Thoughts on patch, specifically concerning necro?

Been playing necro pretty exclusively lately and wont be home for several hours. What's everyone's initial impression around necro and the balance patch?

Surviving for longer if there isn't something borked, can't kill weavers no more, can't cleave rez, get insta gibed again by thiefs, conditions still burn your ass off and do less damage. IGN 3/10 fail patch for reaper.Might be good patch for codi memes with minions saw multiple minions mansers with mesmers running around not fun.

@Vancho.8750 said:Surviving for longer if there isn't something borked, can't kill weavers no more, can't cleave rez, get insta gibed again by thiefs, conditions still burn your kitten off and do less damage. IGN 3/10 fail patch for reaper.Might be good patch for codi memes with minions saw multiple minions mansers with mesmers running around not fun.

I think my scourge build should be fine. I don't really play reaper.

Power reaper has definitively become worse in both PvP and WvW. I am now experimenting with scourge hoping to find a low-effort high-reward build.

I am having a much easier time than before on reaper.

Do we all play the same game?

Strictly speaking as a scourge in SPVP

• For the trouble of landing shades and activating them, the damage is very low.

• Sustain is bad even with Rapid Amulet. Power builds such as soulbeast still auto you for 1k. Got hit by a 6758 damage "Maul" and a 8600 damage "Worldly Impact" - and thats with 2125 Toughness. Ppl talking about condi meta but you really need a class that can spam and continuously land those. Shades wont do that.

• With lack of stability and such, the increased CC-duration on otherclasses can be rough and i almost felt like i needed 3 stunbreaks.

• The time where you feel most effective, is when your team has downed someone.

This is not to say that "patch sucks" or whatever. It`s my first impression and even though i feel like its a struggle, I still love playing my scourge. Besides, Im only 10 games in and we know anet said they will patch "fast" to fix stuff. Not sure how to fix scourge without making it OP but one can always hope for a solution.

From the short time I was trying some 1v1s:In my opinion reaper got hit harder by the patch than it first looks.

So from my 30 minutes of roaming a bit and 1v1s and clouding fights:Roaming/1v1s:Felt like Condi mirage is now impossible to beat. You don't have enough burst to attack them in the small windows you have.Same goes for Condi rev. The enemy ate my whole soul spiral and it was doing 4k damage, which is a joke if you consider, that it dealt 14-20k before the patch.

Clouding:Power mesmer/ mirage still has an insane Spike, hitting for over 6k with f1.Thiefs vault still easily hits for 14k on a very low armor build.

Don't think that I can really judge it by now, if reaper got weaker, stronger, or stayed the same.Especially because I first need to change my play style.Reaper 5 and elite shout not doing any damage has an high impact on my old play style.

Scourge:Feels like power scourge is completely useless now. Time for Condi/hybrid scourge, that felt much better And did more damage in zergfights

@Nimon.7840 said:From the short time I was trying some 1v1s:In my opinion reaper got hit harder by the patch than it first looks.

So from my 30 minutes of roaming a bit and 1v1s and clouding fights:Roaming/1v1s:Felt like Condi mirage is now impossible to beat. You don't have enough burst to attack them in the small windows you have.Same goes for Condi rev. The enemy ate my whole soul spiral and it was doing 4k damage, which is a joke if you consider, that it dealt 14-20k before the patch.

Clouding:Power mesmer/ mirage still has an insane Spike, hitting for over 6k with f1.Thiefs vault still easily hits for 14k on a very low armor build.

Don't think that I can really judge it by now, if reaper got weaker, stronger, or stayed the same.Especially because I first need to change my play style.Reaper 5 and elite shout not doing any damage has an high impact on my old play style.

Scourge:Feels like power scourge is completely useless now. Time for Condi/hybrid scourge, that felt much better And did more damage in zergfights

Using what Gear stats, Sigil and Rune?

I can't wait to read a core necro's feedback on this...assuming any will be bold enough to actually play core after this gutting..

Logged in, made a basic Terrormancer, won 10 out of 10 games.

It's solid.

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:I can't wait to read a core necro's feedback on this...assuming any will be bold enough to actually play core after this gutting..

Core's shroud has bleed, fear and torment, possible to work something out. Reaper's however, leans towards Power, especially after they nerfed Poison in Spiral.

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:I can't wait to read a core necro's feedback on this...assuming any will be bold enough to actually play core after this gutting..

Core necro is the best spec in SPVP atm, so there is that. Your damage is ok but your sustain is insane.

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:I can't wait to read a core necro's feedback on this...assuming any will be bold enough to actually play core after this gutting..

What gutting?

@Xca.9721 said:

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:I can't wait to read a core necro's feedback on this...assuming any will be bold enough to actually play core after this gutting..

The Foot in the Grave removal gutting. Defense vs cc dropped to non-existance.

I don't do spvp anymore, but in wvw the worst thing you can play right now is any form of core necro. You get either outcleansed, outrunned or even outconditioned by any class running around. It's not even a hard choice which skills to use because most of them are useless and you need your stun break and you most likely need corrupt boon and spectral armor.It's way weaker than before the patch and even if backstab from a thief doesn't hit you for 18k anymore you can't win in the longer fight.I really don't see a place for a necro out of a group that is babysitting you hard in wvw - which means you will be playing Scourge in your wvw blob and corrupting boons and spreading barrier.

Back, played a lot of necro last night. In my opinion, it's wayyyyy stronk. The only thing I had trouble with was getting CC locked, which is just the necro life. If I didn't get CC locked I just shredded people. Condi scourge, condi core, power core, and hell I even got fairly okay results out of condi chill reaper. I was even rolling people on a minion scourge build. It was nuts

@Zexanima.7851 said:Back, played a lot of necro last night. In my opinion, it's wayyyyy stronk. The only thing I had trouble with was getting CC locked, which is just the necro life. If I didn't get CC locked I just shredded people. Condi scourge, condi core, power core, and hell I even got fairly okay results out of condi chill reaper. I was even rolling people on a minion scourge build. It was nuts

Might be because the influx they tried to bring into wvw is people that arent in practice or not really the best players, or testing new builds, or playing old bad builds. It's every reason to think right now it's the time for the foreseeable future with the mobs random players running around.

@"Malsheem.1794" said:Strictly speaking as a scourge in SPVP

• For the trouble of landing shades and activating them, the damage is very low.

• Sustain is bad even with Rapid Amulet. Power builds such as soulbeast still auto you for 1k. Got hit by a 6758 damage "Maul" and a 8600 damage "Worldly Impact" - and thats with 2125 Toughness. Ppl talking about condi meta but you really need a class that can spam and continuously land those. Shades wont do that.

• With lack of stability and such, the increased CC-duration on otherclasses can be rough and i almost felt like i needed 3 stunbreaks.

• The time where you feel most effective, is when your team has downed someone.

This is not to say that "patch sucks" or whatever. It`s my first impression and even though i feel like its a struggle, I still love playing my scourge. Besides, Im only 10 games in and we know anet said they will patch "fast" to fix stuff. Not sure how to fix scourge without making it OP but one can always hope for a solution.But you are absolutely right with your conclusions. For solo or small scale scourges the patch was the final nail in the coffin. The spec does only perform acceptable in pve and blob fights. Scourge is by far the worst you can run in solo queue. At least the other two necro specs do quite well.

others stating reaper feels worseSignet reaper is decent now:

• The durable but low mobile version:
• http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSwAc2FlRw0YcMPWJOuWnNbA-z5QXGZmC9WB2OA

• The funny mobile version no one can escape from:
• http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSwAc2FlRw0YWMPWJOuWnNbA-z5QXGZmC9WB2NA

(a mix of both is also good, like spectal armor + speed rune)

The good old corrupt bomb with a good balance between duarability, mobility and impact:

• http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSwAc2FlJwsYcMPWJOuLataA-z5QXGZmC9WB2OA

All three builds perform fine to me. If you feel you lack damage they are all also viable on marauder gear if you watch your defensive cooldowns before entering a teamfight.

For wvw:If you haven't yet: try tanky low precision gear combined with double vision sigil. It works fine for me.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Sigil_of_Vision

@Malsheem.1794 said:

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:I can't wait to read a core necro's feedback on this...assuming any will be bold enough to actually play core after this gutting..

Not good enough for people that are still ascending the learning curve on the class. #moarstab

It's still extremely aggravating that core's shroud AA, on a condi build, borderline requires a GM trait to not be godawful. And even with the trait it's still just okay.

Nah you are fine with necro. Anything condi actually. Yesterday went full condi and killed 5 guys. It was 5 v 1 i won..... with auto attack. I guess they were all stuck in 800 seconds cooldowns.

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:I can't wait to read a core necro's feedback on this...assuming any will be bold enough to actually play core after this gutting..

Are you playing the same game as the rest of us? Core necro is off the charts powerful in wvw atm.

Well lame signet necro works, but my normal build doesn't do enough damage and everybody play some stupid condi bunker.

@Gwaihir.1745 said:

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:I can't wait to read a core necro's feedback on this...assuming any will be bold enough to actually play core after this gutting..

Roaming? Yeah, quite good.Zerging? Not enough cleave or big dmg

@Nimon.7840 said:

@Gwaihir.1745 said:

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:I can't wait to read a core necro's feedback on this...assuming any will be bold enough to actually play core after this gutting..

I agree in Roaming the tanky build now plebs use is simply too much of a meme.. Corruptions and conditions are busted off the scale at this moment (from a WvW perspective right now) Reaper and Core being the worst offenders.I would not touch the inherent tankiness or corruptions but something needs to be done about the condition spam.

Scourge is weird right now as i haven't been able to find a good build atm. But a couple of experimental builds hold promise so my guess it will be fine.In WvW it is still mandatory if you want to play in an squad.