Longer than I expected post on Power Reaper in PvE thoughts and suggestions

[Warscythes.9307]

I know you guys read forums so I figure I will throw my two cents out there. While I do play only Power reaper in pvp at an ok level, I don't know nearly enough about it compared to PvE; so this post will be dedicated to only high end pve content as it is the field that I am most knowledgeable about.

 

I think we can agree class balance should not be purely number based. Otherwise you can probably do something like "Reaper deal 1% damage increase per vul stack" to decimate defense and call it a day. Reaper's benchmark would be around 33.75k and be instantly viable in pve without a question. However that's a bandaid fix at best with one glaring issue being boring dps rotation under 50%. So in this post I try to give my thoughts as to what caused the problem and what are some of the possible solutions to correct it. Of course ultimately a dps class has to do enough damage to be viable and this post does not talk about those at all; but if the numbers are not to the correct level then no matter how good or fun the playstyle is; the spec will be pointless. Take it as you will.

 

**Objective:**

 

Provide Power Reaper in high end PvE an interesting rotation performing acceptable dps with something to set it apart while making as little changes as possible.

 

**Issue:**

 

- Boring rotation under 50% with the culprit being gravedigger's reset

 

Solution:

 

**tl;dr: General idea would be have something that makes it so the dps rotation incorporates both weapons and shroud almost equally.**

 

So the rotation for above 50% is ok. Axe is a perfectly valid swap; warhorn/focus is a poor offhand but that is bit of a minor issue. The problem come when under 50% is literally just using gravedigger over and over again. This is not good. Having a simple rotation is fine; having a rotation made of one button is not. Completely ignoring shroud also does not align with your vision of ignoring class professional mechanics similar to warriors, mesmers etc.

 

What I suggest is the following:

 

- Remove the gravedigger cd reduction, this will drop Reaper dps to around 22-23k I think.

 

So to compensate:

 

Option 1) Gravedigger now apply a debuff that gives +X% damage increase for your abilities.

This cannot be a group debuff because BS 2.0 sounds awful. This is simple, direct and requires mostly just number tuning.

 

Option 2) Applying chill reduce the cd of gravedigger by X second

So what this hopefully does is make you go in shroud and use RS5 everytime you can so you can get gravedigger off cd and spam it. This if working well still allows some degree of gravedigger spam but with a lot more control. GS autos, RS5->RS4, gs5, shadow minion's haunt etc etc. Plus you should be applying chill anyway for your 10% damage buff.

 

So those two are my musings for gravedigger replacement. The following are just general stuff that I think should happen regardless.

 

- Increase the damage of RS4 and RS5

I believe the intention in shroud with Reaper's onslaught is pretty obvious. You use your damage skills like RS4 and RS5 and then spam auto so they are off cd faster so that you can use them again. Good idea except auto still does the most damage. Please change the two skills to the point where using it provide a noticeable boost over auto attack.

 

 

- GS3 applies chill or really anything that gives a reason to use GS3 in a dps rotation.

Because it feels like it should be an armor debuff skill but vul is capped in pve anyway. So you really only use it when you need lf which really doesn't happen that often.

 

- Vamp aura's ICD damage applies to every target similar to chilling victory instead of just 1. Give the life steal either some % scaling or power/condi scaling so the healing is noticeable.

I think the intention is good. The older version heavily factors fast strike weapons. Having an icd but giving it a higher number allows a more consistent performance but the ICD on only one target kind of ruins this a bit. Having the icd work like chilling victory where it applies to every target would be great. Buffing the heal to make it actually noticeable in a dps build instead of just be a dps aura would be great too. The point of this is that each dps class ideally should have their niche. Firebrand brings a lot of boon utilities, Holo have a lot of cc, what if Reaper provides some noticeable passive heals? Transfusion being in the same line cement the quirk too.

 

 

- Better offhand weapon damage on skills

You have to pick and choose focus or warhorn as the damage weapon for power. Doesn't matter what. Pick one and buff the living bejesus out of its damage so you use at least one of the skill in a rotation. Right now yes you do use warhorn 5 but the effect is so bloody tiny that it feels bad.

 

- Change signet of spite's active to have it benefit power damage

You take it because of the free 180 power. That's it. At least when guardians take their signet the active is actually useful as cc. This one is pretty much pointless to ever use it because it applies condis but the benefit provides power. The effect can be anything really; next attack knocks back or do X more damage or provides a debuff to enemy that takes X% more damage etc etc.

 

Changes that I think might be good

 

- Shout trait gives buff that provide X% damage buff after using a shout similar to warrior's peak performance.

Current optimal utilities are 3 minions, well and a signet. I can't really say those are the most fun abilities. Shouts could be interesting if they actually did something to provide damage. Just a thought. Having to take minions just because they do the max damage feels bad to me but I don't think is a huge issue.

 

- RS3 gives a damage boost?

Might be interesting if RS3 also give X% damage boost for Y% so you have to use it to max dps.

 

- Buff axe auto attack and axe 3

While I do not dislike having axe solely as a swap weapon. It will be really bad if there is a ranged phase required in boss fight sometimes. Please make it so that the dps is not absolutely garbage if you are forced to range for sometime.

 

 

Ultimately all these ideas are just me spitballing at most. What I wish to accomplish the most is to make sure that the proper issue is identified and a very general idea of what would be nice to happen. The number crunching is up to you guys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hashberry.4510]

Nice thinking here, though it underlines how group and raid play is just wildly different from the open world. The raid meta produces a constricting play style; alternative utilities become artificially discounted under these strictures.

[Warscythes.9307]

> @"Hashberry.4510" said:

> Nice thinking here, though it underlines how group and raid play is just wildly different from the open world. The raid meta produces a constricting play style; alternative utilities become artificially discounted under these strictures.

 

Well thanks mate, but yes group play is very very different from open world. Hell even fractal balance is somewhat different from raid play due to the short nature of the fights. Group play by nature will force you to do the most of you can do in one specific area and if you can do anything else? Good but not essential most of the time. However I do not really believe that is a bad thing or even possible to "fix" because we as raiders will find and use the most optimal solution possible. Open PvE you can do whatever you want because the difficulty does not warrant the degree of minmaxing you need in raids.

[Lahmia.2193]

I've said this for years and I'll say it again. Necro needs more damage modifiers. Cold Shoulder change was a good start but more is needed!

[Warscythes.9307]

> @"Lahmia.2193" said:

> I've said this for years and I'll say it again. Necro needs more damage modifiers. Cold Shoulder change was a good start but more is needed!

 

I don't disagree that Power Reaper needs more damage but I do not think that is the most important issue; rather theme and play style is.

 

Just adding more damage is really simple. The difficulty comes to how to add it while giving the player a meaningful and interesting rotation. Cold Shoulder for example encourages you to apply chill when is about to fall off to maintain the damage buff. This is good because it adds more skills to your rotation so you can maintain the debuff. Generally I dislike just add modifiers because a lot of times it just says you do the same exact thing except better. I don't think the current reaper rotation is healthy at all so pile on passive modifiers that do not encourage better play style is not a good fix. Reapers have plenty of other fields that can be added damage to. RS4 and RS5 can be buffed, utility can be buffed, gs3 can be buffed, offhand can be buffed, axe can be buffed. If all those things are increased then we might not even need more modifiers at the end.

 

So I think any future changes should follow this trend. Of course a dps class has to do dps; so even if you provide the most rewarding playstyle possible but the result is still 20k dps then nobody will play it. That's for them to figure it out though.