Guild Wars 2

For me, Blood magic is the most subpar trait line in the entire game, while death magic is not far behind. I’d like to see the following general changes:

1) Merge the 4 staff traits into 2 traits. Leave one in DM leave one in SR.
2) Buff, change, merge, move Necromantic Corruption and Fetid Consumption, both don’t see any use at all.
3) Allow necro healing in DS, I don’t care what nerfs need to happen afterwards it just doesn’t make sense that one class can’t recieve any healing a third of the time.
4) move Unholy Sanctuary out of DM, it doesn’t benefit from boon duration at all at fits into BM way more than DM.
5) Change Dark armor to grant 3 seconds of protection on activation of a channeled skill.
6) Change Ritual of Protection to pulse 1 second of protection.
7) Change Shrouded Removal to either convert a condition into a boon or remove a condition from allies.
8) Change RP to grant protection when disabled.
9) Merge Dagger Mastery and Quickening Thirst.
10) Make Bloodthirst baseline
11) Add a trait that allows allies to siphon somehow
12) Buff Deathly Invigoration numerically
13) Change unholy martyr to draw conditions from allies when activating tainted shackles (credit to WEXXES).
14) Make a new GM trait in DM, call it Reaper’s Sacrifice:
You and nearby allies gain boons when you activate DS skills at a cost per ally effected:
Life Blast: 2 seconds of regen 1% LF per ally
Dark Path: 4 seconds of swiftness 2% LF per ally
Doom: 3 seconds of stability 3% LF per ally
Life Transfer: 4 seconds of protection 5% LF per ally
Tainted Shackles: 4 seconds of retaliation 3% LF per ally

Well that is pretty much all my thoughts for now, but I would love to hear critiques or other ideas. I really like the idea of sacrificing DS for additional effects.

No question we have the worst defensive traits in the game

I literally like all of your changes and would consider investing into BM or DM with it but I am not sure that it changes our sustain-less situation

ANET CHRISTMAS PRESENTS!

lol why do you all discuss this stuff i dont get it. Anet does not like necromancers. They won’t get fixed. Necros have the worst everything. No burst. No sustain. No active defenses. No leaps. No stability (in a CC oriented game), No viable power builds. No use for 2 (TWO) entire stats (boon duration, healing power). Merry christmas.

These changes amount to an extreme makeover. I really do not see that happening.

Also, BM may need adjustment to values in current traits but DM is not so bad. Toughness pays off while healing investment is less attractive.

I still want a trait that allows us to consume our Life Force.. Something like when struck below 20% HP and not currently in Death Shroud you consume your Life Force using it as a heal. Imagine Death Shroud and your heal are on cooldown.. You have 20% HP left and are about one good critical attack from being downed then suddenly you om nom nom your Life Force and regain all your health. It would be an interesting risk/reward trait IMO.. You save yourself from death but you sacrifice your Life Force to do so, which then means you’ll need to regain it if you want to keep the attrition going. Guards can heal themselves back to full health like flipping 4 times, I don’t see why we shouldn’t be able to do it twice at the cost of Life Force.

Kind of already can with Unholy Sanctuary…

I would leave Reaper’s Protection alone. it would be an unnecessary nerf, particularly as other classes (namely, elementalist and mesmer) have similar traits as counters to CC but also better access to stability and more access to stunbreaks.

Not sure about Death Magic but….

One of the issues that I’ve read/heard about is the lack of healing while in Death Shroud. While too much healing would make a DS build OP, a specific and small way would be good.

So…

Make Life Blast and Plague Blast pierce by default just like staff #1 instead of being locked behind the trait Unyielding Blast. Possibly include the vulnerability too.

Replace Unyielding Blast with a new trait;

Vampiric Transfer: Life Transfer also steals health (will heal the necro while in DS)

Change the effect of the trait Transfusion so that up to 5 nearby allies get healed by health stealing effects.

Usagi.4835:

I would leave Reaper’s Protection alone. it would be an unnecessary nerf, particularly as other classes (namely, elementalist and mesmer) have similar traits as counters to CC but also better access to stability and more access to stunbreaks.

OP referenced Ritual of Protection not Reaper’s Protection. Ritual of Protection currently grants a few seconds of protection to allies inside a well when it is cast, the suggestion was to make it apply the protection in pulses, similar to how the other well effects are applied.

I agree that Reaper’s Protection shouldn’t be changed. It’s a pretty funny trait in my opinion, especially since Necros are CC magnets sometimes. If only it could trigger more often.

Softspoken.2410:

Usagi.4835:

I would leave Reaper’s Protection alone. it would be an unnecessary nerf, particularly as other classes (namely, elementalist and mesmer) have similar traits as counters to CC but also better access to stability and more access to stunbreaks.

OP referenced Ritual of Protection not Reaper’s Protection. Ritual of Protection currently grants a few seconds of protection to allies inside a well when it is cast, the suggestion was to make it apply the protection in pulses, similar to how the other well effects are applied.

I agree that Reaper’s Protection shouldn’t be changed. It’s a pretty funny trait in my opinion, especially since Necros are CC magnets sometimes. If only it could trigger more often.

Nope the op did mention to change RP (hint it is number 8 ). And to be honest the op’s change would much more useful (for other builds then terror necro) since the traitline boosts boon duration not condition duration.

Muchacho.2390:

Softspoken.2410:

Usagi.4835:

I would leave Reaper’s Protection alone. it would be an unnecessary nerf, particularly as other classes (namely, elementalist and mesmer) have similar traits as counters to CC but also better access to stability and more access to stunbreaks.

OP referenced Ritual of Protection not Reaper’s Protection. Ritual of Protection currently grants a few seconds of protection to allies inside a well when it is cast, the suggestion was to make it apply the protection in pulses, similar to how the other well effects are applied.

I agree that Reaper’s Protection shouldn’t be changed. It’s a pretty funny trait in my opinion, especially since Necros are CC magnets sometimes. If only it could trigger more often.

Nope the op did mention to change RP (hint it is number 8 ). And to be honest the op’s change would much more useful (for other builds then terror necro) since the traitline boosts boon duration not condition duration.

Huh. Bizarre. That’s what I get for not reading closely, I guess.

Still, I disagree. The counter-CC is often much better damage mitigation than protection of a comparable duration.

Blood Magic:

The Blood Magic Tree is one of the worst trees in the entire game because it is so specific; in fact the only reason why anyone enters it is to take well cooldown or troll with minion siphons. If you’re none of these, and would like sustain, well you’re screwed. There are some good traits, but it’s very hard to justify going into this tree at times.

Dagger Mastery— Good in theory if only skill 2 didn’t suck so hard. It’s pretty hard to go out of your way to take this. I would suggest that all dagger skills create additional life force and a 5% damage increase.

Bloodthirst— it is terrible because siphoning is bad. Merge with Vampiric Precision.

Mark of Evasion— is actaully good

Transfusion— is alright, but really should also boost the life force gain from life transfer

Vampiric Master— does what it’s supposed to do

Ritual Mastery— A good trait

Deathly Invigoration— Okay, but it’s rare to see someone dive so deep for this. It should scale more heavily with healing power.

Quickening Thirst— Also grants 3s quickness when you crit with a dagger skill (40s cooldown)

Vampiric Rituals— Applies to allies as well.

Blood to Power: Also grants +120 condition damage when over 75% health. I mean, come on, if someone’s going so deep into this…

I don’t really have a problem with Death Magic though…

Ritual of Protection— Wells pulse protection instead of just giving it once

Unholy sanctuary should allow healing from all sources in DS to make it a real GM trait. Either that or heal allies too.

Spiteful Retaliation— Also, grants life force and 1s of retaliation if you are struck while casting a heal skill (no cooldown)

I think all that blood magic need is siphon/healing working in DS and better healing scaling of siphons. I think traits are well designed, just counterproductive. As for deathmagic, tier 3 needs better trait, somehing that would support boon usage (hence the boon duration).

The problem with Reaper’s Protection is that is is better than everyone other classes anti cc traits. This is simply because of terror and master of terror making it last longer and deal damage. It also activates based on your opponents decisions, making it passive defense. I personally don’t like that.

Emapudapus, even if siphoning worked in DS, Blood magic would still be bad. With the exception of Mark of Evasion, Transfusion, Vampiric Master, and maybe Ritual Mastery, every trait in that line is sub-par. Not necessarily terrible, but not up to the standards of other classes defensive trait lines, or even our own other traitlines.

Most of the traits in Death Magic are similarly sub par. The standouts are staff mastery, greater marks, minion master, Flesh of the Master, Death Nova, and reaper’s protection. Other than that, the traits are subpar. My main problem is that none of the GM or Master traits even grant boons. Considering that DM is the boon duration traitline this is kind of dumb. It is unintuitive for new players, and forces players to take a wasted stat in order to get the traits they want.

I, for one, would rather have Reaper’s Protection duration and CD reduced. Duration is annoyingly long while more frequent chances at an interrupt is my preference.

Blood Magic doesn’t work depending on a trait-by-trait breakdown.

- Vitality – Nice.
- Healing Power – Not so nice. As with most builds, Healing Power is only favored by specific builds which can exploit it.

- Full of Life – Decent, but doesn’t really jive with our class mechanic.
- Vampiric – Hard to see the benefits of. In a sustain game it could hypothetically do decently. Also doesn’t jive with our class mechanic.
Blood to Power – Very restrictive damage boost, doesn’t come into play too often.

- Dagger Mastery – Dagger skills are split among different roles, so it’s not too often that you’ll use both. It also doesn’t stack up compared to most other popular -weapon CD traits, as it doesn’t have any secondary benefit.
- Bloodthirst – This trait does not have the weapon, utility or trait support to shine.
- Mark of Evasion – The ICD and Necromancer’s low access to Vigor means that this trait can’t really be abused. It’s okay, but only that.
- Ritual of Life – Very few “on revive” traits are viable or valuable. This one doesn’t make the cut.
- Vampiric Precision – Hypothetically valuable if the stat spread was there to support it, but it isn’t, so it’s not. Doesn’t jive with our class mechanic.
- Transfusion – Good for MM.
- Vampiric Master – Good for MM.
- Ritual Mastery – Traits which only provide utility CD reductions are usually only viable when there are other strong supporting traits. Wells don’t have them.
- Deathly Invigoration – Might seem good conceptually, but it’s too difficult to access and simply doesn’t provide enough healing. It’s hard to exploit this trait.
- Quickening Thirst – It’s rare that you’ll use enough daggers to make this really shine over your other means of moving faster. This is scraping the absolute bottom of the barrel when it comes to mobility.
- Fetid Consumption – Decent-ish in an MM build, though I don’t believe it’s popular. Would have to check.
- Vampiric Rituals – Grandmasters usually provide either huge meat-and-potatoes benefits to skills or significantly alter how skills work. This is a very small bonus to damage and healing. It doesn’t have the meat to make it work, and it’s too expensive.
- Unholy Martyr – It’s hard to make heads or tails of this trait. For this trait to start working, you need to be fighting in a group against something that is condition-dependent, and your ally needs to be the enemy’s target. They need to be a slow or hybrid build, so that you can actually get enough procs out of Unholy Martyr for it to earn its place. The trait offers no immediate defensive benefit to you, and you’re just as condition-vulnerable as you ever were. The situations in which this trait thrives seem rare.

I don’t know how to fix the traitline, but here are a few starters
Combine Dagger Mastery with Quickening Thirst.
Combine Vampiric Rituals with Ritual Mastery.
Add rapid-fire Necromancer weapons which can effectively use Vampiric and Vampiric Precision.
Add or change utilities so that Bloodthirst’s leech boost becomes more attractive.
Make Deathly Invigoration have more baseline healing.
Last but not least: Make lifedrain effects take place in some way while in Death Shroud.

Just want to chime in and point out that Bloodthirst is not a bad trait. The problem is that most of our siphons are utter crap. Life Siphon (dagger 2) gets a very, very noticable boost from Bloodthirst, but all of our others are either too weak (traits and Signet of the Locust) or don’t compete for the slot (Signet of Vampirism’s active is actually rather decent now, but doesn’t compete with Consume Conditions).

I agree fully with merging Quickening Thirst and Dagger Mastery and merging Vampiric Rituals and Ritual Mastery.

Honestly, my main problem with Bloodthirst is that it is just another trait you have to take to make siphons decent. It would be decent if signets where good enough to make a build around them because Signet of Vampirism, and Signet of the Locust both scale on it. Unfortunately, both of those skills are terrible.

As far as merging traits, yea it would be great. Quickening Thirst and Dagger Mastery together would be master tier worthy. I think Vampiric Rituals, and Ritual Mastery could still sit at master level as well. Then they could merge the 4 staff traits into 2 traits, and we would be looking at getting 4 new traits. Unfortunately, Anet is probably not going to do that. Necros tend to be last on the new stuff list.

zapv.8051:

Unfortunately, Anet is probably not going to do that. Necros tend to be last on the new stuff list.

I wouldn’t be too pessimistic. We were the first class to get a new skill and new condition added to the game, and Death Magic’s already gotten a minor revamp, so they could be paying attention.

Death magic is really a lot of minions and staff, but I would love to see some of the changes mentioned here. I would also change the retal on heal trait to something that is like, pull conditions from nearby allies when beginning to cast consume conditions. I also wouldn’t be upset if reapers protection was changed to provide life force on being CC’d with no cooldowns, which was a suggestion I’ve seen before and really liked.

Blood magic could see some traits merged as suggested and I would like to see a grandmaster like “your allies in X radius now gain your siphons.” Also the well siphons trait could be buffed, there is some mob in silverwastes that has the same mechanic and it’s really cool and powerful. Would be nice if ours was the same.

ArchonWing.9480:

Mark of Evasion— is actaully good

Agreed. I actually sometimes spec in to Blood Magic just for this trait as it’s actually pretty good for keeping up bleed pressure. I would really hate to ever see this skill removed or tampered with too much.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

ArchonWing.9480:

Mark of Evasion— is actaully good

Agreed. I actually sometimes spec in to Blood Magic just for this trait as it’s actually pretty good for keeping up bleed pressure. I would really hate to ever see this skill removed or tampered with too much.

It would be even better if parasitic contagion was a bloodmagic grandmaster, then you could run something like 0/4/0/6/4 and would get a decent condition sustain build.

I would add “Grenth’s Balance.”

Gain Lifeforce if your HP% is higher than your Lifeforce%.
Gain HP if your Lifeforce% is higher than your HP%.