Ok: some background information. I started playing gw2 with necromancer 2 years ago and have loved it. Played jank power, jank condi, hybrid, meta power, and meta condi in PvP and Fractals. Foreworening: these ideas have been in my mind for a fair amount of time and I have made sure to lower the power level (raising cooldowns / removing certain effects), but there is always the option to make the abilities presented weaker.
*The Axe:*
First rework idea: the Axe. Make the weapon itself available for BOTH mainhand and offhand. Change the mainhand autoattack into a triple autoattack-chain. The first attack inflicts Vulnerability. The second attack grants 1 stack of might and 1% Life Force. The third attack deals additional damage if the target has >10 stacks of Vulnerability. Keep the range and targets the same: 900 and single target. My reasoning behind these changes is that the auto attack of the axe, as of now, is horrible. There are very few reasons to actually want what it offers. Most parties easily get to 25 vulnerability stacks, and the damage output pales in comparison to the dagger auto attack chain. Also: change Unholy Feast so that it pulses retaliation and removes an additional boon (2 total, like Dark Pact) instead of cripple. The cooldowns on everything is fine for the axe.
For the offhand axe: have the first ability be a fear effect. Something simple as: Fear an opponent for 1 second. The cooldown would be 20 seconds and the range will be short, 130. The second ability summons One Jagged Horror, damages, and chills foes. The cooldown would be 35 seconds and the range should be a bit farther than the former, 300. My reasoning for the fear is in lieu of nerfing Spectral Wall: there are 2 (technically 3) fear sources for the Necromancer: Doom/Dark Armor, Mark of Fear. There needs to be 1 more for Fear to be an effective "Condition". For the second ability in this proposition: there is no weapon that directly summons any minion. This is a mistake when, what should be a main and iconic build (minionmaster), does not have any source of minion output from the weapon(s) of choice. This is an easy fix with the offhand axe.
By updating the auto attack on the axe, and making Unholy Feast realistic: the Main Hand Axe can become a viable weapon option for players to actually consider. Not only will Necromancer’s actually have a reliable source of Might from the new auto attack chain--instead of having to rely on Druid/Rev/Warrior/Ele/Certain Guards-- With the other abilities avaliable, Hybrid Builds can have a reliable weapon that: Self Boosts, Does Condition Damage, and Burst Damage. For the offhand: this might be too strong on one weapon: but the dps output is low and the cooldowns are quite high to compensate. Last note about the axe: before people say that by adding another weapon to the mix, people most of the time don’t even use the Axe in the first place so if you only add an offhand: realistically, necromancers and reapermancers still have the same kitten nal of weapons to choose from.
*Reaper Shroud and Death Shroud*
This comment is especially true for PVP: Necromancer’s Kite. If a necromancer goes on the point, especially in a team fight: he or she is going to get shredded. We should almost never fight on points, let the bunker and tank builds do that for you. Sure: hide behind your pets and range opponents who are slowly accumulating bleeding and poison stacks. With Death Shroud: this is extremely easy, being able to Fear from 1200 Range instantaneously, and Plague Blast for high Damage. With Reaper’s Shroud: this is now extremely difficult to Kite while in shroud.
For the Elite Spec: give the player the option to switch from Death’s Shroud to Reaper’s Shroud. To clarify: give access to both Reaper’s Shroud and Death’s Shroud. They will both use the same life force bar, and they will each respectively have a 10, or even 15 second cooldown. Yes: this is like the revenant elite spec. And while yes, you might not like having to classes so similar: please be realistic. The Revenant is similar to the Elementalist anyways, the Thief is identical to (almost literally) any class that decides to create a burst build (minus movement speed). Let the Necromancer have the ability to switch abilities and playstyle the exact same as other classes.
To recount: the necromancer should be able to kite effectively, this is much harder to do with reaper. While melee is a nice touch, and I fully support the elite spec: fully shutting off the core of a necromancer, especially one where the abilities support being able to range opponents, hurts a lot. With having both Reaper’s Shroud and Death Shroud (using the same life force bar): the ability to actually play the necromancer as it should, instead of mocking itself until it can finally Death’s Charge to the battle, players can actually experience Necromancer’s as they rightfully should.
*Necromancer Rant:*
There has never been a time when Necromancer’s, during an update, have not gotten debuffed and nerfed in some fashion. First: power minion was screwed royally. Then in the next major update: well-o’-mancer got slammed. When H.O.T. came out: Death Shroud became obsolete. Then Conditionmancer was introduced to the executioner of most other necromancer builds. So, Anet: Necromancers are powerful and deadly, but when can you come up with a way that does not involve ruining us under the pretext of bringing another build to the table. Take the above seriously: as I do not jest when I say that Necromancers, while getting buffs to be later Debuffed, have never gotten nerfed in some way during a major update.
P.S.
Most Chronomancers feel the same way. Whether their claim is true: I do not know. I have not played Chronomancer (2 Pvp games unranked and 1 fractal).
*Conclusion:*
So in a short conclusion: with adding another weapon to the kitten nal, and allowing Reapermancers to be able to play the way necromancers were built to be played, players can say that Anet actually cares about Necro/Reaper more than just Grand Slamming us with the Nerf Bat.
P.S.
If you read this entire thing: my apologies that you have this much time on your hands. For those who don’t care enough and/or don’t have the time:
TL;DR
Add Axe Offhand. Have fear ability. Have Jagged Horror Summon ability. High Cooldowns on both.
Have Reaper Spec allow necromancers to effectively kite: give the option to switch, while fighting, from Reaper Shroud to Death Shroud. These two shrouds use the same life force bar and have higher cooldowns respectively.
Your average necromancer rant.