Guild Wars 2

When talking with the community or looking at what the devs have to say its very clear to me that absolutely no one has any idea what it is this profession actually needs, myself included. The big issue isn’t that the community is complaining allot either. That is understandable. it isn’t even that many of us get really angry about our profession considering we are straight up being denied from group content and aren’t competitive.

A couple of the issues I see is on the devs part. It doesn’t seem that any of them really spend much time playing a necromancer. Perhaps a 100 hours at most when a good percentage of us have gone well over 1k hours on our necromancer alone. They seem to have this misconception about the profession or believe we have more defense and offense than we actually do. On both sides. When testing for the necromancer the person facing the necromancer might have just as little knowledge of how the profession works in practice as the one playing the necromancer. Which can result in easy wins for the person playing the necromancer. But they miss the bigger picture of the fight and don’t understand why the necromancer won or how the opponent could have played differently to easily take full advantage of the necromancer in turning all of their strengths into weaknesses. Because that’s exactly what happens in PvP.

Another Issue I think might be happening is that they listen to part of the conversation that’s taking place about the necromancer but not the whole conversation. A good example of this is terror. The community was actually fairly split. But it wasn’t split into 2 ways. It was actually 4. You had the people who wanted it as grandmaster, people who wanted it in a different trait line, people who wanted it as a master and people who thought it was currently too weak as a grandmaster but was otherwise okay with its placement. One thing about this though was before it was revealed the debate was actually settling more in favor of keeping it as a grandmaster, at least from what I could see. But merging it with Master of terror(now fear of death) to free up some much needed space in Soul reaping to make a terrormacer more competitive.

There are also issues on our end as well. We aren’t always very clear on what we want from out profession. We also tend to pre-nerf all suggestions anyone else has or nerf everything ahead of time before it happens. These two facts combine kinda puts us in a bad situation as we’re trying to compromise our suggestions down and Anet sees this and if the suggestion gets in its compromised far further than what we wanted. A good example of this is Lingering Curse. Gone from an amazing trait to a really boring and un-creative trait.

One example of improper understanding of the necromancer is with Consume condition. It seems that the devs assume that this skill is over powered in its current form. When that’s far from the truth. The skills is quite powerful but thats because the necromancer without it has a really hard time dealing with conditions. And considering we can’t block, evade beyond our endurance bar, go invuln, stealth, get stability we absolutely need something like this in order to be even remotely competitive. This coupled with the fact that our other heals are extremely weak even when compared to racial skills. When the patch hits I’m probably going to use Prayer of Dwayna because its actually just going to be better than our other heals. I’m not joking about that either. If we had proper condi cleans and our other heals were actually useful we wouldn’t notice it so much. However this isn’t the case. The necromancer doesn’t have proper condition cleansing or good heals outside of Consume condition. Which I’ll agree was one of the best heals in the game, but not the best by any stretch of the imagination. If it was given to a guardian for example they’d still probably just use shelter over Consume condition.

So how do we fix this? I honestly have no idea outside of having an honest and open line from the devs to the players. Considering the necromancer community feels under-represented and rather ignored. We need to be sure we have someone with both ears open to us.

Wow, put a tl;dr at the end of that. It’s gonna take me a while to read it.

Ok, well you are right about basically everything you said, and I agree with you. To add though, the people who wanted Terror to be master (I was in favor of one of the grandmasters dropping) had other conditions that they wanted. For instance, I wanted Path of Corruption to be a minor trait or a new grandmaster if terror was going to be master, and I wanted Lingering Curse to still work with all skills if scepter was equipped. Instead, neither of the conditions were met, and instead of opening doors by moving terror, it just made the entire curses line worse. Imagine if Path of Corruption had been moved to grandmaster and inherited the cooldown reduction part of Master of Corruption. Suddenly, it would be the ultimate boon hate trait and it would have made terrormancer better. Instead, terrormancer can’t take all the traits it needed to function anymore.

tl;dr the change to Terror was not made under the “conditions” the community had set

Cecilia.5179:

Ok, well you are right about basically everything you said, and I agree with you. To add though, the people who wanted Terror to be master (I was in favor of one of the grandmasters dropping) had other conditions that they wanted. For instance, I wanted Path of Corruption to be a minor trait or a new grandmaster if terror was going to be master, and I wanted Lingering Curse to still work with all skills if scepter was equipped. Instead, neither of the conditions were met, and instead of opening doors by moving terror, it just made the entire curses line worse. Imagine if Path of Corruption had been moved to grandmaster and inherited the cooldown reduction part of Master of Corruption. Suddenly, it would be the ultimate boon hate trait and it would have made terrormancer better. Instead, terrormancer can’t take all the traits it needed to function anymore.

tl;dr the change to Terror was not made under the “conditions” the community had set

That was just one example in resent memory though. Stuff like that seems to happen to us all the time. I’m not sure how I’d drop its length with a Tl;der. I don’t know. Open up the conversation and be transparent with us and get someone with allot more experience with all game types on the necro? I don’t know.

if u look at the streamer that get an early access to the changes on monday….
mufasaprime------->main warrior
JebroUnity---------->main engineer ( + warrior, mesmer)
Shinryuku_ku------>main warrior ( + thief, ranger…)
Chaithh------------->main engineer
PurpleIsHawt------>main warrior ( + ele, guard)
Chemsorly--------->main ele
DigitalProSports-->i dont know…

It’s miscommunication and lack of common ground, that may be childish of my part but why no duels with necro vs others(real ones with starting 0 starting LF),no necro PvP 101,no matches with necro from the devs. They don’t really play necro but when it comes to themes they are professionals that needs attention first. The attrition of necro also needs to stop we don’t to be hit that false belief that we do (and guard doesn’t) is seriously impairing balance and last Death Shroud we need less restrictions first no self defense or offense should be limited due to it because all specs have to deal with it to be more specific all self heals and conditions should be compatible with it.

Those 3 should ease up communication between and the devs I can’t decide which is more important:
-Devs actually playing necro competitively
-The truth about our attrition
-The truth about the hindrance DS limitations

…and they nerfed the one skill that gave us that “ooo…cool” ability. No longer will you be able to drop off a high cliff, and 3/4 of the way down pop Spectral Walk, then, before you go splat, pop the return so you can land safely at the bottom. I mean, really…we don’t have stealth, we don’t have a port away from danger (worm and Dark Path don’t count…they basically pull you towards danger…unless you are quick enough to pick an ambient away from the heat of battle before popping Dark Path), so Anet’s response: nerf Spectral Walk…just ’cause.

Goldenrevolver.4371:

if u look at the streamer that get an early access to the changes on monday….
mufasaprime———->main warrior
JebroUnity—————>main engineer ( + warrior, mesmer)
Shinryuku_ku———>main warrior ( + thief, ranger…)
Chaithh——————->main engineer
PurpleIsHawt———>main warrior ( + ele, guard)
Chemsorly————->main ele
DigitalProSports—>i dont know…

This is a solid rep of why the Necro is only adjusted using pen and paper, and through the eyes of an opposing class. Until a dev actually champions us and has experience playing the class to truly know the limitations, then we will always be bottom tier.

Sagat.3285:

/Snip

Those 3 should ease up communication between and the devs I can’t decide which is more important:
-Devs actually playing necro competitively
-The truth about our attrition
-The truth about the hindrance DS limitations

This is pretty much where I come down on things. Your order is probably correct because Devs playing Necros at high competitive levels should lead to the others.

Everything we do and complain about can be traced back to DS not working as intended, and our drawbacks being too harsh because Anet assumes DS actually works as a perfect attrition ability.

Why do condimancers depend so much on Terror?
Why are we so upset that Consume Conditions got changed?
Why do we want more and more healing in DS?
Why do we want siphons to siphon for more?
Why are our best builds in competitive PvP high DPS/Glass cannon which ignore attrition instead of building for it?

It’s because we need to kill and cc enemies before they kill and cc us (not attrition). Or we end up arguing for alternative sustain/attrition through other means, because the base shroud mechanics can’t be depended on to do the job. We want these things because Anet has made it fairly clear they’re very much against a full DS rework. So everything is patchwork, uneven and varied, making balancing near impossible without throwing things way out of whack.

1. Shroud gets worse with more enemies, while other class attrition gets better with more enemies. The opposite of an attrition mechanic.

2. It’s an ability that becomes more finite in its use as combat drags on. The opposite of an attrition mechanic.

3. It degens fast enough that other players can wait it out and spike us after DS ends. The opposite of an attrition mechanic.

My personal fix would be to increase LF gain across the board, decrease LF degen, cut the Shroud CD in half, cut the LF bar by about 50-75%, add a damage cap against LF bar of about 10-20% per second and allow full healing and utility usage through DS.

Or just forget toughness, vitality, healing/utilities in DS and damage vs. LF bar. Instead make the LF bar a 0-100% thing that takes no damage but degens like 15%-25% per second. Have a 5 second CD and a bit better LF gain than now. Tailor DS skills to work/cast faster due to shortened, but guaranteed spurts in DS. Much simpler than the former, but also much more powerful. (How would this work with dodges for example?)

Either way, shroud would now:

1. Scale much better the more enemies you’re against being a true attrition mechanic that absorbs vast amounts of damage. Fixed.

2/3. The lower CD and better LF gain would allow us to be more proactive against spikes and CC by using Shroud, rather than reactive to them or worse, an emergency health bar that enemies wait out because they know they have at least 10 seconds to kill you after you exit. Enemies would have Necros messing up their spiked by strategically popping sgroud and waiting for shroud degen would be a lot less effective. Fixed. Fixed.

With shroud being more powerful and a real means of dealing with cc and spikes as an active-like defense, our lack of stability, vigor and mobility starts to make sense.

The current functionality of DS can be fidgeted with and possibly made to work to a point. However, it’s always going to have problems and cause problems for us if its simply a second health bar.

What you said is pretty long and, I’d say a bit to accurate. For me, what necro actually need it’s simple : reliability and synergy.

Reliablity :
- A lot of the necromancer’s skills don’t connect for a lot of reason or simply don’t work (These days I’m fed up to see that even against an immobile WB there are times where Life blast don’t connect. It’s a pain and they really need to rework the pathing of this skill).
- We have blast finisher that we can’t exploit even for very basic teamwork because we got absolutely no controle over them.
- Minion that stare into the void are also unreliable.
… etc.

Synergy :
- No usefull combo field
- Unreliable finisher
- Poor ability for usefull support
- New traits assuming that your team member will die around you
- No synergy with PvE environment (No boon to corrupt. I’m pointing it since it seem that it’s Anet answer to our rant about necro having no support.)

NB.: I should probably edit it as a signature but : Support and debuffing are 2 differents things. Never ever assume that you do some kind of support when you debuff yourself or a foe.

Dadnir.5038:

Synergy :
- No usefull combo field
- Unreliable finisher
- Poor ability for usefull support
- New traits assuming that your team member will die around you
- No synergy with PvE environment (No boon to corrupt. I’m pointing it since it seem that it’s Anet answer to our rant about necro having no support.)

To add onto our synergy problems, we can’t run traits that synergize well (PoC and Terror or Path of Midnight and Master of Terror) together anymore.

Cecilia.5179:

Dadnir.5038:

Synergy :
- No usefull combo field
- Unreliable finisher
- Poor ability for usefull support
- New traits assuming that your team member will die around you
- No synergy with PvE environment (No boon to corrupt. I’m pointing it since it seem that it’s Anet answer to our rant about necro having no support.)

To add onto our synergy problems, we can’t run traits that synergize well (PoC and Terror or Path of Midnight and Master of Terror) together anymore.

No hard feeling but, I’m talking about synergy in a party, with other players. I forced myself not talking about inherent issue of intern synergy because they actually made a bunch of traits that work well with each other (aka : signets traits) and I’m not really against the fact that they “limit” terror build. (Actually I think that terror is toxic for the Necromancer as it’s whole but that’s just my opinion here)

Edit : Oh, I forgot : Support and debuffing are 2 differents things. Never ever assume that you do some kind of support when you debuff yourself or a foe.

Dadnir.5038:

What you said is pretty long and, I’d say a bit to accurate. For me, what necro actually need it’s simple : reliability and synergy.

Reliablity :
- A lot of the necromancer’s skills don’t connect for a lot of reason or simply don’t work (These days I’m fed up to see that even against an immobile WB there are times where Life blast don’t connect. It’s a pain and they really need to rework the pathing of this skill).
- We have blast finisher that we can’t exploit even for very basic teamwork because we got absolutely no controle over them.
- Minion that stare into the void are also unreliable.
… etc.

Synergy :
- No usefull combo field
- Unreliable finisher
- Poor ability for usefull support
- New traits assuming that your team member will die around you
- No synergy with PvE environment (No boon to corrupt. I’m pointing it since it seem that it’s Anet answer to our rant about necro having no support.)

NB.: I should probably edit it as a signature but : Support and debuffing are 2 differents things. Never ever assume that you do some kind of support when you debuff yourself or a foe.

Yeah this pretty much nails it. I’d also put these things in the reliability list.

Reliability:
Flesh Wurm is the only skill that actually puts you out of harms way, but has to be precast. Spectral walk has to be preemptively cast. Spectral Armor doesn’t do anything against 3+ opponents in team fights. Well of Power doesn’t work fast enough. Foot in the grave again doesn’t actually prevent you from taking damage. Every other class has ways of completely preventing damage taken, through evasion, invulns, or disengages through ports.

Another big thing with reliability is cast times. All of our defense relies in us hitting our target, but due to slow cast times we have the hardest time actually hitting our target. If they aren’t gonna give us instants, skills that hit really fast are a must.

The last problem is our long cooldown times. Anet addressed it a little bit, but a lot of necros utilites have huge cooldowns. Well of Darkness in particular is sad when you consider glyph of storms, lightning hammer, thieves, and guards.

What necromancer NEEDS is a developer who cares about, understands and can empathise with Necromancer’s problems.

I have never seen a developer say they main necromancer on any platform (In game, forums, reddit, other social media) whereas we have a myriad of developers proudly maining mesmer/guardian/warrior/thief/etc.

In short, we need a voice on the dev team, and that seems to be something we sorely lack right now.

what i need is spectral grasp on a shorter cd(20 sec) without traiting for it. then i’d be a happy horror movie monster :P

rapthorne.7345:

What necromancer NEEDS is a developer who cares about, understands and can empathise with Necromancer’s problems.

I have never seen a developer say they main necromancer on any platform (In game, forums, reddit, other social media) whereas we have a myriad of developers proudly maining mesmer/guardian/warrior/thief/etc.

In short, we need a voice on the dev team, and that seems to be something we sorely lack right now.

Why would anyone want to main a necromancer when they’re so dull to play? I only started maining a necromancer because of GW1, but honestly its not that enjoyable.

The main things are combo finishers, projectile defence and active defence.

I really wish Anet would abandon the concept of Necro attrition. They keep trying to tell us we want our enemies close….we don’t want that because those enemies hit back and hard.

A guardian might be more in line with that concept on some level because they can block, reduce, and become invulnerable for huge amounts of damage that we simply cannot.

What would work for us is if the conditions that get applied to us would boost our life force. That way in a battle with few hittable enemies around we could still manage to stay alive and force the enemy to choose their attacks more carefully. Every experienced player that fights a Necro knows that they want to drain our life force and then break us. Once that precious life force is gone, we are desperate to get it back, win the fight (a tall order) or get away (impossible without divine intervention).

Our group helpfulness is another problem altogether. Anet has no interest in making us an ideal party or group member due to our skill and build choices. Again I think the key to this problem revolves around the condition concept. If we were naturally by group proximity able to reduce the application and effects of conditions, we might find ourselves more useful to group play. Even if we had access to a skill that made the group immune to conditions for a period or cleared group conditions we might be considerably more desirable in some instances throughout the game. Plague signet is not something that is ideal for this because our whole build ends up built around sucking up additional damage and then sending them or consuming them. Our damage in such a build would make us a greater liability than what most players think we already are.

Just my quick thoughts on the matter.

I’ve made whole thread of changes, so I won’t dive into it.

At this point I think we should just wait for the next update. We’ve done what we could.

Who knows, maybe there’s something we don’t know about. Maybe we’re indeed so strong on their test builds because of the changes to other professions.

I just hope that Shoutbow will dissapear from PvP. My only wish at this point.

Rym.1469:

I’ve made whole thread of changes, so I won’t dive into it.

At this point I think we should just wait for the next update. We’ve done what we could.

Who knows, maybe there’s something we don’t know about. Maybe we’re indeed so strong on their test builds because of the changes to other professions.

I just hope that Shoutbow will dissapear from PvP. My only wish at this point.

No matter how strong we are on their test builds. As long as we lack core concepts that are highly important to the game we are going to suffer. PvP can get around this because the roles, approaches and uses are much more varied. And some group PvE can avoid it somewhat by having the group carry you. But the more challenging and engaging content becomes the more something like ‘no extra active defence’ becomes a major issue. And the more that teamwork is required the more problematic not having sufficient finishers becomes.

Lily.1935:

rapthorne.7345:

What necromancer NEEDS is a developer who cares about, understands and can empathise with Necromancer’s problems.

I have never seen a developer say they main necromancer on any platform (In game, forums, reddit, other social media) whereas we have a myriad of developers proudly maining mesmer/guardian/warrior/thief/etc.

In short, we need a voice on the dev team, and that seems to be something we sorely lack right now.

Why would anyone want to main a necromancer when they’re so dull to play? I only started maining a necromancer because of GW1, but honestly its not that enjoyable.

I like playing necromancer partially because I’m a masochist when it comes to video games and also because I like the reactionary playstyle of the condi builds.

We really need somebody at anet who understands the class, plays the class, and has the pull to make things happen

nekretaal.6485:

We really need somebody at anet who understands the class, plays the class, and has the pull to make things happen

Out of the big 3 that have been in an insanely bad state for way too long you have Ranger, Engineer and Necromancer. Currently range is in a really good spot, Engineer is finished. And that just leaves Necromancer who needs major work. Why is the Necromancer last? We’re the least popular. And we’ve also been in the worst state out of all three.

Lily.1935:

nekretaal.6485:

We really need somebody at anet who understands the class, plays the class, and has the pull to make things happen

Out of the big 3 that have been in an insanely bad state for way too long you have Ranger, Engineer and Necromancer. Currently range is in a really good spot, Engineer is finished. And that just leaves Necromancer who needs major work. Why is the Necromancer last? We’re the least popular. And we’ve also been in the worst state out of all three.

The better question is why are they still trying to nerf us at this point?

Cecilia.5179:

Lily.1935:

nekretaal.6485:

We really need somebody at anet who understands the class, plays the class, and has the pull to make things happen

Out of the big 3 that have been in an insanely bad state for way too long you have Ranger, Engineer and Necromancer. Currently range is in a really good spot, Engineer is finished. And that just leaves Necromancer who needs major work. Why is the Necromancer last? We’re the least popular. And we’ve also been in the worst state out of all three.

The better question is why are they still trying to nerf us at this point?

Well. I Think it goes back to one of my points earlier. They don’t know how we function in reality in anything. So they don’t think we’re in a bad spot. But the community is breaking apart. Fewer and fewer people are actually interested in having a necromancer main and once the revenant comes out it might put a nail in our coffin and any sense of uniqueness we had will be snuffed out and the community will all but die.

The bad part is I think that’s exactly whats going to have to happen before they start to realize just how bad of a spot we are in. Also, one theory about the Engineer was that their new skill type might be minions. And if that happens you can consider any remnant of the community to be completely gone.

Lily.1935:

Cecilia.5179:

Lily.1935:

nekretaal.6485:

We really need somebody at anet who understands the class, plays the class, and has the pull to make things happen

Out of the big 3 that have been in an insanely bad state for way too long you have Ranger, Engineer and Necromancer. Currently range is in a really good spot, Engineer is finished. And that just leaves Necromancer who needs major work. Why is the Necromancer last? We’re the least popular. And we’ve also been in the worst state out of all three.

The better question is why are they still trying to nerf us at this point?

Well. I Think it goes back to one of my points earlier. They don’t know how we function in reality in anything. So they don’t think we’re in a bad spot. But the community is breaking apart. Fewer and fewer people are actually interested in having a necromancer main and once the revenant comes out it might put a nail in our coffin and any sense of uniqueness we had will be snuffed out and the community will all but die.

The bad part is I think that’s exactly whats going to have to happen before they start to realize just how bad of a spot we are in. Also, one theory about the Engineer was that their new skill type might be minions. And if that happens you can consider any remnant of the community to be completely gone.

Well if the AI is still bad that may cancel itself out. The flip side is that they may address minion AI with the possible drone AI if Engis are indeed getting drones.

Lily.1935:

Cecilia.5179:

Lily.1935:

nekretaal.6485:

We really need somebody at anet who understands the class, plays the class, and has the pull to make things happen

Out of the big 3 that have been in an insanely bad state for way too long you have Ranger, Engineer and Necromancer. Currently range is in a really good spot, Engineer is finished. And that just leaves Necromancer who needs major work. Why is the Necromancer last? We’re the least popular. And we’ve also been in the worst state out of all three.

The better question is why are they still trying to nerf us at this point?

Well. I Think it goes back to one of my points earlier. They don’t know how we function in reality in anything. So they don’t think we’re in a bad spot. But the community is breaking apart. Fewer and fewer people are actually interested in having a necromancer main and once the revenant comes out it might put a nail in our coffin and any sense of uniqueness we had will be snuffed out and the community will all but die.

The bad part is I think that’s exactly whats going to have to happen before they start to realize just how bad of a spot we are in. Also, one theory about the Engineer was that their new skill type might be minions. And if that happens you can consider any remnant of the community to be completely gone.

I believe the devs do know we are in a bad spot. However, Robert Gee has said in one of the last preview videos that they explicitly do not want to give us a bunch of blast finishers which was a coded way to say they have heard our complaints but they don’t agree on what exactly necros should have. Based on the balance changes and Robert’s followup explanation, it would seem that they want to try to give necro a non meta (blast, block, etc.) and unique means of support and team interaction. It all sounds very experimental and obviously the results look it.

I think with people basically saying give necros what the meta professions have, Anet reacted negatively to re-working them and making them more samey because of that. My reaction to all of this is they have done some interesting things with Necro but they have the meta working against them in terms of player perception of the Necro. They haven’t gone far enough to change the general player opinion of the Necro overall in terms of group play and pvp. But really, they have two options that I can think of to fix this. Either bust up the current meta team comp through balance or include the necro in the current meta balance. They are reluctant to go with option 2 but haven’t moved toward option 1 either. Perhaps there’s an option 3?

Pressure relief.

It is getting to be a joke how easy it is to just call target on a necro and mash buttons for results. No risk, no strategy, a good option 100% of the time.

So many of the necro mechanics are just catalysts for frustration. Self harm, no escape, no defense, no mobility. And now our best heal is a piece of kitten self vulnerability.

nightwulf.1986:

Lily.1935:

Cecilia.5179:

Lily.1935:

nekretaal.6485:

We really need somebody at anet who understands the class, plays the class, and has the pull to make things happen

Out of the big 3 that have been in an insanely bad state for way too long you have Ranger, Engineer and Necromancer. Currently range is in a really good spot, Engineer is finished. And that just leaves Necromancer who needs major work. Why is the Necromancer last? We’re the least popular. And we’ve also been in the worst state out of all three.

The better question is why are they still trying to nerf us at this point?

Well. I Think it goes back to one of my points earlier. They don’t know how we function in reality in anything. So they don’t think we’re in a bad spot. But the community is breaking apart. Fewer and fewer people are actually interested in having a necromancer main and once the revenant comes out it might put a nail in our coffin and any sense of uniqueness we had will be snuffed out and the community will all but die.

The bad part is I think that’s exactly whats going to have to happen before they start to realize just how bad of a spot we are in. Also, one theory about the Engineer was that their new skill type might be minions. And if that happens you can consider any remnant of the community to be completely gone.

I believe the devs do know we are in a bad spot. However, Robert Gee has said in one of the last preview videos that they explicitly do not want to give us a bunch of blast finishers which was a coded way to say they have heard our complaints but they don’t agree on what exactly necros should have. Based on the balance changes and Robert’s followup explanation, it would seem that they want to try to give necro a non meta (blast, block, etc.) and unique means of support and team interaction. It all sounds very experimental and obviously the results look it.

I think with people basically saying give necros what the meta professions have, Anet reacted negatively to re-working them and making them more samey because of that. My reaction to all of this is they have done some interesting things with Necro but they have the meta working against them in terms of player perception of the Necro. They haven’t gone far enough to change the general player opinion of the Necro overall in terms of group play and pvp. But really, they have two options that I can think of to fix this. Either bust up the current meta team comp through balance or include the necro in the current meta balance. They are reluctant to go with option 2 but haven’t moved toward option 1 either. Perhaps there’s an option 3?

You know that I made a post about a year ago talking about how the necromancer should have a trait that functioned like the GW1 skill Contagion. You know who got that skill? The revenant. Its not like we’re all talking about blast finishers and fire fields. A few people are but many of us want fixes in a very necroish way. And those ways are either being given to other professions or almost completely ignored.

A new set of core design principle is what we need.

As it is necro’s are supposed to be build around making your target weak and helpless. However, any class actually successful at fighting this way is incredibly frustrating to play against. The devs solved that issue by making the necro suck, so that the necro player is the only one getting frustrated. Take for instance the attrition design. Necros were supposed to never die and be impossible to escape from. Result: Necro is 1st focus in all situations and every class in the game can disengage from it whenever they want.

Devs just need to give necro a new schtick, because they’ve proven they actually don’t want the old one to be viable. I think the whole barrier between life and death theme could be a good direction to take the class as a whole. Imagine if you got an improving LF regeneration effect that would get better as your health got lower, eventually canceling out DS degeneration and actively generating life force when out of it once you were below 25% health. Imagine a new corruption elite. Down yourself. If you are defeated in the next 15 seconds unleash a 600 radius blast that defeats enemies.

Lily.1935:

nightwulf.1986:

I believe the devs do know we are in a bad spot. However, Robert Gee has said in one of the last preview videos that they explicitly do not want to give us a bunch of blast finishers which was a coded way to say they have heard our complaints but they don’t agree on what exactly necros should have. Based on the balance changes and Robert’s followup explanation, it would seem that they want to try to give necro a non meta (blast, block, etc.) and unique means of support and team interaction. It all sounds very experimental and obviously the results look it.

I think with people basically saying give necros what the meta professions have, Anet reacted negatively to re-working them and making them more samey because of that. My reaction to all of this is they have done some interesting things with Necro but they have the meta working against them in terms of player perception of the Necro. They haven’t gone far enough to change the general player opinion of the Necro overall in terms of group play and pvp. But really, they have two options that I can think of to fix this. Either bust up the current meta team comp through balance or include the necro in the current meta balance. They are reluctant to go with option 2 but haven’t moved toward option 1 either. Perhaps there’s an option 3?

You know that I made a post about a year ago talking about how the necromancer should have a trait that functioned like the GW1 skill Contagion. You know who got that skill? The revenant. Its not like we’re all talking about blast finishers and fire fields. A few people are but many of us want fixes in a very necroish way. And those ways are either being given to other professions or almost completely ignored.

I feel you on Revenant, Mallyx legend specifically, treading too deep into necro territory. I’m just hoping that Revenant doesn’t get GW1 spiteful spirit with their other legends. They haven’t given anyone any skills that make enemies deal damage to their nearby allies and want to break away from their group. If and when that happens, I do hope Necro gets that.

nightwulf.1986:

Lily.1935:

nightwulf.1986:

I believe the devs do know we are in a bad spot. However, Robert Gee has said in one of the last preview videos that they explicitly do not want to give us a bunch of blast finishers which was a coded way to say they have heard our complaints but they don’t agree on what exactly necros should have. Based on the balance changes and Robert’s followup explanation, it would seem that they want to try to give necro a non meta (blast, block, etc.) and unique means of support and team interaction. It all sounds very experimental and obviously the results look it.

I think with people basically saying give necros what the meta professions have, Anet reacted negatively to re-working them and making them more samey because of that. My reaction to all of this is they have done some interesting things with Necro but they have the meta working against them in terms of player perception of the Necro. They haven’t gone far enough to change the general player opinion of the Necro overall in terms of group play and pvp. But really, they have two options that I can think of to fix this. Either bust up the current meta team comp through balance or include the necro in the current meta balance. They are reluctant to go with option 2 but haven’t moved toward option 1 either. Perhaps there’s an option 3?

You know that I made a post about a year ago talking about how the necromancer should have a trait that functioned like the GW1 skill Contagion. You know who got that skill? The revenant. Its not like we’re all talking about blast finishers and fire fields. A few people are but many of us want fixes in a very necroish way. And those ways are either being given to other professions or almost completely ignored.

I feel you on Revenant, Mallyx legend specifically, treading too deep into necro territory. I’m just hoping that Revenant doesn’t get GW1 spiteful spirit with their other legends. They haven’t given anyone any skills that make enemies deal damage to their nearby allies and want to break away from their group. If and when that happens, I do hope Necro gets that.

Revenant specialization will have spammable minions that cost energy. Yep. Calling it now. Joking aside, the design of the revenant seems to be stepping on allot of necromancer ground. Although not all of it. Ventari stance is very much a restoration ritualist. Mallyx is necroish and Ironhammer isn’t too far out of the realms of necromancer either. Rather than taunt though a chain that drags them in. But every single one of the Ironhammer skills could easily be themed to the necromancer. Without issue.