Guild Wars 2

According to the patch notes, we had 16 traits that were nonfunctional when a Necromancer was downed. And people wonder why this profession feels like a joke sometimes. Thanks for fixing the bugs, but what the hell how was this allowed to happen in the first place.

I did giggle when i saw that. x)

Surprised they didnt stealth fix them. They usually dont admit to such major bugs if they can help it.

I guess this show that anet is actually looking into the necro class. Maybe this shows that the support is finally coming?

Those traits were probably why all my minions died when i went into the downed state.

My guess is when they decided not to make death shroud our class mechanic, instead of our downstate, they shiv’d in our downstate without backing out everything else.

I’m really not sure how big of a difference this will make – possibly making us a bit more of a threat when downed if we’ve invested in the blood traitline?

So it’s pretty much confirmed that Foot in the Grave grants only a single stack of stability?

Godless.1857:

My guess is when they decided not to make death shroud our class mechanic, instead of our downstate, they shiv’d in our downstate without backing out everything else.

I’m really not sure how big of a difference this will make – possibly making us a bit more of a threat when downed if we’ve invested in the blood traitline?

Thats my guess aswell. Unfortunately we only noticed the bugged health pool in downstate as a result of that. They took long enough to fix that. Surprised they didnt notice everything else when they were looking into that. I suppose we should be grateful they are now fixed. Even if we didnt know about them until now. ;>

Atherakhia.4086:

So it’s pretty much confirmed that Foot in the Grave grants only a single stack of stability?

Yes.

Godless.1857:

I’m really not sure how big of a difference this will make – possibly making us a bit more of a threat when downed if we’ve invested in the blood traitline?

For the majority of these traits it doesn’t make a huge deal right now. When/If siphoning is fixed it will make downed Necromancers (that have the traits) the hardest profession to kill without a stomp, pretty easily. It matters a lot for MM though, since Flesh of the Master was killing all minions when we were downed, which makes a big difference.

@spoj, its possible some of these issues weren’t a problem then. I know for sure that a number of the minion ones were introduced long after the downed HP problem.

Godless.1857:

My guess is when they decided not to make death shroud our class mechanic, instead of our downstate, they shiv’d in our downstate without backing out everything else.

I’m really not sure how big of a difference this will make – possibly making us a bit more of a threat when downed if we’ve invested in the blood traitline?

Sometimes, when I was feeling especially goofy in PvE, I would run a build that had a pile of siphoning traits, some toughness or healing power, and the “increased damage when downed” trait. When finishers aren’t part of the equation, you can laze around on the ground and drain your enemies for a rather long time even if you don’t finish one off.

I may have been lucky and using that build at a time that Bloodthirst was both 50% boost and worked in Down State, but I’m really curious if I can make that work again.

Edit -

Those traits were probably why all my minions died when i went into the downed state.

I think you’ve got it. If you had Flesh of the Master equipped, then it suddenly stopped working because you entered Downed state, it would probably trigger the “when this trait is unequipped, all minions are killed” clause.

They fixed a state where we are supposed to be… in the downstate (according to them).
More important is, that ping-pong wvw necro, now will be a thing. Correct me if i’m wrong (my client is still updating) Foot in the Grave is 1 stack for 3 sec, right?

Here are the full Necro patch notes (rather than making a new thread):

Necromancer

• Life Leech (Downed State): Updated the skill facts of this ability to be accurate.
• Flesh Wurm: This skill will no longer activate if a valid path to the target point cannot be found.
• Plague: This ability now grants 3 stacks of stability every 3 seconds, with a 3-second duration.
• Lich Form: This ability now grants 1 stack of stability every 3 seconds, with a 3-second duration.

The following necromancer traits will now remain active when the necromancer enters the downed state:

Death Magic

• Minion Master
• Flesh of the Master
• Death Nova
• Necromantic Corruption
• Deadly Strength

Blood Magic

• Bloodthirst
• Vampiric Precision
• Vampiric Master
• Vampiric Rituals
• Vampiric

Curses

• Withering Precision
• Barbed Precision

Soul Reaping

• Master of Terror

Spite

• Training of the Master
• Chill of Death
• Close to Death

Avruk.2953:

They fixed a state where we are supposed to be… in the downstate.
More important is, that ping-pong wvw necro, now will be a thing. Correct me if i’m wrong (my client is still updating) Foot in the Grave is 1 stack for 3 sec, right?

From the notes -

• Stability: This boon has been changed from a duration stack type to an intensity stack type. Crowd-control effects will remove one instance of stability apiece each time they are applied. Each ability and trait has been adjusted to apply a certain number of stacks. All instances of stability not listed in these release notes will remain at one stack.

So it looks like you are right. I hold out hope they may balance it further once this first stability change is out.

edit: formating the relevant section

so plague get 3 stack of stability every 3 seconds but lich doesnt

One Stack to Lich, 3 stacks to Plague..

HAHAHHAH oh man, I know it reapplys but okay yep Liches get ready to fly around…

Still wondering what this means for flesh wurm. It’ll kill the whole skill if the stunbreak just doesn’t work.

Roe.3679:

Still wondering what this means for flesh wurm. It’ll kill the whole skill if the stunbreak just doesn’t work.

Heard from someone that all of the TP locations still work.

Tadsoul.6951:

so plague get 3 stack of stability every 3 seconds but lich doesnt

Yeah, it’s on the same tier as Tornado/Whirlpool and guardian Tomes (with the Elite focus skill). I’m not sure what criteria they’re using to decide who gets what, but it looks like it’s based on the current perceived strength of each elite.

Feels like a nerf to lich. Also foot in the grave if only one stack went from questionable to laughable

Roe.3679:

Feels like a nerf to lich. Also foot in the grave if only one stack went from questionable to laughable

Yep it’s almost completely useless as opposed to being mostly useless now. They should change it to apply 1 stack every 3 seconds in DS. Then it would be good.

Honestly, with other classes like Ele getting 10 stacks! 10! in armor of earth, lol oh my. Like we didnt get much to begin with, I would recommend everyone just expect NOT to have stability, maybe with plague…

The game just recentered around stability. The classes without it have taken an odd nerf. An indirect one. I can say that we might be able to corrupt the stability to make up with it, but with some classes having so many skills to put it back on… yeah I just don’t see it as viable.

As for the bugs, in down state. facepalm Thanks for uh fixing those finally…

Bhawb.7408:

Atherakhia.4086:

So it’s pretty much confirmed that Foot in the Grave grants only a single stack of stability?

Yes.

That’s a bummer. I really enjoyed the trait but 1 stack is pretty crappy.

otetas.9675:

I guess this show that anet is actually looking into the necro class. Maybe this shows that the support is finally coming?

Or it means that the new Necromancer specialization is centered around being in the downed state. So they had to work on it. Mwhaha.

I used to have master of terror in most of my builds and the sorry downed state always kittened me off.

With Revenant coming with an entire legend of “immune to necromancer downed state,” I think it is time to revisit how sorry the state is.

Will siphoned power (edit) now give us one stack of might every time we downed state channel, or only when we downed state health below 25% channel? Rofl rofl.

In other news, That’s an awful nerf to lich form. Foot in the grave which was already underpowered is now useless.

We’ll see how bad the Wurm now is.

RIP FitG

From “Sometimes used” to “Never be seeing that thing used by me again”

How many stacks of stability do Necro fears remove? It seems like there are a lot of multiple stacks of stability available to other professions.

Do we have to hit someone with 10 fears in 3 seconds?

nekretaal.6485:

Will close to death now give us one stack of might every time we downed state channel, or only when we downed state health below 25% channel? Rofl rofl.

In other news, That’s an awful nerf to lich form. Foot in the grave which was already underpowered is now useless.

We’ll see how bad the Wurm now is.

Close to Death is the trait that gives 20% bonus damage on targets at <50% health. Are you thinking of Siphoned Power?

The stability changes seem to have been unkind to Necromancers. I’ll have to wait a while and see how it pans out for everyone else, but I’ll admit they look pretty bad.

I’m not sure what the Wurm change means entirely, just yet. But it looks like you can no longer place the wurm at a location that you can’t teleport to, so hopefully less people will experience the “Popped wurm, teleported only 2 feet” problem?

GoogleBrandon.5073:

RIP FitG

From “Sometimes used” to “Never be seeing that thing used by me again”

And another grandmaster nerfed into uselessness…

How i miss you old withering precision…

Muchacho.2390:

GoogleBrandon.5073:

RIP FitG

From “Sometimes used” to “Never be seeing that thing used by me again”

And another grandmaster nerfed into uselessness…

How i miss you old withering precision…

I would roll FitG into Speed of Shadows or Fear of Death. Both could use a minor improvement.

GoogleBrandon.5073:

RIP FitG

From “Sometimes used” to “Never be seeing that thing used by me again”

Another example of anet making game wide changes and because they dont understand necro at all it ends up getting nerfed in places it doesnt need it

Dont worry though. In about 12 months foot in the grave will go from 1 stack to 2 stacks

Lordrosicky.5813:

Dont worry though. In about 12 months foot in the grave will go from 1 stack to 2 stacks

That’s after they decide stability in Lich Form is too good and remove it entirely.

Lordrosicky.5813:

Dont worry though. In about 12 months foot in the grave will go from 1 stack to 2 stacks

LOL

I used to battle between using fitg or death perception, at least thats cleared up.

rampager and rampage as one for sure got a buff as its still hard to interupt but now corrupting their stability is useless as for lich situational nerf i think it more of a nerf then buff

Now that health and traits are fixed in downed state, what downed state bugs will be discovered next?

inb4 Deathshroud jokes.

I honestly feel like Lich was buffed in most situations. 1 stack every 3 seconds is a buff against anyone who can’t strip the stability, and since Lich should really only be used in teamfights that is pretty much always a buff.

Basically, its a nerf against idiots and people who had no stability strips, and a buff everywhere else.

spoj.9672:

I did giggle when i saw that. x)

Surprised they didnt stealth fix them. They usually dont admit to such major bugs if they can help it.

maybe they just needed something to make the patchnotes look bigger.

“Look guys, we’re actually doing something, look!”

Or, maybe when they looked into why Flesh of the Master was killing our minions, they noticed that none of these traits were working in that situation and fixed them all.

I knew that two of the MM traits – Flesh of the Master and Death Nova – didn’t work, because your minions exploded as soon as you went down, and they didn’t leave novas.

But jesus christ, 16 traits.

Might fixing these traits actually constitute a meaty buff to the class?

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Or, maybe when they looked into why Flesh of the Master was killing our minions, they noticed that none of these traits were working in that situation and fixed them all.

That’s what I’m expecting.

Well a meaty buff to our downstate isnt exactly a meaty buff to the class in general. ;3

Its a buff to MM, especially in really close fights where your minions staying alive might mean the difference between losing and winning, but otherwise the majority of these traits are rarely/never taken and won’t make a difference.

spoj.9672:

Well a meaty buff to our downstate isnt exactly a meaty buff to the class in general. ;3

Hah!

Depends on how much time you spend in down state… (?_??)

I’m looking at Barbed Precision, Vampiric Precision, Vampiric and Bloodthirst in particular. Our downstate 1 is a rapid-fire effect which means it benefits a lot from on-crit procs. It’s probably not what you think of when you think ‘op nerf anet plox’ but Vampiric alone would significantly reduce how quickly we bleed out.

Maybe I’m just overthinking this, though.

Also Master of Terror working is just a flat buff to condi necros. An extra second on downedstate Fear seems like a big deal against classes which can’t ensure the stomp.

havent fully tested it but this patch seems like a nerf to wurm
for instance you cant put the wurm up on the walls of towers and keep in wvw
however if you succeed in placing your wurm and it’s in a spot where the teleport can’t work the skill will still activate

Kilger.5490:

I used to battle between using fitg or death perception, at least thats cleared up.

My only battle between the two was if I had a guard in my party in WvW. This change kinda clenches it though as I am not gonna have to make the decision again.

RIP FitG, your usefulness was questionable, situational, and will be easily forgotten.

P.S. to those that didn’t partake of the first beta weekends DS used to offer stability (unlimited) whenever you entered it. Although this was over powered, it amazes me how far anet is willing to turn down the dial in the name of “balance”.

May we hope that DS is also viewed as a Down State?
…
Nevermind, that was a joke.

End of the terror mancer, beginning of the warrior =D

otetas.9675:

I guess this show that anet is actually looking into the necro class. Maybe this shows that the support is finally coming?

Sure…

Targuil.3741:

Now that health and traits are fixed in downed state, what downed state bugs will be discovered next?

inb4 Deathshroud jokes.

I wonder if they fixed the Mesmer’s Harmonious Mantras which also appears to deactivate when you enter the down state. (I don’t think they even fixed Harmonious Mantras deactivating when your level scaled (as the Necro’s traits suffered from too) so probably not).

I don’t see anything about it in the patch notes, but it seems to be a similar issue to Necro’s down state.