Guild Wars 2

So I heard that condition is going to get nerfed since Dhuumfire + Terror was supposedly too strong and in return Necromancer survivability is going to get buffed. The survivability thing is good for all Necromancers in general, but how are they going to do this?

They are going to do it in a way no one expects.

The Spanish Inquisition!

They want people using Death Shroud more, so I’m predicting buffs in that area. Could be larger Life Force pool, or maybe faster Life Force generation, or perhaps something new. Just guessing.

Appears it will not be healing while in DS, however. Dev said they found it overpowered.

Jon Sharp did say that they were looking at moving more life force generation to the main-hand weapons and probably off of spectrals (though I feel spectrals should be left alone)

Even with LF generation, it still doesn’t help that fact that Death Shroud is boring and the skills are lackluster if you have to stay in it. Not to mention the fact that we’re cut off from our utility skills. They should just make our useless minors (and there’s a few of them) contribute to death shroud more and make it more appealing to use. Odds are it’ll just be a boring buff to LF gen and LF pool, with nothing else changed except our damage being nerfed back into oblivion.

Yay more life force generation, does not save me from having to face tank a focus fire. get a grip anet.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Jon Sharp did say that they were looking at moving more life force generation to the main-hand weapons and probably off of spectrals (though I feel spectrals should be left alone)

I can’t understand how you can think that spectrals should be “left alone”. 60 second base cd on SA for 6 second benefit?!? The only benefits being LF generation increase for those same 6 seconds while taking damage and 6 seconds of protection during that same time period. That’s a default of 10% uptime. Even then..you may spend those entire 6 seconds on your back due to lack of stability. One minute/60 seconds is an eternity in this game. IMO…this CD should be cut in half and the duration doubled…plus adding stability. This ability does not even compare to the benefits you get from wells…with shorter cool downs, more useful effects, and some of them deal damage. Even spectral walk should be improved..has the same cd and only grants swiftness…they should replace the useless green trail (flavor effect) with stealth (a usefull and needed escape mechanism). They should definitely not “leave spectrals alone”.

ODB.6891:

IMO…this CD should be cut in half and the duration doubled…plus adding stability.

so 12s of protection, stability and life force generation every 30s?
… not counting boon duration or spectral recharge bonus
that would be horribly OP; see http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Armor_of_Earth

ODB.6891:

they should replace the useless green trail (flavor effect)

that green tail indicates where your start point is for http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spectral_Recall (for both absent minded necro players and others fighting them); its not useless

Linguistically Inept.6583:

ODB.6891:

IMO…this CD should be cut in half and the duration doubled…plus adding stability.

so 12s of protection, stability and life force generation every 30s?
… not counting boon duration or spectral recharge bonus
that would be horribly OP; see http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Armor_of_Earth

ODB.6891:

they should replace the useless green trail (flavor effect)

that green tail indicates where your start point is for http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spectral_Recall (for both absent minded necro players and others fighting them); its not useless

So you think necros are in a good place with stability? Honestly I was throwing the best case scenario out there…but even with a 5 second duration…the cd would still need to be brought down to about half of what it currently is. I don’t pvp or wvw much..primarily pve, but in any of those venues….60 seconds is too long of a cd…even 48 (traited is a bit too long)..for 5 seconds of value. Stuff happens on too short of a time frame for that. SA is competing for a utility slot with wells…do you currently think it is a viable alternative to a well right now? This profession is starved for stability currently..pretty sure our only current option is 3 seconds when entering DS as a trait, whereas everyone else gets it as a utility with no trait requirements. Comparing Necros with elementalists is like comparing apples and oranges. Its pretty much common knowledge that elementalists have extremely high survival capabilities between damage mitigation utilities, healing, traits, and escape mechanisms…plus nearly comparable condition applying capabilities…not to mention their damage output. Even mentioning them is just strengthening the argument for improving necros. Its no wonder that one of their stability+protection+stun break options has a 90 second cd.

As far as the spectral walk trail goes..i’d gladly sacrifice that tether option for an actual escape mechanism.

I wish they would just give up on trying to maker DS a thing. It was a failed idea from the start.
Just spend some time and come up with a better mechanic, maybe somthing necro related? Sure, such a drastic change will kitten alot of fanboys off at first. But the class will be better for it and in time everyone will come to proffer the new mechanic. Because lets face it, only the engi has a worse class mechanic (arguably) mainly because there class mechanic is the lack of a mechanic.

-sigh- Much like spore I had high hopes for gw2.

They will make all necromancer builds be able to obtain Life Force more easily… and squishy power builds even easier…
They always intended “but you have Death Shroud”… and now they will make it happen.

Nemesis.8593:

They will make all necromancer builds be able to obtain Life Force more easily… and squishy power builds even easier…
They always intended “but you have Death Shroud”… and now they will make it happen.

I really hope your right, death shroud is most fun thing about necro but the fun is taken away alot of times cause of annoying and unreliable LF generation.

Rok.5260:

So I heard that condition is going to get nerfed since Dhuumfire + Terror was supposedly too strong and in return Necromancer survivability is going to get buffed.

I don’t think those two issues are related. Dhuum/Terror is too strong, but survivability needs to be buffed regardless.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Jon Sharp did say that they were looking at moving more life force generation to the main-hand weapons and probably off of spectrals (though I feel spectrals should be left alone)

Did he really say that?
Atm spectrals are the most reliable lf generators, so if you don’t have one equipped you’re most likely done if you use it all up before the fight is over. So moving some regen away from those skills might help build diversity.

@ODB: the “should be left alone” part in his statement was refering to the lf regen only, I assume.
CD on Spectral armor… maybe, but don’t expect any more access to stability. The devs already stated in last months SotG (and I agree) that they won’t give the necro the same boon access as eles/guards/engis/… because they want to maintain class diversity. If you want to play a boon heavy class, you just can’t pick the necro.

On topic:
The problem with the class mechanic is that, unlike boons, it doesn’t protect the player against an unlimited amount of opponents. Aegis will block everything, stability will prevent any kind of CC… Death Shroud (or our regular big hp pool) on the other hand doesn’t scale with an increasing amount of opponents.
So imo the only reasonable approach to this issue would be to make all healing and lf regen skills scale in that way, so that as a side affect necros don’t become overpowered in 1v1s.

flow.6043:

Rok.5260:

So I heard that condition is going to get nerfed since Dhuumfire + Terror was supposedly too strong and in return Necromancer survivability is going to get buffed.

I don’t think those two issues are related. Dhuum/Terror is too strong, but survivability needs to be buffed regardless.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Jon Sharp did say that they were looking at moving more life force generation to the main-hand weapons and probably off of spectrals (though I feel spectrals should be left alone)

Did he really say that?
Atm spectrals are the most reliable lf generators, so if you don’t have one equipped you’re most likely done if you use it all up before the fight is over. So moving some regen away from those skills might help build diversity.

@ODB: the “should be left alone” part in his statement was refering to the lf regen only, I assume.

Yeah, he said it in the most recent state of the game (the one where people are now talking about how Terror is getting nerfed when in fact the only person who said anything about that was Zombify making a suggestion, not Jon Sharp). He said that the offense was getting toned down, but his only mention of Terror was actually that it wasn’t an issue “unless you were getting tick after tick”, hence the very specific note that Sigil of Paralyzation will no longer work with Fear (to prevent the fourth tick when just using Doom and third for Reaper’s Mark/Spectral Wall).

And yes, the life force generation was the part I meant should be left alone. All builds should have decent life force generation, but there should also be some that have really high amounts (Spectrals builds).

Maybe an escape? I’d say a nice one would be making DS2 ground targeted (as in beta) instead of enemy targeted. With its slow projectile speed its mostly useless as a teleport as is. And we would be using shroud more then…

Kilger.5490:

Maybe an escape? I’d say a nice one would be making DS2 ground targeted (as in beta) instead of enemy targeted. With its slow projectile speed its mostly useless as a teleport as is. And we would be using shroud more then…

Two reasons against that. One is that it goes against ANet’s vision for us.

Two is that it was also impossible to kill a necro back then. Even if you did finally manage to get them low, they would teleport away or out of your locks and just reset the fight. Yes, this sounds like what Thieves/Mesmers do now, but imagine one of those with twice the HP and pretty close to the same offense that didn’t have to pick a utility or weapon for that maneuverability and you may start to see the problem.

I would gladly accept an instant cast on Dark Path or a greatly buffed projectile speed, but really, those are the only buffs I feel the skill needs (and not both).

Design concept in a nutshell: more survivability but make sure you have a cup of coffee/tea beside you while you try to kill something.