Could it be this simple?

I have been messing around with some power builds just to see what could work in practice. (WVW only). Running Reaper, Soul Reaping and Spite, combined with a mixture of soldiers and knights gear mainly to get enough power crit and vit. Power and crit obviously and vit for the the larger lf pool, Greatsword and Axe - dagger for weopons. What ive discovered is its pretty viable ( not optimal) but it can work pretty good with the right traits and utilites, only problem is the LF generation. I get that Anet doesn't want us to sit and bunker in shroud but could it be as simple as them bumping our LF generation up, we would still have to drop shroud quite often but we could work with that if we get a bit more LF gen. :) Anet, please consider this for wvw.

Yeah mate thats a tasty option. Definitely upping our LF generation is something they should consider if the other 2 options - more dmg, increasing defense are off the table.

This is a nice idea OP.Will also be nice if they return our 7 second shroud.I can never understand why they took away the trait that synergized so well with the Reaper dash 2 and allowed for so much more fun rotations.

For Life Force generation I've trained for Spectral Skills and Signet. For utilities I run Healing Signet, Spectral Armor, Signet of Spite and Undeath, Elite I use the shout.

My bar fills very quickly, fast enough I only need to cast Armor, and GS 4,3,2., then hop into shroud.

^^Power builds have plenty of LF generation. Scepter and OH dagger are the limiting factors.

@Oldirtbeard.9834 said:For Life Force generation I've trained for Spectral Skills and Signet. For utilities I run Healing Signet, Spectral Armor, Signet of Spite and Undeath, Elite I use the shout.

My bar fills very quickly, fast enough I only need to cast Armor, and GS 4,3,2., then hop into shroud.

This post is from wvw or pvp mode, your post history says you don't play these modes. Thank you for the bump though :)

@Anchoku.8142 said:^^Power builds have plenty of LF generation. Scepter and OH dagger are the limiting factors.

Thank you for your opinion and for the bump :)

@Crazy.6029 said:

@Oldirtbeard.9834 said:For Life Force generation I've trained for Spectral Skills and Signet. For utilities I run Healing Signet, Spectral Armor, Signet of Spite and Undeath, Elite I use the shout.

My bar fills very quickly, fast enough I only need to cast Armor, and GS 4,3,2., then hop into shroud.

I think you don't really get it but almost all the utilities he is talking about are way more usefull in PvP/WvW than in PvE. Spectral armor shine like a diamond in WvW for example and I wouldn't even bother take it in PvE where it's nigh useless. Vampiric signet and signet of undeath aren't either utilities that you will want to take in PvE, these are useful in fight against player but fail to shine in fight against mobs. The elite shout is also situational in PvE.

All the things he list make sense for WvW at least. I'd just replace the signet of spite or the signet of undeath by spectral walk and since I don't like GS I'd take dagger/Wh.

Oh and yes soldier work wonder as stat set in WvW for the reaper/necromancer. Never tried knight, thought.

Less time in shroud (shorter duration but a dps boost when in it) but in shroud more often. I like that. Makes it more offensive instead of a bad defensive OH SHNIKEYS! button.

@Dadnir.5038 said:

@Crazy.6029 said:

@Oldirtbeard.9834 said:For Life Force generation I've trained for Spectral Skills and Signet. For utilities I run Healing Signet, Spectral Armor, Signet of Spite and Undeath, Elite I use the shout.

My bar fills very quickly, fast enough I only need to cast Armor, and GS 4,3,2., then hop into shroud.

I get it, and in theory its fantastic. Try it in a practical setting and go use it against SKILLED player/players and I think you will understand that with how quick the shroud falls these days we need more LF gen to boost it up quicker. Also, I wouldn't use just strait soldiers you will definitely want your crit up higher than soldiers can offer by itself. Check out my original post. Thank you for your opinion and the bump :)

@Dadnir.5038 said:Oh and yes soldier work wonder as stat set in WvW for the reaper/necromancer. Never tried knight, thought.I must have entered the Twillight Zone here... soldiers in WvW? On any class thats cringeworthy, on a necro it would be an abomination. Condi scourge is a million times more deadly and a melee reaper would need crit dmg to have a truly dangerous burst, its too easily kited by anything ranged with half a brain. No one runs vanilla necro.

@Crazy.6029 said:

@Dadnir.5038 said:

@Crazy.6029 said:

@Oldirtbeard.9834 said:For Life Force generation I've trained for Spectral Skills and Signet. For utilities I run Healing Signet, Spectral Armor, Signet of Spite and Undeath, Elite I use the shout.

My bar fills very quickly, fast enough I only need to cast Armor, and GS 4,3,2., then hop into shroud.

I've done it plenty of time in tier 1 EU thanks. It work just fine. But yeah, you'd be also right saying that tier 1 EU don't really have skill, it's more numbers ;) .More seriously, it work. It's not the best spec that give you tons of damage but if you lay it properly you got more than enough survivability for your job as a melee dps. And no, in WvW while your damage are important, in reality you are here are part of the raid not as the guy that will down the whole ennemy bus by himself. In shroud you got your 50% crit chance + fury, you're already at 70%. It's OK in WvW except if you want to do some hardcore GvG.

Don't throw away thing that work because you simply feel that there is a bit less dps than what you'd want. There is no easier rotation than a melee shroud necromancer. You use SA + WH, enter the shroud, rampage in the enemy zerg, then leave thee enemy zerg when you feel your LF is low. Then alternate with SW... You just need a few seconds to catch your breath in between the rotations. More often than anything, for what you'll face, your LF will fill up while you are in shroud faster than it will disappear. Your only bane are hard CC and immobilize.

PS.: I don't talk about roaming, because it's something very situationnal for a shroud necromancer nowaday.

@Dadnir.5038 said:

@Crazy.6029 said:

@Dadnir.5038 said:

@Crazy.6029 said:

@Oldirtbeard.9834 said:For Life Force generation I've trained for Spectral Skills and Signet. For utilities I run Healing Signet, Spectral Armor, Signet of Spite and Undeath, Elite I use the shout.

My bar fills very quickly, fast enough I only need to cast Armor, and GS 4,3,2., then hop into shroud.

I'm talking 1 v1 and small scale also known as roaming , zerg is face roll and yes a lot of stuff works when under an umbrella of buffs from your pals. When you are in a zerg you get fed LF from all the deaths among other things. Also, this is not a damage issue, this is a LF generating issue. Thank you for the point of view and the bump :)

@Crazy.6029 said:I have been messing around with some power builds just to see what could work in practice. (WVW only). Running Reaper, Soul Reaping and Spite, combined with a mixture of soldiers and knights gear mainly to get enough power crit and vit. Power and crit obviously and vit for the the larger lf pool, Greatsword and Axe - dagger for weopons. What ive discovered is its pretty viable ( not optimal) but it can work pretty good with the right traits and utilites, only problem is the LF generation. I get that Anet doesn't want us to sit and bunker in shroud but could it be as simple as them bumping our LF generation up, we would still have to drop shroud quite often but we could work with that if we get a bit more LF gen. :) Anet, please consider this for wvw.

Umm this is what was nerfed last patch, the life force generation, as well as the bleed stacks you were able to apply from chill... They nerfed reaper shroud drain by 67% which is WAY more than it should be.. but.. working as intended until people decided to leave. I hate being forced into scourge, but right now its the only viable option.

@trueanimus.4085 said:

@Crazy.6029 said:I have been messing around with some power builds just to see what could work in practice. (WVW only). Running Reaper, Soul Reaping and Spite, combined with a mixture of soldiers and knights gear mainly to get enough power crit and vit. Power and crit obviously and vit for the the larger lf pool, Greatsword and Axe - dagger for weopons. What ive discovered is its pretty viable ( not optimal) but it can work pretty good with the right traits and utilites, only problem is the LF generation. I get that Anet doesn't want us to sit and bunker in shroud but could it be as simple as them bumping our LF generation up, we would still have to drop shroud quite often but we could work with that if we get a bit more LF gen. :) Anet, please consider this for wvw.

They nerfed the life force consumption rate or which is to say the life force used while in shroud so people couldn't sit in shroud. I'm talking about increasing the life force generation from individual weopon skills. This way we get out of shroud more but we can also get back in to it a bit quicker , it would allow for better counter play. Check out my original post. Thank you for the bump.

Soldier gear is trash on Reaper. I have a full ascended soldier set.

You notice how trashy it is when the first core bunker guard (that can't kill anybody!) slowly peels you to death because you are just a zero-damage punching bag that can not escape.

Knights is okay but a bit tryhard in terms of toughness. Berserker armor and weapons and knights trinkets is much better in most scenarios - it's like a worse version of Demolisher PvP stats as 3 stat gear is inferior to 4 stat gear - but it comes pretty close.

Power Reaper LF generation is fine. Shroud cooldown is not. It should be reduced to 8 seconds baseline.

Btw.: Tiers say nothing about skill in WvW! During roaming the worst individual player skill level I've seen on Gandara and Baruch Bay - and these servers are Tier 1 atm. All the other servers are more or less the same.