Guild Wars 2

No idea if there has been discussion on the name of the life-steal type aura that was mentioned in the reworking of blood magic.

My opinion is ‘Aura of the Vampire’ would be a pretty sweet name for it.
Functionality sounds similar to:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Order_of_the_Vampire

Robert called it ‘Vampiric Aura’ which would make sense. It also might have some Aura synergy with things like Runes of Radiance. I’m imagining a standard translucent, colored Aura effect similar to the other Auras in game. Maybe the lime green hue with black smoke similar to the Sunless weapons. Seems fitting for Necromancer. With the addition of one more blast finisher to the Necro/Reaper (whoot), I’d like to see Dark Combo Fields’ blast combo changed from aoe blind to an aoe Vampiric Aura, similar to blasting Ethereal fields.

I suspect there may well be some combo changes.

Maybe some trait that gives ‘vampiric aura’ could be named aura of the vampire.

I just think it’d be cool for nostalgia purposes to be so similarly named to a gw1 skill that did something equally similar.

Well you could look at the Reaper-PoI and try to see what finisher procc’d the aura there…But I think it might be more like "Vampiric Aura : Using a finisher within a Dark Field also causes (or “has a chance to cause”) “Vampiric Aura : Allies near you also siphon x health when attacking foes” for x seconds." . Otherwise everyone could create that aura, and it wouldn’t be via trait. Also i think it procced from the whirls in the PoI, and base Necro has no whirls on land…

Whirl finishers create Leeching Bolts. Blasting/Leaping through Dark Fields for aoe Vampiric Aura (similar to chaos armor from ethereal fields or frost aura from ice fields) instead of the current aoe blind would be perfect for this. Also, Necro has, by far, the most access to Dark fields (5 total) while thief has one and revenant will have two. This could be a great way for necros to add a fairly unique damage buff to a party. Well of darkness+clusterbomb blasts immediately after else does their might/fury rotation. Not epic or anything but could be enteresting still. Especially of Necro could have a trait to buff Vampiric Aura received from his fields.

The other problem with Vampiric Aura being tied to finishers on Dark Fields, is that such a change would only make Blood Magic’s unique support Well specific. I would much rather have a traited persistent ability or triggered on life steal or something.

Support often requires running specific builds. Source: every single past/current/future metabuild. I bet Shoutbow wouldn’t be called that if the didn’t have to spec into Shouts and longbow… :

Balekai.6083:

The other problem with Vampiric Aura being tied to finishers on Dark Fields, is that such a change would only make Blood Magic’s unique support Well specific. I would much rather have a traited persistent ability or triggered on life steal or something.

To be fair though, Anet has been setting wells up as blood magic utilities since launch. It wasn’t until (sunset cove i think?) that we got a vampiric signet which threw it for a loop.

vampiric blast finishers are way better than the current blind blast finishers that’s for sure.

striker.3704:

Balekai.6083:

The other problem with Vampiric Aura being tied to finishers on Dark Fields, is that such a change would only make Blood Magic’s unique support Well specific. I would much rather have a traited persistent ability or triggered on life steal or something.

To be fair though, Anet has been setting wells up as blood magic utilities since launch. It wasn’t until (sunset cove i think?) that we got a vampiric signet which threw it for a loop.

vampiric blast finishers are way better than the current blind blast finishers that’s for sure.

Except for the fact that our support would be linked to dark fields which people wouldn’t like placed under water or fire fields during heavy combat. Dark field blinds are getting a place in PvE because blinds will count as CC vs. Defiance bars. Any leaps/blast finishers will trigger those blinds, although smoke field’s projectile/whirl combos are arguable better.

Also varying builds such as MMs, condi builds etc. wouldn’t have as much access (or any access) to Vampiric Aura. It’s better as an ability independent of utility skills since the class as a whole needs more team support, not just Well builds which have their own issues as mentioned. Interfering with other class support and all.

death’s charge is traited on a 5 seconds cooldown, you have a leap for the dark fields every 5 seconds. auras have a duration of 5 seconds so if you manage your dark fields well you will have a good uptime.

Tman.6349:

Whirl finishers create Leeching Bolts. Blasting/Leaping through Dark Fields for aoe Vampiric Aura (similar to chaos armor from ethereal fields or frost aura from ice fields) instead of the current aoe blind would be perfect for this. Also, Necro has, by far, the most access to Dark fields (5 total) while thief has one and revenant will have two. This could be a great way for necros to add a fairly unique damage buff to a party. Well of darkness+clusterbomb blasts immediately after else does their might/fury rotation. Not epic or anything but could be enteresting still. Especially of Necro could have a trait to buff Vampiric Aura received from his fields.

Which is why i said ADDITIONALLY or only exchanged for NECRO. If every Leap into a Dark Field would cause this Aura, it wouldn’t be a specific blood magic trait like they said it would be. And since base Necro does not have leap OR whirls, and not a single RELIABLE blast, it has to be triggered through either any finisher coming from a necro using said trait, or through some other means. It cannot be a general change, because otherwise there wouldn’t be a trait for it and it wouldn’t be a Necromancer-exclusive aura.

Why do some of you think that comboing a dark field (or any other field) will give the new vampiric aura? I dont recall Anet saying that would be the case.

I just want to remind you that there are auras (like shocking aura and magnetic aura) that dont have an combo field associated to them. So the chances are vampric aura will be bloodmagic only (atleast i hope so).

It would be really funny if the Necro allowed vampiric aura gain from combo fields.

And way more fun if you could gain that by blasting a field.

the newest aura in the game, light aura, comes form leaps in light fields. blasting light fields gives retaliation though.

it’s very likely that it will work the same for vampiric aura, leaps through a dark field will give this new type of aura but blasts won’t.

Tman.6349:

Support often requires running specific builds. Source: every single past/current/future metabuild. I bet Shoutbow wouldn’t be called that if the didn’t have to spec into Shouts and longbow… :

Not strictly true. Every meta build in PvE except for necro has support. And thats why necro isnt any good. :P

hennrick.4623:

It would be really funny if the Necro allowed vampiric aura gain from combo fields.

And way more fun if you could gain that by blasting a field.

Yeah cause then necro couldn’t even use it.

Jekkt.6045:

the newest aura in the game, light aura, comes form leaps in light fields. blasting light fields gives retaliation though.

it’s very likely that it will work the same for vampiric aura, leaps through a dark field will give this new type of aura but blasts won’t.

I know but that would kinda disappointing, considering the fact that then thieves and revenant also could give the vampiric aura to allies. I hoped it would be a bloodmagic only thing.

you should try and see it the other way round, that way necro can make use of it also without going into blood magic. thief won’t use it anyway and it would fit revenant.
after all light aura can be used by multiple classes aswell and no guards complained either.

spoj.9672:

Tman.6349:

Support often requires running specific builds. Source: every single past/current/future metabuild. I bet Shoutbow wouldn’t be called that if the didn’t have to spec into Shouts and longbow… :

Not strictly true. Every meta build in PvE except for necro has support. And thats why necro isnt any good. :P

And all those meta builds have support and are meta because they are specifically built to do that. Kinda like how we always tell ‘the sillies’ that the meta isn’t just abut DPs b/c every meta spec is specifically designed t bring the best support at the cost of the least possible DPs sacrifice for said support. So yeah I guess we agree.

Jekkt.6045:

you should try and see it the other way round, that way necro can make use of it also without going into blood magic. thief won’t use it anyway and it would fit revenant.
after all light aura can be used by multiple classes aswell and no guards complained either.

But unlike guardian necro dont offer much support…

Well atleast bloodmagic will give perma vampiric aura, which should be fair enough i guess…

necro is not a support class and will never be a support class. what it does is debuffing enemies with weakness and vulnerability, the problem is that in a 5 man team all this stuff already comes together, from everywhere a bit, even if the necro is the class that could apply these things the fastest.

what necro/reaper will become bery good at is damaging the defiance bar as blind and chill will affect it.

and please.. even if you could have perm aoe vampiric aura (which will not be possible anyway) nobody would care about it. if a monster hits you for 5k per attack you won’t care about a 150 life leech per hit.

Tman.6349:

spoj.9672:

Tman.6349:

Support often requires running specific builds. Source: every single past/current/future metabuild. I bet Shoutbow wouldn’t be called that if the didn’t have to spec into Shouts and longbow… :

Not strictly true. Every meta build in PvE except for necro has support. And thats why necro isnt any good. :P

And all those meta builds have support and are meta because they are specifically built to do that. Kinda like how we always tell ‘the sillies’ that the meta isn’t just abut DPs b/c every meta spec is specifically designed t bring the best support at the cost of the least possible DPs sacrifice for said support. So yeah I guess we agree.

Yeah thats true to a certain extent. Except in record runs theres no need to take things like consecration cooldown reduction etc. So you can go full dps traits (still using support utilities when needed obviously). Casual meta runs are built more supporty though and they will sacrifice a few dps traits for utility. And those are the builds advertised publicly as the primary choice.

Jekkt.6045:

and please.. even if you could have perm aoe vampiric aura (which will not be possible anyway) nobody would care about it. if a monster hits you for 5k per attack you won’t care about a 150 life leech per hit.

Well from the reaper stream we saw that the vampric aura buff pulsed on him, so unless it will be changed we can be sure it will be perma aoe. And also it was more like 30-50 per hit…

It looks like a lifesteal version of empower allies. So whenever you are in combat your party gets the benefits. Its not the best trait in the world. But its definitely something. And it could be considered a decent enough group dps boost to trait for. With the added benefit of group sustain.

Mhmm. I don’t see where/how you’re disagreeing with me or think that I am with you…
But that’s not what this thread is about anyway so. Happy Memoria Weekend. Hope you’re having a good one. /hi5

Tman.6349:

Mhmm. I don’t see where/how you’re disagreeing with me or think that I am with you…
But that’s not what this thread is about anyway so. Happy Memoria Weekend. Hope you’re having a good one. /hi5

Yeah i was just clarifying.

@ Muchacho: I guess I missed the part of the stream where he showed the aura. (?) I thought it was just an idea and he only showed how the vampiric traits are gonna work in Shroud (which was nice with all the cleave. Looked about equal to HS’s passive; I’m assuming that was max vamp/regen traits though). Was there another part I missed.

Tman.6349:

@ Muchacho: I guess I missed the part of the stream where he showed the aura. (?) I thought it was just an idea and he only showed how the vampiric traits are gonna work in Shroud (which was nice with all the cleave. Looked about equal to HS’s passive; I’m assuming that was max vamp/regen traits though). Was there another part I missed.

It was the part after the shouts where they showed the reaper “in action”. You could see that he always had the vampric aura symbol in the buff bar. It looked like a skull puking green stuff.

spoj.9672:

Tman.6349:

Mhmm. I don’t see where/how you’re disagreeing with me or think that I am with you…
But that’s not what this thread is about anyway so. Happy Memoria Weekend. Hope you’re having a good one. /hi5

Yeah i was just clarifying.

Yeah. After 2.5 years of hardcore speed running tours daily, I’ve got kinda burned out on dungeons anyway. Glad to be fairly rich for all the new shinies for HoT, but I find myself on Power Necro in PvP for the last few months. I’m pretty psyched about the changes there but I still think we’re not gonna have enough for dungeons. Maybe with a group wide Vampiric trait and maybe something else that adds +150 Ferocity to allies. Those two with cleaving chill and vuln stacking might do help. Again not for records but at least make us ‘acceptable’ in general PuG fastclears (pugs don’t do speed clears hehe).

For Vampiric Aura to be useful enough for Speed Clears, it needs to be similar or on par to the Order of Pain/Vampire Necro and Barrage Ranger meta that was popular in GW1 for a time (Tomb of Primeval Kings PvE instance).

Unfortunately, Anet is probably thinking about leaving life steal numbers where they are due to siphons now working through DS. It would be awkward from a thematic viewpoint to have group life steal be more than Necro self siphoning, unless the Necro also benefits from the Aura.

Life steals in GW1, if I remember correctly, were about 1/3 to 1/2 the strength of pure healing skills when you considered CDs, energy cost etc. So if full heals in GW2 are about 6000-7000 health every 20-25 seconds on average, then for Vampiric Aura to be useful from a healing/anti-pressure perspective, it needs to reach 100-150 base healing per second. 300 or more healing per second when buffed with a lot of healing power (sounds like Regeneration boon numbers). This way, Vampiric Aura is countering a lot of stray damage, allowing for teammates to focus on DPS rather than self heals and water fields.

The damage portion feels like it should be around the same. A power primary Necro with Vampiric Aura should add 300 damage per second. While affecting 5 allies this would come out to an extra 1500 damage per second. Bascially a lower DPS 6th teammate which would be helpful to speed clear times.

Maybe combine with or replace a Blood GM trait like the new GM Deathly Invigoration, so that Vampiric Aura can be scaled up in power to the above accordingly.

Having the aura scale with power & possibly healing power ( keep the base similar to that of the current vampiric numbers) was an idea I was toying with also. Thinking is should probably scale on the necros stats too ( like regen now does with casters hp).
Naturally the coeffs would need to be fairly low, as mentioned above, scaling to around 100-150/hit using all major stats would be nice.

After rewatching the twitch stream, it looks like it’s quite possible for the aura to be a trait applying it periodically, similar to spotter. Which means we could have a trait named “Aura of the Vampire”.
Looked like it was a minor, or master-tier trait from what was selected.

still don’t think this aura, or vampric aura that is on the new blood magic line will have to do with leaps/whirls, etc. I think it will be a trait that is “group friendly” syphon on crit. NOthing overly special, just decent for getting 45 hps every crit hit…

so… yeah, it will be awesome

Artemis Thuras.8795:

I suspect there may well be some combo changes.

Maybe some trait that gives ‘vampiric aura’ could be named aura of the vampire.

I just think it’d be cool for nostalgia purposes to be so similarly named to a gw1 skill that did something equally similar.

Dark field + Leap/Blast will give Single/Aoe Vamp Aura (I HOPE)

Dark field giving blind on leap + blast is better. It gives us defiance breaking fields.

Jekkt.6045:

necro is not a support class and will never be a support class. what it does is debuffing enemies with weakness and vulnerability

Other classes do vulnerability better. Also, where’s the weakness? Corrosive Poison Cloud? The weakness trait just got removed.

Take a Theif if you want weakness. The thief can also support the team with invisibility, finishers, and stealth.

Other classes will not do vuln better after patch I promise you. Reaper’s will be able to get 25 vuln in 2 seconds or less and maintain it, no other class comes close to that. We will have a bunch of blinds, as well as chill, and hopefully some big fat scaling skills.

You don’t even need Reaper to get that vuln, you get it almost entirely from spite alone.

I just want it to be active effect or active under specific circumstances.

Vampiric passives suck and are hard to balance.

spoj.9672:

Dark field giving blind on leap + blast is better. It gives us defiance breaking fields.

Yeah. but if you look at the PvP perspective :p

You have whirls on GS and new DS. You dont really need any more lifesteal interaction than that. Besides we have 1 leap and no useful blasts. So its not like blast/leap for vampiric aura is going to be useful to us in PvP anyway. Blast for blind will be useful for groups breaking defiant though.

Falcon.8713:

spoj.9672:

Dark field giving blind on leap + blast is better. It gives us defiance breaking fields.

Yeah. but if you look at the PvP perspective :p

I would argue for pvp blinds would still be better…