I don’t know if it’s just me, but I feel that the current mechanics with Death Shroud and Lifeforce are way too restrictive, and almost make it feel like we aren’t allowed to use DS a lot. I mean, we start off battles without any LF, and it almost feels like a chore to gather up enough LF unless we are using an axe.
All class mechanics have some sort of requirement to activate (kinda). For example, the thief must have a target an steal from it to gain a steal ability. That’s technically a requirement, but its a pretty kitten simple one.
And what about when we run out of LF? What do we do? We basically can’t use our own ability. If a mesmer runs out of clones, they just have to make more and wait for a cd. Simple. Not for us. Instead we have to wait for a CD (if we still have LF) and we have to find a way to regenerate LF (through attacks or deaths). Now this may not be too much of an issue in a PvE setting where you have trashmobs dying left and right, but in a PvP/WvW setting this is a HUGE problem. With barely any deaths around, we have to completely rely on our attacks to slowly regain LF.
Thus, Necromancers have a much heftier requirement. In order to use our DS, we must gather up LF from dying enemies/the use of abilities that drain Life Force. We also start off PvP battles with 0 LF which makes the beginning of matches extremely difficult.
Here’s My Suggestion
Instead of having to gather up Life Force by attacking enemies/being near dying enemies why don’t Necromancers just have a full Life Force bar 24/7 (sorta). Now it may sound weird at first, but just hear me out.
Instead of having to fish for LF, we should just have a steady stream of LF given to us through a regenerating gauge system. And where the CD of DS depends on how much time you spent in DS form, and can be reduced through traits/attacking to regain LF
Entering DS
Instead of starting off from 0 LF and having to gather it up, why don’t we just have a full LF bar that acts a timer bar instead? Almost like a reverse adrenaline bar.
Lets say our DS has a base duration of 25s (ballpark number) which can be brought up by traiting into Soul Reaping. and it goes down 1s with each hit we endure. Once the time runs out, we have to wait for the LF gauge to regenerate.
Lets say you don’t need the full duration of DS, and you end it early with 10s to spare. Since LF would now be a gauge, the gauge will regenerate from that point on, and thus have a reduce amount of time before DS can be activated again.
LF Regeneration
So you just went through the entire 25s seconds of DS/people dpsed you out of it. Now you need to wait for the LF gauge to regenerate.
I feel that the LF gauge should regenerate at a constant pace, which again can be traited into to increase the regeneration speed. This can be done by having a trait that allows weapons to reduce the lifeforce regeneration speech with each hit (sort of how LF worked before, but LF still regenerates even if you don’t hit someone).
I feel that if this sort of method is implemented, then it would feel like we have complete control over our own class ability, and it would even the playing field when you look at classes that can access their abilities at almost any moment.
Any Other Suggestion/Thoughts?
My biggest problem is with how the CD system would work if this was implemented. I don’t know if we have to wait a base amount of time before we can reactivate DS while regenerating LF/ how long a CD DS, itself, should have in case we didn’t use up all of our LF time.
Comment what you think would be best.
Also, weapon abilities that allow one to regenerate LF would have to be taken our of base and then put into a trait line.
See any holes in my suggestion?
I’d love to hear from the Necro Community on this idea. (considering it may have already been suggested)