Guild Wars 2

Druitt.7629:

Mesmer clones are made of paper and certainly don’t buy you anything in PvP.

In terms of damage perhaps. but they excel at confusing the human element at the other end. This more so than PVE mobs that can happily ignore clones and make a direct line for the toon.

PinCushion.7390:

One thing that bothers me is I can’t tell if I’m doing well because it’s a great build, or if I’m doing well because most WvW players run glass-cannon builds that fold if they can’t burst DPS their way out of a fight.

Latter is more likely, as crunching the numbers that showed up in a warrior kill shot video recent required that the shooter was massively into crit and hit people that were virtually naked.

Thing is that WvW and sPVP plays so very differently because WvW usually means bring PVE gear while sPVP allows you to pick the setup you want. So likely you will find a lot of targets that run their PVE gear and survive because of the zerg, because they can’t afford the time to grind for hold and gear to adapt to the WvW. Hell, they may only be in there to get their monthlies filled and will vanish from that part of the game until the monthlies roll over again.

So in the end WvW is a poor test case because you do not know if people are running in their finest or simply popping into to grab the monthly chest.

Arcades Saboth.5139:

anonim.7413:

Arcades Saboth.5139:

Hi anonim, I had your same issues. Do you use runes which give you transformation like Vampirism which transform you in mists? If so remove it. They proc at 90% life force as it would be health and transform you in mist but you cannot see it (since the UI in Death Shroud is designed to confuse you).
For some strange reason when you swap out of DS your skill bar is empty too.

Ok, will test it, ty.
But… in fact it IS a Bug, so plz fix =)

One more note:
you can remove just the 6th rune and use the other 5. It is just the transformation which is bugged. It was the same for the Moa on us, now that has been fixed but any other transformation while on Death Shroud are left bugged.

Well the fix in the moa case was to drop us out of DS on application. Trying to do that on the runes would really be a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water…

Sheobix.8796:

Death shroud is not a useless power build tool.
Trait 25 points into blood magic, DS4 will heal you for roughly 1/5 your hp as well as heal your teammate’s hp bars by 1/5 to 1/4. (Thieves and guardians with low vit will thank you a lot)

Huh?

Unless you time it so that you start DS4 the moment you are about to run out of LF, it will cut off the instant you try to drop out of DS.

Btw, did you really need to spam 5+ threads with a link to this one?

Using any rune sets that produce effect mist or ice at low health? Seems the game think we have zero health when we go DS.

All weapons and armors to all professions, and base endurance costs and regeneration on armor and weapon equipped. Want to dodge often? Go with light armor and small weapons. Want to hit hard and laugh at damage? gear up with heavy armor and large weapons.

Want to add a anecdote to this.

I was passing thru one of the norn zones on my way north, and there was the end of a DE chain going at a ice “fort”. Me playing a L80 dagger necro in rare gear.

So i stopped by, found a lone ranger fighting a champion and figured i would help. Found myself more or less tanking the champ using daggers to charge DS, then pop into DS until i reached about 50% and repeat.

At one point, while just about to switch out of DS the champion made a simple swipe at me, no dust up or anything like that, and i watch that 50% of my DS vanish.

Now 50% DS vanishing means that this champ did what appeared to be a normal attack that did enough damage that had it hit my health it would have removed half my health. And with necromancer being one of the two high health professions in the game, it would have likely dropped guardians (except for their abundant aegis), thieves or elementalists, and badly damaged the rest.

Sometimes i wonder if Anet went a bit heavy handed in their drive to make the fights more dynamic. I can understand the occasional big hit that needs to be dodged, but it sometimes feel like the only real way to play this game is like a third person action, continually kiting and circling.

Stand your ground, even with a mob, and you are likely to come out with perhaps 50% health, after having used one or more heal during the fight. Two or more mobs, never mind a veteran or two, and you will be hard pressed to come out of it without one or more trips into the down state (if you win at all), unless you run around like a squirrel on a energy drink high.

And the whole idea of watching the animations may work fine on a lan or in single player, but on the internet you can have lag spikes and packet loss. Meaning that the supposed animation may be overruled because the packet that was supposed to trigger it comes after the damage was dished out. And Anet already has enough trouble with their heavy handed object culling in mass fights.

As for potions and such, meh. First of you need to figure out what your up against, and the number of potions out there is staggering. Never mind that the mobs are not clearly flagged as to what “race” they belong to. So you fill up half your bag with potions? Meh, just as well go with a fury build. This as you get 50% more damage while under fury, at least.

Offense is the best defense in this game, in terms of PVE. The faster you can drop a mob, the less damage you will take.

the need to send multiple skills into 30+ cooldown to down a single enemy, perhaps?

The transforms are a mess regarding traits. Best i can tell, thanks to that and the minions going bye bye on transformation, is that when a transform happens the server code basically deletes the object that is our necromancer from the world and spawn a object that match what we transform into. We are then given control of said object until the timer runs out or we switch back early.

I honestly fear that a working spectral grasp is what the anet devs have in mind when they claim necromancers to be a profession you can’t escape.

Crazy thing is that i find dagger to be much better for DS heavy play than axe, as the LF gain on axe 2 pales compared to the dagger 1 chain.

I would have found the retaliation part more interesting if it scaled off incoming damage. Never mind that you still take damage so you can just as well trait DS for 5 sec of retaliation and go wild.

Sure wish food did not seem so mandatory in this game…

Servanin.5021:

At an easily sustainable 10 stacks, thats 1430 DPS. When you burst up with flurry, that could be 3575 DPS. You might think, “big deal, my kill shot crits for 20k” Well, in the 10 seconds its on cooldown bleeds will have far surpassed it.

Do note tho that at any time the bleed can be cleansed, converted to a boon, or sent off of to a target, while direct damage is direct damage. Once it is done, the target has to heal up or expect to die.

And while kill shot is fun if you look for large single numbers, getting fury and going for something fast hitting will be more effective if your kill shot can’t down the target right there. Never mind following up kill shot with some kind of rapid chain or similar to finish the deal.

Servanin.5021:

Both? They don’t directly compete with each other, the runes that have +bleed duration on them also have condition damage.

Well bleed and confusion stack in intensity, so there duration means that you can potentially have 25 lines of bleed doing damage at the same time. But you need to maintain at least 7-8 of them to match a single burn, and burn scales better from +damage.

Imo, +damage is always better than +duration.

First off, if your existing damage drops a mob in 10 seconds then adding duration do nothing. The mob will still drop in 10 seconds, and your additional seconds are wasted. Adding damage however means more damage pr second, and so needs fewer seconds to drop the same mob.

second, any PVPer with working mental capacity will try to get rid off conditions as fast as possible. meaning that +duration again is a waste as it is unlikely that a condition is allowed to run its length. +damage however means that you increase the damage of even those few ticks that managed to get thru before your foe got rid of the conditions affecting him.

In any case a condition attack will always be inferior to a direct damage attack unless you’re hunting heavily armored mobs. This because direct damage is done damage, and must be healed. Condition damage is potential damage, and can be removed before it do the damage stated in the tooltip.

Never mind that in heavy engagements, condition damage has a hard cap at 25 stacks of bleed and confuse, and a single stack pr burning and poison. direct damage scales with however many you can gather to hit on the target, with fury potentially making one guy count for 2-3 depending on his crit damage percentage.

Akame.1073:

http://www.gw2db.com/items/54402-gargoyle-scythe# this is something necros drool on & althow i havent seen it ingame yet i know , i know i will see it in a class that isnt a necro & i ll drop into tears :P

Actually, that one is the PVP variant. The PVE equivalent is Final Rest. Last i read, someone suspect it of being a drop from a DE chain to the south west of Strait of Devastation.

Kardiamond.6952:

By the way I did not know there was mobs with conditions immunity in this game. I hope Direct Damage also have some immunity goign for them too.

So far the only time i have seen that is when you drag a mob to far from its spawn point (or at random times under water, even if you’re sitting right on top of their spawn).

Expect any appearance mods to show up in the gem store, for a solid stack of gems.

If Anet allowed us to have multiple template trait sets on hand and easy to switch to (likely at the same fee as the current retrain cost pr switch) people would perhaps be more willing to swap to a non-condition build for dungeons and such.

Something like the 10% damage increase pr condition that the mesmer warlock gets, except for each condition on us? Could be interesting, and could replace the might boon from Blood is Power.

A start would be for it to act like other transforms, by allowing it to show our conditions and such.

From that i would really like to see it modeled after the human elite skill Reaper of Grenth. Meaning that it would be a effect put on us that except for directing damage towards LF would do little else in its basic form. Then we could spec it so that it would apply different effects as a PBAOE and on weapon attacks. If they want us to have the ability to fear or gap close at the drop of a hat, they can then spin those of to the F keys and have them perhaps spend LF on use.

Yep, the tooltip damage is the total expected damage output, not the pr hit output.

Same with conditions. The damage is the total if it gets to run for its full duration, not the pr tick damage.

I honestly wonder if it would be better if Anet put the pr hit/tick damage as the main value, and the expected total in () behind it.

Mega Skeleton.8259:

digiowl.9620:

TheAgedGnome.7520:

Monarch.4026:

…I believe the issue is that, we can do alot of things that any class can do better. Be it conditions, straight DPS, Healing….we are not the best at anything in this game. …

Does this also include applying Vulnerability? (e.g., axe/focus)

This is kind of depressing.

Not that vulnerability really do much until you hit the 25% cap. Slap on fury and get instant double that or more for the duration. Vulnerability provide about as much as might pr unit, except might also boosts condition damage.

A rather irrelevant remark when we have 1 way to “slap on fury.” And that’s the Furious Demise trait in Curses.

I was looking at it in general, not specifically for necromancers, as a way to explain the choice of warriors. A warrior have multiple ways to gain quite a bit of time with fury, one of them being the greatsword burst ability (9 seconds at level 3).

Sure, it is just for one. But that one can then produce damage that can match 3-4 with a full vulnerability stack, a stack that a necromancer is hard pressed to fill on his own btw, if he has geared for crit damage.

In essence, the crit mechanic at present favors choosing warrior over necro in a group if the aim is DPS.

And similarly for thief, they can gain 10 seconds of fury via a traited steal. And if they use said ability without a target, they still get those 10 seconds, but the cooldown is only 5 for the ability. Never mind that a out of stealth attack can be made to always crit (never mind that the trait line to gain that grants both precision and crit damage percentage).

If you want damage, vulnerability is not the way. Go fury, as even the basic crit can increase damage by double that of a full vulnerability stack (something axe alone can’t reach, to if you add in focus #4 you get close). And if you go for crit damage gear, you can get 2.5 times your weapon damage each blow. A fury powered axe #2 could actually be a interesting sight to behold.

TheAgedGnome.7520:

Monarch.4026:

…I believe the issue is that, we can do alot of things that any class can do better. Be it conditions, straight DPS, Healing….we are not the best at anything in this game. …

Does this also include applying Vulnerability? (e.g., axe/focus)

This is kind of depressing.

Not that vulnerability really do much until you hit the 25% cap. Slap on fury and get instant double that or more for the duration. Vulnerability provide about as much as might pr unit, except might also boosts condition damage.

Meh, guardians are basically walking boon (aegis in particular) dispensers. Warriors, especially if they focus on crits, can put out non-limited direct damage (damaging conditions are hard capped in comparison). Same goes for thieves but in a slightly different fashion. Mesmers are for two things, portals (allowing the group to bypass stuff) and time warp (multiplying damage output).

striker.3704:

digiowl.9620:

I would guess transfusion, if it matches Life Transfer in terms of ticks.

Each transfusion tick is worth 292 health according to the wiki (L80), and with 9 ticks in Life Transfer that comes down to 828 pr application.

On that note, do focus #4 bounce between minions when there are no mobs within range?

I think you posted in the wrong thread, and no the focus 4 doesn’t bounce to minions.

well crap, i have no idea how it got here.

I would guess transfusion, if it matches Life Transfer in terms of ticks.

Each transfusion tick is worth 292 health according to the wiki (L80), and with 9 ticks in Life Transfer that comes down to 828 pr application.

On that note, do focus #4 bounce between minions when there are no mobs within range?

Huh, that’s a new development.

I really do wonder how wildly the human perception of time can vary.

This is the end effect of Anet making the defense in this game rely more on the player than the toon. Dodges, projectiles with actual flight time (allowing them to miss a strafing target) and other design elements favors the mobile combatant. And when you’re mobile, it helps to attack from range. End result is kite kite kite.

Yea, the game UI is a odd hybrid of action and classic RPG. Action in that you are expected to move around a lot to stay alive. classic in that quite a few things favors that you actually stand still or suffer interface overload.

But one reason why it happens in other MMOs is because each class have certain skill sets, and the “tanky” ones have to rely on consumables or outside assistance to heal. In GW2, we all have a designated slot for healing skills.

I know that mobs have the same behavior pattern. But i do not have the mental capacity to memorize 1001 different mob patterns. And While armoring up helps a bit, the game strongly favors player action vs character stats on the defensive side of the equation. Meaning that if you trade DPS for armor you will only take longer to eventually die, because your reaction time is still the same and but now your damage output, the one thing that will end the fight (except running away) is considerably lower.

The thing is that armor, vitality and healing ability scales linearly, while DPS, thanks to the crit mechanic, scales exponentially. With high crit damage you can nearly triple the output of in relation to the input. And fury allows you to guarantee crits for its duration.

In essence the game favors quick reaction players with glass cannon builds when dealing with mobs.

Iirc, the same happens with mesmer and guardian field effects. It is only cosmetic as best i can tell, unless they managed to mess up necro extra again.

Bair.8240:

Take this with a grain of salt as I am only level 56.

As a power necro I can say in this game so far even among all my other characters I have not felt as kitten as with my necro. Nothing kills you. Nothing. Between my conventional heals and my abilities that replenish Death Shroud the sheer amount of punishment I can withstand is astounding. I solo champs, run into groups that makes others hold back, and I fear no mob yet because I know if I play smart I can take on most content solo.

Sarcasm? Or is your play style a very active one with constant movement and dodges?

Still need me to have the mouse on the target. Tho i guess i could put a piece of tape at the center of the screen, as that is where things apparently land when i hold down right mouse. Given that, i wonder why Anet didn’t provide a way to lock the mouse view and a crosshair…

There is difficult, and then there is annoying. Never mind that when people talk about “skill”, more likely they mean reaction time.

There is also a ever present champion in the lair now.

The main issue with moving around Orr are the amount of mobs with long aggro and equally long pull CC. Sure, you can dodge. But that just means that the third pull rather than the first pull gets you.

Do wonder where all that potential energy ends up

The thing about DPS is that at least direct damage have the crit percentage. Go heavy there and you can double or nearly triple your output (meaning that +1 power can see perhaps +2.5 in damage output with a crit). You can’t crit a heal by comparison so the increase is much more linear.

Not tested, as the tooltip clearly stated allies. Don’t tell me i have overlooked yet another self heal…

GottFaust.5297:

NOTES
- Minions tend to target what you are currently damaging, not necessarily what you have targeted. In AoE situations the minions tend to have a hard time deciding on a target due to the aforementioned fact. This is why you see a lot of complaints about minions idling or attacking “random” targets. The main issue with this is that most Necro weapons have some form of inherent AoE.

Except i have seen minions not responding when i clearly only damaged one mob. Could be tho that they have a problem with seeing who the enemy is if you initiate the fight, as i found them quite reliable in the recent karka event. So there could be some AI issue in there in relation to how the fight starts. It could be that the target picking code for the minions only come into play when you are in combat “mode”, meaning that if you initiate the fight the code fails to trigger because you were not in combat when you did the damage. And with no way to order them to attack, we can’t really force them to pick a target.

Defense in this game heavily favors player reaction time (“skill”) over stats and traits.

After playing a bit of elementalist and having experienced recent events with my necro, i really wish those ground target effects would happen on my focused targets location if i double tapped the skill button. Trying to effectively put down that ground target while both myself and my target is moving, even with things like greater marks, is a major pain.

I guess the problem is that you can’t really build a gear system that can sort between quick reaction and slow reaction on the player side, as anything that favors the slow will also favor the quick. Any increase in the frequency of dodges to compensate for wasted or bad timing will allow quick reactions to walk all over the mob with dodges to spare. A similar increase in healing or damage mitigation will allow quick reactions to walk thru fights unharmed.

Thing is that Anet went heavy handed in their trinity removal.

Because when you remove the trinity by giving everyone the ability to do damage, CC and group support you end up with the D&D cleric that can harm and heal with equal ease.

But there is a second part to the trinity, the designated tank. The jack of all trades would make said tank potentially self sufficient. So what Anet seems to have done is reduce the effectiveness of heals across the board, meaning that defense rests more on the players ability to react to and avoid threats than the builds healing abilities.

Anet also made aggro opaque. Different mobs react differently to a group. This means that nobody can claim that they can hold aggro 100% of the time, allowing the rest to do damage unopposed.

No wonder people build glass cannons, as damage is the only aspect of a build that is not primarily on the players shoulders. Never mind that going all in on a critical focused build can see your damage output nearly triple.

Meaning that if you can create a ranged build that chill and cripple, while the player brings short reaction time (that supposed “skill”), so you can kite with little danger and you are in essence immortal. At least until you run head first into Orr mobs or similar that chain CC you…

The game plays a bit differently in the PVP variants, because humans are smarter than the AI about CC. But overall it plays the same, with the defensive side resting on the player rather than the build.

Hrmf, i checked it in game but didn’t see any green numbers. Tho i guess it could have faded out before the UI fully returned.

Edit: ah, yes. Crunched some numbers based on the formula in the wiki and the numbers from the affix article and came out with maybe 400 a pop in full exotic cleric…

Regeneration in comparison gives about 200 a second. So You gain a little above double the bang by going regeneration with the same setup. Maybe i should just go back to doing dagger and focus, thanks to the regeneration from #5. Just wish #4 did more than strip boons and chilled tho, as it seems a waste against most mobs.