Guild Wars 2

Am I alone in feeling this is the most OP Elite in DPS? By OP, I am comparing it to every other elite I can think of in PvP. I wish other Elites were this good.

Perhaps I am just too new to the pvp scene, perhaps you pvpers can enlighten me about how weak it is. Perhaps you have counters to it when you end up 1v1, kicking the necro’s bottom, and he drops this OP elite and just blasts you in 2-3 shots.

Waiting to be put in my place on this topic.

Moa

I think the lich is the worst of the necro elites. It doesnt work in 1v1 against anything that can dodge, have an invul, or can strip boons. It certainly wont win you a 2v1unless you drop one of them and the other is stupid enough to start rezing while you pop lich. It wont win you a losing team fight since everyone will focus the big kitten neon green slow casting big dps cd.

It only works to cleave dead bodies in a fight youre aparently winning since there is a downed player, or if you can oneshot real quick a thief or mesmer with chill proc and proceed to cleave rezers.

But what would i know, i dont stream.

Boon strip that stability and it’s dead meat.

Nemiros.3590:

But what would i know, i dont stream.

So much yes!

@OP, what class do you play? Lich can be blinded, blocked, reflected, stripped of stab and CCed, and even just strafed to death. In addition, lich doesn’t give any defensive boost at all, so if you have your team focus it then they blow up incredibly fast.

Try strafing. All of the lich auto attacks will miss.

Also, since the lich attack is so slow, blind spam, or stability strip + Cc works.

The only time lich attack is broken is when the Necromancer gets trait proc(s) + sigil proc(s) on the same attack. That’s mostly a problem with sigil procs tho, and it is not unique to necromancer.

nekretaal.6485:

Try strafing. All of the lich auto attacks will miss.

Also, since the lich attack is so slow, blind spam, or stability strip + Cc works.

The only time lich attack is broken is when the Necromancer gets trait proc(s) + sigil proc(s) on the same attack. That’s mostly a problem with sigil procs tho, and it is not unique to necromancer.

Because of procs and improper scaling of the Chill of Death trait when in Lich form, it’s possible to 1-shot some classes (thief, ele, guardian). Yes, Lich form attacks can all be dodged if you strafe properly and have vigor in 1 vs 1, but the fact is they pierce and will wreck an entire team in a few seconds in a group fight. It only takes 1-2 hits to drop a player (or multiple players if they’re near each other).

Edit: I forgot to mention that you can’t strafe-dodge the lich form shots if you are immob, crippled, or chilled (I’m looking at you broken Chill of Death trait).

Usually I don’t have access to blinds unless I am on my thief. I also usually don’t have boon stripping and I rarely play mesmer.

Dodging, yes, while great unless you got some crazy endurance filling/regen, that only lasts … twice…if you didn’t dodge previously.

Really…if I got to meta against one elite, that doesn’t really bode well for the Lich Form balance at all.

The only time I see Lich Form get beaten is when its 3+ vs the lich and all the anti-stability/boon stripping/blinding/knockdown is brought on.

I appreciate the responses though, food for thought.

You know how to sidestep right? You press A, then you press D, then you press A, then you press D, then you repeat from the top.

Unless you do it too tight, you’ll be able to dodge most projectiles, unless they have too much velocity (looking at you, new Rapid Fire).

The problem is lich + chill of death + fire sigil + air sigil + wells

To fix lich I would raise the base damage whilst lowering the power increase that the necro receives. This way the lich itself is still powerful but there is more counterplay because you dont get hit for 12k in 1 shot due to all the procs

I hope I wont anger many nabs with this enlightment:

Necro is weak, even with lich, and lich is also weak.

1) If a necro is forced to use lich 1v1, you won. You just forced him a 3min elite meant to win a teamfight.

2) Lich can win you 1/3 teamfights if it always worked. And it doesnt, and against good players it doesnt work at all #focusthenec -since 2012

3) All the already mentioned counters lich has

Lich is definitely OP in its current format. It does too much damage.

If Lich was OP it would be seen in the highest tiers of PvP, which is where you see every single OP spec. Is it very strong? Yes, but its strength is balanced by the fact that it is so easy to counter. You can strafe side to side which makes the attacks miss, you can blind, you can remove boons + CC, you can burst it down, you can simply pop defensive CDs (a lot of professions can stall for most of lich’s duration), you can disengage and come back. There are a ton of ways to deal with it, it actually plays by the rules of risk vs reward that seem to have been forgotten by many other skills.

Could they potentially tone it down? I guess. But I think it is very reasonable as is. I would much rather see other elites actually feel like elites, like this skill does.

LOS works. Team focus works. Boon strip and CC works. Reflects work, as do blinds. Or just running away.

1vs1 it is kinda OP, in other situations it is not. That’s why I rather use Plague.