Guild Wars 2

I posted these suggestions already but they will probably get more feedback in the Necromancer Subforum. I will take for granted the developers don’t want us to have access to reflects, teleports, leaps, dodge skills, stability, escapes, invisibility/stealth, or quickness. Feel free to add your own.

The underlying theme of these changes would be to increase Necromancer value in 5-man teams in high end Dungeons and sPvP.

[For Downed State]

Change Fetid Ground skill in down state to behave identical to Well of Corruption. In turn, increase recharge.

This will give necromancers their thematic boon conversion ability on down, and making slightly less guaranteed finisher use, similar to all other class downed abilities.

[For High-end Dungeon Running PvE]

Give Necromancers traits that directly benefit the party they are in.

This can be similar to ranger spotter, allowing for the boosting of one or more ability. This could also be something like Bone Wall or Bone Bridge (used during the last Living Story) that allows for the Necromancer to create a tactical physical obstructions that NPCs must destroy to reach the players (analogous to reflect walls) or allows Necromancer party members to use the Bridge to cross to another part of the map quicker then walking around (like mesmer portal).

[Deathshroud] Options – (these would need to be balanced around decreased deathshroud for increased group utility).

Always show utility and heal cooldowns in deathshroud.
Make Life Blast/Plague Blast a projectile finisher.

#Allow for use of utilities in death shroud by sacrificing 1/3 of your total DS lifebar.
#Heal or vampiric ability use in death shroud by some reduction in total DS lifebar.

[Staff Changes]
Increase staff autoattack speed.
Change staff auto attack to apply 1 stack of torment (5sec) on hit.

In its current form, Staff Auto is so slow most players can simply outrun the animation. Adding torment would be a slight buff, but sorely needed.

[Axe Changes]

Axe auto should not require a target to strike.
Axe auto should cleave (at least 2, as dagger post patch).

Unholy Feast should be a whirl finisher.

What do you guys think?

Apokriphos.7042:

[For High-end Dungeon Running PvE]

Give Necromancers traits that directly benefit the party they are in.

Yeah I wouldn’t mind feeling more helpful to my group. Problem is, Necro “support” comes primarily in the form of conditions, which have caps. Sure you can stack vulnerability on your enemies, increasing your party’s damage, but if other people are already doing that you’re not contributing as much if anything at all.

I would like to see something along the lines of “Nearby enemies take increased damage.” Basically a damage buff for your party in the form of a debuff that isn’t affected by condition caps, and affects all types of damage. Or modify/remove condition caps? I’m sure that would cause some kind of problems, but I can’t think of what.

A pure utility kind of ability would be awesome though. Other professions can stack aoe stealth or swiftness, things that are useful out of combat. We can stack aoe vulnerability, or convert conditions/boons, but those aren’t as useful in as many situations. Namely out of combat. So, hrm, what would fit a Necro that could support your party outside of combat… that’s a toughie.

But you know, I think a portal-style ability would be great. It would reduce the “need” for a Mesmer in certain situations, like the oh-so-loved Swamp fractal. How about this:

Spectral Guise 120s recharge
Creates an ethereal field that turns allies into Specters, allowing them to move through objects and be invisible to monsters for 8 seconds. Using an ability cancels Spectral form. If a player is inside an object when Spectral form wears off, they die (and their corpse is moved outside the object).

Not sure of the timing or other details, but the idea seems solid to me. The coding would probably be a nightmare. :/ Also being able to see while moving through an object could be an issue.

Apokriphos.7042:

Always show utility and heal cooldowns in deathshroud.

Yes please. For all transformations, not just Deathshroud? ^^ Only problem would be a lowering of skill cap.

Apokriphos.7042:

Make Life Blast/Plague Blast a projectile finisher.

Don’t see why not, it’s very similar to our Staff auto.

Apokriphos.7042:

#Allow for use of utilities in death shroud by sacrificing 1/3 of your total DS lifebar.
#Heal or vampiric ability use in death shroud by some reduction in total DS lifebar.

Don’t think this is necessary. Proper use of Deathshroud in conjunction with our other abilities takes some amount of skill. You can heal or use whatever ability > Deathshroud while said ability is on cd > use the ability again.

My only real issue with Deathshroud is that it doesn’t benefit a condition build much. The newer torment ability helps, but has a long cd. Dark Path does apply bleeding, but again the cd. I guess it makes sense, after all the Soul Reaping line which buffs all things Deathshroud also gives ferocity, which is only useful for power builds, it just irks me a bit that condition builds don’t get as much benefit from our class mechanic.

Apokriphos.7042:

[Staff Changes]
Increase staff autoattack speed.
Change staff auto attack to apply 1 stack of torment (5sec) on hit.

In its current form, Staff Auto is so slow most players can simply outrun the animation. Adding torment would be a slight buff, but sorely needed.

Wouldn’t do both of these buffs at once, just one or the other. The slow Staff cast is kinda annoying but our other weapons are pretty fast so it makes sense. It also pierces and is a finisher, so there’s some balance. Personally I like the torment idea, but could see it causing issues with its piercing effect. Maybe have a trait that adds torment to it? Regardless, we have the Dagger and Axe that are strictly power weapons, and only the Scepter for conditions, so making the Staff more condition-friendly would be nice.

Apokriphos.7042:

[Axe Changes]

Axe auto should not require a target to strike.
Axe auto should cleave (at least 2, as dagger post patch).

Unholy Feast should be a whirl finisher.

Disagree with the cleaving since the Axe isn’t a melee weapon, but maybe adding a cleave while in melee only? Don’t have a problem with more combo finishers, but Unholy Feast already does quite a lot so it might have to lose something for that.

Apokriphos.7042:

What do you guys think?

(^.^)b