Guild Wars 2

Dakunaito.9602:

zapv.8051:

The skill would be way better with a lower cast time, and the same dps. The only trait that is potentially overpowered is reaper’s might.

Reapers Might is not overpower and doesn’t need nerf or tweak. Ele has similar trait and it’s stronger cause it gives might from every fire skill you use and not from just autoattack like Reapers Might

My first 80 was an elementalist. I’ve seen it go through all of its stages, and I always try to take that trait whenever I can. It’s just so succulently good. I don’t see why necromancers who have less damage modifiers shouldn’t be able to keep Reaper’s Might.

Robert Gee.9246:

Having condition transfer on shroud was something I was playing with when doing the trait revamp. Plague Sending originally used shroud 1 as its trigger condition rather than critical hit. I ended up changing it because shroud 1 already had several traits that affected it and I didn’t want to overload it, plus the curses line had several traits that affected shroud in some way already. I think it would be a bit overpowered though if Life Blast could transfer conditions on every hit though.

On the topic of increasing the cast speed of Life Blast: I think we would need to lower the damage multiplier if we wanted to increase the cast speed. The damage per second on that skill at its current cast time is already about as high as we are comfortable with. It’s a tricky skill to balance because we’d need to also look at adjusting all the traits that affect it.

While I disagree with the calls for Life Blast to transfer conditions (trait bloat for that skill is high as-is), it’s very good to know that reducing cast time is on your radar. I’d be fine with halving the damage per-hit if the cast+aftercast was also halved. It wouldn’t affect Power builds much, but condition builds would appreciate it.

Brokensunday.4098:

problem is dhuum fire if it only procs on the second hit it kill condi life blast but agree on rest

No, it would be a flat neutral change. You’d proc dhuumfire once every 1.4s just like right now.

Robert Gee.9246:

On the topic of increasing the cast speed of Life Blast: I think we would need to lower the damage multiplier if we wanted to increase the cast speed. The damage per second on that skill at its current cast time is already about as high as we are comfortable with. It’s a tricky skill to balance because we’d need to also look at adjusting all the traits that affect it.

compared to other classes Necro/Reaper have enough drawbacks for 2-3 future buff updates. we don’t need more. add some drawbacks on Ele. here you say that you have to decrease the dmg if you’re gonna increase the cast speed, but where are the cast times on Tempest shouts for balance? Ele has 4 traits that decrease whole skillset cd by 33%(1 trait for each attune), but no drawback. Necro has 1 trait like this(Quickening Thirst) and has 75% health threshold and only on dagger, and in expansion “all” players will replace Blood Magic for Reaper and we’ll lose that

Robert Gee.9246:

On the topic of increasing the cast speed of Life Blast: I think we would need to lower the damage multiplier if we wanted to increase the cast speed. The damage per second on that skill at its current cast time is already about as high as we are comfortable with. It’s a tricky skill to balance because we’d need to also look at adjusting all the traits that affect it.

Hey Robert Gee,

While I appreciate that the devs are finally addressing Death Shroud, I do raise the concern that a Thief simply using Dagger autoattack (not even flanking or might!) will do more damage over time than a fully traited Necromancer with Life Blast and Runes of Strength. That’s pretty pathetic, considering an effortless autoattack completely outclasses our profession mechanic.

Basically, our maximum effort, with highest might possible, and 25 Vulnerability, does LOWER damage than someone else’s autoattack with no might.

I know this, because I recorded a video and took down numbers what happened over the course of 30 seconds. Never uploaded it online, but I am willing to re-record just to show how low damage our Life Blast is.

If ArenaNet is satisfied with the damage numbers, then I have no idea what we are doing wrong with Death Shroud, but it’s pretty low damage.

Kain Francois.4328:

Robert Gee.9246:

On the topic of increasing the cast speed of Life Blast: I think we would need to lower the damage multiplier if we wanted to increase the cast speed. The damage per second on that skill at its current cast time is already about as high as we are comfortable with. It’s a tricky skill to balance because we’d need to also look at adjusting all the traits that affect it.

Hey Robert Gee,

While I appreciate that the devs are finally addressing Death Shroud, I do raise the concern that a Thief simply using Dagger autoattack (not even flanking or might!) will do more damage over time than a fully traited Necromancer with Life Blast and Runes of Strength. That’s pretty pathetic, considering an effortless autoattack completely outclasses our profession mechanic.

Basically, our maximum effort, with highest might possible, and 25 Vulnerability, does LOWER damage than someone else’s autoattack with no might.

I know this, because I recorded a video and took down numbers what happened over the course of 30 seconds. Never uploaded it online, but I am willing to re-record just to show how low damage our Life Blast is.

If ArenaNet is satisfied with the damage numbers, then I have no idea what we are doing wrong with Death Shroud, but it’s pretty low damage.

The biggest reason I can think of is simply that it’s because our DS AA is ranged and therefore puts us at a safer distance than the thief who is as brittle as glass trying to AA us down, but said thief is also incredibly evasive and can port, stealth, and teleport all over the place, and be out of range of our LB as quickly as he can get in our face.

Bhawb.7408:

Brokensunday.4098:

problem is dhuum fire if it only procs on the second hit it kill condi life blast but agree on rest

No, it would be a flat neutral change. You’d proc dhuumfire once every 1.4s just like right now.

You can’t kill what never existed. Dhummfire is still terrible on base shroud if it’s not going to proc on both hits there is no point of making it a two hit skill in the first place.

TheLastNobody.8319:

Kain Francois.4328:

Robert Gee.9246:

On the topic of increasing the cast speed of Life Blast: I think we would need to lower the damage multiplier if we wanted to increase the cast speed. The damage per second on that skill at its current cast time is already about as high as we are comfortable with. It’s a tricky skill to balance because we’d need to also look at adjusting all the traits that affect it.

Hey Robert Gee,

While I appreciate that the devs are finally addressing Death Shroud, I do raise the concern that a Thief simply using Dagger autoattack (not even flanking or might!) will do more damage over time than a fully traited Necromancer with Life Blast and Runes of Strength. That’s pretty pathetic, considering an effortless autoattack completely outclasses our profession mechanic.

Basically, our maximum effort, with highest might possible, and 25 Vulnerability, does LOWER damage than someone else’s autoattack with no might.

I know this, because I recorded a video and took down numbers what happened over the course of 30 seconds. Never uploaded it online, but I am willing to re-record just to show how low damage our Life Blast is.

If ArenaNet is satisfied with the damage numbers, then I have no idea what we are doing wrong with Death Shroud, but it’s pretty low damage.

The biggest reason I can think of is simply that it’s because our DS AA is ranged and therefore puts us at a safer distance than the thief who is as brittle as glass trying to AA us down, but said thief is also incredibly evasive and can port, stealth, and teleport all over the place, and be out of range of our LB as quickly as he can get in our face.

DS is also our only ranged option (unless you count staff…) as far as real ranged power DPS goes, and actually is punished for being beyond 600 distance.

Similarly, Staff Ele was (is? Not sure anymore) the highest pve DPS in the entire game. Thing about this game is, since most buffs are very close quartered, you still need to be close to the action to maximize potential.

Also, I’ve always said this. Losing DPS by going into your resource, class-based mechanic just feels really wrong to me. :T

I could see its’ sustained DPS being lower than a weapon skill, I guess, for the sake of argument, but it also doesn’t have any frontal burst to justify that off-set either. It’s just a bit disappointing I guess, always thought Deathshroud DPS builds should have been something more because shroud form is awesome. :P

Sagat.3285:

You can’t kill what never existed. Dhummfire is still terrible on base shroud if it’s not going to proc on both hits there is no point of making it a two hit skill in the first place.

Not a suggestion anyone is throwing out that I can see, but someone brought it up.

Bhawb.7408:

Sagat.3285:

You can’t kill what never existed. Dhummfire is still terrible on base shroud if it’s not going to proc on both hits there is no point of making it a two hit skill in the first place.

Not a suggestion anyone is throwing out that I can see, but someone brought it up.

I think he was confused thinking you said Dhuumfire trait would only proc on the second hit. (The first guy) Which would, of course, defeat the purpose of trying to bring DS traits in line with RS trait utilization, Dhuumfire needing it the most. Then it cascaded into more confusion.

Either way. It’s probably just safer to make it a faster attack and not a 2-parter. A 2-part channel makes it unnecessarily useful against stealth, and I can’t think of many other cases where it causes a power issue that isn’t already an option in Reaper’s Shroud. Chances are, Reaper’s might could be toned down in general (like to 12 seconds) as it basically has Might dominance for Necromancer as a whole (more specifically if Life Blast is sped up), and Chilling Victory needs its might duration extended (to 8 or 10 seconds).

Robert Gee.9246:

Having condition transfer on shroud was something I was playing with when doing the trait revamp. Plague Sending originally used shroud 1 as its trigger condition rather than critical hit. I ended up changing it because shroud 1 already had several traits that affected it and I didn’t want to overload it, plus the curses line had several traits that affected shroud in some way already. I think it would be a bit overpowered though if Life Blast could transfer conditions on every hit though.

On the topic of increasing the cast speed of Life Blast: I think we would need to lower the damage multiplier if we wanted to increase the cast speed. The damage per second on that skill at its current cast time is already about as high as we are comfortable with. It’s a tricky skill to balance because we’d need to also look at adjusting all the traits that affect it.

Ok the condition transfer is completely understandable when you put things in perspective this way and of course thank you for exploring the options once again.

I agree with a few others here that I would be happy to have the damage dropped some for a quicker cast hopefully this is something played with more in the future. -hoping for a more viable use of dhuumfire- On builds that are not full power.

Thanks for the answer on my post Robert!

DarkSyze.8627:

Arena net: Robert Gee,

I want to ask you a quick question with answer. Whenever i play necromancer: a enemy player reset my death shroud when i want to activate it.. Is there a way to prevent the resetting of deathshroud of activating?

What i mean by resetting? Full Lifeforce bar to 0 lifeforce bar.

I asked before and i even post in a thread: everyone ignore me.

That is all

I main necro. DS cannot be interrupted. You can activate it at any time, this includes, midair, during stuns, fears, dazes, knockdowns, and knockbacks. what could be happening is you are taking so much incoming damage that your shroud is depleted upon activation. * It can happen under the right situations*

Nynuwe.5893:

Dakunaito.9602:

zapv.8051:

The skill would be way better with a lower cast time, and the same dps. The only trait that is potentially overpowered is reaper’s might.

Reapers Might is not overpower and doesn’t need nerf or tweak. Ele has similar trait and it’s stronger cause it gives might from every fire skill you use and not from just autoattack like Reapers Might

My first 80 was an elementalist. I’ve seen it go through all of its stages, and I always try to take that trait whenever I can. It’s just so succulently good. I don’t see why necromancers who have less damage modifiers shouldn’t be able to keep Reaper’s Might.

Consider the following
Mesmer, ele, and necro are light armored professions. So they should kinda all be geared that way in terms of traits and build set ups right? Wrong… necro is clearly nerfed beyond what it should be just as a base example here are somethings that are wrong with the profession thought im not sure how its over looked.

Ele & Mesmer gets these along with fair damage and condition damage regardless on how you build in most cases.
Might generation
Perma Regen +soothing mist (mostly eles in this case and with the low hp pool its kinda fair) Basically in place of the regen mesmers have the access to stealth and attack without revealing themselves by spawning phantoms and clones. In some cases a mesmer at the current time can out stealth a thief
Perma Vigor this is something arena net has been trying to prevent obviously but mesmer and ele still have the power to do it
Perma swiftness (most of the time)
Near Perma fury (some of the time)
access to blocks
access to reflects
ability to have counter play to long ranged attacks.
Fair source of stability

Necromancers get this with power builds and rarely condition builds but its very wack the way you have to set your trait lines up to get them.
Might generation
Some protection
Death shroud which acts as 2nd health pool but locks us into 5 skills with no utilities or benefits from those utilities during its duration. Its something we have to build on to gain access to and acts as a very hard trade off when used.
Overall bigger health pool this don’t mean squat in longer fights where boons on enemies are constantly generating through out the fight.
Well ZDragon, why don’t you just run in and burst them down really quickly before boon application? Because necro is not made like mesmer or ele it simply cannot do it while the foe is above 50% hp.
———
We are missing
we get no vigor why dont we get extra dodging like ele and mesmer
We cant hold perma regen Sure we have blood magic but its not a true regen and in some cases it can outshine regen but its not always the case.
We don’t get perma fury but we have lots of crit bonus traits to help so its not a biggy but still.
We don’t get reflets like mesmer or ele has access to
We don’t get blocking or invulnerability skills like mesmer and ele have access to.
We don’t have any way to counter projectiles like mesmer and ele have the option of doing. -Swirling winds/Mirror on dodge
We get a drop of stability (3 seconds and 1 stack) after being forced to enter ds fore it which we have to trait for limiting what necros can do even farther
Even if necro had some of the above things that mesmer and ele had people wouldnt say they needed more so much but when you line up all the light armored professions necromancer is just not treated like one.
So why its still counted as a light armored profession but shares none of the fairness of those other i don’t know.

Ether way I still love the profession but it just is lacking.

Bhawb.7408:

Brokensunday.4098:

problem is dhuum fire if it only procs on the second hit it kill condi life blast but agree on rest

No, it would be a flat neutral change. You’d proc dhuumfire once every 1.4s just like right now.

Thats defeating the point of dropping the cast time :/ maybe if burning didn’t stack I would agree with you but now that burning stacks. What you are suggesting is just not a clear viable option wand would be a second slap to the face for the trait making necro’s even more upset.

TheLastNobody.8319:

Kain Francois.4328:

Robert Gee.9246:

On the topic of increasing the cast speed of Life Blast: I think we would need to lower the damage multiplier if we wanted to increase the cast speed. The damage per second on that skill at its current cast time is already about as high as we are comfortable with. It’s a tricky skill to balance because we’d need to also look at adjusting all the traits that affect it.

Hey Robert Gee,

While I appreciate that the devs are finally addressing Death Shroud, I do raise the concern that a Thief simply using Dagger autoattack (not even flanking or might!) will do more damage over time than a fully traited Necromancer with Life Blast and Runes of Strength. That’s pretty pathetic, considering an effortless autoattack completely outclasses our profession mechanic.

Basically, our maximum effort, with highest might possible, and 25 Vulnerability, does LOWER damage than someone else’s autoattack with no might.

I know this, because I recorded a video and took down numbers what happened over the course of 30 seconds. Never uploaded it online, but I am willing to re-record just to show how low damage our Life Blast is.

If ArenaNet is satisfied with the damage numbers, then I have no idea what we are doing wrong with Death Shroud, but it’s pretty low damage.

The biggest reason I can think of is simply that it’s because our DS AA is ranged and therefore puts us at a safer distance than the thief who is as brittle as glass trying to AA us down, but said thief is also incredibly evasive and can port, stealth, and teleport all over the place, and be out of range of our LB as quickly as he can get in our face.

Yes but at 1000 range random number life blast is set to deal lower damage not sure why) and at which a ranger with a long bow can AA (attacking faster i might add) and do more damage than LB*(a profession mechanic you must build for to use while being locked out of utility skills and benefits)* So i dont think its simply because life blast is ranged and another weapon skill is melee AA its just the fact that life blast is weak and/or too slow. :c

ZDragon.3046:

Bhawb.7408:

Brokensunday.4098:

problem is dhuum fire if it only procs on the second hit it kill condi life blast but agree on rest

No, it would be a flat neutral change. You’d proc dhuumfire once every 1.4s just like right now.

Thats defeating the point of dropping the cast time :/ maybe if burning didn’t stack I would agree with you but now that burning stacks. What you are suggesting is just not a clear viable option wand would be a second slap to the face for the trait making necro’s even more upset.

my suggestion was to make life blast a channel skill or a chain skill of 2 make each blast hit for half of the damage of the actual life blast this will allow to still be good for condi and power so if traited for power you can still hit as high if you connect both hits also all hits activate the traits example dhuumfire both hits apply 1 stack of burning

Brokensunday.4098:

Robert Gee.9246:

Having condition transfer on shroud was something I was playing with when doing the trait revamp. Plague Sending originally used shroud 1 as its trigger condition rather than critical hit. I ended up changing it because shroud 1 already had several traits that affected it and I didn’t want to overload it, plus the curses line had several traits that affected shroud in some way already. I think it would be a bit overpowered though if Life Blast could transfer conditions on every hit though.

On the topic of increasing the cast speed of Life Blast: I think we would need to lower the damage multiplier if we wanted to increase the cast speed. The damage per second on that skill at its current cast time is already about as high as we are comfortable with. It’s a tricky skill to balance because we’d need to also look at adjusting all the traits that affect it.

Make unyielding blast baseline this skill is useless 50% on reaper shroud, Make life blast a 2 hit cannel that takes the same time as actual 1.4 secs One hit at .7and the other at 1.4 the other, each blast hits for half the damage of the of actual life blast so you will hit for the same damage if you connect both hits and each hit triggers the Skill 1 traits

Please no we dont need that :/ Will make the traits useless. It would be a buff with a nother drawback which necros already have all over the place heck a whole set of our utility skills is based on draw backs while the benefits are not even worth the risk. This idea is something that would make me just quit playing necro and will force sooooo many players into reaper without a doubt.

ZDragon.3046:

Brokensunday.4098:

Robert Gee.9246:

Having condition transfer on shroud was something I was playing with when doing the trait revamp. Plague Sending originally used shroud 1 as its trigger condition rather than critical hit. I ended up changing it because shroud 1 already had several traits that affected it and I didn’t want to overload it, plus the curses line had several traits that affected shroud in some way already. I think it would be a bit overpowered though if Life Blast could transfer conditions on every hit though.

On the topic of increasing the cast speed of Life Blast: I think we would need to lower the damage multiplier if we wanted to increase the cast speed. The damage per second on that skill at its current cast time is already about as high as we are comfortable with. It’s a tricky skill to balance because we’d need to also look at adjusting all the traits that affect it.

Make unyielding blast baseline this skill is useless 50% on reaper shroud, Make life blast a 2 hit cannel that takes the same time as actual 1.4 secs One hit at .7and the other at 1.4 the other, each blast hits for half the damage of the of actual life blast so you will hit for the same damage if you connect both hits and each hit triggers the Skill 1 traits

Please no we dont need that :/ Will make the traits useless. It would be a buff with a nother drawback which necros already have all over the place heck a whole set of our utility skills is based on draw backs while the benefits are not even worth the risk. This idea is something that would make me just quit playing necro and will force sooooo many players into reaper without a doubt.

actually it will be a buff to traits not a nerf or anything this will help condi shroud build while keeping the power too not sure if a channel would be good but a chain like in reaper would be nice if it activates the traits on each hit, is a suggestion share your ideas too =]

Edit: is the same if you reduce the cast time and damage but you still hit the same of the actuall life blast 50% cast time reduction if you hit 2 time

Not sure why everyone suddenly can’t read, by making them hit faster we can more appropriately balance between the two shrouds and their proccing. SOME traits will only proc once per channel OTHERS would proc twice. There is no nerfing going on, only buffs.

Bhawb.7408:

Not sure why everyone suddenly can’t read, by making them hit faster we can more appropriately balance between the two shrouds and their proccing. SOME traits will only proc once per channel OTHERS would proc twice. There is no nerfing going on, only buffs.

(Gives megaphone) I think you might need this.

How loud do we have to shout to make ANET understands that our central profession mechanic does less damage than the autoattack of other classes?

Gonna try and record the video later. Possibly next week, when I have more time.

Brokensunday.4098:

ZDragon.3046:

Brokensunday.4098:

Robert Gee.9246:

Having condition transfer on shroud was something I was playing with when doing the trait revamp. Plague Sending originally used shroud 1 as its trigger condition rather than critical hit. I ended up changing it because shroud 1 already had several traits that affected it and I didn’t want to overload it, plus the curses line had several traits that affected shroud in some way already. I think it would be a bit overpowered though if Life Blast could transfer conditions on every hit though.

On the topic of increasing the cast speed of Life Blast: I think we would need to lower the damage multiplier if we wanted to increase the cast speed. The damage per second on that skill at its current cast time is already about as high as we are comfortable with. It’s a tricky skill to balance because we’d need to also look at adjusting all the traits that affect it.

Make unyielding blast baseline this skill is useless 50% on reaper shroud, Make life blast a 2 hit cannel that takes the same time as actual 1.4 secs One hit at .7and the other at 1.4 the other, each blast hits for half the damage of the of actual life blast so you will hit for the same damage if you connect both hits and each hit triggers the Skill 1 traits

Please no we dont need that :/ Will make the traits useless. It would be a buff with a nother drawback which necros already have all over the place heck a whole set of our utility skills is based on draw backs while the benefits are not even worth the risk. This idea is something that would make me just quit playing necro and will force sooooo many players into reaper without a doubt.

actually it will be a buff to traits not a nerf or anything this will help condi shroud build while keeping the power too not sure if a channel would be good but a chain like in reaper would be nice if it activates the traits on each hit, is a suggestion share your ideas too =]

Edit: is the same if you reduce the cast time and damage but you still hit the same of the actuall life blast 50% cast time reduction if you hit 2 time

Still no need to link 2 attacks in one channel cast we want it to feel faster not the same as it does now. While Robert says the damage should be lowered others do have a point many professions weapon auto attacks do more damage than the necros profession mechanic. including most of the necromancers own attacks with weapon skills.

Bhawb.7408:

Not sure why everyone suddenly can’t read, by making them hit faster we can more appropriately balance between the two shrouds and their proccing. SOME traits will only proc once per channel OTHERS would proc twice. There is no nerfing going on, only buffs.

Quoted for emphasis.
I really don’t see how this wouldn’t be better for the class than how it is now.

ZDragon.3046:

Brokensunday.4098:

ZDragon.3046:

Brokensunday.4098:

Robert Gee.9246:

Having condition transfer on shroud was something I was playing with when doing the trait revamp. Plague Sending originally used shroud 1 as its trigger condition rather than critical hit. I ended up changing it because shroud 1 already had several traits that affected it and I didn’t want to overload it, plus the curses line had several traits that affected shroud in some way already. I think it would be a bit overpowered though if Life Blast could transfer conditions on every hit though.

On the topic of increasing the cast speed of Life Blast: I think we would need to lower the damage multiplier if we wanted to increase the cast speed. The damage per second on that skill at its current cast time is already about as high as we are comfortable with. It’s a tricky skill to balance because we’d need to also look at adjusting all the traits that affect it.

Make unyielding blast baseline this skill is useless 50% on reaper shroud, Make life blast a 2 hit cannel that takes the same time as actual 1.4 secs One hit at .7and the other at 1.4 the other, each blast hits for half the damage of the of actual life blast so you will hit for the same damage if you connect both hits and each hit triggers the Skill 1 traits

Please no we dont need that :/ Will make the traits useless. It would be a buff with a nother drawback which necros already have all over the place heck a whole set of our utility skills is based on draw backs while the benefits are not even worth the risk. This idea is something that would make me just quit playing necro and will force sooooo many players into reaper without a doubt.

actually it will be a buff to traits not a nerf or anything this will help condi shroud build while keeping the power too not sure if a channel would be good but a chain like in reaper would be nice if it activates the traits on each hit, is a suggestion share your ideas too =]

Edit: is the same if you reduce the cast time and damage but you still hit the same of the actuall life blast 50% cast time reduction if you hit 2 time

Still no need to link 2 attacks in one channel cast we want it to feel faster not the same as it does now. While Robert says the damage should be lowered others do have a point many professions weapon auto attacks do more damage than the necros profession mechanic. including most of the necromancers own attacks with weapon skills.

it was a suggestion but I agree half the castime with a little damage reduction would be ideal still unyielding need to be base the trait is 50% useless in reaper

TheLastNobody.8319:

Bhawb.7408:

Not sure why everyone suddenly can’t read, by making them hit faster we can more appropriately balance between the two shrouds and their proccing. SOME traits will only proc once per channel OTHERS would proc twice. There is no nerfing going on, only buffs.

(Gives megaphone) I think you might need this.

Our point is with things we are missing and should have as a light armored profession we shouldn’t have to have the idea that Some traits will only proc once per every other cast By doing that its a draw back to a buff because in those traits should proc every time you successfully completed the action, not ever other time. Its like saying well if you play ele “We will reduce the cooldown on swapping to water by 50% but now you only get traits that effect water every other time you swap into it.” :/ there should not be a need to limit necro with every buff they get by putting a drawback on it when other light armored professions don’t have these drawbacks. Increasing the speed of life blast shouldn’t have anything to do with Reaper shroud skills so lets not even include them.

Some one pointed out the buff with the trait quickening thirst Reduced cooldown on daggers skills and increased movement speed (this is a bonus to the profession) But it only works if your hp is above 75% (this is a drawback that should not even exist) It seems that necro is pretty much based on these kinds of things for many traits and skills but the bonuses dont fit the bill of the drawbacks. We have not seen good things come to necro till they started showing reaper stuff. Because these a good bit of these traits are pretty much up to pair and fair with traits all of the other light armored professions have.

IMO traits should never give a drawback to its own profession unless its something super strong and defensive. Take for example Dimond skin Conditions cannot be applied to you as long as your health is over 90% THIS IS STRONG. It means full condition based builds lacking power cant really touch you. On top of that its a defensive trait its drawback being that your hp must be over 90% is pretty well balanced with the fact that you are immune to conditions, but you dont see things like what is done to quickening thirst and some of the other traits on necro done on other professions offensive traits i wonder why :/

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Robert Gee.9246:

Having condition transfer on shroud was something I was playing with when doing the trait revamp. Plague Sending originally used shroud 1 as its trigger condition rather than critical hit. I ended up changing it because shroud 1 already had several traits that affected it and I didn’t want to overload it, plus the curses line had several traits that affected shroud in some way already. I think it would be a bit overpowered though if Life Blast could transfer conditions on every hit though.

On the topic of increasing the cast speed of Life Blast: I think we would need to lower the damage multiplier if we wanted to increase the cast speed. The damage per second on that skill at its current cast time is already about as high as we are comfortable with. It’s a tricky skill to balance because we’d need to also look at adjusting all the traits that affect it.

It wouldn’t affect Power builds much, but condition builds would appreciate it.

not true at all. Burst damage would take a hit big time and a condi necro would have a harder time sustaining lifeforce. Not everyone sits in ds and spams 1

Akashi.3245:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Robert Gee.9246:

Having condition transfer on shroud was something I was playing with when doing the trait revamp. Plague Sending originally used shroud 1 as its trigger condition rather than critical hit. I ended up changing it because shroud 1 already had several traits that affected it and I didn’t want to overload it, plus the curses line had several traits that affected shroud in some way already. I think it would be a bit overpowered though if Life Blast could transfer conditions on every hit though.

On the topic of increasing the cast speed of Life Blast: I think we would need to lower the damage multiplier if we wanted to increase the cast speed. The damage per second on that skill at its current cast time is already about as high as we are comfortable with. It’s a tricky skill to balance because we’d need to also look at adjusting all the traits that affect it.

It wouldn’t affect Power builds much, but condition builds would appreciate it.

not true at all. Burst damage would take a hit big time and a condi necro would have a harder time sustaining lifeforce. Not everyone sits in ds and spams 1

So, you would rather hit for 0% damage instead of 50%? Halving damage and cast time results in indentical DPS, but more chances for crits and procs as well as mitigating anything that would cause the attack to not hit.

As for condi builds having a harder time sustaining life force, they would have an easier time for roughly the same payoff as now, only spending half the time to get an identical number of life blast procs off (so half the degen). It also wouldn’t murder their damage output as badly when the situation demands being in death shroud for extended periods.

ZDragon.3046:

Our point is with things we are missing and should have as a light armored profession we shouldn’t have to have the idea that Some traits will only proc once per every other cast By doing that its a draw back to a buff because in those traits should proc every time you successfully completed the action, not ever other time. Its like saying well if you play ele “We will reduce the cooldown on swapping to water by 50% but now you only get traits that effect water every other time you swap into it.” :/ there should not be a need to limit necro with every buff they get by putting a drawback on it when other light armored professions don’t have these drawbacks. Increasing the speed of life blast shouldn’t have anything to do with Reaper shroud skills so lets not even include them.

IT.
IS.
A.
BUFF.
PERIOD.

Its called balance. Some traits are just flat out too strong to just immediately double because we’re weaker than other professions in some areas. This is not the place to make us better by doubling everything, that isn’t how balance works. Light armor means exactly nothing, stop acting like that should matter. And it is nothing like your ele comparison, this is an auto attack, this isn’t some weird ICD, and it worked just fine on Reaper’s Shroud.

Are other professions broken? Absolutely, that’s why they should be nerfed, not Necromancer made OP. This understanding is why Necromancer is one of the only communities that seems to understand how balance works. Apparently the idea of it is a flat buff in every single conceivable way is a bit difficult, but that’s literally what any version of this idea being presented is, a flat buff in every way.

Completely support Bhawbs suggestion. No idea why people think it would hurt any type of build. Its a buff in certain aspects or it has no effect. It does not nerf anything except for your ability to get big numbers. But what truly matters is DPS which would be identical with the suggested change.

Bhawb for president? I actually agree. It is an extremely reasonable buff that will allow more build diversity without hurting anyone.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Akashi.3245:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Robert Gee.9246:

Having condition transfer on shroud was something I was playing with when doing the trait revamp. Plague Sending originally used shroud 1 as its trigger condition rather than critical hit. I ended up changing it because shroud 1 already had several traits that affected it and I didn’t want to overload it, plus the curses line had several traits that affected shroud in some way already. I think it would be a bit overpowered though if Life Blast could transfer conditions on every hit though.

On the topic of increasing the cast speed of Life Blast: I think we would need to lower the damage multiplier if we wanted to increase the cast speed. The damage per second on that skill at its current cast time is already about as high as we are comfortable with. It’s a tricky skill to balance because we’d need to also look at adjusting all the traits that affect it.

It wouldn’t affect Power builds much, but condition builds would appreciate it.

not true at all. Burst damage would take a hit big time and a condi necro would have a harder time sustaining lifeforce. Not everyone sits in ds and spams 1

So, you would rather hit for 0% damage instead of 50%? Halving damage and cast time results in indentical DPS, but more chances for crits and procs as well as mitigating anything that would cause the attack to not hit.

As for condi builds having a harder time sustaining life force, they would have an easier time for roughly the same payoff as now, only spending half the time to get an identical number of life blast procs off (so half the degen). It also wouldn’t murder their damage output as badly when the situation demands being in death shroud for extended periods.

Theres a difference between burst potential and dps. dps has near nothing to do with burst. for a power necro theres a difference of getting 1 or 2 lifeblasts to land in a short time under pressure. unless you can understand that i dont see what you are talking about. player skill is always a factor. the way i see it is that it would drop the already low skillbar for the class. sure, it will benefit a power necro camping in deathshroud in the long run with no pressure on them. when it comes down to needing to get just 1 lifeblast off to pressure someone while bursting them on a power build there is a difference (darkpath + doom + 1 lifeblast in between, then coming out of deathshroud on your target for instance. try it ). just because if the cast time and damage were both 1/2 of what they currently are does not result in the same burst damage. camping on lifeblast with no pressure on yourself in the long run? sure maybe.. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 away

as for a condi necro. i can see it being beneficial and not at all. making dhummfire more viable then it is already not? sure. under pressure your lifeforce would be taking a hit and in my opinion would be harder to pressure anything with lifeblast (diamond skin ele). if it were just to land procs theres plenty of other ways to make sigils/traits proc. not to mention how badly cc can currently shut a necro out.

but more chances for crits and procs as well as mitigating anything that would cause the attack to not hit.

i only see this as opening up more chance for the attack to not hit. ( theres goes 1/2 your ’’dps’’ from that lifeblast)

Robert Gee.9246:

Having condition transfer on shroud was something I was playing with when doing the trait revamp. Plague Sending originally used shroud 1 as its trigger condition rather than critical hit. I ended up changing it because shroud 1 already had several traits that affected it and I didn’t want to overload it, plus the curses line had several traits that affected shroud in some way already. I think it would be a bit overpowered though if Life Blast could transfer conditions on every hit though.

On the topic of increasing the cast speed of Life Blast: I think we would need to lower the damage multiplier if we wanted to increase the cast speed. The damage per second on that skill at its current cast time is already about as high as we are comfortable with. It’s a tricky skill to balance because we’d need to also look at adjusting all the traits that affect it.

To be 100% honest I’m happy with Life Blast in it’s current state.

I’m just one person and a lot of people seem to disagree but high damage for high cast time sounds balanced to me. And having a condition transfer on an auto attack definitely does sound a bit strong. Maybe something with an ICD that transfers conditions once every 10seconds on critical hit or something to that effect would be more viable. Still, I think Life Blast is pretty much fine. The only real issue is phantom shots that should connect with your target but don’t. You fire off a Life Blast and nothing happens. No “obstructed” no damage, no blocks, nothing.

No thank you, we don’t need another brainless lb ranger spam, I have no problems with cast time of life blast atm.

Nynuwe.5893:

Bhawb for president? I actually agree. It is an extremely reasonable buff that will allow more build diversity without hurting anyone.

Haven’t you seen the recent polls? Deez Nuts for president.

Bhawb, I just have to ask you, do you think that the damage on life blast is low compared to what the Dagger? Considering the whole “melee deals more damage because of increased risks” thing and that Life Force and Shroud is our profession mechanic. I’ve expressed my oppinion, but I’m curious on yours (and the other big names within the necro community).

Personally, I think a hit can get too high. What I believe, and I realize this differs a bit from Bhawb here, in terms of how Life Blast’s cast should be handled, but here’s my list of thoughts:
- Life Blast damage is too high to cut the Cast time in half.

- Life Blast DPS is too low, and as a resource driven class mechanic, much like the soon-to-be Berserker, it should feel rewarding to trigger, even if that means a minor dps drop on weapon skills (I have little sympathy for those who think Dagger 1 spam should maximize DPS, playing both to their maximum utility would be best, though, more Greatsword with Grave Digger being used at optimal times as dagger is purely sustain).

- Cast time should be halved to .5 second cast +.2 after cast (effective .7, doubling the cast speed from 1.4 seconds.) while reducing damage by 40%, resulting in significantly lower burst damage, but a higher sustained output. The “super slow at everything” niche is dated, and slow, hard hits can remain a Lich Form niche that you can opt into.

- Rather than making it a two-hit channel, as a few are suggesting, to allow some traits to hit twice and others only once per cast (likely Reaper’s Might being the biggest issue), those traits that are seen as too strong when coupled with a faster speed (RM, possibly Unyielding Blast) need to be “nerfed” (see: rebalanced) to have lower durations instead.

Note: The reason this needs to happen is because Reaper already has this faster attack speed. If it’s a problem with a .7 cast Life Blast, it’s an issue with Reaper as well. Not to mention Reaper’s Might vastly over shadows Chilling Victory as a might mechanic, holding non-spite reapers back. Plus for a minor adept, its just a touch too good anyways, especially if Life Blast were to be a stronger DPS option.

- Lastly, Life Blast needs to have a baseline pierce. Piercing is already harder to control than cleave and Life Blast is currently lacking in DPS single target, let alone on multiple targets, this limitation and added Soul Reaping semi-mandatory trait should just be taken away. Also, with the piercing part removed, the trait would no longer appear to be half-effective for Reaper and future shrouds.

Sorry if its a bit wordy, I plan to make a write up following BWE2 and will have it cleaned up and discuss with some other Necromancers before hand, but I want to test some things first with Reaper before I get too deep into suggestions, but these are my general thoughts right now.

TL;DR: Baseline Piercing, Double Cast speed of Life Blast, Reduce damage by 40-45% to bring it in line with Reaper’s capabilities, rebalance non-reaper Traits to compensate for the new speed that fits both Shrouds.

spoj.9672:

Completely support Bhawbs suggestion. No idea why people think it would hurt any type of build. Its a buff in certain aspects or it has no effect. It does not nerf anything except for your ability to get big numbers. But what truly matters is DPS which would be identical with the suggested change.

But… Big numbers make me happy.

ronpierce.2760:

Cast time should be halved to .5 second cast +.2 after cast (effective .7, doubling the cast speed from 1.4 seconds.) while reducing damage by 40%, resulting in significantly lower burst damage, but a higher sustained output. The “super slow at everything” niche is dated, and slow, hard hits can remain a Lich Form niche that you can opt into.

40% reduction is too much more like 25% dmage reduction and all will be balanced

Brokensunday.4098:

ronpierce.2760:

Cast time should be halved to .5 second cast +.2 after cast (effective .7, doubling the cast speed from 1.4 seconds.) while reducing damage by 40%, resulting in significantly lower burst damage, but a higher sustained output. The “super slow at everything” niche is dated, and slow, hard hits can remain a Lich Form niche that you can opt into.

40% reduction is too much more like 25% dmage reduction and all will be balanced

40% damage reduction while reducing the cast time to .7, versus 1.4 seconds is a net DPS increase of 20%.
(100%- 40%)x2 = 120%, plus reliability. I’m not sure if Life Blast needs a 50% dps boost, unless you’re suggesting a smaller cast time reduction too, which sort of defeats the purpose. The overall goal is to increase reliability of Necromancer skills and somewhat “normalize” DS and RS.

Arche.7326:

Bhawb, I just have to ask you, do you think that the damage on life blast is low compared to what the Dagger? Considering the whole “melee deals more damage because of increased risks” thing and that Life Force and Shroud is our profession mechanic. I’ve expressed my oppinion, but I’m curious on yours (and the other big names within the necro community).

Life Blasts damage is actually really high for a ranged auto attack, when you don’t consider group modifiers and look at what you can alone produce in PvP. It is lower than dagger in PvE, but in PvP/WvW dagger is almost unusable in glassy builds. Now yes, it loses out in PvE absolutely, because unlike the high DPS professions we don’t get good damage modifiers that play well with the PvE content. Instead, Necromancer has a wealth of might/vuln/crit chance stacking in Death Shroud.

In PvP Life Blast is incredibly self-sufficient with a +50% crit chance (BASE 25% damage buff, goes up to 55% with Berserker) and potential stacking might and vuln at the same time. So you get a 25-55% damage modifier through one trait, 20% below 50% HP on another, put in the fact that it is far more reliable than melee and stacks up to 25% increased damage taken and an extra 750 power, and you’re looking at an AA that rivals burst skills.

What needs to happen is shift some of the power away from so many might/vuln/crit chance traits, and instead turn some of these into damage modifiers, that are roughly equivalent in PvP, but are done through unique buffs. This doesn’t particularly affect our PvP/WvW DPS, which is pretty much fine as is (though it will likely buff it slightly in edge super-glass cases, which is totally fine as glass necro is incredibly unsafe), while greatly increasing our PvE DPS since the “loss” of might/vuln/crit chance won’t be noticed as these mechanics are maxed out anyways.

However, all those changes are unrelated to Life Blast. Life Blast, assuming it gets an adjusted cast/damage per hit, is mostly fine on its own, it is the supporting mechanics that are holding it back.

ronpierce.2760:

Brokensunday.4098:

ronpierce.2760:

Cast time should be halved to .5 second cast +.2 after cast (effective .7, doubling the cast speed from 1.4 seconds.) while reducing damage by 40%, resulting in significantly lower burst damage, but a higher sustained output. The “super slow at everything” niche is dated, and slow, hard hits can remain a Lich Form niche that you can opt into.

40% reduction is too much more like 25% dmage reduction and all will be balanced

40% damage reduction while reducing the cast time to .7, versus 1.4 seconds is a net DPS increase of 20%.
(100%- 40%)x2 = 120%, plus reliability. I’m not sure if Life Blast needs a 50% dps boost, unless you’re suggesting a smaller cast time reduction too, which sort of defeats the purpose. The overall goal is to increase reliability of Necromancer skills and somewhat “normalize” DS and RS.

on a full bezerker geat lf hits for around 4-5 using protect 33% damage reduction skill hits around 2k to 2.5k add that the 40% damage reduction you say and each hit will be around 1k using protect and around 1.5k normal sound terrible even on a .7 sec cast is bad dagger will tripple its damage overall if not more even staff 1 thats why i say 25%
edit: is better if the skill cast .7 and be reduced by 20 to 25% still hit good in power and will be a constant dps not as high as dagger

Brokensunday.4098:

ronpierce.2760:

Brokensunday.4098:

ronpierce.2760:

Cast time should be halved to .5 second cast +.2 after cast (effective .7, doubling the cast speed from 1.4 seconds.) while reducing damage by 40%, resulting in significantly lower burst damage, but a higher sustained output. The “super slow at everything” niche is dated, and slow, hard hits can remain a Lich Form niche that you can opt into.

40% reduction is too much more like 25% dmage reduction and all will be balanced

40% damage reduction while reducing the cast time to .7, versus 1.4 seconds is a net DPS increase of 20%.
(100%- 40%)x2 = 120%, plus reliability. I’m not sure if Life Blast needs a 50% dps boost, unless you’re suggesting a smaller cast time reduction too, which sort of defeats the purpose. The overall goal is to increase reliability of Necromancer skills and somewhat “normalize” DS and RS.

on a full bezerker geat lf hits for around 4-5 using protect 33% damage reduction skill hits around 2k to 2.5k add that the 40% damage reduction you say and each hit will be around 1k using protect and around 1.5k normal sound terrible even on a .7 sec cast is bad dagger will tripple its damage overall if not more even staff 1 thats why i say 25%
edit: is better if the skill cast .7 and be reduced by 20 to 25% still hit good in power and will be a constant dps not as high as dagger

That’s not even napkin math. The information is out there, if you want people to take you seriously then do it properly.

meow one twenty.4376:

Brokensunday.4098:

ronpierce.2760:

Brokensunday.4098:

ronpierce.2760:

Cast time should be halved to .5 second cast +.2 after cast (effective .7, doubling the cast speed from 1.4 seconds.) while reducing damage by 40%, resulting in significantly lower burst damage, but a higher sustained output. The “super slow at everything” niche is dated, and slow, hard hits can remain a Lich Form niche that you can opt into.

40% reduction is too much more like 25% dmage reduction and all will be balanced

40% damage reduction while reducing the cast time to .7, versus 1.4 seconds is a net DPS increase of 20%.
(100%- 40%)x2 = 120%, plus reliability. I’m not sure if Life Blast needs a 50% dps boost, unless you’re suggesting a smaller cast time reduction too, which sort of defeats the purpose. The overall goal is to increase reliability of Necromancer skills and somewhat “normalize” DS and RS.

on a full bezerker geat lf hits for around 4-5 using protect 33% damage reduction skill hits around 2k to 2.5k add that the 40% damage reduction you say and each hit will be around 1k using protect and around 1.5k normal sound terrible even on a .7 sec cast is bad dagger will tripple its damage overall if not more even staff 1 thats why i say 25%
edit: is better if the skill cast .7 and be reduced by 20 to 25% still hit good in power and will be a constant dps not as high as dagger

That’s not even napkin math. The information is out there, if you want people to take you seriously then do it properly.

here is the math X_X
Let’s use staff science is the best way to hit kitten ds and using berserker’s amulet giving 2600 armor to the other guy so It can be tanky 1048*2375*1.4/2600= 1340.2307692308 that’s a hit of 1340 not apply critical damage by reducing the damage you have a 50% damage increase in this case 2680 is too high for the cast time if you reduce 40% = 1072 Dagger is 2713 this is why I suggest 25% in that case it will be 2010 something close to dagger

Huh?

2680*0.6=1608

Perhaps you just like big numbers more than I do. It looks like you are comparing damage instead of DPS, which is what really matters. If you decrease the cycle time by 50% (100% boost to DPS) then cut damage by 25% you are giving the attack a 50% increase to DPS. That’s a bit insane of a request on an already viable skill, not even counting the 100% faster Vuln qnd Might stacking.

“Nah that would be kinda OP”

Meanwhile, most other classes do a tested 2x DPS of Necro, and offers far more buffs.

Lol.

Bhawb.7408:

ZDragon.3046:

Our point is with things we are missing and should have as a light armored profession we shouldn’t have to have the idea that Some traits will only proc once per every other cast By doing that its a draw back to a buff because in those traits should proc every time you successfully completed the action, not ever other time. Its like saying well if you play ele “We will reduce the cooldown on swapping to water by 50% but now you only get traits that effect water every other time you swap into it.” :/ there should not be a need to limit necro with every buff they get by putting a drawback on it when other light armored professions don’t have these drawbacks. Increasing the speed of life blast shouldn’t have anything to do with Reaper shroud skills so lets not even include them.

IT.
IS.
A.
BUFF.
PERIOD.

Its called balance. Some traits are just flat out too strong to just immediately double because we’re weaker than other professions in some areas. This is not the place to make us better by doubling everything, that isn’t how balance works. Light armor means exactly nothing, stop acting like that should matter. And it is nothing like your ele comparison, this is an auto attack, this isn’t some weird ICD, and it worked just fine on Reaper’s Shroud.

Are other professions broken? Absolutely, that’s why they should be nerfed, not Necromancer made OP. This understanding is why Necromancer is one of the only communities that seems to understand how balance works. Apparently the idea of it is a flat buff in every single conceivable way is a bit difficult, but that’s literally what any version of this idea being presented is, a flat buff in every way.

THEN
BALANCE
THE *
*OTHER
LIGHT
ARMOR
PROFESSIONS
to match necro standards

Yes it worked fine in reaper shroud but you shouldnt be forced into that to make it work. For that very reason i said to leave reaper shroud out of this one.
Im talking about life blast. Yes other professions get unfair changes and light armor does in fact matter every profession has skills that dictate their armor type. Light armor is usually given more boons like fury, vigor, might ,blinks, reflects, tricky skills to get you out of a sticky spot very easily to make up for there lack of armor and natural defense.

Medium armor seems to focus on evades, some vigor, stealth, etc they have access to boons but can not perma boon themselves like some light armored professions.

Heavy armor professions have much more access to blocks, and skills that allow them to just out right ignore damage. So armor type does matter because if it didnt anet would have said hell with it and allowed any profession to wear any armor type.

Im not saying everything needs to double im specifically in this case talking about the profession base profession mechanic. Theif got the ability to steal once and use the item twice when traited for it just an example (so much for not doubling anything)

As far as not making one thing stronger and the idea that everything should be made weaker thats more work that devs would have to do its eaiser to do it the other way around and making everything weaker would just slow down game play by the minute which is not what the devs want they said that several times. They want more minute by minute change in the play of the game and you cant do that by making everything weaker. Though this is a biased thought and is different for every person Ill just void my own thought and yours as far as this point goes.

ronpierce.2760:

Personally, I think a hit can get too high. What I believe, and I realize this differs a bit from Bhawb here, in terms of how Life Blast’s cast should be handled, but here’s my list of thoughts:
- Life Blast damage is too high to cut the Cast time in half.

- Life Blast DPS is too low, and as a resource driven class mechanic, much like the soon-to-be Berserker, it should feel rewarding to trigger, even if that means a minor dps drop on weapon skills (I have little sympathy for those who think Dagger 1 spam should maximize DPS, playing both to their maximum utility would be best, though, more Greatsword with Grave Digger being used at optimal times as dagger is purely sustain).

- Cast time should be halved to .5 second cast +.2 after cast (effective .7, doubling the cast speed from 1.4 seconds.) while reducing damage by 40%, resulting in significantly lower burst damage, but a higher sustained output. The “super slow at everything” niche is dated, and slow, hard hits can remain a Lich Form niche that you can opt into.

- Rather than making it a two-hit channel, as a few are suggesting, to allow some traits to hit twice and others only once per cast (likely Reaper’s Might being the biggest issue), those traits that are seen as too strong when coupled with a faster speed (RM, possibly Unyielding Blast) need to be “nerfed” (see: rebalanced) to have lower durations instead.

Note: The reason this needs to happen is because Reaper already has this faster attack speed. If it’s a problem with a .7 cast Life Blast, it’s an issue with Reaper as well. Not to mention Reaper’s Might vastly over shadows Chilling Victory as a might mechanic, holding non-spite reapers back. Plus for a minor adept, its just a touch too good anyways, especially if Life Blast were to be a stronger DPS option.

- Lastly, Life Blast needs to have a baseline pierce. Piercing is already harder to control than cleave and Life Blast is currently lacking in DPS single target, let alone on multiple targets, this limitation and added Soul Reaping semi-mandatory trait should just be taken away. Also, with the piercing part removed, the trait would no longer appear to be half-effective for Reaper and future shrouds.

Sorry if its a bit wordy, I plan to make a write up following BWE2 and will have it cleaned up and discuss with some other Necromancers before hand, but I want to test some things first with Reaper before I get too deep into suggestions, but these are my general thoughts right now.

TL;DR: Baseline Piercing, Double Cast speed of Life Blast, Reduce damage by 40-45% to bring it in line with Reaper’s capabilities, rebalance non-reaper Traits to compensate for the new speed that fits both Shrouds.

Some one who understands thank god.!!! So sick of dagger being number 1 spot of focus and necro should not be locked into use of the dagger for the main source of dps. (i know for a fact one of the devs talked about axe and scepter changes but who knows how far off that will be)

Honestly in the first BEW if you auto attacked with reaper and did not hit a target you got one stack of might per swing. But for me if i hit targets with the melee i only got might on the last hit of the chain attack. I dont want to include the speed of reapers attacks when comparing to life blast simply because this post was made around the topic of base necro not reaper skills. Engi’ can hold 25 stacks of might with the right build out of combat there should not be a problem with necro holding 25 stacks of might in combat I dont know why every one suggest that reapers might needs to be looked at for doubling the effective shots on life blast -shrugs- and chilling victory only gives one might for 5 seconds. Its not long enough to really be a big deal. Might is the only boon necromancers can actually hold in a fight and i don’t see the point in saying its going to be too strong.

Mesmers can hold might pretty well by shattering and ele can hold high might stacks for sure at least 18 or so by just going through rotation and cantrips along with fury, regen, vigor, and swiftness (nearly unlimitedly)

Who using unyielding blast these days? especially with reaper :/ you take decimate defenses along with bitter chill from spite. Pressing 5 will almost insta= 25 vuln. That trait needs to just be remade into something new at this point.

Even on the base neco most use a staff under one of the weapon sets and it pretty much requires you to take soul marks over it. Even speed of shadows is more useful at this point.

You are right the pierce should be made baseline but might nerfing is not really something that needs to be looked at.

Now if we got other boons mixed in on things like syphoned power say vigor, or fury, etc so that the might was not always might or even have it so its something like -Gain might (shorter duration) and one other boon from your foe-(mesmers have a trait like this for what reason i dont know why) i dont know…. Then maybe thats a fair trade. Maybe even the same thing for chilling victory. They done this to prismatic understanding on mesmers so that they didnt get too many of the same boons all the time. More boon variation would be a nice too on necro too. Doing things like this would keep might generation from being too strong sense some seem to think it is while still keeping those traits useful.

You understand that using a profession mechanic should feel rewarding even more so when you have to build it up to use it. Any one who plays warrior knows this feeling.

Thanks for responding Robert, I agree that overloading DS1 is a concern, and that 1 transfer per autoattack would be overpowered (it would have to have an ICD, or be tied to a different skill than the autoattack). But consider this: Necromancers only have THREE self-cleanses (Consume Conditions, Well of Power, and Shrouded Removal) – every other cleanse is a transfer, which requires a target, requires LOS, and requires the target not to dodge or block. And, while in Shroud, necromancers only have access to one cleanse (Shrouded removal, on a single condition on entry), and one transfer (Plague Sending, which is passive, and you can’t control when it procs). Although you have a lot of options while outside Shroud, when you’re in it, all you can really do is let the condis tick. Given that, wouldn’t an additional on-demand transfer tied to a Shroud skill – not a freebie, one that you would have to invest a trait to get – be a fair exchange for a trait slot?

Robert Gee.9246:

On the topic of increasing the cast speed of Life Blast: I think we would need to lower the damage multiplier if we wanted to increase the cast speed. The damage per second on that skill at its current cast time is already about as high as we are comfortable with. It’s a tricky skill to balance because we’d need to also look at adjusting all the traits that affect it.

I think everyone agrees that the damage coefficient would go down proportionately. Nobody will complain if you make it roughly the same speed as Reaper’s Shroud 1 and halve its damage.

The traits affecting Life Blast are precisely why you need to reduce LB’s cast time: Reaper’s Shroud autoattack is nearly twice as fast, and thereby gains twice the benefit from all traits affecting shroud skill 1. I know that Reaper’s Shroud 1 has the handicap of being melee range, but I would have thought that having higher DPS, baseline life force generation, as well as baseline 3-target cleave would be enough to balance for that! If the untraited baseline skills are balanced, they should remain balanced when you start adding traits, and right now that’s not the case, because RS1 gets better and better the more you invest in it, due to its faster attack speed and the traits having no internal cooldown. The only way to fix that is to make them the same attack speed, and to balance out RS1’s melee-range disadvantage through damage.

As you introduce more elite specialisations, more variations on Death Shroud, and more traits affecting Shroud Skill 1, this will become a massive balancing headache for you guys, unless you ensure that Shroud Skill 1 is equivalent across all specialisations in at least 1 thing: make that thing attack speed.

I would like to see a cast time reduction on Life Blast (changing the damage properly to keep the same DPS). That would make traits like Dhuumfire more worthy to use out the Reaper Shroud.

ronpierce.2760:

Personally, I think a hit can get too high. What I believe, and I realize this differs a bit from Bhawb here, in terms of how Life Blast’s cast should be handled, but here’s my list of thoughts:
- Life Blast damage is too high to cut the Cast time in half.

- Life Blast DPS is too low, and as a resource driven class mechanic, much like the soon-to-be Berserker, it should feel rewarding to trigger, even if that means a minor dps drop on weapon skills (I have little sympathy for those who think Dagger 1 spam should maximize DPS, playing both to their maximum utility would be best, though, more Greatsword with Grave Digger being used at optimal times as dagger is purely sustain).

- Cast time should be halved to .5 second cast +.2 after cast (effective .7, doubling the cast speed from 1.4 seconds.) while reducing damage by 40%, resulting in significantly lower burst damage, but a higher sustained output. The “super slow at everything” niche is dated, and slow, hard hits can remain a Lich Form niche that you can opt into.

- Rather than making it a two-hit channel, as a few are suggesting, to allow some traits to hit twice and others only once per cast (likely Reaper’s Might being the biggest issue), those traits that are seen as too strong when coupled with a faster speed (RM, possibly Unyielding Blast) need to be “nerfed” (see: rebalanced) to have lower durations instead.

Note: The reason this needs to happen is because Reaper already has this faster attack speed. If it’s a problem with a .7 cast Life Blast, it’s an issue with Reaper as well. Not to mention Reaper’s Might vastly over shadows Chilling Victory as a might mechanic, holding non-spite reapers back. Plus for a minor adept, its just a touch too good anyways, especially if Life Blast were to be a stronger DPS option.

- Lastly, Life Blast needs to have a baseline pierce. Piercing is already harder to control than cleave and Life Blast is currently lacking in DPS single target, let alone on multiple targets, this limitation and added Soul Reaping semi-mandatory trait should just be taken away. Also, with the piercing part removed, the trait would no longer appear to be half-effective for Reaper and future shrouds.

Sorry if its a bit wordy, I plan to make a write up following BWE2 and will have it cleaned up and discuss with some other Necromancers before hand, but I want to test some things first with Reaper before I get too deep into suggestions, but these are my general thoughts right now.

TL;DR: Baseline Piercing, Double Cast speed of Life Blast, Reduce damage by 40-45% to bring it in line with Reaper’s capabilities, rebalance non-reaper Traits to compensate for the new speed that fits both Shrouds.

+1