Val Gith - Asura Cheerleader

[Talon]

I can't resist posting this.

Val Gith, I love that your forum avatar is a jumping asura.

I had to share my delusion that every time I look at it, with your family veteran pips above the picture, together with her outfit, it looks like the Asura has thrown pom-poms in the air during a pep rally - or I imagine that's the right term as we don't have them here (rallies).

It'd look better with two but I didn't want to alter the pure innocent joy.



It makes me smile every time.

[Catri]

1. Pep rally is the correct term, at least it is in America.

2. Good. I'm not the only one who thought this. Her robes even look like a cheerleader's uniform ; so my first thought when I saw the avatar was "Wow, the Gem store sells a cheerleader costume? That's strange."

[Gith]

This was all purely intentional... If it helps you can demote me to member and change me to whatever game makes the colours the best? lol

I just cut that out of some random screen shots from the last BWE. I still need to decide if Tecta is going to be a Necromancer (I have a really fun RP idea for that) or a Guardian. I have been playing a tank in The Secret World and have been thoroughly enjoying it but since classes are less distinct in GW2 Iunno ...

I think Tecta was an Elementalist in this one.

[Talon]

Good. I'm not the only one who thought this. Her robes even look like a cheerleader's uniform

It really does.
Gosh I love this place, I'm not the only one that imagines things like this. I was prepared for it to be just me. Nevermind the fact that this was apparently on purpose. Way to go, Gith.

playing a tank in The Secret World and have been thoroughly enjoying it but since classes are less distinct in GW2 Iunno ...

Admittedly I haven't done much with them yet but I have to wonder if you were a necromancer and summon minions, whether they could be used to tank in some way.

There is a Toughness attribute that makes you a bit more resilient, too, so that could be helpful. I know the mesmer has a couple of traits that make them a bit hardier so I presume the necromancer would have something similar. I'm sure you could rise to the challenge of being a squishy "tank".

[PinkRose]

Were you picturing something like this?

[Talon]

Hah! 

Give me a 'P'
Give me an 'I'
Give me an 'N'
Give me a 'K'
Give me an 'I'
Give me an 'E'

[Gith]

I'm just kidding. Nothing about my forum pic was on purpose. Just a random cut out from a screenshot.

Necros can be very tanky but not with minions. They use their death shroud and stuff to be tanky.

[Talon]

Oh, of course! I keep forgetting about Death Shroud. Probably another reason I struggle with the thief, I forget about its profession specific ability too.

[Askari]

If this build editor is to be believed, Necros can be mighty tanky. Not only do they have Death Shroud, which almost functions like an extra health bar, but they also have as much health as a Warrior.

I haven't paid too much attention, but that build editor lists the following values as the basic Health of the classes (at 80th level, before Traits and gear):

Elementalist, Thief, and Guardian = 10805 Health
Mesmer, Engineer, Ranger = 15082 Health
Necro, Warrior = 18372 Health

So... a Necro has 70% more Health than an Elementalist, if this site is right. I was going to check these numbers on Tuesday's stress test. The Warrior's heavy armor means he'll have 15% more Armor than a lightly armored Necro. But the Necro has a whole extra damage soak bar in Death Shroud, and some of the Necro's skills life-steal.

I haven't played either profession much... but on paper, I think the Necro is probably the hands down best class at just soaking up damage (not including prevention and avoidance, but just taking it on the chin).

Of course, there is no taunt in the game. So just because you can take a lot of damage, doesn't mean you're probably going to have aggro and actually perform like a tank. My Necro will probably be built tough, and try to get in close with daggers and Life Siphon to hold some aggro by simple proximity.

I think one thing I like a lot about Necros is that you can pair this survivability with Signet of Undeath's active, to make a good "last character standing" build and act as a group's anchor. Activating Signet of Undeath gives you a small-radius, ground target that will Revive up to 3 Downed allies. That's a pretty big deal in a close fight, when the squishier folks around you start dropping!

The other class that sticks out, when looking at these numbers, is Elementalist. Low Health and Light Armor, and not real likely to prioritize Toughness/Vitality in most builds and gear choices. I see Elementalist ranking high in a lot of census polls, but they seem pretty tricky to play: squishy, so you really need to utilize stance-dancing, movement, and chill/cripple AEs to keep yourself alive while soloing difficult content.

[PinkRose]

Why so low health for the Guardian?
How can I guard if I'm dead?

[Askari]

Guardians still get pretty excellent defensive skills and Heavy Armor, so it may not matter at the end of the day. They can put out a lot of Regen, Aegis (absorb one hit), Protection (take 33% less damage), and little Heal procs... if they want. Also, I think the average player who chooses a class called "guardian" is a lot more likely to make defensive builds than someone playing a "necro".

In the end, most fights are not about how much health you start out with, but the rate at which you lose them. I think Guardians will use all of the above boons to live between the refreshes of their big hotkey-6 heal. While a Necro will lose Health faster and have to go into Death Shroud to stretch their survivability between Heal casts.

But my take home was that if a Guardian traits and gears for a glass cannon DPS build, they are going to be squishier than a Warrior who goes glass cannon DPS. Not a problem, just something to be prepared for when spending trait points.

[Talon]

That's really interesting, Askari. And the Guardians having lower health does make sense. I can still see them lasting a while thanks to all the defensive powers, a lot of which stretch out to affect allies.

Revive up to 3 Downed allies

I really dislike the way Guild Wars 2 words some of its skills. It's ambiguous. Through playing I've come to associate the following:

Downed = Sitting on the ground and having access to the four downed skills for the profession.
Defeated = Downed "health" bar has run out and you are completely out of the fight. What most games call "death".

Rally is what happens when you get up from downed. Revive is what you do to a defeated ally.

What annoys me is that I read a skill like the above and it contradicts itself based on those established points. Revive suggests to me that it will pick up defeated opponents. However, it says downed which implies only the first stage and not if you actually get defeated. Ambiguous.

Sorry for the rant, I was just quite disappointed when I read a mesmer skill that revived to find out it didn't. It only works on downed people.

Will have to check whether it's still worded that way if I get any time in the stress test tomorrow.

But that sort of ability for a necromancer would be very useful. Ritualists, in GW1 had an area effect resurrect by dropping an item and I am happy to say my ritualist, if the last standing, often saved the party from a wipe with that skill.