Asum.4960

Ofc when players find a skill interaction which brings at least a bit of fun and skill expression in bad theme over fun an function design it gets patched within a single patch cycle, but when things are broken, bad and unfun, we have to wait 5+ years for a fix/change.

Minions unfortunately just aren't any good, except niche uses for their largely non-minion uses (Golem CC, Fleshwurm projectile block/teleport, Shadow Fiend LF management). If you want to make them work as much as possible in OW solo play though, your big problem is going to be damage (as well as the constant annoyance of Minions keeping you locked in combat). Even with a full skillbar invested into all Minion skills (and even with all Traits dedicated to them), you need to be aware of the fact that you still do 99% of your damage while the minions are just roleplay - so almost everything you invest into your minions, and therefor not into you, will drastically make you weaker/worse. And not just a bit less damage, but halving and quartering your Damage or more with every concession to Minions that you make (as well as Utility/QoL). One big trap for Minions is actually especially Death Magic. While Necromantic Corruption is nice defensively (and about the only good thing about minions in that regard - although countering incoming conditions to this degree is generally less important in PvE), the 25% damage increase on it for minions for example is entirely useless. 25% increase of nothing is nothing. So if anything, I'd go into Blood Magic - which with Life Siphons at least almost doubles your minions damage (to still near nothing, but hey), while also providing you and them with more staying power through sustain than what Flash of the Master in DM offers. Blood has always been the better Minion line over DM. That said, Reaper does okay in solo play because (along with easy self Quickness in RO) it has both Spite and Soul Reaping providing 25 Might and Vuln solo via Reaper's Might in Spite and Unyielding Blast in SR - plus all their other various damage multipliers. Giving up either of them, for Minions of all things, is going to plummet your DPS massively. Without "Chilled to the Bone" and Dread in Spite you won't have a Fury source to Crit Cap either, further sinking your damage. Nor do you have extra Utility like Well of Darkness for trash Blinds and Damage, Spectral Grasp for trash Pulls, etc., which also help with Chill uptime for Cold Shoulder for another big damage boost (or loss in this case) as well as being extra CC.. Anyway, Tl;DR: I'm not sure which out of Spite and SR hurts less to sacrifice currently, but if you do, then it's probably better you do so for BM rather than DM - which will at least also give you some sustain to make up for fights being much longer now with so much DPS lost. DM (Necromantic Corruption) + Minions can have niche use in super high Condi pressure instances though. Overall though, I'd rate Minions so poorly that they aren't even worth using for Roleplay - Minions are just that bad and annoying, but if it's so fun for you that it's worth it, then I hope this helps in any way.

For one, I personally quite enjoy using mobility skills on the tail end of combat before combat break gets through to get going already, and secondly, there are plenty areas where mounts are not available - esp. in PvP and most of instanced PvE. Other times you may wish to use a mobility skill to break out of combat, and quickly mount before something else puts you back into it. Using a mobility to range out of combat, just for the mobility skill to briefly put you into combat, just for that to be enough time for another trash mob to flick a pebble at you, locking you back in a combat state, isn't a fun experience. I don't really see a reason to uniquely hamper Necromancer with this awkward ~2 second in combat time every time they whish to use their mobility skill. It's a tiny but constant annoyance, just so a skill can cost 2300 HP for some arbitrary "thematic" reason, while also healing 2400 HP!? Just pointlessly bloated design while lacking actual depth.

You guys really need more Devs in the Skills & Balance Team, or whatever it is called now. Power Harbinger being completely useless, dead on arrival - as well as being boring to play with no gameplay distinction whatsoever between it and the universally superior Condi version, was Feedback you received in the Beta events leading up to EoD, in late 2021. Now, two and a half years later - you tease bringing power Harbinger into the Meta as headline feature of the patch on your blog, and these two lines are the extend of the changes. Three numbers got tweaked. And this might even be enough to give it okay-ish golem DPS so it looks fine in a vacuum, but man.. really? So then we copy the exact Power Reaper Build we've been playing since 2015, just switching out Reaper for Harbinger and Shouts for clunkier Elixir's, so we can do ~the same DPS, except with max health reduction rather than a damage soaking Shroud and Damage reduction as well as still being melee due to Cascading Corruption's design, just with far less overall cleave than Reaper, while doing the literal exact same gameplay as Condi Harb which we've been playing since 2022, which really is the exact same build as cScourge which we've been playing since 2017. The excitement is immeasurable.

While they are pretty decent fun to use now, I do have some complaints about them. Individually they aren't very grave, but collectively they form a pretty bad picture. The most minor complaints are little things like still not being a fan of the odd and disjointed AA pacing/rhythm, 2 lacking impact, and 4 feeling too slow. E: Also Gorge, the Sword 3 flipover mobility skill sacrificing a little bit of health and therefor putting the user in combat, slowing you down as well as preventing mount follow up will never feel good for general ooc traversal. It's so unnecessary. The next bigger complaints are about how the Life gain and Cost gimmick are just a pointless distraction from the lack of mechanical depth of the kit. As well as the Flip over gimmick, which doesn't lead to any situational Utility or interesting decision making, but really just means double the buttons to spam for damage. Both are just shiny confetti thrown on a bland cake, meant to distract from it's mediocre taste - which ends up making things worse, because now you are also eating even blander confetti on your already bland cake. Lastly, my biggest complaint: The few good ideas that are in Sword/Sword would have been better put into the other, since over a decade underperforming and boring, weapons of Necromancer as slight reworks, instead of further pushing those into obscurity while only creating something mediocre new. The Sword Mainhand AA, giving Necro some ranged DPS with cleave, would have served better on either both Staff or Axe as AA replacement (Axe is too single target focused, Staff too slow, and both way too low damage - this has been a problem since literally over a decade). Sword 3's mobility/gap closer is pretty much exactly what I've been asking for as a Dagger 3 rework since over half a decade, actually making sense on that melee kit, and giving that weapon a proper identity as fast mobile melee which comes to you and resustains vs. GS's slow heavy hitting melee which pulls you to it and area controls. Sword OH ideas as a whole could have been a Focus rework - actually making intelligent use of the flipover design, rather than making it just a spammy gimmick, by using it to give the weapon relevancy in both PvE and PvP (plus better telegraphing). Making Hungering Maelstrom an AoE Damage Nuke (with a very high power coefficient in PvE, and low in PvP), and then the Gormandize Flipover be essentially Spinal Shiver's, removing boons for a bigger nuke per boon removed, being especially effective in PvP instead - with being hit by Maelstrom acting as Telegraph for the skill there. Devouring Visage could instead be a Binding Blade like ticking Strike Damage effect put on targets hit by the Orb, useful as Shroud pre-cast for PvE power builds and especially Reaper (for Death's Perception and Reaper's Onslaught synergy), while Consume could be the Fear still - acting as an interesting strategic tool and mind game for PvP especially, about when to Consume the Visage for the Fear. No Life Siphon/health cost gimmick needed on either. I'd would have preferred that over another largely gimmicky skill kit, while all the old skill kits still rot away. As is, beyond the excitement of finally getting anything at all new to play with, I appreciate Sword 3's mobility (but as mentioned would prefer it on Dagger 3), and that's kind of about it.

Dude, you don't understand - Necro Sword Skills Cost Life to use and have Flipover skills - so it's like getting double the skills! So thematic and crazy, right? I mean, do the weapons do more damage than other's without Life cost? No. Do the Flipover's have any interesting new Utility or decision making to situationally use? Well not really. Are they mostly just more buttons to spam for damage? Yes. Could both new weapons been better as just a slight Dagger and Focus Rework instead, without the flipover- or healthcost gimmicks? Probably. Oh.. who would have thought.

It would be the same build as Power Reaper - just switch the Reaper line out for Harbinger, and pick it's clearly designated Strike Damage Traits (top line). For solo play, you'll probably want to run Deathly Haste instead. Swap the Shouts for Elixir's to build Blight, and that's that - you are done. Buildcraft.

That's exactly what I've been doing though? That's my very point. I've pretty much quit the game for the last few months with SotO and just came back a bit to check out the new weapons with this patch. I don't mind sticking to other games - what I do mind is you trying to reframe the fact that players have nothing reasonable to do and go for in the game and therefor quitting as some sort of win and great retention strategy by Anet, out of some petty vengefulness. If you just want to gloat about having been catered to with this expansion because you still feel slighted by HoT (by other players, somehow), as you admitted, then enjoy that for whatever that does for you - but don't pretend it's anything more virtuous or deeper than that. Nobody cares that you don't like 9 year old content either, and that's not relevant commentary to people giving feedback about having nothing reasonable to go for right now. Enjoy!

Again, you seem to be too busy projecting your issue back then to see the point. This is not about people not wanting to play the content - this is people pleading for a reasonable incentive to play the content. Getting to pay thousands of Gold for something I already own, earned and paid for, just to get some okay skins along with it which I'm not planning to use on any of my characters, just for completions sake, is not a reward or incentive for me to play and grind out this expansion's content for. There will be cooler skins on the Cashshop for 1/20 of the converted Gold price any day anyway, as there usually is. That's not the issue. The issue is the game not giving me any reasonable incentive to actually play it. So you can be petty and gloat all you want, for all the good that does, but you are missing the point - so it's really not landing anywhere. But I already regret engaging back with this community again, so have a good one.

Why you are making this an us versus them if everybody could be served, to the benefit of not just all the different types players, but also the game and it's bottom line? People go all gatekeeper and tribal over the weirdest things, even when there are simple win/win situations instead. Extremely unlikely, yes. That doesn't change my confusion about the people battling against that feedback. To put it differently, most people are not going to want to buy a whole new (already massively overpriced) phone - of the exact same type which they've already bought and own, just because it now comes with a new phone case colour. Just let them buy/earn the different phone case separately for their existing phone. That seems smarter business than getting nothing but slightly disgruntled/disappointed customers, who otherwise would have went for that case. But regardless, poorly designed (esp. longterm) reward structures are unfortunately by far not even the biggest issues the game has - even when they encompass an entire expansions reward scheme... which tbf, is pretty bad. /E: And I get that people think if more others can get the Skin they just earned as part of their new Legendary Armor package, then theirs is going to be less special. But the harsh truth is, nobody cares to begin with - people just want their characters to look cool. And again, these skins have no prestige anyway - nobody is going "oh wow, look at that guy, he grinded/swiped to get another 600 T6 Mats and did Map Comp, OW events and Rifts!". Legendary functionality aside, which is crucial for those who already have it, there are more impressive and far cheaper cosmetics on the store - which is a problem if essentially the entire Expansion's content reward structure is build around getting just this, which for those with already filled Armory is just a skin.

This is what I don't understand. But let me preface this by saying I'm glad you got your Armor, and I'm all in favour of Anet adding new avenues for different types of players to earn those things. That's not my issue. But they imo also should think about those players who already earned those things. Imagine being a GW2 player over the last couple of years of content rewards who a) already had a Legendary Amulet, b) doesn't need Legendary Weapons anymore and c) already has Legendary Armor. I don't have to imagine that - it's been years and years of the game asking me to either grind for things that are almost completely pointless/redundant to me, or having nothing to do/quit the game. That's not incentivising. That's not making players like me play more. You say, now that you have Legendary Armor, ofc the next expansion definitely needs to offer something significant else, but you still can't empathize with players who've already been in that situation, for years now, if it does not? What if next expansion would be again, every map completion, meta event, etc. is useless unless you want to make yet another armor, the masteries are just "learn how to make yet another Armor Set". And the expansion after that too. Fun. Now if the game at least told me, don't worry, if you already have Legendary Armor, there is still a reason to complete and repeatedly play this content, as the things like Map Completion, Meta Event rewards and such can still be used to unlock the Skins, without having to do the whole 1000g+ grind for Legendary functionality/QoL again - that would be incentivising players. Instead, I logged in and played like 3-5 times over the last half a year (really just for the new Weapons and Betas, which is why I'm back rn too - something actually new for me ingame), because frankly, there are too many good games with wholly new and fresh content and gameplay out there, for me to sit down and grind out thousands of gold and such in GW2, again, for a skin that is absolutely indistinguishable from a Cash Shop purchase (and since you can convert gems to gold, might as well be), nor carries any ingame accomplishment or prestige with it. Now for the record, I don't particularly care for the skins anyway - most of my characters have set looks since over half a decade, but I'd still go for earning them just because - if it wasn't quite so ridiculous as paying the Legendary Price Tag all over, I already did that and no skin unlock for completions sake alone is worth that to me. Which is a problem if that's all there is for a whole Expansion, or two, or three.

The problem is basing an entire Expansion's reward structure around something redundant for a lot of players, which seems like a terrible idea for retention. A lot of players would likely be fine with earning the skins to a degree, but expecting players to make entirely redundant set/s of Legendaries just for a skin seems excessive. And while that does hold true to some extend for the game mode specific previous Legendary Armors (PvE, WvW and sPvP), earning this new expansion armor, as mentioned, is highly the focus of the expansion as a whole - similar as with EoD and it's Legendary Weapons. If you are already geared or don't care about that one singular reward, pretty much all expansion content is basically dead on arrival in terms of rewards and long term goals. Even more so considering that Legendaries don't even have any form of prestige/skill requirement associated with them (it's mostly just grinding/swiping), except for maybe the Legendary HoT PvE Armors, although to ever lesser degrees as powercreep goes rampant. Therefor I personally don't see anything wrong with providing a middle ground for players to earn the skins of such high value items for partial costs, since they are so high in cost primarily due to the Quality of Life they provide - which said players have already earned and unlocked for their account through other, similarly priced, avenues. It's probably better than losing those players because you've given them pretty much nothing to work for across entire expansions/years, unless they are willing to grind for something they to 95% already own, just for a different cherry skin on top.

I haven't cared about the Story in a long, long time at this point. PoF really was the last serviceable story expansion (and even before that, Story was imo one of the weakest parts of this sequel). EoD was forgettable at best, and now in SotO I honestly don't even know what they/we are trying to do anymore, or even where we are really. The fact that "View three Vistas", "Do this press F on x things Collection (which then without any flair or bravado also unlocks the new Weapons account wide.. why even gate this if you are not going to do anything remotely interesting or entertaining with it?)" and "Complete x amount of Open World Events" is the state of expansion main story quests, just baffling. That's far beyond poor pacing - This isn't even a Story anymore, it's a Plot connected by chores on a worksheet.

We know where it's going to land though - exactly where it's been since EoD Beta 1 in August 2021, in the trash. Sword/Sword would have to be ridiculously over-buffed since it's Beta to compensate for Power Harb being so lacklustre - to a point where it would then make S/S Power Reaper utterly OP. So that is not happening. /E: Cascading Corruption especially needs a rework, Swords or not. Which again, is multiple years old common Beta feedback at this point. And looking at the usability improvements for Mesmer Mantra's, why are Harbinger Elixir's still 240 radius? Why are these things taking literally years for the most minor iterations?

I've been playing with Post-Processing Off for almost a decade (through all content) and never had a problem with it. If anything you'll see mechanics much better because they are not covered by blinding glares, blooms, distracting player outlines, way too bright colours, skill effects - including Shroud's screen tinting, etc. - mechanics/ground AoE's aren't telegraphed through shaders/blooms. What you do miss out on though with Post-Processing Off are some effects in the realm of environmental storytelling, most notably being drugged/drunk/hallucinating, and so on. I'd still highly recommend it OFF, along with enabling Effect LOD. What you cannot get rid off is the Green Screen Border/Outline for Core and Reaper Shroud, which I believe symbolises Shroud/LF protecting Health - as Harbinger (and Scourge obv.) don't have this problem (although, let's be honest, most likely they just forgot to add it to Harbinger, with how last second cobbled together that spec was, and in large parts still is). This is obviously somewhat problematic with many mechanics being telegraphed with screen border effects, but the only solution to that on Necro is playing Harbinger or Scourge I'm afraid. Likewise the sound muffling, which can be pretty annoying for especially Story playthroughs and Ambient dialoge, but potentially also some audio cues, can't be disabled to my knowledge. Disabling "Post-Processing" should remove the gradual screen tinting for Shrouds though. If all else fails, Scourge is the way to go if you want to stick with Necro despite all it's problems. Scourge has the least.