Guild Wars 2

… what would you do?

I am currently writing a long redesign of necro, and I would like to know what you would change in the weapons specifically if you were given full freedom (meaning it does not have to be any way similar to what the weapon currently does).

For example:

• Would you put back one mark on each weapon set (sort of how it was during betas) and create new staff skills? This would spread out the benefits from the mark traits (PvP and WvW especially)
• Would you add support elements to some skills?
• Would you redesign one of our off-hand to a more defensive weapon and how?
• would you change one off-hand to a more DPS/burst?

Let your imagination wander freely!

I would like a kind of Mark for every weapon, that will increase the way to use it, making it viable also for other weapons than the staff.
Dagger 5 can become a Mark with begger area, the same for Dagger 3 (a mark that inflict damage and Immobilize the enemy, casted directly on the enemy or ground target).
Axe can have Unholy Feast (skill 3) counted as a Mark, a really big mark casted on your position with the same area of the actual skill.
Focus can have Spinal Shivers (skill 5) as a mark, but it will hit more than 1 enemy as a mark. Would that increase it’s strength and make focus viable in sPvP?
Scepter Grasping death (skill 2) can become a mark, with the same area of the actual skill.
Warhorn Wail of Doom (skill 4) is the only wh skill that can become a mark, but will last it’s peculiar directional AoE . It can be casted on the necro position and be easier to hit the enemy, that frequently move away during the casting, making you miss him (also it’s already a unblockable skill).

The thing is with marks is that, unlike guardian, an entire specialization isn’t dedicated to them, so they do not need to be on every weapon like symbols are.
As for staff, it doesn’t need changing. If you think it does, you obviously don’t play WvW Also not every weapon needs to be amazing in every gamemode.

Lahmia.2193:

The thing is with marks is that, unlike guardian, an entire specialization isn’t dedicated to them, so they do not need to be on every weapon like symbols are.
As for staff, it doesn’t need changing. If you think it does, you obviously don’t play WvW Also not every weapon needs to be amazing in every gamemode.

If you do not think any change is needed, this is your right!
The thing with marks was just a suggestion.

Also, I do play WvW and PvP and always bring a staff. I know staff is very useful, though I would argue that staff in big WvW group fights is not amazing, just the best we have and our pressure really comes from other skills (well, shroud etc…) and mostly our ability to strip/corrupt boons. But part of what makes staff so useful in my mind (in PvP mostly) is that it gives life force thanks to the trait (and the unblockable means unblockable CC), and if this could be spread out to other weapons, this may make other weapons more attractive and allow me to leave my staff from time to time.

Finally, not every weapon needs to be amazing in every game mode, but I feel like our off-hand are usually not that great overall.

Silverkey.2078:

Lahmia.2193:

The thing is with marks is that, unlike guardian, an entire specialization isn’t dedicated to them, so they do not need to be on every weapon like symbols are.
As for staff, it doesn’t need changing. If you think it does, you obviously don’t play WvW Also not every weapon needs to be amazing in every gamemode.

If you do not think any change is needed, this is your right!
The thing with marks was just a suggestion.

Also, I do play WvW and PvP and always bring a staff. I know staff is very useful, though I would argue that staff in big WvW group fights is not amazing, just the best we have and our pressure really comes from other skills (well, shroud etc…) and mostly our ability to strip/corrupt boons. But part of what makes staff so useful in my mind (in PvP mostly) is that it gives life force thanks to the trait (and the unblockable means unblockable CC), and if this could be spread out to other weapons, this may make other weapons more attractive and allow me to leave my staff from time to time.

Finally, not every weapon needs to be amazing in every game mode, but I feel like our off-hand are usually not that great overall.

Its just I see so many “revamp staff, staff is bad” threads that make me roll my eyes, so i just wanted to put that out there before it did escalate into that

But on a different note, I’d love to see Axe revamped as a melee condition weapon. Give it small duration burns on auto with maybe a different condi on final auto hit, so its not pure power creepy burn. Maybe a small leap (gasp… a necro leap) with blast finisher and another damaging condition, similar to Revenant mace #3. Then maybe a short chill field on #3.
Also revert Dhuumfire so it is the same as the engineer trait Incendiary Powder (2 stacks if 4s burn on crit, 10 icd – 33% longer burns).

If I could change necro weapon skill…

Well let’s assume I can do whatever I want without restraint

1- I would rework mark so that they end up working the same way that they work in GW1 (For those who don’t have any idea, they would work like our signet of vampirism)

2- I would put some combo finisher here and there. Like swaping the retaliation on unholy feast with a blast finisher for example. Maybe add a whirl finisher on dagger #2.

3- I would slightly change grasping dead into a pulsing AoE.

4- I’d seriously take a look into GS. Tuning up the AA, totally reworking gravedigger, shaving the cast time of death spiral… etc.

Well… that would already be a good start.

Lahmia.2193:

But on a different note, I’d love to see Axe revamped as a melee condition weapon. Give it small duration burns on auto with maybe a different condi on final auto hit, so its not pure power creepy burn. Maybe a small leap (gasp… a necro leap) with blast finisher and another damaging condition, similar to Revenant mace #3. Then maybe a short chill field on #3.

I would move in a totally different direction. I don’t want to see axe become just another condi weapon. We have enough of those, and besides, axe is our only ranged power weapon.

I would like to see axe go 1200 range and rework the AA to hit only once with a slight damage drop overall while still doing 2 vulns/auto. The animation sucks too, and it could be reworked. Lastly, I would like to see #3 skill become a blast finisher.

About Marks in general, I think you could justify putting marks into all MH weapons just like symbols are on guardians. But not on OH weapons like focus/warhorn/dagger.

Maybe some blocks built in for the power weapon sets… Like say, GS 5, instead of just being a grasp, have it instead be a 2 second block that can be activated a second time to shatter and grasp targets.

Staff is the more useful weapon of the necromancer, but also the weakest in damage (both direct and condi). The main reasons why we all use it is for the Trait to make marks unblockable gain LF (the best and sometimes the only real viable way to build up LF in PvP areas) and the skills mark 4 and 5 to transfer conditions and inflict fear.
About the damage, it’s really one of the worst weapon of the game. AA is weak and slow (but pierce and that’s why it’s still good in massive pvp fights like WvW), the mark 2 is seriously weak and is barely useless (2 bleeding and 6 sec of regen, it was barely good only for the old bunker meta to have a permanent regeneration, but that still don’t work in Shroud) and mark 3 can be barely good to slow the speed of a enemy to make our allies able to kill him if he try to flee. Then there’s no other reason to use them unless for obtain LF by the trait. They’re really weak skills.

We was asking for a rework on the Staff from how many years?
And also a rework on other weapons to obtain LF and make them viable as a staff substitute in a lot of builds (expecially sPvP and WvW builds).

I would make Staff 2 and staff 1 more effective. Right now its kinda spammable but very weak in both power and condi variants. The staff 3 damage is negligible, even when traited and its a pure utility skill when not traited for damage on chills, and staff 4,5 are utility.

Slightly increase base damage on Staff 1 and Staff 2, or increase both power and condi damage on staff 2 a larger amount but also increase its CD.

Warhorn: Warhorn 4 needs much wider angle or increased duration, Warhorn 5 needs trait option to make the damage single target while providing far more swiftness.

Greatsword: rework the whole thing, altogether. Since I don’t PVE much, its a completely utterly useless weapon for me. None of my targets are stationary long enough to be on the receiving end of greatsword. It’d be nice if it had some sort of actual use outside of going vs stationary and low movement targets that do not time their defenses.

Axe: rework it, give it some synergy with condi builds, not just power.

Daggers: Ultra low range makes this again nearly unusable vs moving targets that actively use defenses. The generated condi pressure is not enough due to number of hits actually landing either due to movement or activating defenses.

Necros do fine in PvE and WvW zergs, so changes for me should be made mostly for PvP necros (well sort of). I would change necro weapons to be less gimmicky and more results. What’s gimmicky? See Greatsword, slow attacks, big animation, omg gravedigger cleave lolol. None of these things work consistently in PvP, they’re just there for show. And I’ll admit, when we first got them in HoT beta weekends, they looked cool. But when applying and using them in real time, they are way too slow, clunky, and too obvious to be effective against competent players.

What’s also gimmicky? Scepter auto. While I play mostly condi reaper now, I’ve always hated it when they introduced corrupt boon on scepter auto. It forced anybody who wanted to min/max their profession to use scepter. For anybody who wants to achieve optimal gameplay and maximize on necro’s potentials, they’ll be using a condi build with scepter. This is of course if people are being honest with themselves. Spamming auto attack is the last thing I wanted to do after years of spamming dagger auto for the best necromancer pre-HoT dps.

I hate uninspiring, gimmicky gameplay. This is why I despise auto attacks and slow showmanship attacks. Oh and spamming gravedigger is no more fun and exciting than spamming auto, just fyi. Compared to when I’m on my power rev, or back in the days on my d/d ele, or even today’s meditrapper DH (I know shame on me). The amount of skills & utils I’m cycling through are fast paced (which fits GW2’s action combat gameplay), and combat is engaging & fun. Much less auto attack spamming, no slow attacks, everything is results results results.

As for staff, it’s the definition of uninspiring attacks that Anet have forced us to use. People can say they do “fine” without staff. But fine sometimes just isn’t good enough, especially when you don’t want to get owned by a different build of your own class.

Anyways, that’s my rant. I don’t want to go through suggesting all sorts of things and write pages and pages of stuff because I know Anet won’t read them. But necro weapons can really use more exciting gameplay and more results. Most other classes have weapons that have at least 1 or 2 impact skills that give them results.

if a cast time is shown that is the total cast+aftercast of the skill

mark of blood increase damage by 400%
axe #1 add lifefocre generation
axe#3 change 1/4 cast 15recharge
strike your foe dealing damage and applying fear.
damage : ????(1.2)
fear: 2 seconds
range: 900
Focus

1. add jagged horror creation
   offhand dagger
2. add lifeforce
   greatsword
   #1dusk strike 1/2second
   damage: ?(.8)
   lifeforce 1%
   fading twilight 1/2second
   damage: ?(.8)
   lifeforce 1%
   chilling scythe 1 second
   damage: ??? (1.2)
   lifeforce 3%
   chill: 2seconds
3. stab your foe gaining lifeforce and inflicting chill and vulnerability
   1/2cast 8recharge
   damage
   chill: 3seconds
   vulnerability10 : 10seconds
   lifeforce: 12seconds
   range 450
   leap finisher
4. block attacks clearing condition for each succesful block
   block: 3 seconds
   condition removed : 1
5. add recharges instantly if you hit a foes under 50% range 900
   change mechanics of the skill to work
   could work like the mesmers greatsword #5except it pulls

I think with Spite traitline, Focus #4 skill is just…. bad… because focus is a power weapon which means you’ll take Spite. If you take Spite, your chills will probably apply vuln, and that means you’ll already be able to apply tons of vuln so focus #4 becomes really irrelevant (and it gives regen. Come on -_-… really?). I’d change that #4 skill to be come sort of evade or block or immunity – why not? No one uses focus because it’s pretty inferior to the other weapons… and I think it’s mostly due to how weak #4 is. If it became a defensive skill instead (sort of how ele focus is, guardian focus is), it’d make the weapon much more attractive for power and condi. How about – 2 second block, gain lifeforce per amount of times you block? Or it could have one of those “flip skills” where if you manage to block an attack, the skill gets flipped and becomes something else – AoE lifesteal? AoE attack that generates lifeforce? A backwards leap? A high-damage skill or CC?

Unholy Feast from Axe could maybe become an AoE targeted skill instead of AoE skill around you – works better with the theme of a medium-ranged power weapon, and also gives the weapon a bit more far-range AoE. If focus was changed to be more defensive, axe/focus could become strong.

Greatsword is slow and unfun. I don’t know why it has two attacks which are essentailly the same thing – #2 and #3. A spinny stab that does damage. #3 needs to be a quick circular swing (sort of how Berserker greatsword F1 is) that hits everyone and gives lifeforce. #5 would be better if it was a ground targeted AoE skill that your character summons, maybe from above. It latched onto everyone in the AoE. You press the skill again and pull everyone – sorta how dragonhunter F1 is – more reliable and easier to hit people too.

Utilities!
The minion Blood Fiend needs to heal you through shroud. Well of Blood needs to heal you through shroud.

Spectral Grasp needs to be like guardian F1. Throw a hand which latches on, then you can push the button again to pull. Guardian F1 never fails whereas Spectral Grasp or Scorpion Wire fail a lot.

Plague shouldn’t remove spectral effects (spectral armour or spectral walk).

MethaneGas.8357:

Spectral Grasp needs to be like guardian F1. Throw a hand which latches on, then you can push the button again to pull. Guardian F1 never fails whereas Spectral Grasp or Scorpion Wire fail a lot.

Ooo I like that idea.

I would like to add our weapons with fear, we need more fear options.

For offhand dagger:
deathly swarm: generates now 1% lf per enemy hit.
enfeebling blood: also now generates 3% lf per enemy hit and is now a blastfinisher.

For focus:
Reapers touch: Instead of regeneration it gives a better boon like protection, fury or stability. Honestly regeneration is probably the worst boon necro can have, its just useless a good amount of time (shroud).
Spinal shiver: Ether more damage or better cast time

I think Mark should reworked like guardian symbols, because marks are an important part of the necro mechanic to push your LF.

Problem is, most weapons on necro just have maximum an 900 range. so nec hasnt really a big range infight + his slow movement, its hard to get pressure on enemy.

staff is the weapon with most range, but its not a dmg weapon…its more a tactical weapon with condi remove, with fear and little chill, poison.

staff should be more supportet to be a weapon which can prepare a good dmg-spike. some of you said it, more vulnerability.

maybe more buffs like fury and might and shorter cds. cooldowns are too high if I compare the effects of staff with other weapons of other classes.

last problem, mark 2 gives you regeneration if you stand inside of mark while activating, but its a range weapon, why there are effects which dont work with the range of this weapon? i think buffs should ever be given to nec if mark is triggered.

My suggestion

staff 1: faster speed of projectile, 4% LF, 3/4 sec casttime.
staff 2: 2 bleeding(10 sec), 5 vulnerability (6 sec), regeneration(5sec) , 6 sec cd
staff 3: chill(5 sec), 3 poison (5sec), 5 vulnerability(6 sec), poison-field (2sec), 12 sec cd
staff 4: 5 might (10sec), current dmg, just 3 condis transfered (only on first target),instant blust (if it is casted, not when it triggered), 16 sec cd
staff 5: fury (8sec), fear (1sec), chill-field (2sec), 30 sec cd

All buffs only will activate on necromancer (not on teammates), wherever the necro stand when mark is triggered.

Change Necro weapons skills?
Speed=viability, so
Greatsword: Increase speed and reduce damage. Change pull into a movement skill.
Offhand Dagger: Make both skills faster. Add defensive aspect to deathly swarm.
Warhorn: Add confusion on interrupt to Wail of Doom and/or add mobile Poison field to Locust Swarm
Staff: make Staff 1 faster

Not only Necro but every profession in the game: Lower cooldowns significantly on every weapon (AND utility) skill then remove -cd TRAITS and add traits that are more FUN, remove signet passives and add an account-bound passive system (something like Planar Attunement in Rift). I love how “modern” the Revenant is, low cooldowns and no silly -cd traits, we need a full profession revamp in GW2.

Mea.5491:

Not only Necro but every profession in the game: Lower cooldowns significantly on every weapon (AND utility) skill then remove -cd TRAITS and add traits that are more FUN, remove signet passives and add an account-bound passive system (something like Planar Attunement in Rift). I love how “modern” the Revenant is, low cooldowns and no silly -cd traits, we need a full profession revamp in GW2.

The reason why revenants have low cds is that they also have energy. You also can’t remove signet passives, because that’s how signets work. If you remove the passives, they are no longer signets. They are just… well, skills.