ZeftheWicked.3076

TL;DR: Massive immigration problems from overseas during Zhaitan era, followed by Modremoth vines making themselves a bit too at home giving out free hugs... One "Make Tyria Great Again" cadence later we're dragon free and our borders are looking tight 🙂

Sorry but you make no sense to me. Warrior has no dedicated heal option and somehow a 1h weapon is supposed to fill the gap better than a two hander?

Because it's not "them" doing the new game. When new game is made it's all hands on deck and full steam ahead. Whereas once it's done, they fire as many as they can and keep skeletal crew for maintenance, updates and xpac creation if that's in the plans.

I agree with OP on this one. June 27 was brutal to us necros but you rangers got some really good stuff, even without realizing it. Spirit rework (nerf to some) was a huge step in the right direction. Finally you can play support without mandatory spirits. They're still great for the role, but you aren't arm twisted to choose them. Long overdue build freedom for supportive rangers. Druid got a great condi build now. Finally a ranger spec that can go condi without going full traps on utility bar. Another breath of fresh air and build freedom for condi enjoyers. Fervent Force is gone but now you can nearly double your unleashed ambush casts which for some builds are big. And weaponmaster training beta showed ranger's the one getting the really good stuff. MH dagger works with all specs, customizable hammer is amazing and staff introduces some big fun avenues of supporting for untamed. A-net really did fine job with this one. Appreciate it, not all profession came out this well outta it.

Oh come on, don't be so negative! It's not like balance team's main dev is an ele main or something.

Support scourge is suffering atm that's for sure. It had a chunk of it's strong unique features nerfed, while what it got in return is baseline boon support kit, that all healers have but with more on top. Aoe Stunbreaks, huge range boon application, good party stab, resistance, resolution, protection, easy 25 might for your group. But enough about offmeta warrior support builds....

Necro (my main) - pve: lackluster core spec, no elite spec no necro. CC ragdoll. Support spec nobody wants (heal scourge). PvP cc ragdoll gets dogpiled just for existing. Warrior - pve - shoddy aoe, poor ranged options (unless you're zerker), can get slapped hard by harder fights if you make a small mistake, while necro just eats it and burps out loud. Mesmer - pve - absolutely crap AoE. Power mesmers gotta deal with weird gs phantasm hitbox (so pull via focus + gs) condi mesmers have no real aoe. Backloaded damage (except virtuoso) - which sucks vs trash. You waste time building up damage vs something that dies from stray fart then lose it all the moment it does die (clones). Elementalist - don't play that thing. It's a rainbow class. Decide on your color scheme than come back to me to be played. Ranger - lotsa small pain points. Majority of pets are useless compared to top dogs. Large portion of utilities sees no use, because when it comes to supporting or damage few hold so much of build's power hostage others rarely see light of the day. I'd like sword and gs to feel more impactful animation wise. When warrior wields them it looks impactful.. AoE is annoying - you've got no good skill (looking at you axe 4) to buch'em up together. Roughly half of professions have this problem and ranger is one of them. Pet can get annoying if mismanaged (pulling aggro you didn't want). Does not get tons of free stats like warr or necro, meaning building damage is really tight and leaves very little room for defense or doing anything else. Thief - aoe sucks on thief. Well it's an assassin class so yeah. It's main selling points (mobility/stealth/single target assassination) don't mean that much in open world. Anyone these days is mobile and can avoid fights tnx to mounts. While dealing with a strong single target is the dessert after dealing with tons of mobs. Ofc he can deal with them but others do it faster. Engi - clunky ah. Anything engi does has some flaw and has execution issues (it's a skillshot, executes slow, has weird hitbox, hits like a wet noodle etc). Guardian - I wouldn't be caught dead maining that thing. Rev - ranged game sucks. Hammer which is a defensive/control/power weapon (so not pure power ,so dmg is lacking). Shortbow is elite locked and has medium ranged (900 units max). Not as much of a rainbow as ele, but has different animation colors depending on legend making styling it hard. Legends fully define your skillbar, you can't mix and match utilities. It's balls to the wall on what your chosen two legends have and nothing else when it comes to utilities. As each legend has it's own very cool, impactful features - you'll always be missing out on something. Power rev feels like budget thief - even less AoE if that's even possible. Only vindicator gets a break with his dedicated greatsword but rest of rev specs gotta suffer..

Challenge accepted. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKwAwyNlJwuYbMMmJOKLttfA-zxIY1o7vQSItCrCCJQdfa2x5GA-e Here's an open world condi zerker for you. It's equipped with solid defenses (anti cc, anti condi, anti burst, self healing) as well as solid offense (might, quicknes, fury). The key to success is to understand how it works and customizing it to your needs. Self buffing: Offense-wise remember to buff yourself up. Cast "Might is right!" off cooldown for basically perma 12 might with spikes to 18 plus some Fury. Missing fury will be padded by using bursts, while missing might by using your cc thanks to rune of aristocracy and body blow trait synergy. Since might heals you due to Might makes Right don't be afraid to overdo it with your other might sources (sword 4 follow-up up skill "Rip", longbow blasting it's own fire fields - burst + skill 3). Quickness will come from both entering and leaving berserk mode plus doing any hard cc thanks to sigil of celerity. It won't be 100% uptime in this variant of the build, but it'll be good enough when used right. Speaking of cc - your easiest source of it is the longbow and it's Smoldering arrow - 3 charges for your proccing needs. Then there's the headbutt for both stunbreaking and a big single target stun, as well as Fear Me! to deal with whole packs of enemies, while giving them nasty 14s weakness. Defense: Defense-wise you're also not left to fend for yourself. Enemy cc will not stick as you got tons of counter mesures. Entering or leaving berserk mode will break any cc on you and give you 2 stacks of stab. Movement skills (headbutt, sword leap) give you one stack of stab. Headbutt and "shake it off!" are both stunbreaks. "Fear me!" has 0 cast time and will aoe fear enemies even when you're cc'd yourself. For condies you got Mending which is a short cooldown 5 condi removal and shake it off which removes 3 condies and has 2 charges. Anti burst comes from entering and leaving berserk mode - 2 secs of strike damage immunity each time you do it. Also both Might makes Right and Eternal Champion traits provide some solid endurance generation for your extra dodging needs. As for healing - getting might heals you and mending is a pretty solid, low cooldown heal. Customizing: Ofc there are situations where you might want to go harder on either offense or defense. Going Aggressive Onslaught instead of Might Makes Right is the first easy step to more damage, allowing you to ditch sigil of celerity in favour of sigil of malice, giving you full 100% bleed and burn durations. But it's a risky play since Might Makes right is a pretty solid defensive pick without going into defense line. If you're facing something big and ugly where normal mesures are not enough, swap strength line to defense. As long as you go Cull the weak you will keep the ability to stack might from Rune of Aristocracy only this time it'll be via bursting and not cc'ing. From there you got tons of options, depending on your needs. The defense passives are already amazing giving you tons of extra sustain. Adrenal Health, prot when you heal and resolution when you block (sword 5) or eat a crit. From there it's up to your needs if you go for more offense or some iron-clad defense. Defy pain + Land Stand is the latter option. Now headbutt gives you 5s strike damage immunity on a 20s cd. That's a very large window of damage immunity. You can also opt to replace Mending with Defiant Stance. If it's a champ that hits super hard, this heal will provide much more value and grant you another fat 5s window of damage immunity, this time to both condies and strike damage. Not to mention passive prot is triggered after the heal ran it's course, providing another window of anti-burst. Combine the two with smart usage or berserk mode for it's strike damage immunity and small healing from passive Blood Reckoning and you got yourself a build that will not go down easy. For big ol 1v1 with champs replace Fear Me! and it's long cooldown with Wild blow for a much more bearable 20s cd for a 3s knockdown. Or bull's charge if you need to chase your target. Desperate times may call for desperate mesures and a shield instead of offhand sword. Keep in mind though offhand sword is a better block for ranged attacks as it's 70% of shield stance's duration for slightly less than half the cooldown. If it's a pure melee fight however shield might prove more valuable. There is a lot more of mix-and-matching that can be done here depending on your needs. But basically you should get the gist of it. You don't need raid damage in open world, you need surviability for all sorts of occasions and this build provides it.

Don't worry we'll be able to swap these out for pure damage unleashed version once xpac hits. Oh wait...wrong profession.

It was with bleeding heart that I denied myself playing a dagger wielding sunspear dog in favour of a gallant, eloquent, sophisticated and classy necromancer. But sometimes we all have to do what we have to do..

Herald of Sorrow, our supportive mod to Desert Shroud is not properly working with our shades. The 3 initial pulses happen only around the necro, but not his shades. Only the final detonation is executed by shades as well. Modded or not a shade skill is a shade skill and needs to be executed by all active shades, fully.

The whole reason for all these changes is that Alacrity never gets paired with Sand Savant. That one large shade allows you to affect up to 10 targets. And a-net feared 10 man alac scourge overtaking meta. That's why Desert Empowerment became grandmaster - to ensure you can't use the greater shade and alacrity at the same time.

Nvm it was mb. The trait they describe is Sand Sage (the minor one). It'll simply work at full power with even one shade. Sand Savant remains untouched it seems.

Bit late to this party and I don't wanna read 25 pages worth of comments, so I'll ask straight up: Was there any explanation about the uber-cryptic description for scourge's new Sand Savant? I mean it sounds like the already existing minor trait (Sand Sage). So what's the deal here? Does it now add it's effect effectively doubling the value (15% durations from sand sage + 15% more from Sand Savant)? Do the stat boosts replace the single larger shade functionality or are added on top? Does the Sand Sage stay as is, or did it get shanked given how Sand Sage seems to be exactly the same trait ?

Yes it is possible. Fear is a condition and it stacks in duration. But as mentioned above it has counters. I disagree that fear builds are bad. Terror mancer can be a great pick, provided you know which fights to take. Avoid big 5v5 rumbles because aoe stab or cleanses are very likely to happen. On a side node however terrormancer can be diamonds. Fears are great for forcing enemies off a node and keeping them off while you decap. Also they're great for condition builds. Your other condies tick their damage while you fears interrupt and disable attempts at healing or getting on top of you. And ofc don't forget boon corrupts. Stab may deny fear, but it can become one if corrupted.

I will not speak for raids, but strikes are played. I got a comm tag so if I want to strike I just create a lfg myself. And unlike some "HR players" who want you to present whole resume with amount of KP that could buy you a whole island I just want you to join and play. I get full group in like 3 minutes. Often it's not funny how fast I gotta edit lfg so I don't end up with 10 dps players in 30 seconds 😜 It's just KP-holes and raid sellers are most visible because groups like mine get filled turbo fast, while theirs are up there waiting...and waiting..

It'll be a massive failure if it won't. We can clearly see this xpac isn't about mountains of content of new features. What it is about is opening tons of new builds and getting players to start using them (lege armor for open world players). If things stay the same than it'll mean xpac failed what it set out to do.

No, because they replace same number of old shroud skills. If it was a net gain like druid's celestia avatar, then I would count it in.

Instead of first pulse pulling down allies, have all pulses have the capability, but once triggered it can't happen again for that particular transfusion. Example: You procced transfusion as scourge and up until 4th pulse of it everyone was fine. Then an ally goes downstate. 5th pulse pulls them to you, but from that moment rest of pulses don't pull anyone. You get one pull per transfusion trigger and that one just got used.

As a necro I do feel we were done dirty when it comes to xpac weapons after HoT. A torch and a pistol. Full set of 5 skills....over two xpacs. On the other hand i can imagine warriors are pretty happy about the weapons they got! Especially the offhands! *sinister low volume chuckling*

I have not considered Cantha tbh. If we're putting that into the mix there are quite a few good candidates: 1. Gorrik. I mean poor Rama... 2. Rama (an alternative solution to puttin him out of his newly found misery + how else do we get THE HAT??)

Marjory and Kasmeer. What? I'm not so cruel as to keep lovers separated, what kinda monster do you take me for?

You need to be more specific here. Are you asking for a raid build or open world one?

Rez bot scourge was broken, but now it's broken beyond repair. If we even think about healing allies with transfution our ability to save a downed teammate is basically gone. Pull ressing is reactive, regenerating health via transfution proactive. One is something you wanna upkeep almost all the time, other something to be done in specific scenarios. These should not be under same button. And that's just another case of last patch's theme of "let's assign reactive plays to proactive mechcanics".

Agreed with that. Awesome animation on a tag/loot stick and little else. Not only does it suck as a weapon kit-wise but also as weapon in terms of necro fantasy. Staff on a necro is supposed to be balls to the wall magic weapon. It's supposed to be potent and introduce most terrifying and unhinged uses of necromancy! Summoning minions. Cruel curses that enemies fear. Bolstering allies with dark magic! ...meanwhile back in gw2. A set of 4 green mines that are visible from space and countered by a dodge roll..