As a Reaper Shroud player the last two patches have gutted me.

[Druitt.7629]

> @Zenith.7301 said:

> And outside raids, anything will work. If you're failing in open world as power reaper, the error is with you not the spec.

>

> Power reaper does extremely well in open world as any other build besides deadeye does.

 

Repeated a lot and somewhat true. You do have much more flexibility to do your own thing in open world, true. But not everything is non-painful in all situations. I have an 80 of each profession and some are much more painful in either certain situations or in general.

 

And I've found Deadeye to be perfectly playable and fun in open world. Old Reaper as well, though I'm skeptical of Reaper now. (I've been doing Scourge and haven't gone and gotten all the power gear out of the bank to try it out yet.)

[Saracen.2691]

> @Svarty.8019 said:

 

> Gear checks and DPS meters spell, "Elitism".

 

While you've mastered the art of ignoring the rest of my post I think it's a lot more accurate to say it's unfortunate those things have to be done and in a perfect world instead other people would have enough common courtesy to make the same effort every other raider does to be geared properly to make it as painless as possible, but that isn't how it rolls and you can't rely on anyone to care about their fellow squad members enough to actually come properly geared. It's simply a higher level of play that requires a higher tier of gear. You don't call police elitist because they receive training and tools to make their job easier as opposed to just being vigilantes running around in loungewear.

 

[InsaneQR.7412]

> @Dristig.9678 said:

> I just don't care for the scourge playstyle and LOVE Reaper. But I play mostly open world PvE and PvP Power reaper my personal preference was always to be in Shroud as much as possible. With the nerf to shroud cooldown and the new nerf to decay and Soul Reaping line my favorite playstyle has essentially been removed from the game. :(

 

In open PvE i had no issues due to death magic i can replenish lifeforce pretty quickly.

I use shroud till enemies hit 50% and cleave them down with gravedigger. After that may life force is about 100% again.

[TheDevice.2751]

Spite will not be as appealing anymore unless you're running paladins. Staying in shroud is not something that is going to work anymore since just about every spec has had lower durations and cooldowns overall. More burst damage is required, not consistent wet-noodle swings.

 

You have to shift your style around just a little but reaper does still work, if only just enough to be playable. Scourge, DD, and SB will probably still be the toughest match-ups but you cant just run in and expect to last in fights like before. Gotta work more towards making your engage delayed.

[Nimon.7840]

> @TheDevice.2751 said:

> Spite will not be as appealing anymore unless you're running paladins. Staying in shroud is not something that is going to work anymore since just about every spec has had lower durations and cooldowns overall. More burst damage is required, not consistent wet-noodle swings.

>

> You have to shift your style around just a little but reaper does still work, if only just enough to be playable. Scourge, DD, and SB will probably still be the toughest match-ups but you cant just run in and expect to last in fights like before. Gotta work more towards making your engage delayed.

 

 

Well i fought a full minstrel guardian yesterday. And guess what: i lost after like 3 minutes of the fight. Due to his 1billion blocks and his burning.

 

I tried again, changed some things to have more survivability. I didnt even get him below 80% health. After 8 minutes fight was over. Again he won. So yes. Power reaper IS pretty useless right now

[ilmau.9781]

> @Nimon.7840 said:

> > @TheDevice.2751 said:

> > Spite will not be as appealing anymore unless you're running paladins. Staying in shroud is not something that is going to work anymore since just about every spec has had lower durations and cooldowns overall. More burst damage is required, not consistent wet-noodle swings.

> >

> > You have to shift your style around just a little but reaper does still work, if only just enough to be playable. Scourge, DD, and SB will probably still be the toughest match-ups but you cant just run in and expect to last in fights like before. Gotta work more towards making your engage delayed.

>

>

> Well i fought a full minstrel guardian yesterday. And guess what: i lost after like 3 minutes of the fight. Due to his 1billion blocks and his burning.

>

> I tried again, changed some things to have more survivability. I didnt even get him below 80% health. After 8 minutes fight was over. Again he won. So yes. Power reaper IS pretty useless right now

 

yesterday i killed a power reaper with my very old school condi standard necromancer, spite, curses, soul reaping, full trailblazer with scepter warhorn staff

 

The poor Reaper melted like a pro, only thing i had to do was stay ranged and use fear when we was getting closer and he died to a build of about 4/5 years ago.

 

Do i have to add anything else ?

[TwoGhosts.6790]

Look, in PvE it doesn't matter a bit. Really.

Raids? Dunno, don't do them.

PvP? Same, I don't do it.

But WvW?

Well, they should rename reaper 'shroud dancer'. It's much more challenging now, for sure, and even in a good comp I have to lean on my squad much more, especially firebrand/guard support. Survivability now is considerably harder, you really have to 'dance' your shroud, you just can't camp it.

But if I get my own timing right, and if the push/bomb lands right then the increase damage I get in shroud is really significant.

Do I wish the shroud decay was better (4% say)? Yes, definitely.

But have the changes 'broken' the reaper?

Nope.

I've changed my traits a bit, and I'm trying to play a bit smarter (and a bit better), and overall I'm learning how to use my shroud a bit more efficiently.

The extra damage is good, and I wish they'd give us a bit more shroud, definitely.

But I'm still finding the play fun and challenging, and I'm still able to be effective, without a doubt.

So, the hyperbole here is a bit hard to swallow tbh.

Stop crying, get playing.

Good luck.

~TG

[ilmau.9781]

> @TwoGhosts.6790 said:

> Look, in PvE it doesn't matter a bit. Really.

> Raids? Dunno, don't do them.

> PvP? Same, I don't do it.

> But WvW?

> Well, they should rename reaper 'shroud dancer'. It's much more challenging now, for sure, and even in a good comp I have to lean on my squad much more, especially firebrand/guard support. Survivability now is considerably harder, you really have to 'dance' your shroud, you just can't camp it.

> But if I get my own timing right, and if the push/bomb lands right then the increase damage I get in shroud is really significant.

> Do I wish the shroud decay was better (4% say)? Yes, definitely.

> But have the changes 'broken' the reaper?

> Nope.

> I've changed my traits a bit, and I'm trying to play a bit smarter (and a bit better), and overall I'm learning how to use my shroud a bit more efficiently.

> The extra damage is good, and I wish they'd give us a bit more shroud, definitely.

> But I'm still finding the play fun and challenging, and I'm still able to be effective, without a doubt.

> So, the hyperbole here is a bit hard to swallow tbh.

> Stop crying, get playing.

> Good luck.

> ~TG

 

may i ask what server do you actually play in ?

[TwoGhosts.6790]

> @ilmau.9781 said:

> > @TwoGhosts.6790 said:

> > Look, in PvE it doesn't matter a bit. Really.

> > Raids? Dunno, don't do them.

> > PvP? Same, I don't do it.

> > But WvW?

> > Well, they should rename reaper 'shroud dancer'. It's much more challenging now, for sure, and even in a good comp I have to lean on my squad much more, especially firebrand/guard support. Survivability now is considerably harder, you really have to 'dance' your shroud, you just can't camp it.

> > But if I get my own timing right, and if the push/bomb lands right then the increase damage I get in shroud is really significant.

> > Do I wish the shroud decay was better (4% say)? Yes, definitely.

> > But have the changes 'broken' the reaper?

> > Nope.

> > I've changed my traits a bit, and I'm trying to play a bit smarter (and a bit better), and overall I'm learning how to use my shroud a bit more efficiently.

> > The extra damage is good, and I wish they'd give us a bit more shroud, definitely.

> > But I'm still finding the play fun and challenging, and I'm still able to be effective, without a doubt.

> > So, the hyperbole here is a bit hard to swallow tbh.

> > Stop crying, get playing.

> > Good luck.

> > ~TG

>

> may i ask what server do you actually play in ?

 

Same as you by the sound of it.

EU tier 1-2.

 

 

[JonasBL.8270]

> @CharJC.8365 said:

> Honestly, this is exactly a change I liked that A-net made. I don't use shroud for defense, I use it as a burst, and with the changes to might made, oh dose it burst :open_mouth: Sure, some people will need to adapt to the change, but I implore folks to take a chance and give it more time, necro's have the highest health pool, to me that is defense enough, and as long as you are not just spamming skills, survivability is not so much an issue.

>

> I use a mix of armor,

> Berserker's trinkets and weapons, all ascended

> Marauders armor, all ascended

> Scholar runes

> full +5 defense infusions

> x2 sig of air

> x1 sig of force

> x1 sig of bloodlust

> greatsword

> axe/focus

>

> Ran wvw roaming with this and did some dungeons and not once did I encounter a problem. In fact, perhaps due to my play style, I felt much sturdier and a bit more confident.

 

Then this changes should have been split from sPvP

 

[SoulPariah.2856]

Power reaper is great for open world, and it shouldn't be that big of an issue to continue running after recent changes, but actually should be better (i'm running scourge so haven't checked yet, but i'm hyped to do so). If you've got 'Strength of Undeath' in Soul Reaping, your shroud is about 80% of your hp pool. Increasing your HP and Toughness will make your shroud last longer to offset if you feel it's dissipating too quickly. On my reaper (even though I was attempting some weird hybrid thing i liked), I cut precision where I needed to tweak to my liking, and then I ran death perception and decimate defenses. Meaning with 25 stacks vuln, i had 100% crit in shroud even if I had 0 precision (in open world you don't have 25 vuln at all times though). Also, keep in mind if you pick up the Spite trait Awaken the Pain, you'll have 250 more power than you used to with 25 stacks of might, and if you take Signets of suffering, you maintain your 270 power bump from it even if the spell is on cooldown (and that's 5 vuln stacks for 10s right there along with way more that you can now use without worrying), and if you take Reaper trait Reaper's Onslaught, your shroud spells are cooling down faster than before because the recharge reduction is based on how many targets life reap hits (can hit up to 5 targets) so you're doing more damage. All of this is before mentioning massive power bumps in all reaper's shroud spells. So, while your life force decays faster, if you go all out power on reaper, and maybe make a couple changes for some added defense here and there, you'll still do way more damage and stay in shroud as long.

 

Lot more to look into to spec it all out in a full theory craft, but I just wanted to try to give you another way to look at it, because I was psyched about the changes and I run soul reaping too, so I hate to see that you're bummed.

 

Thanks!

[Turin.6921]

People seem to demonstrate that power reaper (often still using the shroud) still works pretty well in WvW though.

 

[Svarty.8019]

> @Zenith.7301 said:

> Stop crying, get playing.

> Good luck.

> ~TG

Sure I'm playing: I'm playing something else.

 

Thanks for the tip.

 

[Aetatis.5418]

> @Turin.6921 said:

> People seem to demonstrate that power reaper (often still using the shroud) still works pretty well in WvW though.

>

>

 

if you can push, this is super nice, without a doubt.

pushing is a lot easier if you are in the better zerg. if you are in the inferior zerg however or in a hard pirate-ship situaton (equal servers with strong range)... there is no way for reaper to be better than scourge. but to be super honest... 3% or even the uba 2% decay will not help in the ranged scenarios either ^^ - its an aoe spam issue. so you got a point there

[ArmageddonAsh.6430]

> @boneduste.4023 said:

> Power Reaper in WvW was perfectly fine until this patch.

 

That is debateable, easily killed by quite a few classes. I used to roam as Reaper and loved it, these days however. Power Reaper roaming is a death sentence, they are SO easy to kite and lock down that they arent really a threat most of the time. If you jump the Reaper, most of the time its a kill. If they jump you, as long as you have a stun break. You can get out, heal up and kite them until they are dead. I've killed WAY more Power Reapers than i have died to as Power Soulbeast,

 

 

[ArmageddonAsh.6430]

> @Turin.6921 said:

> People seem to demonstrate that power reaper (often still using the shroud) still works pretty well in WvW though.

>

>

 

and this is why i dont play my Power Reaper anymore. I hate the staff SO much, i find it SO, SO boring to just go with the "use all the AoE" to be a REAAAAAAAAALLY boring gameplay style. Necro has REALLY bad Good power Ranged options, sure got Axe, but thats not true range and is nowhere near as good as ranged power options of other classes :(

[ilmau.9781]

> @Turin.6921 said:

> People seem to demonstrate that power reaper (often still using the shroud) still works pretty well in WvW though.

>

>

 

what is that overlay the guy in the vid i using?

[Aetatis.5418]

the overlay is arcdps !

[ilmau.9781]

> @Aetatis.5418 said:

> the overlay is arcdps !

 

thanks you, do i got it right or do it show the life of the enemy players around you ?

[hurrado.2346]

> @Crinn.7864 said:

> > @Dristig.9678 said:

> > Reaper Shroud Player

>

> Reaper Shroud is not a class. Reaper is a class that includes shroud but is not exclusively limited to it.

>

> The changes in this patch encourage using all of reaper's tools, both the ones in shroud and the ones out of shroud. This is how it should be. Camping one thing all the time leads to much more flat and monotonous experience for the player, which is why shroud camping should be discouraged.

 

No, it very much discourages use of shroud for anything other than flashing shroud every 10 seconds for trait procs. Against any competent players you will no longer be able to complete a shroud combo. I don't know how you can think this is "going in the right direction" if all you want shroud to do is proc traits and maybe use 1 or 2 skills before being sent back to whatever weapon skills/utilities you use most of the time anyway. Might as well delete reaper if this is the right direction, seeing as we got no other form of active defense to compensate.

[Legiticus.8027]

> @Dristig.9678 said:

> > @Zenith.7301 said:

> > > @Dristig.9678 said:

> > > I just don't care for the scourge playstyle and LOVE Reaper. But I play mostly open world PvE and PvP Power reaper my personal preference was always to be in Shroud as much as possible. With the nerf to shroud cooldown and the new nerf to decay and Soul Reaping line my favorite playstyle has essentially been removed from the game. :(

> >

> > You don't need to sit in reaper shroud to do open world PvE. Power reaper is bad in PvP and always has been.

> >

> > It's not Anet's mission to make suboptimal gimmick playstyles a balancing concern.

>

> Cool story bro. I never said it was a meta build. It is however an extremely popular build outside of elitist raids.

 

Hahaha that made me laugh hard, very true man

[Fade.5904]

They should have made shroud decay but a number not a percentage that way you could still make use of a bigger shroud with more vitality.

Or perhaps keep Reaper at 5% but give it a shroud cooldown trait so it can hop in and out of shroud faster leaving core nec to do what it was supposed to do..high health/big shroud to soak up conditions and transfer them.

[Arzurag.7506]

> @Fade.5904 said:

> They should have made shroud decay but a number not a percentage that way you could still make use of a bigger shroud with more vitality.

> Or perhaps keep Reaper at 5% but give it a shroud cooldown trait so it can hop in and out of shroud faster leaving core nec to do what it was supposed to do..high health/big shroud to soak up conditions and transfer them.

 

I always wanted a flat-value as decay but I think, it would be a bit hard to balance.

Imagine a hard-hitting reaper who possesses a high health-pool + shroud that functions as healthbar with -50% damage taken.

Sounds good but seems nearly impossible to balance.

Though, if I think about what defense-capabilities other classes have access to(block, invulnerability, more ways to negate damage), it seems reasonable to make the decay a flat value. Due the fact that the shroud is our only effective defense it is the only way to bring back reaper to the table.