Guild Wars 2

isn’t invocation the base spec?

Bhawb.7408:

The scepter auto attack is mostly fine imo, the problem with condi builds is our weak over-time pressure which should be tied to landing “bigger” abilities with relatively decent CDs and stack better bleed/poison/torment.

If having a pressure that rivals axe auto-attack is fine then yeah it’s fine.

MidoriMarch.8067:

LOL necro is 7th? lmao u make me laugh.

I do agree ele and mesmers are a bit op atm but when i played my necro i hardly lose to any other class other than memser/good ranger that kites, lol necro is at least top 3.
so u guys are expecting mobility , stability , reveal ? why dont u just ask dev to let necro have everything and be op facerolling? I see so many qq on necro forum compare to other classess.

It’s not the ability to 1v1 that bothers me, it’s the ability that it is good for anything but 1v1 that bothers me. That and some completely unused stuff.

I’m not sure if necromancer scepter is the best example of how a good condi weapon is being done. The base dps is quite pitifull unless you fully gear/trait for it in pvp (~700 dps auto and 2000 damage from #2 in rabid). That and the third skill is completely stupid on a condition build.

The trait is working as intended. You apply vulnerability to anyone you chill. The reason why you have vuln after the chill in goemm’s lab is because the chill from the platform is applied by yourself. Chill from any foe will not result in any vulnerability from the trait.

I tested it in frost gorge and din’t get vulnerability.

Slapinator.4196:

Rev is beta necro is three years old and still sucks and as far as I can tell it always will !

The problem is that the concept the rev is build on are not working. Rev is basically by design a 1v1 sponge. They will have to redesign the rev to make it work.

Lynnie.7213:

A lot of people were saying its a necro killer because necro couldn’t stand a chance in 1v1 against a Revenant.

Lol, people really said that? A class with slow cast times, low amount of stunbreakers and low amount of condion clears which were replaced with stab and resistance without cover boons would beat a necro?

Sigmoid.7082:

I wouldnt say the GS is so slow that its an issue nor is the pull not being enough. You have to bear in mind on a reaper staff #5 will cause the fear to chill so you wont displace your enemy any at all. Pulling them 600 range actually means they need to take 1~3s to travel that distance again. It also pulls in a cone so can be used to move pretty large and wide spread sets of people. Staff in itself is also a relatively slow weapon, you will get around 2 autos off for every 1 GS chain.

Besides from certain points of view it can be said that GS will be much better than staff because it actually does damage. You are really only missing the condi transfer and the fear, both of which can be replaced because of other weapons and new abilities. Staffs main benefit is range. thats about it. As well as which line to drop to take it.

Well you’re right that greatsword 5 hinders mobility more but when you’re outside the 600 range, you’re safe while with staff you’re not. 600 or higher is a very comfortable range for kiting a foe. You don’t even have to be 600 a bit lower can too due to traveling time) Also the damage you will do iwith greatsword will come from gravedigger mostly so I’m not sure it will work (that’s why I called it slow).

nearlight.3064:

And lets not forget that reaper will give necromancer very high stability uptime with the 3 skill. It will have less access to on demand fear, but at this point I’d rather have 8 seconds of pulsing 3 second stability every 17 seconds (traited with vital persistance) than more fear, since the warhorn, staff mark, and GS pull would all fulfill that gap in CC when stopping rezzes or stomps.

So to those of you crying about necro having no stability right now, your tears will surely evaporate when the expansion finally releases.

Well it’s not 8 seconds if you’re opponent can burst you out of it in less time. And it may be every 25 seconds not 17, it depends if the cooldown works like spectral walk or death shroud .

Shadow.1345:

I wish I had a screenshot of it but I have had one criting me for 4k with Life Blast.

4K isn’t that much considering it takes around one and a half second to “cast” (1 second cast around 0.5 second after cast).

Kronos.2560:

Legendary Dwarf Stance – Supposed to be tank. I propose giving some tweaks and adding protection boon.
Forced Engagement – Reduce energy cost, for a measly interrupt/taunt 50 is too high.

I would remove the slow while adding aoe protection to this skill. Energy cost should be reduced drastically 25~35. I want this to become one of your two main support skills in Legendary Dwarf Stance.

Vengeful Hammers – Make so gives protection to group at intervals while hammers active. (Jalis needs some access to protection boon)

I would lower the energy cost to 4 (meaning you still regen 1 energy in combat) while in return removing the unblockable from the skill. I want this so that the revenant can still use skills while maintaing this mode a utility skill will be hard but a weapon skill is plausible. The secon reason is so it can support allies by removing aegis and blocks in an aoe manner.

Inspiring Reinforcement – This one is fine as is.
Rite of the Great Dwarf – Reduce channeling time, it already costs 50 energy so it doesn’t get spammed… why add a ridiculous channeling time to it also???

aggreed.

Legendary Demon Stance – Based on dealing more damage with conditions. I feel condition cap at 3 should be lowered to 2 given the ridiculous amounts of condi cleanses you get in a group setting.
Banish Enchantment – This is one good as is.

aggreed.

Unyielding Anguish – The torment caps at 3 stacks (6 if condi met) and does not increase per pulse. Needs to be changed so it can at least stack some torment. Also displacement ignores stability and defiance as well as moves unmovable bosses.

I would remove the teleporting and change it in to blind or something else. It is very counter intuitive since the condition build is melee and you’r casting your enemy away on top of being a gap closer.

Pain Absorption – Way too much of an energy requirement for getting a second of resistance (not to mention a bunch of hurtful conditions).

It’s up to 7 resistance where 2 seconds aoe. I think the energy cost is fine.

Embrace the Darkness – Interval needs to be lower and condition apply higher. For how little of time you can use this should have higher effect. Maybe something like 1 second interval, 2-3 seconds of conditions. Given how it doesn’t last long at least let it stack more then 1 stack of a condition.

The main effect of this skill lies not in it’s condi distribution but from the 10% percent increase in all stats. Healing power, condition damage, toughness, power,… If it were underperforming I would prefer to reduce cost instead of putting condi output.

Kronos.2560:

Legendary Centaur Stance – Healing tablet build, felt a bit messy, wish there was a way to just have tablet follow you as to focus more on dodges etc then just moving the tablet. Feels like it wants you to stack, wasn’t the point to stop stacking not support it?

Making th tablet follow you would promote stacking even more, not hinder it. What I would suggest is making moving the tablet more fluid: no casting time, no cooldown (you can move the tablet immediately after it moved to it’s new spot) reduce the energy cost to 5 but lower the amount healed. In combination with this lower the passive cooldown to 1 second again with lower the healing. I like being supporting while not being in the crossfire.

Protective Solace – This one is good, though maybe a slightly larger aoe.
Natural Harmony – Decent skill low cost and usable but it still felt weak on the heals, maybe its just me.
Purifying Essence – Works fine, although the cast time was making it fail half the time when used.
Energy Expulsion – Would not activate unless i was over 50 energy. Felt that made it not as useful.

aggreed.

Hammer – Everything has a 1 second+ activation time that needs to be reduced. Why bother with huge activation times when it all costs energy anyways?

Mace/Axe – Felt weak but still by far the best weapon out of the choices. Needs damage increase.

Aggreed but I did like staff better.

Staff – Extremely low dps, yes it does heal you… kind of. But for how pathetic the dps is not worth it. Also noticed it didn’t always send out healing orbs on 3rd attack.

Aggreed. I suggest moving it to guard mace dps.

nearlight.3064:

I think reaper will be just fine. Mainly because cleave dhuumfire with reaper’s might, unyielding blast, and decimate defenses looks like it could be a strong enough combo to forgo all ranged pressure in a hybrid build.

As long as the life force management is there I think reaper will be really strong. Thats why I really hope that blighter’s boon doesn’t get an ICD added, because that trait with all of the might procs we get from spite (and AoE boons from allies) looks like it’d be enough life force management for the reaper, meaning we wouldn’t need soul marks so we could take up the vuln stacking synergy traits instead. In fact, staff could be forgone for GS as an offset to dag/WH, as you’d only really miss the AoE fear and condi transfer.

I aggree with almost anything life force management will make this succeed or break and hybrid looks likely with this. Staff on the other hand might become mandatory if only because of the range a 600 pull will not be enough and greatsword will be so slow.

On the downside it will proc retaliation, fire shield,… as well, but I wouldn’t mind.

A Volcano.2510:

I think we need this armor too:

http://lonewolf64.deviantart.com/art/Necromancer-Summon-Abomination-56629454

So pretty . I would buy it/ hunt it down immediately if this came out.

NeXeD.3042:

Dunno why it’s cutting out the first parts of my posts….

Last post should say “am I the only one who thinks this is hyperbole”

Maybe not. He could confuse plague with death shroud and when the necro downs someone when tanking against 3 people it could be because one of the many transfers.

Bhawb.7408:

Its really easy to activate on my MM, honestly. You get Mark of Evasion baseline, so from there all you need is to land Dark Path, and these abilities combo with each other very easily with DP->dodge. You can also take staff, dagger OH, sigils, runes, transfers, there are a lot of ways to easily proc it.

3 might be okay, but you start to lose control over activating it.

Do transfers apply to this even though they are not yours?

NeXeD.3042:

What exactly did door breakers prioritize before?

I have seen them going for trebs in the past.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

I think if you gear towards Condi, you can find yourself with good sustained damage. With Anet’s Confi buff recently, it has the potential to be seriously overpowered.

But you have practically no traits to sustain you’re condition output also the condi changes nerfed revenant since burning got a lot weaker and they got no application changes. Also best torment applying malyx skill teleport foes away making almost every melee class frustated (which you are as a condi revenant).

Avigrus.2871:

Kharr.5746:

Sure, let’s start:

1) Revenant has no way to negate being focused. Even with the current support trait lines, you die instantly to focus fire.

2) Everything is super slow and has a big wind-up. Getting a skill off without being interrupted is a miracle. You’re currently forced into builds with stability since you won’t even be able to heal yourself without it.

3) Damage and condi application are way too low. The only way to defeat someone is to put their condis back on them — something that’s very unreliable due to the short range.

4) There’s no synergy between trait lines. With every other class, you can pick any 3 trait lines and they will have synergy. Revenant needs a big rework to create synergy and actual builds.

5) Revenant mobility is also non-existent. Keeping someone in a fight, or running from a fight is just not going to happen. Revenant needs a CC/snare, pull, or more reliable teleport. The only way to follow someone is axe #4 which misses too often.

You’ve basically just described Necro..

The thing is revenant is even worse, they’re litterally 1v1 sponges. Necro on the other hand has some damage, if they want to. The have some (supbar) mobility, some way to negate focus fire (plague), … . Rev has almost nothing

Bhawb.7408:

It always interrupted actions, the fact that it didn’t was a lag abuse. They just need to up the stability duration so you can stomp fully in DS covered by that stab, but it interrupting actions is meant to prevent “abuses” like casting normal abilities while in DS.

Is it really that much of a problem? I mean ele does swap attunements mid cast all the time.

plague let’s actions like stomping go through.

you won’t have any luck with your revenant: slow cast times + little stability acces + little boon generaton + next to no stunbrekers = necro all over again.

There is room to become a rezz bot (not a downstate fighter, it is highly frowned upon by both necromancers and non-necromancers), but we need a few things:

DS interaction: right now death shroud interrupts rezzing, which is downright detrimental for any down state role the necromancer can have.

Stability + damage migitation: if you want to rez you will have to be able to complete said rez, so you can’t be interrupted or killed in a reasonable amount of time. Unfortunatly DS doesn’t cut it because it does not cancel cc and DS cannot migitate the damage enough since you aren’t moving/dodging.

Plague: plague is the perfect tool for rezzing for a necromancer. damage migitation + cc problem is, you can’t rezz in plague unless you cast plague mid rezz which limits it’s rezzing capabilities. So if you can rezz people in plague it will help that role as well.

Curae.1837:

For me the main problem with the heavy armor is that the chest armor is shaped like breasts. That just can’t be comfortable and besides that it’s downright dangerous in battle. The plate over the chest is there to deflect blows to the side. In the case of two shaped breasts a blade can slide in between, your opponent just has to lift her arm up and you have a blade sticking up your jaw and into your skull.

I too want my characters to be able to be distinguished as female, but I daresay that we do not need skimpy armor, or boob-shaped armor for that. To give an ingame example: the chainmail sets as well as the ascalonian chestpiece.
To give some real world examples:

Don’t we already have a big set of those type of armor ingame? In fact if I’m not mistaken the carapace and glorious armor (2 of the aded armor) fit that category.

Enko.6123:

Tim.6450:

Enko.6123:

In PvE, there’s a few places that having Chill is incredibly useful but overall, probably won’t even notice it that often.

Condi reaper in pve is doomed to fail at the moment through this patch. Necromancer bitter chill is nerfed with this trait. It will be felt easily.

How is this nerfing Bitter Chill? Even if your target already has 5 stacks, applying further Chill will refresh a stack and you’ll still apply Vulnerability with Bitter Chill.

Yeah, that was a mistake I made. Did test it myself for another threat but forgot this one. I’m not sure about refreshing a stack though.

Obtena.7952:

Um … I think out of all people, Anet will know this best. You have realize they have the most access to trying out their new ideas, even in the most elementary testing environments.

That’s true but the community has more resources in terms of time and insight. Even if we do not know the full capabilities we do have a basic understanding of the reaper and a more experienced understanding of 2/3 of any reaper build.

Chasind.3128:

Female chars need heavy armors like from Dragon Age, no skimpy & awesome as kitten.

You mean those tin cans? No thank you.

It seems that someone wants to get shot.

That aside it was nice read and conveyed my feelings about the necro balance.

spoj.9672:

Tim.6450:

Chilling darkness is not my main problem deathly chill/bitter chill became useless in pve and probaly pvp. Apparantly you can’t apply chill if the stack is full meaning you can’t apply your chill on the fully stacked champions.

It should still proc the vuln on bitter chill whenever you apply regardless of the chill stack cap.

I think you’re right. Tested and it and got 18 stacks at some point and opened with chillblains.

Enko.6123:

In PvE, there’s a few places that having Chill is incredibly useful but overall, probably won’t even notice it that often.

Condi reaper in pve is doomed to fail at the moment through this patch. Necromancer bitter chill is nerfed with this trait. It will be felt easily.

Chilling darkness is not my main problem deathly chill became useless in pve and probaly pvp. Apparantly you can’t apply chill if the stack is full meaning you can’t apply your chill on the fully stacked champions.

EDIT: bitter chill seems to work.

ellesee.8297:

Or you could have new players face off against other new players… like every other game!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

aggreed, higher rank arenas does not exist. Practice is crawling with dragons (I bring my alts there for example) and the constant team swapping and 4v5 will ruin every newcommer’s experience. If anything practice needs to be gated before unranked.

I have thirty seconds.

Did you try to cast a mark twice? You can only have one of them at a time. mark of evasion last not so long though.

Crowlia.1987:

Chilling darkness nerfed because of Bitter Chill?

Close to wanting to demand a duration increase of the chill with the ICD.

That makes sense. looks at the dragonhunter 25 stacks vulnerability aoe trap. starts crying

ellesee.8297:

People took Chilling Darkness? Over Plague Sending?

Wahoo! Bye frands!

Sometimes when I want to try a defensive build. well of darkness, master of corruption, withering precision (only for the shroud one). Plague sending without precision wouldn’t proc so much.

zapv.8051:

Well they couldn’t have just given a buff to plague by making it not kill you, so they had to nerf one of the few synergies necros have. I want to note that necros only have 4 ways to apply blind in deathly swarm, signet of spite, well of darkness, and plague. Note that all of those except deathly swarm are on really long cooldowns.

You forgot corrupting fury.

Mortifer.2946:

What? I created my characters years ago so I don’t remember. But how does it work with the final boss? If somebody misses it, he or she has to wait for it? That sound silly.

yep that’s the way it goes. Waiting means another event though.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Tim.6450:

it would mean necro’s could fill the cap with ease with this trait.

So instead of trying to find a work around (perhaps saying "so what? It’s short chill stacks anyway?), they decided to make it worthless, since the only blinds Necros have that are worth using for the blind are those that are AoE pulsing.

I do not justify the change, I’m merely trying to enter their thought process. I do not like it, let that be clear.

it would mean necro’s could fill the cap with ease with this trait.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Probably because they made Chill a stackable condition with this patch. Without an ICD WOD would probably cap out the stacks pretty quickly.

EDIT: Also, I don’t think Necromancer or Reaper are suffering any serious nerfs with Chill being stackable… We already have the most access to Chill and are going to be getting more access to it with Reaper including a trait that will make Chill a damaging condition. I’m honestly not concerned.

every condition skill stacks even one with intensity. Meaning we can only load five chill abilities at a time which is completely stupid considering a reaper can cap that by using one trait, a sigil and one chill inducing ability.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

nekretaal.6485:

The reaper shroud trades its teleport & instant cast fear for a bad leap skill and a stability skill with a cast time and aftercast. The reapers are really going to miss necromancer Death shroud chill on #2, intant cast on #3 and immobilize on #5.

I wouldn’t call it a “bad leap skill”. It’s 600 units every 7 seconds, or 85.7 units/second.

Compare to the following:
Rush (Warrior GS5): 54.54 u/s (1200 range, 2 second cast, 20 second cooldown)
Whirlwind Attack (Warrior GS3): 40.9 u/s
Swoop (Ranger GS3): 80 u/s
Leap of Faith: (Guardian GS3): 38.7 u/s
Hornet’s Sting/Monarch’s Leap (Ranger S2): 108.1 u/s (ignoring aftercast and turn time).
Savage Leap: (Warrior S2): 68.6 u/s
Ride the Lightning (Elementalist AD4): 30 u/s
Heartseeker: 120 u/s (effective cooldown).
Rocket Boots: 43.4 u/s

Two leap skills in the entire game beat out Death’s Charge for overall mobility. Death’s Charge may not be as good for disengage as some other skills, but it actually makes us more mobile than most builds. 600 distance is all you need to get out of AoE’s, and the short cooldown actually lets us run down all but the fastest builds in the game over long distances if we’re careful with our life force.

Also, the Stability is instant-cast in Reaper’s Shroud. Only the Fear has a cast time.

Well isn’t that a bit short sighted seeing that you need life force to keep it up that uptime and considering it is gated by ds cooldown? Isn’t once every 11 seconds more realistic as you don’t want to enter a fight without life force? Also the explosion will keep you more likely in combat.

I dislike rangers who can’t stand on a point to save their lives. It’s not when I’m fighting them , it’s when I’m fighting with them.

ellesee.8297:

The Fresh Air Ele has the Phoenix/Arcane/Lightning Flash burst and then spends its time using Air 1 to deal damage and its other skills for surviving! The Necro deals incredible burst condi damage in its fear chain and then spends its down time auto attacking with scepter and trying to survive for the next fear chain burst! You can literally one shot people with a fear chain! IDK what you’re talking about with the “2 bleeds” lol! Crazy! The only difference aside from power vs condi is the Ele is mobile and fragile while the Necro is slow and tanky!

I only have 200 games on my Necro but I haven’t been playing anything but that for the past week and I can give lessons if you want!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

That’s a very strange way of playing terrormancer especially when you see the cooldowns. I prefer to play my terrormancer by using my fears to interrupt the key skill of my foe or give me some breathing room. I’m not sure how many games I have on a terrormancer build though.

Loop.8106:

You have over 40 000 effective life with DS. (With Marauder on Power builds.) That’s without taking all siphon and heals into consideration. Mesmers has 21k with Marauder.

That being stated, if you were to give mesmers some sort of Block, Distortion, Evade, god knows what they would have to reduce the amount of actual sustain you already have. (Lets be honest, you probably have the best sustain atm outside bunkering eles and guardians, maybe some warrior specs.)
You have alot of access to protection, fairly big access to stab. Disengage with wurm (even though its not ideal) You have superior condi cleanse.

So before pointing fingers, think about not getting something for nothing.

Honestly such ignorant post first with 100% death shroud has over 57 000 effective life with marauder and no soul reaping. Every life force is worth 2 health. Sounds impressive, problem is 100% death shroud is not that easy to achieve. Necromancer use many skills and traits to boost their life force generation. Soul reaping alone is three minor traits that boost life force generation. Another thing is that death shroud degenerates meaning every second you’re in death shroud you loose 1334 health , 667 traited. Still you could argue, that’s still a lot of hp now compare that to a 5 second endure pain, how much does it block. From 0 to infinity. You can walk into a zerg of a million people pop endure pain and you still will not die from the physical damage, death shoud wouldn’t last a second. That’s why necromancers are so easily focussed we don’t have any good incentives to make yjeenemy stop attacking them.
Also fairly big access to stab? Where? foot in grave? Trust me entering and leaving death shroud directly after is a sure way to get you killed.

Dondagora.9645:

So here’s an argument against fear working: Fear is particularly strong CC effect which not only prevents skills and/or movement, but also outright controls movement as well. Thus, because of this particular strength, it is made to have the weaknesses of both CC and Conditions.

One problem with that reasoning taunt does even better it also controls your target selection and that one is pure cc.

Question is that not going to be necessairy for reaper who chill on applying fear? If it is negated by stab/break bar then it will be a very weak trait.

Yes stronghold will need more maps, but at the moment I would a refined gamemode above multiple maps. Another concern is that if they roll out maps too quickly they create a few skyhammers or maps that give classes too much of an advantage.

NeXeD.3042:

We still lack something every other class has, defense that scales with amount of enemies.

We have some of those now with siphons being usable,locust swarm , well of darkness, spectral wall, aoe weakness, … . The biggest problem is pulling them off so I suggest more stability and a non condi defense that negates damage so that we can survive a zerker stance rampage.

Caedmon.6798:

Get fearlocked while stabi is up for Randomguy 2 to roll in and start stunlocking…Please,Think about what it is you’re suggesting.

It’s like in pve when fear is applied with defiance the cc effect is negated but the condition is still applied.