Guild Wars 2

Hi.

Welp, I was on holiday while the last week of discussion and the red post from Mr Peters appeared, and found myself unable to log in. Pity, I had a load of bugs I wanted to report which I remembered from launch but thankfully everyone else got that covered. Top work everyone!

Right, onto the topic in hand. Firstly, let’s start with a few disclaimer-type comments which hopefully will give the rest of this post a little perspective. I like ArenaNet, I love GW2 and I have no end of respect for the game design and launch of my favourite game of all time so far, GW2. Hurrah!

Now, onto the slightly less cheery stuff.

I believe Mr Jon Peters to have fibbed to us.

Firstly, there’s just no way on this earth that anyone who has any sort of QA testing at all could be unaware of the majority of bugs and balance issues currently affecting the necro. You’d need maybe 20 minutes of one person’s time to test each of our minor/lesser traits, and the obvious stuff will stand out like a sore thumb. 20% more damage at 50% health actually being 10%, greater marks not enlarging the actual area of effect or trigger areas for certain marks and not being unblockable?

No way those aren’t all known about already. The bug thread only has a few non-obvious bugs in it – like the Reaper’s Mark/Reaper’s Protection bug – and it’s only those that I could believe for even a second ANet would be unaware of.

Secondly, even with all our bugs fixed (and buffing our trait-abilities like Last Gasp and Weakening Shroud) we’re still very, evry much the bottom of the pile balance-wise. Our traits are a mess, our power-based weapons deal sod all damage and our one remaining tPvP-viable build (conditionmancer) is inferior to any other condition-based spec/class apart from our unique and rather wonderful Plague Signet ability.

This is also immediately apparent to anyone with any sort of necro playtime.

In short gentlemen, ArenaNet know how screwed we are. They know how buggy we are, they know how weak we are in PvP, and they know about the 25-stack bleed limitations causing us medal issues in dynamic events. The simple truth is that they’re really, really busy with revenue-critical stuff at the moment (login issues, haxin, botting and real money trade) and haven’t been able to look at our problems just yet.

This brings me to the fib – I don’t like the fact we’re being fibbed to, but I accept it’s better to tell a white lie (OH YOU GUISE FOUND BUG/BALANCE ISSUES WITH NECROS? DO TELL) than have the playerbase kick off.

I for one will be rolling an engi until Necro gets the love it needs; my recommendation is you save your time and effort until after the Necro balance patches start rolling in – I believe ArenaNet will fix the Necro in the long term (I sincerely believe in them both as developers and designers), but the fact they haven’t already is a good indicator that resources are a little stretched right now.

Don’t hold yer breath :P

no worries necro´s are fine according to Jon Peters we just have to learn how to master Necro and use DS properly to be the scariest class out there.

“Keep in mind that some professions are harder to master than others. I believe Necro is the hardest, opinions may vary, but just keep this in mind. No we arent ignoring Necro, but once people start mastering DS, I’m afraid of how strong Necro will be. Give it some time for the average player to learn these things. For example early on in LOL master yi was dominant until people learned how to counter him.”

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/I-play-a-necro-but-I-traid-a-warrior-for-one-play-session

So Basicly according to the game designer its just a L2P issue… yeah..

ROFL.

I have no idea what the hell he’s talking about, which is fine by me as it’s apparent from his post that he doesn’t have a clue either.

There’s nothing to master about DS; you activate it for a fear, to absorb damage or to use an ability (lifeblast(ROFFLES)/dark path/life transfer).

DS is a 4 skill ability ( with two of them being slightly good to use ) and even fully specced into it doesnt last that long or does that much dmg even in full power gear so i have no idea what he´s going on about but hey its clearly we have yet to master Necro. Thats the problem all Necros have, we all just need to L2P it properly heh

need 2 more exp bars till 80 after that re rolling engi and wating for a bug fix.

When I read Jon Peters argument, rather than just outright refuse to believe it, I thought how could I improve my use of Death Shroud and perhaps take something from what he is saying. I suggest you do the same because to some extent he is right. I’m not saying Necro’s don’t need a buff but DS can be used for a large variety of circumstances.

But that is the problem ive tried using DS, even fully specced it doesnt do much dmg or last long enough in any situation to be usefull for anything other then a AoE (( a very low dmg aoe compared to other professions even in power spec )) or to absorb dmg and survive a bit longer. Its a defense mechanic that doesnt compare to the fact we do utterly crap amount of dmg when specced for it, We are supposed to be the profession with condition yet we cant apply conditions as fast as the other professions or keep them up as long, We are supposed to be the class with the undead minions but they just dont work in either PvP or PvE, they are just useless. DS does not make up for our weaknesses in all the other facets of the game ATM we are the least desirable class in both pvp and pve, anything we can do you can pick another profession and it can do it better.

we just need to master the class xD
we all suck at it, dont exist bugs on trait/skills its all in our mind, this is the feeling i get from arenanet reply….

seriusly what exist on DS to master? if he say you need to master the condition removal of your friend, because its hard to pay attention at top left screen, see the in combat game to avoid some burst damage and stuff like that i could believe, now master DS really?

I read somewhere that the 20% Bleed Duration Major and the Scepter Condition duration 33% Grandmaster are not stacking?

Has anyone been able to confirm or reject this?

EDIT:

In regards to the Necromancer specifically in WvW.

I play Scepter/Dagger and Staff

I like the GTAoE of the staff for tower and keep sieges. I can put a lot of damage on the walls of the tower and Epidemic works out of LOS. By far our class defining ability out there for me. Signet of Spite is what I use as well but there needs to be clean LOS it is very unfriendly to land. Depending on the situation I could use Bone Fiend or Pull or even Well of Power (one that cleans conditions).

The Scepter is for stacking bleeds with crits and applying blinds and chills for utility. The burst comes from Feast of Corruption. It may not be the burst of some of the other classes but it works in conjuntion well with the speed at which I can stack conditions and then spread them to 5 people around all within a few seconds.

I’ll be honest it sometimes takes a big ramp up but once you get through a weapon exhange there are few classes that are backing off and trying to cleanse conditions. The key is high crit and stacking conditons fast. Since the Scepter is fast attack I put the 60% superior that applys a bleed on crit. I can sometimes stack 3 bleeds on a swing.

Death Shroud is purely my utility and final burst. Its great for hurting people who are downed but still have a lot of damage focused around them. There are some limitations to the class such as speed and Focused burst but I think it’s a really important class to have to just melt down multiple people while the burst finishes others.

My 2 cents after playing thus far.

In PvE – I have always been the top DPS. I usually run with a Ranger and we will always have 20-25 stacks of bleeds up. If there were DPS meters I doubt there would be any other classes who could match our outright AoE DPS when I cycle a full weapon exchange and pop into DS. Its just heavy sustained damage usually enough to work most PVE trash to half health. And DS is so nice to have on the fights where AoE damage is just being hurled everywhere. (TA worm boss)

Zintair, post that sort of question in the red topic at the top of the forums. That’s where we discuss bugs.

Also, they do stack and work correctly (feel free to test this in the mists) but I prefer Withering Precision anyways :P

I think JP is talking about the “old” BWE1 DS, when it was a strong skill in our arsenal

apparently he somehow must have missed the “balance” tweaks it took after BWE2 that made it utter trash

SupahSpankeh.8452:

Zintair, post that sort of question in the red topic at the top of the forums. That’s where we discuss bugs.

Also, they do stack and work correctly (feel free to test this in the mists) but I prefer Withering Precision anyways :P

Opps yeah meant to do that I wrote my dealings with the Necro which was what was supposed to go there.

The Death Shroud is useful sure, but I would rather have it scraped for a better all around necro. It’s main role is to be an “oh kitten” button. And they have designed the necro to be in a constant state of “oh kitten” because of it.

I would rather they just remove DS all together since it seems it’s Anet all around excuse for why necro’s are so underpowered atm. I think ppl wouldn’t mind terribly if DS was reworked as a mechanic if it meant we’d get all around better skill damage and utilities and improved CC and escape mechanisms instead ..

Maybe give us a better class mechanics more in tune with our profession .. what is DS anyways, lore wise? Instead of DS, give us a necro mechanics similiar to mesmers but with undead minions ..

We could still have the more powerful (read much more powerful than now) minions as slotted utility skills for those that want to play as a minion master ..

Necro’s are fine, Minion AI is choppy, Fear is short. But IF you actually know what your doing. After playing the class, Learning how to/do what during fights with other classes, YOUR FINE. People of the Gw2 Community, NECROS ARE FINE. Just a few bugs here and there but nothing serious to stop DS from being reworked? Its our 2nd life, gap closer, Fear… why would you get rid of that . WHO says you have to stay in DS for the whole time, Just fear f1 out, Gap close f1 out. WHY cant you just learn to play a necro. Learn what works and what doesnt instead of complaining when you get rolled by people because you do not have any technique, If anybody ordered the Special edition with the handbook, it quote " Necro’s are the hardest class to master". Once you can mast the plaay of a necro, Its very difficult to die. Stop complaing and learn how to play. Jon Peters is right. IM OP as hell when i play my necro. And im tired of people complaining when they havent even learned the basics of a necro. So many utilitys, so many counter moves, and SO MUCH Living time. People stop complaining and learn. Not trying to hate, But theres only certain bugs and traits that need to be tweaked thats all. Nothing as an entire Gameplay change. Sorry for this but im tired of these posts. BEcasue one day theyre gonna rework the necro because of this community, and it will never be the same for good necros all around.

What is in DS to master? DS dancing for starters, like OP stated – go into DS use necessary skill then return to normal state. Something like attunement dancing for Elems. I know I’m just beginning grasping what Necro can do and I have no delusions that I will master use of DS. It makes me sad because I like that class, and it may be really to hard to learn how to be worthy opponent in current state of Necromancer.

What is in Ds to master? Not popping it because ur panicing. I have 1-2 traits for Ds that dont even matter. DS is used IMO. To absorb Burst, to close gaps, When to use what, Most people i see just use DS to straight #4… this dissapoints me.. very much. I see that you want to learn necro. And let me tell you. your gonna be riding that tricycle for a while. DS Be smart about it. Know what skils to use to gain LF ( life force) know when u should fear, know when to gap close, and know when to spam one. IMO skill#4 (dont remember name even though im doing tourney play right nowlol) should be used to take out illusions those 3v1 fights just to stay alive longer, and not to forget to kill engis spply crates.