Scourge current viability in ranked PvP

[EdDreath.2508]

Can I get an insight of the current viability of scourge from any necromancer pvper whatever rank they are? I am a gold 2 necro main but play druid/guardian alternately with all having pretty much similar win ratio.

Previously I played as blood scourge (post sand savant, dhummfire nerf) with relative success but scepter buff interest me to try as boonhate scourge. Sadly using curse traitline means dropping blood magic which is important for sustain and as a result i feel squishy af and easily get rekt. Soul reaping seems like a staple for any build and having a bad team doesnt help either with me becoming even more useless and being a punchbag as well. I am aware that scourge needs a support in order to strive but I solo q ranked pvp mostly so its a gamble whatever team im gonna be with.

Reverting back as reaper and BAMMM back to winning way. I cant praise reaper's buff and its current performance too much or risk getting it nerfed lol. But bottomline is it seems to me reaper outperfom scourge big time in sustain, teamfight pressure and everything overall. It might be me but scourge is way easier to manage now with its long cooldown abilities and its defense in the form of counter pressure being easily nullified nowadays. I hope scourge can get something at least as personal sustain without having to drop important traits in order to survive this one-shot classes meta reigning supreme.

[Corthyll.7635]

Reaper damage in close is mental now. I get dropped within a second as a scourge by some reapers. Regardless, for me with scourge, the 5 sec change to Dhummfire means that I see less value in the Soul Reaping trait line so I've moved to Blood and Curses and am quite happy with how it's performing. Yes, I still get downed quickly by some matchups but that's just part of being scourge. As for life force, I use nourishing ashes and demonic lore and it always keeps me topped up in pvp.

[Toll Booth Willie.6723]

I've ran across some scourge that are straight nasty. I assume they are power as they hit pretty hard. I ran power in wvw for a while due the gears i had at the time and it had a pretty solid burst potential but was pretty limp after that. I'm curious if that is what i'm running into currently.

[Dreddo.9865]

The spec is in a bad state atm. With all the nerfs it can no longer fight efficiently, requires extremely high effort (kiting) or babysitting (firebrand). You can't 1v1 almost anything. Not even revenants or engineers which were typical kills for a scourge. Mirages, Hammer guards (even DH), warriors, rangers/soulbeasts, holos, heralds, reapers can all down you in seconds. Scourge is offering decent boon corruption but dps is sub par if corruption fails or is cleansed. Condi pressure isn't that high as torment is not that strong (compared to say burning or confusion).Other than that I prefer Blood build which is a lot safer when solo Q while Curses involves a lot more risk (and reward of course).

Now to your question Devouring Darkness is nothing of big value in PvP imho. Yes the dps potential is high but you sacrifice the very important weakening shroud which is your life insurance - without it and considering you have base toughness you are literally paper. Devouring Darkness had value when it could hit without LoS but was 'fixed' as well and now is not worth it.

In general scourge was hit hard due to people complaints ...it was 'OP'. It was a node defender with efficient multi-target dps - now not only he lacks what made it fearsome but continues to carry all the bad traits of the necro class (no mobility, no stability, no invulns, no blocks etc). A more fair approach by the devs would be that they compensate the class since they nerfed it hard in dps, maybe in the self sustain department (like slightly stronger barriers).

PS - as if mesmers for 4 seasons and still going, holos, revenants, radiant guards and spellbreakers are not OP but that's another story, necro will always get the hate. B)

[EdDreath.2508]

Thank you everyone for your input. I agree on fair compensation with every nerf, more personal sustains and believe the punishment skills need rework because scourge mobility/survivability skill (ToA, Sand Swell) suffer greater from the CD increaase which was meant to lessen the boon spam but instead it kills the scourge's overall playability. Drop Feed from Corruption as well because the trait sounds nice but realistically it sucks with no effective usage while the other 2 traits are superior by far in its department (After a bit googling, saw these already suggested yet no significant changes implemented but rather more punishing nerfs :anguished: )

[Dacai Leonheart.6147]

I have a Scourge too, and I loved how good I got along with it, especially in PVE, but I wanted to know how is it in PVP, I never tried it out, but according to what I'm reading, I see is not that good, although it used to be, so far I read. I suppose as a recent Scourge player will miss those days, although never experienced it.

Peace!