ZeftheWicked.3076

> @"Jinn Galen.2468" said:

> > @"Dadnir.5038" said:

> > > @"NICENIKESHOE.7128" said:

> > > Heya just a question, if my guildies (2-3 reapers) want to chain spectral wall for perma fear. What utility is should be swap out/lowest dps utility wise?

> >

> > Well if you think that you can make the boss step in and out of the wall every second for the "perma fear" to be possible... It would be nice and dandy if _spectral wall_ wasn't working like any other wall skill in game and instead **pulsed it's effect** but sadly it's not. If it was possible maybe terrormancer would have been meta long ago. All in all it will most likely lead to a dps loss to use _spectral wall_ instead of the current skills.

>

> Holy kitten this is so good. Now the trait that makes feared enemies receive more damage (forgot the name) will finally be useful in PVE while not breaking PVP (what idiot would willingly stand in spectral wall?).

No, it's not good. Current spectral wall is the only solid counter to evasion/dodge users in competitve modes. Reason is because it's a barrier that acts upon contact and not just pulses fears. If it pulsed fear, it wouldnt be hard at all to dodge through it, between pulses. Maybe if it was a combination of both like thief's smoke screen (block projectiles always, while pulsing blind each second) then it could work. But it then could be subject to double fear application (1 from collision, 2nd from pulse that happened at same time) making it unreliable and hard to balance.

Maybe a follow-up skill that destroys the wall for larger fear application around it, given you can only do so in first 2 seconds (paying price in losing at least 3s uptime of your "fear barrier").

> @"Lexan.5930" said:

> really wisht hat IF they nerf, they do it ro death perception. Bring it down to 200 ferocity and leave reapers onslaught alone. The quickness makes shroud really feel like a burst ability with the reduced durration

**slap in the face** - that's for all the poor core necros and power scourges you want to screw over for your own comfort. If anything maybe reaper's onslaught should eat a ferocity nerf, since core and scourges already got it hard enough without easy extra 50% crit chance from decimate defenses nor any quickness in their traits/skills.

I love a reaper, but I refuse "buffs" that make core even worse then it already is compared to elites, or deny scourge the power playstyle.

I believe there's some ninja dev reading these forums after last patch. So long story short:

**The quickness on necro is a good, from game design perspective**.

Necro is many things others are not, in a good way. One of these is his buttload of free stats that let him gear up using unconventional stat sets, such as Valkyrie, Crusader, Cavalier, Shaman, Apothecary. This is good. This is how it should be. A profession should have reasons to "go with the flow" of game's horizontal gear progression and have traits/skills that make non-meta gear sets viable and meaningful.

Quickness (and ferocity buff on Death Perception) opens another such path for necro - concentration gear. Up till now necro didn't have any major reasons to pursue boon duration gear. But now with mentioned changes not only is there a solid reason to, but also a 300 extra ferocity compensation for using it (since no gear with concentration has ferocity on it), making it a viable option for unorganized group/solo content. Things like Wanderer stats (Power/Vitality main, Toughness/Concentration minor) or Commander's stats (Power/Precision main, Toughness/Concentration minor) will now appeal to some reapers.

How the quickness should be applied, should it be chained to Reaper's Onslaught (or reaper in general), in what amounts should necro get it - I guess that will be confirmed or be subject to change as time passes. But the addition of solid uptime quickness to necro does do a lot of good for it. Balancing questions should be "how" and "when" but not "if".

I honestly forsee revert to previous Reaper's Onslaught, while keeping the Death Perception buff (extra ferocity) alive and well, since it's not an offender at all.

No need really. Community itself is the biggest nerf here. Hitting 30k dps does not make us desired, just acceptable, unlike before. It's "30k mentality". Also our support isn't that desirable either, unless it's a beginner group/mediocre pug. The better the group the more "no necro" gets posted on the door.

This rework mostly gave open world necros the status of ultimate farmer (which i vastly enjoy), while making spvp and wvw reapers a double edged weapon - ability to burst and and fast, but at risk of being slowed via boon corrupt and taking some serious punishment for it.

As for raids, necro needs either harder dps still (which i don't think he should have given his innate sustain), or unique party utility that is offensive in nature, and not another way to save bad pugs from themselves (looking at you transfusion + barriers), while contributing nothing to well organized groups.

Up to lvl 55...then no, you have not tried a single class. only at 80 you get full view of **core** class, while there's a whole world of elite specializations post that.

That being said i would say ranger. He close to thief (which matches almost anything you said), but if you hate 1v1 then ranger has a pet. Thief doesn't.

Lol, revs bitching about necro, can i start laughing now?

Rev is meta in spvp due to it's burst damage and some broken ass defenses for short skirmishes. Now he gets even more damage, and some necro utility he didn't before (hello shiro boonrip and life steal for party).

Necro got quickness for reaper, but that's a double edged sword. It can be corrupted into slow and then it's R.I.P. necro...

Condi builds got better deal with aoe feast of corruption - this buff does not bite us in the rear in competitive, but was also long overdue. Power necro has good and well defined weapons. Condi nec was stuck with 0 damage staff, slow and 1v1 scepter, or great, but locked behind scourge torch.

About time condi weapons on necro started seeing some love,

> @"SkyShroud.2865" said:

> The 1% reduction is to balance up what you get from forceful persistence. Otherwise, herald will have like 15-20% dps increase instead of 10-15%.

He shouldn't have any. Pre- 8/28/2018 patch:

* renegade - **top** spot in large target dps benchmark on snow crow's website

* herald - 33.4k power dps vs small targets

* spvp - picked for burst to quickly delete targets

Damage was the last thing Revenant needed, he was already more then fine in that regard.

Issues that needed addressing were Renegade's ability to survive in just about any game mode, and condi herald's non-existance in competitive modes.

Instead herald gets **more** utitlity (which is fine) but also more damage? Shouldn't that be the other way around? Bigger utility = some damage shaved off?

You people are getting overexcited. This is not a hard buff, it's a tradeoff.

* Quickness - great for open world PvE to be sure, finally something that makes this trait competitive with blighter's boon. However in raid scenario you're already assumed to have it from chrono so 0 boost there. While in competitive modes it makes you easy prey for enemy necros with their boon corrupt (hello 24/7 slow).

* Strength of Undead - a minor boost that will work only half of the time while shrouded, which is more like 1/4 of total time in combat time since there's also shroud cooldown to deal with. A miliscule buff in reality.

* Deadly Precision - the 300 ferocity is the only real dps buff here, raid wise. But it comes at a cost of reduced precision, which really screwes over core necro. Having 100% crit chance without investment into precision is one of old, tried and defined necro playstyles, allowing him to wear more defensive gear (valkyrie, crusader, cavalier and whatnot). Reaper can endure that little loss fine (decimate defenses), but core nec and power scourge just received a kick in the nuts..

* Furious Demise - ok fair is fair. This is the compensation for lost crit chance in Deadly Precision - half of it is here, but it's a half that will work outside of shroud unlike Deadly Precision itself. Guess core necros get some love back with this one.

I want mallyx reworked so that condi herald can be a thing in WvW and not a joke that runs outta steam after 2 skill casts and has 0 tools to keep enemies in his aoes.

Necro is an **awesome** choice for beginner player. I'm a 3 year necro main, i know my profession and i can say you need not fear. Better yet - if you're feeling ok with it, then know core necro is rather lackluster. When you get to lvl 80 and start unlocking reaper and scourge it'll skyrocket.

In open world PvE (which is what you'll be doing now for a quite a while necro is good and will not let you down. Once you become reaper you can scratch "good" and replace it with "awesome". High end pve means raids and yes there's we're #1 unwanted profession. But if you get group of friends or a guild you may still get in. Keep in mind that you don't really need raids for anything other then bragging rights or starting a legendary ring. Everything else is decorative or can be obtained via another game mode as well.

And underwater necro is a God of Death. If you hate underwater content you'll love being necro. Get reaper and you'll be terror of the seas in no time flat.

In spvp necro is a special case - don't expect easy here. It is a custom to "target necro first" and delete him 5v1. Because it works since necro does not have "0 damage" panic buttons like others. For that reason necro often needs support from his team. In return however he can really mess a teamfight for enemy with his aoe damage spam, constant condi harass, and boon corrupts flying left and right.

In WvW i'll let others talk, but it is generally public knowledge that necro is staple of zerg fights.

I think that for beginner player necro may be the best profession out there. Not only does he provide strong sustain and is forgiving of mistakes, but he also has far wider array of playstyles then most. Good luck learning about boon strip and corrupts on a ranger. And have fun understanding how various types of defenses work vs given types of attacks on a warrior with his "one button to solve all, after that panic!" gameplay.

Not to mention tons of builds that you can make and they will work with necro. There are few things in this game you cannot do as a necro (boonspam being one of them), which makes him a nice, putrid, rotting mr. Potato to cater to your needs as you see fit!

it's an execute vs low heath foes + boonrip. good for spvp.

Master of corrupion is amazing, if you build for it (condi to boon conversion). You get stuff like fury, lotsa might and some vigor off it. Or you can just transfer all the nasty into enemy. This trait is good on a necro.

> @"Vayne.8563" said:

> You're not correct. PoF maps are not ghost towns, and I visit them many times a week, if not daily. Ghost towns implies people aren't playing. What they're not is zerged. There are plenty of people doing content on those maps.

I was saying HoT maps are being played and aren't deserted despite people being so vocal about it on forums. That means HoT is fun and has a sufficiently large playerbase that likes to hop in and get some action there.

As for PoF i wouldn't know. I avoid it like the plague, but others clearly don't. I can believe it's alive and well, just i don't want ppl (and most certainly devs) getting idea that PoF is the golden way, while HoT is barely surviving because of it's design choices. I can attest HoT zones are alive and kicking.

@"Vayne.8563" - you make a lot of good points, but to make myself clear here:

I have no problem with people liking PoF in general. I have a problem with so much vocal protests being thrown at Heart of Thorns merely because it skewes the real picture. I visit these maps daily and they're not ghosttowns. If people hated them so much it would be so.

Also let's keep in mind that for all the flak casuals throw at HoT, these are 4 maps outta how many? 40? I say tha's s a pretty vast disproportion, yet complaining piles up like it was half of the game that's been "spoilt" that way. I just hope this one single time a-net actually does what it usually does, and ignores forum while focusing on real data they get from player population on a given map.

If PoF launched first....well...let's say things wouldn't be half as rosy as they are today.

Say what you want about HoT, but it's replayability (partially due to complexity of the maps) has PoF on the ropes.

If PoF was the first xpac, it would get stale real fast - nothing that different from core maps, and nothing that replayable compared to HoT's huge amount of different collections and long term goals. People wouldn't be leaving cause they were outraged at difficulty, design choices or grindyness. They would be leaving because of lack of these things, ironically. That's why now everyone can freely bash HoT. Because HoT and PoF are in a Yin-Yang relationship. Now both are here and everyone gets a slice of pie they like. Before it was just one.

Yes, early HoT **launch** was a disaster - i bashed my head with a-net on these very forums over the lack of free slot in a 50$ xpac that introduced new profession, as well as several other...less likeable marketing choices made by a-net then. Also indeed early HoT was merciless grind and seemed small. Only after one truly grasped what the maps are did that feeling go away.

Do HoT's map designs and other systems justify the xpac's existence?

#Hell yeah they do!

Guild Wars 2 made me vomit at sight of any 3d mmorpg that does not have events where npcs join the action and lead the player into the fray, where harvesting nodes aren't camping wars between players and beating a boss is not about teamwork but being the guy that gets the drops while others curse the day you were born.

**It made a difference**

HoT did that again - it made me love real 3d maps, with awesome gliding sections, secret paths to canopy level at verdant brink or deepest caves in Tangled Depths...**it made exploration experience real**. Not to mention awesome metas, awesome environment (jungle) and mastery system that i loved.

Now i hate flat big empty maps, with no mystery, no huge zones i can't access before getting a proper mastery and no outposts that let me achieve the same goal (preparation for map meta) the way i want it, letting me choose from multiple flavors, all equally good for getting to the ending part.

Is the quote i hear almost every 2nd post praising PoF. Here's a little something for those gifted with higher intelligence:

Why do we never hear the opposite?

....

**Answer:** because HoT is there saving PoF's ass for those who would quit because of PoF pancake map design. They don't like it? They got HoT. If PoF launched first (which should happen as it is far closer to core experience then revolutionary HoT) you'd be reading walls of texts how Path of Fire made ppl go away, and now Heart of Thorns made them come back.

**conclusion** - all this whining is not result of HoT being a disaster (it's amazing if you ask me), it's a matter of ppl wanting different things from an expansion, which obviously a single xpac could not meet. Now that 2nd is out, it doesn't get half the flack, because first one caters to group that is not happy with second, a safety net HoT did not have.

I did propose a staff rework that would give it condi options, but it fell on deaf ears. Can't help someone that doesn't want to be helped.

What i hope for is that it'll make glint viable in healing specs. If you're in a situation you need to go for dedicated healing spec, then it's obvious that asides ventari only Kalla can hold up due to elite. Any other legend is just 10s of survivial game for your team. And as we know the flaw of ventari healer is poor boon support from this legend. Except for alacrity, any other boon you muster when in this legend is achieved through some outside means (runes, herald/renegade traits, mace might blasting)..

Glint should be a natural partner for ventari, one providing superb healing with some boons, other providing superb boon coverage with sufficient healing to ensure safe legend swap.

> @"alberte.2685" said:

> I now know that GW2 has a "reward design team". FOTM, RAID, PVP and WVW have good rewards, but the rewards for PVE maps are very bad.

> Share some Chinese servers:

> 1, PVE rewards monotonous is unattractive, and the number of PVE players is greatly reduced. If part of the POF version of the mount skin is PVE, maybe the situation will be much better.

> 2, China's RAID culture is very strict, if you want to enter the RAID, you must go online on time every day for 5 days a week, just like the military on time, otherwise you can not enter RAID. This has caused most players to not enter RAID at all, and there is nothing to do, and then they are attracted to other games and never come back.

> 3, China's server mall price collapse, gliding wing skin only 2 dollars, a set of black lion weapons skin 3 dollars, set 3 dollars.

> The current charging model is difficult to communicate in China, and the attractive rewards are almost all in the mall. At the same time, the price of the mall is very cheap, and almost no one is willing to buy it. On the other hand, the reward of PVE is very bad, the player feels I left when I was bored.

> Due to the mechanism of gold coin gem exchange and the large number of AFK players, Chinese publishers simply cannot make money by operating GW2.

> 4，A large number of players will buy gold coins and mall props through intermediate merchants every week. This is almost a habit. Middlemen can make a lot of money. They collect materials through AI, sell them into gold coins, and then sell gold coins to players.

> GW2 rewards can almost be bought in gold coins, which is almost designed for middlemen. It is difficult for players to collect enough materials through PVE, and it is difficult for operators to get enough income.

>

> question:

> 1. Will the new team rebalance the relationship between PVE rewards and gem store(add PVE special skin rewards?)

> 2, can add a low difficulty RAID (can not get the legendary armor) to increase the number of players in the Chinese server.

That's some interesting feedback, albeit bit vague. Can you answer me (am just a player) some additional questions?

1. How are their PvE rewards worse compared to others (assuming here in the west our PvE population looks just fine)?

2. RAID culture is set by the players, or is it that their version of GW2 allows raiding only at specific times?

3. That's some really surprising news. 3 dollars for a set of black lion skins...you mean things we get with Black Lion Claim tickets like Desert King set, or Inquest MKII sets to name the recent ones? And is 3 dollars per piece or 3 for full set?

> @"Exalted Quality.8534" said:

> On one hand, it’s good they are finally taking a fresh look at the most neglected class,

Core necro finally getting a rework? Damn, been waiting for ages for this!

Warrior downstate is fine. First off no other profession gets a shot at fully getting up and fighting your way through death with all normal skill available without getting ressed prior. So obviously skills 1 & 2 will be weak as majority of his power budget went into vengeance.

Also another thing to keep in mind is that he is a soldier profession, and is not supposed to go down at all. Especially with spellbreaker e-spec available. Necro has strong downstate, because he is designed to eat his damage instead of turning it into buch of zeroes and cannot avoid death when focused. Being downed and fighthing back up from it is part of the profession's design. Warrior is not designed to bite the dust. If you let your warrior get downed, that's on you buddy, don't blame the downstate for it.

If anything i would say ranger has disgustingly strong downstate (dunno why as he is not a super hard or super squishy profession), while guardian has suprisingly weak one...

And what makes you think necro will care about any of it? Necro's natural habitat is mid, where there are usually at least 2 if not 3 other targets then you. I for one make it a habit ot use life siphon (and ghastly claws) on downed. They won't be dodging it. Ranger's pet is second best bet. Also in 4v4 if not straight up 5v5 brawl - good luck seeing my use siphon, let alone noticing on whom it's used with mass spell and aoe spam.

Lastly talk on paper is nice but practice>theory. And in practice by the time i'm whipping out the siphon, the fight is usually well under way and dodges/evades blocks are already used up for most part. Also i don't mind eating some burst while siphoning. I'm quite fine with that - spectral armor, and i'll get tons of life force, while reducing the damage of the burst to fraction of it's original power due to damage reduction + life siphon.

Since when does life siphon need them to sit on top of me to work? Also as core necro i have shroud for ranged damage if they refuse to come close and axe on swap. Not to mention warhorn 5 can keep them close once i jump in, and they usually don't feel like leaving the point cause i pulled out the dagger...

well of corruption in dicey. If it's zerg - no problem. If solo roaming i would reconsider. This is not spvp, you can't drop it on a node and be chilled, because they either eat it or lose the node. In wvw if it's not a zerg, well is very easy to just walk out of. Defensive wells (blood, power, darkness) are fine, but offensive ones are dicey.