Guild Wars 2

These are my (serious) predictions for the Necro balance changes. Just getting these recorded now so I can compare things later.

Weapons:
Dagger auto attack cleaves a second target (confirmed) Life Force is still only granted once per skill use, and only if it hits.
Life Siphon (Dagger 2): Cast time reduced to 2.5 seconds (from 3.5)
Rending Claws (Axe 1) cast time reduced to .5 seconds (from .75 seconds)
Ghastly Claws (Axe 2) cast time reduced from 2.5 seconds to 2 seconds
Unholy Feast (Scepter 3) now grants 2% life force, regardless of if the target has a condition or not in addition to its current effects

Heal:
Reduced Signet of Vampirism’s cast time from 1.25 seconds to 1 second.

Utilities:
Well of Corruption grants 1% life force per hit (in other words, making the bug it currently has an official part of the skill)
Well of Darkness recharge reduced from 50 seconds to 45.
Signet of the Locust active is 10% more effective.

Elite:
No longer increases Power. Skills have been re-scaled to compensate.

Traits:
Parasitic Contagion increased from 5% to 8%
Reaper’s Precision increased to a 50% chance on crit from 33%
Weakening Shroud weakness duration increased to 2.5 seconds from 2 seconds
Withering Precision cooldown is reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds. Duration reduced from 5 seconds to 4 seconds.
Ritual of Protection increased from 3 to 4 seconds of Protection
Full of Life duration increased from 5 to 10 seconds of Regeneration
Bloodthirst increased from 20% to 30% increased siphon effectiveness.
Vampiric, Vampiric Precision, and Vampiric Rituals have their effects increased by 10%
Unholy Martyr life force gain increased from 5% to 6%
Gluttony increased from 10% bonus to 15% bonus
Path of Midnight increased from 15% to 20%.

I’m willing to bet I’ve got some of these right. I have very little confidence that any of the changes they make will actually mean anything for necros, though. We’ll be “better,” but not in a way that matters.

While these are completely reasonable, I expect a bigger buff to signets than that. Also, I really hope they just get rid of bloodthirst, but it probably won’t happen because they’d have to make a new trait. I would also be surprised if they don’t touch some of the other new traits. Renewing blast just needs a bug fix so that it actually hits people, and unholy sanctuary should heal double what it does now.

I still have never had Renewing Blast bug out. The only trick is that against larger enemies (like bosses), because they are so large, the angle shoots the life blast right over your allies’ heads.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

I still have never had Renewing Blast bug out. The only trick is that against larger enemies (like bosses), because they are so large, the angle shoots the life blast right over your allies’ heads.

I’m pretty sure that is the bug, but I don’t really use it because of that. Too many giant norn warriors and guardians in wvw.

I’m also thinking that the bleeding of grasping dead and mark of blood will be restored to 3 stacks.

Do you think anet will add torment to scepter?

I suspect they might buff lifesteal to up our survivability. Something like
increased life siphon healing amount to 34 from 33.

What I hope for:

regeneration boon now works while in deathshroud.
life siphon healing increased by say 100% and works in DS

a stability source that does not require a T3 trait

Poplolita.2638:

Do you think anet will add torment to scepter?

They are adding torment to the mesmer scepter, but if they add it to ours it has to be on the 2 skill to make any sense.

Expecting a lot of worthless blood magic buffs as usual, while also ignoring siphoning completely cause they’re totally clueless on it.

They could re-do scepter a little bit, similar to Warrior’s Sword.

For Chain attack, make it that it applies 1 bleed→poison→Feast of Corruption (balanced out) and add something else to Scepter #3. That would reduce the spam of autoattack condition stacking, increase LF gain and give us something shiny and new, with cooldown.

As for utilities… my little wishes:

- Cast time/cd of Flesh Wurm reduced. Blast and poison moved to initial caster’s position ?
-Spectral Grasp CD reduced by 5 seconds/projectile speeded up
-Spectrals now have ICD per target, up to 5?
-Master of Corruption getting some buff, like improving effects of all corruptions (CB corrupting all boons? BiP now also giving might to allies? Some buff to CPC and Epidemic ?). This could be valuable alternative to Terror.
-Siphoned Power rework?

I actually wish they changed unholy feast (3rd skill from axe). It would be better if it would either be a supportive skill, or giving you something like fury or might.

I hope they make bloodthirst base line. It is really annyoing to have an extra trait only to buff up your siphons which are come mostly from the same traittree..

Yup. Combine bloodthirst and ditch vampiric precision and balance it out from there. And still it wont work for zerker or carrion, no toughnes no EHP, so what stays is rabid amulet only. maybe some knights for soloq

Also i think all the stuff we can get ourselves should not work against each other. Parasitic contagion, all siphon procs, possibly even regen should all work in DS.

Now i would exclude blood well, as its kinda outsidish , and healing from allies, that is would heal with decreased %. And then only a supportive trait like blood GM would allow us to take condis from alies but they can heal us in return.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

These are my (serious) predictions for the Necro balance changes. Just getting these recorded now so I can compare things later.

Utilities:
Well of Corruption grants 1% life force per hit (in other words, making the bug it currently has an official part of the skill)
We’ll be “better,” but not in a way that matters.

WoC is currently granting 1% LF per hit?!

Yeah, it is. Kinda funny, really, as I have no clue how that bug came to be. It makes zero sense.

I think they’re going to add the new reveal mechanic to axe 3……

TheDevice.2751:

I think they’re going to add the new reveal mechanic to axe 3……

If they do, Unholy Feast becomes the best reveal skill in the game because it can be used post-stealth.

What i would love to see:

Scepter #3 is now a channel spell with 5 strikes, each strike adding 1 stack of torment and generating 0,x% lifeforce per unique condition on a target.

Parasitic Contagion now heals for a fixed amount for each unique condition you have caused to any target. 30-45/hps, affected by healing power. Unique for each condition, regardless on how many stacks or on how many foes. Can be balanced easy because the number of unique conditions a necro can cause is limited, and would benefit a controll focused condi build, improving sustain and build variety.

Unholy Martyr: additionally while under 33% health, damaging conditions heal you instead.

Brujeria.7536:

Can be balanced easy because the number of unique conditions a necro can cause is limited,

Scepter/Dagger with Bone Fiend (or Flesh Wurm) and Spectral Wall on the bar, Dhuumfire for a trait.

One build capable of causing every condition in the game without RNG.

So yeah, the number of unique conditions a necro can apply is limited, but in this case, it’s because the game has no conditions that a necro can’t apply.

I’d rather see power necro buffs over condition buffs, considering all the hate QQ tears that happened when condition builds got torment and burning last year.

In particular I wish axe’s auto would get a huge damage or functionality buff. To the person saying they’d add revealed on axe 3, that would be sick, and we could serve as veil busters in WvW/GvGs then

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Brujeria.7536:

Can be balanced easy because the number of unique conditions a necro can cause is limited,

Scepter/Dagger with Bone Fiend (or Flesh Wurm) and Spectral Wall on the bar, Dhuumfire for a trait.

One build capable of causing every condition in the game without RNG.

So yeah, the number of unique conditions a necro can apply is limited, but in this case, it’s because the game has no conditions that a necro can’t apply.

With a slight exception of Confusion, though Of course if we don’t count Perplexity runes or Corruption.

Rym.1469:

With a slight exception of Confusion, though Of course if we don’t count Perplexity runes or Corruption.

That’s why he said those minions. They have projectile finishers (100% per attack) through the Wall = confusion.

Rym.1469:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Brujeria.7536:

Can be balanced easy because the number of unique conditions a necro can cause is limited,

Scepter/Dagger with Bone Fiend (or Flesh Wurm) and Spectral Wall on the bar, Dhuumfire for a trait.

One build capable of causing every condition in the game without RNG.

So yeah, the number of unique conditions a necro can apply is limited, but in this case, it’s because the game has no conditions that a necro can’t apply.

With a slight exception of Confusion, though Of course if we don’t count Perplexity runes or Corruption.

Confusion too. Minion’s projectile finisher combos with Spectral Wall’s Ethereal field.

No special gear is needed for a necro to cause every condition in the game.

EDIT: Ninja’d by Bhawb.

Heal:
Reduced Signet of Vampirism’s cast time from 1.25 seconds to 1 second.
Whaaaahahahahhahahhhahahhahahaaaaaa……

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Brujeria.7536:

Can be balanced easy because the number of unique conditions a necro can cause is limited,

Scepter/Dagger with Bone Fiend (or Flesh Wurm) and Spectral Wall on the bar, Dhuumfire for a trait.

One build capable of causing every condition in the game without RNG.

So yeah, the number of unique conditions a necro can apply is limited, but in this case, it’s because the game has no conditions that a necro can’t apply.

Yeah, but its also not 100% reliable, the uptime is limited, you need agression, and you also need to calculate condi clears. I think these factors even it out a lot for balance purposes.

Merlin Dyfed Avalon.5046:

Heal:
Reduced Signet of Vampirism’s cast time from 1.25 seconds to 1 second.
Whaaaahahahahhahahhhahahhahahaaaaaa……

Just saw that, omg it made me lol too ! That signet needs a revamp asap, but knowing Anet… this is probably what they’ll do.

I would add that lich form will no longer improve power on wells.

Roe.3679:

I would add that lich form will no longer improve power on wells.

Wouldn’t work. Power is Power, regardless.

Roe.3679:

I would add that lich form will no longer improve power on wells.

Anet will probably do this since they took away the Meteor-Tornado combo from Elementalists

I think they will definitly give 6sec reveal debuff, and add torment to either scepter #2 or #3 after watching the stream. I just can feel it.

Get rid of the bleed on 2 and put torment, we need more access to it

Narkodx.1472:

Roe.3679:

I would add that lich form will no longer improve power on wells.

Anet will probably do this since they took away the Meteor-Tornado combo from Elementalists

Now that I’ve seen the preview, you’re probably right. Adding it in.

Going by the Ele tornado rework, Lich might get the same treatment.

I also expect something to break, probably related to Death shroud.

Actually, of all weapons to add cleave to, scepter would benefit most. It is most designed for 1v1, more than axe or dagger

moi.4398:

It’s so sad torment was a condition made for us necro for punish people to run away and our best access to it is ……………….. Sigil of torment , while mesmers and p/d thieves keep laughing at us .

Torment was a fail. It was meant for slow power necros to punish fast moving enemys (phase blink mesmer, old RTL ele, thief ).
It seems the game couldnt handle track of units traveled or i would just be too complicated. Imagine a shadowstep up ledge or portal 1-shoting. So they made it work simple. The result is as we all know, just another cover condi, which also scales for condi builds.

Currently, theyre giving power builds a decrease in cast and chanel times. Granted, power necro will mostly lack behind condi, i think it will be pretty close now.
If they increase survival , a small buff to condi (like bleeds unnerf and adding torment, especialy with dumbfire out of the way) would seem ideal state.

Long ago, I suggested a toughness or healing bonus based on incoming dps to handle spike damage. Masochism or something like that. Necro has difficulty recovering w/o evades.

Am I the only one kind of smirking all the way up at all those QQ about mesmer’s scepter AA change?

It reminds me of dhuumfire so much!

Bhawb, I know now exactly how you felt regarding the possibility to give any feedbacks after the necromancer preview (Thx god it’ll be next week)

Uh… everyone seems to have made up stories as to what torment is.

It was going to be first introduced on Necromancers, with Necromancer community getting to pitch ideas, on a skill that was built around keeping people close. It was never promised to be Necromancer exclusive, it was never promised to be a mainly Necromancer condition, it was simply given to us first. The condition itself is just the confusion of movement; instead of punishing you for using skills it punishes you for moving.

And yeah, this is why feedback exists. I personally don’t think Mesmer is suddenly going to be gods of conditions (especially not if condi necro still exists to load them with so many conditions they won’t respawn until GW3), although whether the changes are healthy or not for everyone remains to be seen.

Bhawb.7408:

Uh… everyone seems to have made up stories as to what torment is.

It was going to be first introduced on Necromancers, with Necromancer community getting to pitch ideas, on a skill that was built around keeping people close. It was never promised to be Necromancer exclusive, it was never promised to be a mainly Necromancer condition, it was simply given to us first. The condition itself is just the confusion of movement; instead of punishing you for using skills it punishes you for moving.

And yeah, this is why feedback exists. I personally don’t think Mesmer is suddenly going to be gods of conditions (especially not if condi necro still exists to load them with so many conditions they won’t respawn until GW3), although whether the changes are healthy or not for everyone remains to be seen.

True, but as gw1 necro who loved running with weaken knees it makes me sad that in gw2 it is the mesmer not the necromancer that has the best access to something so similiar to weaken knees…

100% agreement with Bhawb. Do not assume Necro will be the queen/king of Torment. oldsters understand that being first does not equal being best.

In other words, never buy the first model year.

Bought a Vita, go men nasai.

Anchoku.8142:

100% agreement with Bhawb. Do not assume Necro will be the queen/king of Torment. oldsters understand that being first does not equal being best.

In other words, never buy the first model year.

Well a little bit more access to torment with actual counter play won’t hurt. We’re actually the worse right now, while warrior, mesmer and thief have pretty much almost have equal access to torment with warrior a little bit on top right now.

For example, instead of reverting the bleed, they can add one stack of torment to scepter #2. We’ll remain bad at stacking torments compared to others, but we’ll at least have the best aoe access to it.

Agreed, Necro play style is supposed to be no escape, no disengagement for opponents. More torment and more gap closers will help.

All right, so only two of my predictions (the most obvious ones at that, being dagger cleave and Lich Form scaling) were correct. One of my predictions was surprisingly close, though; the completely inconsequential buff to Signet of Vampirism.

Here’s my general rundown on the changes we’re getting.

Last Gasp & Spectral Armor: While these were not what I would have buffed, as necros pretty universally considered these quite good, I can’t complain. Last Gasp really won out by being able to benefit from other traits now. Thing is, Spectral Armor still probably won’t be taken very often due to Last Gasp not taking a utility slot and necros being so reliant on their utilities for damage. Plus, the relocation from Flesh Wurm will usually save you a lot more pain than protection. Still, it’s a cooldown reduction for a stunbreaker, which we desperately need.

Unholy Sanctuary: Still won’t be taken due to the core issues of the trait still being present (lack of support via other traits, being in Death magic instead of Blood Magic where it at least has Healing Power scaling it up). An interesting idea, but will likely not be so effective as the typical necro reaction when about to die is hit death shroud, even if they’re too late and get downed. This, of course, will mean they instantly leave death shroud in that exact same cirumstance. However, not terrible, because you should still be on your feet, even if your hit points are single digits. In any rate, you don’t actually lose anything. A decent buff, but really not as helpful as ANet probably thinks.

Death Shroud & Interaction: About kitten time. This only should have been the case since, oh, I don’t know, beta weekends where Death Shroud was changed from being a downed state?

Corrupt Boon: Hah! Now people will stop calling me crazy when I say that Corrupt Boon has a cast time (totally does, btw, just short)! The reduced aftercast is very nice as it means you can immedietly follow up on your corruption. Increased cast time lets people counterplay it, but the animation is still very small, so it’s easily landed.

Signet of Vampirism: I was right! ANet did have a buff in store that totally misses the mark of why the skill is terrible! I mean, a buff is a buff, but outside of Megadestroyer, Modniir Ulgoth, and Svanir Shaman, it still won’t find a spot on my skill bar. And in those three circumstances, the buff is entirely meaningless anyway as the debuff never makes it to the end of its time.

Rending Claws: Overall, a better buff than my suggestion of reducing the cast time to 1/2 second. You still get the same number of autos in, but unlike my suggestion, you can switch into any other skill much more quickly.

Ghastly Claws: More damage is more damage. Nothing more to say.

Dagger cleave: No surprises here.

Locust Swarm: Ooookayyyyy, not sure why this happened. Seems rather random. In any case, a buff is a buff. Plus, assuming this increased duration gets the 50% boost it should from Banshee’s Wail, traited the skill will give 22.5 seconds of swiftness on a 24 second cooldown. Virtually any additional swiftness duration means perma-swiftness from one skill.

Lich Form: Strangely, my only complaint on this is that now, I can’t get off two Mark of Horrors each time I use the skill. Sure, Jagged Horrors are pathetic individually, but ten of them will do a number on people. Still, I can understand why they did it. The Power scaling change means that Power-primary-stat builds will more than likely see a very sizable damage buff in Lich Form, and the Air+Fire+Chill of Death instagib won’t be complained about anymore..

Overall: No really big nerfs and a several buffs. Overall, can’t complain too much because the profession is not any worse off than we were. The huge surprise to me is that the Blood Magic tree is 100% untouched.