Guild Wars 2

Post suggestions here about the effects of the new condition necromancers will receive as their #5 skill in death shroud as stated in State of the Game.

I had the idea of maybe X Condition damage every time target applies a new boon. I’m sure you all have suggestions so I think it’d be best to compile them in a single topic.

Fire away!

Heh……Gork Sez Stop

That’s my Idea.

As I stated earlier, I wouldn’t mind access to some of those NPC conditions from Orr, such as Dwayna’s Lament and Melandru’s Sorrow.

I liked Kravick’s ideas that he posted in the other thread (although I think the total combined thing was too much, each idea is good), especially the idea of a cover condition.

I mentioned this in the other thread, but:

A condition that ticks for damage over time, deals a shot of damage when removed and is always removed before other conditions, providing an explicit “condition cover” a la classic cover hexes.

Maybe I’ll go dig up some old ‘New Condition!’ suggestion threads and link them here.

Edit: Two I found quickly:
Rot by lordhelmos.7623 – Necromancer gains a damage bonus for each condition on a target, does bonus damage when siphoning life.
Necrosis by Marinzine.3056 – Increases condition damage taken by the target.

http://www.xfire.com/video/2c48b

Gork Sez Stop!
Damaging
Learned on Rank 1
Core Ability
Usable by Shaman
Rank 1 Morale
100 ft
Instant
No
Description
Your target suffers X damage over 2s. If the target moves the duration is restarted.

Meh.

DS abilities should, across the board, have a power and a condition based component. For power users the power aspect is useful, for the condition users the condition component would be useful.

The problem is that DS1 is utter crap as a conditionmancer, and using DS5 to paper over that problem isn’t too clever. Likewise, it’s unlikely powermancers will gain much from DS5 (if we do, I suspect a mass influx of powermancers, as DS is already very much a powermancer friendly feature as is).

The real solution of course is to tie the DS abiulities to the currently equipped MH, but that’d take time and thought, neither of which is spared when Necro dev is considered.

I think it’s a good thing as long as it is something that only necros can do. I personally would like a condition that either stacks intensely, or has a unique feature.

I could also live with a parasitic bond >.>

Taken from the other thread that discusses the SOTG interview:

These are all great suggestions for the new 5th Death Shroud skill. Though I’m partial to making the skill weapon-dependent and therefore synergize with a particular build, I’ll admit in the name of balance that DS currently favors power/hybrid builds. To give a nod towards the conditionmancers, the condition suggestions above are all really good.

However, if indeed it will be a condition, keep in mind that it won’t be exclusive to necromancers. The devs in the interview stated (I’m paraphrasing) that it would be seen first on necromancers (implying other professions would eventually have access to it as well). If we suggest conditions that are just too necro-specific, then they’re not likely to be implemented. Also, keep in mind the principle of “you will be done to as you do unto others”. Whatever condition we suggest is something that could be used against us, in turn.

On the other hand, a 5th Death Shroud skill that changes based on what weapon you’re wielding would potentially be something unique to necromancers.

Lastly, instead of looking at it offensively, perhaps the 5th skill could be used defensively or for utility. Many have raised the issue of how little access Necromancers have to certain boons. We have no access to aegis, quickness, or vigor and limited access to fury, protection, retaliation, and stability. We have no channeled block capability nor invulnerability. I realize accessing some of these through a 5th DS skill might be OP; just brainstorming ideas here.

What about an aura or channel that inflicts a condition each time we’re hit (perhaps too much like Chaos Armor) or reflects conditions back onto the caster (would be a lot less CC-ing of necros in DS if this were implemented)? Alternately – and in keeping with the “boon hate” philosophy – an aura or channel that either strips a boon each time we’re hit, converts a boon into a condition each time we’re hit, or causes damage in a radius/increases our damage by X% for each boon on an opponent. To balance it, perhaps the aura or channel burns Life Force each time it processes a hit or converts/strips a boon. Call it Reaper’s Aura or something equally necromancer-y.

We keep being touted as the attrition class but yet have very few ways to actually stick to our target and keep them in the fight. What about a skill that places a condition or effect on a target that keeps teleporting them back to the Necromancer’s location every time they move beyond a certain distance from the Necromancer (perhaps 600 range)? Think of it as the Necromancer version of scorpion wire, but persistent while this condition or effect remains on the target. Call it Reaper’s Chains, perhaps.

Final brainstorm idea from out in left field: an effect (not a removable condition) that prevents the target from applying any new boons to themself. This effect would only last as long the necromancer remains in death shroud. Once they leave DS, the effect on the target ends. Longish recharge; long enough to prevent perma-boon shutdown from DS dancing. If other professions are given access to this same effect, it will have little impact on most Necromancers as we have such little access to or dependency on boons to begin with.

A few ideas…

Dark Conditions:
All conditions inflicted on target are hidden(not visible on HUD) from the target and may not be transferred or cleared. Duration: 3-7 sec, CD: 20 sec.

Dark Vision:
AOE invisible REMOVAL: A direct counter to the thief and mez AOE invisible.
Duration and CD similar to the thief and mez application.

Dark Portal:
Current target is directly transferred to a spot of the Necros choosing.
Range Duration CD similar to Mez portal.

Dark Bond:
On activate current target and Necro share a single combined life pool.
On expiration exactly half of the remaining life pool is returned to each player.
Bond broken on down.

Dark Transfer:
All boons placed or on target are transferred to Necro
OR
All conditions on or placed on Necro are transferred to target.
Whichever is greater.
Duration: 2-5 sec CD:40 sec

Dark Damage:
Power and Condition Damage share the value of the highest of either.
Duration, CD similar to Blood is Power.

Dark Reaper:
AOE harvest all life draining out of downed players and gain life force AND life.
Duration: 4-7 sec, CD: 90sec

Dark Tether:
On activate target looses health directly proportional to the distance increased between themselves and the Necro from activation.
Duration 10 sec, CD 40 sec.

Spectral Agony

Or we could instead fill Deathshroud 5 with a skill from GW1 that could be useful. I think of the Mesmer skill Hypochondria would be immensely useful for Necromancer.

Or you could add in an interesting mechanic to add this condition to allies, so that if an Ally is downed/killed Afflicted Soul Explosion

Or a condition based off Atrophy where it has an incredibly long duration and every time you use a weapon skill the effectiveness of said skills are reduced to 0 for the duration of the condition, and if you cleanse it, it deals damage to you equal of the remaining duration.

Bringing back Rising Bile would also be very welcome I think, if you cure it before the duration is over you take some significant damage or are CC’d.

And Spiteful Spirit would be essentially like a Necromancer’s exclusive version of Confusion.

I would think a “leeching” condition would be good, healing the Necromancer on each tick for the damage dealt. The damage coefficient couldn’t be that high (10% is probably fine), but it would definitely make necros more of the kings of attrition that we are supposed to be.

One that would be even better for the Necro is one that siphoned Endurance.

2 things, 1st make life blast the same as the underwater version where it places a condition on you onto the target. (this will give it some use for condition damage necros) and about the dark dot, I would love to see a double skill for #5. using this skill once applies the new condition of rooting your target for 4 seconds every 6 seconds while in deathshroud based on crit chance (both power focused necros and Crit dmg necros use crit chance.) and have the ability to hit the skill again to instead change all boons into equal confusion stacks.
Goreion

I think a viable 5th spot could be filled with a “haunt or possess” skill where the the opponent is turned against his own side for x seconds (auto attacking). This fits well with our “dark and scary” heritage and can be easily tuned by the devs by adjusting the time the of the haunting/possession is applicable. I trust they wouldn’t include a stupidly long cooldown though like a lot of our other skills.

Edit: if we are looking for some extra oomph in conditions you could extend the “possession” by one second for each condition on the target.

Omg I just had a great idea. Bring back disease! A condition that is contagious to those that come in contact with the infected person >.< Can you even imagine what kinda damage that could do to an unorganized team!?

That was actually posted in the sPvP forums, Storm. Yes I agree.

Glad to know other people are digging in the original for great ideas =) The only thing they would have to work out is how that would work in WvW. Unless it’s meant to be an anti zerg >.<

My only idea of this new 5th “condition” is that if it’s even a bit good you’ll see all Necro’s filling up their soul reaping trait lines in no time.

Both these suggestions have a CC impact….forcing players to scatter from the afflicted player.

Edit: neither of these suggestions are purely “original” as WOW uses similar mechanics a lot in their higher level dungeons/raids and it is proven as a viable approach.

Posted this on the other thread. I dont think we need another condition on DS. I think we need a utility that gives us a stronger position as an attrition class. Especially as we have very low mobility.

Id like a high cooldown extra heal. So you sacrifice 50% life force to get say 4k hp at lvl 80. If you have less than 50% life force the healing is reduced. Cooldown would have to be pretty high. But it would give necro’s the ability to recover from burst. Which at the moment they cant because we cant escape to heal and we cant heal while in DS so as soon as we’re down to our last chunk of hp we’re screwed. We can only stall our death for a little longer.

It would act as an emergency heal which would benefit our role as bunkers or an attrition class. In my eyes necro’s should be the best bunkers due to our very low mobility and huge hp pool, we’re also a unique bunker in that we dont rely on boons, so we need more to make up for that. Every type of build would benefit from a heal by sacrificing life force. And it can easily be balanced by tweaking healing power and cooldown.

Whatever it is, I hope it will act different in PVE than the handicapping bleeds cap that neuters our dps when we run with other condition classes. If 5 power builds are viable, then 5 condition builds should likewise be viable.

For pvp, maybe it could be a condition that causes increased damage as the afflicted moves. This way it penalizes those more mobile classes. I also like the idea of stealing all the target’s boons.

That said, whatever we get another class will still be able to do it better…

why not a condition generating LF ?
or “foe aflicted by this condition do less damage to people in death shroud”
but would be exclusive to necro… and only profit necro

so why not another form of weakness ?

or something working with proximity of teammates and/or foes
like ‘doing less/taking more’ damage ‘to/from’ ‘close/distant’ foe

… it looks like i love the concept of weakness or similar
afterall, it seems we are suposed to “take hits” instead of blocking or dodging them

would need different numbers for pvp/pve/wvw, like confusion.

A dot based on movement would be fun, but just another generic dot would be pretty boring since necros have bleed/poison already (confusion/burn would be nice to have from what already exists).

A condition that augments or other conditions could have some utility. I.E. A 15s condition that can only be cleared once it is the only condition remaining, while applied condition duration reductions are cancelled and condition removals have a 15% chance at failing.

Or connect the dot damage to the damage of other conditions: New mysterious condition ticks for 25% of the damage potential of applied poisons/bleeds (so say your currently applied bleeds have a potential to do 5000 damage over their entire duration, the new condition will look at that potential and tick for 1250 for something like 3/4s)

Disease… dot, plus weakness and reduced healing power

Avigrus.2871:

Disease… dot, plus weakness and reduced healing power

Not a bad idea. However, as Poison already reduces healing, it would be too similar to have a new Disease condition do the the same. I think your suggestion, though, of having it apply Weakness is appropriate. The decreased endurance generation from Weakness means it’s more difficult for the target to escape our damage via evades.

The damage-over-time then fits with the “dark-themed DoT” the devs spoke of in the SOTG interview.

Then, have it spread its remaining duration from the original target to nearby foes they come into contact with. Those foes, in turn, would then spread their remaining Disease durations to any foes they come into contact with.

To prevent it from being OP, add one of two limiters:

1) Disease will not spread to someone already afflicted with disease.

OR

2) Disease will not stack on additional duration or intensity (whichever is chosen for this new condition) to a player already afflicted by Disease if the transferer’s duration or intensity are less than or equal to the transferee’s.

For example, original target gets inflicted with Disease for 10 seconds. At the 8 second mark they move close enough to an ally to transfer the Disease. Both the new player and the original target player now have a Disease duration of 8 seconds. Neither will be able to transfer Disease from one to the other so long as both continue to suffer from the Disease condition and it remains at the same duration for both of them.

Attacker’s Bane:

You take no damage for 4 seconds. 50% (or some percentage) of the damage you would have taken is redirected to the target you have applied the condition to. 90 second CD. Tweak as needed so as not to be OP.

My condition idea would :
Corruption -

Stacks in Duration, enemy suffers DOT Damage, damage value similar to poison or a bit higher.

Additionally everyone hitting the corrupted target siphons life.

The Siphon heal value could be affected by healing power, the additional damage per hit could be increased by power, or can even be combined. Either based on the Necros stats, or on the attackers stats.

This siphon would also work for conditions, once per second for DOT based conditions. I Think it wouldnt be too strong because there are only 5 dot like conditions in the game (bleed,poison,fear,burn,and corruption) this would be max 5ticks per second through conditions, although its pretty impossible for only one class to inflict ALL of them. Fear is limited, Necros have no burn, Thief has no burn, Ele has no Poison… incase they want to add that condition to those classes.

Also, this skills healing part could be affected by our Blood Magic trait line, giving the necro further build variety and making a healing/bunker or healing/condition build stronger, as well as a vampiric kind of build.

As for the skill itself, #5 would create a medium sized (360 range) field, dealing damage every second and applying the new condition.

Maybe this skill could also have a sequence , i think it would be fitting due to the necros lack of such skills. You could reactivate it to teleport into that area (maybe a blast finisher?) , consuming the field dealing higher damage and summon a jagged horror for each enemy hit (5max). This skill would also be interesting for minionmasters then. Also helps us with chasing or escaping.

Other posters have suggested the 5th skill should be some type of life-force powered self-heal to extend our survivability and truly make us the attrition class we’re meant to be. Here’s my suggestion along the same lines:

For 7 years I played Blood Necro in GW1. I enjoyed playing it on the edge by using Blood Renewal as my heal. This skill would sacrifice 15% of your health now to grant you immediate health regen for 7 seconds and a large heal at the end of those 7 seconds. You more or less healed for around 50% of your total health once you took everything into account.

What made it so fun (for me, anyway) was how it could be used to mess with an opponent’s mind. You were essentially making yourself appear to be very near death (assuming you had already lost some of your health to begin with) and an easy target, to then suddenly pop up by 50% of your health if you played it right.

Through careful timing, using your health as a resource, and skillful play, it gave a blood necro incredible sustain in a fight. Of course, if you screwed up, you could just as easily kill yourself as a consequence of the health sacrifice. It was high risk, high reward. It captured the feeling of winning through attrition and being a necromancer straddling the razor’s edge between life and death. So many brushes with death, only to turn it around at the last split second as the heal kicks in and you continue to whittle away at a now-demoralised opponent; ahhh, those were the days

Naturally, I was very saddened to find this type of play no longer exists in GW2. Fortunately, we now have a chance to restore it while giving us the sustain/survivability/attrition we’re sorely lacking at the moment. To accomplish this, I suggest one of the following be used as our 5th Death Shroud skill:

1) Sacrifice X amount of Life Force. When you exit Death Shroud, you are healed an amount equal to the amount of Life Force you had remaining on exit. Alternately, it could be an amount equal to Y% of your remaining Life Force.

The recharge on this skill would be sufficiently long enough that it can’t be spammed via Death Shroud dancing OR it could be spammed if the amount of healing is a sufficiently small percentage of one’s Life Force.

2) Sacrifice X amount of health. When the Necromancer exits Death Shroud, an effect is placed on them that can not be removed by any means. At the end of Y seconds, this effect ends and the Necromancer is healed equal to the amount of health that was sacrificed multiplied by a modifier (1.5 perhaps). If the sacrifice is a set amount or a percentage based on total health rather than current health, the Necromancer runs the risk of killing themself as soon as they exit Death Shroud.

For example, assume the sacrifice is 2,000. If the Necromancer is at 4,000 health when they make the sacrifice, they will be at 2,000 health on exiting DS. A few second later, they will then be healed for 3,000 health (assuming a modifier of 1.5). If, on the other hand, the necromancer was at 1,500 health when they made the sacrifice while in Death Shroud, they will be immediately sent to the downed or even the defeated state immediately on exiting DS.

3) On exiting Death Shroud, this skill will heal the necromancer equal to a percentage of the damage they inflict while in Death Shroud and based only on Death Shroud skills (i.e. placing a DoT condition on an opponent just prior to entering DS will not count towards the cumulative damage inflicted while in DS form). Alternately, instead of all damage to all targets, it could be only that damage inflicted on a single target “marked” by this skill.

4) This skill places a mark on a target (similar to the Lich Form skill "Marked for Death). When the necromancer exits Death Shroud, they are healed for a percentage (let’s say 20%) of the difference between the target’s full health and the target’s current health.

For example, assume a target has 15,000 health at full. On exit from DS, the target has 12,000 health; the Necromancer is healed for 600 ( [15,000 – 12,000] x 0.20 = 600). If instead the target has 2,000 health when the Necromancer exits DS, then the healing would increase to 2,600. These healing amounts would be unaffected by any stat or trait.

5) Stick with the “dark-themed DoT” envisioned by the developers. When this DoT ends, it heals the Necromancer equal to the amount of damage it has inflicted on the target(s) in addition to whatever other effects it may have. If the Necromancer is in DS at the time this new DoT ends, the health is “banked” and heals the Necromancer as soon as they exit DS.

6) On exiting Death Shroud, the Necromancer is healed for a percentage of the total damage they received while in DS.

I think this is really exciting for the necromancer. Here are a few suggestions, attempting to compensate for balance while introducing a completely unique condition.

1) Necrotic Link: It would be a moderate base duration condi, max 5-6 seconds, that leeches health from the enemy. Duration increased by say 40% if you are using a siphon ability on the target (Dagger #2, Wells or minions if traited, DS 4. it does not gain duration off of siphon on hit and crit) it should scale with the blood magic trait w/ 50% increase on siphon. Vampiric builds are currently nonexistent in the sense that they can viably use aoe drains for effective group healing on the scale of guardian or ele. Maybe something that adds a little damage/survive to current damage builds and makes room for necro bunkers in the meta. Also fits perfectly into our “attrition” nature.

2) Reapers Pestilence: a condi that lasts 5-6 seconds that would increase in damage the longer the player does not cleanse it. At six seconds if still not cleansed it will basically epidemic itself and all other conditions to surrounding targets (Reapers pestilence would reset itself onto each new target). Of course this would be very powerful, but also easily countered. it would require a necro to have a sense of how each prof removes condis and the timing to land it when the target will not be able to cleanse. It should have an obvious animation so even newer players recognize it and at least a 40 sec CD. EDIT: unable to be spread via epidemic.

3) Dark Hunger: While I do know necros have alot of boon removal already, I don’t think we have access to enough boons on reasonable CDs. Tankier classes would hate this but I would like a condi that basically siphons boons on each tick. It would help even power builds have more viability against boon stacking DPS like eles or HGH engi.

Could bet my life on it being a return of disease from gw1. Be great news for wvw if true.

Bye bye mega zergs.

I like the idea of a condition that does dark damage whenever the target acquires a condition, even if it above the bleed cap, have the bonus damage scale with condition damage.

This would be a nice workaround for the condition cap, and a nice boost to condition builds that DS doesn’t do a whole lot for at the moment.

Crit damage reduction

Demise- Starts off weak and gets stronger over time. Only way to cleanse is by defeating the necro.

Probably op, but whatever.

would love to see the original version of disease come back from gW1. Since they wanted to add a second function, throw weakness in it too. But I think with the over-abundance of condition removals in the game, keeping it in original form so that each application
gets a new duration would (except of course if you already have it on ymore duration until it expires and gets reapplied).

DS5 Idea – I remember something similar being in GW1 but the name escapes me.

Single-Target, Long Duration Condition that does 1 Bleed worth of damage and a small nuke that can crit (for on-crit effects).

At expiration (or cleanse) it hits the target with an AoE Nuke (non-crit, like Retal damage) + Bleed + Cripple (like Grasping Dead).

Condimancers get some back-loaded bleed DPS and CC in PvE.
Powermancers get some back-loaded Direct DPS and CC in PvE.
All Necros get a cover condition that makes cleansing an actual choice, instead of just mindless spam.
Epidemic becomes useful for Powermancers because they can spread this to other targets for loads of anti-zerg AoE spike.

So, what’s the counter?

Make it so the damage is higher the more time is left on the condition. If it’s cleansed instantly it’ll HURT a lot. If it expires it’ll still hurt a tiny bit (so it won’t be totally useless in PvE).

Maybe OP, but I’d prefer a mechanic to make cleansing an actual decision rather than just something you do because there’s red icons on the screen.

maybe a sacrifice of hp to gain some LF. so you don’t get the situation that your skill is off CD in half a second and u get kicked out of DS before you can use it. maybe 5% LF for 10-15% LF. I know thats not a dark dot but would be nice!

We need attrition not a dot. Thats why i second Kraag Deadsouls ideas. One of them is very similar to my idea. Sacrifice life force to heal.

A few points I’d like to bring up in this context:

• DS somewhat favours power necros atm, but I don’t think it’s a good a idea to add a skill that only benefits conditionmancers and is utterly useless to powermancers. To that end, and since the DoT part favours conditions, I think it’s fair if the second part somehow benefits both (as is the case with poison).
• I guess we don’t really want a skill is completely useless in PvE either.
• Considering this, I’m NOT in favor of a type of cover condition that deals some kind of spike damage on removal. Mainly because of all the passive condition removal and condition removal from allies, I don’t see how this could work out well. As in, you get spiked because your trait decided to kick in? Or you get spiked because some dude next to you decided to remove your condition? This doesn’t lead to interesting gameplay imo.
• What I’m personally in favor of (and has been proposed by others as well) is something akin to Spitefull Spirit from GW1, as that type of gameplay seems to be missing for the GW2 necro atm. As the target already gets damage from the DoT, I’d propose something like this (obviously, this is but one of the many variations on this idea): Hexed – Deals damage every second; every time you deal damage, you deal X% of damage to nearby allies; stacks duration.
  The idea (in pvp) isn’t directly to deal damage but to force the enemy to do one of the following (obviously this is in situations where multiple enemies are close together): 1) cleanse the condition, 2) stop dealing damage (stop attacking or only use non-damaging skills), 3) move away from allies, 4) having other allies move a way from the affected target. All 4 benefit the necro in some way, be it making the enemy more open to other conditions (1) or temporarily taking enemies partially out of the fight (2-4) and wasting dodges (3-4). Also, it promotes smarter awareness of positioning on both sides. To achieve this, X should be chosen to add significant pressure to the enemy team if it is ignored (notice that, since it’s % of damage dealt, damage reduction/avoidance actually reduces to effect of the condition, so X could be fairly high). Imo, this could lead to interesting game play, both for the necro and for the enemy.

PS. If you go down this road, please call DS5 Spitefull Spirit and rename the trait, cause let’s be honest: the trait really isn’t worthy of the name.

from our short experience
with Anet fixes and tweaks
agony is the answer

Do not make it DS only. Add it to necro weapons.

Idea for work:
Intensity Stacking.
Removing it causes to person who removed it entire remaining damge of stack.

My suggestion for the 5th skill would be a simple teleport:

Call it Dark Transfer or whatever it doesn’ really matter

Dark Transfer teleports the necromancer to the targeted location and applies (New Debuff) in a small AoE around that location.

Casttime: 1.5 seconds
Castrange: 700
Cooldown: 35 seconds
Invulnerability: 1,5 seconds (during casttime)
Applies (New Debuff): 3 seconds, 800 dmg, -33% damage output, 300 AoE

The animation would be the necromancer vaporizing into dark dust and creating a stream to the target location where the necromancer appears and the dust is blown away indicating the radius of the AoE.

This skill would for one give the Necromancer some much needed mobility, which is still crippled, due to the 1,5 second cast time and due to the fact that the target location is given away to the enemy. The Debuff in it’s nature would strengthen the idea of an attrition class giving the damage reduction on the debuff. The fact that it is a dot makes it obvious, that the DS would actually be somewhat viable for Conditionmancers as well.

I think this skill wouldn’t be over the top but would solve some problems many people have with the necromancers.

Sry for my bad english tell me what you think

What’s the point of making a 1.5 second cast time if the caster is invulnerable for the casting? That’s basically adding insult to injury.

Necro: Hey! Hey look! I’m about to cast this spell and guess what? You can’t do squat about it.

The point of Cast Times is meant to offer opponents an opportunity to do something during it. Be it reposition themselves in relation to you, to dodge accordingly, or to somehow interrupt the cast time time.

Also try to remember that this spell is being cast in Death Shroud. How are we supposed to look like dust when we’re already covered in black smoke that floats about our bodies as we move.

Though I do like the idea of a Condition (you’re spot on with the attempt to make us last longer in a fight) that weakens physical Damage, I think 33% is just too strong. Remember that this debuff will be working alongside game mechanics that are already in place in the game. Just imagine that if a Necro and Guardian show up, all damage would be roughly cut in half. (It wouldn’t be a straight up 66% because the inbound damage would be scaled back by 33% and then the protection would proc on hit resulting in 33% less damage of the already reduced damage. I suck at math too much to figure out the exact number.)

Incoming damage would hit at 45% (roughly) with that scenario. Throw in weakness on top, and you’re looking at a new meta of necro/guardian pairs wrecking people.

Oblivion.8307:

Post suggestions here about the effects of the new condition necromancers will receive as their #5 skill in death shroud as stated in State of the Game.

I had the idea of maybe X Condition damage every time target applies a new boon. I’m sure you all have suggestions so I think it’d be best to compile them in a single topic.

Fire away!

What about a new dot type that if not removed in a certain amount of time turns the person its on into a minion/zombie that attacks anything nearby friendly or not :p or turns them into like a plaguebearer that will explode and put conditions on nearby allies. Like this http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Moa_Morph but with the effects i listed above

Ratphink.4751:

What’s the point of making a 1.5 second cast time if the caster is invulnerable for the casting? That’s basically adding insult to injury.

Necro: Hey! Hey look! I’m about to cast this spell and guess what? You can’t do squat about it.

The point of Cast Times is meant to offer opponents an opportunity to do something during it. Be it reposition themselves in relation to you, to dodge accordingly, or to somehow interrupt the cast time time.

Also try to remember that this spell is being cast in Death Shroud. How are we supposed to look like dust when we’re already covered in black smoke that floats about our bodies as we move.

Though I do like the idea of a Condition (you’re spot on with the attempt to make us last longer in a fight) that weakens physical Damage, I think 33% is just too strong. Remember that this debuff will be working alongside game mechanics that are already in place in the game. Just imagine that if a Necro and Guardian show up, all damage would be roughly cut in half. (It wouldn’t be a straight up 66% because the inbound damage would be scaled back by 33% and then the protection would proc on hit resulting in 33% less damage of the already reduced damage. I suck at math too much to figure out the exact number.)

Those are rough numbers of course, my post was about throwing in the idea of those mechanics, and I will tell you what a 1.5 second cast time would be good for. 1.5 seconds for us to not be able to do something we’ve been taken out of the game for 1.5 seconds and other people can either notice that and run towards the targeted location or the can waste their CDs on the necro. I would assume that invulnerability would work the same way as the Guardians “Renewed Focus” as in dots do still tick.
I also think that 3 seconds every 35 seconds isn’t that strong considering the ability to convert or remove condiditions on many classes.

Also cast times are not soley in the game to have an interruptable part to the skill but also to have a certain timecost for a certain skill and for other players to respond to what is coming either with positioning or with smart usage of skills.

For a new condition I would like to see Anet take the Old Guild Wars 1 Skill “Blood Bond” and make a Condition based off of that.
So it would be something like…

Whenever a player Deals Damage (Loss of Health) to an Enemy with “Blood Bond” on them,
they gain (base amount of health) + (Modifier1 * Level) + (Modfier2 * healing power)
of Health

-It’s pretty straightforward (not complex)

-it comes with a built in counter method (avoid taking damage) which means it wouldn’t be overpowered.

-Would buff the number of Support options for the Necromancer,
which are currently limited.

-It has a Historical background for the Necromancers, coming from an old Guild Wars 1 Skill,

-Necromancers with DeathShroud, would have the easiest counter to it, as Life Force loss, would not proc the condition,
Meaning there wouldn’t be any concern of it becoming a condition where another class not only applies it faster, but also avoids its effects better,
even if it was eventually provided to other classes.