Guild Wars 2

I want to trait 20 points into Death Magic, I really do. I want two of the major traits that buff the staff skills; I want the bonus toughness; I even want the increased boon duration. I even don’t really care that the minor traits do not help my build (conditionmancer) in the slightest. However, there is one major problem with the Death Magic traitline I cannot overcome …

Putting 5 or more trait points into Death Magic will create an active benefit for your opponents in dungeons (mainly Arah), PvP or WvW.

The first time I ran Arah, I was traited 20 points into Death Magic. Upon encountering the Giganticus Lupicus, my Jagged Horrors attacked the boss, allowing not one, but two risen grubs to spawn immediately at the boss’ feet. This, of course, gave our friendly Giganticus multiple buffs to power and armor for my guild and I to deal with in phases 2 and 3. Needless to say, no one in the run was very happy.

Immediately after the run, my guild mates (RL friends for several years) asked me to respec out of Death Magic. In fact, they did not need to ask, as I would never knowingly run Arah in a spec that will decrease the odds of our success (and this boss exists in every single path of Arah). From now on, I cannot run any traits in the DM traitline, or else I will have to respec prior to all Arah runs.

Additionally, Jagged Horrors are just generally annoying in dungeons. They have a nasty habit of running around and agroing mobs that were not previously in combat. Again, something that tends to frustrate myself and friends.

And in PvP / WvW, your enemies can rally off of Jagged Horrors. Consider, for a moment, that my enemies can rally off of a minion that I have no control over spawning, and that constantly degenerates health to make it an incredibly easy kill. Traiting into DM in a PvP environment is a benefit to your opponents.

If it were an option, I would actually opt out of this trait, taking nothing in its place, just so I could continue to use the Death Magic line. Please, fellow Necros, discuss:

- How would you fix Reanimator (5 point DM minor)?
- If Anet created a way to opt out of this trait (temporarily, until they can fix the issues above), would you choose to opt out?

Necromancer need a complete Redesign.
So crapy gamedesign i never seen on a MMO.

If only i dont know we could spawn all range pets, or melee, or heck 6 bone minions instead of 1 of each. I would kill for all range pets sometimes for instance runs. Also a way to command the pets would go along way. I do not expect them to protect me, or try to take hits for me, what i want them to do is attack what i want when i want more then anything.

I’d rather have it be something like “You apply Protection to nearby Allies upon entering Death Shroud”
That way it’d be nice with Minions and useful even without them while still staying in the Defensive theme.
It’d also make Death Shroud somewhat more useful for Minion Masters.

Or better. Make it be Regeneration so that it can also be used to heal Minions out of Combat.
(Although that’s more of a Blood Magic thing)

Or have it be “When one of your Minions dies 2 Jagged Horrors raise from it’s remains.”
Remove the cooldown completely as the Minions already have cooldowns of their own.
You couldn’t really spam a ton of them anyway.
(Obviously a Jagged Horror wouldn’t spawn an another Jagged Horror. Yo dawg…)

That’d be really cool once Minion AI is fixed, gives a somewhat swarmy feel.
It’d be way less intrusive while waiting for an AI fix, too.

I figured the adept minor trait with Death Magic should provide you with a few seconds of vigor when entering Death Shroud or something (Promotes defensive Death Shroud, which fits the Death Magic line, and it’s useful for any build). The jagged horrors should be lumped with the Grandmaster Trait that causes a poison cloud when a minion dies. Subsequently, jagged horrors should trigger this trait, and perhaps the trait (and summoning of jagged horror) should have a 10 cooldown (or the horrors should have a 20 second cooldown and the trait have no cooldown. Depends on coding).

The Death Magic line makes me sad. In PvP, I want to trait Death Magic, but I don’t want to be forced to carry a staff or run minions to do it. Ah well, tis what it is.

PvP opponents do not rally from jagged horrors, I don’t know why people keep saying they do. I’ll say it again in caps just to emphasize : KILLING JAGGED HORRORS DOES NOT TRIGGER RALLY!

Regardless of whether or not they trigger Rally, they are the most useless things this side of anywhere. I think we can all agree on that.

I mean: Only lives for a short period of time. Spawns after killing something so if you don’t have another thing to kill within 2 steps, the little bugger dies before doing anything at all. Keeps you in combat even after it dies. Makes your character voice the same lines over and over.

Only bonus? It might land a hit sometime. Maybe.

@Denta
What a useful comment! Wow! You really enlighten us with those words!
-_-

I agree with you: Jagged Horrors are more pain then utility and those who run for Arah simply cannot put points in Death Magic. This is a great problem.
I’m sure ArenaNet will fix the AI somehow but for now minions is not an option for necromancers. I’d like to have an official answer if they are going to change something about minons, because half of this class is wasted.
I like necromancer, it will be my main regardless but now this class is stuck with fewer options then intended.

Because the minion AI is incredibly stupid I abandoned my notion of a wide-eyed crazy berserking necromancer who would surround himself with demonic undead minions and be right in the face of his enemy – getting buffed and healed by his fiendish minions.

It was fun to level and quite effective as well – when the minions decided they wanted to attack. A lot of the times it was only 1 or 2 minions that attacked the others just stood there or ran off to some other distant mob that wasn’t even in combat!

The flesh golem in particular would just stand there and do its idle animation while I was in combat with multiple enemies…

Death Magic Jagged Horror particularly annoyed me – they die instantly, provide no utility and are actually keeping me in combat making me almost die a few times (from lack of healing).

Afaik killing ranger pets doesn’t make you rally. Same should go for minions.

A bit off-topic… but I think it would be funny if those jagged horrors could be used to attach themselves to an enemy, and cause some type of small amount of damage over time (or explode on impact via throwing themselves at the enemy) along with a specific (or maybe random condition).

if necro pets worked like ranger pets I’d be pleased beyond belief. don’t ever assume that because a ranger pet works one way that necro minions will work the same way.

I am in the same boat – I would love to get some points in Death magic but it’s just too annoying. The voice lines alone is enough. If people think having no trait instead of this is better that speaks volumes for how bad it is.