Guild Wars 2

This is a suggestion to make all the traits that trigger on entering Shroud work like shrouded removal, unholy marytr, and rending shroud to pulse their effects. These traits all currently become less effective the more you use your profession mechanic. They are also hard to balance because the uptime is variable depending on if you stay in shroud for 0 seconds or 20 seconds. This list includes:

Furious Demise:
Currently:
gain 5 seconds of fury when entering Shroud

Changed to:
gain 5 seconds of fury when entering Shroud and every 7 seconds while in Shroud

Spiteful Spirit:
Currently:
Cast the axe skill unholy feast when entering DS.

Changed to:
Cast the axe skill unholy feast when entering DS and every 10 seconds afterward while in Shroud.

Weakening Shroud:
Currently:
Cast the skill Enfeeble when entering DS. Crits cause 5 seconds of weakness (10 sec icd).

Changed to:
Cast the skill Enfeeble when entering DS and every 7 seconds afterward. Crits cause 5 seconds of weakness (10 sec icd).

Beyond the Veil:
Currently:
When exiting Shroud you and your minions gain 3 second of protection.

Changed to:
Every 7 seconds in Shroud, as well as when you leave Shroud you and your minions gain 3 second of protection.

Life from Death:
Currently:
When you exit Shroud heal and partially revive allies.

Changed to:
Every 10 seconds in shroud heal allies. When you exit shroud heal and partially revive allies.

Foot in the Grave:
Currently:
Break stun and gain 1 stack of stability for 3 seconds when you enter Shroud

Changed to:
Break stun and gain 1 stack of stability for 3 seconds when you enter Shroud. Every 7 seconds in Shroud gain 1 stack of stability for 3 seconds.

This would open up a lot of build diversity because you could build to stay in shroud, but not really lose out by taking these traits. I also think it would be easier to balance because you aren’t completely balancing around the DS CD. All of these traits would also have ample counterplay in their downtime.

I support this idea.

I alays thought this at well. It could also be a way for necromancers to deal with CC.

Could be a nice change for PvE, but I don’t believe PvP players will see much benefit from 7 second pulses as it is usually better in PvP to not stay in DS too long (after you use your 2, 3, 4, and 5, you’ll have nothing else to do for a loooong time except spam life blasts).

Still, I support this for some more PvE utility.

I like the idea but some of these are a bit too strong, namely Enfeeble and Axe one. Definitely support the general idea though. Would make Beyond the Veil way better and fix all the issues it has.

apoidea.7095:

Could be a nice change for PvE, but I don’t believe PvP players will see much benefit from 7 second pulses as it is usually better in PvP to not stay in DS too long (after you use your 2, 3, 4, and 5, you’ll have nothing else to do for a loooong time except spam life blasts).

Still, I support this for some more PvE utility.

It’s not about getting an extra effect, it’s more bout dealing with death shroud unstable length. Right now we can stay in death shroud as long as we want, making these skills have a very variable cooldown making them nearly impossible to balance. So you try to alliviate that by adding an effect that pulses over time, meaning if the effictive cooldown becomes longer the trait "effect "becomes stronger. So that when the necro meta shifts from longer DS to shorter DS or vice versa the traits don’t have to be rebalanced again.

ronpierce.2760:

I like the idea but some of these are a bit too strong, namely Enfeeble and Axe one. Definitely support the general idea though. Would make Beyond the Veil way better and fix all the issues it has.

The idea is most important. After thinking about it for a while, I don’t think they would be too strong.

Tim.6450:

apoidea.7095:

Could be a nice change for PvE, but I don’t believe PvP players will see much benefit from 7 second pulses as it is usually better in PvP to not stay in DS too long (after you use your 2, 3, 4, and 5, you’ll have nothing else to do for a loooong time except spam life blasts).

Still, I support this for some more PvE utility.

It’s not about getting an extra effect, it’s more bout dealing with death shroud unstable length. Right now we can stay in death shroud as long as we want, making these skills have a very variable cooldown making them nearly impossible to balance. So you try to alliviate that by adding an effect that pulses over time, meaning if the effictive cooldown becomes longer the trait "effect "becomes stronger. So that when the necro meta shifts from longer DS to shorter DS or vice versa the traits don’t have to be rebalanced again.

Yeah, as I said in the original post it’s about making these traits strong across multiple builds that work differently. I don’t think you should be punished for running these traits in a build that camps in Shroud. Currently, the longer you wait before going back into shroud the worse these traits get. It would be one thing if Shroud started it’s CD when you entered, but currently these traits work directly against the profession mechanic just like siphons do currently (but will cease to after Tuesday).

I like this idea, though I would rather see Spiteful Spirit and Weakening Shroud be tied to a Shroud skill so the effects can be used more on-demand. Possibly Weakening Shroud at the end of Shroud 2 and Spiteful Spirit with Shroud 3?

Anyway, good idea all around.

Would the DS cooldown trait affect these? Because if you run that currently you can flash DS quickly every 6s (getting fixed to the 7s it should be) for these effects, which would make it more frequent than some of these. Life from Death is the biggie here, as it would provide no heal at all with the idea listed compared to an instant one in current situation.

I do agree though and support the idea that staying in DS should not be as punishing as it is, particularly given the restrictions you already get for it.

@Neandramathal

Death Shroud “flashing” is something that has never worked, because there are no possible traits that are worth giving up all of your defenses for.

The theorycrafting only hypothetical death shroud flashing builds serve only to limit the necromancer.

After three years of playtime, anet has good data on how much life force is actually generated and how much time is actually spent in death shroud. The skills conditioned on DS ought to reflect this.

OP pointed out withering precision. In theory this was remove a condition every 10s, same as traits I other classes, but in the real world it was “remove a condition every 35s.” It got a buff. Now it will remove 2-3 conditions every 35s, on par with other condition removal traits.

nekretaal.6485:

@Neandramathal

Death Shroud “flashing” is something that has never worked, because there are no possible traits that are worth giving up all of your defenses for.

The theorycrafting only hypothetical death shroud flashing builds serve only to limit the necromancer.

I never flash it myself, but I’ve seen it on a few vids here and there, mostly PvE ones changing just to cast Shackles and then back. As you said, it was only hypothetical that I mentioned it, point taken though as to the effect of such discussion

Look at Confunding Suggestions Mesmer’s adept trait.

There’s no such thing as “too powerful” for some professions anymore

Foot in Grave like that we would be Engineers… bringing more QQ nerfs… to an already nerfed class…. I love it!!!

i dont want to support sitting in deathshroud. its already way too much focus of our class. i know its our class mechanic but putting every trait on deathshroud?