Black Storm.6974

Initially Reaper was exactly what was supposed to be, it was something that, as the developer said, others shouldn’t fight melee. Its damage was quite low, its high defence and its access to Stability allowed Reaper to be a resilient melee fighter. Very soon people complained, the access to Stability got a heavy nerf, the Shout ”Rise!” too. Reaper as a resilient melee fighter was already dead. Then, patch after patch its defence got sacrificed in favour of additional damage.

Writ of Persistence: In PvP only, this trait no longer increases the radius of symbols. Please ArenaNet, don’t do that kind of split between game modes.

Then they should have taken away necro's life steal, not the mastery's.There was no need to punish everyone, just because Necro was sucking more life. This skill either needs to have the life steal back.The active ability is just bad. Necro would heal for way more than other classes anyway, because its #1 is a spammable channel skill. Each pulse triggered the heal of the old skill, which was a fixed amount instead of a percentage of damage dealt.The Life Steal from the old downed skill 5 had 1 second internal cooldown, so it was triggered once every second at most, not with every pulse.

I think that removing Necro's Life Steal wouldn't be bad for PvP. I think no profession should have an easier time refilling their HP during downed state.Either give all professions life leech during the downed state or no profession at all. Different professions have different tools. Ranger and Guardian have an easier time refilling their life while downed compared to Necromancer, Elementalist can reposition himself with Mistform while taking no damage, etc. The only thing Necromancer can do while downed is doing low damage and Life Siphon, and the only defensive tool is a single target Fear with a long cast time and clear animation.

Then they should have taken away necro's life steal, not the mastery's.There was no need to punish everyone, just because Necro was sucking more life. This skill either needs to have the life steal back.The active ability is just bad. It’s not the Necromancer’s downed state that was OP. Its damage is not as great as some people claim it to be (it is actually garbage, far far lower than what we can do when up), and the Life Steal from skill 1 is not enough to counter the life degeneration (not even when helped by traits). It was just the combination of Necromancer Life Steal and the passive Life Steal from the old downed skill 5 that was OP. So, to me, changing the skill later implemented that caused the problem feels natural. I don’t even think it was just Necromancer that was OP with downed skill 5, probably also Ranger and Guardian.

Condition Reaper have been a thing, also very popular, for a long time before PoF. Despite the popular sites no longer having any up to date build for it, it is a viable alternative to Condition Scourge and it also got buffed recently. Reaper and Scourge are very different and there are people, like me, that would never play Scourge Condition (which is also insanely difficult to play effectively in PvE). Deathly Chill is a very important trait for Condition Reaper.

There is no way I’m going to use condition Scourge. I’m looking for a condition Reaper build. Thank you.

Your post is wrong, you are providing entirely fake data.That farm, with Engineer, is worth about 3g per hour of drop (+ about 600 Volatile Magic and some Karma). These numbers even require the effort to summon Elite turrets as soon as the other turrets despawn.Necromancer is even worse, its gain is mostly far lower. There are people there manually summoning their turrets every 5 minutes. Since there are few farming spots that are better than others, and since people have to gather together to not be killed by mobs, ArenaNet can easily and rapidly jump from one place to another to check who is farming legitimately and who is not. Nerfing these spots would just support the real afk farmers, and would make checking if people are farming legitimately truly hard. Many people think that ArenaNet don’t care, but often the reality is that ArenaNet is just better than those people at thinking at fair and manageable solutions.

The game isn't designed to need any class to compete' in PVE to begin with ... so there isn't anything to fix. What a ridiculous statement. lmao What's ridiculous about it? Anyone can play whatever they want and be successful in this game, so what is being fixed if Anet changes DPS on Necro? People being happy to play their favourite class in raids with actual good people without feeling like you are dragging your friends down and getting higher killtimes? Hey, if you impose subjective conditions on the system that throws out all the available choices, that's simply a "you" problem. That combination of factors has too much subjectivity for Anet to ensure that can be fulfilled for every player ... instead they have done the more practical approach because this game isn't about placating EACH player ... a wide range of choice that covers as best as possible any players conditions. If your subjective and numerous requirements to be happy playing the game can't be satisfied ... that's not something Anet can fix. The game wasn't designed to need higher kill times because of the low threshold for success in endgame, so of course DPS differences between classes doesn't manifest itself as a problem. Ok. I'll stop discussing with a stubborn whiteknight. Good ... that just tells me you need more time to think about the fact that the game design doesn't need control individual class DPS because of players wanting faster kill times. Playing necro is essentially playing GW2 on a harder difficulty where every enemy and boss has 30% more health and thus 30% more chances to wipe you with mechanics. Doing less DPS is bad.This is not true, the comparison is not that simple. Also, Reaper is generally incredibly fun and effective to play against group of mobs. I really enjoy it (it is really the only thing I enjoy playing in the game), and if you don’t, maybe you should just play something else. Some people really can only see single target DPS, but fortunately they don’t have control over design nor balance.

I’m using a thumb button on the mouse (mouse 4) for Weapon Swap. It is generally useful to be able to press it very fast when executing combos/rotations. To be able to press it with almost no delay after using a skill, could be better to use something that can be pressed with a thumb (on the keyboard) or with the other hand (not the one you use for skills).

Probably most people who want downed state to be removed are people with a false impression of how skilled they are. They want it to be removed so they can more easily feel more skilled, by abusing of the fact that the game is not designed nor balanced around the absence of the downed state. Those who are “really skilled” don’t need downed state to go away, and they know that GW2 combat system makes personal skill differences be very impactful already. Further increasing the gap between more skilled players and less skilled players would just lead to a lot of frustration for most people, just for the joy of few people.

I’d bet that less than 5% of the GW2 player base would not hate the removal of the downed state. The vast majority of GW2 players want it to stay, for good reasons. These polls just make the vocal minority feel far bigger than it is. The game is not designed nor balanced around the absence of the downed state. It can’t be a “solution” for when there is the outnumbered, nor for anything else. The combat, without downed state, also feels far more empty and far less immersive.

No downed state don’t need any more space in Guild Wars 2. No downed state makes the combat feel more empty and less immersive, and only a small minority is interested in it. The game is also not balanced around no downed state. Removing it, in any game mode, would just be a big mistake.

I can easily compete things in HoT maps with an alt account, without mounts and with a badly equipped character of a profession I know nothing about. It just require some attention (and the ability to dodge and use the auto attack), enough to feel like we are in the dangerous place that Heart of Maguuma is supposed to be. For the Hero Points that require to kill a champion I was always able to find someone to help me (even without having to ask).

The Signets you are referring to are Signet of Spite and Signet of Undeath. I agree, using them (+ Signet of Vampirism and Well of Suffering) in combination with Signets of Suffering (trait) is a very good strategy to maintain a high DPS and avoid screwing the rotation thanks to the extra passive Life Force generation. It is also helpful defensively.It also makes a Greatsword+Reaper Shroud only (no Axe) rotation possible with less Life Force generation issues. Not having to swap to Axe makes the rotation extremely easy. Also, this (but with Well of Darkness instead of Well of Suffering) is what is optimal to run for Reaper in the role of BackWarg at the Escort of Glenna. Just immobilise it, cast GS4+WoD+GS5, enter in Shroud, then Shroud skill 4+Shroud auto attack until the Warg is at less than 25% Health points, then cast Shroud skill 5 and auto attack until the end (the last hit could be a GS 3 just to gain back Life Force).The back Warg should die halfway between its spawn point and the first mines. Signet of Undeath will take care of the Life Force generation before another Warg will spawn. I prefer Necromancer (not Scourge condition that is overly complicated and feels completely different from any necro spec), mostly Reaper, over Ranger. I love its Cleaving potential, the utilities it can provide in Fractal, its self buffing capability. I love how it moves itself and the Shroud mechanic. The potential DPS is definitely lower compared to Soulbeast, and particularly noticeable in Raids (but also in Fractal CMs when fighting bosses with mostly no adds to cleave) when playing with one of the few great Soulbeast out there. I enjoyed using Scourge as a healer for some time, but now I rarely use it (it is quite fun and helpful at Boneskinner, or in Open World meta events where “people” continuously die). When I played Scourge Healer in Fractal the groups of PUGs was in serious lack of DPS, it is far better for the group to have the DPS of my Reaper compared to the support of my Scourge. When playing in Fractal is also generally better (same for Druid) to let the Firebrand heal. When playing Druid or Scourge healer there, could be important to remember to pick a Quickbrand for its buffs (Aegis for example is almost mandatory against some bosses, the Quickness is helpful). To enjoy Necromancer in PvP you have to enjoy having by far the greatest weaknesses compared to every other profession. You also have to accept that you will often be disabled by CCs, and bursted down if the enemy group coordination is good.

Unranked is 5vs5 only

That would make finishers mostly useless. bring back celerity as a mean to finish fast. done @Black Storm.6974my arguments still stand. your second phase kitten is a defeated state wether you like it or not.no downed state does make the fights better (in particular in WvW!!! the most fun i had in wvw was when the no donwed state event came) but there is always the whining casual croud that ask for an easier game so they can play without improving.we can also speak about the useless autoattack the war has in downed state. or the inefficient elem one.downed states are as balanced as water content. but it is alright in most case. but in some case it is just pure BS. adapt you say? well have you tried to 1v2 a player with his guard support mate? you down him but the guard CC you and revive him. most of your skills are on cd. you are low on hp. but that guy, who cleared all the condi you took, time to put on him while getting downed, now get back up with 50% hp and the 1v2 is basically reset but with you having an extra disadvantage. the game need to improve like it did with the stab mechanic being changed. (yes it is an improvement despite some WvW "veteran" whining not being able to be immun to CC. anymore)like the poor damage on CC, which is a very good balance change! the change of scrapper anti projectile bubble that used to repel arrows but now only destroy them is also a good change! little by little the game gets better and better (but also worst in some case but thats for another thread.) arenanet tried the no downed state, several times, just to see how it goes. but they discarded it in the end for reasons. BUT downed state in pvp/wvw need to be changed somewhat. which they did for WvW so that you can't revive everyone when only one downed enemy were killed. but that is not enough. works well for bus vs bus but it is not that impactfull in roaming or small scale fights.in the end i am just another guy who give his feedback on what could possibly be better for the game. anyway, second phase or not, it should not be a "phase" where you can DPS your target. point. Like it or not a downed player is not defeated, and the proof is that it can still fight. It is a fact with no room for contestation.It seems they can even cause trouble to you, but still you consider them as defeated. You see problems that are problems for you (and other people) but not for others, because it is entirely subjective. A game without downed state won’t be better, only different. Downed state balance seems to be mostly ignored, just like underwater balance. I agree with that, but my solution would be to look at them and eventually change something. This game has, for example, the best underwater combat I have ever seen. I find very interesting the presence of the downed state as a second phase of the fight. Removing or severely crippling one and/or the other, from my point of view, would be a big waste, when they could be improved instead. you mean this is one of the very rare games with water combat rigth? of course its one of the best if you can't find it in other games. i don't care what you call it. defeated state, second phase state, pizza chicken state...the problem is not about the downed state itself but what it does. and it should not be allowed to dps in that state (in pvp and wvw) for all the reasons i gave. yes it need to be changed, not neccessarly removed. remember the title of the thread?I don’t see any reason why downed state should not be allowed to do DPS, not even in your post.Your post only shows what you want, nothing else. I understand that you don’t like the downed state phase of the fight. You consider people in that state as defeated (and you want them to be so) when in reality they are not, and that is the main reason why you don’t like it. I know your proposal was not to remove it, but in your posts it is clear that its removal would be your preference. If you cripple downed state too much, it really would become a “useless” part of the game, and probably it would end up being removed (or changed back to be an interesting phase of the fight).

That would make finishers mostly useless. bring back celerity as a mean to finish fast. done @Black Storm.6974my arguments still stand. your second phase kitten is a defeated state wether you like it or not.no downed state does make the fights better (in particular in WvW!!! the most fun i had in wvw was when the no donwed state event came) but there is always the whining casual croud that ask for an easier game so they can play without improving.we can also speak about the useless autoattack the war has in downed state. or the inefficient elem one.downed states are as balanced as water content. but it is alright in most case. but in some case it is just pure BS. adapt you say? well have you tried to 1v2 a player with his guard support mate? you down him but the guard CC you and revive him. most of your skills are on cd. you are low on hp. but that guy, who cleared all the condi you took, time to put on him while getting downed, now get back up with 50% hp and the 1v2 is basically reset but with you having an extra disadvantage. the game need to improve like it did with the stab mechanic being changed. (yes it is an improvement despite some WvW "veteran" whining not being able to be immun to CC. anymore)like the poor damage on CC, which is a very good balance change! the change of scrapper anti projectile bubble that used to repel arrows but now only destroy them is also a good change! little by little the game gets better and better (but also worst in some case but thats for another thread.) arenanet tried the no downed state, several times, just to see how it goes. but they discarded it in the end for reasons. BUT downed state in pvp/wvw need to be changed somewhat. which they did for WvW so that you can't revive everyone when only one downed enemy were killed. but that is not enough. works well for bus vs bus but it is not that impactfull in roaming or small scale fights.in the end i am just another guy who give his feedback on what could possibly be better for the game. anyway, second phase or not, it should not be a "phase" where you can DPS your target. point.Like it or not a downed player is not defeated, and the proof is that it can still fight. It is a fact with no room for contestation.It seems they can even cause trouble to you, but still you consider them as defeated. It is what you want them to be, not what they are. You see problems that are problems for you (and other people) but not for others, because it is entirely subjective. A game without downed state won’t be better, only different. Downed state balance seems to be mostly ignored, just like underwater balance. I agree with that, but my solution would be to look at them and eventually change something. This game has, for example, the best underwater combat I have ever seen. I find very interesting the presence of the downed state as a second phase of the fight. Removing or severely crippling one and/or the other, from my point of view, would be a big waste, when they could be improved instead.

That would make finishers mostly useless.

because it promote larger groupes and is harmful for 1v1 or 1v2 scenario.of course i don't like it. but it goes beyond simply me don't liking it. it is a very casual friendly feature that has its place for PvE.downing a player should be rewarding. but in some case, especially in 1vX it is not. becasue depeinding on the class you will have a hard time dealing with the +1 and the extra ( sometimes unavoidable) damage or CC from the downed. you need that extra effort or save that extra skill you wont use during the fight just to finish someone which is hard to do when you had a fair fight and you are already low on HP or on CD on most skills.not every class have access to a safe finisher. engi, elem and thieves have one. not the rest. as for necro in downed state, its damage is high enough (and unavoidable as its not even a projectile) to put a considerable pressure on the enemy. especially if you run a glass canon build (berserker). the time it takes you to use a finisher and eventually dodge or take the fear to come back and use finisher again you will lose too much HP. you can't even stun a downed target. so you get to fight an immobile turret you can't CC (unless you throw a bump) that deal constant damage to you whatever you do where as when it was alive you could control it to death or outmaneuver it to cancel channeling abilities like axe 2. thus dealing more damage. you must understand that, usually when you get downed, you are deafeted. earning extra life and new abilities with a resistance to CC should be only a mechanic to help PvE casual people or survive fails by getting help from another player. (in other mmorpg there is some revive spells too but no downed state. this is just a gaemplay choice and it is fine).but in pvp/wvw it become quickly frustration to have to deal with it. i'd say, the pvp and wvw would be better without downed state but with the ability to revive dead people with revive ability instead of reviving the downed.even so, beiong able to use 2 and 3 is fine. it may give that extra helping ability for the downed. but a constant dps is a no no. especially with BS ranger downed state. It is simply your mistake to consider downed characters as defeated. They are not. Your entire argument (or most of it) is based on that false perception you have. Downed characters are just in another phase of the fight where they are far less effective and very limited (and no, there are not exceptions to that). Putting a player in downed state is far from being useless and could turn a fight in the favour of those able to make good use of the opportunity. As it can be difficult for you to finish a downed player, can be difficult and risky for others to revive it. Performing a finisher was always risky, but it is not your only option. In the end, you are probably just another person that try to change the game instead of learning, adapting and properly building your character based on what you want to do. Surely without downed state the fight would be much simpler, also faster, but that doesn’t mean it would be better. I find the downed state phase of the fight to be, for the group, a very interesting part of the GW2 combat system, supported by the interactions with several skills and traits. After all these years, fights would feel so empty without it.

Auto attacks are helpful to not get very soon tired of playing in PvE, where people often play for a long time.This is also a highly dynamic game where pressing skills to do damage is only one of many things we have to do while fighting. There are plenty of reasons to not just auto attack and that is enough. Having auto attacks is very good for the game and fortunately ArenaNet seem to understand that better than you.

Power Necromancer downed damage is far far lower than the damage it can do while alive. Also, Necromancer don’t have anything powerful for saving his life in downed state. I can’t see any value in the change you are proposing. You just want a mechanic of the GW2 combat system to be taken away because you don’t like it.

Reaper is actually a good duelist an why it's currently overperforming in conquest. I have stopped playing PvP few months ago, when it was a poor dueller in conquest. I’m not sure if the recent balance patch changed that.

I doubt it is really 75%. Anyway, in 2vs2 Necromancer can’t be focused and CC to death in instants, so it is more enjoyable there. Lichform could get a rework, just nerfing its damage would take away all it has to offer (high damage for few seconds on 150 seconds cooldown, and only if the opponents don’t have any way to reflect or block projectiles for few seconds). Anyway, ArenaNet can’t balance Necromancer for 2vs2 (not without reworking it from the ground or splitting balance between Conquest and 2vs2). Anyway I wonder if there is really something to balance here, since I’m sure there are far stronger duellers out there. Probably in high divisions where there are those who knows how to play their professions it can be noticed. They can not just take away from it the strength that is supposed to be a compensation for the great weaknesses Necromancer has in Conquest. In conquest it is a poor dueller. It is also slow and very vulnerable to CCs and damage bursts. Its damage is highly dependent on Reaper Shroud, so it is not even really reliable. Necromancer starts every match without Life Force, that means that it is initially both very vulnerable and poor at doing damage.

I wonder what happened to the opener. Necromancer, especially Scourge is at most average in competitive modes right now. It is also, by far, the profession with the greatest weaknesses. It can be countered in so many ways. This is something important to remember, these weaknesses “need” to be compensated with something actually strong, otherwise Necromancer would be just useless. In PvP it basically needs to be escorted by a support most of the time, to not be destroyed in few instants. Without Reaper’s Onslaught, Reaper would be just trash at duelling, and even with it it is well below average. Scourge got its Shades nerfed so many times. Now they are just weak and small static AoEs that barely do anything to 2 targets.