ZDragon.3046

I use to have higher fps back when the game first launched

Note im still on the same cpu and mobo from when the game launched the only thing thats changed is i now use a ssd in stead of a hdd and my gpu.

Changing the gpu wont matter at all for this game (changed it a few times now cause my older ones failed) and while the ssd helped speed up load times overall my fps has slowly gotten lower and lower over the years as more content gets added to the game. I use to keep character population on high and be ok even in combat now i keep it on low and even then in combat its barely on the edge of uncomfortable gameplay

It also does not help in pvp when going against more than one mesmer or any of its elites as the clones spawning in and out will cause people to render in and out constantly its pretty much like giving the real mesmer a passive stealth if enough players are around. Turning up the character population kills fps though so..... its kinda in a rough spot granted i could be running a stronger rig but still my current one barely handles the game comfortably these days but im milking it out for as long as i can be for dumping money into new parts.

I do agree though i can play newer games just fine without fps issues gw2 is probably the biggest game that drags behind for me right now because of how its built.

Heck even the gem store barely functions these days it takes on average 15-20 seconds just to load a functioning landing screen. Trying to navigate it some times is just painful because of how slow it is.

While i know my own old rig is part of the problem its still a bit crazy i can play most other modern games on high / max settings with a few tweaks mostly but this one everything on high is fine but make sure you can only see about 10 rendered people at a time.

Its just odd though no other settings other than character population do much to change my fps. Ive tried dozens of combos and thats the only big contributing factor for the most part.

> @"Kuulpb.5412" said:

This is a lot to unpack but ill go ahead and put what i think below

> Staff: I would like this weapons' job to focus on Ranged Utility and Control, As such here are my changes:

> - All staff skills would generate 2% life force when it damages and 1% life force when it supports

> - Damage of these skills would be lower as it will be focus more on Utility,

> - Range: 1200 Radius: 300

> Skill 1 - Instant small AoE ( akin to Mesmer staff 1 in the beta, but AoE), Inflicts Bleed, Poison or Cripple.

The auto attack really does need a rework here but im not sure if i agree with rng condition application.

> Skill 2 - Mark: When triggered creates an AoE for 3s that bleeds foes in the area and heals allies inside (Can be triggered by allies).

Add torment to this maybe with 2 charges

> Skill 3 - Mark: When triggered creates an AoE for 3s that Chills and Poisons foes in the area, applies swiftness to allies ( can be triggered by allies).

I think this just needs 2 charges no boon application tbh

> Skill 4 - Mark: When triggered creates an AoE for 3s that removes conditions from Allies and Removes boons from foes, Any foes inside the area when an ally loses a condition gains that condition. (can be triggered by allies)

This feels more like support than control and what about the self utility here this is a major condition xfer skill for alot of necro players this is one of the most sensitive skils on the staff that would be the most questionable to change.

> Skill 5 - Mark: When triggered creates an AoE for 3s that applies fear for 1s each second and applies Torment for 3s each second, grants stability to allies. (can be triggered by allies)

Remove the torment from this and increase the base fear to 2 seconds or give it 2 charges with a delay between uses.

I dont know how i feel about the idea of allies triggering some of these marks. Specifically the more offensive ones. While they might not seem like issues in pve there are situations in pvp and even some in pve where you want to precast marks and leave them down if allies could just step on them and make them go off its a massive loss of control for the necromancer using the staff. Remember your idea here is utility and control not support. Allowing allies to set off all the marks i would consider more as a support than control. ITs not a bad idea but its certainly a loss of control for the necormancer and the ideas seemed geared more toward lesser support than utility/ zone control.

Lastly if you really want this weapon to be more of a control / utility weapon simply give every current mark in the game 2 charges that would give it more than enough control to handle zone controlling the battlefield while providing insane utility to the caster and allies on their team

>

> Trait: Staff skills now generate more life force ( 4% and 2% respective), and gain a range and radius increase (1500 and 360 respective)

I don't like this trait soul marks should be left as is even more so if you plan to spread "marks" out to other weapons like you call out below ;) Marks on other wepaons would make soul marks really shine hard.

>

> Axe: I would like this weapons' job to focus on ranged power damage, here are my changes:

> - range 900

> Skill 1: attack an enemy, marking them that after a delay deals more damage and applies vulnerability. (akin to revenant's sword skill 1 effect)

So we get an even slower axe attack? Cant say I agree with this either.

> Skill 2: attack target and all nearby foes with a flurry of ghostly claws, attacks more for each vulnerability stack the target has. ( Gets +1 hit per stack of vulnerability, deals less damage for bonus attacks) - Generates 2% life force for the initial attacks and 1% for each attack gained by vulnerability.

This is very confusing and sounds like it would be difficult to use. The current version of axe is perfectly fine here I dont suggest any changes from the Ghastly claws we have now its a strong power hitting burst skill.

> Skill 3: Mark: when triggered causes you to link to your target and whenever you apply vulnerability, transfer one boon to yourself from the target. (link duration 5s, 1s internal cooldown)

A mark here is not a bad idea buy my suggestion would be

Skill 3 works as it does now and leaves a mark at your location that when triggered cast "Unholy Burst"

>

> Trait: Wielding an Axe or Dagger increases your Power by 100, reduces the cooldown by 10% and an extra 2% every attack (1s internal cooldown).

Remember that axe and dagger traits do not go together

Axe and focus traits go together and this would be be better in pvp as a trait but objectively worse in pve as a trait as the current trait provides 20% cd and 10% damage for foes with no boons. In pvp people will always drown in boons but in pve most AI foes will be boonless a good portion of the time. I dont suggest changing it unless you go with something that fits both well most people wont suggest you change that trait. Right now the pvp option is bitter chill and the pve option is Spiteful Talisman try to make your new trait ideas meet and be functional in both game modes if you can without destroying them on one side or the other.

>

> Sceptre: I would like this weapons' job to focus on ranged condition Manipulation, here are my changes:

> - range 900

> Skill 1(chain): attack target, applying bleed, poison and torment in a chain

Not bad a 3rd condition here would be nice instead of 2 bleeds and a poison.

> Skill 2: Mark: when triggered roots targets in the area for 1s and applies torment- generates 3% life force per target struck.

Great idea turning this skill into a mark actually however i dont agree with the removal of its cripple and bleed. The skill is strong when it lands. In alot of cases cripple is stronger than immobile because of the duration it last.

> Skill 3: Drain conditions from Target foe to yourself, Deal damage and gain life force for each condition taken.

> > Flip: transfer conditions back to your target while also applying confusion for each condition transferred.

I dont like this skill, Way too much risk for what probably wont be enough reward not to mention. ITs a neat idea but im just thinking about how this idea wont work in pve when a boss has 99+ bleed 99+ torment 50 burn.. etc. you cant even think about using this in any end game pve event or any serious pve content you would kill yourself every time you used it.

Do not change scepter 3 its fine as is. Not to mention the traited version is pretty overloaded as it is now which make it a pretty strong skill.

> Trait: Wielding a Sceptre increases condition damage by 150 and expertise by 75, Your skill 3 now also steals conditions from and applies conditions to enemies near your target.

But the current trait already provides 200 condi damage and increases conditions applied by that weapon by 50% which is much more than 75 expertise (5% condition duration) keep in mind you are already having to hold the weapon to get the bonus so you cant even say, "now the 75 expertise applies to all conditions you inflict" because it wont with the way you worded it here even still 5% vs 50% on your main condition applying weapon is not a contest. Conditions inflicted while in shroud will not count as holding a scepter as that core shroud's weapon is counted as a staff

From a critical feed back perspective the current trait is miles better in both condition damage and condition duration application.

> Dagger: I would like this weapon to be a strong Melee Option for necromancers, focusing on lifesteal and mobility, here are my changes:

> - range 180

> - Max targets: 3

> Skill 1 (chain): Attack target(s) 2x gaining 1% life force, Attack target(s) again applying cripple, Attack targets a final time applying a mark that lasts for 3s, Any attacks against the target steal health ( interval 1s)

An effect like this is a good idea but might be too strong to be on an auto attack generally once again this starts going down the support line of things as you say "Any attacks" I take this in the idea that anyone can hit the marked target and steal life from them. But you called out life steal and mobility not support.

> Skill 2: Drain life from target and nearby foes, Healing you. Damage is increased by 20% if they are effected by a movement impairing condition, healing is increased by 20% if you are not within 130 of an ally.

I dont understand why you made the healing increase condition based on something like not being near an ally. No that 130 range is not that big a deal but still why....I will say that i like the increased damage from movement impairment over the current bleeding one.

> Skill 3: Dash forward, Immobilise target and inflict cripple, ( dash available without a target).

> > Flip: Dash away from target leaving a trail of bone that cripples and damages foes that walk on it.

Your scepter mark Idea should have gone here. Cast a mark that immobilizes foes and grants life force when triggered.

> Trait: Wielding an Axe or Dagger increases your Power by 100, reduces the cooldown by 10% and an extra 2% every attack (1s internal cooldown).

Already covered this above but because we are talking about dagger here.

If you want dagger to be about mobility would the current dagger trait not make more senese as it provides bonus movement speed.

>

> Focus: I would like to shift Focus' Focus towards ranged condition manipulation, to better pair sceptre/focus, here are my changes:

> - range: 1200

> Skill 4: Send out a Ghastly scythe that homes in on target(s) and applies cripple, applies torment instead if target is already effected by cripple.

The current skill i better as it provides significant life force vuln and healing on hit with 2 charges no stack of torment is going to outdo that.

> Skill 5: Chill target(s) to the core and remove boons, for each boon removed apply Chill and Torment,

> > Flip: Remove chill from your foe, instantly causing them to heat up, applying burn(1s) and confusion (2s), conditions already on the target are lengthened by 2s.

I dont understand this to be honest focus is a power utility geared weapon. I dont think these changes make it condition worthy.

> Trait: Focus skills now hit 4 additional targets around the initial target, and remove two stacks of stability when removing chill.

The focus trait is worked in with the axe trait so you have to reconsider some things here. Also another reason why this probably can become a condition weapon.

>

> Dagger: Off-hand dagger in my idea is being changed to focus more on power and mobility to better pair dagger/dagger, here are my changes.

> - range: 900

> Skill4: throw a dagger at the target, if it hits a swarm of locusts attack the target and two nearby foes, dealing damage and removing boons.

> > Flip: Shadowstep to your dagger and rip it from your foe, removing boons and dazing for 0.5s

The condi transfer is better to be blunt lots of skills on necro currently put self conditions on you and this skills as it is today is a good way of sending those conditions to the target. You would be removing a condi xfer, and a blind by doing this. I cant say I agree with the first half mechanically.

The second half is a very interesting option though. IT might actually be a solid addon to the skill though i think you need to pick 1 not both. Either daze or remove boons Or make some requirement like if the foe no boons then they are dazed or something like that.

> Skill 5: Strike your foe and leap backwards, Pulling life directly from them, healing you for a Portion of damage dealt, Damage dealt increases if the target is not performing an action.

Necro is not well set up for this style of play with the bonus damage mechanic you included here. For example Warrior has a skill like this but warrior also has dependable cc skills to make sure a target wont be using a skill. Mesmers are the same mesmers have the slow condition and tons of cc to lock a target out of using a skill so that they can take advantage of something like this necro has fear which by default are short durations and cause your target to move away from you. You would need to over tax to actually land the not performing actions as the only way necro can promise that a foe wont use an action is by inflicting it with fear. But then they are moving away from you while you are trying to hug them to land this skill. Ok so now you need to immobilize them but to do that it means you have to run another weapon or use the main hand dagger but now you dont have ease of access to fear... do you see the issue here. I suppose you could death shroud and cast doom but now you need to drop shroud immobilize and then still get close in which a foe may break said fear or you miss your timing.

I suggest leaving the skill alone and simply turning Enfeebling Blood into a mark.

> Warhorn: Due to my lack of real "idea" of where warhorn is supposed to fit, My version makes it focus more on control and support, here are my changes.

> - range: 900

> Skill 4: Strike enemies in the area, they are chilled and crippled, any foes moving are also applied with weakness, any foes attacking are stunned for 1s.

You made a always Daze on hit turn into a chill if it hits, and stun for a shorter duration only IF 2 other conditions are met. Once again this is a loss of control not a gain of control.

I cant say I support this idea.

For control and support i propose this. Foes hit by your cone attack are dazed 2s, You and nearby allies gain Dark Aura.

> Skill 5: call forth an army of the dead to chase a foe, if they hit, apply cripple and weakness, if they miss apply swiftness and regeneration to yourself and allies near the army.

Once again you removed control from the necromancer and gave it to the target. The target can choose to get hit or dodge which in sense controls what happens. You took always swiftness and turned into maybe swiftness.

My suggestion for control and support. The skill works as it does now and always grants swiftness. This skill now also grants protection to you and nearby allies.

>

> Trait: Warhorn skills gain increased range ( 1200) and also heal you and nearby allies for 10% of the damage dealt.

Warhorn 1200 range is a bit silly imo. You have 2 skills on this weapon which when abled as support skills will not do much damage. Thus healing everyone for 10% of that damage is not better than the 50% increase duration on the current warhorn trait. You would better off be supporting with increased duration on the effects even with your proposed ideas than trying to get 10% healing from skills that wont do much damage in the first place.

>

> Greatsword: The reaper is a slow moving executioner, and should have a trait that benefits the idea that enemies cannot escape death, here are my changes.

> - range - 180

> Skill 1(chain): Strike your foe(s) applying cripple, Strike your foe(s)applying chill, Strike your foe applying cripple and chill, deals 5% bonus damage if the target is afflicted by cripple or chill.

Ok you added some more chill back to reaper not bad so far but this is a bit insane

> Skill 2: Send out 5 scythes that home in on nearby enemies, this skill's cooldown is instantly reset if all scythes hit the same target, or if any target hit is under 25% health. Deals bonus damage if any target is under 25% health. ( range 600)

Not sure how i feel about this tbh but it sounds like it would be clunky

> Skill 3: Channel a beam of darkness through your sword towards your target, making them walk towards you and applying immobilise when the channel ends. ( taunt without auto attack, range 1200)

Taunt on a weapon skill is not gonna happen i hate to say and this is not better than the current skill.

> Skill 4: Plunge your sword into the ground, creating a well of souls that when stood in expands, and removes boons.

This skill pretty much already exists as the current version.

> Skill 5: Apply a Mark to your target(s), you deal 5% bonus damage when hitting this target, and if the target moves further than 600 away while the mark is active, they get pulled to you.

This idea is not so bad though it trades the aoe cc that is currently there for a single target cc and small damage increase

>

> Trait: Striking a chilled foe generates 5% life force and heals you for 5% of the damage done, Bonus is increased to 10% if wielding a Greatsword.

Flat out not better than Soul Eater the only thing that changed was the mechanic trigger and reaper chill even with these changes to greatsword will still be minimal as its reaper chill application has been nerfed countless times. (scourge cripple application is 10x stronger than reaper chill application) simply because scourge maintains it better on its foes and reaper struggles to maintain cripple or chill on a foe unless they stand in reaper 5

Not to mention does this now have a cool down? You also removed more control i just realized this has not 1 mechanical trigger but 2 to make the most of it not only does a foe not only have to be chilled you also need to be holding a greatsword which means in reaper shroud form you will never get 10% as that weapon is counted as a hammer not a great sword.

>

> Torch: As a torch, it should be a priority to burn things, I felt there wasn't enough burning as you could only burn with skill 5 if you were traited for apply burning when you apply torment, here are my changes.

>

> Skill 4: channel a stream of fire infront of you, any foes hit are afflicted with burn and torment, generate life force each hit, Generates barrier for yourself and allies in the stream.

> Skill 5: Knock down target and nearby foes, if any of these foes were not burning, apply burning, if they were burning, remove boons and gain life force.

>

> Trait: Wielding a torch increases expertise by 150 and increases your application of barrier by 15%.

The amount or the duration its not very clear

>

> Trident: As I have seen on forums before, Underwater skills don't make much sense with lack of life force generation for example, here are my changes.

> - range 1200

> Skill 1: Instant AoE that applies Chill and Bleed, If target is already bleeding, gain 2% life force and 2% damage dealt as health.

Chill on auto attacks is not gonna happen

> Skill 2: Form a vortex of death that follows you, enemies in the area each second are afflicted with bleeding, cripple and poison.

> Skill 3: Charge forward leaving a trail of death that applies poison and bleeding, if you strike a foe with the charge, 2 trails fan out infront of you and gain 4% life force.

> Skill 4: Place a mark on your target, when triggered causes any conditions on that target to be stripped from it, dealing damage, and seeking out other targets, which then apply the condition and deal damage, If no other targets are within range of the target when cast, the conditions seek their original host, dealing more damage and applying them back to the target.

But what triggers the mark? Remember standard marks do not work under water so its not the same situation as a mark/trap being stepped on.

> Skill 5: Encase your target in bone making them unable to move and slowly sink while also applying chill as their death draws near, gain 1% life force each second this applies chill.

>

> Trait: Spear and Trident skills generate bonus 1% life force when the target is afflicted with a condition, and you swim 25% faster.

>

> Spear: As mentioned above, Underwater weapons may need some tweaks, here are my changes.

> - range 600

> Skill 1: throw your spear , after impact it explodes dealing damage and applying Vulnerability to target and nearby foes.

> Skill 2: throw your spear, After impact, place a mark that causes all damage taken by the target to be taken by nearby targets.

Skill 2 here already had aoe cleave i dont understand the reasoning for this change.

> Skill 3: (range 130), Impale your foe on your spear, stunning for 2s, applying bleeding and vulnerability.

> Skill 4: Call forth a swarm of rotten fish that apply poison and bleed to your foe, while also giving you and nearby allies swiftness.

You kind of just flipped skill 3 and 4 for no real reason to be honest not to mention this is a power weapon no reason to be throwing in all these conditions thats what the trident is for.

> Skill 5: Impale yourself of your spear, dealing 50% of your remaining health as damage to yourself, Deal damage equivalent to this to your foe, Damage is reduced the further away the target is. (100% of the damage taken at 130 range, 20% at 1200 range)

This idea is not so bad its actually kind of cool however some things make me curious like can it still crit with your critical damage etc. but i do like the idea of this skill its one of the few skills you came up with that feels necro ish and can replace a skill thats not all that good on the spear weapon itself.

>

> Trait: Spear and Trident skills generate bonus 1% life force when the target is afflicted with a condition, and you swim 25% faster.

Traits dont exsist for these skills and its probably better to just overload the weapons than try to make traits for them as there are not many places you can fit underwater traits in the game now most classes dont focus on traits for underwater weapons unless combined with a land weapon or made in a broad general statement

>

>

> - I am aware that this got a bit silly near the end, I apologise, Please give me your most constructive criticism, and please also try not to say X is fine, or Y is useless as that isn't criticism.

>

While I understand you only covered weapons here im surprised you did not cover core shroud and reaper shroud while they are terrestrial skills (profession mechanics) the slots of the skills do take up the weapon bar and core shroud is counted as a staff weapon while reaper shroud is counted as a hammer.

That said you have some solid ideas here but some ideas are far out of place.

Good ideas would be moving marks to other weapons which would really make the trait soul marks shine much like guardian symbols.

Your ideas for control though are out of place.

In areas you said you wanted to provide control you actually remove control from the necromancer by adding mechanics that make it twice as hard to trigger the control effects or allow the control effects to be determined by other players or foes in general. You also start to throw support ish ideas in my opinion in the wrong places where support is not specified

Like the warhorn one is a prime example right now is a 100% promised 2s daze on hit. You made it so that for it to cc a foe they not only need to have weakness applied but they also need to be attacking

The skill 5 you removed 100% promised swiftness for no swiftness if the foe chooses not to doge an AI hit or kill the AI's summoned before they can do anything which denies you both swiftness and weakness application. You pretty much removed control from the necromancer and this is just one example

Keep in mind that not everything needs to change and that some times no change on some skills/ traits is better than trying to make up something new. There are some traits that already fit your idea goals that exist right now that you changed into things that dont fit the goal you posted.

> @"JusticeRetroHunter.7684" said:

> > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > Hmmm Hybrid Core... i like it. I do wish your cele/ grieve combo was a option in spvp i have always wanted to run cele necro for a while now but its just to low on the damage stat end. But your mix of grieving seems to add just enough punch to provide pressure. Good job.

> >

> >

>

> Cele in spvp is terrible because of the kitten stats at lvl 78 exotic.

>

> But in WVW cele is actually pretty decent...as it gives the same as berserker stats...with the exception of precision and power which need to be facilitated with traiting for it (precision is not really an issue, and you can solve the power deficiet with foods, utilities and traits.)

>

> I’ve ran power cele reaper in WVW zerg, and I’ve basically pulled the same DPS as zerker reapers (around 7-11kdps)

>

> Only thing I found about cele is that you don’t need the other stats. Condi healing power and even vit and toughness arnt really all that special in a zerg setting. They are nice to have and can help you survive, but they don’t solve fundamental issues that will cause you to die.

Well i know why cele cant be topped out in spvp i was there when ele's abused cele like no ones business and to think about passive sword weaver or good d/d weaver players using cele they would NEVER DIE like literally. Although I do think the offensive portion of Cele could be boosted a by a good bit to make it a viable choice for quite a few classes and elite specs. That said this build does it perfectly only added offensive stats to what is mostly a cele build instead of rolling 100% full cele. I can totally respect it.

Hmmm Hybrid Core... i like it. I do wish your cele/ grieve combo was a option in spvp i have always wanted to run cele necro for a while now but its just to low on the damage stat end. But your mix of grieving seems to add just enough punch to provide pressure. Good job.

> @"omgdracula.6345" said:

> The issue is the dodges already had tradeoffs built in. Dash gives us exhaustions, bound is short range, daggers is garbage for anything but condi which is in itself bad.

The only issue with this argument i that if one wanted none of those negatives you could just take the traitline off put it back on and not use those 3 grandmasters in which eliminates the trade offs entirely

While i do find it odd that anet chose now to rework another trade off into Daredevil i dont think its a question on if they should undo it its more so when are the other professions that still currently do not lose anything lose something for the benefits they get (looking at you chronomancer, scrapper, holo, and soul beast) These 4 possibly 5 if you want to count mirage do not realistically lose anything serious.

note im not specifically talking about loss of damage its more so real mechanics on skills or certain skills that in question one would normally always half as a core of that profession.

For example why does chrono not lose their f4 in place of the f5

Why does holo and scrapper keep the majority of tool belt skills

Soulbeast has no negative for merging with the pets which even auto revives them why do they keep the option to have a swappable pet etc.

> @"derd.6413" said:

> this sounds like it'd be alot of work on the back end to make this work

I point you in the direction of Signet of Agony.

Holding down the key causes its range to extend

I would actually like to see more skill functionaility with this kind of thing in general to be honest where holding down the key expands the attacks range or extends the attacks effects / damage up to a certain limit.

Other tools built on this same idea could be put to use for other purposes as well such as spawning minions etc.

> @"KrHome.1920" said:

> > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > For soul eater to apply you must be within melee range meaning healing is not only controlled damage dealt but also by range limit. Being close enough to hit something (especially on a profession with some of the most limited mobility and soft defenses) is a big risk. Soul eaters existence is in line with many aspects of necro you find in other mmos

> The trait finally made marauder reaper viable again. Marauder gear is basically the standard power gear for any class exept necro, because the rework of speed of shadows (7s shroud cooldown) killed so much power damage sustain, that all we could pick was demolisher (= SR is a must pick) and paladin (= not so much damage). This alone is a reason to praise the trait. **I really like it and there no reason to nerf it at all** . Reaper feels pretty balanced currently. So much about PvP...

>

> In PvE it's problematic. It scales better than the whole blood magic traitline. The sustain is crazy.

The trait is fine yes reaper is in a ok spot i would still personally like some things to be ironed out of it though but those are just picks here and there. Any other problem reaper has devolves form core necro itself.

> @"KrHome.1920" said:

> Siphoning has a damage and a healing component. You can chose whether you want to improve damage (=power), healing (=healing power) or both.

>

> The reason for that mechanic is that if you would bind both healing and damage to one stat it would be too difficult to balance. Take Soul Eater which binds healing to damage. That's problematic if you do not limit it to very few traits or skills as you may create snowball effects: more damage = more healing = broken ratio of damage and sustian.

>

> Soul Eater is already extremely strong in PvE. Maybe stronger than the sum of all siphon traits and skills necro has. There its existence can only be justified by the fact that a necro can not be healed in shroud. In PvP it's balanced as your targets simply don't eat but avoid most of your potential damage.

Keep in mind before you start praising soul eater so high and mighty while it is a strong trait it a also has key limits to properly balance it. They actually thought of a way to balance this out pretty well without just using a lazy internal cooldown. To be honest necro should have always had a trait similar to this and its something i always felt was missing among the profession.

Getting back on topic

For soul eater to apply you must be within melee range meaning healing is not only controlled damage dealt but also by range limit. Being close enough to hit something (especially on a profession with some of the most limited mobility and soft defenses) is a big risk. Soul eaters existence is in line with many aspects of necro you find in other mmos

The old version was 200hp + 0.5% LF per second + 20% cd on gs skills, regardless of if you were attacking or not (out of shroud) at any range. over 5 seconds thats 1k hp and 2.5% LF

In the current version if you damage is not ramped up fully or you are not hitting a cluster of mobs you don't get a great amount of healing. Once you are at max might or being supported by other professions with boons yes, but generally no solo stuff your slow attacks before high might ramp (even with quickness reaper) even more so on a single target will not net you impressive chunks of health until high might and damage is really kicking even at that point it seems its appropriate at best.

Then there is the range limited if there is a mechanic or something which prevents you from rubbing your face on the target soul eater becomes inactive I would say its justified by its rage limit and the fact that it requires you to attack more so than (not healing in shroud.)

Soul eater is strong enough to be competitive with decimate defenses depending on the situation and a players build but not overly strong that it needs hard eyes on it for balancing. Anet actually did this trait pretty solid on both fronts pvp and pve its good but its not god level good.

> @"Etterwyn.5263" said:

> > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > > @"Stand The Wall.6987" said:

> > > so instead of improved passive effects, this gm trait grants allies and yourself your sig passives while in shroud.

> > > plague sig - 600 range, transfers condis from allies onto foes

> > > sig of undeath - each ally grants you more lf, so a total of 9% every 3sec

> >

> > i personally like the current version no changes thanks... the signets are the issue not the trait.

> > Signet of spite giving power but inflicting conditions on active use what.. why not a power style active.. or if its gonna inflict condiitons why is it missing chilled, slow, and burning for the long cooldown it naturally has

> >

> > Plauge signets passive needs to just be reworked completely

> >

> > Signets of suffering itself though is actually fine as is. If you want support in trait reworks start looking at the blood magic / scourge lines instead. Spite is not really the place for that.

>

> Good point about Signet of Spite. It's silly to have a passive that needs Power and an active that needs Condition Damage.

>

> Condition rework: Passive now gives +180 condition damage (270 traited). Active remains the same.

>

> Or, Power rework: Passive remains the same. Active now gives you 3 seconds Quickness and target 2 seconds of Slow. If target is below 50% health, it is knocked down for 1 second and you gain an additional 3 seconds Quickness. Traited increases Slow and KD duration. Purpose is to set up for a damage spike, and keeping in line with Spite traits to further punish foes below 50% health.

I don't particularly like either one of those options Signet of spites passive is solid as is its active just needs a tune up for 2019 this could be done by adding the mission conditions or reducing the cd of the skill because of it missing conditions.

I suggest adding the missing conditions to signet of spite **slow, chill, burning ** keep the passive power the same or reduce the cooldown slightly.

**Plague signet passive rework:** slightly improves condition damage copy conditions from yourself to foes when struck within the range threshold at a set interval. Active remains the same

Base + 60 condition damage copy 1 condition from yourself when struck

With Trait + 120 condi damage copy 2 conditions from yourself when struck.

Range threshold 450 interval 3 seconds

PvP

Death magic rework - should be = to what other defensive lines do for other professions.

Revert the Cripple / Chill change to reduce movement skills again

Pve

More boon splatter on Foes to make them more accepted for general end game content.

> @"Dadnir.5038" said:

> Well, this GM trait grant the passive while in shroud which make traited vampirism, spite and locust quite usefull when traited and you are looking for a resilient build that still deal interesting damage. The "meta" just isn't geared toward this kind of concept, but players define the meta. A full signet core Necromancer could very well be a huge pain to kill in PvP.

Been running signet reaper before the quickness change tbh it works fairly well until you you fight some heavy condition builds. or 1 shot builds then again not much really works well against a 1 shot build you just have to hope you can dodge or not get hit.

Would argue that only spite, and plague signets need some fixes.

Spite - either make the active power based, or add missing conditions to its current mechanic, slow, chill, burning

Plauge- new passive of some sort as the current one provides no real benefit (nearly all risk no reward) i get the idea behind it pull lots of condis pop the signet but realistically no one uses it that way because it is a breakstun using it that way is not wise. Most either wait to be condi bombed first or will use it when they get cc'ed.

Also ive toyed with core signet a good bit it is very resilient depending on how you build it but as you would expect core lacks damage and pressure to really do much. Unless some one really respects you you dont get away with very much. Aggressive players will run you right over as core cannot force anyone to respect it with full signets.

> @"Stand The Wall.6987" said:

> so instead of improved passive effects, this gm trait grants allies and yourself your sig passives while in shroud.

> plague sig - 600 range, transfers condis from allies onto foes

> sig of undeath - each ally grants you more lf, so a total of 9% every 3sec

i personally like the current version no changes thanks... the signets are the issue not the trait.

Signet of spite giving power but inflicting conditions on active use what.. why not a power style active.. or if its gonna inflict condiitons why is it missing chilled, slow, and burning for the long cooldown it naturally has

Plauge signets passive needs to just be reworked completely

Signets of suffering itself though is actually fine as is. If you want support in trait reworks start looking at the blood magic / scourge lines instead. Spite is not really the place for that.

I mean the change has its good and bad sides.

The pervious plaugelands dealt next to no damage and made you a mobile blind weakness field which was good for tanking on points but pretty pointless in pve. During the time of HoT anet faced a problem in which everyone in their mother were trying to be tanky the meta was ideally supports and tanks all over the place and no one liked it. They spent a lot of time before PoF culling down a lot of tank / sustain tools and trying to up kill potential in a lot of different spots and my guess is that this was one of those changes.

The current version is more offensive and allows multi actions now that its not a transform. Ideally if you are condi and drop that on a downed body no one is going to res them standing in plaugelands for a few pulses (especially after its been up for a while) is all but suicide. You can now use it more often but its lost nearly all of its tank/ sustain functionality that people were using it for. So depending on how you were using it before and what mode you play you can see it as a buff or nerf.

For pvp sustain its a nerf

For pve its a buff

If you favor offensive play over tank sustain its a buff

From a core necro aspect its a damage buff but a sustain nerf.

I personally dont feel it was a nerf or a buff.

Now if they could do something to make our spectral elite better.

> @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> If ANet were to adjust, I'd want them to normalize, so that the effort is comparable in each map.

>

> For example:

> * Istan has 3 hearts that generate 25 ore; map completion generates 25 ore. The meta generates... a lot. Consequently 250 requires something like two characters completing the map, plus one meta.

> * For Sandswept, completing the map with two toons and local events along the way would generate about 50 diflourite. (Four hearts at 5 each, map at 5, and local events generate 3-5 each, so +25 more is reasonable.)

>

> 250:50 ratio is extreme; ANet could have considered that when setting the amounts.

>

> ****

> The other side of this is: no, why should ANet reduce the amounts at all? This is a one-time requirement. It's going to bring people back to LS4 maps the same way that people continue to return to LS3 maps for the Wayfarer's Henge back. In that context, 250 mats/map seems light.

I agree here some something i didnt even know is that some map complete s give you 25 while others give you a disappointing 5 this should really be normalized to 25 per map completion. instead of 25 for some and 5 for others.

But yeah the amount should not be lowered (at least at the moment) if player population falls off in those maps too badly in say 5 months from now and metas are hard to complete due to low population then reducing the amounts at that time might be ok.

> @"Fundor.2098" said:

> A good piece! I definitely agree with you on most things.

> However, I think it's ok to severely limit Skyscale's traveling speed (as it pretty much is at the moment), if it gains more freedom of flight (which it really doesn't have at the moment, excluding hovering. Hovering though, as you mentioned, isn't that useful an ability considering active gameplay). That way it would clearly have it's own function but it definitely wouldn't step on any other mount's toes.

I feel what you mean. Although the balance here is also in question work required for an extra mount that you don't have to get should it or should it not be stepping on other mounts toes and realistically how bad would that be. Just because it can do something close to as good as one mount or another does not mean people will never use those mounts. Most importantly is this part of the reward for the extra work required to obtain this optional mount.

If its never as good as griffons speed in after a dive im ok with that if its not as good as scaling walks as quick as springier im ok with that. But i do feel like its unique way of flying could be improved. even something as simple as improving bond of vigor with this mounts stamina give you unlimited stamina for a few seconds would make this mounts unique way of flying go a LONG way in my personal opinion. Thats probably one of the first changes they should make.

> @"Blockhead Magee.3092" said:

> Thoughtful piece.

>

> I still don't plan on jumping through the hoops for this mount. But, more power to those of you who had a good time doing it.

I normally would tell people to "GO DO IT!" in the case of roller and war claw i dont think they were so bad and are totally both worth doing warclaw even if you are not a wvw main. But in the case Skyscale I make the exception. I don't suggest doing this collection unless you really are prepared to invest in a good chunk of work from all the collections. Some parts of the collection are enjoyable but this is a subjective feeling to each person. I did not enjoy the jumping puzzle part, nor the first part. If I would have slowed my roll for the last part going to some of the old season 4 maps would have been ok but i was full speed mode and burt myself out a bit, particularly in Jahai Bluffs hahah.

> @"LucianDK.8615" said:

> I think anet was very conservative with designing the mount, afraid it might push out the griffon.

I personally wouldn't mind if it was = to the griffon just not in the same ways if that makes any sense.

Griffon excelling far better at crossing vast distance with incredible air speed

Dragon faster at base gliding while being able to climb better than Griffon be it against a wall or just out in the open air.

Both get you from A to B if you jump from the same spot ( which is kind of true now) one just does it faster while the other gives more control to your landing spot and can recover from bad landing spots or hitting a wall by mistake etc. But yes skyscale feels a tad bit to conserved.

So as of yesterday I has Dragon. ~~(finally)~~ Dragon is nice, Dragon likes fish. Anyways

I want to say from here that my opinions are not everyones opinions here and that within reason i was more or less right that the mount did not change very much from the rentable ones in the new map to the fully unlocked one with masteries. So with that out of the way lets get on to it.

## The collection ~~(oh boy)~~

**The good**

To start off by saying the collection was not bad from a technical perspective I see what anet was going for and what the task were trying to do. At some points its bluntly clear how they are trying to make you feel as if making a connection to the skyscale. By far the best part was gathering magic for the eggs as it took me to some places in the game I had never been before and a few places I had not been in a very very long time. It was in this step that I thought to myself "What if anet allows people to hatch different types of skyscales" based on these eggs. I do realize that 12 base skins for the skyscale would be over kill but hey the collection work would have made it a proper fit imo. The idea of having a "Aggressive Blood born skyscale or a bold Courage themed skyscale B)

**The bad**

This is a no brainer obviously I was not a fan of the time gate. At least not a 24 hour time gate. To be clear I'm not opposed to gates they are there for a reason, usually make sense based on the item in question as a standard, and are tied to some other mechanic (in game days, boss events etc) however taking a gate to the extreme on a main base feature of your content update is not ideal to me. I have the mount now and I still would have rather had it 5 days ago or 6 days ago. This is being changed and I'm not even upset about it I'm glad that more people will have the option to work on their mount progress on a more fair and better time scale. How ever it should also be clear that I don't think the amount of work required should be reduced at this point in time. That should stay for a while if map population drops in the future then anet should consider reducing the amount of some things required at a much later date. As a player can control how much they work within a certain reason but cannot control a 24 hour reset.

**Personal Thoughts**

I would have liked to see this long collection used for something more unique though and not just the base unlock for the mount.

For example.

Collection 2 consist of gathering different types of magic into the eggs. The be all end all of this collection could have been 12 different skins that are slightly, some more than others, different looks for the base skyscale. The collection quest becomes repeatable 12 times for 12 different types of skins that gives players the ability to rase several different skyscales. over a period of time while also rewarding them for their hard work and dedication to raising several skyscales one at a time.

# The Skyscale itself

**Design**

4/5 its pretty good, Im curious if this was actually just going to be another 2k gem griffon skin at some point though and then some one thought "we could make this its own mount" Even at its base and single dye channel most colors look pretty good on the mount itself and its animations are very high quality on almost all regards.

It does not seem to currently have its own clear cut purpose and mostly feels like an extra mount and maybe that was the intent. Perhaps its the last mount being added to the game. (hopefully season 5 moves away from mounts.)

**Functionality**

At the moment it looks like this mount will not replace any other mount including Griffon itself. Its functionality seems super limited for the amount of work required to unlock it at its base and I feel like the best thing about it is that it can hover endlessly for now its a show off mount. (being bluntly honest) Its best feature is an alliterative way to travel in style.

Yes it can hover and even stop mid flight and remain in the air but thats about its best notable feature at the current time. Not a bad feature either but not a dominate one with practical use for anything other than rifts or being idle

Its air speed is slower than griffons air speed without the griffon having dived (Tested it with a friend), The griffon will get farther than the skyscale without having dived as the skyscale stamina use and restoration ratio is sub par. Even when almost flying dead even it will still slowly drop lowering your altitude. Currently there is no horizontal flight path in which you can conserve or stop stamina loss while holding altitude. Turns out in long distance flying partway through a map or across the map the griffon even without having dived will maintain a higher altitude as opposed to the skyscale as well as being faster.

The skyscale's ability to climb could be improved considerably with just a few tweaks and It will not be replacing springier at all in my book. Even for short climbs, which a large majority of them griffon can often get you there with a flap of its wings anything more springer all the way. Considering even skimmer into the equation it wont replace that for water travel either as skimmer is much faster over water.

Bond of Vigor could have been done better for this mount.

# Personal Suggestions

Im sure everyone has their own personal suggestions for improvements on this mount right now so take mine with a grain of salt please. I do think based on the amount of work required for this mount even at a base level many improvements need to be made so that its even more enjoyable so that some of its combined function between flight and climbing stand out a bit more more so than its "appearance appeal." After all its all about having different ways to enjoy movement while keeping it fun and creative it does not need to be the best it just needs to be fun. While it currently is fun i think helping it just a bit more is proper for the work required to earn it.

- **Flight speed**

The mount simply needs to be faster in the air, I feel it should be faster than the griffon without it having dived at all by a good amount. But should not be as fast as dived or boosted dived griffon for obvious reasons. But even as a low to ground flying mount Griffon can still out perform it in many common situations. I'm not suggesting the thing be mad fast but most defiantly faster than a base gliding griffon.

- **Improving Stamina Restoration and Sustain**

Stamina restoration is not where it needs to be and while I do get the idea that a dragon may not be able to fly endlessly the conversions could certainly be better when it comes to stamina loss and stamina return. Another idea here is that possibly when a dodge is used to ascend in altitude it does not consume stamina for the for that brief time.

**Bond of Vigor** should not only restore full stamina but also keep it full for its duration instead of giving you like 50% which is gone in about 2 seconds. Its just not designed well mechanically for the way the mount works in its current method of giving 50 stamina 50 endurance on activation and nothing more for the rest of its duration.

- **Indication of Horizontal Sweet Spot**

This may go slightly in hand with the previous subject so ill talk about this next. As I noted before there is no real indication of where the sweet spot is (there likely is not one built in to the code) While have been able to get far distances from high up by riding something close to what looks like a sweet spot in most situations its not a spot that griffon couldnt reach and or go farther.

The stamina bar could change color and freeze when flying on the sweet spot no stamina loss or gain while flying on a sweet spot, possibly stamina slowly returns without losing altitude. Its currently very hard to find that sweet pot and when I'm close to that spot I'm still losing stamina and altitude.

- **Climbing and Wall Jump Mastery**

While the endurance to stamina conversion is not a bad problem, immediately losing almost 50% of your previously converted stamina upon releasing from the wall almost if not does defeat the purpose of converting endurance to stamina in the first place. The mount boost form the wall does not get you significantly higher than where you were.

Either remove the stamina use on boosting form the wall or considerably improve the boosted jump from the wall cling.

- **Landing**

The game can be very picky about what is and is not a proper landing surface when it comes to the skyscale which in some cases is a good thing but its also a bad thing in some spots when you see something you think you can land on to normally gain stamina back only to keep clinging to it over and over.

I also suggest that the engage skill descending speed be bumped up or increases more and more the longer you hold it as some times it can take me longer than i would like to land and get into the action. The engage skill itself is fine and if not one of the more proper things done what could arguably be called perfect for the mount itself.

**Final thoughts**

I would have loved to see masteries focus a bit more of some of the above things more so than something like a wall cling boost jump.

Just having a base wall cling as a default feature and masteries that focused on things like

Raw Stamina Return

Free stamina return while clinging (even if its slower)

Flight speed and/or Better altitude sustain

Better stamina ratios for less use on ascending or return descending

Sweet spot flight

Over all the mount is solid and something I can enjoy having and and floating around on and has a good base foundation to improve on but is still slightly clunky at the moment. Maybe some mastery or base mechanics are being considered for reworks, additions or tweaks for this mount. I am very happy now that I have my own dragon but also very tired and will be taking a break from season 4 living world maps to play core areas, fractals and such also pvp. As I had altered my general play habits for the better part of the previous week to obtain this mount. (I really wanted it) I Will continue to ride the dragon and update this post if any other details or reveals come to mind.

Thanks for reading

Let me know your thoughts on the mount if you have it or even just road around on the rentals. **no story spoilers please**

I was not happy to see thats what the next step was but i did it anyway lucky for me i have tons of level 80 geared alts to speed up the process considering i spend a good chunk of my time in pvp doing nonsense i didn't have most of the map currencies for any of the maps. I was able to get 250 of each with a friend over 2 afternoons. It was a long hard grind but i got them all. To be honest it still was not a bad as the 24 hour time gates which is already going to change and im happy to hear it even though i have the dragon already. How ever this probably should not change. Though it does mean new players to PoF and living world season 4 in general might have to spend more time than even I did getting the currency.

Although if in a few months its lowered i dont see an issue there. But to lower this part right now some people would take issue with.

Lowering the time gate is not the same as lowering this dont be mistaken.

You have 0 control over a 24 hour time gate but you do have within some reason how how fast or how hard you work to gather living world map currency.

Ive never completed so many hearts in a single day before haha.

Where there ever plans to add different types of the base skyscale skins/looks based on the different egg types in collection 2 (the step where you gathered different types of magic for the eggs) or will we possibly see skins made on this idea in the future.

Will things like air movement speed, endurance and other features be buffed and adjusted in the future or are there no plans to change anything related to how it currently works?

> @"voltaicbore.8012" said:

> > @"Thundabolt.8541" said:

>

> > Therein lies the biggest problem I personally have had with this entire situation... we're weren't _looking forward to the last day_ like we should have been - we were **hoping there wouldn't be another day.** Because information was deliberately withheld in fear of backlash, the backlash ultimately swung back thrice as hard.

>

> This. This statement should be upheld as the very essence of this entire thread.

>

> As many of the skyscale collection detractors have already said, we _don't_ want the mount instantly, or for absolutely no effort. However, that doesn't excuse the current acquisition process, which is repetitive, uninteresting, not commensurate with the (un)usefulness of the mount itself, and a completely unannounced departure from all seven previous mount acquisition quests.

>

> I'm glad some of you seem to get something out of the meaningless delay, but I find it very hard to believe that _any_ of this process really prioritized the quality of the player experience. I'd be fine with it _not_ being player-centric if it at least remained consistent with the rest of the game, or important aspects of the episode. I find that it fails to be either of those things. I'm trying to keep an open mind about what we'll hear on the 24th about all this, but somehow I don't think the discussion will be very frank.

Lets hope that the majority of us who started on day one and are / will be on the 4th or 5th collection as of reset today will have it done before the 24 cause if not thats gonna be one very very angry day for a stream. Can see chat being moderated heavily if not turned off.

> @"coso.9173" said:

> people who threaten to leave the game because of having to wait for like 1 week for a new mount... isn't it a bit much?

its kind of a bit deal to be teased about something for several weeks and then you really want it and are expecting to get it within roughly same amount of time as other previous mounts only to find out its 5 days ohh 9 days ohhh..... 2 weeks etc. The more you love something the more hate you can have against it when something goes the wrong way. A persons frustration and hate can be arguably equal to the amount of love and comfort they get from the same thing.

Anyone who says they are quitting also likely said at some point in the past that they would never quit because they loved the game that much. Human reactions. So while it is a bit much its understandable. This was not a good marketing move in general on anets part but i think we all understand that by now.

> @"Samuel.4812" said:

> None of the add-ons you mentioned affect competitive modes.

>

> Anything that effects pvp or wvw should be banned but other than that the guy two posts up has it all down.

the only one that has any effect on pve competitiveness are dps meters this is a fact that people currently rate professions and their elite specs compeitively via dps meters with each balance change. So to an extent being competitive effectively in pve dps meters do hold some weight there.

Thought as many said ban them all and add a few select ones to the game at base. I would be fine with this although this is gonna hurt alot of people. I can see countless players getting banned for using 3rd party addons even if they are currently ok simply because they ignore when if hypothetically anet decided to change the rules.

> @"Witch of Doom.5739" said:

> > @"Jojo.6140" said:

> > The timegate, especially with the feeding, is there so that you bond a bit with your skyscale. You can play with her, wash her nest and watch it grow over the days and it looks adorable. It is done in a very lovely way and it makes me sad how everyone just hates on it just because they cant have their new mount on day 1 ...

>

> A few clicks is not making feel bonded to my skyscale, but I'm glad it does for you. Please do not presume to speak for everyone.

I think the the idea behind this collection specifically the feeding part was done over 4 days, 12 hours, 2 weeks the result feeling would be the same for me. Even if i felt a small bond spreading out the time between feedings wont make most people feel any closer toward it.

Currently fed baby dragon for the 4th time and couldn't advance to 4th collection till next reset... literally 24 hours of wait here for no reason there just a "ill let you know if anything happens commander" OOF

> @"PixelJaeger.2403" said:

> I have the bad feeling that the next episodes will require that (in my opinion) terrible useless mount in order to advance the story.

> In my point of view the Skyscale isn't worth putting that much effort into it.

> Pros:: It can hover... it can launch off of cliffs...

> Cons: it's awfully slow... it can't dive... you have to get it in order to advance your mastery rank...

>

> Yeah sorry, no. I'll pass.

> I'm not against working towards a goal. I'm not against timegated stuff.

> But Collections within collections within timegates seems to me like a tryhard way to keep me artificially long in the game.

> I could do with the way they did the Griffin or the Roller-Beetle. Hell, i even wouldn't mind having to do 8-10 Collections.

> Don't get me wrong, i like the content and will play it. But until they fix that mess i'll wont even go near the Skyscale collections.

>

> Many of the folks i play with (guilds, allied guilds, friends) are really annoyed by the way the Skyscale collection works.

> Some of them already quit playing the content/GW2 and went to other games. All in all it seems that many people are ticked off in a big way.

> This collection-design is a desaster and will ensure many players quitting, which can't be what ANet wanted.

>

> Again: What i wrote here is MY opinion. you can agree with it, which is fine. and you can disagree with it, which is also fine.

I doubt this will be the case i suspect that in season 5 anet will move away from mounts entirely. While new masteries are sure to pop up i doubt they will be mounts or mount related. Otherwise it makes no sense to do this much for any single mount this has to be the last mount which might also explain why its not particularly good at anything .

Personally they need to buff this things speed in the air, have the stamina bar flash or glow when you are flying in a perfectly balanced way (not using stamina but not gaining it either.

Use less stamina for climbing. Wall cling needs to the restoration of stamina and or an option to hop up and not back off the wall.

Also needs another button for quick descending. Thats one thing I've found super annoying about this mount if Im flying high up to an event or something it can take quite a long time to drop from the air even if you are moving down and forward while holding the engage skill which helps a bit it still takes a long time to get to the ground.

For all the time delay and work this is taking this mount will need buffs

I dont mind the theme and idea behind the collection or the work required with all the steps I do think its a bit over kill and forced and the reward for it might not be properly fitted.

I think it still would have been better for anet to give the base mount after collection 1 then continue with the time gated collection which unlocks a total of like 12 different skins (they dont need to be over kill skins just something a bit different from the base skyscale) for example based on the 12 different elements of the eggs in collection 2. Things that people could work towards and it would be repeatable to till you had them all thus has content that people can optionally play through to unlock a nice extra something for their mount. If this was the case a 24 hour time gate would be fine as a extra optional content.

I think in a month or two Dragonfall's chest loots will be nerfed, and the skyscale collection will also be nerfed in some way or another after a good chunk of people finish it when they are close to having skins ready to sell for it.