Scourge Test Post-Patch: Reason to Celebrate

[Eddy.7051]

TL;DR The Scourge shade mechanic is almost completely polished now outside of balance. Only one new bug was found in testing; the F5/Desert Shroud will not apply its initial cast effect from Manifest Sand Shade (torment, cripple, burn, and/or vulnerability) to foes near you if that foe is also not near any of your shades. Otherwise, several bugs were fixed that are detailed below.

F1/Manifest Sand Shade (MSS) – MSS should only apply 1 stack of torment and cripple on foes near you and/or your shades. Using F2-5 abilities should also only apply 1 stack of torment and cripple on foes near you and/or your shades in addition to their main effects.

• Bug Fix: Foes near you and/or your shades will now only received 1 capped torment+cripple from MSS when you use F1-5 abilities.
• Possible Bug: Foes near your shades receive the MSS torment+cripple when you use F5/Desert Shroud, but foes near you and not near your shades will not receive the MSS torment+cripple when you use F5/Desert Shroud.
• Bug Fix: MSS torment+cripple is now consistently capped with Sand Savant’s greater shade.

Dhuumfire - MSS should apply only 1 stack of burn on foes near you and/or your shades in addition to its main effect.

• Bug Fix: Dhuumfire no longer applies burn per pulse of F5/Desert Shroud.
• Possible Bug: Foes near your shades receive the MSS burn when you use F5/Desert Shroud, but foes near you and not near your shades will not receive the MSS burn when you use F5/Desert Shroud.
• Note: Dhuumfire was not bugged prior to the latest patch with stacking burn per shade.

Unyielding Blast - MSS should apply only 2 stacks of vulnerability on foes near you and/or your shades in addition to its main effect.

• Bug Fix: Unyielding Blast no longer applies vulnerability per pulse of F5/Desert Shroud.
• Possible Bug: Foes near your shades receive the MSS vulnerability when you use F5/Desert Shroud, but foes near you and not near your shades will not receive the MSS vulnerability when you use F5/Desert Shroud.
• Bug Fix: Unyielding Blast no longer stacks additional vulnerability on foes near multiple shades.

Reaper’s Might – MSS should apply 1 stack of might to you in addition to its main effect.

• Note: MSS might is only applied when using F1/Manifest Sand Shade, but MSS might is not applied when using F2-5 abilities. This is also how the trait functioned prior to the latest patch. This may be a bug due to its application inconsistency in comparison to the Dhuumfire and Unyielding Blast traits, but it may not be a bug due to its application of a boon, rather than a condition, to yourself, rather than affecting allies near you and/or your shades.

F5/Desert Shroud – Pulse out only 2 stacks of torment on foes near you and/or your shades.

• Bug Fix: Desert Shroud no longer stacks additional torment per pulse on foes near multiple shades.
• Bug Fix: Desert Shroud will now apply the full 2 stacks of torment per pulse on foes near your shades whether or not they are near you.
• Bug Fix: MSS now only applies torment+cripple (along with Dhuumfire’s burn and/or Unyielding Blast’s vulnerability) to the initial cast of Desert Shroud rather than applying these conditions per pulse of Desert Shroud.

Now we can use Desert Shroud from far range with only 1 shade up on each foe to achieve its full condition damage (rather than being in melee range while blowing out cooldowns for all 3 shades at only one location). After this damage gets balanced (buffed) the Scourge will be in a great place with its more user-friendly shade mechanic.

This post is a follow-up to my Scourge test post detailing shade bugs prior to the latest patch. The pre-patch post can be accessed using the link below.https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/4644/scourge-testing-are-shade-bugged-or-unpolished/p1

[kKagari.6804]

I thought that you will only trigger Dhuumfire if you drop a shade on someone now, almost like a psuedo Sadistic Searing, according to the patch. Am I mistaken?

[Windler.4815]

Lol...

@Brad.9730 said:... After this damage gets balanced (buffed) the Scourge will be in a great place with its more user-friendly shade mechanic.

You're clearly new here. They don't nerf a profession mechanic and then buff damage. See reaper. See core necro. In the history of necro, that's never happened.

[Eddy.7051]

@kKagari.6804 said:I thought that you will only trigger Dhuumfire if you drop a shade on someone now, almost like a psuedo Sadistic Searing, according to the patch. Am I mistaken?

Dhuumfire applies burning when using any of the F abilities as long as a foe is near you or at least one of your shades. The only exception is the bug I pointed out where foes will not receive Dhuumfire burning on F5/Desert Shroud when they are near you and not near a shade.

Dhuumfire no longer applies burning per pulse of Desert Shroud. This is what was mentioned in the patch. It is limited to applying burning to the initial cast of Desert Shroud because the F1/Manifest Sand Shade procs on the initial cast of F2-5 abilities as detailed in the F1 skill description.

[Eddy.7051]

To ad> @Windler.4815 said:

Lol...

@Brad.9730 said:... After this damage gets balanced (buffed) the Scourge will be in a great place with its more user-friendly shade mechanic.

You're clearly new here. They don't nerf a profession mechanic and then buff damage. See reaper. See core necro. In the history of necro, that's never happened.

Anet has already mentioned that they will be "looking to add some power back into the [shades] in the next balance iteration" according to another forum post.https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/10778/anet-what-is-your-actual-intention-with-manifest-sand-shade/p1

[Zefiris.8297]

@Brad.9730 said:After this damage gets balanced (buffed) the Scourge will be in a great place with its more user-friendly shade mechanic.

I would have agreed, but unfortunately...

Keep in mind that the specialization probably won't hit previous DPS potential (as it has heavy support built in), but we do intend for it to go up from where it's currently at.

We're apparently heavy support somehow, so high damage in PVE is not in the cards.

Very nice they finally fixed us to a state most of us assumed we'd be in at PoF launch, though.

[kKagari.6804]

@Brad.9730 said:

@kKagari.6804 said:I thought that you will only trigger Dhuumfire if you drop a shade on someone now, almost like a psuedo Sadistic Searing, according to the patch. Am I mistaken?

Dhuumfire applies burning when using any of the F abilities as long as a foe is near you or at least one of your shades. The only exception is the bug I pointed out where foes will not receive Dhuumfire burning on F5/Desert Shroud when they are near you and not near a shade.

Dhuumfire no longer applies burning per pulse of Desert Shroud. This is what was mentioned in the patch. It is limited to applying burning to the initial cast of Desert Shroud because the F1/Manifest Sand Shade procs on the initial cast of F2-5 abilities as detailed in the F1 skill description.

Ah I see what's happened, I read a post where someone reported that dhuumfire doesn't work anymore, but I think he made that post based on testing with desert shroud only.

[Kanto.1659]

Keep in mind that the specialization probably won't hit previous DPS potential (as it has heavy support built in), but we do intend for it to go up from where it's currently at.

Keep in mind that the specialization probably won't hit previous DPS potential (as it has heavy support built in)

won't hit previous DPS potential (as it has heavy support built in)

as it has heavy support built in

heavy support

[Maunzi.3764]

Not sure what is there to celebrate. We may have less bugs, but we're also not useful.

[Brighteluden.2974]

Jumped into the game to see how badly the nerfs effected us walked up to the nearest veteran fought him realized how much longer it took me to kill him..Logged off, won't be back on for a few weeks until they release buffs if they're even worth it. I've mained necro since launch and the state we're in now is abysmal.

[Asum.4960]

@Brad.9730 said:Anet has already mentioned that they will be "looking to add some power back into the [shades] in the next balance iteration" according to another forum post.https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/10778/anet-what-is-your-actual-intention-with-manifest-sand-shade/p1

Like they said with Power Reaper over 2 years ago?

If they actually buff Necro, and I mean actually reasonably buff it for once to make up for a nerf, great.But considering their track record with Necro, forgive the Necro balance cynics who have been playing since beta for being cynical about this.

They might throw Condi Scourge a bone so it's good enough to not be god awful and generating alot of stink in the community, and then leave it there to die like Power Reaper.

[Dadnir.5038]

Next balance update:

We've looked into the scourge and we carefully monitor him. It's still a very dangerous profession that can instantly rip a lot of boons but we found out that it felt a it on the weak side when it come to raw damage since a few week so we decided to give it some power to back this up while making it's different action more obvious.

• Manifest sand shade now apply 2 stacks of torment instead of 1.
• On shade skills 2, 3 and 4 use the scourge now use the summon bone minion animation. There is now a 1/2s cast time for these skills and the shades have then a growing orange circle telling foes that a skill is used that take 1/2 seconds after scourge animation.

We want to be very carefull about the impact of those changes so we decided not to do more with this patch note.