And this week it's Necro!
Auras would actually be pretty sweet. I know a “Banshee” is favored but honestly the idea of getting shouts just feels lame. THEN AGAIN Guardians got traps and usually I’m not a fan of those utilities either but the way they work and their flavor actually makes me happy with how they’re implemented.
Hoping ArenaNet can do the same for shouts with Necro because just pushing a button to buff feels….idk just seems too simplistic for the Necro.
On the topic of its Death Shroud and Life Force: Arena Net has teased us with using our life force in a different way right? We also know that we’re still going to have to be able to enter Death Shroud because of its existing traitlines and traits that affect Shroud.
So what if Elite Specced Necros get to use Life Force in a similar way Revenants have an Energy Bar? What if our utilities, whatever they are, can utilize Life Force to have an empowered effect vs a normal one? This would introduce having to balance between using Life Force for Shroud or using it to empower whatever utilities are introduced with the elite spec.
I don’t think Life Force being at specific thresholds will be the main function because Arena Net has stated they’d like us to use Life Force in a different way and also they’re trying to move all the professions away from “don’t use your abilities to get benefits” like how Phantasm Mesmers couldn’t shatter, or Warrior’s wouldn’t use their Adrenaline for certain builds even though they also acknowledged Necro should still have some passive gains. It seems they are trimming those kinds of abilities down a lot.
The issue with using life force to fuel utilities a’la the Rev’s energy bar – beyond further blending of the Rev and Necromancer, anyways – is that it then directly competes with Death Shroud and basically forces people to use one or the other. It’s an interesting idea and one favored by a lot of players – Death-powered weapon attacks, or Death-powered utils – but I’m not sure it wouldn’t cause more problems than it solves. PvP Necromancers have enough trouble building life force as it is, do we need to make their lives any harder?
Not that I PvP, mind, but from what I hear the PvP necromancer basically doesn’t get a profession mechanic. I don’t think we need to exacerbate that by giving them more things to spend the life force they don’t have on.
Also, pushing a button to screech madness and devastation at your enemies instead of ladling out a few boons a’la Warrs/Guards sounds much more appealing to me, and is what most of the Banshee folks are hoping for instead.
That is the purpose though of having any mechanic based around a resource. It goes the same way for Thieves and Initiative too. I understand that you may mean F skills are completely untouched for the most part but this method does not change Death Shroud’s functionality nor its skills, it only opens another option for the Necro, do they power up their attacks/utilities or do they save the Life Force to enter Death Shroud.
The main thing we have to figure out is how are we going to utilize Life Force in a different way other than Death Shroud. I cannot see another way myself, but I am not as creative as others may be.
In terms of PvP, I have not done much of it on my Necro so I cannot comment on that. Though I do know that the general perception of the Necromancer is currently what’s needed most from the profession is some way to offer group support and mobility (or more frequent access to snares).
We see this pattern with the Chronomancer and Dragonhunter too. Chronomancer makes up in mobility and frequency of attacks the Mesmer lacks while the Dragonhunter introduces long-range support for the Guardian.
It looks like these round of Elite Specs are poised to give core professions something they either are lacking or isn’t “up to snuff.”
It’s as if people are immature.
It’s as if people are genuinely displeased and bitter about the name.
People being “displeased and bitter” over a name really shows maturity.
Names are important. For you to not recognise that shows immaturity.