Guild Wars 2

OP, i think the stolen fear length is the biggest joke on necros in any case. I think between the two guys that designed the necro, 1 plays thief, and the other hates necros. They also helped design the thief.

Anyway here’s something very minor I only noticed and started planning on testing if anyone wants to get into/improve/see if it’s actually functional, or if its been tried already. (considering stun breakers and all on cd; last line of defence).

I’m not sure if getting skull feared is the same, but during some stuns/disables I’m able to weapon swap and thought of getting a Sigil of hydromancy (the best I can think of). Vague idea atm, and had actually forgot about it till now, but was hoping to test if it can buy some time or save me a hit or two in general. Again, I’m not sure if we can swap during fear at this point.

lettucemode.3789:

CHIPS.6018:

lettucemode.3789:

CHIPS.6018:

And it always works because once your victim is feared he can’t do anything.

Not necessarily. The only thing you’ve shown in this thread is that if you are in a zerg vs. zerg fight, have taken lots of damage, and are out of LF, fears, and stunbreaks, Skull Fear will kill you. Who cares?

You made it sound like it is my fault for running out of LF, fear and stunbreak (if I got them) in a zerg vs zerg fight. Necro is a high priority target in zerg vs zerg because they always get hit. Skills you use against a necro will “almost” never fail.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply it was your fault. Here’s what I’m saying. Your character had been in the fight for a while, was low on health and defenses and had several key abilities on cooldown. Then he was killed by a character who didn’t have his key abilities on cooldown and had probably been in less of the fight than your character. This has been happening in MMO’s since the dawn of time. It is frustrating (especially since it was a thief, I know) but there was nothing special about it, and nothing needs to be changed.

Actually I think Skull Fear need to be nerfed. 3 seconds of AoE fear can be very lethal in wvw. The only thing preventing it from going nuts is the fact that there aren’t that many necro in wvw in the first place. So it is rare to find an enemy necro to steal this skill from.

If Anet do not fix this skill, please at least allow friendly thieves to steal Skull Fear from me. This allows me to buff my thief allies, so at least it was helpful for my side. :P

CHIPS.6018:

Necro just happen to also have the worst stun break in the game. Have you seen their skill recharge? None is faster than a thief’s 45 sec of stealing.

we can have fear break every ten seconds can’t we?

Dredlord.8076:

CHIPS.6018:

Necro just happen to also have the worst stun break in the game. Have you seen their skill recharge? None is faster than a thief’s 45 sec of stealing.

we can have fear break every ten seconds can’t we?

You can use DS while feared, but your fear won’t end unless you traited for that.

CHIPS.6018:

Dredlord.8076:

CHIPS.6018:

Necro just happen to also have the worst stun break in the game. Have you seen their skill recharge? None is faster than a thief’s 45 sec of stealing.

we can have fear break every ten seconds can’t we?

You can use DS while feared, but your fear won’t end unless you traited for that.

Excellent, problem solved then.

Skyro.3108:

Not sure what the point about being low and out of cooldowns from a zerg and then dying to a burst class. That would happen to any class.

And while Necro’s aren’t the greatest 1v1 class due to needing LF to be competitive in 1v1s, the game isn’t balanced around 1v1 anyway. Necro is among the best team fight classes in the entire game.

If you’re simply asking how to deal with stolen skull fear one thing you can do is place a fear mark in a strategic place so that you can retreat to it when they stealth. Simply running away in a straight line is also effective since skull fear has a long cast time and the duration depends on the distance from the target (farther away = less fear duration). Since their steal will be down they will likely need to have another shadowstep utility skill equipped to actually get close enough to fear you which they may not have equipped or is on cooldown.

Another option depending on your build is the stability on death shroud trait. The stability will outlast his stealth outside of shadow refuge (which you can use your fear mark on or again simply run away). Plus your life transfer will hit stealthed thieves.

Also if you suspect a skull fear it isn’t actually all that random to dodge. Skull fear has IIRC 1.25s cast. Most stealths are 3s. If you dodge anytime after 1.25s you’re actually very likely to dodge the skull fear.

But I wasn’t dying though. I had 10-12k hp. But that Skull Fear combo drains all that hp to zero, while I cannot do anything at all to defend myself. 10-12k hp aren’t dead man walking.

Fear mark doesn’t end their Skull Fear nor does it end their stealth. They can walk into the mark, get feared for 1 second, and then continue with the combo. And randomly putting AoEs down is the worst thing you can do against a thief. You are basically shutting yourself down due to skill recharge. The only AoE skill that should be spammed is Mark of Blood. That won’t help you against the Skull Fear combo.

You cannot run away from a thief. They move way too fast and will easily chase you down. You are “relatively” safer by staying with your teammates.

Skull Fear has a short 0.5 sec cast time, which aren’t that long at all. Neither can I confirm that the further you are away from the thief, the less time it affects you. In those 3 times that I got killed, the thief managed to get all 3 seconds (or more) of fear against me. I had no idea how far the thief was when he used Skull Fear because I couldn’t even see him.

Stability doesn’t do anything when you are already feared. In the wiki it is stated:

“Stability does not protect against effects which are already in place; it merely provides immunity against incoming disables. However, some skills which grant stability can also break stuns.”

Stun breaks would help you here. But I already talked about why I do not carry stun breaks.

You last part talks about luck; Randomly use dodge and by luck you would happen to dodge his Skull Fear. This aren’t a suggestion anymore. It is more like wishing me luck since I would need a ton of it.

Dredlord.8076:

CHIPS.6018:

Dredlord.8076:

CHIPS.6018:

Necro just happen to also have the worst stun break in the game. Have you seen their skill recharge? None is faster than a thief’s 45 sec of stealing.

we can have fear break every ten seconds can’t we?

You can use DS while feared, but your fear won’t end unless you traited for that.

Excellent, problem solved then.

Unfortunately nope. Read how that works.

Shrouded Removal: “Lose a condition when you enter death shroud”

Question is which condition. Unless that 3 second fear happens to be the only condition you got, there is no guarantee that fear is the one that would be removed.

And if you are spec-ing into death magic, you are probably going to trait into staff marks or minion. There is little room to put Shrouded Removal.

Look at the amount of sacrifice you got to make just for a “chance” to remove that 3 second fear, which any thief fighting a necro would “automatically” get.

CHIPS.6018:

Dredlord.8076:

CHIPS.6018:

Necro just happen to also have the worst stun break in the game. Have you seen their skill recharge? None is faster than a thief’s 45 sec of stealing.

we can have fear break every ten seconds can’t we?

You can use DS while feared, but your fear won’t end unless you traited for that.

What are you referring to exactly? Foot in the grave? or removal?

N.B. on the plus side for necro, we can CB them out of dagger storm. I dont think any other class can disable that. Tho storm is not around every corner these days it seems.

Edit. Nvm, you answered.

@chips, I normally find your replies to be well thought out complaints rather than the common whines about class balance as normal, but this seems like more of a situational thing and you deciding you don’t want to do something in order to prevent it.

Guess what happens to a Theif if the decide not to bring any stealthing utilities? They die. So if you don’t bring the tools necessary to be effective against stuns, dazes, and fears why should they worry about you getting clocked in that manner?

I agree that he fear is ridiculously long, in the amount of times I have been feared I don’t remember ever being chain feared every 45 seconds. Reading your comments this is what you seem to be saying, and then dieing by the end of the second one. This seems a lot like you got out played by a theif who is specced in a matter to abuse yoru build.

As a minion build, I rarely face this situation. 1.2 seconds summons flesh wurm, I simply hit them with everythign, than they hs, and I swap to DS and hit them with a fear when they are HS spamming.

My build counters that specific build, that specific build essentially hard counters yours. If you refuse to bring any of the multitude of options that we have available to break that build than i am not sure why the game should be balanced around a niche build that specializes in stealing and fearig just the Necro.

Bas.7406:

@chips, I normally find your replies to be well thought out complaints rather than the common whines about class balance as normal, but this seems like more of a situational thing and you deciding you don’t want to do something in order to prevent it.

Guess what happens to a Theif if the decide not to bring any stealthing utilities? They die. So if you don’t bring the tools necessary to be effective against stuns, dazes, and fears why should they worry about you getting clocked in that manner?

I agree that he fear is ridiculously long, in the amount of times I have been feared I don’t remember ever being chain feared every 45 seconds. Reading your comments this is what you seem to be saying, and then dieing by the end of the second one. This seems a lot like you got out played by a theif who is specced in a matter to abuse yoru build.

As a minion build, I rarely face this situation. 1.2 seconds summons flesh wurm, I simply hit them with everythign, than they hs, and I swap to DS and hit them with a fear when they are HS spamming.

My build counters that specific build, that specific build essentially hard counters yours. If you refuse to bring any of the multitude of options that we have available to break that build than i am not sure why the game should be balanced around a niche build that specializes in stealing and fearig just the Necro.

I wasn’t chain feared. The first Skull Fear combo already downed me. I was killed 3 times by the same thief on 3 separate occasions.

Why would a thief in their right mind not bring stealth abilities? Stealth is the most overpowered skills in the game. It can be used both offensively and defensively.

I refuse to carry those necro stun break skills because, from my personal experience, they all suck in wvw. You don’t have to agree and can say L2P all you want. The only one that’s slightly useful is Spectral Walk. But my current build do not get into Soul Reaping at all, so it got a 60 second cooldown.

Do you see me complaining about Immobilized? No I don’t because necro have condition removals to deal with that. Do you see me complaining about knock down? No because I could have dodged that. But Skull Fear? I cannot remove that condition because it SHUTTED DOWN all my condition removals. I couldn’t even see the thief so I can’t dodge unless I was lucky.

Honestly I am surprised that Skull Fear aren’t more wildly used. I guess most thieves have no problem killing necros even without it, so most didn’t even bother with it. Thief having Skull Fear is just icing on the cake.

As an aside, try throwing Putrid Mark at your feet when you have a thief that stealthed with a skull. He pops it and you get feared. He heartseeker’s to you…and gets feared (releasing you from fear and any other conditions in the process). Another way to turn the tables on those who think necros are easy pickings.

If I’m not mistaken (correct me if I am), most condition removal skills and traits remove the most recently applied condition. With the situation you are describing, it will usually be the fear.

Chips, i understand your feelings and i agree with your opinion, but you have to keep in mind 1 thing: atm the game is totally unbalanced, the pvp is even worse, it’s worse than raw, the metagame grew up and adapted to it.
The chances are 2: adapt yourself and get the most viable (COFF…umbalanced…COFF) class OR resist to bad feelings and pass over those bad situations, while keep playing with the class you really LIKE (not switching to the class that let you win easier, as most of ppl do..).
No need to reply, just keep it up, be strong and try to get over this chaotic system, or wait better times to join it.
Another thing: 1)forums are bad places to talk about it, flamers and haters gonna engage you without esitation.
2) Anet Staff —probably-- doesn’t even consider to read posts here, so actually giving feedback and suggestions here it’s a waste of time..

GL & HF

CHIPS.6018:

I wasn’t chain feared. The first Skull Fear combo already downed me. I was killed 3 times by the same thief on 3 separate occasions.

Why would a thief in their right mind not bring stealth abilities? Stealth is the most overpowered skills in the game. It can be used both offensively and defensively.

I refuse to carry those necro stun break skills because, from my personal experience, they all suck in wvw. You don’t have to agree and can say L2P all you want. The only one that’s slightly useful is Spectral Walk. But my current build do not get into Soul Reaping at all, so it got a 60 second cooldown.

Do you see me complaining about Immobilized? No I don’t because necro have condition removals to deal with that. Do you see me complaining about knock down? No because I could have dodged that. But Skull Fear? I cannot remove that condition because it SHUTTED DOWN all my condition removals. I couldn’t even see the thief so I can’t dodge unless I was lucky.

Honestly I am surprised that Skull Fear aren’t more wildly used. I guess most thieves have no problem killing necros even without it, so most didn’t even bother with it. Thief having Skull Fear is just icing on the cake.

I never said L2P so calm down. I simply said that you weren’t bringing the tools necessary to prevent that. I can think of several skills that are better than Stealth. Time warp being numero uno, and any ability that gives quickness.

Stealth is a tool, a thief who specs heavy into stealth (almost all do in pvp) faces certain trade offs. Unfortunately, it’s not a heavy enough tradeoff as you can run heavy stealth and still maximize your dagger damage. The only thing you lose is condition damage or stealing reduced cd.

Stealth is a tool just as stun breakers are a tool. The only people who don’t bring stun breakers are bunker builds because theyh feel they can sit through it. There isn’t a single damage build that doesn’t bring at least one stun break. So not bringing a stun break is a conscious decision to take the road least favorable to that thief’s particular build.

How is that not a gameplay issue?

The point is that the thief doesn’t have to do anything to get the skull fear. There is no trade off or build issue. Any thief that steals from a necro can get a fear that is more potent then what necroes themselves can trait for.

You can bring a stun breaker. So what? Maybe the thief hits you with the fear, then uses basilisk’s venom after you blow your stunbreaker. Or vice versa. The question isn’t whether you have possible options to deal with this. The question is whether it’s reasonable that the thief’s class mechanic is so potent against necroes in particular, particularly in light of their burst potential.

Slan.5496:

You can bring a stun breaker. So what? Maybe the thief hits you with the fear, then uses basilisk’s venom after you blow your stunbreaker. .

Do stunbreakers even work on Basalisk venom? It isn’t a normal stun (bypasses defiant, for one).

It is wrong that thieves can get better skills from a profession than that profession has access to. They really should not be able to do so. If Thieves stole a 1 second AoE fear, that would be fine. We have Reaper’s Mark which does the same thing plus some damage.

CHIPS.6018:

Skyro.3108:

Not sure what the point about being low and out of cooldowns from a zerg and then dying to a burst class. That would happen to any class.

And while Necro’s aren’t the greatest 1v1 class due to needing LF to be competitive in 1v1s, the game isn’t balanced around 1v1 anyway. Necro is among the best team fight classes in the entire game.

If you’re simply asking how to deal with stolen skull fear one thing you can do is place a fear mark in a strategic place so that you can retreat to it when they stealth. Simply running away in a straight line is also effective since skull fear has a long cast time and the duration depends on the distance from the target (farther away = less fear duration). Since their steal will be down they will likely need to have another shadowstep utility skill equipped to actually get close enough to fear you which they may not have equipped or is on cooldown.

Another option depending on your build is the stability on death shroud trait. The stability will outlast his stealth outside of shadow refuge (which you can use your fear mark on or again simply run away). Plus your life transfer will hit stealthed thieves.

Also if you suspect a skull fear it isn’t actually all that random to dodge. Skull fear has IIRC 1.25s cast. Most stealths are 3s. If you dodge anytime after 1.25s you’re actually very likely to dodge the skull fear.

But I wasn’t dying though. I had 10-12k hp. But that Skull Fear combo drains all that hp to zero, while I cannot do anything at all to defend myself. 10-12k hp aren’t dead man walking.

Fear mark doesn’t end their Skull Fear nor does it end their stealth. They can walk into the mark, get feared for 1 second, and then continue with the combo. And randomly putting AoEs down is the worst thing you can do against a thief. You are basically shutting yourself down due to skill recharge. The only AoE skill that should be spammed is Mark of Blood. That won’t help you against the Skull Fear combo.

You cannot run away from a thief. They move way too fast and will easily chase you down. You are “relatively” safer by staying with your teammates.

Skull Fear has a short 0.5 sec cast time, which aren’t that long at all. Neither can I confirm that the further you are away from the thief, the less time it affects you. In those 3 times that I got killed, the thief managed to get all 3 seconds (or more) of fear against me. I had no idea how far the thief was when he used Skull Fear because I couldn’t even see him.

Stability doesn’t do anything when you are already feared. In the wiki it is stated:

“Stability does not protect against effects which are already in place; it merely provides immunity against incoming disables. However, some skills which grant stability can also break stuns.”

Stun breaks would help you here. But I already talked about why I do not carry stun breaks.

You last part talks about luck; Randomly use dodge and by luck you would happen to dodge his Skull Fear. This aren’t a suggestion anymore. It is more like wishing me luck since I would need a ton of it.

You’re basically just making stuff up now. Skull Fear is not 0.5 sec. Why don’t you just test this yourself? It’s not hard.

You also like… didn’t understand half of what I said. Stealth duration outside of shadow refuge = 3s. Stability duration = 3s. What’s hard to understand here?

And you are so wrong about dropping marks. There’s a ton of stuff you can do. Fear Mark was one example. Hit him with a chill mark and dodge away. You can easily get out of the range of the skull fear unless they use some form of shadowstep.

Why am I wasting my time.. this is a L2P issue sadly. Necro is one of my mains and I have no issues with skull fear.

Skyro.3108:

You’re basically just making stuff up now. Skull Fear is not 0.5 sec. Why don’t you just test this yourself? It’s not hard.

You also like… didn’t understand half of what I said. Stealth duration outside of shadow refuge = 3s. Stability duration = 3s. What’s hard to understand here?

And you are so wrong about dropping marks. There’s a ton of stuff you can do. Fear Mark was one example. Hit him with a chill mark and dodge away. You can easily get out of the range of the skull fear unless they use some form of shadowstep.

Why am I wasting my time.. this is a L2P issue sadly. Necro is one of my mains and I have no issues with skull fear.

Alright I made a new thief and just confirmed that Skull Fear does takes 1.25 sec to cast. The description on the wiki was wrong. So you are right on that one.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Skull_Fear

It doesn’t change the fact that this skill is overpowered. You said

“Stealth duration outside of shadow refuge = 3s. Stability duration = 3s.”

So what? Just because a thief stealths doesn’t mean he will use Skull Fear right there and then. A good thief will see that I got stability on, so he would wait until it runs out. Good thieves are patient.

Fear mark? Chill mark? It was zerg vs zerg. So your plan is to cast all those around yourself to stop the thief? Firstly none of the marks shuts down Skull Fear. The thief can still use it anytime even if he got hit by a mark. And what about those other 4 (or more) enemies that you can see? What are you going to do? Auto attack them with your pathetic moving Staff 1? And what happens when the enemies forces you to dodge out of your mark? You think your mark would keep you safe? Think again!

If “casting marks around yourself” is your play style, you might as well make an ele for RTL since that’s much more effective. Or you might as well make a thief and stealth.

As been said multiple times in the thread if a zerg is training on you there’s nothing that any class can really do. You have to rely on your teammates. How you relate that to skull fear being OP I have no idea. You can virtually be caught with anything and die in a zerg battle because you’re not going to be able to recognize the animations of an entire zerg to react properly.

The point about the stability was that he’d unstealth by the time your stability runs out, so the whole argument of being able to do nothing about stealth + skull fear is false. I’m not suggesting you run the trait (though it is an awesome awesome trait, and like I mentioned Life Siphon is always nice in team fights and hits stealthed targets as well), it was merely a counterpoint. People focus on too many singular aspects of the game and miss the big picture. Necros are beasts in team fights.

Whenever I fight thieves I normally use ds to tank their initial burst and I try not to rely on it till they skull fear me. With signet of undeath, I normally have enough to pop in to tank a bit more damage, or ds 3 them if need be. Although that brings up OP’s point about carrying awkward skills just to fight certain classes and while I agree, signet of undeath still has a bit of a purpose on my build (especially that revival if you can afford to carry it). I say all that but I can’t vouch for everyone who uses it nor do I recommend using it because I know how much each skill counts with the current state of the necromancer.

I shelved my necro until anet gets the time to look at the class.

Use plague signet. Now you’re free and the thief is feared. wooo

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Slan.5496:

You can bring a stun breaker. So what? Maybe the thief hits you with the fear, then uses basilisk’s venom after you blow your stunbreaker. .

Do stunbreakers even work on Basalisk venom? It isn’t a normal stun (bypasses defiant, for one).

Stunbreakers do work on Basalisk venom. I don’t think it bypasses defiant either, it will show the stone colour but not cause cc. Devourers venom is far more effective because immobilises need to be cleansed and most players go for a stunbreak instead.

Skyro.3108:

As been said multiple times in the thread if a zerg is training on you there’s nothing that any class can really do. You have to rely on your teammates. How you relate that to skull fear being OP I have no idea. You can virtually be caught with anything and die in a zerg battle because you’re not going to be able to recognize the animations of an entire zerg to react properly.

The point about the stability was that he’d unstealth by the time your stability runs out, so the whole argument of being able to do nothing about stealth + skull fear is false. I’m not suggesting you run the trait (though it is an awesome awesome trait, and like I mentioned Life Siphon is always nice in team fights and hits stealthed targets as well), it was merely a counterpoint. People focus on too many singular aspects of the game and miss the big picture. Necros are beasts in team fights.

The problem is that necro stability (Foot in the Grave) only lasts 3 seconds. Thieves usually carry more than 1 steal skill. And then there is culling.

And the user must invest into Soul Reaping to get this trait. Soul Reaping’s stat bonus (LF% and critical damage) only benefits certain builds. When you invest into Soul Reaping you are missing out on something else. For example you are probably better off investing into Blood Magic, which would increase both your hp and total LF (your LF scales with your hp).

Life Siphon require a target to use. And it can get interrupted by Skull Fear.

Stop kittening use counter fear build https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Fear-is-my-weapon-6x-fear-WvW-build

If you’re getting killed by 3 hits with 12k health then the thief is hitting you for 4k a HS, no? In that case either:

1. You have close to base toughness, in which case you don’t have much right to complain about getting hit hard.

2. The thief is completely glass cannon spec, giving up all survivability for that burst. If his little combo fails, he’s dead meat.

Not every build is meant to be able to counter every possible situation. If you’re damage spec, you can’t complain about not being able to tank. If you’re tank spec, you can’t complain about not being able to damage.

He’s not complaining about getting hit hard. He’s complaining about the thief, by default, having access to a better fear than what the necro can achieve through traiting. A freebie fear that long in the hands of a burst class is ridiculous.

Kyskythyn.6471:

If you’re getting killed by 3 hits with 12k health then the thief is hitting you for 4k a HS, no? In that case either:

1. You have close to base toughness, in which case you don’t have much right to complain about getting hit hard.

2. The thief is completely glass cannon spec, giving up all survivability for that burst. If his little combo fails, he’s dead meat.

Not every build is meant to be able to counter every possible situation. If you’re damage spec, you can’t complain about not being able to tank. If you’re tank spec, you can’t complain about not being able to damage.

this is wrong on all counts.

1. if the necro is at 12k health he’s either at or below the 50% HP mark depending on the build, meaning the HS’s are now gaining the dmg boost. Even bunkers get hit hard by that dmg.

2. a glass cannon thief does not “give up all survivability”. He never loses his ability to stealth and disengage, and has evades built into a number of attacks. No class can disengage and reset a fight the way a thief can, and defensive CDs take far longer than it takes the thief to regain initiative for a 2nd run at a burst.

Combined with a free 3sec fear, an auto-aiming, low cost, no skill, spammable attack that only hits harder the more times it lands is insanely effective.

That being said, Necro’s, if a thief fails to kill you in the first go, then you HAVE TO anticipate the stolen fear. Always keep something in reserve to mitigate that situation.

hackks.3687:

That being said, Necro’s, if a thief fails to kill you in the first go, then you HAVE TO anticipate the stolen fear. Always keep something in reserve to mitigate that situation.

That’s all that needs to be said!

I agree that the fear is ridiculous, though the 1.5 second cast time is pretty funny since it can be interrupted. I don’t believe they can cast it in fear, but if they pop quickness to hit it than ugh.

there is a trait, Idk if it works for fear, but it makes it so that anyone who cc’s you and is near you, becomes feared. It has a 90 second cd but it would deal with the skull fear. I believe its in death magic. Try it out and see if it works.

I agree with most of the comments in here, necro’s need some more utilities for gtfo of a bad situation.. sucks when everyone else can just blast though your DS and then proceed to kill you..

Kyskythyn.6471:

If you’re getting killed by 3 hits with 12k health then the thief is hitting you for 4k a HS, no? In that case either:

1. You have close to base toughness, in which case you don’t have much right to complain about getting hit hard.

2. The thief is completely glass cannon spec, giving up all survivability for that burst. If his little combo fails, he’s dead meat.

Not every build is meant to be able to counter every possible situation. If you’re damage spec, you can’t complain about not being able to tank. If you’re tank spec, you can’t complain about not being able to damage.

My defence is around 2,800. I don’t know what’s that thief’s exact build. But since:
-He was attacking my flank for all attacks (I was feared for 3 seconds)
-I got at least 1 condition (I was feared for 3 seconds)
-I was around 50% hp when the combo happens (10-12k)

I imagine that a combination the following traits played a part:

Flanking Strikes
Side Strike
Exposed Weakness
Furious Retaliation
Executioner

Those are on top of Heartseeker dealing more and more damage as I got less and less hp.

BTW once he got Skull Fear from me he could use this combo against anyone, not just me. For example an ele can’t use Ride the Lightning when she is feared for 3 second. Of course in her case she probably will die with just 2 Heartseekers, no need for the 3rd one.

Bas.7406:

hackks.3687:

That being said, Necro’s, if a thief fails to kill you in the first go, then you HAVE TO anticipate the stolen fear. Always keep something in reserve to mitigate that situation.

That’s all that needs to be said!

I agree that the fear is ridiculous, though the 1.5 second cast time is pretty funny since it can be interrupted. I don’t believe they can cast it in fear, but if they pop quickness to hit it than ugh.

Yes it can be interrupted. But thanks to stealth none of the single target interrupts would work. So you would need to rely on AoE intercepts with long cooldown. You also don’t know when he would use Skull Fear. That thief I fought didn’t use Skull Fear right away after he stealth. This was proven by the fact that one time my Fear mark actually hitted him (or some other stealthed thief not sure). But 10 or 15 seconds later he comes near me and used Skull Fear (e.g. My Fear Mark hit him but failed to interrupt his Skull Fear). Maybe he was recharging Initiative for the kill not sure. Either way it is an educated guessing game with lots of luck (not skills) involved.

I mentioned DS3 before. Keep in mind though that DS3 only works by interrupting his damage combo (e.g. those 3 Heartseekers). It won’t work on interrupting Skull Fear itself because he was stealthed.

ArtemusHunter.9521:

there is a trait, Idk if it works for fear, but it makes it so that anyone who cc’s you and is near you, becomes feared. It has a 90 second cd but it would deal with the skull fear. I believe its in death magic. Try it out and see if it works.

I agree with most of the comments in here, necro’s need some more utilities for gtfo of a bad situation.. sucks when everyone else can just blast though your DS and then proceed to kill you..

Yes that would be Reaper’s Protection under Death Magic. But when you trait into death magic you are probably going for staff traits or minion traits. When you invest into Reaper’s Protection you are giving up on those other very important traits.

For example if your mark isn’t 240 size you would have a much harder time hitting that stealth thief. If your staff marks doesn’t recharge 20% faster those long cooldowns would kill you. What that mean is, yes if you trait into Reaper’s Protection you could have stopped that Skull Fear combo. But that same thief can easily kill you in some other way because your character is much weaker overall.

@chips, I think the problem you are facing when attempting to show your situation is no one has really ran into this on a regular basis. This sounds like a specific thief build that a majority of us has yet to see. I apologize if it seems we don’t care. It just seems like it’s a one time shot where you fought a player who was really good at timing.

CHIPS.6018:

Bas.7406:

hackks.3687:

That being said, Necro’s, if a thief fails to kill you in the first go, then you HAVE TO anticipate the stolen fear. Always keep something in reserve to mitigate that situation.

That’s all that needs to be said!

I agree that the fear is ridiculous, though the 1.5 second cast time is pretty funny since it can be interrupted. I don’t believe they can cast it in fear, but if they pop quickness to hit it than ugh.

Yes it can be interrupted. But thanks to stealth none of the single target interrupts would work. So you would need to rely on AoE intercepts with long cooldown. You also don’t know when he would use Skull Fear. That thief I fought didn’t use Skull Fear right away after he stealth. This was proven by the fact that one time my Fear mark actually hitted him (or some other stealthed thief not sure). But 10 or 15 seconds later he comes near me and used Skull Fear (e.g. My Fear Mark hit him but failed to interrupt his Skull Fear). Maybe he was recharging Initiative for the kill not sure. Either way it is an educated guessing game with lots of luck (not skills) involved.

I mentioned DS3 before. Keep in mind though that DS3 only works by interrupting his damage combo (e.g. those 3 Heartseekers). It won’t work on interrupting Skull Fear itself because he was stealthed.

it’s true, if he fears from stealth you’re going to have to eat it, but you should have DS saved up to help you out there. you also should be moving as much as possible to make it harder for him to land the full fear duration by being right on top of you. Like I mentioned above you have to anticipate that the thief will reset the fight and lead with the skull fear after missing on the opening attempt. There’s no getting around it. You have to save something for it. Also, you do not want to waste a fear mark on a stealthed enemy it serves no purpose and provides no benefit except to limit your options.

You know we can lose a condition every 5 seconds right?

I have that trait that fears whoever cc me, so it is hilarious watching both of us getting feared at same time.

Rennoko.5731:

striker.3704:

Once thiefs register coming out of stealth properly (fixing the culling issue) it shouldn’t be as much of a problem as the thief would pop out of stealth as soon as they started channeling the fear.

Based on how cast time skills work on my mesmer in stealth, I do not believe the act of starting the cast breaks stealth, but rather right as the cast ends.

Actually when the casted spell hit. So if it’s a projectile, when it hits. And if it misses because you’re blinded it doesn’t break stealth.
Because misses don’t break stealth, you can’t counter a thief opening move like backstab by dodging/blind. That’s right…. a thief will remain invisible and can spam his opener (costs 0 ini) till it hits. Completely broken.

Nebilim.5127:

I have that trait that fears whoever cc me, so it is hilarious watching both of us getting feared at same time.

His fear is longer though.

ManCaptain.3154:

Nebilim.5127:

I have that trait that fears whoever cc me, so it is hilarious watching both of us getting feared at same time.

His fear is longer though.

yeah but i think his fear is just 1 sec longer. But that doesn’t matter since there is a large distance put between us for being feared in opposite directions.