Guild Wars 2

Signet of Vampirism is in a dismal state, despite having a very nice concept. There have been arguments that the design is odd because “vampirism” would imply a similarity to leeching. However, due to the necro’s overall slow attack speed, this design would be very pointless, and have nearly no purpose. The current design is a very effective one due to necros natural sustainability. How it is implemented, though, is not. Here is why:

1. No net gain of health: The current way it is implemented allows for no overall health gain, only a minor reduction of the damage taken (unless you are taking very little damage).

2. 1 second ICD: Since many classes are able to hit you for multiple hits in one second, this greatly limits the usefulness of this skill. Especially since no other healing signet has an ICD.

3. Poor passive healing: Currently, the signet heals a base number each hit. This makes the signet dependent on classes who hit fast, not hard, which is a flawed concept. This limits both the usefulness and practicality of the signet.

Now to fix them. Theses are suggestions on ways the signet could be improved. Individually and collectively, each one is a buff, and each is fairly significant in its function:

1. No net gain of health: to combat the lack of healing provided by the signet, both active and passive, the Signet should be active while in DS. The concept of this is basic, but very influential. Each hit while in DS will heal your actual health pool. This is how a net gain of health would be possible with minimal design changes, and could provide some interesting gameplay styles.

2. 1 second ICD: Just scrap it. It limits the functionality of the signet, especially when fighting in Zerg fights, or really any class that isn’t necro.

3. Poor passive healing: The healing should work off of % damage taken, making it more efficient when dealing with nearly every burst class. So say the % is at 25%, and someone backstabs you for 5k (I know it’s relatively low), then the heal would heal for 1.25k. The amount of healing power would directly affect the % healed. (Maybe 1% per 100 healing power with the standard starting at 25%).

What are your thoughts?