Guild Wars 2

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Interestingly, necros aren’t the only class to be hit by a “double nerf” like this. The recent change to mantras on mesmers also fits the bill.

#1: Mantras were changed to now recharge upon last cast instead of upon charging.
#2: Harmonious Mantras was nerfed form 4% to 3% per stack.

By themselves, either one of these nerfs would’ve made sense. But together, they are excessive.

I have a theory about this: The various balance and bugfix teams don’t communicate with each other. The half of the mantra nerf is technically a bugfix, while the other half was made assuming that the new bugged version was standard. If the teams talked, then there would’ve been no 4% to 3% nerf.

Likewise, the team in charge of general overworld and condition balancing, and the team in charge of necro balance don’t speak to each other either. So, upon seeing the problem of chill being OP, both teams tried to solve it independently. Thus, global chill was nerfed and necro chill was nerfed. And now, neither oen of them want to budge, so the players get stuck with the problem.

I do think that the bug and balance team don’t speak (remember frost spirit) but I don’t thnink that the chill changes are independant in fact I think they nerfed chilling darknes because in it’s inteneded use with reaper it could break the system with little effort.

Why couldn’t they have made chilling Darkness work like Blinding ashes?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blinding_Ashes

The trait cooldown is only for multiple hits on the same target, there is no cooldown shared between different targets.

Shiki.7148:

Why couldn’t they have made chilling Darkness work like Blinding ashes?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blinding_Ashes

The trait cooldown is only for multiple hits on the same target, there is no cooldown shared between different targets.

It still would be bad because unlike eles we don’t have the possibility to spew out burning every 5 seconds.

Tim.6450:

Shiki.7148:

Why couldn’t they have made chilling Darkness work like Blinding ashes?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blinding_Ashes

The trait cooldown is only for multiple hits on the same target, there is no cooldown shared between different targets.

It still would be bad because unlike eles we don’t have the possibility to spew out burning every 5 seconds.

The point was making the blind→ chill cd on a per player hit base. meaning if the first pulse of blind would hit 2 enemies they’d get blinded and chilled, and after that it would hit 3 more they’d also get the chill. as it is now, if you only hit 2 with the initial pulse you are kitten out of luck. Same applies to Dagger #4. The first one hit gets chilled, the ones hit after that do not. Making it work like blinding ashes would fix that at least. Sure, the CD is still BS, but that way at least it would be bearable.

Shiki.7148:

The point was making the blind-> chill cd on a per player hit base. meaning if the first pulse of blind would hit 2 enemies they’d get blinded and chilled, and after that it would hit 3 more they’d also get the chill. as it is now, if you only hit 2 with the initial pulse you are kitten out of luck. Same applies to Dagger #4. The first one hit gets chilled, the ones hit after that do not. Making it work like blinding ashes would fix that at least. Sure, the CD is still BS, but that way at least it would be bearable.

It would be great to have some consistency when it comes to how procs and ICD work.

But it fits the theme that necromancers get a worse version of it.

Anytime I make a build I ask myself if X is worth taking over Y in this build. And even though I may someday make a chill based build for the reaper, I can tell you that plague sending is a much better choice here. Even terrifying descent has uses outside the box (jumping down on enemies perched on a cliff in WvW) , but with the 5 second cooldown added to chilling darkness I would now choose plague sending every time.

ArchonWing.9480:

RashanDale.3609:

ArchonWing.9480:

Why does chilling darkness have a cd? When did this happen?

anet thought it’s too OP with well of darkness, plague, bitter chill and all the chill-related stuff that comes at some day with the reaper. so they made sure noone ever uses it again

I always seem to come in here and find something else that’s unbelievably bad has happened. And that’s sort of why I haven’t touched necro much since the specialization patch.

But this is the trend for necro balance. X being op if A, B, C is taken so that’s taken for granted when nerfs happen to X, screwing over builds that do not use A, B, and C.

This is not just necro balance. They just did the same to mesmer and ranger.

Mesmer’s problem was confounding suggestions paired with Mantra of Distraction, and they went in and nerfed mantra recharge, nerfed harmonious mantras coefficient bonus (from 20% to 15%, maintaining 20% required chain spamming mantra of pain and doing nothing else, unlike warrior’s Breserker Power which gives a 20% bonus for just using a 3 bars adrenaline skill every 10 seconds).

Now mantra builds for PvE and any mantra build that wasn’t shatter+confounding suggestions is destroyed to all hell, and the Dueling line has no viable grandmasters anymore for PvE, they’re all terrible.

Same crap with ranger, someone was running quickening zephyr and clarion bond in WvW and constantly switching the pet out of combat to stack the buffs, and instead of only making the skill work in combat, they went in and bludgeoned it to death with humongous internal cooldowns, Clarion Bond now doesn’t even sync with pet swap. Once agains, many other ranger builds nerfed.

Spirits were nerfed for the sake of spvp complaints, never used again in any other format since they were weak there, and their “buff” to said spirits in the patch update actually nerfed them. The “powerful” active effects are a joke and spirits were made immobile despite being just weaker, killable versions of warrior banners.

It’s all very simple. When a class like warrior can bring phalanx strength, a trait that singlehandedly grants the party 25 might stacks, empower allies for 150 power to the group, 170 power/condi damage from banner, 170 ferocity/precision from banner. Warb Banner is just a better, faster ranger’s spirit of nature.

What’s the point of bringing any other classes when warrior, ele, guardian and thief have so much better group utility and damage than the other classes? They all have immense damage and on top of that they give them the best, class exclusive utility.

Mesmers and rampage toned down = net win even with our very small changes that are being way overreacted to here.

Necro is in a much stronger place than most of you seem to think.

Roe.3679:

Mesmers and rampage toned down = net win even with our very small changes that are being way overreacted to here.

Necro is in a much stronger place than most of you seem to think.

Only from a pvp perspective. Good of you mr pvp guy to look nowhere beyond your preferred format to make claims about the status of a class.

Can we please not use every opportunity to complain at how bad we are. I mean, we need some serious work, but people are resorting to tons and tons of fallacies, just to get back on the whine-train.
I feel the pain too, but constantly kittening about everything isn’t doing us much good. Nor does it create much sympathy from other classes or ANet devs (should they read it).

Anyway:

Necromancer
Signet of Vampirism: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to heal for more than its listed value.
Bug Fix. The signet itself never really felt extremely strong though; so even though I think bugs must be fixed, I hope they keep an eye on it

Chilling Darkness: This trait now activates on all targets that are blinded by a single area-of-effect blinding strike before it goes on cooldown.
Good change. I still don’t really see why it needed the massive nerf in the first place, but at least this gives it back some of it’s usefulness. Personally I would also prefer to see the change that someone posted here, where the chill application is based on the first application of blind on the target; rather than the first tick of blind of a given AoE.

Spinal Shivers: Removed an incorrect unblockable skill fact from this skill. While this skill does remove aegis before striking, it is not unblockable.
Bug Fix. Would’ve liked to see it the other way around (as in, make the skill unblockable to match the tooltip ;p), but it’s not really game changing either way

Unholy Martyr: Reduced life-force generation from 10% to 7% when transferring a condition.
Nerf. Not really sure why, as I’m sure that Vampiric Rituals and Transfusion see more use in that tier. That said, there might be some cheesy way to abuse it in some way. Again, this isn’t hurting us too much

Corruptions: Self-applied, nondamaging conditions from these skills no longer have their durations increased by condition duration stats.
Until Corruptions get an overhaul this really isn’t that impactful. I love the concept of inflicting self-harm to shoot of powerful skills. It was awesome in GW1.
That said, the difference between the two games is rather big. GW1 just generally had some minor degen, that a dedicated healer could counter. GW1 also balanced around the selfharm by either making the abilities cost less resource (energy), something we don’t really have in GW2 and/or by making the abilities stronger than average. The latter doesn’t really hold true all that much to be frank in GW2.

Zenith.7301:

ArchonWing.9480:

RashanDale.3609:

ArchonWing.9480:

Why does chilling darkness have a cd? When did this happen?

anet thought it’s too OP with well of darkness, plague, bitter chill and all the chill-related stuff that comes at some day with the reaper. so they made sure noone ever uses it again

I always seem to come in here and find something else that’s unbelievably bad has happened. And that’s sort of why I haven’t touched necro much since the specialization patch.

But this is the trend for necro balance. X being op if A, B, C is taken so that’s taken for granted when nerfs happen to X, screwing over builds that do not use A, B, and C.

This is not just necro balance. They just did the same to mesmer and ranger.

Mesmer’s problem was confounding suggestions paired with Mantra of Distraction, and they went in and nerfed mantra recharge, nerfed harmonious mantras coefficient bonus (from 20% to 15%, maintaining 20% required chain spamming mantra of pain and doing nothing else, unlike warrior’s Breserker Power which gives a 20% bonus for just using a 3 bars adrenaline skill every 10 seconds).

Now mantra builds for PvE and any mantra build that wasn’t shatter+confounding suggestions is destroyed to all hell, and the Dueling line has no viable grandmasters anymore for PvE, they’re all terrible.

Same crap with ranger, someone was running quickening zephyr and clarion bond in WvW and constantly switching the pet out of combat to stack the buffs, and instead of only making the skill work in combat, they went in and bludgeoned it to death with humongous internal cooldowns, Clarion Bond now doesn’t even sync with pet swap. Once agains, many other ranger builds nerfed.

Spirits were nerfed for the sake of spvp complaints, never used again in any other format since they were weak there, and their “buff” to said spirits in the patch update actually nerfed them. The “powerful” active effects are a joke and spirits were made immobile despite being just weaker, killable versions of warrior banners.

It’s all very simple. When a class like warrior can bring phalanx strength, a trait that singlehandedly grants the party 25 might stacks, empower allies for 150 power to the group, 170 power/condi damage from banner, 170 ferocity/precision from banner. Warb Banner is just a better, faster ranger’s spirit of nature.

What’s the point of bringing any other classes when warrior, ele, guardian and thief have so much better group utility and damage than the other classes? They all have immense damage and on top of that they give them the best, class exclusive utility.

Well, I don’t really do pve, but that nerf to clarion bond was indeed out of nowhere and really nuked a viable alternative for that slot. I don’t know what they were thinking with spirits either.

You all cry over necros getting nerfed, while most of the stuff that are touched are fixes. Bug fixes. Maybe they didnt mean for a certain skill to act a certain way. Same goes for most other classes. They either recieve a small bugfix or nerf.

They cant just willynilly go crazy either because we have to play with their builds for a month or two before a new fix is out so they need to go slow and easy.

I say we are pretty strong in wvw. We fill a certain roll in spvp wether its corruptions or wells but I like that

Inflames.8026:

You all cry over necros getting nerfed, while most of the stuff that are touched are fixes. Bug fixes. Maybe they didnt mean for a certain skill to act a certain way. Same goes for most other classes. They either recieve a small bugfix or nerf.

If youre talking about signet of vampirisim and spinal shivers:

It doesnt mean kitten whether it’s called a fix or a nerf. They turned bugs into ‘features’ before and couldve done the same thing now.
But instead, they decided it’s too much and ‘fixed’ it. So it’s a nerf.

Thank you for that jolt of positivity, Inflames.

Iam guessing the overhaul that is saving necros are in the HoT expansion. I dont see them changing anything drastic now. We are and always have been slow punching bags. But we fill a certain roll and do well. And instead of crying over mediocre stuff we evolve and expand to the next thing. We always been great in pvp and wvw in my opinion. And frozen out of pve cus herd mentality

I feel stronger than ever on my cele necro.

Excluding dhuumfire and super downstate.