Guild Wars 2

Just for curiosity I’d like to know your opinion about what are the most useless skills for the necromancer and the reason about it (with objectivity or contestualized).
You can list more spells together.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_necromancer_skills

Who likes to give his/her opinion is well accepted, please avoid flame wars and provocations, for offtopics use PMs to the interested person.

If some kind of topic with the same target had been opened yet, i apologize, but I didn’t find any trace of it.

Let’s give a start:

Summon Shadow Fiend
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Summon_Shadow_Fiend
Almost low damage, scarce tankyness, melee range, relatively poor activated effect, repulsive look, i cry everytime i see a Necromancer bringing it.

Luke.4562:

Summon Shadow Fiend
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Summon_Shadow_Fiend
Almost low damage, scarce tankyness, melee range, relatively poor activated effect, repulsive look, i cry everytime i see a Necromancer bringing it.

I was with you up until you said “repulsive look”, I mean the thing is so cute and fuzzy looking, I have the Mini-pet so I don’t have to equip the Utility to get the little black ball of joy.

For me it would be Signet of Spite. 90 sec CD for a bunch of 3-5 sec conditions (too short to reliably use w/Epidemic) just ain’t worth it.

On some encounters the shadow fiend is better than the bone fiend because some minions are safer melee than range in some situations.

In my opinion it would be the CPC, but mostly because I don’t pvp much though I don’t think I would use it there either I think any well is much more useful and I don’t like weakening myself for 6seconds.

The other one is the signet of power, just doesn’t make sense to me how if I’m using it for a power in a power build why would I need the conditions anyway and the cooldown is way too long for a condition build for just 5 seconds of conditions.

Shadow Fiend is mostly bad because the teleport + blind triggers far too late after activation. It makes it really hard to time its attacks right. And yeah, it doesn’t do much damage either.

TheAgedGnome.7520:

For me it would be Signet of Spite. 90 sec CD for a bunch of 3-5 sec conditions (too short to reliably use w/Epidemic) just ain’t worth it.

This signet is actually kinda not bad if used with Axe and Scepter to get a decent burst in a berzerker build, and stacks with the Curses 25 minor trait (+2% damage per condition). Basically, pop signet, Axe 2, weapon swap, Scepter 3.

It does kinda sorta ok damage (for a necro) if your target doesn’t dodge, and can also add a chill if you trait for the Chill on Blind. With +100% Condi Duration that’s 2 whole seconds of chill off of a 90 sec cooldown (and another 10% damage on your Scepter 3 spike)! You can get that down to a 72 second CD and 3 stacks of might if you waste a bunch of traits on it!

So, it isn’t the worst. It’s just really….really mediocre.

I agree with Signet of Spite being somewhat useless. It would make far more sense for it to refill some of your life force on use, or even do some spike damage.

I can see potential in Spectral Wall and Corrosive Poison Cloud, but they need some changes for them to be viable. (e.g. Spectral Wall turning part of the projectile damage taken into health/life force or adding chill/daze/pulsing damage to Corrosive Poison Cloud).

Shalla.3967:

I agree with Signet of Spite being somewhat useless. It would make far more sense for it to refill some of your life force on use, or even do some spike damage.

I can see potential in Spectral Wall and Corrosive Poison Cloud, but they need some changes for them to be viable. (e.g. Spectral Wall turning part of the projectile damage taken into health/life force or adding chill/daze/pulsing damage to Corrosive Poison Cloud).

Poison Cloud exists to put permanent weakness on things. If you don’t need perma weakness, then you don’t need Poison Cloud. The poison it gives is OK, but the weakness is pretty amazing in PvE. Haven’t had much success with it in PvP since so many people run high-crit builds with loads of vigor.

Let’s give more inputs.

Gathering Plague
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gathering_Plague
[BUG: This skill replicates any conditions on nearby allies but does not remove them.]

Over the bug, -if it would work properly- under water you have no useful skills like Staff#4 or Dagger#4 to send away conditions; it forces you having Consume Conditions, Plague Signet or Fetid Consumption (even if underwater MM is a lame spec) or someone dispelling them from you to work productively.

EDIT: to avoid misinformation, thanks to PinCushion.7390 for the note, Plague Blast (underwater) transfers 1 condition per blast.

I actually love shadow fiend, but you’re right he is kinda situational sometimes. Even though I do use signet of spite in my hybrid builds, I would agree it’s a mostly useless skill. Now corrosive poison cloud, it’s nearly op if you know how to use it properly. One of my favorite skills we have. Yes I am sad it doesn’t pulse physical damage too (even if it was a tiny bit just so we could get siphons off of it). Now as for spectral wall, now that they fixed the combo field location I bring that everywhere I go. Minions making confusion, chaos armor, awesome stuff for a necro. bring bone fiend and flesh wurm and you just got yourself about 7-10 stacks of confusion before it runs out. It’s one of our hidden gems, learn to use it and you’ll reveal more of it’s secrets

So I guess I wrote all this to say, signet of spite sucks lol, oh and don’t hate on shadow fiend, shame on you :P

Luke.4562:

Let’s give more inputs.

Gathering Plague
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gathering_Plague
[BUG: This skill replicates any conditions on nearby allies but does not remove them.]

Over the bug, -if it would work properly- under water you have no useful skills like Staff#4 or Dagger#4 to send away conditions; it forces you having Consume Conditions, Plague Signet or Fetid Consumption (even if underwater MM is a lame spec) or someone dispelling them from you to work productively.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Life_Blast_

Transfers 1 condition per blast.

Nay of the Ether.8913:

I actually love shadow fiend, but you’re right he is kinda situational sometimes. Even though I do use signet of spite in my hybrid builds, I would agree it’s a mostly useless skill. Now corrosive poison cloud, it’s nearly op if you know how to use it properly. One of my favorite skills we have. Yes I am sad it doesn’t pulse physical damage too (even if it was a tiny bit just so we could get siphons off of it). Now as for spectral wall, now that they fixed the combo field location I bring that everywhere I go. Minions making confusion, chaos armor, awesome stuff for a necro. bring bone fiend and flesh wurm and you just got yourself about 7-10 stacks of confusion before it runs out. It’s one of our hidden gems, learn to use it and you’ll reveal more of it’s secrets

So I guess I wrote all this to say, signet of spite sucks lol, oh and don’t hate on shadow fiend, shame on you :P

OMG! You just told me how to Confusion spam with a Necro.

You’re the best forum poster ever!

Signet of Spite and Spectral Armor are both worthless.

Signet of Spite has been discussed above.

Spectral Armor isn’t so much worthless as it is horrendously outclassed. Spectral Walk gives the same stunbreak and a longer duration “gain life force when hit” buff on a shorter cooldown. The Swiftness and teleport it gives you can let you avoid far more damage than the 6 seconds of protection you get from Spectral Armor.

Now, the trait for Spectral Armor is fantastic. 50% is a great point to get protection, since necros still have a good amount of health left at 50%.

Zogyark.4597:

On some encounters the shadow fiend is better than the bone fiend because some minions are safer melee than range in some situations.

In my opinion it would be the CPC, but mostly because I don’t pvp much though I don’t think I would use it there either I think any well is much more useful and I don’t like weakening myself for 6seconds.

The other one is the signet of power, just doesn’t make sense to me how if I’m using it for a power in a power build why would I need the conditions anyway and the cooldown is way too long for a condition build for just 5 seconds of conditions.

Look at the conditions its applying. Most of the conditions it applies are made to weaken the target not do condition damage. The power damage trait line also increases condition duration. This is because even as power we stack conditions. Be it weaken, vulnerability, chill, fear, blind, cripple, poison….all of these conditions are aimed at making the target generally weaker in a fight. Not to do damage. (yes poison does damage, but it gets very little condition damage benefit, its mostly for the healing debuff)

So the idea is that a power build, might want his target to be made a lot weaker so he can beat him up, the only problem with this signet is the fact its CD is ridiculously long for how short the effect is. It really should be 60 second duration, with a little bit of raw damage on cast. Then it’d be reasonable. Also our signet traits suck compared to many other professions.

Death Curse
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Death_Curse

What’s better than poisoning yourself when you’re on the brink of death?

Luke.4562:

Death Curse
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Death_Curse

What’s better than poisoning yourself when you’re on the brink of death?

Pulling the enemy right next to you so they can immediately stomp you right after.

Luke.4562:

Death Curse
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Death_Curse

What’s better than poisoning yourself when you’re on the brink of death?

Think we have a winner!

Nay of the Ether.8913:

I actually love shadow fiend, but you’re right he is kinda situational sometimes. Even though I do use signet of spite in my hybrid builds, I would agree it’s a mostly useless skill. Now corrosive poison cloud, it’s nearly op if you know how to use it properly. One of my favorite skills we have. Yes I am sad it doesn’t pulse physical damage too (even if it was a tiny bit just so we could get siphons off of it). Now as for spectral wall, now that they fixed the combo field location I bring that everywhere I go. Minions making confusion, chaos armor, awesome stuff for a necro. bring bone fiend and flesh wurm and you just got yourself about 7-10 stacks of confusion before it runs out. It’s one of our hidden gems, learn to use it and you’ll reveal more of it’s secrets

So I guess I wrote all this to say, signet of spite sucks lol, oh and don’t hate on shadow fiend, shame on you :P

I honestly do not mean to be harsh or negative, so please don’t take this the wrong way, but it seems to me that sacrificing all your utility slots just so you could land a potential amount of 7 stacks of confusion on a moving target every 40 seconds, is very unreliable. It requires minions to work, survive and shoot through the wall and it’s easily countered by dodging, line of sight and condition removal.

It sounds like a fun trick in theory, but I can’t see it turning into a very viable, competitive or powerful way to use these skills. I also don’t believe that a utility skill should be considered “viable” or “good” when it requires two others for it to be merely useful. I also don’t see how can such an easy skill to avoid like Corrosive Poison Cloud can be “nearly op”, specially when we have, in my view, much better alternatives for the slot, such as our Wells.

Again, it’s not my aim to be upsetting in any way, everyone’s free to play as they wish. I just replied because I don’t want some random Anet dev to come across this thread and think that skills such as these are currently fine simply because there’s some hidden, mediocre trick that we can pull off by sacrificing so much.

PinCushion.7390:

Nay of the Ether.8913:

I actually love shadow fiend, but you’re right he is kinda situational sometimes. Even though I do use signet of spite in my hybrid builds, I would agree it’s a mostly useless skill. Now corrosive poison cloud, it’s nearly op if you know how to use it properly. One of my favorite skills we have. Yes I am sad it doesn’t pulse physical damage too (even if it was a tiny bit just so we could get siphons off of it). Now as for spectral wall, now that they fixed the combo field location I bring that everywhere I go. Minions making confusion, chaos armor, awesome stuff for a necro. bring bone fiend and flesh wurm and you just got yourself about 7-10 stacks of confusion before it runs out. It’s one of our hidden gems, learn to use it and you’ll reveal more of it’s secrets

So I guess I wrote all this to say, signet of spite sucks lol, oh and don’t hate on shadow fiend, shame on you :P

OMG! You just told me how to Confusion spam with a Necro.

You’re the best forum poster ever!

Or, you can reroll as an Asura to get the Pain Inverter racial. But, yea, that is an awesome use of spectral, minions and combos!

I want to be able to tie a string around the Shadow Fiend and I. Then, use it to float upward and drift casually over the world.

WWW.youtube.com/watch?v=HC9yD8YqXYI

TheAgedGnome.7520:

PinCushion.7390:

Nay of the Ether.8913:

I actually love shadow fiend, but you’re right he is kinda situational sometimes. Even though I do use signet of spite in my hybrid builds, I would agree it’s a mostly useless skill. Now corrosive poison cloud, it’s nearly op if you know how to use it properly. One of my favorite skills we have. Yes I am sad it doesn’t pulse physical damage too (even if it was a tiny bit just so we could get siphons off of it). Now as for spectral wall, now that they fixed the combo field location I bring that everywhere I go. Minions making confusion, chaos armor, awesome stuff for a necro. bring bone fiend and flesh wurm and you just got yourself about 7-10 stacks of confusion before it runs out. It’s one of our hidden gems, learn to use it and you’ll reveal more of it’s secrets

So I guess I wrote all this to say, signet of spite sucks lol, oh and don’t hate on shadow fiend, shame on you :P

OMG! You just told me how to Confusion spam with a Necro.

You’re the best forum poster ever!

Or, you can reroll as an Asura to get the Pain Inverter racial. But, yea, that is an awesome use of spectral, minions and combos!

Oh, I wasn’t talking about for me. I was talking about for me and the Engineer I run with. They already have loads of Confusion, but they also have loads of Projectile and Blast finishers. So adding Spectral Wall to my build isn’t going to change it much, but will offer our little duo a bit of ranged Confusion stacking along with some Chaos Armor + Protection at the cost of a little coordination.

Basically, I’ll be dropping it on her Rifle Turret (which does projectile finishers automatically) and she’ll be blowing up the turret for Chaos Armor.

I don’t think it’s good enough to form an entire build around, but it’s a nice addition that could come in handy.

I invite you all to keep a positive attitude.

Here’s another input, i’d like to gather your negative hopinions regarding this skill:

Corrupt Boon
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Corrupt_Boon

The base idea is really nice, but considering the really long cooldown (40 seconds, 32 if traited), the fact it’s subjected to many hidden bugs (Aegis blocking it, the projectile-like behavior, it misses often, the aftercast delay), the fact that most of the times the target will just rebuff himself (so it need to be used carefully) and the self poisoning effect, it forces players to look other ways to manage dispels.

Even in GW1 most of the skills to dispel Enchantments (actual boons) had better tradeoff, “prizes” and cooldowns to fulfill the dispel role.

Spectral Armor. 90 sec cooldown is way too much for what it does.
My guess is that it’s a leftover from when Death Shroud didn’t remove spectral effects.
Spectral Walk and Plague Signet are just so much better.

Shalla.3967:

Nay of the Ether.8913:

I actually love shadow fiend, but you’re right he is kinda situational sometimes. Even though I do use signet of spite in my hybrid builds, I would agree it’s a mostly useless skill. Now corrosive poison cloud, it’s nearly op if you know how to use it properly. One of my favorite skills we have. Yes I am sad it doesn’t pulse physical damage too (even if it was a tiny bit just so we could get siphons off of it). Now as for spectral wall, now that they fixed the combo field location I bring that everywhere I go. Minions making confusion, chaos armor, awesome stuff for a necro. bring bone fiend and flesh wurm and you just got yourself about 7-10 stacks of confusion before it runs out. It’s one of our hidden gems, learn to use it and you’ll reveal more of it’s secrets

So I guess I wrote all this to say, signet of spite sucks lol, oh and don’t hate on shadow fiend, shame on you :P

I honestly do not mean to be harsh or negative, so please don’t take this the wrong way, but it seems to me that sacrificing all your utility slots just so you could land a potential amount of 7 stacks of confusion on a moving target every 40 seconds, is very unreliable. It requires minions to work, survive and shoot through the wall and it’s easily countered by dodging, line of sight and condition removal.

It sounds like a fun trick in theory, but I can’t see it turning into a very viable, competitive or powerful way to use these skills. I also don’t believe that a utility skill should be considered “viable” or “good” when it requires two others for it to be merely useful. I also don’t see how can such an easy skill to avoid like Corrosive Poison Cloud can be “nearly op”, specially when we have, in my view, much better alternatives for the slot, such as our Wells.

Again, it’s not my aim to be upsetting in any way, everyone’s free to play as they wish. I just replied because I don’t want some random Anet dev to come across this thread and think that skills such as these are currently fine simply because there’s some hidden, mediocre trick that we can pull off by sacrificing so much.

I wasn’t talking about a competitive format. I would never attempt this in any form of pvp or wvw :P Open world or dungeons though, its pretty awesome and you’re not “sacrificing your whole bar” to make it work. It’s a nice side effect of running this stuff on your bar. You’re forgetting the protection, vulnerability, and (if traited for it) life force you gain from just that one skill alone. I’d also hope someone wouldn’t build around this idea alone lol. Anyone who has ever run multiple minions with success knows you always have backup plans for when they are on cd. So yes I agree with you, in a competitive format this is a very bad idea.

Spectral Armor: The Cooldown is too long for it’s completely low duration. The 15 point trait in Soul Reaping is significantly better.

Signet of Spite: Not even sure what the deal is with this or any signet.

Plague Signet: It has it’s uses, but there are so many better and more efficent ways to do the exact same thing (dagger 4, Staff 4) or just cleanse them with a heal.

Shadow Fiend is my least Favorite minion, but he is pretty tanky against veterans and the aoe blind = mmmmmm.

Bas.7406:

Spectral Armor: The Cooldown is too long for it’s completely low duration. The 15 point trait in Soul Reaping is significantly better.

Signet of Spite: Not even sure what the deal is with this or any signet.

Plague Signet: It has it’s uses, but there are so many better and more efficent ways to do the exact same thing (dagger 4, Staff 4) or just cleanse them with a heal.

Shadow Fiend is my least Favorite minion, but he is pretty tanky against veterans and the aoe blind = mmmmmm.

If I could find one phrase to sum up what’s wrong with most of our “Not Conditions” builds, it’d be this.

Spectral Armor really isn’t that bad, it is just a niche utility. The problem is that it’s niche is in builds that are rarely used.

In my opinion, Signet of Spite takes the cake for uselessness. It doesn’t increase power enough to warrant a bunch of better utilities you could use (corrupt boon can practically do the same thing, on nearly half the CD, with boon stripping on top).

Shadow Fiend would be next, since he is only remotely useful if you are brand new and microing bone minion explosions is too much, or you are doing open world content where a static minion isn’t wanted. Every other choice is better in any other situation.

Don’t focus all on skills. There’s lackluster traits too, like Siphoned Power or Reaper’s Precision.

Unpredictability.4086:

Don’t focus all on skills. There’s lackluster traits too, like Siphoned Power or Reaper’s Precision.

Siphoned power isn’t useless it’s just meh compared to other abilities around that level. If you thought about it more as adding power and condition damage as your health got lower it would be a little better. Nah, it’s still pretty meh.

Reaper’s precision is pretty nice for minion builds or for builds that need to build ds a bit faster. The problem isn’t the trait it’s that there are 3 traits in that same line that are better (Terror, Chilling Darkness, Weakening Shroud).

i wanted to say ‘Haunt’, but, contrary to its description, it’s atleast (a small) AoE. On a relatively short cooldown. The looong cast time and the fact that it doesnt work with Chilling Darkness is a shame tho.

My vote goes to spectral Armor, for the obvious reasons.

Worst minor trait? Protector of the horde. Even our pathetic Grandmaster Minors arent that bad and ‘pigeonholey’.

Worst major trait? Tbh, i cant think of one. We have a ton of traits that are really meh, where you think ‘huh, this maybe MIGHT be of use for someone somewhere…just not for me/my build’ or interesting traits, that are far too unreliable, but no major trait that is complete kitten.

Reaper’s precision is pretty nice for minion builds or for builds that need to build ds a bit faster. The problem isn’t the trait it’s that there are 3 traits in that same line that are better (Terror, Chilling Darkness, Weakening Shroud).

does it work with minion-hits? if not: 1% of 33% of maybe 50% critchance isn’t worth it, imo. good trait-idea, but bad numbers.

Siphoned power is the worst of our minor traits, followed by Reanimator for non-minion builds.

Toxic Landing and Quickening Thrist are both pretty bad. The rest of our traits aren’t bad on their own, they either have better options or are related to skills that aren’t worth it (like Signet Power).

Unpredictability.4086:

Don’t focus all on skills. There’s lackluster traits too, like Siphoned Power or Reaper’s Precision.

Or, do focus on skills because that’s what the thread is about. Edit: Ugh, too late.

Gonna parrot complaints about signet of spite. Honestly I’d love to see it on a low cooldown, (30-45 seconds) and/or gain a more interesting passive effect than bonus Power.

Corrosive Poison Cloud isn’t quite as good at area denial as I’d like it to be. It stays there for a long time, yes, but it doesn’t punish a foe severely enough for entering it.

Bhawb.7408:

Toxic Landing and Quickening Thrist are both pretty bad. The rest of our traits aren’t bad on their own, they either have better options or are related to skills that aren’t worth it (like Signet Power).

Toxic Landing isn’t bad, just niche. If I go to open Temple of Grenth, I always equip it as you are practically garunteed to take falling damage in there. Throwing it on in jumping puzzles is good too.

Quickening Thirst is pretty bad as most dagger builds are running either Spectral Walk or Signet of the Locust.

I myself hate Corrosive Poison Cloud mostly because of the Asura racial skill Radition Field, which is pretty much better in every way, from not apllying weakness to you, to having a larger range and also taking a lot less time to cast. Only thing it has that is worse is +20 seconds on cooldown, but I see no reason not to run it over Corrosive Poison Cloud everytime.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Corrosive_Poison_Cloud
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Radiation_Field

Yeah, Radiation Field I see as a failure of design, personally. Racial skills are supposed to be inferior to profession skills (see Battle Roar and “For Great Justice” for a very clear example), but Radiation Field is better than the profession skill it mimics. Swapping the range and cast times would be a good start.

This isn’t saying that CPC is a bad skill (it is niche, though), just saying that they failed with making the racial skills inferior.

You know, for a paid elite skill, Mistfire Wolf is kind of lame

Signets and Spectral skills generally need help. My balloon minion is fun to watch, though, even if I do think its skill should be let me float away like Mary Poppins.

Traits are designed to nerf one build in order to buff another. I can live with that as long as other professions are like that too, without giving them an OP mode.

Rigor Mortis

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rigor_Mortis

It is useless due to long recharge and how often it misses.

Pfft, you want to talk useless?
How about a skill with no synergy where it is and takes too long to cast?
I present what HAS to be our worst weapon skill:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Feast_of_Corruption

I’m convinced it took this long to be mentioned because all of you forced yourselves to forget it exists.

CHIPS.6018:

Rigor Mortis

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rigor_Mortis

It is useless due to long recharge and how often it misses.

Totally agree on the long cooldown.
I thought that the fact it often misses it’s because maybe its range is erroneously shorter than the autoattak range, over the fact it goes on cooldown even if the Bone Fiend can’t hit with it… so the 2 problems act together.
Add the fact it often doesn’t cast istantly, and while it does it the Bone Fiend Immobilizes himself while the target is still running, going out of his range…
BAD DESIGN AGAIN, ANET…

Kiriakulos.1690:

Pfft, you want to talk useless?
How about a skill with no synergy where it is and takes too long to cast?
I present what HAS to be our worst weapon skill:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Feast_of_Corruption

I’m convinced it took this long to be mentioned because all of you forced yourselves to forget it exists.

Don’t be nasty man, i wanted to call it in the next days to not let the topic fade :P
Totally agree with you, it seems to be bugged too.. the bonus damage for condition won’t apply and we have to verify if the damage bonus from traits applies too.
It should do a nice damage with crits.
Almost it still garant Life Force.

Kiriakulos.1690:

Pfft, you want to talk useless?
How about a skill with no synergy where it is and takes too long to cast?
I present what HAS to be our worst weapon skill:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Feast_of_Corruption

I’m convinced it took this long to be mentioned because all of you forced yourselves to forget it exists.

Ok your’s win. That skill does suck. You often do more (or similar) damage by just auto attacking. Single target. 10s cooldown. This skill causes physical power damage on a condition damage weapon. Doesn’t do anything else.

Feast of Corruption is “useless” if you assume that scepter is supposed to be only a condition damage weapon. In a hybrid build, Feast of Corruption hurts, a lot.

Feats of Corruption has Power scaling of 1.1. For reference, the third attack in the dagger chain is a 1.2 ratio. Since the Life Force increases with each condition on the target (usually will be 3 or 4 conditions when you use it), it does all right. If the damage increased like it is supposed to, it would be even better.

Really, it works quite well with where it is.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

If the damage increased like it is supposed to, it would be even better.

So I’ve seen this mentioned in a few places now, but I just tested it in Heart of the Mists and open world PvE, and I’m definitely seeing a damage increase. Are there more details I’m missing?

Softspoken.2410:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

If the damage increased like it is supposed to, it would be even better.

So I’ve seen this mentioned in a few places now, but I just tested it in Heart of the Mists and open world PvE, and I’m definitely seeing a damage increase. Are there more details I’m missing?

I was just going off of the wiki which said there was no damage increase. I never tested it with steady weapons myself, which is the only way to really tell.

I use Feast of Corruption all the time and it seems to work fine for me in PVE. If I load up the mob with a variety of conditions it sure seems to do more damage, and if I add vulns to the mob. it does quite a bit of damage. And since its a fast cast and it boosts Life Force, there’s no reason to not use it.

TheAgedGnome.7520:

I use Feast of Corruption all the time and it seems to work fine for me in PVE. If I load up the mob with a variety of conditions it sure seems to do more damage, and if I add vulns to the mob. it does quite a bit of damage. And since its a fast cast and it boosts Life Force, there’s no reason to not use it.

This skill is one of the reasons I’m considering dropping my Rabid jewels for Zerker or Valkyrie. I like the condi damage of the Rabid set, but I feel like Curses traits were designed around a more hybrid approach.

Zogyark.4597:

In my opinion it would be the CPC, but mostly because I don’t pvp much though I don’t think I would use it there either I think any well is much more useful and I don’t like weakening myself for 6seconds.

I haven’t made much use of CPC in the past. However, after reading this thread and specifically the post above, it got me thinking, “What’s the downside to CPC?” The answer for many, apparently, is the self-weakening effect. As Necromancers, let’s think this through. Is there any way to take the disadvantage of a self-inflicted condition and turn it to our advantage?

There’s more than one solution. However, after playing around with it yesterday, here is what I’ve come up with:

1) Cast CPC.

2) Follow up with Staff #3 Chilblains. This stacks some additional poison duration on top of CPC’s as well as chills the opponents inside the AoE, making it more difficult for them to escape. Alternately, cast Chilblains first to slow down your enemies prior to casting CPC. If focusing on a single target, perhaps open up with Dagger #2 Dark Pact to immobilize them, instead.

3) Finish with Staff #4 Putrid Mark. This will transfer the self-inflicted weakness of CPC to the enemies inside the cloud. What’s more, Putrid Mark is a blast finisher while Chilblains and CPC are both poison fields. This yields a combo that applies…wait for it…Area Weakness (+5 seconds).

In PvE I found it quite easy to stack 30 seconds of weakness on a group of enemies in addition to the poison of Chilblains and CPC. Chilblains chill is just icing on the cake. With CPC’s 40 second recharge, enemies can potentially be weakened 75% of the time with proper positioning.

I have yet to conduct testing in WvWvW. I don’t expect to achieve equal effectiveness as compared to PvE unless facing a static zerg head-butting a door. However, I still think it will have utility in the form of pressuring opponents, zone control, and forcing them to waste dodges and condition removal.

So instead of thinking of CPC as a lackluster utility that inflicts weakness on the caster, think of it as our sixth well skill; Well of Weakness. Combine it with a Chilling Darkness-traited Well of Darkness, a Well of Corruption, and an immobilization, and you’re significantly shutting down your enemy.

It’s still pretty meh, I see no point in weakening enemies for so long specially in PvE, they’ll be dead before you know it, this would seem good against bosses actually but usually they have some sort of defense vs conditions so a 10 sec weakness lasts like 1 second.

I could see it somewhat work on pvp though but I’d rather take something else.

Kraag Deadsoul.2789:

Zogyark.4597:

In my opinion it would be the CPC, but mostly because I don’t pvp much though I don’t think I would use it there either I think any well is much more useful and I don’t like weakening myself for 6seconds.

I haven’t made much use of CPC in the past. However, after reading this thread and specifically the post above, it got me thinking, “What’s the downside to CPC?” The answer for many, apparently, is the self-weakening effect. As Necromancers, let’s think this through. Is there any way to take the disadvantage of a self-inflicted condition and turn it to our advantage?

There’s more than one solution. However, after playing around with it yesterday, here is what I’ve come up with:

1) Cast CPC.

2) Follow up with Staff #3 Chilblains. This stacks some additional poison duration on top of CPC’s as well as chills the opponents inside the AoE, making it more difficult for them to escape. Alternately, cast Chilblains first to slow down your enemies prior to casting CPC. If focusing on a single target, perhaps open up with Dagger #2 Dark Pact to immobilize them, instead.

3) Finish with Staff #4 Putrid Mark. This will transfer the self-inflicted weakness of CPC to the enemies inside the cloud. What’s more, Putrid Mark is a blast finisher while Chilblains and CPC are both poison fields. This yields a combo that applies…wait for it…Area Weakness (+5 seconds).

In PvE I found it quite easy to stack 30 seconds of weakness on a group of enemies in addition to the poison of Chilblains and CPC. Chilblains chill is just icing on the cake. With CPC’s 40 second recharge, enemies can potentially be weakened 75% of the time with proper positioning.

I have yet to conduct testing in WvWvW. I don’t expect to achieve equal effectiveness as compared to PvE unless facing a static zerg head-butting a door. However, I still think it will have utility in the form of pressuring opponents, zone control, and forcing them to waste dodges and condition removal.

So instead of thinking of CPC as a lackluster utility that inflicts weakness on the caster, think of it as our sixth well skill; Well of Weakness. Combine it with a Chilling Darkness-traited Well of Darkness, a Well of Corruption, and an immobilization, and you’re significantly shutting down your enemy.

You’re working too hard.

CPC is a combo field. You don’t need to cast Chillblains at all. Just drop CPC at your feet, and Staff 4 into it, and viola. You get the CPC duration, the Combo Field: Weakness duration, and the CPC self-inflicted duration all stacked on one target in 2 casts. It’s pretty nice.

I save Chillblains for if I want to do it again while CPC is on cooldown. You can finish it with the Flesh Wurm pet for extra poison duration as well.

Zogyark.4597:

It’s still pretty meh, I see no point in weakening enemies for so long specially in PvE, they’ll be dead before you know it, this would seem good against bosses actually but usually they have some sort of defense vs conditions so a 10 sec weakness lasts like 1 second.

I could see it somewhat work on pvp though but I’d rather take something else.

I think Weakness is designed to starve people of dodges more than reduce their damage output (in pvp at least). The glancing hits portion of the debuff stinks of something that was tacked on to be useful in PvE.

Even so, I’ve yet to make up my mind about how useful it really is. It’s hard to tell if someone you’re fighting is out of endurance or if they’re just bad at dodging.