Guild Wars 2

Disclaimer: Author was kinda drunk =)
TL:DR at the end of the second post

First and foremost: Most of the things I am going to mention in this thread are just some thought experiments members of my raiding guild and myself had in the past few weeks to help out the Necromancer class as a whole.

FYI: All of the Ideas you are going to read are centered around PvE and Raids. I know for sure that some of these would be utterly broken or completely useless in PvP/WvW so please take them with a grain of salt. They are just ideas.
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The last major balance patch left Necromancers in a weird spot. They are not terrible but most if not all of the things a Necro can do other Condition builds can do better in the sense that they deal more dmg and/or offer more utility than the Necro.

This is mostly due to two things:

- Necros tie with Warriors for the class with the most base HP at lvl 80 while also having access to shroud which basically functions like an easily refillable second HP bar.

- Almost all weapons (except GS and mainhand Dagger) are ranged, making it extremely easy to avoid incoming dmg when dpsing.

The recent nerf to Lich Form and the miniscule buffs to power necros also make it clear that A-Net hesitates to buff Necros dmg, likely because of the aforementioned reasons.

Our/My idea(s) aim to make Necromancers compete with Warriors as supporters in raids but in different ways:Warriors improve power based builds, Necro should improve Condi based builds. The goal would be to make raids doable with condi comps in compareable time without making power comps weaker/less desireable. (Muh Build diversity)
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• Plaque Aura:
  Up to 5 allies receive +xx% condition duration and + xx condition damage. Does not stack with Lingering Curse and other Necros Plaque Aura’s.

- The Idea here was to provide necromancers with better group utility. The buff in question would work like [Spotter] or[Empower Allies] and would increase the dmg of a condi group. Especially burn builds (Guardians, Warriors, Engineers, Rangers) would benefit from taking more Sinister gear. We didn’t decide on numbers yet but my initial idea would be:

+10% Condition duration
+100 Condition damage

At the very least, it allows tweaking if it is underpowered/overpowered.

The biggest offender on this trait would be the fact that it combines Spotter, Empower Allies and Assassins Presence in one Aura. I thought about splitting the effect between Necro and Engi (giving them the same synergy as Warrior and Ranger).

Vampiric Aura:
Triple the heal + dmg, give the effect an internal cooldown per target (1-2 seconds).

- Not entirely sure on that one to be honest. Leeching is a dangerous mechanic since it basically combines dps and self heals in one package. Currently the trait feels underwhelming but increasing the healing and/or dmg aspect of it without balancing it out elsewhere would just break it.

Corruption Skills in second post:

Corruption skills:

An interesting concept proposed by a friend was to change the way Corruptions work: Instead of applying conditions to the Necro Corruptions would drain health/lifeforce to apply their effects. This would introduce a risk for the Necromancer while also allowing for increased rewards when using them.

You’ll probably notice that this mechanic is similar to Warriors Adrenaline. My friend wanted to give Necros another way to play with Lifeforce outside of shroud. Basically making the Necro choose between shroud and all its pros/cons and utilizing LF without shroud.

Epidemic
Costs xx% of Health/yy% of Lifeforce 30 cd (increased by 50%)

Spread 75% + 1 stacks of all conditions on a target foe to all nearby foes. The same target cannot be afflicted by more than one Epidemic for 20 seconds.

I like Epidemic bouncing as a mechanic but I fear A-Net WILL cut the cheese at some point in the future. Imo, a change like this would allow better tweaking of the skill.

- The big problems with epidemic right now are:
1. Applying 25 stacks of all conditions freezes the skills powerbudget.
2. Multiple Necromancers can “cheese” the game via Epidemic bouncing

The Idea here is to increase OOMPH factor when using epidemic correctly while also adding a kind of diminishing return for bouncing epidemic with more than two necros. In terms of casts on different mobs the basic Idea is:

First Epidemic is stronger
Second Epidemic is as strong as ingame/ a tiny bit weaker
Third Epidemic is weaker.

Corrosive Poison Cloud
Costs xx% of Health/yy% of Lifeforce 30 cd (unchanged)

Damage and uptime depend on Necros lifeforce.
Lifeforce below Threshold: Increased dmg/Uptime 5 seconds (-37,5% Nerf)
Lifeforce near Threshold: Current values
Lifeforce above Threshold: Lower dmg/Uptime 12 Seconds +(50% buff)

If Lifeforce is used to cast Corrosive Poison Cloud the skills effects are based on lifeforce on cast, not after consumption.

The general Idea here is higher reward (more dmg with CPC) with low lifeforce and increased risk while increasing utility with high lifeforce.

Blood is Power

This is where it gets interesting and also the point were I gave up adding “balanced” numbers. Basically what we had visioned was a skill that increases in power subsequent casts:

1. Cast: 1 Bleed
2. Cast: 1 Bleed + refresh(2 Bleed)
3. Cast: 1 Bleed, 1 Torment + refresh (3 Bleed, 1 Torment)
4. Cast: 2 Bleed, 1 Torment + refresh (5 Bleed, 2 Torment)
5. Cast: 2 Bleed, 1 Torment + refresh (7 Bleed, 3 Torment)

(Might stacking working similar)

Our goal here is to significantly reduce BiP’s cooldown to allow Necros – albeit weird – to stack might (Similar to Warriors) while at the same time allowing more dmg with subsequent casts.

Problem: Increasing the skills power with repeated usage is cool but balancing the utility (Might stacking) is difficult. Necros should be able to maintain a sufficient amount of stacks with the help of a Mesmer while not singlehandly buffing 25 stacks to the group. Additionally, reworked Blood is Power should be woven into the skill rotation and not turn into a “use when up” skill.

Corrupt Boon
Costs xx% of Health/yy% of Lifeforce

Unchanged; a raid member had the idea to add a debuff preventing boons from being applied to the target based on Necros LF (Less LF = longer duration etc.).

Kinda pointless in PvE and broken in PvP/WvW. Not sure what to think about this one.

no ideas for Plague and CC.

TL;DR:
- Necromancer is too tanky and safe to allow high dps
- Necromancers utility needs buffs
- Idea: Add Aura similar to Spotter/Empower Allies/Assassins Presence but for Conditions
-Reworking Corruptions to higher risk/higher reward skills

Goal:
Necromancers compete with Warriors in Condition groups, allowing raid clears in compareable time to power comps with condition comps.

Most of this is rambling bs, TL:DR at the bottom.

Warriors adds a lot to the group and even with the things that you’ve mentioned Im not sure it measures up. Warriors are really disproportionately good with buffs

A standard Power PS Berserkers generally gives
Exclusive Buffs
Banner of Strength: 170 Power, 170 Condition Damage
Banner of Discipline: 170 Precision, 170 Ferocity
Empower Allies: 150 Power
Unexclusive Buffs/boons
Might

In order to even be considered an even counterpart in stat numbers alone you would need a handful of buffs to make up for the what exactly the Warrior brings.
150 Expertise, 100 Condition Damage aren’t really going to cut it when compared to 320 Power, 170 Condi Damage 170 Precision (Roughly 8% crit chance), 170 Ferocity (Roughly 11% Crit Damage) all of that prior to adding in any boons they bring.

Precision boosts both Condi and Power classes so it should be matched.
The condi/power can be switched maybe substitute some of the coni damage for duration.
Given that Condi Duration is capped where ferocity isnt 10% condition damge may be a nice option.

So overall, to offer similar numbers from stats along I think you would need to look more like 170 Condition Damage, 170 Precision, 170 Power and 10% Condition Damage, 150 expertise. And thats prior to any boons being considered.

Given that Necros offer other utility value (assuming that they would keep it), other than these things, If something like this was to come into play I wouldn’t really object to it missing out on the might stacking and having that come from another source. I would probably give it some access to spreading fury or something though in the place of might.

Overall, I dont mind the ideas but when you really look at it the warrior brings a whole bunch to the table in terms of damage increases. The equivalent of 250 stat points into condi stats isnt going to compare to whats currently out there.

This is all without really taking everything into consideration though, stacking buffs together with what a warrior brings may lead to undesired results. Engineer and Ranger would likely see a nerf if any of this came into play and given anet’s track record they would likely be nerfed into a place we’ve seen far too many classes go.

A shift like this would create an unbalance within the game but honestly the current state of the game is far from balanced as it is and I think Anet has been moving in the wrong direction with their “balance” patches. Until there is more of a skill split between the 3 game modes and 10 man content is treated like 10 man content and not 5 man content balance and diversity are going to be hard to find.

Slightly off topic but Id personally like to see the potential combination of a Reaper and a Condi Tempest filling the role of a PS Warrior + DPS class. Giving a slight buff to the Reaper and Condi tempest so their damage and buffs are equivalent to that of a PS Warrior + Power Tempest. Allow the condi tempest glyph of elemental power to give a party a buff to their damage to counter a warriors banner as the alternate option and they can currently stack party wide might like crazy when you pair the might stacking trait with a warhorn. The Reaper takes care of the other buffs. I dont really think more options and versatility are a bad thing. It brings a condi PS into the mix as well given that it can still stack might, offer some fury and would receive a damage boost from the changes.

TL:DR
~Warriors buffs are way out of line with most things in this game.
~You would need to up the group buffs to stupid levels if you want to even be mentioned in the same breath as them.