Shroud.2307

Skimmer. I love the drifting feel of it and that it can basically fly. I love that it takes no fall damage and is quite versatile in terms of where it can go.

> @ArmageddonAsh.6430 said:

> As someone that roams WvW solo, this trait has ZERO use to me what so ever. Kinda sad. I thin k it should have made it so that we get a reduced cool down on the Stances, maybe with a 50% duration increase as well. It is a GM trait after all, it should feel it.

It doesn't reduce the cooldowns or provide any additional benefits which means you lose nothing by not taking it.

Go with Oppressive Superiority, that's what I use. +10% damage to targets with less health than you is great. And if you're condition, then it's +10% condition duration.

> @Skuzz.6580 said:

> It really is hard being positive around here...

> The grass is always greener everywhere else right?? Wrong, as on all profession forums people are comparing things with other classes and how their versions are worse, what have you..

Welcome to the Ranger sub. This is why I avoid posting here. Because compared to the others, this sub is so aggressively negative that they'll attack you if you try to say something positive.

Ranger and Necro have been my mains for 4 years. I love them both to death and still think they're both very powerful if used properly. You can't grasp your full potential without understanding your faults. But the same can be said vice versa - you can't reach your full potential without understanding your strengths. Too many people here not willing to see where we're strong because they're too focused on how we're weak. Just don't let their attitude rub off on you.

Glad you've found something you enjoy. I very much like Soulbeast myself, although I haven't been using any of the Stances (speaking from a small scale WvW perspective). Jacaranda and Smokescale are so amazing together, I've been having an absolute blast with it. So much damage and so many ways to heal and I don't need to use that dinky staff. Personally I'm overjoyed with this spec and can't thank ANet enough for creating it.

I named all of mine a long time ago. Even before the names were kept archived and we had to rename them every time we chose a new one.

But I'll just share my main crew so as not to write a novel.

**Smokescale:** Ashes - My goodest boy, my reliable companion, my ferocious little monster.

**Wolf:** Rune

**Tiger:** Violence

**Bristleback:** Barney

**Raven:** Felony

**Snowy Owl:** Polaris

**Jacaranda:** Hickory

**Shark:** Sushi

And these ones, although I don't really use them, I just want to share because I think they're funny.

**Sand Lion:** Sandstorm By Darude

**Pig:** My Ex Boyfriend

> @Bluntdaddy.3914 said:

> Its not that I dont like Scourge, I just absolutely LOVE reaper.

I think this very accurately describes how I feel about vanilla Necro tbh.

I'm okay with Reaper and Scourge... But I just love core Necro so much that the others don't feel like they offer enough to change my mind.

Minor spoiler - During the story, we gain control over awakened minions. We are given the ability to swap between our weapon skills and a new set of skills that command the minions with such things as attack (melee), attack (ranged), tank -> self destruct.

Though I doubt that it would be implemented for a number of reasons, such as that it would be relatively complex to wield, I very much feel that this is how Necromancer minions should function.

Say we have all 5 minions active. We swap to our "minion control panel" which gives us minion specific commands. We'll say that skill 1 is Shadow Fiend for the sake of example. When pressing skill 1 once, it melees. When pressing skill 1 again, it ranges. When pressing it on our utility bar, it executes it's minion-specific attack as it always has (which in this case is "Haunt.")

Anyone else think this would be amazing? I really felt like I was commanding an undead horde when I was controlling all these Awakened. At one point I had 12 of them and I was just laughing maniacally as I made them zerg anything that crossed my path. I would love so much to get a feeling like that when using Necro minions and it would bring so much more to the playstyle as well.

I just enjoy forums and chatting with people in general. I used to join open chat rooms in early 2000 because I like to explore peoples minds and make new friends. I feel that a lot of people are more open and honest on the internet and I like to pick at their brains.

I also very much enjoy helping people in any way that I can and I find forums to be a great place to do so. It doesn't have anything to do with being a Necromancer main for me.

> @Exqq.7451 said:

> Also, if you do not like Reaper and you do not like Scourge, maybe Necro just isnt the class for you. That is not a bad thing there are many options. I wouldnt try to stick with something you do not like just because you want to like it.

No, I am a Necromancer at heart and it is my oldest and most played class. I'm not bored with it nor do I dislike it. I'm just upset that both elite specs don't appeal to me as much as I wish they would.

I very strongly love and enjoy vanilla Necromancer, but I think it's reasonable to be a little let down that I don't enjoy playing it the different ways that Anet has created. Again though, I'm not saying that Scourge is bad nor am I upset with Anet. Just upset that this elite spec isn't something else - even if I don't know exactly what I'd like it to be.

> @Nyel.1843 said:

> Why do you dislike it? And why do you dislike Reaper? I mean it's very subjective but I think both specs add some flavour to the Necromancer.

I dislike Scourge because I dislike not having Shroud and I dislike Sand Shades. I understand that Barrier is technically a _better_ Shroud, but I don't enjoy how it feels in my hands, so to speak. I may change my mind after extended play, but as of now, I've continued to use vanilla Necromancer through out the new content.

As for Reaper, it's a similar dilemma, except that I just prefer Death Shroud over Reaper Shroud. I enjoy that it's ranged and I have a very strong love for Dark Path, which I personally find to be a very fun skill. I like shouts, greatsword and many Reaper traits, I also very much enjoy power Reaper in PvE. I just dislike Reaper Shroud, which is the only thing that really holds me back from using it very often.

I'm not trying to start a hate thread. Anet did a wonderful job with mechanics and visuals, this isn't about that. I'm just curious how many others have given Scourge a go and felt that they didn't enjoy it.

I'm a little upset that I feel this way. I didn't care much for Reaper and now I don't like Scourge either. Although this is entirely my own fault, it's disappointing being stuck with vanilla Necro after two expansions. I was really hoping this would be the spec that would draw me away from it.

From a "general case," you would notify as many people as possible via /team chat and Teamspeak/Discord followed by a push. If the response is not quick enough, then your objective would have likely been doomed regardless. Siege Disabler spam rarely saves the day unless it's to prevent a smaller group from sniping something while your map Q is finishing up what it's doing before responding to your distress.

From a "specific circumstance," you're probably Outnumbered. Which means dying will be of no harm to you and little to the warscore. Swallow your pride and suicide with as many players as you can rally. Otherwise, you have 2 more options; Use a Catapult if it can hit where the Shield Generators are positioned. Catapults have a massive area of splash damage that can reach through a shield bubble if you _don't_ hit the bubble itself. Try to hit near the bubble rather than on it, and the splash damage should be able to damage the generator. Second option is to be patient with AC's and/or Ballistas and wait for the time between their activation. In all my time in WvW, I have rarely seen perfect co-ordination in bubble uptime. There's almost always a window of opportunity to attack, how ever brief they may sometimes be.

Stances are very brief but very powerful. Although they can greatly help a Warrior to survive a bomb or a push, it won't keep them on their feet for a sustained period of time. They require group support to contribute to a prolonged fight and they return nothing. They do not provide the group with meaningful support outside of banners and they cannot out match Necro or Ele AOE's.

With that said, Warriors can deal an absolute ton of damage if they get in your face. Although they won't tag quite as many players as someone who has potent access to AOE's (again, Necro, Ele or even Rev with CoR) they can still be a devastating force during a push. You do not want to get clipped by a Might and Fury stacked Warrior whirling and smashing through everyone. If played intelligently, they can be a viable, even desirable source of damage during pushes.

Outside of zerging, they are extremely strong roamers although they fall short in outnumbered fights. Because Warriors have such strong regenerative options, they can be a real chore to bring down in a 1v1/2. Many of their defences are rooted in long cooldowns and obvious tells however, so they tend to suffer when numbers don't favor them. Still, they are effective at solo capturing objectives and making quick work of anyone who gets locked down. Easily among the best of the roaming/small scale class options, so they do have their place.

Engineer was my first class. I thought it was very exciting, but very complex. It was too much for me to grasp when I began because I'm an _extremely_ slow learner. What takes one person 3 days to a week to learn, takes me 3 weeks to a month to learn. I just really need to absorb things. And Engineer was a lot to take in as a beginner to GW2.

I dropped it for around 2(?) years I think before coming back to it and was happy I gave it a second chance. I find it a lot less complicated than I did when I first started and even less so than many people consider it to be as a whole. For some reason, coming back to it later on made it feel very natural to play to me.

I have only 4 characters and they are the only 4 professions that I enjoy playing. I've tried every class to a reasonable extent but none are as exciting to me as the 4 that I have (Necromancer/Ranger/Warrior/Engineer).

It's a shame that so many players care about immersion. I'm a huge sucker for the "casual" look in video games. I want jeans and a hoodie or tank top. To some that's boring but to each their own. And I really like that look. It has never stopped bothering me since the day I started GW2 that I can't just slay dragons in laze around clothes.

I mean there are weapon skins like the "Improvised" set that allow you to use a broken chair for a shield and sunglasses or fuzzy hat skins. Why are normal clothes so out of the question ):

They allowed something similar to this in DC Universe Online which I really liked.

You were able to change the skin of your gear without effecting the stats, just like you can with transmutation crystals in GW2 (except that it costed nothing and you could do it as frequently as you wanted). But you could also hide any or all of your armor as well.

Yay! I've been watching Sindrener a lot the past couple weeks and I've wanted to see a video from you. Great stuff, no surprise.

1,200 range skills can hit _all_ of the inner cannons in SMC. Some just require you to be standing in the proper spot.

Ranger longbow can hit third floor cannons from outside the castle. They can also hit the top floor cannon from the garrison watergate.

> @ArchonWing.9480 said:

> Fun video! Especially on that build too.

>

> This tactic exploits the tendency of zerg trains to be on "rails" so to speak, and thus are weakest on the edges. Essentially, never give them the straight up engagement they want, and take advantage of their frustrations (exploit when they do try to go for a kill).

>

> Currently zergs are generally focused on fighting against other zergs, and as a result meta zerg builds no longer focus on mobility but rather brush and brush attrition/boon share engagements. This essentially throws a wrench in the equation.

>

> Despite appearances, this does require a fair bit of coordination and individual ability. Essentially each part of the cloud needs to be capable of sensing the opportunity to make a kill without getting killed themselves.

>

Thank you, you explained it a lot better than I did, lol.

Clouds are tricky to get right because you have to trust that your server mates know what they're doing. A cloud won't do well if people are over extending or can't recognize when to push, pull or bomb. It isn't always the best strategy of course but when you don't have a commander and the enemy zerg is a reasonable size, it can be surprising the kinds of things it can overcome.

> @Cerby.1069 said: -Snip-

My keybinds are bad because my motor skills are bad. Have you ever had your arm fall asleep? My left arm is permanently like that because of brain damage when I was young. I play with reversed keybinds so that my left hand has to do as little work as possible. It controls my camera and my weapon swapping. My right hand does everything else.

I know I have an awkward way of playing, and I apologize for that, but it can't really be improved upon.

This was a pretty crappy cloud though, honestly. I've seen Maguuma do a much, much better job with this strategy. The only reason I used this as an example is because I don't record very often and this fight lasted for quite some time. I'll have to get some better footage in the future where myself and our PUGs are actually getting more kills and being a little more aggressive. We had plenty of players in this video but a lot of people (myself included) were being far too passive. It would have been much better if I was on something with some ranged options. My Warrior is full berserker so I couldn't afford to take much damage.

Anyway I'm glad you learned something even if you didn't like the video (:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TQ5AQzHaoE&feature=youtu.be

A "cloud" formation is when a group of players come together without lumping together. Each player follows their own set of rules instead of following a singular players orders (a commander). This method is much less organized but can be extremely effective with the right players. It makes it significantly more difficult for an organized group to completely eliminate your group and almost impossible for them to focus their damage.

In this video, I will provide some tips on how to contribute and survive in a cloud formation. Pay attention to my position and the enemy zergs position!

I apologize for my horrible editing skills and gameplay but it gets the point across. I plan to create more instructional and trick videos in the future, hopefully with better quality and information. I hope you enjoy even if you don't learn anything new, and thanks for watching!

P.S. I'm not sure if it's processing on Youtube or not but the quality wasn't that bad before I uploaded it.

> @Sartharina.3542 said:

> Kick is incredible in PvP when combined with Hammer and Rifle for keeping someone off a point in the most frustrating and irritating way possible. "Get off my point. Get off my point. Get off my point. Get off my point. Screw your Stability, I'm still kicking you off my point"

>

> I'd love to be able to Stomp more frequently. It's the most epic Stunbreak in the game. I just wish it gave 1 stack of stability preemptively.

Haha, I agree. Although I don't do PvP anymore, I do very much find it a good skill when used with hammer, rifle or longbow. It's really nice with ranged weapons to keep people away from you, which is something you need with ranged weapons on any class. Ranger has knockback, Guardian has knockback, Revenant has evade, etc.

As for changes to physical skills, I agree with @Opopanax.1803 Mending as a physical skill and Stomp cooldown decrease. Throw Bolas are actually quite good as well but they suffer the same problem as a lot of skills in GW2. They're okay, but not enough to take over better skills. I've used Throw Bolas a number of times in the past but they don't feel impactful enough to take over Stances in most situations. 3sec Immob on a very low cooldown is really good, but it's hard to compete with Stances or Signets, at least in WvW/PvP.

If I had to choose a theme for a new WvW map, I'd probably go with islands. Similar to EOTM except that it's floating on water rather than in the air. Lots of significantly large islands interconnected by this or that with a couple objectives underwater. Nothing like towers or supply camps, but destructable gates, walls or maybe sentrys so that going underwater isn't 100% avoidable. It would also be neat to add destructable floors to certain objectives so you could push zergs in to a pool in the middle of your tower/keep and trap them in the water. It wouldn't be an aquatic map, just one where there are enough breaks in the land that more people would consider using aquatic weapons that aren't greens or blues. I would love to go roaming and chase people beneath towers and pathways, back on to land, etc. Or have a fun way to escape zergs because most probably wouldn't want to chase you underwater unless they were headed that way to avoid detection.

There will never be balance because something will always be meta. And if it's meta, it is objectively better than other options which means it is unbalanced.

If you are speaking from a small scale perspective, there absolutely are a lot of overtuned builds. You don't need to fight these builds nor do you need to 1v1 them, however. If you are having trouble, try a different build, a different profession or a different approach, such as bringing more players or fighting in a more advantageous location.

Small scale WvW is not a matter of skill. Although skill is present, it is often outclassed by mechanics. Which means despite immaculate play, you can still lose to game design.

It's best to enjoy your victories and not to dwell on your losses. Anet isn't going to save you or any of the other thousands of players always begging for balance because balance is far too difficult to achieve. Enjoy the game and adapt to the meta. Being rigid and refusing to change will get you nothing but frustration. If you choose not to change, at least enjoy what you're doing and understand that any uphill battles you're having are your own fault. - I play a lot of personal, non-meta builds and often roam solo. I deliberately put myself at huge disadvantages in favor of pleasure because I feel that it's more important to enjoy myself than to improve my skills. Not everyone will feel the same but I felt it was important to state.

Hopefully they add more options in the future. The GW2 Reddit has a ton that the official site here could draw from.