Guild Wars 2

Hi guys,

I’m from mesmer forum and while I’m excited for the new stuff we’ve got. I can totally understand some of necromancers can’t help but feel jealous because mesmers now get wells. I hope and expect necro specialization will bring awesome stuff for u guys too. I believe we both classes share the same dev, Robert Gee? I like the guy, he seems to know his stuff well.

Anyway, just a way to cheer things up while we wait for the reveal of necromancer spec. How about I share some of my crazy ideas about necro specialization and how it could become?

As a class that manipulates death and life, it would be fitting if the necro spec would blur the line between life and death even further.

So below is my take of the specialization, let’s call it Avenger for now.

The overall theme is that whenever you or your ally takes dmg, you grow stronger by gaining certain benefits from the mantra charges.

Now, as they’re right now for mesmers, mantras are skills that have long cast time but once u charge them, they will allow you to perform certain actions at an instant for multiple times.

Mesmer wells while similar to necro wells, they do have their own twist so I would give necro mantras a flavour of their own as well to go well with necro’s class mechanic Death Shroud.

Basically, once you finish casting a mantra, you gain multiple charges of this particular mantra displayed as a buff just like mesmer mantras. As long as you have at least 1 charge, whenever you enter DS you will gain certain benefits related to that mantra. In addition, when in DS, whenever you or an ally close to you (1200 range maybe?) takes dmg, one mantra charge is consumed as you gain some additional and more powerful benefits.

So let’s have a look thru what I’ve come up with.

Mantra of Life (heal skill), 1.5s cast time, 5 charges, 15s CD.
- Heal for some amount when you enter DS with this mantra charged.
- While in DS, heal you for some more amount whenever you or an ally is struck. This effect consumes 1 mantra charge.

Mantra of Persistence, 1.5s cast time, 5 charges, 25s CD.
- You gain Protection and Vigor boons when you enter DS with this mantra charged.
- While in DS, whenever you or an ally is struck, consume 1 charge and gain 1 stack of Toughness buff (+100 toughness).

Mantra of Defiance, 1.5s cast time, 5 charges, 35s CD.
- You gain Resistance and Aegis boons when you enter DS with this mantra charged.
- While in DS, taunt enemies around you (radius: 360) whenever you or an ally is struck. This effect consumes 1 mantra charge.

Mantra of Retribution, 1.5s cast time, 5 charges, 20s CD.
- You gain Retaliation and Swiftness boons when you enter DS with this mantra charged.
- While in DS, whenever you or an ally is struck, deals dmg to the attacker (1200 range). This effect consumes 1 mantra charge.

Mantra of Hatred, 1.5s cast time, 5 charges, 20s CD.
- You gain Might (3 stacks) and Fury boons when you enter DS with this mantra charged.
- While in DS, whenever you or an ally is struck, inflicts Torment (2 stacks) and Poison conditions to the attacker (1200 range). This effect consumes 1 mantra charge.

Mantra of Death (elite skill), 2s cast time, 1 charge, 180s CD.
- Inflict Chill and Fear conditions to enemies around you (radius: 360) when you enter DS with this mantra charged.
- While in DS, if any ally around you (1200 range) is downed or defeated, your F1 turns into “Vengeance’s Mark” skill. Consume the mantra charge when this happens.

Vengeance’s Mark
- Mark a target, transfer all your Life Force to this target, effectively healing them. The target cannot be healed to more than their maximum health pool. This also forces you out of DS as you lose all your LF.
- The marked target will have a debuff called “Living Bomb”. If this target goes to downed state before this debuff expires, it will deal massive AoE dmg to nearby people who are allied with this marked target.

So as you can see, you have 3 defensive mantras including the heal one and 3 offensive ones including the elite skill.

So what do you guys think of my take on mantras for necromancers?

Also, feel free to post your own ideas about how you want your necro spec to be. Always interesting to see what people come up with.

I hope you enjoy. Have a nice day.

They could just call most of our current skills 1 time use mantras anyway because they take so much time to cast.

I was gonna say lol it’s funny cos your proposed mantras have the same cast as our normal heal T___T

I like the passive mantra idea (when swap in DS gain boon) to be quite honest but the ‘actives’ are really bad. You need to be hit in DS, is too restrictive especially you can be easily knocked outside Ds with enough damage.

I would make the actives to upkeep skills (without draining anything) which are on even in death shroud. You can only de/activate the upkeep outside of death shroud and you lose the passive when you enter while active.

To support this I would propose 3 traits:
-Best of both worlds: when you enter death shroud with an active mantra you still get the passive mantra effect. Cooldown of mantra skills are reduced with 5% when a charge is used.

-Shared empowerment: Passive Mantra effects are shared with allies, mantra’s have an extra charge when used.

-Revenge is mine: When a charge(s) is used you gain 1 sec of quickness and 5 secs of 5 stacks of might.

Now about the effects:
-I think 2 boons might be too much but in order too use it effectively you need to flash death shroud so it might be balanced. Mantra of death and mantra of defiance is op with the massive amount of cc death shroud or not. So I suggest this:

Mantra of Life (heal skill), 1.5s cast time, 5 charges, 15s CD.
- Heal for some amount when you enter DS with this mantra charged.
- While in DS, heal you for some more amount whenever you or an ally is struck. This effect consumes 1 mantra charge.

Mantra of Persistence, 1.5s cast time, 5 charges, 25s CD.
-Passive: You gain Protection you enter DS with this mantra charged.
-Active: Whenever you or an ally is struck, consume 1 charge and gain 1 stack of Toughness buff (+100 toughness).

Mantra of Defiance, 1.5s cast time, 5 charges, 35s CD.
-Passive: You gain Resistance when you enter DS with this mantra charged.
-Acitve: Transfer a conditions to the enemy whenever you or an ally is struck. This effect consumes 1 mantra charge.

Mantra of Retribution, 1.5s cast time, 5 charges, 20s CD.
-Passive: You gain Retaliation when you enter DS with this mantra charged.
-Active: Whenever you or an ally is struck, deals dmg to the attacker (1200 range). This effect consumes 1 mantra charge.

Mantra of Hatred, 1.5s cast time, 5 charges, 20s CD.
-Passive: You gain Might (3 stacks) when you enter DS with this mantra charged.
-Active: Whenever you or an ally is struck, inflicts Torment (2 stacks) and Poison conditions to the attacker (1200 range). This effect consumes 1 mantra charge.

Mantra of Death (elite skill), 2s cast time, 1 charge, 180s CD.
-Passive: Grant stability and aegis when you eneter tdeath shroud with this mantra charged.
-Active: If any ally around you (1200 range) is downed or defeated, your F1 turns into “Vengeance’s Mark” skill. Consume the mantra charge when this happens.

I don´t like Mantras on Mesmer, they feel boring and sluggish when you need to re-channel them mid-fight (if you choose to cast them at all), so I probably wont enjoy them on Necro either. In GW1 Mantras work much like stances (gain X for Y seconds), which to me feels much more fluent and fun to use.

But nevertheless, judging from how much they hinted at Chronomancer with Kasmeer´s character development in LS2 (she discovering her gift of precognition etc.) and looking at what new “powers” Marjory gained, I think Mantras could be a reasonable possibility for the new utility skill-set we will get.

First Marjory obtains her sisters Greatsword (we already know that that was a hint towards the elite specialization) and then she infuses the blade with the soul of her deceased sister.

That sounds very mantra-ish to me, but I personally would prefer Stances or Upkeep-skills (feasting on Life Force), since they are bringing those back with Revenant anyways.

I can see necromancers getting something like venoms from thieves, more than something like a mantra.

No thanks to mantras, we don’t need even more slow cast time skills. Instant shouts, pls.

Ok guys, just to clarify, I picked mantras because we mesmer “stole” necro wells, so it’d be nice we give something back in return =P.

I know lots of people dont like mantras because they’re slow cast. But they’re really powerful and worth the drawback.

Having said that, meditation skills (from guardians) could be another interesting choice for necro spec if instant cast is preferred. And as Jelzouki mentioned, venoms would be a nice pick as well. I personally can’t see how Shouts would fit a necro theme though.

Eh I’d much rather get manipulation of glamor skills as a necro then mantra’s.

Necro already has more then enough long cast spells

As for things from other classes that could fit necro.

Manipulations
Glamors
Meditations
Cantrip’s
Venom’s
Desecration’s (think reverse of consecrations, helps allies in area but hurts enemies)
Glyphs
Arcane skills
Mantra’s (hope not but who knows)

Shouts could work, but they just feel too physical of an ability.

Physical, you mean like hefting a giant greatsword around?

Bhawb.7408:

Physical, you mean like hefting a giant greatsword around?

No just, shouts feel like something that is physical or used to mentally inspire.

Not something innately magical or poisonous like the other ability types i listed.

What the op call “mantra” ain’t GW2 mantra. Sorry but mantra in GW2 is something without passive effect. You charge the thing and you get 2-3 instant skill. Nothing more nothing less.

Dadnir.5038:

What the op call “mantra” ain’t GW2 mantra. Sorry but mantra in GW2 is something without passive effect. You charge the thing and you get 2-3 instant skill. Nothing more nothing less.

In current gw2 wells had the same effect every pulse, guess what, that changed with the chronomancer. Also there is a trait in gw2 that boosted you damage equal to the amount of mantras you have charged so it’s not that far of a stretch.