Guild Wars 2

I main a Necro, and even after getting the short end of the stick this patch, I find I still cant let it go. I just thought of a simple change to DS that would be very reasonable for everyone.

The solution is basically to have DS as a second lifebar. Literally. Swap out our red HP circle for a green one (some details have to be sorted out so we can see our HP too while in DS) and have a percentage number in there.

The benefits I can identify are:
1. It “synergises” with all our identified builds, namely power/juggermancer, hybrid/conditionmancer and MM.
2. Requires little programming changes.
3. Requires little DS UI changes (i.e. we can see conditions too).
4. It is in line with AN’s philosophy of our class mechanic – “to extend our life total further”.
5. Allows having access to our entire toolbar.
6. Although not new weapon-specific skills in DS, our DS skill are not limited to 4. Weapon swapping should still be possible.
7. If AN sees fit, our F2, F3 and F4 could still be the original DS #2, #3 and #4 skills. (Obviously, F1 is to enter/exit DS, thus losing our DS #1.)
8. Allows DS generation while in DS.

Point 8 can easily be interpreted as being OP. For example, the base dagger auto-attack chain grants 6% LF. Natural degen rate of DS is 4%/s, meaning you actually can stay in DS permanently. However, bear in mind you’re in melee range. Additionally, these suggestions would make up for our lack of escape mechanisms.

What are your thoughts?

I don’t really understand what you are asking ? You want in necromancers to be able to use all skills on the toolbar while in DS ? Or you just want the DS to have a toolbar that doesn’t hide everything else the necromancer has.

I for one sustain the idea to modify the placement of the DS bar… if you can split our health pool globe in half, make half of it green and place the DS bar there… that would actually feel more “necromancer-ish” and you should also have a chance to see the conditions being inflicted on you so you can decide your next course of action…

If you are talking about major changes to DS skills, or other things… i disagree… for now…

I’m saying to literally swap your HP for LF when entering DS. Nothing else changes (so you still have access to all your skills, weapon swapping, conditions and boons). Your idea sounds good, halving the circle to accommodate both LF and HP levels.

I already postet the same idea on the suggestion Forum. It got lost in all the posts in a matter of minutes.
Heres the Post: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Deathshroud-change/first#post962376

It also has another idea, introducing more ways to use the DS power, instead of just HP swapping. Using it to create an minion or apprentice to synergize with all our possible ways of play…

I get where your going but I think it would suffer from the following issues
a) It would be incredibly boring if it offered no unique skills, you could have the same experience by stacking vitality on any other class
b) Gaining LF while in LF (with the exception of life transfer) would be a little OP
c) I think it would be a little OP, I get the impression Anet want us to use DS tactically as opposed to a second life button

Some form of DS dump would be interesting, like a unique summon aoe bleed and chill, next 3 abilities crit – could be tailored for each individual spec

Oooh, to expand on that.

For starters the DS bar could replace our Health Orb, and just turn green instead.

But also let each health bar (normal and DS) have their own set of condition bars, say for example, someone jumps you can puts 10x bleed on you, you jump into death shroud and it freezes those bleeds on your normal bar.

You then get chilled/burned, you drop out of DS and it freezes the chill/burn, and resumes the x10 bleed tics. You can then have a skill that transfers conditions on your normal HP bar to your DS bar.

This DS wouldn’t change your hotbar, instead you just now have f2-f4 skills as well one of which could be this condition transfer skill. Maybe give us the ability to swap out DS f2-f4 skills, we could have our normal ones, plus under water ones, and some new ones for customization.

Also, instead of life blast, while in death shroud your normal weapon skills will be improved in some regard, auto attacks would be improved in dmg to sort of be your life blast that takes on the attributes of that attack (Staff – Long/Pierce/Sceptre – Condition/Axe – Cleave/Dagger – Extra LF)

It could also improve your other weapon skills slightly, just more dmg or something if they want to keep it simple.

Anyway, with this we could swap between hp bars that have seperate condition stacks that get frozen so we can truly manage conditions on ourselves and transfer them to people. To add to this, we could also get another skill to siphon our own conditions (only our own) off a target onto outselves to be frozen and spread.

The frozen conditions should probably only last for 1.5x their duration + 5 seconds or so. So for example : I freeze a 10 second burn in my DS, it gets a seperate timer for 20 seconds which is how long it can be frozen. Jump in DS and it starts ticking down from 10 seconds again, freeze it again and it’s frozen timer starts ticking down again, til it’s gone.

UI wise, our Health globe can be normal as red, with a green border on one side to represent our life force bar. And when swapped globe will be green with a red border on one side to represent our HP. Or of course just continue using our regular life force bar on the left and change our hp globe to green when in DS.

We could have a second condition bar for our DS, on the left where it’s life force bar is instead, and have the conditions greyed out when they’re inactive.

If anyone has played Allods Online, I’m sort of thinking of the Paladin who had barriers that would absorb the biggest hit of dmg, and they would detonate after 10 seconds, you could swap them around, freeze them, reduce the dmg in them, basically managing the dmg you’re taking with the barrier mechanic.