Do you think that Soul Reaping is underpowered in PvE?

freaky naughty

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2007

Mo/N

Is the OP joking? Soul Reaping is the best e-management we've had since like....ever

FlamingMetroid

FlamingMetroid

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Sep 2007

standing on your last control point, while the rest of your team is to busy killing mine

The Luminaries [Lumi]

A/

@ OP: yes, and mesmers are overpowered in PvE
/sarcasm

Calista Blackblood

Calista Blackblood

Permanently Banned

Join Date: Oct 2007

Northern Ireland

Nowhere To Run Nowhere To [Hide]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carinae Dragonblood
Furthermore, sharing SR hits off other people's minions, is not ONLY broken, it's an exploit.
how can it be an exploit when its prefectly allowed?with your line of thinking every account containing a necro character should be banned like the 117

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carinae Dragonblood
I'm arguing for a change that fixes BOTH mechanics AND reduces SR energy returns by 50% AND permanently closes the door to PvP exploitation, and somehow that's bad? your arguing for changes that you want,none that particularly express the views of every active or the majority of player/s with a necro

i want my energy everytime something dies (no timer)

i want less energy and cheaper skills (reduce animate bone fiend?)

soul reaping gains for any necro in the party is an exploit.an "exploit" (that has been coded into the game and perfectly allowed) that should be gotten rid of

basically you want anet to nerf sabway for you and keep necros somewhat unviable in pvp

Carinae

Carinae

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2005

Inside

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Calista BlackBlood
how can it be an exploit when its prefectly allowed?
By that line of reasoning, every exploit in the game is OK. The game allows it, so it's OK....

Quote: Originally Posted by Calista BlackBlood with your line of thinking every account containing a necro character should be banned like the 117 I think it's obvious why this is not true. Soul reaping is passive, if you're a necro and there is another MM nearby you can't help but receive the energy. That's a straw man argument.

Quote: Originally Posted by Calista BlackBlood
your arguing for changes that you want,none that particularly express the views of every active or the majority of player/s with a necro I'm arguing for changes that improve the game. I think it goes without saying that virtually all necros that play MM would rather NOT have the timer. I'm also aware that the reason SR was given the timer had NOTHING to do with PvE, and had everything to do with PvP, specifically Spirit Spam and Jagged Bones+Taste of Death abuse....on an entire team of necros.

All PvP players (and eventually Anet) were fed up with the continuous string of SR exploits, one after another, so they added a hard cap, to definatively place a maximum on the rate at which energy could be generated. Because that's what PvP is all about. It was the safest way to prevent it from happening again rather than always fixing the newest exploit. What I'm arguing is that there is another way to do the same thing, that is also rock-solid and unexploitable. And this method has less impact on MMs...which matters because THAT'S WHAT SOUL REAPING WAS MADE TO DO.

It certainly wasn't nerfed because of PvE. MM's are the ones that generated the most output from SR, and they are the one build that needs that much energy. The objective for MMs was to spend the energy before it overflowed. NO ONE was complaining about N/Rt healers and N/E nukers in PvE.

I'm not arguing that MMs aren't viable, but they definately run into a wall at even moderate kill rates. I don't think that is intended, since every other build/class doesn't experience this.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Calista BlackBlood
basically you want anet to nerf sabway for you and keep necros somewhat unviable in pvp I'm not particularly against Sabway, however, it is yet another example of an instawin build that probably DOES need to be nerfed, along with UB, because it doesn't promote good gameplay. Any time there is a dominant "play this and win build" it needs to be examined for nerfage, universally. If Sabway needs to take a hit to restore corpse-exploitation synergy, so be it.

I have never heard any high-end PvP player promote using this SR mechanic with a full team of necros, or even view it in a positive light. It's arguable if it is an 'exploit' or not, but at best, it's a gimmick, and is viewed as such in high-end PvP. Passively generating raw energy for other players is NOT a good mechanic, in either part of the game.

Calista Blackblood

Calista Blackblood

Permanently Banned

Join Date: Oct 2007

Northern Ireland

Nowhere To Run Nowhere To [Hide]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carinae Dragonblood
By that line of reasoning, every exploit in the game is OK. The game allows it, so it's OK....
gaining energy from someone elses minions is not an exploit,its been like that since gw was released.it stands out like a red house in a terrace of white ones so it hardly slipped the net un-noticed for 3 years. and really how could it with the amount of attention anet have paid on necros and soul reaping over that time
Quote:
I think it's obvious why this is not true. Soul reaping is passive, if you're a necro and there is another MM nearby you can't help but receive the energy. That's a straw man argument. so its a passive exploit? one which we've all abused on a daily basis.if its such a serious exploit that it needs fixing why shouldnt anet ban us all
Quote:
And this method has less impact on MMs...which matters because THAT'S WHAT SOUL REAPING WAS MADE TO DO. current animation skills arent particularly bad for energy costing except for ABF,mms are still viable i agree with you there.they just arent as overpowering as before(forcing better minion healing/counter regen),most builds these days rely more on keeping minions alive for as close to their 3 mins(and longer) as possible (max degen kicks in after 3 mins) rather than recycling

probably worse than most suggestions,but if anet can code loot scaling/assignment,would be be so hard to code the assignment of energy post death and somehow assign that in whatever percentage compared to your rank in soul reaping or something.rather than x amount of necros getting xx energy each,x necros getting x% of foes x average sr rank

im tired and cba doing maths :P

Cyb3r

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2008

AFO

E/

so calista you want another thing that ends up being broken from the beginning like Lootscaling/loot allocation? (i've seen alot of gold things go to the same person over and over again cause of the server having a lil hiccup or whatever)

Yes SR is overpowered in PVE but carinae dragonblood made up some vial points, points that describe the minion master in an Rpg, besides to be honest necro's don't end up in high end pvp, just like mesmers don't belong too much in pve (and i play a mesmer myself in pve before you start about it)

And to fix both the mesmer and the necro to be viable in both forms of the game (pve/pvp) a heck of alot will have to change and to be honest i'll rather wait for GW2 and see if it's fixed in there than wait on anet to change it for GW1

Fishmonger

Fishmonger

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jul 2006

P/W

Screw up SR and MM's will become the new Spirit Spammers...pretty much useless. SR is AMAZING. You want to see an underpowered primary? go check out Spawning Power (WHY do you think there are so many N/Rt healers instead of plain RT??!!?)

The Meth

The Meth

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2007

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fishmonger
WHY do you think there are so many N/Rt healers instead of plain RT??!!?
Because 99% of the guild wars population has no idea how to efficiently manage energy by using casts efficiently and would rather spam a weaker spell all day long and just stare at red bars?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carinae Dragonblood
Even Meth agrees with me on this, and that should tell you something. Great to know I have your support here... lol

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carinae Dragonblood
Somehow, not one, but TWO broken mechanics within SR doesn't constitute broken?

MM's stall out at even moderate kill rates because the stupid timer uttery breaks corpse-exploitation synergy. That's a fact. Everyone knows it.
Furthermore, sharing SR hits off other people's minions, is not ONLY broken, it's an exploit.

I'm arguing for a change that fixes BOTH mechanics AND reduces SR energy returns by 50% AND permanently closes the door to PvP exploitation, and somehow that's bad? How about this I thought up just a while ago?

Soul Reaping: Whenever a nearby creature has less then 50% health, you gain 1 energy regeneration for every 4 points in soul reaping for the next 5 seconds. (Dead creatures will count, summoned/animated creatures will not, the energy regen will not stack)

What this will do in PvE: Most necros will have +3 regen in PvE most of the time during battle, as the <50% health clause includes dead enemies. Some of the more expensive pve skills will need to be lowered in cost a bit (read: Bone Fiends). Other skills will still be usable, but no more ultra-spamminess generated just because there are minions on your team.

What this will do in PvP: In PvP, nothing stays at <50% health for long. It either dies or is healed back up. This will mean the necro will get multiple, smaller energy boosts on the order of 5 energy each during a battle. Again, no ability to fuel infinite energy chains, but it will give small boosts during the battle.


Exact numbers on the implementation are of course up for debate, but I believe the mechanic would be very workable.

upier

upier

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Mar 2006

Done.

[JUNK]

Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackSephir
Underpowered? Nigga, please! Change "under" to "over" and you may be onto something there.
Quote: Originally Posted by freaky naughty Is the OP joking? Soul Reaping is the best e-management we've had since like....ever
Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamingMetroid
@ OP: yes, and mesmers are overpowered in PvE
/sarcasm You guys did actually take the time to read the thread, didn't you?
No, wait - I can already see you didn't ...

Bront

Bront

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2008

Honored Order of Light

W/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Calista BlackBlood
it CANNOT be broken in any way when necromancers are the sole class within the game that receive ANY benefit from a dying foe in terms of direct energy gain without use of skills. You shoot yourself in the foot right here.

Being the only ones who do it and balanced are two different things.

The simple fact of PvE has become this. If your Primary attribute doesn't help you specificly when casting, then N/ builds are as good if not better. Think fast casting is a joke? N/ME interuptor FTW! Why not an N/E with Fire attunement, Mind blast, Rodgorts invocation, and a high energy set? How about that N/MO Smiter build? Let alone anything N/Rt that doesn't involve much with spirits!

Heck, why limit it to casters? If you can deal without the armor, a high energy N/W might be a fun diversion.

N/ builds are potentialy superior to other casters in PvE in many aspects. Having advantages is good, and makes for fun builds and diversity. Being outright superior? That's tragic.

Targuil

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Oct 2007

Tampere, Finland

Keep Dreaming [Yawn]

E/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bront
You shoot yourself in the foot right here.

Being the only ones who do it and balanced are two different things.

The simple fact of PvE has become this. If your Primary attribute doesn't help you specificly when casting, then N/ builds are as good if not better. Think fast casting is a joke? N/ME interuptor FTW! Why not an N/E with Fire attunement, Mind blast, Rodgorts invocation, and a high energy set? How about that N/MO Smiter build? Let alone anything N/Rt that doesn't involve much with spirits!

Heck, why limit it to casters? If you can deal without the armor, a high energy N/W might be a fun diversion.

N/ builds are potentialy superior to other casters in PvE in many aspects. Having advantages is good, and makes for fun builds and diversity. Being outright superior? That's tragic. Mind Blast ele has superior energy management even without necro primary. Thing is that necro heros are just overpowered because they can spam hell out of anything while gaining that energy back in no time.

Made In Ascalon

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jun 2006

None

Rt/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fishmonger
Screw up SR and MM's will become the new Spirit Spammers...pretty much useless. SR is AMAZING. You want to see an underpowered primary? go check out Spawning Power (WHY do you think there are so many N/Rt healers instead of plain RT??!!?) Before the added the increased length to weapon spells, your argument was right. It's not anymore, spawning power is a more worthwhile investment for it. People run N/Rt because SR is godly in pve compared to everything other than ursanway and save yourself spam.

Bront

Bront

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2008

Honored Order of Light

W/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Targuil
Mind Blast ele has superior energy management even without necro primary. Thing is that necro heros are just overpowered because they can spam hell out of anything while gaining that energy back in no time. Exactly. Now Immagine them as N/E ...

yeah, probably no real difference, but it gives you some extra play room. Probably means you could drop Fire Attunement for something else.

Carinae

Carinae

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2005

Inside

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Calista BlackBlood
most builds these days rely more on keeping minions alive for as close to their 3 mins(and longer) as possible (max degen kicks in after 3 mins) rather than recycling
This is true actually. We agree on something! But it needs to go back to recycling based. The reason is for this is Hard Mode. Minions go down pretty easy in HM, even if you're using BotM on-recharge. This causes SR to fire off it's 3 hits when there are no corpses available, and overflow virtually all of the energy. Then when the monsters do go down, you DON'T get the hits, but you get corpses. Broken!

Removing the timer resolves this, as you still get your hits when the corpses appear, which is what the whole build is about. It also restores some capacity to generate new minions mid-battle, which can be the difference between a wipe and a win. Pre-timer, I've had quite a few battles come down to the fact that I was just barely able to hold the army together and turn the tide. I was the last one standing, on both sides. The timer screws your ability to do this.

Finally, BOTH Shambling Horrors and Jagged Bones do BAD THINGS™ to your SR returns, at random times, because of the timer. Both skills are very useful in Hard Mode because they help keep an army up, however, they AREN'T useful when they waste your SR hits along the way. This effect isn't built into the skill cost, and can't really be adjusted for.

The timer produces an unintended effect of randomizing your SR returns. You can't plan for them, you can't do anything. At unexpected times, you run dry. Broken!

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Meth
Soul Reaping: Whenever a nearby creature has less then 50% health, you gain 1 energy regeneration for every 4 points in soul reaping for the next 5 seconds. (Dead creatures will count, summoned/animated creatures will not, the energy regen will not stack) This idea was batted around right before the timer was implemented. A lot of PvPers liked this idea. The problem with it is this: +3 regen is 1e/sec.

Even if you lower Bone Fiends all the way to 10e (which is a BIG 'if') it still takes 10sec to generate enough energy for a single Fiend. For.A.Single.Fiend.

If you go to the extreme limit and add +6 regen, it still takes 5sec per Fiend. BotM is using your initial +4 regen by itself. So while it provides barely enough energy to function, it leaves no room for anything else....Self-Heals/OoU/Other Stuff. And that 'Other Stuff' is key.

We don't want energy to be THAT tight, and we can't add more than +6 regen. It also slows the build down on the field, and it's already a slow plodding build.

Stormlord Alex

Stormlord Alex

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Dec 2005

Beyond the Forest of Doom, past the Cavern of Agony... on Kitten & Puppy Island

Soul of Melandru [sOm]

W/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bront
Exactly. Now Immagine them as N/E ...

yeah, probably no real difference, but it gives you some extra play room. Probably means you could drop Fire Attunement for something else. No. E/X Mind Blasters are always superior - better at speccing off-attributes and using different secondaries to power stuff out with Mind Blast; something that a necro mindblaster can't do.

Now stop being silly.

the forests wisper

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Apr 2008

the right tub [bath]

Mo/

SR was overpowerd before all the nerfs, but no i think its pretty much balanced (lol i said balanced about GW) now.

the 3 times thing stops the crazy amount of energy flooding in and if ppl really need energy that bad after that they need to seriously get some more killing power

The Meth

The Meth

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2007

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carinae Dragonblood
This idea was batted around right before the timer was implemented. A lot of PvPers liked this idea. The problem with it is this: +3 regen is 1e/sec.

Even if you lower Bone Fiends all the way to 10e (which is a BIG 'if') it still takes 10sec to generate enough energy for a single Fiend. For.A.Single.Fiend.

If you go to the extreme limit and add +6 regen, it still takes 5sec per Fiend. BotM is using your initial +4 regen by itself. So while it provides barely enough energy to function, it leaves no room for anything else....Self-Heals/OoU/Other Stuff. And that 'Other Stuff' is key.

We don't want energy to be THAT tight, and we can't add more than +6 regen. It also slows the build down on the field, and it's already a slow plodding build.
If you read further, for PvE I said bone fiends would need to be reduced in energy (15 energy would be a good number). I think it should be made much harder to make a full army of 10 bone fiends. I would rather turn bone fiends from the best minion in the game that everyone uses into the best minion in the game that requires you to manage your energy very well to use. The other minions I believe will be fairly balanced at that energy gain rate.

I don't think its unreasonable to prevent necromancers from spamming their minion skills every single time a corpse drops. If they want to do that, they might need to (shudder), go /E and take glyph of lesser energy like every other caster has been doing for a year. Making necros actually think about managing their energy? What a crazy idea, I know. Even if you had a necro without anything but SoLS, you could probably maintain at least 6-8 minions, and that is quite powerful enough in PvE.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormlord Alex
No. E/X Mind Blasters are always superior - better at speccing off-attributes and using different secondaries to power stuff out with Mind Blast; something that a necro mindblaster can't do.
Now stop being silly. Interestingly enough, I messed around with an n/e searing flames hero a while ago. Where heroes screw up and can bottom out in energy with ele primary SF or Mind Blast, the necro can spam to its heart's content just like anything else. I have a friend who swears by the same N/E nukers. Of course, this only applies to heroes who are too stupid to be able to use such things like off attributes in the first place.

BlackSephir

BlackSephir

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2006

A/N

Quote:
Originally Posted by upier
You guys did actually take the time to read the thread, didn't you?
No, wait - I can already see you didn't ... I did. But it's worthless IMO to explain. If you play GW and read what SR does, then you'd know how good it is. If you do not, then everyone's just waisting their time explaining the obvious.

System_Crush

System_Crush

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Oct 2006

Tripping in Holland

My guild died :`(

N/

No that is what was in the OP, reading the tread you will notice we have moved to talking about the balance of soul reaping.

In PvE I agree it is godlike, in PvP the new more useful skills in it offer something but still not enough to make me spec in it.

And Catherine has a point, even though she's exaggerating/sarcastic.

I think that if your soul reaping returns more energy than your bar can hold, the execess is saved up to gain additional trigger in the 15 seconds that you gained enough excess soul reaping energy to afford a soul reaping return(a death still has to occur within those 15 seconds for that to be useful)

So:
If you are at full energy deaths of foes do not expend your soul reaping triggers.
If you have, say, 10 soul reaping and are 5 energy below max; 5 excess energy is saved.
You then use [[Discord] again killing another foe dies so you get another 10 energy of which 5 is saved.
You then have 10 excess energy, earning you 1 additional trigger of soul reaping in the remainder of the 15 seconds.
You have 2 triggers of soul reaping left and about 8 seconds to use them, good luck .

It would not be unbalanced as it doesn't improve soul reaping's energy return it just offers it at a different time.
And how overpowered could extra energy management be, if it required you to have almost full energy?

upier

upier

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Mar 2006

Done.

[JUNK]

Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackSephir
I did. But it's worthless IMO to explain. If you play GW and read what SR does, then you'd know how good it is. If you do not, then everyone's just waisting their time explaining the obvious. In which case you'd have to know that the point of this thread wasn't even about SR.
It's simply about having X (to lazy to check how many exactly!) different posters AND NOT having X posts saying that SR is BEYOND overpowered and it needs a serious nerf.
It's about overpowered concepts being "fine" in PvE.

Chthon

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Calista BlackBlood
your arguing for changes that you want,none that particularly express the views of every active or the majority of player/s with a necro
1. I would certainly prefer Carinae's changes to the status quo.

2. I think every good necromancer agrees that, whatever else else happens to it, the timer absolutely must go. I think every sane necromancer wants to see the timer gone too.

3. As I said in the previous threads on this topic, if you think "the timer is OK because I still have more energy than I can use," that means you were never able to use SR "right" in the first place. I hate to be elitist, but a good player could put all of the energy that pre-nerf SR provided to good use and still want more. If you can't understand that, then perhaps you need to accept that serious discussion of the topic is beyond you, and stop posting.

(Wow, that did sound really elitist, now didn't it? I think I must be channeling Stromlord Alex....)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carinae Dragonblood The timer produces an unintended effect of randomizing your SR returns. You can't plan for them, you can't do anything. At unexpected times, you run dry. Broken! I think that's the crux of what bothers me about the timer. Playing MM before the timer, I could plan an entire battle before it even started. I could go into a battle knowing how many fiends and how many horrors I had, with a pretty good idea of how many of each kind was old enough to need replacing. I could count the fleshy and non-fleshy monsters and know how much energy I would gain and how many corpses would be available. So I could make a plan. I could plan which minions to recycle; I could know how much spare energy I'd have and decide beforehand which spells to spend it on for maximum effect; and I could know how many spare corpses I'd have for making wells.
But none of that works anymore. It's just not possible to play MM at that level anymore because of the way that the timer randomizes SR. At 12 SR, a 10-monster mob can give you as much as 120e or as little as 3e and you have very little control over which you're going to get.

Quote: Originally Posted by The Meth
If you read further, for PvE I said bone fiends would need to be reduced in energy (15 energy would be a good number). I think it should be made much harder to make a full army of 10 bone fiends. I would rather turn bone fiends from the best minion in the game that everyone uses into the best minion in the game that requires you to manage your energy very well to use. The other minions I believe will be fairly balanced at that energy gain rate. What Carinae is saying is that we've gone over that particular idea at great length before. We've crunched the numbers, and 6 pips is not enough at current spell costs. And 3 is nowhere close. Even with lowered spell costs, 3 isn't going to be adequate. 6 might be, but it's got serious problems with delivering the energy at a time when it will be useful.

Even Ensign, the first person to really suggest a pip-based SR reworking, eventually abandoned it and came to favor some variant on a battery-based reworking instead. (Here's my description of how a battery-based SR would work: Link.)

Quote:
I don't think its unreasonable to prevent necromancers from spamming their minion skills every single time a corpse drops. If they want to do that, they might need to (shudder), go /E and take glyph of lesser energy like every other caster has been doing for a year. Making necros actually think about managing their energy? What a crazy idea, I know. But it is unreasonable. The whole point of soul reaping is to provide in-built energy management. You don't compel elementalists to put points in e-storage and bring skills to boost their energy pool. You don't compel mesmers to put points in fast casting and bring skills to increase their cast speed. You don't compel rangers to put points in expertise and bring skills for e-management. So why compel necromancers to put points in soul reaping and bring skills for e-management? Why make them the only class that has to bring skills to do the job that its primary attribute is supposed to do, but isn't doing?

(It was mentioned before that, if a-net (1) gave necros attunement-quality e-management skills in the SR line instead of the few, poor, chapter-specific skills we have now, and (2) lowered the e-costs on a whole bunch of necro skills that are artificially high to balance them against SR, and (3) made sure that SR did something useful, THEN it would be totally OK if SR was reworked into something totally different that had nothing to do with e-management.)

Calista Blackblood

Calista Blackblood

Permanently Banned

Join Date: Oct 2007

Northern Ireland

Nowhere To Run Nowhere To [Hide]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chthon
1. I would certainly prefer Carinae's changes to the status quo.

2. I think every good necromancer agrees that, whatever else else happens to it, the timer absolutely must go. I think every sane necromancer wants to see the timer gone too.

3. As I said in the previous threads on this topic, if you think "the timer is OK because I still have more energy than I can use," that means you were never able to use SR "right" in the first place. I hate to be elitist, but a good player could put all of the energy that pre-nerf SR provided to good use and still want more. If you can't understand that, then perhaps you need to accept that serious discussion of the topic is beyond you, and stop posting.

(Wow, that did sound really elitist, now didn't it? I think I must be channeling Stromlord Alex....) you win the thread

Quote:
At 12 SR, a 10-monster mob can give you as much as 120e or as little as 3e and you have very little control over which you're going to get. how can a mob give you as little as 3 energy if you spec at 12sr? if your vs a 10 strong mob with old sr the potential is an undeniable 120 energy.currently you will get your 12 energy 3 times within that 15 sec period.the timer doesnt randomize the amount of energy you gain that it could stoop as low as 3

if this was a typo my bad

Turbobusa

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

By the Luxon Scavenger

The Mentalists [THPK]

N/

If you know the mobs, the professions, and be able to know the issue of the fight, how can you not be able to know how long it can last and therefore know how many times SR will trigger?

Tyla

Emo Goth Italics

Join Date: Sep 2006

I don't believe the timer should be removed to be honest.
It's already stupidly powerful in the PvE enviroment. Heck, I've NEVER seen my Necro heroes go wrong on energy. SoLS not included.

Calista Blackblood

Calista Blackblood

Permanently Banned

Join Date: Oct 2007

Northern Ireland

Nowhere To Run Nowhere To [Hide]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Turbobusa
If you know the mobs, the professions, and be able to know the issue of the fight, how can you not be able to know how long it can last and therefore know how many times SR will trigger? read chthon's comment again. there is no way wether sr is timed or not that a mob will only give 3 energy if your specced at 12sr.

Turbobusa

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

By the Luxon Scavenger

The Mentalists [THPK]

N/

You'll always get 3*SR won't you? And if it triggers when already at max energy what would you need that extra energy for?

Calista Blackblood

Calista Blackblood

Permanently Banned

Join Date: Oct 2007

Northern Ireland

Nowhere To Run Nowhere To [Hide]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Turbobusa
You'll always get 3*SR won't you? And if it triggers when already at max energy what would you need that extra energy for? yeah 3x12 energy per 15 second period if specced at 12 sr.provided your not hexed with atrophy or wail of doom when your gain triggers there is nothing that can lower sr gain to 3 energy

again if it was as typo chthon my bad

zling

zling

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chthon
But it is unreasonable. The whole point of soul reaping is to provide in-built energy management. You don't compel elementalists to put points in e-storage and bring skills to boost their energy pool. You don't compel mesmers to put points in fast casting and bring skills to increase their cast speed. You don't compel rangers to put points in expertise and bring skills for e-management. So why compel necromancers to put points in soul reaping and bring skills for e-management? Why make them the only class that has to bring skills to do the job that its primary attribute is supposed to do, but isn't doing?

(It was mentioned before that, if a-net (1) gave necros attunement-quality e-management skills in the SR line instead of the few, poor, chapter-specific skills we have now, and (2) lowered the e-costs on a whole bunch of necro skills that are artificially high to balance them against SR, and (3) made sure that SR did something useful, THEN it would be totally OK if SR was reworked into something totally different that had nothing to do with e-management.) ummm... Elementalists not bringing E-Management skills? did I miss something here? Every Elementalist brings his element's Attunement, most bring even more, Dual Attunements, Mind Blast, Glowing Gaze, Assassin's Promise, Glyph of Lesser Energy, etc...

yes Rangers arent bringing any E-Management skills but they adjust their skill bar and Expertise attribute according to their skill bar, compromising their other attributes for it...

yes Mesmers arent bringing any Fast Casting skills because honestly, they dont need to...

but what about the others? Dervishes DO bring E-Management even with Mysticism, Warriors DO bring damage skills even with Strength, Paragons SOMETIMES bring some E-Management even with Leadership, Assassins SOMETIMES bring some E-Management even with Critical Strikes, Monks DO bring some form of healing even with Divine Favour, Ritualists DO bring everything they need even with Spawning Powers.

so what exactly is your point? Soul Reaping IS the BEST E-Management Primary Attribute and plainly THE BEST Primary Attribute in all aspects! compare it to Spawning Powers, Strength, Fast Casting and whatever else you want and Soul Reaping just comes on top! and you're crying about a little nerf to it that even post nerf it still IS the BEST Primary Attribute?!?!?!

oh wow so your Necro doesnt have an UNLIMITED Energy Pool any longer, it is SLIGHTLY limited now.
oh wow so your MM cant "plan" his entire battle before hand, actually it can but you just need to ADJUST.

and yes I DO play my Necro and play him a lot!

Carinae

Carinae

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2005

Inside

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Calista BlackBlood
how can a mob give you as little as 3 energy if you spec at 12sr? Because you have zero SR hits left (due to minion recycling), and wipe the whole mob in four seconds (due to teammates).

It's actually happens.

Chthon

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Apr 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Calista BlackBlood
how can a mob give you as little as 3 energy if you spec at 12sr?
Like this:
Start at full energy.
Cast a 5e spell. (BotM perhaps?)
After 3 sec, you will be at full-minus-1 energy.
Something dies. You gain 1e. 11e is lost to overflow. SR timer starts.
Cast a 5e spell. Assuming 1sec cast time, 14 sec left on timer.
After 3 sec, you will be at full-minus-1-energy. 11 sec left on timer.
Something dies. You gain 1e. 11e is lost to overflow.
Cast a 5e spell. Assuming 1sec cast time, 10 sec left on timer.
After 3 sec, you will be at full-minus-1-energy. 7 sec left on timer.
Something dies. You gain 1e. 11e is lost to overflow.
Other 7 monsters die in an AoE explosion during the remaining 7sec before timer expires.

That's 3e gained total for 10 monsters. Admittedly, it's the extreme worst case scenario, but it's possible, and it demonstrates the point that the SR timer creates VERY random results (a 6000% variation in potential energy returns!) and has a very bad interaction with the overflow mechanic.

Here's a much more common scenario where you get less than 3*SR:
You are at full-minus-10 energy.
You cast shambling horror for 15e.
Minion cap kicks in and kills a shambling horror. You gain 12e.
Jagged horror spawns, and the minion cap kicks in and kills another shambling horror. You gain 12e.
Jagged horror spawns, and the minion cap kicks in and kills another shambling horror. You gain 1e. 11e is lost to overflow.

Now you've got 15sec of no energy at all, and you only gained 25e total.
(If you wipe the mob during that 15sec, you'd actually get ZERO energy from 10 monsters. So I was wrong to say 3e; your minions can screw your SR up and leave you with 0e. Which is a particular problem if you spend down your bar during that 15 sec and have no way of getting it back up. (Remember that MM's must spend very nearly all 4 pips to maintain their army between battles.))

The point is not so much "waaah I'm not getting enough energy" (although that's a valid point), but that any mechanic which works in such an ugly and random way, on conflicts with other mechanics so badly really has something very very wrong with it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by zling
ummm... Elementalists not bringing E-Management skills? did I miss something here?
Yes, you did. Repeat after me: "Energy pool" is NOT the same thing as "energy management." Got it? Good.
Elementalists take e-management, but they do not take skills to give them a deeper pool. When was the last time you saw an elementalist using avatar of lyssa?

Quote:
yes Mesmers arent bringing any Fast Casting skills because honestly, they dont need to...
Because fast casting does what it's supposed to do. That's my point.

Quote: but what about the others? Dervishes DO bring E-Management even with Mysticism, Oh-look-I'm-a-caster dervishes do. If you've got a melee dervish bringing any more e-management than mysticism and a zealous scythe, you've got a bad dervish on your hands.

Quote: Warriors DO bring damage skills even with Strength, Strength's inherent effect is so trivial as to be irrelevant. People spec it for the huge number of skills the line offers. If SR had that many useful skills in it (including a couple attunement-level e-management skills), then it would be fine if SR was just as useless as strength. But that's not the case.

Quote:
Paragons SOMETIMES bring some E-Management even with Leadership, No they don't. They bring already useful skills that just happen to work with leadership. GftE is a great skill on its own, even without the energy gain. SoLS, GoLE, etc. do nothing meaningful aside from the energy gain.

Quote:
Assassins SOMETIMES bring some E-Management even with Critical Strikes, Critical Eye is closer to a pure e-management skill than the paragon shouts, but it's still giving a non-stop damage boost and proccing on-critical skills that make it potentially worth taking even without the energy gain.

Quote:
Monks DO bring some form of healing even with Divine Favour, DF is really energy management. And, I must admit that monks are the one other class that has a e-management primary and needs to bring e-management skills.

Quote:
Ritualists DO bring everything they need even with Spawning Powers. That's because spawning power is a useless, sorry-we-ran-out-of-ideas piece of crap masquerading as a primary attribute. Do you really want another class with a primary as bad as that?

cellardweller

cellardweller

Likes naked dance offs

Join Date: Aug 2005

The Older Gamers [TOG]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chthon
1. I would certainly prefer Carinae's changes to the status quo.

2. I think every good necromancer agrees that, whatever else else happens to it, the timer absolutely must go. I think every sane necromancer wants to see the timer gone too.

3. As I said in the previous threads on this topic, if you think "the timer is OK because I still have more energy than I can use," that means you were never able to use SR "right" in the first place. I hate to be elitist, but a good player could put all of the energy that pre-nerf SR provided to good use and still want more. If you can't understand that, then perhaps you need to accept that serious discussion of the topic is beyond you, and stop posting.

(Wow, that did sound really elitist, now didn't it? I think I must be channeling Stromlord Alex....) You have it round the wrong way - the argument isn't that you couldn't spend the energy, its that you shouldn't have had that much energy to spend in the first place. The problem with an unbounded Soul Reaping is that it completely removes the element of energy management from the profession - any time the question "should I use this skill now?" question was asked the answer is yes because the unlimited energy pool meant that you didn't lose anything by not casting.

You don't need to look any further than orders necs that used to be able to hit heal party on recharge to see the problems that unbounded energy gives. You should not have the energy to put a 15e hex on every enemy, you should not have the energy to exploit every corpse with a 25e minion and you certainly should not have the energy to mash a 15e 2r monk skill on recharge.

This is not an argument for the timer, it is an argument against moving back to any version of SR that does not have an cap on the amount of energy you can receive per second like the one that Carinae is proposing.

Trvth Jvstice

Trvth Jvstice

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2006

HALE

W/

I hate this thread. Someone make it go away - plz.

Soul Reaping is fine as it is, Sure Carinae may be right, but there are a lot of other changes I'd be more concerned with. This thread was created to be a troll. Even looking at the name is irritating. As far as MMs are concerned, heroes do it a lot better and are more suited to such a mind numbing, boring, work-like task. Ever since ANet put a cap on the amount of Minions you could have, I've totally lost interest in being a MM.

The Meth

The Meth

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jan 2007

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chthon
But it is unreasonable. The whole point of soul reaping is to provide in-built energy management. You don't compel elementalists to put points in e-storage and bring skills to boost their energy pool. You don't compel mesmers to put points in fast casting and bring skills to increase their cast speed. You don't compel rangers to put points in expertise and bring skills for e-management. So why compel necromancers to put points in soul reaping and bring skills for e-management? Why make them the only class that has to bring skills to do the job that its primary attribute is supposed to do, but isn't doing?
That arguement is a load of crap. Were talking about one professions energy management vs another professions energy management. Not the effect of one profession's primary attribute vs another one. Since the only other two professions who have primary attributes that directly affect energy are paragon and ranger, lets look at them vs the necro.

Paragon: All paragons take at least 1 or 2 spammable shouts. Not even if they need them, just for the sake of energy.
Rangers: Run out of energy very, very quickly if they start using 10+ skills too often. They have to select the most efficient skills for their job and use them wisely. If they want to use high energy stuff often, they have to dedicate an elite to it.
Necros (right now): Can delete their energy bar from the screen for all it matters. Their build might use SoLS if for some reason they want to animate 8 fiends in a row.
Necros (After my nerf, and appropriate skill energy balances): Have to deal with their energy just like other classes. They still get a good boost in energy (75% more energy from other classes without skills), but no more spamming skills on recharge.

Overall, its about a 50% nerf in maximum energy gain at 12 SR. I fail to see how its THAT much harder to use bone fiends at 25 energy vs bone fiends at 15 energy when you gain 50% less energy from SR. Keep in mind with your original energy regeneration and an energy management skill, you will have closer to 65-70% of your original energy gain rate. On the other hand, its actually a bit of a buff for PvP (where necros are weak atm) providing them with a small, but useful energy addition. It also would force the necro to actually have some situational awareness and good positioning, since the range is much smaller now. SR actually useful in PvP in a balanced build for once.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chthon
(It was mentioned before that, if a-net (1) gave necros attunement-quality e-management skills in the SR line instead of the few, poor, chapter-specific skills we have now, and (2) lowered the e-costs on a whole bunch of necro skills that are artificially high to balance them against SR, and (3) made sure that SR did something useful, THEN it would be totally OK if SR was reworked into something totally different that had nothing to do with e-management.) 1. As far as energy management goes Anet just needs to make SoLS a core skill.

2. I already said lowering bone fiend cost a bit to 15. The other minion skills are pretty reasonable. If needed, putting bone horror and minions at 5, fiends at 15, and the rest at 10 would be a good scale as well (keeping in mind bone minions and shambling horror aren't giving extra bonuses from SR deaths, we can reduce them). As for the other attributes they shouldn't be too much disadvantaged (blood still sucks hard, good curse spells aren't that expensive and last the entire battle).

3. Making SR a balanced attribute is kind of what we are talking about i think.

aleaf92

aleaf92

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Nov 2007

New York City, New York

Mo/

we all miss the old days of soul reaping thats for sure

Kaida the Heartless

Kaida the Heartless

Desert Nomad

Join Date: May 2006

N/

I think those here that are against changing soul reaping arn't aware that soul reaping is actually, secretly, very conditional. The "haha sucker, according to the order of deaths you only get 3 energy" crap is really hurting the necromancers ability to judge energy gains. GoLE always gives the full extent if you use it right. Expertise always lowers costs. Shouts, assuming you didnt get lost somewhere along the way, always returns effectively.

Soul reaping is the most conditional energy management line in the game. Someone once stated that Necromancers were elementalists without the energy pool (and attunements). This is quite true, as most of thier spells are quite costly. So...

I think Cthon's idea for soul reaping is right on. I would also add a skill to the soul reaping line to make the necromancers in pvp have a more reliable return from SR (since deaths dont occure nearly as often).

Summon Souls
0 Energy, 1 Cast, 0 Recharge
Signet. You gain up to X Energy (where X is your SR Attribute #) from your Grenth's Allowance. This skill is disabled for 10 seconds.

Ideally, I think that would place soul reaping at a good position for both PvE and PvP.

Also, since I've always enjoyed the bit of background information behind changes (such as Kephket):
Grenth has witnessed great travesties against his underworld by his own necrotic kind. Many necromancers have needlessly taken souls from the underworld to selfishly replenish essence they have not even lost. As a result, Grenth has now placed an allowance on the ammount of souls any necromancer may reap from the Underworld. [Insert explanation of new system here]

Yay!

DarkSpirit

DarkSpirit

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Feb 2006

Redmond

In the best case, if something dies by the time you hit 0e because you spam your spells, then at 12 SR, you gain back 12e. And if this happens 3 times within 15s, you get back 12*3 = 36e each 15s which is very good.

Now if your necro just sits there and doesn't spam much so he is almost at full energy each time something dies, then of course the rest of the SR bonus would go into overflow but the fact remains...you are already at full energy when that happens!

When N/Rt starts becoming more effective ritualists than even primary Rits, something is wrong. (See the sabway build for proof of how soul reaping can be exploited to an absurb level)

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...63&postcount=2)

Fuzzy Taco

Fuzzy Taco

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2007

Level Twenty One [HAX]

N/

i'm not one to come into these kinds of threads, but here goes nothing.

Soul Reaping is the clumsiest, flimsiest aspect of GW.

we all know that SR gave ANet a ton of leeway designing necros. we know that it used to be mega-unlimited energy, and now it's just a mess of awkward timers and energy lost to overflow.

Soul Reaping was a flawed concept to begin with.

Soul Reaping was ANet's easy button for necros. it allowed them to design a high energy cost class that was easily fueled by a decent investment in your primary attribute. then came the gimmicks, and, more importantly, the realization that one MM or minion bomber can top off a ton of blue bars on his team just by doing his job regularly. turns out heroes are damn good with minions, too.

there's no way we can possibly balance SR to make everyone happy, because it's such an unwieldy thing - amazingly powerful with one condition, nearly useless with another, utterly broken with yet another. keep it unrestricted, and we've seen what happens. obnoxiously overpowered gimmicks. restrict it, and it becomes a clunky, broken shadow of its former purpose, as Carinae and Chthon have pointed out.

How the hell do we fix it then?

damned if i know. sure, we could add some different restrictions, but then there will be the same problems as we have now - there will be something suboptimal about the restrictions, and we'll turn into this again. it's too late for an overhaul, which is what SR needs - with ANet's hands full with GW2 and other crap, i doubt we'll get a nice fix anytime soon.

give me a call when someone finds a way to balance Soul Reaping so that it's not unlimited energy in PvE, it isn't clunky, and doesn't blow in PvP. i'm sure it can be done, but the question is, will it?

P.S. thread effectively derailed.

Kaida the Heartless

Kaida the Heartless

Desert Nomad

Join Date: May 2006

N/

Well, hopefully they'll read this thread and make a more balanced version of guildwars in gw2.

upier

upier

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Mar 2006

Done.

[JUNK]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaida the Heartless
Well, hopefully they'll read this thread and make a more balanced version of guildwars in gw2.
Balanced version of SR sounds superb!
The problem is - you don't understand the meaning of the word.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaida the Heartless
Summon Souls
0 Energy, 1 Cast, 0 Recharge
Signet. You gain up to X Energy (where X is your SR Attribute #) from your Grenth's Allowance. This skill is disabled for 10 seconds.

Ideally, I think that would place soul reaping at a good position for both PvE and PvP. But do not despair!
You aren't alone! Chthon is keeping you company!

Verek

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2006

RAVN

N/Me

Quote:
Balanced version of SR sounds superb!
The problem is - you don't understand the meaning of the word. Apparently neither do A-NET, I'm sorry but as soon as they introduced the PVE only skills, and the 'Bear win button', any scintilla of balance was extinguished from PVE.

The SR timer was introduced to combat the Spirit Spam problem in PVP it had absolutely nothing to do with PVE.

The most posted solution, at the time, was not getting energy from Spirits and after weeks of procrastinating from A-Net, and in my opinion, an unwillingness to say that had got it wrong, this was finally introduced, but with a reworking of the timer.

I'm not that concerned with this system, but I do object to these changes being couched with the follow; 'we need balance in PVE.' It could be argued that we do, but as I said above, it doesn't seem that A-net do.