Guild Wars 2

I don’t believe the Curse survey is over yet.

amiavamp.9785:

Toxic Landing – This particular instance of the “take less falling damage” trait is seen as mediocre. HOWEVER, its convenient location within the trait trees makes it superior, in my opinion. Most necromancers will have at least 10 in Curses in WvW, either for condition damage or targeted wells. Therefore, I think this trait is underrated.

Is there ANY situation in which you would use Toxic Landing? Any at all? This trait not underrated in the slightest. It is regarded exactly as poorly as it really is.

What they should do is change it, so that it becomes a helpful team-play trait. The mesmer has a handy party wide speed boost skill. If Toxic Landing had a similar useful effect upon taking falling damage, it might find a purpose in group play.

Well they are all pretty bad fall damage traits. I guess it would of been better if it was a well. I guess Well of Corruption would be a good alternative.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

amiavamp.9785:

Toxic Landing – This particular instance of the “take less falling damage” trait is seen as mediocre. HOWEVER, its convenient location within the trait trees makes it superior, in my opinion. Most necromancers will have at least 10 in Curses in WvW, either for condition damage or targeted wells. Therefore, I think this trait is underrated.

Is there ANY situation in which you would use Toxic Landing? Any at all? This trait not underrated in the slightest. It is regarded exactly as poorly as it really is.

What they should do is change it, so that it becomes a helpful team-play trait. The mesmer has a handy party wide speed boost skill. If Toxic Landing had a similar useful effect upon taking falling damage, it might find a purpose in group play.

I don’t imagine you take shortcuts or drop off of walls too often in WvW. Reducing fall damage is the point of using the trait, everything else is secondary. And it is best to put on the trait only temporarily.

If a necro wants to take a drop off a wall, they either take the falling damage, or just pop Spectral Walk. I don’t know anyone who actually uses this trait.

Note: mark of revival should activate when the res starts, not when it ends.
It’s why this trait isn’t used.. at all.. ever.. by anyone..anywhere..

Merlin Dyfed Avalon.5046:

Note: mark of revival should activate when the res starts, not when it ends.
It’s why this trait isn’t used.. at all.. ever.. by anyone..anywhere..

Are you totally sure it works as you described?
Since the last time I used it some months ago it was proccing just when starting the ress.

Everytime i used it it started when the person ressed got up.. in spvp anyway.

Tested: it casts when the downed is back up in spvp.

It’s a Ninjanerf then..
__________________

We surely need some placeholder Trait, tell me what about this idea:
Bleeds stacks are converted to corruption/decadence condition, which can be applied to unanimated objects (Or maybe to both unanimated objects and classic targets, just increasing the damage, if considering this as a GrandMaster Trait).
It would help conditionmancers in PVE and make em more peculiar.

I’m considering this by the moment if Terror will become a GrandMaster (and eventually Lingering Curse will go into Master tier), then its purpose would be for PVP, then in subsitution of Whithering Precision this could be a good trait for PVE.

And what about some trait to make conditions and minions work together?
maybe a Master or Adept which should make minion explode on death spraying bones and applying bleedings to nearbie opponents? More like Death Nova, but more accessible. Wouldn’t it be nice?

It would be interesting if conditions in fact were more effective at taking down buildings than regular damage. But either way, it is a good suggestion.

Minions are fine with condition builds already. The only real problem with the combination of builds is that scepter, dagger OH, and staff have the worst synergy with minions of our weapons.

Blood Magic

This is supposed to be a healing/support line. I imagine the way a necromancer would heal would be through more indirect, offensive tactics. He can kind-of do that, but at the cost of clearly more useful traits, and the pay-off isn’t as much. I would imagine 30 points should help a player be a master of blood manipulation: draining his enemies vital essences to empower himself or heal his allies.

• Full of Life – 5s Regen @ 90% health.
  This is okay. I don’t think I would care if this was changed or not.

• Dagger Mastery – 20% Dagger skill cd.
  Merge it with something else, merging with Bloodthirst seems to be the right idea.
• Bloodthirst – Siphoning 50% more effective.
  Merge, and moreso we need more means of siphoning health/lifeforce.
• Mark of Evasion – Mark of Blood on dodge.
  Decent, bleed on enemies, regen on allies.
• Ritual of Life – Well of Blood when reviving allies.
  Also useful. I can see this as a viable option for pvp, as long as it can heal downed allies faster.
• Vampiric Precision – Siphon health whenever you crit.
  Maybe this should be the new 5-point. Move/Merge.
• Transfusion – Life Transfer Heals Allies
  Weak, it’s reliant on Deathshroud. A wasted Trait overall when there are better ones. I think the best thing I can suggest for this is to allow it to also apply on health siphons.

• Vampiric – Siphon health whenever you hit.
  Never Mind, roll Vampiric Precision into this and go from there. Crits can grant more health siphon and heal nearby allies?

• Vampiric Master – Minions siphon health and transfer it to you.
  I guess this is okay… decent if you want to use minions to tank a boss.
• Ritual Mastery – Well 20% recharge.
  Decent, though I think it could be moved to Adept Traits.
• Deathly Invigoration – AoE heal on leaving DS
  DS has a 10 s cooldown… I guess this could work. Perhaps you could copy boons onto nearby allies as well? Or perhaps grant vigor/regeneration?
• Quickening Thirst – Move faster when wielding daggers
  Okay. I don’t have too many complaints… don’t know what to do with this if others say it should be changed.

• Blood to Power – 120 Power increase when above 75% health.
  Perhaps you can gain might whenever you siphon health?

• Fetid Consumption – Minions Draw conditions, 10s icd per minion.
  I think it would be interesting that on a 10s internal cd you transfer up to 3 conditions each time you siphon health. Like an infected bite.

• Vampiric Rituals – Wells siphon health every time they pulse.
  Roll this into Ritual Mastery. Make a new trait.

Come on fellas, we still got a few votes we can reap!

Quote from this thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/The-Ele-Meta-Dungeon-Speed-Clears/page/3#post3469933
(the link goes to the first part about necros; scroll down a bit for the actual post that I’ve copied below).

Trying to achieve an offensive trait setup for Necro that can compete with other classes is incredibly infuriating. A few minor swaps to a few traits in some future balance update would just make it so much easier.

- Putting Death Shiver (DM IX) in Curses as a Master trait by swapping it with any of the 4 current Master lvl Curses traits (all 4 are useless for PvE). It’s ridiculous that 1) a trait relating to DS is in DM rather than Spite, Curses, or SR with the other DS-related traits; and 2) that a DPS trait is in a support line rather than an offensive line.
- Swapping Death into Life (Spite 15) with Deadly Strength (DM 25) and swapping the 7% and 10% values. What’s an increased healing power trait doing in the power traitline anyway? Or if Anet wants to keep it there, change Death into Life from “power-to-healing power” to “power-to-prec.”
- Swapping Siphoned Power (Spire 25) with Target to Weak (Curses 25).

If these changes occurred, you could go 30/20/0/0/20 and have 1) optimal vuln stacking; and 2) higher DPS than spoj’s current 30/25/0/0/15 build. I doubt necro would be able to match War or Ele for dmg even after these changes, but they would definitely be a step in the right direction.

I don’t agree about Siphoned Power, it should get buffed (threshold raised to 50-75%) or totally deleted, not put into Curse line.

Talking about Death Shiver it’s not a bad idea… anyway, if putting it into the Curse line, consider this: it would be avialable only to ONE kind of power build, the 30/20/XXX (I’m not considering ofc powerbuilds which doesn’t put points into Spite for obvious motivations).

The problem would be to decide if it’s better getting some better trait instead of it or making it avialable by putting it into Curse*, Soul Reaping or Spite lines.

• Because in Curse Master tier, as you stated there are no other better counterparts for powerbuilds.

may need more people to fill out the thingy on top..

Just want to drop this here. Jon Peters replied about the pve zerker meta, so can we wait with the other traitlines until they release the info how things will change?

“I replied to a similar thread with this as well. We are taking some steps towards shifting the meta in the near future. I suspect some concrete info will come out about this next week.

Jon"

That’s fine knowing something is going on.
But I won’t dislike going on with this theorycraft discussion about traits, we can still find good ideas and know better the general hopinion about them.

I would like to give this link as I state my opinion in a post I made and a bit later I will join the discussion on this thread .

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/Necro-List-of-weak-or-useless-traits/first#post3485351

Well, the one week survey period is complete. The survey will continue to accept responses, but as far as discussion is concerned, I feel like this is sufficient data to more forward. I finally got Google Forms working right, so here is the link for the data overview.

Do any of these results surprise you?
I was surprised by how many people would like to see Banshee’s Wail and Spectral Attunement moved elsewhere. In particular, the “move” slice is the biggest slice for Spectral Attunement. Also, I’m surprised how many people are happy with where Target the Weak currently sits, both in strength and in location.

Balfire, the link requires permission to access. Not sure if that was intended or not but i can’t view the content.

Should be fixed now, try again.

Yeah it is fixed now.

Barbed Precision – I agree for some builds it is great for others it’s okay. Condition builds it is great, for my DS power build with no condition damage it is rather weak.

Toxic Landing – I hate all these kind of traits really, not that it reduces damage but some of the affects give after which can pull mobs by accident for simply falling near them. I agree with those that say its terrible. Rather it was something else beneficial – Maybe give Life Force or something based on the fall damage you took.

Hemophilia – Again one of those traits that are great for some builds, rubbish for others, i do think it could do with a little buff though seeing as its only for Bleeding.

Chilling Darkness – Interesting how most feel about this trait. I think the biggest problem is our rather limited access to Blind, which is mostly from Plague form and a well. I would agree with them, in most situations it is rather weak.

Enfeeble – Unneeded nerf in my opinion, not that hard to dodge it. Now it is rather weak.

Reaper’s Precision – I agree with the most, it is subpar, has potential a little buff to help it a bit i think 50% chance to earn 2% would be better i think.

Focused Rituals – Again, decent for the right build. Nothing to powerful about it.

Master of Corruption – Again, decent for the right build.

Banshee Wail – Solid skill, i like that it reduces cool down AND has added affect. Something i wish more traits like this would do.

Terror – It is great for the right build, rather poor in other builds.

Spectral Attunement – Solid, very useful at times. Think the LF regen could be improved a tad. Maybe make it increased by 10-15% rather than 5%

Target The Weak – Don’t like this trait. It makes it better to burst conditions which i think is something that needs to be removed, it should be about wearing down people rather than bursting everything you have.

Lingering Curses – VERY weak trait, even more so for a Grandmaster trait. for Scepter skills only? 33% is rather weak for a rather weak weapon. Maybe have it so that it increases Condition damage as well when welding a Scepter would be a decent start.

Withering Precision – Another VERY poor trait, duration to low. cool down to high. Maybe have it so that it has a chance to apply random conditions on critical hit without a cool down. Say 50% chance on Critical.

" Most of the skills re just okay, not great not terrible. Both the grandmaster traits are terrible though" – That was my comment

Balefire.7592:

Well, the one week survey period is complete. The survey will continue to accept responses, but as far as discussion is concerned, I feel like this is sufficient data to more forward. I finally got Google Forms working right, so here is the link for the data overview.

Do any of these results surprise you?
I was surprised by how many people would like to see Banshee’s Wail and Spectral Attunement moved elsewhere. In particular, the “move” slice is the biggest slice for Spectral Attunement. Also, I’m surprised how many people are happy with where Target the Weak currently sits, both in strength and in location.

Well, there were trolls answering the poll and people which didn’t analize Traits properly (for example not considering the actual and the potential opportunities for multiple builds). Answering “terrible” and “subpar” on Terror…
I can’t understand the overall appreciation for Lingering Curse wich as being a Grand Master is subpar compared to other Master traits like Axe Training, or people claiming to move and merge Spectral Attunement when it’s the ONLY trait that helps the Curse line and Conditionmancers with LF..
Same for Banshee Wail, by the moment it’s the only choice for powermancer in Master tier.
MEH

Consider to interpretate the graphics putting together the positive votes (Alright, Great, OP) and compare them with negative votes (Terrible Subpar).

I feel like for most of the traits I answered “Alright.”

If anyone can find a use for the trait, I tend to think that the trait is alright, because it can be used, and it can be placed in a build by someone.

With falling damage, while the extra effect may be awful, the base reduced fall damage does what it is intended, and so I find the trait adequate. Would it be nice to have a better effect from it? Of course, is it plausible to ask Anet to buff it, not really.

I feel like this discussion should focus on traits that never see the light of day, never used, considered awful, and need serious work, over things that are adequate. Because while getting buffs to certain traits would be nice, making awful traits into useful traits would be much preferred, IMO.

A: Great.
I: Alright. It accomplishes exactly what is intended, and every class has this trait.
II: Great. Works well for the people who use it.
III: Alright. People can use this trait, it is adept, and works well in specific builds/situations.
IV: Alright. Weakness would be nice to get a small buff, to deter bursts on a necro. Bleed is fine as is.
V: Alright. Could be buffed, but I sometimes use this, and it helps in the long run.
VI: Great. What is not to love?
M: Great. Whats not to love?
VII: Alright. Helps with specific builds.
VIII: Great. Whats not to love?
IX: Great. Wide usage, strong skill. See no reason it should ever need changing, except to maybe GM.
X: Alright. Can be used, can help in builds. A bit out of place in the tree, but still acceptable.
G: Alright. But only barely. It is useful, but doesn’t help condi classes (who mainly spec into the line). Should probably be looked into.
XI: Alright/Great. Show me a condi necro who doesn’t use scepter. Haven’t played condimancer in awhile, but I still believe people can take this trait and feel like it benefits them. Is it a bit weak for GM? probably, but it also isn’t terrible IMO.
XII: Terrible. Bad bad bad. Needs a serious rework for anyone to really consider using it.

I am not a fan of polls, they tend to be the easy solution to see what the mass wants but it doesn’t give the chance to explain your choices.
I bet that most of the people that voted didn’t get a second thought on their votes.

On a general note , trait changes that I believe that necros need most:

a)Traits merge. Self explained , we have too many minion , DS ,staff traits etc. spread out to many lines.
b)Roles in lines. Our lines have a little bit of everything, condi , power, minions , lf regen & more. Most of the time all these things can be found in a single line, which prevents the traits focusing on more important stuff. Giving roles to lines would be somewhat achieved by trait merging but it will still need work to move around traits.

When the roles in lines become clearer then we can start talking about more “sturdy” builds that will keep the necro meta shifting, as many strong builds will exist and you will be able to swap from one role to an other without wondering if this build is not strong enough to play(See SPvP necro meta, burst necro is heavily outshined by conditions while its strong).

Yes we have weak traits, everybody does and they probably need a boost or change but this will still not prevent the meta from staying stationary for long periods of time because of the original position of most traits and how spread they are. I believe the last part applies to all proffesions.

Lines have very clear roles, but people either don’t agree with them, or don’t see them. They have one major role, and then various secondary ones that “fill” it out.

Spite: primarily damage line, secondarily axe, focus, and signets
Curses: primarily condition damage line, secondarily crits, warhorn, scepter, corruptions
Death Magic: primarily raw defense (it fills this job terribly, which is a major issue with the tree), secondarily staff, minions, raw defense support
Blood Magic: primarily healing defense, secondarily dagger, wells, healing support
Soul Reaping: primarily death shroud, secondarily fear

They are pretty clear cut, and any “deviations” are because one tree’s primary purpose more accurately fits. For example, even though Death Shroud is the main staff tree, Soul Marks gives LF, and Spiteful Marks deals more damage, so those two traits belong in the trees that support those functions. Same thing with most deviations, although there might be one or two that are just… there.

Agree, but it hasn’t to be written in stone, it just should be an overall guide. Imho the precedence must be given to the build variety.
What should be considered when pondering about traits are the chances for them belonging to a PVE or a PVP build, and eventually to one build or another (example: as for Curse Tree, it’s both used by Powermancers and Condimancers), always keeping in consideration those traits which potentially outshade others.
So the balance should be done essentially having in mind MORE defined builds.

Votes are steadily trickling in as this thread remains active, so presuming that it’s not trolls/the same people filling the form out twice, by the time we’re done with the voting, we should have a half decent sample size. We’ll continue to discuss the results of the poll and the Curses line in general until Sunday, when I put the next poll up.

Right now, I’d like to hear your guys’ opinions on the following:

• If not in Curses, where should Spectral Attunement go? I feel like the default answer is move it to Soul Reaping, but what would you switch out of SR for it?
• What size buff do you think Chilling Darkness or Reaper’s Precision need? I wouldn’t be unhappy seeing them upgraded in tier with a sizable buff. (Personally, I’d kill Siphoned Power, move Target the Weak to Spite, and upgrade Reaper’s Precision to GM Minor.)
• For Enfeeble, would you rather it return to it’s previous incarnation, be adjusted based on what it is now, or something totaly different? (Personally, I’d merge it with Withering Precision → 5s Weakness + 5s Bleed on entering DS.)

• Spectral Attunemenet is in a fine place. If you are full spectral on your skill bar assuming some kind of tanky build, you dont want minions nor wells so Death and Blood is out, leaving other traitlines to use and it dont compete with other usefull trats in the SR line. As a master it will enable to grab Enfeeble too.

• Chilling Darkness only gets powerfull with multiple blind aplication, namely Well of Darkness and Plague #2. Balancing around wonderland again a 2s chill with a 2s icd could be better and with 100% condi duration it wont get out of hand.

• Reaper’ precision is just for DS builds, right? The base idea i think, to help out LF generation outside of death shroud, thats why it don’t even have and ICD, but the base chance (33%) is just low, especially that it needs crit. With Deathly perception you will crit almost everytime, increasing its value, but 1% everynow and then feels weak. 2% would be enough to not only maintain, but to fill DS in lucky scenarios (WvW, piercing ds#1). If the trigger changes to on hit effect, the chance should be lowered tough.

• Target the Weak moved to Spite 25 would be nice. Free up 5 points from curses for a power build (which can use this trait btw), condi players can get some new toy and Siphoned power gets deleted. Yay! What about to make the bonus to 3%? Yeah .. i know .. Signet of spite and spike damage .. i know .. But thats a PvE issue, to get some nice damage bonus somewhere, since others need only 1 condi to get a 10% bonus and they apply that condi anyway.
  Just a side note from engi: Target the Maimed: 5% bonus against bleeding foes, GM minor. Modified ammunation: 2% bonus damage for each condition on a foe, GM XI major.

• Enfeeble get nerfed because of the burst potential necro could apply and balanced around the wonderland formula again, forgeting its and the necro defense capability. I would completely remove any bleed from it, slap a 9s ICD on it and buff the weakness to at least 3s. No burst, Near to death wont screw up the balance, but good for defense. Speeding up / changing the animation would be lovely too, but oh well … lets keep it.

Another 1 week on Curse Tree? Isn’t that too much?

Anyway It’s not easy to decide where it’s better Spectral Attunement have moved to.
I’d prefer not to move it.
In its actual place it’s easy to take and has no big competition with other Master Traits for Condition builds (probably people will take Master of Corruption instead of it) . We assume that Spectral skills are taken mainly in PVP.
By the last analysis (regarding Soul Reaping tree) I suggested to move Mark of Revival to replace Fear of Death, or to move and merge the unwanted Soul Marks: in this way we have two potential free Master trait slots which Spectral Attunement could fit in. But what about the rivalry with other traits? It would be a PVP-only trait, for Power builds it can compete with Unyelding Blast, Pact of Midnight and Near to Death, for Condition build it would be outshaded by the obvious Master of Terror.

Imho we can’t make a real decision until we have a clear vision of all the possibilities.
An idea would be making a great analysis of all 5 trees, declaring clearly which Trait needs to be replaced or moved, so we can make decisions by considering all the environment.

Reaper Precision would become more useful if the procrate would be raised to 100% each crit.

Chilling Darkness would need a full rework, maybe becoming a GrandMaster trait similiar to Dhuumfire (It’s just a raw idea).

Enfleeble would just need a buff to Weakness duration, I can’t agree merging it with Withering Precision: they nerfed it because the duration of weakness with the boost from Spite tree and the interaction with Near to Death would make it’s uptime too much high. So just bring it up from 2 seconds to 3-4.

PS: Anierna.6918 in a post on this page suggested to bring in Death Shiver from Death Magic tree to make it have a better interaction with power builds which would run with the Curse tree. What about to replace Banshee’s Wail with it?

Luke.4562:

PS: Anierna.6918 in a post on this page suggested to bring in Death Shiver from Death Magic tree to make it have a better interaction with power builds which would run with the Curse tree. What about to replace it with Banshee’s Wail?

Just nope, all of my nope. Banshee’s wail is in a really good place.

Tbh id swap death shiver with chilling darkness. Chilling darkness is a defensive trait so why not put it in a defensive traitline.

Dalanor.5387:

Luke.4562:

PS: Anierna.6918 in a post on this page suggested to bring in Death Shiver from Death Magic tree to make it have a better interaction with power builds which would run with the Curse tree. What about to replace it with Banshee’s Wail?

Just nope, all of my nope. Banshee’s wail is in a really good place.

Id’ see Banshee’s Wail as Spiteful Talisman on an Adept slot, btw.
An offhand weapon shouldn’t be that high on a trait line imho.
20 trait points to get in PVE a better uptime on Locust Swarm?
In PVP nobody takes it.

spoj.9672:

Chilling darkness is a defensive trait

Both defense and offense, remember it locks out the cooldowns.

Well then what about demolishing Chilling Darkness, putting Banshee’s Wail on Adept Tier(more accessible for both PVP and PVE) and moving Death Shiver on Master tier?
I think every PVE power build would rather then a LF boost on command through Locust Swarm than some 1% LF with a 33% chances on a crit.

As an adept it would compete with Enfeeble. For a power build there are no better options.

In PVP i don’t take it.

Corrected for you. 50% more uptime on a aoe damage ability which fills life force and apply perma cripple while have a 3s unblockable daze, yeah, dont make sense, nobody should use it .. ;D

My only problem with Death shiver is that you need to sitting in DS to make it effective, so even in the best case you drop 10 points either from Soul reaping or Spite to get it IF it wont become a Curse adept, where you need to swap Reaper’s precision for it.

Luke.4562:

Dalanor.5387:

Luke.4562:

PS: Anierna.6918 in a post on this page suggested to bring in Death Shiver from Death Magic tree to make it have a better interaction with power builds which would run with the Curse tree. What about to replace it with Banshee’s Wail?

Just nope, all of my nope. Banshee’s wail is in a really good place.

Id’ see Banshee’s Wail as Spiteful Talisman on an Adept slot, btw.
An offhand weapon shouldn’t be that high on a trait line imho.
20 trait points to get in PVE a better uptime on Locust Swarm?
In PVP nobody takes it.

spoj.9672:

Chilling darkness is a defensive trait

Both defense and offense, remember it locks out the cooldowns.

Well then what about demolishing Chilling Darkness, putting Banshee’s Wail on Adept Tier(more accessible for both PVP and PVE) and moving Death Shiver on Master tier?
I think every PVE power build would rather then a LF boost on command through Locust Swarm than some 1% LF with a 33% chances on a crit.

Thats fine with me. Although i dont use reapers precision. Id still use enfeeble. So if we got banshees as adept and death shiver as master I would probably go 30/30/0/0/10 for the new power build.

Dalanor.5387:

As an adept it would compete with Enfeeble. For a power build there are no better options.

Now i realized how stupid i was with that … sorry Luke! But i still find it a usefull trait (lack of options you know) for power builds and it don’t even bad in PvP imo.

@Dalanor: First of all I invite you on dropping this aggressive attitude.
Second, I considered this…

In PVP nobody takes it.

..on the basis that most of the “competitive”(builds that work in Tpvp not Spvp) powerbuilds in PVP don’t run more than 10-15 trait points in Curse if not going full berserk… Usually who runs a 30/20/XXX build in PVP generally does it for Lich Form, losing a lot of survival chances and getting melted in half a second. Correct me if I’m not right.
Third, all of those things you mentioned are meant to work the same, and that explanation was seen by the PVE point of view, actually you don’t have so many problems developing LF in PVE, and the costant AOE doesn’t hit like a Well of Suffering (not mentioning the lenght of the Daze for obvious means). As we stated multiple times, it’s not a lifechanger trait, but because it has no competition it’s fine.

Reaper’s Precision i THINK can proc inside DeathShroud as well, at least i have been noticing my Life Force going up a little bit every now and then. Though the Life Force you gain is to low and the chance to proc is to low as well.

Reaper’s Precision: You have a chance to gain life Force on Critical hits
Chance on Critical Hit: 50%
Life Force: 5%
3second Internal Cooldown

Something like this, make sure it works INSIDE Deathshroud as well, not 100% sure what i was seeing was down to it or not, might have been something dying or something

Why don’t we bring this on Profession Balance subforum?
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance

Luke.4562:

Why don’t we bring this on Profession Balance subforum?
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance

Mostly because I don’t want infinite Warriors and Thieves coming in a saying Dhuumfire is broken and skewing the polls. Once we, as Necros, have identified flaws we we want to change, I’ll move on to Phase II, which, given the advent of the new forum, will be relocated. But for now, I think it’s best to stay here.

Why don’t we switch spectral attunement with soul marks?

The staff is a semi-condition weapon unlike spectral skills. On top of that can this be usefull for terrormancers after terror becomes a grandmaster trait since they will most likely use a staff.

Because Soul Marks makes just as much sense in the Soul Reaping tree as anything.

I have 2 ideas. The first thing I would like to suggest is – swap Condition Duration from Spite with Crit DMG from Soul Reaping. It makes possible to create interesting builds with DS and spectral skills. And the second one is about changing grandmaster Soul Reaping minor trait(Strength of Undeath) from “You do more damage while above the life-force threshold.” to “Signets passive effect works in DS.”

tuman.6593:

I have 2 ideas. The first thing I would like to suggest is – swap Condition Duration from Spite with Crit DMG from Soul Reaping. It makes possible to create interesting builds with DS and spectral skills. And the second one is about changing grandmaster Soul Reaping minor trait(Strength of Undeath) from “You do more damage while above the life-force threshold.” to “Signets passive effect works in DS.”

An interesting idea. The problem is the lack of “power” based weapons that can still do decent damage with conditions. Look at the Scepter, has conditions but the damage is SO insanely poor I can do MORE damage with ONE hit of The Dagger as i can with 3 hits of the Scepter, ignoring the Conditions of course

You also have the problem of that change having NO affect on MANY power DS builds seeing as they all take 30 into both Spite and Soul Reaping.

How About this:

Condition Damage(Curses) moved to Soul Reaping
Crit Damage(Soul Reaping) Moved to Spite
Condition Duration(Spite) Moved to Curses

This would then be a “nerf” to Condition builds in the lose of 250Condition Damage but would gain Crit Damage so rather than having to go tanky due to it taking a while to kill people with Conditions they would be able to go a bit more bursty damage wise at the cost of conditions.

This is something that could open up a DeathShroud Condition option and would stop the Stacking of bother Condition Damage and Condition Duration and would allow people to mix it up a bit

I disagree with the signet thing, they SHOULD already work and so should Siphons shouldn’t require a trait for a CLASS mechanic to actually work with traits and skills.

Maybe turn it around and have it so that you deal MORE damage the lower your Life Force is something like:

100% – 75% = 5% Damage Increase
75% – 50% = 10% Damage Increase
50% – 25% = 15% Damage Increase
25% – 0% = 20% Damage Increase

tuman.6593:

I have 2 ideas. The first thing I would like to suggest is – swap Condition Duration from Spite with Crit DMG from Soul Reaping. It makes possible to create interesting builds with DS and spectral skills. And the second one is about changing grandmaster Soul Reaping minor trait(Strength of Undeath) from “You do more damage while above the life-force threshold.” to “Signets passive effect works in DS.”

i agree with the first idea.

the second one not so much. first of all the passives should work in it by default. we shouldnt require a grandmaster minor for signets to do that. (just as lifesteal should work by default, without an additional trait).
and besides, having minors for specific utilities is a really terrible idea. like protection of the horde, but worse.
but it definitely needs to change. not only is 90 power just pathetic, the trait itself is also a bit boring.

I tested strength of undeath the other day. Its not 90 power. It works just as the tooltip says, 5% damage boost. Its still weak for a grandmaster minor though. Should be 10% in my opinion. I wouldnt mind if they buffed it to 10% or higher but increased the threshold to 75% or 90% lifeforce.

Rym.1469:

For Terror, it could be a powerful life siphon IMO. Scaling with whichever stat is higher, power or condition.
For instance: Terror would siphon 230 health for every unique condition on the target, up to 3.
In past, when Bloodthirsty was 50%+ siphoning, it could be a little bit over the top, but now it’d make a very fine Master/Grandmaster (with some +omph maybe) trait. Of course, it’d have to heal tbrough Death Shroud

Now, to replace Dumbfire I have some suggestion for Spite 30. It could be toned down a bit for bosses, have some sound maybe/animation…

Demonic Flesh
When you enter Death Shroud, reverse all incoming damage back to the source for next 2 seconds. Gain 2 seconds of protection when struck. Lasts 2 seconds, leaving Death Shroud cancels the effect

Pretty strong. Could be even stronger if you’re getting focused. You hop into DS, Flesh procs and all damage is reflected + you can get hell lot of protection.
Could be a very, very nice option for any PvE or PvP build and good defensive alternative for Close to Death offensive trait.
Combined with Near to Death, could potentially make Necromancer tank without going for MM.

Also, another trait, replacing Protection of the Horde 15 minor MM (I’ve already mentioned it in past):

Animator’s Vigor
Whenever one of your minions die, gain 4 seconds of Vigor

Synergizing with Bone Minions, Jagged Horrors and Reanimator’s trait. Good solution IMO, you could bring two Bone Minions for some encounters just to blow them up when Vigor is needed;)

Nice idea Rym!
Demonic flesh wouldn’t be a bit too good in aoe situations in WvW? No icd, protection and full damage mitigation / reflect … even if its just 2 seconds .. wow. But i like it, it could work as a reflect, a very selfish reflect.

Do MM necromancers need vigor? Just asking, i tought they are tanky enough now.