Guild Wars 2

I have a couple of skills that I feel need a bit of a buff in order to help their usability and make them viable options. Some of these are simple changes, while others, although subtle, would be drastic changes. So lets get into a couple of them.

1. Spectral Wall: Add the function to make this skill convert projectiles into life force. Spectral wall is an interesting skill, but it lacks function outside of a very niche use. Giving it a means to block projectiles while fueling shroud would be pretty amazing. Considering its cool down it wouldn’t compete with corrosive poison cloud but rather offer up other builds an alternative option. And could be good enough to make Spectral mastery worth using over vital persistence.
2. Spectral Grasp: give charges to this skill. I feel that if any skill on the necromancer should have charges its this one. Considering its a fairly predictable pull, giving it a second use could be quite good. I don’t feel it needs the ability to pull extra people, but the extra charge is something that would be amazing. And would be yet another reason along with spectral wall to take spectral mastery.
3. Well of Darkness: Add damage to the well and apply a debuff that prevents foes from blocking attacks. The damage doesn’t have to be very high. But adding a means for allies to strike foes struck by the well without their attacks getting blocked would be a great way to support your allies while not buffing their overall damage. Necromancer’s well damage is already fairly low as well and even with a bit of extra damage on top of this wouldn’t push necromancer’s damage hardly at all. But it would be a very nice addition for the well user.
4. Well of Power: Add the function ‘gain stability when a condition is converted by well of power’. Necromancer need more stability. And adding it here would be great for them. They need this access and adding it to a well would be perfect
5. Blood is power: Increase radius of might given to 360. Not a big change. Its radius would be nicer if it was 600, but even a small increase would be nice to help promote the support aspect of the profession. 10 might is good, but its nothing in comparison to what other professions give, so is it honestly too much to ask for increase of radius for this? I don’t think so.
6. Deathly swarm: Give it some life force production. Condi set ups lack life force gain. This would be a welcome change.
7. Enfeebling blood(PvE): Increase the bleed to 3 stacks and the boon conversion to 2. As it stands right now, this skill is a DPS loss in PvE for using it in most situations. 3 stacks of bleed still might not be enough for it, but it wouldn’t hurt to be able to include it in our rotation.
8. Reaper’s Touch: Remove the bouncing factor from it and make it a pulsing aoe with 240 range that grants regeneration to allies and applies vulnerability to foes in that area. 3-4 seconds. I don’t care much for bouncing skills most the time. So this is more a personal change for myself.. Especially considering this skill that says 1,200 range but is far better used in melee range to gain maximum effectiveness from it. So I personally would prefer it to function optimally at range.
9. Summon Bone Minion: Up the number of bone minions summoned from 2 to 4. This skill is just not that good when compared to other minion skills. It doesn’t have a place and that 1 extra minion doesn’t make up for the utility the other minions provide. A simple change, but minions as a whole really need a rework, and this would be a nice place to start.
10. Harrowing Wave: Add life force per target hit to this skill. I’m not going to suggest too many changes to the scourge before release since I haven’t had too much time to play with and test things out. However with my past experience with Condi necromancer which I’ve been playing since 2013, this just screams the same issues that condi necro has always had. Torch needs a means of producing life force, even if its a small amount.

And with that, that’s all I’ve got right now. I also have ideas for Lich form since that skill is fairly mediocre at the moment, but that deserves a post all its own. So let me know what you think, and if you have anything to add, please feel free to post it in the comments and be respectful.

I like the suggestions for the spectral skills. Always thought they lacked something and there was lot of missed potential in this category.
I’d like every type of utility to be at the level of corruption skills, at least.
Summon Bone Minion could summon at least 3 minions (like in the video preview of the necromancer. That was something I was really disapointed about when I learned the skill for the first time. “Where is my third minion ?!”), 4 could be too much.
I don’t know either if Reaper’s Touch needs to change, I think it’s okay as it is.
I agree with you on the rest. Pretty nice suggestions overall.

Kaladel.1670:

I like the suggestions for the spectral skills. Always thought they lacked something and there was lot of missed potential in this category.
I’d like every type of utility to be at the level of corruption skills, at least.
Summon Bone Minion could summon at least 3 minions (like in the video preview of the necromancer. That was something I was really disapointed about when I learned the skill for the first time. “Where is my third minion ?!”), 4 could be too much.
I don’t know either if Reaper’s Touch needs to change, I think it’s okay as it is.
I agree with you on the rest. Pretty nice suggestions overall.

I’m fine with people not agreeing on Reaper’s touch. Its a personal taste thing, so that’s fair. I’m not super attached to that idea.

But the Spectral wall idea makes me happy to think about. Especially if a volley of arrows was shot through it that all turned into green orbs, that’d be amazing looking imo!

I dont like the spectral suggestions. Spectral wall has a too long cooldown to use it for the projectile effect, also its somewhat strange given its function as a cc/engage skill. Also as you mentioned we have cpc for that. Charges in the current form of spectral grasp would be either too strong or still to weak. Its lf gain is huge now, but its still unreliable. I would rather have a reliable pull, on a shorter cooldown, maybe with charges.

Reapers touch and deathly swarm are the skills i would give charges. Some lifeforce for deathly swarm would be very good, swapping the regen from reapers touch for quickness / fury would make much more sense.

Enfeebling blood buff would be okay, i would prefer that this skill leaves a pool of blood that bleeds people further for a time. They can add a lot more power in this skill if there is counterplay in form of moving out of the pool while still giving a direct dps buff in PvE scenarios.

Summon Bone Minion: Good idea but i would go one step further: Call 4 Bone minions like it is now, but change the active skill so that you pick a ground target location, the minion then charges to that location and explodes. That would add more play, and more options. I personally would love this skill to call 4 small little ranged minions, for a reliable DPS increase in power builds, and they charge themself like little suicide rocket minions on a ground target location for some burst damage and blasts on demand, but thats just me :P

Brujeria.7536:

I dont like the spectral suggestions. Spectral wall has a too long cooldown to use it for the projectile effect, also its somewhat strange given its function as a cc/engage skill. Also as you mentioned we have cpc for that. Charges in the current form of spectral grasp would be either too strong or still to weak. Its lf gain is huge now, but its still unreliable. I would rather have a reliable pull, on a shorter cooldown, maybe with charges.

Reapers touch and deathly swarm are the skills i would give charges. Some lifeforce for deathly swarm would be very good, swapping the regen from reapers touch for quickness / fury would make much more sense.

Enfeebling blood buff would be okay, i would prefer that this skill leaves a pool of blood that bleeds people further for a time. They can add a lot more power in this skill if there is counterplay in form of moving out of the pool while still giving a direct dps buff in PvE scenarios.

Summon Bone Minion: Good idea but i would go one step further: Call 4 Bone minions like it is now, but change the active skill so that you pick a ground target location, the minion then charges to that location and explodes. That would add more play, and more options. I personally would love this skill to call 4 small little ranged minions, for a reliable DPS increase in power builds, and they charge themself like little suicide rocket minions on a ground target location for some burst damage and blasts on demand, but thats just me :P

I Don’t think the change to spectral grasp would be OP. As it stands, I don’t think it needed the extra 5 target clause, but it would be served better to have charges. 2 charges is my ultimate suggestion without the extra targets and its life force gain from a pull could be 8-10% rather than its 15% is now. Sure, 30% would be nice, but I feel the utility of this skill could be greatly improved.

As for Spectral Wall? Most Projectile block skills have a pretty long cool down. And having this convert projectiles into life force would be amazing. That on its own does make it compete for a spot with Corrosive poison cloud. But we should also compare it to other skills that other professions afford. Wall of reflection, feedback and Smoke Screen would have similar utility, however they don’t have that fear clause attached to them, which in my opinion justifies the extra recharge. I think that this skill would be the perfect engage skill for a necromancer as they enter a fight with no life force and throw up a wall, forcing your opponents to try and engage you in Melee, but the wall makes that even more difficult due to its fear added to it. This skill would be extremely powerful, and force opponents to fight you on your terms, which a less skilled player would struggle with, while more skilled players could have a unique interaction with it. I personally think that the type of scaling defense that should be afforded to the necromancer should be projectile blocks, or straight up blocks for the future. I don’t mind never having invulnerability or some super charged evasive ability, but this is the area I feel necromancer should excel at.

I don’t think we should just give out charges just to give out charges personally. Reaper’s touch and Deathly swarm are okay. I’d deathly swarm to keep its function and add some life force to it because charges aren’t something I feel is needed here. Maybe minion skills, but that’s a whole other debate that I’d love to get into sometime, but not here and not now.

Leaving a pool of blood for Enfeebling blood would be interesting, sure, but my suggestions are geared more toward simple changes that wouldn’t require the devs to add new animations into the game, aside from maybe Reaper’s touch. These changes are mostly looking at the skills as they exist now and trying to improve their function and grant them new life.

As for bone minions. I personally am not a fan of giving the player that much control over the minions. I feel they shouldn’t function like pets and should remain pretty dumb. Its a flavor thing for me, but i’m not super opposed to the idea. I just want minion specs to feel fun to play.

What if Spectral Wall got charges? Use the current functionality for this thought.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

What if Spectral Wall got charges? Use the current functionality for this thought.

Nightmare mode.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

What if Spectral Wall got charges? Use the current functionality for this thought.

Terrormancer will make a comeback.

I would support all of your proposed changes, not that it means anything.
It’s not very often I agree with someone’s “rebalance”, certainly not here in the necro forums where it’s “staff need MOAR Condi, aoe and loot!”.