[Necro changes previewed for Feb 3]

12 hours ago, Obtena.7952 said:

Or Anet knows that Dagger on Reaper is one of the most sustainable builds you can access as a Reaper and want to make that option improved for people that want to play that way.

This isn't about Anet pushing us  to play a certain way with some trap. That's absolutely absurd. It's about Anet giving players options.

 

I appreciate your will to keep staying here sharing your thoughts despite how the people in this community fail understanding them and the reasons around the balance changes. It is good that ArenaNet gets to see some variety in the feedback they get on the Forums.

 

Anyway, I’m here to say that, as someone who enjoys playing Necromancer (especially Reaper), and loves playing solo experimenting many builds, I like the direction of those changes. Consolidating the dagger as a weapon that provides a mix of sustain and damage, making shouts being more impactful at melee range for Reaper, the cooldown reductions made baseline, etc. They are all things I appreciate and I wanted for a long time.

 

I don’t have any interest in PvP, so I have nothing to say about how the changes might impact Necromancer competitively.

[March 29 Game Update Preview]

With the Exposed effect lasting 10 seconds I see no reason to differentiate the amount of increased damage between power and condition. 

Make it 20% for both power and condition. For a 10% increased damage most people, for good reasons, will just ignore the breakbar unless it needs to be destroyed to deal with important mechanics.

Also, the current difference (30% increased damage from power and 100% from condition) was ridiculously exaggerated to begin with. It is not like playing a power build automatically means having absurd burst of damage and phasing enemies instantly. It only happens with specific gear, with specific builds, specific teams, good players executing “rotations” properly and at the right time.

[Harbinger Feedback Thread [Merged]]

I’m glad Harbinger is effective as condition DPS because I literally could not play Scourge as one, it was just a frustrating experience because of the multiple offensive skills with instant cast and very low cooldown, and because of the tedious to manage internal cooldowns. Finally I can play a functional condition DPS.

 

I’m also glad there is the option to play him as a power DPS and I find it much more fun than the condition variant, though I’m aware of how it is underperforming DPS wise. There is an absolute massive DPS difference between the condition version and the power version. I hope the issue can be addressed by increasing the base coefficients of the skills and by buffing the damage of the main hand dagger.  

 

I can finally share Quickness and Fury and I like how that feature has been implemented.

[is playing guildwars 2 with 2 accounts and playing manuals can be called botting?]

2 hours ago, Kurrilino.2706 said:

 

Why do you tell him not to take them into PvP or WvW ???

He has all rights to do that according to the A-Net rules

According to the ArenaNet policy, multiboxing is not allowed in any competitive environment. 

[Scourge needs to go]

Just now, Paradoxoglanis.1904 said:

So people should just quit is what you are saying? Because most people already have.

People quit the game for many things. Too much balance for them, not enough balance for them, balance not going in the subjective direction they wanted, their favourite class being changed or nerfed, etc.

[Scourge needs to go]

6 minutes ago, Exile.8160 said:

Then thank god you are not a dev.

The problem is not the state of the balance, but people not being happy and whining about it. Balance is a way to address the whining, a bad way who often end up making the problem worse, cause many people start whining more and more hoping to get what they want, like children. 
 

A game developer is kind of like a parent having to do with children. 

 

[Scourge needs to go]

3 minutes ago, Exile.8160 said:

When in one of the biggest tournaments min of 2 scrouges are played on 90% of the team its not whinnin its notifing to the devs theres a problem.

 

I suggest you learn the diffrence.

I don’t see any problem with that, but I understand it is a problem for you and other people.

[Scourge needs to go]

1 minute ago, lilgirlcharlotte.2837 said:

your prob a scrouge player?

Me? I don’t play Scourge cause I never enjoyed its design. My comment is not about Scourge or any other spec, but about the Forum being full of posts of people asking to buff or nerf things. 

[Scourge needs to go]

When scrolling this Forum I can only wish ArenaNet can stop entirely balancing professions and ban (from the Forum) everyone who whine about balance. I’m so sick of these whiners ruining the Forum with these posts.

[Fix PVP with one change, how would you do it?]

ArenaNet could just stop balancing PvP, claiming PvP is what they want it to be and people should adapt to that state of things. This could somehow count as fixing it.

[ty so much for no downstate week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

5 minutes ago, bigo.9037 said:

So by this logic ranger should be weak class cus their DS is one of the best? Makes sense? Or are you just making things up now??

Do you even realise you are playing a MMORPG and not a one vs one fighting game? Balance is not as simple as in your reply, what you wrote alone means almost nothing balance wise, it is just a very small part of a complex puzzle.

[ty so much for no downstate week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

19 hours ago, bigo.9037 said:

Res skills and traits are literally the only thing DS is balanced around, and those skills and traits aren’t even balanced, way too strong. 

Almost everything is balanced taking into account the existence of downed state. No downed state mainly serves to fill the ego of people who takes advantage of a game not balanced around no downed state so they can more easily kill opponents and feel proud.

[ty so much for no downstate week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

I hope these downed state weeks will never come back, no downed state breaks the immersion so much, and the game is not balanced around no downed state

[Rotational abilities that feature acrobatic animations make the combat worse (for me*)]

12 hours ago, Aodlop.1907 said:

It just struck me as I was playing my Reaper, precisely because Reaper lacks that shortcoming that most classes have: being locked from moving freely while performing an attack, because that attack comes with an acrobatic movement animation.

This is one of the main reasons why I can’t play other professions, and why I love Reaper so much. I want to have free movement while using my skills.

[[Suggestions]QoL (Quality of Life) Ideas [Merged]]

Let us use any Ascended Armor piece as a precursor to make a Legendary Armor piece, not just those we can get by doing Envoy Armor achievements. The Legendary Armor

obtained this way would not have any unique skin, but only the functionality of a Legendary Armor.

[Demonic Lore PvE nerf]

The changes I’d propose to make the gameplay of Scourge less frenetic and to get rid of annoying internal cooldowns:

1. Change Manifest Sand Shade to no longer add Torment application to the other Shade skills (F2, 3, 4, 5).

2. Change the interaction between Shade skills and Traits so that only Manifest Sand Shade count as Shroud skill 1. Set related traits to give different duration or number of stacks to Scourge (compared to core Necro and Reaper), changing the description of the traits accordingly.

3. Remove the internal cooldowns from Dhumfire and Demonic Lore. They will no longer be “needed”, since they will be tied to skills which have both a casting time and a cooldown.

 

Not having any reason to spam F2 and F3 (instant cast skills) every few seconds and to pay attention to internal cooldowns all the time will make the gameplay much more enjoyable for almost everyone. Support skills will be used to support instead of being spammed to damage enemies while casting other skills.

[GEMSTORE REQUESTS: New Items; Items offered again - [Merged]]

I wish the return of Balthazar Regalia Outfit

[Dhuumfire ; a rework suggestion.]

7 hours ago, killfil.3472 said:

Here's how I'd change it up ; 

Dhuumfire allows shroud skills 1 to apply burning, varying in duration and intensity depending on the specialization.

Core ; Life Blast ; 2 stacks for 4 seconds. 

Reaper ; Life Rend/Slash/Reap ; 1 stack for 3 seconds.

Scourge ; all F skills ; 1 stack for 5 second. 

Remove ICD in PvE.

 

How do y'all like it?

The Reaper one is not changed, it is how it works now in PvE and seems fine to me.

 

Scourge: 1 stack for 5 seconds on every F skill and the removal of the internal cooldown in PvE seems really too much to me.

 

This is what I suggest to change on Scourge:
I’d remove the internal cooldown of Dhumfire and change it to 1 stack for 6 seconds at every F1 (also changing every trait related to Shroud 1 to only work with F1 on Scourge, adjusting the duration or the stacks of the applied conditions).
This way the instant cast support skills will be used for support and to activate related traits, instead of continuously spammed while using other skills to apply damage, and the internal cooldowns could be removed.

F2, 3 and 4 all have related traits already, those tied to Shroud 2, 3 and 4 for the other Necromancer specs. F1 and F5 will be the Shade skills that can be used to apply Condition damage.

 

[Power Reaper: Hesitating between Zerk, Marauder & Valkyrie]

12 hours ago, Atille.5047 said:

It's not, but hey, if it floats for you. It's not a 7% difference and I will still advocate for actually learning how to play a better build with a higher damage potential rather than relying on SoS - especially for raids, where most of encounters is spanking of next HPsponge's derriere and Reaper is really not that demanding of group's boonsupport performance - bar is incredibly low for it to perform to the best of it's ability. I also did lay down that with Spite over WoD you'll be at risk of worse Chill, but would make up somewhat for lost power. I did also mention that some specific bosses (and depending on how your group performance is) can call for a SoS build - namely I'd advocate for it on Adina, Sloth if poor slub control, and the likes where you notice taking a lot of unnecessary Shroud damage. Keyword, it's usually unnecessary and it's better to work on your positioning instead. 

 

Classic Power Reaper clocks out near-permanent uptime by itself, ditching WoD drops that to around 45%, further down in actual encounters. It's a huge dip and you must be mindful of it and your comp, because nobody will be doing the chill application for you intentionally. Risk is very much there, especially out of Shroud - giving you very unfortunate damage dips. It's possible to make up for it by burning Shroud 5, but that's delaying your 4 whilst also burning your convenient CC skill, so not exactly ideal either.

I have already told you where you are wrong, there is really not much else to say. So, I’ll not repeat myself, I gave correct informations already.

For a Reaper is “difficult”, in “a group”, not being at 25 Might most of the time, that’s true (and not exactly what you said, but a corrected version), the same is true for maintaining Chill without having to use WoD (nor Executioner Scythe), while simply following the rotation. In case a group can not do that (but never happened to me), I can easily solve the problem, and it doesn’t cost nearly as much (in DPS and in effort) as solving the lack of Life Force generation. You keep repeating a non issue.

 

People can play a better build (in that case, the SoS one) and still learn the encounter well, it is even much easier when you don’t often find yourself lacking Life Force and not being able to follow a rotation (what happens -at different degrees- to every Reaper using the “META” build, obviously, and the fault is mostly in the build, whose rotation can not even make up for the natural degeneration of the Life Force). If one is interested in improving its positioning on the field and better learning the encounter, in fact, solving the issues of the “META” build will be really helpful.

[Power Reaper: Hesitating between Zerk, Marauder & Valkyrie]

3 hours ago, Atille.5047 said:

Not entirely true, AtP is flat out +250 power. Huge chunk (practically all) of your damage IS purely power.  If not making any further changes, your damage drops from about 33.5-ish K dps all the way down to 25-26k (at best), which is big.  You can, however, also ditch WoD, but then you must be mindful about not being low on Chill, because losing Cold Shoulder uptime is also a big hit, twice as bad if that happens during Shroud loops. In case those conditions are met, you'll be sitting at about 29k-30k if RNG permits, and ideally you'd want to be burning Shroud 5 before every loop as well. 

Thus, losing 5% of Scholar bonus is bad, but losing 250 power, potentially uptime of 15% damage increase if you choose to run no WoD on top of that is even worse. There's no advantage to running an offmeta variant compared to normal Reaper in any instanced situation besides ease of use, and it'll always be quite a bit worse. I'd rather advocate for learning the encounters and doing good on classic Reaper instead, for besides it's shortcomings Reaper remains hugely forgiving in many aspects - and in light of supports being around, there's really no reason why you should sacrifice so much just in fear of one damage modifier being potentially lost. 

In OW/DRMs/WvW, though, fair play and obviously a better choice if LF management/more tanki-ness is desired. 

Almost everything you are saying is wrong. 
 

Firstly, Awaken the Pain is not a flat out 250 increased power compared to Signets of Suffering. SoS allows signets to work in Shroud and so you will have +270 power in Shroud thanks to Signet of Spite (20 Power more than AtP at max Might). There is also to consider that the in Shroud damage is overall superior to the out of Shroud damage, it is not a 50-50%.

The out of Shroud power instead is 250 less than AtP (assuming the group can keep 25 Stack of Might permanently with AtP).
With Signets of Suffering we also gain a little damage from Signet of Vampirism that will work in Shroud, and the healing which is useful to gain back the 5% bonus from Scholar Rune if needed.
 

I have yet to see a group (with a Reaper) who struggle maintaining Chill, while I have seen plenty of groups (especially from the lfg, but absolutely not only from there) who can’t maintaining 25 Might stacks all the time.

 

The difference in damage potential (under optimal scenario)  between the two builds is 7% at most (this is with Signets of Suffering, Signet of Vampirism, Signet of Spite, Signet of Undeath, Well of Suffering from the alternative build). When a Reaper can’t avoid all the damage (without interrupting the rotation) while in Shroud, the SoS build easily make up the difference. In fact, it almost always performs better, both damage wise and obviously sustain wise, the exceptions are rare and they require to be in a very good group and at specific bosses (in Raids). In Fractal, where damage bursts count more, the “META” build has more chances to shine.

[Power Reaper: Hesitating between Zerk, Marauder & Valkyrie]

27 minutes ago, Atille.5047 said:

In open world, just switching Awaken the Pain for Signets of Suffering and running Undeath gives you enough passive LF both in and out of shroud to tank pretty much most things whilst making 0 gear changes. It isn't even that awful in instanced content and sometimes (rarely) is desirable if there's a lot of shroud pressure fumbling over your uptime of big deeps mode, something like Adina in raids or Sloth if group's bad at controlling slublings.

These changes, in most groups, are optimal for most Raids and Strike Missions and also several Fractals, not just rarely. Just a little damage taken and all the advantage (just a little extra damage) of the  “META” build is lost.

 

Considering what the OP is asking for, I am pretty sure this is what he needs for PvE.

[Power Reaper: Hesitating between Zerk, Marauder & Valkyrie]

1 hour ago, Aodlop.1907 said:

Isn't that an even bigger DPS loss than picking Marauder instead of Zerk?

It is, but the difference made by Marauder is very low, traits and skills are often far more impactful (for example Marauder defensively and in helping Life Force management does almost nothing compared to Blood Magic).
Also, generally you don’t even need to take Blood Magic to be very tanky in Berserker gear. 
For example, you can do the changes I proposed in my previous post, you will have much better Healing, Life Force gain, and much better Damage compared to using Marauder and the “META” build.
When it is not enough for you cause you are soloing some very strong champion, you could consider using the skill “Rise!” for 33% damage reduction, etc.

 

There is no reason to regret the Berserker choice on Reaper. 

[Power Reaper: Hesitating between Zerk, Marauder & Valkyrie]

Full Berserker gear can totally sustain Champion’s damage in solo fights, all is needed is tweaking the build a bit. Necromancer (which include Reaper and Scourge) can drastically reduce damage taken with Skills and Traits, and also have high healing and Life Force generation.

[Power Reaper: Hesitating between Zerk, Marauder & Valkyrie]

On 5/18/2021 at 5:47 PM, Aodlop.1907 said:

I know ideally you want to be a living God, dodge every single mechanic and go full Zerg to smash hard.

But reality is: I'm not flawless and I'll probably get hit or fail to do a mechanic sometimes. So, the extra vitality helps I assume.

 

Now I've seen builds that go for Berserker armor and then all the trinkets are either Marauder or Valkyrie. I feel like I can pick one of those, I just don't know which and I'd love to hear your thoughts regarding this whole situation.

I'll only have one set because I'm poor so I'd really like to make the right decision and not regret it later on.

 

Thanks for your help.

Just use Berserker and change one trait and one skill from the current “““META””” (so called) build.
 

Spite: take Signets of Suffering instead of Awaken the Pain.

 

Heal: take Signet of Vampirism

 

Utility: take Signet of Undeath instead of Well of Darkness.

 

Enjoy far better survivability and Life Force generation at no cost damage wise (about 6% less potential DPS under an optimal scenario that could never happen and is literally impossible in most fights, but in practice you will do almost always more DPS with the changes I proposed). This is far more effective than using other stats, and you will have what you asked for. You can use that build in Raids too, you will have better performances.

 

Reaper can be very tanky with Berserker equipment, there is really no need to consider other gear (for PvE). Just use efficient builds.

[Condi scourge condition transfer]

27 minutes ago, Asum.4960 said:

Yep, for me it's consistently left to right. Really the only factor left that comes to mind right now, if you don't mind answering, are you NA or EU (grasping at straws here for what, somehow, could be the factor)?

Since we are examining the mysterious conditions that lead different people to get different results, your question seems pertinent. I am on EU.