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Power Reaper Roaming Video + Build in Discription


GoTT.1286

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Except for spiteful talisman instead of bitter chill and yaaw! instead of spectral armor (both of your changes make the build worse to be honest) this is the standard reaper build on metabattle for how long now? 3 years or so?

You can't kill on your own: core warriors and spellbreakers, power shiros, sword weavers, (decent) thieves, condi mesmers, longbow soulbeasts and boonbeasts, (decent) holosmiths... just to name a few. That's why personally I would not run it.

Like any reaper build that deals burst damage and has at least 25k hp and 2500 armor the build works in smallscale (even though you are wasting a lot of anti-burst sustain not running spectral armor). So for your group it's okay (esp. with your teammates who include some of the better players on kodash), but like I said... not really a breaking news.

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@KrHome.1920 said:Except for spiteful talisman instead of bitter chill and yaaw! instead of spectral armor (both of your changes make the build worse to be honest) this is the standard reaper build on metabattle for how long now? 3 years or so?

You can't kill on your own: core warriors and spellbreakers, power shiros, sword weavers, (decent) thieves, condi mesmers, longbow soulbeasts and boonbeasts, (decent) holosmiths... just to name a few. That's why personally I would not run it.

Like any reaper build that deals burst damage and has at least 25k hp and 2500 armor the build works in smallscale (even though you are wasting a lot of anti-burst sustain not running spectral armor). So for your group it's okay (esp. with your teammates who include some of the better players on kodash), but like I said... not really a breaking news.

What would you run? Death instead of soulreap? Another runeset?

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@Voltekka.2375 said:

@KrHome.1920 said:Except for spiteful talisman instead of bitter chill and yaaw! instead of spectral armor (both of your changes make the build worse to be honest) this is the standard reaper build on metabattle for how long now? 3 years or so?

You can't kill on your own: core warriors and spellbreakers, power shiros, sword weavers, (decent) thieves, condi mesmers, longbow soulbeasts and boonbeasts, (decent) holosmiths... just to name a few. That's why personally I would not run it.

Like any reaper build that deals burst damage and has at least 25k hp and 2500 armor the build works in smallscale (even though you are wasting a lot of anti-burst sustain not running spectral armor). So for your group it's okay (esp. with your teammates who include some of the better players on kodash), but like I said... not really a breaking news.

What would you run? Death instead of soulreap? Another runeset?

God. Why is everyone so hyped about deathmagic?It's still such a bad traitline. Even curses, that's supposed to be a Condi traitline is better for most power reaper builds than deathmagic

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@Nimon.7840 said:

@"KrHome.1920" said:Except for spiteful talisman instead of bitter chill and yaaw! instead of spectral armor (both of your changes make the build worse to be honest) this is the standard reaper build on metabattle for how long now? 3 years or so?

You can't kill on your own: core warriors and spellbreakers, power shiros, sword weavers, (decent) thieves, condi mesmers, longbow soulbeasts and boonbeasts, (decent) holosmiths... just to name a few. That's why personally I would not run it.

Like any reaper build that deals burst damage and has at least 25k hp and 2500 armor the build works in smallscale (even though you are wasting a lot of anti-burst sustain not running spectral armor). So for your group it's okay (esp. with your teammates who include some of the better players on kodash), but like I said... not really a breaking news.

What would you run? Death instead of soulreap? Another runeset?

God. Why is everyone so hyped about deathmagic?It's still such a bad traitline. Even curses, that's supposed to be a Condi traitline is better for most power reaper builds than deathmagic

I don't know about Reaper but try DM with Core Power Necro.I seen it used by an Ains guild Necro and he won against pretty much every single dueler in Armistice, from Althume (Fear guild warrior) to Cedrodor (Kaos Dragonhunter) to Kikk (OMNI Dragonhunter) to those nasty burn weavers and every form of thief/deadeye and mirage etc.His build playstyle is very simple to boot.Just Shroud and auto to build Carapace stacks.And watch as the opponent burns at least half his bursts on you.Then leave shroud when its low and spend the time outside shroud to gain back the LF which is helped by the signet of undeath.Then re-enter shroud and continue to auto.easily 20+ carapace stacks.Conditions drop fast on you in shroud due to antitoxin and lose 1 condi in shroud in DM.helps to keep carapace stacks up too.Its so numbingly simple.I've been trying a variation of it for the past couple of days and its so easy to win fights with it XD

This is probably something he is running:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSQAYlRw0YZMO2JO2OvrWA-zRRYiRB7I4TQyDA-e

I tell you its so simple to play but so effective lol.

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@EremiteAngel.9765 said:

@"KrHome.1920" said:Except for spiteful talisman instead of bitter chill and yaaw! instead of spectral armor (both of your changes make the build worse to be honest) this is the standard reaper build on metabattle for how long now? 3 years or so?

You can't kill on your own: core warriors and spellbreakers, power shiros, sword weavers, (decent) thieves, condi mesmers, longbow soulbeasts and boonbeasts, (decent) holosmiths... just to name a few. That's why personally I would not run it.

Like any reaper build that deals burst damage and has at least 25k hp and 2500 armor the build works in smallscale (even though you are wasting a lot of anti-burst sustain not running spectral armor). So for your group it's okay (esp. with your teammates who include some of the better players on kodash), but like I said... not really a breaking news.

What would you run? Death instead of soulreap? Another runeset?

God. Why is everyone so hyped about deathmagic?It's still such a bad traitline. Even curses, that's supposed to be a Condi traitline is better for most power reaper builds than deathmagic

I don't know about Reaper but try DM with Core Power Necro.I seen it used by an Ains guild Necro and he won against pretty much every single dueler in Armistice, from Althume (Fear guild warrior) to Cedrodor (Kaos Dragonhunter) to Kikk (OMNI Dragonhunter) to those nasty burn weavers and every form of thief/deadeye and mirage etc.His build playstyle is very simple to boot.Just Shroud and auto to build Carapace stacks.And watch as the opponent burns at least half his bursts on you.Then leave shroud when its low and spend the time outside shroud to gain back the LF which is helped by the signet of undeath.Then re-enter shroud and continue to auto.easily 20+ carapace stacks.Conditions drop fast on you in shroud due to antitoxin and lose 1 condi in shroud in DM.helps to keep carapace stacks up too.Its so numbingly simple.I've been trying a variation of it for the past couple of days and its so easy to win fights with it XD

This is probably something he is running:

I tell you its so simple to play but so effective lol.

OK, theres a lot i do not understand, here. I assume your secondary weaponset is axe/focus or axe/warhorn. (you havent put sigils in your build, btw).Spite: why take bitter chill? You only have one chill skill, staff 3. Why not use spiteful talisman? Axe 2 is very damaging, axe 3 removes boons. Axe aa also inflicts vulnerability.Awaken the pain, hm. Oddish choice, considering your main might generators are entering shroud, and hitting people below 50%.Signet grandmaster trait? I would drop 2 signets (undeath and healing) for spiteful Spirit grandmaster trait, another healskill and another utility.

Soulreap: you use staff. Thats ok. You dont use soulmarks, which also fills lifeforce, and makes marks unblockable. Odd.Fear of death: again, without unblockable marks, this is much less useful. Plus, you have 2 fears (no fear utility). Soulbarbs is a big damage boost, almost too tempting to not use on power builds.

Thats it, in a nutshell. Did think of more, but too tired to remember. Thanks for your input!

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@Voltekka.2375 said:

@"KrHome.1920" said:Except for spiteful talisman instead of bitter chill and yaaw! instead of spectral armor (both of your changes make the build worse to be honest) this is the standard reaper build on metabattle for how long now? 3 years or so?

You can't kill on your own: core warriors and spellbreakers, power shiros, sword weavers, (decent) thieves, condi mesmers, longbow soulbeasts and boonbeasts, (decent) holosmiths... just to name a few. That's why personally I would not run it.

Like any reaper build that deals burst damage and has at least 25k hp and 2500 armor the build works in smallscale (even though you are wasting a lot of anti-burst sustain not running spectral armor). So for your group it's okay (esp. with your teammates who include some of the better players on kodash), but like I said... not really a breaking news.

What would you run? Death instead of soulreap? Another runeset?

God. Why is everyone so hyped about deathmagic?It's still such a bad traitline. Even curses, that's supposed to be a Condi traitline is better for most power reaper builds than deathmagic

I don't know about Reaper but try DM with Core Power Necro.I seen it used by an Ains guild Necro and he won against pretty much every single dueler in Armistice, from Althume (Fear guild warrior) to Cedrodor (Kaos Dragonhunter) to Kikk (OMNI Dragonhunter) to those nasty burn weavers and every form of thief/deadeye and mirage etc.His build playstyle is very simple to boot.Just Shroud and auto to build Carapace stacks.And watch as the opponent burns at least half his bursts on you.Then leave shroud when its low and spend the time outside shroud to gain back the LF which is helped by the signet of undeath.Then re-enter shroud and continue to auto.easily 20+ carapace stacks.Conditions drop fast on you in shroud due to antitoxin and lose 1 condi in shroud in DM.helps to keep carapace stacks up too.Its so numbingly simple.I've been trying a variation of it for the past couple of days and its so easy to win fights with it XD

This is probably something he is running:

I tell you its so simple to play but so effective lol.

OK, theres a lot i do not understand, here. I assume your secondary weaponset is axe/focus or axe/warhorn. (you havent put sigils in your build, btw).Spite: why take bitter chill? You only have one chill skill, staff 3. Why not use spiteful talisman? Axe 2 is very damaging, axe 3 removes boons. Axe aa also inflicts vulnerability.Awaken the pain, hm. Oddish choice, considering your main might generators are entering shroud, and hitting people below 50%.Signet grandmaster trait? I would drop 2 signets (undeath and healing) for spiteful Spirit grandmaster trait, another healskill and another utility.

Soulreap: you use staff. Thats ok. You dont use soulmarks, which also fills lifeforce, and makes marks unblockable. Odd.Fear of death: again, without unblockable marks, this is much less useful. Plus, you have 2 fears (no fear utility). Soulbarbs is a big damage boost, almost too tempting to not use on power builds.

Thats it, in a nutshell. Did think of more, but too tired to remember. Thanks for your input!

Okay let me just say that I do not know his exact build, but I'm guessing =)His playstyle is very simple.He only does 2 main things when he fight.Spectral Armor + Shroud Enter, then Shroud Auto+Fear until Shroud drains or become low.Leave Shroud and kite / use Staff marks to deny space / do stuff to regain LF.Then Re-enter Shroud to Shroud Auto+Fear which siphon/heal life back until Shroud drains again and HP is full.Then repeat the whole process until enemy dies or he dies.

Surprisingly he is able to win against pretty much everyone in Armistice.Its such a strong but simple playstyle I have to call him a genius.

On to your questions.Secondary set he used was not axe/X.It was Dagger/Warhorn.In fact, not many opponents managed to make him use his secondary lol.They die just to Shroud Autos and Staff kiting.That rules out spiteful talisman because he doesnt use axe/X and wasn't concerned about corrupting any boons.He just camp Shroud Auto all day and won XDIt is either spiteful renewal or bitter chill.I guess he used bitter chill because staff 3 and shroud 2 can chill which adds to the carapace stacks.

I guessed he used awaken the pain because his playstyle is mainly camp shroud and auto.Auto generates might under the Reaper's might trait.This fits his playstyle pretty nicely.Dread is also possible since it adds a nice boost to the carapace and damage.

Do not drop the signet trait and signets.That is the main reason why his build and playstyle works.You can't believe how tanky and sustainy and damaging his build is with it working with DM carapace.Just try it and you'll see for yourself.The main thing is do not leave Shroud until Shroud drains or drop to around 10%.Watch your opponents try to kill you in Shroud lol.They take forever while they have to bust half their cooldowns on you.They can't ignore you either because Shroud auto is 1200 range.

He could have gone Soul Marks if he needed the LF boost out of shroud.I guessed he went unyielding blast for the carapace generation because that is his playstyle.Shroud Auto.But Soul Marks would work well too.

He likely used Fear of Death because it increases LF.And that is a huge factor in his build working.It keeps his shroud up longer.

I think the important thing to consider when looking at his build is to throw out the mindset of boon corrupts and damage modifiers.He keeps his damage at a decent level and focuses the rest on generating Shroud/Healing/Carapace.This is such a genius build.Revolutionary!I watched him score wins against everyone in Armistice.Every single time.Amazing.

Now I'm using a variation of his build and fights are so numbingly simple XD

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@EremiteAngel.9765 said:

@"KrHome.1920" said:Except for spiteful talisman instead of bitter chill and yaaw! instead of spectral armor (both of your changes make the build worse to be honest) this is the standard reaper build on metabattle for how long now? 3 years or so?

You can't kill on your own: core warriors and spellbreakers, power shiros, sword weavers, (decent) thieves, condi mesmers, longbow soulbeasts and boonbeasts, (decent) holosmiths... just to name a few. That's why personally I would not run it.

Like any reaper build that deals burst damage and has at least 25k hp and 2500 armor the build works in smallscale (even though you are wasting a lot of anti-burst sustain not running spectral armor). So for your group it's okay (esp. with your teammates who include some of the better players on kodash), but like I said... not really a breaking news.

What would you run? Death instead of soulreap? Another runeset?

God. Why is everyone so hyped about deathmagic?It's still such a bad traitline. Even curses, that's supposed to be a Condi traitline is better for most power reaper builds than deathmagic

I don't know about Reaper but try DM with Core Power Necro.I seen it used by an Ains guild Necro and he won against pretty much every single dueler in Armistice, from Althume (Fear guild warrior) to Cedrodor (Kaos Dragonhunter) to Kikk (OMNI Dragonhunter) to those nasty burn weavers and every form of thief/deadeye and mirage etc.His build playstyle is very simple to boot.Just Shroud and auto to build Carapace stacks.And watch as the opponent burns at least half his bursts on you.Then leave shroud when its low and spend the time outside shroud to gain back the LF which is helped by the signet of undeath.Then re-enter shroud and continue to auto.easily 20+ carapace stacks.Conditions drop fast on you in shroud due to antitoxin and lose 1 condi in shroud in DM.helps to keep carapace stacks up too.Its so numbingly simple.I've been trying a variation of it for the past couple of days and its so easy to win fights with it XD

This is probably something he is running:

I tell you its so simple to play but so effective lol.

OK, theres a lot i do not understand, here. I assume your secondary weaponset is axe/focus or axe/warhorn. (you havent put sigils in your build, btw).Spite: why take bitter chill? You only have one chill skill, staff 3. Why not use spiteful talisman? Axe 2 is very damaging, axe 3 removes boons. Axe aa also inflicts vulnerability.Awaken the pain, hm. Oddish choice, considering your main might generators are entering shroud, and hitting people below 50%.Signet grandmaster trait? I would drop 2 signets (undeath and healing) for spiteful Spirit grandmaster trait, another healskill and another utility.

Soulreap: you use staff. Thats ok. You dont use soulmarks, which also fills lifeforce, and makes marks unblockable. Odd.Fear of death: again, without unblockable marks, this is much less useful. Plus, you have 2 fears (no fear utility). Soulbarbs is a big damage boost, almost too tempting to not use on power builds.

Thats it, in a nutshell. Did think of more, but too tired to remember. Thanks for your input!

Okay let me just say that I do not know his exact build, but I'm guessing =)His playstyle is very simple.He only does 2 main things when he fight.Spectral Armor + Shroud Enter, then Shroud Auto+Fear until Shroud drains or become low.Leave Shroud and kite / use Staff marks to deny space / do stuff to regain LF.Then Re-enter Shroud to Shroud Auto+Fear which siphon/heal life back until Shroud drains again and HP is full.Then repeat the whole process until enemy dies or he dies.

Surprisingly he is able to win against pretty much everyone in Armistice.Its such a strong but simple playstyle I have to call him a genius.

On to your questions.Secondary set he used was not axe/X.It was Dagger/Warhorn.In fact, not many opponents managed to make him use his secondary lol.They die just to Shroud Autos and Staff kiting.That rules out spiteful talisman because he doesnt use axe/X and wasn't concerned about corrupting any boons.He just camp Shroud Auto all day and won XDIt is either spiteful renewal or bitter chill.I guess he used bitter chill because staff 3 and shroud 2 can chill which adds to the carapace stacks.

I guessed he used awaken the pain because his playstyle is mainly camp shroud and auto.Auto generates might under the Reaper's might trait.This fits his playstyle pretty nicely.Dread is also possible since it adds a nice boost to the carapace and damage.

Do not
drop the signet trait and signets.That is the main reason why his build and playstyle works.You can't believe how tanky and sustainy and damaging his build is with it working with DM carapace.Just try it and you'll see for yourself.The main thing is do not leave Shroud until Shroud drains or drop to around 10%.Watch your opponents try to kill you in Shroud lol.They take forever while they have to bust half their cooldowns on you.They can't ignore you either because Shroud auto is 1200 range.

He could have gone Soul Marks if he needed the LF boost out of shroud.I guessed he went unyielding blast for the carapace generation because that is his playstyle.Shroud Auto.But Soul Marks would work well too.

He likely used Fear of Death because it increases LF.And that is a huge factor in his build working.It keeps his shroud up longer.

I think the important thing to consider when looking at his build is to throw out the mindset of boon corrupts and damage modifiers.He keeps his damage at a decent level and focuses the rest on generating Shroud/Healing/Carapace.This is such a genius build.Revolutionary!I watched him score wins against everyone in Armistice.Every single time.Amazing.

Now I'm using a variation of his build and fights are so numbingly simple XD

I just want to say please ignore my guess of his build haha.I got many of the guesses wrong.Anyhow he was using an amazing build but since the big balance is coming up in a month, lets look forward to more theorycrafting!

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@EremiteAngel.9765 said:

@"KrHome.1920" said:Except for spiteful talisman instead of bitter chill and yaaw! instead of spectral armor (both of your changes make the build worse to be honest) this is the standard reaper build on metabattle for how long now? 3 years or so?

You can't kill on your own: core warriors and spellbreakers, power shiros, sword weavers, (decent) thieves, condi mesmers, longbow soulbeasts and boonbeasts, (decent) holosmiths... just to name a few. That's why personally I would not run it.

Like any reaper build that deals burst damage and has at least 25k hp and 2500 armor the build works in smallscale (even though you are wasting a lot of anti-burst sustain not running spectral armor). So for your group it's okay (esp. with your teammates who include some of the better players on kodash), but like I said... not really a breaking news.

What would you run? Death instead of soulreap? Another runeset?

God. Why is everyone so hyped about deathmagic?It's still such a bad traitline. Even curses, that's supposed to be a Condi traitline is better for most power reaper builds than deathmagic

I don't know about Reaper but try DM with Core Power Necro.I seen it used by an Ains guild Necro and he won against pretty much every single dueler in Armistice, from Althume (Fear guild warrior) to Cedrodor (Kaos Dragonhunter) to Kikk (OMNI Dragonhunter) to those nasty burn weavers and every form of thief/deadeye and mirage etc.His build playstyle is very simple to boot.Just Shroud and auto to build Carapace stacks.And watch as the opponent burns at least half his bursts on you.Then leave shroud when its low and spend the time outside shroud to gain back the LF which is helped by the signet of undeath.Then re-enter shroud and continue to auto.easily 20+ carapace stacks.Conditions drop fast on you in shroud due to antitoxin and lose 1 condi in shroud in DM.helps to keep carapace stacks up too.Its so numbingly simple.I've been trying a variation of it for the past couple of days and its so easy to win fights with it XD

This is probably something he is running:

I tell you its so simple to play but so effective lol.

I would build power core nec like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSAFcsFaYZFMPGHTjdijyz7qE-zRRYBBJLG9cNFSgJQmhQ0VgJHExo8nUBsE4yG-e

Maybe take staff, but not soulmarks. Easy reason being:You can then remove aegis with staff. And unyielding blast trait stacks vulnerability + carapace.

Easy 100% critchance in shroud.Maybe use signet trait to get higher sustain.Blood is power is a pretty good might source to burst opponents.Can also swap agility sigil for force sigil and maybe add a cleansing sigill.

But I'm mainly concerned about reaper.I tried deathmagic there several times, but there wasn't a single match, where I was happy about deathmagic.It didn't feel like adding a lot of sustain nor power.

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@"EremiteAngel.9765" said:This is probably something he is running:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSQAYlRw0YZMO2JO2OvrWA-zRRYiRB7I4TQyDA-e

I tell you its so simple to play but so effective lol.Like any core necro build this one is weak to cc chains. Signet of vampirism has a 1,25s cast time. Just interrupt that and gg. There is not even minor mobility in the build to cover the heal.

I sense lack of kiting competence. People seem to try to fight that build when shroud is up, which is pointless as it has a life force degeneration of 1%. So you basically have to burst through 20k life force @ 4000 or 5000 armor (50% damage reduction in shroud) before you can actually harm the necro.

You don't do that. You faceroll the build with cc when the necro leaves shroud.

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@KrHome.1920 said:

@"EremiteAngel.9765" said:This is probably something he is running:

I tell you its so simple to play but so effective lol.Like any core necro build this one is weak to cc chains. Signet of vampirism has a 1,25s cast time. Just interrupt that and gg. There is not even minor mobility in the build to cover the heal.

I sense lack of kiting competence. People seem to try to fight that build when shroud is up, which is pointless as it has a life force degeneration of 1%. So you basically have to burst through 20k health @ 4000 armor (50% damage reduction in shroud) before you can actually harm the necro.

You don't do that. You faceroll the build with cc when the necro leaves shroud.

Ains is an extremely good Necro, one of the best I've fought. And to be honest, despite not being a superb player myself, I'm hard to impress. I can only name like... Maybe 5 Necro's I'd genuinely consider very skilled.

Anyway, I have a friend who's a multi-classer and plays everything quite well. He's particularly good on Ele and Revenant and I watched him 1 v 1 Ains for a good hour this past week. I actually recorded a little bit of one of the fights ( but was interrupted by a random passerby so I didn't clip the entire thing ). I'll share that video some time later on and I'll quote you if you'd like to see it.

I'm not certain what his build is, but it's definitely using Signets Of Suffering and almost full Cavalier. He doesn't have much damage, very low crit chance and heavily relies on Death Perception and other passive effects like Target The Weak to increase his critical chance. But he's also so obscenely durable that he can win against a lot of things just by sheer attrition.

I don't particularly like builds like that because as has probably been stated in the thread here already ( I didn't read everything ) it's too defensive and lacks killing power. Anything glassy or with high mobility or lots of CC's can just ragdoll it to death and make the immense health pool irrelevant. Still, it does what it wants to do extremely effectively and is absolutely capable of killing with patience.

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This is not the worst build and it can shine in some 1v1 encounters (pls don't ever try it in smallscale, you are useless), but it has two clear weaknesses:

  • the shroud pressure is poor, when the target is not at melee range (the autoattack is super slow and - including all typical damage modifiers - deals about as much damage as a rev hammer auto, which is a lot faster - there you have your first hardcounter: a hammer rev spamming 1, 2, riposting shadows and blocking shroud1 with hammer4...)
  • the shroud cooldown gives a huge window of opportunity (a dragonhunter jumping at you, a mesmer or thief burst, a warrior stunlock, a revenant burst, a longbow soulbeast for obvious reasons...)

When someone says he knows a good dragonhunter that frequently loses to that build, then (sorry but) it's not a skilled dragonhunter but maybe a dragonhunter throwing all his burst into the fight right from the beginning and then dying from exhaustion.

I played that build right after they patched signet of undeath and it has obvious counters. You can build for insane tankyness but then you lose all your pressure and encounters don't even need to dodge your shroud autos (btw. did I mention reflects?).

Side notes:Tanky core necro builds do always remind me of reaper minion masters. It takes forever to kill them but they will die eventually if you follow some basic rules. The reason for that is that necro has only good heals when it hits its target. If it doesn't then it's easy to peel to death.

Core shroud is like mainhand dagger. The direct damage is poor unless you play full berserk. But if you play full berserk, you die from anything that flies in your direction.

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Since i'm the necro (Ainsloft) in question here, i thought to chime in and give some details on my playstyle/build and clear up some misconceptions here.

Short history here: before the carapace update what i primarily played so i could take advantage of death magic properly while keeping use of Unholy Sanctuary was a zerker/cavalier setup, i moved to necro full-time when Unholy Sanctuary came out, because it largely fills the rotation gap and what i think is a massive hole in the class mechanic and stops sudden burst from killing you, i personally believe necro/reaper is largely unviable without it, since that 10 second window is massive, especially in a group fight with lots of damage and enemies focusing you (this opening is why we're the first ones attacked)

my build did very well opposed to many, i could handle SOME outnumbered fights even against middle-tier players and effectively solo-roam but it still was met with permanent defects i couldn't fix like the lack of stability, but still i had near-full zerk stats from the conversions, minus precision, which i made up for with death perception / pack runes. i could do zerker-like well bursts and it was about as far as i could push core power damage/defense ratios and min-max it, since reaper way back when was horrible and totally ineffective, (remember it needed to get buffed over and over again?) and i refused to play condi.

When Carapace was introduced, i originally thought it was a massive nerf to having high power on a toughness build, since at the height of conversion food / traits, i could do 24% toughness to power, in shroud that meant cavalier had practically equivalant power/ferocity to zerker, so it hit VERY hard and was VERY tanky, albeit with no sustain and it was prone to dying to CC chains since the game doesn't have diminishing returns of any kind, but as far as i could see that was universal across the profession and couldn't be remedied

Instead, it unlocked a lot of potential of the profession, since i can freely take a four stat type which is my preference since it has more OVERALL stats across the distribution (Marauders, in this case) and do better with stat min-maxxing

my old build is sadly dead, so i thought to come up with something to augment carapace uptime since normally keeping it above 15 stacks is very hard, Corruptor's fervor doesn't work as well if you want to play power, and it's very ineffective in general since core condi application is attrition-style still, it's inconvenient.

So i noticed Shrouded Removal augments all condition removals to give 3 carapace with no ICD and started working on that, since it's the only other source of carapace, and swapping out Unholy Sanctuary isn't an option for me since it suddenly makes me able to play a lot more aggressive.

Anti-toxin runes + Shrouded Removal is what i worked out, that combo alone keeps up high carapace, and makes this build virtually immune to any condition player (I haven't really lost a fight against condition players in weeks, aside for a couple duels out of a dozen against a condi rev.

i'm making use of some game design bugs here and there to push it further, for example:The 2 conditions transferred to you from an ally every 3 seconds with a traited Plague Signet give Carapace Stacks, For whatever reason it counts as a "condition clear to self"Anti-toxin and shrouded removal both apply to transfers done as well, so plague signet is suddenly significantly more effective, the cooldown is 20 seconds or so if you use shroud inbetween since traited it recharges in shroud 4% a sec.

Absorption sigils are very overpowered, an instant boonrip on a dread burst, suddenly taking off enemy protection and potentially gaining 25 might / quickness or fury is unreal damage, I've spiked squishy people for 8-9k+ suddenly with one life blast in a fear, and tankier people are usually 4-6k, This is good damage comparatively, i'd like to think, and it has a better rotation than any other build i've played for core especially after recently since wells are VERY unreliable in this meta and were the primary other damage source (I've tried every power build on core necro at every iteration of balance updates over the past 6 years)

It is by no means slow because of the celerity sigil/stolen quickness, I can kill in three to four hits on anything moderately squishy already and it makes it go much faster, and out-sustain most tanky builds while doing so, It was mentioned above this post that hammer rev is a counter, it's not. i outdamage and outsustain hammer rev, That said other power rev bruiser builds are a counter at the moment, it's too easy to miss fears and lose a lot of your life force from a rev spamming evades, since they have very good dodge windows also i do play around with using corrupt boon instead of plague signet when solo roaming, it's super-effective against the current meta in general

Inbetween the life force gain from traited high-duration fears, and the extreme sustain from signet of vampirism / undeath /unholy sanctuary it's very hard to ever die, spectral armor is a nice crutch for groups that focus me pretty hard as well, I use vampirism signet off cooldown since it recharges in shroud, and can be used for damage / a 2 condi clear with anti-toxin / spiteful renewal, which in turn gives carapace, it'll come back in about half the time if you camp shroud immediately after, and it matters a lot less if it's interrupted because the passive + unholy sanctuary's now buffed 1% a second heal are perma-active in shroud.

undeath signet significantly changes the value of vitality spam on the profession positively, Since life force generation/degeneration is based on life force pool % which in turn is based on health pool / vitality, now that the degeneration of shroud is affected so little, the efficiency of lots of life force generation is no longer offset by the degeneration happening as well at such a high scaling rate.

Final words here, The primary counter is CC spam. i can't deal with it, and it forces me to play perfectly, Foot in The Grave is not worth taking and is totally bad in almost every situation because the activation being connected to shroud entry makes no sense to when i actually NEED stability (Deactivation of shroud would be significantly more preferable), so it's not a real choice, especially when pitted against the 33% crit chance and 300 ferocity death perception gives, If you play with a Firebrand or other profession capable of giving lots of stability the effectiveness of this build skyrockets.

I solo roam almost every night, i can do very outnumbered fights i'm hoping to record soon, (Four 1v4's in a row in the other night for instance and the players were not bad everytime either), and this is plenty effective in groups. even if you can't get life blasts in during reflects, life transfer or putrid mark bursts hit very hard at the moment in a fear.

I'm just glad i can be effective on core in this overwhelming kind of meta.

Here's the build, knock yourselves out : http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSxEgEmpMCGHLjpxOxh35f5C-zRRYiR3XwRQ+nSYSkYFgdrKqZIJ5PQA/rQfA-e

Gw2skills doesn't have potions of karka toughness included, i run those as a utility stone and it's worth 150 toughness.Stat wise i like to keep my armor after factoring in some carapace below 3.2k since it softcaps around 3k and gives significantly less scaling on the damage reduction, it also interacts strangely with additive or multiplicative reductions like 10% damage reduction food, and there's no notes on which follows what math on the wiki, this is all just adapting to the meta and min/maxxing.

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@"Scott Lockharte.3412" said:snip

I'd like to pick your brain a little just out of curiosity as another long time Necro main and roamer.

You seem to enjoy putting yourself in outnumbered situations rather than them finding you. Is this why you prefer to go so heavily defensive, or is it because you feel it's mandatory to succeed?I tend to play full Berserker more than anything else and being +1'd when I'm unprepared usually means I die. But as I see it, if I do not end a fight(s) quickly enough I will eventually be overwhelmed anyway. Many times I'm able to win 1 v X strictly due to sheer damage pressure forcing people in to a defensive position that benefits me. Any time I play full condition tank or something that's more of a bruiser ( I occasionally play a more durable version of my full glass "Dreadmancer" ) I feel fights dragging on to a point that either; someone escapes and returns when they've OOC'd because I could not pressure the kill, or I get overwhelmed with multiple people adding to the fight and I do not have enough damage to pressure them off me.

What attracts you to Necromancer? I notice you tend to play ( and have said in your comment ) very defensive builds that can handle prolonged fights well. Do you feel Necromancer truly is an "attrition" class, and is that the role you enjoy?I believe with certain stat combinations Necro can be quite the chore to kill despite having only health to protect itself. For a while I was playing a Blood Wells condition tank with high Healing Power and I was effectively immune to all condition builds because they could not overcome my massive health pool combined with my full health bar healing potential. Though it was effective against certain build types, it also suffered against anything bursty because I did not have enough pressure to force them off nor did I have enough instant healing to soak it.

This is my own build. I've been using this for quite a long time, although I tend to use that stat spread on Reaper more so than core Necromancer. I'm sharing just because the stats are a little better than yours, but your trait choices are much different. Do you think this stat spread would work well with your trait choices?

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@"SpellOfIniquity.1780" said:

So pre-HoT, before gliders or mounts and all that jazz, Necro had significantly worse escapes as I'm sure you know, and no real way to escape from an engagement, they still have relatively little, but I realized this early on and made my builds accordingly, if I can't escape the usual thing that happens is I'm dogpiled by nearby players, I dont want to play something that dies the instant i am outnumbered which will be the majority of the time, especially since I play aggressively and the profession is in no way designed to be a dueler like sword weaver, herald, etc, it just doesn't have the rotation other professions might.

So I moved towards just building around the fact no one leaves me alone, necro's very bullied for the lack of.mobility/stab and theres no real way around it, so at least I could fight back a bit.

That all said, I know my disadvantage well, I just dont like playing something else because none of it has "unique" mechanics, as a defense life force isn't like any other defense mechanic in the game and I found it very satisfying to play around.

I've played a lot of builds, including variations of what you're talking about, one problem is the game doesn't support very spikey burst gameplay from pure zerker anymore, the critical hits on things likeChill of Death or Spiteful Spirit were needed for that gameplay because otherwise the damage isn't instant and the target isn't pressured, so I decided to take one step down and work on dread life blasts while not dying in normal circumstances

You mentioned there you feel you can't pressure bursty people off, and that's exactly why I go for the damage/defense ratio I do, fighting this build is a damage-check and if you go over the check you're in a killable range with no real exceptions, because of the "passive" less interact-required sustain I'm not worried about re-engagements, im not reliant on hitting something like spectral grasp, or well bombs that are so easy to get out of when so many professions have ample dodges, and because I dont go for reaper I'm not as easily kiteable when I go for a burst.

necromancer is unreliable because of targeted skill requirements to stay alive / do damage, this takes some of that away. Being able to attempt a burst at 90% of the effectiveness of full damage gear multiple times is significantly more effective more of the time than going all-in so to speak.

Anyhow about builds, I dont see how it has higher stats? Add in the 300 power 600 toughness from carapace, potential to equip signet of spite over plague signet / take severance sigil instead of absorption or celerity, swap my stacks from stars to bloodlust and now it does practically the highest damage available at the moment in bursts. I don't do all I just said because its overkill and a definite trade-off, not that it wouldn't work ever, I just think necros burst is too unreliable to put all of your eggs in the damage basket, not that I haven't before though.

As for curses or blood magic, here's my problems with them:

Weakness uptime is the primary defense curses gives, and frankly its unreliable and if you're attacked by someone with condition clears or reliable dodges it will not be effective, it's a single condition to take off after all, I basically played your build 5 months back and I couldn't make it work against this meta theres just too many get out of jail free cards.

Blood magic and vampirics overall still scale VERY poorly with healing power, a 30 per second heal becoming a 55 is literally useless, the numbers are too small and the rest of the vampirics are attached to the well burst trait, Good luck getting someone good in a well at the moment. A lot of the professions can dodge out of immobs completely atm, playing around someone else playing badly to that extent isn't my thing.

Anyway theres no real downsides to my build, it isn't reliant on the other person reacting badly, it can handle not dying in extreme circumstances. I have group utility with a 10 second CD traited signet of undeath (its bugged and the trait recharge is applied twice, the cd is 10 secs after using shroud) and potentially plague signet as a group condition clear, and I dont need to worry as much about my damage getting missed, It does well in every circumstance I've put it into and I can't imagine something else doing better.

Also spectral walk and flesh worm are still bad, it's just hard to use properly compared to other professions mobility by nature. I dont think it's a reliable way to control a fight, especially since you can't use either if you need to be in shroud, you still will be bursted inbetween shroud cooldowns just the same, it still has no CC protection and JUST taking speed runes would be significantly more effective, but I don't have that choice since antitoxin is non-optional for carapace uptime.

BTW absorption sigils ARE broken, use them if nothing else, you'll notice your effectiveness skyrocket.

Tl:dr, I dont believe necro overall is an attrition class, condition based necro yes, but I play this way because I'm forced to by how the WvW gameplay ends up. I have a lot of belief what I have right now is the strongest core build available. That may change come the balance patch, but it isn't met with the same weaknesses and I can absolutely play aggressively/freely and out of shroud rotate properly, and that isn't nearly as true for another build, This build works with reaper just fine after getting rid of soul reaping, I just think reaper is even more unreliable because of the insistence on melee burst.

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@"Scott Lockharte.3412" said:Since i'm the necro (Ainsloft) in question here, i thought to chime in and give some details on my playstyle/build and clear up some misconceptions here.I'm just glad i can be effective on core in this overwhelming kind of meta.

Here's the build, knock yourselves out : http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSxEgEmpMCGHLjpxOxh35f5C-zRRYiR3XwRQ+nSYSkYFgdrKqZIJ5PQA/rQfA-e

The Necro King has spoken.All hear!

I have tested his build and although I am not able to play it to his level, I do indeed find many of my fights easier to manage and win.Most opponents. Any class they use, any build they use.The Necro King build can handle them decently.

IMO, it is a massively genius build that has indeed given Core Necro a strong build going out into WvW in the current meta.

I only got 1 issue with it.While it isn't a fully shroud-camping build, it does rely on longer in-shroud durations in its playstyle that I personally dislike.I am more a shroud-flashing lover, but although I dislike its play-style, I do certify it as the best Necro build I've seen in POF.

Shroud flashing forever!

  • Thank you for nerfing SOS to remove 7 seconds shroud flashing!
  • Thank you for nerfing Spiteful Spirit on shroud enter damage!
  • Thank you for nerfing Beyond the Veil to remove protection on shroud exit!
  • Thank you for preparing to nerf Spiteful Spirit boon corrupt numbers!
  • Thank you for preparing to remove FITG stunbreak and stab on Shroud enter!

You made Shroud Flashing harder to play for Shroud Flashing lovers and I love you for making things more challenging for us Necros!

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@"Scott Lockharte.3412" said:I'm just glad i can be effective on core in this overwhelming kind of meta.

Here's the build, knock yourselves out : http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSxEgEmpMCGHLjpxOxh35f5C-zRRYiR3XwRQ+nSYSkYFgdrKqZIJ5PQA/rQfA-e

Gw2skills doesn't have potions of karka toughness included, i run those as a utility stone and it's worth 150 toughness.Stat wise i like to keep my armor after factoring in some carapace below 3.2k since it softcaps around 3k and gives significantly less scaling on the damage reduction, it also interacts strangely with additive or multiplicative reductions like 10% damage reduction food, and there's no notes on which follows what math on the wiki, this is all just adapting to the meta and min/maxxing.

Scott I just want to say that your build is really too good.I even managed to win a Power Herald from Cake Walk without much effort XDI've been struggling through the entire POF with my builds and now with your build...I'm winning most fights with half my eyes closed.This build is just insane.

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