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[GW2]Making a new thread for the BWE. See you guys on Aspenwood soon!

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Posts

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Echo wrote: »
    I never really liked dual swords for mesmers in the BWE, but I need to give it a shot again in the next one after seeing some videos.

    The key, in my experience, is attack, roll the fuck away, then run back in. Always be moving in and out of combat. Use #2 (Blurred Frenzy) as often as possible since it lets you do damage without needing to use a precious dodge to avoid taking damage. Off-hand block is also good for this, although not quite as much. It's more useful for getting up clones.

    Extra things:
    - Phantasmal Swordsman is good to have around. He's nice damage.
    - Clones are invaluable. Not just as a ditraction (although they are good at that) but also because they will just constantly execute your main #1 attack. While they do it at extremely low damage, they still apply the debuff! With 2 or so clones, you can get like 8 stacks of vulnerability on the enemy, which is a huge damage boost.

  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    Random question which just popped into my mind. Are the animations of class skills at all based on race? My ranger was Norn this beta, but probably wouldn't be upon launch. One of my absolute favorite attacks was from off-hand dagger, when I'd jump sideways and apply a poison, which would follow this awesome serpent spirit animation. This wans't just a Norn thing, was it? It'd happen no matter what race?

    What is this I don't even.
  • RendRend Registered User regular
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    Random question which just popped into my mind. Are the animations of class skills at all based on race? My ranger was Norn this beta, but probably wouldn't be upon launch. One of my absolute favorite attacks was from off-hand dagger, when I'd jump sideways and apply a poison, which would follow this awesome serpent spirit animation. This wans't just a Norn thing, was it? It'd happen no matter what race?

    Yes, they are race based. For example, when we can play asura, their animations will be much different, more exaggerated than the other race's animations, etc.

  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    Rend wrote: »
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    Random question which just popped into my mind. Are the animations of class skills at all based on race? My ranger was Norn this beta, but probably wouldn't be upon launch. One of my absolute favorite attacks was from off-hand dagger, when I'd jump sideways and apply a poison, which would follow this awesome serpent spirit animation. This wans't just a Norn thing, was it? It'd happen no matter what race?

    Yes, they are race based. For example, when we can play asura, their animations will be much different, more exaggerated than the other race's animations, etc.

    So, will the serpent thing from that animation not be present in other racial uses of that attack?

    What is this I don't even.
  • DemonStaceyDemonStacey TTODewback's Daughter In love with the TaySwayRegistered User regular
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    Rend wrote: »
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    Random question which just popped into my mind. Are the animations of class skills at all based on race? My ranger was Norn this beta, but probably wouldn't be upon launch. One of my absolute favorite attacks was from off-hand dagger, when I'd jump sideways and apply a poison, which would follow this awesome serpent spirit animation. This wans't just a Norn thing, was it? It'd happen no matter what race?

    Yes, they are race based. For example, when we can play asura, their animations will be much different, more exaggerated than the other race's animations, etc.

    So, will the serpent thing from that animation not be present in other racial uses of that attack?

    I imagine the serpent is part of the attack. The motions the character makes is what could change based on race.

  • reVersereVerse Attack and Dethrone God Registered User regular
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    Rend wrote: »
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    Random question which just popped into my mind. Are the animations of class skills at all based on race? My ranger was Norn this beta, but probably wouldn't be upon launch. One of my absolute favorite attacks was from off-hand dagger, when I'd jump sideways and apply a poison, which would follow this awesome serpent spirit animation. This wans't just a Norn thing, was it? It'd happen no matter what race?

    Yes, they are race based. For example, when we can play asura, their animations will be much different, more exaggerated than the other race's animations, etc.

    So, will the serpent thing from that animation not be present in other racial uses of that attack?

    It should be, as it's ranger specific.

  • CaedereCaedere S'no regrets BIRDIESRegistered User regular
    Hey, @Buddies and everyone else wanting to discuss professions and all that, what are the thoughts on my build last page? Loooook, it's delicious theorycrafting. ;D

    FWnykYl.jpg
  • SeidkonaSeidkona Had an upgrade Registered User regular
    Mesmer were right there with thief as a class I won't be playing much of in the future. Not because either of them sucked it was just more along the lines of classes that weren't for me. I gave them both a shot but I'm just not into stealth or the like and that's what it is about it that bothered me.

    Not my style.

    Mostly just huntin' monsters.
    XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
  • reVersereVerse Attack and Dethrone God Registered User regular
    Caedere wrote: »
    Hey, @Buddies and everyone else wanting to discuss professions and all that, what are the thoughts on my build last page? Loooook, it's delicious theorycrafting. ;D

    Pets are terrible, and you've got two.

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Did anyone else feel the Death Shroud skills on Necro were really dull?

    Like, I liked the overall ability, with the secondary health bar and all that, but the actual abilities you get when you go Death Shroud are just dull and don't do a ton or work well as a set.

  • RendRend Registered User regular
    shryke wrote: »
    Did anyone else feel the Death Shroud skills on Necro were really dull?

    Like, I liked the overall ability, with the secondary health bar and all that, but the actual abilities you get when you go Death Shroud are just dull and don't do a ton or work well as a set.

    It would be pretty ridiculous if your nigh-invincible form also had good dps, control, or utility

  • HugglesHuggles Registered User regular
    shryke wrote: »
    Did anyone else feel the Death Shroud skills on Necro were really dull?

    Like, I liked the overall ability, with the secondary health bar and all that, but the actual abilities you get when you go Death Shroud are just dull and don't do a ton or work well as a set.

    Apart from an over half-full life force bar doing life blasts at literally twice your autoattack damage. I was murderising most everything by moving in and out of death shroud as often as possible. Then there's a trait that makes life blast penetrating...

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Rend wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    Did anyone else feel the Death Shroud skills on Necro were really dull?

    Like, I liked the overall ability, with the secondary health bar and all that, but the actual abilities you get when you go Death Shroud are just dull and don't do a ton or work well as a set.

    It would be pretty ridiculous if your nigh-invincible form also had good dps, control, or utility

    It isn't nigh invincible though. You get your ass beaten down in Death Shroud as easily as out of it. All it actually does is give you a different health bar for the enemy to have to chew through. There's no crazy extra defense or anything while in DS.

    There's not a ton of anything really. The abilities just aren't that interesting.

  • CaedereCaedere S'no regrets BIRDIESRegistered User regular
    reVerse wrote: »
    Caedere wrote: »
    Hey, @Buddies and everyone else wanting to discuss professions and all that, what are the thoughts on my build last page? Loooook, it's delicious theorycrafting. ;D

    Pets are terrible, and you've got two.

    Did... you read what I actually posted? Got anything constructive to say, perhaps? Even if pets are currently not optimal and even if this was a pet build, you assume it's something that's not going to be fair.

    @shryke Perhaps you should check out what I posted since, you know, it's a pretty exciting Death Shroud build. ;P

    FWnykYl.jpg
  • RendRend Registered User regular
    shryke wrote: »
    Rend wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    Did anyone else feel the Death Shroud skills on Necro were really dull?

    Like, I liked the overall ability, with the secondary health bar and all that, but the actual abilities you get when you go Death Shroud are just dull and don't do a ton or work well as a set.

    It would be pretty ridiculous if your nigh-invincible form also had good dps, control, or utility

    It isn't nigh invincible though. You get your ass beaten down in Death Shroud as easily as out of it. All it actually does is give you a different health bar for the enemy to have to chew through. There's no crazy extra defense or anything while in DS.

    There's not a ton of anything really. The abilities just aren't that interesting.

    An entire second health bar with which to wait for your cooldowns is still a massive advantage. If you had a bunch of stuff to do during it, you would essentially be two people

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    edited May 2012
    Caedere wrote: »
    @shryke Perhaps you should check out what I posted since, you know, it's a pretty exciting Death Shroud build. ;P

    You had to make an entire build devoted to it though. And that's because you've got to pile other things on top of the base ability to make it do that.

    At it's core, you get a nuke that's better for awhile and then worse (and gets worse the more damage you take), a chill with a gap closer (why would I want to get INTO melee range when I'm both lightly armored and taking damage reduces my damage), a fear (good) and an AoE "life-drain" on a long cooldown.

    None of the abilities you get really synergize well into a cohesive whole.

    Rend wrote: »
    An entire second health bar with which to wait for your cooldowns is still a massive advantage. If you had a bunch of stuff to do during it, you would essentially be two people

    No you wouldn't. Cause you can only do 1 at a time. It's like having a second weapon set or attunements or the like. There's nothing out of line about it.

    But more importantly, you keep talking about the second health bar, which is fine. It's the skills you get along with that second health bar I'm referring to.

    shryke on
  • reVersereVerse Attack and Dethrone God Registered User regular
    Caedere wrote: »
    Got anything constructive to say, perhaps?

    Lose the pets.

  • SeidkonaSeidkona Had an upgrade Registered User regular
    My critique of that build is that i would drop one of the soul reaping majors and make it so that life blast pierces.

    Mostly just huntin' monsters.
    XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
  • HugglesHuggles Registered User regular
    reVerse wrote: »
    Caedere wrote: »
    Got anything constructive to say, perhaps?

    Lose the pets.

    I'm not sure that's really constructive. After all, the point of the pets is to be a distraction whilst you're running away from chasers or running down a weak target which I think makes sense.

    I know quite a few people have been saying how weak the pets were, but I've also been hearing people tearing through enemies using only pets. If you trait for it and take advantage of their natural regeneration when you swap them out, it would seem that pets are perfectly viable as it stands. In which case, the point to address is their relative strength when you don't have the traits to spend on beefing them up.

  • SarksusSarksus ATTACK AND DETHRONE GODRegistered User regular
    I can only critique builds based on how cool they look and since the game isn't running right now I can offer no critique.

  • MadpoetMadpoet Registered User regular
    I really don't like the system of unlocking skills on a weapon. Feels more of a chore than anything, and takes a bit away from the excitement of finding a new weapon. What are Anet's reasons for keeping this in, anyone know? Make them newbie friendly so you're not getting a bunch of skills at once?

    I was thinking about it, and think I came up with something clever: You start with 5 skills, but with use they become better. Like, most attacks have a damage component, then a buff/debuff. Have them start with just damage, then add in the condition stuff. Keeps the "learning the weapon" vibe, but you're never stuck with a weapon you just autoattack with.

    Or just scrap it - it doesn't pass the "is this fun?" test. (IMHO)

  • SeidkonaSeidkona Had an upgrade Registered User regular
    edited May 2012
    I didn't have any problems with the necro pets. They did their job which is some extra damage and distraction.

    It's not like Ranger pets where you had to rely on the AI and pathing to get certian key skills off from them. They were very fire and forget.

    I used them on mine and had little issue with them.

    Seidkona on
    Mostly just huntin' monsters.
    XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
  • reVersereVerse Attack and Dethrone God Registered User regular
    edited May 2012
    The "learn weapon skills" system is fine, they just need to fine tune how many kills it takes to unlock skills. Having to kill twenty spiders to unlock skill 4 is a bit much.

    My suggestion: one kill for skills 1, 2 and 3; two kills for skills 4 and 5.

    reVerse on
  • RendRend Registered User regular
    edited May 2012
    shryke wrote: »
    Rend wrote: »
    An entire second health bar with which to wait for your cooldowns is still a massive advantage. If you had a bunch of stuff to do during it, you would essentially be two people

    No you wouldn't. Cause you can only do 1 at a time. It's like having a second weapon set or attunements or the like. There's nothing out of line about it.

    But more importantly, you keep talking about the second health bar, which is fine. It's the skills you get along with that second health bar I'm referring to.

    Right, but the second health bar is at the heart of the issue. In order to heal, I have to use my elite (which you can too), use my 6 (which you can too), or wait (which you don't have to do). You basically have an entire second health bar to regain your footing in a fight. Its use is in keeping you alive, and in that capacity it is already aggravating as all hell. It's not supposed to be incredibly useful in damage dealing, because then necromancers would be impossible to kill, outside of 2-3 v 1 engagements..

    Think of it this way: As a necromancer, if you had damage during death shroud, you would effectively double your damage over a given fight. Sure it takes more time, but I have to kill you twice before you die. I have to survive twice as long as normal. At least if your damage is low, I have a chance to outlast your second form. If your necro had comparable damage to when he was out of death shroud it would be completely unfair.

    I was tanky enough to live through thief barrages fairly easily, but an axe necro still tore through me very quickly, extremely so. There is no way that kind of damage should be added to the second health bar.

    Rend on
  • SeidkonaSeidkona Had an upgrade Registered User regular
    reVerse wrote: »
    The "learn weapon skills" system is fine, they just need to fine tune how many kills it takes to unlock skills. Having to kill twenty spiders to unlock skill 4 is a bit much.

    My suggestion: one kill for skills 1, 2 and 3; two kills for skills 4 and 5.

    I agree. It just needs to be faster. There were a few times I didn't try out a new weapon because I didn't want to be without a full tool set for as long as it would take to unlock it.

    Mostly just huntin' monsters.
    XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
  • TolerantZeroTolerantZero Registered User regular
    reVerse wrote: »
    The "learn weapon skills" system is fine, they just need to fine tune how many kills it takes to unlock skills. Having to kill twenty spiders to unlock skill 4 is a bit much.

    My suggestion: one kill for skills 1, 2 and 3; two kills for skills 4 and 5.

    I would be okay with this. At first, I thought it was helpful because it helped me get familiar with my first three skills, but by the time I was working on my 4th one it took a lot longer than it should have.

    Steam | Raptr | 3DS - 2552-2106-0321
  • BuraisuBuraisu Psychomancer Seattle, WARegistered User regular
    edited May 2012
    The main problem I had with the Necro pets was that they didn't heal out of combat.

    You do have to reply on AI and pathing to get off Necro pet skills like charge, explosion, stun and blind. You have to see that your pet within range of the target or it will miss. The range highlighter only show when your in range yourself, not your pet so when you use their abilities, they have to be closer then you.

    I used five necro pets, they are not fire and forget because if you don't use their abilities properly, you lose one of the greatest benefits of your pets and that is their crowd control and AOE damage.

    If not used properly, the pets are a nerf to damage and healing. Better to pick up different skills.

    Also, champions and giants one shot pets to such of a degree that you should only summon one at a time and use them as one-shot shields and kite the mob. Really easy to kite the mob with a pet wall but if you summon all 5, they will get swiped killed together.. it's just not one shooting a single pet, it is one shooting ALL pets together. They are like paper to anything that is more powerful then you. Also, besides being a wall, they could use their crowd control abilities to prevent their death for 1-3 secs.

    Buraisu on
    47uk6agplx83.png
  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Rend wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    Rend wrote: »
    An entire second health bar with which to wait for your cooldowns is still a massive advantage. If you had a bunch of stuff to do during it, you would essentially be two people

    No you wouldn't. Cause you can only do 1 at a time. It's like having a second weapon set or attunements or the like. There's nothing out of line about it.

    But more importantly, you keep talking about the second health bar, which is fine. It's the skills you get along with that second health bar I'm referring to.

    Right, but the second health bar is at the heart of the issue. In order to heal, I have to use my elite (which you can too), use my 6 (which you can too), or wait (which you don't have to do). You basically have an entire second health bar to regain your footing in a fight. Its use is in keeping you alive, and in that capacity it is already aggravating as all hell. It's not supposed to be incredibly useful in damage dealing, because then necromancers would be impossible to kill, outside of 2-3 v 1 engagements..

    Think of it this way: As a necromancer, if you had damage during death shroud, you would effectively double your damage over a given fight. Sure it takes more time, but I have to kill you twice before you die. I have to survive twice as long as normal. At least if your damage is low, I have a chance to outlast your second form. If your necro had comparable damage to when he was out of death shroud it would be completely unfair.

    I was tanky enough to live through thief barrages fairly easily, but an axe necro still tore through me very quickly, extremely so. There is no way that kind of damage should be added to the second health bar.

    Why do you keep looking at it as damage? The damage isn't even that bad most of the time. It's just DS brings little else with it.

    Look, if you took the 4 DS skills and put them on a new 2H weapon for the Necro, would anyone think that weapon was well designed? I'd say no. They'd say it was a bit of a mess.


    Also, the extra survivability given by DS is baked in to the Necro class design. The whole class is built around slower engagements and having low defense, but being able to survive for a really long time because of various things.

    You can't argue that DS shouldn't bring utility or damage because of that extra survivability, because it already does bring that. It is, by the definition you keep using, already overpowered. The issue is right now DS being those things in a very haphazard and unfocused way that doesn't mesh together and isn't that exciting.

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Madpoet wrote: »
    I really don't like the system of unlocking skills on a weapon. Feels more of a chore than anything, and takes a bit away from the excitement of finding a new weapon. What are Anet's reasons for keeping this in, anyone know? Make them newbie friendly so you're not getting a bunch of skills at once?

    I was thinking about it, and think I came up with something clever: You start with 5 skills, but with use they become better. Like, most attacks have a damage component, then a buff/debuff. Have them start with just damage, then add in the condition stuff. Keeps the "learning the weapon" vibe, but you're never stuck with a weapon you just autoattack with.

    Or just scrap it - it doesn't pass the "is this fun?" test. (IMHO)

    The problem with your suggestion is it doesn't solve the fundamental problem unlocking skills is solving: of easing the player into the game by only slowly unlocking options for them. Basically every single game every designed does this. Your idea still throws 5 skills at the player at the start, which is a bad idea.

    The game eases you in to all it's systems (that's why utility skills, weapon swapping and traits need to be unlocked as well) and that's a good thing. They feed you one ability at a time and you use it and they give you awhile to fiddle with it before throwing another at you. By the time you unlock the whole weapon, you should have some familiarity with each skill and have started to think about how they work together.



    The main issue is some of the unlocks take too long on some weapons. (see below)
    reVerse wrote: »
    The "learn weapon skills" system is fine, they just need to fine tune how many kills it takes to unlock skills. Having to kill twenty spiders to unlock skill 4 is a bit much.

    My suggestion: one kill for skills 1, 2 and 3; two kills for skills 4 and 5.

    1, 2 and 3 were fine. 4 and 5 took a bit too long imo. Especially when some weapons rely on those skills to reach their full potential. Just make 4 and 5 take as long to unlock as 3 and it'll be fine.

  • HugglesHuggles Registered User regular
    shryke wrote: »
    Rend wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    Rend wrote: »
    An entire second health bar with which to wait for your cooldowns is still a massive advantage. If you had a bunch of stuff to do during it, you would essentially be two people

    No you wouldn't. Cause you can only do 1 at a time. It's like having a second weapon set or attunements or the like. There's nothing out of line about it.

    But more importantly, you keep talking about the second health bar, which is fine. It's the skills you get along with that second health bar I'm referring to.

    Right, but the second health bar is at the heart of the issue. In order to heal, I have to use my elite (which you can too), use my 6 (which you can too), or wait (which you don't have to do). You basically have an entire second health bar to regain your footing in a fight. Its use is in keeping you alive, and in that capacity it is already aggravating as all hell. It's not supposed to be incredibly useful in damage dealing, because then necromancers would be impossible to kill, outside of 2-3 v 1 engagements..

    Think of it this way: As a necromancer, if you had damage during death shroud, you would effectively double your damage over a given fight. Sure it takes more time, but I have to kill you twice before you die. I have to survive twice as long as normal. At least if your damage is low, I have a chance to outlast your second form. If your necro had comparable damage to when he was out of death shroud it would be completely unfair.

    I was tanky enough to live through thief barrages fairly easily, but an axe necro still tore through me very quickly, extremely so. There is no way that kind of damage should be added to the second health bar.

    Why do you keep looking at it as damage? The damage isn't even that bad most of the time. It's just DS brings little else with it.

    Look, if you took the 4 DS skills and put them on a new 2H weapon for the Necro, would anyone think that weapon was well designed? I'd say no. They'd say it was a bit of a mess.


    Also, the extra survivability given by DS is baked in to the Necro class design. The whole class is built around slower engagements and having low defense, but being able to survive for a really long time because of various things.

    You can't argue that DS shouldn't bring utility or damage because of that extra survivability, because it already does bring that. It is, by the definition you keep using, already overpowered. The issue is right now DS being those things in a very haphazard and unfocused way that doesn't mesh together and isn't that exciting.

    It's true that you can't really specialise any of the other death shroud abilities besides life blast. You can make life blast more damaging, penetrating and (I think) life-draining, but you can't modify any of the other abilities.

    It might be more interesting to modify the middle two death shroud abilities based on which weapon you have equipped when you enter death shroud. That way you can at least maintain a certain amount of your specialisation or utility.

  • Toxic PickleToxic Pickle Thash grape! Registered User regular
    shryke wrote: »
    reVerse wrote: »
    The "learn weapon skills" system is fine, they just need to fine tune how many kills it takes to unlock skills. Having to kill twenty spiders to unlock skill 4 is a bit much.

    My suggestion: one kill for skills 1, 2 and 3; two kills for skills 4 and 5.

    1, 2 and 3 were fine. 4 and 5 took a bit too long imo. Especially when some weapons rely on those skills to reach their full potential. Just make 4 and 5 take as long to unlock as 3 and it'll be fine.

    I would say, perhaps, leave the unlock speed just the way it is, on the first weapon you unlock. Subsequent weapons should be much quicker, or perhaps just come fully unlocked. I'm more for the former as it still requires some learning that way, without spending forever trying to unlock each new weapon you come across.

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    shryke wrote: »
    reVerse wrote: »
    The "learn weapon skills" system is fine, they just need to fine tune how many kills it takes to unlock skills. Having to kill twenty spiders to unlock skill 4 is a bit much.

    My suggestion: one kill for skills 1, 2 and 3; two kills for skills 4 and 5.

    1, 2 and 3 were fine. 4 and 5 took a bit too long imo. Especially when some weapons rely on those skills to reach their full potential. Just make 4 and 5 take as long to unlock as 3 and it'll be fine.

    I would say, perhaps, leave the unlock speed just the way it is, on the first weapon you unlock. Subsequent weapons should be much quicker, or perhaps just come fully unlocked. I'm more for the former as it still requires some learning that way, without spending forever trying to unlock each new weapon you come across.

    That would, again, defeat the purpose. The whole point of the system is that each weapon is different and thus they ease you in to each weapon as you acquire it.

  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Huggles wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    Rend wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    Rend wrote: »
    An entire second health bar with which to wait for your cooldowns is still a massive advantage. If you had a bunch of stuff to do during it, you would essentially be two people

    No you wouldn't. Cause you can only do 1 at a time. It's like having a second weapon set or attunements or the like. There's nothing out of line about it.

    But more importantly, you keep talking about the second health bar, which is fine. It's the skills you get along with that second health bar I'm referring to.

    Right, but the second health bar is at the heart of the issue. In order to heal, I have to use my elite (which you can too), use my 6 (which you can too), or wait (which you don't have to do). You basically have an entire second health bar to regain your footing in a fight. Its use is in keeping you alive, and in that capacity it is already aggravating as all hell. It's not supposed to be incredibly useful in damage dealing, because then necromancers would be impossible to kill, outside of 2-3 v 1 engagements..

    Think of it this way: As a necromancer, if you had damage during death shroud, you would effectively double your damage over a given fight. Sure it takes more time, but I have to kill you twice before you die. I have to survive twice as long as normal. At least if your damage is low, I have a chance to outlast your second form. If your necro had comparable damage to when he was out of death shroud it would be completely unfair.

    I was tanky enough to live through thief barrages fairly easily, but an axe necro still tore through me very quickly, extremely so. There is no way that kind of damage should be added to the second health bar.

    Why do you keep looking at it as damage? The damage isn't even that bad most of the time. It's just DS brings little else with it.

    Look, if you took the 4 DS skills and put them on a new 2H weapon for the Necro, would anyone think that weapon was well designed? I'd say no. They'd say it was a bit of a mess.


    Also, the extra survivability given by DS is baked in to the Necro class design. The whole class is built around slower engagements and having low defense, but being able to survive for a really long time because of various things.

    You can't argue that DS shouldn't bring utility or damage because of that extra survivability, because it already does bring that. It is, by the definition you keep using, already overpowered. The issue is right now DS being those things in a very haphazard and unfocused way that doesn't mesh together and isn't that exciting.

    It's true that you can't really specialise any of the other death shroud abilities besides life blast. You can make life blast more damaging, penetrating and (I think) life-draining, but you can't modify any of the other abilities.

    It might be more interesting to modify the middle two death shroud abilities based on which weapon you have equipped when you enter death shroud. That way you can at least maintain a certain amount of your specialisation or utility.

    Modifying it based on your weapon seems overly complicated to me. Just look at DS like it's just another weapon and design it appropriately. The abilities (mostly 2 and 3 really) need some tweaking to make the whole thing fit together better.

  • MortifiedPenguinMortifiedPenguin Registered User regular
    edited May 2012
    Toying around with some builds to try next BWE. These builds are meant more for PvE and some WvW without having to change everything.

    For the warrior: http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/?lang=en&code=34a8g03n3qm1m34690kaa0udve0e41k1l242h

    I honestly fell in the love with the axe. Nice damage and it's good at staying on an enemy. Ran it with shield before, gonna see how off-hand mace works out for it. Keeping rifle in there for runners and for more focused single target DPS. Lots of adrenaline building for axe's charge and rifle's snipe. Really looking forward to seeing how this works out.

    For engineer: http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/?lang=en&code=3e9000dpe1nhe7hf000u0uaaaadafb0b9bdkh

    Need to see how the kits perform next test (looking at you flamethrower that misses all 3 enemies in the cone attack). Will check to see if Napalm specialist (under firearms) is worth it as well, but for now I stuck with traits that give me the ability to be mobile. Don't really like the feel of the grenade or bomb kits (will also try these again), so I'm trying to stick with using rifle/flamethrower with the rocket turret for damage while I evade things. Picked Elixer S because to me not having a panic button, regardless of PvE or WvW, is silly (imo). I need to get high enough rank to try the mortar elite skill in WvW at some point, because a mortar that doesn't cost supply sounds amazing.

    Feel free to tear them apart if you wish, just shooting ideas out.

    Edit: My english is bad and I should feel bad.

    MortifiedPenguin on
  • Fig-DFig-D Tustin, CA, USRegistered User regular
    What did a typical necromancer bleed build look like in the last beta?

    I'm sure mine isn't optimized, but here's the build I was running with towards the end of beta:

    http://www.gw2builds.org/create/bwe_1/necromancer#3.1.6.0-3.20.9.10.2-10.30.0.30.0-6.2.3.4.1.7.12

    Target-able wells were too much fun.

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  • BuddiesBuddies Registered User regular
    Caedere wrote: »
    Hey, @Buddies and everyone else wanting to discuss professions and all that, what are the thoughts on my build last page? Loooook, it's delicious theorycrafting. ;D

    I'd put the 10 points in spite somewhere else. If you want more damage, I'd go with curses. The damage lost in power, will be made up a little in condition damage, and the duration bonus of spite is kind of whack IMO. People can drop your dots if they so desire, and you can reapply/restack them easily. If you want to live longer to be more of a jerk, then Blood Magic. You won't be blowing people up anyway, but in 1v1s you will be just beating them in a nice long fight.

    With a build like that it would require some serious dedication from the other team to kill you. Which will leave them very vulnerable. Death Shroud more than doubles your life span. Which with a 30k possible health pool makes killing you feel like a waste of time. So I'd say I agree with Rend, that Death Shrouds strength is that it gives you another life basically. It allows your cooldowns to cycle, and reset a fight. After the fight is reset you start building life force again and the cycle continues. So while the other team is dedicating 3 people to kill you (which will still take them a long time considering they are doing a 3v1), the other 4 on your team can easily go take the other [2] points or kill the PvE monsters without any real risk.

    It could lead to some boring matches though as you sit on a capture point by yourself the entire game and your team is fighting back and forth over mid and the other point.

  • LouieLouie Registered User regular
    I think the weapon unlocking is fine as it is. The unlocks are fairly quick in the grand scheme of things and you do get time to learn your abilities.

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  • Ragnar DragonfyreRagnar Dragonfyre Registered User regular
    Are Necromancers popular because they're powerful or because people legitimately dig Necromancers? Warlock being one of the most underplayed classes in WoW for a long time makes me wonder...

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  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    You're going to have all of the weapon skills unlocked during the first day of play, essentially. Is that really too slow?

    What is this I don't even.
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    Louie wrote: »
    I think the weapon unlocking is fine as it is. The unlocks are fairly quick in the grand scheme of things and you do get time to learn your abilities.

    My problem was that it took a damn while to get new weapons to unlock, unless you bought them off vendors.

This discussion has been closed.