Guild Wars 2

So rumor has it, Arenanet is finally, since release, taking a second look (better handle on attrition) but not a serious look (no blocks, stability, etc) at the necromancer. Because of this my biggest concern, besides the bugs, is that the necro still will not be able to create the opportunities to get their skills off. Am I wrong to worry that this is the one area that will not get addressed?

They said necro CC abilities will get faster cast time including minion CC abilities as well.(golem charge cast time is ridiculous…..) The problem of having to eat CC will probably stay yeah. There was another discussion though that they are looking into stunbreakers of the game as a whole.

I don’t worry too much. I’ve seen enough and get used to this kind of “updates” already. Anything more than bug fix/tooltip fix is already “impressive” in my dictionary.

However I’m worry about all those people when I see half the page being filled with “suggestions”. I hope they won’t have too much disappointment when they see the patch note.

I must admit I’m not very optimistic on Anet’s balancing. But that’s a result of 7 years of GW and almost 1 year of GW2.

Not wrong to worry, just a Necromancer. You will savor this moment for the rest of your life.

From what I gather from community response, ArenaNet is very aware of the specific problems Necromancers face in all game types. However they are careful when balancing the game, preferring to go slow and steady until a profession is no longer underpowered over a yo-yo policy where one class is underpowered one month, and overpowered the next.
I like to think of it like this: if one profession is lacking, that makes 1/8 of the game population angry. If you then make that class too powerful, 7/8 of the game population starts complaining. It sucks for us right now, but from their point of view it’s better than that alternative.
So I don’t expect our class to be overpowered at the end of this month. I don’t expect us to get a ground-targeted teleport, extra stun breakers, stability on Spectral Armor, and a trait that applies burning when you cripple someone.
I expect some little changes, and I’m excited about it because I love to make builds that abuse little things in the game. And most of all I’m excited that the developers want to add changes to the class that add to our profession identity rather than subtract from it. A large amount of suggestions I see on this forum would make our profession act more like a Guardian or an Elementalist, and that’s not what any of us want (or we would be playing Guardians and Elementalists).

I just hope it doesn’t go the route of the recent Engineer “fixes”. There’d be minor bumps in skills or traits no one uses, and a popular trait would get nerfhammered into the ground.

danbuter.2314:

I just hope it doesn’t go the route of the recent Engineer “fixes”. There’d be minor bumps in skills or traits no one uses, and a popular trait would get nerfhammered into the ground.

Well, the point in balancing is to increase the power of things that are considered useless while reducing the power of things so good they’ve become essential.

Edit: What I’m getting at is, if they buff a trait, don’t complain that they buffed “the trait nobody uses”, since that’s probably why they buffed it at all.

They did note, that a necro currently get’s 1 CC on them, then it’s like getting hit by a train. That by the time our interrupts cast, it’s too late.

They said they didn’t want to give us stability as we’d just be guardians Shrugs.

Sounds like they are doing a huge re-work of DShroud, with the idea of using it properly for mitigation, not with just CC, but also even vs groups.

Afya.5842:

I don’t worry too much. I’ve seen enough and get used to this kind of “updates” already. Anything more than bug fix/tooltip fix is already “impressive” in my dictionary.

However I’m worry about all those people when I see half the page being filled with “suggestions”. I hope they won’t have too much disappointment when they see the patch note.

I must admit I’m not very optimistic on Anet’s balancing. But that’s a result of 7 years of GW and almost 1 year of GW2.

Look on bright side. You know how anet works so you won’t be crying later. Some people keep getting lied to and yet still believe and eat every promise that follows. Gullibility level – “internet facts”.

I jumped off blizzard ship as soon as they got sold(I miss blizzard – having actual gms and devs show up if there is a real issue… yeah… gl with that here). Wondered around with no decent large MMO for years. Decided to pre-order GW2 because I heard/seen a lot of good things about first one. My initial awe at level of care put into level design long wore off. And the only class I wanted to play is garbage. Maybe the joke is on me… but I sure as hell won’t take anet seriously 9 months and dozens of promises later.

People expect a miracle patch. What they will get most likely will be far from it. In best case scenario perhaps they will tweak a few traits. Do some “tooltip fixes”. And won’t flood this class with too many bugs. Imagine the worst case scenario.

Considering all their “content” updates are measly timed 1 quest long achievement hunts with some more limited time item shop crap… Yeah… Sure… major changes incoming. And god I’m so sick of this timed crap they keep spewing every month…

I just honestly hope they don’t overbuff us. I agree with us getting a few improvements but we’re not exactly rubbish at the moment either. I’m hoping the changes will mostly affect skills and traits that are currently useless rather than the ones that are already strong.

I hate playing classes that are overly powerful. People stop giving you merit for improving and being good at them and only focus on calling you a noob for playing them.

What my quaggan buddyShalla wrote.

The simple Weakness buff is a great improvement to the necromancer. Combine it with a possible access to buring, a new DS skill with a completely new condition AND a stronger Life Force generation… you can see where I’m going… ohh + other trait changes

What I think we should remember though is – not only the necro is getting buffs and changes. Weakness change helps hammer warriors or earth eles for instance. Make weakness worth speccing for and you open many new build possibilities.

If there’s one thing we (or at least I) learned since the release, it surely is patience
Let’s just wait and see what we’ve got in store.

leman.7682:

What my quaggan buddyShalla wrote.

The simple Weakness buff is a great improvement to the necromancer. Combine it with a possible access to buring, a new DS skill with a completely new condition AND a stronger Life Force generation… you can see where I’m going… ohh + other trait changes

What I think we should remember though is – not only the necro is getting buffs and changes. Weakness change helps hammer warriors or earth eles for instance. Make weakness worth speccing for and you open many new build possibilities.

If there’s one thing we (or at least I) learned since the release, it surely is patience
Let’s just wait and see what we’ve got in store.

And thieves. Thieves are actually the best class at applying and keeping weakness permanently on a target.

Ok, thanks all for chiming in. Judging from the replies so far, it would seem that I’m not wrong to worry. To just touch on some of the highlights I’ve seen so far:

1. Faster Cast Times – this would not really help unless they give us more instant cast abilities. As long as the skill have a cast time, its a skill you’re not going to get to use when you’re the ball in table tennis.

2. Stun Breaks – these serve their purpose just fine, unless you have five pair of eyes looking at you necro. They know you are not going to devote all of your utilities for stun breaks. Even if you did, you can only equip 3 of them while each of those five pair of eyes is slotting at least 2 or more stuns with your necro name all over them. In the end, Stun Breaks will not help you get your skills off.

There are only three ways that nearly guarantees skill cast completion. 1)Stability – and we know where Arenanet stands on this. 2)Blocks – necro by Arenanet’s definition automatically means no returns of the number 0 damage for the enemy. You have access to protection, what more do you want? 3)Blind – the necro’s only true form of damage mitigation. The only questions here is, are they going to increase our access to it? And will it include a WoD effect-type for ranged enemies?

The reason I’m worried is because I don’t see Arenanet increasing our attrition effectiveness to a level that we can get by without some form of the above mentioned Big 3. Namely, I don’t see them increasing our life force gains by any significant levels, especially if they are looking to have necros regenerate health while in DS. Too much of an increase in either LF gains or healing in DS (or worse, both) will automatically mean 30 points in SR, no matter the build.

I’m most looking forward to DS doing more damage in melee range. The damage boost, even at full LF, is so minimal I pretty much juts save LF to eat hits…

Draehl.2681:

I’m most looking forward to DS doing more damage in melee range. The damage boost, even at full LF, is so minimal I pretty much juts save LF to eat hits…

What do you mean by minimal? because by the looks of it you mean double = minimal.