How happy are you with the Reaper? (Post 7 Nov 2017 Patch)

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

@AlexanderDracul.7492 said:

@Svarty.8019 said:I'm sure Arenanet will explain their rationale in destroying the Reaper. Hahaha! I'm sure they won't.

How did they destroy reaper? They buffed the damage a good amount and in turn reduced the shroud/defense. I'm not sure what people where expecting when they wanted more damage but when you increase damage you have to reduce something else, you can't have both.

When both damage and defense are significantly below average, tradeoffs like that are a bad idea. Yet we're the only profession that gets tradeoffs like that in our balancing consistently.

For my vote, it's because I really liked all of the changes they made except for the increased Shroud degen for Reaper. Deathly Chill was busted in WvW using the PvE version and I can live with 2 fewer Whirl finishers and shorter Poison stacks on RS4 for the raw damage increase it got. Pretty sure on a Vipers or Carrion build, it gained damage. I like the new functionality of Signets of Suffering (now if only signets had any synergy with each other...), though Plague Signet needs a change to its enhanced passive. Naturally, no complaints at all about the damage buffs to Reaper's Shroud and Greatsword.

But the Shroud Degen increase (and nerf to Life Reap's life force generation) cancels all of that out in severity. Is it still playable? Barely. It's not awful in PvE, but it is bad. It pretty much destroyed Reaper in WvW and PvP entirely, which is a shame because I love using the shout skills.

[Merlin Dyfed Avalon.5046]

I like how they changed necromancer into a permanently crippled warrior without defensive utilities, damage or mobility.

[Vitali.5039]

If only we get something to improve our mobility and (PvE) dps, also changing rotation vs mobs under 50% hp, we are golden.I like the recharge % while-in-shroud of Signets of Suffering, maybe they could think to implement it to Spectral Mastery too.

[Svarty.8019]

@ilmau.9781 said:

beacouse noone actually developing specializations have even a tiny bit of idea of what he is doing, they just try random stuffs and see what happen and then keep changing in an endless loop.

Bingo! Get the dartboard out lads, it's balance patch time!

[Relwin.7569]

I was allowed to raid yesterday as Power Reaper. Finally I can play my class in PVE. I believe Reaper still needs some improvements but finally i don't feel useless in PVE.

But there should be an option for Reaper exclusively: Old good Vital Persistance. I think there should be grandmaster trait that would reduce shroud degeneration and Reaper Onslaught should be buffed to make option to Camp Shroud or use Shroud for Burst OR use Shroud for sustain (Blighter's boon!). This would be ideal!Numbers are okayish, I compete average dps in raids and I'm happy with it. Reaper Shroud deals heavy damage even when used during its full duration from 100% to 0%. Basically 'Me Smash You!' Button now. I like it. Kinda like necrotic berserk mode.

[rurreres.3214]

happy With dmg, freaking miserable With everything else. Our shroud drains so fast its of 0 use in pvp/wvw and on top of that we dont have any great defense Utilities nor amazing dmg outside shroud. And we can be kited super easy. Yet they did 0 to scourge and their zergfest. Even scourges cripple is better....

[ArmageddonAsh.6430]

Without a doubt it needs improvement. Mostly in the way that it melts to ranged damage and lock down with very little it can do about it. Getting Range kills against a Necro, Reaper and Scourge is SO easy., They needed a damage buff, but they also need a defense and Anti ranged buff. A reflection or destruction on ranged attacks. They also need improved mobility

[Avigrus.2871]

Condition Reaper - completely guttedPower Reaper - melee focused class with no defence..... learn to dodge.

Fucking bewildered.

[wwDefuser.2056]

Pure PvE Patch,

...for POF-owner, that like to play Reaper in the new areas

Regarding PvP... Reaper got worse.

• Less boon corrupt, less sustain.

• They tend to change things that does not effect useability (e.g. Deathshroud #5 patch last(?) season --> waste of time and balance-patches lose their sense with every add on.

• more Shroud DMG you cant apply, cause: --> u are a melee fighter where your Stability gets corruptet/stolen or simply negated by too much cc, you get kicked out shroud trough massive POF DMG

• Traitlines do not allow a viable Power build. 50% Crit on a more passive Traitline (Soulreaping), No usefull Condiclear/healskill-synergy on power-dmg Traitlines (Reaper, Soulreaping, Spite).

• Still useless traits in Soulreaping ... 1 vulnurability on autoattack (lol)

• Useless Elites (Shout 1 1/4s casttime + Stability which gets corrupted)

• Lich has only 1 Stack Stability no Resistance, long Casttimes and projectile-autoattacks, that can be blocked/reflectet/dodged by tons of classes/skills.

• Plague has no Power-skaling for any hybrid options.

• Still useless Daggertrait on Bloodlust, usless Healingpower-scaling, slow, clunky Greatsword, .... No Power-Rune with chill-Synergy.

• ... .

  Stopped playing Reaper at all after Dropping from 1700 to 1600 rating after placements (many players are happy now ^^)

[ilmau.9781]

@wwDefuser.2056 said:

Pure PvE Patch,

...for POF-owner, that like to play Reaper in the new areas

Regarding PvP... Reaper got worse.

• Less boon corrupt, less sustain.

• They tend to change things that does not effect useability (e.g. Deathshroud #5 patch last(?) season --> waste of time and balance-patches lose their sense with every add on.

• more Shroud DMG you cant apply, cause: --> u are a melee fighter where your Stability gets corruptet/stolen or simply negated by too much cc, you get kicked out shroud trough massive POF DMG

• Traitlines do not allow a viable Power build. 50% Crit on a more passive Traitline (Soulreaping), No usefull Condiclear/healskill-synergy on power-dmg Traitlines (Reaper, Soulreaping, Spite).

• Still useless traits in Soulreaping ... 1 vulnurability on autoattack (lol)

• Useless Elites (Shout 1 1/4s casttime + Stability which gets corrupted)

• Lich has only 1 Stack Stability no Resistance, long Casttimes and projectile-autoattacks, that can be blocked/reflectet/dodged by tons of classes/skills.

• Plague has no Power-skaling for any hybrid options.

• Still useless Daggertrait on Bloodlust, usless Healingpower-scaling, slow, clunky Greatsword, .... No Power-Rune with chill-Synergy.

• ... .

  Stopped playing Reaper at all after Dropping from 1700 to 1600 rating after placements (many players are happy now ^^)

very nice summary, let's just hope that reach the right eyes ;)

[Kam.4092]

"We got nerfed!" ... "REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"

"We got buffed!" ... "REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"

This sums up the Necromancer forums to me. People begged for Reaper Power buffs. We got it, and there was a reasonable trade off. You all should be happy Reaper got some needed attention. Is it amazing and fixes Reaper? The answer is currently no when compared to other Elites, but we did get an ok buff DPS wise. I heard it's actually ok in PvP and Roaming now, but not better than Scourge. Power Reaper is one of the most buffed Elites in the game if you look back at patches. It's just the buffs are small. At least we keep getting buffed, and hopefully reach 32k+ eventually.

People need to learn to appreciate what they get more.

[dceptaconroy.7928]

Dmg is better so cheers for that. 3 looks at it*

• Degen back to normal 3%, end of.
• Degen remains then throw us a meaty defense
  anything or/ increase dmg further..
• Degen to 4%, tinker with a defensive somethingand throw it our way, thtd be nice.Could ask for a variety of the above combined (dreamworld) but thatd blow frontal lobes, so hopeful for any of the above.

[jalmari.3906]

reaper can now actually do damage enough to be useful HOWEVER..

catch is that shroud lasts really short time which means any condition class (scourge, even core condi necro) will totally kill you now.

I do agree that reaper damage was bad but on other hand defense was even weaker thanks to many nerfs which were intended to tone down condi reaper but what they did was nerf power reaper.

With current mid level skill meta it's just better to play core necro with power build than reaper because your shroud will last longer, your auto is RANGED so you can actually kite some scourge damage AND you get one extra trait line not taken by spec.

[Atzros.8715]

The spectre of bad design will eternally haunt the reaper so long as Shroud functions as a secondary life bar. We are denied blocks, invulns, additional dodges, and even vigor because the potential of a second pool of health - paired with the life force regeneration of skills - means that giving us too much additional survivability has the potential to make us "broken". The way vitality "double dips" by not only giving you more Health, but more shroud paired with the PERCENTAGE LLF recovery of skills means that Anet likely views these gains as eHP recovery, and I COMPLETELY understand their view that giving us too much can be overpowered.

How many attacks, and utilities in the necromancer arsenal have simple "life force regeneration", and little else? How many weapons are being weighed down by the burden of life force serving as health? Ghastly Claws, Necrotic Stab, Necrotic Bite, Feast of Corruption, Necrotic Grasp, Reaper's Touch, Locus Swarm, Oppressive Wave, Dusk Strike, Fading Twilight, Chilling Scythe, and SO ON. Do you remember when Feast of Corruption used to give retaliation? Do you remember how it was removed because being paired with the large health pool of Necromancer was "unfun"? That alone should be telling that the bloated corpse of this failed mechanic is keeping our skills from acquiring something of value.

If Death/Reaper shroud was changed to a simple resource-based transformation that retained decay, then we would not only no longer have to worry about incoming damage reducing the time we can spend in shroud, while distancing life force generation from being treated as a heal. By distancing life force generation from being treated as sustain, then it would devalue the weight of this modifiers on attacks, and give us some more room for something of worth being added to it. Yes, life force generation would still remain as a means to recover this resource, but it could no longer be interpreted as recovery. Whenever you look at a skill and see "Life Force: %", you should realize that can be seen as regenerating your life pool, and for that reason? Necromancer, and Reaper will never get anything of value

Shroud serving as a second life bar is a dark cloud preventing us from blooming as a class, and that is my opinion on the matter -- so long as we can shroud our health in a second life bar, our balance will be shrouded in misery.

[Dadnir.5038]

@Atzros.8715 said:Shroud serving as a second life bar is a dark cloud preventing us from blooming as a class, and that is my opinion on the matter -- so long as we can shroud our health in a second life bar, our balance will be shrouded in misery.

That sum it up. As long as the necromancer don't get rid of this 2nd life bar idea it will never be satisfying in both damage and defense. Asking for more damage or more defense or more support will never do the trick, the shroud is both the boon of the necromancer and it's bane.

[Zoltreez.6435]

@Kam.4092 said:"We got nerfed!" ... "REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"

"We got buffed!" ... "REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"

This sums up the Necromancer forums to me. People begged for Reaper Power buffs. We got it, and there was a reasonable trade off.

People need to learn to appreciate what they get more.

THERE SHOULD NOT HAVE BEN ANY TRADE OFF THAT'S THE PROBLEM !!!!

Also that dmg increase is bassicaly almost 0 thx to the increased shroud degen so there wasnt realy anykind of buff but a Nerf to our ONLY EXISTING DEFENSE THAT WAS BAD SINCE THE BEGINING OF THE NECRO CLASS !!!!

Devs keep nerfing the Worst defense ability in the entire game bassicaly again and again and again............

We are at the point where Reaper and Core encro needs a Buff to literally EVERYTHING.... dmg,Mobility,Selfsustain everything...

[Zoltreez.6435]

@Dadnir.5038 said:

@Atzros.8715 said:Shroud serving as a second life bar is a dark cloud preventing us from blooming as a class, and that is my opinion on the matter -- so long as we can shroud our health in a second life bar, our balance will be shrouded in misery.

That sum it up. As long as the necromancer don't get rid of this 2nd life bar idea it will never be satisfying in both damage and defense. Asking for more damage or more defense or more support will never do the trick, the shroud is both the boon of the necromancer and it's bane.

No.... the devs are.....

there are 234226427327 ways and ideas how you can keep shroud and fix the damn class.... allot of them was allready posted by playes in long well made posts MANY times now.... all it needs is a little brain realy... its not the SHROUD that holds the class back Shroud is a Nice unique idea for this class.. its the Devs that Holds the class back....devs that have NO freaking idea about the Necro class as a whole... and they Prove this with EVERY SINGLE UPDATE....

[Atzros.8715]

@Zoltreez.6435 said:No.... the devs are.....

there are 234226427327 ways and ideas how you can keep shroud and fix the kitten class.... allot of them was allready posted by playes in long well made posts MANY times now.... all it needs is a little brain realy... its not the SHROUD that holds the class back Shroud is a Nice unique idea for this class.. its the Devs that Holds the class back....devs that have NO freaking idea about the Necro class as a whole... and they Prove this with EVERY SINGLE UPDATE....

You misunderstand, the problem with Shroud is that it provides a life bar. We should KEEP shroud, but remove the life bar aspect of it, as we can be burned out of it before accomplishing anything of value. Without a second life bar, we would require additional defenses, and would allow us to get blocks, invulns, and other defensive mechanics other classes have. Don't you see you're advocating for a crutch that's keeping us from healing as a profession? Keep life force, keep shroud, but remove the secondary health pool aspect of it -- make it a simple transformation for F1 that drains a resource like it is now, but give us more defensive tools in exchange.

A second life bar is a balancing nightmare, and they can't properly give us the tools we need without first giving a look into the mechanics of death shroud.

[Subli.8217]

:) The dps increase was a step in the right direction but there are still unresolved matters for reaper (and necro) class.

First of all, we still miss a blast finisher on warhorn 4

We still don't have a panic button (focus rework/spectral armor i'm looking at you)

We are still cripples, dagger 3 could use being 600 range shadowstep, or focus could get a "ride the lighting"

Honestly 50 sec cd on spectral grasp in PvE is ridiculous.

Spectral Wall needs to reflect projectiles, COME ON it's 2017.

It would be fantastic if warhorn could give me swiftness without putting me in combat. Maybe give swiftness to the 4 skill and make skill 5 pure dps that ticks lifesteal on top of damage and cripple? Notice the amazing combo it would have with blast on warhorn 4 - when you blast stealth/swiftness with your team in dungeon/fractal.

Staff. Gurl, no, bye, NEXT

[Shiyo.3578]

Added a supporty spec to necro via scourge, gutted condi reaper. I don't find power or gsword fun on necro. I don't want to play a support, yet the spec I enjoyed playing pre-POF no longer exists.

Extremely upset about this change, they basically deleted what I enjoyed playing from the game. My necro is now a mule for holding items.

[Warscythes.9307]

@Shiyo.3578 said:Added a supporty spec to necro via scourge, gutted condi reaper. I don't find power or gsword fun on necro. I don't want to play a support, yet the spec I enjoyed playing pre-POF no longer exists.

Extremely upset about this change, they basically deleted what I enjoyed playing from the game. My necro is now a mule for holding items.

Scourge is dps, what are you talking about.

[minion.1987]

pretty much screws over my team fight build that would allow me to stay in shroud as long as possible and yes it did work against 2 scourges but mostly if other people were around. pretty much went like this ally get condition on them i take condition which gave lifeforce try to maintain the shroud while dealing damage. don't recall if i had the rez well on. also had a corruption for defense and the heal i think it was when i left shroud or something like that. this just made it extremely weak. now reaper is going to die faster.

[ilmau.9781]

@Sublimatio.6981 said:

:) The dps increase was a step in the right direction but there are still unresolved matters for reaper (and necro) class.

• First of all, we still miss a blast finisher on warhorn 4
• We still don't have a panic button (focus rework/spectral armor i'm looking at you)
• We are still cripples, dagger 3 could use being 600 range shadowstep, or focus could get a "ride the lighting"
• Honestly 50 sec cd on spectral grasp in PvE is ridiculous.
• Spectral Wall needs to reflect projectiles, COME ON it's 2017.
• It would be fantastic if warhorn could give me swiftness without putting me in combat. Maybe give swiftness to the 4 skill and make skill 5 pure dps that ticks lifesteal on top of damage and cripple? Notice the amazing combo it would have with blast on warhorn 4 - when you blast stealth/swiftness with your team in dungeon/fractal.
• Staff. Gurl, no, bye, NEXT

I agree, we can consider it a step in the right direction and as drawback we already got an extreme reduced to the condi damage, so what are the reasons to nerf also the shroud uptime??

[Brujeria.7536]

They attempted to fix problems by nerfing unrelated game modes and removing build variety, without even fixing the problem they where aiming for at all.

[road range.6293]

I'm extremely disappointed in this Reaper patch. There's no building out of a 40% loss of duration, of an entire skill bar, containing 5 essential (mobility and mitigation) skills. No matter what increases in damage was added.

I would really love to see the entire game patch completely reverted. The first balance patch, to balance new PoF professions, and, instead they went after the HoT professions? They've had more than 2 years to balance Reaper. Scourge desperately needed the balance and fixes, yet they chose to utterly ignore Scourge, and instead, destroyed the well proven HoT Reaper. And, left the PoF Scourge unscathed, in what should have been almost exclusively a PoF balancing patch. Completely mind boggling. In fact, none of the PoF professions that needed serious work, got any much needed attention at all, IMHO.

They didn't just add 2 seconds of cool down to one particular Reaper skill, as a normal balance patch would. They've completely decimated the entire Death Shroud skill bar, which contains 5 primary, and, essential skills, by around 40%, in reduction of its available play time. It's a massive and catastrophic hit to the Reaper. And., they did this to a profession that's been in Meta game for 2 1/2 years? It did need a buff to shroud damage. Yet, now, due to a massive nerf to it's duration, is seems your dead before you can even use a single rotation of the much needed buffs that it finally got. Survive-ability has never been Reaper's strong suit. It's light armor, high risk, high reward. In practice, Death Shroud could give some much needed mobility, some stun break, some cleansing, some rooting, some stability, and some survive-ability, etc.. All the things that the class generally lacks overall, could be finessed out of it by using shroud. But, now I find that shroud is gone before you can even make use of it.

Personally, I don't like Scourge. It plays more like a Mesmer than a Necro to me IMO. But, I find it is extremely boring. It is spamming and face-rolling F1-F5,. Except unlike a Mesmer, you also have to target those skills too. I have no interest in re-rolling my game play to a Scourge. Nor, any other profession. To see your personal choice get messed up this badly is very discouraging.

In one patch, I find that not only it is suddenly virtually useless fodder for WvW (3K). I'm also finding this patch, is ruining my entire game experience. As my Reaper has been used to open all my story lines, and, all maps. So, now in order to replay any of the stories, and to travel to all locations, etc., I am forced to use a decimated version of my #1 choice of characters.

My vote would be to revert this entire Reaper patch please. I would gladly give up the minor damage buffs, for the return of the mere play-ability of the Reaper class.