Guild Wars 2

Relog and the game will update and you will get it. At least this is what happened to me.

Muchacho.2390:

Ravezaar.4951:

Of all our Weapons off and mainhand I hold Axe as the worst: and i even counted Underwater weapons then

Well to be fair our underwater weapons are actually not bad. Infact underwater necro is probably still the strongest underwater profession.

The spear is amazing I love it, only if skill 5 was dealing damage to every enemy it runs trough, that would be perfect. Trident is ok.

Killyox.3950:

Thaddeus.4891:

I don’t see the problem.

Dagger is better at 50%+ against two targets and allow you to us focus or warhorn for their respective dps skill.

GS is better against 3 targets at all time and it’s better against whatever numbers of enemies at less than 50%.

Seem that both have strength and weakness and the best way to play the reaper will be to use both weapons correctly. Sound better than just using GS or just Dagger.

Oh and Gravedigger is still powerful at 50%. I’m not sure but I think that GS will still be part of the optimal rotation at 50%. But I might be wrong there.

You only need 1 enemy sub 50% for GD to strike EVERY enemy hit for increased dmg. So 1 enemy at 100% hp and other sub 50% and GD already beats Dagger.

GS is more versatile. If anything just use both guys :P

There is one problem, just slight one. No range!

DarthInvadeHer.9861:

Warscythes.9307:

Viable, not optimal.

Go for it

But viable to the point where people have no issues with playing alongside a necro?
Also, any chance someone can tell me what the current meta is? Still full zerk teams? and what classes?

I’m running fractals 50 with my guild on necro and nobody is against it. We sometimes run more then one necro and we do as good as when I play my guardian with randoms. If you can play your prof, you are fitting.

Dagger/WH will still be the main weapon set. Now even more, because you want to stay in RS even more then in DS. Which mean you need a lot of LF. Until devs put more LF on the rest of our weapons, we will keep using the same set.
The overall picture is still grim… :/

Hmm, time for solo dungeon run

flow.6043:

Ithir Darkleaf.7923:

I would balance Reaper by bringing the other elite specs up to its level. Reaper is the benchmark of how an elite spec should be done. Period.

Elite specializations shouldn’t be an upgrade to regular specs, but an alternative. If they were really that much better you’d basically limit any kind of build diversity to “elite + 2 others”.
That being said, Reaper isn’t op.
Death Shroud could use a buff though, because as it stands RS is clearly better than DS.

Yes, absolutely, BUT Reaper feels and is Upgrade.

Bhawb.7408:

Kulvar.1239:

Conditions are meant to deal damage over time.

There has never been a single point in all of GW2 where condition builds in PvP have ever been good because their conditions did strong over-time damage. Every single build that was ever strong was strong because of condi burst. This is because bleeds are cleansed all at once, if it takes you 10s to build up your full condition damage, they’ll be removed, and deal fractions of their damage, whereas a burst condition build’s conditions stack up so quickly and deal their damage quickly enough that only large removals can deal.

Burst is simply high damage in a low period of time. Conditions and power both have burst and over-time.

Also, Condi Necro has the worst offensive condition bursting of every profession with a condi build. Our max burst is ~15 bleeds, 10 torment, and some poison, whereas condi warrior can see similar bleed bursts with 1-2 skills. Burn builds can stack 20-25 burns, which deal 60-75 bleeding stacks worth of damage. Condi Necro can 1v1 other condition builds only because we abuse THEIR strong conditions. The fact is it isn’t the condi necros conditions that are winning the duel, a Signet Soldier Necro can do the exact same thing. Saying that we can 1v1 condition builds in a condition build isn’t a good point of balance, since nearly any Necro can abuse transfer mechanics.

Agreed, and this is why I was so disappointed that they removed the whole concept of Hexes from GW1. Simplifying and merging hexes and conditions into one was a big mistake. Now instead of needing 2 separated cleansing types we have one universal that clear all. On top of that the stacking system cause the problem of removing every single one of the same type, not just the last applied.
Conditions shouldn’t be burst damage, they should be slower, trickier way to deal with the enemy.
There is no way to fix that concept without implementing very complex change, which ofc will be followed by complete rebalancing of the game. This will never happen.
I hope the devs will find of some clever way to make condis more viable option, not only for Necro. And just to say I really don’t mean the “Burning” way. I dislike the way they changed it.

It need LF gain on its 2nd and 3rd attacks. Less then the dagger for sure(4%-5% per cycle would be enough), but that is the only thing that will make the weapon more usable in PvP.
More condition stacking wont hurt it, but its not a burst weapon. And the new torment stacking is amazing. But again, the lack of LF generation is such a big drawback…

Why is nobody whining against the Scraper?!?! The Engi spec is way more powerful! People just don’t want necro to be on par with the rest…

Vorgryn.9145:

I don’t see why there are so many naysayers in this thread. Of course it should effect condition damage too. To a novice player, text that says “increases damage by 20%” would of course be assumed to be all damage, condition and power. The fact that it only means physical hits isn’t stated, but is instead found out through trial and error.

“To a novice player…” pfffft really… but you don’t realize that full condition build still deal a lot of non condition, direct damage…

I say Spite IS condition traitline! Or all the might/vulnerability and more damage to foes with low hp doesn’t work in condi build?!
Its versatile traitline that can be used in any build

Nike.2631:

I’m sincerely hoping it doesn’t leave piles of colored poop in my wake. The aura of ravens is far more thematic.

hahaha agree. The huge blue spirit around the staff is more then enough. Even to much.

They must implement color change on effects as well as weapon skins. There are many games that allow that. We dont even need all the dyes to work, put 64 and we will be happy.

Honestly, I would like to play standard necro in all the group content, not just the Reaper.

What about “Rune of the Elementalist”, It make a lot of sense. Did anyone tested it?

TheLastNobody.8319:

mazut.4296:

Halcyon.5340:

Reaper is going to be my new main, but I have a few concerns and suggestions.

Decimate Defense is actually too strong in the master tier. Consider lowering the critical chance from 2% to 1% per stack of Vulnerability (a total 25% critical chance if the target has 25 stacks of Vulnerability). Another option is to replace its position in the trait hierarchy with Reaper’s Onslaught while also toning down the effects of Reaper’s Onslaught (eg. keep the 15% attack speed, but reduce the recharge on reaper shroud skills from 5s to 2s). Please discuss this with the design team if they like my suggestion.

Soul Eater is a fun trait, but it’s clearly not viable. It almost seems like Soul Eater’s effects should be a baseline on greatsword skills. Consider making an entirely new master trait in its place or buff the Blood Magic life-stealing traits.

There’s a possibility that healing from Blighter’s Boon may be too strong. This trait may need more testing. On another note, I would not add an internal cooldown to this trait. Doing so would only break the versatility of this trait.

From a design point of view, I would move the increased chill duration from Cold Shoulder (GM minor) to Chilling Nova (Adept major). This would incentivize players to pick Chilling Nova if they are going for a chill build. As it is now, Reaper chill builds don’t even need Chilling Nova, because support for chill builds is already a baseline. I would like support for chills to be an option instead of a hand-out.

That’s all for today. I’ll continue to keep a focused analysis when I go over the other classes’ traits.

Is this a troll or you you died to many times to a reaper…

Ya know, normally I would agree or just say nothing, but I can see WHY he thinks this, the amount of vul we can apply and how quickly we can apply it is staggering in RS, even DS. Soul eater should revert back to giving all GS skills life steal, lots of Lifesteal, or an individual amount per skill.

Disagree about the cold shoulder duration, we need chill to last as long as possible since we don’t have much mobility to stick to a target with our GS. I would say though we probably wouldn’t mind a damage modifier on say…..chilling victory? .

BB, I do kinda sorta agree, but like he says NO. ICD! A slight adjustment on the healing values would be fine I think though to make it 1/2 to 3/4 that of altruistic healing.

I agree that all GS skills should steal life and I also agree that the Cold shoulders merge with Chilling nova make sense, but the rest…

Halcyon.5340:

Reaper is going to be my new main, but I have a few concerns and suggestions.

Decimate Defense is actually too strong in the master tier. Consider lowering the critical chance from 2% to 1% per stack of Vulnerability (a total 25% critical chance if the target has 25 stacks of Vulnerability). Another option is to replace its position in the trait hierarchy with Reaper’s Onslaught while also toning down the effects of Reaper’s Onslaught (eg. keep the 15% attack speed, but reduce the recharge on reaper shroud skills from 5s to 2s). Please discuss this with the design team if they like my suggestion.

Soul Eater is a fun trait, but it’s clearly not viable. It almost seems like Soul Eater’s effects should be a baseline on greatsword skills. Consider making an entirely new master trait in its place or buff the Blood Magic life-stealing traits.

There’s a possibility that healing from Blighter’s Boon may be too strong. This trait may need more testing. On another note, I would not add an internal cooldown to this trait. Doing so would only break the versatility of this trait.

From a design point of view, I would move the increased chill duration from Cold Shoulder (GM minor) to Chilling Nova (Adept major). This would incentivize players to pick Chilling Nova if they are going for a chill build. As it is now, Reaper chill builds don’t even need Chilling Nova, because support for chill builds is already a baseline. I would like support for chills to be an option instead of a hand-out.

That’s all for today. I’ll continue to keep a focused analysis when I go over the other classes’ traits.

Is this a troll or you you died to many times to a reaper…

Reaper’s Touch:
Make it skill #5 with 25sec CD.
Gain Spectral Shield for 4s. The damage from next 3 attacks are converted to healing(fixed amount), similar to the Druid “Sublime Conversion”. Or give LF and if its full the rest is converted to healing.
Traited in Spectral Mastery negates 1 additional attack and the shield last longer.
Remove the Regeneration and Vulnerability. Grant 3% LF and additional 1% per absorbed hit.

Spinal Shivers:
Make it skill #4.
Keep it the same, but lower its casting time to 1s. or even 3/4.

Ravezaar.4951:

My Favourite is simple but I kinda like getting the Frost Aura when I leap thro the field after Executioner Scythe.. love that.

I found out you can do both after Executioner’s Scythe, Soul Spiral and then Death’s Charge. Its the perfect stacking, because Soul Spiral stack very short chills.

Dark field + Soul Spiral + Transfusion is really nice

Jarvis.9540:

It stands to reason that we’ll eventually get an elite well skill now that they’ve changed categorizations of the elite and healing skills to match the utilities. With that in mind, what would you guys like to see in an elite well skill? I myself would like damage to enemies + invulnerability to allies inside the well.

They already used the best possible idea on Mesmer :/ Well that keep the enemies in it and all other AoEs.

leasm.1279:

I also feel less attracted to DS when playing a condition build. And I think this is wrong, since DS is a base Necro mechanic that should work equally for any Necro build style.

Extending current conditions on target is a good choice, but then comes the cleaning problem as someone stated. IMO simply giving DS enough condition pressure on its own (such as maybe torment on Life Blast) would be great already.

But then Power build Shroud will still be better then Condition based. It must change with the build. I’ll use the Auto attack as example, it will deal some, low direct damage, but high condition damage. And the same AA will deal a lot more direct damage and no condition damage in Power build.
The conditions will deliver the lost damage in non Power build.

That’s kind of true. Then the trait can modify all Shroud skills to apply conditions, or few of them, not only the AA.
With 1sec. ICD, that way RS won’t apply more then DS

Thats not a bad idea, but what happens if condis are cleared? You lose them anyway. Maybe on entering Shroud we need a trait that apply certain conditions for short duration.(5-8sec) This should probably be minor/adept Curse trait that keep applying 4-5 bleeds and 2-3 poison with Shroud AA.
PS: Or even better, add that to the existing Lingering Curse, and make it again usable!

So you admit Blood magic is not very good, as most of us will agree, but you state that a single stability will make us" suddenly" viable support prof. Sorry, but even If I would not whine against stability its so far from making us viable… you follow my point.

zapv.8051:

I know what the skill does Cogbyrn. Its main use is clearing conditions the secondary effect is giving you boons. Considering you have to stand in a circle where you are very vulnerable to get that conversion, that that conversion is random and thus unreliable, and that it has a 50 second CD, I’d say it needs buffs. Theoretically it is a nice skill, in practice it doesn’t convert what you want and reduces necros already bad mobility by forcing you to stand in it. If it gave stab you would be less vulnerable in it and thus more likely to get its full effect (also would be a good pve buff).

What are you talking about?! Its really good and one of the few aoe party support skills we have…

Azure.8670:

mazut.4296:

Silv.9207:

The main problem of the necromancer, expecially dps one, is that we have not a single block/evade/immunity skill,c making us the first cass to target why we fall quickly.

And the Reaper will not change it.

We’re doomed to be a defenceless class forced to play in midbunker (and really able to do it) just to not die.

Unless you use bunker build, then they can beat you all day long and you will die last

have to agree with this. only time I get focused on and killed in team fights is when im playing cele signet, and believe me, im causing ruckus before I go down.

bunker MM? im eating a sandwich and sitting on bodies

Yeah, I kind of started to dislike the MM, because of that. It feels more annoying then fun.

gavyne.6847:

-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.

Very good idea. Give it 1sec Superspeed or swiftness.

Silv.9207:

The main problem of the necromancer, expecially dps one, is that we have not a single block/evade/immunity skill,c making us the first cass to target why we fall quickly.

And the Reaper will not change it.

We’re doomed to be a defenceless class forced to play in midbunker (and really able to do it) just to not die.

Unless you use bunker build, then they can beat you all day long and you will die last

I bet we all want 5sec. Stability on this skill, but as Kaint said, its there to assist the stun break.

The Flesh guy is good no matter what you do

Wait a sec, aren’t Elite specks for everybody? If not this will be PvP disaster…

Think about it that way. How much Life force do you waste until you get the 21 stacks?

Since I will not be able to play tomorrow, here is my Beta feedback. Its strictly PvP.

Greatsword

-As many people already said, biggest flaw of GS is its Auto attack. I don’t use it! Its way to slow. My suggestion is to reduce it to 2 hit attack and move the chill application to the second one.
-Gravedigger is fine as damage, but its slow animation again make it very hard to land. Most player already learned to dodge it. The only time I can land is if people don’t have endurance or I’m in the middle of a multi target brawl and all the visual effects hide the animation. I don’t know how to fix this, really the only way is to make it hit faster…
-Skill 3, Death Spiral I wont complain about this one. It fail to hit sometimes, but not as often as Gravedigger and the only real miss is the lost Life force.
-Nightfall is a good skill. Great even.
-Grasping Darkness, still not very reliable. I also think it need longer range. 900? Maybe 750!

Reaper Shroud

-Auto attack. Its good, but I have one suggestion. Why don’t you split the LF between attack 2 and 3. Giving better LF generation even if one of the attacks being dodged.
-Death’s Charge is buggy and messy. The speed and distance is good, but it fails to hit, sometimes fails to move or combination of both. Sometimes only hit once or twice.
And sometimes fail entirely and only turn my character to face the target at the end of the animation.
-Infusing Terror, we need to keep the stability outside of Shroud, please!
-Soul Spiral its a fine skill.
-Executioner’s Scythe, very good skills, but again as Gravedigger people already learned to dodge it and I fail to land much more often with each day playing. Please reduce cast time to 1s. Probably need a little damage buff as well. Or change the threshold to 66% and 33% HP.

Shouts

-YSIM: Need scaling with healing power, apart from that its fine.
-NCSY: Good one, can’t complain here.
-Rise: Love it
-Suffer: Haven’t used it. It’s just not on par with the rest. I will take Plague signet any day or something else.
-YAAW: Mixed feelings. The weakness is very good and long, but the might is just meh.
I would prefer to get something else, what about few sec of resistance+vigor?!
-CTTB: Make it 60sec cd!!!

Also need another stun breaker on one of the shouts. Either Suffer or maybe Rise.

Reaper traits

-Augury of Death: How much better it would be if it gives LF instead of HP. Or even better give us both hp steal and LF.
-Chilling Nova: Why should I pick this one? I don’t like it much. :/ Reduce the DC to 5sec. It rely on Crits and it has 10sec Cd right now…
-Relentless Pursuit: Fine trait.
-Shivers of Dread: I think its insignificant. I think it need additional option on this one.
-Chilling Force: Like it, useful
-Decimate Defenses: Like it, useful. On par with the one above.
-Soul Eater: Now this one I will never take. First of, stealing hp on this super slow weapon, who cares! And the bigger problem again is the slow attack which miss a lot. This feels strictly PvE trait.
-Cold Shoulder: Its good one.
-Blighter’s Boon: Nice one, especially with team mates that apply a lot of boons, like guardians.
-Deathly Chill: I didn’t like it very much. The damage still feels to low and the whole condition Reaper felt weaker then the Power Reaper.
-Reaper’s Onslaught: I used this the most. Something else that came to my mind. Is it possible this trait to be the reason why Death’s Charge is so buggy?!? Faster attacks break the skill/animation and it fail occasionally?!

PS: !!! Vital Persistence need to become baseline!!! Reaper is so restricted right now, we want more diversity in builds. THANKS in advance!!!

Well that’s it from me, hope its of some help.
Take care

Today, after more people complained I started to watch closely and it happens very often. The skill either spin and deal no damage or just hit once or twice or it spins on spot and then charge and hit only once.
Also once, when the target was close to me but moved to the side it spinned in place and at the end of the animation only turned, facing the target.

tboneking.2531:

spoj.9672:

Im hoping that when the next wave of elite specs comes around they will just make the weapons available on the core professions. And scrap the idea of exclusive weapons so we can actually mix new weapons together. You can have an elite spec tied to a weapon (for example having traits which improve it). But it shouldnt be the weapon is only usable with the elite spec. Obviously they will keep it as it is for now because it will help them sell the game.

Pretty much my exact viewpoint. They’re tying all these pve class fixes for our profession into a weapon and traitline you can only access by buying the xpac. Doesn’t affect me, I love this game and I bought it, but it does seem a little much. And havin GS limited to reaper only doesn’t really make sense imo

I also agree. This was my first reaction. Ok, make different Shroud, but why can’t I use GS without Reaper specks?!? With all the weapons is the same right now. Why can we use the dagger without picking Blood Magic? Or Scepter without Curses…

SF attacks are slow, you get 2 minions instead of one(trait wise). SF ability is super slow, single target blind. Bone minions have huge boom boom+blast.
Almost forgot, lower cd, you can use them more often.
SF only+ is the LF generation, but its far from enough to take it.
This are my reasons.

Silly easy? Try the scraper… it destroys reapers for breakfast!

Halcyon.5340:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Halcyon.5340:

It’d be amusing to see an army of 100 shambling horrors run over somebody. That would be a highlight video.

I still want to see a zerg of Reapers in WvW just run in with Death Nova equipped and pop Rise!

That would be a site to see, and there would be so many poison fields and explosions!

Yesterday played Legacy of the Foefire against 4 MM reapers… All 4 had staffs too. The mid point was deep red of aoe circles and the swarm of minions… so fun to watch and ofc die

Rise instead of shadow fiend, not bone minion. And get rid of the healing minion.

Most of the people who point at Necro now, will still point at us. But who cares, the block list seems to be endless
Play with people that prefer to have fun, not with kittens!

Lol the new raid tank is here
Spend 15min rising minions with a druid healing. Then go and sweep the raid clean ;D

I played druid and its extremely powerful in pvp. I can stand 1v3 without a problem for minutes!!! More powerful then guardian. And when I was playing against it again I couldnt beat it easily. Practically your team need to zerg the druid or you cant ever get the point hes is camping
Really bad for pvp

Nice appreciation, but that at the end is not very tasteful

Bhawb.7408:

That’s strange, I wonder if it has to do with the systems they’ve put in place on other skills to keep them from multi-ticking against a wall (which this shouldn’t have).

You mean when people stack in the corner and use whirl attacks against the wall?
I don’t know if I understood you right, but this skill often is missing damage for me.

tuman.6593:

I just want to compare our elite shout with revenant elite ability Jade Winds:
“Chilled to the bone!” – 1.25 sec cast time, 2 sec stun, 90 sec CD;
“Jade Winds” – 1 sec cast time, 3 sec stun, 5 sec CD.
Our shout deals 2.5x more damage and apply chill for 8 sec , as revenant its cost 50 energy, but anyway too much difference in favor of revenant, isn’kitten

What about the warrior elite on 20 sec CD?! Its single target, but 20sec!!!

Its a thing, it need fixing. I have also the stuck animation, where I don’t move but there is nothing on my path.

Your soul is MINE!!!

I think its so slow to be avoidable, but you are right. It miss most of the time and not because people intentionally dodge it…