Guild Wars 2

While we all know Necros aren’t as bad at damage (in pve) as people say, it is safe to say Necros are still one of the lowest dps classes. HoT will change this with the Reaper, but the meta seems to be Spite/Soul Reaping/Reaper. With the Reaper being able to do 100% crit chance without any precision, I suggest Anet change Target the Weak back to it’s original form (+2% damage per condition on foe). This would make curses a viable traitline to contend with Soul Reaping. This would also mean Necros, who don’t want to spec Reaper, could pump out more than their current mediocre damage.

People will still use precision because outside of the reaper you loose 50% crit chance. Take Dhuumfire instead of Deaths perception. Still 100% in and outside of Reaper + Burning.

A lot of people have been suggesting this (or something similar) when the changes that came with the specialization patch first were revealed. I´m all in favor of giving us access to an additional damage modifier, but I think there is a problem.
Curses is supposed to be the go-for condi line. A direct damage boost in the condi line wouldn´t exactly do justice to their new overall design philosophy (“clear direction” for each specialization), so I don´t see something like that happening unfortunately.

I don’t think anyone appreciated the change to Target the Weak. Should have been left as it was or had its effect moved to another minor.

Aktium.9506:

I don’t think anyone appreciated the change to Target the Weak. Should have been left as it was or had its effect moved to another minor.

I would prefer it to stay like that if anything the GM majors are the ones that are not atrractive for PvE.

It kinda goes against whole crit idea of minors. I understand why they’ve chosen to change that, even if I believe that current Curses minors should’ve been re-done anyway.

Really they should make Weakening Shroud the minor trait (following the theme of Entering Death Shroud traits like Furious Demise), and then make Target the Weak takes it place as Grandmaster, with the change to +2% damage. That way it doesn’t disrupt condi builds running Curses but allows Curses to be used in both condition and power builds.

No, Curses really needed the crit minors, because it is the crit and condi line. It made no sense for the condi/crit line to have a trait that didn’t help either of those two functions.

Soul Reaping’s Foot in the Grave could easily replace Death Perception. Reaper is just as susceptible to hard CC as Necromancer and Reaper builds should be used more often when multiple enemies are around, implying higher odds of being CC’d.

Aktium.9506:

I don’t think anyone appreciated the change to Target the Weak. Should have been left as it was or had its effect moved to another minor.

People who used the Curses line for stronger Conditions did. The bonus damage did nothing for condi builds, whereas the bonus crit is quite nice for them.

I’d really like to see Path of Corruption become a minor, as this would be seriously beneficial to curses in PvP and possibly also in HoT PvE.

Condition damage on Necromancer is a lost cause, anyway. I ran a Burning, carrion Ele in PvE this morning. It stacks burning so fast and so high on a good weapon, dagger, I was reminded, again, how pathetic Necromancer condition damage is.

I mean sure we have low damage, but that isn’t Curses’ fault directly, its our weapons. Death Perception doesn’t make sense as it is a primarily power boost for shroud, it makes little sense to have in Curses over Soul Reaping.

I do not totally blame Curses for the lack of condition damage. Weapons and utilities are part of the issue. Build yourself a maxi-burn Ele and review how many ways burning can be applied.

Curses could apply stacks of bleeding on all Corruption skills, for example, but it does not.

A passive trait for Curses should apply 3 stacks of long bleeds to one line of utilities on use.

Why does Curses have to be an only Condi line though? Spite is used for Condi and it is considered a the Power line.

Lahmia.2193:

Why does Curses have to be an only Condi line though? Spite is used for Condi and it is considered a the Power line.

Spite is used in condi builds primarily for boon hate and Signet cooldown reduction. Curses has a few things a Power build might like, but for condition builds, it carries build defining traits such as Terror and Weakening Shroud. Another big reason Curses may be associated with conditions is because all of its traits have to do with giving others conditions, and the weapon that curses boosts is scepter, which is a pure condi weapon.

Lahmia.2193:

Why does Curses have to be an only Condi line though? Spite is used for Condi and it is considered a the Power line.

It should be, which is why so many people complained about the lack of a non-condition GM trait and we got Weakening Shroud. It is crit/condi damage, just like spite is power/debuff condis.

Lahmia.2193:

Why does Curses have to be an only Condi line though? Spite is used for Condi and it is considered a the Power line.

Several professions have only one condition damage trait line.

I like Spite where it is at, minor quibbles aside and consider there are soft CC conditions and damaging conditions.

Honestly, i would like Terror to do a lot more condition damage. Its up-time is low.

Captain Unusual.9163:

Aktium.9506:

I don’t think anyone appreciated the change to Target the Weak. Should have been left as it was or had its effect moved to another minor.

People who used the Curses line for stronger Conditions did. The bonus damage did nothing for condi builds, whereas the bonus crit is quite nice for them.

Filthy condition peasants are irrelevant.

Aktium.9506:

Captain Unusual.9163:

Aktium.9506:

I don’t think anyone appreciated the change to Target the Weak. Should have been left as it was or had its effect moved to another minor.

People who used the Curses line for stronger Conditions did. The bonus damage did nothing for condi builds, whereas the bonus crit is quite nice for them.

Filthy condition peasants are irrelevant.

Power Necro master race!

Lahmia.2193:

While we all know Necros aren’t as bad at damage (in pve) as people say, it is safe to say Necros are still one of the lowest dps classes. HoT will change this with the Reaper, but the meta seems to be Spite/Soul Reaping/Reaper. With the Reaper being able to do 100% crit chance without any precision, I suggest Anet change Target the Weak back to it’s original form (+2% damage per condition on foe). This would make curses a viable traitline to contend with Soul Reaping. This would also mean Necros, who don’t want to spec Reaper, could pump out more than their current mediocre damage.

I slightly agree with you. I also believe necro’s should get access to certain damage modifiers and that the curses traitline has too many crit. traits. However, I personally have more problems with Furious Demise which is the master minor trait that gives fury when entering shroud. Because not only does this mean that we have two minor traits that give crit. chance in the same traitline, I also always doubted why necro’s need fury. I would therefore be more interesting in removing Furious Demise, and in making Target the Weak the master minor trait, keeping only the crit. chance bonus it gives now.

As for a new grandmaster minor trait, I was thinking for a long time about a damage modifier as well, but as many pointed out here, it needs to be useful for condition necro’s as well. Therefore I was more thinking about an offensive version of Corrupter’s Fervor. This means we could get both power as well as condition damage per condition inflicted on a foe, resulting in a trait that offers additional value for both power as condition necro’s, while still fitting the idea behind the traitline.

What about instead of damage multipliers or extra crit chance, the trait provides extra ferocity for each condition on the enemy. That would fit in curse (because condi builds usually have some crits but no ferocity + ferocity fits in the “crit” line) and also serve as a valuable damage multiplier for PvE.

Bhawb.7408:

No, Curses really needed the crit minors, because it is the crit and condi line. It made no sense for the condi/crit line to have a trait that didn’t help either of those two functions.

Kind of odd (well, not really) how devs don’t follow the same line of thinking. Engineers condition/critical line was identical to Necros in terms of theme, but kept Modified Ammunition with a 2% damage bonus per condition on target while Necros (and just about every other profession) had their damage modifiers altered to critical chance.

As far as damage modifiers in curses are concerned, I would much rather change barbed precision so that instead of extending bleed duration (plenty of opportunity to do that with runes and sigils + condi cleanse meta), you now deal increased damage to bleeding foes.

Coffietire.2783:

As far as damage modifiers in curses are concerned, I would much rather change barbed precision so that instead of extending bleed duration (plenty of opportunity to do that with runes and sigils + condi cleanse meta), you now deal increased damage to bleeding foes.

That would be a great idea if you put it at +5% damage. Duration increase from traits on bleeds are worthless, Anet should know this by now. Especially for Necros.

So, the general consensus of this thread seems to be that, since condi necro is weak, we should change what few condi traits there are into more power-focused ones.

Neat.

I hope they don’t change it personally because it allows us to reach some wonderful numbers with condition damage and I think we have enough power damage modifiers as is.

Captain Unusual.9163:

So, the general consensus of this thread seems to be that, since condi necro is weak, we should change what few condi traits there are into more power-focused ones.

Neat.

The general consensus is that Necro needs Target the weak to be changed back. I’ve never been told to run something else as a Condi Necro in pvp or wvw. But constant “no necros” in lfg have shown us Necros need a power buff.

Lahmia.2193:

Captain Unusual.9163:

So, the general consensus of this thread seems to be that, since condi necro is weak, we should change what few condi traits there are into more power-focused ones.

Neat.

The general consensus is that Necro needs Target the weak to be changed back. I’ve never been told to run something else as a Condi Necro in pvp or wvw. But constant “no necros” in lfg have shown us Necros need a power buff.

So, yes, you want to remove condi necros in favor of power necros. 10/10, top tier design.

Captain Unusual.9163:

Lahmia.2193:

Captain Unusual.9163:

So, the general consensus of this thread seems to be that, since condi necro is weak, we should change what few condi traits there are into more power-focused ones.

Neat.

The general consensus is that Necro needs Target the weak to be changed back. I’ve never been told to run something else as a Condi Necro in pvp or wvw. But constant “no necros” in lfg have shown us Necros need a power buff.

So, yes, you want to remove condi necros in favor of power necros. 10/10, top tier design.

Luckily not everyone feels the same way. ^^

Curses has already enough trouble being a condition crit line as it is. Changing target the weak will not help it at all. Besides how will it help? I mean the rest of curses is not a good for PvE and for pvp we only reach 100 crit chance in shroud so it’s not useless there either. So how about instead of pointing our arrows at curses we point it at blood magic and give all our siphons a proper power scaling? Maybe vampiric presence might become a more noticable group utility.

Bluewizard.2694:

Captain Unusual.9163:

Lahmia.2193:

Captain Unusual.9163:

So, the general consensus of this thread seems to be that, since condi necro is weak, we should change what few condi traits there are into more power-focused ones.

Neat.

The general consensus is that Necro needs Target the weak to be changed back. I’ve never been told to run something else as a Condi Necro in pvp or wvw. But constant “no necros” in lfg have shown us Necros need a power buff.

So, yes, you want to remove condi necros in favor of power necros. 10/10, top tier design.

Luckily not everyone feels the same way. ^^

I do.

Tim.6450:

Bluewizard.2694:

Captain Unusual.9163:

Lahmia.2193:

Captain Unusual.9163:

So, the general consensus of this thread seems to be that, since condi necro is weak, we should change what few condi traits there are into more power-focused ones.

Neat.

The general consensus is that Necro needs Target the weak to be changed back. I’ve never been told to run something else as a Condi Necro in pvp or wvw. But constant “no necros” in lfg have shown us Necros need a power buff.

So, yes, you want to remove condi necros in favor of power necros. 10/10, top tier design.

Luckily not everyone feels the same way. ^^

I do.

I was referring to the fact that not everyone wants to remove condi necro’s. Sorry if that was unclear.

Tim.6450:

Curses has already enough trouble being a condition crit line as it is. Changing target the weak will not help it at all. Besides how will it help?+ I mean the rest of curses is not a good for PvE+ and for pvp we only reach 100 crit chance in shroud so it’s not useless there either.

That will depend how everything is in HoT. If the mobs hit harder or apply more conditions on us, the Curses traitline could be quite useful due to the condi transfer and weakness (just to give an example).

However, as I pointed out here and in other topics, for me the Curses traitline has two minor traits that offer crit chance, which for me is one too much. I would rather have one useful, condi oriented minor trait that gives us more crit and one, possible new, minor trait that gives something extra to both power and condi necro’s. Even though I’m aware that this will only be beneficial for power necro’s once the importance of Vital Persistance is lowered.

Tim.6450:

So how about instead of pointing our arrows at curses we point it at blood magic and give all our siphons a proper power scaling? Maybe vampiric presence might become a more noticable group utility.

Although I most definitely agree with this, there is one major problem. Namely that PvE traits and skills = PvP traits and skills. As long as this is the case, something like you mentioned will not be possible due to the high impact it will have in PvP as it will not only highly increase the damage of a power necro’s but also possible might draw away the attention from possible tweaks we need in terms of defense. Defensive tweaks that could be beneficial for both power and condi necro’s.

Curses is the crit/condi line, of course it gives crit/condi in its minors, just like Spite, the debuffing condi/power line gives debuffing condis and power in its minors. Power builds get benefit from this trait already, it benefits any build that would go into curses because any build going into Curses by definition wants crit/condi.

This change is only beneficial to PvE power builds, it makes no sense to change it.

Aktium.9506:

I don’t think anyone appreciated the change to Target the Weak. Should have been left as it was or had its effect moved to another minor.

As a main pvp player, I loved it.