Guild Wars 2

I just posted this in the suggestions form, but I also wanted to post it here as I think the opinions of other Necromancers would be valuable to the discussion. Anyways, I’ve decided to write my suggestion in the form of patch notes. I hope you enjoy!

Today’s patch is aimed at shoring up Power-based Necromancer’s weaknesses by giving them some tools they are currently lacking in hopes that by increasing their their viability, we can encourage build diversity.

Axe
Rending Claws and Ghastly Claws: Range increased to 900.
Unholy Feast: Moved to a different weapon and replaced with Rend Body.
Rend Body: 1 second cast. 15 second cooldown. 900 range. Inflicts the target with Blind (3sec), Crippled (6sec), Vulnerability (5 stacks, 10 sec), and Weakness (10 sec).

Greatsword
The Necromancer can now wield Greatswords! The Greatsword has strong elements of area control.
Dark Slash: Slash enemies in front of you. > Dark Swing: Slash enemies in front of you again. > Dark Sweep: Slash enemies in front of you damaging and crippling them (1sec).
Reap: 1/2 second cast. 6 second cooldown. 300 range. Sweep your Greatsword in a circle, dealing damage to nearby enemies and gaining Life Force for each enemy struck.
Unholy Feast: Swapped to the Greatsword from the Axe.
Dark Aura: 1/4 second cast. 25 second cooldown. Grant yourself an aura of darkness (5sec). Enemies who strike you become blinded for 3 seconds.
Chilling Howl: 1 second cast. 40 second cooldown. 600 range. Fear (1sec) and chill (3sec) nearby enemies.

Death Shroud
Changed the UI to be similar to other form-changing skills, allowing you to see more information, including health, conditions/boons, and skills’ cooldowns, etc.
Additionally, we’ve decided to add a second “auto-attack” (a spammable skill with no cooldown).
Crimson Blast: 1 second cast. 900 range. Deals damage and bleeds the target, increasing bleeds applied with the more Life Force you have.
50% or more Life Force: 3 stacks of bleeding (3sec).
49% or less Life Force: 2 stacks of bleeding (3sec).

By giving Power-based Necromancers a true ranged option in the Axe and a weapon in which they can deal area damage with in the Greatsword, the two greatest short-comings of a Power-based Necromancer are remedied, making it a fun and viable build as an alternative to running Condition or Condition/Power hybrid based builds.
The addition of the second auto-attack in Death Shroud will allow Condition-based builds to have a more interesting decision-making process when it comes to Death Shroud. Should I save my Life Force as a second health bar? Or should I try to get a few extra bleeds in since I’m sitting on a full bar?

I don’t see them adding new weapon sets before an expansion.
If they do I’m pleasantly surprised most likely, but I wouldn’t count on it.

I already use Dagger more than Scepter in PvE and Axe is getting better and better.
Axe’s auto-attack damage is atrocious, other than that it’s not all that bad really.

It seems to be intended to be used with minions.
The AoE Cripple slows multiple opponents, making it easier for the dumb minions to catch up, the Retaliation discourages hitting you and and the Vulnerability makes your Minions deal more damage, which might (or might not …) make up for the auto-attack’s otherwise low damage.

It’s pretty good without Minions as is, although I could see it getting a damage buff on the first attack.

Don’t take away my unholy feast :P. I love the aoe cripple for when I need to run away!!!

Axe/Focus = Minion heaven slows and the auto attack is a double hit which activates your minions immediately.

I don’t think Axe is a terrible weapon. In fact, I run it in my power-based build and the last buff they gave it was fantastic.
It’s just that as a power-based necromancer, we have two major drawbacks (which admittedly come up in dungeons more so than any open-world content): We don’t have great AoE options and we don’t have great ranged options.

Currently, we have to use utility slot skills or use Life Transfer to deal area damage. Not only are we losing flexibility in our utility slots, but ourarea damage skills are on somewhat lengthy cooldowns. The staff isn’t really an option for aoe damage in a power-build, as the only attack which does any noticeable amount of damage without speccing for conditions, is #4.

Power builds aren’t terribly bad at ranged damage as long as they can keep their Life Force bar filled enough to spam Life Blast. Unfortunately in fights where you have to be greater than 600 yards away, your only sustainable form of Life Force is from Staff auto-attacks. Aside from the fact that this isn’t a great amount of damage, it’s downright boring.

Another change that has been mentioned around the forums is the idea of giving the Axe a cleave which I would also be in favor for, but Power-based builds would still be lacking in effective or interesting ranged options. Without adding a weapon, this would have to be addressed by giving power Necromancers a sustainable way to gain life force from afar through traits. A definite possibility, but then the life force gain would have to be balanced around either the fact that conditionmancers can take advantage of it to sustain even more damage than they already can or it has to be made inaccessable or unnattractive to condition-based Necromancers.

Power builds are fine (that isn’t to say they couldn’t use some flavor). The issue is that most people want a necro to have the exact same thing as other classes, stop trying to make every class the same. Necro long range power build = traited DS.

I like what the greatsword has for everything except its auto attack. It makes absolutely no sense for a necro to have an auto attack that doesn’t give LF or conditions, it doesn’t fit the class at all, all it does is give us a warrior greatsword with a necromancer paint job.

I like the idea of Death shroud having a condition auto attack, and also letting us see our HP (which at the time is Life Force), boons, and conditions.

Quick question about the Death Shroud 1 ability – Why would I need another auto attack? How would the game know if I wanted that one or Life Blast?

Bas.7406:

Quick question about the Death Shroud 1 ability – Why would I need another auto attack? How would the game know if I wanted that one or Life Blast?

You can set what ability you’d like to auto attack.

I’m not sure if Death Shroud “saves” your auto attack, but you can reassign your auto attack to anything you want, although some things like ground targets don’t function properly.

i think its decent ideas. but as mentioned Axe seems to be intended for minion master builds, as its more about creating a situation where they can do damage vs just you doing the damage. Only problem with axe is its cd/damage trait shouldnt be a 30 pointer.

Now if your asking for a weapon that can benefit more from spectral skills….i can see where the greatsword has a place. A control heavy hard hitting pbao weapon might be fun.

Zinwrath.2049:

Bas.7406:

Quick question about the Death Shroud 1 ability – Why would I need another auto attack? How would the game know if I wanted that one or Life Blast?

You can set what ability you’d like to auto attack.

So it would essentially be 5 attacks, and you would select bleed stacking with low damage or high damage and vuln/might stacking with lifblast?

Bas.7406:

Zinwrath.2049:

Bas.7406:

Quick question about the Death Shroud 1 ability – Why would I need another auto attack? How would the game know if I wanted that one or Life Blast?

You can set what ability you’d like to auto attack.

So it would essentially be 5 attacks, and you would select bleed stacking with low damage or high damage and vuln/might stacking with lifblast?

I’m assuming he would expect them to change the traits that give might/vuln/peircing to work with either attack…like they all work with the water attack that IS a damage+bleed. IMO hes basicly asking that the underwater version of life blast be an option above water.

You still forgot to increase the damage of Axe auto-attack! =P Haha outside that not bad suggestions… I don’t see them adding in a totally new weapon though for us. Mostly due to trait lines. Unless they went through and completely redid traits in, probably, Spite or Curses to make room for some traits that directly benefit GS. There are a few traits I can think of that could be removed and replaced with something a bit more useful, but who knows if ANet sees it that way.

Have to say, I’ve always thought axe should be a 900 range weapon from the first time I used it.

Bhawb.7408:

Power builds are fine (that isn’t to say they couldn’t use some flavor). The issue is that most people want a necro to have the exact same thing as other classes, stop trying to make every class the same. Necro long range power build = traited DS.

I like what the greatsword has for everything except its auto attack. It makes absolutely no sense for a necro to have an auto attack that doesn’t give LF or conditions, it doesn’t fit the class at all, all it does is give us a warrior greatsword with a necromancer paint job.

I like the idea of Death shroud having a condition auto attack, and also letting us see our HP (which at the time is Life Force), boons, and conditions.

I mentioned in my post above that, yes, Power-based Necromancers do have a great damage ability in Life Blast. I also noted the issue with being able to sustain enough Life Force to keep your Life Force bar > 50% when fighting in ranged fights, which involves simply auto-attacking with the Staff over and over.

You’ll notice that the final attack of the Greatsword actually DOES involve a condition (cripple). I don’t think it should gain life force on its auto-attack so as to differentiate it from the Dagger. I suppose the final attack in the chain could always remove a boon. That might be interesting. Again though, I hope to convey that Power-based Necromancers need an AoE option and a true ranged option. The Greatsword skills are merely to illustrate an example.

Bas.7406:

Zinwrath.2049:

Bas.7406:

Quick question about the Death Shroud 1 ability – Why would I need another auto attack? How would the game know if I wanted that one or Life Blast?

You can set what ability you’d like to auto attack.

So it would essentially be 5 attacks, and you would select bleed stacking with low damage or high damage and vuln/might stacking with lifblast?

Yes, with the UI being changed to be like other transforms, you’d have your five weapon skills replaced with five Death Shroud skills.

1. - Life Blast / #2 – Crimson Blast / #3 – Dark Path / #4 – Doom / #5 – Life Transfer
   The idea being that a conditonmancer would always use Crimson Blast as their auto-attack and a powermancer would always use Life Blast as their auto-attack.

Bas.7406:

Don’t take away my unholy feast :P. I love the aoe cripple for when I need to run away!!!

Axe/Focus = Minion heaven slows and the auto attack is a double hit which activates your minions immediately.

I just got my magic find gear adn was runnign minions today, killing karka. There AI doesnt activate good even with axe. Everytime i started a fight with a karka there was pretty much a garaunteed 2-4 minions just standing there for a long time before they decided to finally attack. Flesh golem attacked the least >.>. with his ability on recharge i couldnt wake him up to start fighting. The poor lost and confused minions =/

OMNIBUS.2913:

Bas.7406:

Don’t take away my unholy feast :P. I love the aoe cripple for when I need to run away!!!

Axe/Focus = Minion heaven slows and the auto attack is a double hit which activates your minions immediately.

I just got my magic find gear adn was runnign minions today, killing karka. There AI doesnt activate good even with axe. Everytime i started a fight with a karka there was pretty much a garaunteed 2-4 minions just standing there for a long time before they decided to finally attack. Flesh golem attacked the least >.>. with his ability on recharge i couldnt wake him up to start fighting. The poor lost and confused minions =/

Auto attack twice at the start of the fight 99 percent of the time it will force them all to attack immediately. The only time it doesn’t is if you are taking damage from another source before you start auto attacking it confuses them. haha.

I was doing it in wvwvw reliably, and in Malchor’s leap.

The key is Auto Attack twice first.

It’s a bit silly that we have to do a very specific attack to trigger minion AI to take notice. Not sure if intended or buggy, but it should be any ability we use on a target triggers the AI to start attacking.

Omni, let auto attack hit twice (not just one auto attack of 2 hits, but 2 auto attacks of 4 hits) and they will aggro. Don’t use any AoE or non-single target abilities to make them aggro, it doesn’t work.

Bas.7406:

OMNIBUS.2913:

Bas.7406:

Don’t take away my unholy feast :P. I love the aoe cripple for when I need to run away!!!

Axe/Focus = Minion heaven slows and the auto attack is a double hit which activates your minions immediately.

I just got my magic find gear adn was runnign minions today, killing karka. There AI doesnt activate good even with axe. Everytime i started a fight with a karka there was pretty much a garaunteed 2-4 minions just standing there for a long time before they decided to finally attack. Flesh golem attacked the least >.>. with his ability on recharge i couldnt wake him up to start fighting. The poor lost and confused minions =/

Auto attack twice at the start of the fight 99 percent of the time it will force them all to attack immediately. The only time it doesn’t is if you are taking damage from another source before you start auto attacking it confuses them. haha.

I was doing it in wvwvw reliably, and in Malchor’s leap.

The key is Auto Attack twice first.

There was times i was just sitting there auto attacking . The only way i could get them all to attack was by running right up next to the karka. but even then they still took a couple of seconds to start. I’ll test it out your way tho.

Takarazuka.3025:

It’s a bit silly that we have to do a very specific attack to trigger minion AI to take notice. Not sure if intended or buggy, but it should be any ability we use on a target triggers the AI to start attacking.

I think it is intentional. They are delayed if you use one single target ability so you can pull mobs. The second single target ability will cause immediate aggro from them to the target. AoE doesn’t count because they’d have to guess who you are trying to attack, and that would be messy.

I’ve had scenerios where only one pet is helping till i get off a few attacks and then “hopefully” the rest jump in. This is spvp though, and they seem to spaz out when targets are teleporting and turning invisable…and so end up just walking around in circles…

Bhawb.7408:

I think it is intentional. They are delayed if you use one single target ability so you can pull mobs. The second single target ability will cause immediate aggro from them to the target. AoE doesn’t count because they’d have to guess who you are trying to attack, and that would be messy.

That makes sense… was wondering if there are any other single target abilities you might use on initial combat, but if you are using axe then no not really. My lack of time spent with minions really hampers my understanding of how to make them work right. Goes back to the betas where the stupid things would stand around or run off doing god-knows-what and I have hated them ever since…

What I usually do is start the fight with Axe auto then Axe 2 (in PvE it doesn’t do much, but in PvP a lot of people will waste a dodge). I can’t specifically remember of Focus 4 aggros or not, but I plan to be making a video about it sooner or later.

Bhawb.7408:

What I usually do is start the fight with Axe auto then Axe 2 (in PvE it doesn’t do much, but in PvP a lot of people will waste a dodge). I can’t specifically remember of Focus 4 aggros or not, but I plan to be making a video about it sooner or later.

focus 4 does, but if there are multiple targets that it hits it kind of wigs out a bit. Focus 4 plus auto 1 works if it only hits one target.

I just need to make the video so I can reference it instead of remembering :P

Interesting concept with the Greatsword, but I am of the opinion that fixing what is there already would be a better, more sustainable solution than adding more potential issues.

The Necro traits are the root of the profession’s lack of ability to be functional when compared to other professions. Fix the trait trees and most of the rest of it will fall into line. Creating traits with synergies that solve the various issues would make the whole thing work.

Axe will still be terrible in all forms of PvP, and less than terriffic otherwise. That whole weapon needs to be redone. It isn’t just a simple “buff auto-attack” fix imho.

The axe was very obviously made for Minions, imo. A lot of the “fixes” revolve around turning it into a power weapon, which it isn’t designed for, which is why I agree that if they were to try to give us longer ranged power options, or cleave options, that it should be on a new weapon; not by changing a weapon that works very well for a main type of build we have.

I love our traits. They require creative solutions to things. You don’t just go 20 traits into Soul Reaping like Mesmers do for their equivalent tree. There are a lot of unique ways to build a necro because of our trees, and while I agree certain things could definitely use changes (or could be substituted for another weapon), I think overall our traits are much better than other classes I have played.

Bhawb.7408:

The axe was very obviously made for Minions, imo. A lot of the “fixes” revolve around turning it into a power weapon, which it isn’t designed for.

I don’t understand why so many people think this is the case.
Just because it applies vulnerability it is designed for minions? What about the fact that it applies retaliation on yourself? This seems like a wasted ability on a minion master, since a large majority of the time, your minions are taking hits and you are not. Not to mention Ghastly Claws having no synergy with minions.
Furthermore, minions are Utility skills with effectiveness only being increased by traits. I don’t think ANet wants minion masters to be tied to any specific weapon sets.
Even if we assume for a second that the Axe is the weapon designed for minion masters, my proposed changes could only make the Axe better for a Minion Master, not worse.

Kursor.5746:

I don’t understand why so many people think this is the case.
Just because it applies vulnerability it is designed for minions? What about the fact that it applies retaliation on yourself? This seems like a wasted ability on a minion master, since a large majority of the time, your minions are taking hits and you are not. Not to mention Ghastly Claws having no synergy with minions.
Furthermore, minions are Utility skills with effectiveness only being increased by traits. I don’t think ANet wants minion masters to be tied to any specific weapon sets.
Even if we assume for a second that the Axe is the weapon designed for minion masters, my proposed changes could only make the Axe better for a Minion Master, not worse.

For PvE, you are correct, most of the time mobs will attack your minions. PvE is only a part of this game, and for the other part, PvP, retaliation is an amazing way to punish people that want to take advantage of one good way to counter MMs: killing the Necro. When you get hit for ~400 every time you attack the necro, it makes things much harder on you, plus the cripple synergizes with the cripples your minions will be putting out. It is, by and far, the best weapon for MMs, and seems pretty much designed for minions, along with the Focus which has great minion synergy.

I don’t disagree your changes wouldn’t be okay for Axe, my statement was a general one; stop trying to turn axe into something that it isn’t. It isn’t meant to be a long range power weapon. It is built around control with CC, support for direct damage via vulnerability stacks, retaliation to punish attacks, and Ghastly Claws for great power build damage.

Kursor.5746:

Bhawb.7408:

The axe was very obviously made for Minions, imo. A lot of the “fixes” revolve around turning it into a power weapon, which it isn’t designed for.

I don’t understand why so many people think this is the case.
Just because it applies vulnerability it is designed for minions? What about the fact that it applies retaliation on yourself? This seems like a wasted ability on a minion master, since a large majority of the time, your minions are taking hits and you are not. Not to mention Ghastly Claws having no synergy with minions.
Furthermore, minions are Utility skills with effectiveness only being increased by traits. I don’t think ANet wants minion masters to be tied to any specific weapon sets.
Even if we assume for a second that the Axe is the weapon designed for minion masters, my proposed changes could only make the Axe better for a Minion Master, not worse.

Retaliation in general discourages hitting you in PvP.
It encourages people to focus on your Minions instead.
The AoE Cripple also makes it easier for the Minions to catch up and hit opponents.
Meanwhile the long channel of Ghastly Claws says “Forget the Minions, interrupt me or take lots of damage”.

Rending Claws has horribly low damage but nice Vulnerability, which means that your Minions hit harder but you hit for less.
I think Axe may have been designed to make an opponent in PvP divide his or her attention.
…but I mostly PvE, where it’s still pretty nice.

Of course I don’t think that the weapons were all made just for single purposes.
The Rending Claws is also a set-up for a high damage Ghastly Claws channel.
It also helps in a Dungeon party to raise up the damage of everyone else.
Unholy Feast is just a neat AoE+retal in PvE in general.

Likewise I think that the Dagger was designed for Wells because Immobilize makes up for the fact that Wells take time to work their magic and targets often move out of them.
Not to mention that the Dagger has a melee attack and Wells are placed right at your feet.
Both Wells and Daggers have their traits in the Blood Magic tree.

That doesn’t mean you should only use a Dagger for Wells of course, nor that you should always pick Dagger when you go for Wells.
There’s a reason the Well placement trait (Focused Rituals) is in the Curses tree; it allows a Condition or Hybrid Necro to place Wells without getting too close if they so desire.
A Dagger Necro doesn’t necessarily need it, although it’s still very useful and it’s placement in the trait tree is very confusing until you look in deeper into it.

As far as new weapons go I’d really like to see an AoE pull and an another blast finisher.
Kind of like Necro’s Spear, but on land.
It’d be really nice with Wells and pretty neat with Marks, too.
Cleave wouldn’t hurt either!