Guild Wars 2

Focus cast times are so long. oh my god.

Jelzouki.4128:

Focus cast times are so long. oh my god.

ALOT of our cast times are unneccesarily long or its a channeled skill while other classes do the same instantly, but yes, focus 5 takes takes the cake.

Shiki.7148:

ALOT of our cast times are unneccesarily long or its a channeled skill while other classes do the same instantly, but yes, focus 5 takes takes the cake.

Pretty much. We could really use cast times being actually balanced towards the effect of the skill.

0s should be for abilities that don’t directly affect the enemy at all, are movement, or have some other reason (spectrals, minion actives, doom, DS entry/exit, transforms)
1/2s should be for summoning, and abilities with weaker direct effects on the enemy (Locust Swarm, Reaper’s Touch)
3/4s should be the standard cast
1s would be abilities that have a really strong effect on the enemy (Spinal Shivers)
>1s would be the abilities with really strong effects on an entire fight

Unfortunately, basically all of our abilities have had their cast times shifted way up the line, and other professions have had a number of theirs shifted down.

Still love me focus m8!
Reaper’s touch has made quite some teefs rage quit after that nearly instant 6k dmg =P

Technically, Necromancer isn’t slow. 1-1.25 seconds isnt fast for an ability. It gives reasonable reaction time. Everyone else (for the most part) are too kittening fast. Its all twitch play and not very reasonable to counter and basically just ups the amount of luck instead of skill in the game. Necromancers and many of the warrior skill sets are actually where things should move to.

Thieves and fresh air eles are just stupid in the amount of “instant” presses they have access to. Just my two cents.

Holl.3109:

Still love me focus m8!
Reaper’s touch has made quite some teefs rage quit after that nearly instant 6k dmg =P

I think the problem we have is spinal shivers. Yes, it is reasonably powerful, but MY GOD, that cast time. That one flashy Vampire spell where the guy makes almost the exact same movements as spinal shivers in Forsaken World didn’t have that much cast time, kitten .

ronpierce.2760:

Technically, Necromancer isn’t slow. 1-1.25 seconds isnt fast for an ability. It gives reasonable reaction time. Everyone else (for the most part) are too kittening fast. Its all twitch play and not very reasonable to counter and basically just ups the amount of luck instead of skill in the game. Necromancers and many of the warrior skill sets are actually where things should move to.

Thieves and fresh air eles are just stupid in the amount of “instant” presses they have access to. Just my two cents.

It isn’t just Air ele though.

Life Transfer :

Damage Damage (9x): 558 (2.25)
Life Force: 3%
Number of Targets: 5
Duration: 3 s
Radius: 600
40 second cooldown

Blast Damage: 679 (2.0)
Wall Damage: 34 (0.1)
Burning: 1 s (328 damage)
Targets: 5
Fire Wall Duration: 4 s
Blast Radius: 240
Evade: ¾ s
Combo Field: Fire
Range: 600
15 second cooldown

One is a channel that, in PvP, almost never gets completed, the other is instant, and the instant one provides a dodge and a combo field fire for might stacks, while being on a much shorter cooldown and also has pretty nice damage if the enemy gets rooted inside the firefield. Like, what the FFFFFFFFirefly.

cancel cast = stow weapon

You can’t compare random skills that have absolutely no comparisons. One is a weapon skill (that is not very good in PvP) and the other is part of a profession mechanic.

OP is correct. All necro weapons except for axe and staff feel terribly slow. Especially scepter/dagger set which has ridiculous delays. Heck, people throw dagger 4 to remove conditions but you can get insta-blinded /thieves&guardians etc) while projectile is in air. A-net needs to address many issues about necro including mobility and clunky skills. It just feels so underpowered and less fun compared to other classes.

At the moment all we can do is let Anet know about this problem which is one of the main factors of why most people don’t play necro anymore or rarely visit it. Other than that with some skills you can pre-cast it while behind line of sight. For example dagger 3 and focus 5 can be cast behind a pillar or while running away, then you turn 180 to your enemy and voila 4 seconds immob nobody saw it coming :P

I find it easier to land focus 5 than focus 4, lol. The aftercast on Reaper’s Touch is ridiculous.

After playing Necro for so long, I’ve just learned to have foresight. Really pay attention to how people move during a fight and you can predict where they’ll be standing by the time your attack goes off. I’m not saying our animations don’t need to be fixed, because they do, I’m just saying if you want a better way of dealing with it how it currently is, just learn how to predict where people will move.