Guild Wars 2

I recall one of the developers asking in a video if anyone even used “Dark Armor” and I figured I would speak up. The toughness on channeling is considerable for my roaming wvw build wherein I cycle between dagger 2, axe 2 and deathshroud 4. 400 toughness while doing these abilities is pretty great but I understand that this is by no means popular.

But for just three points in the Death Magic line I was getting 670 toughness if channeling and in deathshroud which was pretty great.

I’ve only tried the Dark Armor trait once in all of my theory-crafting; And when I finally got to test it in a 1v1 in wvw (D/D + A/F), it was against a guardian, and it was a slow-but-steady win. After that one match, I never got another 1v1 to test it out much. (and quickly moved on to other theory-builds)

So just in my opinion, it’s not a bad trait if you can manage the playstyle that comes with it. Now that still brings up an interesting idea, because doesn’t the reaper channel most of it’s skills? Shouts, most gs skills, and a couple of the new DS skills. . Or does the long wind-up not count as channelling?

I hope they keep that trait.

I think you will find that the extra 400 toughness does almost nothing. Its your imagination. Plus necro doesnt have enough channel abilities to get good use out of it. Putrid defence is a way better trait. Provides more damage reduction and works a lot better.

spoj.9672:

I think you will find that the extra 400 toughness does almost nothing. Its your imagination. Plus necro doesnt have enough channel abilities to get good use out of it. Putrid defence is a way better trait. Provides more damage reduction and works a lot better.

Woah now, there are some people who would argue until they turned blue their toughness is what makes them last that whole 1 100th of a second longer……

Because leap and blasting dark fields is lame, they should add a Dark Aura that leeches HP from allies that hit it (1 sec ICD per target, maybe 150-200 hp) and reduces incoming condition duration by 20%. That’d be sweeeeet. Of course, blasting and leaping it would cause it instead of a single blind each. Then they could give back Dark Armor as “Entering death shroud removes 1 condition and gives 3 seconds of Dark Aura”.

Who is with me?!

spoj.9672:

I think you will find that the extra 400 toughness does almost nothing. Its your imagination. Plus necro doesnt have enough channel abilities to get good use out of it. Putrid defence is a way better trait. Provides more damage reduction and works a lot better.

Putrid Defense+Cold Shoulder O.O

ronpierce.2760:

Because leap and blasting dark fields is lame, they should add a Dark Aura that leeches HP from allies that hit it (1 sec ICD per target, maybe 150-200 hp) and reduces incoming condition duration by 20%. That’d be sweeeeet. Of course, blasting and leaping it would cause it instead of a single blind each. Then they could give back Dark Armor as “Entering death shroud removes 1 condition and gives 3 seconds of Dark Aura”.

Who is with me?!

This is similar to what I was thinking in another thread with Robert’s mentioning of the introduction of a ‘Vampiric Aura’. Also I like your Dark Armor trait idea, but think it’d be better on exiting Shroud. This would give a bit of sustain as you come out of Shroud, as generally that’s a time Necro has been focused and is gonna need the bit of help to have a chance to recover. Exiting shroud with stacks of condos on you kinda sucks. We’ll see what they come up.

I’m not sure what the reaper will have in terms of channeled skills but as it stands I can constantly channel between the three skills I mentioned. I remember I originally made the build to counter stealth since I just need to start the channel each time before the opponent disappears and stay in range

Quells.2498:

… as it stands I can constantly channel between the three skills I mentioned.

That might almost be true if the cooldown of Life Transfer was below 15 seconds and weapon swap didn’t have a cooldown at all, not to mention that channeled skills are more easily interrupted than Consume Conditions.

Quells.2498:

I remember I originally made the build to counter stealth since I just need to start the channel each time before the opponent disappears and stay in range

Since that only applies to Ghastly Claws and Life Siphon, how are these two targeted skills better against stealthed opponents when you could just use untargeted skills instead? And how does Dark Armor help you in that case when being attacked would actually reveal your opponent?

Anyway, that trait is weak, just be glad you’ll get to use Putrid Defense instead.

Fwiw, Dark Armor is a decent damage reduction buff but it always competes for trait points with Staff Mastery and Minion Master. Anyone traiting into Death Magic usually does so for staff or minions.

400 toughness is more than a player would get with a full 6 points in Death Magic, more than is available with toughness runes, and a not too far from a full set of toughness armor. The problem is that bunker Necromancer does not work very well. Power, Toughness, and Healing ought to be good but it is not.

And despite it being that much it doesnt do much. Toughness is a really over valued stat for a lot of players.

Dark arm or should have been added to a minor trait

somehow toughness scaling on Necro is too small. it should do a lot but does not feel like it

Its not just on necro. Toughness gives pretty poor returns on any class. For example in PvE. It will reduce the damage you take slightly. But the chances are it wont stop you from dieing if you get hit. In PvP it only really helps on frequent weak hits. But people tend to rely on burst to kill each other. Those that dont rely on burst have weak damage anyway. So toughness doesnt help because you could probably survive without it.

Besides the game is about active defence. Passive defence is poor compared to complete avoidance. If it was block on channel then it would be good. As it stands a flat 10% damage reduction is far superior passive defence than a bit of toughness. Because its always 10% no matter how much toughness you had to begin with. So putrid defence is a huge improvement. But it will probably still be an underused trait.

@flow I’m not saying I can literally channel infinitely but it’s so close that arguing about it seems pretty unnecessary. I’ll also note that I’m smart enough to wear someone down with axe auto to apply vulnerability and get their dodges out of the way. Then hitting all three channels kills them. Also, I think channel abilities are better than untargeted because obviously untargeted attacks don’t have any certainty that they’ll hit whereas if a channel starts before stealth barring dodge it will hit. Since dodge negates both channeled and untargeted, channeled still has the advantage not to mention it hits multiple times.

@spoj I don’t understand when you say the game is about active defense. The example you give of a flat 10% reduction is passive. Block on channel would be active.

Yeah putrid defence is passive as well. But a 10% passive is far superior to a bit of toughness.

Well it’s not all passive considering you need to poison your opponent first.
And to be fair, 400 toughness can amount to more than 10% damage reduction.
But still, Putrid Defense > Dark Armor.

Quells.2498:

I’m not saying I can literally channel infinitely but it’s so close that arguing about it seems pretty unnecessary.

I don’t believe you.
Also, since this discussion is about Dark Armor, how many opponents attack you while you’re channeling Life Siphon or Ghastly Claws? Of course it happens occasionally, but it’s nowhere near worth traiting for a thoughness buff in those situations, especially when your opponent might interrupt those channeled skills.

Quells.2498:

I think channel abilities are better than untargeted because obviously untargeted attacks don’t have any certainty that they’ll hit whereas if a channel starts before stealth barring dodge it will hit…
channeled still has the advantage

Let’s get clear on one thing first: targeted skills don’t work againt stealthed opponents at all, they need to be cast before your target goes into stealth. And that is not an upside to targeted skills because the same applies to untargeted, but untargeted skills simply don’t have any of those timing restrictions.
Also, usually you can tell if untergeted skills hit, like marks being triggered, gaining retaliation on Unholy Feast or generating life force with Locust Swarm.

Anyway, I get why you feel those skills work well against thieves or mesmers but that doesn’t make them any better against those opponents than other skills. And especially in those fights they are not worth picking Dark Armor.

400 toughness amounts to about 12-15% damage reduction (more benefit the lower your armor value is to begin with) so its not bad but dark armor isnt consistent enough and isnt there when you really need it (stunned) so no good to me.

I appreciate the feedback.

The thing is Dark armor might be good if it did what it said. But it actually gives you defense, not toughness, so stat conversions from food/traits don’t apply. It’s pretty suck, but I’d rather see it actually work than see it removed, because it seems to me like pretty good game design with alot of play/counterplay potential.