Guild Wars 2

Been playing Necro since around release, and i don’t have too many complaints about the class. Contrary to popular belief, necros survivability is not really a problem. Once you realize spamming only condis on everything won’t solve your problems, the class becomes extremely viable in every part of the game. However there are some situations where i think we should be able to handle better instead of going into death shroud and trying to tank our way out of trouble. Before i go into that, i must mention that i love the new changes, all of them in someway will greatly improve survivability, but they are only effective when you use certain traits and utilities which doesn’t help build diversity. So here are a few more minor changes that could really help other builds.

1 Make foot in the grave a minor trait, drop the stability duration to 2 seconds. A ds stun breaker is one of the things most needed since we don’t have vigor or an escape.

2. To replace foot in the grave, a grandmaster trait that applies a random condition to foes within a 600 unit radius, when dealt direct damage. Trait only works while in Deathshroud and has a cool down of 5 seconds. I mean really, the skill is called death shroud not tank shroud.

-9999

It’s called Death Shroud because it delays death and the problem is the class counters it’s own traits.

The class was more fun to play on release, than it is now. I had a ton of fun timing my Death Shroud correctly, to absorb huge hits from bosses. But they’ve complete obliterated that aspect of DS, and now all damage spills into our healthpool. It makes the necro a lot less interesting to play. But on top of that, Death Shroud just doesn’t work very well as a mechanic. It doesn’t scale well against stronger opponents, or against focused fire. And while no necro should be invincible, being knocked out of DS instantly is kind of absurd too.

Ragion.2831:

Been playing Necro since around release, and i don’t have too many complaints about the class. Contrary to popular belief, necros survivability is not really a problem. Once you realize spamming only condis on everything won’t solve your problems, the class becomes extremely viable in every part of the game. However there are some situations where i think we should be able to handle better instead of going into death shroud and trying to tank our way out of trouble. Before i go into that, i must mention that i love the new changes, all of them in someway will greatly improve survivability, but they are only effective when you use certain traits and utilities which doesn’t help build diversity. So here are a few more minor changes that could really help other builds.

1 Make foot in the grave a minor trait, drop the stability duration to 2 seconds. A ds stun breaker is one of the things most needed since we don’t have vigor or an escape.

2. To replace foot in the grave, a grandmaster trait that applies a random condition to foes within a 600 unit radius, when dealt direct damage. Trait only works while in Deathshroud and has a cool down of 5 seconds. I mean really, the skill is called death shroud not tank shroud.

It seems you dont really understand the survivability problems necromancers have. The thing is necromancers can be really tanky (with a full LF bar) but they dont have good sustain simply because Deathshoud is not sustain it is more like a temporary meatshield. Sustain for necromancers is supposed to come from the life siphons and the problem is that currently life siphon on necromancers suck. Fix the life siphons aka bloodmagic traitline and sustain wouldnt be a problem any more.

Sagat.3285:

-9999

It’s called Death Shroud because it delays death

Wow i guess that makes sense

Sagat.3285:

the problem is the class counters it’s own traits.

Could you please explain? Im not aware of contradictions.

Muchacho.2390:

it seems you dont really understand the survivability problems necromancers have. The thing is necromancers can be really tanky (with a full LF bar) but they dont have good sustain simply because Deathshoud is not sustain it is more like a temporary meat shield.

This is completely false, the sustain for necros comes from DS and we have so many skills that give good life force instantly, as well as some autos that give life force. If more builds paid attention to those then that would solve a lot of problems.

The problem with necros that have that sustain issues is they don’t know how to use DS. I was pvp’ing yesterday and the match was pretty much decided so i decided to watch a skirmish between a ranger and a necro. For some reason the necro who had full hp decided to waste his full life force to hit the ranger with life blasts. Unfortunately the ranger bailed probably thinking i would join the fight, if he hadn’t, the tnecro would have been in serious trouble. I see it all the time, necros that think well instead of me learning how to kite, I can just use ds and tank the damage.

Also necros with sustain issues don’t know when to get in and out of ds. Getting into ds only when you are about die is the easiest way to get killed. Life/plague blast is slow and damage builds will just out dps you, interrupt your heal attempt when your ds runs out and then finish you off. Getting out of ds only when your opponent makes it safe for you to get out of it is one good way to waste it.

Im not going to bother talking about ds sustain in pve because its really not much of a problem because using glass in pve is the sustain issue there.

I main a necro and i really like the class, it bothers me when necros blindly complain then you see what 95% of them do in game. The 5% I’ve come across are some really good ones though.

Necro’s problem…

I’d say the real issue is more related to our health pool sustain and our inability to dodge/parry.

The fact is that necromancer is a beast in survivability when you use spectral skill in and DS at the same times but, be it a really big hit or a need to chase/flee and necro sustain fall flat.

This mean that :
- Impacting a zerg and survive at least 6 seconds as a necromancer is incredibly easy.
- Facing a hard hitting boss give necromancer the most trouble out of the 8 classes
- Long fight give necromancer a hell of a hard time because they lack chase, fleeing mechanisme and health sustain.

Ragion.2831:

However there are some situations where i think we should be able to handle better instead of going into death shroud and trying to tank our way out of trouble.

Tell me more about those situations….what could possibly be the problem…I wonder 0.0

Just like the patch you go around the issue it’s not necro the traits are, using DS as a general sustain to make the skills points spent on wanted sustain miserable is a poor reason. Why is my chosen trait ineffective because I’m using a given mechanism?

Ragion.2831:

Sagat.3285:

-9999

It’s called Death Shroud because it delays death

Wow i guess that makes sense

Sagat.3285:

the problem is the class counters it’s own traits.

Could you please explain? Im not aware of contradictions.

The contradiction he is talking about is that the healing of life siphon traits dont work while in Ds making it harmful to trait into Bloodmagic.

But i guess as main necro you should know that…

And for sustain… yes as necromancer, in order to survive, you have to pillarhug, kite, have good postioning etc. With that you were right but that i wouldnt call that sustain when i compare it to d/d eles, engies, warriors etc. Necromancer cannot stay in a fight and sustain themself but have to be at the corner and always be in range. But ok if you call that sustain then we have different definitions for that word…

But i guess in the end i simply want a viable life siphon build…

I can agree that having a situation in which traits do not function is counter intuitive. I would prefer to have things toned down over the situation in which they do not function at all.

Anyone who thinks necros have good sustain in general is either a troll or doesn’t know the class very well. When you build up DS sure, you have a lot of health, but that isn’t what sustain is. If you trait to generate a lot of Life force (like spectral attunement, soul marks, and spectral mastery) sure you’ll have a ton of life force and some decent sustain. The problem is that by doing that you’ve neutered your damage, to get what other classes have by default, and you still won’t be that tanky.

This is further hindered by the amount of traits that work against the profession mechanic. It isn’t just siphons either, every single trait that procs when entering or exiting death shroud has the same problem. Either you spam in and out of death shroud to get a decent usage out of the trait, but sacrifice all of your survivability, or you don’t spam death shroud and just wasted multiple traits.

Saying necros have good survivability though is a joke. Every other class in the game has builds that will survive much longer in a team fight when focused because of dodges, invulns, blocks, high uptime aoe blind, and stability. All things necros lack. Considering team fights are what this game is balanced around, that is what matters (not 1vs1s like the op suggested).

Muchacho.2390:

Ragion.2831:

Sagat.3285:

-9999

It’s called Death Shroud because it delays death

Wow i guess that makes sense

Sagat.3285:

the problem is the class counters it’s own traits.

Could you please explain? Im not aware of contradictions.

The contradiction he is talking about is that the healing of life siphon traits dont work while in Ds making it harmful to trait into DS.

But i guess as main necro you should know that…

I just took it as it is, I never expected it to work in DS, besides that isn’t a contradiction, it works, but not the way you intend it to work. We already have several skills with life force gain, warrior like regen on top of that would just be overpowered. If that happens, every non necro would complain like they did with the old dhummfire trait. If you haven’t noticed, Anet forces you to pick either effective life siphon or effective life-force regen, never both. And if you do go both, your damage will be severely lacking.

Look where they ended up putting the hp regen into, the death magic line, why not blood magic? and then as a grandmaster, so you would really have to invest into it. They’ve pretty much told you if you want hp regen while in ds, you almost have to go tank. At least don’t expect to do amazing damage or have high hp and have the trait be effective.

Ragion.2831:

Muchacho.2390:

Ragion.2831:

Sagat.3285:

-9999

It’s called Death Shroud because it delays death

Wow i guess that makes sense

Sagat.3285:

the problem is the class counters it’s own traits.

Could you please explain? Im not aware of contradictions.

The contradiction he is talking about is that the healing of life siphon traits dont work while in Ds making it harmful to trait into DS.

But i guess as main necro you should know that…

I just took it as it is, I never expected it to work in DS, besides that isn’t a contradiction, it works, but not the way you intend it to work. We already have several skills with life force gain, warrior like regen on top of that would just be overpowered. If that happens, every non necro would complain like they did with the old dhummfire trait. If you haven’t noticed, Anet forces you to pick either effective life siphon or effective life-force regen, never both. And if you do go both, your damage will be severely lacking.

Look where they ended up putting the hp regen into, the death magic line, why not blood magic? and then as a grandmaster, so you would really have to invest into it. They’ve pretty much told you if you want hp regen while in ds, you almost have to go tank. At least don’t expect to do amazing damage or have high hp and have the trait be effective.

Well this may be their reasoning but the thing is bloodmagic is kinda bad and you are always better off going condi or full zerker (spite, curses, soul reaping). Well unless you go minion master, but i would argue that even those builds only go deep into bloodmagic because vampiric master is a really good damage increase for minions. The extra heals are only a nice bonus.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

The class was more fun to play on release, than it is now. I had a ton of fun timing my Death Shroud correctly, to absorb huge hits from bosses. But they’ve complete obliterated that aspect of DS, and now all damage spills into our healthpool. It makes the necro a lot less interesting to play. But on top of that, Death Shroud just doesn’t work very well as a mechanic. It doesn’t scale well against stronger opponents, or against focused fire. And while no necro should be invincible, being knocked out of DS instantly is kind of absurd too.

Wow, I wish I had played a necro back when this was how it was played. That sounds soo much more interesting than the dulled down version we see today.

Blood Magic offers vitality and healing power (which necros have plenty of and make little use of, respectively) and siphons are so weak that more offensive traits are much more valuable.

Plus, the times you would need those heals the most, you’re likely in death shroud which negates the heals. It makes the whole trait line rather useless.

They should either attempt to make blood magic a thing or just re-work the whole trait line.

zapv.8051:

Anyone who thinks necros have good sustain in general is either a troll or doesn’t know the class very well. When you build up DS sure, you have a lot of health, but that isn’t what sustain is. If you trait to generate a lot of Life force (like spectral attunement, soul marks, and spectral mastery) sure you’ll have a ton of life force and some decent sustain. The problem is that by doing that you’ve neutered your damage, to get what other classes have by default, and you still won’t be that tanky.

This is further hindered by the amount of traits that work against the profession mechanic. It isn’t just siphons either, every single trait that procs when entering or exiting death shroud has the same problem. Either you spam in and out of death shroud to get a decent usage out of the trait, but sacrifice all of your survivability, or you don’t spam death shroud and just wasted multiple traits.

Saying necros have good survivability though is a joke. Every other class in the game has builds that will survive much longer in a team fight when focused because of dodges, invulns, blocks, high uptime aoe blind, and stability. All things necros lack. Considering team fights are what this game is balanced around, that is what matters (not 1vs1s like the op suggested).

Ive been running necro from PvP rank 1 to 49, and it is routine to last against two different classes (sometimes three) at the same time and pressure at least one of them. In the time I’ve been playing the mode 99% of necros disregard speed or depend on swiftness from war horn. The difference between my survivability when running Quickening thirst with dd vs without it is staggering. movement speed is almost as important as DS when it come to survivability.

Some necros even think dd is for power necros only, when it is actually for hybrids. All the invuls, blocks and all that doesn’t make that class any more sustainable than the necro. Including sigils and runes, count how many boon rips and control skills are possible on the necro in the same build.

In WvW you want to tell me you cannot stay alive in a team fight when you can pretty much choose to negate damage. If you try to do things like throw yourself in the middle of 5 people and count on getting out alive just because other classes can escape out of it, you are playing the class wrong.

Ragion.2831:

zapv.8051:

Anyone who thinks necros have good sustain in general is either a troll or doesn’t know the class very well. When you build up DS sure, you have a lot of health, but that isn’t what sustain is. If you trait to generate a lot of Life force (like spectral attunement, soul marks, and spectral mastery) sure you’ll have a ton of life force and some decent sustain. The problem is that by doing that you’ve neutered your damage, to get what other classes have by default, and you still won’t be that tanky.

This is further hindered by the amount of traits that work against the profession mechanic. It isn’t just siphons either, every single trait that procs when entering or exiting death shroud has the same problem. Either you spam in and out of death shroud to get a decent usage out of the trait, but sacrifice all of your survivability, or you don’t spam death shroud and just wasted multiple traits.

Saying necros have good survivability though is a joke. Every other class in the game has builds that will survive much longer in a team fight when focused because of dodges, invulns, blocks, high uptime aoe blind, and stability. All things necros lack. Considering team fights are what this game is balanced around, that is what matters (not 1vs1s like the op suggested).

Ive been running necro from PvP rank 1 to 49, and it is routine to last against two different classes (sometimes three) at the same time and pressure at least one of them. In the time I’ve been playing the mode 99% of necros disregard speed or depend on swiftness from war horn. The difference between my survivability when running Quickening thirst with dd vs without it is staggering. movement speed is almost as important as DS when it come to survivability.

You may want to use traveler runes instead of quickening thirst, i think as necromancer you can make better use of the trait points. But i dont know about the 99%. Many necromancer i see use ether travelers, SoL or spectralwalk, though SoL almost never in spvp.

Grimreaper.5370:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

The class was more fun to play on release, than it is now. I had a ton of fun timing my Death Shroud correctly, to absorb huge hits from bosses. But they’ve complete obliterated that aspect of DS, and now all damage spills into our healthpool. It makes the necro a lot less interesting to play. But on top of that, Death Shroud just doesn’t work very well as a mechanic. It doesn’t scale well against stronger opponents, or against focused fire. And while no necro should be invincible, being knocked out of DS instantly is kind of absurd too.

Wow, I wish I had played a necro back when this was how it was played. That sounds soo much more interesting than the dulled down version we see today.

If you think about it, that old way of negating damage through death shroud wasn’t balanced at all and needed to be changed. I only learned about using that mechanic to tank fatal fall damage and hadn’t considered the combat possibilities. With only minor life force generation, you have a block skill on a six (ten) second cooldown. That’s pretty strong compared to the cooldowns on some of the other block skills of other classes. What they are doing with Unholy Sanctuary in the balance update now allows you to do something similar but in a more controlled manner.

Muchacho.2390:

You may want to use traveler runes instead of quickening thirst, i think as necromancer you can make better use of the trait points. But i dont know about the 99%. Many necromancer i see use ether travelers, SoL or spectralwalk, though SoL almost never in spvp.

Yea i might have exaggerated that a bit, most necros do use something to get speed, but from my experience, if it isn’t permanent swiftness or the like (not just +25% from travellers), things can get very difficult. If no speed then stability with good condition damage, you hav to have one or the other or the class falls apart to other classes.

Well I can see this thread is going well.

To OP: the second you mentioned the profession is viable in all game modes you lost credibility. You make it seem like every single Necromancer player is just somehow missing this magical little thing only you are aware of, which frankly comes off as arrogant at best.

Honestly, I think one big things they need to do is revisit deathshroud and find other ways to let us use life force, other than just as a second health bar…

Also, another problem is it seems they are trying to balance our siphons around our POTENTIAL heal from them. You get 5 people inside of a well, hit them with a mark, or axe 3, that’s 250 health back at you instantly. But those kind of scenarios only happen in WvW zergs I find, other times everyone spreads out.

nightwulf.1986:

If you think about it, that old way of negating damage through death shroud wasn’t balanced at all and needed to be changed. I only learned about using that mechanic to tank fatal fall damage and hadn’t considered the combat possibilities. With only minor life force generation, you have a block skill on a six (ten) second cooldown. That’s pretty strong compared to the cooldowns on some of the other block skills of other classes. What they are doing with Unholy Sanctuary in the balance update now allows you to do something similar but in a more controlled manner.

I disagree, in practice it wasn’t unbalanced at all. You forget that after the lifeforce is depleted, you can’t use DS again until you gain enough lifeforce, and DS is on a cooldown. So you couldn’t spam it as fast as you suggest. It added a lot of depth to playing the class that is missing now, and it added sustain against some of the bosses in the game.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

nightwulf.1986:

If you think about it, that old way of negating damage through death shroud wasn’t balanced at all and needed to be changed. I only learned about using that mechanic to tank fatal fall damage and hadn’t considered the combat possibilities. With only minor life force generation, you have a block skill on a six (ten) second cooldown. That’s pretty strong compared to the cooldowns on some of the other block skills of other classes. What they are doing with Unholy Sanctuary in the balance update now allows you to do something similar but in a more controlled manner.

I disagree, in practice it wasn’t unbalanced at all. You forget that after the lifeforce is depleted, you can’t use DS again until you gain enough lifeforce, and DS is on a cooldown. So you couldn’t spam it as fast as you suggest. It added a lot of depth to playing the class that is missing now, and it added sustain against some of the bosses in the game.

And that any CC/conditions.enemy buffs from the skill happen anyway. It’s literally only direct damage that was negated, so it wasn’t even on par with a block.

Bhawb.7408:

Well I can see this thread is going well.

To OP: the second you mentioned the profession is viable in all game modes you lost credibility. You make it seem like every single Necromancer player is just somehow missing this magical little thing only you are aware of, which frankly comes off as arrogant at best.

You strike me as one of those that used necro for a few months, didn’t understand it then switched to warrior or some other “meta class”. In PvP like i already mentioned, when statted properly the class works pretty well and i don’t even need to be a minion master. I think my build is a little strange though and can’t be used in WvW but it works out pretty well.

In dungeons, this is where you see all manner of necro atrocities. You cannot be selfish and try to compete for damage this is actually how necros end up getting killed. We have only one Aoe damage skill, and conditions don’t kill as fast as a warriors Aoe damage skill, so why would you be wearing anything but full dire and not take weapons and utilities that help keep the party alive like well of blood, well of darkness, transfusion and spec armour for yourself . As for the elite, i find that the few necros i see tend to take lich, I’ve even seen flesh golems, forgetting that a big part of dungeons is mob skipping. This is why i always use snow leopard when dungeoning.

WvW can be a little difficult especially when roaming. It is really more of skill level and not putting yourself smack in the middle of 5 people and pray DS can bail you out.

PvE is PvE, every class can handle that fine, if you can’t then you will have problems in every other mode.

There are survivability issues, most other classes can move out of a fight when they need to but once we get into a fight we have to stick with it or try to run with spec walk, which doesn’t always work out. Flesh Wurm doesn’t count, because it requires you place it somewhere else before using it and besides, we all know how well minions work out in WvW.

So I’m saying, we already have an independent life bar that can be replenished fairly quickly in combat, all we need is a proper escape, foot in the grave as a minor trait and at least one good weapon based aoe damage skill. If these were part of the new changes, people will change their tune about the class.

And by saying Bhawb, who is one of the figurative “heads” of the necro community since launch, is probably one of those that used necro for a few months, didn’t understand it then switched to warrior or some other “meta class," You have completely lost all credibility.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

And by saying Bhawb, who is one of the figurative “heads” of the necro community since launch, is probably one of those that used necro for a few months, didn’t understand it then switched to warrior or some other “meta class," You have completely lost all credibility.

Yeah, Bhawb isn’t on 50+ hours of necromancer podcasts or anything. He probs plays warrior.

Roe.3679:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

And by saying Bhawb, who is one of the figurative “heads” of the necro community since launch, is probably one of those that used necro for a few months, didn’t understand it then switched to warrior or some other “meta class," You have completely lost all credibility.

Yeah, Bhawb isn’t on 50+ hours of necromancer podcasts or anything. He probs plays warrior.

I shall just add letters to this conversation, since there is nothing that needs to be said anymore ^^

Ragion.2831:

Bhawb.7408:

Well I can see this thread is going well.

To OP: the second you mentioned the profession is viable in all game modes you lost credibility. You make it seem like every single Necromancer player is just somehow missing this magical little thing only you are aware of, which frankly comes off as arrogant at best.

You strike me as one of those that used necro for a few months, didn’t understand it then switched to warrior or some other “meta class”. In PvP like i already mentioned, when statted properly the class works pretty well and i don’t even need to be a minion master. I think my build is a little strange though and can’t be used in WvW but it works out pretty well.

In dungeons, this is where you see all manner of necro atrocities. You cannot be selfish and try to compete for damage this is actually how necros end up getting killed. We have only one Aoe damage skill, and conditions don’t kill as fast as a warriors Aoe damage skill, so why would you be wearing anything but full dire and not take weapons and utilities that help keep the party alive like well of blood, well of darkness, transfusion and spec armour for yourself . As for the elite, i find that the few necros i see tend to take lich, I’ve even seen flesh golems, forgetting that a big part of dungeons is mob skipping. This is why i always use snow leopard when dungeoning.

WvW can be a little difficult especially when roaming. It is really more of skill level and not putting yourself smack in the middle of 5 people and pray DS can bail you out.

PvE is PvE, every class can handle that fine, if you can’t then you will have problems in every other mode.

There are survivability issues, most other classes can move out of a fight when they need to but once we get into a fight we have to stick with it or try to run with spec walk, which doesn’t always work out. Flesh Wurm doesn’t count, because it requires you place it somewhere else before using it and besides, we all know how well minions work out in WvW.

So I’m saying, we already have an independent life bar that can be replenished fairly quickly in combat, all we need is a proper escape, foot in the grave as a minor trait and at least one good weapon based aoe damage skill. If these were part of the new changes, people will change their tune about the class.

Bhawb is one of the communities most influential Necros.. He is usually spot on with his analysis.

If you didn’t look like an kitten before this comment… Congratulations. You do now.

Necros are bottom of the barrel in pve. Middle lower tier in pvp and middle tier in wvw imo. But definitely considered awful for dungeons because of lack of any group synergy

Im not a regular on forums but i ve seen the guy around. Everyone says the class is kitten, I even heard it yesterday in a pvp match from a mesmer i was smacking around the map.If everyone is saying it, Anet for sure knows about the concerns but up until recently they hadn’t really done anything substantial about it. Meanwhile in every mode survivability is decent (warrior regens sometimes seem to be on a new level though). If our “figurehead” is saying it, other necros will start believing it and not try to make the class work.

Look at players like rennoko and choxie, brilliant necros, they make the class look overpowered sometimes, but yet people are saying necros are kitten then they roll a glass build to dungeons and not bother kiting.

Rennoko also agrees that sustain is a huge weakness of Necros. Choxie as well. They are both good players.

Necros in PvE are #8/8 in desirability. Their damage is not top-tier and they bring virtually no support. As such, why would you bring them? Sure, surviability is fine, but that’s true regardless of class becase PvE is easy.

Ragion.2831:

Look at players like rennoko and choxie, brilliant necros, they make the class look overpowered sometimes, but yet people are saying necros are kitten then they roll a glass build to dungeons and not bother kiting.

Glass cannon Necromancers are one of the few specs in PvE (Or high level Fractals if you please) that can survive better than most other classes, and this has nothing to do with kiting…

Necromancers have a glaring issue in the PvP areas of the game, that whereas other classes can escape from fights better with mobility and sustain in traits, weapons and utilites, while a Necromancer is usually forced to just take the hits and then die anyway when focussed… Their one defensive mechanic in the game, Deathshroud, does not scale with the opponents, and therefore, if you take a lot of hits, it is pretty much useless… Positioning is far less forgiving on a Necromancer than most other classes if you play roughly at the same level…

GoogleBrandon.5073:

Glass cannon Necromancers are one of the few specs in PvE (Or high level Fractals if you please) that can survive better than most other classes, and this has nothing to do with kiting…

Necromancers have a glaring issue in the PvP areas of the game, that whereas other classes can escape from fights better with mobility and sustain in traits, weapons and utilites, while a Necromancer is usually forced to just take the hits and then die anyway when focussed… Their one defensive mechanic in the game, Deathshroud, does not scale with the opponents, and therefore, if you take a lot of hits, it is pretty much useless… Positioning is far less forgiving on a Necromancer than most other classes if you play roughly at the same level…

Thats about right but you should probably read my posts because thats the same thing i said.

So being able to apply a lot of conditions in a short amount of time in a condi build and keep applying, not to mention transfer a lot in the same amount of time isn’t sustainable enough, you guys also want direct damage that can be sustained as easily. If you want both, then go hybrid? I run both and I like it. Apply your conditions then use d/d, thats what the “target the weak” trait is for. If you can apply all the conditions, that is +24% damage. Thats the highest damage increase from one trait among all the classes. We can already gain might pretty nicely which raises both damage types, because of that, i think using blood is power in a pure power or condi build is a waste.

What the real concern here is can we stay alive long enough to sustain both? thats why the spec armour buff is so important, thats why an escape is so important, and thats why a ds stun breaker is so important to avoid being stunned and having all those conditions you have applied melt away and be healed over.

No matter what class, all the invuls, blocks and what not are useless if not timed correctly. I have a guardian, and i went into it thinking i will be immortal with all those blocks and blinds. I quickly realized that wasn’t the case. The players who use those only when they are about to die or against attacks they can dodge instead, end up losing to players who don’t.