Guild Wars 2

As masters of death, it’s a bit surprising that we cannot Feign Death. Can you guys think this one over and perhaps add the ability for Necromancers to some how FD and trick everyone minus allies that we are dead?

Thanks!

that would be useless in PvP which all skills have to be useful in both PvE & PvP especially due to the limited action bar mechanics.

tbh in msot games AFAIK feign death is more a assasin-type like abbilty not really necros, necros dont specialise in pretending, but in controling death… hmm pretending hmm maybe would fit even a mesmer more than assasin (known as thief in this game)

Necros do not feign death, they embrace it :P But where exactly did you get the impression that necromancers feign death? No game so far had that, that was usually a hunter trick to play dead to avoid bears and other animals.

EverQuest, Vanguard, WoW, Rift to name a few. And sure, Necro’s aren’t the one ones who have to have the ability. In EverQuest Rogue’s could FD more quickly than a necro does.

I’d happily give FD to necros, thieves, and mesmers.

Necro – FD while remaining visible and channeling a life essence gain. When this channel ends, fear all nearby enemies for 1-4 seconds depending on how long the channel was held.

Mesmer: Cloak for 3s and create a stationary FD clone. If shattered this clone stands up before shattering. This clone lasts 60s, or until shattered or destroyed.

Thief: FD, replacing 1-5 with dirty tricks. The thief may use one of these dirty tricks to break the ruse, or break it automatically by moving – Throw Dirt (AoE blinding pulse, every .5 seconds, lasts 3 seconds), Leg Sweep (single knockdown), Gut (single Bleeding+Vulnerability), Suprise! (Self Fury+Protection), Escape (Self 3s evade+Swiftness)

PopeUrban.2578:

I’d happily give FD to necros, thieves, and mesmers.

Necro – FD while remaining visible and channeling a life essence gain. When this channel ends, fear all nearby enemies for 1-4 seconds depending on how long the channel was held.

Mesmer: Cloak for 3s and create a stationary FD clone. If shattered this clone stands up before shattering. This clone lasts 60s, or until shattered or destroyed.

Thief: FD, replacing 1-5 with dirty tricks. The thief may use one of these dirty tricks to break the ruse, or break it automatically by moving – Throw Dirt (AoE blinding pulse, every .5 seconds, lasts 3 seconds), Leg Sweep (single knockdown), Gut (single Bleeding+Vulnerability), Suprise! (Self Fury+Protection), Escape (Self 3s evade+Swiftness)

Thanks PopeUrban, I like those ideas, a lot!!

When I saw this thread I thought it was about a viable fear mechanic, and got excited

Merely feigning death is something that a mesmer would do, not a necromancer.

Now, if you mean not just simply some kind of illusion of death or merely faking it, but taking the actual appearance of a corpse, then we are talking necromancy.

But since such a skill would be rather pointless in PvP, maybe it should be some kind of PvE-only skill.

perhaps “feigning death” could be perceived as useless in pvp.
but what do you think of feigning downed state?
you character gets down to the ground in the same position as downed state.
it’s a big visual queue for people to get over to you and [interact]
if it wastes their time because that [interact] option is not actually there, then i think it would be useful.
just how to pull this off as a skill, i am not sure..
is it just a visual thing? can you still use your weapon skills? do you have a new skill bar? is it channeled, ending with a stun-break?
is there something that will allow for allies to see that you are not actually downed (to not waste their time; though it wouldn’t be too big of a deal for a team that announces what they’re doing over a microphone)

maybe it could be the 5th and final death shroud skill :O
upon skill use, exit death shroud and sit down, channeling this skill.
the channel could look like the 4th downed state skill – bandage.
but to your allies, the glowing effect (and maybe sound effects too) are distinctively contrasting/different than the real downed state 4.
maybe give the channeling part some actual utility instead of just deceit.
maybe give it a cost of some lifeforce, or your lifeforce degenerates while you do this.
so as to discourage mindless use.

the explanation as to why a necro would use this instead of the deceit-minded mesmers…
maybe something to do with killing intent (of the enemy yet to be tricked)
the necro enjoys seeing/feeling this
the necro feeds on this
the necro laughs at this
the necro measures his own against this
the necro wants to have his enemies get the thrill of it and then be discouraged of how easy it would be to kill the necro.
but then it’s starting to go toward to the lore/logic of being a mesmer..
unless the focus is not on trolling/deceiving them but instead on relishing in their weakness and perilous feelings.

GummiBear.2756:

tbh in msot games AFAIK feign death is more a assasin-type like abbilty not really necros, necros dont specialise in pretending, but in controling death… hmm pretending hmm maybe would fit even a mesmer more than assasin (known as thief in this game)

I’ve never seen a rogue/assassin class in any game use feign death. They generally have a hide/vanish mechanic, but never a possum mechanic.

The only game i can recall in the mmo genre that has a feign death spell is Warcraft, and it is a hunter ability.

as for it being a useless ability, it all depends on how it’s implemented. If it makes your character untargetable (note: untargetable does not mean uninteractable, aoe effects should still hit) then it can be used to prevent some damage for a short time. If it acts as a combat/target drop, it can be used to regen some health and force your opponent to retarget you before they recommence the beats.

would it be situational? absolutely, but I fail to see a problem with situational abilities.

i hear you eldin
that hunter ability was so fun

though a combat drop would be cool, it is unrealistic seeing as how hard it is to leave combat; balance would require other professions to have such a skill also. though maybe our lack of utility (as necros) could permit such an advantage as being able to drop out of combat. if timed correctly with not causing anybody dmg (letting your bleed stacks be removed) and avoiding being hit, then it can be a great method for regaining health (out-of-combat regen).
though if it drops us out of combat while we are fighting someone else 1v1, would it drop them out of combat too?
perhaps this would be the situational thing about it. it is a double-edged heal basically, but much more effective when used precariously in a groupfight scenario (because the enemy hit someone else who did not drop out of combat, so he remains in combat)

Some pretty good conversation going on around this! I think there are a lot of good ideas. Is there any other input someone might be able to offer to provide some additional insight for the dev team? I like the idea FD dropping the player down the aggro list, but as another comment pointed out AoE should still hit the FD’d player.

Thanks a bunch everyone for all your feed back on this idea, any thing else?

-Mog

Mogturmen.2638:

Some pretty good conversation going on around this! I think there are a lot of good ideas. Is there any other input someone might be able to offer to provide some additional insight for the dev team? I like the idea FD dropping the player down the aggro list, but as another comment pointed out AoE should still hit the FD’d player.

Thanks a bunch everyone for all your feed back on this idea, any thing else?

-Mog

aggreed, and well it shouldnt be hard to do, in fact something like taht is already in the game, and it is called “Stealth” where this would jsut be with a specific animation instead of the character going invisble, so should be very easy to implement, but yeah ranger, mesmer or thief would likely be the best candidates for it

Death isn’t even a mechanic for Necromancers in this game. While the profession is really cool, it’s more like a WoW Warlock than a GW1 Necromancer.

marnick.4305:

Death isn’t even a mechanic for Necromancers in this game. While the profession is really cool, it’s more like a WoW Warlock than a GW1 Necromancer.

ehmm necroes get life force for enemies (might be friends too but not sure on that) around him that die, so i would say death is in his mechanic yes