Al Masone.1274

This There are so many traits and skills in the game that aren't just "undertuned", but either old, dull, useless and all combinations of those words. There is just to much stuff that could be done about them. To me TRUE balance is having all traits that you can't select be the ones that can be used in the majority of situations and then the selectable ones are the ones more specific to a build.Well, the baseline traits should be the ones that more clearly define a whole traitline, or an elite spec. The traits you can choose should offer variations in regards to the playstyle/s intended for that build, either by doubling down on its strengths or by giving some utility for situations in which that spec can't work at its full potential. All in a fluffy way, possibly.

This There are so many traits and skills in the game that aren't just "undertuned", but either old, dull, useless and all combinations of those words. There is just to much stuff that could be done about them.

Between GS being a power weapon with some utility, and reaper shroud being clearly geared more towards power, I don't think reaper needs a condi build, as it runs contrary to it's main theme of big slow hits.If you want to play condi necro stick to core or scourge, and deathly chill should be remade in to either some utility like cc or boonstrip, or something that gives even more direct damage. It could even go back to doing damage over time, but with the unique thing of scaling with power, thus giving you some chip damage when you can't reliably stick to a target, but still working in support of a power build.

I really like the idea of merging land and water shroud as one You could merge both versions of shroud 4, so that you steal life force from enemies and absorb conditions from allies. Then we'd have the water version of life blast that transfers conditions to foes in addition to its regular damage, and also has a 1/2 sec cast time. Either way, it damage would need some buff or you would never use anyway. Shroud 2 is kinda weird, in that all your kit is ranged (even if close range), but then this skill sends you straight into melee. Couldn't it be more similar to skills like warrior's GS 3, where ti dashes a short distance? It wouldn't need to be a long dash, mainly just a small tool for repositioning during a fight Lastly, I think the biggest problem of core shroud is that it's half condi and half power, and neither builds really want to stay in it a lot anyway. Condi as you said gets almost nothing, and even power doesn't find much use because life blast doesn't hit as hard as it should, given its long cast time. One thing core shroud could use is a reduced duration like reaper shroud, to encourage a gameplay where you constantly weave in and out of shroud; secondly there could be a trait in spite and curses that change the overall shroud into a power kit or a condi kit respectively.

Back in july I honestly thought they were getting more open about balance, at least once every 2-3 months, but now we're in november and there's still silence about one of, if not the most important aspect of the game.I expect more than just some change to be coming with the next living story episode, but the good thing about last time was the posts Anet made before going through with the changes. And no, the fact many people complained right after they saw the changes does not justify the silence. Being hard at work on living story/ new xpac does not justify it either. Basically there's no justification for writing a couple posts every now and then to show in advance what they're working on... assuming they're working on it of course.I'm not demanding anything, but it is quite sad that they ditched the whole "be more transparent" thing

Rune of the reaper is not meta, gives toughness which is useless, and only gives 1 second of chill, so no, why should I think about it?

After quite some time spent trying shouts I have to admit that they are kinda lackluster, except probably "chilled to the bone" which I find very fun to use, even when it doesn't do that much.That said, I was thinking, what if their effect scaled not just with the number of enemies, but with their tier? That means, veteran foes may count as 2-3 foes, elites as 3-4, and champions and legendaries could count as full 5 targets, in regards to all the effects of shroud: "your soul is mine" would grant more healing and life force based on the tier of the target it"nothing can save you" could convert up to 10 boons to vulnerability, grant also the bonus unblockable seconds and maybe deal up to 5 times as much damage to legendary foes"rise" similarly would do more damage and spawn more minions the stronger the enemy hit"suffer" could transfer up to 5 conditions on the same target, and why not, applying the duration of chill to a champion or legendary as if it hit 5 targets"you are al weaklings" I actually don't know, yes it would get you 10 stacks of might and apply longer weakness to veterans and up, but as a reaper do we really need that? I think this shout should have different effects aside from the stun break, which is the only good thing here, but all the other stun breaks of the necro are way better even if this granted 25 might in one use. chilled to the bone could have a stronger stun effect versus veterans and up, making it a more effective breakbar tool, and also granting longer stability.I don't think this is a perfect idea, and it would only work in pve, but maybe it would make shouts an option. As they are now, the only shouts that are possibly worth a mention are the heal, but mainly for the life force gen, the minion summoning, and the elite. But even then they could use some buffs.

I've tried this new spite grandmaster just out of curiosity and as far as feeling goes, I find it pretty fun when there are lots of enemies around (mainly openworld). That said, quickness and fury aren't boons the reaper really needs, but coupled with reaper's onslaught means that you still get those additional seconds of quickness when you exit shroud. which is nice for the GS. Again, while in shroud fury is more or less wasted due to death perception and marauder/berserker gear, but outside shroud are good to have (just not amazing).You can end up with decent stability uptime while in shroud, and if you take fear of death for life force for on causing fear, you can stay there longer, stacking up quickness and fury duration, that help you when out of shroud. Also, close to death only triggers when the foe is under 50% health, while dread works right from the get go; but, and it's a big but, close to death give a juicy 20% bonus damage.That said, I'm not doing the math, which is why I'm asking here what your feels are about this grandmaster., because I'm afarid that, as with most of the necromancer skills and trait, it has ended up being great in theme and useless in execution.

Well, MH dagger could still remain a utility weapon tied to condi and support builds, so scourge and condi necro, In that direction it could get some bleeding added to its skill 1, without beating scepter as a dps weapon, thus finding some kind of niche.As a power weapon we already have axe for core and GS for reaper, and like reaper is mainly a power spec, it's ok for scourge to be just condi or healer, without a power build.At that point only the staff would be left out, and probably that's the weirdest weapon of the necro overall. It has a weird mix of everything, and only works in Wvw thanks to the 1200 range and the fear on skill 5.So maybe it all comes down to whether Anet wants core power necro to be a thing.I think it can: while reaper is all about melee aoe, core power could be about sustained single target ranged damage. and while condi is about dots, power could be about big but slow hits (i'm mainly thinking about life blast).Maybe if core shroud gets a reduced duration like reaper shroud, they could add more damage to it, and core wouldn't be such a joke, nor a weird kind of tank that only works in pvp and even there it's hella annoying to fight.

Honestly I'm not upset that dagger isn't a dps weapon, I was mainly interested in what its role was. I'm fine with it being a support-y weapon, provided it works that way, of course.I'm not a fan of scourge, but I'd like it being a close range support spec, and since scourge doesn't have access to shroud, a sustain weapon feels appropriate, especially given how close range the torch is. That said, people generally use scepter, staff or even axe on scourge, so it's fair to say that dagger is nowhere near being even a support weapon.

Thanks, that's pretty much what I wanted to hear. Since axe is ranged and GS is all about AoE, I thought dagger would be somehow supposed to beat them in terms of single target dps, since it's melee and has basically no cleave (max 2 targets lol). But it seems its dps is way too low, so i can forget it ever existed...

Most if not all the pve builds I find for the reaper on the internet make him go GS and Axe/warhorn. While I am aware that going with two sets of melee weapon (gs and dagger/wh) could be very problematic in situations where you can't really fight in melee, I'm still curious about that pairing, since GS seems to be more geared towards cleave and fights with lots of targets, while dagger seems to be a single target dedicated weapon. That said, I haven't done any calculation so I don't know if the dagger main hand can actually work as a dps weapon. I'm mainly interested because in many boss fights I find the aoe of the GS rather wasted.

I think Reaper could use a bit of team utility.In terms of overall tankiness, at least for pve, reaper already has protection and the rise shout, plus of course the whole death shroud. Adding even more damage reduction I think is pretty much redundant.You can become very, very durable in pve with reaper already, but you end up doing pretty low damage and giving nothing of value to the party. Yes you will be the last man standing, but will probably be your fault the party couldn't burst the boss down. Or when it doesn't come to that, you mainly somone who's there doing his own thing, while the rest of team actually works with one another, by buffs and heals and so on. A change to chilling victory could be to give might to the whole team when you strike a chilled enemy, or to extend all or part of the baseline damage increase from cold shoulder to the whole party (which would mean making it a grandmaster trait).A similar idea could apply to decimate defensive, like having the reaper apply a secondary effect like vulnerability, to enemies who already have max stacks of it.Soul eater used to work only with greatsword, but they changed it to work regardless of weapon to allow for more variety.... not sure how that worked out. I really like the idea of a trait that changes one greatsword skill. Actually I think all trait lines should get something similar, like we already have for the scepter. Lastly, Iike those specialisations trait-lines whose last trait further rethinks how their core mechanic works, like the way the grandmaster traits in daredevil add additional effects to dodges. I think there quite some room for the reaper in that regard. Reaper's onslaught already works well in this sense, though I think I could work more along the lines of "do great damage and fast while in shroud, but consume it faster"I don't really like condi reaper, since the greatsword is clearly built as a power weapon, but a trait could possibly change that, maybe allowing the reaper to have a power/condi hybrid buildMore sustain IMO is useless if you can't pull weight in a group. But if RO could be "reaper burst mode", there could be another variations that actually allows you to do more damage the more you remain in shroud.Lastly lastly XD, I think the reaper should always want to be in melee all the time, not just in shroud, and I don't think the current traitline support that playstyle well enough. Even if you want to play reaper without the greatsword, your place in a fight should 90% of the time be in the thick of it, not at range.

Perpare for trouble, and make it double https://ibb.co/k1YNXk6 Actually don't because it didn't attack the whole time we were attacking it, but gave no reward whatsoever.This happened in whiteside ridge btw

For the solo part, I'm not sure how relevant it is. I mean, it's an MMO, what's even point of being able to solo open world stuff? And aside for the simpler champs that don't give relevant loot anyway, you still need a group to do, well, group content (tequatl, drakkar, and so on...). For organized groups, am I allowed to say dps -> squishy is kind of a design flaw? I mean sure, if you want to be top at something you need to sacrifice something else. But if all classes end up behaving the same where it matters, then everyone can pretty much roll the same class. Which is kinda what's happening with guardian right now.Some classes are squishy and deal a lot of damage, so they need help in the form of healing and resilience boons. Necro's weakness should be its low mobility and susceptibility to cc, so he needs a support who can grant him mobility and stability. Wouldn't that improve diversity? I mean, if dps classes have different weaknesses, you can have other classes who provide different kinds of support, instead of one-size-fits-all guardian. Also the lack of mobility of the reaper already means that it can evade very few attacks, thus have to face tank most of the damage coming its way. I don't mean that it's not at all like this right now, you do get some modicum of survivability that other classes don't have, but I don't think it's quite enough to push the reaper into its niche of "Slow, tough, killy dude".Ok, I realise that I kinda answered myself there, in that to fix reaper you'd have to fix the other classes and pretty much the way teamfights work.And I guess the big problem at the center of it all will always be the shroud. Guess it should be about time for it to be removed and for necro overall to be reworked?

I thought that, from the start, reaper was supposed to be a resilient melee fighter. After, it is the melee spec/class with the least mobility, even lacking solid access to swiftness; it's cc, while strong, is very telegraphed and easy to miss, and lastly, it has very limited access to stability.The reaper is not an actual tank, ok, but right now you have to equip pretty much only offensive stats in order to maximise damage, which isn't that great anyway, and that leaves you pretty squishy even considering death shroud. As soon as you try to add some tankiness, you start losing lots and lots of damage.Marauder offers some health, but the necro already has a lot of it to begin with, and I'm finding that just health doesn't help much in tough situations.When I use the Death Magic trait line I feel like I'm suriving way more damage, though I'm sacrificing a lot of crit chance by not taking Soul Reaping (Spite is still a must).I guess a real problem in terms of balance is the shroud, which makes you practically immortal when it's not necessary, and barely gives you one more second of life when you actually need to survive some big damage.Still, I think the reaper should be able to better fulfill his role of a resilient bruiser, and not being a discount red mage from final fantasy XIV, that hits attacks from a distance and then spikes at melee. You should always want to be in melee.I don't deny that in an organised group you won't risk dieing too much, but on your own you are pretty squishy, if you try to reach the same dps potential of other classes.So my question is: shouldn't the reaper either: Get more baseline defensives in the reaper traitline, so that you can itemise offensively while retaining enough damage?Get more baseline damage, and be encouraged to itemise half offensively/half defensively?

As others have said, minions suffer from a trait line that supports their passive usage, and no weapon is dedicated to them. Also their secondary abilities aren't generally that great, so you don't really have much reason to use them.IMO, a rework of minions that would make a minion master more interesting and more active should focus on the fact that minions are basically puppets easy to replace. To that end I'd like a combination of secondary skills and trait line that will make you summon and expend minions quite often and way faster than now, with possibly the only exception being the flesh golem.To put up quick theory I would say:General: greatly reduce the time to summon minions (I guess at first the wanted to emphasize the stress of raising undead minions, but that definitely never worked)minions are immune to damage but have degrading health (I think degrading health has a nicer feel rather than a fixed amount of time, but either may work. I don't think minions should be susceptible to damage as that alone can make them a nightmare to manage. They still are susceptible to CC though.)minions active skills are usable while in shroud, but you can't summon them.above each minions skill you will get to see how much time they have left. Blood fiend: Life lost due to degrading health (se above) is added to your lifepoolAttacks don't siphon life (due to previous addition), but extend the duration of the blood fiendActive skill "The blood fiend explodes in a cloud of necromantic energies that restored the health of nearby allies depending on how much health the blood fiend had when it died" (I'd give fixed amount depending on the health perecentage it had when it died)Bone minions: Passively explode when they diedActive "command your minions to jump at the target and explode. If the explosion hits, par of the CD for the summon is refunded"Bone fiend:(personally I think that all minions should be melee oriented, with the exeption being the wurm because it is first and foremost and escape tool, but I'll give an idea anyway) Auto still 900 but attacks while moving and slowly tries to reach melee with the target. Targets hit at 600 or less range get a debuff that increase damage done by allied minions and summoned creatures (would apply to allied ranger pets, elementals, turrets, and so on)Active "command your bone fiend to borrow towards your target, where it will immobilize it with its claws and deal damage.Shadow fiend:First of all please change its aesthetics, It's just a black blob right now. Maybe make it looks like a ghostly black raven. Passively applies blind to nearby enemies every few seconds (kinda similar to well of darkness, but moving and with a smaller, smaller area, basically only hitting those it's in melee with). Active "The shadow fiend dissolves in a swarm of dark energy that affects the target area, dealing damage and corrupting boons, but no longer inflicting blindness. Extra damage against blinded enemies. At the end of the effect the shadow fiend to turn back to normal until it eventually dies. Flesh wurm:Only one I wouldn't change, though here to I'd put the degrading health so that you want to plan a bit more before using it. Flesh Golem: DOESN'T have degrading health, making it your only permanent minion, but it is affacted by damage unlike the other minionsIt should almost feel like a ranger pet but not quite.No longer applies crippledHas an aura of decay that deals damage and removes boons from targets it's in melee withGains quickness for a few seconds when summoned, and everytime you enter or exit shroud.Active Charge remains the sameDM trait line:1 - FLESH OF THE MASTER - Your basic minions last longer and you gain stacks of death's carapace at intervals while they last. Using a minion active skill grants a buff that removes the casting time of the next minion summoning skill you use.2 - NECROMANTIC CORRUPTION - Basic minions take conditions from you while you're near them (600 or so range). When they damage enemies with their respective active skills, they transfer those conditions.3 (REPLACE DEATH NOVA) - While you are in shroud, your basic minions gain pulsing quickness but their life degrades faster. When your minions die, they spawn a jagged horror. (don't really know what to do with the poison nova)4! (Replaces that weird thing that is unholy sanctuary) - All your minions grant you life force while you are not in shroud. While you are in shroud, your flesh golem transforms in a more powerful version (mainly more damage and health, but I'd add a charge that ends in a AOE knockdown). People say to rework staff, but in wvw it's pretty much essential as a zoning tool. So I think that role should actually go to the dagger.My idea would be that, while minions aren't affected by damage, you are, and so a Minion Master actually wants to be just behind his own minions, not far away. My idea for the dagger would be of a medium to short ranged weapon (600), that still has a life steal skill to keep you alive while your minions to their job.Skill 1 - sequence1 - cleave a small area near your target twice, striking nearby enemies. Basically the same dagger attack we have now, but ranged and strikes up to 3 targets2 - strike your foe again and gain life force3 - strike your foe and gain life force and health Skill 2Steal health from nearby foes. Heal effetiveness increased if you have conditions on you. Damage increased against opponents affected by conditions (any condition works, but damage doesn't stack per conditions, let's not get crazy) Skill 3Immobilize a foe a summon jagged horrors around him. Extend the duration of your minions

oh, either i already completed it years ago and forgot about it, or haven't yet reached the higher tiers.Anyway thanks for the info, now I have a new goal <3

Usually, especially in WvW, I find that attacking critters is a fun way to pass the time while I get to point A to point B. So far I've never spent time focusing on killing them systematically, but just as an extra while I'm doing something else. That said, I never got an achievement for that, which is kinda odd, considering that in this game you get an achievement for pretty much everything.So why not add one for killing those little buggers? like "pest control" or some such

Considering that for me, core necro is a single target dps, reaper is a bruiser dps, and scourge is a support, I'm kinda hoping they go with a tank spec.My dream would be a plague marine-like necro, a frontline character with great durability and staying power, more than reaper, but less damage and more party utility.It woulds still revolve around conditions, getting more durable the more he or his allies debuff his enemies.As unique mechanic he could have something similar to guardian virtues, that have a passive effect but can be activated to grant new effects to the whole team, and instead of consecrating the ground like the paladin, he desecrates it, in a similar way to wells, but more persistent and centered on the necro.

Hi, I was recently wonder about what stats best suit my character (a reaper necro), and while I found a good number of builds on the internet, I haven't found so far an up-to-date guide on how attributes work and which class most benefits from which.I'd be really interested in a guide and helps me understand how to build my character and how to mix and match attributes.I keep seeing tons of people going full berserker gear in fractals and failing miserably, even in lower difficulties

We need more things in WvW, not less.Also, it's very helpful for classes whitout perma-swiftness and/or plenty of mobility, mainly necro.I do agree though that it should also be more useful to those classes who already have good mobility, even if to a lesser degree.

That's a given, I'm of the same opinion. That said though, a post here and there help keeping the community hooked, what with theorycrafting and speculations and more. At least a dev blog once a month should be expected, whether they have big plans or not. At least so they can give their view on all aspects of the game as time goes on.

Not to act spoiled and all, but it's october and aside from sunqua peak (which is pretty fun to play, not gonna lie), there's been no talk about the next living story episode, or anything a bit more specific about the expansion.Sure it's very very nice that they're making a new expansion, but aside from "we're doing it", there's be no further discussion about it.Also, no talk about the next balance changes either, the one they made previously this year was interesting a it felt like they were finally getting in touch with the players, but now it seems like we're back to almost total silence again. Feel free to bash me but I was expecting some post this month for the next plans regarding gw2

I really hope that for the next expansion they either introduce new weapons or make underwater weapons usable on land but with new skillsets (spear and trident, that is, I don't know how a harpoon gun is going to work on land, unless they redesign it into basically a new kind of weapon).Otherwise, I can't really see the warrior getting new weapons with the elite spec. We already have the monk-like staff wielding trickster, and the spellbreaker should already fill the warrior-mage archetype, in an "anti-mage" view. I'd like warrior to touch the "magic world" as little as possible.