Guild Wars 2

Now that we will be able to res/stomp while in ds, i believe spectral builds will become more useful.
So i played around with some builds today. There are some things one must keep in mind: Spectral skills give lots of life force/life force regen, so they require investing in DS.Spectral skills give boons, so its good to invest in boon duration. It’s also hard to trait for hp sustain and spectrals(no vamp traits, and the problem in the coming lines) And the fact one can either dance or stay long in deathshroud suggests traits that activate on enter/exit DS or while staying in DS. (Foot in the Grave, Near to Death, Enfeebling Blood, Shrouded Removal, Death Shiver, Spiteful Spirit, Unholy Sanctuary).

A build that provides lots of DS sustain functions as following, you get on point, and you dont die/leave, unless forced by the whole enemy team. Secondly you could provide some support, with Unholy Martyr or Death Shiver, even healing support, with traits like Transfusion/Deathly Invigoration, and soon rez/stomps.

Anyway i was in the process of theorycrafting, and there are couple of synergy problems. For such a build to be effective, i think x/4/x/x/6 is necessary. Traits are FitG, Near to Death, Spectral Mastery, and Spectral Attunement.
Since spectral skills give protection/swiftness, and Foot in the Grave gives stability, boon duration=death magic is mandatory imo. That means 0/4/4/0/6.
So we’re locked out of Dhuumfire/Close to Death, Unholy Sanctuary. Any synergy that could come out of

1) Spite+DM (like Flesh of the Master and minion traits),
2) BM+DM (Transf+DI from BM and Staff cooldowns+unblockable+Soul Marks or minion skills or Shrouded Removal+Death Shiver from DM)
3)Spite+BM (well synergy is already awful due to healing effects and DS, but one could take Transfusion+Deathly Invigoration and Spite Master minor/Chill of Death)

is pretty much not available.

And the reason for that is the position of the Spectral Attunement trait. In order for spectral skills to be effective (lf at cast, longer duration for wall/walk/armor+their boons) we are forced to invest 4 points in curses, for 7% crit chance and 200 condition damage…which i find ridiculous…
So 1), 2) and 3) present only some possibilities that are ruined from the position of this trait.. and i firmly believe it was put there very intentionally from the devs.

My suggestion is a very simple fix, just to switch spectral mastery with spectral attunement…because cooldowns, while very useful, aren’t as important as spectral attunement.
(and spectral armor already gets its cd reduced. Maybe my suggestion already comes in the patch:) )

I encourage anyone who reads this to go to the build editor (http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/) , check out the traits+synergies i mentioned, and i would like to hear if you agree/disagree/suggestions.

inb4 new weapon, guards engis, no damage.

Are you joking? Shorter CD’s are vastly more useful then longer duration, especially when you’re in a longer fight.

Longer duration makes the skills more powerful. Shorter CD’s gives you more flexibility, which is invaluable in a no so flexible class.

Also I wouldn’t be so quick so assume ‘essential’ traits. While I would take 6 in soul reaping, simply because it has some very good traits, the others are far from essential.

Also sadly spec walk is looking worse and worse, although it will (hopefully) always be useful for hilarious escapes, it became ‘meh’ for LF generation when they put in the ICD and reduced the amount gained, and with the upcoming change to locust swarm, it’s not needed for perma swiftness. To top that off, spec armor is getting the CD reduced, so I don’t see much use for spec walk anymore, there are more useful things to slot there.

I may be alone with that, but i think the spectral traits are fine where they are.

War Mourner.5168:

Are you joking? Shorter CD’s are vastly more useful then longer duration, especially when you’re in a longer fight.

Longer duration makes the skills more powerful. Shorter CD’s gives you more flexibility, which is invaluable in a no so flexible class.

Also I wouldn’t be so quick so assume ‘essential’ traits. While I would take 6 in soul reaping, simply because it has some very good traits, the others are far from essential.

Also sadly spec walk is looking worse and worse, although it will (hopefully) always be useful for hilarious escapes, it became ‘meh’ for LF generation when they put in the ICD and reduced the amount gained, and with the upcoming change to locust swarm, it’s not needed for perma swiftness. To top that off, spec armor is getting the CD reduced, so I don’t see much use for spec walk anymore, there are more useful things to slot there.

Then that’s a matter of preference, i prefer longer duration on walk,wall even armor in pvp than reduced cooldown at least for pvp…true that about spectral walk..another use of the teleport, it can put you behind your target and let you get that precious 1s cast heal. Also spectral attunement gives lf on skill cast…meaning even with 20hp you can pop spectral armor and ds and survive a burst. And i believe a build focused on spectral can make use of the new feature in unholy sanctuary,

Had a read through, I like the idea i like any ideas that are different in terms of builds.

From a power building perspective it doesn’t work and in general you have very little choice when it comes to power builds, you really need to pick up close to death.

And as much as i would like to pick up stability 50% crit in ds is really strong.

Condi and power share the following problem with the 2nd tier skill in soul reaping where their is plenty of good traits- soul marks, master of terror, and unyielding blast.

So with that out of the way as i said i like the idea i think the main concern is what are you going to be able to offer your team damage wise?

You are not going to have the power for direct damage and taking your suggestions it will reduce your condi output significantly.

Ill try a few power builds out see how well or not well they work.

Shorter cooldown is better for Armour, no question. It’s a good buff (though somewhat unnecessary, the ability is seeing plenty of use as it is).

But for Walk, I would take a longer duration instead, and here’s why: when you use it to break stun, it doesn’t give you protection, like Armour, or teleport you out of trouble, like Flesh Wurm. All it gives you is swiftness and some life force gain (though again less than Armour), and the ability to teleport back to where you activated it for 8". That 8" is theoretically long enough to run away and juke an enemy, but here’s the thing: it doesn’t give you stability, you’ve already used your stunbreak, so you are quite likely to get CC’ed or snared again within those 8". So, in practice, you’re not gonna get very far, and you’ll only be able to teleport back to where you were originally jumped in the first place, which is still dangerous.

If, otoh, the duration of the “Walk” portion (not the swiftness) was doubled or so, to 16-20", suddenly you have more options than just casting it to break stun AFTER you’ve gotten jumped. You’d instead be able to cast it BEFORE getting into the fight, throw some attacks around, and trigger the teleport after you’ve gotten in trouble. You’d be able to run to reinforce mid point, and then teleport back home if a thief ran there. It would effectively become a limited-duration Flesh Wurm, or a 1-person portal. It blows the limits on the tactical uses of the skill wide open. It’s now not just an active defence, but a preemptive defence, an offensive skill, and even a hedge while being offensive. And the paltry LF gain doesn’t seem so bad when it’s extended in duration.

We practically have that shorter cd now…and i prefer 3 more sec of protection/rapid lf gain to faster cooldown (10 sec)…
With spectral attunement you get 12 secs of walk…but i see how 18 secs would benefit us…:)

My point is that a trait which boosts the effectiveness of some skills is in a position that eliminates possible builds/synergies…so what if spectral attunement was a DM trait ?

manveruppd
A longer spectral walk is a great idea but to my best knowledge anet wont do things like this because of the amount of chill/cripple necros have.

Yeah chill and cripple are amazing. Except:
a. if you’re a warrior, running around with dogged march, berserker stance, and guaranteed condi cleansing every 7" with combustive shot
b. if you have any kind of teleport/shadow step, whose range unaffected by snares
c. if there’s a couple of guardians or elementalists amongst the enemy team providing regular pbaoe team cleanses
d. if you’re fighting on a tiny capture point barely larger than the melee range so snared or not the enemy can still catch you
e. if you’re a thief, whose weapon skills have no cooldown and are therefore unaffected by chill

other than that they’re awesome! :p