Guild Wars 2

I started posting in Necromancer longsword idea thread about a bow and …well it started a life of it’s own, and it wouldn’t be fair to topic starter there. So i’m moving it here, so greatsword support goes to it’s thread and Necromancer bow (be it short or long) goes here:)

The bow would be necro’s burst aoe damage/control weapon. It would lack high sustained damage like dagger auto, but would provide occasional burst of damage as well as some buffing and enemy control ulitilies. A weapon you’ll use to both throw in something nasty in between main attacks, as well as to let your enemy know, fighting you at range is a very bad idea.

I would imagine it having the following skillset:

1 withering arrow - shoots an arrow that causes 1 stack torment and cripple on an opponent. Moderate damage.

Cast time: 3/4 sec.

2. terror arrow - shoots an arrow that toxifies enemies with pollen in landing area. If any enemies are hit, skill changes to toxic terror – causees fear in all afflicted enemies for 2 seconds when triggered.

cooldown: 15 seconds
radius:240
duration of pollen (time to activate toxic terror before it expires): 10 seconds.

3. Swamp fiend - Mark, Minion. Designate an area to set a trap. When enemy activates it, a swamp fiend attacks from underground, slashing & immobilizing enemies in range each second for 5 seconds before exploding for large aoe damage and bleeding.

Radius: 180.
cooldown: 30 seconds
combo finisher: blast

Follow up skill - Master’s Trap. Instantly teleport to the mark, or your swamp fiend as long as it’s alive.
Note: swamp fiend is immobile, it damages enemies inside mark’s previous radius. Just on activation mark is replaced with swamp fiend that also works with master’s trap follow up.

Life Force Cost: 15% of max value.
Cooldown 8 seconds

4. Totem of power – chain. Place a totem of power to create an area that pulses might to allies and weakness to enemies (think of it as a non mobile warrior banner effect). Chain has 3 stages each placing one totem. When 3rd and last totem is placed the totems effect area is formed and they start working. Totems stay active for 30 seconds.

cooldown:45 seconds.
might stacks per pulse: 1.
might duration: 8 seconds;

5. Putrid Mist. Shoots an arrow with chemicals that cause target area to be flooded by noxious, flammable gas, that pulses poison, blind and confuse on all enemies caught in it. Lasts 10 seconds.

Combo field: poison.
30 second cooldown.
radius: 240

Follow up skill: Detonate. Detonate your poison mist causing aoe explosion for each pulse the field had left.

Life force cost: 20% of max.
Blast Finisher.
Mist’s combo field becomes fire elemental for remainder of it’s duration and causes burning until it expires.

Currently we have a utility weapon (staff), a condition set scepter/dagger, a power melee set dagger/warhorn, and a ranged power set axe/focus. We need a melee condition weapon in the form of greatsword, sword/sword, hammer, or mace before we get any more ranged weapons. We have literally 1 melee skill in dagger 1 while everything else is ranged even on that weapon. This weapon set would be cool, but we need a real melee weapon first and foremost.

There is no order that we need weapons in. We need a melee cleave weapon, we need a melee condition weapon, we need ranged power, we need defensive off-hands, we need utility weapons that aren’t staff. There are tons of things we need, and none of them should be pushed off for not being important enough.

As for the bow: an auto attack that applies cripple and torment on its own won’t happen. It would allow us to apply up to 6 conditions just by auto attacking: torment, bleeding, cripple, weakness, burning, and chill/vulnerability.

My point is we have a utility weapon in staff, a ranged power weapon in axe, and a melee power weapon in dagger, so why would arena net address those first as opposed to things we clearly lack like a melee condition weapon or a defensive offhand as you pointed out. I agree that we have a lot of attack types our weapons don’t cover, but part of that is due to a lack of weapon identity. That’s why I posted a thread on reworking necromancer weapons.

zapv.8051:

We need a melee condition weapon

We have that in the form of Scepter, sure its not exactly a full Melee weapon but it can be used in the same sort of area as Axe, so if you can consider Axe a Range weapon then i would consider Scepter just as much as a Melee weapon.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

zapv.8051:

We need a melee condition weapon

We have that in the form of Scepter, sure its not exactly a full Melee weapon but it can be used in the same sort of area as Axe, so if you can consider Axe a Range weapon then i would consider Scepter just as much as a Melee weapon.

The problem with that is a scepter has reduced damage. Normally in video games melee weapons do more damage than ranged weapons because you take a risk being in melee range. This risk results in higher damage if you can stay in melee range. Using the scepter as a ranged weapon is simply a waste as it doesn’t have the added damage one gets with a melee weapon.

1. Cripple is too powerful outside of an auto chain imo. I think a low duration torment is good enough.
2. The skill isn’t bad, but I think it should be replaced with some sort of power based active skill to set off putrid mist like warrior LB 3. (The fear will also put staff out of a job)
3. I would move this skill down to the 5th spot and add a duration to the mark.
4. I think this skill is too complicated and should be replace with some sort of tether which weakens your target and nearby enemies giving might to nearby allies depending on how many enemies are affected.
5. I would remove the detonation and scrap the confusion and poison (puts corrosive poison cloud out of a job if it had one lol) and instead focus on blind and torment. The duration could use being dropped to 5s and I would move it down to the 3rd position.

Very good ideas overall, but I felt like there was too much fire and forget going on. I would have personally used 1-2 to create an opening to blow 3-5 then pressure them with dagger/x while they struggle to navigate it all.

My idea is pretty rough around the edges and some polish is highly welcomed;) However i stand strong on the role of bow in necro’s kitten nal (yup auto censor is stoopid). It’s a damage support weapon. In no way can it be compared to staff, which is a condition application and removal weapon.

The bow is to be the weapon you swap to make your damage epic then get back to your mainhand.
Notice the following advantages the bow gives to power players:

• untraited, fire & forget might stacking (totem). It has to be bit hard to set up, cause necro is not a boon class. Think of it as less easy to use warrior banner.
• short cd teleportation with swamp fiend follow up skill. This gives you the much needed evasion that your regular dodge just can’t provide enough of. And the nature of teleport does not give too much advantage in pvp (always to same spot and costs precious life force to use).
• torment stacks on auto attack to punish both runners and pursuers
• mist offering both severe condition damage or raw burst damage (at expense of your life force once again)
• a controllable fear cast that’s easier to use then the rest (save DS one).

It’s not a cleaving melee weapon nor it should be. Having options is one thing, having necro act like conan the barbarian is another. That’s just not necro like. But then again there’s always a way. Anyway my idea for the bow is to give extra damage sources as well some more opportunities for damage oriented necros and their lacking defense and mobbing abilities.

Just a note: Conan the Barbarian would probably get along with GW Necros just fine, with maybe a bit of banter between the two about differing opinions of how to bash skulls.