Thoughts on Dread?

[Al Masone.1274]

I've tried this new spite grandmaster just out of curiosity and as far as feeling goes, I find it pretty fun when there are lots of enemies around (mainly openworld). That said, quickness and fury aren't boons the reaper really needs, but coupled with reaper's onslaught means that you still get those additional seconds of quickness when you exit shroud. which is nice for the GS. Again, while in shroud fury is more or less wasted due to death perception and marauder/berserker gear, but outside shroud are good to have (just not amazing).

You can end up with decent stability uptime while in shroud, and if you take fear of death for life force for on causing fear, you can stay there longer, stacking up quickness and fury duration, that help you when out of shroud. Also, close to death only triggers when the foe is under 50% health, while dread works right from the get go; but, and it's a big but, close to death give a juicy 20% bonus damage.

That said, I'm not doing the math, which is why I'm asking here what your feels are about this grandmaster., because I'm afarid that, as with most of the necromancer skills and trait, it has ended up being great in theme and useless in execution.

[Dadnir.5038]

_Dread_ is an interesting trait (mostly for non organized group play). Against low health pool foes it's the spite GM that should be favored. _Close to death_ only have the advantage against high health pool targets.

 

That said, if reaper don't really need more quickness, it's still very welcome for both core and scourge.

[KrHome.1920]

> Thoughts on Dread?

I don't like it, because it is too situational and has a too big RNG factor.

 

That's the same bad design as mainhand dagger and its self-bleed, bleed transfer and 20% multiplier mechanic.

 

> it has ended up being great in theme and useless in execution

Yes, pretty much this.

[Anchoku.8142]

Dread is my choice for WvW zerging and open world PvE trash mob tagging. Close to Death is better for boss encounters. Spiteful Spirit for the rest. Dread's Fury is useful for power builds short on precision for one reason or another.

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

[Lily.1935]

My thoughts on it are it pushes reaper far beyond core and scourge in open world. Before I'd have told you Scourge and reaper were close enough that their differences in DPS was minor enough that either choice was solid especially with scourge's higher target cap and ranged advantage, now with the ability to have quickness out of shroud without harming my DPS but improving it as I get access to fury now there is no question as to which spec is superior for open world.

 

It makes reaper extremely self sufficient, more so than before. Although you would never take it in raids or organized fractals it is fantastic. In WvW I found it especially effective with Lich Form as well.

 

I have one Tiny change I would make to the trait though. I'd Make it apply Fury and Quickness to 5 Allies around you as well. This would open up a Boon support build for Scourge which could share Quickness, Fury and might. Although they'd loose out on blood magic because they're still locked into Soul reaping as they need the reduction in recharge time and they need the alacrity to make this work but it would be a fun power boon support build for sure!

[Shroud.2307]

Could have been okay if they didn't butcher Doom as hard as they did. The after cast on that stupid skill is atrocious.