Guild Wars 2

So it has been almost confirmed that the Necromancer will be able to wield a Greatsword. This gave me food for thought when it came to naming the specialisation and the new ability this would allow.

My idea is that, whilst wielding a Greatsword, the Necromancer’s light armor will temporarily gain Heavy armor stats, making him, effectively, a real death KNIGHT. This would give the Necromancer a truly tank-y specialisation, whilst still allowing for DPS or other roles if it would change weapons.

What would you find about a specialisation like this?

Personally I like the concept, but I think this won’t exactly be the case.
Necro’s already have a great deal of sustainability with their Death Shroud, giving them practically an extra bar of health.
The only thing that they indeed lack is the raw DPS, wich will, hopefully, be solved by the greatsword.
That being said, I would love it if ANet did something similar to your idea, it would give an extra dimension to the Necro as a class.

Giving an armor boost to a light class just screams imbalance in my head. Perhaps they will be able to hit stronger, faster, or gain more mobility, but they’ll stay just as squishy. They used to be the best tanks around, until their down state was no longer the death shroud. Just too imbalanced.

Arwendar.8653:

The only thing that they indeed lack is the raw DPS, wich will, hopefully, be solved by the greatsword.

Well it’s not that bad, unless you’re a condimancer… so best bet the greatsword is going to be a direct damage weapon.

It’s been said 1000 times and i’ll say it 1001st. Difference in damage reduction between heavy and light armor is so small it’s near impossible to say “it makes someone tanky/glassy” with straight face.

The base hp + access to defensive skills/traits, and how much you have to stray from offensive setup’s path to get reasonable defense – now that’s what makes a character squishy or tanky by default. And necro is pretty kitten tanky here.

CureForLiving.5360:

Arwendar.8653:

The only thing that they indeed lack is the raw DPS, wich will, hopefully, be solved by the greatsword.

Well it’s not that bad, unless you’re a condimancer… so best bet the greatsword is going to be a direct damage weapon.

So according to you, greatsword is going to be a direct damage weapon, because condimancer is lacking raw dps?
That doesnt make any sense.

I’d really want to see a melee cleave condition weapon. that would be quite unique

ZeftheWicked.3076:

It’s been said 1000 times and i’ll say it 1001st. Difference in damage reduction between heavy and light armor is so small it’s near impossible to say “it makes someone tanky/glassy” with straight face.

The base hp + access to defensive skills/traits, and how much you have to stray from offensive setup’s path to get reasonable defense – now that’s what makes a character squishy or tanky by default. And necro is pretty kitten tanky here.

the difference is arround 10-12% at lvl 80, due anet want to make a easy pew pew game.

Death Knight = Shadow Knight

RashanDale.3609:

CureForLiving.5360:

Arwendar.8653:

The only thing that they indeed lack is the raw DPS, wich will, hopefully, be solved by the greatsword.

Well it’s not that bad, unless you’re a condimancer… so best bet the greatsword is going to be a direct damage weapon.

So according to you, greatsword is going to be a direct damage weapon, because condimancer is lacking raw dps?
That doesnt make any sense.

I’d really want to see a melee cleave condition weapon. that would be quite unique

Or alternatively anet is going to redo conditions. Probably not. So I’d wager they’d go for the easier solution, and the one that would get the less complaints.

Can we go with another name?

Death Knight sounds too corny.

Prophet.6257:

Can we go with another name?

Death Knight sounds too corny.

Hmm … Death Day? /points at thread title

Derigar.7810:

So it has been almost confirmed that the Necromancer will be able to wield a Greatsword. This gave me food for thought when it came to naming the specialisation and the new ability this would allow.

My idea is that, whilst wielding a Greatsword, the Necromancer’s light armor will temporarily gain Heavy armor stats, making him, effectively, a real death KNIGHT. This would give the Necromancer a truly tank-y specialisation, whilst still allowing for DPS or other roles if it would change weapons.

What would you find about a specialisation like this?

I don’t want to hurt you but if necromancer gain a bit more armor stat with it’s specialization, nobody will ever use it.

Tankiness ain’t an issue for necromancers. There are plenty of tanky build that are totally perfect to suck up average damage. For example :
- Spectral build 04343 (With this you can go in and out of an ennemy zerg at will)
- Minion build 40440 (the 2 last point can be spend in whatever traitline you want. The only important feature being vampiric master that give you one hell of a sustain)

The real issue is that this game rely a lot on some mechanism that the necromancer lack : boon sharing, block, dodge and even invulnerability. To be blunt Necromancer don’t buff other which make him a selfish character. Necromancer have unreliable combo finisher and it’s combo field doesn’t contribute in group fight (worst, these combo field are an hindrance for some of the PvE content). And lastly, Necromancer can’t survive against one hit ko mechanism due to the fact that they can only take damage on health pools that are connected. (I’m not including movement skill because, while they are indeed valuable, I don’t think they would help the necromancer to a valuable asset for group content. This would just enhance necromancer’s selfishness)

So, a specialization that give at least one of the thing that necromancer lack would be valuable. But a specialization which would grant a tiny armor boost wouldn’t be valuable at all. I think… there would even be people that would delete their necromancer if dev were doing that. They would delete it, saying on forum : “It’s useless devs even troll us with specialization while other profession gain amazing feature”

Indeed the necro doesnt need to be more tanky – they can already build incredibly tanky.

The only thing they need is a weapon that make them desirable in high end PvE. I’m hoping that the greatsword will be a group utility weapon.

But I have little doubt that Anet will botch pretty much every new weapon. Except possibly the Warriors, cant give a weak weapon to their little favorite pet.

My necro is incredibly tanky already. Ritual of Protection makes wells pulse protection boon (for you AND allies). Vampiric Rituals makes wells eat other players and feed you life. And because Necros are light armor the bonus Toughness from Death Magic is further up the diminishing returns curve on Toughness.

what is with people and death knights..

Arwendar.8653:

Personally I like the concept, but I think this won’t exactly be the case.
Necro’s already have a great deal of sustainability with their Death Shroud, giving them practically an extra bar of health.
The only thing that they indeed lack is the raw DPS, wich will, hopefully, be solved by the greatsword.
That being said, I would love it if ANet did something similar to your idea, it would give an extra dimension to the Necro as a class.

deathshroud offers the illusion of sustainability. you want to see how effective their sustain is, equip a hammer.

Prophet.6257:

Can we go with another name?

Death Knight sounds too corny.

Nazgul!!!!!

Btw, there is already a thread for Necro Spec name speculation.

No need to keep spamming this Death Knight crap.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necromancer-Specialization-Name-prediction/first

Necro doesn’t need to be more tanky. Necro is already plenty tanky.

Necro needs more useful group utility. So many “dark assassin” “death knight” “evil warrior” concepts that seem to have crawled out of some fan fic notebook out there. Necro doesn’t need any silly gimmicks or cliche names, it needs to be brought up to par as a useful class with utility in a group.

DPS wise, Necro isn’t actually bad individually.

Azrael.4960:

what is with people and death knights..

I really don’t know. To me the defining feature of knights is heavy armor (followed closely by having a horse). Neither of those things will be true for specialized Necromancers so, yeah, not a “Death Knight”.

Executioner maybe. Corpse Lord. Black Slayer. Really depends on the new utility skills. But not “Death Knight” .

Greatsword is a mobility power weapon with good cleaving. Odds are it will be like that on the necro, too.

Maybe they’ll replace Death Shroud with team friendly F1-F4 skills that are fueled by the Death Shroud “Life Bar”?

Palador.2170:

Maybe they’ll replace Death Shroud with team friendly F1-F4 skills that are fueled by the Death Shroud “Life Bar”?

Maybe but necromancer would be totally defenseless and most of the existent traits would become useless.

I like it, but quite honestly i can’t reason why the hell necros need heavy armor on top of another bar of health (death shroud) and some of the best passive healing out there (siphons, i don’t care what you say a siphon necro in zerker gear with wells can get some pretty crazy sustain).
Although i think it’s all high time we address the elephant in the room. We know for a fact that you lose some things to gain the powers of your spec, and we know it changes your class mechanic, so we could conceivably be losing DS as well as a set of utilities (i’m thinking they’ll take all of one, so for instance spectral, wells, corruption, minnions) or even a trait line (i hope to god they don’t do it that way, but seeing as we know almost nothing we have to consider the possibility)

I guess the point to be made is that while a greatsword is cool and all, it’s still entirely possible that we still might not want the spec if we’ve got to sacrifice a trait line (the current theory is that your class trait line gets replaced, so on a necro that’d be soul reaping) and we might lose death shroud… i mean sure GS is cool and all but if it makes your necro that far removed from actually being a necro? Specs aren’t directly an upgrade and in what i’ve seen so far they seem to kinda be hinting that maybe not everybody will want to make their ranger into a druid or so on, tread with caution and cynicism i say

I’m hoping that what ever it is called the GS necro is a melee cleave with aoe debuffs like chill and weakness. We have always been slow and lacked real defensive boons like aegis and deflection and I don’t see that changing. So the ability to slow the enemies out going damage makes more sense for us.

What ever thou, I’m collecting GS skins anyways, its the one weapon I have always wanted on my necro so it would have to really suck for me not to use it.

CynicalFred.9135:

I like it, but quite honestly i can’t reason why the hell necros need heavy armor on top of another bar of health (death shroud) and some of the best passive healing out there (siphons, i don’t care what you say a siphon necro in zerker gear with wells can get some pretty crazy sustain).

If by “crazy sustain” you mean “can be out-done by a number of traits or signet passives,” then sure. Siphons are currently only passable sustain in the perfect scenario. Otherwise, the Regeneration boon even out-does them.

They should be called Reapers ala Reapers of Grenth.

As for the weapon, if it were a similar weapon to Ranger greatsword but provided great DPS I’d be fine with that.

The weapon and additional utility will need A LOT of work though unless ANet gets around to getting the base class up to par.

As it stands the class has poor sustained damage. Near the bottom, if not the very bottom of the class pool.

The class has no group utility other than stacking vulnerability which is hardly something worth specializing over.

The class is the slowest, least mobile class in the game.

Now while it doesn’t need to be the best at any of these, it can’t be dead last at all of them.

A friend of mine called the specialization ‘executioner’, which in itself fit for a person who brings about death, and executioners (contrary to popular beleif) wielded greatswords a lot of the time, sometimes the old beheading axe you see now and then.

Would certainly be a light armored concept rather than a full metal plate kinda deal, it’s also not the same rehashed name like death/black/shadow knight, that I’ve grown increasingly wary of when it comes to RPGs, where they’re essentially the emo version of paladins, or in this case ‘guardians’

“death knight” how kitten original !
not only that, even if they aren’t people will say oh you wanna be wow so much you had to steal the name. !

Kitten that,

give it any name, anything is better than death knight !

Tom Gore.4035:

Greatsword is a mobility power weapon with good cleaving. Odds are it will be like that on the necro, too.

I certainly hope so.

Atherakhia.4086:

They should be called Reapers ala Reapers of Grenth.

Yeah but I’d want a scythe then.

No. What necromancers need is a melee cleave weapon with high power damage. And Greatsword is their opportunity to get that, so a melee cleave weapon with lots of power damage and mobility.

RashanDale.3609:

Btw, there is already a thread for Necro Spec name speculation.

No need to keep spamming this Death Knight crap.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necromancer-Specialization-Name-prediction/first

Can you please, like, not?

I suggested a similiar idea OP, that the necros cloth stats become heavy stats but when you chose to specialize, not just when you wielded the great sword.

I think it wouldnt be that hard, just increase armor stats proportionally as a buff. Theres a lot of hate against death knights which I dont understand (seems logical name – martial specialization for a death class), but I wont go there.. ! :P

I had considered the new specialization may trade light armor for heavy but there would also be something else that has to go; perhaps DS, perhaps a weapon, maybe a trait line.

From a game economy perspective, letting players change armor class is a big win for the company.

Not really. It forces us to re-gear. Thus invalidating our gear progression. Something they have said they are against.

Perhaps you are right but increased skin sales and material consumption, followed by bag and bank slot expansion, cannot be easy to forego.

Still, having an heavy armor will change nothing except skin… and add a gold sink especially for necromancer…

Please please can I have a cheap signboard with “Do not play Necro, It even waste In Game gold!” ?

Derigar.7810:

RashanDale.3609:

Btw, there is already a thread for Necro Spec name speculation.

No need to keep spamming this Death Knight crap.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necromancer-Specialization-Name-prediction/first

Can you please, like, not?

Can I not what?

I dont think anyone wants to throw out their armor and start over (imagine the qq), a simple buff would do. Also I dont see them tossing out ds, too many traits tied to it.

I think Necromancers are pretty tanky. I don’t like meleeing, so neither rh e Greatsword nor the heavy armor interest me, honestly.
I wanted to play Necromancer as a condition damage + CC (Fear), but everyone is saying that It’s not really viable right now.
I would enjoy more a buff to that concept than wearing myself like a knight
My humble opinion.

More armor does nothing. Play rev if you want a necro type in heavy armor. Channel some real spirits instead of fumbling your own like we necros do.

bssbruno.1487:

I wanted to play Necromancer as a condition damage + CC (Fear), but everyone is saying that It’s not really viable right now.

Actually, that’s still the most viable Necro (outside of PvE and zerg fight WvW), primarily due to range and how much easier that makes positioning. Necros also have a wide variety of conditions they can apply (every Necro build has 5 conditions before accounting for weapon, skill, or trait choices, so chew on that for a bit). In fact, Necros are capable of applying every condition in the game without RNG or equipment being a factor in a single build (S/D, Dhuumfire, Spectral Wall, Bone Fiend/Flesh Wurm, and your choice of axe, focus, well of suffering, signet of spite, or death shiver).

In any case, since our condition damage sets have better range, which makes positioning much easier, that is the more viable build.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

bssbruno.1487:

I wanted to play Necromancer as a condition damage + CC (Fear), but everyone is saying that It’s not really viable right now.

Actually, that’s still the most viable Necro (outside of PvE and zerg fight WvW), primarily due to range and how much easier that makes positioning. Necros also have a wide variety of conditions they can apply (every Necro build has 5 conditions before accounting for weapon, skill, or trait choices, so chew on that for a bit). In fact, Necros are capable of applying every condition in the game without RNG or equipment being a factor in a single build (S/D, Dhuumfire, Spectral Wall, Bone Fiend/Flesh Wurm, and your choice of axe, focus, well of suffering, signet of spite, or death shiver).

In any case, since our condition damage sets have better range, which makes positioning much easier, that is the more viable build.

I’m new to the game, but can you suggest me a build ? I see A LOT OF contradiction about the builds, specially about Traits and Utility spells. Any input is more than welcome. I have created a Topic about it today, but no one replied yet.
And I have already watched guides (videos and text). I’m not asking because I’m lazy, but the builds are really different, i can’t find a pattern. Thanks in advance!

spoj.9672:

Not really. It forces us to re-gear. Thus invalidating our gear progression. Something they have said they are against.

Type of armor wise sure but stats…did they build them to be specific of a stat combination…since it’s only one so far it probably could(will).

I have no idea what you are trying to say.

spoj.9672:

I have no idea what you are trying to say.

If the specialisation works best with a different set then the one you are using wouldn’t that be a gear change?? Also we don’t know if and what will we lose/replace that also could create a change in gear,not necessarily the necro’s but just in general.

For example you don’t really run LB/GS on rangers with condition gear.

No but you can if you want to.

Changing gear type is forcing us completely. Id be seriously kittened off if i cant wear any of my 3 ascended sets on my necro. Not to mention i like my light armour skins. Besides whatever the spec gives us theres only 2 types of damage in this game. Condi or power. So im not going to need a new set unless we are forced to wear heavy.

Thankfully its such a bad idea i dont even need to worry about it. Theres no way anet would make such a stupid feature for specialisations. Even by their standards its bad.