Guild Wars 2

In this thread I will only suggest power/impact/number tweaks, and no redesigns etc. I will not talk about Death Shroud, as I talked about it in (and some redesign discussion of Death Shroud) https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/How-to-bring-up-DS-to-the-level-of-RS/ among other threads.
and for the Axe was done in https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Axe-feels-terrible-to-use/ among other threads.

I should also say that the numbers are just to push my point, and is not something I have calculated and evaluated that much really. I leave the balancing to the developers

By improving the power of some weak skills, it will open up more choices for building your Necromancer. The overall power of the Necromancer should be about the same, but the viable variety of builds will be improved.

Starting with Traits:

• Unholy Fervor
  Old: Reduce recharge by 20%, increase damage of Axe skills on foes with Vulnerability by 10%
  New: Reduce recharge by 20%, increase damage of Axe skills on foes with Vulnerability by 1% per stack of Vulnerability
  Reason: This will give the trait more synergy with the continuous rending theme of the Axe, as well as improve it’s punch (as many people agree is somewhat lacking).

• Barbed Precision
  Old: Increase Bleed duratoin 20%, 33% chance on crit to apply 3s bleed.
  New: Increase Bleed duratoin 20%, 50% chance on crit to apply 3s bleed.
  Reason: Our only ‘on crit’ synergy trait for Condition builds, an average of 1s Bleed per crit is really miniscule.

• Terror
  Old: (0.4 * Condition Damage) + 444; 33% less if target has no other conditions.
  New: (3.0 * Condition Damage) + 222; 33% less if target has no other conditions.
  Reason: Drastically improving the scaling is needed, this trait is really weak and in combination with the few and low duration (mostly 1s) fears we have it’s damage should be more impactful. Fear itself can also be negated by both Stunbreak, Condition cleanse, Stability, and Resistance (negating the damage).

• Deadly Strength
  Old: Gain Power based on a percentage of Toughness: 7%, 14% when in Shroud.
  New: Gain Power and Condition damage based on a percentage of Toughness: 7%, 14% when in Shroud.
  Reason: This will make Deadly Strength more viable for both Power builds and Conditions builds.

• Unholy Sanctuary
  Old: Regenerate (130 + (0.12 * Healing Power)) every 1s while in Shroud. Activate Shroud when taking a lethal blow if above 10% Life Force (30s Recharge)
  New:
  Regenerate (130 + (0.5 * Healing Power)) every 1s while in Shroud. Activate Shroud when taking a lethal blow if above 10% Life Force (30s Recharge)
  Reason: The healing this trait provides is very small, and would benefit from an increased Healing Power scaling.

• Mark of Evasion
  Old: Leave a Mark of Blood when you dodge (8s Recharge)
  New: Leave a Mark of Blood when you dodge (Same Recharge as Staff 2)
  Reason: There is no reason this trait have almost double the Recharge of the skill itself, it could even do with no Recharge at all considering we have no Endurance regeneration capabilities.

• Transfusion and Vampiric Presence
  I would like to see these scale more with healing power

• Gluttony
  Old: Life Force gained from skills are increased by 10% (e.g. Staff1 goes from 4% to 4.4%)
  New: Life Force gained from skills are increased by 50% (e.g. Staff1 goes from 4% to 6%)
  Reason: Additional 10% might as well be 0%, the trait needs to be more noticeable.

• Unyielding Blast
  Old: Shroud skill 1 causes Vulnerability
  New: Shroud skill 1 causes Vulnerability. Damage of Shroud skill 1 is increased by 1% per stack of vulnerability.
  Reason: Give this trait more value in boosting the power of Shroud skill 1, which in many cases isn’t that powerful.

• Fear of Death
  Old: Increase Fear duration by 50%. Fear for 1s in 180 aoe when downed.
  New: Increase Fear base duration by 50% (like Lingering Curse). Fear for 1s in 180 aoe when downed.
  Reason: Our Fears are all very short duration, and this trait that increases the duration cannot be stacked with +condition duration from e.g. Viper gear. Mirroring it to the Scepter trait would make it a lot more useful.

• Strength of Undeath
  Old: Increase Life Force pool by 15%. Deal 5% more Power damage when above 50% Life Force.
  New: Increase Life Force pool by 15%. Deal 5% more Power damage and Condition damage when above 50% Life Force.
  Reason: Make it viable for both Power and Condition builds

• Dhuumfire
  Old: Shroud skill 1 inflicts 1 stack of 3s Burning.
  New: Shroud skill 1 inflicts 2 stacks of 3s Burning if used in Reaper Shroud, or 4 stacks of 3s Burning if used in Death Shroud.
  Reason: This trait is too weak, it is supposed to replace the Scepter condition damage while in shroud, and to do that it needs to be stronger. It also needs to be stronger in DS as the DS1 is a lot slower than RS1.

Now onto Skills:

• Necrotic Grasp
  Increase Power scaling a little

• Mark of Blood
  Old: 6s Regeneration and 2 stack of Bleed (8s)
  New: 6s Regeneration and 3 stack of Bleed (8s)
  Reason: Makes this mark a little more useful to cast on Condition Builds, helps out when swapping from Scepter to Staff with the “be stuck on Staff for 10s” problem.

• Reaper’s Mark
  Old: 1s Fear
  New: 2s Fear
  Reason: A very long Recharge for 1s Fear in 240 Radius, would be more potent with at least 2s of Fear.

• Unholy Feast
  Increase Power damage by increasing the Power scaling
  Reason: It needs to pack a little more punch on power builds.

• Life Siphon
  Decrease channel time from 3.5s to 2s.
  Reason: Cast time is simply too long

• Spinal Shivers
  Decrease cast time from 1.25s to 0.75s
  Reason: Cast time is simply too long

• Well of Blood
  Increase the lingering heal/well from 5s to 10s.
  Reason: The lingering well/healing is really weak, coupled with the long Recharge on the skill. By increasing the duration it is at least useful in some situations.

• Corrosive Poison Cloud
  Increase the Poison application part from 4 stacks of 2s, to 4 stacks of 4s.
  Reason: As a Poison damaging field, it is rather weak. By increasing the duration it means staying in it longer will at least be a little bit more dangerous.

• Plague Signet
  Old: (Passive) Transfer 3 Conditions from allies to yourself every 3s. (Active) Send 5 conditions to your foe.
  New: (Passive) Transfer 3 Conditions from allies to yourself every 3s; For each Condition Transferred to yourself, gain 60 Condition Damage for 3s. (Active) Send 5 conditions to your foe.
  Reason: The current passive, while useful in some situations to help the team, does not really benefit the player at all. With this change it would at least give some bonus Condition Damage as long as you keep drawing conditions to yourself.

• Signet of Undeath
  Old: Gain 2% Life Force per 3s when in combat. Resurrect up to 3 allies in a 180 radius, 3s cast time.
  New: Gain 1% Life Force per 1s when in combat. Resurrect up to 3 allies in a 180 radius, ?s cast time.
  Reason: 2% Life Force per 3s is really low, and needs to be improved for the signet to be used as an alternative way to get Life Force. 3s cast time on the resurrection also makes the active quite useless. If the ally is at your feet, it is quicker to simply resurrect him by pressing F. In PvP the ally will be stomped before the resurrection goes off, and in PvE/Raids the ally will most likely already die from whatever “fire” he was downed in (e.g. Red Fields on Matthias, or Poison on Slothasor).

• Spectral Grasp
  Increase projectile speed
  Reason: Very hard to land on anyone not standing still.

• Well of Darkness
  Reduce recharge from 50s to 25s
  Reason: Very long recharge for a weak Well.

This was some ideas I have been thinking about at least, and I’m interested in what you think of them. I also would be happy to read your suggestions of how to improved weak and unused skills and traits to increase the viable options for Necromancers

I like your thread. You did well.

Some of these are great (Life Siphon), some are too much (Gluttony would be far too strong), and a few just don’t really fix the problem with the skill (Unholy Sanctuary).

Its not like the ideas are bad its just the numbers for some of the skills are way off and some wildly overpowered. Also some when combined would be ridiculous. For example the change to reapers mark and fear of death would result in a potential 6s fear doing over 5k a tick.

Thanks for the feedback! And yes my numbers are just something I put there to make my point, and nothing I have carefully calculated etc. (and yes Sigmoid that would indeed be ridiculous, as you pointed out) I would of course trust the developers to balance it more correctly
@Bhawb, Yes there are some skills I feel just changing the power/potency would not really solve the issue. Unholy Sanctuary is one of them (with 2 Grand Masters doing the same thing), another is the Signet of Undeath active, as 3s cast time makes it useless, but too short would probably make it too powerful (or maybe not?), and then there is of course Axe1 and Axe2, as well as the regular Death Shroud skills that lack synergy and potency.

I am especially curious though about what you think of the Plague Signet passive change, Unyielding Blast, and Unholy Fervor?

Some of these concepts are fine, but the power levels of a lot of these changes are absurd or unnecessary.

Aesa.4819:

I am especially curious though about what you think of the Plague Signet passive change, Unyielding Blast, and Unholy Fervor?

Plague: not a bad change, nice to have some extra condition damage, though I’m not sure its particularly “good” for the skill in the sense that I’m not entirely sure if it reinforces PS’s identity. But I’ve never really used the skill much.

Unyielding Blast: think this trait is fine as is. It already has a pretty good amount of synergy with other traits that makes it desirable imo.

Unholy Fervor: interesting idea that would at least make the trait far more desirable, I’d even think about lowering the damage boost but opening it up to all skills (allow it maybe like 15% at 25 stacks)