Interesting topic that I’ve made a few times before. Having access to utility in shroud would absolutely be a game changer. There are a few issues that rise from this of course. But I feel the benefits would far outweigh any negatives. And when I say utility I include elite and heal skills.
How would it work?
First off lets answer this question here. Utilities shouldn’t just be given to the necromancer. Although shroud’s design is simple enough that having access to them could easily fit into its design a few things don’t lend itself well to it working. So a way to balance it is to make using any of your utility skills cost a bit of life force when activated in shroud. This would mean that you could drop out of shroud due to your own frivolous use of those abilities. Any transformations that you enter would also drop you out of shroud, such as Lich form or plague. Healing skills should either have reduced healing or no healing but still give their special effects. Notably Signet of Vampirism should have its passive still trigger while you are in shroud. And Consume Flesh on Blood Fiend should count as life stealing so that heal should also work. Consume condition, Well of blood and “Your Soul is Mine” shouldn’t provide healing or have it reduced.
What are the benefits?
- Greater diversity in builds. Arena net has always wanted to push shroud builds into the spot light. And they kinda exist but they always suffer from lack of diversity. This would help that greatly.
- old skills new use. Some Skills that don’t see much use would find new meaning in shroud. Mentioned above Signet of Vampirism suddenly has use for its passive effect. “Your Soul is mine” can now be used to maintain shroud longer to keep a shroud build going or perhaps something else that another person’s thought of that I haven’t.
- New trait design. Traits could be designed around this idea of spending life force as opposed to just passively buffing shroud to make it more interactive. Some traits would need to be changed but the overall benefit could be massive. Suddenly using skills in shroud could be a boon to you, adding to damage, support or even changing how your defenses work.
- New possibilities for Elite Specs. Its difficult to find professions that could use Glyphs effectively and this would open the door to a spec using it for necromancer. Another option is with sacrifice skills that otherwise might be too dangerous to use outside of shroud but in shroud could provide more of a push pull on the necromancer’s part. Even traits could be massively different than what we’ve seen. I know I’ve mentioned it twice, but it would be grand.
- Shroud doesn’t have to do twice as much work. One of the issues with shroud is that if you are going to build a shroud build there is a lot of pressure on it being strictly better than not being in shroud, but this is rarely the case. This change allows it to play out more naturally with the way the game is designed.
What are the negatives?
- Higher learning curve. This is probably the biggest negative to this suggestion. It makes the profession a bit more difficult to play and run for new players. However, I feel that we have quite a few professions that have a low barrier of entry that this shouldn’t be an issue.
- Potential growing pains. This change can shake the meta game pretty heavily. Although it might not be overpowered at all, just the fact that its a massive change would easily throw people off causing cries of wolf until they finally learned how to fight or play necromancer.
- Some traits/skills might need to be nerfed. Not the traits you might expect. Death perception is fine as it is and wouldn’t need to be changed. But Shrouded Removal or Relentless Pursuit might need to be looked at. I don’t think its going to be what people expect though.
Why should I want this change?
For the fun! Primarily because it would be a blast to do. It would reduce stale play on the necromancer, increase build diversity and and potentially double your play time with the profession.
Okay, so you’ve got these changes what sort of traits would you suggest?
Oh quite a few. First i’d probably change a few with passive effects such as Shrouded Removal to remove conditions on utility activation to promote active play. Spiteful Spirit to be more in line with its GW1 counterpart causing confusion on Skill activation or something similar. I’d probably want to add new traits such as an Old Suggested one Cultists Fervor which could reduce the recharge of utility used in shroud at the cost of more life force. Though admittedly that might be too good.
What if I don’t like this idea?
Well, then you’re entitled to your opinion. I’ll disagree with it because I’ve wanted this to happen for years and even after spending thousands of hours playing the game I just can’t think of a good enough reason not to do it and no one has presented a good argument to me.
Isn’t it too much work?
Any idea worth doing is going to be a bit of work. We shouldn’t shoot down our suggestions or push our own ideas away because of the amount of work it might take. This question isn’t a conversation starter its a stopper. Nothing constructive can come from that sort of thinking. Think big!
I like this idea, but I have a different one.
Please share then! I’d love to hear your ideas!
And I’ll post the poll at the top to make it easier for people to access it. http://www.strawpoll.me/11040199 Go ahead and vote.
(edited by Lily.1935)
, after all it is 4 years .