Guild Wars 2

So, what is the general consensus on wells? Are they bad? I hardly ever see anyone use them. Just curious because i’m considering making a mid-line support/area-denial-control necromancer using wells and marks. I’m going to obviously test for myself, but was wondering what the community felt, because, other than their cooldown lenghts, they seem pretty nice.

Wells are the truth in pve and they’re great for zerg ing in wvw, especially dropping them on downed.

Not that great anymore. The damage they do isn’t high enough to justify the loss of utility in PvP, before everything got stronger it was a fair trade-off. And Power Nec is inferior to Condi for raids. Still meta in WvW though.

Well of Suffering is a standard pick for most PvE builds and zerg fights.

Well of Blood is trash as long as it doesn’t heal through Shroud. And even then it would probably be underperforming compared to other healing skills.

Well of Darkness is too weak. The cd is too long, the duration too short and pulsing blindness isn’t enough, it needs some additional feature.

Well of Corruption and Well of Power are both great, especially when traited. However, if you don’t use Blood Magic the opportunity cost in passing up other utility skills for them becomes too high.

Bottom line: most people play Reaper these days, which usually doesn’t include Blood Magic, therefore most people don’t use wells.

Well of Suffering is still being used all around in PvE & WvW. But all the other wells have too high cd and they don’t bring enough to the table. As stated with Blood Magic, they make sense to use due to reduced cd, siphons, and prot. But most Reapers don’t take Blood Magic as you would sacrifice too much doing so.

Well of Corruption would be used more often in WvW if it doesn’t take 5 pulses for it to corrupt 5 boons. Nobody stands still for 5 seconds, and with the introduction of resistance, it’s harder to trap people in place these days. Mobility is a big thing now, even us necros gained mobility. Which is why Reapers often opt for 600 radius shouts rather than these stationary 240 radius wells with high cooldowns.

To me the wells have become more obsolete in non-PvE environment due to excessive boon sharing, mobility, and how tanky people are these days. I still use well of suffering as a reaper, but the damage from it isn’t what it used to be.

I sometimes run a well build for fun, I call it my Ritualmancer build.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAoYRnc0AF1g10AmbC0bilgBLKBEAKXTzgdwQIeIuEjiA-TZxFABKcIAYb/BAOBAkXGIgnAAA
it’s not updated with new amulets, but basically the ammy would be merc. Before would use celestial.

Good for contesting points, does very well in conquest against boon heavy classes, and other necs…. dat constant terror pulse :p

Azure.8670:

Wells are the truth in pve and they’re great for zerg ing in wvw, especially dropping them on downed.

I never understood dropping them on downed. I can obviously see why if people clump up to res, but if they dont, arent you just wasting a bomb? Isnt it better to simply range focus pressure them or melee cleave?

Power in general has become second tier for necros. Blighters Boon was nerfed. Lich form was nerfed. Wells don’t give much support and the or short boon don’t justify the cds. Heck, mesmers have an elite well but necros (who had wells first) don’t even have one. Shouts are a lil lackluster for power pve builds.

What would make wells useful is if they give necros more sustain damage over long periods of time rather than short burst. Longer you stand in a well, the more powerful you get. That sort of approach would give power necros better group support and wouldn’t destroy pvp/wvw. Wells should be about sustain damage will some utility. They should be setup just like mesmers wells.

For example:
Well of Power- Gives 1 stack of might to allies each second for 10 seconds.
20 second cd
Well of Corruption- Low amount of damage and converts 1 boon every 5 seconds for 20 seconds.
40 second cd
Well of Darkness- Low amount of damage. Inflicts blind to moving enemies. (Internal CD 5 seconds) for 20s.
30 second cd

Elite Well:
Well of Death-Large amount of damage. Pulse daze every second for 3 seconds and kills downed enemies.
180 second cd

Those are just me making them up. However, that would give necros more sustain and the elite well was me thinking of a cool elite for wells.

Windler.4815:

Gravedigger was nerfed

I hope you meant Blighter’s Boon because Gravedigger has had nothing but buffs since the first beta when the aftercast was so atrocious you could take a coffee break before it was over.

Aktium.9506:

Windler.4815:

Gravedigger was nerfed

I hope you meant Blighter’s Boon because Gravedigger has had nothing but buffs since the first beta when the aftercast was so atrocious you could take a coffee break before it was over.

Ya, sorry. I meant Blighter’s Boon. Blonde moment and fixed it.

Stand The Wall.6987:

Azure.8670:

Wells are the truth in pve and they’re great for zerg ing in wvw, especially dropping them on downed.

I never understood dropping them on downed. I can obviously see why if people clump up to res, but if they dont, arent you just wasting a bomb? Isnt it better to simply range focus pressure them or melee cleave?

actually I meant that by your own downed, you drop it as a form of thief/glass protection to res

Mesmer got the longer end of the stick and if I dare to compare our wells to Guardian traps and to traps overall… Wells need buff/change. Give us good elite well!!! (Gravity Well.. cough.. cough)

Wells still see plenty of play in WvW as a form of denial, as much as a form of damage. Wells offer Area Denial, Boon Denial, Ress Denial, and simply a larger chunk of damage in a head-to-head collision. The fact that people can walk out of wells doesn’t matter when you know when to drop wells on a committed engage, and the major goal outside of producing downs is to simply out-trade the other guys.

Zero Solstice.9754:

The fact that people can walk out of wells doesn’t matter when you know when to drop wells on a committed engage

This is true even in PvP.
Not just because you have to stand on points, but also, people tend to underestimate wells as something that opponents can just walk out of. Good necros, however, adept skill timings to match their opponent’s attack patter.

Exactly. The fact that Necro Wells don’t CC for themselves like Chrono Wells and Dragonhunter Traps means you need to understand how and when best to appropriately utilize their potential.