Guild Wars 2

Necromancers are receiving mostly quality-of-life changes in this update. Our goal was mainly to improve baseline abilities and improve signature abilities for main-hand weapons and Death Shroud, along with the spectral utility type. Rise has seen significant changes, as we’ve observed that the damage reduction from the minions is too strong in many scenarios.

Life Siphon: The channel time of this skill has been reduced from 3.75 seconds to 2.75 seconds.
Ghastly Claws: The channel time of this skill has been reduced from 2.25 seconds to 1.75 seconds.
Wicked Spiral: This skill will now fire the correct number of whirl finishers.
Mark of Horror: Fixed a bug in which this skill would go on full cooldown if it was interrupted.
Spectral Grasp: Reduced the cooldown from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.
Spectral Walk: Reduced the cooldown from 60 seconds to 50 seconds.
Spectral Armor: Reduced the cooldown from 50 seconds to 40 seconds. The trait version is unchanged. Removed an erroneous skill description.
Flesh Golem—Charge: Increased the stability stacks from 1 to 3. Usage of this skill now clears immobilize from the golem as well.
Spinal Shivers: This skill casts approximately 0.25 seconds faster than before.
Life Blast: The higher damage value of this skill is now dealt at all ranges rather than at close range only.
Blood Is Power: Bleeding stacks have been increased from 2 to 4. Bleeding duration has been reduced from 30 to 15. Might stacks have been increased from 8 to 10, with the duration increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.
“Rise!”: Reduced the damage reduction from 50% to 33%. Decreased the health of shambling horrors by 25%. Minions now have 20% reduced toughness.
Signet of Undeath: Reduced the cooldown of this skill from 180 seconds to 150 seconds.
Unholy Sanctuary: Fixed a bug in which this trait would go on cooldown even if the player’s life-force levels were too low to enter Death Shroud.
Spiteful Spirit: The version of Unholy Feast that this trait executes will now include the player’s weapon damage.

How can it be a a QoL patch when they touched up unused skills that will still be unused after?
They could have at least reduced the baseline DS degeneration, nerfed Vital Persistence of a matching amount, so Spectral Mastery finally was a viable choice.

As usual what works got nerfed.

I’ve switched to Necromancer as my main and greatly feared this balance patch (as I do all balance/QoL patches). At the very least they didn’t ruin my favorite builds. I’m feeling pretty good coming out of this one.

Spectral Attunement with Spectral Walk and Armour inc meta in sPvP!
I’m betting 100 copper on this.

Surprisingly enough it seems BiP dps has risen ever so slightly.

Charblaze.6958:

How can it be a a QoL patch when they touched up unused skills that will still be unused after?
They could have at least reduced the baseline DS degeneration, nerfed Vital Persistence of a matching amount, so Spectral Mastery finally was a viable choice.

As usual what works got nerfed.

My thoughts exactly. QoL patch? I don’t think they know what that means.

How about letting Marks hit downed enemies in WvW? Every other AOE from every other class does, why not Necros?

And the nerf to Rise? Really? What made them think that was required.

Horrible patch for Necros, yet again.

To Anet: does ANYONE on the staff main a Necro? Anyone? Especially in WvW?

As a base power necro who runs axe/focus, the changes are nice to life blast, ghastly claws, and spinal shivers. But I might be the only one in the game who is going to see those as a practical boost.

misterman.1530:

Charblaze.6958:

How can it be a a QoL patch when they touched up unused skills that will still be unused after?
They could have at least reduced the baseline DS degeneration, nerfed Vital Persistence of a matching amount, so Spectral Mastery finally was a viable choice.

As usual what works got nerfed.

My thoughts exactly. QoL patch? I don’t think they know what that means.

How about letting Marks hit downed enemies in WvW? Every other AOE from every other class does, why not Necros?

And the nerf to Rise? Really? What made them think that was required.

Horrible patch for Necros, yet again.

To Anet: does ANYONE on the staff main a Necro? Anyone? Especially in WvW?

Especially anywhere

This is too funny. Unless I am mistaken, and I admit I threw up a little in my mouth and had to stop reading, take a look at all the buffs Mesmers got! Is Anet sane?

A lot of these changes were asked, so thanks Anet.
That’s not the important changes that everyone here wait for but we asked for those axe/focus/BiP/spectral skills change.

Maybe next patch you could teach the golem how to swim? Work a little on DS AA, dark path…? Work on those grandmaster traits with unpracticable effect?

So, they actually nerfed us more this is very sad. instead of giving us baseline vital presence, or give us another source of stability they actually nerfed us more. why not lets kill power necros cause the condition necros are strong

Dadnir.5038:

A lot of these changes were asked, so thanks Anet.
That’s not the important changes that everyone here wait for but we asked for those axe/focus/BiP/spectral skills change.

Maybe next patch you could teach the golem how to swim? Work a little on DS AA, dark path…? Work on those grandmaster traits with unpracticable effect?

Sorry. Just what changes to axe did we ask for that they addressed? When you cast Ghastly Claws – there’s a channeling. This channeling time has been decreased, which means less damage. Did someone in the Necro forum ask for this? How is this a good thing?

Hesacon.8735:

As a base power necro who runs axe/focus, the changes are nice to life blast, ghastly claws, and spinal shivers. But I might be the only one in the game who is going to see those as a practical boost.

-high five- I also thought I was the only one.

misterman.1530:

Sorry. Just what changes to axe did we ask for that they addressed? When you cast Ghastly Claws – there’s a channeling. This channeling time has been decreased, which means less damage. Did someone in the Necro forum ask for this? How is this a good thing?

The damage will be the same on axe, but it will be dished out quicker. This is good and bad because if you CC someone or surprise them, you can do the full “burst” without them being able to react, which is a good thing. On the other hand, one dodge can negate a lot of the damage. I think it’s overall a good change because long channels suck and skillful use of CC+burst will be rewarded.

Same for dagger – same amount of healing and damage on a shorter channel.

MethaneGas.8357:

misterman.1530:

Sorry. Just what changes to axe did we ask for that they addressed? When you cast Ghastly Claws – there’s a channeling. This channeling time has been decreased, which means less damage. Did someone in the Necro forum ask for this? How is this a good thing?

The damage will be the same on axe, but it will be dished out quicker. This is good and bad because if you CC someone or surprise them, you can do the full “burst” without them being able to react, which is a good thing. On the other hand, one dodge can negate a lot of the damage. I think it’s overall a good change because long channels suck and skillful use of CC+burst will be rewarded.

Same for dagger – same amount of healing and damage on a shorter channel.

Ah. That makes sense. Thank you.

Mea.5491:

Hesacon.8735:

As a base power necro who runs axe/focus, the changes are nice to life blast, ghastly claws, and spinal shivers. But I might be the only one in the game who is going to see those as a practical boost.

-high five- I also thought I was the only one.

Now there’s 3

Another patch, another set of necrovereactions.

koopatroopa.5360:

Mea.5491:

Hesacon.8735:

As a base power necro who runs axe/focus, the changes are nice to life blast, ghastly claws, and spinal shivers. But I might be the only one in the game who is going to see those as a practical boost.

-high five- I also thought I was the only one.

Now there’s 3

We should start a club. I don’t think people know how to react when they engage me 1v1 in wvw and see what I’m using.

Once upon a time there was a burst spec with Axe/focus… Not sure it’s enough for this spec to walk out of it’s grave.

Rise got destroyed…

Well, the first thing that sprang to mind after reading this is that we’ll be seeing even more condi builds in pvp now, and I guess in general. The only necro builds I’ve seen in pvp in any abundance other than condi builds are minion builds, but after the major nerfs now in that department….

Not that I personally blame anyone for playing builds that are meta, so I’m not one of those who makes snide comments to others players because they play condi. Unlike a lot of people, I don’t equate playing what’s meta with being a talentless player, just with people wanting to have the best build possible and wanting to win. But I do think it’s unfortunate when even close-second options are taken from us, and we’re left with really only one choice.

Side note, they nerfed Perplexity, so Scepter/warhorn condi necro is no longer good in WvW.

So the question has started to become, Has base necro returned as better then Reaper.

Nightshade.2570:

So the question has started to become, Has base necro returned as better than Reaper.

Reaper shroud still has Stability, mobility, and viable dhuumfire, so no. Also, curses/death magic/soul reaping hasn’t improved since the original specialization nerf, so it is likely about as effective as running around naked.

The Dagger #2 now feels more smooth. If we had a good ranged Power weapon instead of useless concept of Greatsword or Axe reworked to fill that niche, Power Reaper wouldn’t be that terrible.

Good change on Life Blast. Imo, they should rework more DS skills to be better at longer ranges – Dark Path teleport part of the it being a flip-over skill maybe?

SAD, ANET, SO SAD!Why have other classes gotten so many buffs that are actually useful while we get minor buffs on things which really don’t seemed used? Plus the “adjustment” to Rise! is another shovel full of dirt on Reaper’s grave. Hell. the buffs to Fleshie and BiP merely reverses most the the past nerfs (almost). Fact is the buffs to the other classes equals huge nerfs to us. Thanks for another wonderful patch. Would be nice if you at least let us use corruption skills without conditioning ourselves.

Also , yes base necro is better then reaper imo. Reaper shroud is still easily kited and the nerf to Rise! (which was at first an awesome defense)makes Reaper even more vulnerable. With all the boons showing up now how about adding boon stripping to axe.

Mea.5491:

Hesacon.8735:

As a base power necro who runs axe/focus, the changes are nice to life blast, ghastly claws, and spinal shivers. But I might be the only one in the game who is going to see those as a practical boost.

-high five- I also thought I was the only one.

Be assured, there are people that don’t just run the most popular builds that are pretty excited about these changes.

I run condi scepter/dagger and switch between staff and axe/focus. While the buffs to axe/focus give a little boost the other skill buffs are lackluster. My argument is that we seem to get weaker buffs and stronger nerfs then others. Reaper was awesome but now has been pretty much trounced. Power Repers are starting to make headway again but I still deal fairly easy with them unless they catch me off guard with low life force. But I will still play necro and try to adapt as always, just for the pleasure of beating class bandwagoneers. Might give minions more play, although wondering if the toughnes nerf applies to all minions and not just shamblers.

Every time I come back to this game, mediocre team balance remembers me why I left.

Actually necro’s made out pretty good. No nerfs except MAYBE the nightmare runes, and global condi removal looks to be nerfed with the removal of eles.

This could be significant for necros in the grand scheme of things

Azukas.1426:

Actually necro’s made out pretty good. No nerfs except MAYBE the nightmare runes, and global condi removal looks to be nerfed with the removal of eles.

This could be significant for necros in the grand scheme of things

I think Nightmare runes are actually just as good for Condi Reaper now, since they use Chilled to the bone anyway. Turns it into a strong condition clear plus AoE Blind for after they stunbreak.

Overall, I think we made out well, although I feel Rise could have done without the Shambling Horror survivability nerf. The damage transfer nerf was consistent among all similar skills, so I can’t get too upset over that.

I have been playing an MM necromancer. Granted that I have only played about an hour or so, after the update, it has felt pretty the same before and after. I am still very difficult to kill, and I can still kill the enemies in a reasonable amount of time. Perhaps, I may change my mind after playing a lot more, but so far I just don’t see much difference.

Cecilia.5179:

Rise got destroyed…

Really? 33% damage reduction is the same as having Protection boon up all the time.

dzeRnumbrd.6129:

Cecilia.5179:

Rise got destroyed…

Really? 33% damage reduction is the same as having Protection boon up all the time.

Except the minions need to hit something for it to activate.

Zenith.7301:

dzeRnumbrd.6129:

Cecilia.5179:

Rise got destroyed…

Really? 33% damage reduction is the same as having Protection boon up all the time.

Except the minions need to hit something for it to activate.

and now they die in 3 hits

Rym.1469:

The Dagger #2 now feels more smooth. If we had a good ranged Power weapon instead of useless concept of Greatsword or Axe reworked to fill that niche, Power Reaper wouldn’t be that terrible.

Good change on Life Blast. Imo, they should rework more DS skills to be better at longer ranges – Dark Path teleport part of the it being a flip-over skill maybe?

Dark Path should be ground targeted to give necro a bit more mobility. I can’t really go back to necro now I have a RS2 on the reaper.

Brokensunday.4098:

Zenith.7301:

dzeRnumbrd.6129:

Cecilia.5179:

Rise got destroyed…

Really? 33% damage reduction is the same as having Protection boon up all the time.

Except the minions need to hit something for it to activate.

and now they die in 3 hits

this skill went from good to mediocre

misterman.1530:

And the nerf to Rise? Really? What made them think that was required.

Why do people keep complaining about their 50% damage reduction skills being “over nerfed”? Can no one read?

All professions that had a skill that reduced damage by 50% got adjusted to 33%. This isn’t something specific to Necromancer. Rangers were crying about Guard being adjusted too. I would understand if it were only a few professions but it was all of them that had a skill with this kind of effect.

I’m really disgusted with these forums today. I know people always complain no matter what happens but this was a good patch and people are treating it like it’s going to be what makes them quit the game. For me, it’s probably going to be what makes me quit coming to the profession forums. Sick of seeing people who don’t know how to be grateful.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

I think Nightmare runes are actually just as good for Condi Reaper now, since they use Chilled to the bone anyway. Turns it into a strong condition clear plus AoE Blind for after they stunbreak..

I played around with it a bit after the patch, the AoE is too small for it to be reliable. Its very nearly melee range. You’re better off with Krait runes now.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Why do people keep complaining about their 50% damage reduction skills being “over nerfed”? Can no one read?

All professions that had a skill that reduced damage by 50% got adjusted to 33%. This isn’t something specific to Necromancer. Rangers were crying about Guard being adjusted too. I would understand if it were only a few professions but it was all of them that had a skill with this kind of effect.

Um, maybe because necros don’t have active defense? Where as other classes that may have also gotten adjusted do have active defense skills & options. So we of all classes really relied on something like Rise to stay alive when getting focused and trained on.

I get that people probably are desensitized because we’ve been the focus target #1 in all team fights since the dawn of time. So maybe some have gotten used to prison shower scenes and gave up on asking for active defense. But I just can’t stand it when fellow necros cheer on as the dev team continues to gut this class.

We’ve already been gutted from the vision that Robert Gee sold us when HoT launched. Chill damage & duration gutted, personal shroud stab nerfed, now Rise gutted harshly. Our Reaper elite spec went from having viable Power choices, to now stuck on spamming scepter 1’s as the meta continues to roll towards condi. And for what? All because the PvP dev team is incompetent and incapable of allowing each classes to have multiple viable builds. The nerf to Rise hurt both power & condi builds.

Nobody in PvE was saying Reapers had too much sustain, nobody in WvW said Reapers had too much sustain. We’re being gutted slowly but surely for the sake of PvP (im)balance. And here’s the funny part, majority of the pro tourney teams didn’t even use a reaper. And the teams that did, didn’t do very well.

Rise nerf was uncalled for, not when they didn’t give us something else in return that would increase our survivability. The nerf to Rise isn’t just 50% to 33%, but it’s also the nerfs to shambling horrors. We were already target #1, teams had no issues training necros down before. They’ll have even easier time focusing necros down now.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Why do people keep complaining about their 50% damage reduction skills being “over nerfed”? Can no one read?

All professions that had a skill that reduced damage by 50% got adjusted to 33%. This isn’t something specific to Necromancer. Rangers were crying about Guard being adjusted too. I would understand if it were only a few professions but it was all of them that had a skill with this kind of effect.

I’m really disgusted with these forums today. I know people always complain no matter what happens but this was a good patch and people are treating it like it’s going to be what makes them quit the game. For me, it’s probably going to be what makes me quit coming to the profession forums. Sick of seeing people who don’t know how to be grateful.

The problem isn’t the 50% going to 33%, it’s that now the rats you summon get instantly cleaved down. I mean, they were cleavable before, but people had to make a conscious effort to make that happen… Now Rise! only buys you maybe 3 seconds of mitigation if you’re anywhere near a teamfight (like you should be.)

for necros this patch was booooooooooooooooooooooooooring

Hmm, rise was always my favourite skill since the release of the reaper. Is has often saved my life in a massive zerg or in bossfights. Imho, with that change you can forget to play melee and you are stuck in range again because of the lack of real defense sigh. I was thinking to play gw2 again, after hearing of the release of a new LS, but with that changes, nope, I won’t do this. I’m just going to log-in for the free unlock of the LS. Maybe in a few months after i forget this patch. Qol for necros, how funny, but not for me.

Ramoth.9064:

for necros this patch was booooooooooooooooooooooooooring

I’ll take it over guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuted. Mind you to a MM it is a definite nerf, but being an optimist I prefer to think of it as more opportunities for death nova to proc.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

misterman.1530:

And the nerf to Rise? Really? What made them think that was required.

Why do people keep complaining about their 50% damage reduction skills being “over nerfed”? Can no one read?

All professions that had a skill that reduced damage by 50% got adjusted to 33%. This isn’t something specific to Necromancer. Rangers were crying about Guard being adjusted too. I would understand if it were only a few professions but it was all of them that had a skill with this kind of effect.

I’m really disgusted with these forums today. I know people always complain no matter what happens but this was a good patch and people are treating it like it’s going to be what makes them quit the game. For me, it’s probably going to be what makes me quit coming to the profession forums. Sick of seeing people who don’t know how to be grateful.

Why some ppl are so ignorant ?! did you even read the rest of the rise nerf ? if it only was the 33% reduction. they actually add a factor that the minion need to hit somthing AND the factor that the minion die much faster than level 80 firefly

MM was viable and preferred for a lot of stuff before HoT came out. No nerf to Rise is gonna change that. And Flesh Golem got better too!

BiP is a dps increase, because you are more likely to get more of the damage off on the enemy before it dies! more stacks over duration is always a plus.

Power definitely got a buff. The Axe skills, the AA in DS, etc. Much better options. I hated that Life Blast was most effective if it wasn’t using it’s awesome range.

Also I don’t understand this “logic” of “why are they buffing a skill nobody uses?” Umm… because no one is using it, so it needed to be made viable? I know other people understand this concept….

No reason for QQ people…

Also, more generally, they have slowly started doing skill splits between pvp and pve!! (glimmer of sunshine on the horizon, hope awakens…)

bearshaman.3421:

MM was viable and preferred for a lot of stuff before HoT came out. No nerf to Rise is gonna change that.

not sure if the minnion nerf was only to rise or all minions have to check

bearshaman.3421:

Power definitely got a buff. The Axe skills, the AA in DS, etc. Much better options. I hated that Life Blast was most effective if it wasn’t using it’s awesome range.

these changes where good but still they need to revert the axe trait nerf and buff axe 1 by a bit axe is still a garbage weappon

bearshaman.3421:

Also I don’t understand this “logic” of “why are they buffing a skill nobody uses?” Umm… because no one is using it, so it needed to be made viable? I know other people understand this concept….

the problem is not the buff is the mediocre buff no 1 is going to use them still

Brokensunday.4098:

bearshaman.3421:

MM was viable and preferred for a lot of stuff before HoT came out. No nerf to Rise is gonna change that.

not sure if the minnion nerf was only to rise or all minions have to check

bearshaman.3421:

Power definitely got a buff. The Axe skills, the AA in DS, etc. Much better options. I hated that Life Blast was most effective if it wasn’t using it’s awesome range.

these changes where good but still they need to revert the axe trait nerf and buff axe 1 by a bit axe is still a garbage weappon

bearshaman.3421:

Also I don’t understand this “logic” of “why are they buffing a skill nobody uses?” Umm… because no one is using it, so it needed to be made viable? I know other people understand this concept….

the problem is not the buff is the mediocre buff no 1 is going to use them still

Except that people are gonna use them. Change that to say “I won’t use them still”.

Your singular opinion is not all necro players. Some people embrace change and will try the new things they have been given.

Edit: As far as axe, I was never a fan of it mostly for stupid reasons (I didn’t like the way the AA looked). I will openly admit that’s a silly reason not to use it, but I have no idea of its effectiveness otherwise. So I won’t argue that one either way, and just say that this is still a buff, even if it isn’t enough of one.

bearshaman.3421:

Brokensunday.4098:

bearshaman.3421:

MM was viable and preferred for a lot of stuff before HoT came out. No nerf to Rise is gonna change that.

not sure if the minnion nerf was only to rise or all minions have to check

bearshaman.3421:

Power definitely got a buff. The Axe skills, the AA in DS, etc. Much better options. I hated that Life Blast was most effective if it wasn’t using it’s awesome range.

these changes where good but still they need to revert the axe trait nerf and buff axe 1 by a bit axe is still a garbage weappon

bearshaman.3421:

Also I don’t understand this “logic” of “why are they buffing a skill nobody uses?” Umm… because no one is using it, so it needed to be made viable? I know other people understand this concept….

the problem is not the buff is the mediocre buff no 1 is going to use them still

Except that people are gonna use them. Change that to say “I won’t use them still”.

Your singular opinion is not all necro players. Some people embrace change and will try the new things they have been given.

Edit: As far as axe, I was never a fan of it mostly for stupid reasons (I didn’t like the way the AA looked). I will openly admit that’s a silly reason not to use it, but I have no idea of its effectiveness otherwise. So I won’t argue that one either way, and just say that this is still a buff, even if it isn’t enough of one.

mm is only decent at pve because of the death novas and is mostly 2 skill rise and lich mark and is a condi build….now for pvp or wvw no 1 use it at a competitive level why may you ask is becase is bad…..
for axe is better than before for sure but still lacks damage and yes the animations are strange