Guild Wars 2

I miss Death Shroud.

What do you lads think can be done to bring DS in line with RS?

Personally I think just making DS 2 targeted would go a long way toward improving it. Wouldn’t hurt to have Life Blast be more like Plague Blast either.

I think quicker Life Blast would be nice.

Making Dark Path ground targeted would be reallllllyyyy strong, and if this happened I could see base Necro being picked up easily.
Or Dark Path could work like Phase Traversal from Revenant – a small channel and then an instant teleport to the target, unaffected by line of sight. Teleport even when out of range. Wherever you teleport, you do your AoE. It could also use some finishers…. maybe #5 being a blast?

MethaneGas.8357:

I think quicker Life Blast would be nice.

Making Dark Path ground targeted would be reallllllyyyy strong, and if this happened I could see base Necro being picked up easily.
Or Dark Path could work like Phase Traversal from Revenant – a small channel and then an instant teleport to the target, unaffected by line of sight. Teleport even when out of range. Wherever you teleport, you do your AoE. It could also use some finishers…. maybe #5 being a blast?

I agree that DS 1 and 2 are the main offender. These suggestions would really make a big difference.

If they want to bring Death Shroud in line with Reaper Shroud, they’ll have to rework DS completely. It’s that much of a mess imo. It has virtually no strengths and only weaknesses.

Projectiles need to be faster, #2 shouldn’t even be a projectile in the first place, #3 is just absolutely sad, #4 is a joke thanks the the long cast time and the fact there’s no stability whatsoever in DS (except the one stack you could get from FitG but lol that isn’t gonna save you when everyone can pull CC out of their kitten, #5 is okay I guess but could be better.

Auto should be a 50% chance projectile finisher and explode on impact in a small radius (not more than melee weapons would have cleave-range and the actual target doesn’t take damage twice and yes that means it would likely lose its ability to pierce)
Dark Path should be… well, if it’s gonna stay a gap closer it should be a shadowstep or alternatively, function similar to Death’s Charge, but instead chilling foes you touch on your way and then finishing with the chill/bleeding AoE. This way it could actually be used as mobility skill without having the advantages of ground targeting.
I honestly don’t know what to do with Doom, maybe add boon steal? idk. RS3 is just a straight upgrade, but adding stability to it seems so off.
Life Transfer should have a) a faster channel time while doing as much damage as it does now (i.e. less ticks, but higher damage per tick along with higher life-force regen per tick) or grant a bunch of stability-stacks when you start to channel. As it is now, everyone and their mother can interrupt/avoid that skill without any problems whatsoever and it’s just not worth it at all.
No clue what to do with tainted shackles, really. Maybe add hard cc if the bind is allowed to expire?

Novaan, #3 is an instant cast fear, how many hard CC’s are instant cast that are not simply an interrupt? It’s awesome, I layer it with a life blast to prevent people from dodging it, I use it shake people who try to CC lock me and forget their stab. Not to mention it has an attack attached to it which means you can proc sigils on it too. It is the BEST skill in DS and completely fine.

With some good timing you can get the whole #4 off.

My only 2 gripes with DS are #2 and #5. #2 should be ground targeted, keep the casting time so it can be interrupted. #5 always weirded me out, torment with an immobilize at the end? You fix #5 by letting it stack on less then 5 targets and replacing the immo with chill or cripple.

As for the auto, make the full damage the full range and it’s fine.

I don’t know, I do think it needs deeper work.

#1, definitely needs full damage full range. At this point, the Necromancer is the “ranged base” while Reaper is the melee cleaver. That being the case, punishing us for ranging is silly. Especially since other ranged tend to be some of our biggest weaknesses outside of a Warrior/Thief insta-gib combo (base Necro, not reaper). That said, it definitely needs to be faster. Half the cast speed and lower damage by about 25-30%, overall it’d be a dps boost, less harsh numbers, better trait synergy, everyone is happy.

#2, Yes, could either be ground targeted, though I don’t think that’s the design of the skill. I’d be just fine with it acting like steal and after the short cast time, shadow step to your target and let out that burst. It’s thematic, it’s cool and far more practical (as it triggers regardless if the hit lands or not). I’m not sure I expect a full ground target for reasons stated in the past, “necromancers are slow”… Meh, but at least make it reliable.

#3, I don’t really have any specific problems with the fear, though, flattening the fear duration would be really nice, maybe even bump it up to 2 seconds.

#4, This skill could be really cool, right now it’s long and not overly rewarding. If they kept it long but made it a CC break that pulses a 1 second stability per enemy struck, it’d be really neat. The reason this would be cool is that it’d be a scaling stability depending on your enemy load, but not necessarily be a long lasting stability. So you could use it to break the CC and flee by keeping a constant stream of stability flowing while draining enemies. It’d be a unique and interesting way to handle some of the necromancer’s issues when being focused.

#5, I love number 5, can’t imagine why it’d need to change. A shorter 30 second cooldown would be a blessing, but I’m not sure it’s necessary if everything else was touched up.

So to sum:
Faster slightly lighter hitting LB, reliable #2, flat duration #3, work #4 into a unique CC break/scaling defense. Not a lot if you ask me, but it would make a huge difference in both game play and fun.

I think for DS to come close to RS it needs a lot of rework. First of all it’s just not worth giving up the whole reaper spec for it, even if you don’t use RS. You might still want greatsword.

Right now if you do try to leave out reaper spec and use for example curses/soul reaping/blood magic which should be a nice choice to leave reaper spec for, it just feels like RS would be better even tho your playstyle is completely different.

I would really like to see this happen though, I don’t like the fact that you basically have to use reaper spec no matter what build you use, cause it’s just too good.

1. Definitely needs full dmg and more atk speed. Maybe transfer condis too like the aquatic one.

2. I never really liked this one, except to tele to your target and then fear. I wouldn’t know what to do with this tho.

3. I’d like to see this one be like the aquatic one too, that it would fear targets infront of you or around you, not just one.

4. I think this one should be made a reason to use blood magic for, as a support skill. I think it should give atleast stability so that your heal isn’t interrupted easily, and maybe drawing condis from allis too like the aquatic one.

5. I like this one, except the dmg is too low. Knowing that scepter does a lot better torment dmg, always made me not care about this torment it’s just bad and should be increased.

1. Full damage all ranges.
Faster attack speed (to match RS1) for better trait synergy, lower power scaling a little bit but not too much (it isn’t that strong right now anyway).

2. I don’t mind it as is, but having it a targeted teleport or leap/dash would be nice.

3. Since it’s single target it needs to have a bit more duration.

4. Apply 6 seconds of Bleed on each hit (like Soul Spiral with Poison) making it useful on Conditions build (it also hits 9 times, compared to Soul Spiral’s 12).
Increase Power scaling making it useful on Power builds.
Make it a whirl finisher (sucking vortex).

5. Needs to be a lot stronger, or have the Recharge reduced by a lot. Double everything on this skill and it’s still barely worth casting.

The problem with DS since launch is that its main autoattack was useless for condition. They tried to fix that when they reworked Dhuumfire, but, like everything else, it works better in Reaper’s Shroud because RS1 attacks at TWICE the speed! They absolutely should halve life blast’s casting time, and reduce its damage proportionately. I think a dev wandered in here once and said they were considering it, wouldn’t hurt to remind them.

DS2 used to be ground-targeted in early beta, but they changed it because they thought Necro was too tough. But the damage in pvp now is literally 3x more than it was in betas, so having something that can be used as an escape and provide some extra mobility is pretty much compulsory.

They could make those 2 changes and core necro STILL wouldn’t be better than Reaper, but at least it would be in a similar league.

It needs a lot of work. Compared to RS, DS has a:

• Clunky AA
• Generally low utility
• Bad synergy with itself
• Bad synergy with the rest of the profession

The AA is super long and clunky, without the benefit of projectile finishers. The 2 skill is really easy to miss and takes ages. 4/5 give very low utility compared to RS’s 4/5. Really only the 3 skills are well translated, RS gains the utility of AoE and some stab (to make up for range) but loses the instant, long fear.

But DS really needs a full rework.

Bhawb.7408:

It needs a lot of work. Compared to RS, DS has a:

• Clunky AA
• Generally low utility
• Bad synergy with itself
• Bad synergy with the rest of the profession

The AA is super long and clunky, without the benefit of projectile finishers. The 2 skill is really easy to miss and takes ages. 4/5 give very low utility compared to RS’s 4/5. Really only the 3 skills are well translated, RS gains the utility of AoE and some stab (to make up for range) but loses the instant, long fear.

But DS really needs a full rework.

Pretty much. I didn’t realize until just yesterday how much I missed Death Shroud in general though… It’s really bad in comparison and leaves much to be desired, but boy do I miss the concept of life blast.

Edit: Instead of piercing though, I wish it would explode like Fireball. I never realized just how much more practical it is until I recently started playing Ele for PVE instead of my Necro.

DS are OK as it is, but need update.

1. Explode without pierce.
2. Throw a dark Spear what immobilize target for 2sec. Then in this time we can use #2 again and teleport.
3. almost perfect.
4. Cast time have to be mfaster, or stack stability while casting.
5. Its ok

Zerthi.5493:

1. Throw a dark Spear what immobilize target for 2sec. Then in this time we can use #2 again and teleport.

Like the DH F1 skill?

Bumping this in hope next update can bring some changes to DS.

Mys suggestions below:

1. Explode in 180 radius instead of piercing. Maybe also remove the distance threshold.
2. Cause bleed+chill around target, and then teleport only if pressed again (since DS is ranged, it should not obligate you to teleport).
3. ok
4. Stability while casting seems easy and great, as other have said.
5. ok

leasm.1279:

Bumping this in hope next update can bring some changes to DS.

Mys suggestions below:

1. Explode in 180 radius instead of piercing. Maybe also remove the distance threshold.
2. Cause bleed+chill around target, and then teleport only if pressed again (since DS is ranged, it should not obligate you to teleport).
3. ok
4. Stability while casting seems easy and great, as other have said.
5. ok

I suggested few times similar changes to Life blast. Faster attack with small aoe at impact instead of piercing.
Also your suggesting for skill 2 is ok.
But put stability in skill 5 instead of 4.

Shroud 1. .5 sec cast time, increase range to 1200 maybe even 1500, damage reduced by 35%, piercing is fine but exploding would be nice.

Shroud 2. .5 sec cast time, ground targetable, 900 range, instant teleport, causes chill in 600 aoe around teleport destination.

Shroud 3. Untouched.

Shroud 4. Pulsing stability during the channel, you want stability on this to complete the cast and refill your life force as much as possible.

Shroud 5. Remove the immobilise, replace with chill or cripple, reduce cooldown, 900 range, 5 targets.

Done.

What if the last tick on Shroud 5 inflicted a 1s Fear?

That way both RS and DS has 2 CCs and its more uniform.