Guild Wars 2

Currently necromancers are missing both a signet elite and a well elite. We’ve all surely had ideas of what would be best, most are probably game breaking when we first think of them but hopefully at some point in the future we’ll be able to round out our skill sets.

Incoming story time, my suggestions will be at the bottom of the post, feel free to skip over.

Currently the fifth spvp season is in session and i thought i’d give it a go for the relatively first time (although i have been playing the game since a few months after launch, I was never interested in anything to do outside of WvW roaming). After placement ( 6wins/4 loses) i ended up in platinum and I’ve been bouncing between tier 1 and 2 for about 50 games, a smallish sample size i know. Why i was placed so high is a mystery, as i’ve spent very little inside spvp.

Right away there’s a big glaring problem which has always been present for necromancers. Our lack of mobility makes us a prime target, if your target cannot escape from you, but you could escape from it, then it’s easy to engage and pressure. Especially if that said target, necromancers, lack any form of stability or evasion in addition to a lack of mobility. This is the design philosophy of necromancers though so i dont believe it will ever change.

Our problems are further compounded by a majority our defenses being contained in our offensive capabilities. We’re given chill, cripple and fear fairly liberally to not only help attack and shut down an opponent but to also reduce their offensive capabilities on us(I should also include that not only chill but poison can be traited to reduce the damage a target does while afflicted by them). Sadly , stability is given out like candy to all the good little boys and girls with a healthy dose of condition removal to wash it all down with, or away if they so please. In addition, apart from the spectral skills, our main way of generating life force is through our attacks, attacks that be line of sighted, dodged or never cast because an opponent has you on lock down.

If you are unable to have teammates that firstly think, know anything about anything, but mainly ones that don’t support you then you will have a bad time. You will be the first target and be shut down till death, a majority of my experiences starting out until i built to anticipate for it.

My suggestions for our missing elites are with all of these in mind.

1. Signet ( shade?)
   *90 second Cool Down
   *Passive: 10% of incoming damage is converted into life force.
   *Active: Stun Break( optional). Resets the cooldown on death shroud, if the necromancer enters death shroud within 6 secs, they will receive an additional 33% of their total life force.

Numbers are open to debate but after some thought i figured that these numbers would be strong enough for an elite but not at over powered levels.

The passive would work like this: if you are hit for 1000 damage then you’d receive 100 life force and only be hit for 900 damage. This is something i felt necromancers should had always had. We have low mobility, low stability up time and low number of evades compared to other classes, not to mention no invulnerabilities. But we do have death shroud which does not scale depending on the number of opponents, unlike evades and invulnerabilities. This passive would compensate for that. It gives us a way to stand up to a greater amount of opponents like other classes can. This would be overpowered if it was not for two factors. Death shroud has a cool down and signets do not work in it, meaning that you cannot stay in death shroud indefinitely nor can you keep popping in and out of shroud every second.

The active gives us another defense against bursts. We’ve all been in that situation where you are lock down after exiting shroud or a thief instantly jumps on you to down you within seconds ( something that i’ve had happen a lot, even though i run a high toughness, protection up keep build). It allows the cool down on Shroud to instantly reset so that we are able to use our class defensive mechanic to counter heavy bursts. In addition it will also give an addition 33% of your total life force.If you have 10,000 life force as an example, you will receive 3,333 additional life force if you enter shroud within the next 6 seconds. This 33% may exceed the 100% level. A few examples.
*1,000 + 3,333= 4,333
10% + 33%=43%
*5,000 + 3,333=8,333
50% + 33%=83%
*10,000 + 3,333=13,333
100% + 33%=133%

The second elite we are missing is a well.

1. Well( despair?)
   *90 second Cool Down
   *Moderate damage levels
2. Pulse fear on every other pulse ( 1 1/4 second duration )
3. Pulse Stability on every pulse ( 1 1/4 second duration)
4. Duration: 6 pulses, 1 pulse per second
5. stun break or able to cast while stunned.

This once again helps our defensive capabilities, providing a window for the necromancer to cast important abilities while keeping opponents away from the caster. Pulsing fear will help reduce the stability stacks on a target, or cause an unprotected enemy to flee away from the necromancer. At the same time, pulsing stability can help a clutch skill usage.

Tell me what you think, any other suggestions?

………

Well of Death (Elite): Instantly kill anything that steps in the well. 5 second duration. Please make it happen.

On a more serious note, would it not be better if the Signet’s active just went ahead and put you in shroud as soon as you used it?

As for the well, I’ve got mixed feelings. Part of me would prefer it to just pulse both the fear and stability with each pulse, and reduce it to the standard 5 seconds, but part of me thinks maybe that would make it a bit OP. Just not sure.

Shaogin.2679:

Well of Death (Elite): Instantly kill anything that steps in the well. 5 second duration. Please make it happen.

It could work if it also revived them at the end of the well.. The ultimate CC.

Shaogin.2679:

On a more serious note, would it not be better if the Signet’s active just went ahead and put you in shroud as soon as you used it?

I agree. With an addition. For 5 seconds when you enter shroud in this way, you regain life force equal to the damage you take.

This second part is more about throwing ideas rather than suggesting them.
Was also thinking that it could make you immune to movement- and attack speed effects, such as Quickness, Superspeed, Swiftness, Alacrity, Cripple, Chill, Immobilize or Slow, while reducing your movement and attack speed by 20% for the duration of the signet buff/debuff/effect.

Since it would effectively become an invuln, it needs a downside as all invulns have them. Elixir S prevents you from attacking or using skills, Renewed Focus is channeled, Obsidian Flesh is short, Defy Pain or Stone Signet don’t prevent condis or CC. Necromancer already being a slow class, an additional movement speed reduction during the invuln would be fitting IMO.

Signet passives should work in shroud and cool down for all 6 -0 and F-keys should be visible at all times.
SoU needs a drastic cast time reduction.
PS needs a mechanic tweak to prevent the user from being overwhelmed in PvE and WvW.

Wells need another active effect such as reflect and the protection when traited should be doubled in duration.
WoD is horribly weak and needs a large buff while Chilling Darkness should probably be reversed to blind in chill.

Your ideas for elite skills are interesting but there is low-hanging fruit I wish Arenanet would get to work on.

Anchoku.8142:

Signet passives should work in shroud and cool down for all 6 -0 and F-keys should be visible at all times.
SoU needs a drastic cast time reduction.
PS needs a mechanic tweak to prevent the user from being overwhelmed in PvE and WvW.

Wells need another active effect such as reflect and the protection when traited should be doubled in duration.
WoD is horribly weak and needs a large buff while Chilling Darkness should probably be reversed to blind in chill.

Your ideas for elite skills are interesting but there is low-hanging fruit I wish Arenanet would get to work on.

I guess mechanically it can’t atm because it is a form. If they allowed Signet passives, it would probably easier just to allow utilities instead which they may see as overpowered.

Most res skills have similar cast times.

Give WoD a projectile block. I’m surprised Anet didn’t add this when they buffed Corrosive poison cloud. It makes for a great power alternative to cpc which isn’t something you want to run with the self 6s weakness.
As for doubling well duration I’ve always thought they should do the opposite but double the effects. I don’t see wells are underpowered at all (except WoD) but often foes will walk out of them before their duration is up.

Lahmia.2193:

Anchoku.8142:

Signet passives should work in shroud and cool down for all 6 -0 and F-keys should be visible at all times.
SoU needs a drastic cast time reduction.
PS needs a mechanic tweak to prevent the user from being overwhelmed in PvE and WvW.

Wells need another active effect such as reflect and the protection when traited should be doubled in duration.
WoD is horribly weak and needs a large buff while Chilling Darkness should probably be reversed to blind in chill.

Your ideas for elite skills are interesting but there is low-hanging fruit I wish Arenanet would get to work on.

I guess mechanically it can’t atm because it is a form.

They didn’t seem to have that problem with the Druid’s Celestial Avatar. :-P

Shaogin.2679:

Lahmia.2193:

Anchoku.8142:

Signet passives should work in shroud and cool down for all 6 -0 and F-keys should be visible at all times.
SoU needs a drastic cast time reduction.
PS needs a mechanic tweak to prevent the user from being overwhelmed in PvE and WvW.

Wells need another active effect such as reflect and the protection when traited should be doubled in duration.
WoD is horribly weak and needs a large buff while Chilling Darkness should probably be reversed to blind in chill.

Your ideas for elite skills are interesting but there is low-hanging fruit I wish Arenanet would get to work on.

I guess mechanically it can’t atm because it is a form.

They didn’t seem to have that problem with the Druid’s Celestial Avatar. :-P

Then its likely they think it would be overpowered then.

Sad how Necromancer’s supposedly OP second health bar is little more than a glorified curse transform like Mesmer’s moa. All of the older transforms, and Necromancer has 2 shroud and 2 elite, are curses that were clunky even before the HoT power creep.

Split lich form. Replace with Grim Specter, increase cooldown to 50/60s, make spectral skill. Replace with signet of the Lich, change skill 5 to “something”, give it passive “something”. Doing that creates two usable elite skills. Lich needs more changes.

Elite well cant pulse fear as it overlaps with the spectral wall.
Would rather it give boons necro is supposed to have. Regen, Protection and retaliation. Or something like allies cannot be downed while inside this well. High cooldown ( like 3 mins) , long duration or medium cooldown ( like 1.5~2mins) shorter duration.

Signets dont work in shroud because they were never designed to as well as a lot would need to change to allow it not only with how shrouds themselves are coded ( as a transformation more than a kit) but with a load of signet and trait balance.

SoU would need a change, especially with reaper
SotL and Speed of shadows would then overlap
Plague Signet and Unholy Martyr would be…interesting..almost fun
etc

It would be easier to add unique shroud skills to 7,8,9 since we know they can due to some other transforms having skills on those.