Guild Wars 2

So the Specialisation with HoT sounds promising and I’m looking forward to seeing some much needed dimensions added to the class through new skills/traits. However until then there are some much needed buffs to areas Necro is simply lacking, namely team support (previous attempts through things like ‘Unholy Martyr’ have been sorely lacking. Note this is primarily PvE oriented as Necro is in a pretty good spot but should also provide more synergy options to PvP. Here are my own ideas:

Healing

Well of Blood: Reduce recharge to 35s. Changed to water field. Grant 1 stack of might to allies in the field per pulse for each bleeding enemy adjacent to them.

Signet of Vampirism: Recharge reduced to 30s. Passive changed to ‘Regenerate X amount every 3 seconds, increasing with every 10% of your health missing’. Active now spreads to nearby foes when the target dies. Scaling of active’s lifesteal increased from 7% to 15%.

Heals are very conservative in their defensive nature across professions, but the addition of Arcane Brilliance and Signet of Vampirism got me thinking the addition of more risk vs reward in this niche could be something Necro can offer.

Corruptions

Blood Is Power: Becomes a channel similar to Guardian’s ‘Empower’. Bleed yourself with each pulse and grant 3 might stacks for 12s to nearby allies (untraited banner range), duration increases by 10% for every 10% of your health missing. Grant fury each time you are struck whilst channeling (1 sec internal cd).

Epidemic: Becomes ground targeted, range reduced to 1000, recharge increased to 25s. Enemies in target area share unique conditions, prioritising higher stacks and durations. (eg. 3 enemies: Enemy 1 has a single stack of bleed for 10s and poison for 10s, Enemy 2 has 3 stacks of bleed for 5s and burning for 3s, Enemy 3 has burning for 5s. The result is Enemy 1 receives burning for 5s, Enemy 2 receives poison for 10s and Enemy 3 receives 3 stacks of bleed and 5s of burning). Each new unique condition applied inflicts 2 stacks of vulnerability for 8s, vulnerability applied on self increased to 5 stacks for 10s.

Corrosive Poison Cloud: Radius increased to 300 now inflicts 1 stack of vulnerability for 5s each time an enemy is critically hit within the cloud. Allies have a condition burnt

Corruptions are pretty much the epitome of selfish play as they are, similar to Engineer’s elixirs though without being very potent. The idea here is to add more synergy to organised play and offensive support that isn’t tied to the stacking meta.

Spectral

Spectral Grasp: Recharge reduced to 25s. Now acts similar to binding blade, shoot up to 5 out at nearby enemies and pull them to you. Retains flat 15% life force gain as long as one enemy is hit.

Spectral Armour: Recharge reduced to kitten .

‘Spectral Attunement’ Trait: Replaces weakening precision as GM trait. Grants additional functionality to spectral skills and gain life force on their use. Spectral grasp: now unblockable, at full life force when used chill duration is doubled on affected enemies. Spectral Walk: condition duration is reduced by 20%, allies who touch the trail gain 3s of protection (non-stacking). Spectral Wall: reflects projectiles, grants fury to allies entering if cast whilst at full life force. Spectral Armour: Grants 3s of stability to you and nearby allies also gain the protection.

Again spectral skills are quite selfish, with heavy investment this aims to provide more dynamic type of support.

Aretak.3826:

Well of Blood: Reduce recharge to 35s. Changed to water field. Grant 1 stack of might to allies in the field per pulse for each bleeding enemy adjacent to them.

Its a bit overly complicated, and far too strong in many situations. With just 4 bleeding enemies this would fully stack might on your team.

Aretak.3826:

Signet of Vampirism: Recharge reduced to 30s. Passive changed to ‘Regenerate X amount every 3 seconds, increasing with every 10% of your health missing’. Active now spreads to nearby foes when the target dies. Scaling of active’s lifesteal increased from 7% to 15%.

Interesting idea, although probably not the change that we need. Love the increasing heal, a spreading active would be interesting although I’d debate the usefulness of it compared to how much potential power it would add in “ideal” situations.

Aretak.3826:

Heals are very conservative in their defensive nature across professions, but the addition of Arcane Brilliance and Signet of Vampirism got me thinking the addition of more risk vs reward in this niche could be something Necro can offer.

These aren’t really risk/reward changes. They both reduce CDs (lower risk) and flat increase the strength of the skills (higher reward).

Aretak.3826:

Blood Is Power: Becomes a channel similar to Guardian’s ‘Empower’. Bleed yourself with each pulse and grant 3 might stacks for 12s to nearby allies (untraited banner range), duration increases by 10% for every 10% of your health missing. Grant fury each time you are struck whilst channeling (1 sec internal cd).

This is a nerf to PvE actually, because to grant stacks you have to lose nearly all of your DPS. Wouldn’t mean much in PvP either. It works for Guardian because a staff build is support and a loss in DPS is minimal (pretty sure staff isn’t used in PvE though), plus the channel heals.

Aretak.3826:

Epidemic: Becomes ground targeted, range reduced to 1000, recharge increased to 25s. Enemies in target area share unique conditions, prioritising higher stacks and durations. (eg. 3 enemies: Enemy 1 has a single stack of bleed for 10s and poison for 10s, Enemy 2 has 3 stacks of bleed for 5s and burning for 3s, Enemy 3 has burning for 5s. The result is Enemy 1 receives burning for 5s, Enemy 2 receives poison for 10s and Enemy 3 receives 3 stacks of bleed and 5s of burning). Each new unique condition applied inflicts 2 stacks of vulnerability for 8s, vulnerability applied on self increased to 5 stacks for 10s.

Epidemic is just fine as it is.

Aretak.3826:

Corrosive Poison Cloud: Radius increased to 300 now inflicts 1 stack of vulnerability for 5s each time an enemy is critically hit within the cloud. Allies have a condition burnt

I’m assuming this was accidentally truncated. Otherwise it is an interesting idea to add a vulnerability mechanism to it.

Aretak.3826:

Spectral Grasp: Recharge reduced to 25s. Now acts similar to binding blade, shoot up to 5 out at nearby enemies and pull them to you. Retains flat 15% life force gain as long as one enemy is hit.

Grasp is basically fine as is balance wise. The biggest issue is unreliability and lack of synergy with current builds.

Aretak.3826:

Spectral Armour: Recharge reduced to kitten .

Going to assume the recharge was 45, as that paired with the s for seconds gets a bleep due to this wonderfully idiotic censorship we have (I hate to break it to you but a T rated game shouldn’t have to bleep a benign anatomical reference). Isn’t needed, SA is fine as is.

Aretak.3826:

‘Spectral Attunement’ Trait: Replaces weakening precision as GM trait. Grants additional functionality to spectral skills and gain life force on their use. Spectral grasp: now unblockable, at full life force when used chill duration is doubled on affected enemies. Spectral Walk: condition duration is reduced by 20%, allies who touch the trail gain 3s of protection (non-stacking). Spectral Wall: reflects projectiles, grants fury to allies entering if cast whilst at full life force. Spectral Armour: Grants 3s of stability to you and nearby allies also gain the protection.

Interesting ideas. Doesn’t really change anything in PvE, but still interesting ideas.

Mostly what bhawd said, except for ‘Spectral attunement’ Trait. While I would be extatic to see whitering precision thrown out of it’s position as a GM trait, I think your idea fit more in a defensive traitline then is the curse one.

Also, nothing here would change necromancer’s place in PvE.

- For blood is power I think that it’s the damage part that is crippling this skill. Removing the bleed stacks inflicted on foe could open up this skill to becoming a party wide buff or a personal buff with at least a decent cool down.

- Corrosive Poison Cloud would still be a Poison field inducing issue with might stacking.

- Spectral armor and Epidemic are already strong, their design just don’t fit PvE content.

Right now, I’d like to bet on HoT and specialization to make necromancer more attractive.

Actually yeah fair point, Spectral Attunement really has no place in Curses right now.

Personally I would prefer it if corrosive poison cloud absorbed projectiles.

That would make it rather useful in a variety of game modes.

As for blood is power. I’d love if they changed that to an AOE health steal that healed the necro + nearby allies & granted a might stack for each enemy effected.

Dadnir.5038:

- For blood is power I think that it’s the damage part that is crippling this skill. Removing the bleed stacks inflicted on foe could open up this skill to becoming a party wide buff or a personal buff with at least a decent cool down.

whats the problem with the damage part?

For Blood is power, i propose this:

• You use the skill just like you do it now, no channeling.
• grants 12 might to yourself, 6 to allies.
• for five seconds after you cast it, you grant fury (to all or just the necro? i’d say all) if you get hit.
• Bleed stacks on yourself go up to 4 or 5 (2 bleeds are barely noticeable)

Epidemic: Becomes ground targeted, range reduced to 1000, recharge increased to 25s. Enemies in target area share unique conditions, prioritising higher stacks and durations.

Cant really say anything about the balance of this thing, but i really like the idea.

Corrosive Poison Cloud: Radius increased to 300 now inflicts 1 stack of vulnerability for 5s each time an enemy is critically hit within the cloud. Allies have a condition burnt

Sounds interesting, but cleansing a condition doesnt fit this skill at all in my opinion.

My ideas for additional effects for the cloud:

• Corrupts enemy’s combo fields and turns them into a poison field: Is more of a WvW-effect, i guess. While you give your enemy a free poison field, it also overwrites more useful fields like water or fire and creates an area the enemy really doesnt want to be in.
• Reduces duration of boons applied by the enemy by 20%: again, more for wvw or pvp i guess. Works similar to Hallowed Ground and would give the necro some more boonhate without simply slapping boon rip onto the skill.
• Increases condition duration for targets in the area by 20%

Now i know this stuff isnt going to do anything in PvE if Anet continues with their kittenty mob design, but then it still has the vulnerability/poison.

Moving away from utilities, speculations on new F1 abilites?

I’d really like to see something along the lines of vampire transformation if we get a siphoning GS, by using siphoning abilities you gain blood power (replaces LF gen from weapons). Upon reaching MAX blood power you gain the ability transform

(http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Hopping_Vampire)

and your siphon effectiveness is increased by X% and gain access to 5 vampiric abilities (replaces weapon abilities) Some siphon AOE, mobility with wings (bat swarm or a short leap with wings?)

On the other hand if we get a Death magic focused build, how about Demon summons? (Trickster demon mask a clue?) Moving towards a warlock-esque spec.

Or Enhanced minions? (GW1 skins). Flesh Golem still charges but with a fear (roar animation) before or after. Flesh Wurm becomes Flesh jungle wurm, on necrotic traversal you swap positions with it and it performs a sweeping knockback attack. Minions Are not destroyed upon transformation (Lich, Plague, Moa) and transformation further enhances their damage / survivabilty.

GS skills with “bone wall” (read somewhere on here) and we already know we’re getting chill on AA, helping minions hit easier. Maybe F1 skill with unique short lived summons? Or F1 itself enhances minions?

Vex.7486:

Moving away from utilities, speculations on new F1 abilites?

Eh, the thread title is ‘enhancing what we’ve got’.

Also, i still hope we get greatsword as a melee condition weapon. so far most of the greatswords in the game are some sort of melee mobility burst weapon and it’s just kittening boring.

The damage part of BiP is a really long lasting bleed on foe. Pretty powerfull thing in fact. And I think it’s mostly why this skill is held back with a long cool down and restrain to selfbuff.

What I’m saying is that it would be a good trade off to lose this long lasting bleed for the sake of gaining some party buff which would actually make up a bit for what necromancers lack to be attractive in group play.

And 2 bleeds are noticeable with 25 might stack especially if you have to waste time removing them/ asking your teammate to remove them. Any enhancement need to make the necromancer more reliable in where he is weak : group play.

Dadnir.5038:

The damage part of BiP is a really long lasting bleed on foe. Pretty powerfull thing in fact. And I think it’s mostly why this skill is held back with a long cool down and restrain to selfbuff.

in the end it’s just 2 stacks of bleed and it probably wont stay nearly as long on an enemy in most cases, so i dont think that this should really be an issue or a reason not to buff the skill.

And 2 bleeds are noticeable with 25 might stack especially if you have to waste time removing them/ asking your teammate to remove them. Any enhancement need to make the necromancer more reliable in where he is weak : group play.

if youre specced into condition maybe. as a powermancer it’s just a bit over 2k. i think if you buff the benefits of the skill significantly, then it’s justified to increase that a bit. But you may be right and 4 or 5 stacks with the same duration is too much.

Well of Blood and Corroive Poison Cloud just need for the necromancer to have reliable, weapon based means to finish combos. This is the only thing they are missing

[B]Signet of Vampirism[/b] is a mistake skill that cannot ever be good due to how anet treats siphons. It should have been scrapped in the planning stages.

Blood is Power is a once ok skill that has been rendered irrelevant due to general power creep. If anet was the anet of GW1, playing whack a mole with skills every 2 months, this would see use. I get that you don’t want to fix power creep with more power creep.

Epidemic still needs to do something, anything, other than just spread conditions. It is a terrible skill in conquest where 3v3 is a big fight. It may be more useful, however, in stronghold. We’ll see.

Spectral Attunement Trait If this trait were eliminated with some of the recharge reduction (but not all) refunded to the necromancer, this would help a lot. Most necromancers need to take a spectral skill for a stun break, and our traits punish us for mixing skill types.

RashanDale.3609:

Dadnir.5038:

The damage part of BiP is a really long lasting bleed on foe. Pretty powerfull thing in fact. And I think it’s mostly why this skill is held back with a long cool down and restrain to selfbuff.

in the end it’s just 2 stacks of bleed and it probably wont stay nearly as long on an enemy in most cases, so i dont think that this should really be an issue or a reason not to buff the skill.

And 2 bleeds are noticeable with 25 might stack especially if you have to waste time removing them/ asking your teammate to remove them. Any enhancement need to make the necromancer more reliable in where he is weak : group play.

if youre specced into condition maybe. as a powermancer it’s just a bit over 2k. i think if you buff the benefits of the skill significantly, then it’s justified to increase that a bit. But you may be right and 4 or 5 stacks with the same duration is too much.

I’m sorry, don’t get me wrong, I’m looking at the skill while trying to keep a certain balance. It’s just that if you were looking at it like the dev would look at it this skill, in pvp, it is potentially :

- Berserker amulet: 1.2k direct damage and 6.5k condition damage.

- Carion amulet : 10k condition damage and 300 direct damage.

This is by no mean negligible. Of course if they could give me party support from this skill without removing the damage part I’d buy it. But I’m realist and I know that this much damage, even if it’s potentially, is what held back any changes.
That’s also why I say that I’d be willing to sacrifice//trad this skill’s damage for a change that would make this skill more party friendly.

Judging from the PvE threads, the class as a whole needs to see its sustained damage improved as well. What kinds of changes could they make to improve the sustained damage of the class without also improving the class too much in WvW and PvP?

Dadnir.5038:

I’m sorry, don’t get me wrong, I’m looking at the skill while trying to keep a certain balance. It’s just that if you were looking at it like the dev would look at it this skill, in pvp, it is potentially :

- Berserker amulet: 1.2k direct damage and 6.5k condition damage.

- Carion amulet : 10k condition damage and 300 direct damage.

This is by no mean negligible.

How easily do you get to 25 stacks of might in pvp with the current Blood is Power?

And it’s still 2 stacks over the course of 34-39 seconds. How long will it probably actually stay on the enemy?

Of course if they could give me party support from this skill without removing the damage part I’d buy it. But I’m realist and I know that this much damage, even if it’s potentially, is what held back any changes.
That’s also why I say that I’d be willing to sacrifice//trad this skill’s damage for a change that would make this skill more party friendly.

Thats why i suggest to increase the self bleed instead.

Btw, which bleed were you exactly talking about here?

And 2 bleeds are noticeable with 25 might stack especially if you have to waste time removing them/ asking your teammate to remove them. Any enhancement need to make the necromancer more reliable in where he is weak : group play.

How easily you get 25 might stack, i’d say it depend on your teammate. But in coordinate group play it’s probably pretty easy. These “2 stacks over the course of 34-39 seconds” are the potential damage. We know that these stacks have a high chance to be removed but this doesn’t change their potential damage. You can’t say that a thing is negligible by assuming it will be cleansed.

Anyway, if it’s negligible, why are you so hype to keep it? You should say : “Yeah, why not after all this does like nothing at all. Let’s sacrifice that for the sake of being wanted in parties!”. But instead you are fighting to keep it while almost saying it’s garbage. You don’t want to lose anything, you want more, more and more. Shared might stacks, bleeds stacks on you foes, more bleeds stack to transfer on your foe. Look at this, this is all for the sake of buffing a condimancer that don’t need any buff (No more buff to condimancer, it will end up by nerf and nerf and nerf again for the sake of keeping one buff alive. I’m pointing at what happened with dumbfire which ended with tons of reduced condi duration on necromancer’s weapon skills and at last what it is right now).

for your last question, I was talking about selfbleeds. And it’s bad because there are mechanisms that may grant you damage buff while hp above 90% (scholar rune, hello!) meaning that using it negate this damage buff. Yeah that would be pretty dumb. By the way from the look of it, you never played a powermancer with limited condiremoval, even 2 bleed stack are pretty worrying with this kind of setup.

These fancy changes are cool and all, but all we really need for PvE is a trait like Empower Allies/Spotter for like Ferocity and a way to generate might for a party outside of slotting staff or one of the two minions and blasting a fire field. Oh and a more accessible source of stability that isn’t a GM trait or an Elite skill wouldn’t hurt to have in all three modes of the game.