Guild Wars 2

Can we say more BOON CORRUPTION? Yes please!

Necromancer

Dark Pact: This skill now also converts up to 2 boons into conditions along with its innate effects.
Putrid Curse: This skill now also converts up to 1 boon into conditions along with its innate effects.
Corrupt Boon: This skill now converts up to 3 boons into conditions. The recharge of this ability has been reduced from 40 seconds to 15 seconds.
Enfeebling Blood: This skill now converts up to 1 boon into a condition.
Weakening Shroud: The effect triggered off of this trait now converts up to 1 boon into a condition.
Leeching Bolts: Projectiles created from comboing with Dark fields will now heal through your shroud.
Spiteful Spirit: This trait’s recharge has been removed. The attack from this trait is now referred to as “Spiteful Spirit” in the combat log instead of “Unholy Feast,” and its particle effects have been updated.
Chilling Darkness: The internal cooldown on this trait has been reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.
Unyielding Blast: This trait no longer adds piercing.
Life Blast / Plague Blast: These skills now pierce by default.
Chilling Nova: Fixed an issue that prevented this trait from firing when jumping or underwater.
Soul Spiral: Fixed an issue that prevented this skill from triggering whirl finishers while underwater.

Reaper:

Chilling Nova: Reduced the recharge from 10 seconds to 8 seconds. Fixed a bug that caused the nova to have a smaller than intended radius.

Only buffs lol’d

Everyone into the nerf bunker, GO GO GO GO!

I can finally let go of spite and not feel guilty

Thanks for the buff to build diversity

now about that death’s charge and GS….

We are Corruptomancers now!

I’m positively surpised by some of those changes.
Also, stealth fix: interrupted wells don’t go on full cd anymore.

My Spite Reaper totally un-changed by this, gotta laugh at the Condi-love yet again.

changed the Spite Gm trait no1 use, no buffs to GS,Focus or Axe not even alterations basicly pushing all to be Condi-corrupers now meh not for me

Barely anything really interesting for me as PvE player, but it’s something I guess.

Oslaf Beinir.5842:

I can finally let go of spite and not feel guilty

I thought so too, but Signets of Suffering + scepter or MH dagger give you all the boon corruption you need. I haven’t been able to justify changing it.

This patch is a double-buff. Lots of nerfs happened but not to Necromancer.

Ravezaar.4951:

no buffs to GS,Focus or Axe

That was somewhat to be expected since non of those weapons were mentioned in their preview last week. But it’s still disappointing seeing how those weapons probably needed more attention than scepter/dagger.

flow.6043:

We are Corruptomancers now!

So useful in PvE… no, wait – that dredge fractal will get wrecked
PvP on the other hand…
1050 Power
1050 Condition
560 Toughness
560 Vitality
Mercenary a bit tankier version of sinister i guess. Oh well, nobody will use power in necro builds from now on anyway so we can go full rabid.
Leeching bolts now heal through shroud. Yay ? those rarely hit anything. Any progress on transfusion not healing ? nope.

Condi reapers have fun, me and my power reap gonna Chill and wait till the next balance patch since this one added nothing to the spec im running.

I like that there is a solid theme for necromancer now – the king of boon corruption is, at least, something solid to work with and quite effective in actual, important situations.

This is something necro really needed and will allow those choosing the class to know what it is they are supposed to be good for.

flow.6043:

Ravezaar.4951:

no buffs to GS,Focus or Axe

That was somewhat to be expected since non of those weapons were mentioned in their preview last week. But it’s still disappointing seeing how those weapons probably needed more attention than scepter/dagger.

yea I like Anets reasoning “lets Buff the one weapon thats already OP” Corruption on Scepter

Oh no, I might not be a special snowflake anymore with my Viper curses reaper! Dagger+Staff((

so much corruption! we will be nerfed in the coming weeks

If you don’t count all the corrupts tacked on here and there the changes are actually quite underwhelming.

Sad thing though, these buffs do nothing for power builds and nothing for pve condi builds. >. <

From what I see here, I think the goal of the patch was to permeate the class with boon removal. Honestly, I think these changes are positive, because corruption is strongest on condition necromancer. However, Axe definitely needs a total rework next patch and Spiteful Spirit really isn’t that great still. Dark Pact boon corruption will help classic Terrormancer, who cant run path of corruption and terror (edit: whoops dark pact is not dark path). Unfortunately, Vital Persistence is still too good with Fear of Death (more fears), so Terrormancer isn’t quite back yet. With one or two more patches, base necro may regain some viability.

@ Cecilia, Unfortunatelly, Power Reaper/Necro needs a massive rework, especially in pvp. I’d like to see it work. you know how the game is advertised to be.

Cecilia.5179:

From what I see here, I think the goal of the patch was to permeate the class with boon removal. Honestly, I think these changes are positive, because corruption is strongest on condition necromancer. However, Axe definitely needs a total rework next patch and Spiteful Spirit really isn’t that great still. Dark Pact boon corruption will help classic Terrormancer, who cant run path of corruption and terror. Unfortunately, Vital Persistence is still too good with Fear of Death (more fears), so Terrormancer isn’t quite back yet. With one or two more patches, base necro may regain some viability.

I agree here. There are many classes that can push out boons for themselves and allies the “boon stripping” has been sorely needed. My last few weeks in PvP were just building around boon stripping to help counter tempests, herlads, and scrappers.

I dislike the changes on the daggers, it seems a bit unthoughtfull. Why does dagger offhand get boon corrupt instead of life force? Why does dagger mainhand even get boon corruption? I also don’t get what the icd lowerage on chilling darkness will do.

The lowered ICD on chilling darkness I saw requested often, actually. 5 seconds was a little pointless, considering the small handful of blinds we have are often pulsing.

Read changes, started laughing out loud Thank you Geezus :d

We can’t even breath anymore without converting boons in the process haha

Ravezaar.4951:

My Spite Reaper totally un-changed by this, gotta laugh at the Condi-love yet again.

changed the Spite Gm trait no1 use, no buffs to GS,Focus or Axe not even alterations basicly pushing all to be Condi-corrupers now meh not for me

Hey! I use that thing and its amazing.

Reaper master race? Let’s all gather up and laugh at revs/druids? Jokes apart, i am pretty happy with the changes. #Geelieve

Tim.6450:

I dislike the changes on the daggers, it seems a bit unthoughtfull. Why does dagger offhand get boon corrupt instead of life force? Why does dagger mainhand even get boon corruption? I also don’t get what the icd lowerage on chilling darkness will do.

Scepter-dagger corrupts but still has poor LF gain. It does disappoint in that way.

So what’s the impact of these changes for PvE?

Cerbeius.7129:

So what’s the impact of these changes for PvE?

nothing really, this was mostly a wvw/pvp patch for necros

Nay of the Ether.8913:

Cerbeius.7129:

So what’s the impact of these changes for PvE?

nothing really, this was mostly a wvw/pvp patch for necros

Just as I thought, but I wanted to be sure

Corrupt Boon change could potentially be a big buff to condi necros/reapers.

Chilling Nova is a minor buff to both condi reaper and power reaper.

Dark pact boon corrupt will be a nice QoL improvement for power builds. And will help with overall sustainable boon control on power necros.

Other than that they dont effect PvE much at all.

Id say the most impactful is Corrupt Boon because of its self condi on a 10 second cooldown. Problem is you need traited offhand dagger to fully utilise that. So on Sabetha you would have to drop Reaper and Deathly Chill which is actually already a wise move just so you can take Soul Reaping for Spectral Mastery. So im not really sure what to take for Sabetha anymore. On everything else its just a flat buff as you dont need Death Magic. And Jagged Horrors arent as reliable on moving bosses so you can always take blood then.

I’m 100% not complaining about these changes, as they’re really interesting and flavorful for our class (instead of just numbers), which is really nice. I also like that they were added to skills that have been pointed out as a bit undertuned before (Dark Pact, Enfeebling Blood, traits), and the related mechanics all made sense to get corruptions, as they were already prime for debuffs. I do feel like they are a tiny bit out of nowhere, but that might be because I haven’t been exactly “involved” or “logging in” to the game recently.

And the most impressive part of all is that a lot of these were entirely ANet inspired, which means ANet internally made a majority of these changes on their own, which at least used to be rare (before Gee, at least) to get good, thematic buffs to our skills.

Is leeching bolts working for anybody? I didn’t notice it healing me in shroud.

I have a strong feeling there will be more boon strip mechanics necessary in the next Raid wing. The over buffing of boon corruption just for PVP purposes cannot be a coincidence. I think they want to play with that mechanic more but are hesitant because only Mesmers have a low cooldown boon strip.

gavyne.6847:

Is leeching bolts working for anybody? I didn’t notice it healing me in shroud.

The healing doesn’t show up in the combat log, but it’s happening.

Well, I’m happy, since the build I was already running for PvP got 3 more boon corrupts and I didn’t have to change a thing.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNArYWnMbCt2gd2AO3A0biFchKGRbd++BQXdAcAA-TZxFABJcKAO/IAUeZAAeAAos/AA if you’re curious.

Weakening Shroud and Spiteful Spirit together turn entering Shroud into a very strong anti-burst mechanic, since you get Retaliation and inflict Weakness while also corrupting two boons.

Offhand dagger still needs LF regen, focus is still poo, axe is still poo, gs is still poo. Death Magic and Blood magic still don’t have enough group support. I like the progress though. Our condi builds might be a little OP after this, but we will see.

Is sigil of ice working for you? I’ve not seen any procs.

Dead.5829:

gavyne.6847:

Is leeching bolts working for anybody? I didn’t notice it healing me in shroud.

The healing doesn’t show up in the combat log, but it’s happening.

ahh you’re right, saw the green numbers pop up. I was looking for them in the combat log. Thanks for confirming.

Dead.5829:

Is sigil of ice working for you? I’ve not seen any procs.

Sigil of Ice is working fine for me. Just used it in PvP.

Now I’m seeing procs… maybe I was kitten about something!

I’m really, really enjoying these changes, but I seriously hope that there are Great Sword and Soul Eater buffs/changes in the wings. The Chilling Darkness change is an indirect buff, and the Corrupt Boon change could be seen as an indirect buff, but that trait is still garbo.

Also, with the buffs to Spiteful Spirit and Weakening Shroud, I have an even harder time wanting to run Blood Magic. I prefer Corrupt Boon to Well of Corruption now, so when it comes time to pick a GM trait in BM, I’m just… sad?

OlliX.1705:

If you don’t count all the corrupts tacked on here and there the changes are actually quite underwhelming.

Well other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

Okey, this is soooo good for PvP and WvW roaming. What about WvW Zerg Fighting? Any choise of seeing corrupt necromancers in WvW zerg fight?

Eolh.5436:

Okey, this is soooo good for PvP and WvW roaming. What about WvW Zerg Fighting? Any choise of seeing corrupt necromancers in WvW zerg fight?

I typically run wells in zerg encounters. Scepter-dagger now looks more attractive. May go back to a full corruption build and abandon power for a while.

gavyne.6847:

Is leeching bolts working for anybody? I didn’t notice it healing me in shroud.

I gave it a good testing last night. Without actual numbers on the log it’s not easy to spot, but I got around 2k or 2.5k out of spinning on one mob. When I pulled several mobs I got half my HP back with one whirl which is a lot more than Transfusion.

I couldn’t notice a difference between Corrosive Cloud or using Well of Suffering in terms of damage which was odd. Corrosive Cloud does damage on its own and we add a large amount of it more with our poisonous bolts where Well of Suffering does minimal damage (I’m viper geared) and adds vulnerability (which does help the damage, but not in group content since 25 stacks are easy to keep up) and the whirling on it should only be around 2.4kish from leeching bolts, assuming none miss.

Yet when I tested several times against veterans they died at roughly the same time. It made me ponder if I shouldn’t switch Corrosive Cloud for traited wells. I will no longer have the teleport downed people, but:

- I had to wait for CPC to align with Shroud 4 so the lower CD on it does not matter.
- The healing is weaker on one mob and greater with more.
- The time when we go whirl is when we’re vulnerable to a boss’ melee and cleave so Protection is never a bad thing even on top of Rise which offsets the lower heals on whirl.

Anchoku.8142:

Eolh.5436:

Okey, this is soooo good for PvP and WvW roaming. What about WvW Zerg Fighting? Any choise of seeing corrupt necromancers in WvW zerg fight?

I typically run wells in zerg encounters. Scepter-dagger now looks more attractive. May go back to a full corruption build and abandon power for a while.

And wich stat you’ll use? A mix of Viper and rabid or other ones?

Eolh.5436:

Anchoku.8142:

Eolh.5436:

Okey, this is soooo good for PvP and WvW roaming. What about WvW Zerg Fighting? Any choise of seeing corrupt necromancers in WvW zerg fight?

I typically run wells in zerg encounters. Scepter-dagger now looks more attractive. May go back to a full corruption build and abandon power for a while.

And wich stat you’ll use? A mix of Viper and rabid or other ones?

Don’t know, yet. Almost anything will suffice in WvW. Main thing is to tab around for specific boons and corrupt them, maybe Epidemic them, too. Having a corruption on demand pretty much without a cool down may change my play style.

… yeah, this is more or less useless to every Necro setup I ever ran …

… good job?

Try some new ones!

Rieverre.3150:

… yeah, this is more or less useless to every Necro setup I ever ran …

… good job?

Unless you were running Staff/Greatsword/Axe+Focus/Warhorn only, this is a buff to your build.