Guild Wars 2

Why is Anet so reluctant to give Necromancers more damage modifiers? Its very clear that Necromancer (and Reaper) are under performing in the power department. And they’ve shown interest in buffing said aspects (as shown during the last balance patch) but it seems giving Necromancers more access to damage modifiers would be an easier and more effective way to go about these buffs. The most obvious one (god knows why we didn’t have it from the start) would be a +10% damage vs chilled foes as an addition to one of the baseline reaper traits. Another would be to buff Soul Eater so it grants +10% damage to all Greatsword skills. That way it would be a viable alternative to Decimate Defenses, whilst in an organised party.
And no, this isn’t a request to make power reaper better than ele, thief or whatever is current top dps. Just some proper buffs that make a difference.

10% dmg is nowhere near as good as 50% crit chance. Soul eater needs to be much better than a simple damage increase or cooldown reduction to be worth using.
Damage against chilled foes does make sense though, but where would you put it?

Kumouta.4985:

10% dmg is nowhere near as good as 50% crit chance. Soul eater needs to be much better than a simple damage increase or cooldown reduction to be worth using.
Damage against chilled foes does make sense though, but where would you put it?

It would make Soul Eater a viable alternative in an organised party. Aka one that was giving Spotter, Banner of discipline, fury, 25 might etc.

As for the Chilled bonus, add it to the current Shivers of Dread or Cold Shoulder. Shivers of Dread is very weak, so would likely be the best suited. Or if it has to be on a major trait, add it to Chilling Nova.

Why is Anet so reluctant to give Necromancers more damage modifiers?

Because the necromancer is the slow monster that you can’t shake off and that catch your ankle before slowly and sadistically wearing down your health. Anet use the design of the vilains of the oldschool horror movies as a basis behind everything for the necromancer.

And let’s be a jerk! The necromancer have something like a damage modifier. Strictly speacking, with our siphon we have almost 10% more damage while in cleric gear and we give a bit less than 5% damage increase to a cleric party (I assume that this party don’t stack might and use low damage weapons)

Oh and we are very good at stacking vuln on foes (ven if it’s useless since this is the easiest thing to cap even without a necromancer)

Dadnir.5038:

Why is Anet so reluctant to give Necromancers more damage modifiers?

Because the necromancer is the slow monster that you can’t shake off and that catch your ankle before slowly and sadistically wearing down your health. Anet use the design of the vilains of the oldschool horror movies as a basis behind everything for the necromancer.

And let’s be a jerk! The necromancer have something like a damage modifier. Strictly speacking, with our siphon we have almost 10% more damage while in cleric gear and we give a bit less than 5% damage increase to a cleric party (I assume that this party don’t stack might and use low damage weapons)

Oh and we are very good at stacking vuln on foes (ven if it’s useless since this is the easiest thing to cap even without a necromancer)

Happy April Fools to you too.

Power dmg over all is lacking at least necro has unblockable that saying something a lot of classes lack. I would not mind seeing more crit dmg per condi a person has on them. Necro gets a lot of free crit chase but you only need so much so letting it get more real dmg per condi would help out over all power dmg on necro.

After thinking this over a little, I tend to agree Necromancer should have something like a modifier but nothing that will work solo because solo action is pretty strong right now. Here are some examples:

The modifier(s) could add bonus damage based on conditions placed upon an opponent. Perhaps if Necromancer attacks scaled up with the variety of conditions on their opponent and stack height. Similar to Chill of Death, Necromancer direct damage could receive bonus damage or a bonus condition for foes that are burning, slowed, taunted, etc.

Also, while Reaper provides the ability to stack a lot of might, the upcoming elite line could easily have a trait that adds additional dps based upon the boons shared with the Necromancer. In other words, Necro dps would scale up rapidly in a boon-share environment, which would require others to share boons with the black sheep of the family.

An even simpler approach is to simply add ferocity for each stack of might on the Necromancer.

Mechanics like these examples keep Necromancer from high dps without support from allies.

One of the nasty problems in PvE with Necromancer’s design is its reliance on soft CC such as chill, blind, cripple, immobilize, and weakness. These conditions only affect the defiant bar when it is teal and the boss is not on a rampage or already broken. That is not a whole lot of the fight and Necromancers normally rely on those conditions for sustain.

Soft CC just does not work like it used to. It is much less effective in PvP after the last year or two of changes with the introduction of resistance, more cleansing, and mobility skills becoming immune.

Something should be done about the core of Necromancer’s profession design because the game itself has shifted away from soft control effects providing potent debuffs.

If they do anything for damage modifiers on necromancer it should instead be allowing a necromancer to break the 25 vulnerability cap by 10.

Justine.6351:

If they do anything for damage modifiers on necromancer it should instead be allowing a necromancer to break the 25 vulnerability cap by 10.

10 is a bit much. At best 5, but I feel that an aura that reduce toughness by 150 might be just what’s needed. It wouldn’t be to much and let’s face it nobody really care about vuln output since there is barely any profession that can’t maintain a decent amount of that. In a party, If you say : “I can sustain 25 vuln!” people with just laugh you off because they don’t need anyone to maintain the 25 vuln anyway.

Dadnir.5038:

Justine.6351:

If they do anything for damage modifiers on necromancer it should instead be allowing a necromancer to break the 25 vulnerability cap by 10.

10 is a bit much. At best 5, but I feel that an aura that reduce toughness by 150 might be just what’s needed. It wouldn’t be to much and let’s face it nobody really care about vuln output since there is barely any profession that can’t maintain a decent amount of that. In a party, If you say : “I can sustain 25 vuln!” people with just laugh you off because they don’t need anyone to maintain the 25 vuln anyway.

But if reaper was the only one that could break the 25 cap they would have their special buff.

It cannot be reaper. Whatever outgoing damage scaling increase is decided, it should be in core Necromancer.

Ideally, a minor master trait (or two) would increase dps when Necromancer is supported by boons or that activate when striking foes with hard and soft control effects that Necromancer has limited, or no, access to.

Here are some more examples:

• Striking a foe under a hard control effect auto-crits
• Receive 40 condition damage for 5 seconds each time you strike a foe with slow, immobilize, or taunt
• When might is above 10, receive 20 extra ferocity per stack
• The effectiveness of Vampiric Presence increases under aegis, fury, resistance, and vigor.

Traits that promote a little inter-dependence and profession diversity while working as modifiers could solve some of Necromancer’s design problems.

Anchoku.8142:

It cannot be reaper. Whatever outgoing damage scaling increase is decided, it should be in core Necromancer.

And why is that? Reaper is pretty much a must on necromancer already. Having both damage boosts on Reaper AND core Necro would be my solution anyway.

Anchoku.8142:

Here are some more examples:

• Striking a foe under a hard control effect auto-crits
• Receive 40 condition damage for 5 seconds each time you strike a foe with slow, immobilize, or taunt
• When might is above 10, receive 20 extra ferocity per stack
• The effectiveness of Vampiric Presence increases under aegis, fury, resistance, and vigor.

The first suggestion would be a bit of a waste considering Necros can already reach 100% crit chance with no precision.
The second one is pretty good but this is a discussion about direct damage, not condi.
I very much like the third idea. 20% more crit damage at 25 might is just yummy.
As for the last one, I’m open to any buffs to my beloved Vampiric Presence.

Why is that? I would like core Necromancer trait lines to make the profession an attractive team member rather than hanging everything on Reaper. You said it yourself how Reaper is a must. I like build variety.

In my examples above, consider if…

1. was added to Soul Comprehension
2. was added to Target the Weak
3. was added to Death’s Embrace
4. was added to Vampiric

In this way, small group synergies would add dps scaling and group diversity. Necromancer only scales up when supported by a variety of other jobs who are also providing buffs and debuffs.

remove cap on vulnerability and add more vuln stacks on several necro’s skills.

I think changing the skills is risky because of the way they (foolishly) try to balance 3 game modes simultaneously. I think a better option would be to make a new gear set with high Reaper synergy that other classes wouldn’t get as much use out of. The only change I’d really make to skills would be to drop Chilling Scythe to 0.75sec cast time like the rest of the auto-chain.

A 4-stat set with Power/Ferocity major and Condition/Expertise minor would suit a Power Reaper very well. You give up your 30k HP, maintain 100% crit chance, improve your crit damage and increase the strength of your combo fields. For any other class the loss of Precision will make it a whitewash; and a Reaper on its own will not be able to get full use either because you need Fury, Spotter, Banners etc to cap crits…

Anchoku.8142:

Why is that? I would like core Necromancer trait lines to make the profession an attractive team member rather than hanging everything on Reaper. You said it yourself how Reaper is a must. I like build variety.

I think you need to reread what I wrote:

Having both damage boosts on Reaper AND core Necro would be my solution anyway.

Elessaria.9142:

The only change I’d really make to skills would be to drop Chilling Scythe to 0.75sec cast time like the rest of the auto-chain.

Considering it is still a dps loss, this is a must. Same goes (to a lesser degree) for the 2nd attack of dagger auto.

I would like to remind people that just because a-net screwed it up, doesn’t mean you should also.

By that i mean all the talks about buffing reaper damage completely forgetting core necro. Now that guy is in the dust far more then reaper and that should not be.
If we’re talking direct damage buffs then last place they should be is the reaper-exclusive traitlines or skills.

On my part i would suggest:

1. % direct damage buff upon corrupting a boon (help for power necros who care to corrupt, as right now they don’t get half the good deal condi necro does when he corrupts boons due to lack of condi damage)

2. Life blast major rework – greatly enchanced cast speed, 100% projectile finisher, adjusted damage.

3. the vulni cap trait pushing it to 35 is a good idea. It’s not over the top – 10% base damage on top of 125% of it is basically a 8% dps increase. Fair game if you ask me and works well with necro’s “master of condition manipulation theme”.

If however 8% condi and direct damage buff is too much then 5-6 stacks over the top is accepatble too (4~4.8%).

4. Trait that lets necro share his boons with minions (much like ranger with his pet).

I won’t say pick what you like, i believe current power necro (especially core!) calls for all these upgrades done together.

Increased damage per condition on your target.
1% per condition

Put this into “Rending Shroud” and rename the trait. Then this trait would be a good alternative to the other spite master traits.

There are 14 conditions in the game so a 14% damage increase would be the maximum. 10% is realistic in a group scenario and 3 to 5% solo.

Then Power Reaper should end up with ~32k dps in PvE without becoming broken in PvP as there I would still prefer Chill of Death as better burst/debuff alternative for single targets.

For group support:

You and your allies (up to 5) deal increased damage per condition on your target.
1% per condition

as a grandmaster trait!

I would not mind seeing more soft cc that make ppl take more crit dmg that could be something for necor only say core necro DS 1 skill. Or even some type of armor reduction condi and or class effect. Core necor should be about raw dmg more mages like then say reapers war like dmg.

KrHome.1920:

Increased damage per condition on your target.
1% per condition

Put this into “Rending Shroud” and rename the trait. Then this trait would be a good alternative to the other spite master traits.

There are 14 conditions in the game so a 14% damage increase would be the maximum. 10% is realistic in a group scenario and 3 to 5% solo.

Then Power Reaper should end up with ~32k dps in PvE without becoming broken in PvP as there I would still prefer Chill of Death as better burst/debuff alternative for single targets.

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For group support:

You and your allies (up to 5) deal increased damage per condition on your target.
1% per condition

as a grandmaster trait!

I like the cut of your jib!

Also you just reminded me that Necros did have a baseline trait of +2% damage per condition on foe in the curses line before Anet changed them to specializations.

I’d like more sustain instead, to me necro should not burst down people but win by fatigue, on prolonged fights, even 1 vs more. Stats are fine but blighter’s boon, the blood magic or death magic spec should heal on % life, so that massive vitalism gives you some benefit other than the lifeforce scaling.

@ mooncrash – while that can be an idea for gameplay style, current implementation is lacking.

In PvE (raids) dps is king, and necro is sorely behind the rest = necro getting flipped off in raid groups.

In Spvp = necro gets focused = bye bye necro. A lot of jobs can put much better resistance vs focus before they go down. There goes our attrition.

How it should be implemented if we’re talking attrition class:
1. DPS – necro should be #1 dps class (unless he receives powerful support options), above all even ele. Key to making it balanced would be that unlike most he’d need time to wind it up. The raid “winners” are those who can dps hard in small timeframes. Necro would have to work for his dps (staying alive and keeping his damage going) to awaken his true damage potential, but once there he’d be a monster second to none.

The very simple (albeit flawed) implementation of this is the might stacking offered by spite line. Problem is that in raid everyone and their dog stacks party might faster then you do your own. Ergo it’s flat out useless in raid setting. Now if that was some unique buff that boosts your damage and has extra conditions to keep that damage growing (asides staying alive ofc) that could get very interesting…

As for survival it’s better in that front. I would say necro is almost at a point where he can be a true attrition class but he needs less restriction on his skills to make it truly possible. Like access to his utilities when in death shroud/transformed, more liberal access to his healing when in death shroud, and better access to stability without shrouding or popping elite.

Still a well played necro can be quite a fortress to topple if not hopelessly outnumbered.