Guild Wars 2

Hi guys !

With the incoming new traits, I do agree, most of things are missing for us necromancers, and I agree with most of the post. That’s really unfair to see really good rework for the engi profession…

First, I’ve created that post too, if even somes devs or game designer read it, might have new ideas for the incoming changment to traits. There is one already existing here : https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Thoughts-Sacrifice-Attrition-for-Support/first#post5014102, but about support. Mine is about an Offensive way.

Most of unfair, is that we are a light armor profession, but for now, a heavy armor deals more damage than us (and a RPG shouldn’t work in that sense) … Yeah. Something terrible is missing.

I played GW1 for a long, long time, I’ve done almost everything, and I loved that game. My Necromancer was my main in GW1, so he’s my main in GW2.

We miss so much necro’s mechanics from Guild Wars 1 (curses, death magics, etc..)

• One of my favourite, is the “Boomer Build”. The goal of this build was to put 3 curses on a foe, focus him, and if he died, he will explode and deals really good damage around him. The skills were Icy Veins (elit skill from Soul Reaping), Putrid Bile and Rising Bile(both from death magic).
  Seeing that gameplay in Guild Wars 2 would be awesome, especially in sPvP, would be fun.

• I don’t play that much sPvP, but I know enough that starting with 0% life force makes you the weakest class ever. It’s really hard to gere his own Life Force, since most of utility skills are “useless”.
  -The Spectral Grasp is weird. It misses some creativity, nothing really to deal with a Necromancer, and even it’s a good amount of LF generate, and even if I tried to use it, you just can’t. It’s not that strong (even if it’s good for decents combos).
  Why not add an F2 skill : Meditation : over time, increase LF from x to x%.
  It might be a really long cast, and also, you can add some traits to that :
  -gain HP each seconds while channeling
  -gain Thoughtness while channeling
  -inflict damage at the end of the channeling (Hi Shiro Tagachi)
  etc…
  And, in terms of lore and gameplay (especially PvE), it can be awesome !

Most of Necromancers feel like, playing necromancer doesn’t belong to death magic at all, neither curses, neither blood magic. And they are kinda right.

• Related to Death Magic, we are not the best profession for resurrect someone, neither to kill someone.

• Related to Curses, back in Guild Wars 1, Necromancer’s curses were like “If you do that, I will punish you hard”. Sadistict side here. We don’t have skills that punish a foe if it attacks you, or if it use a healing skill, etc…

• Related to Blood Magic, as it was already said : we don’t feel like life steal is strong enough. There is a lot of posts about it, so I don’t have something to add about that.
  Just don’t forget that, back in GW1, necromancer could heals/buffs, despite of his own health, a team member. That can be fun to see it in GW2, maybe.

That is just a beginning of idea here. I really hope somes games designers will get some idea from here, and definitively, should look more the skills from GW1.

neilug hyuga.5634:

• One of my favourite, is the “Boomer Build”. The goal of this build was to put 3 curses on a foe, focus him, and if he died, he will explode and deals really good damage around him. The skills were Icy Veins (elit skill from Soul Reaping), Putrid Bile and Rising Bile(both from death magic).
  Seeing that gameplay in Guild Wars 2 would be awesome, especially in sPvP, would be fun.

I really hate to harsh on your idea, but I don’t think you actually want this. Skills that only proc once a target is dead are snowball mechanics. They help secure a fight that you’re already winning, and don’t come into play in 1v1s until after a fight is over. In a fight where you’re slightly behind, they do basically nothing. We’ve already heard the devs talking about moving away from this (The new Spiteful Renewal triggers at 25%, not at zero) although they still need to expand that logic to Soul Comprehension.

neilug hyuga.5634:

• I don’t play that much sPvP, but I know enough that starting with 0% life force makes you the weakest class ever. It’s really hard to gere his own Life Force, since most of utility skills are “useless”.
  -The Spectral Grasp is weird. It misses some creativity, nothing really to deal with a Necromancer, and even it’s a good amount of LF generate, and even if I tried to use it, you just can’t. It’s not that strong (even if it’s good for decents combos).
  Why not add an F2 skill : Meditation : over time, increase LF from x to x%.
  It might be a really long cast, and also, you can add some traits to that :
  -gain HP each seconds while channeling
  -gain Thoughtness while channeling
  -inflict damage at the end of the channeling (Hi Shiro Tagachi)
  etc…
  And, in terms of lore and gameplay (especially PvE), it can be awesome !

I agree that Necromancers starting with 0 life force is a weird disadvantage, because unlike other profession specific resources, Life Force is a very long-term resource that persists between fights. I’d love to see them give a small baseline of life force to Necromancers every time they respawn. Probably around 20%, or the amount that a Necromancer gains from a single dead opponent. Or in an odd sort of way, their own death. It’s just enough to get into Death Shroud & soak a bit of damage at the start of a fight.
Requiring the Necromancer to spend extra time generating life force before getting back into the match feels like a trap in PvP, and allows them to regen to 100% life force between fights in a bunker spec, which is also questionable.

neilug hyuga.5634:

• Related to Death Magic, we are not the best profession for resurrect someone, neither to kill someone.

• Related to Blood Magic, as it was already said : we don’t feel like life steal is strong enough. There is a lot of posts about it, so I don’t have something to add about that.
  Just don’t forget that, back in GW1, necromancer could heals/buffs, despite of his own health, a team member. That can be fun to see it in GW2, maybe.

It’d be nice to see Necromancer having a bit stronger of a “back from the dead” flavour though. Currently we’ve got Signet of the Undead and Ritual of Life, which are actually kind of strong? But they have some serious usability issues. (If I recall correctly, an opponent’s finisher is faster than your SotU channel!)
Blood Magic I really feel you on. They’ve pointedly removed health sacrifice, and I don’t think we’ll see that come back (Maybe life force sacrifice though!) but the loss of the Vampire archetype is really disappointing. As it is, siphons just don’t feel impactful.