Guild Wars 2

This is a fan specialization idea for the necromancer, while it is a bit wordy this is just a bit of fun to get the creative juicy flowing. Apologies for the lack of images however I explain most areas a detail to give you an idea of direction and style of the harbinger.

Infuse Death
Infuse death is a special ability that utilizes the necromancers life force by infusing it into their current weapon. When necromancers active Infuse Death the current weapons form and skill set will change. Unlike Death shroud it will not act as a secondary health bar instead it will form to enhance combat abilities giving the user more options to their playstyle.

Infuse death has many differences than death shroud for instance, each skill will have a life force cost depending on how powerful the move is instead of a degrading effect. Infuse Death also allows you to use your right hand side of your skill set, enabling you the use of your, heal, utilities and elite skills at will.

By specialising in harbinger you will still be able to use Death Shroud, however it work slightly different to an elementalist attunements or the revenants Legends swap. Necromancers will be able to activate them both at once allowing for Death Shrouds secondary health bar as well as the weapon skill changes form Infuse Death, although as a result you will lose the right hand set of your skill bar equivalent to using Death Shroud normally.

Managing life force will become a significant role in deciding the expenditure and allocation within the harbinger specialization. While this might seem to demanding for your life force as generation during the start of an encounter can be problematic new weapon skills, abilities and traits will help smooth out the flow of life force.

Infuse Death Example – Staff – Scythe
The visual form of this is similar to when using Necrotic Grasp for the staff, however it is greatly superior for example the scythe size doubles and gains a green aura around the blade. As the weapon is switching form a ranged to a melee weapon the stance is similar to when wielding a hammer or greatsword.

1. Reaper’s slash - Slash upwards at your foe
Reapers arc – Slash downwards at your foe
Reapers Harvest – sweep damaging foes around you gaining health for each hit

2. Vile Miasma – Pierce the ground releasing a geyser of vile miasma. Enemies hit have a poison cloud follow them for a short duration.

3. Exhume – Charge your target dragging your scythe behind summoning bone fiends based on the distance travelled.

0 – 200 summon 1 minion
200 – 400 summon 2 minions
400 – 600 summons 3 minions

4. Death Sentence – Teleport to a target, chilling them and performing a arcing slash. Gains 100% critical strike chance when target is under 20% health.

5. Rigor Mortis – unleash dark energy cascading in all directions applying slow to all enemies hit, upon reaching its maximum distance it recedes back to the origin stunning target hit that have slow applied.

Harbinger Heal, Utilities and Elite Skills

Hollow Dread [Heal] – Heal yourself. Inscribing a reapers mark on foes when hit. Fear effectiveness is based on current health when used.

<30% – 1 ½ second flee
30-50% – 1 second flee
>50% – ¾ second flee

[Utility Skills]
The order utility set is an upkeep based skill that draws on Life force or health to fuel a consent effect that benefits not only yourself but allies within a certain distance. All order skill emanate from the player so positioning to get the full effect is required.

Order of the Vampire – Envelop the nearby area with blood magic that allows yourself and allies to gain health from their target when dealing damage.

Order of Apostasy – Envelop the nearby area with a curse that allows yourself and allies to removes one boon from their target when dealing damage.

Order of Undeath - Envelop the nearby area with death magic that allows minions to inflict a random condition when attacking and summoning a jagged horror when enemies die.

Order of Blood - Envelop the nearby area with blood magic that allows yourself and allies to share all boons with each other.

(Spectral) Vengeful Spirits [Elite] – Unleash 5 spirits seeking out nearby enemies once attached applies confusion and torment every second. Gain life force based on the damage done.

The Vengeful Spirits Elite showcases a direction of resource management and positioning allowing stronger Life Force generation at the any point in the fight. As the skill in the spectral skill set the elite can be used in conjunction with Infuse Death to provide a strong upkeep of life force.

When unleashed the spirits hunt for a target with a 800 range distance, the spirits will try to attach to as many enemies within range up to a limit of 5 however if only one is present all 5 will congregate to the one target and apply torment and confusion faster up to a maximum of 10 stacks each.

Thanks for anyone who actually read all of my ideas while i have a load more for different weapons and traits I’ll hold back as for now. Any criticism or if you have any better ideas are all welcome and appreciated.

Nice ideas! Sadly, would be too much work for the devs and we know how they can even shy away from changing 3 numbers in their code. I mean they’d need to make a second skillset for every single weapon (yes i know ele has 4 but i doubt specializations get that much stuff… and especially not for something that isn’t permanent, because there would obviously be no LF gain in that form.

Yeah the idea might be a little to complex given the amount of weapon skills you would have. Until we get to see how much of a difference specializations change are mechanics (if any) its a little hard to speculate, some ideas like the staff skills could easily be translated over to something like a greatsword and the over skills would still be able to work. But yeah maby a little too creative on the Infuse death idea >.<

Very nice ideas!
I’m always too lazy to do these kinds of things, but if I did – this is what it would look like.

Also, mobility on necro is sadly never gonna happen though

You stole my thoughts really.

I’m back with some new ideas and revisions! Hopefully better in some areas this time. Enjoy the read.

Death Shroud 2.0

In my previous idea it focused on increasing the options of the death shroud mechanic by adding a similar use of life force, that was aimed at the weapon you currently had equipped for example a stafkittencythe. This created more options but also needlessly increased the complexity resulting in being able to have five different weapon sets available at one time.

This time around I still based my ideas around having different options however limited to the playstyle of your choice. At the moment death shroud is more valuable to power builds due to the life force gain over time and the abilities death shroud provide. Condition builds mostly use it for utility which in its self is not inherently bad, however death shroud should accommodate that style of play without seeming semi redundant.

My idea consists of having the ability to choose a particular unique necromancer weapon/item while in death shroud. This item would have a role in deciding the route in which the play would like to take his build, for instance having a condition/control based ability set in death shroud that would provide a more meaningful reason to enter it. It would be as simple as changing a utility skill by selecting the pip arrow and the corresponding item would change the death shroud action set.

[Examples]

Default no weapon – Power / Control
Scythe – Hybrid / Movement
Grimoire – Condition / Control

I will refrain from explaining every weapon ability however you can view my earlier post for ideas on a scythe base weapon.

Continuing this idea I created new heal, utilities and elite skills, while most of the skills suggestions I made previously where throwbacks from guild wars 1, I decided to create a new set based on gaps that were missing in gameplay as well as slightly in theme of a necromancer.

[Heal]
[Spectral] Spectral Bond - Create a bond between you and a foe, applying cripple to the target gaining Regeneration over time. Heal amount is based on current health of the linked target.

[Rituals Skill Explanation]
The ritual skills are based on the idea of using an ‘offering’ to empower an ability. This is achieved by placing a ritual circle on the ground, which will when activated apply bleeds to all target in the circle and allow the ability to become active. The amount of targets offered will determine the overall strength of the ability.

This skill set is showcasing a risk and reward style where by situations where you can determine a position in which you can receive the best results in any given fight will yield greater return. Ritual skills are powerful in their own right and become more useful to yourself/team the greater the amount offered, however you can use the ritual skill on yourself before or during the fight giving you the immediate use at its base level.

This type of skill has three stages ritual placement, offering and skill activation. The ritual placement is instant cast and beginning the offering shortly after. Once the ritual has triggered and the requirements met, the skill becomes instant cast and can be used at will.

The amount of targets that can be offered in one ritual circle is five including yourself, this will apply five stacks of bleeding on each target. If successful in offering five it will reward you with the maximum power output of the given the ability.

[Ritual Skills Examples]

[Ritual] Chains of Enslavement – Summon a bone effigy at the location, tethering foes within a certain distance. Chained enemies are crippled and apply torment when moving.
(Greater offerings will increase the range distance of tethered captures as well as the duration)

[Ritual] Defiled Domain – Defile the ground where you walk pulsing stability to yourself and allies and weakness to foes.
(Greater offerings will increase the range of defiled ground around you and the duration)

[Ritual] Fetid Storm – Corrupts the air around yourself destroying projectiles
(Greater offerings will increase the size of the storm around you enabling a combo field also increasing the duration of the ability)

[Ritual] Shambling Horror – Summon a shambling horror to attack your foes with bleeding claws
(Greater offerings will increase the strength of the minion and the attack speed – the offering level will also visually change the minion giving it a different appearance)

[Elite]

[Corruption] Tainted Flesh - Corrupt your flesh and gain resistance and swiftness. Attacks against you apply a random condition to foes. Abilities apply poison.

Again thanks to any who read through this block of text successfully and hope it inspired some, as always critique and ideas are welcome and appreciated.