Guild Wars 2

Hello,

I have been playing this game from the release and I want to share suggestion that I think would help necromancers tremendously in attrition and sustain role.

Blood is Power is now an Elite skill

• Increase might duration from 12 to 15s
• now applies 4 stacks of bleeding for 15s on the enemy (were 2stacks for 30s)
• self bleeding remain the same
• now gives 20% life force on use (only when enemy is hit)
• cooldown increased from 30s to 60s
  This will be change worth the gold because it would actualy gives necromancers brand new options. Having blood is power as an elite skill would extremely help necromancer.

Signet of Vampirism is now an Utility skill

• nuff said here.
  This would make necromancer able to finally sustain some punishment or using its active “bonus” to life steal on selected enemy without losing its #6 healing skill. It would also make new options about necromancer being the target caller.

Right now, necromancers only have transforms (lich, plague) and then stupid flesh golem that cant swim and doesnt even attack most of the time thanks to bugged pathfinding. Having more options at least in Elite skills should be essential. It would also make Signet Mastery or Master of Corruption to be more worthy traits.

I like the second option alot. First one i disagree, i really like blood is power as it is

I think SoV as healing skills is fine if they change the passive and do some number changes.

Blood is Power is good as is, as are our elites imo. Only real issue (ish) is the lack of underwater options, but underwater play is pretty limited anyway.

SoV could use some tweaking for the passive, but the active is pretty strong with the Bloodthirst trait. Using that in combination with Dagger 2 heals a ton… as long as you don’t get interrupted. That’s a pretty big liability with SoV. Plus we have the Locust Signet for healing on a utility already.

Tulzscha.4231:

Blood is Power is good as is, as are our elites imo. Only real issue (ish) is the lack of underwater options, but underwater play is pretty limited anyway.

SoV could use some tweaking for the passive, but the active is pretty strong with the Bloodthirst trait. Using that in combination with Dagger 2 heals a ton… as long as you don’t get interrupted. That’s a pretty big liability with SoV. Plus we have the Locust Signet for healing on a utility already.

heh? Necromancer do not have any special “utility-like” elite skill. We have only transformations and dumb minion while some other classes have elites that benefit them all the time – no matter what their build is. Where would warrior be without Signet of Rage hmm?

Blood is Power was an elite skill in GW1 so it realy make sence to make it Elite skill as it would also give so much needed attrition to necro. Bare in mind that necromancer does not have any active defense, you cant block eviscerate with aegis, you have no source of vigor so you must use your dodges carefully, you have limited source of stability, fury, retaliation or even protection. While other classes do have other means to mitigate damage, necro must tank it all or most of it. DS as a class mechanic cant take much of it as it does have fixed amount of HP = dmg it can take.
You must know, that sometimes it is better to block a kill shot than to “eat it” with DS…

SoV, it is joke and it always will be. Necromancers use consume condition as it is one of the best heal in game. Having SoV as a heal right now is just stupid.

SoL is worthless and i try to reswap it if i have the time before a fight. That active effect should be changed too as it is realy useless.

Flesh Golem is rather good for a “general utility” elite. Charge does a crapton of damage when against a wall and the massive knockdown path is very, very useful, even if he is otherwise picking flowers. That said, most of the time, he’s still in there whacking an enemy and keeping them perma-crippled.

I don’t think that either of these changes need to happen.

Blood is Power is a fairly well-balanced utility as it is.
SoV needs minor adjustments, but more importantly, necros need a way to focus on a ‘lifedrain’ build. The signet does not have the supporting elements which it needs to prop it up. Water Spirit without Spirit Ranger would be just as bad.

DriV.6203:

heh? Necromancer do not have any special “utility-like” elite skill. We have only transformations and dumb minion while some other classes have elites that benefit them all the time – no matter what their build is. Where would warrior be without Signet of Rage hmm?

Blood is Power was an elite skill in GW1 so it realy make sence to make it Elite skill as it would also give so much needed attrition to necro. Bare in mind that necromancer does not have any active defense, you cant block eviscerate with aegis, you have no source of vigor so you must use your dodges carefully, you have limited source of stability, fury, retaliation or even protection. While other classes do have other means to mitigate damage, necro must tank it all or most of it. DS as a class mechanic cant take much of it as it does have fixed amount of HP = dmg it can take.
You must know, that sometimes it is better to block a kill shot than to “eat it” with DS…

SoV, it is joke and it always will be. Necromancers use consume condition as it is one of the best heal in game. Having SoV as a heal right now is just stupid.

SoL is worthless and i try to reswap it if i have the time before a fight. That active effect should be changed too as it is realy useless.

The dumb minion is our elite that we can (potentially) benefit from all the time. Not saying I wouldn’t mind a different elite, I don’t like minions either, but we do have a good selection currently.

Our active defense is Death Shroud. Of course it’s not perfect, nothing is, and even though we can’t give ourselves vigor we can still dodge for those “kill shots”. We do have a few sources for protection as well. Is it as much as a Guardian has? Of course not. We’re not Guardians, and they can’t weaken, chill, etc. nearly as much as we can.

Not sure why you bring up fury and retaliation here as they’re both damaging buffs, but we have access to both… we can even get a permanent 50% crit chance while in Death Shroud. We can’t get as much retaliation as Guardians, and we can’t get as much fury as Warriors, of course. We’re not a buffing profession, we’re a debuffing profession. I’d like to see those Guards and Warriors get as high an uptime on Vulnerability/Weakness/Chill/Cripple/Poison/Fear/Bleeding/Blind at the same time as we can. Oh, and on the entire enemy team/pack of mobs. :P

Really SOV just needs its cool down reduced & its active made to last a little bit longer.

I have no idea why you want to nerf BiP by making it an elite and increasing the cooldown.

SoV just needs a passive rework. It should actually sustain. Heal on hit or heal on skill use would allow the necro to sustain through aggressive play. Which fits the theme of the necro. I wouldnt even mind if the heal on hit was less than our lifesteal traits. It would still be better than its current passive.

The active should have its icd removed.

spoj.9672:

I have no idea why you want to nerf BiP by making it an elite and increasing the cooldown.

SoV just needs a passive rework. It should actually sustain. Heal on hit or heal on skill use would allow the necro to sustain through aggressive play. Which fits the theme of the necro. I wouldnt even mind if the heal on hit was less than our lifesteal traits. It would still be better than its current passive.

The active should have its icd removed.

This ^ would actually be quite nice.

Though IDk if it should heal for less passively then the trait siphons, after all it is a heal skill.

Comparing it to the thief signet heal which heals for just over 100 per attack and the ele signet heal which heals for just over 250 per spell cast I’d say it would fir in well somewhere between the two as a passive life steal on attack (and one that should heal through death shroud)

SoV as a general utility sounds attractive but it has a heal, which would give Necromancer two major heals in the utility bar so there is no chance of that happening.

The three elite utilities we have all serve completely different purposes; plague-turtle is self explanatory, hammer-turkey is good dps with our only knock-down until it dies, and the green giant is short term high dps. Explain how a new elite fills in a gap in play the others do not and you may have a chance.

I am really wondering about BiP on Lich after the patch. Will it be better?

Anchoku.8142:

SoV as a general utility sounds attractive but it has a heal, which would give Necromancer two major heals in the utility bar so there is no chance of that happening.

The three elite utilities we have all serve completely different purposes; plague-turtle is self explanatory, hammer-turkey is good dps with our only knock-down until it dies, and the green giant is short term high dps. Explain how a new elite fills in a gap in play the others do not and you may have a chance.

I am really wondering about BiP on Lich after the patch. Will it be better?

Well, If you are roaming in www or somewhere else you will use propably minion as it is the “best” 1v1 elite. Plague will be useless as enemy will try to run away (kite) you and Lich is a “come and spike me bro” elite which doesnt have guided projectiles and you can strafe without being hit. When you lose your stability, you are a toast. Not mention moa…

BiP as an elite would give you some new options as you will not be locked in transform that do have its hard-counters. It improve your sustain, help both powermancer and conditionmancer and you can still take 3 independent utility you want.

Tulzscha.4231:

I doubt 20% every minute would help much

lol i guess you dont play conditionmancer very often do you?

How does it help power and condi builds? You are essentially nerfing necros might up time just to get a non transform elite. You could just use flesh golem or dont use an elite at all if you hate the transforms so much.

It doesnt improve your sustain. It reduces your sustained dps. If they added a new elite and kept BiP as it is. I would be ok with it.

spoj.9672:

How does it help power and condi builds? You are essentially nerfing necros might up time just to get a non transform elite. You could just use flesh golem or dont use an elite at all if you hate the transforms so much.

It doesnt improve your sustain. It reduces your sustained dps. If they added a new elite and kept BiP as it is. I would be ok with it.

It does improve your sustain with 20% life force. As a conditionmancer, you will be glad for ANY life force, having life force on elite would give you a possibility to use it and then go in DS.
enemy will get 4 stack of bleed, you get 10 mights for 15s (base)
cooldown on 60s is normal for elites, i do not want it go any lower as it will be OP(with certain runes) and way spammable. You can still take Master of corruption for cd redection.

…and you still can take 3 independent utilities. (SoV maybe?)

This may be just me but, before more LF, I would rather have shorter CD on DS transform and weapon swaps. An elite passive that did that would be interesting.

DS is not a passive damage mitigation skill like true blink tanks have so there is some skill to it. Messer is closest, I think, but was designed for more ranged play.

DriV.6203:

spoj.9672:

How does it help power and condi builds? You are essentially nerfing necros might up time just to get a non transform elite. You could just use flesh golem or dont use an elite at all if you hate the transforms so much.

It doesnt improve your sustain. It reduces your sustained dps. If they added a new elite and kept BiP as it is. I would be ok with it.

It does improve your sustain with 20% life force. As a conditionmancer, you will be glad for ANY life force, having life force on elite would give you a possibility to use it and then go in DS.
enemy will get 4 stack of bleed, you get 10 mights for 15s (base)
cooldown on 60s is normal for elites, i do not want it go any lower as it will be OP(with certain runes) and way spammable. You can still take Master of corruption for cd redection.

…and you still can take 3 independent utilities. (SoV maybe?)

Its still a heavy nerf to damage for a minor buff to lifeforce generation. We dont need damage nerfs. Necro is at the bottom for damage and doesnt even have the highest condi damage. Lifeforce can be generated really easily without much change to the core build. Im all for increased lifeforce for condi builds. But it should be done with the scepter or traits. We shouldnt be asking for anet to butcher a really good utility just so we can get some more lifeforce for one build which lacks it. The best solution for that would be to buff scepter 3 or maybe give necro some base lifeforce regen while in combat.

DriV.6203:

Tulzscha.4231:

I doubt 20% every minute would help much

lol i guess you dont play conditionmancer very often do you?

I have. No, they don’t generate as much life force as some powermancer builds – though Staff auto can potentially generate a lot. They also don’t benefit from it as much, nor do they need it as much. Life Blast doesn’t scale with condition damage, they have more range on their weapons so Dark Path isn’t needed as much. Everything else has a 20s+ cd.

Since there is no crit damage equivalent for condition builds, they innately have more toughness (with Rabid gear) and both of their weapon sets (Dagger 4 and Staff 4) have condition removal for even more survivability. In addition to that, they have about everything they need damage-wise from one trait line, allowing them to put more points in defense.

If conditionmancers were to get more access to life force, I would put it on OH Dagger since that’s the only weapon that doesn’t generate any at all, and possibly buff the generation from Scepter. Then I would make Life Blast scale with either power or condition damage – whichever is higher – or have a trait somewhere that makes it apply bleeds or something. Conditionmancers don’t have a lot of wiggle room in their Curses line for Spectral Attunement, or much room in their utilities for Spectrals with Blood is Power and Epidemic being practically mandatory. (I guess you could cut Epidemic, but myeh, it’s so nice.) The stats from the Soul Reaping line are kinda bad too. :/

It’s unfortunate that for a profession based on conditions, the condition build doesn’t benefit much from our profession mechanic or the trait line that affects it. :/

spoj.9672:

Its still a heavy nerf to damage for a minor buff to lifeforce generation. We dont need damage nerfs. Necro is at the bottom for damage and doesnt even have the highest condi damage. Lifeforce can be generated really easily without much change to the core build. Im all for increased lifeforce for condi builds. But it should be done with the scepter or traits. We shouldnt be asking for anet to butcher a really good utility just so we can get some more lifeforce for one build which lacks it. The best solution for that would be to buff scepter 3 or maybe give necro some base lifeforce regen while in combat.

Yes in long term it lower your dps but i would not increase that might duration pass 20s as it will be way op.
On the other hand, necro has a lot of dmg and what he realy need is more sustain to fight its attrition fights. Having Elite blood is Power mean you can use other 3 utilities while still having skill that might you, gives you LF and hurt enemy with bleeding…

There might be another way how to improve Elite BiP as to give it 10-15s Vigor.

Your still not giving a good arguement for why you think thats an acceptible sacrifice. A new elite would be better. BiP should stay the same. Although i wouldnt be against BiP becoming group might.

spoj.9672:

Your still not giving a good arguement for why you think thats an acceptible sacrifice. A new elite would be better. BiP should stay the same. Although i wouldnt be against BiP becoming group might.

Waiting for anet to create new elite for necromancer? After two years? Ok…
No seriously BiP is nice skill but doesnt have place on our utility slot most of the time. If you make BiP as an Elite skill, then MAYBE ppl will chose it as it will benefit them no matter what their build is. YES, as an elite, it will lower your dps as your mights will be base duration at 15s(20s), but it is reasonable for Elite with 60s(48) cd. You can then have 3 utility slots while still having BiP which gives you might + 20%LF and maybe vigor and you are not stuck in transform.

Drowback to this is only longer cd increased (and thx to that dps decrease) but if you consider what it gives you, it is not as bad as you might see.

Actually both condi builds and power builds have it slotted almost 100% of the time in PvE. It would be a huge nerf to necro solos.

Im not saying its realistic to have a new elite. But id rather have no change than have you nerf a good utility.

Maybe you don’t choose Blood is Power. I know a lot of necros where it rarely leaves their bar. That 10 stacks of Might is wonderful.

If you turned it into an elite skill and nerfed the actual uptime, I wouldn’t pick it at all no matter how much life force you tacked on. Why? Because adding life force goes against what the skill currently does. It doesn’t help you stay alive, it makes everything die faster. If I want a “die faster” elite, I choose Lich Form.

Purity of Purpose can be a very powerful tool. Your proposed change to BiP goes against it extremely hard and would benefit nobody but your own prefrences (not even a real benefit at that).

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Maybe you don’t choose Blood is Power. I know a lot of necros where it rarely leaves their bar. That 10 stacks of Might is wonderful.

If you turned it into an elite skill and nerfed the actual uptime, I wouldn’t pick it at all no matter how much life force you tacked on. Why? Because adding life force goes against what the skill currently does. It doesn’t help you stay alive, it makes everything die faster. If I want a “die faster” elite, I choose Lich Form.

Purity of Purpose can be a very powerful tool. Your proposed change to BiP goes against it extremely hard and would benefit nobody but your own prefrences (not even a real benefit at that).

Do you know that on release BiP gave you LF instead of might?

BiP seems to weak to be an elite, and SoV should just be removed, I spit on it patooey .. but moving it to utilities would be better.

If not then reducing plague signets cool down to 40 sec would be awesome sauce. Other classes have AoE cleansing but shouldn’t that be one of our strong suits?

But BiP could use …
Blood is Power
Corruption. Bleed yourself for you and your allies to gain might.
Might (10 stacks) – 15 sec
Self Bleeding ( 4 stacks )
Number of targets: 5
Radius 240
3/4 sec cast
30 sec cool down

But then again other classes stack might and I dunno just a thought for group play.

Another suggestion for elite change though below

Corrosive Poison Cloud
Convert it to elite
Inflict a target with a poison cloud, for 15 sec the target has a 240 radius circle following them around affecting up to 3 allies at a time inside the radius every second. Also acts similar to flesh wurm but when you teleport to the enemy it dissipates the cloud.
90 sec cooldown. So even if they cleanse themselves the cloud still follows them around inflicting the conditions on their allies if they get too close.

DriV.6203:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Maybe you don’t choose Blood is Power. I know a lot of necros where it rarely leaves their bar. That 10 stacks of Might is wonderful.

If you turned it into an elite skill and nerfed the actual uptime, I wouldn’t pick it at all no matter how much life force you tacked on. Why? Because adding life force goes against what the skill currently does. It doesn’t help you stay alive, it makes everything die faster. If I want a “die faster” elite, I choose Lich Form.

Purity of Purpose can be a very powerful tool. Your proposed change to BiP goes against it extremely hard and would benefit nobody but your own prefrences (not even a real benefit at that).

Do you know that on release BiP gave you LF instead of might?

I do, but the change from life force to Might changed the entire purpose of the skill. Having it do both results in a skill suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

DriV.6203:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Maybe you don’t choose Blood is Power. I know a lot of necros where it rarely leaves their bar. That 10 stacks of Might is wonderful.

If you turned it into an elite skill and nerfed the actual uptime, I wouldn’t pick it at all no matter how much life force you tacked on. Why? Because adding life force goes against what the skill currently does. It doesn’t help you stay alive, it makes everything die faster. If I want a “die faster” elite, I choose Lich Form.

Purity of Purpose can be a very powerful tool. Your proposed change to BiP goes against it extremely hard and would benefit nobody but your own prefrences (not even a real benefit at that).

Do you know that on release BiP gave you LF instead of might?

I do, but the change from life force to Might changed the entire purpose of the skill. Having it do both results in a skill suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder.

It did, but that doesnt mean that with LF gain it would not have purpose at all. It doesnt matter if it suffer from DiD or any other new soft language bullcrap these days. What matter is how good or bad it is in practice.

What matters again is gameplay and not what bs it might suffer lol.

FYI, Dissociative Identity Disorder is more commonly known as a split personality.

Regardless, Blood is Power is currently excellent. There’s no reason to change it. Especially not with an overall nerf like you’re suggesting.

Obviously community got used to the lack of class as a feature instead of bad game design.

Necro can do a lot of dmg, but he lack more attrition-like ways to sustain fight as long as possible.

Only real drowback to the elite BiP would be inability to use it with lich form for massive dmg. Still, it would finally gives necromancers something else then those badly designed transforms or bugged minion. Necro will not be ever vialbe on top PvE without big core changes and i do not talk about them now. I talk about impoving its intended design role in PvP/WvW mode. (when you are actually fighting human enemies)

10 stack of might for 15-20s (without boon duration)
4 stack of bleed for 15s (self bleeding remain the same)
20% LF
10-15s vigor (yeah this wont increase your dmg, but it will help you to survive long enough to actually do some…)

DriV.6203:

Obviously community got used to the lack of class as a feature instead of bad game design.

Ummm…what? Seriously, what are you trying to say here?

Necro can do a lot of dmg, but he lack more attrition-like ways to sustain fight as long as possible.

Not true on either point. “A lot of damage” relies either on landing money epidemics or Lich From. Otherwise, it’s just “good,” not “great.”

And we have methods for sustain and attrition. The issue is that the majority of them aren’t good.

Only real drowback to the elite BiP would be inability to use it with lich form for massive dmg. Still, it would finally gives necromancers something else then those badly designed transforms or bugged minion. Necro will not be ever vialbe on top PvE without big core changes and i do not talk about them now. I talk about impoving its intended design role in PvP/WvW mode. (when you are actually fighting human enemies)

10 stack of might for 15-20s (without boon duration)
4 stack of bleed for 15s (self bleeding remain the same)
20% LF
10-15s vigor (yeah this wont increase your dmg, but it will help you to survive long enough to actually do some…)

The drawback is a hefty nerf to our Might uptime, going from 40% untraited to 25% untraited, in addition to being unable to use it with Lich Form. The addition of life force and Vigor turns it into an elite that doesn’t know what it’s doing and ends up doing poorly at all of it instead of doing something awesomely. Seriously, the might gets nerfed, the bleeds don’t matter (nobody uses it for the bleed stacks), the life force can be gotten by spectral grasp, and the vigor, while nice for a profession that otherwise lacks it, does not make for a good elite. Instead of creating a strong elite for general use, you’ve created a weak skill that nobody is sure why they should take it.

And finally, Blood Is Power is perfect as it is. If you’re so dead set on wanting a new elite, then use your brain and suggest a new elite, not trying to fix what isn’t broken.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

And finally, Blood Is Power is perfect as it is. If you’re so dead set on wanting a new elite, then use your brain and suggest a new elite, not trying to fix what isn’t broken.

I did suggested one new trait, but all-knowing anet copletely kittened it to their view (they made it bad and useless)

So, instead of creating another elite skill which still be mutated with a-net delusion “we know best how it must be”, i tried to share something that is not hard for anet to implement. I do not want to suggest something. I do not know if anet devs would spend 30min of their precious time to even read it. Then I do not want to wait another 6 months for new balance patch where even if it will be, it will be in kittened up state!

Ahh, you’re trolling. Got it.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Ahh, you’re trolling. Got it.

Believe what you want. I do not try to troll you.

If you’re so dead set on wanting a new elite, then use your brain and suggest a new elite, not trying to fix what isn’t broken.

Ooh, me, me!

Spectral Signet – 180s
Spectral and Signet ability (affected by traits that affect both)
Passive: Drain life force and heal every second. Works in Death Shroud. (? Maybe not.)
Active: Gain 90% life force.

Lulz. Or or:

Spectral Mending – 120s
Spectral Ability
The next time you enter Death Shroud, all healing effects applied by yourself heal your hp as normal.

Eh? ^^