Guild Wars 2

Pilgor.4795:

Would you say that metabattle’s rating is off then? And that qtfy is more accurate to most beneficial builds for given scenarios?

Metabattle rating for power is so high because it takes some real creativity to die as power reaper.

Condi will bring more damage on table though.

Step 1: make 1-2 runs of Tarir meta per day. Or any other HoT map – I just like Tarir more since it’s very compact.
Step 2: loot everything that isn’t nailed. Then loot nails too.
Step 3: salvage EVERYTHING.
Step 4: put all the materials you don’t immediately need on TP, slightly undercutting current sellers.
Step 5: buy materials you need with gold, by posting price slightly above current buyers. If you don’t feel like waiting 24 ours per ascended material – buy them too.
Step 6: ???
Step 7: PROFIT

Healix.5819:

Yakez.7561:

Papaya expansion should include new mastery systems and mastery features of HoT on its maps (otherwise is illogical). But designing every map around person with HoT and without HoT is kind of pain in the back (even more with further expansions).

It’ll have masteries, but masteries were originally meant to be expansion-specific, so anything from HoT shouldn’t be used again. If they do want to use gliding again, they could just do it like other MMOs where the new content requires you to relearn it. From the leaks however, we already know that jumping mushrooms for example have been replaced with jumping mounts.

Yakez.7561:

So there would be no standalone papaya expansion, there would be package HoT + papaya with the discount for current HoT owners. But this way is unexpected and would create a lot of drama.

That is their plan, which is the same as how HoT was done. Their reasoning for doing it that way however doesn’t apply, since HoT shouldn’t actually be required for the next expansion. Using their logic, the living world should also be included. Their 1 box model is just a lie – you don’t pay for the expansions, but you do have to buy every season individually and at a fixed price, making it far more than the traditional model.

Looking back, the bad press HoT got for this was actually the first time I saw GW2 on the front page of some gaming news sites, so I guess that’s their real reasoning. All press is good press, right?

If new exp does come with HoT as part of the package, i don’t see any reason not to use gliding in it. It’s very cool mechanic.

Issue with ES being better than core class is mostly created by players themselves.

Because there’s meta. There’s one and only one way to play each class, and if you step away from it – you are doing it wrong. Or, that’s what people will tell you in raids and PVP. Does new elite spec offer 5% damage increase over core class? There, it’s mandatory, and you will be burned alive if you don’t use it. Does new ES dare to offer some new form of group support? Druids and Chronos say hi. Does it offer some niche things that offer interesting sidegrades but don’t fit into meta? Say hello to Scrapper – part of no build I’m aware of.

There’s no win here. It either will be mandatory, or will not be used at all. Because meta. And honestly, since unlocking them require effort and does spice up class gameplay, I’d rather go with “mandatory” route.

So, to not hijack Chilling darkness discussion…

People there presented this build: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wApCHAdWrNc
as go-to power, apparently.

After going through it, I have a number of questions that I hope some people will be able to answer with numbers and experience.

First, and minor, question is non-usage of axe trait in Spite line.

10% damage increase and reduction of CD for 2nd skill is beefy. Sure, axe won’t be used once 50% HP threshold is broken, but Chill of Death won’t be used above it. Also, axe WILL be used below 50% in real life situations, because sometimes you just need to go ranged. Obviously, golem doesn’t fight back, but that’s not behavior of bosses.

With heavy use of axe as suggested in rotation, which one would actually be better NOT on dummy fight?

Second, and more important question, is about Soul Reaping vs Blood Magic.

The only reason SR even exists in this build is for 5% damage modifier. Also, Dhuumfire, but seriously… On the other hand, build runs 2 wells, axe and warhorn, all of which benefit extremely from Blood Magic line. It reduces well CD and stockpiles syphons, which really add up damage on fast-hitting skills. It also offers damage increase to party – while it can’t be measured on dummy fight, I wonder if it will provide at least equal damage increase in real fight.

Number of other factors for BM are self-sustainability that comes from it, and at least some form of group support it offers (mostly to dead people, but it can be important).

Points against SR are that Dhuumfire is completely wasted below 50% (since RS is also melee range, below 50% you’ll be in RS only to facetank something you most likely shouldn’t), and that 5% is tied to LF – which in real fight can fluctuate quite a lot, so it’s not constant uptime.

So, where and how am I wrong in this wall of text?

Sublimatio.6981:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wApCHAdWrNc

Farbstoff likes to minmax, grind and theorycraft the necro rotations, this channel is the go-to for all top dps rotas as of today

Sooooo. Power reaper with wells but no blood magic? And with axe, but no axe trait? Pardon me if I doubt this “benchmark”. Maybe I don’t know something, but build looks like garbage.

I don’t think we need healer spec as much as support one. Like, ability to give meaningful buffs to the team is THE problem with PVE necro since forever. Give us something akin to what Chrono was for mesmers.

And no, as much as I love blood magic, on its own it’s not enough.

BrandyBiscuits.2873:

Wintermute.5408:

Hi! You guys are offline at the moment of writing this, so I post here.

I’ve recently started to do fractals and Ad Infinitum, so some permanent company would be really nice.
I also want to try raiding, though so far I have absolute 0 experience with it. Issue here is, I’m power reaper currently. Hope it’s not too big of a problem (I will get viper set someday, promise)
Last but not least, I just look for friendly guild and people to have fun with )

We can definitely add you for the socialises :> raids however I’m not too sure we’re looking for any new people at the moment but we may be able to slot training runs for new people soon

so on that note i can only send you and invite if you wanna join us for teh lols :p

Good enough for me. I won’t be able to raid properly until autumn anyway, and even then I’ll have more than enough things to do in game )

Hi! You guys are offline at the moment of writing this, so I post here.

I’ve recently started to do fractals and Ad Infinitum, so some permanent company would be really nice.
I also want to try raiding, though so far I have absolute 0 experience with it. Issue here is, I’m power reaper currently. Hope it’s not too big of a problem (I will get viper set someday, promise)
Last but not least, I just look for friendly guild and people to have fun with )

Because people responsible for PVE meta like to assume that players are immortal and fight a training golem.
And then said meta is picked by people who have no clue.

Just because it’s meme doesn’t make it any less true.

The biggest problem with mastery system, that kinda went away when Season 3 started rolling, but will be reintroduced in next expansion, is the fact that it’s map-locked.

When HoT released, i was still fairly new player, and had a lot of base game to explore. However, all of core Tyria, with all of its dungeons, all of world bosses and entire fractal system – yeah, you guessed it, was only giving XP to 3 small mastery tracks, with none of them being useful to me like, at all. The only reason I even leveled kitten things was because i was farming Tequatl at the time.

Magus Falls had many more masteries, and they were much cooler and more useful – needed to get profession weaponry and finish explorations. However, the only way to get those masteries was to grind same 4 maps, over and over and over again, without being able to effectively traverse them in the beginning. At some point I started to kittening hate those maps because of how overdone they were at this point – with no end to it in sight.

Untie mastery from regions. Allow us to level expansion specific masteries in core regions and in other expansions. Otherwise, when new expansion lands, it will be same kitten all over again.

Xenomorph.5346:

comforting – how hard is it to get that benchmark?

Well, it relies on creating an ice field and then standing directly in it for the duration of RS4. So, as you might imagine, it’s far from most practical thing to do.

GS remains superior to dagger (if slightly), so most of the time you’ll camp it. With that in mind, I’d recommend picking axe for having ranged option when you need it.

Dadnir.5038:

Why nerf all professions when you can nerf just one?

They just don’t want the critters to survive for a long time because they were not designed to do so. It sure hurt players but, in all honesty, using a transform skill just to exploit a gimmick brought by 1 skill out of the 5 skills of the transform, that’s a little cheap.

They should just give up and remove the transform “elite” skills from the game. It can only make this game healthier.

Says a lot about transform skill, does it?

kitten, I still remember Lich being go-to power skill because its AA was most potent attack available to necro. Oh, the horror…

Last I heard it was dedicated condi spec. Still, some multi-tasking would be nice.

My inhumanly pale necro will probably suffer sunburns there. But, as long as it helps her turn into proper lich…

Thanks! Guess it’s time to get into raiding then )

I’ve been ignoring legendary items so far, yet I definitely see the usefulness of legendary armor set. So, to those who have more experience with legendary grinds and better understanding of them – how long will it approximately take to make set, provided I play, let’s say, 4 hours a day?

Well, in a perfect world I think elite spec should encompass at least 2 aspects. Because it’s hard to care about new build possibilities if elite doesn’t offer anything worth a kitten to your playstile. Just look at Scrapper.

cptaylor.2670:

I feel like the purple aura around Lazarus is important. They seem to be focusing on it for some reason. As far as the new map I’m pretty sure it’s either next to tangled depths or the fire island chain. More than likely the fire island chain. Just with a tropical portion on at least one side of the island. As to kasmeers reaction I don’t think that’s a matter of it being Kyle or Anise but it is strange that we see her reaction over the others.

Purple aura probably means mesmer under illusion. I’d say it’s Anise, but I’m not sure she warrants that much of Kas’ surprise.

DK in Warcraft lore was close combatant relying on unholy and necromantic powers. Hell, he was the one with “Reanimate” skill in W3.

Reaper is, surprisingly, close combatant relying on unholy and necromantic powers. The only thing Reapers lack in regard to DKs is heavy armor access. Still, there are ways to fix that at least visually.

Not to get into any further argument, but few weapons scream “POWER” more than ass-huge slow greatsword.

I never played GW1, and when I first came into GW2 (like, 2-2.5 years ago) I seriously struggled with maintaining interest for classes. I tried ele, engi, thief and warrior but neither felt satisfactory to play. And I don’t mean some endgame effectiveness – my interest at them dropped by level 25 or so, when I discovered that eles camp 1 attunement all the time (back in the day), engi never uses rifle etc. Thief and warrior just felt pedestrian in terms of animations. Then I stumbled on necro. It was my first (and for long time – only) 80 char, and still remains my main. It looked cool, used more than 2-3 skills, had cool mechanic that also was used and I generally liked the theme.

Unfortunate byproduct of said choice was the fact that necros were actively kicked from all and any groups back then, so it kinda gated me from any group PVE. That changed when HoT came, and Reaper got his short time in the sun. Good times.

I like my reaper and keep her my main, even though currently she is in power version. Still, just in case I’ll ever get my ass to raiding, I have bunch of backup chars. As much as I like her, I don’t have any illusions on her damage numbers.

Oh, and to person kittening about death knights – I guess you missed what Reaper is in theme, did you?

Zero Solstice.9754:

But why does it have to go? Because it’s the major reason for one build to take an entire trait line? That’s something called a “tradeoff”, and it’s a very regular part of healthy balancing. The Necromancer trades off an entire trait line of other options in order to specifically have more damage. When (read: if) another Elite Spec comes out, then Necromancers will have to tradeoff the New Elite Spec for Reaper if they want to maintain the Chill synergies/bonuses. This is totally fine, and should be used more to balance classes, since it is not healthy to be able to have “everything” at all times; if you want the damage, you give up the utility/sustain/etc.

Because it’s counter-synergetic kitten. It defeats point of tinkering with builds when only 1 trait in the entire line defines it, while others are just placeholders. Granted, necros are far from worst offenders in that regard – Reaper has some healthy synergy with many other lines both as power and condi. Still, idea itself is bad.

SlippyCheeze.5483:

http://qtfy.eu/build/necromancer — substitute as appropriate, but that’s pretty much the build™ for this stuff, right now. I swap out with Bone Fiend for healing, and Signet of the Locust for Blood is Power, to get the move speed. Oh, and bleed-on-crit instead of bleed-on-swap, because I’m lazy.

Well, this actually looks interesting. Thanks a lot!

Getting bored with power reaper. Again. Thinking about switching to condi. Again.

Can anybody provide some contemporary PVE build (fractal/raid oriented) and give short explanation on how it plays? I keep hearing GS is a thing for condi now.

Stand The Wall.6987:

entire blood magic line

Oh, c’mon. Blood magic is cool in so many ways that it’s not even funny.

As for traits, those mentioned are popular enough already, so:

Terrifying descent – relic of pre-gliding era. Why are those traits still a thing? And why would you need fear application on something so bizarre?
Vital persistence – just roll it into base class already. It’s so mandatory for SR-based builds it’s legitimately bad at this point.
Weakening shroud – just doesn’t compete with other 2 traits. Partially because other 2 are condi-based traits as well.

Swagger.1459:

Walhalla.5473:

So basically it is " Go PvP or kitten off"

Still don’t understand I see… What part of “trying it out in pvp modes to gain a new perspective to talk about” do you not understand?

There’s that funny weapon called Staff. Compelte garbage in PVE, since it is a bad mix of power and condi at the same time, not to mention that marks often don’t get activated by some PVE objects. So, I’ve been thinking… let’s rework staff! Remove that pesky useless marks – nobody uses them in PVE anyway. Also, make sure every skill applies 3 self-conditions, including weakness and chill – it will be perfect for PVE, since we’ll just send those condis off instantly.

I mean, it takes trying it out in pve modes to gain a new perspective to talk about to understand how BADLY staff needs rework. PVPers crying about their stupid marks and self-condi just don’t get it.

Warcry.1596:

As a Power necro in the raid no one has ever told me in a party I’ve been in that I wasn’t pulling my weight. We never had DPS issues and actually did better than when I was playing something with more DPS, like Revenant before the changes to sword. As long as content is beaten it does NOT matter how long it takes, unless you are trying to set a record. That’s where the disconnect is =/

You don’t quite get the problem here. Have you been around before HoT? When you could be kicked from DUNGEONS for simply playing necro, regardless of your build or skill? Fractals were completely out of question. Becouse “common knowledge” claimed necros suck. I don’t want to go back to that. Reaper was the cure from that cancer, yet it’s wearing off. I know I’ll be hard-pressed to find guild willing to accept my reaper once I decide to go raiding. Not becouse it’s unviable for content. Becouse “common knowledge” claims so.

Swagger.1459:

Wintermute.5408:

Swagger.1459:

Please explain how faster melee attacks, melee skills that track targets and a teleport attack hurt a Necro in pve???

Are these skills bad for pve? Ranger GS 3? Guard GS 3? Guard Wings of Resolve? Guard Judge’s Intervention? War Earthshaker? Thief Dagger 2?

Go run around in wvw and spvp with your GS and come back to tell me it doesn’t need some utility to it… Better yet, maybe go stream your Necro GS build in these pvp modes and show us it’s fine?

Unless I misunderstood you, you are offering to replace current GS2 functionality with leap skill. Now, you can’t kill what’s already dead and all that, but GS2 is huge part of PVE power kit. Removing it will make necro sink to brand-new rock bottom.

What are you taking about? Please explain what in my suggestions “will make necro sink to a brand new rock bottom”?

Necro GS 2 becomes like Guard GS 3 and tracks the target…

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Leap_of_Faith

Necro GS 3 becomes like Ranger GS 3 and tracks the target…

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Swoop

Necro GS 4 becomes like Guard “Judge’s Intervention” but you can aim where you want to port…

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Judge's_Intervention

Please take your GS power build in wvw and spvp then come back to tell me how awesome it is…

I couldn’t give less kittens about spvp or wvw – I don’t play them, nor do i think that all weapons should be equally effective in all game modes. In PVE, power necro relies on Gravedigger and its CD reset to maintain its current DPS, as pathetic as it is. You offer to turn it into reposition skill, but you either want to remove CD reset entirely, or don’t take into account how annoying constant repositioning will get when spammed. In first case, it will sink power necro further. In second, it will just be annoying.

Your entire redisign will make it so reapers are contantly positioned on top of enemy to maintain rotation regardless of their desire to do so, which can get all kinds of bad in PVE.

Swagger.1459:

Please explain how faster melee attacks, melee skills that track targets and a teleport attack hurt a Necro in pve???

Are these skills bad for pve? Ranger GS 3? Guard GS 3? Guard Wings of Resolve? Guard Judge’s Intervention? War Earthshaker? Thief Dagger 2?

Go run around in wvw and spvp with your GS and come back to tell me it doesn’t need some utility to it… Better yet, maybe go stream your Necro GS build in these pvp modes and show us it’s fine?

Unless I misunderstood you, you are offering to replace current GS2 functionality with leap skill. Now, you can’t kill what’s already dead and all that, but GS2 is huge part of PVE power kit. Removing it will make necro sink to brand-new rock bottom.

How about we don’t remove the only thing keeping power necros at least half-dead instead of fully in PVE? Thanks.

Ovalkvadratcylinder.9365:

It’s not the balance team that sets the meta, it’s the players. Doesn’t matter how much you balance, eventually the community is going to find out what’s the most efficient way to run the raid.

There’s difference between “being suboptimal becouse I deel 5% less damage” and “being completely unviable becouse other classes outdamage me by 30-50%”

#necroLifeSucks

So, assuming for a moment people are still willing to take necros into raids:

Have anybody run comparisons of condi versus power after nerf? I liked power more due to their inner elegance, but am stuck half-way transmuting my gear into viper. Last I’ve seen somebody bother, power was on pair with condi when rats were out of the picture.

Is it still the case? Or is one of builds superior now? Which one?

PS: advices to reroll not needed

Jaggeds should remain as they are. Keeping dosens of them alive due to healing sure as hell wasn’t intended. What we need is straight damage buff for condi and, hopefuly, for power.

Oh, and elite worth using would be nice.

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

Wintermute.5408:

They removed rat stacking, that was pure cheese no matter how you look at it. Another cheese – Epidemic bouncing – is still in place, and NORMAL damage remained unchanged.

How is epidemic bounce cheese? Please explain.

Time to put Necs back on the shelves for the most part again I guess, where they were for the most part of this game’s lifespan. Don’t see any reason to bring one anywhere besides on Matthias.

Step 1: get 2 condi necros and maybe some other condi builds, the more the merrier.
Step 1: cast epidemic on main target when there’s an add nearby.
Step 3: cast second epidemic on that add, to instantly double amount of conditions on main target.
Step 4: cheese served.

They removed rat stacking, that was pure cheese no matter how you look at it. Another cheese – Epidemic bouncing – is still in place, and NORMAL damage remained unchanged.

So, they nerfed rat army. Should have been expected long ago, but still:

NOOO, MY POOR LITTLE BABIES!!!

The only problem with TD I have is how utterly inefective 2D map is in there.

I liked it. Granted, entrance barrier is a bit high with amount of masteries needed to get around, and I did overgrind it at some point. But I like it still.

Oh god. Did nobody got the reference? Like, nobody at all?

…

This is depressing.

Your quickening thirst idea is nice, but kinda missed on dagger offhand.

I don’t like your deathly chill solution, becouse torment sucks. Granted, I don’t like current iteration either, but more bleed stacks out of it would fix the issue.

Soul eater would basically be crying for nerf if it ever happens. There’s already projectile hate in form of CPC, and if power necros want it so much – just change self-weakness it applies into something else.

You also miss the issue with GS entirely. There were some people asking for Soul Eater to increase speed of GS2 – which would actually make it useful outside of PVE, and give PVE power necros damage they lack.

Lahmia.2193:

So Gaile Grey posted on the forums about a few incoming changes (mostly nerfs) next patch. One concerned Signet of Inspiration (For Mesmer, we’re looking at making Signet of Inspiration’s boon sharing functionality a bit more controlled, giving each shared boon a fixed duration).
“What does this have to do with Epidemic?” you ask. Well Signet of Inspiration works just like Epidemic but for boons. It currently copies the exact duration with no regard for capping effects. If SoI is getting this nerf, then Epidemic will likely get the same treatment, with duration caps on each condition spread.

I think the deal with Signet of Inspiration is that they want support players to actually dedicate skill budget to supporting. That’s what they do with Druids – force them to pick healing power. There’s stat that increases outcoming boon duration, but when was the last time revs or mesmers bothered with it?

Epidemic doesn’t fall into the same bucket, becouse it’s condi skill and condi necros run appropriate stats for its use already. So unless the decide to kitten it for kitten’s sake – it’s safe.

Aesthetics and skillset. When I started, I tried almost all classes, got them to 20-25 and deleted. Necro was the one that sticked, and remains my main for 2 years now.

Scepter/dagger for condi build.
Dagger/warhorn/GS for rare power enthusiasts.

You should also be aware of the fact that legendaries don’t offer stat increases over ascended weaponry. Their only difference is that you can swap prefixes on them… and even that is questionable, considering how expencive they are to make.

If you are looking for some thematically-fitting skins – I’d go with Nevermore, or that night GS. Outside of that – whatever you like more.

If anything, I’d like a switch on legendaries (more like, somewhere in options) to control amount of effects they produce. While some models are cool, In their current cristmas-tree state I don’t want to go for any of them.

1 question – I’m in GMT4 sadly. While 2 hours isn’t big difference for me, it still means I technically don’t qualify

stale.9785:

You know what – stuff it. I had been typing up a response, and realised that you’re approach to discourse is;

https://giphy.com/gifs/the-office-no-JYZ397GsFrFtu

So I’m saving the effort.

If you can’t be bothered to defend your argument, no one else can. I haven’t insulted you (well, yet), and provided a number of points for you to adress. Let’s try again and keep it simple:

Fact 1: corruptions are purely condi skills. As such, Master of Crorruption is purely condi trait.
Fact 2: condi necros benefit from extra conditions of MoC, due to numerous ways to send them to enemy for debuffing or, more importantly, extra damage. Viper horror incorporates 2 of them at base – dagger4 and Necromantic corruption trait. If need arises, you can get even more ways to dispatch condis with staff, third utility slot and Consume conditions.
Fact 3: power necros gain 0 value from corruption skills, due to their condi nature. Most of their utility can be found elsewhere, with exception of CPC, that isn’t needed in vast majority of PVE environment.
Fact 4: no power build has Curses in it. Spite, Reaper, Soul Reaping and Blood Magic ll compete for the spots.

So, which of those 4 facts do you want to dispute? Do you have any justification for your idea, that will take away 20%-30% of my health per SINGLE rotation? How is it not a nerf to condi builds? How is it a buff to power in any form?

To get to insulting part, this proposition is simply kittened in every way possible. Some of your other ideas are decent or even nice, but this one is just mind-boggling

stale.9785:

As someone who plays power builds, I have to disagree with your view on the corruptions. 10% of your HP is going to be ~2300 damage, which is negligible. The self-inflicted condition is a handicap, and makes our one worthwhile condition cleanse actually debuff us so that we take 5% more damage.

Wintermute – there ought to be more to PvE necro than one condition build.

Edit: Fixed numerical typos.

What other profession has more than 1 raid condi build? I’m curious.

Or, if you want to get power builds up to the task, why are you even looking at corruptions? They are pure condi skills, buffed by pure condi traitline. They are of no use to power build.

Utility? Let’s see. BiP? Power necro has more than enough might access. CPC? In the extremely rare condition when you need it and somebody else doesn’t have projectile protection, just pick it with some form of condi removal. Done. CC? Yea, extremely short 5 vuln stacks and 1 blind is soooooo devastating. CB? Where in PVE do you find a need to corrupt boons? Even if you need it for some reason, there’s well for the same thing. Epidemic? Why are you using it on power necro? Plague? Why are you using it in PVE?

You need condi cleanse that much? Let’s see. CC? Check. It’s amazing despite your opinion of it. Plague signet? Check. Suffer? Check. The more the marrier. Minion trait? Check. Death/reaper shroud to simply wait it out if things get ugly? Check. Teammate ranger/druid? Check.

Leave corruptions alone. They are pure gold for condi builds, and that’s partially BECOUSE they provide self-conditions. I can either send them to enemy or use to beef up my CC heal.

Dear lord, leave corruption skills alone. Not all skills are meant to work in all modes, and there’s more to the game than PVP. Corruptions are amazing in PVE condi builds, giving you more conditions to work with. If anything, I hate it when there’s some over-zealous healer cleansing them away before I manage to send them.