scourge shades

so what play style with shades do you all prefer? i like the one large shade, placing 3 in a circle became a clickfest for me

I like being able to space out my Shades, especially since I often place things in the wrong spot and it allows me two more opportunities to get it right.

I think it's an interesting tradeoff. With Sand Savant, you get the benefits of having 3 shades out in a sustainable way. (ANet's said that without Sand Savant you will generally have 1-2 shades out with a burst to 3 but 3 continually out won't be an option.) So you take 15% less damage and have longer boon and condition duration just by keeping your savant shade out. On the flip side, you can (burst) hit more targets and add fire damage without Savant.

I'm not sure that a literal shade-less playstyle makes sense. Take Sand Savant and plop your one shade down for the minor-trait buffs, then ignore it and depend on yourself as the skill source for shade skills. You might get lucky and hit some things from the savant shade, but you don't have to manage it if you don't want to.

One shade but it should stack the benefits and not be a dps neuter over multiple shades. Less is fine, not as significant.

Sand Savant. I play WvW so that kind of goes without saying. 3 shades just feel far too small to be of any significance.

Pvp - Single giant one

PvE - I use 3 because Demonic Lore is such a nice boost in power

While I play Reaper...

I prefer 3 shades. Feels a bit nicer to be able to create multiple danger zones.

BIG shade for sPVP ( the added radius makes kiting much easier) and WVW... Small shade for anything PVE..

1 shade in pvp and wvw since the conditions get cleansed fast. 3 in pve to decimate the idiot AI.

Depends on my build. PvE and Power Scourge PvP, I prefer 3 shades. Condition Scourge PvP, probably 1.

1 shade is more enjoyable, with the huge AoE and increased ability to reposition, but it's an enormous dps loss, so I can't really do it in pve

@reikken.4961 said:1 shade is more enjoyable, with the huge AoE and increased ability to reposition, but it's an enormous dps loss, so I can't really do it in pve

I don't think this will be the case in the long run. ANet's already declared that multiple hits from multiple shades is a bug that they will fix. They've also indicated that you shouldn't be able to have 3 shades out continuously, but rather 1-2 with a burst to 3. Seems to me that the big dps loss will be much smaller -- outside of specific conditions -- soon.

ill play scourge when they replace this sandy idea with fire

play reaper still hate the 3 and 5 on it though would play a hybrid of reaper and necro if i could. still try to make scourge regret putting condition on me by using 1 corruption ability. i also don't have pof yet.

@minion.1987 said:play reaper still hate the 3 and 5 on it though would play a hybrid of reaper and necro if i could. still try to make scourge regret putting condition on me by using 1 corruption ability. i also don't have pof yet.

Pof is worth it it's a little fun and not as mean as the jungle of omg you died 5 times before you died

all top row traits for scourge, i forget what on reaper... and i have 2 necros so i can have both elites, however neither uses utilities from the elite lines, theyre both using minions like good necros should>:D, and maybe the scourge elite ghastly fart or whatever its name is:P

@minion.1987 said:play reaper still hate the 3 and 5 on it though would play a hybrid of reaper and necro if i could. still try to make scourge regret putting condition on me by using 1 corruption ability. i also don't have pof yet.

big ol' stab is awesome, and the variant "come over here!" is essential as a break bar skill when you cant use something else

PVE, so I'm forced to use 3 smaller ones. I'd prefer the bigger one, but it's just not a reasonable option to pick.

I use the 3 Shades in PVE contentBut in PvP/WvW I use the 1 Shades to cover larger area

3 shades in PvE because the burn on torment grandmaster trait is way too good of a DPS boost to not have.

i find that when i run power scourge that having the burning and torment damage from demonic lore is nice for pure dps, but i find it much more fun and enjoyable to run the top line of scourge and see the barriers on my raid group constantly

@Boysenberry.1869 said:I like being able to space out my Shades, especially since I often place things in the wrong spot and it allows me two more opportunities to get it right.

Big shade still gives you 3 charges, just a new one replaces old.

Honestly, after they fix shade stacking they should set shade size to 240 always and put in a new trait.

@Justine.6351 said:

@Boysenberry.1869 said:I like being able to space out my Shades, especially since I often place things in the wrong spot and it allows me two more opportunities to get it right.

I'd prefer if they just made it so we had 1 shade baseline, but with all the sand shade bells and whistles too.

Well, I guess 33% of Necros are about to be disappointed ... er... nerfed ...er... sad ...er... differently happy.