Guild Wars 2

lets here you thoughts but
1. keep it simple so anet can address it with no big changes
2. no op changes

here is my thoughts

1. terror and fear of death combined with terror . so now fear does dmg and 50% longer with 1 trait . also fear corrupt 1 boon per full sec (or might be too much)
2. fear of death change to – you gain LF from fear foes based on the dmg you deal to them. if in down state you fear them and gain health instead. soul reaping is LF trait line.
3. target the weak – instead more critical chance 2% , our dmg (both condi and direct) increase by 2% per condition – can compete more better with might stacking from spite. but still lower.

I agree with these changes, though a simple merger would be enough to make terror stand out. I also feel that path of corruption isn’t that great with RS2 compared to DS2 since it’s less of a skillshot but harder to land since you can’t guarantee a hit with instant fear, so I’d Rebalance it someway to be less clunky with RS.

Also, parasitic contagion and lingering curses need to be less limited in their uses (PC in death shroud alone would be enough to make it a decent pick, since that’s when you need life siphoning the most).

Target the weak – it must stay a crit buff. One of fun things about necro are the 0 precision, 100% crit chance builds. Right now we have 3 traits for that purpose out of which 2 are needed for a successful build. So that gives you 3 combinations of 2 lines to get the job done. It’s flexible that way opening up more builds. Take away one of them (target the weak) and you’re arm-twisted to use reaper and soul reaping lines. That many unique and fun builds down the toilet if you do that.

What can be done is replacing crit-chance per condi applied with precision per condi applied. That one will work with the very same trait’s 13% precision added as condi damage boost to push that number even further.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Target the weak – it must stay a crit buff. One of fun things about necro are the 0 precision, 100% crit chance builds. Right now we have 3 traits for that purpose out of which 2 are needed for a successful build. So that gives you 3 combinations of 2 lines to get the job done. It’s flexible that way opening up more builds. Take away one of them (target the weak) and you’re arm-twisted to use reaper and soul reaping lines. That many unique and fun builds down the toilet if you do that.

I agree.

Also, Curses is very viable for core necro builds, it just isn’t as popular for Reapers because most people who go condi-Reaper prefer Spite and Soul Reaping over Curses, understandably so but that doesn’t mean a Reaper with Curses wouldn’t work.

Curses does have issues though:

1. Chilling Darkness:

No one is using this. No one!
I get that they had to add an icd because of all the Reaper’s other chill traits, but this nerf completely killed Chilling Darkness. Again, I understand the change, but that also made the existence of the trait absolutely pointless. Solution: replace it. Don’t try to salvage it by tweaking some numbers or whatever, just get rid of it entirely.
Also, this way Curses could finally get a usable alternative to Plague Sending for any non-jumping-puzzle content. (preferably something for PvE, maybe a revive of the old Target the Weak 2% dmg/condi damage modifier).

2. Terror:

It’s too weak.
I still use it, but only because my build would gain even less by picking MoC or PoC.

Solutions:

Either merge it with a minor trait (I dare anyone to reasonably argue why fear dealing damage shouldn’t be an automatic unlock when picking Curses), and replace it with a new trait.

Or keep it where it currently is, but at least merge it with Fear of Death.
Fear of Death is about as dead as Chilling Darkness, no one in their right mind would ever pick this over Spectral Mastery or Vital Persistence. There’s no doubt that Fear of Death needs to go, the only question is whether or not it should be merged with Terror or be removed entirely.

3. Parasitic Contagion:

Doesn’t work through Shroud, therefore it sucks.
And before anyone says it would be op: allow it to work through Shroud first, tweak numbers later.

4. Barbed Precision:

5 months after the nerf, I maintain my position that a 33% proc chance is too low.
Before there was actually some synergy with Furious Demise, a synergy that could’ve been improved upon with the change to Target the Weak. Back then you would actually see slightly higher bleed stacking when under the effect of fury. Now even if you reach 100% crit chance Barbed bleeds are nothing but completely random passive procs. Skillful play was replaced by praying to the rng-gods.
It doesn’t need to go back to 66% but at least 50% would be nice.

Minor traits:

• Barbed Precision
• Convertible Consumption
  Gain life force for every boon you convert to a condition or for every boon you remove. Life Force gain: 3%.
• Fear the Weak
  Fear deals damage (90% of the base damage it does now when having no condition on a foe). Increases critical hit chance for each condition on your foe. Critical Chance increase: 5%.

Major Traits:
1. Adept:

• Terrifying Descent
  Inflict fear on foes around you when you take falling damage or when downed. Take less falling damage. Recharge falling fear: 30 seconds. Recharge downed fear: 60 seconds.
• Plague Sending
  When your conditions meet the threshold, your next critical hit will cast Plague Signet on your target. Grant life force for each condition you transfer. Life Force gain: 2%.
• Spiteful Renewal
  Consume conditions to gain health when you strike a foe below the health threshold. Consuming conditions grants life force. Life Force gain: 2%.

2.Master

• Master of Corruption
• Path of Corruption
  Shroud skill 2 now additionally converts boons into conditions. Boons converted to conditions: 3.
• Lingering Curse
  While wielding a scepter, gain a stack of Lingering Power for each condition you inflict on a foe. Lingering Power: +10 condition damage; +30 expertise; 10 seconds; max 25 stacks.

3.Grandmaster

• Weakening Shroud
  Cast enfeeble when entering shroud. Convert one boon to one condition when entering shroud. Critical hits inflict weakness.
• Master of Terror
  Fear deals more damage for every condition on a foe. Fear damage increase for every condition: 5%.
• Chilling Darkness
  Blind foes that you chill. Blind duration: 4 seconds. Recharge: 12 seconds.

For those who are wondering what happened to Parasitic Contagion. I would merge this skill with Unholy Martyr. This would than mean that your conditions heal you while being out of Shroud, while inside of Shroud you would gain life force from getting conditions from your allies.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Target the weak – it must stay a crit buff. One of fun things about necro are the 0 precision, 100% crit chance builds. Right now we have 3 traits for that purpose out of which 2 are needed for a successful build. So that gives you 3 combinations of 2 lines to get the job done. It’s flexible that way opening up more builds. Take away one of them (target the weak) and you’re arm-twisted to use reaper and soul reaping lines. That many unique and fun builds down the toilet if you do that.

What can be done is replacing crit-chance per condi applied with precision per condi applied. That one will work with the very same trait’s 13% precision added as condi damage boost to push that number even further.

but 2% more dmg per condi is much better than 2% crit chance per condi…

messiah.1908:

but 2% more dmg per condi is much better than 2% crit chance per condi…

Its what we had before, and it left the condi trait line with a trait that gave almost completely meaningless damage increases to the builds that want the line the most. Curses is the crit/condi line, keep it crit/condi.

Generally agree with others though. Curses right now just doesn’t perform as a condi build, it is “passable” for core condi builds, but that isn’t a viable build on its own afaik. One problem is Terror being so weak, and the lack of adepts outside Plague Sending, and then Weakening Shroud is the only PvP usable trait.

I’d suggest moving Parasitic Contagion to Blood Magic, replacing Unholy Martyr, and becoming a reverse Altruistic Healing (each condition you apply heals you, fixes a big problem in Blood Magic), and replacing it with a burst condition option (like moving Terror up and buffing it). That gives Curses a burst option, a duration option, and then a crit-based defensive option.

Then improve the two bad adepts, make corruptions better, and fill in the missing master trait. Simple! (okay not really)

“but 2% more dmg per condi is much better than 2% crit chance per condi…”

No it’s not. It’s like steroids being better then natural training. Yeah in the short run it is better, but in the long run the price is too high.

And here the price would be very severe. From loss of many unique not necessairly straightforward power builds that still boast high damage and additional utility, to core game players who don’t own HoT yet being given the middle finger, because without reaper spec and without target the weak being crit boost they can’t get 100% crit rate without inwesting into precision gear.

Also build flexibility for power necros would be further hindered with curses (condi) line being mandatory in their builds. Spite is great for a power necro, but notice it’s not mandatory. The might stacking can be done by someone else, you need not to go there for that if you have a good party. While it’s passive damage boost is around 10% damage in the end. not something you can’t manage without. But 25% passive damage boost based on conditions? There’s no excuse for not taking that and you’d be chained & balled to curses if you wanted any sort of real direct damage…
And that’s someting this game is aiming to avoid.

flow.6043:

Also, Curses is very viable for core necro builds, it just isn’t as popular for Reapers because most people who go condi-Reaper prefer Spite and Soul Reaping over Curses, understandably so but that doesn’t mean a Reaper with Curses wouldn’t work.

I’ve done some cursory tests on HotM golems and I found Curses/SR/Reaper to be better than Spite/SR/Reaper for condi damage, at least if you focus on Scepter use. I need to run some more exhaustive tests, but I can only imagine Curses will win out even more in a coordinated group where you’ll already have high Might uptime and enemies will tend to have maxed-out Vuln.

flow.6043:

1. Chilling Darkness:

No one is using this. No one!
I get that they had to add an icd because of all the Reaper’s other chill traits, but this nerf completely killed Chilling Darkness. Again, I understand the change, but that also made the existence of the trait absolutely pointless. Solution: replace it. Don’t try to salvage it by tweaking some numbers or whatever, just get rid of it entirely.
Also, this way Curses could finally get a usable alternative to Plague Sending for any non-jumping-puzzle content. (preferably something for PvE, maybe a revive of the old Target the Weak 2% dmg/condi damage modifier).

The change was made more because Well of Darkness applied way too much Chill even on the base Necro. I’m personally fine with the ICD, but I wish the Chill duration were a bit longer and the ICD were tracked separately for each opponent. This would help improve and normalize the trait’s usefulness across all our builds.

flow.6043:

2. Terror:

It’s too weak.
I still use it, but only because my build would gain even less by picking MoC or PoC.

Solutions:

Either merge it with a minor trait (I dare anyone to reasonably argue why fear dealing damage shouldn’t be an automatic unlock when picking Curses), and replace it with a new trait.

Or keep it where it currently is, but at least merge it with Fear of Death.
Fear of Death is about as dead as Chilling Darkness, no one in their right mind would ever pick this over Spectral Mastery or Vital Persistence. There’s no doubt that Fear of Death needs to go, the only question is whether or not it should be merged with Terror or be removed entirely.

Good suggestions. Given how hard you have to work to get more than one or two Fear applications for any given build (and how short in duration all those Fears are), this could actually be pretty reasonable.

flow.6043:

3. Parasitic Contagion:

Doesn’t work through Shroud, therefore it sucks.

It’s a “win more” trait, therefore it sucks. That is, it’s useless when you’re behind because you’ll have a hard time keeping significant conditions applied to your opponents and it’s pointless when you’re ahead because you likely won’t need the sustain. The only time I’ve found it remotely helpful was when soloing the last boss of HotW p1 to mitigate his perma-Retal, and even there I’m pretty sure I would’ve been better off with Lingering Curse.

The change I’d like would be to see 10% healing when above 50% health and 20% healing when below 50% health, in either case healing through Shroud at half efficiency. That way, it’d be more useful when you actually needed it without offering totally insane in-Shroud healing.

flow.6043:

4. Barbed Precision:

5 months after the nerf, I maintain my position that a 33% proc chance is too low.
Before there was actually some synergy with Furious Demise, a synergy that could’ve been improved upon with the change to Target the Weak. Back then you would actually see slightly higher bleed stacking when under the effect of fury. Now even if you reach 100% crit chance Barbed bleeds are nothing but completely random passive procs. Skillful play was replaced by praying to the rng-gods.
It doesn’t need to go back to 66% but at least 50% would be nice.

50% would definitely feel better. I like having bleeds proc on everything but 33% is quite low.

Well, curse is far from being bad itself. PoC fits very well with Death Charge, and Weakening Shroud still a very useful trait, especially for 1v1 scenarios. It just needs more things to compete with spite.

I think Curses needs some cover-condis built into it. It probably won’t happen, but it’s one of the things that makes Spite so good – Spite has a ton of cover condi, so even if your target has condi clears, they will remove your bleeds less often…. in other words you deal more dmg…

If barbed precision was torment instead of bleed, that would be interesting.

flow.6043:

3. Parasitic Contagion:

Doesn’t work through Shroud, therefore it sucks.
And before anyone says it would be op: allow it to work through Shroud first, tweak numbers later.

No, this definitely wouldn’t be OP to work through Shroud as-is. I didn’t feel Blighter’s Boon was either, but that’s irrelevant at this point.

Bhawb.7408:

messiah.1908:

but 2% more dmg per condi is much better than 2% crit chance per condi…

Its what we had before, and it left the condi trait line with a trait that gave almost completely meaningless damage increases to the builds that want the line the most. Curses is the crit/condi line, keep it crit/condi.

Generally agree with others though. Curses right now just doesn’t perform as a condi build, it is “passable” for core condi builds, but that isn’t a viable build on its own afaik. One problem is Terror being so weak, and the lack of adepts outside Plague Sending, and then Weakening Shroud is the only PvP usable trait.

I’d suggest moving Parasitic Contagion to Blood Magic, replacing Unholy Martyr, and becoming a reverse Altruistic Healing (each condition you apply heals you, fixes a big problem in Blood Magic), and replacing it with a burst condition option (like moving Terror up and buffing it). That gives Curses a burst option, a duration option, and then a crit-based defensive option.

Then improve the two bad adepts, make corruptions better, and fill in the missing master trait. Simple! (okay not really)

I like the “each condition you apply” suggestion. Could potentially make Epidemic a legit healing spike. But I wouldn’t move it to Blood Magic – you still need Soul Reaping for PvP as well as Reaper since we’re being balanced around having Reaper. That leaves you with just one option in PvP. And nobody wants healing in PvE.

In general, while I wait for some next interesting E-spec for Necro (since PvE stuff has been fullfilled with Reaper, crowds got their greatswords etc.), I would be willing to drop the “Corruption” theme out of Curses completly and make some really interesting E-spec with it.

Curses didn’t work out, nor did Corruptions in competitive play. Be creative Devs and give us some fun Elite Spec that does these right. Hopefully before 2018.

I think Curses will be considered viable when a top player plays it again. Or am I wrong?

Isn’t that the reason why this topic is here? Because no “top” player is playing Curses?

The reality that I see is, there’s no trait line on the Necromancer set right now that indescribably weak or “not viable”. Sure we can improve them but, saying “How can we make XX viable” on the Necro is a bit misleading. Curses is quite viable, in fact it makes a good case for sending us back to normal necro. The issue is that people want to play Reaper and Curses is the easiest thing to let go of because it’s a perfect trade-off. You get chill does damage in place of fear, you get shroud generation as well and a new utility set. If Reaper Shroud wasn’t as good as it is, Curses would still be in the meta.(Note that, as this post suggests, “not in the meta” does not mean “not viable”.)

Dirame.8521:

I think Curses will be considered viable when a top player plays it again. Or am I wrong?

Isn’t that the reason why this topic is here? Because no “top” player is playing Curses?

The reality that I see is, there’s no trait line on the Necromancer set right now that indescribably weak or “not viable”. Sure we can improve them but, saying “How can we make XX viable” on the Necro is a bit misleading. Curses is quite viable, in fact it makes a good case for sending us back to normal necro. The issue is that people want to play Reaper and Curses is the easiest thing to let go of because it’s a perfect trade-off. You get chill does damage in place of fear, you get shroud generation as well and a new utility set. If Reaper Shroud wasn’t as good as it is, Curses would still be in the meta.(Note that, as this post suggests, “not in the meta” does not mean “not viable”.)

no top player play it but not long time ago no top player played condi builds even with revenant untill 1 of them took it there

sure chill dmg enter and replace the fear dmg but is still doesnt mean that curses is not viable
the perma weakness , few bleed stacks, fear dmg or corruption trait can be viable in the right hands and i guess we will see it in the near future as spite carrion necro starting to have trouble

Rym.1469:

I like the “each condition you apply” suggestion. Could potentially make Epidemic a legit healing spike. But I wouldn’t move it to Blood Magic – you still need Soul Reaping for PvP as well as Reaper since we’re being balanced around having Reaper. That leaves you with just one option in PvP. And nobody wants healing in PvE.

Bad idea to balance around things like that. Blood Magic is our healing/sustain line, it should be the one to contain our sustain/healing. Also it makes BM’s GM tier have a legitimate selfish sustain option for all Necromancer builds, which is a huge improvement.

Reaper is only mandatory for everyone right now because of the fact that the other trait lines are so mediocre, and shroud in some cases. A proper Curses line removes condition build’s need for Reaper, and a proper Blood Magic opens up a lot of choices for grabbing sustain and some offense. And what Curses need isn’t really healing.

Rym.1469:

In general, while I wait for some next interesting E-spec for Necro (since PvE stuff has been fullfilled with Reaper, crowds got their greatswords etc.), I would be willing to drop the “Corruption” theme out of Curses completly and make some really interesting E-spec with it.

Agreed.

Dirame.8521:

I think Curses will be considered viable when a top player plays it again. Or am I wrong?

Its here because Curses is bad. No top player uses it because its bad, but it is bad regardless of whether its used or not.

I’m all down for curses being improved but pretty sure it’s a must have for condi in raids.

I suggest trying the NA build, it’s very potent. You can call epidemic cheese or something, but any fight it works on, curses, and condi will destroy on DPS. And TBH on VG it’s solid too.

I’ll just leave this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODtnV2KI7gA

Bhawb.7408:

Rym.1469:

I like the “each condition you apply” suggestion. Could potentially make Epidemic a legit healing spike. But I wouldn’t move it to Blood Magic – you still need Soul Reaping for PvP as well as Reaper since we’re being balanced around having Reaper. That leaves you with just one option in PvP. And nobody wants healing in PvE.

Bad idea to balance around things like that. Blood Magic is our healing/sustain line, it should be the one to contain our sustain/healing. Also it makes BM’s GM tier have a legitimate selfish sustain option for all Necromancer builds, which is a huge improvement.

Reaper is only mandatory for everyone right now because of the fact that the other trait lines are so mediocre, and shroud in some cases. A proper Curses line removes condition build’s need for Reaper, and a proper Blood Magic opens up a lot of choices for grabbing sustain and some offense. And what Curses need isn’t really healing.

Maybe it’s a bad idea for balance, but it doesn’t look like we will get many upgrades to Death Shroud anytime soon, so I take Reaper and Soul Reaping as core for now.

As for Parasitic Contagion, I always wanted it to become Curses minor making Curses Necromancer more of a sustain pressure with utility while Spite Necro a burst option.

These silly threads will ruin parasitic contagion. Anet probably change it so some lower skilled necros can use it 1 vs 1 fights or something.

I really hope that Target The Weak isn’t ever changed… As a long time conditionmancer, I’m in the Curses tree a lot. And I love Target The Weak because it allows me to reach some very high condition damage with the right gear/runes which usually sits around 2.8k and can push 3k with a bit of might.

Otherwise, Curses could use some work, yes. Flow gave some good suggestions but I would be incredibly sad if Target The Weak was ever changed. Power Necro/Reaper has a lot going for it, condition builds don’t.

I don’t play this game much anymore (I came for the WvW which has been a continual let down…) but I did toy around with my old Rampager Necro and much to my delight it still works great. I was kind of sad they changed the guard buffs, since my build strongly leveraged it but oh well.

Current build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAW4YjM0QlN2WD+1A7NOCGK5JkCpL9K2ifNm0BQDA-TFiFABqpbIF1d+Z/BJVJoKlgAcFAoS5HyPEgAAIAzcmJzyMIhGK0hOzZuzSB4n0I-w

So yeah the only issue I have with Curses is having to choose between PoC and Terror. Terror is the more reliable of the two and a unique source of damage so it gets the nod. For a core hybrid necro, curses is darn near perfect.

I’ve not played necro for... A long time. Yesterday however I found myself playing it in a group, and while admittedly we didn’t have anywhere near an optimal comp, I felt like I just wasn’t putting out enough pressure. I tried the previous meta’s corruption build first so I’d have more corrupts vs. revenants. It worked, but I felt like I lacked direct damage, sustain, and the chill pressure, so I went back to signet corruption - a build obvious to everyone the moment that trait was modified to make signets corrupt. However, I still felt powerless vs quickness resses, and of course experienced necros landed all of their transfers on me, and condi revs were stacking up a load of torment I couldn’t keep off while out-sustaining with resistance.

I never heard of anyone trying Curses since the signet necro became a thing, so I had the idea to try modifying the build to perform the same role - boon corruption and condi transferring - so not exactly what you’re talking about, aiming to see terror buffed. I made this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAW7YnMbC10gd2A22A0biljBL+G+DLiULhnwsKqnttCAA-TZhHwACOIAh2fAwFA4YZgAPBAA

It gave me a greater and more powerful heal skill with lower and reduced cd for greater synergy with grenth runes, AoE corruption on reaper shroud 2 and well of corruption for countering quickness resses (I drop this as soon as one goes down), and the well also counters reaper shroud #3 of other necros (lol one guy tanked the full well and got like 5 fears!). It has an extra transfer from the passive trait in curses, which gives the edge vs other necros and revenants, you get fury with curses so shroud skills have more pressure, and you get more weakness uptime from curses to nerf endurance regen and direct damage. The endurance nerf works nicely with path of corruption on reaper shroud 2 because the corruption is at the end of the cast and it’s very telegraphed. So it’s a threat now other than just a combo finisher, and with its low 5s cd it can be used twice per shroud so it forces dodges of which they have less, and hits up to 5 foes. Overall, despite the telegraphed reaper shroud 2, it has more corrupts, and I did feel I could do it more often, had more pressure in both condi and direct, more survivability, and and well of corruption is just awesome. The necro vs rev matchup goes more into your favour since the weakness and corruption on shroud 2 spam works to corrupt resistance and the fumble from weakness forces them into shiro for endurance, meaning they then don’t have access to resistance and are left to tank your condis and transfers. I also found it shut down eles very well, and the fury in shroud helped vs diamond skin.

Like I said, I’m far from a good necro so it could be the players I faced when I was on necro weren’t so good, and that this build is subpar. That’s why I came to the necro forum - to see if anything similar had been posted and to seek some opinions!

Impact.2780:

I’ve not played necro for… A long time. Yesterday however I found myself playing it in a group, and while admittedly we didn’t have anywhere near an optimal comp, I felt like I just wasn’t putting out enough pressure. I tried the previous meta’s corruption build first so I’d have more corrupts vs. revenants. It worked, but I felt like I lacked direct damage, sustain, and the chill pressure, so I went back to signet corruption – a build obvious to everyone the moment that trait was modified to make signets corrupt. However, I still felt powerless vs quickness resses, and of course experienced necros landed all of their transfers on me, and condi revs were stacking up a load of torment I couldn’t keep off while out-sustaining with resistance.

I never heard of anyone trying Curses since the signet necro became a thing, so I had the idea to try modifying the build to perform the same role – boon corruption and condi transferring – so not exactly what you’re talking about, aiming to see terror buffed. I made this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAW7YnMbC10gd2A22A0biljBL+G+DLiULhnwsKqnttCAA-TZhHwACOIAh2fAwFA4YZgAPBAA

It gave me a greater and more powerful heal skill with lower and reduced cd for greater synergy with grenth runes, AoE corruption on reaper shroud 2 and well of corruption for countering quickness resses (I drop this as soon as one goes down), and the well also counters reaper shroud #3 of other necros (lol one guy tanked the full well and got like 5 fears!). It has an extra transfer from the passive trait in curses, which gives the edge vs other necros and revenants, you get fury with curses so shroud skills have more pressure, and you get more weakness uptime from curses to nerf endurance regen and direct damage. The endurance nerf works nicely with path of corruption on reaper shroud 2 because the corruption is at the end of the cast and it’s very telegraphed. So it’s a threat now other than just a combo finisher, and with its low 5s cd it can be used twice per shroud so it forces dodges of which they have less, and hits up to 5 foes. Overall, despite the telegraphed reaper shroud 2, it has more corrupts, and I did feel I could do it more often, had more pressure in both condi and direct, more survivability, and and well of corruption is just awesome. The necro vs rev matchup goes more into your favour since the weakness and corruption on shroud 2 spam works to corrupt resistance and the fumble from weakness forces them into shiro for endurance, meaning they then don’t have access to resistance and are left to tank your condis and transfers. I also found it shut down eles very well, and the fury in shroud helped vs diamond skin.

Like I said, I’m far from a good necro so it could be the players I faced when I was on necro weren’t so good, and that this build is subpar. That’s why I came to the necro forum – to see if anything similar had been posted and to seek some opinions!

hey impact, I’m personally trying to look for solutions to necro’s current problem, which is not having as much of an impactful niche at countering the current meta flavors of the month.

That being said this build is a good start and has some very good ideas, but I don’t think its best per se (though I’m not yet sure of what the best really is yet myself). I’ve used grenth runes with the heal shout myself, and personally I preferred it with wanderer amulet for more duration and better trait synergy (target the weak/crit procs).

Well of corruption is strong for sure, and I’m testing out a build that uses it later tonight, however it wil be celestial since I’m making some more radical weapon/trait choices that aren’t ideal for the setup that full condi needs to thrive.

nearlight.3064:

hey impact, I’m personally trying to look for solutions to necro’s current problem, which is not having as much of an impactful niche at countering the current meta flavors of the month.

That being said this build is a good start and has some very good ideas, but I don’t think its best per se (though I’m not yet sure of what the best really is yet myself). I’ve used grenth runes with the heal shout myself, and personally I preferred it with wanderer amulet for more duration and better trait synergy (target the weak/crit procs).

Well of corruption is strong for sure, and I’m testing out a build that uses it later tonight, however it wil be celestial since I’m making some more radical weapon/trait choices that aren’t ideal for the setup that full condi needs to thrive.

Hi. Aye it doesn’t work so well. Tested it further against proper team comps and the corruption, while more frequently done, can’t be chained like the signets, so it can’t get rid of resistance when there is a lot of boon support i.e. covering boons. Plus they can also be timed with Chill of Death with Spite. Maybe if Mallyx revenants weren’t a thing, or didn’t have so much resistance and covering boons, the extra survivability and damage from Curses would be viable over the stronger boon-hate of Spite.

Impact.2780:

nearlight.3064:

hey impact, I’m personally trying to look for solutions to necro’s current problem, which is not having as much of an impactful niche at countering the current meta flavors of the month.

That being said this build is a good start and has some very good ideas, but I don’t think its best per se (though I’m not yet sure of what the best really is yet myself). I’ve used grenth runes with the heal shout myself, and personally I preferred it with wanderer amulet for more duration and better trait synergy (target the weak/crit procs).

Well of corruption is strong for sure, and I’m testing out a build that uses it later tonight, however it wil be celestial since I’m making some more radical weapon/trait choices that aren’t ideal for the setup that full condi needs to thrive.

Hi. Aye it doesn’t work so well. Tested it further against proper team comps and the corruption, while more frequently done, can’t be chained like the signets, so it can’t get rid of resistance when there is a lot of boon support i.e. covering boons. Plus they can also be timed with Chill of Death with Spite. Maybe if Mallyx revenants weren’t a thing, or didn’t have so much resistance and covering boons, the extra survivability and damage from Curses would be viable over the stronger boon-hate of Spite.

Yeah thats why your best bet if you want to counter mallyrevs is to just play base class cele signets. I’m experimenting with spite/curses reaper builds, but I’m not quite ready to report its effectiveness yet. Too many boons, so few ways to corrupt in a build that can hold itself together well.

The big thing about well of corruption is putting it on a down so that the bunker mesmer’s stability/quickness/resistance all get converted (hopefully) however they have so many boons its not as certain as it was for countering bunker guard stability rezzes.

curses are fine.
i go spite curses and spectral.
curses for plague sending, MoC and weakness on crit.

MoC is great for consume conditions and corrupt boon.

I tried Spite/Curses/Reaper yesterday and a bit today, but the problem is life force gen without soul marks and vital persistance. Reaper #2 isn’t as easy to use when you don’t have enough life force generation, but is still strong vs enemy res attempts being a 5 target corrupt. Trying to cover the weaknesses is difficult though. The shout heal grants more survival and some life force, but you give up a corrupt from vampirism signet. Focus also gives more life force generation, and from range making it better than warhorn when lacking sustain, and focus also brings a 3 boon removal which is very nice. You can then take the warhorn adept trait in Spite. You’re not really down a transfer from dropping dagger offhand because you get the passive plague signet from Curses, which also corrupts 2 boons and grants might.

You don’t really notice the loss of dhuumfire due to having a lot more boon-hate to dish out. Still, you lose the passive spectral armour which is another huge loss in life force gen and defense that you need.

Alternatives are to take reduced CD on corruption skills and corrupt boon over signet of the locust, or even corrupt boon without the reduced CD. It’s verry effective and helpful if you drop vampirism signet, but the cooldown does feel like it needs a reduction, and if you take that trait you want to take consume conditions because it also benefits from the CD reduction and brings a lot more healing and condi cleanse. I don’t know if it’d work, I’m not good enough at necro to give it a proper try; I can’t really afford to drop the shout heal because I’m finding I need all the life force I can get without running Soul Reaping. I feel more useful at times but I can’t help feeling like it’s a "win-more" build in solo queue, which is what necro used to be seen as.

I think they need to buff Master of Corruption. High reward for high risk is good, but the reward has to be worth the risk. And it’s not right now.

How about:

1. Move Lingering Curse or Parasitic Contagion to Master.
2. Move Master of Corruption to GM. Add: Cast Epidemic on crit if target has 5 or more conditions.

Too OP?

gemnscout.5739:

I think they need to buff Master of Corruption. High reward for high risk is good, but the reward has to be worth the risk. And it’s not right now.

How about:

1. Move Lingering Curse or Parasitic Contagion to Master.
2. Move Master of Corruption to GM. Add: Cast Epidemic on crit if target has 5 or more conditions.

Too OP?

Actually, that would be pretty amazing. Parasitic Contagion should still be made to work in Shroud, but added Epidemic proc? Sounds pretty cool to me. The problem with this skill has always been that it takes space as utility even if it has crazy potential.

Wouldn’t mind trying it out. That could screw up PvE build, however.

gemnscout.5739:

2. Move Master of Corruption to GM. Add: Cast Epidemic on crit if target has 5 or more conditions.

Too OP?

Yeap.

Regardless of the state of curses, I agree it needs some help (mostly with switching and adjusting a couple traits), but has anyone tried using terror recently? I’ve kittened around with it and noticed it seems to do less damage the more conditions on the target (which is like the opposite of what it’s supposed to do, right?). Has anyone else noticed this or have I just misread the numbers?

Nah, Terror works right. Checked in HotM. It just kinda sucks and is poor man’s version of Deathly Chill.

Ah, well nevermind then; that’s “good” to hear that it’s working properly.