Guild Wars 2

Well even lesser world bosses start off scaled to 1 player. Golem Mark II is just one example. Locking bosses to scale to a certain amount is stupid because it limits the availability of completing those bosses. Its ok on Wurm and Tequatl because they are huge and have complex mechanics. But for the others it just stops people from being able to complete an event just because of lack of players. If i can survive indefinately against the boss and complete all required mechanics then surely i should be able to complete it no matter how many players are there.

Which just means it starts off scaled to 10-20 people. Which is kind of lame as its not a world boss its just a legendary.

Fluffball.8307:

You would be very very wrong if you think 5 people can “melt” it. When I killed it, it was pressed against a column and people were FGSing it, and it still took 12 minutes or so to kill.

Other bosses scale at 20% base hp per player (not sure if Giant is the same). So even if people are FGSing, they may not be doing enough to make up for the 90% of people in clerics/nomad/sentinels at max range afking.

The equal scaling per player in open world is what causes elitism. If bosses scaled per player based on gear/damage output then people wouldnt care as much about gear and kill times would be a lot less mind numbingly boring. Id imagine this is quite complex to solve which is unfortunate.

Never understood why they make the giants roar undodgeable/unblockable. I mean not every class has stunbreaks on a low enough cooldown.

Also if its true that he doesnt scale then that sucks major balls. I was looking forward to another giant i could solo. Its easy but kind of relaxing to solo giants. :P

Bhawb.7408:

I’d just change the trait completely though. Make the might stacking completely different, like might on crit.

This. We dont need traits which reward bad play such as face tanking. We need traits that are offensive.

Give us warriors forceful greatsword equivalent please! It wouldnt be op for condi builds or DS builds because they have slow attack rates. It would only sufficiently boost the self buffing of dagger and axe 2. Axe is weak so it wouldnt make it over powered. Dagger puts you in a dangerous position so theres risk (PvP perspective). From a PvE stand point it would just allow necro to be a bit more self sufficient and compete with the other classes while also retaining its selfish nature. The extra might on crit would also be nice to increase might gained on DS builds (minor buff).

Essentially it primarly buffs power builds but not by too much. Our power builds need help in all gametypes. A 25 point minor is quite a high investment. Also im assuming no icd. If you add an icd you severely cap the potential of this trait and make it equal across all builds. We dont want or need it to be equal across all builds.

Shouldnt this thread be in profession balance forums?

That wont be the best build.

Ill humour you just this once. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQRBIhhu1IDN102SjjNs3mAXQgeQgWR/5UKq2C-ThRBABXt/o8DP9DoohBgnAAlq/YmSQA-e

Im sure you can work out the best combo of assassins/berserker gear and food yourself. I placed Well of Corruption because it adds good initial burst. A minion might be slightly better dps over time but they are unreliable so i rarely use them. If might is an issue I would take Blood is Power instead but I assume were talking about max buffs here so thats pointless.

Heres the important part. The rotation excluding wells (they should be used on cooldown or saved for aoe bursting).

Locust Swarm > Weapon Swap > Reapers Touch > Deathshroud > Tainted Shackles > Dagger auto > Flash Deathshroud > Reapers Touch > Weapon swap > Locust Swarm > Dagger auto > Flash Deathshroud > Dagger auto > Weapon swap > Reapers Touch > Deathshroud > Tainted shackles etc (Deathshroud flashes may not be ordered exactly correctly, just use roughly every 10/11 seconds).

Basically dagger auto as filler. Rotation is use warhorn 5 then camp focus for 2 reaper’s touches before going back to warhorn. All while flashing deathshroud every 10 seconds for weakening shroud proc. And every 3rd/4th flash you should cast tainted shackles. Most of the time you wont flash DS perfectly every 10 seconds so you will often be able to cast tainted shackles on the 3rd flash.

Also things to note. Tainted shackles is not a channel. After you cast it you can immediately leave DS and continue rotation and it will add torment and strike for good damage a few seconds later. Reapers touch will bounce between caster and target four times resulting in 3 procs of damage and applying 12 stacks of vuln. Its a very strong burst skill considering it has a 14 second cool down and only takes a second to cast. Locust Swarm will tick for 13 procs of damage instead of 15 even with trait.

The build also applies a lot of passive bleeds in addition to the torment from tainted shackles and target the weak will benefit from the extra immob, weakness and chill which are uncommon conditions in most groups. Remember conditions are applied before damage so this means tainted shackless will always benefit from an extra +4% from immob and torment when it finishes.

Should test elemental slaying for solid ocean. Would work on those elementals. And should test for tentacles.

I can definately help with some of these.

Lightsbane.9012:

nearlight.3064:

The damage is not awful. It’s not top tier but it’s far from awful.

We do need offensive support buffs for Pve though.

our problem is we need more power ranged/cleave.

We dont need more ranged power damage.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Net Turret used to be really dumb for locking down kiteable bosses. Unfortunately you can’t reach 100% uptime on immob solo with them anymore and I don’t think any other class has substantial access to immob uptime.

All classes have plenty of immob so any composition should be able to achieve perma immob or atleast near perma immob. Ranger has an elite that basically immobs for a full fight. Thief has a spammable immob. Other classes have a variety of immob skills on relatively short cooldowns. Necro has decent access without even having to build for it.

Its 10% extra damage for the group not 50%.

Nah it still works when the entire group is there or the guy solo running wipes.

And you dont actually all need to get there at once. People can enter the portal at different times and it will still work because you are going from a spot the cannons can see you to a spot where they can’t instantly. You just need to get there without jumping to it to avoid leading the cannon barrage in that general direction. But seeing as you can’t blink up because of terrain it has to be a portal.

You could probably do the same trick with necro spectral walk. But you would only have an 8 second period to phase mai. You might also be able to jump up to it if you can survive several seconds of damage while you get into the spot. But i dont fancy that with the current damage numbers.

kyubi.3620:

before anyone cry about this idea behing lame ill remind you that most of the boss you people are stacking on werent designed with the idea of standing still in a corner to avoid all the boss mechanics and taking hits while overhealing everything you guys are suposed to dodge and move around.

Bosses werent designed to be kited around the room either. How you fight them is irrelevant. Stacking or kiting is not something that anet should base boss design on. Stacking works because bosses arent dangerous enough and support is achieved through being close to your allies. If bosses were more difficult, organised groups would still stack but they would use advanced techniques to avoid the damage.

kyubi.3620:

Most boss such as spider are easily doable by stacking in a corner where the boss main mechanic such as web breath weapon will not work.

Have you even fought the spider queen since they changed the poison attack to occur in melee range? It completely destroys unorganised groups that try to stack.

Theres no excuse not to use them. But im not going to throw a kitten over it. I sometimes forget or im on one of my alts which i rarely play. My ele and warrior both have all pots and basic casual food. My other classes which i use less often only have undead pots, scarlet pots, scale venom and food for fractals. Some of my classes have none because i keep forgetting and i pretty much never play them, so its no big deal.

I dont pug so its not really an issue. The difference in kill times is not enough to concern any of us if someone forgets or doesnt have the best pot for the dungeon. I could understand if we were trying to rush through a tour in a decent time. But im a casual and do a few dungeons a night (mostly leeching) because i dont have the time and the games gotten too boring. My group has a very relaxed approach to dungeons most of the time.

Im hoping its just the last reason.

And another reset!

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Give me a necro build (including utils) to model and I’ll pop it into the spreadsheet and that’ll decide it. I suppose there is a small chance they might be able to beat guardians if specced right which would put them in 3rd which I guess could be considered middle-tier DPS, we’ll see.

Ive given you builds and stuff before to calculate and you always did a kitten job. You even thought wells were channeled at one point. Forgive me if I dont think its worth the effort trying to get you to do any calculations when you dont have any clue how the class plays.

Bhawb.7408:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

I have no idea where you heard a silly number like 3rd highest, it’s more like 2nd worst. I suppose there could be some room for debate whether they’re worse than rangers but either way it’s either worst or second worst.

I’ve heard it from multiple sources.

Guangmath.

Necro is middle. But necro also has one of the highest amounts of burst within a 10 second time period. As far as i can tell the only thing that beats it is conjure burst. Or if you count less overall damage but a smaller time frame then other classes beat necro by a bit..

Iris Ng.9845:

The time that I tried, the one that missed the portal decided to stealth himself and we got wrecked instead.

I can only assume you were in slightly the wrong spot or someone moved.

Dungeons
Fractals
Cliffside

Fixed a bug that was preventing the Archdiviner from dropping his loot in the final encounter.

Intredasting.

But the pots work on the Nightmare Court regardless.

You need the portal so people dont get killed when trying to get there. Anyone can jump up into the spot but doing that once the barrage phase starts is suicide. Essentially just before Mai is about to phase, the mesmer goes and places a portal in the spot. Then when Mai phases the mesmer places the portal entrance in the centre of the room. Everyone gets ported straight into the spot and doesnt lead any AOE’s. Like i said its kind of lame. But theres nothing wrong with it in my opinion. Especially when the cannon phase is a lame time gated event where you just hope you dont get trolled by overlapping AOE’s.

Im not talking about getting back outside.

Theres a rock on the side you can jump up and portal everyone to. If you are there and dont move then the cannons cant see you. If you jump up there during the cannon phase they will kill you while you try to do it. If someone falls off or moves then the cannons will fire at them and most likely kill everyone in the spot with the splash damage from the aoes.

This is just like hiding behind a tree so a rooted boss cant hit you. Its not an exploit (as in cheat or bug), its simply exploiting the flawed AI. Just like LoS is exploiting the AI to pull mobs together. Theres nothing wrong with it. Its a little lame but then so is the barrage phase.

It doesnt bug them. They simply cant see you. Its like calling LoS an exploit. Or running out of range of a rooted boss to regen your hp.

Fashion gurus run out of trans charges very quickly.

You have enough time to regen 1 dodge in that time. Hes always chilled after aoe life drain. And you have 3 dodges from energy sigils. Some really terrible RNG will cause problems but most of the time its not an issue. But i have never ran out of dodges when I needed them unless i wasted some stupidly or didnt proc my energy sigils at the right time.

Its possible. Only reason i ate some attacks in my last solo was because i messed up. With proper timing 2 dodges is enough to get out of every life drain. Sub 6min is definately possible and around 5 mins is also possible i believe. The only reason necro would get slower condi times than warrior and engi is because of the lack of permanent burning.

But honestly the rotation for an optimized condi necro is kitteng painful to do. So many cooldowns have to be timed.

maha.7902:

The key thing to note when watching lupicus solos is that you’ll notice it’s might stacking and reflect classes which will score the fastest kills – rangers, thieves and necros are pretty weak in that department whereas engineer, warrior and ele have pretty huge might stacking potential so they’re a lot faster.

Guess i need to get off my kitten and show what a condi necro can do since aristocracy runes came about.

Mine makes me look like a casul.

Welcome to Wait Wars 2.

There is no reason other than for fun or you have no choice. The damage is fine but they bring nothing special. That said I would probably take a necro instead of a second mesmer or guardian. Some classes just shouldnt be stacked no matter what. :P

Sandrox.9524:

spoj.9672:

stesouthby.9362:

I cannot get over the fact that you are stating a class is hurting the game not everyone wants to roll as a zerk and not everyone wants to play a certain class granted that they do not do the most damage but it is a mmo and diversity is what makes this game great people being different with different builds and what about noobs or low level players should they not join in world events as they are just hurting the game as well

The reason world boss events fail is because of people with bad builds. So yes they should not join in. They are preventing others from completing content. :P

complete rubbish,world bosses,are very different than doing dungeon,condition specs are still reliable at dungeons,mobs would melt from it,and the “mini bosses”,aswell.
problem is with wolrd events that there is a 25 stack limit,which not guarntee that you got it,and than your dmg reduced which is really the only time power builds shines.

Complete rubbish. Ive tried condi in dungeons recently. Everything died before i could even cast epidemic. Warriors, mesmers, engis and necros all take up the bleed stacks passively on power builds. You would have to be in a really low dps group for condi to be ok and in that case you may aswell be solo. So it goes by what ive always said. Condi is good for solo and nothing else when it comes to pve.

maha.7902:

Stop caring about whatever crap pugs use, it will save you so much pain and frustration. And to be perfectly honest, a condition player performing clean rotations will probably out dps the average pug anyway.

You are a massive play how you want now. I am disappoint. :<

Make it might on crit and we have a decent trait.

I know the portal trick. And i dont consider that an exploit. Just cheesy. But then with the borked cannon damage its kind of acceptable in my eyes.

Underwater necro is op. What more is there to discuss.

Relativity.3264:

By positioning someone outside the room a single naked level 1 can kill mai trin without dodging at 50. I’d say that counts as disabling the boss.

Yeah so the rule covers something that should be disallowed. Whats the problem?

Ress rushing is lame. But its not an exploit.

Those rules dont exclude anything on Mai Trin.

Unless theres some exploit to make Mai do nothing that i am unaware of?

Andele.1306:

Hey at least its not Reani or PotH, if fixing those into a major trait and giving us good stuff (like Shrouded removal and Reapers protection) for minors letting non MM use DM without penalty, ill gladly take Siphoned power (or plain just go 20 in spite since the best trait of the line is there).

Lol both of those traits were better than siphoned power. The only reason they got more attention was because you actually noticed reanimator and it could cause problems. Also they were minion only minors whereas siphoned power is useless for every build with no discrimination.

Ropechef.6192:

Spoj,
I know you have been playing your Ele more as of late. Do you still get in with your girl? Have you gotten a chance to try out the new Mai Trin with her?
I managed to Solo her the other day it was only a level 20 but it was a rough fight. Yes you can Shroud the shot it seems. just barely though.

I have tried her on my new necro at lvl 38. Unfortunately the life force generation was really lacking so i was forced to rely on teammates to get me through. But generally I avoid using the class in group stuff as id rather not dwell on the weaknesses and lack of support.

That said the fact that i leveled another necro shows that I like the aesthetic enough to do so.

I think the only thing that really stands out for me is accomplishing solo’s on the class despite its weaknesses. My 8 min berserker lupi solo was really satisfying as noone thought it was possible to get a time well under 10 minutes. And I had a great deal of fun soloing the Priest of Melandru on my necro before megaservers came about. Unfortunately i never got the chance to record an uninterrupted solo before Vabbi guesting was destroyed. :<

RedStar.4218:

I’d say : go in Dry Top. Or temple events. If you have 2-3 buddies, you can do Melandru, Lyssa and Dwayna fine by yourselves.

Before the megaserver change we used to guest to Vabbi and solo/duo/small group temples. That not possible anymore (real shame because melandru and dwayna were some of the best bosses in the game and really fun solos). They are almost always done and when they arent there are 100 people scaling the events up. Dry Top is a nice change though. I just really hope we get dragonite in some repeatable instanced content eventually. Mainly fractals.

RedStar.4218:

I can’t understand. Do people craft ascended weapons every day to feel like they need to grind for dragonite ore ?

Players like me who have limited play time and dont enjoy zerging have a shortage. I only run dungeons and fractals unless im forced to grind for dragonite. I have all classes at 80 and its a huge grind to even kit out 3 characters in full ascended. And its not like i can just not bother. Seeing as i need ascended to do high fractals. Kind of makes no sense that you cant get ALL mats needed for ascended in the content that requires ascended.

tl;dr version
Dedicated fractal/dungeon runner who needs ascended for fractals. But cant get dragonite in fractals. GG.

Iris Ng.9845:

@ Spoj: The reason for PvP in an MMO? Probably just for fun and socializing. And maybe, the game play just get stuck and they enjoy it the more they explore.

Exactly. Which is why it makes no sense to try and push it to be an eSport. And also why i dont understand why people solely play PvP.

Never understood why people play MMO’s for PvP. Yeah sure its fine for an extra thing to do. But being a dedicated PvP’er and going competative makes no sense. If you want to go competative go for one of the actual PvP games. I came to gw2 because id had enough of competative games (COD4 died, all the good teams quit and LoL was full of too many trolls). I wanted to just play casually for a change. Although my competative nature led me to join a speedclear guild i still consider it very casual as i dont have to be online at set times to practise with my team. I can play whenever I want. :P

Smooth Penguin.5294:

And I should do more Dungeon runs to get those loads of Empyreals. Haven’t touched a Dungeon since they nerfed Arah.

Nerfed arah? What?

Yeah its really boring to watch. :P

GW2 pvp isnt a spectator game. Honestly dont know why they are trying to push for it cause it will never happen.

I find it kind of ironic that anet themselves said they dont have the resources to create armour skins which can be earned in game. Thats why they put them on the gemstore. And yet here they are creating armour skins which will only be available to 15 people. Lol.

All for the sake of esports! Its depressing that they can waste resources on their smallest community with no real gain.

Thats curious lol. I remember several months ago people were argueing that soldier was better and it achieved higher effective power than knights. So basically the guy who was telling me i was wrong was wrong himself. Shame i was too lazy to do the math for defensive gear myself. I assume ferocity has nothing to do with this?

Afya.5842:

spoj.9672:

DiogoSilva.7089:

EDIT: I’m also against any idea that suggests that defiant should stay as it is. It’s a very boring mechanic even when you make use of it. That’s why my suggestion is thought around the idea that defiant is only temporary and triggered at times: so that at any other time, you are free to use your CCs how you want and when you want.

Its only boring because theres no need to use it. If bosses were designed to really encourage interrupts and players actually learned how to coordinate it then I can be sure you would not find it boring. Anyway defiant is not supposed to be something that is interesting. Its a balance mechanic to prevent stunlocking and create some coordination in a group. The interesting parts of bosses should come from their own unique design not defiant itself.

As people have said. Some bosses could simply have certain attacks which are interruptible through defiant stacks. But defiant can still be in place to prevent stunlocking while providing the opportunity for regular stuns and interrupts of weaker attacks etc.

The biggest issue, that needs to be resolved before any changes are made, is boss attacks not going on full cooldown when interrupted. I would really like to see a devs response to this issue/bug? Is there a reason for it or is it an oversight? Because currently CC cannot be used reliably as an alternative to active defence. Which really has a negative impact on the use for CC.

Champion wraith in cursed shore. No interrupt = gg.

Yeah. It was fine when he only had 3 defiant stacks though.

spoj.9672:

Dont give it health. Just give it a set duration. With limited health it becomes pretty much useless in PvE. Any multi hit projectile attack will destroy it instantly.

Repeated for emphasis.

You would have to give it a ridiculous amount of health for it to be useful. And then it would be op in other situations. Its too hard to balance skills like this. Unless you just make them last for a set duration.

DiogoSilva.7089:

EDIT: I’m also against any idea that suggests that defiant should stay as it is. It’s a very boring mechanic even when you make use of it. That’s why my suggestion is thought around the idea that defiant is only temporary and triggered at times: so that at any other time, you are free to use your CCs how you want and when you want.

Its only boring because theres no need to use it. If bosses were designed to really encourage interrupts and players actually learned how to coordinate it then I can be sure you would not find it boring. Anyway defiant is not supposed to be something that is interesting. Its a balance mechanic to prevent stunlocking and create some coordination in a group. The interesting parts of bosses should come from their own unique design not defiant itself.

As people have said. Some bosses could simply have certain attacks which are interruptible through defiant stacks. But defiant can still be in place to prevent stunlocking while providing the opportunity for regular stuns and interrupts of weaker attacks etc.

The biggest issue, that needs to be resolved before any changes are made, is boss attacks not going on full cooldown when interrupted. I would really like to see a devs response to this issue/bug? Is there a reason for it or is it an oversight? Because currently CC cannot be used reliably as an alternative to active defence. Which really has a negative impact on the use for CC.