Guild Wars 2

The purpose of this thread is to help collect community ideas for the new Death Magic minor traits at 5 and 15, as more or less requested by this post:

JonPeters.5630:

We will talk today about changing duration on weakening shroud instead of cooldown .

Also we have some plans for death magic including merging reanimated with death nova, and moving Protection of the Horde to be a major trait, and then reworking the minors in this line. This kind of change is not going to happen for dec 10 for 3 reasons.
1) testing time
2) implementation time
3) most importantly: if we rework this we want to make sure it is correct the second time around so we will take our time deciding on the “right” design.

Point 3 is something I’m happy to discuss here to list some ideas and break down some pros and cons.

Thanks,

Jon

I will try and keep this first post updated with ideas that people post in this thread. Please be sure to mark each idea as replacing at the Adept level (in place of Reanimator) or Master level (replacing Protection of the Horde). If you think an existing major trait is better suited to one of these slots, please make a note, then a suggestion for what to replace the now-vacant Major slot with.

Adept tier ideas (replacing Reanimator):

• Deadened Flesh – Gain Protection for 2 seconds upon entering Death Shroud
• Spectral Shielding – Gain Toughness based on Life Force
• Absorb Vis – Gain Life Force when struck below health threshold
• Barbed Armor – Gain protection (5s) whenever you gain retaliation.
• Immunotoxin – Incoming damaging conditions have reduced duration.
• Hardened Blood – Gain protection (5s) when struck by a critical hit.
• Tyranny – Gain toughness for every boon on you.
• Anguish – Retaliation you apply lasts longer.
• Last Breath – Chill foes hit by channeled attacks for 3 seconds (10sec ICD)
• Life Corruption – Life blast poisons target for 3 seconds on critical hit, cooldown 10 seconds.

Master tier ideas (replacing Protection of the Horde):

• Between Worlds – Gain Aegis on leaving Death Shroud (with ICD)
• Dark Emergence – Blind nearby foes when exiting Death Shroud (with ICD)
• Karmic Backlash – Gain Retaliation for 3 seconds when disabled.
• Chilling Presence – Chill enemies around you when you drop below 50% (30 second cooldown)
• Tendrils of Corruption – Chance to corrupt a foe’s boon when struck.
• Hypothermia – Chilled foes deal less damage to you. (N%)
• Restitch Limbs – Receive regeneration (5s) when you take damage greater than a percentage of your maximum health. (10%)
• Morbid Plunder – Whenever a nearby ally dies, maximize your Life Force.
• Flesh Allergy – Reduce incoming damage from melee attacks. (N%)
• Grasp of Death – Chance to steal a boon on hit. Chance scales with number of conditions on you.
• Patient Zero – Auto transfer one stun or condition/stack per x seconds to a nearby foe.
• Nurtured Soul – Gain health while above 50% life force.
• Immortal – While under the effects of regeneration, you generate life force.
• Undying Flesh – Gain lifeforce when struck while not in Death Shroud.

Undecided tier:

• Life After Death – healing from boons, allies and siphons will now function while in Death Shroud.
• Death is not the end – Offensive skills will no longer penetrate through the Death Shroud Life Force pool.
• Putrid Retaliation – When suffering from Burning, Confusion, Torment or more than 15 stacks of bleeding, nearby enemies suffer 0.3 of the conditions multiplier (0 cond damage retals 0 damage, 2k cond damage retals 600 damage pre second).
• Swarm of Discord – Non-damagin conditions have additional effects depending on life force (0 max effect 100% no effect): Chill – enemies deal 33% less direct damage, Vuln – condition duration increased by 2% (pre stack, so reverse sunless/melandu effect), Poison – Boon duration reduced by 20%, Immob – Enemy loses 10 endurance pre second.
• Evasive shadows – Life Blast, Dark Path and Life Transfer cannot be evaded.
• Corrupting Energies – Life blast is now Plague Blast (UW life blast)
• Rage against the Night- You cannot lose more than 10% of your current life force pre second, doesnt apply to degeneration if your HP is under 75%.
• Winter of Dhuum – If you hit 0% Life force while CCed, you lose all remaining life force and nearby enemies are encased in blocks of ice for 5 seconds (enemies in ice are get 2s chill pre second applied to them, they can break out of ice faster down to 2s by spamming a 1 skill/think jorlag ice, utilities are locked off, ice instantly kills npcs), 90s CD
• Corrupted Death – 50% Chance to send condition to target on Crit, 5seccool down
• Corrupted Life – 50% Chance to steal Boon from target on Crit, 5second cool down
• Creeping Fatigue – When your target reaches 50% health, siphon endurance for each condition on your target (X%).

Life After Death – healing from boons, allies and siphons will now function while in Death Shroud.

Death is not the end – Offensive skills will no longer penetrate through the Death Shroud Life Force pool (i.e. DS before the fix, but things like falling damage will still penetrate).

Forsaker.9213:

Reanimator – Yeah i know we all love this trait // I would move this trait into Death Nova trait and give us here 2s of protecion when going DS

15 Trait, Gain Aegis on leaving DS (forced leaving included), with an ICD.

If nothing else, Dark Armor to replace reanimator for now.
If we’re looking for something new, how about the following for 5 point trait, given Death Magic is Toughness/Boon Duration.

Spectral Shielding – Gain toughness based on Life Force.
Absorb Vis – Gain Life Force when struck below health threshold. [/Valorous Defense]
Barbed Armor – Gain protection (5s) whenever you gain retaliation. [/Illusory Membrane]
Immunotoxin – Incoming damaging conditions have reduced duration. [/Dogged March]
Hardened Blood – Gain protection (5s) when struck by a critical hit.[/Primal Reflexes]
Tyranny – Gain toughness for every boon on you. [/Empowered]
Anguish – Retaliation you apply lasts longer. [/Nature’s Bounty]

I basically just retooled some existing traits to fit the Necro theme. Soe of the reference traits are not at the 5-point level, but none of these seem back breaking.

Forsaker.9213:

Forsaker.9213:

Reanimator – Yeah i know we all love this trait // I would move this trait into Death Nova trait and give us here 2s of protecion when going DS

15 Trait, Gain Aegis on leaving DS (forced leaving included), with an ICD.

As much as Death Magic is Boon Duration, we don’t do Aegis. How about:
Dark Emergence – Blind nearby foes (2s) when exiting Deathshroud. (ICD)

AoE Blind would work too, at a small range, and I agree would make more sense (more necroy)

Ghostextechnica.3270:

Life After Death – healing from boons, allies and siphons will now function while in Death Shroud.

Death is not the end – Offensive skills will no longer penetrate through the Death Shroud Life Force pool (i.e. DS before the fix, but things like falling damage will still penetrate).

Which tier are these for?

OP has been updated with all other ideas given, plus one of my own. I hope nobody minds me coming up with names to go with the traits that don’t otherwise have them. If you like a different name, let me know.

Either/Or – You can choose. I think both together would be amazing.

One would stop us being insta-gibbed, and the other gives us attrition.

You should try to keep in mind that anything based on the amount of life force you have would probably belong in the soul reaping tree.
-combine protection of the horde into flesh of the master
5- poisoned blood- conditions put onto you last a slightly shorter period (5-10% less duration) Oh, Balefire beat me to the idea. . .
15- chilling presence- chill enemies around you when hit below 50% (30 second cooldown)

I’ll make an undecided category, I guess.

Chilling Presence is getting added, since it’s not a repeat.

Reanimator- Spawn a jagged horror whenever you kill a foe. Cooldown 15 seconds.

All op but here are some random things:

Putrid Retaliation – When suffering from Burning, Confusion, Torment or more than 15 stacks of bleeding, nearby enemies suffer 0.3 of the conditions multiplier (0 cond damage retals 0 damage, 2k cond damage retals 600 damage pre second).

Swarm of Discord – Non-damagin conditions have additional effects depending on life force (0 max effect 100% no effect): Chill – enemies deal 33% less direct damage, Vuln – condition duration increased by 2% (pre stack, so reverse sunless/melandu effect), Poison – Boon duration reduced by 20%, Immob – Enemy loses 10 endurance pre second.

Evasive shadows – Life Blast, Dark Path and Life Transfer cannot be evaded.

Corrupting Energies – Life blast is now Plague Blast (UW life blast)

Rage against the Night- You cannot lose more than 10% of your current life force pre second, doesnt apply to degeneration if your HP is under 75%.

Winter of Dhuum – If you hit 0% Life force while CCed, you lose all remaining life force and nearby enemies are encased in blocks of ice for 5 seconds (enemies in ice are get 2s chill pre second applied to them, they can break out of ice faster down to 2s by spamming a 1 skill/think jorlag ice, utilities are locked off, ice instantly kills npcs), 90s CD

@Andele: Some of those seem way too complicated and too focused on specific cases…
Also, on the last one, if you hit 0% LF, how do you lose remaining LF?

Some more master level trait ideas.

Tendrils of Corruption – Chance to corrupt a foe’s boon when struck. [/Transmute]
Hypothermia – Chilled foes deal less direct damage to you. (N%)[/Piercing Shards]
Restitch Limbs – Receive regeneration (5s) when you take damage greater than a percentage of your maximum health. (10%) [/Nature’s Protection]
Morbid Plunder – Whenever a nearby ally dies, maximize your Life Force. (Minions?)
Flesh Allergy – Reduce incoming damage from melee attacks. (N%) [/Stone Splinters]

EDIT: I stole just the chill factor from Andele’s “Swarm of Discord” and renamed it, but
Hypothermia seems like a really good trait. It could have it’s reduction adjusted for balance, is on theme, and accessible to all Necros in various ways (Chillblains, Spinal Shivers, Dark Path, Chill of Death, Sigils, Runes, etc). It would also greatly improve the Mr. Freeze build – possibly to viability – and would improve tankiness in general. It would also be at least semi-useful in PvE, PvP and WvW. If I had to vote for a PotH replacement, this would be it.

I think Morbid Plunder will get listed for player allies (no minions, pets, spirits, spirit weapons, turrets, clones, phantasms, or summons) as otherwise it would be too easy for a necro to just tank indefinitely. Bone Minions alone means two instant-refills of life force on a 20 second cooldown.

In that case, maybe it could just be toyed so you gained an above-average-but-not-OP amount of Life Force on any ally death, so it benefits solo-play with minions.

EDIT: what do your asterisks mean?

Consider for one that player deaths and some minions already give life force. The trait may be more trouble than it’s worth. I have it listed above, but I think it could probably use some extra thought.

Hmm, fair enough.
On second thought, it would also be broken in WvW, so probably not a good idea.
By the way, feel free to vet any of my suggestions, as I’m really just typing up whatever comes to mind.

Balefire.7592:

@Andele: Some of those seem way too complicated and too focused on specific cases…
Also, on the last one, if you hit 0% LF, how do you lose remaining LF?

Told ya and skills like Sarmor/Swalk/nearby shiz dying/you using Ntraversal give you back life force, even Transfusion/LT gives you back on losing it, but you must admit they are interesting and we desperately need more interesting traits across all professions (but kinda especially necro).

I like the boon corruption one. Boon spamming is everywhere; more ways to subvert it would be very nice.

Grasp of Death: Chance to steal a boon on hit. Chance scales with number of conditions on you.

Patient Zero: Auto transfer one stun or condition/stack per x seconds to a nearby foe.

I would love it /love it/ if reanimator was a grandmaster trait with no cooldown.. However that would be OP in group PvP situations so it will never happen.

I guess I’m just sad I missed out on the epic GW1 minion masters… GW2 minions are very lackluster.

Wow, I actually REALLY like some of these…
Some that I’d personally love to have from the list are:

*Deadened Flesh – Gain Protection for 2 seconds upon entering Death Shroud
*Spectral Shielding – Gain Toughness based on Life Force
*Absorb Vis – Gain Life Force when struck below health threshold
*Barbed Armor – Gain protection (5s) whenever you gain retaliation.
*Hardened Blood – Gain protection (5s) when struck by a critical hit.
*Tyranny – Gain toughness for every boon on you.
*Dark Emergence – Blind nearby foes when exiting Death Shroud (with ICD)
*Chilling Presence- Chill enemies around you when you drop below 50% (30 second cooldown)
*Tendrils of Corruption – Chance to corrupt a foe’s boon when struck.
Hypothermia – Chilled foes deal less damage to you. (N%)

The ideas for protection are really nice, especially after Weakening Shroud nerf.

I wonder if we couldn’t re-purpose this thread into general trait suggestions/replacements for bad traits. Although, I guess that might get too confusing/out of hand…

Could always propose a separate one for each Tree just to keep them a bit more organized.

I just limited this thread to those two slots due to that specifically being what ANet is looking at.

@Overkillengine: tier for those?

Zadist.5410:

I would love it /love it/ if reanimator was a grandmaster trait with no cooldown.. However that would be OP in group PvP situations so it will never happen.

I guess I’m just sad I missed out on the epic GW1 minion masters… GW2 minions are very lackluster.

I personally think it should be merged with Flesh of the Master or Minion Master.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

I just limited this thread to those two slots due to that specifically being what ANet is looking at.

@Overkillengine: tier for those?

Honestly what tier those would be good for depends highly on the numbers used. I’ll elaborate on the concepts a bit more.

Note: I am assuming as minors; as majors they may need a touch more beef.

Grasp of Death: Chance to steal a boon on hit. Chance scales with number of conditions on you. (note: 9 unique conditions exist, % and ICD subject to adjustment)

The point of that trait is to not only give another tool to deal with the boon heavy meta but to also cement a Necro as being able to derive power from being attacked with conditions other than just conversion (Well of Power), consumption (Consume Conditions) or the various transfer abilities. Note that it helps with the defensive issues that DS and Plague tend to have (lack of condition management tools while in them).

Counterplay versus this: stop mindless automatic boon spamming on recharge while loading a Necro who has this trait up with conditions or you are going to have a bad time. They’ll eat your boons and then you.

Patient Zero: Auto transfer one stun or condition/stack per x seconds to a nearby foe.
Radius: 600 units, similar to Epidemic but centered on the Necro per proc.

Another defensive trait with an emphasis on manipulating conditions to the Necro’s advantage; rewards aggressively sticking close to an enemy to infect them. Has some synergy with certain signets as a pseudo team support tool. Counterplay? Same as versus Plague; back up and focus them from range.

A note: if scaled up to majors, they would become powerful but in some ways mutually antagonistic to have at the same time; this is to prevent stacking issues.

Edit: guess I didn’t really answer the original question. Either would work decent as a Master I’d think as long as they were scaled appropriately.

Other than the obvious people who can’t be bothered to read, the OP now is up to date with all ideas presented thus far.

Some really cool ideas. Though i bet Anet will read this and totally ignore it and add something that is just as useless as the 5point trait was before the before. 30 seconds was terrible.

I would like to see something and buffs our defensive side up.

Deathly Aura: Immune to all physical damage while we have at least 1% Life Force ^^

Adept
Last Breath: Chill foes hit by channeled attacks for 3 seconds (10sec ICD)

Master
Nurtured Soul: Gain health while above 50% life force.
Immortal: While under the effects of regeneration, you generate life force.

Master

Undying Flesh: Gain lifeforce when struck while not in Death Shroud.

Updated with current ideas (save the damage immunity)

Here are my ideas:

Death Minor Adept: Recently Deceased – After revival, you take 15% increased healing from all sources. (Lasts 10 seconds)

Death Major Adept: Deathly Resilience – You take 30% less direct damage below the health threshold. (Health Threshold = 25%)

Lests go over some historical traits that are still coded:
Dark Armor: 10/15/25% (depending on some value, its string aint there) less damage taken in DS
Fearful Lifesteal: Steal life from feared foes
Improved Minions
Blood Fiend: BF bleeds on attacks
Bone Minions: You summon two additional Bone Minions
Flesh Golem: Heals you on attack
Bone Fiend: Causes Vuln
Shadow Fiend: Is stealth while not attacking

Bloodline: When you are under 50% hp deal additional 25% damage
Ghost Armor: Sarmor reduces damage taken by 75%
Protective Markings: Gain armor for each mark placed while in combat
Twisted Runes: Gain toughness for each unused signet.
Necrotic Rituals: First spell cast in Death Shroud has increased potency, unknown trigger, effects are as follow: Twin life blast – 2 of em fired in the same cast, Corrupt Path – Dark Path corrupts 3 boons into conditions and immobilizes the target for 2 seconds in addition to normal shiz, Whispers of Oblivion – fear with undefined duration, Soul Transfer op version of LT that seems to have no channel time

I don’t think that any minion specific traits would be that useful, perhaps if all got combined into a GM trait, Superior Summoning or something.

As for the other traits I’d like to see an adept major like this:

Gain 4s stability on a successful stun break.

It’d only be useful on stopping continuous CC chains but that’s actually one of the main defenses we need and would make Death Magic a MUCH MUCH more attractive choice.

Kiriakulos.1690:

I don’t think that any minion specific traits would be that useful, perhaps if all got combined into a GM trait, Superior Summoning or something.

Unless you’re minion spec’ed. Also, putting all minion specific traits into one single trait would make it OP’d.

I’m of the opinion that traits should never be designed for a specific skill unless that skill is always available. For example, Unyielding Blast, Reaper’s Might, and Transfusion all affect a specific skill, but these are skills that all necros, regardless of choices made, have available.

Having a trait that specifically boosts Flesh Golem, on the other hand, is not a good trait.

Will get to adding the new suggestions. (though I HIGHLY disagree with minor traits tied to a skill type or weapon, as that just gives us the same problem we have now with the minors)

I really hope a dev is reading this thread. If we could get a confirmation post saying “yeah, we’re keeping an eye on this thread” and nothing else, I’d be most happy.

Guys guys, chill, with the last post i just wanted to show you some stuff still in dat file code that they seem to have forgotten about, not actual suggestions.

Oh, I actually posted the ones that weren’t dependent on a skill type as suggestions. Even if you weren’t actually suggesting them, I think they have merit.

i wanna see the improved minion trait so badly Q_Q having 4 bone minion healing on hit golem and vuln bone fiend is like WOW imagine the self heal power from vampiric master 8D

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

I’m of the opinion that traits should never be designed for a specific skill unless that skill is always available. For example, Unyielding Blast, Reaper’s Might, and Transfusion all affect a specific skill, but these are skills that all necros, regardless of choices made, have available.

Having a trait that specifically boosts Flesh Golem, on the other hand, is not a good trait.

Will get to adding the new suggestions. (though I HIGHLY disagree with minor traits tied to a skill type or weapon, as that just gives us the same problem we have now with the minors)

I really hope a dev is reading this thread. If we could get a confirmation post saying “yeah, we’re keeping an eye on this thread” and nothing else, I’d be most happy.

You’re talking about a total game rehaul with every class then, there’s a lot of traits that work on specific skills/weapon skills.

Also, I’m not sure what happened to one of my posts, but, what are you proposing happens to Reanimator and Protection of the Horde? Complete removal with replacments from the above suggestions?

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

I really hope a dev is reading this thread. If we could get a confirmation post saying “yeah, we’re keeping an eye on this thread” and nothing else, I’d be most happy.

Knowing them the reply would be:

“Some great ideas here, that would make for some great potential with the class, unfortunately, this is against the idea we had for the class and thus none of these ideas will ever make it into the game and we are shocked that our attempts to kill off this class havent yet worked. Due to this, expect some HUGE nerfs and class breaking bugs to be introduced to the class…Go warrior!”

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

I’m of the opinion that traits should never be designed for a specific skill unless that skill is always available. For example, Unyielding Blast, Reaper’s Might, and Transfusion all affect a specific skill, but these are skills that all necros, regardless of choices made, have available.

Having a trait that specifically boosts Flesh Golem, on the other hand, is not a good trait.

Will get to adding the new suggestions. (though I HIGHLY disagree with minor traits tied to a skill type or weapon, as that just gives us the same problem we have now with the minors)

I really hope a dev is reading this thread. If we could get a confirmation post saying “yeah, we’re keeping an eye on this thread” and nothing else, I’d be most happy.

You’re talking about a total game rehaul with every class then, there’s a lot of traits that work on specific skills/weapon skills.

Also, I’m not sure what happened to one of my posts, but, what are you proposing happens to Reanimator and Protection of the Horde? Complete removal with replacments from the above suggestions?

There are very few traits that reference specific skills – the ones that do are often tied to profession mechanics, so they’re always useful to the player. Traits that affect weapon sets are more common, but at a major level, which makes it a build choice. A trait that only affects one utility or one weapon skill would be strangely restrictive since minor traits are meant to support every build (that’s the current issue with them).

Personally, I think PotH is weak enough to become Adept Major, since gaining 100 toughness some of the time in exchange for slotting all minions doesn’t seem oppressive. Reanimator is supposedly getting merged with Death Nova.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

You’re talking about a total game rehaul with every class then, there’s a lot of traits that work on specific skills/weapon skills.

Also, I’m not sure what happened to one of my posts, but, what are you proposing happens to Reanimator and Protection of the Horde? Complete removal with replacments from the above suggestions?

1. Incorrect. There are three traits in the game that only affect a single skill, all of which are on Necro. This is not a problem because the trait modifies a skill that all necros have, regardless of build. Compare it to, say, a trait that only affected Scorpion Wire on thieves.

2. Try reading the OP. It’s explained perfectly what is going on.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

You’re talking about a total game rehaul with every class then, there’s a lot of traits that work on specific skills/weapon skills.

Not minor traits, which is the problem. Major traits are fine to work on specific things, because if you don’t have that specific thing… just pick something else.

Mesmer and Guardian are the only classes that have specific minors like this. Mesmers get it on Phantasms (which are in every build anyway). Guardians get it on symbols, which aren’t forced into their builds (if you use sword/X scepter/X, only), but are still much more standard than minions.

So no, no need for a full redesign. Its a pretty unique problem to Necromancers, probably left over from when they planned on minions being a lot more core (and back when the traits were… less bad, PotH used to be %damage, not just toughness).

Edit: also he responded. Two separate issues, both unique to Necros.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

You’re talking about a total game rehaul with every class then, there’s a lot of traits that work on specific skills/weapon skills.

Also, I’m not sure what happened to one of my posts, but, what are you proposing happens to Reanimator and Protection of the Horde? Complete removal with replacments from the above suggestions?

1. Incorrect. There are three traits in the game that only affect a single skill, all of which are on Necro. This is not a problem because the trait modifies a skill that all necros have, regardless of build. Compare it to, say, a trait that only affected Scorpion Wire on thieves.

2. Try reading the OP. It’s explained perfectly what is going on.

1. Read Bhawb’s response to me as to what I was refering too, and to which he answered better.

2. I have read it. I was asking your/community’s thoughts on what you/they think should happen to the two minors, or if there is total agreement with what Jon stated was going to happen. Sorry for the miscommunication there. My point: some of us don’t like that Reanimator is moving from adept minor to grandmaster major and have other suggestions for it, which would be a good place to plug them here as well.

Whether there is total agreement or not on the changes, it’s unlikely ANet will change their mind on what will be happening with those two traits. There is, however, total agreement that they should not be minor traits and need to be replaced.

EDIT: Also, thanks to Bhawb for mentioning this thread in the BoC podcast.

I have less of a problem with Reanimator. I’m not a fan of it but can see the justification. Protection of the horde, however, clearly panders to minion builds. An extra minion can be useful to a minionless build, but a stat boost based on minions is not. This trait needs to be made a major and a buffed/reworked Dark Armor made a new minor.

From what I gather on the response I was given by Jon when discussing merging flesh of the master with protection of the horde and being told it would be overpowered because in place would be a similar power to these on the 15 point trait.

I am reading between the lines that we will be getting a trait that increases our toughness as I don’t suspect that we will get a minor trait to increase our minions health as the whole point is changing it away from minion minors.

So a similar power to protection of the horde could only mean that it provides toughness either by a set amount or by a percentage based off of how much x we have in another stat. That is the only similarity I can imagine that Jon maybe talking about but I hope that is just off the top of his head as an idea and not already set in stone.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Whether there is total agreement or not on the changes, it’s unlikely ANet will change their mind on what will be happening with those two traits. There is, however, total agreement that they should not be minor traits and need to be replaced.

EDIT: Also, thanks to Bhawb for mentioning this thread in the BoC podcast.

Well I hope you’re wrong about them changing their mind on it, but do agree that they probably won’t. I do agree that they should be moved, just not where they’re intending them to go. If Reanimator does get moved to grandmaster major, I’ll have to change my current build to use it, and I’m rather happy with it atm.

Scarran.9845:

From what I gather on the response I was given by Jon when discussing merging flesh of the master with protection of the horde and being told it would be overpowered because in place would be a similar power to these on the 15 point trait.

I am reading between the lines that we will be getting a trait that increases our toughness as I don’t suspect that we will get a minor trait to increase our minions health as the whole point is changing it away from minion minors.

So a similar power to protection of the horde could only mean that it provides toughness either by a set amount or by a percentage based off of how much x we have in another stat. That is the only similarity I can imagine that Jon maybe talking about but I hope that is just off the top of his head as an idea and not already set in stone.

An interesting idea could be for it to have something to do with our Life Force, Say at 100% Life Force we have 250Toughness and lower it gets the smaller the bonus, or even have it the other way around so the lower our life force the bigger the bonus.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Whether there is total agreement or not on the changes, it’s unlikely ANet will change their mind on what will be happening with those two traits. There is, however, total agreement that they should not be minor traits and need to be replaced.

EDIT: Also, thanks to Bhawb for mentioning this thread in the BoC podcast.

Well I hope you’re wrong about them changing their mind on it, but do agree that they probably won’t. I do agree that they should be moved, just not where they’re intending them to go. If Reanimator does get moved to grandmaster major, I’ll have to change my current build to use it, and I’m rather happy with it atm.

I’d like to be wrong on that as well, but given the previews we have gotten in the past that were unchanged when they were finally released, well…

Reanimator is at least getting merged with a trait you wanted to take anyway on minion builds, especially if you liked using the jagged horrors a lot.