For those who somehow don’t know who I am, I have been a Necro main since beta. I am a casual player, though I would like to get into raiding. Still, I dabble in a bit of everything.
For those who do know me, you know I am not a fan of completely changing functionalities of skills or traits, though I will make a couple of big exceptions in this thorough review.
First up, trait lines, then skills.
Part 1:
Spite
Reaper’s Might: no change. It’s always relevant, and 15 seconds base is pretty good for an auto-attack.
Spiteful Talisman: No functionality change, although I might up the damage increase to 10%. In PvE, Necros need the damage boost and in PvP/WvW, it lets you capitalize on the tiny windows of opportunity when your opponent has no boons a little bit better.
Spiteful Renewal: No change yet. While this trait sees virtually no play, that might change once the next Elite Specialization comes out. Bitter Chill is much stronger because of easy Chill from Reaper, but once people have to choose between Reaper and other Elite Specs, this will become a bit more attractive of a choice. Were I to change it, however, I would increase the health threshold to 50%, or change it so it is based on the Necro’s health, rather than his opponent’s.
Bitter Chill: Pretty good overall, as even base Necro has enough Chill to make this useful.
Death’s Embrace: The only thing that makes this decent right now is not having a cooldown, but by the time a target is below 33% health, they are likely already capped on Vulnerability. I’m okay with leaving it as-is, but this is one I would consider changing to a new effect. Downed damage increase is okay, I suppose.
Chill of Death: Awesome. No changes necessary.
Rending Shroud: This should probably be changed. I’d like to see it apply a unique debuff instead of Vuln that had a similar effect (increased damage and condition damage taken per stack), just because we put out so much Vuln anyway. While that would kill the trait’s synergy with Corrupter’s Fervor, has anyone had issues keeping that trait stacked even without?
Unholy Fervor: Underwhelming, to say the least. The condition on the damage boost is basically a nonfactor, but I would like to see it do something more. Perhaps giving Axe 2 a whirl finisher? Still, it’s functional as-is, just boring.
Grandmaster tier of Spite is all good as-is. Each trait sees play in different builds and performs well.
Curses
Barbed Precision: Good as-is.
Terrifying Descent: I feel like this can be merged with Fear of Death in this slot. Still not terribly attractive, but then it’s a trait you might consider taking.
Plague Sending: Great as-is.
Chilling Darkness: remove the ICD and we’re set.
Furious Demise: It was great on launch, but given the sheer number of Crit-chance boosters Necros have now, Fury is just overkill. This would do better to be changed to another effect. Perhaps copying a condition on the Necro to nearby foes, or casting Grasping Dead on yourself when you enter Shroud?
Master of Corruption: This one is a tricky one to talk about. On the upside, it does give an above-average recharge reduction, but I think the baseline corruption conditions would be sufficient as a cost, given that they now have higher uptime.
Path of Corruption: great trait
Terror: We have too many Fear traits, none of which do much on their own. Terror hasn’t seen a nerf, but it just doesn’t pull its weight anymore with drastically increased Stability and the introduction of Resistance. If Terror simply made your fears better at getting through those boons (perhaps strips two stacks of Stability instead of one and/or bypassing Resistance), I think it would make a resurgence.
Target the Weak: Remember what I said about crit chances? If Furious Demise doesn’t get changed, I would like to see this get a change. Perhaps instead of increasing your crit chance against foes for each condition, it increased your condition damage by 1% for each condition on the target?
Weakening Shroud: Good as-is
Parasitic Contagion: Changed to heal in Shroud
Lingering Curse: somewhat boring, but quite functional. Leave as-is.