Guild Wars 2

PLAGUE IS DEAD, LONG LIVE PLAGUELANDS!

Its born dead, sadly :/

Quiet you. It’s the closest thing to an elite well I have.

I will miss being a fluffy ball of plague with the ability to ress/stomp and hold out until heal CD is done.

Wallowing in reminiscence probably won’t help though.

Taking Master of Corruption in Curses will turn it into a short-CD condi-spam festival, so that’s something to look forward to.

Ralkuth.1456:

I will miss being a fluffy ball of plague with the ability to ress/stomp and hold out until heal CD is done.

Wallowing in reminiscence probably won’t help though.

Taking Master of Corruption in Curses will turn it into a short-CD condi-spam festival, so that’s something to look forward to.

Yeah it can turn decent in raids with alacrity, but nobody wants necros, so…

I run an off-meta build in WvW that has a lot of siphons and small heals. With Parasitic Contagion, Vampiric and Vampiric Rituals + Plaguelands… The heals in zergs is just ridiculous. No complaints from me but I will say that at this point I feel like I rival Adrenal Health, lol. Plant a Plaguelands in the middle of a group, throw a Well of Corruption somewhere else, get a solid Epidemic off, watch your health shoot up faster than people can take it down.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I run an off-meta build in WvW that has a lot of siphons and small heals. With Parasitic Contagion, Vampiric and Vampiric Rituals + Plaguelands… The heals in zergs is just ridiculous. No complaints from me but I will say that at this point I feel like I rival Adrenal Health, lol. Plant a Plaguelands in the middle of a group, throw a Well of Corruption somewhere else, get a solid Epidemic off, watch your health shoot up faster than people can take it down.

you need to run to the middle first its not ground target

mazut.4296:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I run an off-meta build in WvW that has a lot of siphons and small heals. With Parasitic Contagion, Vampiric and Vampiric Rituals + Plaguelands… The heals in zergs is just ridiculous. No complaints from me but I will say that at this point I feel like I rival Adrenal Health, lol. Plant a Plaguelands in the middle of a group, throw a Well of Corruption somewhere else, get a solid Epidemic off, watch your health shoot up faster than people can take it down.

you need to run to the middle first its not ground target

Just gotta be tactical :P.

I went to EOTM immediately after the patch to try some things out. A group was pushing up a bridge, I dropped Plaguelands at the end of the bridge, dropped WoC behind them, Epi’d someone and pretty much laughed as they struggled to kill me while they all died, lol.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

mazut.4296:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I run an off-meta build in WvW that has a lot of siphons and small heals. With Parasitic Contagion, Vampiric and Vampiric Rituals + Plaguelands… The heals in zergs is just ridiculous. No complaints from me but I will say that at this point I feel like I rival Adrenal Health, lol. Plant a Plaguelands in the middle of a group, throw a Well of Corruption somewhere else, get a solid Epidemic off, watch your health shoot up faster than people can take it down.

you need to run to the middle first its not ground target

Just gotta be tactical :P.

I went to EOTM immediately after the patch to try some things out. A group was pushing up a bridge, I dropped Plaguelands at the end of the bridge, dropped WoC behind them, Epi’d someone and pretty much laughed as they struggled to kill me while they all died, lol.

hehe, there is one positive. when you run alone against 10+ and place plaguelands, most people will think “easy target” and will stay in it and try to kill you. So in the end you can take few with you.
The true power of Grenth

the Radius on this skill is WAY WAY WAY WAY too low for it to be a melee cast skill. It should either be ground targeted or has a much larger radius.

Lily.1935:

the Radius on this skill is WAY WAY WAY WAY too low for it to be a melee cast skill. It should either be ground targeted or has a much larger radius.

Aye I definitely agree with adding Ground target, at 900 range like wells or cpc.

Lahmia.2193:

Lily.1935:

the Radius on this skill is WAY WAY WAY WAY too low for it to be a melee cast skill. It should either be ground targeted or has a much larger radius.

Aye I definitely agree with adding Ground target, at 900 range like wells or cpc.

Ground targeted or make it pulse from the necromancer much like Flames of War on the warrior torch. Either way would work, but with how it currently works, I think I’m still going to just take Chill to the bone or Flesh golem.

I’ve played around with plaguelands on a power build and it still hits like a truck. I’d be concerned about an impending nerf.

This should be a well skill. Well of plague.

The AOE-field should folllow the necromancer. For fractals it’s not bad as it is; for WVW i liked the old plague more.

It’s a great elite, but something seems off about being 10s duration and only 9 pulses, especially with a 1s cast time.

Wouldn’t it be better if it had 10 pulses? Move the vulnerability to the first pulse so it ends with 10 stacks of vulnerability on the target, reduce the burning stacks from 2 to 1, and have the final pulse inflict fear to give the elite a major “oomph” to end on.

That way, all the damaging conditions retain the same amount of stacks, and it’s punctuated with a condition that Necromancers are known for – Fear.

give me back my punching bag plague

Its what you combo with this elite that makes a great difference, for example a corruption well with plaguelands followed by epi while running the blood magic line does great healing and tons of damage. My only complaint is having to get into a zerg to drop the Plaguelands,

Of course a ground targetable skill for plaguelands would cause the most forum crying and detriment to WvW that I can think of. But I can dream.

However it should of been classified as a well, it really is more of a well then a corruption.

it seemed quite cool in testing but 120 second CD is pretty obscene .
though its not like condi necros have much choice tbh :P

Liewec.2896:

it seemed quite cool in testing but 120 second CD is pretty obscene .
though its not like condi necros have much choice tbh :P

Its 80sec with trait and will be even less with alacrity, gonna try to test it next Monday in raids.

IMHO, this was a huge nerf. When you had Chilling Darkness and Deathly Chill traited, all you had to do was spam 2 in Plague and you would get a 1s Blind, 2s Chill, and 5s Bleed that would pulse/stack every second AND you would get 20s of stability on top of it so you could move completely through a zerg and nail almost everyone.

Now you have to drop it and hope someone either runs through it or is stupid enough to stand in it. Might be good for static pve champs or something, so maybe Necros can be good in raids now??

Thustlewhumber.7416:

IMHO, this was a huge nerf. When you had Chilling Darkness and Deathly Chill traited, all you had to do was spam 2 in Plague and you would get a 1s Blind, 2s Chill, and 5s Bleed that would pulse/stack every second AND you would get 20s of stability on top of it so you could move completely through a zerg and nail almost everyone.

Chilling Darkness has a 3s icd.

This skill needs to either, stay centered on the necro while moving or, it needs the 900 range ground targetable function.

I really like the new skill better. But so torn between using plague lands or chilled to the bone now.

I think depending on the game mode, the new plague lands will be seen as good or not. I think it’s mostly good in PvP for holding points. Good in PvE content with static bosses like in certain fractal map.

In WvW, it’s really a trade off.

Bad in that we lose a means to survive when caught out of position when we previously could use the insane survivability of plague form to escape back to our Zerg.

Bad in that we lose a mobile tank and tag for loot bags option especially for vanilla well necros during fights in narrow areas where u can’t really kite but need to run through the enemy Zerg with your commander.

Good in that we now have a very potent condition well for condi reapers to fight on point at chokes. For example holding a Tower or keep or smc lord ring circle. For example bombing a stairway choke point or a gateway or the emergency portal.

EremiteAngel.9765:

I think depending on the game mode, the new plague lands will be seen as good or not. I think it’s mostly good in PvP for holding points. Good in PvE content with static bosses like in certain fractal map.

In WvW, it’s really a trade off.

Bad in that we lose a means to survive when caught out of position when we previously could use the insane survivability of plague form to escape back to our Zerg.

Bad in that we lose a mobile tank and tag for loot bags option especially for vanilla well necros during fights in narrow areas where u can’t really kite but need to run through the enemy Zerg with your commander.

Good in that we now have a very potent condition well for condi reapers to fight on point at chokes. For example holding a Tower or keep or smc lord ring circle. For example bombing a stairway choke point or a gateway or the emergency portal.

^ Pretty good summary of how I feel about plaguelands.

Ground targeting or turning it into a well elite would make the sacrifice of no movement bearable imho. But necro has definitely lost an “oh kitten” skill for wvw.

I rather they keep this as Corruption skill and have something else as Wells Elite. This skill synergizes really well with parasitic contagion with the CD trait in the same trait line. If it was wells, you’d have to take bloodmagic as the same time for the CD.

as pve player i do enjoy plaguelands, however it should move with the player like with warrior’s torch skill

Plagueland is end-loaded. Smart players will wait outside the red circle and know there is a long CD after casting an elite.

From my perspective, Plagueland is a nerf and does not deserve to be an elite. It has an obvious tell. People will learn to dodge out of the red circle and end up with only the first pulse or two.

To counter, simply go ranged and wait for the pulsing to stop. I keep thinking Well of Corruption or Suffering are better because the first couple of pulses are not as weak as Plaguland’s first; a little direct damage, two bleeds, and a poison, maybe.

I was disappointed in PvE performance because bosses would just wander out of the AoE before the last pulse so dps never reached its theoretical maximum. There are bosses that just stand around but those in new content tend to be more active.

I understand the the intent to punish those who do not pay attention to red circles and do not know how to move but there is not enough damage in the beginning for me to call this a “condi dps” elite.

Consider popping Lich and auto attacking a couple of times (even on a condi build) before being CC’d out of it in 2 seconds. How much damage would that do, 4k, 8k? I do not feel Plagueland is balanced well for realistic play. Far too much damage is loaded near the back side of a long AoE. It seems designed for WvW zerging where players cannot tell one circle from another and are pushing for the capture.

Plague was a WvW near-immunity button for zero dps and begged for the zerg to focus me, yet I feel it had more value than dropping a circle of poo that ripens with age.

Thustlewhumber.7416:

IMHO, this was a huge nerf. When you had Chilling Darkness and Deathly Chill traited, all you had to do was spam 2 in Plague and you would get a 1s Blind, 2s Chill, and 5s Bleed that would pulse/stack every second AND you would get 20s of stability on top of it so you could move completely through a zerg and nail almost everyone.

Now you have to drop it and hope someone either runs through it or is stupid enough to stand in it. Might be good for static pve champs or something, so maybe Necros can be good in raids now??

Agreed.

At the end of the day, it’s a point blank skill that can only be used in very specific situations where it can still be easily countered (resistance, moderate/high mobility, condi cleanse, anyone with 5 working brain cells in open field combat) with a 2 minute cool down that makes it worthless to my play style as far as I’m concerned. I’ve taken it off my bar in lieu of something far more useful.

With just a few hours of ‘field testing’ Plaguelands in Pve., I’ve since switched Elite skills to ‘Chilled to the Bone’. The shout itself has a far greater success rate vs. both mobs and bosses with the added addition of a short timed Stability(2-10) buff. Plaquelands, while potentially producing vast amounts of condi. damage, is still far too situational; full implementation requires the target to ‘cooperated’ with the skill’s placement. I have yet to test Plaguelands in any PvP mode, however, and given what I’ve read in the patch notes, I may not be playing in those modes as a Necromancer again.

The good and bad of Plaguelands thus far:

Pros: Lots of condition damage. On a single target(Champion Boss) I was able to
produce 48-50 bleed stacks in combination with other condi. damage skills(Blood is
Power, bleed stacks from Chill effects, Deathly Swarm condi. transfers).

Cons: Easily avoided by A.I. movements. Tested Plaguelands in Lake Doric and
noticed that the White Mantle Clerics can block pulses; adjacent allies received block
buff from cleric reducing Elite skill’s efficacy. Plaguelands is telegraphed with too long
a casting time; combined with a small(opinion) A.O.E. circle it created some
instances of skill failure – placement is best in close proximity to target(s).

Final verdict:

Plaguelands does not have the Pve. utility that Plague had. With Plague’s Stability pulse, multi-mob stun-lock could easily be ‘cured’ with a push of a button. Furthermore, it synergized well with Chilling Darkness, Bitter Chill, and Deathly Chill – on some occasions it would crit. causing a Chilling Nova.
There was a reason I had Plague in the Elite slot for the past year, and unfortunately I was not part of the consensus to keep the Elite skill as is. I’ll miss Plague, but I suppose if I wish to continue to enjoy my favored class I’ll have to adapt. Time will tell.

Prediction: Plaguelands will be get a nerf. So, those of you who like the change, enjoy it while it lasts.

why did they go and mess with plague, lol. plague was ol’ reliable. when things went south, i could always rest assured that i could switch out for ol’ trusty. now whats i got? some dumb stuff, thats what.

im calling baloney.

So after some use, it is as people have mentioned above.

Although the condi pressure is very welcome, people won’t be dumb enough to stay inside of Plaguelands during the vicious final ticks. Sure, you can use it to cleave the downed, but walking up to cast it, is costing you dearly in terms of positioning.

Bosses that have any movement interval less than 10 seconds, or is unpredictable, won’t receive as much of the condi as we would like.

While we can kite/pull crowds into the circles or use it as deterrent in PvP points or WvW chokes, it just feels like a slow-casting, AoE Signet of Spite active to me.

Plague had its function as an oh-kitten button, and it has barely any overlap with the new Plaguelands. Taking it out completely has raised my suspicion of whether Anet is planning to put it back in as a new product in the next expansion.

Pve wise doesnt seem as good,but i think this looks nice for a phase in phase out style for wvw.
Spectral walk into a fight,drop shouts and plaguelands and spectral walk out or go with spectral walk+wurm combo for even more gap increase.
Time will show but right now i like plaguelands more than plague,mainly because it opens the option for bomber teams.

Meanwhile, I’m sadly concerned by the fact that they removed the slightly cool transformation skin of the plague elite and left us with the horrendously ugly transformation skin of the lich skill…

Honnestly the change is not that bad, it have it’s pro and cons, it’s not worse than most elite skills of the game and finally relieve us of one of those bothersome cluncky tranformations skills. I would have prefered them to get rid of the lich and i’d certainly not have changed the plague this way but it’s not that bad either way.

grave of hearts.7830:

Pve wise doesnt seem as good,but i think this looks nice for a phase in phase out style for wvw.
Spectral walk into a fight,drop shouts and plaguelands and spectral walk out or go with spectral walk+wurm combo for even more gap increase.
Time will show but right now i like plaguelands more than plague,mainly because it opens the option for bomber teams.

Why would i take another skill slot just to land some circle which everyone will dodge out or block? to kill afk players?

Plaguelands is total crap and forced many to switch to another char. Necro will have to focus in HP or toughness just to survive bombs while running through fields of red circles. We lost insta stab without traiting Foot in the Grave.

Can we still use it underwater?

Linken.6345:

Can we still use it underwater?

Yup, still usable underwater.

Really they should have kept the old Plague and just added a new skill “Plaguelands” as a roaming well that follows the Necro – or even just PBAE as it is now – this would have made the most sense.

Removing old Plague does suck. It was a solid sustain/defensive option for the Necro. I see no reason why it should have been removed.

grave of hearts.7830:

Pve wise doesnt seem as good,but i think this looks nice for a phase in phase out style for wvw.
Spectral walk into a fight,drop shouts and plaguelands and spectral walk out or go with spectral walk+wurm combo for even more gap increase.
Time will show but right now i like plaguelands more than plague,mainly because it opens the option for bomber teams.

I thought this bomber idea was fabulous.
I expanded it a little in the WvW forums but gave you credits.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Plaguelands-Bomber-The-Anti-Siege-Reaper/first#post6591766

Also PvE wise, I thought of things like World bosses where most of them are static for long periods and will allow plagueland to be used maximized though I suppose these PvE fights are not that crucial in terms of skill choices.

Still, I can also think of many instances in Fractals where the bosses/mobs are static. The problem is, would taking plaguelands be better than the golem which can do breakbar?

It should give resistance to compemsate the lack of stability and give more survival that necros do not have.

Needless to say I was super disappointed when I found out it is melee skill with tiny radius.

miguelsil.6324:

It should give resistance to compemsate the lack of stability and give more survival that necros do not have.

It wouldn’t matter, it has a 1 second cast time, imagine trying to use that in WvW in a zerg battle, you get interrupted before its cast, and even if you do get it cast, the massive amount of condi cleanse / resistance now just makes it a joke,

Anyone stupid to stand in this field honestly deserves to get nuked, even in PvP its pointless, oh look im on point lets cast this 2 minute elite skill that will stop the enemy for 10 seconds, oh know wait it wont as they have resistance, oh well.

Anet have no clue what they are doing with necro, they seem to just take take take, from it, its just nerf after nerf, they are messing with skills that do not need messed with, they are removing our abilities in the likes of WvW/PvP with every update, reality check Anet we where already at the bottom of the pile in most game modes, you cant get any lower than bottom.

Im expecting the next update to be something like, “We’ve decided Necro isn’t really for our game, so we have removed Necros from the game sorry about that”

Fact is we are being nerfed more and more because they have no idea how to balance it.

The only way this skill will ever be anywhere near decent is if they make it an Elite shout, that makes it an instant cast, at least that way it might, just might do some damage before the cleanse/resistance gets going, as it stands the 1 second cast time makes this a joke of an elite.

Sublimatio.6981:

as pve player i do enjoy plaguelands, however it should move with the player like with warrior’s torch skill

Agreed

Well of Plague
Cast time: 2 sec
Cool down: 120 sec
Damage (x9): 300
Poison (1.5 sec) per pulse
Stability x3 (5 sec) on casting only
Reflect missiles
Boons converted to conditions: 2 per pulse
Life Force: 1% per person per pulse
Number of targets: 5
Pulse: 0.5 sec
Duration: 4.5 sec
Radius: 240
Range: 900
Combo Field: Poison

Plaguelands seems to be the best elite for condi reaper in much of PvE.
Tons of damage and just a 80.5 sec cooldown with Master of Corruption.
Dropping it right before Nightfall seems to work pretty well.
The cripple/chill (I don’t think that movement penalties stack, but still) from nightfall tends to keep things inside the AoE.

Really tough to use in WvW due to it’s point-blank range.
Also the initial pulses are weak so it’s easy to avoid it’s later hits.
Sometimes nice to drop on a bridge, though.

Also, it’s fun to drop Plague Lands on a downed player…
I dunno if it’s a good idea tactically, but it does amuse me.

Anyway I’m surprised to hear that people actually use “Chilled to the Bone!”.
I suppose it’s been buffed indirectly somehow in the 1-2 years I was gone?
Very interesting.

Edit: Oh and making it a well instead of a corruption looks like a pretty severe nerf to me. …unless Blood Magic is meta now, somehow.
Even so the blood magic trait only has 20% cooldown reduction while master of corruption has 33%

Assuming plagueland is a stackable aoe field, it can become a very deadly anti siege weapon if you gather enough reapers to cast at the same area in WvW. I expanded more on this in the WvW forum using grave of hearts spectral walk bomber idea.

Maybe, if Rangers create muddy terrain and a bunch of people use rune of the snowfall, Plagueland will be awesome on people.

Terrifying Descent has terrible synergy with Plagueland.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Assuming plagueland is a stackable aoe field, it can become a very deadly anti siege weapon if you gather enough reapers to cast at the same area in WvW. I expanded more on this in the WvW forum using grave of hearts spectral walk bomber idea.

Also, Imagine 10 reapers plagueland final pulse plus 10 epidemics O_O

Also to add, assuming the elites stack, which they should,

Don’t underestimate the damage of the New plagueland. It is far superior to our current wells. Just taking the first condi pulse bleed alone, one reaper would stack 9 bleeds at the end of the elite. 10 reapers = 90 bleed stacks. Add 10 epidemic to it and neighbouring sieges get 900 bleed stacks. And all these bleeds tick over time. And then there is chill stacking which increases bleed stacks even more due to reaper trait.