Guild Wars 2

It seems the devs aren’t quite on the same page as us on this topic, but what changes to existing skills or traits would you guys like to see to help us in this regard? Please keep the ideas reasonable.

For example, here are mine:

• Parasitic Bond, Parasitic Contagion, Vampiric Precision, Vampiric, Vampiric Master, Vampiric Rituals, and the Regeneration boon function normally while in Death Shroud.
• Withering Precision gets reverted to “25% chance on critical to cause weakness” with no ICD. Duration being dropped to 2 or 3 seconds base from the former 5 seconds.
• Signet of Undeath passive becomes “gain 1% life force per second” and continues to function outside of combat.
• Signet of the Locust gets its cooldown reduced to 30 seconds.
• Signet of Vampirism loses it’s ICD’s (both passive and active). Alternatively, passive has a “per attacker” ICD and becomes a siphon.
• Spectral Walk loses its ICD on life force gain.
• Siphoning traits get actual scaling instead of the joke .4% they have now.

+1 to almost everything you said.

My only worries are SoU, because I think the ability to generate LF ooc is something you need to be very careful about, and removing all ICDs from SoV (passive I think would be fine with a per-attacker ICD).

I would start off by giving SoV the passive change and see how the skill does with that, then look at first significantly toning down the ICD on the active to something like 0.5s, and then if that still isn’t enough you can look at removing it. The issue would be how quickly could 1-5 players remove stacks, and if the ability to “burst” remove stacks might make coordinated SoV spikes basically guaranteed kills. Not that the coordination or potential for a really strong use is bad, but just something to consider.

Also, I think the final thing that we need to function is more CC immunity. Besides FitG (which I think needs a buff) though, we have no existing mechanics that would work and so its outside the proposed scope of this thread.

Maybe make Well of Power pulse Stability instead of just the 1 second at start? Trick there is that the 1 second kinda needs to stay there due to Focused Rituals.

Even though I suggested it, I’m not sold on Signet of Undeath working out of combat (though given we can easily get 20% life force any time we’re out of combat if not on a minion build, why not? At least this would take 20 seconds to generate that much). Drastically increasing the passive effect is important to bring it back from uselessness, though. Haven’t even put it on my skill bar in over a year.

Agreed that it needs some kind of better passive, but its also important that it doesn’t become too much “free” sustain. Its just a numbers thing though, and it definitely needs increasing.

And ya, WoP pulsing would make it much better. Still forces you to stay in the circle for the duration, but at least you can get up to 6s (+boon duration) stability from it.

I wouldn’t mind seeing FoC on scepter get a boost.

as much as i like the vampiric traits and parasitic contagion in DS, it would make us OP…

I dunno something like that might be ok we get cced alot so giving us better sustain like that would make us more of the attrition class anet wants us to be. We still have to be attacking for it to work

unholy sanctuary+ wh5+1-2wells siphoning, all that while the necro camps in ds, sounds pretty overpowered to me..
More stability or a block would be nicer

Pelopidas.2140:

unholy sanctuary+ wh5+1-2wells siphoning, all that while the necro camps in ds, sounds pretty overpowered to me..
More stability or a block would be nicer

I think this is not a problem since all the skills except unholy sanctuary have cooldowns so even if you pop all those you’re without 3 powerull skills for at least 24 seconds.

I would just like for them to provide a method of dealing with stuns, immobilize, knockbacks etc whilst in DS or not be as squishy outwith DS.

How can you wear something down when you’re in DS and have nothing available to deal with incoming CC that prevents you from either attacking or getting close to the target/targets and if you exit out of DS you just feel too squishy.

So either make our siphons viable so outwith DS we are able to mitigate the damage we take better because of lack of boons or provide us with a method that when in DS we don’t spend alot of it flying through the air or rooted to the spot.

Bhawb.7408:

+1 to almost everything you said.

wait, since when are you not against ‘lifesteal should work in DS by default’ anymore?

@Drarnor:
why only spectral walk? spectral armor should lose the ICD aswell. with adjusted LF gain, if needed.
either that, or there should be a separate ICD for every attacking enemy. would actually be better since it doesnt screw multi-hit attacks over so much.

Soul Comprehension could make the LF-on-death work in DS aswell; At a reduced rate at least. Cause right now, this trait is pretty pathetic.

Ticks from blood well and the life siphon from the bloodfiend minion should also work in DS.

On of the reasons i only take consume conditions (apart from is a really good heal) is that its healing effect isnt hindered by DS (due the heal being instant), unlike the rest of all our heals.

Hell make sov work in ds. That might make the thing use able in certain builds heavily trait ed for ds.

NeXeD.3042:

Hell make sov work in ds. That might make the thing use able in certain builds heavily trait ed for ds.

I had mentioned this in another thread and I feel that allowing SOV to work within DS would help improve this heal alot. I know if they done this I would consider spending my 25 points to actually unlock the thing.

Right now it serves no purpose as the other heals are far superior and alot more viable but changing it so that SoV works within DS im all for.

RashanDale.3609:

@Drarnor:
why only spectral walk? spectral armor should lose the ICD aswell. with adjusted LF gain, if needed.
either that, or there should be a separate ICD for every attacking enemy. would actually be better since it doesnt screw multi-hit attacks over so much.

Primarily to differentiate between Spectral Armor and Spectral Walk’s defensive benefits. With both having or lacking an ICD, one will always be better than the other.

With Spectral Armor being high life force gain on an ICD and Spectral Walk being lower gain, but with no restriction, they are both viable options that have their cases where they are the best to use.

RashanDale.3609:

Bhawb.7408:

+1 to almost everything you said.

wait, since when are you not against ‘lifesteal should work in DS by default’ anymore?

If the only change is making them work in DS I’m not against it, allowing our self-traited siphons to work has been something I’ve been saying for quite a while. But it still needs to be considered how much you allow to work, which is something people very rarely seem to bother thinking about.

+1 to all this except also allow signets to work in DS. Maybe add a trait that mimics signet of undeath’s passive.

I say no to minions working through ds minion master is already a pain in the backside for minimal effort… the meat shields + fast lf generation from all the pets combined with all the healing they generate would be over the top.

im fine with the other stuff working tho the health they give is so small or infrequent it wouldn’t cause too many problems

you need to remember.. anything that makes it hard for a warrior to kill a necro will get it nerfed again

Make weakening shroud a projectile block like ring of earth please!

Ozzy Toxin.3074:

I say no to minions working through ds minion master is already a pain in the backside for minimal effort… the meat shields + fast lf generation from all the pets combined with all the healing they generate would be over the top.

Minions give fairly low healing through vampiric master, this wouldn’t really do anything about the build, it needs completely separate work.

Not just sustain, but other necromancer improvement ideas as well.

Allow healing at a reduced capacity in Death Shroud (50%, for example).

Make SoV siphon hp from attackers, with a per-attacker ICD

Modify Speed of Shadows to remove movement-impairing effects (cripple, chill, immob) upon entering Death Shroud OR have Dark Path remove movement-impairing effects upon hit- these should NOT be stunbreaks, just immob clear.

Modify Axe Training: Remove damage increase & add “all single-target axe strikes now effect all foes adjacent to target (Radius 90)” – think Fireball.

Unholy Sanctuary now heals upon receiving damage (unrestricted) as opposed to set intervals. Healing amount & coefficient remains unchanged.

Reaper of Grenth Aura when entering death shroud (no trait needed).

5 second duration (shuts off when exiting DS or time runs out), range 240, chill and poison, unblockable.

If they really want to give us attrition then this would IMO be a nice start

Tommyknocker.6089:

Reaper of Grenth Aura when entering death shroud (no trait needed).

5 second duration (shuts off when exiting DS or time runs out), range 240, chill and poison, unblockable.

If they really want to give us attrition then this would IMO be a nice start

Lol that would be to strong, a aoe 5 sec chill+poison+unblockable on a 10sec cooldown?

What necros need for the attrition game is sustain. And a good start for that would be to change ds in such a way that healing is not wasted be it though siphons or healing from allies…

I still beleive that receiving heals(from our blood tree) while.in DS would be to strong, if it was toned down to 60-70% but it’s still verry hard to say, I’m all for it but not at full strength.

Edit: I would love to see a grandmaster trait
The necro becomes the.focal point of wells(as in whenever moves wells.move with him) at a 25% speed reduction

Even a little bit of healing through ds needs to be considered carefully, I think that’s why that gm trait they gave us is so kittenty. Necros would turn into monsters in wvw worse than they already are. They would have no problem stay Frontline the whole time if they can get healed in ds. Drop wells hit ds regen real hp a little until that ds is done by then people are probably dying and should fill up your lf very quickly.

Hence why my suggestions are only bits of healing that is coming to the necro anyway. It’s small amounts that the necro can’t turn off, but it’s still driven by the necro himself. The only exception to this is my suggestion for the Regeneration boon, but that’s because nobody should be immune to a boon. Right now, having Regeneration on you while in death shroud is actually a complete liability.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

• Parasitic Bond, Parasitic Contagion, Vampiric Precision, Vampiric, Vampiric Master, Vampiric Rituals, and the Regeneration boon function normally while in Death Shroud.

Yes to all of that besides Regeneration. If Regeneration worked in Death Shroud Unholy Sanctury would become even less appealing. I’d rather see Necromancer exlcusive mechanics filling up my health.

If healing in DS with the above mentioned traits would be too strong they could still reduce their effectiveness by x% when in DS. It’s just silly that they currently have no effect at all.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

• Withering Precision gets reverted to “25% chance on critical to cause weakness” with no ICD. Duration being dropped to 2 or 3 seconds base from the former 5 seconds.

In small scale fights this could become pretty overpowered. I’d rather have it cause area Weakness around the target you critically hit. If needed the cooldown could be adjusted. This way it would become more useful in group situations but still provide the same amount of Weakness in solo scenarios.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

• Signet of Undeath passive becomes “gain 1% life force per second” and continues to function outside of combat.

Please no. Everyone would switch in the Signet between fights to fill up LF.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

• Siphoning traits get actual scaling instead of the joke .4% they have now.

I think this is a very important point for every effect which is influenced by healing power. The scaling of healing power is so aweful across almost all skills that ANet should really rework the base values and their coefficients. It became even more obvious that healing power doesn’t work as intended when they introduced percentage based modificators like Aquatic Benevolence.

Bhawb.7408:

Also, I think the final thing that we need to function is more CC immunity. Besides FitG (which I think needs a buff) though, we have no existing mechanics that would work and so its outside the proposed scope of this thread.

I’m all for CC resilience but not CC immunity. It just cancels out too many ways to counter Necromancers. Necros need something against CC but not necessarily against, for example, interrupts. Therefore, I’m not a big fan of Stability. I would enjoy traits with mechanics like Rousing Resilience (effect on Stunbreak) or Dogged Marches but for CC effects (e.g. when in DS, when affected by Spectral Skills, when affected by conditions or when outside of DS based on the level of LF). A broader access to Stunbreakers could also help (e.g. lower cooldown on Spectral Skills, new ones on Blood is Power and Signet of Locust).

I know your not talking about tpvp specifically but you can’t switch your utils like that in it. So that would only effect wvw, hotjoins, and pve. Dont really see a problem with that. Lower cooldowns on spectrals? Yes plz.