Guild Wars 2

Only a necromancer could slash wildly around with a dagger 4 times in a massive crowd and only hit one person with each slash.

Only a necromancer would use a gap closer which is slower than running.

That’s a heck of a difficult thing to prove Drarnor, what’s your source?

Either way, with 30 points in Spite (which I had to have for my power build anyway) and Chilling Darkness, Plague Form is a frickin great ability. It doesn’t net me badges, but locking down 1-5 players for 20s is amazing.

Only a necromancer would suffer 5+ pets with no manual control and broken AI.

It’s getting pretty frigging irritating on PS. Sure, we’ve got some big name WvW guilds, but we’ve also got the same number of unguilded, unskilled and unwilling to learn chumps charging around solo.

Just lost 2 towers because the grade of idiot we had on was too low to even form a respectable zerg.

Uh, depends on your preference, but I wouldn’t recommend power/pres/crit unless a) you’re using dagger and b) you’re able to stay alive with 1k toughness and 20k hp.

Personally, I go with 30/15/0/0/0, full PVT gear and soldiers crests in everyting apart from dagger (bloodlust) and offhands (hydromancy). 26khp unbuffed, 3k armour, 3.6k attack, and with fury I can hit ~40% crit.

A yellow set of soldier gear will set you back a paltry few gold and you might find yourself alive a lot longer with that than berzerker :P

Up to you though – go nuts and experiment!

I use it a lot.

Chilling Darkness + retal from heal + retal from DS dance = epic hurt across 5 players. If I’m in small scale PvP it tips the balance massively in our favour. In 1v1, I can guarantee I’m able to tank until my heal comes up again. I can use it to stomp, and I can use to to snare a couple of runners.

With 30 points in spite the chill lasts 1.25s (rounds to the nearest 0.25s) so it quickly adds up. And 20×1.25s blinds to up to 5 targets? Heaven.

It’s great.

I tend to Dark Path, WoS, WoC, perhaps pop my heal for the 5s retal, then hit Plague and chill/blind the enemy until I can’t hold out any more.

I love it. I use it more than lich form, which I find to be a bit tedious and only really effective when paired with Time Warp.

THE SKY IS FALLING PLEASE HELP US OH NO OH NO OH NOES

Good grief, you’re adults. Get a grip.

The problem is the Elemental meteor shower; each “meteor” is an AoE in its own right, which means it can hit 5 targets. Lots of them are triggered which means it does pretty huge damage.

I doubt very much that they will touch wells. They’re on a long CD, require a trait to cast at range and aren’t as potent as most other utility AoE.

Chillax.

Also, siege is fine.

Small Scale

5v5 or 4v4 or 3v3 or 5v4 or whatever.

There’s no “target of target” button, so choose targets wisely. Attempt to go for a wellbomb ONLY if you are confident your chums are also targetting them. Most of 1v1 also applies – if you’re being targetted, heal for retal and pop DS to tank it out while they hurt themselves on your semi-bunker.

Plague form is very, very powerful here – all AoE has a maximum target count of 5, and if you can get all of them bunched up you can entirely lock down 1-5 players (depending on how bright they are – if they spread out, you’re less potent) with chill and blind. This should free your side to get a few kills/stomps.

Do not forget you can plaguestomp/plaguerevive, then go screw ’em up with chill/blind.

Zerg vs Zerg

My preferred medium.

1. Wait for the zergs to engage.

2. Dark Path into said zerg.

3. Drop wells when you’re confident of getting 4+ targets and they’re not running away.

4. Hit plague form and start chill/blind, keep 5 people in your AoE at all times

5. While in plague form, look around for a nice target.

6. Drop out of plague form, root, focus 4 and start the pain train.

7. Heal (interchangeable with 6 depending on your HP and the density of the zergs) and hit DS

8. Collect the bags

I’ve found this to be extraordinarily effective.

When you start your plague, watch how people react – being blind and chilled really, really screws with people. Most of the time, they’ll backpedal while your zerg starts the hurt. You’re not doing much damage, but then 5 of them aren’t doing very much of anything at all. That is a very, very good tradeoff for your zerg, and a sucky one for theirs. Often the psychological impact is worse than the actual impact – people move backwards, change to target you (a waste of time) or try to dodge away.

We all like bags and tokens though, so do make sure you drop out in time to claim a few or make a few of your own. With 2.6k power, you shouldn’t struggle to turn the dagger autoattack into a few badges.

Instances

Here you’ll need to apply a generous helping of common sense. Chilling Darkness is useless vs Dredge, so instead pick up Weakening Shroud. Melee is more viable for you than glass cannon warriors/thieves, but it’s still not sensible for some bosses. In these cases, having an axe or staff on hand is critical, so keep them in your bags at all times.

For some bosses, conditions are absolutely not an issue, so dump Shrouded Removal for something interesting. You’ll work it out.

I find myself using DS in instances as a might builder more than an emergency shield, so I’ve picked Reaper’s Might. Your preferences may vary.

Abilities, or “WHERE’S UR LOCUST SIGNET DUDE?!?”

I wish I could use interrobangs on this forum.

In WvW, I go with Well of Power, Well of Corruption and Spectal Walk. Cycling Spectral Walk/Locust Swarm gives 100% uptime on swiftness when you include the 25 points in Death Magic. I also generally roll with Plague Form.

Why no Locust Signet? Because:

a) 25% isn’t as fast as 33% and that matters sometimes. Following a zerg, chasing a runner, whatever.

b) The effects of SW (being able to teleport to remove all falling damage, LF generation, juking) and LS (LF generation, cripple… works exceptionally well with plague or in DS) are far more impressive than the signet’s active ability, and 60s CD is a killer. Literally. You will sometimes die as a result of that CD if you ever use the ability.

c) Signet doesn’t work while you’re transformed. Plague and Lich both benefit greatly from swiftness and retaliation.

Lich, Flesh Golem or Plague?

I used to be a devotee of the Lich, but I’ve since realised that you’ll achieve more for your team as a Plague user (Chilling Darkness), you’ll die a lot less quickly (blind spam) and you’ll escape focus trains more often. Lich is fine if you just want some ranged spam. Golem, if he ever starts responding to a combat situation outside of his manual cast ability, would be fine too.

Plague form though – good grief. 20×1.3s blind, 20×1.3s freeze and 20×1.3s poison. That adds up. It can be used to escape, to bunker up while your heal is on cooldown, or for zerg bombing. It’s not damage centric, but it’s a death sentence for the enemy team in small scale engagements.

Well of Corruption is a frickin’ gem. 6 ticks of 1% LF generation per target per tick, plus boon flipping, plus small damage. It wrecks guardians, and anyone else who’s boon obsessed. Not so useful in instances, but depending on circumstances can be amazing.

In instances, I slot Well of Darkness or Blood is Power.

How do you use this unimaginative and/or clichéd build?

1v1

Wellbomb. Root your enemy and apply both wells, Focus 4 for vulnerability, double tap F1 for Fury, and stand behind them while your wells and dagger autoattack rip them apart. If your opponent dodges this, then you’ve lost the initiative, but no big deal.

Shrouded Removal is more powerful than you think; learn when to use it. A 25% chance to remove 15 stacks of bleed assuming 4 conditions is amazing; a 100% chance to remove the immobilise the enemy necro is about to use to wellbomb you is a lifesaver. It can also be used to remove a single remaining condition, which gets you out of combat sooner and gets you healed faster.

Remember, heal ASAP. As soon as you’ve lost ~7k, hit that heal button. Sooner if you’ve got conditions which will end the match early. The wonderful thing here is you now have retaliation; this is a fight ender for opponents who attack rapidly (dagger necros, pistol thieves etc.).

Double tap DS often if you’re at max health, but once you start getting lower health amounts then save it for tanking the damage. I shouldn’t have to tell you how to use Dark Path etc, so I won’t.

Plague form is surprisingly potent in 1v1. Hit it when your heal is on CD and it looks like you’re losing. If you’ve got retaliation up and a few HP to spare, then set it to option 3 (weakness and cripple). Once retaliation is down and/or you’re looking a bit low on HP, switch to option 2 (blind + chill from Chilling Darkness). This will cause the enemy to waste cooldowns and/or suffer poor heals.

Do not underestimate the potency of weakness. That halves the frequency they can dodge, before you take into account the 25% reduction of non-crit damage (50% of the time, 50% damage). It was one of my favourite parts of Mr Freeze’s build.

Some people take a more sophisticated approach to Plague Form. Ctrl-Right click on 2 to autocast blind/chill, then press 3 from time to time to attach weakness. That gives you weakness on demand, with chill/blind on auto. Up to you.

If you’re using bloodlust+hydromancy, change weapons every 10s! Your opponent will be chilled 40% of the time if you land it every time, and it’ll often hit for 1k damage to boot. Also, change weapons in DS! Don’t interrupt a lifeblast which is 90% complete, but change weapons afterwards. If you’re using battle + bloodlust, DEFINITELY change during DS.

Dark Path is a mixed bag here – remember dropping into DS triggers fury, retal, removes a condition and allows your life blasts to generate might. You might regret DS being on cooldown so use it wisely.

The Deathhammer build?

Yah, for reals. The name is over the top but I figure in order for things to get any sort of attention you need an exciting name. It’s the first thing that came to mind, so I’m sorry if you thought we could use hammers. We can’t. We do use death quite a bit, so there’s that. It’s really only half a lie if you think about it.

OK, sure. What’s your philosophy here then?

Well, bunker builds are great, except when you need to kill something. Glass cannon builds are fun until you get the attention of 3+ players. Juggermancer is fun, Mr Freeze was entertaining, but both of them lacked; Mr Freeze sucks when you’re being focused, and Juggermancer gives up a little too much aggression for my liking. My aim was quite simple: create a build which hurts, plays to the strengths of the necro (high EHP, doubled by DS) and grabs the traits I think are key.

Primarily, I play WvW with this and farm Fractals. I’ve not been in an instance I couldn’t handle with this, and roflstomping thieves/elementalists/guardians is fun. I’ve used it in sPvP at low levels, but I prefer WvW and instances for the time being.

The Build

http://goo.gl/Dhzqc

(http://goo.gl/EooXH)

Pretty basic 30/15/25/0/0.

With Sharpening Stones and Orrian Steak Fritters, I top out at 26khp, 2620 power (before bloodlust stacks), 1.9k toughness and a paltry 15% crit chance.

The idea here is quite simple; maximise damage (Close to Death, Deadly Strength), give a boost to DS (Furious Demise, Reaper’s Might, Spiteful Spirit, Shrouded Removal), and survive long enough to enjoy them (250 toughness from traits and PVT gear).

I’ve got 15 points in Curses to pick up Chilling Darkness, a little crit and some fury. More on this later; suffice it to say, you’re a nightmare to kill in plague form.

I’ve found in a 1v1 situation that popping my heal (6.5s retal) and hitting DS (4s retal) will often result in the enemy killing themselves on retal. Time it right (when the guardian spins to win, or the rogue starts spamming both pistols) and you’re looking at pretty hefty damage.

Ducking into DS and blasting is fun. You’ve got a craptonne of power, plus fury and retal – and the condition removal has a very good chance of removing whatever condition your enemy has been counting on. Removing immobilise, as anyone who’s ever played PvP of any form will know, can often be the difference between life and being a streaky stain on the keep floor.

I do like Reaper’s Might; however Chill of Death is a very valid replacement if you don’t prefer it. Chill of Death is a no-no in instances though. Stick to Reaper’s Might there.

Likewise, I’ve found Reaper’s Protection to be very, very powerful indeed. 2s PBAoE fear is great; however in WvW with the conditions etc. flying around I’ve often had it trigger when it was out of range of anyone who gives a kitten . RP is wonderful but Spiteful Vigor is a winner as far as I’m concerned.

Weapon Choice, or “DUDE WHERE’S YOUR STAFF?!”

It’s in my bag. So’s my axe.

Staff is great for WvW sieges, and from time to time I use it when I’m roaming. Axe has its uses; Axe 2 does OKish damage, and Axe 3 is superb for grabbing a full 20s of retaliation or snaring and running when you get jumped. I keep both of them on my person at all times. You should too. Your weapon usage should change based on scenario.

However, I prefer dagger/focus and dagger/warhorn in most scenarios. Hydromancy is there to keep them chilled, but if you prefer battle then go for it. Your call – do try Hydromancy first though. Focus is insane for the 12 stacks of vuln and for the long ranged snare/buff purge; Warhorn’s daze and locust swarm (LS plus retal plus plague is fun) is also pretty win.

Also, and I think this is key, the dagger autoattacks don’t need a target to work. When fighting a stealthed opponent (ranger, thief or engi) this is very important. If you root with dagger 3 (4s immobilise thanks to our traits) you can watch the animation to see if you’re connecting with dagger 1. Also, rememeber that channeled abilities continue through stealth, so dagger 2 is often useful for that.

Gearing up

The gear selection options on my chosen build site are a bit crap; I’m happy to admit that I stole my gearing selection wholeheartedly from Juggermancer. PVT is king here – I have a full set of Soldier exotic gear (which he covers in his guide rather well, go read it!) with bloodlust/hydromancy in my weapons.

I have experimented with some Knight gear – feel free to slot some rings if you miss critting often. I prefer to rely on Fury and 15 points in Curses for my crit, but whatever you like is fine. I find PVT gear to be just the right balance for us corpse-fondlers.

@OP

Your logic is broken.

Minions are kittene underwater. Then again, minions are kittene on land too. Power and condition builds are fine underwater – perhaps a little on the OP side.

Highlights are trident 4, DS 4, and all the spear attacks with the possible exception of 3.

Guys!

These are all perfectly valid questions or concerns. Why shouldn’t we be allowed the same perks as everyone else? Why only “fix” ours? Why, for that matter, can’t we simply stomp at any time in DS?

It doesn’t matter how good the question is. This is ANet, and they’ll ignore you till you give up. That’s their strategy, and it’s working wonderfully.

It’s a nice idea, but I think the original list was something of a placebo.

We all put a lot of effort into cataloguing the bugs we found, and indeed testing them, only for ANet to fix a pathetic handful and not in an order we found particularly good.

I don’t believe we’re discovering bugs ANet don’t know about. Either:

a) ANet really don’t know their own product or have acceptable QA testing

b) ANet knew all along and thought if they could get the community to “join in” they’d buy themselves some time before some players ragequit

Given the simplicity and obvious nature of the bugs, and the fact we’re dealing with professional developers, I’m going with b).

+ for bone minions running at the target before exploding. Please. PLEASE.

tested – does NOT affect HS damage when at 100% LF or 10% LF when health is 100%.

Hi all.

Ever noticed that lots more horrible things happen in DS than out of it? In terms of how hard people hit us and what conditions we get?

I hypothesise that we are considered to be below 25% while in DS. This would explain a great deal regards heartseeker damage etc. while in DS. This would also work with the current bug(s) we have around Siphoned Power proccing when we’re hit in DS, and the Vampiric runes procing the moment we’re hit in DS.

However, with the absence of duelling I’m struggling to think of a way to test this.

Ideas?

+1 for the rant

-1 for not realising this post typifies every other post

1% LF gain per target per tick.

30% max LF gain (wells tick 6 times in their 5 second duration) if you can get 5 targets in the AoE.

Enjoy!

You guys know this is utter horsekitten, right? Any company with even 2 QA staff will know exactly how, when and where this bug is happening. You’re kidding yourselves if you think this is anything but ANet buying time to fix their own code; taking part in this charade is really quite pointless.

They know what’s wrong, and if they could fix it they would; there’s a limitation in their engine/AI/server code which is preventing it from being sorted.

Don’t waste your time.

All,

What necromancer themed weapons have you seen/got?

I like:

• Charr T3 dagger
• Accursed Chains (animation is a bit glitchy)
• Tear of Grenth
• Orrian weapons

G’wan. List your favourite necro weapons!

I’m quite fond of PVT in PvE actually. It helps avoid being downed, which in turn means you’re alive to get your team mates back up.

LT has been buggy for a while – wish I knew what caused it.

Fear on CD when you’re downed – that generally happens if you mash 2 as you’re going down. It used to happen with the fear on down spectral talent, but that got fixed.

Jon,

Can I ask a couple of very basic questions? There’s no offence meant, and I think it might calm a few players if we had some honest answers.

1) Do you know about the issues with necro pet AI, and how they randomly do nothing or aggro random mobs?

2) Is there a reason outside of “design” for not giving us ranger-esque attack/retreat functionality for our pets?

I think the absence of the ranger like function for pet control indicates you guys just didn’t code it to deal with multiple pets, because that’s the only reason I can think of that we’re not given that functionality until you work out what’s wrong with your pet scripts.

Ta,

Once minion AI is fixed, minions will be viable. Until then, don’t expect to be taken seriously when you use them. It’s not a personal judgement of your worth, it’s a statement that the minion AI is garbage and you’re losing utility slots when it bugs out.

It’s not your fault, but using them is going to make you less effective.

CHIPS.6018:

3) You can no longer use DS underwater.

Not sure if nerf…

Hi.

I’m running a build which allows me to be victorious 1v1 with thieves. I’m a necro player, and I have access to a 3s chill every 10s, amongst other things (I use axe for the cripple etc). However, I can’t seem to trap a thief.

What should I be doing? When a thief enters their stealth bubble to run, I drop as much AoE as I have, but I can’t seem to trap the feckers.

Suggestions and tactical advice appreciated!

Thanks,

Spanks

Hah, indeed. In my defence, this did sort of start when TheWalkingDead assumed I was a wrong American instead of a correct European.

Anyway, what’s the best way of getting a non-moderator red post in here? I’d love to know what JP has planned for us

“Well, not to point out your obvious mistake, but given that I am an American, I can honestly tell you that practically everyone in the US uses a day/month/year format. In fact, if you change formats in any microsoft programming the month/day/year format is considered French format (or EU format). So, I am not sure where you are from supahspankeh, but get your facts right, and travel a bit before you spout off nonsense.”

Most amusing. MM/DD/YYYY is almost exclusively American – Middle Endian dates fell out of use in the EU quite some time ago, and (though I’m loathe to quote wiki) “… used primarily in the United States and Canada”. I’ll accept some burden of guilt over it though; as a Brit, it was us that gave you the Imperial system and you’re sort of stuck with that too

I wouldn’t go assuming someone isn’t well travelled or experienced, as I’m a) forever adjusting crazy American data to work with the systems I engineer and b) an experienced traveller.

Oh, I do so love tangents.

Back to the matter in hand – I hope we see some pretty major changes. Comparing our 25 point traits to other classes is just depressing.

TheWalkingDead.7298:

You’re gonna be waiting a long time for 14/12 to happen, considering there are only 12 months.

About 5 days – the majority of the world uses DD/MM/YYYY, it’s only you American types that get them the wrong way around. Oh, I know, there’s no “wrong” way if you’re keen on splitting hairs, but do you list distance as feet/miles/yards? No? Then why list dates as MM/DD/YYYY? It’s just odd.

Anyway, data format semantics aside, I’d like to see:

1) Up the power co-effecient a bit on the staff’s marks
2) Better staff speed
3) Underwater wells – you know the hilarious thing is Engineers can throw grenades underwater? So it’s not an engine limitation, it sure as heck isn’t a balance limitation… so what is it?
4) Underwater weapon traits
5) Massive trait reshuffle

We’ll probably get:

1) When summoning Flesh Golem, all other pets die.
2) Gluttony fixed and increased to 10%, but LF generation reduced on all abilities and marks can only generate 3% maximum.

So, we know Gluttony is getting fixed and buffed (woo). What else do you think might happen? I’m hoping:

1) Fix to Parasitic Bond so it actually does something.
2) Buff to axe power coefficient, poss dagger coefficient too.
3) Remove the DS GUI so we can see our buffs, and give us a HP meter with numerical values instead of the silly green bar we have.
4) Massive buffs to signets to make them worth using
5) Nerfs to SW to compensate for changes to Locust Signet

Hah, this should’ve been on the necro forums, apologies all

So, we know Gluttony is getting fixed and buffed (woo).

What else do you think might happen? I’m hoping:

1) Fix to Parasitic Bond so it actually does something.
2) Buff to axe power coefficient, poss dagger coefficient too.
3) Remove the DS GUI so we can see our buffs, and give us a HP meter with numerical values instead of the silly green bar we have.
4) Massive buffs to signets to make them worth using

<3

15 characters or somehting, I dunno

So, what’s the best way to get this gear at 80? I’ve decided to dump my “knight” stuff and respec for tank.

Well, last time we got a flurry of red posts it was a day or two after they got the cake that guy bought them.

I’m not sure what the minimum spend is here though, I guess we could kickstart a 1k muffin delivery to get a bit of communication started. A few bucks each and we’d get a bit of activity for sure.

Especially if it goes viral.

30/30/0/0/10.

Dagger/Focus Dagger/Warhorn

Sigil of bloodlust/Hydromancy

Rune of the Ice/everything else “of the knight”.

Pizza in WvW, along with oils.

Generally WoS/WoC/SW, but switch as the mood/situation takes me. Great mobility from almost permaswiftness (Banshee’s Wail is cool, but I like the 15% cooldown reduction on DS abilities), +50% chill overall (changing weapons WHENEVER you can, including while in DS gives nice PBAoE chill and a 1k hit).

In 1v1 I tend to wait until the enemy has blown a few cooldowns/dodges and then do the root/dual wells thing; it’ll kill most enemies. Keep dipping into DS for Dark Path and Fury buff, and learn to use Spectral Walk. If it’s off cooldown, it’s almost literally impossible to not escape a 1v1 you’re losing.

In keep sieges, learn how to pull off keep walls and root. So much fun.

In PvE, you’ll get decent damage boosts form everyone else’s conditions (2% per condition is quite a chunk, considering there are 11 conditions in the game and your group will throw out quite a few).

Lovely weakness debuffs (slowing vigor is as important as 25% non-crit damage reduction), permachill your enemies and you’re tough as old nails so you can afford to kitten up a few times.

For levelling up, conditionmancer with sceptre/dagger and staff.

Sceptre 2 > dagger 5 > Blood is Power > dagger 4 > Epidemic > switch to staff and spam AoEs or sceptre 2 then staff spam.

That’ll kill 5+ mobs without you getting touched.

That’s a very different question, and a much better one.

Attack 2 is a superiority attack in 1v1 (whether a mob or a player). It does around 4k damage, but heals me for 1.8k. Depending on the opponent and your own personal toughness/armour, that might be a lot better than attack 1. Bear in mind though, that attack one (a complete chain) will generate 10% LF, which is about 2.5k hp for me.

Attack 3 is epic. 3s immobilise – add in 30 points in Spite for 30% duration and then 40% from pizzas, and you’re rooted someone for 4.5s. There’s a reason this is on a long cooldown – it’s insanely useful in PvP and PvE. The most commmon use for this is fixing someone in place for wells.

Also, in PvP it stops your opponent from turning – so you can use it, drop wells while circling around to their back and you’ve got a solid 5s of attack 1 plus 5 ticks of WoS and WoC.

Generally speaking, attack 3 is the fight decider for me. If I use it and my opponent has no way out, I normally win there and then.

I don’t really understand the reason for the question.

Allow me to reverse it if you will:

Why are the thief’s non-auto attack abilities from daggers so much better than the necromancer’s non-auto attack abilities?

Gluttony does literally nothing in the curent game.

Before BiP had the LF generation removed, I tested it. 5% of 20 is 1, but BiP gave 20% LF, so it didn’t work then.

The other day I tested Locust Swarm with 4 targets twice and got 80% LF. Not working.

I then tested Spectral Grasp 8 times, 80%LF. It does nothing.

100% of the time, it doesn’t work all of the time.

A well thought out and important post.

ANet, please pay some serious heed to this person. Our game is being wrecked, and that’s a crying shame, because we love it.

Ah, DS.

Things to bear in mind:

1) You can switch weapons while in DS. Hydromancy sigils are excellent as a result. You may prefer Battle sigils or whatever.

2) You’ll do more damage if you have a staff equipped. About 200 per lifeblast.

3) IF you’re using daggers/axe/walk/swarm, you’ll be generating LF. A good necro will have been in DS burning off excess LF prior to generating it – LF being wasted is a terrible thing.

4) Lifeblast pierces first, second and third targets irrespective of which one is targetted – someone above claimed otherwise, and having tested it 3s ago with a few risen it’s not the case at all. It pierces normally.

Gluttony still does nothing.

Parasitic Bond still does nothing.

Spiteful talisman still bugged.

No major changes. Death Nova is still irrelevant.

I’m glad they fixed Soul Reaping, but the rest is a big ol’ pile of meh.

I am excite!!!1!

Thanks all for your advice – the answer was OCCT. OCCT was running and maxing my CPU.

:D

WvW is unplayable. I’m getting mid-twenties in Rata Sum now.

ATI 6970 2GB, i5 2500k @ 4.5GHz.

Was buttery smooth, suddenly unplayable after the most recent “maintenance only” patch.

Anyone else?

Please, no.

12345678

Arenanet,

For me this is important. Please don’t add a gear grind or gated content, I’m too busy. I don’t have the time for a second job (like raiding in WoW) and I just want to play with my friends and against my enemies on an equal footing.

Also, I’ve told my friends at work that this game is a breath of fresh air and has no grind. They’ll be playing over the weekend – please don’t make me look like an idiot.

You’ll do between 10 and 20% more damage with a lifeblast if you switch to your staff.