Upcoming Balance Changes

[Shroud.2307]

Soul Eater works through Shroud. Locust Swarm does not.

Soul Grasp damage is worse than Reaper's Touch was and Siphons 400ish health.

Soul Eater + Blighter's Boon is a pretty significant heal in Shroud when cleaving mobs.

[Brujeria.7536]

@"SpellOfIniquity.1780" said:Soul Eater works through Shroud. Locust Swarm does not.

Soul Grasp damage is worse than Reaper's Touch was and Siphons 400ish health.

Soul Eater + Blighter's Boon is a pretty significant heal in Shroud when cleaving mobs.

Dont forget: since those two skills deal "life siphon" damage now they cant crit anymore. Biggest nerf ever.

[Rav.9475]

Was just testing Soul Eater against the NPC's in the mists and must be doing something wrong as it appeared to heal for 20% of the damage done, not 5%. Had no +healing effects in play as far as I could see...

Nope it was me - my maths is just rubbish. It is 5% of direct damage done (not condi damage) and does heal through shroud.

[Nimon.7840]

@"SpellOfIniquity.1780" said:Soul Eater works through Shroud. Locust Swarm does not.

Soul Grasp damage is worse than Reaper's Touch was and Siphons 400ish health.

Soul Eater + Blighter's Boon is a pretty significant heal in Shroud when cleaving mobs.

Soul grasp also doesn't work in shroud :(At least it's homing...

[Shroud.2307]

Here are some .gif examples (taken in WvW) for those of you who cannot be online right now.Sorry about the formatting, if there's a way to share the .gifs here directly on the forum without having to go to another website, let me know and I'll edit it.

Soul Grasphttps://gfycat.com/UnsightlyFarflungHarvestmen

Locust Swarmhttps://gfycat.com/RepulsiveDeterminedChuckwalla

Locust Swarm in Shroudhttps://gfycat.com/PointedConcreteElephantbeetle

Soul Eater + Blighter's Boon (with Spite, obviously)https://gfycat.com/LittleGrandioseBantamrooster

PS. I realized that for some of these I'm within range of objective auras so the numbers may be slightly different.

[LucianDK.8615]

Soul Eater feels like a significant improvement in sustain. But how it compares with decimate defenses it anyone test it now?

Reapers touch is much more bursty with lifeforcegain than locus swarm?

[Xxnecroxx.4039]

@"Obtena.7952" said:Seriously ... this is exactly the reality. xxNecroxx is sensationalizing every time he posts. Frankly, if the raids do as poorly as he says when he plays necro and it's related to him being on his necro, it says more about his ability to play than it does about the class.

yes cause when I played regularly I would get clears on every boss in all 3 wings, consistently and had 2 sets of legendary armor, yeah I was REALLY bad at raids

more like I understood what was good to bring into raids and what was not and necro IS one of those that is NOT good to bring in raids, it offers NOTHING. high damage? no it is out damaged by most professions in the game in condi AND power, Gives good utility/boons? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA, no not at all. ok then maybe the "healing build" (I don't count barrier spam as true heals) Druid is literally better in every way as a healer

the problem is that NECRO DOES NOTHING OUTSIDE OF BOON CORRUPT, that is why they are afraid to buff necros Condi damage to viable levels and it can still condi corrupt a bit and has shroud so Anet is afraid of buffing its DPS to viable levels. NOW BEFORE YOU SAY "OMG 10-20% doesn't mean that much!!!!!!!!!" that is when you get PERFECT rotations, you don't you lose a lot more dps then some others, plus due to how some raid bosses are where there is constant AoE damage it will drain shroud faster and thus lower your DPS, so that 10-20% is worse then you think. cause other classes can dish out more damage while having a easier rotation that is not dependent on a mechanic like shroud

[NecroSummonsMors.7816]

So now focus has a bit more instant lf regen, dmg and life siphon is bad af, war horn has poor life siphon too and we lost cripple, soul eater heal is meh and we lost cd reduction. Worst of all the gs5 pull that should have been fixed still doesn't work on uneven ground, the claws go over enemy and when it manages to connect with the enemy it pulls for half the distance (especially if you use it at max range). How Anet How? I'm speechless tbh

[Sigmoid.7082]

@NecroSummonsMors.7816 said:soul eater is meh

Considering I can get, with standard buffs, ~29k on the golem with no power infusions, eagle runes and a GS only rotation that is super janky I am sure someone would be able to do much MUCH better.

[NecroSummonsMors.7816]

@Sigmoid.7082 said:

@NecroSummonsMors.7816 said:soul eater is meh

Considering I can get, with standard buffs, ~29k on the golem with no power infusions, eagle runes and a GS only rotation that is super janky I am sure someone would be able to do much MUCH better.

I meant the healing part not the dmg increase. I mean Anet doesn't want to go for meaningfull life siphon healing, I don't get why since it's clear can't have more dodges, blocks or invuln at least some decent sustain via life siphon

[LucianDK.8615]

Could anyone properly math out wether or not decimate defenses or soul eater is the better choice now? Figure it out before declaring the sky is falling down on the new trait.

I know locust swarm was used as an opener to roll while in shroud due to the duration, but seems almost meaningless now with the lowered damage and shortened duration.But the benefit of warhorn still seems to be horn4 for break bar damage and swiftness on horn 5, compared to more meaningful lf regain on focus 4, whereas focus 5 is only useful in some fractals and pvp still.

Death spiral feels good to use now, and you dont feel 'guilty' about hitting it below 50%

Regarding reapers touch, it provides 11% lf regain with 2 charges, 3s cd, 15s to regain a charge

And XXnecro, you have nothing constructive to add to the discussion.

[Obtena.7952]

@Xxnecroxx.4039 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:Seriously ... this is exactly the reality. xxNecroxx is sensationalizing every time he posts. Frankly, if the raids do as poorly as he says when he plays necro and it's related to him being on his necro, it says more about his ability to play than it does about the class.

yes cause when I played regularly I would get clears on every boss in all 3 wings, consistently and had 2 sets of legendary armor, yeah I was REALLY bad at raids

So what are you complaining about? A few ignorant people? That's not a game problem ever. If you play necro and your telling us you are successful in raids ... what's the deal with all the negative posts you make about how necro isn't wanted in raids when it's not true? Why are you lying to us? What is your agenda here?

[Warscythes.9307]

@LucianDK.8615 said:Could anyone properly math out wether or not decimate defenses or soul eater is the better choice now? Figure it out before declaring the sky is falling down on the new trait.

I know locust swarm was used as an opener to roll while in shroud due to the duration, but seems almost meaningless now with the lowered damage and shortened duration.But the benefit of warhorn still seems to be horn4 for break bar damage and swiftness on horn 5, compared to more meaningful lf regain on focus 4, whereas focus 5 is only useful in some fractals and pvp still.

Death spiral feels good to use now, and you dont feel 'guilty' about hitting it below 50%

Regarding reapers touch, it provides 11% lf regain with 2 charges, 3s cd, 15s to regain a charge

And XXnecro, you have nothing constructive to add to the discussion.

Soul eater is better definitely, question is how much. This patch is a pretty decent buff for PvE dps.

[Xxnecroxx.4039]

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Xxnecroxx.4039 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:Seriously ... this is exactly the reality. xxNecroxx is sensationalizing every time he posts. Frankly, if the raids do as poorly as he says when he plays necro and it's related to him being on his necro, it says more about his ability to play than it does about the class.

yes cause when I played regularly I would get clears on every boss in all 3 wings, consistently and had 2 sets of legendary armor, yeah I was REALLY bad at raids

So what are you complaining about? A few ignorant people? That's not a game problem ever. If you play necro and your telling us you are successful in raids ... what's the deal with all the negative posts you make about how necro isn't wanted in raids when it's not true? Why are you lying to us? What is your agenda here?

I stopped playing necro in raids a long time ago because of how bad it was mainly after the HUGE epi nerf where they removed epi bouncing, THE ONE THING keeping condi necro somewhat viable AND ONLY in certain encounters, I did what was good for the group and during that time I was hopeing that they would change necro for the better both power build and condi build (at least for PvE) they heavily nerfed and pretty much killed the condi build while only slightly constantly buffing power build to the point now where it is still bad just not a meme build anymore

[Nimon.7840]

1800 healpower makes soul grasp 800life siphon healingAnd locust swarm 180 life siphon healing per tick

[Obtena.7952]

@Xxnecroxx.4039 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Xxnecroxx.4039 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:Seriously ... this is exactly the reality. xxNecroxx is sensationalizing every time he posts. Frankly, if the raids do as poorly as he says when he plays necro and it's related to him being on his necro, it says more about his ability to play than it does about the class.

yes cause when I played regularly I would get clears on every boss in all 3 wings, consistently and had 2 sets of legendary armor, yeah I was REALLY bad at raids

So what are you complaining about? A few ignorant people? That's not a game problem ever. If you play necro and your telling us you are successful in raids ... what's the deal with all the negative posts you make about how necro isn't wanted in raids when it's not true? Why are you lying to us? What is your agenda here?

I stopped playing necro in raids a long time ago because of how bad it was mainly after the HUGE epi nerf where they removed epi bouncing, THE ONE THING keeping condi necro somewhat viable AND ONLY in certain encounters, I did what was good for the group and during that time I was hopeing that they would change necro for the better both power build and condi build (at least for PvE) they heavily nerfed and pretty much killed the condi build while only slightly constantly buffing power build to the point now where it is still bad just not a meme build anymore

So basically, you haven't played in so long you don't know what the current state of the game is. yet you still come here, tell us necros are bad in raids and yet you still successfully played it in raids, contradicting yourself. That's awesome. #makessense

[Xxnecroxx.4039]

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Xxnecroxx.4039 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Xxnecroxx.4039 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:Seriously ... this is exactly the reality. xxNecroxx is sensationalizing every time he posts. Frankly, if the raids do as poorly as he says when he plays necro and it's related to him being on his necro, it says more about his ability to play than it does about the class.

yes cause when I played regularly I would get clears on every boss in all 3 wings, consistently and had 2 sets of legendary armor, yeah I was REALLY bad at raids

So what are you complaining about? A few ignorant people? That's not a game problem ever. If you play necro and your telling us you are successful in raids ... what's the deal with all the negative posts you make about how necro isn't wanted in raids when it's not true? Why are you lying to us? What is your agenda here?

I stopped playing necro in raids a long time ago because of how bad it was mainly after the HUGE epi nerf where they removed epi bouncing, THE ONE THING keeping condi necro somewhat viable AND ONLY in certain encounters, I did what was good for the group and during that time I was hopeing that they would change necro for the better both power build and condi build (at least for PvE) they heavily nerfed and pretty much killed the condi build while only slightly constantly buffing power build to the point now where it is still bad just not a meme build anymore

So basically, you haven't played in so long you don't know what the current state of the game is. yet you still come here, tell us necros are bad in raids and yet you still successfully played it in raids, contradicting yourself. That's awesome. #makessense

o I log on whenever necro has changes, test them myself and see how the damage numbers change and see if there can be any change of rotations etc, (spoilers, nothing much has changed other then power reaper getting slightly better overtime, still not to overall viability status but out of meme build status). I read every update on every class to see how they are balancing the game (and praying to god they get some competent people to balance necro, they have not yet)

[Tobias.8632]

So what do we think is the best offhand for power reaper now? They both seem kinda garbage. Reaper is the spec that has the least amount of problems with LF gain and sustain, so the new focus 4 isn't great, new locust swarm is garbage and doesn't scale with death shroud damage boosts the way it used to, I guess you literally only take warhorn for the 4 and take focus never.

[LucianDK.8615]

@Tobias.8632 said:So what do we think is the best offhand for power reaper now? They both seem kinda garbage. Reaper is the spec that has the least amount of problems with LF gain and sustain, so the new focus 4 isn't great, new locust swarm is garbage and doesn't scale with death shroud damage boosts the way it used to, I guess you literally only take warhorn for the 4 and take focus never.

Try out focus 4 before you dis it. Overall you will gain more lifeforce from using it over warhorn.

[Asum.4960]

Grinded the Reaper rotation for about an hour, for me it's still at around 28K DPS on average.

Compared to something like a DH, which is imo easier and more forgiving to play, it's still a good 5k average DPS behind, while offering a lot less Utility and providing significantly lower burst (over 15k DPS less in the first 5-10 seconds).So over 30 seconds, Reaper already falls behind DH by a good 250000 Damage. In 3 Minutes, 1 million Damage.

As much as I want Reaper to be good, for me personally it's just not worth it still.

[Obtena.7952]

@Xxnecroxx.4039 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Xxnecroxx.4039 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Xxnecroxx.4039 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:Seriously ... this is exactly the reality. xxNecroxx is sensationalizing every time he posts. Frankly, if the raids do as poorly as he says when he plays necro and it's related to him being on his necro, it says more about his ability to play than it does about the class.

yes cause when I played regularly I would get clears on every boss in all 3 wings, consistently and had 2 sets of legendary armor, yeah I was REALLY bad at raids

So what are you complaining about? A few ignorant people? That's not a game problem ever. If you play necro and your telling us you are successful in raids ... what's the deal with all the negative posts you make about how necro isn't wanted in raids when it's not true? Why are you lying to us? What is your agenda here?

I stopped playing necro in raids a long time ago because of how bad it was mainly after the HUGE epi nerf where they removed epi bouncing, THE ONE THING keeping condi necro somewhat viable AND ONLY in certain encounters, I did what was good for the group and during that time I was hopeing that they would change necro for the better both power build and condi build (at least for PvE) they heavily nerfed and pretty much killed the condi build while only slightly constantly buffing power build to the point now where it is still bad just not a meme build anymore

So basically, you haven't played in so long you don't know what the current state of the game is. yet you still come here, tell us necros are bad in raids and yet you still successfully played it in raids, contradicting yourself. That's awesome. #makessense

o I log on whenever necro has changes, test them myself and see how the damage numbers change and see if there can be any change of rotations etc, (spoilers, nothing much has changed other then power reaper getting slightly better overtime, still not to overall viability status but out of meme build status). I read every update on every class to see how they are balancing the game (and praying to god they get some competent people to balance necro, they have not yet)

And? That doesn't tell you the current state of the game and is far from what any reasonable person would call 'playing'. It's irrelevant anyways ... if you worship the meta, you have to make good choices about what you play. That's your own self-imposed restriction. You can't complain if you choose poorly. If you learned to play, you could play whatever you want with people that think the same. That's on you. If your just going to QQ about how condi necro isn't meta every balance patch, you better get used to logging in to be disappointed every 4 months. Many of us don't have the problems you do because it's not about the class, it's about the player.

[Tobias.8632]

@Asum.4960 said:Grinded the Reaper rotation for about an hour, for me it's still at around 28K DPS on average.

Compared to something like a DH, which is imo easier and more forgiving to play, it's still a good 5k average DPS behind, while offering a lot less Utility and providing significantly lower burst (over 15k DPS less in the first 5-10 seconds).So over 30 seconds, Reaper already falls behind DH by a good 250000 Damage. In 3 Minutes, 1 million Damage.

As much as I want Reaper to be good, for me personally it's just not worth it still.

You're probably not hitting 100% crit chance though due to taking the new top talent over the crit one. Have you tried running more precision /sigil of accuracy / stuff like that? We lose a LOT of damage every time a gravedigger doesn't crit

[Warscythes.9307]

@Tobias.8632 said:

@Asum.4960 said:Grinded the Reaper rotation for about an hour, for me it's still at around 28K DPS on average.

Compared to something like a DH, which is imo easier and more forgiving to play, it's still a good 5k average DPS behind, while offering a lot less Utility and providing significantly lower burst (over 15k DPS less in the first 5-10 seconds).So over 30 seconds, Reaper already falls behind DH by a good 250000 Damage. In 3 Minutes, 1 million Damage.

As much as I want Reaper to be good, for me personally it's just not worth it still.

You're probably not hitting 100% crit chance though due to taking the new top talent over the crit one. Have you tried running more precision /sigil of accuracy / stuff like that? We lose a LOT of damage every time a gravedigger doesn't crit

I am going to preface that current Reaper bench is around 31k on SC.

The common notion right now is that precision is better than power until you crit cap. This is actually not true for reaper because roughly 60% of your damage is in shroud which is crit capped. This vastly skew the damage formula. So you actually still go full berserker. What's weird is that because you use greatsword for a lot of your out of shroud damage, it might actually be better to have an assassin greatsword with accuracy sigil because that's what you camp.

[Sigmoid.7082]

@Asum.4960 said:Grinded the Reaper rotation for about an hour, for me it's still at around 28K DPS on average.

Compared to something like a DH, which is imo easier and more forgiving to play, it's still a good 5k average DPS behind, while offering a lot less Utility and providing significantly lower burst (over 15k DPS less in the first 5-10 seconds).So over 30 seconds, Reaper already falls behind DH by a good 250000 Damage. In 3 Minutes, 1 million Damage.

As much as I want Reaper to be good, for me personally it's just not worth it still.

Must be doing something wrong. I can hit higher than that with sub optimal gear and GS only rotation.

Better people will be closer to 31-32k.

[Asum.4960]

@Warscythes.9307 said:

@Tobias.8632 said:

@Asum.4960 said:Grinded the Reaper rotation for about an hour, for me it's still at around 28K DPS on average.

Compared to something like a DH, which is imo easier and more forgiving to play, it's still a good 5k average DPS behind, while offering a lot less Utility and providing significantly lower burst (over 15k DPS less in the first 5-10 seconds).So over 30 seconds, Reaper already falls behind DH by a good 250000 Damage. In 3 Minutes, 1 million Damage.

As much as I want Reaper to be good, for me personally it's just not worth it still.

You're probably not hitting 100% crit chance though due to taking the new top talent over the crit one. Have you tried running more precision /sigil of accuracy / stuff like that? We lose a LOT of damage every time a gravedigger doesn't crit

I am going to preface that current Reaper bench is around 31k on SC.

Unless there is a new benchmark out that I haven't seen yet, the current Benchmark on SC sits at just under 30k DPS, although that is just the highest chatlog number picked out with Close to Death and Gravedigger spam active, with the average DPS being closer to 28.5k.

@Sigmoid.7082 said:Must be doing something wrong. I can hit higher than that with sub optimal gear and GS only rotation.

Better people will be closer to 31-32k.

Might very well. But that still leaves me with the fact that I can pick up almost any DPS and reach better numbers in about 10 minutes than I did with Reaper in over an hour practicing. So idk..

What did you average at?

Another thing I have been wondering about is how realistic 100% Chill uptime is, especially for 5 man content, as I never really paid attention to it.Would be nice if someone could give insight into the uptime of that 15% modifier.