New Shade Mechanic

[Saracen.2691]

The more I play with this change the more it makes my blood boil. A massive amount of our damage was in torment. What does torment incentivise? Movement for the extra damage. What does this change smash you over the head with? Mobility destroys you. Scourge isn't allowed to have it, you're meant to be useless hiding in your Shade where you contribute nothing. Scourge has no use anymore. A berserker is more valuable than any Scourge, they can provide better support with banners, more single target DPS, more AoE DPS and they aren't crippled the moment anything does something as basic as walking. Nothing about this change makes sense, all it serves to demonstrate is it was implemented with an abject disregard of care or practical thought. The change is at odds with the very fabric of what Scourge is supposed to do by its most intrinsic condition. Why was this ever even considered for implementation?

And this doesn't even take into consideration the fact that Scourge still has bugs which have been in the game since PoF launch, like Oppressive Collapse not always granting you might if you dodge, or Sadistic Searing procs getting stolen by Shades which didn't actually deploy and outright Shade charges getting eaten because of bugged interactions again with dodging. The core principles of Scourge can be crushed any time but fixing legitimate bugs is just too much, apparently.

[mazut.4296]

Now we need the following skill:"Detonate all Shades, deal some damage(or another beneficial effect) per shade removed that way. Reset all shades cd with 33%. Dessert shroud if still active start to pulse around the caster"

[Trepidation Lost.3469]

I don’t even main necto at all and I have just tried it. It’s garbage. They need to keep the barrier and self cleanse on the player at LEAST.

[Camarell.5648]

I usually never ever comes to the forums to express my concern but this change to the scourge mechanic is so drastic i just couldn't let it pass. After the patch i did the snowblind fractal and that is a core example on how terrible scourge become. I cant help with the corrupted ice turrets, sustain myself or hit the boss who constantly move around + spawn the icebrood from time to time, i felt so horribly useless. Then i extracted all infusions to my reaper. As scourge support i still think it has value due to sand savant and the relocation of it. I did 2 attempts on spvp and ill never do that with a dps scourge again. Again, support scourge is okish after patch and i think that is due to sand savant.

[PrinceVinc.9435]

I read most of the comments and Playing Scourge feels absolutely horrible now, I go back to Reaper until it is back to normal, if ever.The only Good change is that the Shades Affect 10 People now instead of 5.The rest is just killing all the fun I had with the class. If I could move around shades on a low CD like 3 sec it would not be so bad, but with enemies Constantly moving and making it unable for me to get Barriers on me unless I stand directly in my shade or have no shade at all.

I enjoyed the range I had with Scourge but that is basically gone now.

They either need to make Shade Skills work again around you and shade or make the shade movable without charges that have 15sec CD...

Also the Death Magic Change feels like a bad Joke xD I really wish Minions would become more Powerful at some point... that Minions deal so little damage compared to a 1x Ranger Pet is just sad for a Class that usually is all about Minions in other Games.

[DeadlySynz.3471]

A lot of these changes were made based on some complainers from WvW and PvP. The change worked exactly as I figured it would; it would make the dps skyrocket for condition based scourge in WvW, but at the same time, takes build diversity away from pretty much every encounter. You deal a very large shade spike damage, then go dormant for awhile, which is fine in WvW, but what about everywhere else?

What's ironic is, the change came from complainers in the competitive modes, however they obliterated the ability to add some mobile dps on a class that for all things considered, has the worst mobility of the bunch. So as the OP said, drop your shade, set up for a spike, mob moves (or players move), and you're basically left semi-useless. Again, this came from because some players were mad the shade and the scourge covered so much area.

So if they split the skill between PvE and the competitive modes, it still wouldn't work. The shade spike damage is so high in WvW now because it punishes the very play that many players can't seem to get away from: running around in a melee ball trying to soak damage. All it takes is a 2-3 shade spike to nearly eliminate the group. Players had better survivability when the shade damage was spread out. But of course many of these players couldn't see the forest for the trees, and shot themselves in the foot.

[Funky.4861]

The change is a disaster in pve, esp raids where i could buff my subsquad as they moved around say, Desmina or Xera. Now they're losing condi cleanse and barrier 'cos my shades are stuck where they were cast. If this ill-thought-through change can't (more likely won't) be reverted, Sadistic Searing is a redundant trait and punishment skills lose flavour and utility. At least that's one build i won't need a template for...