Guild Wars 2

I usually like to take DM for the condi removal and the bonus power from toughness, but other than that, the spec doesn’t seem to provide much. The other traits – less dmg from poison foes, aoe fear when hard cced (60 cd is alot for just this) and more toughness plus less condi dmg – aren’t good enough even for condi builds, BM still seems to provide more with the life steal.
So, since the DM looks like the spec that should give us an overall resistance to harm, couldn’t it be the spec that would allow us access to stability and/or invulnerability?
The 3 traits for minions are kinda good as they are. It’s the others that despite giving something in the way of survivability, aren’t really amazing.
It has its uses, but feels weak overall.

Unholy Sanctuary is really really good for what it does. That being said, you generally lose some form of utility or damage by taking death over say, curses or spite, which can be tough for builds that don’t have MM or bunker goals in mind.

Maybe moving FiG there so that it does not compete with the great SR traits…

I love corrupter’s fervor. 300 toughness and 20% reduced incoming condition damage from one trait. It’s very easy to stack.

I still think the Grandmaster Minor trait should be either buffed, or changed entirely. I think a good option would be 6 seconds of protection upon leaving Shroud, and instead of applying to just you and your minions, it should apply to you and nearby allies (maybe within 200 units)

DM needs a better master minor trait, and it needs better defensive traits. The problem right now is too many of the traits don’t have any kind of actual defense increases. Deadly Strength has no defense, Reaper’s Protection doesn’t even work a lot of the time because of how easily mitigated its effect is, and Corrupter’s Fervor and Unholy Sanctuary are both sustain mechanics, not flat out defensive measures.

Anet is still scared of giving us damage negation, and as long as that is true DM will never be tuned to give us the defense we need.

Bhawb.7408:

DM needs a better master minor trait, and it needs better defensive traits. The problem right now is too many of the traits don’t have any kind of actual defense increases. Deadly Strength has no defense, Reaper’s Protection doesn’t even work a lot of the time because of how easily mitigated its effect is, and Corrupter’s Fervor and Unholy Sanctuary are both sustain mechanics, not flat out defensive measures.

Anet is still scared of giving us damage negation, and as long as that is true DM will never be tuned to give us the defense we need.

Exactly, that’s my point . 20% more life force from deaths has no use, even with minions. Deadly strong is one, if not the only, trait that i actually like here, because generally i like going tanky. Reaper’s Protection has only the purpose of reminding me that every other kitten class has kitten diddly STABILITY!!!! CAT!!!!!!
Unholy Sanctuary isn’t bad, can save lives occasionaly, but it doesn’t do that much. Even weaker is corrupter’s fervor, 300 more toughness doesn’t do much, we NEED stronger dmg mitigation effects.
I tried DM in a lot of ways, but it doesn’t provide real dmg reduction in any way. Even eles, and i’ve seen it with my eyes, have better defensive mechanisms.
And thieves still circle around me like it’s nothing

The problem with death magic is

(1) Soul Comprehension
(2) Bad major traits

For major traits you are stuck with a minion trait, a very weak trait that stun breaks you once every 60 seconds, and a toughness to power trait that is gear specific (if you aren’t specifically wearing toughness armor/amulet, it’s weak).

I like unholy sanctuary and the new condition removal trait.

nekretaal.6485:

The problem with death magic is

(1) Soul Comprehension
(2) Bad major traits

For major traits you are stuck with a minion trait, a very weak trait that stun breaks you once every 60 seconds, and a toughness to power trait that is gear specific (if you aren’t specifically wearing toughness armor/amulet, it’s weak).

I like unholy sanctuary and the new condition removal trait.

Reaper’s Protection doesn’t break your stun, just prevents followup.

And Shrouded Removal has been there. It’s just a ton better now :p

I’m pretty sure that it activates a stun break a few fractions of a second after you get stunned.

So the interrupt hits and you get stunned and then stun broke.

nekretaal.6485:

I’m pretty sure that it activates a stun break a few fractions of a second after you get stunned.

So the interrupt hits and you get stunned and then stun broke.

Nope. Just Fears people when you get stunned.

Khristophoros.7194:

I love corrupter’s fervor. 300 toughness and 20% reduced incoming condition damage from one trait. It’s very easy to stack.

Me too. This was a very nice surprise to my build and I’m happy they added it. I also use deadly strength to give me more power so I have no problem with it.

My only problem with the line is soul comprehension, it just plain sucks. I would much prefer to see a straight percentage increase to all LG generation in it’s stead. I am only stuck with it due to wanting the higher up major and grandmaster.

Edit: clarity

Death Magic desperately needs a damage negation. Invuln, aegis, something. Corrupter’s Fervor and Unholy Sanctuary are both pretty good traits, but they overlap far too much. Reaper’s Protection just isn’t a very good trait, it was only good because of terror builds.

I mentioned it somewhere else, but I think a good and thematic way would be to put a short invuln on spectral activation.

I think having some evade on spectral would make sense (spectre = ghost = evade attacks). The spectral trait could add “evade attacks during 1s after activating a spectral skill. Gain life force when you evade an attack”

Unholy Sanctuary should still heal for more. The adept and master minors need to be changed. The gm minor needs to effect allies, and minions should not count to the aoe cap. A lot of the other traits are decent, but not super good. The traitline still needs to give a few boons (aka stab or vigor), to work better as a defensive traitline. Currently, it just lowers damage taken, but that isn’t enough to justify taking it over other classes selfish defensive traitlines.

Also, it is ridiculous that they reintroduced minors that are more effective with minions. Anet, you already fixed this at one point then you reintroduced the problem. Shouldn’t have a trait that I have to take just for being in a traitline that effect utilities I’m not using. Vampiric needs to get buffed, and the minion part needs to get merged into vampiric presence.

I don’t see how Vampiric or Beyond the Veil giving minion benefits is in any way detracting from the traits. You’re not getting a lessened benefit from not running minions.

Especially Beyond the Veil. You run minions? You get Protection. You don’t run minions? You get the exact same amount of Protection.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

I don’t see how Vampiric or Beyond the Veil giving minion benefits is in any way detracting from the traits. You’re not getting a lessened benefit from not running minions.

Especially Beyond the Veil. You run minions? You get Protection. You don’t run minions? You get the exact same amount of Protection.

Yes you are. If you run minions you get protection for you and your pets. That is a far stronger effect than if you don’t run minions when you just get protection for you. It would be fine if this was an adept or master I could choose not to take, but minors should perform similarly across all builds.

Same with vampiric, if you run minions you get way more siphoning effects than if you don’t. Problem is I don’t get a choice to not take that trait. If I want blood magic I have to get a trait that is inherently weaker because I am not running minions.

zapv.8051:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

I don’t see how Vampiric or Beyond the Veil giving minion benefits is in any way detracting from the traits. You’re not getting a lessened benefit from not running minions.

Especially Beyond the Veil. You run minions? You get Protection. You don’t run minions? You get the exact same amount of Protection.

Yes you are. If you run minions you get protection for you and your pets. That is a far stronger effect than if you don’t run minions when you just get protection for you. It would be fine if this was an adept or master I could choose not to take, but minors should perform similarly across all builds.

Same with vampiric, if you run minions you get way more siphoning effects than if you don’t. Problem is I don’t get a choice to not take that trait. If I want blood magic I have to get a trait that is inherently weaker because I am not running minions.

Beyond the Veil does perform similarly across all builds. If you aren’t running minions, they don’t need Protection! If you are, then hey, they get it too. But what it does is gives you (and minions are an extension of “you”) Protection.

Running Vampiric, sure, the total effect is weaker. Still works just fine regardless of your utility choices.

zapv.8051:

Unholy Sanctuary should still heal for more.

No. No, no; no! Unholy Sanctuary heals for way too much right now in Cleric builds, it literally resets the fight completely with one usage of Death Shroud in 1v1s. The problem is it, like so many other sustain traits, has no scaling into teamfights because Death Shroud doesn’t scale into teamfights. Increasing its healing just makes it too strong for 1v1s and still not sufficient in teamfights.

Bhawb.7408:

zapv.8051:

Unholy Sanctuary should still heal for more.

No. No, no; no! Unholy Sanctuary heals for way too much right now in Cleric builds, it literally resets the fight completely with one usage of Death Shroud in 1v1s. The problem is it, like so many other sustain traits, has no scaling into teamfights because Death Shroud doesn’t scale into teamfights. Increasing its healing just makes it too strong for 1v1s and still not sufficient in teamfights.

What if Unholy Sanctuary got an added benefit similar to Vamp signet, but watered down and without an ICD so that it scales with team fights. Or, alternately, give it an ICD of 1 sec for each foe attacking. Then it would scale and not be too OP with Cleric builds

US probably isn’t what needs changing, Death Shroud and life force generation in general are.