Guild Wars 2

As a Necromancer Main, some times I feel that we really lack those things that we could really say that we are a necromancer. As those engr has their kit, rangers can control their companion pet, mesmer controls their illusion, elementalist can exchange their elements, etc. the necromancer should have something more related to its actual description of being the one that communicates with the dead.

Profession Mechanic or the mechanic bar, should either be something about summoning minions as real necromancer are called re-animator of corpses. I’m thinking of the life force mechanic of the necromancer to have 4 active functions:

F1: Grave Companion – in sacrifice for a portion of life force summons a melee companion minion. Probably a semi-tanky minion that attacks whoever you attack unlike the Blood Golem that aggro’s anything. Has the same out-of-combat regen with the Blood Golem.
F2: Frenzied Companion – your minion goes in a state of blood-lust for 10sec, giving it stacks of might, fury and toughness while draining its HP. HP drained is cap at 30% of the max HP.
F3: Life Tap – initiate an exchange of life between the Grave Companion and the necromancer, slowly adds life force at the cost of draining some HP of your Grave Companion. Life Tap caps at 30% life force restored and 30% drained of the max HP of your minion.
F4: Death Shroud – Assume a spectral form and gain new skills, turning your life force into health.

As with its current state, I do feel that only having death shroud lacks the substance to be able to be truly called a necromancer and it’s way too simple.

Just having these thoughts while waiting for Necromancer updates.

I bump this, maybe is not the “perfect” idea, but is a start.
I like to have a complex class mechanic that makes me create new strategies and its open to improvise.

Right now is DS spam strategy.

Additional F-buttons could work, but none of them should involve minions. That’s because by doing so you force necro’s to use minions (and to a lesser extent minion traits) for maximum efficiency. GW1 necro didn’t need minions per se, neither should gw2 necro. Seeing how necro comes from the greek word for ‘dead’, an ability called “Death Shroud” suits the necro just fine. “Mancer” does not equal “Ressurector” or w/e.

I say just remove the whole death shroud state but keep the skills and life force. I like that we have some type of resource to manage. So instead of forcing us to take on a whole new form preventing us from using weapon/utility skills why not just make the 4skills we have access to in death shroud the necro f1-f4? Just keep the life force meter and have each skill use up an increasing amount based on how strong the skill is.

Basically life blast uses 1%/use with 0 CD. The DS #2 skill uses 5-10% life force with a reasonable CD. Doom uses 25% life force, but pleasekittenif it’s only going to be a 1sec fear can it at least be an AoE fear with a range of like 300-600 or something? Lastly, life transfer can take up 50% life force and instead heal for a small amount increasing based on how many targets are hit.

I would also refrain from forcing necromancers into pet playstyle – we already have plenty of that in Ranger and Mesmer. There is little room for necros to shine here.
Minions would be good SFX-wise as spell effects (spawn a minion that does one thing, then disappears and even doesn’t have a healthbar).

My ideas were voiced here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Thoughts-about-the-state-of-necromancers/first#post215516

It would be great if we had a class mechanic that works independent of build choices.
To eliminate the need to track the above thread, let me paste my thoughts:
Make „Dark Path” a F2 skill, make it cost Lifeforce (a small ammount) and allow it to teleport to a location even if it doesn’t hit anything (similar to how Ride the Lightning works for Ele, or how it should work when fixed). Let this skill cost a certain ammount of Lifeforce. Don’t switch it underwater. Could be made a leap finisher.
Make „Doom” a F3 skill, make it cost Lifeforce, scale the duration of the fear with how much Lifeforce necro has (from 0,5s to 3s, or even 3,5s max). An argument can be made to replace the effect with that of Wave of Fear from Underwater DS.
Make „Life Transfer” a F4 skill. Let it heal HP when Lifeforce is full. Could be made a whirl finisher, but I guess I would avoid that. It can be scratched entirely and some of it’s effects could be moved to dagger skills. It could be replaced with a skill that hits a target and adds lifeforce scaling with the highest of: conditions on the target (like Mace #3), damage you deal with it (scaling with power) and minions you have alive (possibly damaging them). Options are plentiful.

When Death Shroud is activated, the primary health bar is replaced by Lifeforce. This is a stunbreaker that grants a short stability buff, gives some stacks of Might and quick Protection or maybe a non-boon based increase in damage and protection the more Lifeforce the necro has left. This are subject to change of course. This could in fact work as a „survivability spike” then. Most „glass cannon” builds would use it for a short time and turn it off quickly not to waste Lifeforce (so they would benefit from damage but little survivabilty, as they would get „zeroed” in lifeforce by a single skill or two), and tanky builds would gain some damage off of it (because they can stay in it longer) and it would aid their survivability. Win-win. This would need to be balanced of course, but we are not talking numbers – we’re talking ideas.
Traits could grant additional effects (useful to builds that have them), but that would be it. You retain your weapon skillbars, your utilities, your necro is free to do what he was built for.

Why that? Well, we all could use a movement ability (ranged builds would use it to escape, melee builds would use it to close the gap) as mobility is something we sorely lack and I don’t think this is a balance choice. We all can use CC – because well, who doesn’t? Life Transfer I have mixed feelings about. It’s nice, but only for few builds around Blood Magic. Why would I want these skills to be taken out of Death Shroud? Because then they can be balaced with our profession as a whole. Right now DS is a strange mix of survivability buff that gives you a package of 4 skills that may or may not fit your build. You can’t use utility, or your weapon skills. You can enter DS to use skills, but then you have it on cooldown. You can enter DS for survivability, but then you are forced to use skills that may not even be good in your build. We can’t be given an „elite-like” profession mechanic that tries to be „catch all do all”, because it will either be Overpowered or suck at all it does. Survivability aspect and Utility aspect of DS must be separated and balanced separately or they will never be good. Profession mechanic has to be build-proof – we’re stuck with it. We can’t change it. It must be useful in each and every build.

I’m not sure if the mechanic should focus so much on a pet. Not all necro builds are pet builds.

But I do think death shroud should, instead of draining Life Force while in it, allow you to dump/spend Life Force on things such as direct dmg (possibly burst), condition dmg, CC/fears, healing, and maybe a temporary pet that be summoned that’s tied to a target (a Ghost/Spectre type would be awesome) that functions like a phantasm and uses your stats, but based on traits could be traited to do different things like straight up Power Dmg, apply conditions, be tanky or become a support tool.

If any other F1-4 abilities are added they could be things used to gather Life Force, such as sacrificing some HP for Lifeforce, or Life Transfer (our aoe dmg channel), etc.

But the point is you would truly be managing the flow of Life Force and directing it depending on what your build/playstyle is. Dumping Life Force for Power burst dmg, dumping your life force for bleeds, or CC or even healing/support and minions. Or of course the classic use of using it to absorb dmg.

It can even allow for some counterplay on the enemy’s part. See a Necro jump into Death Shroud that’s going to lay down some burst, do a quick CC and dump some dmg on them to kill their Life Force.

TBH I’m not sure I like that minions take up utility slots. I think it would be better if they just added another 2 Hander that’s basically our “Minion Master” weapon.

My intentions were just living up to the name of what truly is a necromancer, hoping to have a minion companion that doesn’t need to be in a form of a utility skill.
comparing to the other class’s profession mechanic, it simply defines their class.

Lets say similar to a ranger, always having a companion yet you don’t necessary need to focus your traits to your pet. The relationship between the Grave companion and its master have some kind of give and take relationship, something the rangers don’t have directly (not sure).

I don’t like this idea. F-1 through 3 would be focused on minions, and I don’t really care about them. There are other suggestions that are more well rounded.