Why doesn't Anet just rework reaper shroud into a purely offensive skill?

I mean it isn't even really good at defense unless it's a 1v1 (and I guess that's arguable). I mean it has it's own decay as well as being consumed when you get hit so if you're fighting more than one guy, it will go down fast. If someone keeps range, then they'll just whittle it down. It's just meh compared to other defensive mechanics. If they scrap the "second lifebar" mechanic (maybe they could keep the damage reduction while in shroud) then we could ask for better defense. I really liked the increased damage of reaper shroud abilities. Whenever I get the chance to deal damage to people in PvP, I can really see how much pain I put them through. So the suggestion is, when you enter shroud, you gain some damage reduction but no second hp bar. It still decays.

Problem of this suggestion: Life force seems kinda useless because it's only relevance is in the decay. But if that's the case, why not just have a timer for the shroud?

My solution to this problem is to have some high impact utility skills that are accessible only when in shroud. These utility skills will cost a reasonable amount of your current life force. So... you can choose a longer time in shroud dealing damage or use said utility skill to turn tables around or get an advantage at the cost of decreasing shroud time... or you would be able to use currently available utilities while in shroud but they cost some life force (in case some utilities would be too powerful if used in shroud without regulations).

Note that this is just a suggestion. If it's bad, fire away with constructive criticisms. It's just my opinion that shroud would be better off focusing more on a single aspect (offense) instead of juggling both.

What I'm suggesting more than often is that the shroud keep it's degen but lose it's ability to protect the health bar of the necromancer. In exchange, spectral skills and shroud skills that generate life force would now generate barrier instead.

The first issue is that the necromancer community is divided about such thing. A lot think that it would ruin the necromancer's feel, some don't want to even think about it and some more or less agree. The second issue is that anet is studbornly attached to the idea that the necromancer "need" to be a condition manager character and for that the necromancer need extra health point.

Spread a lie and you get threads like this. Some retard was screaming "Reaper was supposed to be a power spec!" and everyone bought into it.

NO.

Reaper was designed as melee, cleaving, tanky spec, a cure for core necro worst problems - lack of decent cleave save wells, and being a cc ragdoll. One of reaper's core design directions was "the more enemies he fights, the stronger he gets" which was confirmed by his kit (shouts, aoe blind on gs, almost everything reaper being an AoE).Nothing about his damage type.

Obviously if you combine "melee" with "vs many" you need to be on top of your defense game or bite the dust in 5s, especially if you're blockless, stealthless, and evadeless necro.

That's why at beginning reaper was both a capable power and condi spec as he should, and it was glorious. Power, condi, tanking - whatever you wanted, reaper had it.

Then along come raids and <30k dps whining begun. Half the forums screamed "But he was supposed to be a power spec" and lo and behold your wish has been granted. Squishy, still subpar to most dps, condi build flat out stomped cause shroud degen same as power with nothing to show for it condi-wise.And now you ask it to be squishier. Can't wait for that wish to come true, with melee, cleaving spec being squishiest of all necro specs, i can see it now....it's gonna be glooooorious....

I guess we are similar with what we want with reaper. That barrier idea sounds better and easier to implement than my suggestion. Though barriers will probably be exclusive to scourge :(

@"ZeftheWicked.3076" said:Spread a lie and you get threads like this. Some kitten was screaming "Reaper was supposed to be a power spec!" and everyone bought into it.

NO.

Reaper was designed as melee, cleaving, tanky spec, a cure for core necro worst problems - lack of decent cleave save wells, and being a cc ragdoll. One of reaper's core design directions was "the more enemies he fights, the stronger he gets" which was confirmed by his kit (shouts, aoe blind on gs, almost everything reaper being an AoE).Nothing about his damage type.

Obviously if you combine "melee" with "vs many" you need to be on top of your defense game or bite the dust in 5s, especially if you're blockless, stealthless, and evadeless necro.

That's why at beginning reaper was both a capable power and condi spec as he should, and it was glorious. Power, condi, tanking - whatever you wanted, reaper had it.

Then along come raids and <30k dps whining begun. Half the forums screamed "But he was supposed to be a power spec" and lo and behold your wish has been granted. Squishy, still subpar to most dps, condi build flat out stomped cause shroud degen same as power with nothing to show for it condi-wise.And now you ask it to be squishier. Can't wait for that wish to come true, with melee, cleaving spec being squishiest of all necro specs, i can see it now....it's gonna be glooooorious....

I don't care much about raids now with the way it's designed. My suggestion doesn't have to benefit only power. It's simply exchanging the "second hp bar" with a better defense.

Scruffy seconds this motion.

Why not get rid of shroud as a defense?

Because all weapon and utility skills count on shroud providing defense. Literally everything would require rework to add things like blocks, mobility, non-shroud traits, and boons.

Sand Shroud is an attempt to minimize rework while eliminating the transform, yet Arenanet opted to create barriers, which serve essentially the same function: to eat damage rather than avoid it.

Imagine axe getting a knock back, MH dagger a leap, staff a teleport and a reflect, focus getting an immunity, etc.

@Jinn Galen.2468 said:I guess we are similar with what we want with reaper. That barrier idea sounds better and easier to implement than my suggestion. Though barriers will probably be exclusive to scourge :(

Barriers already aren't exclusive to scourge. Weaver have it and scrapper also have it. I'm pretty sure that it is a mechanism that anet find worthy enough for them to spreed largely.

Hmm. How would new utilities differ from reworking Shroud abilities and making them more impactful in various ways?

Forgive my cluelessness, I don't know how things were way back when, but I really don't see why Shroud cannot function as both offense and defense. Essentially, I understand it as the moment in time when, without much compromise, the hunted should become the hunter. As such, access to Shroud could be quick (which it is not, currently) and costly (which it is, but perhaps in the wrong way). A timer might be a solution for both, but the forced degeneration of Shroud seems to be just that, in a sense, and it makes for all sorts of issues.

There's a theme here, with Reaper, that will be followed no matter what, I think. Barrier probably isn't it.

It just needs to work like holo photon forge. Full lf, enter it and shredd ppl. On the other hand we need sustain like invulns, leaps, stealth and superspeed like holo has and the damage ofc.

@"ZeftheWicked.3076" said:Spread a lie and you get threads like this. Some kitten was screaming "Reaper was supposed to be a power spec!" and everyone bought into it.

NO.

"Some kitten" was Robert Gee when he first revealed the Reaper. He mentioned during the reveal that Deathly Chill was created so that condition builds would have a reason to consider the spec, but Reaper was intended to appeal primarily to Power builds.

The reason why everyone thinks Reaper is supposed to be a cleaving Power Bruiser primarily is because the person who created it said that was his intent.

Well there goes my faith in a-net. One of their greatest achievements (fun-wise) was a product of mistake. They made a spec that worked on all fronts save extreme dps cases (raids), and fully functioning, fun half of it (condi builds) were a mistake. I rest my case...

@Drarnor Kunoram.5180 said:

@"ZeftheWicked.3076" said:Spread a lie and you get threads like this. Some kitten was screaming "Reaper was supposed to be a power spec!" and everyone bought into it.

NO

.

I'd like a source on that please, as I've found nothing to support that in any interviews nor the original "Meet the Reaper" post on the GW2 website. There was also no clear distinction of "this is a power specc" or "Deathly Chill was created so that condition builds would have a reason to consider the spec" in the hour and a half long 'Points of Interest: Episode 21' video that was dedicated to the first look/design choices behind the Reaper specialization.

It was in that Points of Interest video, actually. Watch it again.

Which really makes sense, as Reaper has only two things that even make use of the Condition Damage stat: Soul Spiral's poison and Deathly Chill. Meanwhile, it's always had decent Power scaling (not "good", but decent).

I'll avoid going over the entire video unless you're willing to give me a link to what it is you're referring to, but I'm going to assume you're talking about the trait showcase they do before going into the Great sword/Reaper Shroud skills.

link for those that haven't seen it:

At the 9 minute mark they go over Deathly Chill, with the exact quote being "The next one is Deathly Chill, it causes chill to deal damage... it's similar to terror which is one of the curses traits that causes fear to deal a bit of damage. This kinda lets you get a bit of extra condition damage on your chills."

Nothing about it being created just so condition build would consider the specc, just as a way to get extra damage from your chills, as well as extra incentive to get your foes below 50% hp.

Which really makes sense, as Reaper has only two things that even make use of the Condition Damage stat: Soul Spiral's poison and Deathly Chill.

Reaper in a vacuum has several tools of varying effectiveness that contribute to its condition based build. The ice field from Executioner's Scythe that opens up the mechanic interaction between the ice combo field and whirl combo finishers, Extra whirl finishers from Soul Spiral and Gravedigger, the poison offered by Soul Spiral, Decimate Defences that allows you to proc on crit effects like Chilling Nova and the adept Curses trait Barbed Precision; and all of that is JUST the Reaper speccialization. Core Necromancer also offers additional tools that work in tandem with Reaper (like the interaction between Reaper and Curses I just pointed out) that allow it to come together as an overall condition build.

The reason why everyone thinks Reaper is supposed to be a cleaving Power Bruiser primarily is because the person who created it said that was his intent.

The reason for people thinking that this is supposedly the ONLY valid design choice/identity (even though as has been said the Reaper falls under three, the Melee Bruiser, the Chilling Reaper and the "Movie Monster" as explained at the 10:00 mark of the video) is twofold. Firstly, as was said, one of the major design identities of Reaper is indeed the melee bruiser, the one that gets rewarded for being in the middle of a fight and hitting multiple targets all at once; the other was a result of this same flawed mindset that the "only" reason that Condi Reaper can exist is because of abusing a "quirk" in the build: Deathly Chill.

There have been numerous things that have brought this into the limelight in recent times: the Wooden Potatoes video on using the chill gun from Gendarren Fields to stack immense amounts of chill, the statements he made based on an apparently flawed takeaway from an interview with the devs that Condi Reaper was going to be nerfed to "make room" for Scourge, the continual perpetuation of the myth that Deathly Chill was originally a power oriented trait that should be returned to its rightful place, etc. None of this is correct.

Deathly Chill for one is a Grandmaster trait, with GM traits being said by Robert himself to be those that define a build: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/116025#Comment_116025

@"Robert Gee.9246" said:I think it's okay to have some passive and simple GM traits. And some passive traits like Parasitic Contagion can act as keystone traits that players can build and play around. It would be informative to hear some specific examples of the traits you're worried about.

It makes sense for a playstyle of a class to be defined by a GM trait, much like Grace of the Land, Phalanx Strength (previously), and Illusionary Inspiration are traits the defined Druid, Warrior and Chronomancer respectively. Furthermore, it also makes sense to choose to run with one of the core themes of a class to support a build, in this case being a build that focuses on applying as many chills as possible to improve damage output as part of a chill oriented build. If there really was no place for conditions or Deathly Chill in its current form in the Reaper specc I doubt it would have "survived" as many balance patches as it has, with five major balance patches occurring between August 1st and now. It most definitely would not have been fixed on multiple occasions to either work better (changed in April of 2016 to no longer be just chill dealing damage to avoid it being affected by the 5 chill stack cap, and changed again in October of 2016 ot improve the amount of bleeds gained in a Pve PvP split designed to make it more usable in high-end PvE content).

@"Drarnor Kunoram.5180" said:"Some kitten" was Robert Gee when he first revealed the Reaper. He mentioned during the reveal that Deathly Chill was created so that condition builds would have a reason to consider the spec, but Reaper was intended to appeal primarily to Power builds.

So to go over your view of what exactly Robert was saying here: Reaper was a specc created as a themed elite Specialization that has three core themes, Being able to throw yourself in the middle of a fight and be rewarded for hitting as many targets as possible, utilizing chill to increase damage dealt and augment survivability, and the "Movie Monster" that shrugs off soft CC and becomes a threat once it gets on top of its target. Nothing about Reaper being only for Power or only for Condi, only about what themes and play-style identities it falls under.

It seems I misremembered.

However, I do find it amusing that in response to me saying only two parts of Reaper make use of the condition damage stat, you say this:

Reaper in a vacuum has several tools of varying effectiveness that contribute to its condition based build. The ice field from Executioner's Scythe that opens up the mechanic interaction between the ice combo field and whirl combo finishers, Extra whirl finishers from Soul Spiral and Gravedigger, the poison offered by Soul Spiral, Decimate Defences that allows you to proc on crit effects like Chilling Nova and the adept Curses trait Barbed Precision; and all of that is JUST the Reaper speccialization. Core Necromancer also offers additional tools that work in tandem with Reaper (like the interaction between Reaper and Curses I just pointed out) that allow it to come together as an overall condition build.

Which is basically all only relevant because of Deathly Chill. Which I mentioned. In the absence of Deathly Chill, Condition Reaper never exists. Soul Spiral got a nerf for condition builds, too, cutting the poison duration by 50% and the Whirl finishers by 33%.

@Drarnor Kunoram.5180 said:Which is basically all only relevant because of Deathly Chill. Which I mentioned. In the absence of Deathly Chill, Condition Reaper never exists. Soul Spiral got a nerf for condition builds, too, cutting the poison duration by 50% and the Whirl finishers by 33%.

Yes, and you can splice GM traits out of other builds and also dramatically affect their ability to perform. Take away GoTL and druid is suddenly unable to perform as a might generator for the group. Take away Illusionary Inspiration and you cripple a Chronomancers ability to share boons. Saying a build suddenly doesn't work because you remove a GM trait is absurd.

Additionally, while Soul Spiral did indeed receive nerfs that was not Deathly Chill being changed, simply DC having a smaller damage contribution to the build. In the same patch many of the Shroud skills including Soul Spiral had their power damage increased, to the point that if you had been running a Grieving build at the time you ended up with a very minor difference in the overall damage output of the build once you factored in the GoTL changes that occurred in the same patch.

What Condi Reapers run Grieving, though? Vipers is still the preferred gearset and that was hit directly.

And my point was that condi Reaper is getting nerfed while Power Reaper is getting buffed. This seems like a pretty clear line of intent to me.

Plus, there's a key difference between Deathly Chill and Grace of the Land: Without Grace of the Land, you still have support Druid. Without Illusionary Inspiration, you still have Quickness/Alacrity sharing Chronomancer.

Without Deathly Chill, you simply do not have Condition Reaper. This isn't a case of the spec being worse without the trait rather than improved with it, Condition Reaper does not exist at all without Deathly Chill.

"Grieving build at the time"

At the time Grieving was considered an equivalent stat set to run as of the launch of Path of Fire, though this was eventually taken over by full vipers once again as of recent balance patches. However, even if you were not running Grieving at the time of the buffs to the power aspects of the shroud skills and the reduction of Whirl Finishers from 6 to 4 effectively cancelled each other out in the grand scheme of things. This was made even more true by the recent overhaul to "bursty" condition damage skill, where the overall effective bleeding applied by Deathly Chill was increased to account for the lesser upfront damage.

It seems to me that it's not that Anet is nerfing Condi and buffing power, but giving the Power focused abilities of Reaper much needed buffs to bring it in line not with Condi Reaper but other Power based Speccs in the game; and all of this has been done with Condi Reaper receiving little to no changes, with any changes it has received ultimately making no difference to its overall damage outside of changes to othr classes that affect everyone (ie GotL and Alacrity changes).

Additionally, whilst on the topic of the bleeding applications of Deathly Chill, it also highlights why both Condi Reaper and Condi Scourge can both exist without too much overlap between each other (instead of one ultimately being doomed to be worse than the other). While Condi Scourge offers more support i the form of might, condi removal and barriers to the team, Condi Reaper has a faster damage ramp up time thanks to the Shroud Combo in tandem with Deathly Chill, provides superior CC, suffers less from running alternative traits like Parasitic Contagion, and can afford to run more offensive utility options in the form of AoE blinds and pulls all whilst having superior individual survivability as a result.

@"Jinn Galen.2468" said:I mean it isn't even really good at defense unless it's a 1v1 (and I guess that's arguable). I mean it has it's own decay as well as being consumed when you get hit so if you're fighting more than one guy, it will go down fast. If someone keeps range, then they'll just whittle it down. It's just meh compared to other defensive mechanics. If they scrap the "second lifebar" mechanic (maybe they could keep the damage reduction while in shroud) then we could ask for better defense. I really liked the increased damage of reaper shroud abilities. Whenever I get the chance to deal damage to people in PvP, I can really see how much pain I put them through. So the suggestion is, when you enter shroud, you gain some damage reduction but no second hp bar. It still decays.

Problem of this suggestion: Life force seems kinda useless because it's only relevance is in the decay. But if that's the case, why not just have a timer for the shroud?

My solution to this problem is to have some high impact utility skills that are accessible only when in shroud. These utility skills will cost a reasonable amount of your current life force. So... you can choose a longer time in shroud dealing damage or use said utility skill to turn tables around or get an advantage at the cost of decreasing shroud time... or you would be able to use currently available utilities while in shroud but they cost some life force (in case some utilities would be too powerful if used in shroud without regulations).

Note that this is just a suggestion. If it's bad, fire away with constructive criticisms. It's just my opinion that shroud would be better off focusing more on a single aspect (offense) instead of juggling both.

So your solution to Shroud being a subpar defensive mechanic is to remove said defensive mechanic entirely, on the grounds that we could then "ask for" better defense?

No, Shroud is a perfectly fine defensive mechanic, or at least it was before Anet nerfed it into the ground over the last 6 months.

@"Drarnor Kunoram.5180" said:Which really makes sense, as Reaper has only two things that even make use of the Condition Damage stat: Soul Spiral's poison and Deathly Chill. Meanwhile, it's always had decent Power scaling (not "good", but decent).

Soul Reaping has exactly 1 trait related to conditions yet Soul Reaping has been used on every single condi build to date. Spite has zero condi traits at all, yet spite was used on almost every pvp condi reaper build in 2015 and 2016.

@Crinn.7864 said:Soul Reaping has exactly 1 trait related to conditions yet Soul Reaping has been used on every single condi build to date. Spite has zero condi traits at all, yet spite was used on almost every pvp condi reaper build in 2015 and 2016.

Having traits that are not related to conditions directly does not mean traits that assist in a condition build don't exist. Dhuumfire is the obvious direct buff to condition damage output, but as Reaper (and even Scourge) utilize their shroud skills to deal extra damage traits that buff up shroud as a whole indirectly affect damage output. As such Gluttony, Unyielding Blast, Vital Persistence, Strength of Undeath and even Speed of Shadows help to improve your damage output.

As for Spite, it can often be taken in place of Soul Reaping for Reaper if there is little to no might generation being sent your way, or if there is not enough vulnerability application (so mainly for situations where a team is not ideally set up or if you're attempting to solo something in a PvE scenario).

Amerikajin,Be careful of assuming shroud is "there deal extra damage." Shroud is a defensive transform on core and Reaper. Damaging skills and traits are primarily in place to ensure dps does not drop to zero when in shroud but always remember that normal skills are locked out and, therefore, cannot be used for dps. If shroud has traits that are bursty or apply a number conditions in a burst, that is because they have to be effective compensation for casting the equivalent of Moa on our self.

I agree with Drarnor. Reaper is primarily a power-cleave elite. Necro did not have a power AoE build until reaper and was often excluded from dungeons because of it. Reaper is very good at handling trash mobs in melee.

Perhaps that is why Deathly Chill is there: to add dps when in combat with a single boss not susceptible to a normal chill debuff. It would explain why Arenanet does not add competitive power damage and, instead, keeps the hybrid condi option. Against a horde of trash mobs, power-Reaper has very good sustain and dps, which was what PvE players were all asking for before HoT and raid wings.

I do not believe Reaper was meant to be thought of as a condi elite with a sub-par power build. However, the power-AoE/cleave potential of Reaper may be limiting its single-target dps. Trimming shroud only reduced sustain while power traits received minor buffs. Any effect on condi-Reaper dps might have been inconsequential to their strategy.

I would still like some chill duration back, though.

@"Anchoku.8142" said:Amerikajin,Be careful of assuming shroud is "there deal extra damage." Shroud is a defensive transform on core and Reaper. Damaging skills and traits are primarily in place to ensure dps does not drop to zero when in shroud but always remember that normal skills are locked out and, therefore, cannot be used for dps. If shroud has traits that are bursty or apply a number conditions in a burst, that is because they have to be effective compensation for casting the equivalent of Moa on our self.

Note I said "utilize their shroud skills to deal extra damage", not that is what it is "there" for. Shroud across all three Specializations of Necromancer is a multi-faceted tool that is used depending on what the player needs it to do, be it deal extra/alternate damage or provide extra survivability. Additionally, while you indeed can't use your other skills whilst in shroud players make use of skill rotations to ensure that instead of having to mentally track cooldowns and whatnot they can have an approximation based on what order said skills are used in. I would also hardly call using Shroud as being "the equivalent of Moa on our self" when that is a form entirely designed to be debilitating, as opposed to shroud where you decide how long you spend in it typically, and also choose when you go into it.

I agree with Drarnor. Reaper is primarily a power-cleave elite. Necro did not have a power AoE build until reaper and was often excluded from dungeons because of it. Reaper is very good at handling trash mobs in melee.

You're correct that Necro had no access to a good source of cleaving damage, but also just had no good melee based identity at all. Keep in mind before HoT our melee options were dagger and warhorn. However, saying that because Reaper had a focus on adapting Necro to a melee play style does not intrinsically mean Reaper was only or "primarily" a power based elite specc when a specc designed to be a specific damage type does not exist. While some may naturally attune better to a certain damage type Elite speccs have been described by the devs themselves as ways to open up a new way to play a class, and even hoist up areas where a class was lacking (ie Scourge due to Necromancers lack of support options spoken about briefly here:

Perhaps that is why Deathly Chill is there: to add dps when in combat with a single boss not susceptible to a normal chill debuff. It would explain why Arenanet does add competitive power damage and, instead, keeps the hybrid condi option. Against a horde of trash mobs, power-Reaper has very good sustain and dps, which was what PvE players were all asking for before HoT and raid wings.

Deathly Chill is there because one of Reaper's core themes is being a master of utilizing Chill, and as such rewards the Reaper for utilizing a build focused on applying Chills; not necessarily just for a hybrid condi build. Keep in mind that even before it was changed from being Chill deals damage to Chill applies bleeds it still was a condition damage scaling trait, and this identity as being a condition focused GM trait that rewards a high chill application has largely gone unchanged (switching from applying lots of long chills to applying as many chills as possible between the launch of HoT and now).

As for explaining why "why Arenanet does add competitive power damage and, instead, keeps the hybrid condi option" (I'm going to assume you mean doesn't add the competitive dps option? your entire post seems to indicate as such). Anet have been continually buffing power Reaper over previous balance patches, and actually as of the recent one have managed to bring it somewhat in line with Condi Reaper/Scourge.

Condi Reaper Benchmark - 29.5k:

Now you might be thinking "but Power Reaper is 2k lower there!", but keep in mid that in this situation the Vamp Presence Aura was not being properly utilized. When properly applied to a 5 man team and averaging a 50% shroud uptime you gain about 510 dps per player affected for a total of approx 2.5k dps. While Condi Reaper also doesn't show the benefits of Epidemic there from a single target standpoint Power and Condi are fairly close to each other at this point. However, your point of Deathly Chill is why Power Reaper can't be buffed to be competitive is still flawed. Firstly, if one trait that is not run by Power builds is what is stopping power builds being balanced then there is something wrong with the devs. Instead, I would propose that, as has been shown by the frequent changes to it as of late, the Devs are trying to buff power Reaper in such a way as to avoid blowing out the damage of Reaper in general. This has especially shown with traits like Awaken the Pain that actively reduce the effectiveness of condi damage whilst improving power damage.

I'm also not sure why you feel the need to point out that Power Reaper is good for trash mobs, sustain and dps when all of those attributes can be said of Condi Reaper as well.

I do not believe Reaper was meant to be thought of as a condi elite with a sub-par power build.

Neither do I. I am of the impression that Reaper was meant to have a multi faceted themed identity based on the three trait lines it has: Melee combatant, Master of Chills and "Movie Monster". Nothing about being specifically power or condi.

@"ZeftheWicked.3076" said:Spread a lie and you get threads like this. Some kitten was screaming "Reaper was supposed to be a power spec!" and everyone bought into it.

NO.

Reaper was designed as melee, cleaving, tanky spec, a cure for core necro worst problems - lack of decent cleave save wells, and being a cc ragdoll. One of reaper's core design directions was "the more enemies he fights, the stronger he gets" which was confirmed by his kit (shouts, aoe blind on gs, almost everything reaper being an AoE).Nothing about his damage type.

Obviously if you combine "melee" with "vs many" you need to be on top of your defense game or bite the dust in 5s, especially if you're blockless, stealthless, and evadeless necro.

That's why at beginning reaper was both a capable power and condi spec as he should, and it was glorious. Power, condi, tanking - whatever you wanted, reaper had it.

Then along come raids and <30k dps whining begun. Half the forums screamed "But he was supposed to be a power spec" and lo and behold your wish has been granted. Squishy, still subpar to most dps, condi build flat out stomped cause shroud degen same as power with nothing to show for it condi-wise.And now you ask it to be squishier. Can't wait for that wish to come true, with melee, cleaving spec being squishiest of all necro specs, i can see it now....it's gonna be glooooorious....

I might feel the same way as you do here if they never changed chill of death back at release.Chill damage being a thing was actually pretty nice touch but because it didnt stack it got changed into something boring which was bleed on chill application. Yes it works but its boring. Then chill application got cut too.... Then to make matters worse the bleed nerfed hard for what was a grand master. (hardly seemed like it)

This is when people started trying power builds and even more so when more condi cure started appearing in the game. Conditions are useless when you cant make them stick especially conditions like bleed :/ necro had no hard hitting conditions in reaper except dhummfire on auto attacks and even that was questionable to be sub par.

When they originally allowed us to test the concept of reaper when i was able to run around killing things with hybrid condi power via nice crits , burning, and chill + other conditions it was one of the funnest things. BUT BECAUSE IT NO WORK WITH BREAK BAR (something anet could have fixed) people wanted it changed and it got changed.Considering that chill of death went from one of the most unique traits on reaper to one of the most lack luster and distasteful traits in the spec in my opinion i dont care much for hybrid condi reaper anymore.

Yes i like power reaper.No i dont agree with raid enthusiast i dislike how much people cry about raid dps. (this game never should have brought raids into focus)Yes I would like to see reaper shine more as a power spec at this point in time because its far too late to go back.