Guild Wars 2

I bought the expansion just so I could play the elite specs for my classes. I know you want people to spend time in your new beautiful world. But as a WvW/PvP player I really just want the ability to play my elite specs and have fun without worrying about grinding in PvE. I’m not against PvE at all, in fact I’m glad you guys added more PvE/raid content. But please note that there’s a good sizable segment of your playerbase that would rather enjoy the other game modes, and not feel pressured to PvE just to unlock what we paid the expansion for.

I know you can earn hero points in WvW by gaining ranks. But this is a very slow way to do it given the current conversion rate. Please consider upping the WvW hero point conversion rate. Thank you. Knowing that I have to re-grind every single character just to play their elite specs properly is making me sick.

Seriously I’ll be happy and ready to spend hundreds of dollars on gems if you’ll just let me play the elite specs that I had so much fun playing over the beta weekends. The expansion price is well worth it to me if I can play the elite specs without too much hassle.

Honestly my only worry with Reaper is that Greatsword might be held back by Gravedigger spam in PvE. GS most definitely should be better than it is right now. But I think devs are hesitant to buff GS to be better in PvP because of how strong it can be in PvE against under 50% hp mobs. My wish is that they tweak Gravedigger a bit while buffing everything else on GS. This way players would actually want to use other GS skills, so we don’t turn Dagger auto spam into GS 2 spam. Because spamming 1 button is just boring as heck.

Sadly PvE is all about min/maxing on dps dps dps, everything is about what to optimally use for dps. Where as PvP dps is important, but utilities/cc/support/defense are equally as important. This min/maxing on PvE side might give Greatsword a bad name because of gravedigger spam. I can only hope the devs do something to buff all GS skills so gravedigger spam isn’t the only thing PvE players will want to use. And GS really could use a buff so GS 1 & 2 can be utilized more reliably in PvP.

Bottom line is GS can use a buff, I just think devs are hesitating to buff GS because of gravedigger spam in PvE. I hope a compromise can be made so GS receives the buff it needs, while they make PvE less reliant on gravedigger spam for dps.

The silence has to do with Robert Gee being busy, and that the professions he’s responsible for haven’t heard feedback yet. We aren’t the only ones, Mesmers & Warriors haven’t gotten their post-BWE3 dev post yet either.

I wouldn’t worry about it. I expect to see a couple of down adjustments, and I think I know what they might be. But going into launch we should see more up adjustments because there were things over BWE 3 that needed tweaked/improved. A lot of us made good case explaining why things needed/should to be tweaked up.

That is indeed an amazing buff to PvE necros.

Thank you Anet, something is better than nothing, I’m glad I can earn hero points in WvW.

Reaper’s not op, it’s strong and competitive, but there are many ways to counter reapers. As a necro/reaper I know exactly how to kill reapers. I killed reapers on my necro over beta weekends. I killed reapers, 2 at the same time too, on my reaper over the beta weekends. Problem with a lot of people is they simply don’t understand reaper moves, abilities, and they think they could just smash buttons against them and win.

The fact that you even suggested a nerf to gravedigger shows you were fighting bad players that even allowed you to spam gravedigger on them. Against competent players, you’ll be lucky to even land one gravedigger, there’s no need to nerf gravedigger. Although I’m not opposed to the nerf to spammability IF they buff Greatsword all around as a result.

Spammable gravedigger in PvE is probably the reason why Greatsword is held back for PvP purposes.

Fought pretty much all classes & elite specs in WvW solo roaming over BWE 3. They were good fights, won some lost some. Bottom line is most were close fights so it shows reapers are competitive, but not overpowered by any means.

Unfortunately you fell into Anet’s trap…their trap of not marking servers properly and merging low pop servers so new players like yourself can have good WvW experiences. Something people have warned them would happen to new players. You probably didn’t know but the server you’re on is one of the lowest populated servers in terms of WvW activities of all NA servers. Yeah I know, would’ve been nice if you knew before you started right? But with all servers marked as “medium” you never knew this server is dead last out of 24 NA servers. It has extremely bad coverage and WvW participation. See this link: http://coveragewars2.com/

The best advice I can give you is to yes, switch server. A server that far down the list isn’t going to get much better unless Anet swallows their pride and merge low pop servers. This game simply has way too many servers for the amount of WvW participation. So new players like yourself fall into the trap of picking a random server and having bad experiences with empty WvW maps.

If you transfer to any of the first 9 servers listed, you would have a much better experience. Sadly Anet locked the most populated servers so if you enjoy large scale, massive zerging, action in more than 1 timezone combat, you can’t. Because those servers are marked as “Full” and you can’t transfer over there. You’ll want to pick a server listed as “high” or “very high” on the server selection screen.

Yes there are WvW guilds you can join. Some match-ups are unbalanced so you either are with the side that wins all the time or the side that loses all the time. Use the link above to get an idea of how servers match up and what their coverage is like throughout various timezones. You could do some research on the forums to see which guilds are recruiting, but chances are you will get better ideas once you join the server and start to play WvW regularly.

If you transfer and wish to play with your friends then yes, all of you will need to transfer to the same server if you want to WvW together. For PvE or EOTM, you don’t need to be on the same server. But for WvW you do.

Good luck! And here’s to hope Anet wakes up and do something so players like you won’t have to pick the wrong servers and end up getting discouraged or quitting due to bad WvW experiences. Just think of all the people that don’t post on the forum and ask for help, most just leave after experiencing empty WvW maps.

You don’t happen to be talking about WvW 3-way skill lag issues are you? These days whenever 3 servers are in the general vicinity, you’ll experience skill lag. Skills 1-5 would cast with a small amount of delay, but skills 6-10 are the worst with longest amount of delay & queuing.

Won’t be using it, I couldn’t stand it in ESO. I’m so glad this is a choice and not something forced upon the players. Only thing I’m afraid of is whether future development of content will cater more to this action camera or not. I hope this will remain an optional feature, and that it won’t hinder future content development. I like my MMO’s stay MMO’s, and not get console-fied.

The opposite needs to happen. All servers need to be opened for HoT launch so those pulling friends in to the game can play together in WvW. Guilds facing natural attrition can recruit new blood. People who would like to enjoy true epic, large scale World vs World vs World as advertise should be allowed to join servers that offer such experience throughout multiple timezones.

Locking servers haven’t really done a whole lot on the grand scale. There are same numbers of Full, Very High, High, and Medium servers as there were over a month ago. Bottom line is this game has too many servers, way too many low pop servers (now marked as medium). New players coming into the game may not understand what these things mean, so they join any random medium servers expecting to experience epic, large scale WvW. Chances are they’ve already quit WvW if not the game altogether by now. You can’t fix this issue without merging low pop servers first. With new borderland maps being larger and utilizing more vertical space, it’s going to really suck for players on servers that don’t have the population to even fill the existing maps.

I doubt gaming the system works, there’s no evidence of it working at all. I sure as heck hope it doesn’t work, because WvW has been boring as heck in the past few weeks. But something is really wrong with the game when people even need to do this just to be able to recruit new players for their guilds and making sure their servers have better coverage so they have a chance to compete. I’ve never been so bored with this game. And something is really wrong when in order to get more players for guilds, you need to stop playing. This, I blame Anet’s fail design, and their insistence of not merging low pop servers.

I’ve played T2, it’s a boring place unless you play NA prime time. I’ve been to T3, it’s an extremely boring place unless you enjoy GvG. There’s a reason why T1 servers are populated as they are. Because it’s really the only server choices for people to enjoy WvW as advertised. Ironically, people cheering on this full servers lock because they want to recruit more people for their own servers and their own guilds. Same agenda as everybody else, they’re looking out for their own. Honestly this problem can be solved by Anet merging a handful of low pop servers (now marked as medium) into medium pop servers (now marked as high/very high).

This brute force locking servers isn’t working, it certainly isn’t persuading enough people to spread out. With GvG arena coming, expect WvW to become even more barren as more guilds turtle away in guildhalls doing more GvG. All servers can use more players in WvW, and this game really has too many servers for its WvW popularity.

There are issues with WvW population on servers, no doubt. Many already do support merging of servers for WvW reasons. There are way too many low pop servers (now listed as medium), when ideally you want servers to be High, Very High, or Full for players to fully experience all that WvW have to offer.

So I do think on the WvW front, they’ve got work to do. Merging servers may not be the solution, as this whole World vs World vs World isn’t really working out in the long run. There are so many low pop servers where there’s barely any WvW activity, it’s not right and a great way to discourage new players from experiencing WvW. Which in turn, if new players have bad taste in WvW, they likely won’t continue playing GW2.

Unnecessary, marks are not powerful enough to warrant it. Nor do necros have the active defense to allow marks to start missing more often.

I’ll only support it if all marks are tweaked to be much more powerful first.

I’m expecting to see the post today, it’s the end of the week. I also don’t expect to see a big list of changes. This time it’ll likely be more fine tunes and smaller tweaks.

Running cele signet build over BWE 3 daredevils weren’t really an issue, more of an annoyance. Fighting against them were run run run chase chase chase kind of boring fights. When one went into shadow refuge once, I caught him with Chilled to the bone, and finished with soul spiral. Good times.

Lankhmar.8752:

This is unlike many others I’ve played over the years across many genres, but mostly FPS, RTS, RPG with some dabbling in MMORPGs and MOBAs. Just trying to explain why I have no interest in buying the expansion I guess.

Playing the wrong genre. Stick to what you admit to have spent most of your time playing over the years, FPS, RTS, and single player RPG. Most of your complaints can be applied to most modern MMORPG’s. This means MMO’s just aren’t for you.

CTF like WoW’s Warsong Gulch would be pretty darn fun in GW2. It’s only like one of the, if not the most popular BG’s in that other game. A capture the flag mode would definitely broaden build variety & viability of some classes & builds that aren’t currently popular.

Would there be balance issues? Yes, but let’s not pretend there aren’t balance issues right now or soon when HoT launches. There would need to be mechanics in place that maybe GW2 isn’t currently utilizing, things like flag carriers need to be made so movement/leap effects are limited, while other skills like invulns & stealth will need to be disabled completely when carrying the flag.

It’d showcase teamwork and individual heroism in a much more clear way that audience can understand. Which in turn may boost esport popularity because one of the main complaints from viewers is that they just don’t understand what’s going on. All of a sudden you get to focus on the flag carriers so the camera won’t be jumping 3 times every 5 second. It’d be a much more pleasant viewing experience.

Another BG-type from that other game I think will work very well in GW2’s combat style is Temple of Kotmogu. If you’ve played it before, you probably didn’t enjoy it in that other game. But I think with GW2’s fast action combat, it’d be a great arena mode that focus on brawls more than mobility.

@Kodiak, Nevermind you don’t really get what I’m saying so I’ll just exit this thread. I support ppk, I disagree KDR is a measurement of engagement success/failures. KDR is a measurement of NA coverage for NA servers more than anything else.

Agreed, love hydro

Nike.2631:

gavyne.6847:

If you want to talk shafted, visit tempest, daredevils, and dragon hunters.

Dragonhunters are fine, thanks. In fact I’m kinda shocked the forums didn’t explode with finger-pointing envy when they got the best +damage% trait IN THE GAME a couple days ago.

My comment was based on beta weekends, not the post-BWE3 changes they got after the beta weekends. If people are happy with dragonhunters now, more powers to them.

Kodiak.3281:

Your argument is largely flawed because you seem to think BG is outblobbing other servers. In fact most NA Prime time nights when they going all servers have around the same coverage throughout the week. For example, if you watch on Friday you’ll see when all the maps are queued for all 3 servers BG will not only pull ahead in PPT but also in KDR.

Again the KDR numbers accurately reflect what’s going on. BG (1.44) is outperforming the other servers in engagements, but lacks round the clock coverage. JQ (0.64) is under performing other servers in engagements, but has round the clock coverage to compensate with PPT. YB (0.93) does well in engagements, but super lacks coverage compared to both other servers.

You agreed with me without realizing it. Yes! BG does queue all 4 maps on reset nights, and your ppt & KDR pulls ahead when that happens. You’re able to keep all maps queued for at least 3 hours on reset nights. Do you realize JQ only queues 1 maybe 2 maps on reset nights? And often 1 hour after reset, they’re down to just 1 small queue? I can’t remember the last time JQ queued all 4 maps on reset nights. YB also does not queue all maps on reset nights either.

Larger population during NA is the reason for higher KDR, it has nothing to do with engagement performance. It’s common knowledge that JQ does indeed have better all around coverage when talking about timezones, but they also have the worst NA coverage of all T1 servers. This was even the case back when TC was in T1. Just as it’s common knowledge that BG has been on a blackout for the past 2 weeks because they want to break Full status to transfer more guilds in.

Bottom line is BG has the best NA coverage when they’re playing, as seen on reset nights. YB has the best early NA coverage as they field 2 map blobs to our none. These NA coverage is the reason for KDR results, just as T2’s KDR are similar because T2 is all about NA coverage and little of anything else. Currently some T2 servers have better NA coverage than JQ does, and that’s no lie.

I don’t think you realize how populated BG’s WvW population is. The mere fact that BG is able to lose that many guilds to YB a few months back, yet still able to queue all 4 maps on reset night, shows you just how many players you have during NA.

Kodiak.3281:

You were looking for a post to reply with a bunch of assumptions, conjecture and overly broad to the point of being inaccurate generalizations? KDR actually represents what really happens. JQ has a lot of round the clock coverage so they win simply because numbers but they lose fights. YB has less coverage and gets wiped all the time in off hours but during prime time has good coverage and teams capable of fighting. BG wins most of it’s fights but lacks the full time coverage of JQ. PPK in this scenario would benefit BG because while it wins most of the time, it simply loses when JQ is able to keep map presence throughout the week which would lower the gap between the two.

Flawed logic, I’ll try to make it simple. The most crowded timezone, I think we can all agree on, is NA. JQ is notoriously lacking in NA coverage, where as BG has the most NA coverage of all T1 servers. The KDR simply means you have the most coverage during the busiest timezone, because you can outblob the other servers when you decide to not blackout (like you have been for the past 2 weeks).

Where as JQ for an example, as you stated, have more coverage all around. While that’s true, but who’s there to kill during OCX & EU when JQ has more coverage? KDR doesn’t go up because during the other timezones there’s a serious lack of opponents to fight and kill. And by seriously lacking, I mean there’s not even a map blob anywhere.

KDR only means you have good presence during the busiest timezone. For NA servers, that’s really the 4 hours during NA where all 3 servers have a lot of players but BG can field 2 or even 3 map blobs if they want to. Where as JQ can field 1 map blob at best, sometimes not even that. YB can field 2 map blobs during early NA.

The reason T2 have a more balanced looking KDR is because T2 is all about NA coverage, and pretty much nothing else. So they’re all exchanging kills and deaths during the 4 hours that is NA, and all T2 servers can field respectable numbers during NA. While rest of the time all 3 T2 servers don’t have enough people to matter.

What I’m saying is it has nothing to do with winning fights or losing fights. One would have to be naive in thinking one server really wins that many more fights than the others. When in reality, KDR is all about which server gets to outblob the others during the busiest NA timezone. And if all 3 servers field similar numbers during NA, then KDR would look fairly similar, like they do in T2. In T1 currently, that’s not the case, and it’s not because of winning or losing fights, it’s because some servers can outblob the others.

I’m not against PPK by the way. I do think PPK is a good thing, it’d definitely trigger more fights initially. But if PPK was made permanent, I think you’ll see more running away and less suicide defense when the score gets tight. People would end up taking less chances if they see an unfavorable match during a given siege or open field combat.

Ok so bad idea then. I don’t think they can strike a happy balance that pleases everybody. And chill on fear likely is what they consider a happy balance.

Cringe in place is alright, but how am I to fear people off EOTM bridges? lol

I’m partially kidding, because I don’t do EOTM. But when I did before, fearing people off was the highlight of playing a necro in EOTM. Also fearing people away from whoever they’re trying to revive in PvP is a nice thing. I suppose I can see why some prefer the running away method, and why some prefer cringe in place.

Perhaps give cringe in place to terrormancers, like taking Terror, targets cringe in place instead of running away.

Yeah what in the world, got me all excited.

Rangers got group support that they lacked, necros got to become melee monsters and got a small bit of mobility that they lacked. Win/win imo.

If you want to talk shafted, visit tempest, daredevils, and dragon hunters.

Aktium.9506:

I used them extensively during the BWE. YAAW does nothing because you’ll get maxed might by rolling your face across the keyboard when specced into Reaper anyways, the stunbreak would be nice but Spectral Walk/Armor are simply better stunbreak skills regardless of build.

Not exactly accurate. YAAW’s 8 second weakness is pretty big deal for any builds that do not roll Curses. I rather enjoyed roaming in WvW with YAAW acting as stun breaker, weakness application, and instant might stacking which sets you up for a nice spike.

I don’t consider the other options superior, I consider them different and all viable. But YAAW is very viable to take as an utility slot. And like I said, especially so if you don’t run Curses.

Why would anybody support a 2 min mass invis fountain in EBG? I don’t get it.

I like the idea of tagging a baseline buff effect to shouts, like Suffer should have a baseline beneficial effect. Aside from that I’m mostly happy with the shouts. I wouldn’t mind seeing higher damage from shouts though.

It would seem in PvE people always want more dps, more dps, MORE DPS. It’s of course hard to balance things when PvE just wants more dps. People talk about group beneficial effects but I get the sense that the PvE necro community wouldn’t really be happy with group beneficial effects. Because ultimately, people rolled a necro to do more dps in PvE.

I don’t have any ideas, other than that I think it’s a good idea all shouts be given a baseline beneficial effect (even better if this beneficial buff can be made group oriented)

One of the most asked for QoL changes in the necro community. Would be nice, not sure if they’re held back by tech or not.

Ability to save gear/traits so we can quickly click a button and toggle what we’re wearing and what traits we’re using while out of combat. It’ll make swapping between power, condi, bunker, cele, medi, etc.. sets much easier in WvW & PvE. 5 per character would be great.

Lettuce.2945:

How do players not see a build beyond healing??? I took one look at traits and made a viable zerk build with it. Far superior to non beta standard zerk ranger. And let me tell you this, the build I made is the most fun I’ve ever had with ranger since playing this game. Try actually thinking for yourself for once and make a build. And you just might be impressed with the results.

I’m honestly sick and tired of seeing those posts by players who can’t think and theorycraft properly. Just because Anet sells druid as a healing class doesn’t mean it has to be one. The DPS is always going to be there no matter which traitline you take. That’s a hint for you.

As someone who played Reaper throughout beta weekends, I can say I bumped into a couple well played & built druids that did a heck a lot more than just healing. They were one of my top 3 hardest fights during BWE 3. I think the fight against one particular druid went on for 5 minutes. Of course I have no idea what his builds were, but I’m sure if people need help there are plenty of others that could shed light on good builds.

So I agree with this poster, people need to think outside the box and stop playing druids like a pure healer. That is if you have issues with druids being healers & support in the first place.

I feel taking Master of Corruption, it should actually remove the single negative effect on these corruption skills, not increase the negative effects. If they did it that way, it’d make it a very attractive trait, and funny thing is it still wouldn’t make anything overpowered.

Or at the very least half the duration of negative effects on these corruption skills.

Yeah diamond skin eles are an issue for condi builds. You’ll also find some good scrapper builds are pretty good vs condi’s as well.

Also worth noting, since it’s often forgotten here. Cele signet necro/reapers also counter condi builds pretty well.

Focus 5 just needs a cast time reduction, the function of Spinal Shivers is a good one. It’s what power necros take from Spite tree almost always so that tells you it’s good.

Focus 4 can get a velocity increase as it takes too long for the projectile to reach its target. The idea sounds good on paper, and it’s great they increased focus to 1200 range. But the slow projectile kinda ruins it. In fact a QoL change would be to take away the projectile and just make it like any cast. It can still be dodged because cast time is slow for what it does.

Otherwise Reaper’s Touch as a function is ok as it does set you up for a burst on a target. Between you and the target it’ll bounce back & forth twice, so that’s vuln + damage + lifeforce. It’s not bad, I just would like to see it made more reliable.

I wore Zerk + Valk and played ZvZ just fine. Still load double wells for bombing, have a couple of shouts for going up close. Trick is timing when to leap in, cleave it up, and leap out. In all ZvZ encounters the zergs inevitably clash. Reapers shine during those moments, where as wellmancers are one trick ponies with DS 5+4 and lifeblast spam (which is boring btw due to how slow lifeblast is).

As for contributing something other classes can’t do in ZvZ? This one is tricky because not really, but if you played yourself well, you can be as effective as a meta wellmancer. I do have to mention the combination of “Nothing can save you” followed by “Chilled to the bone” is pretty much guaranteed 2 seconds of unbreakable stun on 5 targets. That’s pretty awesome if you have multiple Reapers doing it, you can lock people down while they cook in well bombs as you aoe cleave it up.

It can be more dangerous than it sounds but will require a bit more coordination, guild groups can probably perform these things better than pug ZvZ. But doesn’t mean you can’t try. The added mobility, personal stab, multiple access to cc’s, and endless lifeforce & sustain via blighter’s boon makes it worth while in my opinion. No matter the trade off.

I’m assuming you’re talking about roaming not ZvZ? If so condi necro still works, they work better than power necros while roaming. However it’s quite paper, rock, scissors when it comes to build vs build, so it all depends on what you bump into.

We aren’t d/d eles or mesmers where they can have a good fight no matter who they bump into, with very few counters. Few as in necros ironically is one of the counters to d/d eles. Reapers however will do better when it comes to roaming.

I assume this is for WvW roaming? If so another Mesmer. Or a Thief.

I just want them to give us a save gear/trait set option so we can 1 click and change our suits & traits. This would be beneficial to both PvE & WvW. Really don’t get why they haven’t implemented it. Such a hassle to change things around when roaming vs zerging, especially when running back to the zerg and get jumped on, knowing you have no chance because you’ve got everything loaded for ZvZ rather than solo roaming.

Nightshade.2570:

First off, Reapers are awesome on frontline, you don’t need the block or the invulns when you run them properly and tanky. We have excellent stability now and can fear at will groups of five while chilling. We are not easy to focus fire. I ran frontline with my reaper in the last BWE and was the last one standing in outnumbered fights.

We’re talking ZvZ, not small groups roaming. Yes Reapers do fine roaming in small groups. But in ZvZ, you can’t take the heat that other frontline melee classes can. Stab won’t save you from getting melted by cc & well bombs.

Surely someone tested this during BWE 3? We have quite a few dedicated community individuals here that test numbers and time kills. Hopefully someone did test this over the BWE’s.

It’d be nice to not get tagged with weakness. I personally don’t believe in the corruption design philosophies where they make us hurt ourselves to use things that other classes can do just as well if not better. And to have the trait Master of Corruption add even more negative effects, sorry, that just don’t settle well with me.

With that said, when I use CPC now, first thing I do after CPC is staff 4 to transfer the weakness away. It’s workable, but it does make you burn a condi transfer option just to use a skill.

Even in WvW, where wells are often equipped and used due to the current meta, necros still aren’t loading well of power often. One reason is because the cooldown on it is ridiculous, even when traited. While it’s nice to convert condi’s to boons, in reality your melee train has to remain mobile or they’ll get bombed to pieces. So nobody stands still for 5 seconds to really benefit from the pulsing condi conversion. The same reason nobody stands in your well of corruption & suffering for 5 seconds.

You could argue that it grants allies protection, but so does spectral wall. Not only does spectral wall grant allies protection, it strips stability off your opponents, and it has unlimited target count for the duration it’s up. When your opponent’s melee train is out of stab, they die. On top of that you can blast it for ethereal armor which is amazing for frontline melees. As such, in WvW ZvZ spectral wall is always preferred over well of power.

You could argue both provide benefits so it’s a choice. But not really. Condi cleanse is everywhere in ZvZ, so condis are not what people worry about. It’s already a part of the rotation and what people do. They don’t really need pulsing condi > boon conversion in a circle that nobody will want to stand still in for 5 seconds. So well of power really should get a boost in group support. Start with a reduction in cooldown will help, but it needs more. Pulsing stab will help.

On the flip side, Chronomancer’s wells will offer more beneficial things that people care about. Quickness is op’ed, anytime you can provide Quickness, people will love you. Their Well of Precog provides evade! and fills endurance so you can have more dodges. Well of Recall gives Alacrity, makes your skill recharge faster. All these things are sooo much more useful and beneficial to a group than condi > boon conversion.

So yeah, I get the feeling they probably won’t boost necro’s group support because they want to give it to other classes. So I’m not really expecting anything here. But well of power definitely could be tweaked to be more user friendly.

Reapers are not frontline material, they lack blocks, invulns, etc.. to hang with true frontline melees. But they can bomb just as hard as meta wellmancers do if you gear & trait properly. So you’ll see Reapers. But the playstyle won’t be much different, as over 80% of the ZvZ fight will still end up being ranged hazing using a staff, with occasional clash, then separate to ranged hazing again, and occasional clash. Reapers specialize in aoe melee cleave when those clashes occur. They also offer more cc, stab, and have a leap they can get in & out of heat with.

Heralds however, can hang with frontline just fine. Well played druids will be welcomed in ZvZ, they offer good support and heals. Chronos will also do well in ZvZ, their wells are pretty darn amazing. Chrono wells + Necro wells combined offers incredible cc, support, and big bombing hits. Berserker is ridiculous in ZvZ with Gun Flame right now. If it’s not changed by launch, expect to see Berserkers.

Can’t speak for other elite specs however. If the question was whether the gameplay will change with ZvZ, chances are tactical styles won’t change too much. You ranged haze, you push, range haze more, find a weakness and push all the way, until you break your opponents down. But do expect to see more shiny effects from the new class elites, as there are some pretty powerful and beneficial stuff these new elites can offer to WvW ZvZ groups.

Draco.9480:

The community of gw2 is really delusional, I’m out of this forum don’t want to read more faceroll whining and faceroll opinions.

Honestly if you can’t handle the forums, it’s best to leave and not read them. I played WoW for over 8 years off and on. This forum has nothing on the things people say on the other forum.

What’s delusional is people comparing games and expecting the playerbase of said game forum to not be biased.

I happen to like the minors, they are great traits in keeping the whole “chill” theme of Reapers. Chill on fear is a must have, it’s something I wish current baseline necros have access to. 10% reduction in damage taken from chilled enemies is great, anytime you get damage reduction is nice. Baseline 20% chill duration increase, hard to argue with that.

When traited properly, chilled enemies also apply vuln. Depending on which major you pick, vuln gives you crit chance against vulned enemies, or hitting chilled foes grant might & lifeforce. If you pick Deathly Chill as grandmaster trait, it’s a match made in heaven.

The whole chill theme works well together, this isn’t accounting for other runes, sigils, and traits you chose to have that have to do with chill. Only thing I’d like to see is more chill options with Greatsword, as GS is the weapon being unlocked when going Reaper. As is the two chills available on GS, one is locked behind a 3 chain auto attack which has a 0.5% chance of connecting in PvP. The other chill is locked behind Grasping Darkness, a good kills, but on a 30 sec cooldown. Also for Reaper Shroud, chill is locked behind Executioner’s Scythe, a slow easily avoidable attack again on 30 sec cooldown. And of course the aoe fear but requires melee range.

So if anything, the minors are fine. They just need to boost chill application from the Greatsword & Reaper Shroud. Before beta weekends started people talked about having chill on GS auto like it was some super duper overpowered thing. I think by now, after 3 beta weekends, everybody can conclude that Greatsword auto’s just don’t connect in PvP. We’re lucky to get 1 auto hit on someone, getting a 3 chain going is near impossible.

Edit: I think varying opinions on chill have to do with the difference between PvE & PvP. Seems folks that PvE want feared foes to really run away, and prefer everything to do with more dps dps dps. While PvP folks love the sustain aspect of it, and likely have taken traits, or used runes/sigils that PvE players don’t use. Tough one for Robert Gee to sort out and balance to make both sides happy.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Just to help along the few people who think we do good dps, here is a calculation I got from the engineers:

http://i.imgur.com/gUGC1KJ.png

To summarize:

Necro(condition):
1k direct dps
6k bleed dps
2k poison dps
1k torment dps

total: 10k dps

Engineer(condition):
3.6k direct dps
6.8k bleed dps (can burst 14k ticks)
700 confusion dps
1.2k poison dps

hey look we do comparable dps…. oh wait forgot one…
8.6k burn dps…

gg

I know this is a PvE discussion, but in any given PvP fight, all that condi burst gets put back onto the engies themselves. You get a good chuckle out of watching them get almost insta gibbed.

There’s no doubt necros can use some better dps options in PvE. The issue with GW2 PvE is that it’s so easy it doesn’t matter who the top tier dps is unless you like to run with elitist snobs in dungeons in fast clears. As for raids, we still have yet to see what raids will require out of players.

Tried a reaper lately?

That’s true about gear grind. If there was no gear grind in WoW, over half of the people who PvP would stop PvPing completely. That gear carrot is the reason why a lot of people bother to queue BG’s & Arena. One look at someone’s ilvl (item level, gear level) can tell you whether you have a chance or not.

For that I’m always going to prefer GW2’s PvP because the lack of that gear grind and how gear does not determine whether you can be competitive or not. Here you mostly just have to worry about your builds and such. But build balance issues is a given in all PvP games, it’s not exclusive to any specific PvP game.

Are you WvW roaming or WvW ZvZ? What’s your build? Reapers, just like base necros, don’t have many escape options. Death’s Charge is the added mobility for Reaper Shroud, but don’t expect to escape from classes that can leap & teleport much further than you do. This is why I asked about your build because if you are going zerker/power route, you may lack the sustain when you do get targeted.

As for utilities/skills you can use when focused, people above mentioned some classic ones already. For Reaper specific, Greatsword 4 Nightfall is a good thing to cast when people turn for you. The pulsing aoe cripple and blind can help with avoiding some damage, you’ll be surprised.

Our new elite “Chilled to the bone” is my new favorite elite to use now. That’s 2 seconds of unbreakable stun on 5 targets, with chill on top of it. So it should buy you some time to leap further away.

I have “You are all weaklings” loaded when I do WvW roam. It’s aoe weakness helps you with taking some hits.

Assuming you use staff since you’re out in WvW, you can always fear mark, chillbain, and condi transfer when you get tagged. You’ll be surprised how a well timed condi transfer mark can turn all the nasty stuff back onto the people chasing you. I’ve transferred 13 stacks of burn one time and saw someone instantly drop while I was getting kittened 3v1. Good times.

If you’re WvW roaming you should take Relentless Pursuit trait, it’ll make immob/cripple effects last very short on you. Helps with your escapes.

Before using Death’s Charge, always RS 3 to get pulsing stab going. This will ensure your charge doesn’t get interrupted by something. Then make sure to explode RS 3 for fear before it runs out.

Don’t forget to RS 5 + 4, this allows you to blast ice field and send chill out, further slowing people attempting to chase you down.

Just some ideas for you. But remember a lot of things are situational so you have no one button escape, no insta stealth, blink, long leap, etc.. You’ll have to know your abilities well and know when to use them. Reapers have a lot more escape, cc, and sustain options than standard necros do.

Go for what feels right, try them out first. Don’t just go by what people say online.