[Solution] Power necro damage fix

One new trait. And some moving/changing of others.

Reaper Specialization, grandmaster (replaces Reaper's Onslaught)

Reaper's Reach - Deal 10% more damage to enemies that are within close range (240 units).

Soul Reaping

Reaper's Onslaught - moved to Soul Reaping, replaces Foot in the Grave.

Foot in the grave - merged with Last Gasp (master minor). Stability removed, stunbreak on shroud stays.

Fear of Death - changed to Unshakeable fear - skills (shroud, weapon, utility) that inflict fear also grant you stability (1 stack 3s).*This is not related to actually fearing an enemy, so corrupting enemy stab for example will not grant you stab. This just means that skills that inflict fears on their own (like staff #5 or Spectral Wall) will grant you stab on cast, no questions asked.

Death Magic

Reaper's Protection - old functionality removed. When you break stun, gain protection (3s) and stability (1 stack, 3s).

Deadly Strength - Gain Power Based on a Percentage of Toughness: 15% (always). When you stunbreak, reduce incoming hard cc durations by 40% for next 3s.

Unholy Sanctuary - When entering shroud gain 3s immunity to having your self-casted boons removed, corrupted or stolen. Receive same protection again when you yourself exit shroud (that means you pressed F1, to end it). Regenerate health each second, growing over time up to 200% initial value while shrouded.

Terrible suggestions - especially the soul reaping ones. This doesn't fix anything but nerfs a lot of build variety.

Unshakeable fear is redundant on reaper and erasing stability in SR for core just to add another source of it in CS3 is dumb. Core necro needs more stability sources and not shiftings to other skills.

SoS and foot in the grave combo is super strong on reaper currently. It makes you un-cc-able. Why would you want to change that just for PvE folks?

All that crap just to put 10% more damage into the spec.

We have a challenger! I'll take you on then!

@"KrHome.1920" said:Terrible suggestions - especially the soul reaping ones. This doesn't fix anything but nerfs a lot of build variety.

Au contraire, you just failed to see it, but that's ok, i'll spell it out for you nice and slow as we progress.

Unshakeable fear is redundant on reaper and erasing stability in SR for core just to add another source of it in CS3 is dumb. Core necro needs more stability sources and not shiftings to other skills.

My suggestion gives core necro ton of anti-cc he did not have.

• no matter which SR grandmaster you choose, shroud will always stunbreak (nerfed foot in the grave now a minor)
• on demand stab with casts of skill that fear (staff #5, shroud #3, Spectral Wall)
• Reaper's protection offers more stab - you stunbreak (no matter how), you get stab and protection on top.
• Deadly Strength gives passive anti-cc after stunbreaking.

In current meta stab is a double edged sword. In competitive it's easy to have it corrupted by other necros, or stolen by thieves. Bottom line is Foot in the Grave's stunbreak needs to take a divorce from stab. Stunbreak is always good, stab not. Also current "Foot" gives core necro no real choice. The only stab you can get without elite, or be the cc ragdoll.

My proposition gives you on shroud stunbreak always, so you can focus on what you want instead of what you must take. Want more stab? Death magic awaits. Oh yes you're gonna scream it sucks. Well it won't if it has stab in it. Everyone would love to have stab in spite or something similar, but since cc is necro's bane by design, then the strongest traits that counter that weakness should be in a line that is "costly" to a dps oriented necro. And that line is Death Magic.

Also keep in mind that Death Magic is very costly for elites - they already are locked down with one line (the elite spec one) and having Death Magic as 2nd leaves them with room for only one damaging line.Core necro however does not suffer from this. He can still equip two damage lines in addition to Death Magic (like SR and Spite) and go to town.

This somewhat allevates the "overstab" issue on reaper.

SoS and foot in the grave combo is super strong on reaper currently. It makes you un-cc-able. Why would you want to change that just for PvE folks?

What is SoS again? It doesn't sounds like chilled to the bone or infusing terror, the two stabs that are Reaper Exclusive. Care to fill me in? Also it's not un-ccable, if you got enemies with boon hate on you and you can't create a thick wall of other boons to cover stab, you are on your way to becoming cc ragdoll in seconds.

All that crap just to put 10% more damage into the spec.

How little you see....All that crap to give core necro and scourge reaper's onslaught if anything. Why should they both be deprived of good ferocity boost and attack speed increment? I see no reason such a trait should be reaper-only. Only adjustment i would make is making sure the cooldown reduction on shroud skills is properly kept in check on scourge.For core necro it would rock hard with his extremely long cooldowns, and life blast not having a chain.

Then there's the 10% damage trait on top for reapers, which will justify using SR for power builds (currently it's outshined by blood magic of all things!) and help them get that 30k mark they need badly.

Isn't close to death a spite trait, thought?

Unshakable fear feel more of a good way to replace reaper's protection in death magic since it is a "defensive trait".

Anyway, from my point of view, those change can only bring down the already pitiable bottom tier dps of the necromancer. You lose more dps than you gain with those changes.

Then there's the 10% damage trait on top for reapers, which will justify using SR for power builds (currently it's outshined by blood magic of all things!) and help them get that 30k mark they need badly.

That may have been a case if you didn't removed the 20% increased damage under 50% health, however all it does in the end is keep the necromancer at the same place in regard of total dps. Giving more way to block hard CC isn't a bad thing for the necromancer in PvP/WvW, however it does absolutely nothing to it's dps where it need dps And moving reaper's onslaught onto the core traitline don't change the fact that the traits effects are gated behind the shroud which is what make you want a flat permanent damage increase in the first place.

NB: SoS is speed of shadow (cleanse movement impairment condition and grant swiftness). He is saying that comboed with foot in the grave you cleanse yourself from the hindrance, break stun, gain a speed buff and stability every 10 seconds.

NB²: It would be good if players stoped refering to speed of shadow as SoS since there is also Signet of suffering on the necromancer. It can be confusing for readers since both can be refere as SoS and both are necromancer's traits.

LOOOL, I can't believe i made such a stupid mistake! I meant Fear of Death. It's under Soul reaping changes, i just mistook the names.Ofc i have no reason to gut a good spite trait, or spite in general - that line is good.

I edited top post to fix this - no wonder ppl were thinking this change is stoopid, silly me!

That make more sense indeed.

This is stupid because it forces you to run SR, decreasing build viability.

Death perception competes with reapers onslaught? Why. Huge dps loss

Losing protection on leaving shroud? Why. That's when you most need it.

Just add stab into the core kit and increase power coefficients.

@Egorum.9506 said:This is stupid because it forces you to run SR, decreasing build viability.

Only change here from current state is that Soul Reaping gets more dps, which is how it should be, since currently Blood Magic of all things is a better choice for dps reaper. A support/healing line should not outdps a selfish/damage oriented one!

Death perception competes with reapers onslaught? Why. Huge dps loss

You seem to misunderstand what Death Perception is and it's role. Depending on scenario it's dps borders on non-existant. Imagine you're going balls to wall dps power necro. Full Zerk gear. You go to a raid - you get fury, and unique buffs from allies to boost your precision. Few more points of precision from infusions + some crit chance from sigil of accuracy and you got 100% crit chance without any help from Death Perception. So what about it's dps? It's zero. All your hits are crits anyway, and any crit chance over 100% cap does nothing. Kinda sucks doesn't it? That's why I'm placing Reaper's Onslaught here, to have a real damage trait for power builds that already solved their crit issue without this trait.

Death Perception, is much less a dps tool, and more a build enabler tool. Grab it and you can ditch zerk gear in favor let's say Valkyrie or Crusader. Gear with more defense but no precision on it. Also if you're alone and there are no allies to keep your missing crit chance maxed, that is another case when Death Perception makes sense. But in extreme cases as above, it's useless if your goal is to do more damage. One of reasons Blood Magic trumps current Soul Reaping according to Snow Crows' dps benchmark for power reaper.

Losing protection on leaving shroud? Why. That's when you most need it.

Come again? That's beyond the veil trait - I did not touch that in my rework..

Just add stab into the core kit and increase power coefficients.

Adding stab into core kit means you're prone to it getting corrupted. If everyone knows exactly which skill stabs you always, they'll know it's time to boon rip/corrupt. Traits let you get stab via different means and only if you yourself so choose. Less predictable.

The idea of moving e spec traits to core slots is a bit silly and its something ive given up on dreaming about. Until we see it happen one one of the other professions i wouldnt bother making suggestions based on the idea of such things. While they probably would be better on core it still means giving up something fundamentally strong that would likely hurt a bit leaving necro in more or less the same spot damage wise.

Thats said some of the traits you picked out could be reworked in their current places to be better than they currently are.

@ZeftheWicked

Other notes

Unshakeable fear - skills (shroud, weapon, utility) that inflict fear also grant you stability (1 stack 3s)Why not add, Inflicting fear also breaks targeting. (nothing can be targeted for the duration of the fear)

Reaper's Protection - old functionality removed. When you break stun, gain protection (3s) and stability (1 stack, 3s).On a second note should necro be required to get stunned to get the benefit of a trait like this? We have enough traits that only become of use after being hit it would be nice to have a proactive trait rather than a trait that only functions reactively. I suggest changing this to, when granting yourself protection you also gain stability.

This also over offers mad synergy with blood magic wells for a defensive build.

More so this trait does you little good if it only works after you break a stun. On top of the fact that you cannot stack it with the trait you listed below because they sit in the same tier spots.

Deadly Strength - Gain Power Based on a Percentage of Toughness: 15% (always). When you stunbreak, reduce incoming hard cc durations by 40% for next 3s.This one makes more sense on requiring the break of a stun.

Unholy Sanctuary - When entering shroud gain 3s immunity to having your self-casted boons removed, corrupted or stolen. Receive same protection again when you yourself exit shroud (that means you pressed F1, to end it). Regenerate health each second, growing over time up to 200% initial value while shrouded.

I think the increased regeneration was a good enough change. I dont think its fair to have a trait that can make some one immune to having boons removed/stolen/ corrupted.

Perhaps in addition to the increased regeneration effect over a few seconds. The effectiveness of protection you apply is increased. Protection effectiveness 40%

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

@Egorum.9506 said:This is stupid because it forces you to run SR, decreasing build viability.

Sr is a utility traitline, not a dps traitline. And it performs in that role perfectly.

Blood, support. It adds to the group more than personal dpsDm, tankingCurses and spite, damageSr, utility. Which has value for every necrosis regardless of build.

Death perception competes with reapers onslaught? Why. Huge dps loss

So these changes are for raiding? That thing that 1% of the gw2 population does? Wvw and pvp both run death perception because you need that extra tankiness to survive on a class with little to no stab, poor mobility, and long cd stunbreaks.

Placing it in the same tier as reapers onslaught cripples those game modes.

Losing protection on leaving shroud? Why. That's when you most need it.

Just add stab into the core kit and increase power coefficients.

By who? Another necro? They'd be in the same boat.

On demand stab would greatly benefit the class as a whole, since we have no form of damage mitigation and have to eat what we can't dodge. I'd rather my stab get corrupted to fear once a match than eat 2s stuns once my breaks are down by far. Dodge the boon rip and you're golden.

@Egorum.9506 said:Sr is a utility traitline, not a dps traitline. And it performs in that role perfectly.

Tell that to Dhuumfire, Death Perception (which out of two of us you call a major dps trait) , and the master minor trait (5% extra damage over LF treshhold).

Blood, support. It adds to the group more than personal dpsDm, tankingCurses and spite, damageSr, utility. Which has value for every necrosis regardless of build.

So these changes are for raiding? That thing that 1% of the gw2 population does? Wvw and pvp both run death perception because you need that extra tankiness to survive on a class with little to no stab, poor mobility, and long cd stunbreaks.

Placing it in the same tier as reapers onslaught cripples those game modes.

You got a new 10% damage trait in place of Reaper's Onslaught if reaper, that is shroud independant on top of that - your base form gets10% damage as well when melee. Meanwhile core necro and scourge that did not have access to Reaper's Onslaught at all, now do. If you build Death Perception for tankier stats - that's a fair trade don't you think? You lose some damage opportunities for getting more beefy.

By who? Another necro? They'd be in the same boat.

On demand stab would greatly benefit the class as a whole, since we have no form of damage mitigation and have to eat what we can't dodge. I'd rather my stab get corrupted to fear once a match than eat 2s stuns once my breaks are down by far. Dodge the boon rip and you're golden.

Well true that spvp may have skewed my views, since another necro is always there and loves to corrupt my stab.

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

@Egorum.9506 said:Sr is a utility traitline, not a dps traitline. And it performs in that role perfectly.

And unblock able staff marks, which with a sigil of annulment gives you an unblockable, boon stripping, fear or condi xfer on demand.

And more lf gain, and a higher lf pool (which further increases the effectiveness of all your lf generating skills as they work by %), and an auto stunbreak that gives protection, and reduction on the cds of all your shroud skills.

Then gives you the choice between being used as a secondary trait line for tank, power, or condi builds. Making it the defacto utility line that complements every necro playstyle.

So these changes are for raiding? That thing that 1% of the gw2 population does? Wvw and pvp both run death perception because you need that extra tankiness to survive on a class with little to no stab, poor mobility, and long cd stunbreaks.

Placing it in the same tier as reapers onslaught cripples those game modes.

With what power coefficients are you going to make use of that extra damage out of shroud? Axe 2 and gs2 are the only big hitters available, I'd much rather have 20% (which scales multiplicatively) in shroud where all the damage skills sit.

Core necro and scourge don't have decimate defenses and need death perception to max out critical for power damage anyways, making reapers onslaught obsolete for both.

By who? Another necro? They'd be in the same boat.

On demand stab would greatly benefit the class as a whole, since we have no form of damage mitigation and have to eat what we can't dodge. I'd rather my stab get corrupted to fear once a match than eat 2s stuns once my breaks are down by far. Dodge the boon rip and you're golden.

Shroud fear being the only exception, but a 1s fear shouldn't kill you unless you screwed up badly somewhere before that

Against another reaper, use your rs 3 only after they are in shroud. Very few reapers run curses, so it's a safe bet that they can't corrupt until they drop shroud, at which point you should dodge.

I think I may have a simple fix for the damage of Power Reaper.

Either:

• Dread: Inflicting Chill on a foe applies vulnerability. Deal increased damage to foes inflicted with Chill. (Damage Increase: 20%)
• The above trait is in Spite so it may upset the balance of other specs that I'm just not aware of but in Reaper's case, it would help a ton because if you compare Power Reaper to other classes such as Power Soulbeast and/or Power Spellbreaker, both of those classes have ridiculous damage increasing buffs at their disposal which put them on people's radars... Reaper does not.

OR

• Chilling Nova: Critical hits against foes Chill them for 1.75s.

AND

• Cold Shoulder: Chill lasts longer, and chilled foes take more damage from your attacks. (Damage Increase: 30% Duration Increase: 20%)
• The above changes to Chilling Nova and Cold Shoulder would not only make applying and maintaining Chill a non-issue but, as I mentioned earlier, it would make Power Reaper damage comparable to Power Soulbeast and Power Spellbreaker.

In any case. I've tried just about everything I can think of and I just can't seem to get my DPS to and above 25k on the training golem. Maybe I'm just doing something terribly wrong but seeing those numbers when I see 30k+ on literally any other power class is disheartening.

Sorry but fear of death would be a pretty useless trait. Cause you don't need stab if enemy is feared.Only way it's useable is against rev with its taunt

@Nimon.7840 said:Sorry but fear of death would be a pretty useless trait. Cause you don't need stab if enemy is feared.Only way it's useable is against rev with its taunt

Stab is not related to fear. Only to skills that fear. Meaning that even if fear fails (like vs stabbed opponent) you still get your stab.

I thought you guys always had the dmg, it's just landing it that's the issue.