So I have an idea for a grandmaster trait which is basicly is a variant of the the removed Withering Aura. This is not a unique idea and there is probably someone that made the exact same thing but here it is. I’m sorry if there are sentences that don’t make sense or typos. After staring at this text for too long I’ve become blind against such things.
The trait could be called “Withering Presence” (not aura as that is a different mechanic and might be confusing)
The idea is that when you have that every 10 seconds (while in combat) pulse out (the same area size as plague) 1 stack of poison with 5 seconds duration and 2,5 seconds of weakness. And it would still work while in DS, plague or lich form. It would also give the same effect to Flesh golem if that was active. I was thinking it could give an effect similar to to the the new guard elite signet(but green) to show you have it active so others can see and react to it better.
I was thinking this would be a grandmaster in deathmagic that would replace “Death nova” as I don’t like it =D. It still works as a minion trait(kind of).
This is supposed to be a defensive trait that also gives attrition. I have designed it for pvp but it could work in other modes as well. The logic behind this is that the poison is there to prevent healing which is why I only want it to be one stack. It’s not supposed to be about the dmg. The weakness is there as it more or less does the same thing as protection but in a more necromancy way. It also opens up more room for counterplay as condi cleanse is more accessiblefor all classes.
If someone doesn’t know, weakness gives reduce endurance regeneration by 50% and 50% of hits are Glancing Blows which means they do 50% less dmg.
It also works very well together with protection to reduce dmg taken which would open up necro for more teamplay.This would help necros be better in longer fights as foes heal less and does less dmg so you can slowly wear them down even if we have lower dps or lacking burst.
Now the trait may seem a bit weak with 5 sec poison and 2,5 sec weakness. But I thought that could be a good place to start. With 100% condi duration this would be 10 seconds of poison and 5 seconds of weakness, which means you have 100% poison upkeep from this skill alone and 50% upkeep on weakness if your opponent don’t use any condi cleanse. And if you would add flesh golem that also gets the trait you could have 100% upkeep on 2 stacks of poison(slightly more dmg for condi people) and close to 100% upkeep on weakness (weakness only stacks up to 5 times then resets) at 100% condi duration. If you go with a powerbuild without condi duration and you pick flesh golem it would give you 100% upkeep on 1 stack of poison and 50% upkeep on weakness. I think that would make it a good trait for all builds because of the survivability it could give you and make fleshgolem a bit more useful. This trait is basicly made to outlive foes.
There would still be enough counterplay I think at least. you can condi cleanse to heal or to burst and if you kill the fleshgolem the traits effectiveness would be reduced by half. That said putting your condi cleanse on cd and fail to heal or to burst might leave you leave you vulnerable for counterattacks. This is why I wanted it to pulse every 10 seconds. This makes condi cleanses rewarding if you cleanse at right after a pulse and but it’s still often enough to not be entirely countered.
Now this trait might be really good,really bad or just useless(The details of it like duration and such might be off as well). There might not be enough skill to it as it’s a passive thing which might be boring. Now this doesn’t have to be a trait. It could just as easily be a elite signet instead if you buff it a bit and give it an active.
I came up with this trait as I wanted to design something for the necromancer that isn’t tons of stab, deflects, stunbreaks, protection or mobility.
I like that necro are slow, doesn’t have a lot of stab or lack burst dmg. It makes them feel more unique and just one of the rest. That said, they really need something to make up for that as those things are quite important(which they really don’t atm). I also really like the idea of giving necro more weakness as dmg mitigation as it fits the theme, while also having great synergy with protection which other classes like guard can provide.
I would like to get your thoughts about it. Mostly about the ideas behind it. I don’t think we’ll see anything like this implemented as they removed a similar thing already.