Guild Wars 2

It truly would have been better had they allowed for the specializations to be fully trainable in VB and used the remainder of the hero points to serve a dual purpose. What do I mean, well it should be a choice once you do the hero challenge to accept the hero points or possible karma or gold as a secondary choice, heck even an unlock for a skin could be a viable alternative.
This would allow people to play using their elite skill and take their time on the remainder of the content not blast through it out of shear frustration. I hope they realize this before people have torn through the maps and end up being bored silly within a week or two.

The fact of the matter is by having the points so high you tried to avoid diminishing the value of the content but this worked completely opposite as everyone who wants to play in their elite spec will now blow through it all to get there. You’ll be seeing outcries of boredom one heck of a lot faster because of this and had you allowed everyone to get their specialization properly from the onset most everyone would likely have taken their time to work their way through the content, not blast through out of shear frustration and anger.
I actually feel sorry for the devs that put time into this now watching that work get ignored by many as their sole focus is grinding out these points.

Gaile Gray.6029:

First, thank you for saying, in your first sentence, my very thoughts: “It’s been less than 16 hours, and that’s ’forever?” Secondly, thanks for a smile. I’d love to see the statue that goes with that award.

Well, all I have to say about this quote is that I’ve received infractions for being half that sarcastic, talk about double standards. I guess pointing that out will get me banned. Whatever your personal feelings are as you’ve said many times being this outright dismissive of peoples concerns isn’t the way to get ones point across but i guess from that you’re telling everyone that’s pretty much Anet’s view on all this, sad really. I guess you’re tired and frustrated well after 3 hours and one skill credit so am I and so are many others!

Yep, I lasted less than an hour and the thought of how much grind it is going to take just took the wind out of my glider. They have really cheapened the experience and shattered a lot of peoples view of the overall success of this expansion. Really poor decision on gating the elite even worse gating it behind the mastery grind, took most of the fun out of the new content for me. I’d actually have preferred you left it in beta where I could actually play my reaper the way he is meant to play.

Rococo.8347:

Elites were never considered to be ‘progression’ systems – that was Masteries – Elites were supposed to be an ALTERNATIVE game play spec – you don’t block access to them behind completing the entire vanilla spec

This is exactly how they laid out the whole progressions system excluding legendary weapons and gear, which were expected to be a grind. The masteries were to be our replacement to leveling and frankly I have no issue with that at all and enjoy the thought of working towards that but I have a major problem with this last minute addition. Nobody expected to have to dump points into specs and traits they have no intention of using before being able to unlock the elites. This was omitted because they knew there would be backlash and it doesn’t matter how you try and color that it was simply wrong to do so.
As of now it’s a mute point but I can tell you that I’ve learned my lesson and won’t be dumping cash in advance for anymore expansions unless the major points of functionality are laid out clearly from the onset.

It’s ok it is all a ploy so they can sell them for gems now going forward so those of us that have a dozen characters who get fed up doing all this to get a specialization will just cough up some cash to get through the pain.
Also those who keep bringing up datamining need to drop that. Not everyone sits here day after day waiting to see what’s new and frankly it should have been released by Anet and not left up to someone to data mine out of the game.

displacedTitan.6897:

And you would have worked toward the unlocks differently than getting the HPs in the game now… how exactly????

The point is had I known, I would have spent time working to unlock those I don’t have so that come Friday I would have cleared them all on the current map. currently I’ve saved what I had not knowing I’ll need to fully train everything else before training a spec I actually want to use. Color this anyway you like it should have been mentioned a long time ago so people actually had a chance to work towards it KNOWING what they’ll need.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

There is a LOT of misinformation in this thread…

1. Traits and skills are unlocked separately. There is one line for skills and one line for traits. Open up your hero panel and take a look.

2. The 400 points includes the following:
-3 minor traits
-9 major traits
-4 skills
-1 heal
-1 elite
– 6 runes
-1 sigil
-1 weapon skin
-1 armor skin

The initial investment is 60 points to unlock the trait line, after that we don’t know how the points are distributed. However we know that spending 400 points unlocks all that, so you will not need all the points. I suspect you will need ~170 points to unlock all the traits as this is what was previously datamined. The unique weapon and armor skins will likely take a larger amount of points.

They are also called ELITE specs, not CASUAL AUTO UNLOCKED SPECS.

Datamined isn’t the point this should have been clearly laid out months ago so people actually had the opportunity to work towards this, not dropped onto the community 3 days before the expansion, that’s just bs.

Bhawb.7408:

Reaper isn’t remotely OP. Is it strong? Absolutely, but it is strong within its niches, which is great. Shout Reaper becomes very strong in teamfights, where it is meant to be strong, but not outside. That is just good design, strong in its niche with reasonable counterplay.

Let it play out a bit, Reaper from BWE wasn’t good enough to nerf.

This, a hundred times this! Why is it people start screaming OP until something is actually tried for any length of time in many various situations I’ll never know. Anyway it isn’t OP and as Bawb has said it’s good in situational combat nothing more. Isn’t it about time Necros weren’t complete useless, let it go, please.

Grymlocke.1067:

@ Robert Gee / Karl

IS there any update for our Necromancers / Reapers?

Been over 12 days Since beta and no new notes of changes regarding our feedback

Could we have an update please?

I concur, it would be great to know if there are going to be any changes prior to launch based on the feedback given. Any chance we can at least get a yes or no?

Zaroua.2714:

That’s not the attitude the guilds striving for world first have. Those guilds need to figure out everything by themselves for themselves through practice, theorycrafting, discussion and spreadsheets. A week is more than enough time to lose the race to world first and the players at the top will not be able to afford to wait for theorycrafters to “figure out the meta”.

So for the sake of a one time objective that a minor few works towards we should introduce an elitist shaming tool on the rest of the game’s player base, sorry but do it with the tools you have and let the rest of the player base play the game the way it was designed to be played. If you have the tools now, as restrictive as you might find them that’s what everyone one else has so it will still be a matter of the most deserving getting that title, no harm no foul.
I have played many games with this tool and it has been a direct cause of degradation of the player base and for every player that uses it correctly hundreds will abuse it, so no thank you. You have what you need to calculate what you need to know, that’s all that should be necessary. It’s kind of laughable, I have been doing this since MMO’s first came out long before we even had YouTube and somehow we managed to figure it all out on our own, guess that must mean we were better players right?

There is zero need for a DPS meter in a game like GW2, where metas are figured out in usually less then a week. The tool would only expedite that process which in the case of GW2 is not necessary. You want to know what the best gear/traits/rotation is, wait a week go on to YouTube and you’ll find out. or better yet do the work yourself and play to experience it.
The notion that because one raid is introduced we now need to push through all the ridiculous add-ons is absurd, especially in light of the fact it got played for only 8 hours or so and only one section.

Thanks for the feedback much appreciated!

What is the optimum internet connection? Should i target a higher download vs. upload or should they be close to the same? I had a 40 up and down and now it’s changed to 100 download v 10 upload. Should i get it switched back to 40 & 40 or leave it the way it is?

Are we going to get any feedback on our feedback or is this the final build that will be launched on October 23rd?

This brings me back to a post I started a long while back, and it isn’t too encouraging. In the end everything a Necro can do there is a class that does it better in PvE and at the end of the day until they stop balancing the class for PvP we are doomed to stay at the bottom.
Give us something of value so there is a reason and soft CC isn’kitten why are they so unwilling to see this?

I just want my speed boost back when swapping rifle for flamethrower.

Minions burn too fast in the new content. I finally had to switch things and shelve the MM because they just die way too fast in HoT content.

Jelzouki.4128:

The shout Chilled to the Bone does not work with Soldier Runes

Ok, thought it was just me. Switched to Valkyrie seems ok with that trying again to confirm.

I seem to be able to keep reaper up much longer with valkerie, and zerker weapons and jewelry. My soldier build is just brutal, all that gold wasted, bummer. GS 1 and 2 are better feeling the combo reaper 4 and 5 not nearly as potent, although reaper 1 is faster and the change from gs to reaper is quicker thanks for that.

Feedback on the fly sorry for the quick conclusions. That said please launch HoT tomorrow i want to keep my reaper!

This is way different then last beta. I have switched to exotic and tried 2 different build power and then toughness and it is seriously under powered food and all. What has changed? Minions die so fast i can’t keep them up, chill is nowhere near as potent as it was, hell i feel like i just spent a kitten ton of gold in anticipation of where i’d take this Reaper and it isn’t working at all, what gives?

ScribeTheMad.7614:

Many people don’t have it because for 2.5 years we’ve been told and reassured that it was entirely optional outside of high level fractals.

This is the single most important fact about this situation.

This won’t end well!

So to be clear, this will include new Halloween events?

Robert Gee.9246:

Lich and Plague form was more of a clear cut issue of “hey, let’s not punish minion masters for pressing their elite”.

Thanks, it took 3 years but thanks for this!

Wohoo….I’m a healer, not! If i wanted the trinity I’d be playing, well every other game out there. Way to cave, and i thought the worst thing in the development was monetization, way to raise the bar guys lol!

Frankly if i wanted to play a healer I’d be playing (every other MMO)! New pets great, current direction, horrid.

Frankly if i had any interest in playing a healer I’d be playing (name every other mmo).

While i do appreciate the fact we aren’t looking at the final version yet and i am very happy with some of the changes, i still like many, have an awful feeling we haven’t been given anything that will warrant our inclusion in group PvE.
I mean some very valid points and concerns have been brought into the discussions and unless things are being kept hush hush due to the whole Raid content to come i have to go back to the whole view that once again we are going to be sitting at the bottom again. Please give us something to hold onto here, it’s bloody scary seeing how poorly we will fit in and again if it’s all due to PvP or WvW then please separate the skills off it frankly isn’t fair to keep us in the doghouse any longer.

Don’t get me wrong I’m more of a small group solo kinda guy and am super excited to try some things out but we are the bottom look again in PvE group content which is kinda sad. C’mon RG give us some real purpose for PvE grouping.

I’m thinking the first draft of the Druid will be announced tomorrow along with Engineer and this should bring the BW3 for this coming weekend, fingers crossed.

Vlad.1739:

You know nothing! GW3 will pick up terminator parody story from GW1 in which charr send robots from the future to kill Gwen. We will get Commando class and it will be more OP than ele and mesmer combined.

Commando comes with the shoulder canon from Predator, along with the permanent stealth ability and heat signature headpiece.

ronpierce.2760:

You guys have got to stop bumping this. It’s going to give me a heart attack. :P

Sorry, I was just kind of surprised they took it off the top, but I hope that’s a sign of news to come! Fear the Reaper!

Aesa.4819:

Hopefully, it means there will be a new “Reaper changes for next BWE”-thread, with the new changes for the next beta

Just as long as there are no nerfs, we seem to be in a decent place with some more fixes needed on the GS line so we aren’t forced to always be in RS to be effective. I will say that I am far more excited to play this and actually dedicated my ascended GS to my Necro in hopes they have this all sorted out for launch.

Lily.1935:

I actually really like the reaper elite specialization as it is. the only issues I’ve been having with it is with the core necromancer, not the elite specialization itself. In my opinion its just about perfect. Its core necromancer thats really holding it back.

Another issue that I am seeing way too often with the elite specialization is how reliant it is on Soul reaping. You pretty much need to take soul reaping. Its hard to justify not taking it. but again, this is an issue with the core necromancer and not so much the reaper.

That’s exactly it, although I have played around with a MM build that uses death, blood and reaper using the soldier gear which seemed to work very well in PvE, but yes I’m hoping they do something to boost things so you’re not forced into Soul Reaping.

Well I’m hoping that it isn’t a sign of us not being in the next beta, I need my reaper fix!

Why was this pulled from the stickie tab or is my comp going wonkey?

I’m still praying for no nerfs and some tweeks. This is as close as I’ve seen this class to being competitive in any respect since prior to launch….we really do deserve you to err on the side of caution here and not rhetoric please! Please! So many of us have been hopeful for so many months, don’t let these betas be all there was….and yes i’m aware of the rhetoric/subsequent irony.

It costs more to participate in, (waypoint jumping if you want any chance at blooms) and is less rewarding than the side quests that you work through out of sheer boredom while waiting for the next spawn. Totally terrible design and a nasty impression to give any newcomers as far as showcasing quest design.

I am definitely going to miss playing my Reaper, it was a ton of fun and I am hoping the remaining issues get ironed out but it RS is a blast to play and I thoroughly loved the artwork in the new area.
Kudos for all the work that has been done to date it’s really starting to payoff.

Bhawb.7408:

We can’t be too good at keeping up to people, considering if we’re able to constantly stick to people we have a spammable AoE that makes backstab look like a toothpick. Just make our current options a bit more reliable, primarily GS5, and GS3 needs to be a bit longer range.

You hit the nail on the head. If they are going to keep the slower cast speed then they need to increase the range on these skills for us to counter the kiting.

I’ll just leave this here because it pretty much sums things up and hopefully Gee doesn’t start tearing things apart because some people don’t have a clue; https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3k2ltw/cant_focus_fireburst_reaper_for_free_kill/

Azure.8670:

I was hitting 12-17k.

Gs is the truth

Yet a Tempest and the Revenant hit in excess of 30 k + crits regularly. GS 2 and 3 are nearly useless and they do not fill up RS quick enough, in fact i found myself switching weapons just to build RS up enough to save my butt.

Bhawb.7408:

Reaper is fun, if you aren’t having fun on it you need to chill out a bit and come back when you’re ready to enjoy easily the best thing to happen to Necromancer so far. Now, Reaper isn’t perfectly balanced yet, it still has plenty of things that need to be mentioned, but at least for the first time Necromancer feels like it flows well with itself.

So we should continue to be satisfied with being mediocre because we sucked for so long, sorry not buying in to that. Reaper has some good points, RS is great but once you exit that with GS you have very little to be excited about.
The GS skills are mediocre at best, 1 is good the rest are slow and unproductive. I am not satisfied because i know what’s been left on the table, at least I’m honest about it.

You people kill me. Try another class, then come back and tell me how awesome we are, totally delusional i swear. A Tempest can out damage you, a guardian can make you inept as far as survival? What the are you playing?

Well base on what I’m seeing there is little to no real value coming from this beta. Maybe I’m delusional but my wife’s Tempest just kicked kitten compared to the reaper. I know i cursed someone out for judging to quick but wow am i underwhelmed. The GS is slow kitten kittene, RS is dependent on scrub critters to ramp up, skill 3 burns it off too fast to measure. I’m freaking lost right now. I’ll try again tomorrow but i really hope the devs see this. Slow and steady doesn’t win the race unless you can make you opponent slow and steady. Right now we’re just slow and stupid kitten looking

Nyth.3492:

Anchoku.8142:

Dagger is 0/2/6% and attacks much faster. Greatsword should be something like 2/6/8 %

Thank god you’re not in charge of class balance then :P

GS needs worse LF generation than dagger, because it has other advantages.
It now deals higher burst damage and quite a lot higher sustained damage below 50%. It cleave 3-5 targets.
Basically it serves a different purpose than the dagger does. So for that reason it doesn’t need the same LF generation.

I think it’s pretty slow too, but I feel it’s a weakness the weapon needs to have. And there are ways to get LF generation through other sources (utilities / shout heal / etc) if you desperately need it; plus there is weapon swap. Swapping to Dagger/Warhorn for some quick LF generation (or maybe another combo like axe / WH for #2 + #5), is an option as well.

EDIT: Note that I’m not saying the weapon doesn’t need adjusting. I just think that it shouldn’t ever be on the level of LF generation that the dagger auto attack chain is.

Slow….did you say slow? Listen you’ve not tried other classes or you’re doing your very best to hide the fact that the generation is horrid and the damage is terrible. I out performed the GS with junk sigils in a scepter and focus let alone a scepter/ warhorn. It’s still horridly under powered and the only reason to use GS is if you wanted to look good, i sure as heck wouldn’t use this on Tyria.

you really need to play the other specializations because you’re seriously mistaken. I took a tempest and wrecked critters in less than 50% of the time it took to take them don as a Reaper. Worst yet, i did this as a glass canon so you’re not seeing the whole picture here.

GS is like poking a bear with a frakin Q-tip. I really thought these changes mattered but so far I’d rather the DS over the damage from a RS, at the very least we could survive long enough to make a fight out of it. When i started the night i was happy until i swapped through my characters and now i am convinced that as long as they stick to slow and powerful without understanding the other classes we’ll be destined to fail.

It really all seems worthwhile until you compare the numbers to a burst class like Tempest, then it’s not even close. I made a glass canon ELE and it crushed the veterans compared to the Reaper. I stayed alive longer but we are cursed with the same absurd thing…it’ll die from boredom before you kill it meaning “raid viability is nil” . We are once again the bottom scrubbing class.
If I’ve missed a build or weapon combo or gear combo please feel free to pint it out.

I’m being totally honest here but GS is terrible. I’ll use any other weapon even axe over this. The whole build is all about hopefully building enough to jump into RS then it burns super fast if you don’t time things just right. I’m bummed i really thought these boosts would have much bigger effects but hell a tempest kills us with a freaking staff and GS is a melee weapon? Maybe if your opponents are sleeping. Still wayyyyyyyyyyyy toooooo slow….. Please match speed for damage, please you got skill 1 RS right why does everything else suck so slowly hard?
It’s been 4 hours but man my hopes for PvE are dashed…why, why do we have to suck