Black Storm.6974

Reaper is quite bad right now, you can realise it as soon as you fight against any competent team instead of “PvP beginners”. Surviving with it is very difficult, it has low damage and/or low survivability compared to the things already mentioned here.When focused in team fight, if you don’t have competent support and a good team with you, you can be taken from 100% HP and 100% LF to death in about 4 seconds, while under the effect of CCs. Its damage is not reliable. It is good while in Reaper Shroud, but if the enemy avoid it (and it is very simple with the powerful defences or mobility that other professions have access to) you find yourself with low damage weapons and bad defence for at least 10 seconds (usually more than enough to take down a Reaper). Reaper is also a lot inferior to several things mentioned in this thread if fighting 1vs1.

Maybe Engineer (both power and condition), Deadye, Tempest, Revenant (the problem are the conditions that still “need” to be reduced for everyone), other professions with their condition builds. There is a general problem with conditions. There are a lot of condition builds that can make incredibly high burst damage, but also several condition builds with way too high sustained damage (often these have high defence too).Condition damage “needs” to be reduced at least as much as power damage was reduced. Let’s start balancing singular professions after building a “fair” base.

It is not only Revenant. I’m surprised to see ArenaNet letting the work only half done. Condition damage “needs” to be reduced at least as much as power damage got reduced (then we could have a base where to start to balance professions singularly).We have less healing, some professions got their survivability nerfed, but conditions can hit harder than power damage pre 02-25-2020. PvP is full of condition builds that can annihilate in few seconds even professions with very high cleansing potential in their builds.

Necromancer is currently quite bad in PvP, compared to many overpowered builds that most of the other professions can use. Some people talk about how strong necromancers are right now, but it is pure fantasy. Anyway, I’m surprised to see ArenaNet letting the work only half done. Condition damage “needs” to be reduced at least as much as power damage got reduced.We have less healing, some professions got their survivability nerfed, but conditions can hit harder than power damage pre 02-25-2020. PvP is full of condition builds that can annihilate in few seconds even professions with very high cleansing potential in their builds.

Scourge healer is very bad in PvP. Unfortunately It is actually impossible to make a decent PvP build for it. There is not enough survivability, when placing Shades you have to choose between die near your shade and die without any defence away from your Shade. You will usually end up wasting the support you should offer to your allies, just to survive a bit more. Only ArenaNet can fix that. I feel like the best way to do that could be to change how Shades work, again.

I'm not sure if this is still the case, as base rev has assassins' presence (they even buffed warrior to have soldiers focus). If a class is to be desirable in endgame content, it needs to excel at something that that content needs, be it heals, buffs or damage. If a class has none of those, or is sub-optimal compared to another class, why should it be carried through that content? This, in a nutshell, is the necro problem in endgame pve. If I’m not wrong they said “that” after the release of HoT, so after Revenant was released. The warrior buff is a buff to a class that was already increasing allies DPS by a lot, so maybe that don’t increase “profession exclusion”. Probably they don’t want to give that kind of thing (neither “competitive DPS) to every class, for design reasons, and to contain “class exclusion” they want to limit the number of classes that can share these kind of buffs. For the same reason we have Banners sharing their buffs to 10 allies (to “free” a spot for another profession). Anyway, I’d appreciate the possibility to boost allies DPS with my necromancer, as long as that would not be tied to Scourge (or any other Elite Specialization, since different people have different preferences). Assuming that what I described is still their reason for not giving to necromancer what you want it to have, to “unlock” the situation you could have to convince them to change their mind about that. People tried to do that and “failed” for over seven years.

Years ago ArenaNet said they don’t want to add more professions specific enhancement that boost allies damage. They used to think they are not good for the balance of the game. Ideas similar to yours have been suggested for over 7 years, but ArenaNet always refused to apply them (initially simply because necromancer was designed to be selfish, if I remember correctly).

I played a lot of PvP recently. Considering that experience I feel like, in the current “environment”, the weakest profession could be Mesmer, followed by Necromancer, then maybe Revenant. I’m not sure about Warrior. Every other professions seems to have at least one incredibly strong build.

For me the endgame PvE is more about “thematic” than “efficiency”. I mean, I try to improve myself, but I only play what I enjoy (mostly Reaper), and I enjoy it thanks to how Reaper is designed (even if its potential DPS is, by design, one of the lowest).For the same reason I can’t play Scourge condition, no matter how efficient it is or could become. I’m playing with people that accept me as a Reaper and I put a lot of effort into trying to improve “myself” as a “fighter”. I do that since years and most people accept me. I’d appreciate some DPS boost, but I don’t think ArenaNet have to give that to us. Anyway I expect that DPS boost to come, since I doubt the DPS difference is so big by design. Maybe it is simply something that happened (a kind of mistake), because probably ArenaNet don’t really think about the future benchmarks when doing balance patches.

I’d really like to have that ability. Teleportation skills are one of the main reason why I chose necromancer and they would be much more enjoyable for me with Flesh Wurm as a teleport and teleport back skill.

Generally speaking teleports on necro are tricky. The hardcounter to necro is burst while shroud is on cooldown. If you can port around excessively during these 10 seconds the class becomes instantly broken - esp. the mentioned minion builds which are usually very tanky. The second teleportation would be instantly available, if you choose to sacrifice Flesh Wurm. It can’t die before someone could use a second teleport, unless the positioning is really bad. Based on the situation and the positioning, sometimes even a second “free teleportation” (30 seconds later) could be available (probably not worth the risk anyway, the cooldown could be shorter considering the risk). “Any” smart player could make good use of that. Probably it would be too strong, but surely not useless.

Maybe it could be something like that: First Necrotic Traversal for teleporting to your Flesh Wurm, then if you activate it again within 30 seconds the teleportation will cost its life. Waiting the full 30 seconds, instead, could allow another “free teleportation”. This way we could still have the possibility to destroy Flesh Wurm.

i think when a player return after a time, he will be happy to see something newAs some classes u still deal no damage after practicing, but as i said before, for some classes a damage increase would be not good yea While there are classes with a potential damage output definitely higher than others, I have to say that every class can do a very big amount of damage already. For me and many other people returning to the game and finding to not be effective just as before would only be a stress. There are already a lot of things to do in game, things that don’t lead to player exclusion. hmm yea, in that point you are definitely right ^^' but i never heard that players got excluded because of such things o.o Exactly, that kind of exclusion don’t exist in this game, because of how ArenaNet designed the game :) (Low difference of effectiveness between different rarities of equipment, low difference of damage output between people that dedicate a lot of time and resources to optimise the equipment and people who dedicate only few time and resources to that). ArenaNet, over the years, has attracted a lot of people with that philosophy. I think changing that would be really risky. Yea, i admit my mistakes because of the damage increase and edit it a bit with adding some ideas for sigils and deleting the 1st part, i am sorry x.xDon’t worry :) I would really appreciate to see different sigils in GW2.I’d also appreciate more effective sigils with effects not focused on increasing the damage output, or not directly. I find particularly boring PvP sigils.

i think when a player return after a time, he will be happy to see something newAs some classes u still deal no damage after practicing, but as i said before, for some classes a damage increase would be not good yea While there are classes with a potential damage output definitely higher than others, I have to say that every class can do a very big amount of damage already. For me and many other people returning to the game and finding to not be effective just as before would only be a stress. There are already a lot of things to do in game, things that don’t lead to player exclusion. hmm yea, in that point you are definitely right ^^' but i never heard that players got excluded because of such things o.oExactly, that kind of exclusion don’t exist in this game, because of how ArenaNet designed the game :) (Low difference of effectiveness between different rarities of equipment, low difference of damage output between people that dedicate a lot of time and resources to optimise the equipment and people who dedicate only few time and resources to that). ArenaNet, over the years, has attracted a lot of people with that philosophy. I think changing that would be really risky.

i think when a player return after a time, he will be happy to see something newAs some classes u still deal no damage after practicing, but as i said before, for some classes a damage increase would be not good yea While there are classes with a potential damage output definitely higher than others, I have to say that every class can do a very big amount of damage already. For me and many other people returning to the game and finding to not be effective just as before would only be a stress. There are already a lot of things to do in game, things that don’t lead to player exclusion. You could give yourself some tome to try adapt to what Guild Wars 2 is.

Your idea about the damage increase in PvE is really not in line with ArenaNet “philosophy”. I feel like it is perfectly fine not having the possibility to further increase the potential damage output of our characters. Also, we can actually do a very high damage already. Low difference of effectiveness between different rarities, and being able to reach a very good potential damage in a short time, helps player inclusion and helps player with only few time to be accepted everywhere. It allows player to take a long break from the game knowing that they can return and be effective about “like everyone else”. Anyway, you can still increase your damage, by practicing :) You could have to find a sense of progression more in line with the world of Guild Wars 2. I would appreciate “more interesting” sigils and runes anyway.

I’m playing necromancer since 2012. Lately, in high level fractal it is as welcome as every other profession in a dps role. Its dps can be really good (especially as Reaper), there is no risk to be kicked for that. In raids you could see a lot of people doing better dps than a good necromancer (if you play with “skilled people”). Necromancer contribution can still be more than enough for most groups, but someone could make you feel excluded.You could have to find a group of open minded, not “ignorant” people, to enjoy playing raids with a necromancer. For Strike Missions, it will be fine.

Monetising the content would be against the philosophy at the base of Guild Wars 2. I think that most of the actual player base could feel cheated (and they would be right), having to buy more than just big expansions. Many player joined the game thinking that they will never have to pay for other contents, because this is what ArenaNet told to them.

Necromancer since 2012, but I dislike Scourge condition to the point that it’s impossibile for me to play it.

I just love fighting bosses, and these fights are what I really enjoy about following the story. I was never tired of that. I wish I could repeat them while getting some reward for that.

HoT was announced as a dangerous place that needs to be explored with a group, and now many experienced players can even easily explore it alone. I think Guild Wars 2 can be really difficult to learn at the beginning.There are many buffs and debuffs, and things to learn about the enemies.There are many different combination of stats, there are many traits and skills. Most people need a lot of time to learn and start combining them well, but this can be really important when playing without a group through HoT. Learn to properly use these abilities is another challenge. It is easy to make a “mistake” that cause a character to be really weak, but these mistakes are also easy to correct with proper knowledge. The “problem”, to me, seems how hard is to “learn the game”.

From what I read, this is not how Guild Wars 2 is designed. The difference in effectiveness between different “rarities” is intentionally low and the time spent working on the equipment is irrelevant. Legendary equipment, for example, is as strong as ascended. The reason is to not make something that require a lot of time mandatory and to allow “new players” (or any other player, even those with only “few time”) to enjoy everything about the game very soon. To allow people to freely take breaks from the game and return. I chose Guild Wars 2 because there is a respect for the player as a person that is rarely seen in other online games.

Solved. It was not nerfed, the tooltip is bugged.

My specialisations ranking will be (ideally) from what I find “most interesting or useful” to “less interesting or useful”. You can read it as “what I have fun with”, from the perspective of a person who enjoy designing builds and playing in solo or with few people. I’ll consider also PvP and WvW. 1- Reaper: I don’t enjoy having a lot of very big weaknesses, and I enjoy being able to do many different things.Reaper has Stability, it can have Quickness, it can have a very good cleaving damage, Blind, Chill, etc.Reaper can also be built to be quite tanky at the cost of damage, especially in combination with other trait lines. It has the tools to handle many different situations. I can play it as a power spec or a condition (hybrid) spec. It feels “complete”. 2- Scourge: I find it especially interesting for the support options it brings in PvE. I can’t play it as a condition specialization, but I can see “its usefulness”.Unfortunately, Scourge is currently really bad (almost “unplayable”) as a support spec in PvP (I consider it the worst specialization for that reason, and fixing that won’t be easy). 3- Soul Reaping: especially interesting for its damage modifiers and Vulnerability application while in Shroud (I personally also entirely love how Reaper Shroud is designed and what Reaper can do right know). Eternal Life really helps to boost the support capabilities of Scourge (PvE only), it also makes regenerating Life Force while running easier and less annoying for me (PvE only). 4- Curses: Weakness spam can be a kind of support that also boost personal survive ability. Reduced cooldown on corruption skills can be very useful (especially for the utility provided by Corrosive Poison Cloud in PvP and WvW). Curses is a very useful specialization for “every” condition build. The extra critical chance per condition on target and the Fury are nice and help to make Curses “viable” (at least decent) also for certain power builds. 5/6/7 (Spite, Blood Magic, Death Magic): I find Spite really useful and interesting for some builds, it could stay higher in this ranking. I’m too tired/annoyed to keep writing and thinking about that ranking.

.> @Lily.1935 said: They're really not. Open world, minions are fine. The Death + Blood build is actually pretty good for open world, as it lets you do whatever you want. Even solo HoT HP's. In PvE, Blood Fiend, Shadow Fiend and Flesh Golem are optimal for Power builds, with Shadow Fiend also being used in some high tier Condi builds. Also, as I mentioned, it's also possible to use Bone Minions as a Condi build to specifically proc Death Nova, since their active skill is to explode which causes the Death Nova (You can then detonate the second one for a Blast finisher inside the poison field too). With the extra procs from Jagged Horrors just being icing when it happens at a convenient time. It's really just Bone Fiend and Flesh Wurm that really just suck with damage that isn't particularly inspiring and active skills that are underwhelming at best. That and in PvP/WvW all minions are just complete trash. But that is by design, due to not wanting autonomous skills to be effective vs players (Hence the state of Turrets, Minions and Ranger pets) If you're looking for the damage from the bone minions, Wells do it better. If you're looking for the poison, Corrosive Poison Cloud does it better. When looking at minions they may be improved by blood and death but by taking those to improve your minions you're weakening yourself. Yes, Blood Fiend, Flesh Golem and Shadow fiend are optimal for Power reaper in raids and fractals. But their poor utility is apparent in dungeons and open world where you can't sit on a single target for long. And as for the HPs in HoT, the only one they were able to really help with was the Balthazar one and with great struggle to where it's still just better to do that one with a group. Every other one you can do them on any other build solo except maybe the life stealing one in VB which last time I was there it stole health from the minions making them detrimental rather than just making it slightly easier. Maybe you have a point. However from my perspective they're extremely narrow in use and detrimental to your build in most situations. Since I'm judging this based on ubiquitous use and not incredibly narrow situations. You have a Bad open world build that uses them and a Decent Raiding build that uses them which is an uncommon one to use. This does not make for a good set of skills. Now this isn't to say they couldn't be made good. They're on the edge of it. And I've suggested some changes to get them there. Including...Bone Fiend's active is changed to an aoe bone storm command that cripples and possibly bleeds.Bone Minions to be increased from 2 to 3 and they would function on the charge system so that as long ad you have fewer than 3 a new one will summon on an automatic timed interval so you don't have to break to resummon them so you can be more active in combat.Shadow fiend being given an extra effect on its haunt ability that pulls Bone minions, unstable horrors, jagged horrors and shambling horrors to your target so you can better control how they explode and where.flesh Wurm having a reduced cast time to improve its active use in combat as opposed to a being just used as a skip in specific dungeons and fractals.Death Nova summoning a Jagged horror when a Non-jagged horror minion dies as well as killing a foe. Some are individually good in narrow situations, sure. But as a whole I don't agree they're good. I'd for sure role Both the health and damage bonus from flesh of the master and necrotic corruption into the minions baseline, maybe adjusted for PvP, and just remove those two traits to replace them with something that could still function with them but also with other types of summons such as Shades or possible a future Spirits or turrets or something similar. Or perhaps Supportive traits. I like most of the changes you proposed for minions, but not Bone Fiend that would just be worse for me.Bone Fiend is good for the break bar damage of its long Immobilize, it also does double projectile finisher every attack (which often translates to Life Steal, Chill inside the Ice Field, even Bleeding on Reaper condition, and Poison when using Corrosive Poison Cloud). I consider it very useful (not everywhere, but I don’t care having every skill to be useful everywhere, I want them to expand necromancer options and Bone Fiend is magnificent at that), especially when killing bosses in solo. Its active skill is also good for PvP. It can be used and can be effective in several different builds, both power and condition, both in PvP and in PvE. It is really versatile.