ZeftheWicked.3076

**Revenant.** Guardian can't destroy enemy boons, rev can. Other than that Rev can do anything a guard can - power dps, condi dps, healer, support, tanking.

Blighter's Boon is fine if you ask me - it's a sustain trait, not an offensive one. As for deadly chill, yeah there a buff is in order. I would think for example increasing condi duration on chilled targets.

Berserker is a very nice and fun option. Warr (along with this spec) has tons of free condi damage traits which can let you run some more varied builds there. Not to mention screaming "I'll destroy you all!" right before going into zerk mode saves you a lot of lung work irl, useful little bonus there!

> @"Lily.1935" said:

> > @"Nimon.7840" said:

> > I think that would be too strong for wvw (well TBH, there's some other things that need serious adjustments in wvw)

> > But I don't think that we will see any kind of bigger balance patch any soon.

> >

> > So nothing going to happen.

>

> I'm curious as to how it would be too much for WvW when Firebrand exists.

The #3 skill reset on enemy kill part. Though it wouldn't be broken for scourge, since his fear is attached to skill 4 (we all know scourge is your fav), the other two necros could become very team quickness spammy, which would mean either necro loses the reset, or trait stays as it - solo benefit only.

Necro and Rev are both great options.

Necro can do great damage while being tough as nails and can mass ress newbies that get downed, as long as you trait blood magic for it.

Rev has extreme flexibility in builds he can literally be anything he wants save maybe long range sniper. He can be a healer, tank, support, condi and power dps and any mix of the before mentioned. Also his staff #5 is infamous for smashing break bars so hard it's not funny.

Also both professions have the ability to rip boons - often overlooked aspect in PvE but there's fair amount of bosses that like to gain 25 stacks of might, some quikness and nasty retalliation that removed will make the fight much easier.

It is an excellent trait enabling many, before unaccessible builds. Access to both quickness and fury without reaper spec involved is no small deal, though even reaper himself profits off it handso mely. Instead of going the "it's redundant with Reapers's onlaught" start thinking of it as it's replacement (bit lacking but still). Here are but a few benefits:

1. **Condi reaper** can finally have good self quickness uptime and not feel like a torture compared to power one (Dread + Sigil of Celerity).

2. **Power Reaper** can really work some wonders with this trait. With fury and quickness provided....imagine full marauder reaper, with death magic! Perma protection, 600 bonus tougness, Raise! minions, while healing in shroud from blighter's boon from spite's passive might generation and outside of shroud from soul eater. With this trait he can get 100% crit chance without decimate defenses or other crit related traits. Hard hitting and very tanky.

4. **Core necro** can finally get some quickness for himself too (both power and condi). Condi core can be fun, but scepter autos were killing it. Now it's much better. On autos quickness is equal to having 50% condi duration and it multiplies with actual condi duration, so it's not small boost to both damage and fun factor.

5. **Power core necro** isn't arm-twisted into going curses now. Fury from this trait can cover his fury needs just fine unlocking a lot of build options.

6. **Scourge** is higly unsynergetic with this trait. His fear is on shroud skill 4 not 3, and his shroud lasts only 6s (for death perception trait). His benefits are mostly for condi builds where quickness really matters for boring auto scepter condi stacking.

Overall, save maybe scourge (who by default is not a power-friendly spec) almost all necro builds can get some advantages outta this trait. It's a very good and needed trait.

@"roughneck.8936" said:

> Love the game since its inception,some of the best map designs out there ,especially HOT expansion which the layers and complexity paired with difficulty is simply gorgeous.All the the original designers and directors left the studio which compels me to ask a simple question, can it get better then HOT? In my opinion it hasn't.

Exactly. HoT has groundbreaking map design, good difficulty that forces casual to think what they trait and gear, and meaningful rewards that give it great replay value. Something PoF has struggled with. If they go more the HoT way, and less core Tyria/PoF we'll be golden.

> @"KrHome.1920" said:

> That's actually its intention. It works in pve, but is usless. There are better and a lot more viable options like mentioned above (GS + soul eater + blood magic). Why would you want to run dagger, if you can have more damage and more healing with other options? This is the proof that dagger is a terribly balanced weapon. It is underpowered in every possible way.

Not every. One example - 1v1 with champs. Soul eater healing will be pitifully weak, while you'll be eating tons of damage, because with no decimate defenses you're arm twisted into glass gear (zezrk, assassin or marauder). Meahwile a dagger user will have frequent access to a strong heal and by going decimate defenes can use much more tanky gear options like crusader. Not to mention it's far easier to boost dagger healing (self bleed from #3 + vital persistance in soul reaping) than it is to make gs heal you more by boosting your damage.

Blood Magic will also do a ton more for dagger user. For one quickening thirst, for second vampirism traits that have rather flat healing values and ergo work best with fast hitting dagger rather then slow greatsword.

In case you rangers haven't caught on already, you're pretty much "warrior lite" unless it's healing (here you got upper hand). Last xpac warriors got boon hate, which was their weakness before spellbreaker. So this xpac most likely ranger will finally get some. While warrior will probs get some healer spec.

> @"Aplethoraof.2643" said:

> If you start as necro, don't do a minion master build - starting off relying on minions will teach you MANY bad habits that you'll have to then unlearn when you inevitably move away from minion master.

Ironic how we see the same things in opposite ways. To you necro is bad because it does not teach much about active defenses. While to me other profession are bad becuase they don't teach you about passive defenses, stat systems and using condies along with boon hate to defend yourself.

But on this one point it's a hardcore agree. To learn as a necro stay away from minions with sole exception of "Rise!" as it is an active defense skill. You should face tank and through it learn how to deal with incoming damage and attack types.

**Your answer** is reaper. You're new, you need to learn stuff, and for that you need a tanky, forgiving profession that will let you get stuff done, while you soak in how combat system works and what's what in each mode. The necro is hands down best for this job.

Necro facetanks his damage and is **very** stat reliant. This is **good** for you. You can grab a lot of professions and get to endgame just fine. The question is - how much will you learn by then? Necro will make you understand the basics that will later pay off for you. Like what condi does what and how can you use it to defend yourself. How stats work and how they relate to one another (like toughness, vitality and healing power). The necessity of stunbreakers and watching out for cc. And how stats and skills can be combined to achieve multiple ends (like tanky stat-wise, but offensive skill wise, or vice-versa).

The Deadeye is the better pick for end game pve from pure damage and "meta" perspective. But this is a very unforgiving profession that is squishy and goes down fast if caught. To rack up any meangful damage on thief you must be on top of your game and avoid mistakes like the plague since downed thief doesn't do much damage, while necro will take 3x the punishment and still be standing and doing his.

Once you however get your head around core (albeit too often neglected) concepts of combat system and feel comfortable on thief, than you can take him for a spin in end game content.

So much **on topic** conversation here...

Now as for staff - it needs conditional condi output. Staff is the verstile utility weapon, which should fit all builds save a ranged one. In exchange it's damage output will always be subpar to dedicated dps options.

I think it should have confusion output on #5 skill when it hits, boosted to twice the stacks if it interrupts.

Also having a chill output on staff #3 (the block).

Additional chill output on staff auto 3 if you trait for it (add this to corruption's abyssal chill trait, which currentlly is underperforming vastly), so condi revs can get some torment going with staff considering they traited for it.

Rev up your rev!

Warrior will most likely get some healer spec, making him OP support (Banner slave + healing).

Revenant will most likely feature a ranged offensive power option. He already has shiro as legend so...wonder what they'll do there.

Necro will likely feature something conditionally mobile with long range.

Ranger may finally be able to remove boons for a change.

Guardian - Same here, probs a strong ranged spec, since he's a bit hurting there.

Thief - probably unique support spec.

Mesmer - nobody knows what these will be...unless you're a chronomancer and time travel to see...

Ele - don't play it so no idea what it could be.

**Reaper and Herald** these are 2 e-specs i consider really good. Based on that..

1. **Provide playstyle and functionality core lacks** - Reaper makes slow and rather weak core necro finally do real damage, do it fast and have massive tanking options. Herald grants rev amazing tankyness and boonshare capabilites - both short ends of the stick for core rev.

2. **Be exciting to play** - I wouldn't be caught dead playing a scourge - that's how bland this spec feels to me. Meanwhile reaper is fun as hell with dynamic, synergetic kit. Just reaper shroud alone has a combo field, 2 combo finishers, stability and damage reduction + 2 hard cc ...among others. There is alot to do with all that!

3. **Be flexible with builds.** Look at Herald. On paper that's boonshare support/tank e-spec. In practice? Power herald, Glint Healer, Mallyx condi support herald, Condi tank herald.... Tons of builds and uses for the guy. Then look at a scourge or a druid - they're pretty much stuck with their roles. Druid is a healer, case closed, Power scourge is a meme...

4. **Not be "a role".** A role usually means being denied other roles. Look at how scourge has nothing to support power builds, while both core and reaper have something (especially reaper).

5. **Be nerfed in terms of power not functionlity**. Hi condi reaper. Why was reaper's condi power nerfed to the ground when it was actually performing as it should? Way later power got to the servicable level (raid-wise), but what was wrong with condi being just as viable?

To push sales of PoF by making scourge the only real condi necro option for more serious content? Even that got gutted later on...

E-specs are usually so different from eachother there's no need to lock them into a particular role. Some would love to play power scourge, some condi reaper, nothing wrong with that!

Yeah you might wanna slow down a bit there, this can burn you out immensly.

First off a lot of game special modes (such as Fractals) offer you chests with ascended gear for purchase, given you have enough of related currency. So maybe you don't need to hardcore farm mats for it in open world PvE.

Unlocking especs and masteries is a good idea as someone stated above. You may wanna sell what you can to get gold for yourself. When it's time to get stuff you want, be it skins, materials for big crafting (like legendary) or whatever else.....having a nice reserve of gold in bank is really awesome.

Lastly if you play through Living World season 3 and 4 maps - see which you like best and invest in it! I'm talking things like Karmic Retribution.

I did it for Ember Bay and whenever i return there i can get a nice chunk of karma simply off mob kills, keeping my karma pool afloat. And there are some cool things you can do with karma, so it's always good to have a healthy reserve!

Ah almost forgot - **Bloodstone Fen** - farm it daily!

Bloodstones from there can be traded for ascended accessory set with resettable stats - closest you'll get to legendary trinkets without having to go through the chore of making one. Once you have'm - 100 unbound magic for a consumable that lets you reset their stats and use same set of trinkets for a new build!

Toughness has a huge value, but not alone. It acts as perma passive protection boon, except the % damage reduction value depends on amount of toughness you have vs amount of armor you had prior to taking it. If you like numbers better here is a simple formula for you:

**how much damage reduction my new toughness investment gives me??**

1. what amount of my current armor is the new toughness gain?

2. add it to armor.

3. reverse the number (divide 1 by the total new armor value)

example:

I have 2k armor prior to equipping gear that will give me 1k tougness total. How much damage reduction will I get?

1k tougness is half of your armor prior to adding it. So after adding it your armor will be 1.5 of starter value.

Therefore the damage you take will be reverse of that - 1/1.5 = 2/3 of previous value.

So that 1k tougness made you take 33% less damage prior to adding it.

The value of tougness shines when combined with healing. Most healing skills don't heal based on amount of health you got. You can have 15k health, or go hog wild with vitality stat and get 30k....your heal skill will still heal for roughly 5-6k health...

Toughness reduces damage taken - the wounds are smaller and your mediocre healing capacity can handle that much better than large wounds taken with little to no toughness...

Do you know what separates a good rune from a shitty one?

One line - line nr 6.

Good one will have a great, build defining bonus there while bad one something useless and still pretend it's a viable choice.

So without further ado few examples of good/bad runes and why:

The good:

=======

**1. Rune of Tormenting** - excellent rune, the health on applying torment is a build defining feature, allowing for crazy things like condi core necro that can handle xpac content.

**2. Rune of Aristocracy** - good rune. Allows for might stacking by applying weakness - here it's you who decides how much you get outta it with adjusting weakness output on your build rather than getting something like "3 stacks of might on using a heal skill and shut up!"

**3. Rune of antitoxin** - great rune. Once again build defining rune. Allows for builds with weaker, but more frequent condi cleanses to shine and deal easier with constant condi pressure such as burn guards or scepter necros.

**4. Rune of the Stars & Rune of the Swanir** - good runes. Not everything purely passive has to be boring. These offers condi duration reduction for particular ones (weakness, cripple, chill) well before 6th line bonus (which offers incoming condi duration and damage reduction).

**5. Rune of Vampirism** - a great case of rune synergizing with itself - it heals you for 10% max hp on a kill, while itself providing vitality bonuses and 10% max health bonus. Good design is good.

The bad:

======

**1. Rune of necromancer** - bad boring rune. 300 condi damage is the only good part. But 20% fear duration as 6th bonus?? There are runes that give 20% all condi duration, not something as fringe as fear...

**2. Rune of thorns** - before that rune had an interesting mechanic of stacking condi damage bonus if hit by poisoned enemy. Now it's just poison duration + condi damage, nothing comparable to Rune of Tormenting that while has less condi damage, has outstanding bonus at 6th line

**3. Rune of the Mad King** - the birds are awesome, but why a massive bleed duration bonus on a non-condi rune? Is there some profession that vastly profits from having extremely weak but very long lasting bleeds??

**4. Rune of Krait** - a single stack of poison, bleed and torment on using an elite with 30s icd?? What is that supposed to do? If you're running this rune, then you're condi build and have tons of condi stacks on the enemy already. Rune of Sunless is far better - it at least applies fear, giving you an opportunity for a surprise cc and a nice condi bomb follow up!

**5. Rune of Divinity** - like wow, this one takes the cake. It couldn't be more passive if it died... Pretty useless all stat bonus (weak) ending with 10% max hp gain...something a lot of other runes have as well...except they DO something while having it...

We need runes to be more synergetic with player builds and actions. How much a player gets outta rune should be decided but his build and actions, not hard capped on a rune itself. Also runes that support something (like auras duration) should themselves give the effect they boost. How many professions simply can't use rune of Radiance because they can't create auras themselves or their ability to do so is too limited?

Now reason I moan about this at all, let alone in general forum instead of fractal one, is the a-net's declaration that this fractal is the pre-taste of what 3rd xpac environment will be like. Well i hope it won't be **this** bland. Say what you want about gw2 engine, but the artstyle has been very strong in this game. Everything felt very vibrant,, and pulsing with vigor (save maybe shiverpeaks).

Now in sunqua everything feels very bland, desaturated compared to main environments. The volcanic portion feels way less "hot" and "vibrant" than zones like fireheart rise or ember bay. The mountain ascent part feels closest to Heart of the Mists map which by design is bland and desaturated - it's the damn afterlife zone in gw2. But that's not how the living and breathing Tyria should look like.

Asides from some core Tyrian maps (and maybe Kourna) I'd be hard pressed to find a map that's not amazing spectacle of architectural igeniuity, vibrant colors and bold themes. HoT maps, Ember Bay, Zephyrite Sanctum to name a few. I hope 3rd xpac won't be a collection of "Heart of Mists" lite maps...

> @"Solanum.6983" said:

> After the Hints of Cantha and Taimi talking about cases of Canthan sailors washing up on beaches with tales of unknown creatures from the ocean that might be connected to the Deep Sea Dragon, My Dream would be it centering around the Deep Sea Dragon and a large focus on the ocean itself.

>

> My Biggest and most unrealistic hope would be a new playable race, that being the Largos. We know so little about them but if any new race were to be made I think an expansion with the Deep Sea Dragon would be the time for these guys to appear, Not to mention they're basically human in shape and size so very little work would need to be done when it comes to animations, modelling and preexisting items in the game.

> We know were going back to Cantha so there's that but An Underwater Map to go with the Largos would be nice too and Mount to get around it. Underwater Combat could get a revamp too.

> I don't know, I just feel like Underwater is somewhere that has a lot of untapped potential for something fresh and new for the game.

Unrealistic indeed. It would be a disaster. Imagine swarms of Largos running around shiverpeaks or in towns....

This race makes sense as the extremely recluse underwater species. The moment we get swarms of player controlled largos it'll be complete circus out there...

Necromancer.

I love his theme, and how tanky he is. I generally enjoy battle mage stereotype and if it's full of boon hate along with green/black theme to it...well i'm sold.

But it doesn't end there. I also love how deep and customizable his builds can be. Many mistake "easy to play" with "shallow and simple". This couldn't be further from truth for a necro. Because he has no blocks/evades/invulnies etc wonder defenses, the question of survivial is delegated to his stats, and multiple defensive swiss knife style skills - each being a tool for a certain situation, none perfect answer to all. Since he gets a lot of free stats to compensate the lack of wonder defenses, he can run a phletora of builds and use various gear sets that other professions would have no business getting near. He never gets boring for me!

Seems i'm bit late to the party. Marauder gear is really nice for becoming independant from decimate defenses. And extra life force helps too. But in your case, you're asking the wrong question. The answer you seek is:

**Death Magic**

With it you can become insanely sustainable while sacrificing only a little damage. Cut out Soul reaping, and instead choose DM. Go corrupter's fervor grandmaster, as for major choose whichever you like. If you're missing the 20% free crit damage from Soul Reaping, 300 extra strength from Deadly Strength will compensate nicely, especially since it's shroud independant. And if condies are ruining your day, go corrupter's fervor or dark defiance.

Obviously be sure to pick bitter chill in spite - your vulni application off chills will stack Carapace for you real fast.

Lastly sprinkle some "Rise!" on top and you'll get very, very strong damage mitigation.

Now here's where marauder will really shine. You just lost a lotta crit. But with full marauder you'll have 60% of it out the gate. Add sigil of accuracy for 7% more. Fury from allies (or dread trait) for extra 20%. That's already 87% (actually bit more). Lastly rune of eagle and you're at whooping 96% crit. Last 4% is so small, that some cheap food, fractal pot or infusions can handle it.

That bit of extra crit chance over zerker gear, plus that bit of hp (but with iron wall defenses guarding it) really sells marauder for damaging, yet very sustainable reaper:)

Shroud is the main problem with core.

Reaper goes into shroud = dps boost, his prime time to do damage.

Core goes into shroud = dps plummets, his worst damage period.

Meanwhile untransformed core necro certainly does not do greater damage than untransformed reaper...

So the OP idea isn't bad, though also not refined. Dagger does most of it's damage via autos and there it makes sense. But axe autos suck damage wise, and something else is needed there..

**Necromancer is the answer**

ADHD mistakes = you press wrong thing at a wrong time. So all the panic button classes are out. You need the guy who can deal damage while being tanky 24/7 and is more about stats than reflexes compared to other professions. That's necro, pure and simple.

He is tanky right out the gate and is given tons of free stats (especially attack ones) in his traits, so he can skip glass cannon gear and go for more tanky options while still packing a heavy punch, giving him great offense and defense at the same time, all the time.

Price for this goodness is that you don't have panic button defenses of other classes that completely shut down enemy damage for a period of time. As necro you'rea meant to eat it, but you're also meant to be always ready to take it and ask for seconds just cause you can!

> @"Khisanth.2948" said:

> If we are going to make comparisons to other content ...

> What about Teq vs Shiverpeak Strike? ;)

>

> On the other hand that is a stupid comparison because the thing that matters is the skin not the ascended part but on the flip side it depends on how many tokens are required per weapon/skin. What is a reasonable amount of time to take to get one of these? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? I knew someone who did it daily for 3 months and got 0. Is that reasonable? Most people will probably be getting only 1 token per day so it is just a matter of deciding on a cap and setting that as part of the cost. It could still have some other cost component too. Also this is a failsafe mechanism so the cost being higher than an expected average time to get one would probably be okay as well. It could also be balanced by having a chance to get more than one token per roll. They could also be integrated into things like World Boss Rush events.

>

> > @"ZeftheWicked.3076" said:

> > Want sunless weapon? RNG baby, nothing else. No achievement or tokens to get Teq hoard after x amount of runs or doing achievements.

> > Want Dark Matter Cape? Tough luck - whale it with gems cause it's account bound (why? It's not an achievement for bragging rights), rather than being tradeable on tp like black lion weapon skins where the lucky or rich can meet the hardworking who got ingame gold and make a trade like human beings.

>

> Complain about lack of tokens for Teq then immediately ignores the tokens for the BLC items in the next sentence.

>

And are tokens **certain**? I mean are you sure that this particular item will appear in Black Lion Statuettes vendor at all?