A potential solution to "The Necro Issue"

[murfdude.2718]

Necromancers have recently found themselves getting the short end of the stick when it comes to balancing because of a single ability allows multiple necromancers to make each other to become exponentially stronger the more Necros you add. Because of this, necromancers haven't been balanced considering solely their own abilities as all other classes are, or so it seems.

 

The ability in question is Epidemic, which passes a copy of all conditions on your target (Enemy A) to up to 5 enemies (Enemy B) within a range of 900 units. Enemy B can then have Epidemic cast on them by any remaining Necromancers to pass the conditions back to Enemy A, stacking more and more per Necromancer. My proposed solution is an immunization period.

 

Option A:

Enemy B receives a buff along with the conditions that makes it so they cannot be the target of the epidemic skill for a period of time.

 

Option B:

Enemy A receives a buff when epidemic is cast on them such that they cannot receive conditions (or be an Enemy B) from another epidemic for a period of time. This would allow multiple Necromancers to chain epidemics to a large group, just not back to the first enemy.

 

With this in effect Necromancers could be balanced as a single character not having to take into consideration that a group could have many of them.

[derd.6413]

that'd still not solve the issues with death/reaper shroud or the aoe spam of scourges

[UnDeadFun.5824]

First, Necromancers are always getting the short end of the stick, that is nothing new. Are you talking sPvP. WvW or PvE for this skill change?

[Dadnir.5038]

Well... "Exponentially" is a big word. _Epidemic_ transfer a limited number of stacks, they do not transfert exponentially more stacks as time pass.

 

So, to be accurate, each necromancer transfert 25 stacks of each condition that can stack and the other conditions that do not stack in a single stack. That's the maximum. What you suggest is the same as suggesting that 2 differents _metor shower_ (or any other skill) can't hit the same target for a set amount of time, effectively forcing each and everyone to diversify their build because having 2 players using the same skill in a short amount of time would make one of those players effectively useless.

 

Now, if anet really see _epidemic_ as an "issue", the very first thing that they will try to do to balance it is to reduce the cap number of stacks transfered. So, in short, knowing how anet usually do it's stuff, it will be reduced from 25 to 10 which will bury the necromancer in PvE while PvP and WvW won't even be phased by the change.

 

NB.: Still it's awesome to see that players come up with "solution" about the " _epidemic_ issue" which have never been an issue until some reknown guild set dps record with it, while a very simple solution for the elementalist ability to deal massively more damage on large hitbow could be easily done.

[Deadvillager.1956]

> @"Dadnir.5038" said:

> Now, if anet really see _epidemic_ as an "issue", the very first thing that they will try to do to balance it is to reduce the cap number of stacks transfered. So, in short, knowing how anet usually do it's stuff, it will be reduced from 25 to 10 which will bury the necromancer in PvE while PvP and WvW won't even be phased by the change.

 

Wouldnt this actually buff epidemic since bouncing would be more reliable and could be used from squishier targets/more encounters? IF epi really was the problem, anet could just slap more self-afflicted conditions on the skill to increase the risk of using it. But really, epi is not the issue with necromancer. All necro needs is proper balancing and modern traits. If base necro was less tanky but could be traited towards either tankyness, damage or utility, it would be just as viable as any other class. Instead, we blame one skill that ensures high damage but only in very specific encounters. You need multiple necromancers, two targets with ample health and a medium amount of coordination to pull it off. Meanwhile, weavers can reach almost the same numbers by themselves. Why is one case fine while the other isnt?

 

[Dadnir.5038]

> @"Deadvillager.1956" said:

> > @"Dadnir.5038" said:

> > Now, if anet really see _epidemic_ as an "issue", the very first thing that they will try to do to balance it is to reduce the cap number of stacks transfered. So, in short, knowing how anet usually do it's stuff, it will be reduced from 25 to 10 which will bury the necromancer in PvE while PvP and WvW won't even be phased by the change.

>

> Wouldnt this actually buff epidemic since bouncing would be more reliable and could be used from squishier targets/more encounters? IF epi really was the problem, anet could just slap more self-afflicted conditions on the skill to increase the risk of using it. But really, epi is not the issue with necromancer. All necro needs is proper balancing and modern traits. If base necro was less tanky but could be traited towards either tankyness, damage or utility, it would be just as viable as any other class. Instead, we blame one skill that ensures high damage but only in very specific encounters. You need multiple necromancers, two targets with ample health and a medium amount of coordination to pull it off. Meanwhile, weavers can reach almost the same numbers by themselves. Why is one case fine while the other isnt?

>

 

Nope, it wouldn't change anything except reducing the max potential damage of the skill. It would certainly not make it more "reliable". As for increasing the number of self applied conditions, I guess that you don't understand anet's reasoning about this. Anet reasoning is that the ore the necromancer get self applied condition, the stronger it will be when they send them back. For anet it would be a buff to the necromancer to give more self applied conditions.

 

The "tankiness" of the necromancer have nothing to do with it. No, honnestly, the necromancer is not tankier than other professions, saying that it is, is wrong in itself.

 

I agree with you that the necromancer need a lot of work. As he stand, he is just a very odd ball that stand in the way of the other professions with very odds mechanisms that irk these other professions.

 

In all objectivity, the shroud and the shades need a rework, _epidemic_ need to disappear, life siphons need a rework, the necromancer need less boon corruption and more boon ripping... etc. Everything the necromancer have, crave for a rework. This is to the point that it's painful to see, the necromancer's design was meant for the vanilla game where conditions were restricted and tightly controlled.

 

If the necromancer was an animal, it would be an animal that only evolved toward finding a place in the area where he was always strong this 5 last year. And that is WvW. It's just an ultra specialized animal that die a breathless death as soon as he is put outside it's niche.

 

_Epidemic_ in this context is merely a gimmick of a skill and when gimmick are exploited, they tend to be nerfed pretty quickly behind the falacious argument that "it was not intended". This happened for lich's mark and reaper's "rise!" which allowed the necromancer to summon more and more minions to a point that they became very effective. This happened for the shared distorsion from mesmers and to a lot of other gimmicks exploit. It's more a matter of when it will happen than whether it will happen.

 

As for your question about weaver, let's just say tht it is because it give player the illusion that it is difficult to achieve this result. Elementalist use power damage like one would use conditions, they add damage by stacking a good number of different aoe like a necromancer would stack different damaging conditions. Let's say that _lava font_ is their bleeds, _Meteor shower_ their burn and _glyph of storm_ their torment. By stacking the 3 simultaneously they gain tremendous damages, exploiting to the maximum their stats. The difference is that by side stepping out of these aoe, you effectively remove all the damage while the real condition wielded by the necromancer stay.

 

And _Epidemic_ is like applying all 3 skills at the same time without giving any room for the target to avoid the damages. This is a gimmick and in order to have an healthy necromancer it ultimately would need to be removed, however knowing how things have been addressed the past 5 and half years, it will most likely stay as it is but have it's effecacity reduced to uselessness.

[Deadvillager.1956]

> @"Dadnir.5038" said:

> snip

 

While I do see your point, it still infuriates me that such a gimmiky skill interaction is the core of necro balance in PvE/Raids right now. Even with all these conditions that epi bouncing has to meet, it is still not strong enough to be meta in raid encounters. Yet everytime necros ask for buffs, everyone points at epi bounce as if it was some kind of magic barrier that should never be broken. Most bosses dont side step all the ele AoEs. Most bosses also dont have adds that live long enough to bounce off of. If you think even further, AoEs are placed while Epi spreads uncontrollably among the next best enemies. I dont want weavers to get the nerf bat, I just dont see any reason why necromancer (especially power necromancer since condi scourge works pretty decently already) should be as bad as it currently is in PvE.

[ZDragon.3046]

> @"murfdude.2718" said:

> Necromancers have recently found themselves getting the short end of the stick when it comes to balancing because of a single ability allows multiple necromancers to make each other to become exponentially stronger the more Necros you add. Because of this, necromancers haven't been balanced considering solely their own abilities as all other classes are, or so it seems.

>

> The ability in question is Epidemic, which passes a copy of all conditions on your target (Enemy A) to up to 5 enemies (Enemy B) within a range of 900 units. Enemy B can then have Epidemic cast on them by any remaining Necromancers to pass the conditions back to Enemy A, stacking more and more per Necromancer. My proposed solution is an immunization period.

>

> Option A:

> Enemy B receives a buff along with the conditions that makes it so they cannot be the target of the epidemic skill for a period of time.

>

> Option B:

> Enemy A receives a buff when epidemic is cast on them such that they cannot receive conditions (or be an Enemy B) from another epidemic for a period of time. This would allow multiple Necromancers to chain epidemics to a large group, just not back to the first enemy.

>

> With this in effect Necromancers could be balanced as a single character not having to take into consideration that a group could have many of them.

 

Epidemic is not a problem nore is it an issue that holds necromancres back ideally what you want to do is just another mindless limitation that give necros less room to shine in an area that they should be masters of.

 

Fixing the necro issue woudld be to drown AI bosses and foes in obnoxious amounts of protection, might, stability(making it harder to bust break bars) and perhaps even resistance(making all conditions stop ticks if not removed) and regen. Enough so that mesmers, and spellbreakers couldn't handle it on their own thus requiring the aid of necros. It also makes alot of their boon conversion skills much more useful in pve while making general end game and level 80 areas much more of a challenge.

 

A change like this would make necros 80 times relevant without having to boost any sort of damage or fix any made up epidemic issue.

[Agrippa Oculus.3726]

> @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > @"murfdude.2718" said:

> > Necromancers have recently found themselves getting the short end of the stick when it comes to balancing because of a single ability allows multiple necromancers to make each other to become exponentially stronger the more Necros you add. Because of this, necromancers haven't been balanced considering solely their own abilities as all other classes are, or so it seems.

> >

> > The ability in question is Epidemic, which passes a copy of all conditions on your target (Enemy A) to up to 5 enemies (Enemy B) within a range of 900 units. Enemy B can then have Epidemic cast on them by any remaining Necromancers to pass the conditions back to Enemy A, stacking more and more per Necromancer. My proposed solution is an immunization period.

> >

> > Option A:

> > Enemy B receives a buff along with the conditions that makes it so they cannot be the target of the epidemic skill for a period of time.

> >

> > Option B:

> > Enemy A receives a buff when epidemic is cast on them such that they cannot receive conditions (or be an Enemy B) from another epidemic for a period of time. This would allow multiple Necromancers to chain epidemics to a large group, just not back to the first enemy.

> >

> > With this in effect Necromancers could be balanced as a single character not having to take into consideration that a group could have many of them.

>

> Epidemic is not a problem nore is it an issue that holds necromancres back ideally what you want to do is just another mindless limitation that give necros less room to shine in an area that they should be masters of.

>

> Fixing the necro issue woudld be to drown AI bosses and foes in obnoxious amounts of protection, might, stability(making it harder to bust break bars) and perhaps even resistance(making all conditions stop ticks if not removed) and regen. Enough so that mesmers, and spellbreakers couldn't handle it on their own thus requiring the aid of necros. It also makes alot of their boon conversion skills much more useful in pve while making general end game and level 80 areas much more of a challenge.

>

> A change like this would make necros 80 times relevant without having to boost any sort of damage or fix any made up epidemic issue.

 

I actually agree that more boons on foes in endgame PvE would make the Necro (slightly) more desirable, but still not enough, cause the Spellbreaker is already emerging far more as meta atm, and I would not be surprised if they are atm _thé_ number 1 boon removal kings. And because of the nerfs to boon _corruption/punishment_ lately (and ANet casually [_forgot_](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_updates/2018-02-06#Necromancer) to split them between game modes ...), that's not THAT valuable as well anymore. So either the Spellbreaker and (well, obviously) Mesmer need nerfs on that area, cause they're already dominating endgame PvE, so why not take more of them/let them do the trick??? And/Or .... buff (and maybe also add more) corruption skills on the Necro significantly (only in PvE obviously), which would also bump the damage capabilities a bit. Maybe we can then actually end up in benchmark lists without having to scroll completely to the [bottom](https://snowcrows.com/benchmarks/)!

[ZDragon.3046]

> @"Agrippa Oculus.3726" said:

> > @"ZDragon.3046" said:

> > > @"murfdude.2718" said:

> > > Necromancers have recently found themselves getting the short end of the stick when it comes to balancing because of a single ability allows multiple necromancers to make each other to become exponentially stronger the more Necros you add. Because of this, necromancers haven't been balanced considering solely their own abilities as all other classes are, or so it seems.

> > >

> > > The ability in question is Epidemic, which passes a copy of all conditions on your target (Enemy A) to up to 5 enemies (Enemy B) within a range of 900 units. Enemy B can then have Epidemic cast on them by any remaining Necromancers to pass the conditions back to Enemy A, stacking more and more per Necromancer. My proposed solution is an immunization period.

> > >

> > > Option A:

> > > Enemy B receives a buff along with the conditions that makes it so they cannot be the target of the epidemic skill for a period of time.

> > >

> > > Option B:

> > > Enemy A receives a buff when epidemic is cast on them such that they cannot receive conditions (or be an Enemy B) from another epidemic for a period of time. This would allow multiple Necromancers to chain epidemics to a large group, just not back to the first enemy.

> > >

> > > With this in effect Necromancers could be balanced as a single character not having to take into consideration that a group could have many of them.

> >

> > Epidemic is not a problem nore is it an issue that holds necromancres back ideally what you want to do is just another mindless limitation that give necros less room to shine in an area that they should be masters of.

> >

> > Fixing the necro issue woudld be to drown AI bosses and foes in obnoxious amounts of protection, might, stability(making it harder to bust break bars) and perhaps even resistance(making all conditions stop ticks if not removed) and regen. Enough so that mesmers, and spellbreakers couldn't handle it on their own thus requiring the aid of necros. It also makes alot of their boon conversion skills much more useful in pve while making general end game and level 80 areas much more of a challenge.

> >

> > A change like this would make necros 80 times relevant without having to boost any sort of damage or fix any made up epidemic issue.

>

> I actually agree that more boons on foes in endgame PvE would make the Necro (slightly) more desirable, but still not enough, cause the Spellbreaker is already emerging far more as meta atm, and I would not be surprised if they are atm _thé_ number 1 boon removal kings. And because of the nerfs to boon _corruption/punishment_ lately (and ANet casually [_forgot_](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_updates/2018-02-06#Necromancer) to split them between game modes ...), that's not THAT valuable as well anymore. So either the Spellbreaker and (well, obviously) Mesmer need nerfs on that area, cause they're already dominating endgame PvE, so why not take more of them/let them do the trick??? And/Or .... buff (and maybe also add more) corruption skills on the Necro significantly (only in PvE obviously), which would also bump the damage capabilities a bit. Maybe we can then actually end up in benchmark lists without having to scroll completely to the [bottom](https://snowcrows.com/benchmarks/)!

 

Well first things first anet has to boon juice all pve foes ideally.

Next as far as spell breakers go i dont think you see them too common in pve at the moment for the same reason you dont see necro doing as well in end game pve there simply are not enough boons on foes to make use of their skills.

I dont think spell breakers need to be nerfed in boon removal that part is fine. Mesmers on the other hand do need a tad less boon removal boon removal on shatters shouldn't be a thing. Disenchanter and that one other utility is more than enough boon hate considering all the other tools and options mesmers have available to them.

 

In the same right i dont think necro needs any boon rip/corrupting buffs in pve either. Corruption is much different from boon strip. Boon corruptions often turns in to damage gain or cc gain which can be a massive bonus while if choosing to go boon strip its just utility. I think necros would rather be used in endgame content for boon removal over spell breakers and most warriors doing raids or other rather difficult content go core or berserker which allows them to dps support or just raw dps. Spell breakers damage is not the best when put beside the other 2 counter parts but spell breaker excels in its ability to win engagements in a pvp situation due to its strong boon rip tools and full counter skill.

[Agrippa Oculus.3726]

You do know that they're already [meta](https://discretize.eu/builds) in Fractals (CMs and T4) and that you see them more and more often in [Raids](https://snowcrows.com/raids/warrior/#spellbreaker), because even without full counter they can get up to [36K DPS](

)!!!! A Necro doesnt even come [near](https://snowcrows.com/benchmarks/)!

So no, I don't think we (Necro's) will win that fight, considering their (offensive) support and CC (which, btw, [removes boons as well](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dispelling_Force)!) is also much better than the Necro can ever offer.

[Sarrs.4831]

Just buff Power Reaper, Power builds can't do much at all with Epidemic. Decimate Defenses giving +1% Crit Damage/stack instead of +2% Crit Chance/stack instantly makes Power Reaper scarily powerful for PvE and doesn't affect condi damage.

[PzTnT.7198]

That change would also effectively force berserker stats in order to keep the crit chance high, thus excluding the valkyries build that currently works well. So the tradeoff in this case would be becoming massively squishy like other dps builds, while also losing a lot of the lifeforce pool as well. In order to make the same kind of build viable with precision stats instead that thing would need to give 4% crit damage per stack, which would obviously be absurdly OP.

 

I don't know about others but at least i like reaper since it can actually take some hits without utterly gimping its damage output. I do however agree that it could use more damage overall. But not at the expense of its current playstyle being forced into being massively squishy or with your proposed changes, far worse off damage wise without a zerk build.

 

My own preference for a buff would simply be a damage increase on the greatsword and other power weapons. That way a full zerk build could simply go with soul eater or chilling victory rather than decimate defenses and get those reduced cooldowns or might and have a slight edge over a valkyries build.

[Sublimatio.6981]

> @"Sarrs.4831" said:

> Just buff Power Reaper, Power builds can't do much at all with Epidemic. Decimate Defenses giving +1% Crit Damage/stack instead of +2% Crit Chance/stack instantly makes Power Reaper scarily powerful for PvE and doesn't affect condi damage.

 

how would butchering crit chance increase power dps? lmao. maybe if it added 1% crit dmg and 1% crit chance then sure.

[Sarrs.4831]

> @"Sublimatio.6981" said:

> how would butchering crit chance increase power dps? lmao. maybe if it added 1% crit dmg and 1% crit chance then sure.

 

Reapers don't actually need Crit Chance. Target the Weak and/or Deathly Perception get you the rest of the way.

[Sublimatio.6981]

> @"Sarrs.4831" said:

> > @"Sublimatio.6981" said:

> > how would butchering crit chance increase power dps? lmao. maybe if it added 1% crit dmg and 1% crit chance then sure.

>

> Reapers don't actually need Crit Chance. Target the Weak and/or Deathly Perception get you the rest of the way.

 

curses and death magic are not meta on power build. so yeah you need crit from decimate defenses. also when you're viper you need crit from decimate defenses too in order to cap crit chance because otherwise you're at 30%something crit chance

[Ziooo.8932]

So, your plan is to nerf the only skill that makes necro remotely viable in some specific PvE environment? No ty, we had enough of this in the past 5 years.

[Dadnir.5038]

> @"Sublimatio.6981" said:

> > @"Sarrs.4831" said:

> > > @"Sublimatio.6981" said:

> > > how would butchering crit chance increase power dps? lmao. maybe if it added 1% crit dmg and 1% crit chance then sure.

> >

> > Reapers don't actually need Crit Chance. Target the Weak and/or Deathly Perception get you the rest of the way.

>

> curses and death magic are not meta on power build. so yeah you need crit from decimate defenses. also when you're viper you need crit from decimate defenses too in order to cap crit chance because otherwise you're at 30%something crit chance

 

When traits changes, the meta is always bound to change along. Bringing "meta" as an argument isn't really wise.

Not that I caution any of those two change idea, I don't think this trait need to be changed. Reaper just need a longer chill uptime in PvE and _reaper's onslaught_ ferocity buff to be freed from the shroud (Making might stacks additionally grant ferocity per stack would be perfect).

[Etterwyn.5263]

How about this? Epidemic acts similar to Dagger 4 but sends out a bouncing "packet" from the target. The packet contains all the conditions on the target. Each foe it hits is given one random condition (stack and duration) from the projectile, and that condition is removed from the packet. 5 bounces max.

 

Not sure if that's too heavy a nerf though, but it's something different.

[Axl.8924]

> @"Etterwyn.5263" said:

> How about this? Epidemic acts similar to Dagger 4 but sends out a bouncing "packet" from the target. The packet contains all the conditions on the target. Each foe it hits is given one random condition (stack and duration) from the projectile, and that condition is removed from the packet. 5 bounces max.

>

> Not sure if that's too heavy a nerf though, but it's something different.

 

I think that would be a massive nerf actually, because 1 condition is hardly any damage, unless you are dealing thousands of damage.I mean:its already problematic when epi can't be landed fast enough a lot of times because some targets are simply too short lived.

 

When you have in spvp for an example, or WVW targets with 20-30k hp, a few hundred damage is nothing, especially when someone like a mirage or a weaver or even a Deadeye can do thousands of damage, and over 10k in the fraction of 20 seconds.300-400 damage is hardly oppressive enough to be worthwild, let alone in pve.

 

1 stack of bleeds for an example is not much 10 stack of bleeds even in pve is hardly much to talk about.It would take 20-30 stacks to have like 2-3k, and thats hardly anything in pve.If on top of that you can't bring all the burns, well your dps would flop and epi would become useless, unless you can increase how many condis you can carry in 1 stack to 100 or 1000 to do tens of thousands of dmg.Imagine this:Imagine your fighting the big mining driller guy from fractals boss, and you can only have 1 stack of bleeds.With 4-6 people in your team, your bleeds wouldn't be that much damage.

 

Epi is niche as is already in pve.Anymore nerfs like that and you might as well just delete it, but you would have to recompense necros somehow.

[murfdude.2718]

> @"Ziooo.8932" said:

> So, your plan is to nerf the only skill that makes necro remotely viable in some specific PvE environment? No ty, we had enough of this in the past 5 years.

 

To nerf that one skill, because that is what is holding them back. In nerfing that, theoretically every other skill in their kit could be buffed.

[Axl.8924]

> @"murfdude.2718" said:

> > @"Ziooo.8932" said:

> > So, your plan is to nerf the only skill that makes necro remotely viable in some specific PvE environment? No ty, we had enough of this in the past 5 years.

>

> To nerf that one skill, because that is what is holding them back. In nerfing that, theoretically every other skill in their kit could be buffed.

 

That skill doesn't need nerfed, its fine as is.Its a niche ability thats only good if you have enemies with loads of health, so you can actually bounce it around.By the time you bounce around epi on weaker enemies, they die.Its not even worth it unless you got more enemies with lots of health than you can kill, and its limited to 5 targets anyways.

 

Necros still need to be buffed with or without it.

[Sarrs.4831]

> @"Sublimatio.6981" said:

> curses and death magic are not meta on power build. so yeah you need crit from decimate defenses. also when you're viper you need crit from decimate defenses too in order to cap crit chance because otherwise you're at 30%something crit chance

 

Power Reapers are not meta so how can they have a meta build?

Deathly Perception is in Soul Reaping, not Death Magic

Nitpicks aside this argument doesn't really float. You have a 13% crit chance deficiency that you need to fill and Decimate Defenses is an abhorrently inefficient means of filling it. I am skeptical that +13% crit chance would outweigh +25% critical strike damage calculated multiplicatively.

 

For Viper's I don't understand why you would be particularly interested in hitting the crit cap; you just kinda do it because there's no option other than Decimate Defenses. You have pretty underwhelming returns from critical strike chance; 1 bleed/3s 33% per crit isn't really impressive, and you have no Ferocity outside of Rev buff. Scourge is preferred over Reaper for Viper's builds and it smells to me like it's for a reason.

[Dadnir.5038]

> For Viper's I don't understand why you would be particularly interested in hitting the crit cap; you just kinda do it because there's no option other than Decimate Defenses. You have pretty underwhelming returns from critical strike chance; 1 bleed/3s 33% per crit isn't really impressive, and you have no Ferocity outside of Rev buff. Scourge is preferred over Reaper for Viper's builds and it smells to me like it's for a reason.

 

Maybe because the power damage part of each skill still deal more damage when they crit than when they don't even without ferocity. Scourge is prefered just because it's more party friendly than the reaper.

[Sublimatio.6981]

> @"Sarrs.4831" said:

 

> Power Reapers are not meta so how can they have a meta build?

Ummm every build has their meta. Even if a build is unpopular or underperforming, it still has a meta version (most effective at).

Also, if you want to play necromancer in dungeon/fractals, the best option is to choose power build, and then the respective meta build (most optimized). Meta is a word describing more than just party composition.

 

> Deathly Perception is in Soul Reaping, not Death Magic

My mistake, but the point still stands. Soul Reaping isn't taken in meta power build.

 

> Nitpicks aside this argument doesn't really float. You have a 13% crit chance deficiency that you need to fill and Decimate Defenses is an abhorrently inefficient means of filling it. I am skeptical that +13% crit chance would outweigh +25% critical strike damage calculated multiplicatively.

87% crit chance is a big dps drop. You would have to drop air sigils for daytime instances in favor of accuracy sigil. Your intent was to buff necro but suggest nerfing the dps so i'm speaking up, not nitpicking.

 

> For Viper's I don't understand why you would be particularly interested in hitting the crit cap; you just kinda do it because there's no option other than Decimate Defenses. You have pretty underwhelming returns from critical strike chance; 1 bleed/3s 33% per crit isn't really impressive, and you have no Ferocity outside of Rev buff. Scourge is preferred over Reaper for Viper's builds and it smells to me like it's for a reason.

 

Because you inflict bleeding on critical hits and do more direct damage....? Scourge is preferred because it has more conditions and easier rotation. It has less critical chance and thats a factor why it's worse dps on golem than condi reaper.