Guild Wars 2

If Reapers need help at high end PvP, then we should definitely get help. Like it or not, Anet is pushing the PvP esports scene. So they do care about what people say about these tournaments. So if Reapers truly need to get better for high end PvP, then I support boosts to Reapers so they become viable.

I never liked calling signet necros meta in the first place just because 1 player and 1 top team used it. Would like to see Reaper get a chance to really earn a spot because they are viable, not just a niche or liability like most people called signet necros.

There are QoL changes & additions that GW2 could benefit from.

-Raid/Squad UI, it has taken them this long to get something implemented. And over the BWE3 it was buggy as heck. If this game wants to move forward with more raid content, large scale group organization in WvW, etc.. it needs to have good, working, and functional raid/squad UI.

-On topic of UI, I don’t ever want this game to go crazy with addons/plugins. But the default UI could use more flexibility. I’m fine with the default UI except I would like to be able to move and resize them at will. I’m used to having my target right center where my character is, it’s a common position for target window in PvP games. Default GW2 UI won’t let me move or resize the target window, it’d be nice to get that flexibility. Having target closer to center allows you to glance at your target’s buffs and such without having to take your eye away from what’s in front of you. It’s a PvP thing, and if GW2 wants PvP to thrive and become more competitive, they need a more flexible UI.

-It’s funny hearing people say this game isn’t sandbox enough. Really? The fact that you could level in any zone and have your level scale to the zone isn’t sandbox enough? Quest on a rail themeparks mean you go from one NPC to another NPC in an orderly fashion. That’s not what I’ve seen from GW2, and I’m glad of that. What this game can use more of are rewards that matter. PvE, WvW, PvP, all 3 game modes can use reward carrots that people chase. Lack of the carrot chase is what drives people away slowly over time. Lack of exciting things people look forward to will bore players. PvP is getting this love apparently, but WvW’s carrot chase is still lacking.

Bottom line is people from most MMO’s expect to get rewards they can use when they defeat encounters. They are not used to getting a bunch stuff to salvage so they can go craft something later down the road. I hate to say this but this whole salvage ordeal gets tiring after awhile. Sometimes I’d like to just get something good/cool that I can use or want to put on another character. Rarely, and when I say rarely I mean super rarely, does this happen at all in GW2.

-On topic of mounts, I think mounts will be in GW2 in the future, at least in PvE. They likely just haven’t gotten to that point yet. It would be a good addition and good revenue stream, as mounts are extremely popular in other MMO’s.

-A damage meter like WoW has creates toxic community, no doubt about it. People use dps & heal meters to berate other players, this created elitism. But Anet can still provide a personal damage meter that only you can see. I’d love to be able to start and stop dps recording ingame and see how I do after a certain encounter or battle myself, be it PvE or PvP. I don’t care to know what other people do, I just want to see how I can tweak my gear, slot skills, and specs to improve myself. Anet could easily create something like this, and make it client-side so the servers don’t have to get the extra load tagged onto them. PvP already gets this personal summery, they just need to make this available for all.

-Ingame calendar for both guild planning, as well as game-wide festivities & events.

-If you want PvP & WvW to become competitive and have people give a darn, then you need an online ranking system that shows the team’s rankings, player stats, etc.. DAOC had this for their RvR waay back in the day when DAOC first invented RvR. They had top 50 individual stats, guild stats, and they separated them by monthly, weekly, and all-time. WoW’s got their arena rankings where you can easily look at team composition and the builds people are using. These things drive people’s competitiveness, it turns the competitive nature up a notch. People that PvP care about these things even if they pretend they don’t. Anet is kind of late to this. But if they truly want to drive the PvP esports scene, and want to get more people to do PvP & WvW, they need online stats people can look at. And yes, people will boast and feel good about themselves, but that’s all part of the competitive nature of PvP games.

Don’t be afraid of Quality of Life changes that can only make GW2 better. I like GW2 for what it is, and like the fact that it’s different than most other MMO’s. I love not having to stand and cast. I love not having a true holy trinity system. GW2 should definitely stay true to GW2. But there are QoL changes that can really benefit the game in the long run, and increase its popularity for all game modes.

It’s through these live tests that these new elite specializations and new rev class are getting the necessary tweaks, bug fixes, buffs, and nerfs. Anybody who beta tested in other MMO’s like I have understand that the beta environment just isn’t good enough. You get to test some things, but often you get people who hop on beta servers just to get the first look more than actually testing the gameplay and providing feedback. In other words, you have a serious lack of real feedback, and your test subjects are extremely limited.

By allowing beta characters to play LIVE in PvE, WvW, and PvP allows the massive amounts of feedback from players in LIVE environment, something you will never, ever, get with beta servers. Remember even when HoT launches, you may have people who will choose to not take elite specializations. So it’s very important to get feedback from everybody, not just those wanting a first look at the new elite specs & rev class.

The thing is everybody’s got access to these beta characters. So it isn’t like one server has an advantage over yours because of these beta characters. If your server loses a week due to the beta weekend, chances are your server would’ve lost the week without the beta weekend. If you find some class op in PvP? Well bring your own if you really think that way. As for PvE? Who cares, GW2’s PvE is designed in such a way that the more the merrier, it’s inclusive so powerful allies are a good thing for you.

Anet is doing it right, they are limiting beta tests during select weekends only. 3 weekends to be exact. It’s from these live weekend tests where they’re getting the necessary feedback from the masses to make necessary changes to these new elite specs & new class. No beta servers can replace the live environment, anybody who beta tested MMO’s before knows this. Be happy to know HoT will launch with semi-balanced, workable classes. This way you get to enjoy the new expansion right away.

One thing I hate from WoW PvP above all else is the amount of macros and plugins people use, and often required to use. It’s so bad that some addons literally play the game for you, yet people use them to stay competitive. Human reaction times are always slower than say an addon that detects a specific spell cast and counter-spell you automatically.

Ask any mid to high level arena teams and they’ll tell you all about it.

I want the opposite, please just let us play the beta characters. They’re so much more fun.

Here’s my feedback from beta weekend 3. I played strictly in WvW ZvZ and solo roaming over the weekend, so the feedback is based from my experiences in WvW. Here are the videos I uploaded, they reflect my feedback:

WvW solo roaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXiDPZBGURI
WvW ZvZ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne5R-dlWi0E
(Build details are in the video’s description if you’re interested)

General BWE3 feelings in WvW:

-Absolutely fantastic! Just about everything feels and functions better compared to BWE 2. Boosts to traits and shouts made the most impact this time around. Shouts were lackluster last BWE, this time I wish I have more utility slots to use them all! Instant stun breaker, what an improvement. Reduced cd on “Chilled to the bone” along with Augury of Death? Sign me up. I’ve finally unloaded plague after years of using it as bread & butter.

-Thanks for fixing and smoothing out Death’s Charge. This was a very important thing that affected Reaper gameplay last BWE. Death’s Charge now works a lot better, not 100% yet, but it’s getting darn near. I no longer charge in random directions without a target.

-Reaper continue to feel and play strong in WvW roaming. No longer sitting ducks, I’ve had people avoid me as I ran across the zone, funny thing to see really. I didn’t win all the fights, but at least I had a chance most of the time. To be competitive is all I’m looking for, and Reaper in its current iteration feels competitive without being over or under powered. Toughest fights came from a couple Heralds, a really good Scrapper, and a couple godly Druids. Yes Druids, don’t let them fool you into thinking all they can do is heals. Berserkers can also provide heart pounding fights due to Gun Flame. That thing is like Gravedigger/Executioner’s Scythe on steroids combined…but with 1500 range. In my solo roaming vid I showed a fight against a Berserker where one missed dodge would’ve meant a for sure death. But that’s the point, a lot of the fights I’ve won and lost were very close, they could’ve gone either way. That’s the type of competitiveness I want out of Reaper.

-Reaper in ZvZ is all about timing and I think things will get better as people get used to timing when to leap in to cleave, and when to leap out. Reaper is not frontline material from what I’ve experienced. This won’t change unless you give Reaper a block or invuln option.

-I was skeptical of Deathly Chill but finally tried it along with Dhuumfire, all I can is wow. I checked my combat logs and saw the amount of chill ticks. So this whole chill thing with Reapers really do work.

-People have caught on to Reaper attack moves. I’ve had a lot more people dodge/block Executioner’s Scythe & Gravedigger as compared to last BWE. It’ll be interesting to see how things work out once even more people are familiar with these slower, big attacks.

Things I would like to see improved/fixed:

-Death’s Charge. One bug that needs to be fixed is when I do have a target, but charge short for no reason. The target is well within range, but my character appears to spin in place and I had no movement effects on me. I would say it happened rarely, but missing a charge could be detrimental in player vs player combat. Also as reported by others, sometimes you would spin in someone’s face, but you aren’t doing all the damage you should be. You’re missing hits for no reason. This should get fixed as well.

This I have no proof but it feels Death’s Charge isn’t blocking all projectiles. Like I was still getting hit by bow shots while executing Death’s Charge (I think). Please test this to make sure.

-Greatsword auto. It swings too slow, and damage is too low. There’s no need to have a slower 3rd swing because you’ll be lucky to connect even 1 auto attack in player vs player combat. This is a problem because we don’t have many damaging options with Greatsword that does not have a high cooldown on it. So if you swing Gravedigger, which has a 90% chance of missing, you’re left with auto attacks that don’t connect as well. Or if they do connect, they hit like wet noodles and don’t go further than 2nd chain. Slow, melee range auto attacks don’t work in PvP. People just don’t stand that close to you. Please consider extending auto attack range, speed up 3rd or all auto attacks, and increase damages so the payoff is there when they do hit. GS auto’s inability to connect hits directly affects lifeforce regen for Greatsword users. Lifeforce is still a big problem for GS users in its current iteration.

-Gravedigger, could we put this cool animation to good usage? You float in the air towards your target, looks very cool with a nice bang finish. But this skill just doesn’t connect in PvP. Could we maybe get a speed increase when floating in the air? So say I execute Gravedigger towards my target, I start floating, and for 1 second I fly faster in the air. This will help those of us that do PvP connect this skill. As-is right now it misses over 90% of the time. Someone mentioned earlier that it feels we’re being punished for using this skill when target’s above 50%, but there are limited damaging options with GS so we have to use this skill. Might as well make sure we get to connect with this skill at the very least.

-Death Spiral can use either a range increase (easy option without balance issues), or damage increase. Missing Death Spiral is demoralizing knowing it doesn’t hit for much in the first place, and you sometimes use it just to gain some lifeforce.

-Grasping Darkness still needs to be more reliable. I can be facing the target and it still shoots the grasp out the wrong way, missing the target. I’m assuming this has to do with the moving targets, which is all we see in player vs player combat. Also this skill still does not pull players to you, often it just pulls players down. I’ve settled for this defect and started using Grasping Darkness as an interrupt much like Wail of Doom. In case people aren’t aware, this skill has the same range as warhorn 4, it not only interrupts, but it applies chill, deals a small amount of damage, and gives you lifeforce. It’s a great skill, it just needs to be perfected so it’ll work well for GS users.

If you want to keep true to design philosophies of Reaper Greatsword being such short ranged with zero mobility, then Grasping Darkness really should pull players within Greatsword auto range. Anything less, then you would have to increase the range of GS attacks to compensate.

-Animation for Executioner’s Scythe sometimes does not perform, this can confuse you. You have limited time to execute other skills based on whether this skill hits or not. Please fix the animation so it always plays when you’ve successfully executed this skill.

-Chilling Nova’s short duration chill do not make it a good choice over Augury of Death or Relentless Pursuit. Augury of Death is now an awesome choice in any group or ZvZ fights, and Relentless Pursuit is great for 1v1’s and roaming. Chilling Nova needs to be improved to be a viable and competitive choice. Increasing chill duration of Chilling Nova will help.

-Soul Eater is a PvE only trait. It’s not viable for anybody in PvP/WvW because Gravedigger is not a reliable skill to use in PvP. I would use this trait if you make it a Greatsword trait much like Quickening Thirst. Greatsword users are extremely immobile, making us having to use either traveler’s runes or equip signet of locust, both of which hurt our dps. I would take this trait if you tag a 25% movement speed on it, just a suggestion. It makes sense really, as Greatsword is a melee range weapon, much like the dagger.

-Reaper’s Onslaught needs something. It’s not as good of an option over Blighter’s Boon (for any group/team fights) or Deathly Chill for chill/condi builds. I just can’t seem to feel the 15% attack speed increase.

-This isn’t Reaper specific, but either classes got some new ducking animations for some skills, or people are clipping through the ground. I saw it happen a lot over the weekend but can’t seem to figure out what it was.

All in all, I have to thank Robert Gee and Anet devs. You guys have created something that’s engaging and fun to play. The one word I can describe Reaper has been “fun”. I’m glad after 3 beta weekends the fun remains true. When adjusting values and making tweaks, please keep fun in mind.

Cheeres.

I’ve always said Blighter’s Boon was awesome starting from BWE1. However I’m finding a new liking to Deathly Chill, as the amount of Chill Reapers pump out is crazy and not having Deathly Chill is a lot of missed damage.

Yes Reapers are amazing. They’ve made solo roaming fun for me. Also Reaper combat is a lot more engaging and exciting than baseline necro. Reapers aren’t perfect yet, but it’s getting good, and hopefully will get better after this beta weekend.

I’m gonna stress a word I used during the previous beta weekends. One word that defines Reapers to me is fun. I just find the spec very fun to play, even when I die or lose.

I think speaking of Reaper context, condi reaper or some sort of bunker/condi works much better than pure power reaper. Unless you do PvE where gravedigger spam is a thing. Or in WvW ZvZ where the only reason condi doesn’t do well is due to the amount of condi cleanse available, so it’s not a class specific issue. However Reapers don’t exactly work too well in ZvZ because you aren’t frontline melee no matter how much you want to be.

Everywhere else where you have to perform under pressure and really know your class, be it solo roaming or small group, condi/bunker builds will perform much better. As for sPvP, we’ll see when HoT launches. But I was wrong in generalizing condi & sPvP together (it was 2am and late when I posted). sPvP is mostly power/bunker builds atm. I’m talking only Reaper and Reaper specific traits. Right now traits that boost Greatsword mostly suck, where as traits that utilize chill & chill damage are rockstars. And dhuumfire made very viable by reaper shroud 1. You’d be dumb to not convert all the condi Reapers pump out into some sort of damage.

I’m assuming OP was hoping condi Reapers would perform as well as power necros do currently in ZvZ. Honestly right now Reapers definitely fit the condi/bunker builds better, with the exception of PvE where you can Gravedigger spam.

This has to do with the meta and how the game slowly shifted towards condi cheese. I’ve refused to go the condi route since I watched the game went from power to condi. But now condi cheese is everywhere in WvW roaming, it’s in sPvP, I may have no choice but to go condi with Reaper because you’re right, condi is more powerful.

Power still has a place in WvW ZvZ and PvE, but condi right now rules roaming, small groups, and sPvP. I don’t like it but it is what it is.

Scrappers are quite tough for reapers, doable, but they put up good fights. Anybody else have comments regarding how Reapers do against other elite specs in your experiences so far?

On my reaper I eat regular necros for breakfast.

But yes I do think for some people, you’re just more familiar with your base necro, and Reaper plays like a whole new class. Necros are more like a ranged tanky caster, while Reaper is more melee tanky caster. Different playstyles, it’s entirely possible you are simply more comfortable playing a caster than melee.

It’s not a Reaper vs Necro issue here in my opinion. It’s more with the fact that you’re simply more comfortable and have mastered base necro over years of playing it.

What mode do you play?

Tried tonight with various builds and specs without vital persistence, pretty much haven’t had any success without vp. I will say though, many classes got tweaked and boosted, this weekend it has been a bit more difficult than last BWE. As is right now with the current balance pass, it’s very hard without vital persistence.

Keep in mind folks that other class elites also got tweaked, so be careful when comparing with BWE2 because things are a lot different now. I went in with a power build wearing zerker + valk armor, got my rear handed to me a few times. Then I went back to my bread & butter cele signet build that I used last beta weekend, and I performed even better than last weekend.

All I’m saying is to try things out, but keep in mind not only have our skills changed a bit, but other classes also had their balance passes & tweaks.

On a quick positive note, I just had to say this real quick… I love how smooth Death’s Charge is now! Thank you Robert Gee! No hitches, no pauses, it leaps forward fast & smooth. I LOVE IT!

And this growing Nightfall radius thing, nice, very nice.

woot bank is updated this time, thank you Anet! Finally able to try some of the stuff I bought last time.

It’s reaper time!

You don’t really see d/d paired often, this isn’t like ele d/d setup. For necros, it’s usually dagger/warhorn, axe/focus, scepter/dagger, etc.. with staff used as offhand because it’s your only ranged option.

Dagger/warhorn is the most common setup for power necros due to the high dagger auto dps, the control (dagger 3 immob and warhorn 4 daze), and lifeforce regen/swiftness from warhorn 5.

Scepter is used with condi builds.

Axe, recently got a small boost, but I’m not sure if it’s still that good to use for roaming build. You have no control with Axe, its dps is low compared to other options, and while the ranged boost is nice you simply lose too much dps and control going with axe.

For better roaming option I would suggest giving Reaper a try during this beta weekend. Reapers have much better mobility than standard necros, with access to more stab and cc. Last BWE I played with GS/Staff on my Reaper, but also had good success going with Dagger/Warhorn & Staff.

Tspatula.9086:

Well, based on my WvW experience you are in the minority as far as how commanders operate. But no worries, you can simply tell the people who follow your tag to party up and don’t let them join your squad. There, see everyone can have it however they want. We get a far superior squad structure, you get to continue to use the old party structure. Everyone wins!

+1, I don’t think people realize they can simply not use the squad feature, and run raids just like they do now…allow people to form up groups on their own and tag along with your pin. So much fuss about a feature people can choose not to use if they prefer how things work right now. I know a lot of guilds in WvW that’ll love this feature.

There is something for everybody. Don’t like how it looks or functions? Don’t use it, nothing changes for you.

What class did you enjoy the most from another MMO?

I don’t care what they do, but something needs to be done. There’s a whole server in T1 not playing this week, so it has been extremely boring even in T1. We’re less than 1 month until expansion launch, people should be coming back, testing out builds and getting used to the game again. But instead due to a combination of Anet locking certain servers and their messed up glicko system, even T1 is a boring place for many days out of a week.

For most MMO’s there’s usually excitement ramping up to expansion launch. Here in WvW it’s just quite dead except for reset night and a couple nights over the weekend. I look in T2, same thing, boring and a server that was once in T1 now losing guilds and slowly dying (and the server is still marked as Full gg).

If Anet’s plan was to let once vibrant, healthy, fun, action all the time servers bleed a slow death, then they’re doing a great job. All the while they aren’t exactly boosting other servers, as I haven’t see any new servers moving up to high or very high. These days I just see T1 getting worse, T2 not getting better, and low pop servers remain low pop servers. Wonderful job Anet. Do something, I don’t care what. T1 shouldn’t be this boring, neither should T2.

This is a big problem in WvW when 3 servers clash and inevitable skill lag occurs. Wells and other utilities won’t fire off, so you keep trying and you inevitably interrupt a Wells queue by other skills or by other utilities.

You either have skill queues or no skill queues, they shouldn’t get so easily interrupted. Skill lag for the lose, but at very least the system should let us queue skills and fire them off properly.

For the first time ever I swapped out fear wall for this util in WvW. It worked pretty well, although self weakness is the suck, and added cripple when you take MoC is even worse. I can’t say it’ll stay perm on my bar, but it worked well during my tests last night in WvW ZvZ. I likely have to swap between this and fear wall still, because fear wall is just that good in WvW and doesn’t give you negative effects.

My biggest issue with Axe 1 is the weak damage and lack of cleave. Between dagger, staff, greatsword, and reaper auto, they all have either cleave or pierce. Lack of cleave about kills the whole weapon for me.

Then there’s Axe 2, its damage is also lackluster, although it becomes decent if you take Unholy Fervor trait to give it a 10% damage boost and 20% reduction in cooldown. Unfortunately that’s the core of the issue here, no power necro will take Unholy Fervor over Chill of Death or even Rending Shroud. This is why Axe will always be lackluster unless they boost it from baseline.

Axe 3 is nice, it’s the highlight of Axe as a weapon but its use is quite niche. It’s quite lackluster vs single target, and in aoe situations Axe 3 won’t save you. You pretty much just use it to tag people for bags in WvW. Dagger 3’s immob while it’s only single target, is infinitely more useful than Axe 3.

So I gave it a second chance tonight, sad to say I’m going back to dagger. Thing with Axe is after Axe 2 is on cooldown, you sit there saying to yourself “do I really have to use Axe auto? I don’t really want to”. Unlike Dagger where you immob someone and go to town pwning them with dagger auto. Axe auto do the kind of damage you can ignore.

It’s easy to take dagger, and have a good high auto & A+ util (immob), then take Quicken Thirst and gain 25% base run speed with it. Am I to sacrifice that for Axe, which again no power necro will or should take Unholy Fervor over Chill of Death. And I lose 25% base run speed. The synergy isn’t there, the trait while required to make axe semi-viable, is in a spot too competitive for anybody to take.

I’m sorry Mr. Gee, it’s a nice start to move Axe towards the right direction. But it’s not quite there.

Druids do more than just healing, they have a lot of good defensive skills that’ll help any WvW raids. I think they’ll be welcomed (which is a big change from how WvW raids perceive rangers currently). Right now you hear mixed opinions and emotions because people haven’t played them yet. I would suggest waiting for the upcoming BWE to check them out, test them out, and see how they run out in WvW.

Commanders already complain about being pin sniped on a daily basis. I would imagine having another class that can put up a wall (a wall that heals none the less), will be a welcoming addition. Ironically the class that can put up the healing wall is also the class that’s currently sniping from afar. Talk about irony

Happy to see range increase with Axe 1 & 2, also very surprised at the cooldown reduction on Axe 3. Axe 3 has a niche use in WvW so cooldown reduction is a welcoming change. Now that Axe has the same range as Wells, it becomes more of a viable choice for wellmancers in WvW.

If I could make a suggestion Mr. Gee, if Axe 1 must remain a weak attack, please allow us to cleave with it. It’s just painful not able to cleave. 3 targets would be nice but I’d settle with 2.

Also this is a long shot, but please consider making Unholy Fervor baseline. No powermancer is going to take Unholy Fervor over Chill of Death, it’s not even a choice, there’s no contest. So this trait supposed to boost Axe is burried in a line where the other 2 choices are clearly superior for any necros taking Spite. By making Unholy Fervor baseline, you would’ve solved Axe problems without further tweaks necessary.

MoC’s design is backwards. Taking this trait should’ve removed the negative effects of corruption skills, not add additional negative effects. By taking this trait, we’re already sacrificing choices of not taking other traits. It just makes no sense to me.

And while I still use Consume Conditions, I’m still ticked that the cooldown was increased on it so MoC would be a bit more attractive to take.

You have to make sure to DS 5 then 4, since you can’t be doing the lifetransfer channeling while trying to activate tainted shackles at the same time. So Tainted Shackles have to be activated before you attempt Lifetransfer.

If you see lifetransfer on cooldown it’s likely you got interrupted when you tried to activate it. This can also happen if you press Lifetransfer and immediately try to dodge roll, as that’ll interrupt it and put it on a 4 sec cooldown. Same thing if you dodge roll immediate after pressing Tainted Shackles.

Also in ZvZ skill lag can happen, so if you press DS 5 and don’t wait for it to activate, and immediately press DS 4 lifetransfer, sometimes DS 5 won’t fire off and would fire DS 4 instead.

Relying on stats to determine the outcome of battles is precisely what this game is not. In games like WoW, a quick glance at someone’s ilvl tells you whether you have a chance to win or if you should just roll over and die. Gear plays too big of a factor in PvP for older MMO’s like WoW. Where as in GW2, stats determine your build, they have more to do with build variety than anything else. Gear isn’t that big of a deal in this game, and it’s about darn time people get to use their skills and knowledge of the game to win fights. I wouldn’t be playing GW2 if I had to gear grind, just so I could then go boss other players with my superior gear level.

Yes it’s true there are paper, rock, scissors when it comes to build vs build, but that’s the case with other MMO’s as well.

So to many the reduced stats types are a good thing. The lack of a need to setup 3 rows of skills/action buttons and macros is a huge plus. And yes GW2’s action combat is considered by many an upgrade to the age old “stand and cast” system that older MMO’s use. Dodge rolls aren’t everything, you still have defensive stats and skills you can use. You have to watch your cooldowns just like other MMO’s, and make sure to not burn all your defensives or else yes, you’ll die.

Honestly it sounds like you haven’t leveled past lvl 30 because some of the things you said make no sense with regards to thieves. I would recommend try playing the class at max level and go on meta battle and get yourself a decent build. Play around with it more before you make judgments about the game & combat. I loved WoW and played it for many many years. But once I stepped into GW2, I found it hard to go back to stand & cast combat system.

A mix of Zerker + Valk will do good if you’re going for a power build. Celestial is also going to be a good option for better sustain and higher dhuumfire damage. For the brave ones that want to run frontline reapers in WvW/PvE, you could also go Soldiers.

Wait until Tuesday to see full patch notes. Also with BWE3 coming up, it just means more adjustments and tweaks will be made before HoT launches. It’s always better for them to make some changes rather than a bunch of them then nerfing them later.

With balance patches scheduled to come out in a more frequent manner according to the twitch stream, expect more balance updates. I get the sense this round they were really focused on toning down the extremely overpowered things, such as dd eles and complaints about PU mesmers. It may take us another round of balance patches to get tuned up more if necros ended up needing it.

People don’t “let” SM get to T3, unless a server is dominating the match and have the coverage to upgrade SMC to T3. So yes I agree with the OP that 2min stealth will be op for the server already capable of upgrading SM to T3.

There needs to be less stealth in this game, not more. Guilds running 2-3 mesmers can already veil a whole zerg unto unsuspecting enemies. It takes skill, coordination, and creativity to pull veils & portal bombs off. But that’s part of the fun. We don’t need 2 min long stealth that a whole blob can have access to, especially the blob capable of upgrading SM to T3.

Stealth fountain needs to be reduced to 30 seconds or less. You can get too far with a 2 min stealth.

Hear the argument about people who rolled ranger not wanting to be a healer a lot. I’m sure most who rolled a necromancer never did so to be a melee class. But yet Reaper is a melee class and changes how a necro plays completely. Even more surprisingly, a lot of necros ended up liking it after a couple of beta weekends.

If you really don’t want to be a healer, then stick with the ranger. Just as there are necros not wanting to take on the Reaper, as they prefer to be ranged caster instead. But you should give it a try before tossing the idea out of the window. You may be surprised.

Key thing here is Druids provide you with options and a completely new playstyle. Be glad you are now among the few classes that actually got elite specs that provided all new gameplay options. Choices is a good thing. And early speculation puts Druids right into the meta in all 3 game modes. That imo, is huge.

All I’m saying is give it a try before saying no. I hated GS on the necro during BWE1, but by BWE2, I loved it. Just make sure you provide plenty of feedback during the next beta weekend so devs can make proper tweaks and adjustments. My ranger has been on the shelf since forever, but this Druid elite spec is going to get me to dust him off and likely make this my primary alt I play.

Dawdler.8521:

Sort of interesting and yet… so very, very pointless. This is all about improving something that we never, ever use. And we probably still wont use it if joining a raid means all other tags become hidden, because coordination over the battlefield is critical – you need to see those other tags. All people in the pug zerg need to see other tags, so that they can help their own commander.

But I suppose if it allow commanders to better organize their groups it isnt all bad.

You would only have that opinion if you haven’t commanded much or ran guild raids in WvW. Commanders already communicate on comms, they don’t need to see pin movements on the map. Also the ability to see with a glance how many people you have, what classes, the number of supplies, and the hp of your raid is godsend.

Being able to drag & move people around to form groups will shave quite a lot of setup time when running guild raids. It’ll allow for better group composition, making sure your necros have stab, that warriors are in proper frontline groups, that pick classes are in a pick team, etc..

Also being able to close the squad off so you can run guild-only raids is also very attractive for those guild nights. These are all great UI enhancements, what’s not to like?

Nice changes so far.

Sviel.7493:

I was eating dinner

The spaghetti was not worth missing this, not at all

Where can I watch it? Can someone summarize?

-Commanders can set squads to be open, closed, or invite only.

-50 players in the squad.

-Squad UI adjustable, you can drag players from one group to another, it’ll show player classes and their hp.

-Squad UI shows the supply count total as well as supply count in each groups.

This is awesome, 50 player enhanced squad feature.

Dradiin.8935:

gavyne.6847:

Druids got rangers to become a part of the meta come HoT expansion, and as far as I can tell, meta in WvW, PvP, and Raids. I don’t see how anybody could make a sad face about this change. That’s a huge change from being on the outside looking in currently.

The dev did say he’s got changes coming for Rangers as well, so expect other boosts to rangers. I mean looking at rangers currently, there’s already enough pew pew, and condi tanky rangers are already fairly solid. The thing that keeps rangers out of the current meta have more to do with the lack of group support than anything else.

With druids, you get possibly the best group support available come HoT expansion. Smile, it’s time to celebrate.

Not sure how you can separate the Druid from the Ranger.

I strongly doubt you main a ranger, cause as far as my experiences go i am generally shunned from groups on my ranger, but if i mention i have any other class cept maybe a Mesmer i am in the group.

In WvW, you’re shunned yes due to the current ZvZ meta. It’s because aoe is everything. Except when a blob is large enough where you are asked to be a part of a pick team. Surely you weren’t expecting to see a ranger be top tier single target dps and also good at aoe at the same time? They gave you a new identity to be wanted, no not wanted, but needed in HoT. I still don’t see how that’s a bad thing.

If you like being good at single target, like being a part of the pick team, you get to stick with your pew pew. If you want to be wanted and needed, you go druid and take on a support role.

Druids got rangers to become a part of the meta come HoT expansion, and as far as I can tell, meta in WvW, PvP, and Raids. I don’t see how anybody could make a sad face about this change. That’s a huge change from being on the outside looking in currently.

The dev did say he’s got changes coming for Rangers as well, so expect other boosts to rangers. I mean looking at rangers currently, there’s already enough pew pew, and condi tanky rangers are already fairly solid. The thing that keeps rangers out of the current meta have more to do with the lack of group support than anything else.

With druids, you get possibly the best group support available come HoT expansion. Smile, it’s time to celebrate.

Congrats to rangers, you’ve become a needed part of WvW/PvP meta come HoT expansion. It’s like they’re bringing in holy trinity without going holy trinity all the way. I have to say druids are very interesting, and their heals, defensive support, and cc’s are amazing for group support. Guilds will no longer say no to rangers in WvW (mode I play in most).

Well with introduction of Druids, everything changes. It’s like we’re getting holy trinity, and the amount of heals druids bring may require further buffs to Reaper damage. Everything changes now, at least when it comes to WvW/PvP.

Plague is clutch in multiple situations (stomp, revive, hot chokes, blind support, surviving burst), where as Lich gets you trained & focused. The choice is clear.

I’m pretty sure they’re focusing on getting the elite specs done before HoT, so don’t expect anything else to get done right now. Robert Gee works on more than necro & mesmer classes so they’re in scramble mode with HoT launch 1 month away.

From BWE2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIbKDwTOMIs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H21dE7Mmtug

That’s some backwards thinking. You don’t fix population issues by breaking up the vibrant, populated, action packed, fun servers. You fix population issues by merging low pop crappy servers where there’s barely any action, so there are more very high/full servers.

Ravezaar.4951:

Yea Mesmer is a much better 1v1 Class then necro, however during BWE duelling Mesmers and some Chronomancers aswell I found that due to RS AA giving LF% and its cleaveing actually made it much more pro-longed fighting just Mesmers then say other classes. I often could use this to my advantage and felt it was much better then say current Life Transfer.

+1 to that comment, I’ve had some really good fights with mesmers on the reaper due to their clones…and how we benefit from hitting multiple targets. A mesmer still has the upper hand in 1v1 just because they can disengage anytime they want to. But reapers have good skillset at dealing with mesmer clones and evasiveness. During BWE2 I was testing cele signet reaper with a shout or two.

I’m in favor of rotating ppk on hourly basis. Every say 3 hours, ppk gets enabled for 2 hours. This means every timezone gets to ppt and ppk during their timezone. This will give people a reason to go out and fight for a couple of hours, then focus more on ppt for a few hours after.

I’d recommend a wellmancer build for WvW ZvZ. Give this a try:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBmQDbkjGqpxWaw3G4vxBuQNLimoKopRb8sw2MAaBA-TFCEABEcBASU9HDeCANp8DQlg5s/Qb6GA4gAQKgBWGB-w

For the most part necros are in the GWEN meta for the big well bombs. So you want to maximize your power and crit damage, while having enough vitality for lifeforce. If you aren’t comfortable with the above build, feel free to change it up and tank it up if you want. A build like above is more than enough for you to roll plague into the heat when commander asks for it. You just need to watch your positioning, as positioning is the #1 thing for necros in WvW ZvZ.

And for reference in case you want to see the build in action, here are a couple of my recent videos running the build I linked. You’ll find that I get into middle of the action quite often, I don’t shy from heat. With Blood Magic you get great sustain and it’s actually good dps increase from the siphons. Not to mention the reduced cd on wells allow you to bomb more often, and well bombs is what ZvZ raids want out of necros at the moment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SJ9OiN42dM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixrgkEZV1EQ
Cheers.

GW2’s combat is fine. If I wanted holy trinity I’d be playing another MMO. I respect GW2 for being different, and I happen to enjoy the action combat and active dodge mechanics in GW2 system. Sadly casting on the move, the need to active dodge and constantly move, makes this game harder to play for the casuals. I’m talking PvP specifically not PvE. It’s the hard truth, a lot of MMO players can’t get used to action combat in MMO’s.

The thing that makes this game hard to watch isn’t the action combat, it’s the way arena is designed, and the way cameras work. I’ll give a rl example to what it’s like watching GW2 tournaments. Say you subscribe to a ppv boxing event. You’re enjoying a fight, but all of a sudden the camera flashes to a different angle or point of view right before a big punch is thrown. So you miss the offensive and the counter/defensive moves. Or even worse, just as you’re getting into the exchanges between fighters, the camera switches to a completely different fight elsewhere in the arena.

That’s how I feel watching GW2 tournaments, it’s frigging annoying. It’s hard to watch a fight because camera angles keep switching around, jumping from one player to another, from one fight to another fight completely elsewhere. When you see a fight you’d like to watch to see who wins, what moves are pulled, what defensive & counter moves are done, you can’t. Because the camera would have switched 5x and moved completely to another spot on the map all within 10 seconds.

Of course part of the reasons why camera has to switch around so much is because of the way the arena and pvp gameplay is designed. There isn’t a central objective that people brawl over. And brawls are one of the funnest things to watch during the tournament. Sadly you can’t enjoy those either because camera keeps jumping around and likely would’ve switched to another node at least 3 times during a big brawl. The gameplay should get adjusted so there are some central objectives where people brawl over, where the camera can stay for longer than 5 seconds.

Another thing will help is to have 2 caster teams, like sports teams, there are play-by-play that cater to each team. This way those interested in following one specific team would watch that stream, while those interested in following more of another team would watch the other stream. This would reduce camera movement as it’ll only cycle through 5 players instead of 10. It’ll reduce the constant jumping around that messed up the viewer’s experience.

Yes there are balance issues, but in any given PvP game, there are always balance issues. Anet needs to take care of balance issues faster than they do currently. But balance issues aren’t the reasons why viewership is low.

I solo roam sometimes, usually when activities die down a bit, or maybe after I’ve already blobbed it up for a few hours and needed a break. My issues with roaming is that too many people don’t respect a nice 1 v 1 fight. And I don’t mean getting run over by a zerg, that I don’t mind at all because it’s WvW, you expect it. Anybody who rage over getting their fights ruined by a large group should probably stop roaming.

But when you’re having a 1 v 1, especially one that’s initiated by the opponent, you expect to be able to duke it out with that individual. But too often these days halfway through the fight the guy/gal’s stealth buddies pop out and gank me. Often from the same guild so they weren’t random +1’s or +2’s.

And I roll a necro, so nobody can accuse me of stealth ganking on a cheese condi mesmer/thief. So people roll me over in 3-5’s when all I’m looking for is a nice chill 1 v 1 fight, that can get old fast. But eh, whatever. Roaming is definitely more lame these days, and it’s disappointing to see some of the duelers gank you 5 to 1. It’s like when they’re in a group they automatically have to act stupid or something.