Guild Wars 2

http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/editorials/sky-pirates-tyria-traits-preview-part-two

At first glance they seem very similar to the ones that leaked last week. Changes I noticed were both Death Magic trait changes removed, Near to Death only 30% cooldown reduction down from 50% and Focused Rituals and Terror switched tiers. (Don’t know what was wrong with the Death Magic ones, but the rest seem fair changes.)

Oh my, these are somewhat different. Focused rituals down to adept tier makes for a new build in ZERGvZERG for me. I will continue reading….

EDIT: Are these official? I am confused, because these are similar to the leak, only less stuff in general? Also Terror up to master trait is sadface, though prob. a good move.

These look like much more “real” patch notes than the last set.

Where is part 1 ?
edit: found part 1… these seem to be the traits only modifications, not the overall update modifications

From what I can tell, there was a press thingy this weekend and all the usual information sites have been releasing their previews and/or guides for the upcoming content in the last hour or so. I can only assume that these changes were communicated to them during this event?

http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/editorials/sky-pirates-tyria-traits-preview-part-one

Hopefully this isn’t a complete list of the Trait changes, given how small this list is. It’s likely not since the title of the article is “….: Traits Preview Part Two” . I realize this only covers Traits and not any balance changes to Skills, but still.

Life Siphoning buffs were promised for this patch, weren’t they?

I don’t think they promised to fix siphon this patch, just that it was garbage, and they were looking into it.

This looks like a short list of SOME class changes…. but again, I find this list much more plausible than the other leaked one.

Well, this gives more credit to my theory about ANet leaked those balance changes on purpose to see the reaction and feedback of the community.

On other hand, Terror moved to Master and Focused Rituals to Adept are indeed nice moves. Terror is a very strong trait for only 10 points and Rituals didn’t deserve those 20 points.
I’m so sad that Death Magic traits changes were removed, Death Nova was very promising

Moving terror up a tier ensures that not every necro goes 30 spite, I guess. Even as a full rabid necro 30/10/x/x/x was probably the best option. 30/20/x/x/x really narrows your choices.

I think it was more to stop the 30/10/10/0/20 builds.

They don’t want you do be able to get – Lingering curses, "Dumb"fire, terror, master of terror, greater marks. You are forced to drop at least lingering curses AND greater marks if you want fire/terror/master of terror now.

An interesting trade off, but seeing as how greater marks is still a requirement in the trait tree from hell…. I will be doing a 30/30/10/0/0 with paralyz sigil.

very disappointing. i’ve hoped there would be a lot MORE trait changes than in the first leak….not less -.-

ffs, where is the love for death and blood magic?

People seem to be ignoring the disclaimer

These are unofficial patch notes – things may change with the live game.

Its also just the highlights I am sure…. there are other changes not mentioned…

I doubt this is everything, they said there would be changes to every trait line.

Rennoko.5731:

Oh my, these are somewhat different. Focused rituals down to adept tier makes for a new build in ZERGvZERG for me. I will continue reading….

Seems Terror and Focuzsed Rituals changed places, lending credence to Spectral Wall handing out fear from now on.

Also, the critical chance DS boost seems to be legit.

It was reduced from 50% to 30% to prevent perma-stability however you can still keep an almost perma up-time with a typical boon duration setup.

Terror moving up to master was kind of expected too, now its a choice between greater marks or 2nd terror tick.

Which irks the heck out of me…. why they insist of forcing us to take death magic is beyond me. Set the base mark size to half way between greater and normal marks, and rework death magic to combine cooldowns/unblockable/marksize (slight increase).

I just despise that tree for its minors, as do many others. I would almost have prefered the rework of that tree over getting burning, just because it would open up more interesting options.

I think it was a precaution to the new burning trait, building terror 30/10/10/0/20 would of allowed double tick terrors with burning, still keep greater marks and allowed us to drop Nightmare runes for something else.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNArYWjMax7dbSb8bKApCPD9YXcBIqQwUKKPdA-TsAAzCpIaS1krJTTymsNN8Y5xkAA

Something like this would of been able to burst anyone down considering the 5 second burning would be doing around 3.2k damage.

Honestly, I find it annoying that the base mark size is not just greater marks in general. Its an annoying trait that always sees play in my builds simply because its required in WvW and such. I don’t mind the toughness, but still sucks thakittens such a necessity.

Not happy about the terror change, don’t like any of the other adept curses traits. Even for not going for burning, now gonna lose Master of Corruption.

These are just trait changes. There could be a change to the base size of marks (just don’t get your hopes up).

Pendragon.8735:

Not happy about the terror change, don’t like any of the other adept curses traits. Even for not going for burning, now gonna lose Master of Corruption.

Ah you are right… I had forgotten about that…

I do in WvW run terror and master of corruption, which I will not be able to do now. Guess master of corruption is done for now in WvW. I will still use it in PVE though.

:O No buff to death nova? And the useless Death Shiver trait will remain as useless as it was before?

I’m holding out hope that because this article is titled “Traits Preview”, that the information contained in it is in fact just a preview of the Trait changes, and not all of them.

Not helping Blood Magic is neglectful. They specifically acknowledged the weakness of life steal in a SotG, but no action.

The leaked notes weren’t official, and these aren’t necessarily complete. Let’s wait a day to see what they did.

I hope the actual skill changes are good, because It is kind of sad that we are giving up terror being in adept just to get a grandmaster trait that deals our only source of burning. Not only that, but some of the master traits in curses lose their value when paired up with Terror.

Rennoko.5731:

Ah you are right… I had forgotten about that…

I do in WvW run terror and master of corruption, which I will not be able to do now. Guess master of corruption is done for now in WvW. I will still use it in PVE though.

To be fair Terror WvW roaming really wasn’t affected, if anything it got a massive boost with the additional free 3.2k damage & new fear.

If i roamed with Terror i would use something like this;
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAodWjMax7dbib0bKApCPD9IXdBISBxBTVocA-jkyAYNBRqCA5BiIAmCLiGb9tIasqbMdMRUtBXIymrVLFAELAA-w

Terror being bumped up a Tier only hits TPvP because they now have to drop greater marks to get Master of Terror.

With the changes I can’t get both Banshee’s Wail and Terror anymore for 20 points in Curses, that’s a disappointment, no more 4s daze.

I’ll try 30/20/20/0/0. With food, runes and sigils you can still get a 2nd terror tick without Master of Terror.

Ascii.9726:

Rennoko.5731:

Ah you are right… I had forgotten about that…

I do in WvW run terror and master of corruption, which I will not be able to do now. Guess master of corruption is done for now in WvW. I will still use it in PVE though.

To be fair Terror WvW roaming really wasn’t affected, if anything it got a massive boost with the additional free 3.2k damage & new fear.

If i roamed with Terror i would use something like this;
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAodWjMax7dbib0bKApCPD9IXdBISBxBTVocA-jkyAYNBRqCA5BiIAmCLiGb9tIasqbMdMRUtBXIymrVLFAELAA-w

Terror being bumped up a Tier only hits TPvP because they now have to drop greater marks to get Master of Terror.

Thanks Ascii. I kind of forget sometimes that Spite gives condition duration. So that means I can still have about 100% fear duration (food + Necromancer runes+ stun sigil + 30 in spite) even without master of Terror while having extra power and condi duration for all parts.

Pendragon.8735:

Not happy about the terror change, don’t like any of the other adept curses traits. Even for not going for burning, now gonna lose Master of Corruption.

Gods, you’re right. I didn’t think it was possible but I actually hate the necro trait lines even more now.

Ascii.9726:

If i roamed with Terror i would use something like this;
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAodWjMax7dbib0bKApCPD9IXdBISBxBTVocA-jkyAYNBRqCA5BiIAmCLiGb9tIasqbMdMRUtBXIymrVLFAELAA-w

Terror being bumped up a Tier only hits TPvP because they now have to drop greater marks to get Master of Terror.

Looking at that… I still kinda hate the Spite line for condi. Burning just a band-aid at the end, but you have to take the ugly cousins along the way.

Making marks default large would have opened so much for variety. But they probably left it on purpose, to help seal off burning.

I’m not sure they have gone the right direction in trying to balance this class. Hopefully Torment will be worth the hype.

They just added another broken grandmaster trait to necromancer’s plethora of useless traits.
The question would be, which of the pvp amulets truely supports a power+condition damage+precision build? Carrion? That amulet doesn’t have any precision for that trait to matter. Rampager? The amount of power on that amulet is underwhelming.

Swapping Dhuumfire with Withering Precision would have been a better idea as people who needed burning, could just spend on their correct trait line: curses, and weakness is a much better condition for the spite line and power builds than burning!

What was ANet really thinking?

The minors are lack luster, but I don’t mind the free boon strip at 20, and presumably burning at 30. The first major trait is a toss up between garbage and worse garbage for conditions, but meh…

So for full condition effectiveness you MUST really be at the very least 30/20/10, which only really leaves you 10 points to play around with.

The mention of banshees wail is also sad…. i have been running terror/wail/lingering curses in a horn/roaming/terror build recently and enjoying it. Oh well.

Weren’t there a lot of posts concerned that Necros would be OP if they have us burning on top of terror? Now that they made it difficult to get both people seem upset. I don’t get it, actually having to choose between your traits is a good thing, not something that limits you. Not having any good choices for your traits is more limiting than deciding what to pick.

I think most people are just jaded by being forced into spite for the burning. I think even if you had put burning/terror, both at grandmaster level, and made people choose in that tree (curses), some/most people would have liked that better.

The burning comes with a lot of baggage, while the terror is just there to get. Now it is harder to get, and burning still has all that baggage.

Soul reaping changes are pretty awesome. I am also ok with the Near to Death nerf, but man am i disappointed with blood magic.

Either they plan on a big surprise release in which they present the completely overhauled blood magic trait line or they just… did … nothing about it.
I will be so incredibly sad if they didn’t touch BM.

I’m disappointed with Death. Reanimator and Protection of the Horde should be merged at least (or even get rid of Protection of the Horde…the protection bonus is laughable). I also agree with merging Staff Mastery and Greater Marks.

Doing those things opens the trait line to so many great possibilities. Hoping for a surprise, but bracing for disappointment.

Roe.3679:

Weren’t there a lot of posts concerned that Necros would be OP if they have us burning on top of terror? Now that they made it difficult to get both people seem upset. I don’t get it, actually having to choose between your traits is a good thing, not something that limits you. Not having any good choices for your traits is more limiting than deciding what to pick.

I for one didn’t even need burning, happy with my current build if they would just fix our defensive issues and bring down some cast times.

Instead because they are doing this total shake up, moving traits around everywhere, they are creating new problems for existing builds, without addressing our prime issues – well we’ve yet to see the full notes, but dubious based on past experience.

All because they don’t believe in straight line nerfs or improves, but rather this incoherent idea of increasing versatility as a means to balance.

If they want more versatility, they should clean up Death Magic and Blood Magic. Everyone shouldn’t be forced into hybrid due to it looking like the clear winner.

Guys, we can literally just wait 24 hours and know for real what the patch changes are…

Also, the preview at the top specifically stated it was only a preview.

My view:

-Terror vs Wells: overal i think good. Wells appernetly also with lower CD and stunbreak, Terror was actualy a build defining 10 traiter…..The price price we pay for burning, since Terror will take spot of Curruption 20% CD

-30% DS recharge….honestly dont know :/ Now 7s made all switcher build weaker, though again thats the price for stability.

-Death magic traitline: Nothing. No dmg on death nova, and most of all no 3x vunlerability while in DS……the second would be great in an soldiers retaliation build, and remains useless trait

This kind of goes back to my previous post that that isn’t necessarily everything or final.

I don’t disagree with anything you’re saying but it’s like the community wants attention and then is unhappy when they get it. It’s kind of baffling, although I’m not surprised based off how almost every forum QQs, even the powerful classes.

People get upset easily because some of the biggest changes for necro in the last 9 months were something like breaking focus skills or breaking marks. Not a lot happened and so its easy to start the rage but i agree, we are so close to atleast some adjustments and should keep our undying calm. hrhr

Didn’t they go on record as saying “every trait line will change”?

And then… Death Magic? :P

We’ll see tomorrow. I just can’t believe ANet would get something wrong about their own game.

Interesting but without all the changes it’s really hard to speculate how this’ll affect us. I can say that the increased access to the newly buffed weakness may make us a much more powerful attrition class. I think people are heavily underestimating how much that will help our sustaining power as well as team fight presence.

Another reminbder also to Anet:

We can still only choose 3 traits max from a line. Meaning that even moving a 30pointer to 20pts means we will give up on current 20pointer.

Example. we lose spinal shivers for axe dmg, or lose extra fear/soul marks for DS recharge

Not whining, the changes are on the positive side

Wait and see. Tomorrow will be telling.

If this is all that comes out then it is a tPvP nerf that necro doesn’t need and quite frankly it is mind boggling. Putting Terror up to a 20pt major completely destroys any legit chance at synergy in a terror build that isn’t pure GC. All your traits that have serious value are now at least 20pts deep in traits, meanwhile other professions still get near permanent boons with 5 pt minors.

It can’t be just this.

I understand that burning is a bit better for us than it might be for an engineer… but I still wish they hadn’t just handed us an adept trait in Grandmaster wrapping.

If burning is an on crit chance with a cd of 10 seconds and grandmaster then why would anyone ever take it when there’s a 20% damage increase below 50% health?

Something needs to be done to death magic 1st and 2nd minor traits… why are they even there, traits like that should be optional…

Also can someone explain how does anyone get hold of these unofficial notes ?? I mean why are they on gw2hub and wherever else in the 1st place.