What have you been playing after the update?

Since the last balance patch a lot of people have been fairly angry with the nerfs. Especially the unjustified nerfs to some classes in pve when they were not causing issues in that area. Example being the dhuumfire nerf for scourge.

So in light of the changes I wanted to propose a question. What have you been playing now?

I'll start. I'm still running scourge because they did almost fix dhuumfire so the nerfs hurt but it hasn't changed our spot so much. The epi nerf and scepter nerf sure hurt but its hard to move away from the elite spec I have the most fun on. In wvw nothing has really changed. The only difference is I'm using power scourge as opposed to condi scourge. It's a bit easier to use and I'm seeing better results since death perception impacts more skills. I also get to use frostfang and nevermore so that's a bonus I suppose. Cheaper armor too so there is that. Basically the dhuumfire nerf did nothing to solve the issue of scourge dominance in zergs. As for raiding and fractles I'm still running it. If dhuumfire was on a 3 second cool down I wouldn't be so there is that. I still wish anet would fix many of the issues holding the necro back in pve as well as their weak support.

Second is engineer. I do love engineer and they've shown to have some potent healing output. The issues with it is it deals no damage when healing and its boon support is minimal at best. With that said scrapper has a tone of situational utility that can make very specific fractles and raids much smoother. They have a lot of condi cleanse and condi conversion, stealth, moving projectile blocks as well as a high level of party damage reduction. They also don't have an energy mechanic which makes them more consistent is smaller groups. They are especially good in twilight oasis. Their unique tool kit allows them to directly counter most of that particular fractal making it smooth to sail through. I'd much rather run with a scrapper in that fractal than a druid any day. Not only that but the scrapper is extremely bulky. Even with full harriers they won't go down easily having protection access, bulwark gyro and passive damage reduction from barrier along with tones of passive self healing means they will stick around longer than a reaper could. It's very satisfying to play and worth trying out for yourself if you've already got ascended harriers for your ranger to just give it a whirl.

Last I've been playing druid. Because I do have full ascended harriers ive been able to pick up a spot in raids and fractals as the healer. I hadn't played druid since grace of the land was a unique buff so it was a bit of a surprise for me to see how it played. And honestly, it was the easiest thing I've done in ages. Druid is so simple to play, and I had so little to worry about when playing it compared to necro and engi. It was slightly more frail than the scourge but that wasn't much of an issue for me. The might stacking was easy and its healing was effective even if my preference is towards scrapper healer. I think the biggest flaw with it I noticed was just how one note it was. It was all about those damage buffs and that raw healing. But beyond that it just didn't fit my overall desires for a healer. It's great, but not my personal preference. Still I plan on making a second set of ascended harriers for my druid since it can be a very relaxing spec to run.

How about everyone else? What have you been running? How has your experience been since the patch?

Condi scourge is my main class for daily T4 fractal runs. After the nerf i noticed a significant dps drop which made me consider changing to my full zerk dragonhunter for future runs. Im mostly doing occasional wvw to gear my dps utility chrono and also ranked pvp for now.

My main pvp class are blood scourge and bunker/dps hybrid druid. While I hate to admit it, i believe i find more success with druid than scourge even though theres an obvious difference in hours spent between these classes.

With the dps gap between condi scourge and power reaper is no more, I might shelve my viper gear on scourge and work on power reaper to see which will i excel more. If it doesnt work out at least i can transfer the gear to my chrono or ele alt.

@EdDreath.2508 said:Condi scourge is my main class for daily T4 fractal runs. After the nerf i noticed a significant dps drop which made me consider changing to my full zerk dragonhunter for future runs. Im mostly doing occasional wvw to gear my dps utility chrono and also ranked pvp for now.

My main pvp class are blood scourge and bunker/dps hybrid druid. While I hate to admit it, i believe i find more success with druid than scourge even though theres an obvious difference in hours spent between these classes.

With the dps gap between condi scourge and power reaper is no more, I might shelve my viper gear on scourge and work on power reaper to see which will i excel more. If it doesnt work out at least i can transfer the gear to my chrono or ele alt.

Interesting. I personally think the control potential of scourge is extremely high in pvp. As for dps in pve, according to snowcrow scourge is still higher.

Ranger is so easy to play. I don't understand how anyone could think necromancer is when ranger is just so good and simple. Maybe it's just my good understanding of the game that let's me adapt to another class like that without a hiccup.

Still. The power of scourge is still better in fractals than reaper. It's how I truly feel at least. I can't play reaper for more than a few minutes. It's just a novelty at this point for me. I never wanted to play a dark knight class when I started necro. So I don't personally like it so it could be bias. But I do understand reaper rotation very well in spite of that since I did run reaper for 2 years.

Honestly I haven't been playing much. Aside from doing the story parts from LWS4E3, I've only played like 10 matches worth of PvP, out of which only 3 in ranked. I don't even have a Roller Beetle yet. Just life keeping me busy, it doesn't really have anything to do with the game.

Well i played my main as always. But i shift from my supportive hybrid gear (marshal)to full on grieving due to the BM changes on ranger.I tested out Holo elexier chabges but i havent noticed much if a chnge except if more quickness and less deflects (which my turret shield and OH shield conpensate for).Last but not least i tested Focus OH on guard and i am looking for playing rev upkeep builds again next time i go on.

@InsaneQR.7412 said:Well i played my main as always. But i shift from my supportive hybrid gear (marshal)to full on grieving due to the BM changes on ranger.I tested out Holo elexier chabges but i havent noticed much if a chnge except if more quickness and less deflects (which my turret shield and OH shield conpensate for).Last but not least i tested Focus OH on guard and i am looking for playing rev upkeep builds again next time i go on.

The elixirs haven't been much of an improvement imo. 8f the toss elixirs had charges with their current effect this could make a huge difference. It would also be nice if the grandmaster trait for elixirs was a bit more potent. 2 might on difficult skills to use isn't that great. Especially when compared to grace of the land. Hell, even abrasive grit is better and that's an adapt trait on scourge. Another nice change would be to make one or more med kit skills count as an elixir as well as fumigate count as one. A cone that procs multiple times would do wonders. Maybe if they did something with elixirs like they did with firebrand mantras. The toss elixirs are okay on their first two but extra potent on their last charge. Just some ideas.

Never liked scourge so the more they nerf it, the better for me in spvp. I'm running power reaper in both PvE and sPvP and it's better then ever!

@Lily.1935 said:

@"EdDreath.2508" said:Condi scourge is my main class for daily T4 fractal runs. After the nerf i noticed a significant dps drop which made me consider changing to my full zerk dragonhunter for future runs. Im mostly doing occasional wvw to gear my dps utility chrono and also ranked pvp for now.

My main pvp class are blood scourge and bunker/dps hybrid druid. While I hate to admit it, i believe i find more success with druid than scourge even though theres an obvious difference in hours spent between these classes.

With the dps gap between condi scourge and power reaper is no more, I might shelve my viper gear on scourge and work on power reaper to see which will i excel more. If it doesnt work out at least i can transfer the gear to my chrono or ele alt.

Maybe its like what i saw people mentioned that scourge is best with support bunker since without one its easily get rekt as people been using "target the necro" strategy lol. Either way a single scourge in a team is manageable to fight against (2 can be ridiculous).

Ah yes. still i might rest my scourge from fractal and play other classes for diversity and fun of it.

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:Never liked scourge so the more they nerf it, the better for me in spvp. I'm running power reaper in both PvE and sPvP and it's better then ever!

Its not for everyone. Personally, I'd rather them buff it rather than nerf. Especially in PvE. You can dislike it, it wasn't made for you. But I don't ask for reaper nerfs just because I don't like it.

I still play a good amount of time with my necro main. It's the closest thing in GW2 wich is like my so loved DK in WoW or Shadowknight in EQ2. Reaper never gets old for me. Also if i'm bored i can switch to scourge, if i want be more caster like. For group stuff i got my guild. But i play my Charrior more often since a few months. It's pretty strange, if i join pug's as a warrior it seems all i have to do is throwing banners and everything is okay. Noone cares about DPS or if i'm lazy and don't play the mechaniks correctly. But oh boy, if i'm puging as necro and something went wrong mostly the first thing i read in the chat is: kick necro, we need a real dps class, even if i outdps bad weavers, deadeyes or guards, while rezzing ppl....

Call me a masochist, but I'm still playing on my scepter/focus ele. I spent soooo much time going for the binding of ipos and finished it right before the first set of recent fresh air nerfs (the one that made arcane blast only hit twice in PvP and decreased the damage of a lot of skills by a ton... Then inserted the shatter stone meme buff) . At this point, I figure at least it can't be worse. ?

Who knows, maybe eventually someone with a little bit of sense will enter the balancing team.

(Inb4 "ele hits hard on inanimate objects in pve and is currently bugged to do a relevant amount of damage in wvw": I don't care about pve or wvw.)

I play whatever I want (even in raid attempts since my skills of choice are 1 different from meta, I just swap it). I have never noticed a difference, all these “nerfs” and “buffs” are such a small scale. I play ele and I always trash everything except group content

Not Kourna ?. Mostly same as before update, spvp and LWS3 maps + cursed shore. Sand swept isles every now and then.