Guild Wars 2

I both agree with the choice, but might disagree with how its implemented.

As mentioned above with portal duty, should mesmers be stuck on portal duty? No, they should be able to play a match how ever they want. By giving other classes a similar ability, it opens up the options a mesmer can have as a role instead of being forced to do something or use another class.

That being said…..Anet…you need to GIVE MESMERS ANOTHER ROLE lol. I love the play style of the mesmer and will continue to play it. In fact, I usually don’t carry portal (unless WvW) the majority of the time and have no problem with other classes having similar abilities. The issue revolves around stripping down what mesmers can do, dividing it among the people and just stopping after that.

Like many before me have said, if you are going to take away a unique part of the class you designed to be unique……….give us a little something in return.

p.s. my mesmer could use heavy armor lol

Somoe.3621:

All of your suggestions are abilities that ONLY work in WvW/sPvP while Mesmer portals work in any setting and are still invaluable in WvW/sPvP.

Hey I said they were just rough ideas. It’s the concept that’s important. I just highlighted the pvp uses because the grief over portal is ONLY in wvw and pvp. NOBODY is complaining about portal in PVE.

But, seriously? Repairing armor and self ressing only useful in pvp? Groups in dungeons and deep in PVE maps would love to be able to keep the fight after a wipe without needing to WP back. A warrior/necro combo could keep a PVE or pvp party going all day. And the ranger ability is so much like portal anyway. Yeah the thief and engi ones need something else, but at least there would be some use for Sabotage on PVE structures/bosses.

As I’ve said before, I wish they’d just completely scrap the ability, and give us a different mobility ability that fits the Mesmer theme instead. Maybe a mimic of RTL that sends you in one direction and a clone in the opposite.

Does the game really benefit from people using Portal as a crutch to move either large groups in WvW or for the Mesmer to cover multiple points in SPvP? I think the class needs an ability which can be used tactfully to gain a maneuverability advantage on the opponent, but I don’t see that the game benefits from relying on Portal at all.

I’ve always been of the thought that if Portal is causing too much trouble, then get rid of it and give us something else in its place. Something with great mobility. Or at least do better with splitting abilities for sPvP/WvW/PvE. Make portal only allow for 5 people (a party) to enter through, and switch it back to 60 second cooldown.

Or give Mesmers a multi-portal illusion ability that lets them bounce between location points to confuse enemies. Acting as a sort of solo-portal ability with a longer use time when it’s active.

Aww I would be so sad if they took portal away

Mister Mustard.7203:

As I’ve said before, I wish they’d just completely scrap the ability, and give us a different mobility ability that fits the Mesmer theme instead. Maybe a mimic of RTL that sends you in one direction and a clone in the opposite.

Does the game really benefit from people using Portal as a crutch to move either large groups in WvW or for the Mesmer to cover multiple points in SPvP? I think the class needs an ability which can be used tactfully to gain a maneuverability advantage on the opponent, but I don’t see that the game benefits from relying on Portal at all.

Like phase retreat but better? And maybe make it so we can choose the direction we go like in RTL… It would be cool if they removed one of the torch skills and replaced it with what you just said. I applaud thee.

juno.1840:

So now that portal will be homogenized, can Mesmers get a +25% passive movement skill/trait?

This door should swing both ways…

Im very happy that you speak about this that door should swing both ways….If I remember well, +25% speed signet was on the begin privilege ONLY of thief and now this same speed signet have more classes like necromancer or elementalist so what thief get as compensation for “stolen” +25% speed signet? I think that thief is best candidate for mesmer portal skill. I would like to get portal skill instead of Shadow trap which is broken and work only on perfectly straight ground.

As you said this door should swing both ways and this is exact example of thief and his original +25% speed signet which was stolen and given to other classes. And btw portal is not damage skill so stop QQ about OP thief if he has portal etc…. The door should swing both ways but for all not only for mesmers.

lol @ this guy, we can’t even see thief 90% of the time because of the culling issue and he wants to give thief portal as well

Runcore.5107:

juno.1840:

So now that portal will be homogenized, can Mesmers get a +25% passive movement skill/trait?

This door should swing both ways…

Im very happy that you speak about this that door should swing both ways….If I remember well, +25% speed signet was on the begin privilege ONLY of thief and now this same speed signet have more classes like necromancer or elementalist so what thief get as compensation for “stolen” +25% speed signet? I think that thief is best candidate for mesmer portal skill. I would like to get portal skill instead of Shadow trap which is broken and work only on perfectly straight ground.

As you said this door should swing both ways and this is exact example of thief and his original +25% speed signet which was stolen and given to other classes. And btw portal is not damage skill so stop QQ about OP thief if he has portal etc…. The door should swing both ways but for all not only for mesmers.

Completely agree — I didn’t imply the door should swing only for mesmers (this just happens to be a conversation about a mesmer skill -- but yeah it is equally applicable to all profs imho).

To be honest, having mesmers be the ONLY way to get portal was a bit of an unstable situation. In situations where being able to portal past things is a major advantage, it’s basically saying that you MUST have a mesmer along to have that advantage… unless the mesmer is substantially weaker in actual fighting as a compensating handicap, which I don’t think is satisfying for anyone (except thieves looking for easy targets in WvW).

Spreading it out a little means that ANet can afford to (re)design encounters with portalling in mind in the future rather than being something that roughly half of parties won’t have unless they specifically bring a mesmer along to do it. In the meantime, with portalling being less of a competitive advantage, any handicaps being put in place because of portals can be removed.

I’d agree with the consensus and go with engineers and necros – engineers through setting up mini-waypoints, necromancers essentially set up a gate to and from the spirit world. Thieves I’d regard as a no – while thieves dabble in both magic and technology, I’d view portals as being too advanced for them. Mechanically, I can’t agree with teh argument about thieves having had their more effective move signet taken from them and needing portalling in return – portalling is a defining functionality, while the 25% move signet was simply doing something other professions could do a little better than those other professions. Thieves still have the best teleporting abilities in the game and stealth, both of which are backed up by having the option for the speed signet as well – I don’t think other professions getting an improved speed signet when they lack the thief’s stealth and other mobility options is as big a deal as the thief player is trying to make it out to be.

Mostly, tbh, I think it’s a quality-of-life thing so running from location to location doesn’t take as long.

leftharted.7102:

either that, or change/add a new mantra…. that enables perma swiftness while charged, and can be consumed for 5 sec of cripple…. maybe 25-45sec recharge??? (this may not be the most suitable way to give us perma-swiftness, but i think this idea would fit into our utilities as is… just my $0.02)

Temporal Signet: +25% move speed, activate it to cripple an enemy for (whatever is balanced) seconds. Basically Temporal Curtain in signet form.

I just want for thieves some compensation and I dont care if this compensation will be portal or something else but Necromancers, Rangers and Elementalists have our +25% speed signets so I want something from them in return for our original signet and this portal is nice candidate for give to thieves as compensation for our stolen speed signet. They have something which belong to thief so thief want something what belong to other clasess. Its so easy. Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.

I dont know on which dream cloud you live now but we live on world of trade which mean I give you something and you give me something in return. Developers still owe something to thieves for steal their original signet and giving it to other classes.

They already had a signet of speed.. it just made no sense for it to be so much slower. I would not count that as taking it from the thieves personally. It was a skill that they had already that was adjusted because it was silly to have such a difference in the amount it gave them.

Runcore.5107:

I just want for thieves some compensation and I dont care if this compensation will be portal or something else but Necromancers, Rangers and Elementalists have our +25% speed signets so I want something from them in return for our original signet and this portal is nice candidate for give to thieves as compensation for our stolen speed signet. They have something which belong to thief so thief want something what belong to other clasess. Its so easy. Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.

I dont know on which dream cloud you live now but we live on world of trade which mean I give you something and you give me something in return. Developers still owe something to thieves for steal their original signet and giving it to other classes.

Because heaven knows thieves are in great need of recompense. You guys are suffering so much.

Others get portal? Fine with me, so i can focus on fighting.
It’s just a utility. If you say portal makes the mesmer, you are wrong.

I hope necros get it, they’re the second slowest class and badly in need of some loving. Engineers would also make sense but if it’s only one other class that gets a portal like skill, necros get my vote

I’m actually fine with Mesmer not being the only profession to have the curse of Portal, but I do wish they would just change the functionality such that instead of anyone walking up and using it, instead when the Mesmer used it all his party members within 600 range was pulled through. Party members makes it a small enough group and forces it to be used with only 5 people, but as many times as you like in that time frame, the fact that the Mesmer is the one controlling the portal makes it a lot less powerful, then they could really put the CD at 30 seconds for all it would matter and it’d be just fine really.

I personally think it is a good idea to spread the “Portal” out among classes. Portal Bombing is a core WvW strategy and it forces groups to take a Mesmer. It also forces the Mesmer to take Portal thus limiting them to only 2 utility skills.

I would considering the Engineer and Necromancer to be the best options. Engineers have to have some port of portal technology. It would most likely be a Gadget skill not a Tool Kit. If they give it to Necromancers they should just improve upon their Flesh Wurm.

Of course both of those profession still wouldn’t be as effective due to their lack of Stealth compared to the Mesmer but it would still remove the Mesmer requirement for groups.

Runcore.5107:

I just want for thieves some compensation and I dont care if this compensation will be portal or something else but Necromancers, Rangers and Elementalists have our +25% speed signets so I want something from them in return for our original signet and this portal is nice candidate for give to thieves as compensation for our stolen speed signet. They have something which belong to thief so thief want something what belong to other clasess. Its so easy. Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.

I dont know on which dream cloud you live now but we live on world of trade which mean I give you something and you give me something in return. Developers still owe something to thieves for steal their original signet and giving it to other classes.

THE LAST GOD kitten THING THAT THIEVES NEED IS MORE MOBILITY WITH THE PORTAL LIKE MECHANIC! JUST NO! You have shadow step you have shadow trap you have scorpion wire you have shadow shot. JUST NO! Give it to classes that are severely lacking in demand which thieves are MOST DEF NOT! You have the highest burst the best mobility in and out of combat and an invisible shield in stealth because most players are too kitten stupid to be proactive and move once a thief goes stealth to help ensure they don’t get their BS combo off. NOT TO MENTION you have a million traits that encourage stealth like regen initiative while stealth REGEN HEALTH while stealthed. 100% chance to crit when attacking from stealth JUST NO. You should not get it to compensate for anything because in most respects even in the god awful AOE argument you still do more damage than most other classes with the freaking cluster bomb, and are WAY WAY WAY better off than over half the classes in this circus show of a game.

For the love of god don’t give it to rangers… I have a hard enough time finding a tPvP group as is (a ranger + few hours of playtime pet week) being a prof with portal that doesn’t wanna use it sure as hell won’t help!! I had to give up trying to do tPvP on my mes because everyone’s stupid enough to think portal is mandatory….

WHICH APPARENTLY THE DEVS think it so because they are sharing it. I agree though. Rangers should not get it. They should however get love in other respects.

‘Mesmer portal is giving us problems –giving that tool onto other classes’

I have a feeling this is out of context or at the very least misleading and needs elaboration.

If not, then the idea sounds very silly because it can be interpreted as mesmer portals r a major a problem, let’s give more classes (notice not just one class in the "quote) the portal ability, and make it a bigger problem!

I don’t think a mesmer having the portal ability is the crux of the issue for many players…

I said it before and I’ll say it again: turn Blink into a signet with a 25% movement speed passive. After that, I will be so subdued that you can pimp portal to whomever you want!

I really want other classes to get portals (engineer would be a good choice). Currently, if you play WvW, everyone expects mesmers to have the portal. I’d rather use the slot for other things sometimes.

Im so happy. Finaly The Curse will be undone!

Rainu.6871:

I hope necros get it, they’re the second slowest class and badly in need of some loving. Engineers would also make sense but if it’s only one other class that gets a portal like skill, necros get my vote

Necros are FAR from the second slowest class. They’re one of the fastest.

Benjamin.7893:

It should stay so why? Because you play mesmer and don’t want to loose the necessity of having one in every spvp team? Stop being selfish.

I’m a guardian and I’m against homogenizing. There are other ways around it, but keeping professions unique is the right way to go here.

However, since comments won’t change ANets opinion about the portals here’s something that would move a mesmer a bit forward:

Signet of Illusions’ passive could give 25% movement speed and boost illusions’ health pool outside of the signet.

so long as its not one of the already op classes and goes to necros and engineers, the two classeses anet seemed to abuse like a redheaded stepchild. hope they fix those two soon >.<

Rangers or Necros!
They are so behind other classes something like this could put them on par!
(As long as its not Thieves or Elementalists. Those are much too strong already, or atleast not underpowered like the above mentioned.)

Razor.9132:

Benjamin.7893:

It should stay so why? Because you play mesmer and don’t want to loose the necessity of having one in every spvp team? Stop being selfish.

I’m a guardian and I’m against homogenizing. There are other ways around it, but keeping professions unique is the right way to go here.

However, since comments won’t change ANets opinion about the portals here’s something that would move a mesmer a bit forward:

Signet of Illusions’ passive could give 25% movement speed and boost illusions’ health pool outside of the signet.

THIS THIS THIS THIS! YEs please this I so want this give me that speed boost I always run Sig of illusions and love the passive health but OMG if it gave a speed boost just YES YES

Oooooh! I’m really hoping for my Engineer to get some portal-y goodness. Maybe a turret pair, where the portal doesn’t go away after a certain amount of time, BUT the thing can only be used once every few seconds or something. Wouldn’t be able to do a sudden massive strike with whole armies like Mesmer. XD Or maybe the turrets could slowly lose health? Meaning that it’d be required to repair them in order to keep the portal going. Though that might pigeonhole Engineers into a portal role, stealing away two of their utility skills.

One suggestion on the Engineer forums was to have turret kits! I could see portals taking up two slots on the healing turret skill, as supportive structures.

Thieves are currently regarded as being in the top tier of GW2 professions along with warriors and guardians. They’re harder to play than either of the above, yes, but the other professions, while having specific situations where they’re more useful, are distinctly in a lower tier than those three.

Thieves have also never been told that their 25% speed signet was a reason why ArenaNet was leery of shoring up other weaknesses, while mesmer players have been told that part of the reason they have no passive speed boosts and only one, fairly impractical source of swiftness is because they’re leery of putting too much other mobility on the only profession that has portal. If other professions get portal, there’s a reasonable expectation that either those professions will get their mobility nerfed, or that the mesmer will be given new mobility options that brings them roughly up to the same level as the other professions with portals. Expanding the 25% signet to rangers, elementalists, and necromancers, on the other hand, is giving a buff to second-class professions and as I discussed above, doesn’t really impact on the thief’s uniqueness – it just reduces their mobility advantage.

On portals specifically, there’s also the fact that balance-wise putting portals on what is already the best profession at getting to places where the other side doesn’t want to be. A couple of posters have already pointed out that the mesmer’s few seconds of stealth will likely mean they’re still better at getting portals into good places then an engineer or necro is likely to be. A profession that can teleport on average once every eight seconds from Infiltrator’s Arrow alone and which can maintain stealth a good portion of the time would be insane in PvP, and in PvE any other profession with portal might as well not have it because the thief would be so much better at getting to the places where you want the portals to be (and not dying afterwards).

As one example of what thieves with portals could do in PvP, a group with multiple thieves could scatter shadow traps across strategic locations like capture points in sPvP, then congregate at a location that’s within range of Shadow Trap and the portal – a thief could then react to Shadow Trap being triggered by laying down a portal, teleporting, laying down the exit, and then the whole team ganks whoever set off the trap, possibly leaving again by the same portal once they’re done (or if they do prove to be outmatched).

The truth is, balancing isn’t simply a matter of trading. ArenaNet is at least theoretically aiming to get every profession on the same tier, and if everything was a trade, the remaining tiers would remain as they are – which would be good for thieves, but bad for the game as a whole. Mesmers have been told that the developers are leery of buffing a profession that has such a potentially valuable unique functionality, so there’s a reasonable expectation that if that functionality was no longer unique, then those buffs would be coming – thieves were told no such thing about Signet of Shadows. Regarding portalling specifically, we also need to consider what a profession would be able to do with it – increasing a passive movement speed bonus from 10% to 25% doesn’t open up a lot of potential for abuse, while adding portals to a profession that already has the best mobility, stealth, and among the best killing power in the game would.

Necro: Necrotic Void (portal skill)

Mesmer: Signet of Inspiration – Passive: 25% movement speed increase; Active: Grant a random boon (Protection 3s, Regeneration 10s, Swiftness 10s, Fury 5s, etc) to yourself and nearby allies. (Activation: 1/2s; Recharge: 40s)

Just an idea.

ha! it is always the same. always the mesmers are going to be nerved. Why? only because of our illusions, phantasm or this portal?
everywhere it is the same, all players are talking about the “kittenty” mesmers, how weak they are and how unfair the illusions would be. but if you ever joined into a JP, there is always the same: “is there any mesmer for PORTAL?”
we mesmers are only good enough for the portals, elsewhere we are marked as “weak” , unnecesssary and unfair (nearly cheating)! its the same with the thieves: 90% of the battle they could be invisible. i dont want to disrupt their skills and so on. its their profession. so stop this balancing kitten and let us play as it is. could be possible that the engis are somehow UP, so stop nerving mesmers (you can nearly read nerves for the mesmers in every changelog!) and start focusing the engis.

… nerving mesmers because some kiddis are whining – if they think that mesmers are soo “unfair” then they also should play this profession!

PS: Kittenty = s()hitty (changed by the forum)

This 1,000 times. People need to start wondering about how professions should get buffs not nerfs.

yeah thats true! always this complaining =P

Runcore.5107:

I just want for thieves some compensation and I dont care if this compensation will be portal or something else

Friendly advise: If you’re the strongest, it’s natural the other get buffs while you don’t.
That’s just… well… how it’s going to be.

Thieves are absolutely horrible to fight right now, largely because not only do they do solid damage and have great burst, they also can very easily escape. In a game where the frontlines have to falter to push the enemy back, that’s a very strong advantage.

It’s also kinda easy to draw people away from the main group as a result of this. Tease them out.

Mind you, all cool with me, but I also agree Thieves are just… well… spoiled. Great defence, great offence, nice support.

Yeah, Thieves definitely need portals…while you’re at it, why don’t the Thieves ask for the following, I mean since they have absolutely nothing going for them right now:

1. Jets
2. Submarines
3. The ability to fly just in case your jet’s out of fuel
4. Machine guns
5. “Lasers” coming from your eyes
6. More damage and survivability (we all know “how hard it is for Thieves to survive”)
7. Instead of stealth, the ability to instantly log out of GW2 whenever you’re attacked
8. Bat Man’s belt
9. Wonder Woman’s hair
10. A good hard kick in the sack for being clowns
11. The lowest skill cap in the game…oh wait…
12. A brain and some ruby slippers
13. The Colonel’s secret recipe
14. Find out why Kim Kardashian let herself get knocked up by Kanye…of all people, really? Really?

Runcore.5107:

I just want for thieves some compensation and I dont care if this compensation will be portal or something else but Necromancers, Rangers and Elementalists have our +25% speed signets so I want something from them in return for our original signet and this portal is nice candidate for give to thieves as compensation for our stolen speed signet. They have something which belong to thief so thief want something what belong to other clasess. Its so easy. Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.

I dont know on which dream cloud you live now but we live on world of trade which mean I give you something and you give me something in return. Developers still owe something to thieves for steal their original signet and giving it to other classes.

Firstly, mesmers never got your signet. So its not a straight up, mesmers got 25% so we should have their portal.

Secondly, the Developers don’t owe you anything. If something is on the more powerfull side, its supposed to get nerfed, not nerfed then buffed.

Thirdly, When that changed happened, thiefs got 50% faster speed while in stealth trait.

TLDR; Quit crying, thiefs don’t need portal.

What makes you think because they spread Portal around you deserve something else to make up for it?

Mesmer right now is already one of the better classes in the game, and has quite a bit of utility.

Xsorus.2507:

What makes you think because they spread Portal around you deserve something else to make up for it?

Because your second line isn’t true and is just a lie spread by bad PvP players when in the actual game Mesmer are quite deficient in a number of ways (speed buffs, build variety, bugs, traits, DE tagging etc).

Levetty.1279:

Xsorus.2507:

What makes you think because they spread Portal around you deserve something else to make up for it?

Because your second line isn’t true and is just a lie spread by bad PvP players when in the actual game Mesmer are quite deficient in a number of ways (speed buffs, build variety, bugs, traits, DE tagging etc).

Rofl..Oh you’re right…Everyone just thinks Mesmer’s are just awful, except the few vocal bad pvpers grin

My personal favorite part of your post is how you’re deficient in basically what every other class is deficient in lol

What Xsorus said. It really just blows my mind how much whining and complaining people do instead of getting out there and trying new things and practicing. Use your brain people and quit expecting you should just be handed everything. Do you think Osicat thinks of themself as a portal bot even tho they use portals extensively in their tactics? Do you think Osi or Flimp or Seven or Pyro or any of the other mesmers on here posting builds and sharing ideas think that Mesmer is weak? Seriously people use your imagination and go play your char or go roll another class and go cry on their forum when you find everything isn’t easy instant gratification instead of this one.

All that is said in most transcripts is that Portal is “giving them problems”. I’m very interested in hearing what those problems are and why they believe giving this class-specific ability to the others fixes them. Wish they would’ve gone into that with a little more detail.

Xsorus.2507:

Levetty.1279:

Xsorus.2507:

What makes you think because they spread Portal around you deserve something else to make up for it?

Because your second line isn’t true and is just a lie spread by bad PvP players when in the actual game Mesmer are quite deficient in a number of ways (speed buffs, build variety, bugs, traits, DE tagging etc).

Rofl..Oh you’re right…Everyone just thinks Mesmer’s are just awful, except the few vocal bad pvpers grin

My personal favorite part of your post is how you’re deficient in basically what every other class is deficient in lol

Yeah because I said Mesmers were awful. Can you read?

Every class is deficient in those? Lets see

Speed – Every class except Mesmer has perma swiftness or close enough or a 25% speed signet. Or both. And then maybe some 600-1200 leaps as well.

Bugs – True every class has them. Mesmer is the only class where every time somebody asks for one to be fixed they get greeted with some variation of ‘shut up noob Mesmer is OP and you want buffs lol’

Bad traits – A few classes share this problem but see my comment about bugs.

Build variety – All classes could use more but Mesmers have shatter and maybe confusion based stuff in small fights in WvWvW. The only class with the same or less is Ranger who has traps and maybe a beastmaster in open PvE. See comments on bugs for what happens when Mesmer asks for buffs to fix this.

DE Tagging – Nope this is purely a Mesmer problem, the only time a other class has it is in extreme cases like the Lost Shore event.

Really, I would be GLAD to share portals with select classes such as Engineer or Necro (my GOD thief does NOT need more mobility options) if Mesmer can get some more non-combat mobility options. The fact that my mesmer has to rely on Runes or other people for speed buffs is bonk. My portal doesn’t help me keep up with the group. My portal doesn’t help me run across the map. I do see portal as a mesmer key ability – you’re an illusionist, and being able to disappear and reappear in a different place is central to that… but if that ability being exclusive also means movement speed is excluded from being, yeah. But then, wouldn’t this change just be even more homogenization?

As others have said, though, trends like this worry me. You can’t make classes on the exact same level without making them exactly the same… which makes it boring. Moves like this would be doing exactly that. I’ve always found our craptastic lack of stability options (so mesmers can be stunned, crippled, dazed, knocked down, etc up the wazoo) already as a movement penalty. You are pretty much guaranteed your CC will stick on a mesmer if you hit them.

We’ll see how the game goes. I like the current diversity, and would like to see “balance” moves go for even bigger differences. No “this class” or “this move” always counters “that class” or “that move”, but rather creative use of that skill and class to win.

Guild wars 2 is ALMOST clone wars – sharing unique skills WILL make it clone wars. There is allready a portal gun that you can buy in pve. . . . so any profession has the ability to create a portal (in pve)
If portal is disrupting WvW then just cause damage to any ally using it (the zerg wont be so keen to use the portal if they arrive at 50% health). . . . .and if portal IS causing problems in WvW then surely the last thing to do is to give access to it for more professions

One problem with Thief getting portal is the perma-stealth trick (not related to culling). Granted a perma-stealth thief gives up a lot to establish the perma-stealth trait build — however that doesn’t impact the role (perma-stealth thief doesn’t exist to DPS).

So imagine the sweeps that would have to happen to find perma-stealth thieves after taking a keep. Although a mesmer/thief team can accomplish the same thing (thief rez on mesmer after the keep sweep).

I agree that Necros or Engi’s make sense. In the Necro’s case there’s already the underworld portal animations in-game that can be recycled.

As for a 25% speed boost, make it the Signet of Midnight passive. Its current passive is useless and a speed boost combined with the active AoE blind might make it desirable in melee situations.

Necromancer portal should provide a one-way portal that works similarly like the Mesmer’s, but everything that passes through gains a status where they lose 50% of their maximum health for 10 seconds, status does not stack.

I would make that work as a friend/foe portal for Necros. One way, enemies can take it but they lose health.