stats alone. I’m sorry if this is kind of rude but I’ve got to be sure.

Have you tried a ‘safe’ build? Something a bit heavier on the defensive side (Higher toughness / healing, vigor or other dodge mechanics) could help you contribute throughout a fight, even if you’re doing less damage.

Also: have you tried any of the dungeons on explorable mode? I may be in the minority, but I feel like the story mode for a lot of dungeons are significantly longer (and sometimes, harder in terms of mechanics) than their explorable mode paths.