Shroud.2307

I made two builds, one for Power Curses Reaper and another for Power Spite Reaper a while back. I use both of these builds regularly and they are about as close to Demolisher stats as I could manage. Everything is a little better, with it being WvW and having a greater selection of stats and buffs and all, but the concept is the same. If you'd like to try them out, adjust them more to your liking or just use them as a template, please go ahead. Power Spitehttp://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQNAR3dnc0A12gt2AG3A0biFcBL+KuFLjUdh4wzC6qFAOAA-jlDEQBbUJ4DOIARRZR2OCASRpQjURwhKxmkqI+TlCAcBASkaAQ4BAkj9HajuhAAIA38mZz2M4m38m38m3srbzsZ28m3MpAGVyG-w Power Curseshttp://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQNAR3dnc0A12gt2AG3A0biljBLOH2DPiU/gpQsKqnttCAA-jlDEQBtR3wFVi9gDCQUUWkI1AAwFAYRqUIFlC5Y/BI8AAakKCZ7IAsRlgTSVkAAIA38mZz2M4m38m38m3srbzsZ28m3MpAUdyG I hope that helps in some way. EDIT... Okay, so I don't know why those links won't work if you click on them, but they do if you copy and paste.

Agree; the changes merely add a tiny bit more utility to shroud in Core builds. Being in Death Shroud is still a dps loss. The cool down reductions mean DS utilities will be available a little more often. That is all. The shroud transform cool down is the same. No skills outside of shroud have changed. No core traits anyone cares about were changed, either. I dont think the core shroud sucks that bad.... it think its ok ish just too many other flaws along side it make core as a whole feel like its about 3 years behind everything else in the game. Core necro is still not as solid as say core mesmer, guardian, ranger, warrior, even ele perhaps. Until some trait reworks happen that make it so core will never be competitive on a end game level it has nothing to make it so in pve end game and nothing to make it terrifying in pvp. You can ideally just run circles around it and run over it provided you have at least a bit of condi clear. Its also oddly forced into a hybrid play style to make it function at its best instead of it allowing it to be either one separately as its own thing.If boon corrupts focused had a set priority on which boons get converted over others no matter how they were applied that would help necro a bunch in pvp but not in pve. its in a rough spot and i feel like no one on the balance team plays necro enough to really under stand how the majority of players who play it feel about its flaws and strengths. So they always pick the wrong things out when making changes to it. Occasionally they do something good by what seems like sheer luck. I wish every core class was like guardian. Core Guardian has to be the most balanced profession in the game imo. Its solid, strong, has ok ish sustain, can do big damage, can also die if you go glassy, its crafty but not over rewarded for any singular particular thing through its skills or traits. I think core Necro is doing okay, personally. Although I do feel that there are a lot of match ups that are difficult/impossible to win in an open field, I also feel that core is stronger than many give it credit for. Assuming you have terrain to play with, Life Blast can do a colossal amount of damage if built for it and everything a hybrid build can hit you with is pretty painful as well. That, as well as being naturally durable thanks to core Shroud not degrading as quickly as Reaper Shroud, and I think core Necro is doing alright. I prefer core over Reaper or Scourge and I've been a Necro main for many years. I do think it could use more adjustments but it also always bothers me when people speak of it as though it's the worst core spec there is or like it's impossible to win against a decent opponent. Shortly after PoF release was when it was at it's weakest because it was before many of the elite specs were toned down and certain Necro traits/skills hadn't been changed. Around that time was when I stopped playing Necro for quite a while because it was at a point where I was losing a lot more fights than I was winning regardless of how well I played. That was the only time in the 5 1/2 years and 5k hours I've been playing Necro that I actually gave up on it. So I'm just glad it's no where near the sorry state it was in then. Anyway I didn't mean to insult anyone about their concerns for Reaper or about their opinions on core so I hope it didn't come off that way. Some of the following comments, even if not responding directly to my own, made me feel I should be clear about that.

When I said "mobs" I was more or less referring to players in WvW. The healing return you could get with Soul Eater and Blighters Boon was absurd. It made it a very effective and easy to use mid/frontliner in WvW zergs. In small scale or in PvP for 1v1, it certainly helped but it wasn't a game changer to just use Soul Eater by itself. Using it with Blighter's Boon was a pretty big sustain buff even in 1v1's, but as I'd said about Reaper's Onslaught, not taking it is also a significant loss in offensive potential. Reaper Shroud is extremely slow, the Quickness from Reaper's Onslaught combined with the additional Ferocity are basically what make Reaper even usable in higher tiers/against skilled opponents. Yes this was a nerf, but only for low tier players.

I am very excited. I've always preferred core Necro and still do. Seeing it get some love makes me very happy. Although I think it could still use some more significant changes, I'm also glad they didn't go overboard reworking it in to something some of us might hate. I very much look forward to trying it out. Right now, I'm primarily interested in knowing how damaging Dark Path will be with it's AOE attack on a glassy power build. It could be a very strong combo skill for Dreadmancer.

I'm happy with many of the changes to core Necro and excited to give them a try. I haven't been playing much lately ( the last time I was online was about a week ago I think ? ) but seeing these patch notes has made me want to hop on again. That said, I'm also a little disappointed compared to the changes many of the other professions got. It seems like the buffs to core are mostly cooldown reductions with a slight functionality change to Dark Path ( which I'm still on the fence about because I was one of the few people who loved Dark Path ) while most of the other professions had various significant reworks. I understand not every profession got huge buffs or reworks, but it certainly made me less happy about the buffs to core after seeing what everyone else was getting. Like at first it was "yay! love for core Necro hype!" then it was "oh... Can I have some more cool stuff too? Look what they got!" Either way I'm content, even if a little disappointed by comparison. But in regards to the Reaper nerf, I'm not nearly as bothered as everyone here seems to be. It's one trait... Soul Eater + Blighter's Boon was an insane amount of healing when cleaving mobs, granted it is a pretty significant reduction to offensive potential by not taking Reaper's Onslaught. Still, you could full heal yourself with a few swipes of the Shroud when using both of those traits and having no Healing Power. I don't think Soul Eater + Blighter's Boon was an OP combination, that isn't what I'm saying. I do however think it was very strong and although sustain potential will be reduced without the healing from Soul Eater, I don't think it's any reason to throw a fit as much as you guys are. It's literally one thing related to Reaper that got a nerf. Just be glad we're not Revenants because it looks like they got kneecapped pretty good. Reaper is and will remain strong in the right hands. I'm in no way concerned with the nerf because it was perfectly good before Soul Eater healed based on outgoing damage so it will be just fine going back to that.

I had the idea to rework Well of Darkness a while back that might appeal to you. However I genuinely feel it would be pretty broken. Cooldown, radius, cast time, duration, combo field all remain the same. Blindness removed. Now functions like Smokescale's Smoke Cloud - as long as you remain within the area all incoming attacks will miss.

I think this event was handled much better than many of the previous ones. It's nice that it isn't intrusive in that you have a choice on whether or not you want to use the skills and that you can't just have those skills indefinitely. If you're killed, you'll have to get them again if you liked what you had. I'm sure there are some crazy OP combinations but just like all the events of the past, it's only temporary anyway. Personally I don't find this event as exciting as some of the others we've had, but I do very much enjoy that it's something different without seriously impacting game play. I've yet to experience much of what the event has to offer since I haven't played much since it began, but I did enjoy Withdraw, Blinding Power, Quickening Zephyr and Lightning Flash on Necromancer. Those were some fun things to have.

Reducing the cooldown would be enough to make it more desirable, IMO. It isn't an amazing skill, but with certain traits it's not terrible either. The cooldown is the primary issue because even when traited for the most benefits, there's still too much risk involved in using it if it's done at the wrong time. It's good to have skills that you can't just spam mindlessly, but this isn't one of those. The payoff isn't high enough. If the cooldown isn't reduced, I think it should at least get a small additional effect. Projectile destruction as suggested by @ Lahmia.2193 or a stunbreak would be good. My suggestion would be to add an effect like "Target area pulses Blindness, striking a foe within the area of effect applies Blindness." That way while inside the Well, you can basically perma-spam Blindness for the duration which would at least justify the longer cooldown and force melee opponents to give you some breathing room.

In my experience, the quality is roughly the same. EU and NA both have their share of good, bad and average. I'd say the only difference is that the higher tier players on EU are quite a bit better than the ones on NA. If I were to use a scale of 1 - 10, it'd be like this; Average NA/EU roamer 4 - 6, good NA roamer 7 - 8, good EU roamer 10. The majority you meet on EU aren't any better or worse than NA roamers. But the good ones are quite a bit better than the good NA ones. If that makes sense.

i guess depends on the size of the larger group... and how many ur runnin with ofc.... just seems like another weird statement to come from you.. ive played since begining and refrained from coming on the forums because...well just seems pointless... i prefer to be playing the game.... and lets just say i think il keep it that way if this is how a post usually goes... lol Okay. Enjoy doing your big boy guild things, honey.

so what is it that we do in wvw exactly... walk around doin nothin til we see 1 guy and jump on him? sure.... I thought I was pretty clear about what most will do. It was in the first sentence. I'm sure there are exceptions but it has been a long time since I've seen a small squad of less than 10 that's a real threat. Mind you, I don't believe that was the subject of the thread anyway. My point was only that small comp'd guilds are uncommon because they're ineffective and unnecessary. The vast majority will struggle to succeed against larger groups and against random disorganized pugs, the effort on behalf of the guild is so minimal that they really don't need to be comp'd at all.

They're uncommon because anything less than 10 and you're pretty much designated to ganking solos or farming pugs near their keep. Neither of which provide much of a challenge and is as boring for the guild as it is for the pugs who have little hope of winning. 10 or more and you tend to attract your own pugs which means even if your squad doesn't have a tag, you're still going to be inflated by randoms. This can be both beneficial and detrimental but most times it's just plain unwanted. [Cake] ( EU ) is the only guild I'm aware of that frequently rolls with 8 - 12 and successfully wipe double - triple their numbers in actual fights, not just objective farming. Otherwise, I've yet to find a guild, at least on NA, that does anything other than what I mentioned above ( mind you there used to be lots of them pre-PoF and even more pre-HoT. Now, they're pretty well non-existent ). [vT] have a lot of great players and do occasionally roll proper comps, but to my knowledge, they don't seek outnumbered fights or respond to defenses. They just do their usual roaming routine but instead with a group. I can think of a lot of guilds that frequently travel in groups and even with semi-proper comps, like [vT], [CAG], [QQ], [iE], but I can't think of any other than [Cake] that actually "participate." Meaning they are actively seeking fights, to defend objectives, to capture objectives or to support their servers main zerg(s) during larger fights. And I'm not saying roaming with a small group is useless because I'm a roamer myself and I know how valuable it is. Just that if you're not doing what [Cake] does, you're just gankers with healers. That's really it.

Lower tiers have less commanders and longer down times where fewer players are on. Every server/link has prime times or at least some semi-consistent guilds. Some people will tell you X server is always dead but it isn't true. Some servers just have weeks where they're less active than other weeks because the match isn't favorable for them and they have a lot of fair weather players. Others will participate regardless of how hard they're losing. Higher tiers are more likely to have commanders or enough players ( 10 - 15 ) to squad up and capture objectives any time of day, where as lower tiers commanders are often only on during prime time and at certain hours might not even be able to get 10 people together. Organization, skill, etc. are the same no matter the tier and every server will have moderate/high activity at least once a day. Maguuma has had very low population during SEA hours ( early morning EST ) for a long time to the point an entire map might only have 10 people on it. But any other time of day we have enough players floating around to capture or defend things and during NA prime can usually rally some map Q sized zergs.

Sword. Necro is the only profession that can't use it. Every other profession that can't use it with their core spec can with their elite spec. It would just make sense to me. I also think depending on what they do with Shroud, it could work quite well for Necro. A faster melee weapon like Dagger perhaps with some better utility or range would be really nice.

Yeah I figured it out last night. It works in WvW as well. I took a camp and killed Vet Warg to verify that they do attack. Overall it's a minor exploit since minions are made of paper machet anyway, but I'm glad you reported it. You can also use greatsword on core Necro via exploit. I once made a Scourge with Death shroud for fun :PRequires only unlocking Torch and equipping the Scourge line without unlocking the shade traits.Boom, torch Necro with Death shroud :)downside is you sacrifice a whole trait line but it's funny knowing it's possible lolYep, similar deal for Greatsword on core. You lose some trait benefits but it's kind of worth the trade off really. This has been doable for quite some time now. I haven't put it to extensive use but, it was fun to play with for a little while. I do hope ANet fixes this eventually but I'm not going to report it either, lol.

Yeah I figured it out last night. It works in WvW as well. I took a camp and killed Vet Warg to verify that they do attack. Overall it's a minor exploit since minions are made of paper machet anyway, but I'm glad you reported it. You can also use greatsword on core Necro via exploit.

Hm... You know Thieves Guild could be fun with a Minionmancer too, lol. That's 3 more friends to add to the party!

All I remember is getting rolled by zergs, chased across the map by pugs, being +1'd by Thieves, getting CC locked in zergs and stressing over lag during SMC 3 way fights... ... Hm, you know what, all of that still happens. It's almost like the good old times and today are the same. Albeit with a less manual zerg composition and structure defenses, but still roughly the same. I'm not going to disagree that elite specs, additional stats and foods have allowed players to play more lazily. Nor would I say today's zerging comps or roaming builds are more skillful than they used to be. However I will say that many of the things people hate that exist today still existed then, and sometimes to even greater extremes ( remember when Thieves could literally perma-stealth for minutes? Or when Super Speed affected leap distances? Or when Stability was literally complete immunity to CC? ) Though I do miss some things about the way it "used to be", I'm also not living in the past. Because I know I had as much fun then as I do now and I'm not concerned with anything else. It's just too bad so many others cling to that past and care more about what's gone than what's here.

I hope looting a Necro curses people with a lack of mobility and scaling defenses so at least I can laugh when I die.

Hm.. Very good points. Honestly I just like coming to this sub to offer help if I can, to get some laughs and to share experiences. Most of the time it's just laughing at the absurdity of people's claims and requests though. Cough.

Typical "fite crew" expecting you to push when they outnumber you; when people are asking why people aren't coming to fight them, this is what happens. I feel like a lot of people overthink this stuff. I don't have any statistics or proof to support myself but, whether I'm the one with the numbers or the one hugging the objective, I'm just doing it because I enjoy the combat. As soon as it stops being fun, I leave. I know some people look for fights to be annoying but as far as I'm concerned, most people do it for the same reason I do. No one is forcing anyone to fight yet people sure love to label others gankers/trolls etc. when they're the ones willingly engaging in these situations. All it is to me is people being sore losers and looking for a way to comfort themselves over their losses. It's not like actual spawn camping is a thing in this game so it is very much a matter of "fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

As long as they never change Spinal Shivers, I support changes to Necro offhands.

I suggest the following: Projectile is highly visible, ideally slow enough to realistically dodge. Costs 5 supply to fire. EditAfter reading through some of the comments I'd also like to add a few things. A dismount skill, regardless of whether it dismounts both players, still heavily favors those with greater numbers. Although Mounts have 3 dodges and move fairly quickly, I think the skill should have enough visibility to be avoidable and potentially with a cost other than a cooldown. If the cooldown is low enough, I believe it should cost supply both to promote players to carry it and to prevent a spam of attempts at dismounting someone in the event there are multiple players chasing a single player. WvW isn't meant for 1v1's so you should expect to be outnumbered. However, with Mounts now a thing, I think we should consider how they benefit solo players and how to maintain those benefits without giving them free reign like they currently have. Many things cannot dismount a player if they don't want to be unless it's an entire zerg chasing them. While it's good that Mounts allow solo players to travel with less fear for being "ganked" as they can better choose what fights to engage in, it also promotes combat avoidance because players know how difficult it is to be dismounted. That's why I believe this new dismount skill should be realistically avoidable, but also reliable enough to hit people with. Something that cannot be dodged or something that's so fast it's nearly instant would just make playing solo/small scale even worse than it already is. Even if it has a moderate cooldown, I still believe making it cost supply would be best.

Useless tricks that can be done with core Necro for triple ports: Summon Flesh Wurm -> Spectral Walk -> Dark Path -> Spectral Recall -> Necrotic Traversal Summon Flesh Wurm -> Spectral Walk -> Dark Path -> Necrotic Traversal -> Spectral Recall Summon Flesh Wurm -> Spectral Walk -> Necrotic Traversal -> Dark Path -> Spectral Recall Absolutely zero strategic potential other than style points. Dark Path, just like Spectral Walk, has an infinite range while it's active. It will only move you 1,200 units just like Flesh Wurm, but will still teleport you even if you're beyond that range as long as the projectile was within range when fired. So if you for example, use Dark Path within range of a target and they teleport away from you, you will still teleport towards them when the projectile connects even if they are no longer in range. This actually has some very significant combat potential unlike the triple ports. You can use this on things like Thieves, Mesmers, Guardians, etc. to maintain pressure if you can anticipate their defensive kiting ports. Also Spectral Walk on Mount can take you through loading screens. P.S. I'm pretty sure you can directly share .gifs here instead of converting them to links but I'm not sure how. If anyone knows, please tell me so I can edit this comment so people don't have to open the examples in another page.