NorthernRedStar.3054

Annoyance is largely subjective. Although there obviously has to be clear guide lines as to what is "acceptable" and what isn't. Best example of this would be stealth one-shots. I doubt anyone likes to be on the receiving end of those, and even the players themselves can admit it feels BS-itty. A better indicator would be effort/reward -ratio.

Judging by the stuff my thief steals and tosses, I'd wager there's a bit of shadow magic extra in those bench press numbers. Let us not even mention the norn.

The commander is akin to the versions of Optimus Prime who aren't Robo-Jesus: powerful, gifted and skilled, but not overtly so. Their true strength lies in their leadership skills, situational awareness and smarts. The boring answer would be "about as strong as human(-oid-)ly possible" - which is somewhere between lower tier dragon champions + famous superhumans (such as awakened leaders), and high-tier dragon lieutenants. Many of the fights aren't just a power flex, but a numbers game as well. And we know what happened to Varian Wrynn when he tried soloing the Burning Legion. Judging by personal skill and titles (PvP in particular), my commander would rank Legendary. While I'm no Lord Hizen, I have done my fair share of instance and boss soloing. For most, it's probably between elite and champion. 1) The commander is not stronger than Balthazar, but able to hold his own against them for a fair while in his fallen god state. By feats, by PoF, Balthazar is deceptively powerful. He's able to kill a scion of Glint with utmost ease, able to contain and capture Palawa Joko with magic that only disperses with his death, and content in going toe-to-toe with a weakened Kralkatorrik. Remember, this is Balthazar without his previous, seemingly even more vast, powers and claims to his title. 2) The commander is, I believe, canonically fighting Mordremoth inside its mind the same time as Pact is assaulting its ulterior body (Mouth of Mordremoth). And the commander did have the aid of a few particularly notorious individuals in that encounter. It was by all means and purposes a team effort. 3) As you've probably realized by now, Joko isn't THAT powerful (compared to the rest of the threats). Turai Ossa was able to best him, and our character is seemingly around that level of strength - if not a fair bit higher. Joko's strength doesn't lie in direct combat as heavily as someone such as, say, Balthazar or Ryland. Magic users have different kinds of affinities and talents. Jennah is a glass cannon, far more inexperienced on the field and would struggle against many of the opponents the commander is able to handily take out. Koss taking out Iberu like that is just, eh, bad writing in the disguise of fan service.

Side noders and roamers are good at equalizing the odds and giving your team a shot to win via stalling. But they can't carry through clueless teammates as easily as burst dps or tank mid. A good sider or roamer will, however, ensure a decent team always wins.

Condi builds have higher survivability on thief than power ones, but fractals and dungeons mainly see power daredevil in action, because it has superior burst for the burst phases as well as solid sustained damage. Condi daredevil / deadeye is better for open world boss soloing, though. You can drop some of the damage found in the metabattle meta build of staff daredevil by picking Trickery over Critical Strikes. This gives you access to Bountiful Theft's vigor which makes staying alive easier as the baseline duration is as high as 10 seconds. You'll also be dealing some break bar damage with Steal. Condi daredevil and deadeye's sustain comes from the mobility, and evade frames or stealth, as well as Rune of Tormenting. Thief is one of the classes with great access to torment, so it offers a great mix of damage and durability. For gear, you'll either be running Viper's or Trailblazer's. The former is burstier and used in higher tier content such as raids and CMs, whereas the latter is better for open world content as Viper gear has you potentially being one-shotted by stray attacks. As for the rotations, staff thief uses the infamous 2 spam combined with auto attacks, after emptying your endurance. For open world content and CERTAIN bosses, I'd recommend Staff Master over Havoc, because you'll be needing those extra dodges. The basic burst rotation is Bound (dodge roll) slightly to the side of the enemy (for flank bonus) into staff 2 + staff 2, activating Signet of the Assassin mid-cast (1st cast), then using Fist Flurry into another staff 2 (you should have 3 initiative again) + Palm Strike. If you're expecting a counter attack, you can use staff 4 with the blind before Palm Strike, instead. This is actually deceptively difficult to play if the enemy in question lacks a large hitbox, as you'll be losing a fair bit of DPS for each Bound that misses. You also want to try and maintain your trait line flank bonuses (if you're using Critical Strikes). Since Weakening Strikes animation locks you, there are times you're better off using only a single cast instead of two, replacing the 2nd cast with autos or even Vault. Unlike daredevil, this severely hurts deadeye as Shadow Meld is one of the key skills in a lot of builds and rotations, providing on-demand stealth attacks, soft resets and added utility in the form of Binding Shadow. Blinds do not work on champion and up -level enemies, and plenty of instanced mobs use skills that don't care about blinds (i.e. AoEs). TL;DR: deadeye is worse than daredevil for most fractals, strikes and raids. Your main survivability tool is your understanding of the encounter / instance; knowing when and where to dodge or move. Of course, a good support / healer is oftentimes able to bypass this entirely. Make sure you have the appropriate gear for whatever build you're playing at the time. Open world and instanced content are different beasts entirely, with different gear reigning better. Generally speaking: - Marauder gear for open world - power builds. - Trailblazer gear for open world - condition builds. - Berserker gear for instances - power builds. - Viper gear for instances - condition builds. As for optimal weapons: - Power builds: staff. - Condi builds: pistol / dagger or dagger / dagger. Varies based on encounters. Small tips on the side: - Always finish your auto attack chain: dagger's 3rd attack, Lotus Strike, refills endurance, applies poison and deals the most damage out of the autos. - Keep on the move, constantly. Learn 24/7 strafing while attacking. - Master one build before moving onto another.

I've been in love with Canach ever since PoF. Dude gets some of the best dialogue there is - not to mention the voice acting is stellar all around.

What a prophet. Shame, I was thinking to myself when I noticed how this just feels like ... the CLEANEST...

The new, smooth and improved autos weren't a QoL feature? Guess we can't have nice things this side of the medium armor ocean.

Is this assuming the necromancer in question is sitting in the middle of the point like a duck / bestest gold rank player?

Reaper was one of the bigger winners of Feb 2020 patch, even if it didn't show outright. Now it is showing, since the other necro specs aren't quite as super-busted anymore.

Anet IS doing something. In 6 months, we'll have necro filling the roamer role as well.

This right here is the reason I'll always gravitate towards the classes with heavier emphasis on timing over rotations. The former consists of various scenarios, improvisation and active/interactive gameplay. The latter is just raid DPS with a twist - there's less variance, since you get the defensive benefits on the side of offense, or vice versa.

I must be the only one who thinks it feels rewarding to outplay all the stealth shenanigans your enemy is trying.

Very true. The complainer's mediocre skill level and refusal to adapt and learn do, more often than not, play the largest role. DH is a niche that sucks against plenty of meta picks. Complainers are most likely necromancer players who are angry at the audacity of being forced to dodge roll.

Dreamwaker Scythe, Talon of the Great Destroyer and Oblivion (Dhuum's Scythe) are all dope looking, and fit for different themes and color combinations. Now, if only the thief wasn't swinging them the dull head first instead of the actual blade part.

This. They can't 1v1 you, and as long as you're paying attention, they are not out-rotating you either.

I wouldn't even call it annoying unless they're +1'ing you. In a straight 1v1, as long as you know what you're doing, they aren't winning. They're super squishy once you strip Aegis. Plenty of classes can strip or proc Aegis from afar. Their stealth is literally useless as long as someone's on top of them. And with the amount of chill, cripple and root necromancers bring to the table, their superspeed is negligible at best.

Remove DH, they're the only spec doing any meaningful damage to my overlord necro at the moment. I don't like that.

You can tell there's been migration from WoW when there's a larger-than-ever number of kids spamming the chat with very traditional MOBA-style commentary. Maybe it's not such a bad idea if they aren't here to stay at this point in time.

Burn guard is hopeless memes, trap ranger is decent, and condi thief is just a nuisance. This meta is all about bruiser / bunker builds that will kill you eventually, or duoques with double-burst comp.

Separate SoloQ and DuoQ, or remove DuoQ altogether. Let's see who's actually good at the game.

Clunkier than dragonhunter, and that's telling. For an elite spec that's supposed to feel fluid, the aftercasts and large movement on skills that specifically do not require or want it feel like a significant nerf compared to core guardian. Herald is currently far superior at both survivability and setting up their burst. Considering guardian's innately low health pool, the offensive power that the traits grant do not feel significant enough to justify discarding a core trait line. This doubles up when using willbender's physical skills and virtues, because the telegraphs make you a sitting duck. Last, but not least, off-hand sword probably won't be played. For aforementioned clumsiness and lack of flexibility, I see focus as a superior alternative if and when this spec is seeing play. The beautiful visuals were deceitful - unlike with virtuoso, which seems superior in every way at the moment.

Crashed for me on 'skinner, too. No beta classes in the squad. Apparently it happens in multiple strikes, as well as Arkk CM?

Oh wow, evade frames do not count as defense when necros are concerned? You bunch must think thieves are ultra-skillful, then! Right?

To me this post just reads as "I'm angry they're changing necromancer's low risk/high reward pattern" into "higher risk/higher reward". Not that I'm surprised, since necromancer's been the official easy mode for years.