Guild Wars 2

spoj.9672:

flow.6043:

spoj.9672:

Blasting dark fields for blind is kind of weak though. Id prefer aoe 3 stacks of vuln on blast instead of blind.

That would be a huge nerf in PvP for us. And I don’t think it would make us any more viable in PvE since we use a single well every 35 seconds and we would rely on other classes blasting it who are usually perma stacking vuln anyway.

I dont see how that would be a huge nerf. We have limited blasts as it is. And how many people blast wells for blind in PvP? I suppose i can see it as a cover for a stomp instead of slotting WoD or using dagger OH. But what blast are you going to use for that? Staff 4 doesnt work on downed state (or did it get changed?). If you are going to rely on teammates for the blast then it seems like a pretty niche use. You probably wouldnt need to waste a dark field for a single stomp blind in that situation. :P

No, marks don’t trigger on downed players. And a single pre-stomp blind won’t secure a safe stomp anyway, so the only way to combo blind in the right moment would be if another opponent triggers it or have Flesh Worm or Bone Minions explode on the well during the stomp. Either way, not reliable (or viable).
However, blindness is arguably one of the best conditions in any PvP scenario. I will take a single blindness over 25 stacks of vuln any day.
So whenever the opportunity presents itself I do use Putrid Mark on wells. I sometimes even tell other people to combo with my wells, because most players don’t even know what dark fields do. They are likely to combo once in a while by chance, but consciously inflicting blinds or leeching bolts is a very valuable asset in team fights.

spoj.9672:

In terms of PvE. It would be pretty strong. You prestack might before a fight. Then in the fight your eles can spam blasts on top of dark fields for 25 stacks of vuln. I would assume it would have similar duration to blasted might as well.

That sounds nice, but even if that was possible, would your dungeon dream team be 1 necro + 4 eles?

spoj.9672:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

spoj.9672:

But remember guys! Before the last feature patch our lowest stunbreak was 60s. We should be praising anet. /s

Nah, Well of Power was 50 seconds for a while before that.

Oh yes forgot about that. Even so Well of Power originally wasnt a stunbreak.

Cd reductions for wells and WoP becoming a stun break all happened in the same patch (June 25th, 2013).

spoj.9672:

Blasting dark fields for blind is kind of weak though. Id prefer aoe 3 stacks of vuln on blast instead of blind.

That would be a huge nerf in PvP for us. And I don’t think it would make us any more viable in PvE since we use a single well every 35 seconds and we would rely on other classes blasting it who are usually perma stacking vuln anyway.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Nikkinella.8254:

I don’t know about the rest of you, but i’ve always thought that Locust sig should be a stunbreak. The active for it is pretty garbage, it would be less crappy though if it broke stuns atleast.

Not only do I think it should be a stunbreak I think it should have a 40 second base CD.

The active for it is absolute crap

Both active and passive are bad unless you’re in a city or something.
I might consider using it over other skills if the cd was 10 sec or lower.
Reducing the cd to 40 sec and making it a stunbreak would just make it a bad skill that is also a stun break. Absolutely pointless.

Azrael.4960:

Carrion is the least useful of the viable ones.

Wrong.

Azrael.4960:

Rampager is conceivable for general PVE as it will work well with barbed precision. Although Sinister would work just as well.

Sinister > Rampager.

If you want to do the most damage: Sinister > Carrion > Rabid > Dire.
Rampager should only be used in combo with Carrion or Dire to buff crit chance.

If you want to be tanky: Dire > Carrion/Rabid mix > Carrion > Rabid > Sinister.

You basically need to pick traits and weapons first and then figure out your own sweetspot for offense vs defense by adjusting the gear stats.

I think you misunderstood my point. If you don’t have aristocracy, you can pick a rune that maxes bleeding duration. This way you get both the max duration and extra stats.
Also, the way you calculated only makes sense if you have a target with a huge health pool like a dungeon boss that you’re doing solo. In any other case you will not actually realise the full 11% damage increase because your targets die too fast.
And even against a target with infinite hp, you’d not get exactly 11% more because a big part of your bleeding would be done by Barbed Precision, most of which are likely to do the full 4 ticks even with just +80% duration anyway. And the same applies to your other sources of course.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Giver’s weapons, they are the best for a condition damage build.

I agree with most of what you said, except Giver’s weapons are never the best for anything. The stat difference is just too big to justify 10 or 20% condi duration.
Also, I think you’d be better off with either different runes or more sources of might.

leman.7682:

I started playing my own Leman’s Cancermancer™.

I honestly don’t see how this build could be considered cheesy.
Also, Celestial Vamp Signet? If it didn’t say it was from leman I wouldn’t believe it. :P

djooceboxblast.9876:

It really depends on what tier you are playing. WoP can work in hotjoins and low tier tpvp but not so much against the best players in the game. For that you are basically forced to run spectral walk, corrupt boon and wurm. This is just not debatable.

Quite the opposite imo, the walk/wurm combo is in part responsible for why so many people complain about how easily necros die, especially if the third utility is CB. Appart from the escape (which might not always work anyway) and a very small amount of life force, those three skills provide no defense at all.

djooceboxblast.9876:

Sure the boons are nice on WoP but they do not give you the escape that is needed in certain situations.

Yeah here’s the thing: if you have this instead of worm/walk you don’t need to escape certain situations.

Anyway, I use WoP all the time in super high end mega ultra tier (whatever that still means these days :P), and more people should do it.

I suspect most necros will be voting for Khylo from now on.
Next patch: life force generation on boxes is no longer possible.

coglin.1867:

The problem your going to run into, is changes to DS after the fact are going to be out of balance if your in a large group, or solo, one or the other. I say this, because which ever end of the spectrum they balance for, will hose the other.

I disagree.

First of all, any kind of self healing like vamp traits or Parasitic Contagion is currently too weak. If healing through DS would be possible they would still not be able to sustain a necro properly, and taking these traits would mean a significant damage loss.
Many people who argue against DS healing seem to be under the impression that necros could play the same builds as they do today and get a big chunk of healing in addition to that for free. Both is not true. Builds would be significantly weaker in exchange for a slight sustain increase.

Secondly, the scaling in team fights will always be worse than in 1v1s, nothing will change that. The extra siphoning could never be strong enough to compensate the damage loss of being attacked by 2 or more players.
Also, some extra hp can never be the equivalent of blocks or invulnerability, so I’m actually rather offended when people suggest necros shouldn’t get the same healing from allies in team fights as other classes who also have access to those far superior defensive mechanics.

GoogleBrandon.5073:

Blackmoa.3186:

WoP is a lackluster stunbreak at best cause you cant activate it if launched, you can use it as 2nd stunbreaker but you should not drop wurm for it imho

This exactly… Worm is the one and only tool to get out of combat and get in a suitable position…

First of all, there is no such thing as enough cleansing. So an argument like “having a dagger means you don’t need WoP” is complete nonsense.
Secondly, lackluster? How about a reliable source of vigor and aegis, and not just for you but your allies as well. Yes, there is a very short period of time during knock backs when you can’t cast it, this has never been an issue for me though. Then again, if you see the knockback coming you can use the stability to avoid the stun(s) entirely.
Also, it’s a dark field, and dark fields are boss.

Remind me, what does the wurm do again? Oh yeah, nothing, just sitting somewhere in a hidden corner.

HeadCrowned.6834:

The only thing WoP has is the stunbreaker

Have you used Well of Power yet?

Holl.3109:

flow.6043:

Wop > all.

The only thing I would change is carrion instead of rabid.

Flow, I really cant tell if you are being sarcastic or not O-O
Also, I really reccomend rabid over carrion. those barbed precision procs alone will do more dmg than the extra power (I think :P)

No sarcasm, I honestly think Well of Power is one of or maybe the greates defensive utility skill in our kitten nal.

@Barbed Precision: it’s not like carrion doesn’t proc them at all, you still have ~20% crit chance and the occasional fury. The only damage advantage of rabid over carrion would be additional crit procs like sigils. But just Barbed alone is not enough to make up for carrion’s direct damage.

Also, we all know Blackmoa is a toughness fanboy for life, so I’d rather not start a rabid vs carrion debate again, but just for the record: there is absolutely no contest in regards to survivability. Vitality is always better for necros, especially if you have decent lf regen (which you do in this build) and 30 in Soul Reaping.

HeadCrowned.6834:

..so you won’t need WoP

Wop > all.

The only thing I would change is carrion instead of rabid.

Maximum out-of-combat movement speed is capped at 133% of base speed; maximum in-combat speed is capped at 125% of base.
- http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Movement_speed

pierwola.9602:

Narkodx.1472:

Where do you get sustained healing from? Every class has better options

Perma Regeneration : 250hp/sec
Vampiric: 33hp/hit
Deathly Invigoration: 800 hp
Sigil of Renewal: 750 hp
Consume Conditions: 6000hp + 820hp (per condi)

This is weak, especially for someone who apparently has ~1k healing power.
Also, since you’re spending a lot of time in DS the perma regen isn’t really that perma, and for the same reason, neither is Vampiric.

And lf regen is not healing.

Holl.3109:

3+5+5+5 = 18
We have 14 skill points

I believe he meant to say 1 point in Soul Reaping.
But elkinator, it would be easier for all of us if you included a build calculator.

elkinator.2058:

With the Signet of the Locust (25% passive movespeed) ontop of the Blood Magic trait (X) is giving you another 25% with double dagger.

Those two don’t stack. Also, you get swiftness from warhorn.

Bweaty.9187:

Don’t fully remember, but it was something along the lines of 300hrs of work he’d put in, got removed over something petty.

His sticky thread was un-stickied, it wasn’t removed entirely. Also, that thread just contained links to his youtube channel, that’s where he put in his work.

No.

Roe.3679:

Tadsoul.6951:

allow healing in death shroud is what is needed
all trait, regen and most effect ie food, runes, minions I feel transfusion shouldn’t heal us actually because life transfer already restores life force and it says heals allies not us
allow healing from allies the amount here is up for discussion I personally feel like 100%
these are the biggest issues that need fixing

I think 100% healing from allies would be fine as well. How often do you really get healed from allies? I can only see this being troublesome in WvW, if at all. There aren’t enough healing bunkers in pvp for it to be meaningful there, plus a bunker heavy team doesn’t seem like a good team comp for a necro anyway. Are a few heals and regeneration going to break balance? I doubt it – if anything it would help our lack of sustain issue.

I agree. Also, I think it’s rather weird that people would suggest a restriction on ally healing in the first place. Imo this would be a worse discrimination against necros than not allowing any kind of healing in DS at all.
Are other classes not allowed to use their defensive skills while being able to heal?
I don’t see why the necro’s class mechanic should make any exceptions here when everyone else can have invulnerabilities/blocks/mobility/stealth and receive ally healing at all times.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Not sure Grandmaster is appropriate, because while Transfusion healing the necro in death shroud would be strong, I don’t think it would be that strong.

I agree, not that strong on its own (unless you buff the amount), but you have to consider the build possibilities. If it was really just master tier you’d probably create a mandatory trait for a lot of builds out there. Perhaps the new condi meta would then be 06044 with Path of Midnight so you could use Transfusion more often. So imo a strong additional burst heal like this should not be something you could casually pick up with any already existing build. It would be much more appropriate if you had to choose between an extra heal (Transfusion), more corruption (Path of Corruption) and Last Gasp/… just an example.

lordhelmos.7623:

I’m playing at a slower pace than the flow

Well, of course you do. I’ve been playing necro for a lot longer than you :P

You’ve pretty much explained why you’ve not been successful with this class already. Some classes have a linear learning curve and you can see players getting better gradually as they play them more often. Some other classes need a huge time investment until it clicks. Imo necro is the worst offender in that regard. It really takes more than a casual effort before you can break through this thin barrier that seperates “good” and “dying all the time”.

So, since your necro’s only purpose was to get to know the class in order to have more knowledge when encountering them with your other classes, I’d say shefling was the right call here.
I don’t want to discourage anyone from playing necro in general, just know that you’ll have to go through a rather long period of being a liability to your team before it gets better.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Other than Transfusion. I don’t feel that should heal necros in death shroud.

If it did, and I think it should, then it deserves a grandmaster spot. Of course it would be strong but a 6 point investment in Blood Magic forces a compromise.

Ara.4569:

Make DS more resilient as the number of damage sources increases. In other words: make it scale so we can get a chance to survive team focus.

We actually have this with Locust Swarm and Well of Corruption. We just need more skills or traits that generate lf per hit instead of something like Spec Armor with 1 sec cds. For example: Soul Marks could be 1% per hit instead of 3% per mark.
And imo our healing should scale in the same way, like the active effect of Locust Signet could be added to main heals. Or if Transfusion would be able to heal yourself it could generate hp in the same way Life Trasfer refills life force, per pulse and hit, instead of a static amount. That of course would also generate a decent amount with vamp traits, so up to 45 hits for all Blood Magic traits, even Vampiric Precision if you combine it with Deathly Perception.

Jelzouki.4128:

the synergy with deathshroud/unholy sanctuary is pretty cool.

What synergy?

MethaneGas.8357:

Reaper’s Protection vs. Greater Marks is not debateable. Period.

-_-

Oh “period”, why didn’t you say that earlier? If I you had put the same emphasis in your other posts, I wouldn’t have dared to question your opinion.
Anyway, I give up.

MethaneGas.8357:

You need but to scroll up and see the imaginary conversation. Not sure who you are trying to fool here. You are trying really hard to appear intelligent or correct but I hope you know it’s okay to be wrong.

Dial back the arrogance. I’m not sure if you really believe what you write or you’re deliberately trying to make me look like a fool to deminish my credibility.
Just read the thread again if you must.

MethaneGas.8357:

flow.6043:

I hope this covers the basics of the most commonly used alternatives. But just fyi, all of this has been said before, most of it in this thread and a million times before on others.

Yup even I covered some of them.
Beats saying “that’s bad” and calling it a day though.

You still don’t get it. I didn’t copy paste walls of text everytime because I assumed that people had actually read all the posts before that. But apparently you didn’t.

MethaneGas.8357:

What will allow you to kill someone 1v1 better, a 3 second fear (damage over time) where you are taking 0 damage, and you can somewhat freely cast your other spells, or simply having large marks? Fear, of course.

Greater Marks of course.
Why? Because in my imaginary fight I’m actually up against someone who knows how to figth necros, has blocks, decent cleansing or condition immunities, stability…. take your pick.
And I’m just quickly adressing your thief example, if I may: first of all, thieves are not hard to fight. Secondly, you’re assuming that they have one burst. Just one, and it starts at the beginning of a fight with a stun. This is of course false, and actually triggering RP at the beginning of an encounter with them is the worst that could happen.
So let me make it clear, Greater Marks is better than RP against thieves. The extra surface area is almost 80% more, that is very valuable against stealthed opponents because you’re more likely to hit them when you’re trying to, and you get more area denial when you’re precasting marks. I know that doesn’t sound like much to you, but it’s incredibly valuable, not to mention that it works all the time and not just once every hour.

MethaneGas.8357:

Those are true, and that’s the pros of taking Greater Marks. The biggest one of those is the unblockable part. All the other ones seem better in theory than in practice.

Wrong. For some reason you seem to be under the impression that the only purpose of Greater Marks is to use Reaper’s Mark on someone who’s using a block skill.
I won’t post every quote of you mentioning Greater Marks at this point, but you are so deluded about that trait’s contribution to every fight you have, it’s mind blowing to me.

Now, I could make up situations where Greater Marks heavily outweigh smaller marks in effectivness, like you did in your posts this entire time, but that would be anecdotal evidence. It doesn’t prove anything and it doesn’t contribute anything to the conversation.

MethaneGas.8357:

flow.6043:

an extra 2% lf for nearby deaths.

The death magic trait is actually 20% more life force with nearby deaths, which is quite nice.

20% more than 10% = 12%.
Don’t tell me that up to now you actually believed this trait gives you 30% life force?

MethaneGas.8357:

I am pretty sure Spite has been meta for the burning. As soon as Dhuumfire became a thing, everyone flocked to it because it was OP.

Yes, but burning alone was not the only thing making the build strong. Like I said, 6 in Spite with Chill of Death is/was a huge contributer. And believe it or not, Dhuumfire users today are actually stronger than they used to be because burning is longer and you have more control over it. Of course it would take more skill to make use of it and that alone seems to be enough to no longer hold its meta status.
But again, you’re making me repeat myself.

MethaneGas.8357:

You are more squishy if you go 6 into Spite and 6 into Curses, but it depends how you build yourself (stats/traits). You have a lot more damage but you have
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f) The damage mitigation from RP
…

Like I said, the duration extension for all defensive conditions makes up for not having RP.
As for the rest: If you use Dhuumfire you also have at least 4 in Curses (look at that, we’re actually back on the thread’s topic), so the choice you’ll have to make is between Path of Corruption, Staff Mastery and Master of Terror. And every possible variation is stronger and has more defense than a build with RP.

MethaneGas.8357:

I presented the case for Reaper’s Protection, which was met with “no it sucks”.
I touched on both traits to compare but still it was “no it sucks”.
So there’s not much you can say about that.

Yes there is: that’s an imaginary conversation you’re reciting here.

MethaneGas.8357:

Just because it’s passive doesn’t mean you can’t make use of it. You can VERY easily turn the triggered-fear into an even longer fear chain. You can put yourself in a situation so you are CCed and as a result fear a group of enemies, you can force an enemy to use a stun break so your other fears aren’t broken, it can fear people off of you and you place Spectral Wall and block them off in the distance, etc.
In other words, if you are smart you will be aware which traits you have and will know how to make the most of them.

You know, all those things are actually active playing, and good stuff at that, but non of it needs Reaper’s Protection.
Also, I could make up some pretty cool situations in which Toxic Landing comes in handy. But hoping for best case scenarios doesn’t mean I’d take it over other traits.

So since you insist on me being a little more elaborate:

RP does usually not allow you to follow up with anything, especially not a fear chain, because you’re stunned yourself. Use a stunbreak? Oh sure, but it’s not like your opponents can’t do the same, not to mention (again for the 1 bajillionth time) the trait might not work at all! Stability, condition immunities, being out of range, triggered on downed player, blindness… just to mention a few, and the whole thing goes on cooldown.
All of these fail scenarios are more likely to happen if there are many players involved in your fight. More stuns, more aoe cleansing, more shared stability if there’s a guardian…
The trait is clearly more effective in 1v1s. But do you need it in 1v1s the most? Hell no! It’s one of the fights that actually makes necros a good asset for their team, they are kings of dueling. So you either win that 1v1 (hopefully) or you force a 2v1 and let your allies outnumber their opponents on the other points. Win/win, and all of it is possible without RP, regardless of who your opponent is.

Let’s look at reasonable alternatives:

1. Greater Marks (imo the only reason for a non-MM to have 4 pts in Death Magic).
Higher range, more area control, easier to land on moving targets, more targets hit if they’re spread out, more regen to allies if they’re spread out, bigger poison field, bigger blast finish area, UNBLOCKABLE marks. I can’t stress enough how valuable the last one is.
And most importantly: all of that is available to you everytime you cast a mark! Not just once every minute (or most likely more).
And because of all that, claiming that Greater Marks does less damage than RP is just false.

2. Someone mentioned Foot in the Grave.
3 seconds of stability base duration, a bigger life force pool by going 6 into Soul Reaping and a minor trait for an extra 5% dmg over 50% lf which is clearly better than an extra 2% lf for nearby deaths. This trait means you get a safe stomp on a 10 sec cd. Oh and I almost forgot, unlike RP stability actually is a protection against CC!

3. Dhuumfire:
6 points in Spite had been meta for almost a year. Not just for the extra burning, you also get a ton of condition duration and Chill of Death. This is still extremely strong, both from an offensive and defensive point of view.
Apparently people are too lazy to use a Life Blast to trigger it these days, a longer duration burning than before mind you. And both actually makes the trait stronger because now you can time your burst according to your skill rotation instead of having it trigger at random.
And no, picking Dhuumfire doesn’t make you glassy, not even if you have 6 in Curses as well. You still get to wear a carrion or rabid amulet, you still have a huge duration extension on defensive conditions. There’s almost no downside here, except for the usual culprits like zerker stance.

I hope this covers the basics of the most commonly used alternatives. But just fyi, all of this has been said before, most of it in this thread and a million times before on others.

MethaneGas.8357:

I tried to break it down with facts but I knew you probably wouldn’t change your mind, which is fine, but I don’t agree with going around telling people something is “bad” with no explanation, without stating that it’s just your opinion, and without stating that there are people out there who really know how to make the most out of the trait.

Actually I’ve argued every single point I’ve made, and btw I wasn’t the only one here who said Greater Marks is better than RP. Other people made good arguments too, there’s not point repeating the same pros and cons list everytime someone new joins the discussion.

And “make the most” out of a trait you have no control over… come on! This is exactly what I was talking about. But whatever…

First of all, I’m not saying that any of you are bad players. I’m saying the trait is bad and if you use it you could be better with a different one regardless of your skill level.

Secondly, how am I the unreasonable one here? Because I don’t blindly follow the “meta”? Or because you can’t convince me that RP is as good as you say?
Let me make it clear then: nobody could make a convincing argument that would change my mind on this matter.

MethaneGas.8357:

If you had Greater Marks you would hardly benefit in those 2 matches. You’d likely be dead.

And this is just wrong.

Maybe watch the video? It didn’t protect him, it was a mild inconvenience to toker.

Also, are you saying toker > all necros? And if he is that strong I’m sure Reaper’s won’t change a thing about the outcome of a duel with him.

Narkodx.1472:

@flow – I really thought you were an asset to this community but you are nothing but an kitten

Dude, now you’ve hurt my feelings. I’m off crying in a corner, bye

MethaneGas.8357:

flow.6043:

MethaneGas.8357:

There’s countless times where…

Anecdotal evidence.

?
I have been using the trait for a very long time – since I swapped to Terror, which was… at least 8 months ago or so, if not more. And it does save me countless times.

Like I said, telling me about an occasion when the trait helped – an anecdote – is anecdotal evidence. If I played long enough with Toxic Landing I will eventually be able to report on the epic tales of how I poisoned people to death by falling on them.
Besides, I never said the trait doesn’t work at all. Obviously it does, so it is bound to force an opponent’s reaction when they’re hit by it. But that doesn’t change that alternative traits outperform it.

Also, the video you posted… um, tbh I was expecting some awesome showdown where the fear turns a team fight and secures the win of the match after which you ride into the sunset to an epic rock song, explosions, rainbows, white doves rising, all that jazz.
But instead magictoker is feared once during an off-point fight while being at almost full hp the entire time. So yeah, in that case the trait was close to being useless even though it actually triggered on someone. xD

MethaneGas.8357:

There’s countless times where…

Anecdotal evidence.

MethaneGas.8357:

Nah… Toxic landing is just a bad trait which no one uses. That’s just taken out of context. Lots of people use Reaper’s Protection

You’re judging a trait by how many people use it. That is not an argument for or against any trait.
The real question is: should this many people use Reaper’s Protection? No, because it’s bad.

Same here.
The Golem Banker seems to work a single time with a new character on a delux account and then never again.

Maybe the sarcasm in my follow up post was too subtle, I actually meant to point out the hypocricy in painting me as the biased bad guy here.
By your logic you could argue that Toxic Landing is a good pvp trait: “No, no, it IS good. You just don’t like it, but that doesn’t make it bad!”

You seem to derive bias from phrases like “a million times better”. So perhaps I need to clarify: that was an understatement. I can not emphazise enough how bad Reaper’s Protection is.

I tried the trait while slotting and un-slotting SotL. Movement speed doesn’t seem to change.

manveruppd.7601:

it really doesn’t make up for your greater vulnerability against CC, especially in 1v1 situations.

Any 1v1 you can win with RP will be won with any other trait more easily.

manveruppd.7601:

If DS (F1) was actually a stunbreak (or you had a trait that turned it into one), FitG would actually be better than RP, because it could get you out of trouble rather than just prevent you from getting into it.

You make it look like RP has a similar effect to stability. But it doesn’t, you’re still getting stunned. At best it protects you from follow up damage. And by “at best” I mean almost never. So in that sense FitG is a million times better.

Narkodx.1472:

You started it all buddy

You can’t be serious -_-
I was one of two people on this thread who said Greater Marks is better than Reaper’s Protection, but sure… general comment directed at no one.

Narkodx.1472:

since you somehow made it to the top 200

Just fyi, that “highest rank 8” was actually last week, I’m more often in the top 50 than anywhere else if I play daily. But like I said, ranks are completely meaningless.

Narkodx.1472:

That information is outdated I play daily and I am no longer on crystal desert but yeah

The suspense is killing me! Please tell us what rank you currently have.

You really need to take a chill pill.
I’ve read PSILO’s post about the axe and he makes perfect sense to me. From that post alone I can tell that he knows more about necros than you. Maybe listen to other players once in a while instead of immediatley resorting to being grumpy and insulting people.

Narkodx.1472:

If you argue that greater marks is better than reapers protection you are absolutely clueless sorry

Narkodx.1472:

You opened with something about being clueless …

k

Narkodx.1472:

Furthermore I stated why you like greater marks so much – a quick forum search will find your “staff build” – with a video that shows you clicking skills

Well if you must know, that video is over a year old and just serves the purpose of a damage sample. I was recording on a laptop so I didn’t have my regular mouse with me which has all utilities double bound to it. Clicking some skills was a mere convenience at the time.

Narkodx.1472:

So I followed it up with saying that you do not pvp – can’t find you anywhere on leader boards – gw2score still shows people who were at one point in top 1000 but not anymore like myself – You should pvp if you make comments about it.

Just so I get this right, you’re telling me to play pvp when you haven’t actually played yourself in ages?
Btw, leaderboard rankings and games played don’t say a single thing about a player, but maybe check the EU ladder next time as well:

Please just stop. There’s no need for you to get personal and you’re just embarrassing yourself at this point.

Narkodx.1472:

@flow/zefrost

Do you guys actually pvp? Couldn’t find you on the lbs and from the way you guys speak I am pretty sure you actually do not partake in solo/team pvp

What is this “pvp” you speak of? And where can I find it in game?

Narkodx.1472:

If you argue that greater marks is better than reapers protection you are absolutely clueless sorry

That statement alone makes you the clueless one.
Also, you make it look like Terror + RP is the only trait synergy we have, which of course it isn’t.
And @ s/d thief being our greatest weakness: that’s a clear l2p issue, because they are not. If you’d lose without a passive fear proc you’re simply a worse player than your opponent.

Narkodx.1472:

Only one of those has the potential to avoid death completely- plague/spectrals only delay death – a well placed worm is the best defense a necro has period

You’re making it sound way more reliable than it actually is.
If I see a wurm somewhere I kill it. Stunbreak gone, escape gone.
Secondly, some classes will still chase you down if you teleport away, you might get a head start but being a necro usually means you can’t out run them indefinitely.

And another problem with your 3+ focus scenario is this:
If it started out as an even fight you might get away after the wurm teleport, but you’re leaving your allies outnumbered. If the opposing team is decent your team mates will die and the situation snowballs into a 3 cap. So in that case DS tanking is preferable to getting away. Not only are you giving your allies a chance to win the fight in general by maintaining even numbers, but tanking damage for a while and letting them freecast is actually really good support in that situation.

SaintSnow.6593:

If reapers protection was so terrible, then top players wouldn’t use nor complain about it.

Of course it generates more complaints than Greater Marks (or whatever other trait you’d have instead). The short term impact of RP is a lot more visible as a hard CC, so obvisouly the trait gets the occasional hate like all other chain stuns in the game. And obviously stunning someone would eventually save you from being killed, that’s what stuns do. This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone.
However, the overall effect on fights is weak (if it has any at all). It’s like having the choice between a single 10k hit or 10 small ones for twice the damage. The latter is a lot more subtle and doesn’t have the wow factor of a single big number so no one complains.
The same applies to Reaper’s Protection, people are blinded by what it does when it triggers and at this point seem to completely ignore that there are much more effective trait alternatives. And as soon as few popular players with a “they must know what they’re doing”-reputation use it and a few other players complain about passive fear procs (most of the hate is generated by nightmare runes btw), the whole thing apparently snowballs into a little hype until Reaper’s Protection is suddenly considered meta. But non of this changes the fact that every necro who uses it simply isn’t as strong as they could be.

Norjena.5172:

Deathmagic is a big waste of traitpoints in pve. Not even one useful trait in this tree.

Bold statement for someone who recommends minions and 4 points in Blood Magic :P
(i know paraxes wants to be MM, but still…)

Flesh Wurm is definitely not a must have.
People sometimes seem to pretend that without the wurm there’d be a vacancy in your skill bar, like the only difference is having a teleport and not having one. Of course you’d be using a different skill instead, perhaps one that might not make it necessary to teleport away at all.
Also, while I agree that staying alive should be something to strive for, the wurm is not at all a guarantee of just that happening. Not to mention that it’s not as reliable as other teleport skills.
It also makes you weaker in 1v1s and it provides literally nothing when you’re fighting on a capture point or in team fights unless you’ve summoned the wurm close enough to defeat the whole “getting away” purpous.

I’m not saying it’s bad, just not as good as some would make you believe.

zapv.8051:

How is it that you consider a 3 second aoe fear bad?

It’s definitely not the fear itself that I dislike. If i could have 3 sec of fear on my auto attack that would be great. But it’s not, it is a passive proc you have zero control over, half the time it won’t work at all despite being put on its gigantic 60 hour cooldown, and worst of all: it’s a trait. Many people here don’t seem to grasp the magnitude of what it means to sacrifice a trait slot for this.

You might as well ask me why I don’t like Ritual of Life, the trait that creates a Well of Blood after reviving someone. 6k healing, sound good right? Why would you consider that bad? Well I don’t, but I’m certainly not investing 2 points in Blood Magic for a revive trait on a 40 sec cooldown that also creates a widely unwanted combo field and might not work at all if I revive someone in DS.

High ranks are meaningless, it doesn’t say anything about a player other than he was lucky being place in the better team in solo q or that he has a decent premade team in team arena.
That doesn’t change the fact that certain traits are worse than others even if they are used by some players, not every single one of them mind you.

witcher.3197:

Check again it’s 1/2, which is 0.5

Base duration is 2 sec. Master of Terror: +50%, runes: +15%. 2 sec x 1.65 = 3.3 sec