RIP Reaper

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

On 8/12/2022 at 9:45 PM, Nephalem.8921 said:

To blind the hyper casuals because they see a lot of changes and dont understand numbers. And it worked if you read comments. 

Most of these changes could have been left out because they change nothing. Thats a 300dps buff for reaper right there with the gs coefficient buffs. Mirage out of all the underplayed specs gets a 25% axe ambush nerf.

Some changes are good but the overwhelming majority of them are useless fluff. Changing the coefficient of a single skill by less than 5% is just a useless change when the whole weapon needs sometimes 40%+ buffs or the entire spec lacks 15%+ behind.

I feel like on Reaper, where the buffs are is correct.  The value of said buffs is insufficient.
 

Core Necro stuff needs someone actually familiar with Necro in PvE to go over and explain why so much of those changes just won't work.

[Radina.6057]

21 hours ago, Drarnor Kunoram.5180 said:

I feel like on Reaper, where the buffs are is correct. 

They are not. Buffing Shout damage is plain and simply absurd. Those are utility skills. Their primary objective is to Stunbreak, make one attack unblockable, transfer conditions, or reduce damage. I dont even understand why someone would think thats the right way to buff Reaper damage. They didnt go ahead and buffed Chronos Well damage when they buffed that class, but suddenly on Reaper Anet sees utlitly skills and thinks: "Ah. Thats where the damage should be!"

 

What Reaper needs are massive Greatsword buffs, so you are rewarded for going in and out of Shroud, instead of staying inside for as long as possible. That would also shrink the problem of being hit in Shroud, which atm absolutely murders your dps.

 

 

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

They are buffing Greatsword in this patch.  Not nearly enough, but they are buffing it.

As for buffing shout damage, well, the functions of those shouts is basically useless in endgame PvE.  Virtually no enemy blocks, stuns are rare (and in group content, you usually have stab when needed), leaving only Suffer to have specific times it might see use (it's okay in Slothasaur and pretty much nowhere else).

 

Shouts are fine in open world.  These damage buffs mean they might see use in other parts of PvE.  I don't know if with this damage coefficient if "You Are All Weaklings" will beat out Signet of Spite, but there's a possibility at least, given the signet isn't active anyway for roughly half the time.

Edited August 15, 2022 by Drarnor Kunoram.5180

[Nimon.7840]

At least we got even more ae. Cause I'm expecting the rotation of reaper to change to something like: use GS skills> use all staff skills > shroud > use all staff skills > use GS skills > shroud > repeat.

Use staff skills might even include a double usage of staff 2, because of it's extremely low cooldown.

Why they had to give staff 5 a 3.0 coeff? They changed blast gyro to knowdown instead of Knickback, because it kicks out adds of your group, that you might want to cleave.

[Radina.6057]

Thats definitely going to happen. Staff wont only do comparable damage to axe, or even more, but also grant more lifeforce.

 

Its just another mystery why Anet thought a utility weapon had to get damage buffed, instead of one of the actual supposed to be damage weapons. 

[Bookah pls.9352]

13 hours ago, Nimon.7840 said:

Why they had to give staff 5 a 3.0 coeff? They changed blast gyro to knowdown instead of Knickback, because it kicks out adds of your group, that you might want to cleave.

Honestly i was annoyed at this at first as well but in reality it's just a 1 sec fear and they will be chilled. Won't be anywhere near as drastic as the full blown knockbacks. If anything it's more the extra defiance damage that i'm gonna miss. 

Edited August 15, 2022 by Bookah pls.9352
Well we chill on fear which brings the break bar damage back over time.

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

1 hour ago, Radina.6057 said:

Its just another mystery why Anet thought a utility weapon had to get damage buffed, instead of one of the actual supposed to be damage weapons. 

maybe because only a few people like myself use exclusively Staff with GS? Or maybe b'cuz its utility is basically worthless in PvE?

[Radina.6057]

Step 1

Identify utility skill that is crap

 

Step 2

Buff its damage scaling instead of working on the broken utility

 

Outcome

Utility weapon now deals more damage than the supposed to be damage weapon and still offers worthless utility

 

Balancing at its finest. I dont see a problem here. In the recent Warrior Buff they should have also just added more damage to the impact of the Banners, instead of working on the utility. 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by Radina.6057

[Galagar.6980]

I'm not sure what Reaper you are playing but my build is pulling ahead of our Mechanist, Soul Beast, Catalyst , and Bladesworn with ease. I do think the nerf of bringing the damage reduction in shroud from 50% to 30% did suck, but over all it is still an absolute powerhouse for me.

[Methuselah.4376]

On 9/16/2022 at 3:25 PM, Galagar.6980 said:

I'm not sure what Reaper you are playing but my build is pulling ahead of our Mechanist, Soul Beast, Catalyst , and Bladesworn with ease. I do think the nerf of bringing the damage reduction in shroud from 50% to 30% did suck, but over all it is still an absolute powerhouse for me.

I always LOVED power Reaper but...its damage ceiling has always been too low. If you're pulling ahead of your Mechanists, Soul Beasts, Catalysts and Bladesworns, then the only reason I can think of is that you are a good Reaper player and the rest are TERRIBLE at those classes. Power Mechanist with AA and Mech skills on auto alone does almost as much damage as a full rotation Reaper. 

It's a sad reality, really. I used to play my Power Reaper for everything, it's even the reason I bought HoT when it was released cause I was super hyped for it. But, with time, I just had to accept that my Harbinger far outclasses my Reaper, at least in terms of dps. I no longer even pick Reaper up when I need a power option, since Mechanist is so easy (and actually fun) and with higher dps. I really wish that this new balance developer finally nudges the balance team into getting power Reaper into the 37k range at least. Heck, 40k why not? It's a pure selfish class like Deadeye (which is doing 40k), and Shroud is not as strong a defensive tool as it use to be, nor is it meant to be used defensively in a dps scenario. 

Edited September 28, 2022 by Methuselah.4376

[Kunoichia.6251]

I haven't played nearly as much as any of you, but I've been playing world, story and (very low level) fractals with my power reaper and it rocked! I'm trying to get a full Viper set for Scourge to see if that one's any better, but for now i'm really enjoying Reaper.

[Asum.4960]

2 hours ago, Kunoichia.6251 said:

I haven't played nearly as much as any of you, but I've been playing world, story and (very low level) fractals with my power reaper and it rocked! I'm trying to get a full Viper set for Scourge to see if that one's any better, but for now i'm really enjoying Reaper.

It depends on your expectations/what you are used to, as well as level of skill and build craft. 

Reaper always had a decent "floor", as in the Shroud kit will always perform okay in the hands of pretty much any player with any build, especially for casual content purposes. 

Once you get into it and want to bring it to the next level though, you'll quickly realize how low it's "ceiling" is in turn though, with it quickly falling apart and behind alternatives with increased build quality and skilled play. 

 

I'm glad you are enjoying it in the current stage of your journey though. Many just wish to extend the spec's life beyond that by lifting it's ceiling some.

[Bookah pls.9352]

On 8/13/2022 at 12:36 AM, Bookah pls.9352 said:

Aug 23 begins our babysteps march on the way to the top of the benchmarks!

 

👀 👀