I know I haven’t been super active on the forums in the past few years, however this is still a topic I always come back to due to the feeling of necessity that this has.
One major issue of shroud as a defensive and offensive mechanic is its limited skill bar. 5 skills limit proves that, although functional, it doesn’t lend itself well to the play style the Devs have been trying to push for the necromancer since day one. Without utility primarily, the necromancer has very little counter play in shroud. Relying on the skill swap trigger and these limited 5 skills to execute what they need. It almost becomes a buffer period in the necromancer’s strategy. Although Kills can take place in Shroud, I’ve done it multiple time, it is not optimal, even in the far superior reaper’s shroud. And I’m not talking about optimal in comparison to other professions, only compared to necromancer’s own abilities.
Shroud almost feels like a loading screen at times were I’m just waiting to get back into the combat due to its rather disconnected nature. I work very hard to work it into my strategy but even on shroud heavy builds, such as my power build, I do not prefer to be in shroud.
Preventing shroud from having the 6-0 skills does stifle the design space the necromancer has. Giving them access to those skills would allow for some unique skill design for later elite specs as well as give necromancer’s an out when in shroud rather then waiting to actually doing something. Giving necromancer as much time as possible to gain control of the situation is something they do need for shroud. As the tells in shroud and the skills themselves, although have control elements, Don’t give the necromancer much control in those situations. Rather the opposite is true, they lose control of the situation, especially if they’re forced into shroud. Which is a problem when talking about an attrition mechanic.
Healing skills: Now, the Elephant in the room is skill 6. People will always say that the necromancer being able to heal that significant amount of health in shroud is just too good. And I actually agree with you. But I’ve suggested solutions to this problem before. Still having this skill active to use, Prevent the healing from being able to trigger while in shroud. Why would we want a heal skill in shroud if we can’t use it? Well, the necromancer’s heal in shroud should act like utility. Well of blood has uses outside of its heal as a combo field and a means to heal allies. Signet of Vampirism’s passive should still trigger in shroud and its debuff would still be able to heal you like normal. Consume conditions would remove conditions. Blood Fiend is the only one in my opinion should actually heal you for its active both because its so fragile and because its active should flavorfully count as life stealing. Other than that, No healing for you in shroud. You want that you should drop out of it. But this gives the necromancer some unique play.
Utility: This is the biggest reason why anyone wants skills 6-0 in shroud. The utility skills are extremely important to the strategy of any profession. And the necromancer is no exception. Having access to this means that it would be much harder to control the movement of a necromancer through impairment and give necromancers the field control that they otherwise have outside of shroud. There is also always signets which can buff the effectiveness of the weakness that their passives sometimes seem to have. I’m not going to go too much into detail about how it should be balanced, since that isn’t for me to say. Some people might agree with the changes I’d suggest while others wouldn’t.. Often times i under shoot balance even though I often suggest sweeping changes.
Elites: The Elite skill is an interesting one. The transformations should absolutely drop the necromancer out of shroud. Although I dislike the transformations personally, and wish they had more utility with shroud, this isn’t a big deal in the long run. As for other elite skills, there isn’t much to say on this that differs from my opinion on utility. There are some benefits that i wont get into. You guys can imagine that yourself.