Game:

Guild Wars 2 (2012)

Category:

Discussion

Duration: 12:55

3,657 views

42

A new round of balance patch dropped on July 7th, 2020. Scourges went through quite a ride. This is a compilation showing you how Power Corrupt Scourges performed from pre patch to post patch. There were 3 rounds of changes for Necros as a whole; the July 7th patch itself, the nerf to the patch, and the bug fix to the nerf. It all happened within 48 hours.

July 7th Patch Notes: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/109335/game-update-notes-july-7-2020

The patch gave Scourges body bomb once again. Whenever you triggered shade skills, it also hit the same numbers around your body. This gave Scourges 10 target bombs with the big shades, and 12 target bombs with small shades. The patch pretty much made Scourges God tier.

The patch nerfed small shades down to 3 targets initially, then 24 hours later it was nerfed further down to 2 targets per shade, this included 2 targets per big shade as well. But there was a bug that still allowed Desert Shroud to hit 3 targets so they immediately bug fixed it to 2 targets. The nerf also reverted wells cooldown changes.

For awhile now I've been hitting 15 targets with small shades (5 targets per shade), as you all have seen me do in my vids. Now my max is 8 targets (2 targets per shade) including body bomb, 6 without body bomb. This is a nerf of 50% of damage potentials, corrupts, and barrier delivery. Shades used to give 5 target barriers, now even that is nerfed down to only 2 targets per shade. I can no longer top corrupts, no longer finish top 5 dps consistently, and I'm giving my party a lot less barriers.

In my opinion, Scourge went from S-Tier to A-Tier with this patch. Many guilds will still run Scourges, they still provide boon corrupts, barriers, and aoe damage. But they are about 40% less as effective as before. My biggest issue isn't seeing Scourges get nerfed, it's that there is no high ceiling for good players to reach anymore. Good Scourges pre patch stood out, they were topping corrupts, consistently finishing in top 5 dps, and their barriers were clutch for their squad. Now Chronos & Spb top strips, many classes finish ahead of Scourge in dps, and 2 target barriers is just silly weak.

Scourges will still work for some comps, but I feel you can do better. This is up to guilds to test and see if they can come up with a better way to maximize their squad potentials. In comes Reaper, this is the test build used in this video:

Power Reaper: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSwAc2ZlJwQYHMF2JOyWmtbA-zVIYR0xXINFVZmAVUC2eACYP8W0fGA-w

Let's talk about what good things Necros ended up getting from the patch:

1. Dread - new Spite grandmaster skill, this trait gives you insane quickness and fury uptime. I really enjoyed using it on the Scourge, because you could pop either shade fear or staff mark 5 to trigger Dread, then you'll have quickness to chain drop Wells and cycle through your weapon skills very quickly. Dread will trigger again as you corrupt stab into fear, so your quickness and fury uptime will be very good. I chose to use it on the Reaper because you can trigger Dread with mark 5 then drop triple wells very quickly, and pop shroud to take advantage of Soul Barbs & Death Perception.

2. Well of Darkness - it now does damage close to Well of Suffering, and it chills. It's no longer unblockable but the dps you can spike with this well is amazing. Not slotting a stunbreak is not optional sometimes, so only use triple wells when you are able.

This is just a test build, it's likely not what I'll be running as I run more tests and as squads change their comp. But Power Reaper is the new boss at damage, only rivaled by Weavers, Bomb Kit Scrappers, and DH/Burnguard.

Music used in this video:

1. The Score - The Champion - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5AMl3t817o

Connect with The Score:
http://www.thescoremusic.com

2. Juice WRLD & Marshmello - Come & Go - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxm3cHrKcbA

3. Juice WRLD - I Wan't It - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hi2KQWmNM0

4. Juice WRLD ft. Halsey - Life's A Mess - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IetcXhv83gQ

Connect with Juice WRLD:
Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/uiceheidd/

I do not own the rights to music used in this video. Please support these fine artists, producers, and labels.

Gear:

Logitech G600 MMO Gaming Mouse: https://amzn.to/2INh62P
Freestyle Pro Ergonomic Mechanical Keyboard: https://amzn.to/2Ll53w7
Steel Series Arctis 7 Wireless Headset: https://amzn.to/2GKP4Tq

DPS Meter Used:
ArcDPS: https://www.deltaconnected.com/arcdps/

My videos are meant for entertainment purposes, I publish them for fun. I like to try out builds and record results to see the potentials of these builds. Build links will always be included because I know it's useful especially if you're new to GW2/WvW. These videos are raw with mistakes and bloopers, they are not edited to perfection.

As always, thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed it!

Other Statistics