Guild Wars 2

Imagi.4561:

In what way? 9s is shorter than 10s, and this is a disparity that grows with each sigil proc. Not to mention the fact that Eles can make efficient use of frequent attunement changes because of swapping traits and the flexibility of each attunement, as opposed to a class running one long-range weapon and one short-range weapon (as many are wont to do).

You said that Eles can proc more swap sigils, i showed proof trough cooldowns that it doesnt work that way, there is no more discussion here.

Imagi.4561:

Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin: attunement swapping allows Eles to proc on-swap sigils more frequently than classes with normal weapon swapping.

The only problem I have with chill is that Ice Shard Stab causes 10 seconds of it.

Swap sigils got 9s cd, Weapon swapping is pre 10s.
Yeah no that argument doesnt hold water.

Obtena.7952:

Andele.1306:

BTW, despite it being off topic:

I understand what you were refuting … that is my response to it. There is nothing ‘false’ about making a claim that lacking what you call evade moves is OK. It’s no deficiency to lack those things on a Necro anymore than it is for a Guardian to lack mobility or runspeed …

Guards can very easily have perma swiftness with a shout build and using a supplementary lootstick ….

Way to miss the point … Mobility and speed is not part of the Guardian class concept just like evade moves aren’t part of the Necro one, even if you can concoct a build that gives perma swiftness. Even if the comparison doesn’t make sense to you, that doesn’t make me any less incorrect about how strong DS is.

As said, it was off point, but as mentioned, in combat mobility and movement speed can be built for on a guardian (tho the mobility part can be debated, the amount of blocks and heals more than makes up for it), because he has sufficient tools to do so, Necros have no tools of active defense (evades/blocks) and inefficient tools of mobility and stability.

TakeCare.3182:

~ bunch of wannabe math bullkitten ~

Taking as much cc as possible pre build:

Necro (14): Dark Path, Doom, Tshackles, Chillblains, Reapers Mark, Dark Pact, Veil of Doom, Locust Swarm, Spectral Grasp, Spectral Wall, Bone Fiend, Rigor Mortis, Flesh Golem, Charge

Ele (14) :Frozen Burst, Frozen Aura, Shocking Aura, Updraft, Ring of Earth, Magnetic Grip, Earthquake, Churning Earth, Wind Blast, Static Field, Magnetic Surge, Magnetic Shield, Signet of Earth, Tornado

Warrior (15): Hammer Shock, Staggering Blow, Backbreaker, Earthshaker, Pommel Bash, Shield Bash, Skull Crack, Bull Charge, Stomp, Kick, Smash, Uppercut, Kick, Throw Boulder, Seismic Leap

Ranger (14): Entangling Web, Para Venom, Crippling Leap, Brutal Charge, Terrifying Howl, Crippling Throw, Hilt Bash, Kick, Monarch Leap, Path of Scars, Muddy Terrain, Frost Trap, Quicksand, Entangle

Guardian (11): Chains of Light, Shield of Absorption, Zealots Embrace, Banish, Ring of Warding, Hammer of Wisdom, Command Hammer, Signet of Wrath, Bane Signet, Affliction, Judgement

Thief (8, up to 13 depending on usage/initiative kittens the simpler calculus here): Crippling Strike, Infiltrators Strike, Pistol Whip, Headshot, Scorpion Wire, Caltrops, Devourer Venom, Basilisk Venom

Engie (11): Net Shot, Overcharged Shot, Box of Nails, Magnet, Big Ol Bomb, Glue Bomb, Net Attack, Net Turret, Electrified Net, Supply Drop, Supply Net

Mesmer (11): Diversion, Izerker, Illusionary Wave, Illusionary Leap, Swap, Temporal Curtain, Into the Void, Power Lock, Signet of Domination, Signet refresh Diversion, Moa

So point stands, all professions can and do have quite the equal playing ground in terms of control effects from start up (not to mention the fact of how low the cooldowns on hard cc from some professions are).

AS A TLDR: TakeCare and MethaneGas, please functionally play the game in situations where it matters and stop posting kitten you eat on the internet, you can smear it over the truth as much you like, you shall fail, same as religion, racism, nationalism and sexism have and are right now being used as a nice undead torture plaything for the amusement of the internet.

BTW, despite it being off topic:

I understand what you were refuting … that is my response to it. There is nothing ‘false’ about making a claim that lacking what you call evade moves is OK. It’s no deficiency to lack those things on a Necro anymore than it is for a Guardian to lack mobility or runspeed …

Guards can very easily have perma swiftness with a shout build and using a supplementary lootstick (that is, 4 points and 2 traits which would be taken either way for permanent aoe swiftness), kinda same for mesmer, but they really need to cripple themselves to get that MS and it relies on a external source thus i wouldnt count it, necros dont even have the OPTION to sacrifice everything for high block/evades or even reliable long term cc defense.

Bhawb.7408:

Frankly, the biggest thing people are missing is that death shroud is all the defense we have that other professions do not. Its not like Necromancer has a bunch of blocks, better defensive conditions, bunch of dodges/evades, and all this other stuff. The only thing we have that other people do not is a massive HP pool, which shows its limitations the second you aren’t able to play a build or game mode that doesn’t refill it constantly.

You can’t look at Death Shroud as a defensive mechanic without considering all the active defense it effectively keeps away from us. Is it still pretty cool to be able to face tank things that other professions have to wuss out of and dodge? Yes, definitely. But it is fairly rare that we can fake tank and still have any kind of presence, whereas other professions can go full zerker and still have a lot of active defense.

Now, this is all fixable with “thematic” active defenses (like actually getting good instant blinds), and/or improving our ability to face tank what other people would avoid while still having either offensive, defensive, or supportive presence.

To make a easy comparison, on the fight against liadri with the Exhausted gambid, every other profession has a skill under 30 s cooldown which lets them block shadowfall or a under 15s cooldown skill which lets them evade it, necros dont have either and the additional 12-20k depending on build doesnt actually do anything against a 130k hit.

Little additional details to Drarnors post

Scepter builds can go full condi (rabid and dire), half hybrid (carrion) or plain hybrid glass (rampager), benefiting from high safty/cheap very high cond damage, high sustain/not being hindered by objects and generally hard to mitigate damage respectively.
The auto attack chain has a 0.35/0.35/0.5 power scaling progression, but since the last hit applies poison instead of bleeding, it can freely be stopped for other skills.
Grasping dead is a core kiting skill with high range for its effect and a 0.7 power scaling pre target, but otherwise straightforward on cooldown cast skill
Feast of corruption on the other hand, despite its flat (1) power scaling, has the potential to be the skill with the highest damage multiplier in game (having a 48% damage boost from just base rotation necro condis). But sadly its usages on power builds are quite limited past a bit of life force.

Axe is plain straight forward being a spam 2 weapon (2.88 power scaling) with 3 when the situation demands/for kiting and can easily be used in a deathly perception valkyre build, dishing out more flat damage, but being limited as a one target weapon.

Obtena.7952:

The links aren’t necessary and they don’t make your case. At best, your making a sensational argument. I think the claim that the DS is balanced because everyone gets soft and hard CC and regular evades … with exception to Necro is far fetched. I doubt any other seasoned PVPer wouldn’t acknowledge a second life with a whole set of unique skills isn’t better than any other professions’ ‘get our of jail free’ cards.

While there is some element of increased difficulty with a missing get out of jail free card, that doesn’t change the significance DS can have in PVP with a Necro … and hence, acknowledging what the OP of the thread is actually recognizing.

First of all, i was just refuting people who say “necro having no evade moves nor free teleports is ok because they got more soft cc” which is plain false

As for the DS actually even being a second life bar, one could argue for it ONLY IF IT ACTUALLY: It didnt degenerate, it regenerated out of combat and it didnt stop heals.
From release to right now, anyone calling DS a second life bar for combat, severely overstates its functionality.

Obtena.7952:

Andele.1306:

Obtena.7952:

Your second and third statements sort of echo a conversation I had with an experienced Guildie who plays necro exclusively. While necros have their issues, he also described how DS is extremely powerful and should actually get some more limitations on use or abilities. Of course, he described the typical situation in a MMO where PVP and PVE game elements share the same platform. Attempts to balance abilities for one can potentially make the other OP or nerfed.

The DS health bar is not only awesome but questionably OPed, simply because it’s another layer of damage mitigation like no other profession has access to in the game. Does protection work with DS? I think the real question is if protection and other survival buffs SHOULD work with DS.

Technically, true, tho, in practical usage, because of actually reasonable power balance of necros not having any free teleports/mobility nor any evasion/block moves (or what would for example in WoW be pvp trinket effects), its potential is flattened across the profession allowing even mathematically/numerically op hp and damage mitigation over hp, because there is no chance/option to do a full block/evasion over the normal/across the board 2 dodges.

While there isn’t much value in arguing the point, you seem to have completely ignored many soft CC effects that work against your argument. I raised the same point with my necro friend as you just did. He quickly urged me to review the number of soft CC effects that are present on just the weapon and DS skills alone. I believe that exercising these skills to control the fight are the things that separate scrubs from good PVPers. Anyone can hit Aegis if they have it to prevent a hit. Not everyone knows when to use a cripple or a fear at the correct time.

Good use of these CC skills + traiting for DS awesomeness is what makes a PVP necro. Combine that with smart choice of gear to optimize DS uptime, it seems like a free ride.

Since people constantly bring this point up and refuse to actually look at empirical evidence themselves, i present you the URLS of cc:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fear
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blind – tho tech not cc, it is able to stop a attack if improperly reacted on
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Chilled
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crippled
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Immobilized
wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Daze
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Knockback
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Knockdown
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Launch
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pull
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stun

ALL professions end up with average 8 solt and 3 hard cc across average 17 skills they got, with 4 and 3 additional variance depending on build choices.
SO NO, soft CC, just as innate 2 dodges DO NOT COUNT BECAUSE EVERYONE CAN AND DOES HAVE THEM ACROSS ALL (proper) BUILDS!

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Players assume – with no concrete evidence I will add, more of just supposition on taking particular pieces of evidence to incorporate more than it may – that sylvari are Mordremoth’s minions. But this holds little to no water currently, since there’s more support against it than for (it’s been so heavily discussed it’s not worth dragging this thread into it too).

Now, whether Scarlet was a champion of Mordremoth specifically is still unknown. But if so, this means that Mordremoth is the only Elder Dragon capable of corrupting sylvari (they’re outright said to be ‘immune’ to corruption by Kralkatorrik and Zhaitan – and by immune I mean that they die when touched by the corruptive energies – for the “sylvari are dragon minions” bit, people tend to use this for an argument for the theory, but it equally (at least) can be used against it given Crucible of Eternity lore). There is reason to believe she was corrupted by Mordremoth – though it’s also possible that Mordremoth was simply talking into her mind, and no corruption was actually taking place (just your typical driving someone mad via telepathy stuff).

There are arguments both for and against Scarlet Briar being a champion of Mordremoth. But it isn’t yet concrete nor clear in either direction.

For one to say “its only a assumption to that Scarlet Briar worked for Mordre and that her whispers were his” (btw, a assumption, by default, means something without evidence), is like saying “its only a assumption person A who we have a camera shot of shooting out of the window with sniper X to the east where person B died to a boat-tail bullet of sniper Xs caliber”, especially if you ever read scarlets journal or the short story explaining explicitly how ommads machine awoke something locked in her.

1. Golems, being magical constructs based on necromancy, aint sentinet, thus your words must have been programmed by someone who wasnts to see the fall of the arcane council.

2. If you are sentient, it means you are a asura (or god forbid a skritt) who was fused with said golem, thus by human, charr and asura law, still of your original race.

3. Job/Ho/Heal-o-tron is just sufficiently advanced in analysis of patterns made by living beings and survival mechanisms with income requirement from his original job, thus giving a good illusion of life, but he is not sentient (at least not in the, you can name the bodycount of the attack on LA, but feel utterly nothing for it or any equivalent case which applied to you).

How about escalating range and secondary effect/finisher with adrenaline, like
1 – 150 range single target hit, dealing more damage the lower your hp
2 – 400 range projectile finisher sending out 3 shockwaves which cripple for a second
3 – 600 range 5 max hit sending a 3s weakening shockwave for very little damage, but a nice 150 range cleave hit for normal damage and blash finisher under you.

Mega Skeleton.8259:

It wouldn’t surprise me if it’s a little of both. Perhaps not coding difficulty, but they don’t want to unbalance Necros, so they devote resources to other things.

Being able to come out of DS at full HP would be easy enough, or near enough to mostly recharge Life Force before DS comes ups again; That’s a little ridiculous for PvP.

As long as we dont have a 40-60s cooldown skill with a 5-7.5s long stability which can be traited for 20s cdr and/or DS gets shade back (but all cc still interrupts currently cast skill), it wouldnt unbalance necro, if we do get then DS doesnt need healing after all (tho it would be cool if we could trait to make all healing we would recieve in DS be split in a aoe to our allies).

Kaamau.5341:

If they make these changes to warrior while Mesmer still as closing in on 20 bugs between all their abilities. /gamequit

Necros are still on 50+, not counting minion pathing being broken.

Obtena.7952:

Your second and third statements sort of echo a conversation I had with an experienced Guildie who plays necro exclusively. While necros have their issues, he also described how DS is extremely powerful and should actually get some more limitations on use or abilities. Of course, he described the typical situation in a MMO where PVP and PVE game elements share the same platform. Attempts to balance abilities for one can potentially make the other OP or nerfed.

The DS health bar is not only awesome but questionably OPed, simply because it’s another layer of damage mitigation like no other profession has access to in the game. Does protection work with DS? I think the real question is if protection and other survival buffs SHOULD work with DS.

Technically, true, tho, in practical usage, because of actually reasonable power balance of necros not having any free teleports/mobility nor any evasion/block moves (or what would for example in WoW be pvp trinket effects), its potential is flattened across the profession allowing even mathematically/numerically op hp and damage mitigation over hp, because there is no chance/option to do a full block/evasion over the normal/across the board 2 dodges.

On in magic turns, a skill which lets you draw 3 cards for 4 mana is op (average draw power curve effect being 2 mana pre 1 card or 1 mana with delayed +1 effect), but if it also costs 3 life, its actually balanced.

MethaneGas.8357:

Andele.1306:

Best concept, one of the worst executions, sadly like half the game…

Seriously, why do you even play this game? Logic dictates that if one dislikes something, one will stop doing that something.

I personally think Deathshroud is brilliant, and it is very well executed, like 99% of this game. I’m not sure where I stand with healing being allowed in DS, all I know is that it would kick butt :P .
Using and managing Deathshroud is an art, and it takes skill. I’ve fought very few Necros who had good Deathshroud management. Those that did were a very big pain to kill.

Oh i do love the game (mostly for a combination of lore and kinda gripping that old old wow feel in terms of progress one makes), just FROM A OBJECTIVE STANDPOINT the fact that half of our utilities didnt work in DS and right now a fourth still dont work properly, that its scaling and applied effects with it are utter chaos, how Life Blast (and multiple other projectiles starting outside player hitbox) misses if enemy is in 110~ range, how the freaking tooltip of DS (traited with near to death) is still bugged/written incorrectly, etc, etc so that i dont start doing a list of all the mechanical/scripting errors; ITS IMPLEMENTATION IS BAD.

And yeah in concept proper DS usage is a art form, tho any necro who has played long enough or knows at least knows its current functionality will confirm my previous statement.

Best concept, one of the worst executions, sadly like half the game…

Rennoko.5731:

Evo Sapien.5298:

Damaein.6413:

Someone care to share? At work still and am curious.

If you flash out of DS your 6 to 0 skills all flash as if they were coming off cooldown simultaneously. Only…cooldowns dont flash like that in this game. Not that i know of anyway. So where did this mysterious flash start coming from?

Does it impact the skills other than to be visually jarring?

Nope and its not even that jarring with most of the taxing/faffing bad effect options turned off, tho, as all problems with the engine and coding, it should be fixed.

pierwola.9602:

1. It’s simple math
2. Ride the Lightning, Swoop, Rush etc. No cast time and still pretty easy to dodge.
6. Nice debuff … .
10. Why ?
11. It’s still better than current version (DoT).
12. After the nerf to DS (absorbing dmg) i don’t see any sense in this rule.
14. 14 is there because of 13.
15,16,17. I think otherwise
18. Nop it dont.

1. No it isnt, its increasing the range for no functional reason with the skill still being buggy as kitten.
2. They all dont have a trait to corrupt boons and dont have aoe impact chill
6. I dont get what the kitten you mean here
10 & 11. Immob is already arguably too strong of a effect, disabling half the skills in game by locking off facing and stacking (tho thats mostly because of thief and ranger skills) while torment is not designed as a utility condition, tho i have recommended that cripple reduces max blink range since right now its sadly inferior to chill in almost every way unless the enemy can get super speed).
12. The rule is setup there as a base cast limit, if DS had a 1% requirement, you could do a F1-3-F1 tap after a feast of corruption giving off a free terror from the start up, having a DS power curve which can be sped up with proper weapon usage allows for not only counterplay, but also shows skill progression of the player, tho yeah it could be reduced/removed just making DS degen work properly like out of combat regen (which actually ticks pre 1 point of health on a very fast rate).
14. is worthless because 13. is worthless
The rest just shows you are uninformed. tho tis true that life transfer does not show its proper life force values (as in around 1% on hit or such, easily shown by first trying it on one, then on two, then on 5 targets in the mists, first one resulting with less LF than on start, second with around equal depending on traits, third letting you generate up to 13% more LF than on start, ofc all depending on your timing of DS with degen, you could get better numbers, i just used the safe estimates)., but efficiently resulting in 3% LF pre second on a target.

Lets go down the list:
1. – Change for the sake of change and not reliability thus dumb
2. – Imbalanced with no cast time
3. – Fine actually
4. – The current version gave counterplay when it was actual EB, but with current numbers, fine
5. – Nope, current version is stronger in context of necro fights and cant be kitten triggered
6. – The whole point of corruption skills is that you are unable to dodge them but they also debuff the owner…
7. – Despite how awesome it would be, better fixing our already existing wifesteal/siphons would be much better
8. – Defeats the point of Tshackles, thus nope
9. – Whatever floats the owners boat honestly, pros and cons for both options.
10 & 11. – plain nope

12. – defeats the point of it
13. – that is either a 10% nerf or a 70% nerf depending on if the devs finally admit that they kittened up and just put a 50% damage reduction vs normal damage on DS instead of fixing its scaling way back in the days/hid the true value of 120% hp to DS so that they could keep a straight face despite clear math in game showing otherwise (with both the boss tool and testing on fishheads at taco showing it).
14. – almost across the board no, since our LF generation (except on scepter) would easily be ok and good even in 1vx if they just reverted Swalk to its proper fucntion of 3% on hit.
15, 16, 17 * 18 -all quite dumb and non functional as practical options and life transfer already works that way (as in pre target on hit) only on 600 range.

Neko.9021:

I think Chill should affect Weapon Swapping and Initiative, personally. I’d like that way more. I think that’d be plenty enough buff for the Ele. >.>

Initiative, yes (because they are functionally cooldowns and otherwise chill is worthless against a baseline skilled thief because of the evasion frames and blinks they have), weapon swaps (or its equivalents), nope, since it would not only cause problems with bundles/transforms/other swap effect triggers, but also cause a imbalance with sigils and runes.

Bhawb.7408:

The reason chill affects it is because it is considered a skill, and skills are affected by chill.

Tho this should get fixed (and since we main em, you know the same applies to necro stuff like signets/weapon swap disabled in DS, transforms destroying minions, etc).

Lazy dev coding should be flat out patched as soon as possible (same with engine optimization, fov/zoom/basic platformer camera rules, compatibility with new nvidia drivers and in general AMD support, etc)

Same as every necro, just cc to death.

gartz.7013:

Solori.6025:

Aza.2105:

no obvious animations or cast times

Aza.2105:

*no obvious animations *

Aza.2105:

• obvious animations *

Next we will start to complain about how OP juggernaut and tornado are.

Here is a better compromise.
Put basalisk venom on a 90s CD and make blinding powder a dark field.
Lets nerf those first yea?

i’d take take that trade. But you have to get rid of lich’s 30 second stability.

Yes truly 100% agreement, it being stability is stupid, OBVIOUSLY, all transforms should be a innate unstoppable/shade effect with 0 cast time, same for death shroud too if traited (and yes i am seriously with snarky overtones).

Bhawb.7408:

Taygus.4571:

but why not DS? …its not like its a few minutes of super strength, you’re still vulnerable to blocks/conditions etc…

Because it has nothing to do with balance.

Hot kitten people, not every single decision in game is about balance. Minions are not absolutely stupid because of balance, transforms don’t affect signets/desummon minions because of balance, there are a lot of things that are the way they are simply because that is how it is.

You can’t stomp while in Deathshroud because it is coded that way, and changing it (gasp) might not be as simple as going to the area where it says Stomp_In_DeathShroud = “false” and changing it to “true”. Hell if coding was that simple they wouldn’t have random bugs.

Actually, since its a across the board effect of custom equips all of which need this functionality, it probably is, its just noone cares about it…
I mean the devs clearly dont do any testing, just look at the last release and how pvp signets/runes worked in sanctum sprint/other activities, if ANYONE actually did a little play in it before release, it wouldnt have happened.

Simonoly.4352:

Crossfire is probably one of the best designed skills in the game because you can actively counter-play the condition application through positioning. It’s nowhere near as ridiculous as other condi auto-attack skills like Blood/Rendering/Putrid Curse.

Except that Necro staff 1 has harsher LOS rules and shorter range (even at base, both ranger bows shoot for more than their indicated range) all while having a 0.35/0.35/0.5 power scaling pre 3 seconds (total 1.2 pre 3) vs the rangers 0.4 pre 0.6 (totaling 2 power scaling pre 3).

Dont you dare say Scepter 1 (nor warrior 1) spam is insane, since it truly isnt, both skills are weaker than average in total power (yes including condi damage)/animation time than any viable power build bread and butter attack.

TakeCare.3182:

dumb talk ignoring the context of the reply~

Andele.1306:

and its not like devs confirmed ages ago that DS stomping right now is a exploit not for its strength, but because you are abusing ping/lag for it (being impossible on private servers you own for example too).

I would like to see a source for this.

Overall, there is a reason necros don’t have easy access to boons like vigor and stability. If you can’t understand that, then you don’t understand the class.

First off it doesnt matter, its a point of stomping a opponent, as in already winning the fight against a enemy; it was said that FITG stomps would be the strongest thing in game, i mentioned counterpoints which allow for both stronger and safer stomps like the mentioned and followed up Stab on backstab~

Second even if it does count, you can easily compare the usage of FitG vs DP in the same way as the new stability on revealed attack vs assassins heal or quick pockets (while in all fairness its duration is dumbly short and for a thief speccing into acrobatics should be buffed to 2s base, resulting in 2.6 pre stealth attack, its uptime is on average usage is 4 seconds higher and actually reliable to be triggered as a reactionary stability without sacrifices).

Third the issue of low health in case of eles is traded for 10 more skills, the strongest burst combo in game coupled with healing ability of 5k pre dodge on 10 seconds (and yes i do count aoe/team functionality because thats how balance works). Now i shall not even start on how important reliable protection and free 9 might on a 12s cooldown is, but i will mention stuff like burning retreat (and all other evades), shocking aura, lightning flash, mist form, etc allowing for a much higher survivability rate assuming proper skill. Also that ungodly necro elite gets trumped by tornado which sadly noone uses despite it being a fabulous dps boost, a just as potent aoe blind and freaking both a 600 range launch in its range that can be coupled with knockback projectiles, oh did i also mention its a whirl finisher letting you shoot out flame bolts or wifesteal, thus making it better both in damage and team support but at the cost of a smaller duration (tho again in all fairness, no transformation skill should have a cast time).

As for thief, please compare how many FREE (read as no pre cast/setting up required prior) teleports thief has pre 10 seconds to necro, hell even in the setup needed teleports necro gets trumped with trap, steal, shadow shot, shadow strike, infiltrators strike and infiltrators return.
Then also the simple fact of there being this thing called perma evade thief, which (again assuming basic knowledge and skill in using that build, which isnt much) lets you be invul for 49 out of 60 seconds (more assuming you spam your withdraw on cooldown and dont bother with the double attack pre 4 combos.

Sadly for the red post i cant find the post (and not because im lazy like usual and the thread is sticky/on the first 3 pages, but because the search function doesnt even work on stuff weeks old), tho i do remember it being shorty after a post in which: Ascii, CHIPS, Drarnor Kunoram and Nay of the Ether talked about it possibly being fixed/they improved their net code a year ago, making the ds after pressing f version of the stomp not work because the client registered it properly.

TLDR: derailing the thread with idiot statements like necro can functionally fight a cc warrior/debunk engie or with stuff like pushing the talk about necro not having the basic ui functionality of stomping in DS into profession specific arguments which dont apply to universal rules is dumbs thus please stop.

oZii.2864:

Elites vs short cooldown class mechanic they aren’t exactly the same. Blowing an elite to stomp or long cooldown utility isn’t the same as a 10 second transform class mechanic. The class mechanic doesn’t offer invulnerability but neither does stability. You could compare it to mist form but that is a utility on a long cooldown. Even distortion is on a long cooldown. A foot in the grave necromancer would be the best stomper in the game. I have no feelings either way just pointing out that it isn’t the same. Though it is possible as been stated just requires timing.

You mean its not like Ele and thief have stability on higher total uptime with master+ traits now, its not like you got active multi blocks on under a 30s cooldowns and its not like devs confirmed ages ago that DS stomping right now is a exploit not for its strength, but because you are abusing ping/lag for it (being impossible on private servers you own for example too).

Professions by skill options:
Necromancer: 10 base weapon, 5 utility, 4 from DS (which locks off utilities)
Ranger: 10 base from weapon, 5 utility, 2 actives from pets
Mesmer: 10 base from weapon, 5 utility, 4 from shatters
Thief: 10 base from weapon, 5 from utility, 2 from steal/bundle
Guardian: 10 base weapon, 5 from utility, 3 virtues
Warrior: 10 base weapon, 5 from utility, 2 from burst
Engineer: 5 base weapon, between 5 to 5 to 17 from utility, 4 from toolbelt
Elementalist: 5 base weapon, 5 to 21 from utility, 15 from attunements.

Please keep your facts straight, true engie and ele on average have 4 more skills as options, but they require a timing/its compensated by them being gated behind other actives.

Compared to other classes, ranger doesn’t have great mobility – yes 4 leaps are truly little, compared to lets say necros 0

Lets then list other defense:

AoE projectile reflect pre 25/20s

Evades at – 1 pre 3s, 1/2 pre 8s, 3/4 pre 9, 1 and 1/2 pre 10s, 3/4 pre 15s and 3/4 pre 40 (AKA only a bloody evasion thief can get that high invul uptime)

3s Block every 15 seconds (if you dont let the enemy hit you under 150 range, then its cc against the target)

Now while i do agree that a OPTIONAL (aka little checkbox) for difference between ai control and player control should be applied for all pets, you know that full pet control for ranger would require across the board nerfs on pets for stuff like the Warhogs and Dogs brutal charge and the Moa heal cry.

Lets see 3k hits on lich on a non crit build, 7-9k on glass cannon
6k hit on non crit backstab, 13-15k on glass cannon…

Truly imbalanced for a skill which doesnt allow the owner to use his utilities or self heal.

TLDR, Big and Kincaidia are World of Roguecrafts chill talk Machinima rogues.

Bhawb.7408:

FitG as an adept is insanely unbalanced. Just give us utility based stability, forcing it on traits really limits things still.

Adept FitG would actually fit the power level of adept traits especially since almost every other stability trait is major with a 6+ total duration time, tho it would get a 30s~ cooldown (aka every second DS entry on a condi build).

Damaein.6413:

Like I said in the OP a lot of changes would be thematic. For instance, Target the Weak, makes more sense to me in the top tree. It isn’t really effected by crit in any way. Makes it amazing for full power build relying on deathly perception. It also fits better, IMO, with condition duration.

A lot of the moves, are because I moved something else and a void was created. I also stated that the numbers and scaling would need to be different so this wasn’t intended as a “balance” change. These changes were suggested to make necro feel a little different. Thanks for the input.

As a side note, what did you guys think of the siphoning power idea in my second post?

If you want the actual lore themes, it would be:
Spite – making every enemy in a 600 radius around us suffer for doing ANYTHING (aka permaretaliation, mass aoe chill, torment and confusion).
Curses – a combination of barely notable for hp effects with triggers that require those effects to 2 shot anything
DM – 1000 mini bhawbs exploding and shooting other mini bhawbs are your enemies and from time to time on yourself.
BM – it would… actually it was mostly worthless then and it is mostly worthless now, it would stay as is
Soul Reaping – it would only influence stuff in death shroud and all of its effects only be of use once you already won/are winning in a teamfight… or your allies die like nubs; Except for giving you perma regen and making enemies explode in funny balls of ice while unequipping all their gear.

If however you ment it from a in game concepts, aside from the obvious initial dumps of why not for balance:
Axe and Dagger are used for the same build style, but opposite playstyles, but since fusing weapon traits which have secondary effects, it would pretty much mandate everyone to run it, BUT it would also ruin axe as a standalone weapon because the traited 10% modifier actually made it viable to use (for DS too that is despite 0.75 weaker weapon strength which is around 14-50 power drop, the higher damage variance and Transfusion/Tshackles being weaker then).

Dark presence is ok as said, tho probably a tad op for all the crit encounters people exploit.

TtW+Close to death in one line is broken (kinda like how slashing power and zerk might are, but they are still in major slots, this would just be jump from 60 to 80 to get free 16% guaranteed dps across the board.

Wprec, while for it it would be a buff, a lowe Bprec is much stronger for hybrid and coni builds.

Banshees Veil was good for its CDR, not that much for the increased effect (tho dont look a gift warhorse in the mouth), thus removing that part would make it one of those, never pick except for a life blast build for which its a 30 second fire and forget.

Staff mastery is actually ok as a adept, id add the 10% boost to staff across the board either base or to something actually lacking additional features/not worth its slot.

Shrouded removal doesnt make sense in ripping boons off you nor of the enemy (since its not a projectile nor a aoe effect. Tho it does need to compete with shadows embrace (1 condi removed on entry with 10s cooldown minimum which gives up survivability vs a 60/70% uptime 1 condi pre 3s which instantly triggers, i dont get how the first one is even a thing especially since its total uptime/removal is over 60% worse with a way higher cost)).

Death shiver needs a rework (maybe back to 1s chill pre 3s or something like cast reapers touch onto enemies hit by the immob of tainted shackles)

Usanctuary, despite it being kittenty in overall regen value, still has GM value in it as a unique effect, youd just get another terror equivalent nerf

Quickening thirst, despite not making sense in its current value, makes just as little sense in the rework, also reliable quickness is a tad too strong.

Umartyr would be flat out nerfed (to compensate for a-net kittening up putrid mark code and refusing to fix it, then calling it a feature).

Unyielding is again a plain nerf, piercing + vuln is fare more valuable with proper positioning.

Soul marks swap would mean the end of LF generator necros, having no value from adept in SR and only on target hit basic attacks (tho im not against putting it onto adept since it is underwhelming compared to how the idk how old version when marks had to be self activated gave LF pre target).

And for Renewing blast it is kinda a toss up, but 5 targets in for example a wvwvw zergfest is probably better than just 3 around you (tho its hitbox detection could need work).

You know that everything except Dark Presence and Wshroud would nerfs to necro, right?

dancingmonkey.4902:

I disagree with your opinion, whole heartedly. Such broad statements of this nature that are so for from the truth, are why posters who are not familiar with the necromancer, should not post about them

Just because you fail at something that so many others flourish at, doesn’t make it bad either.

Were you talking to yourself with those two things?
Because
a) glass necro next to ranged power rangers (and no i dont not mean THAT build which shall not be named because of its annoying factor) are just a weight a pvp team has to carry in comparison to other glass builds

b) you failing at pvp and ending up with wood 5 nubstomps does not make the current pvp systems technically bad (even tho it fails on many levels).

A few things across the comments:
Dwayna, Melandru and Blathazar all have wings (both in sculpture and representation), Dhuum and Grenth have shadowy green tentacle “wing like” thingys which make their “cloth/cloak” float around; tho for grenth it are a bit more ghastly skeletal green wings as seen from mural of Grenth (http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Knight_of_Eonia/Lets%20Play/34.jpg and http://www.sold-guild.com/sold/media/articles/guildwarsgods/pantheon_mural_grenth_ad.jpg)

Dhuum wasnt even at a tenth of his strength when we fought him in the underworld (tho even at that power level he strong enough to kittenslap everyone in there because of Grenths absence) AND based on most encounters in gw, active lore power level does translate to scale, thus his more accurate size (and for all gods) would be the hall of judgement (where they didnt collapse).

Personal estimate would be between the height of jade maws maw and shadow behemoth, just because both cities/locations where we could judge the size of gods are mostly in ruins/half sunk.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Andele.1306:

Fractals ARE the pve content balance scale.
Also WvWvW is even less important than dungeons in terms of balance decisions, one could remove it from the game and no functional content would be lost for any real gamer.

I would say Dungeons are at the bottom. Until they actually make them a challenge without the need for fake and bad design and development choices the dungeons will NEVER actually be a challenge.

The ONLY reason they are a “challenge” now is because of the cheap mechanics that are used to make it actually seem tough. These mechanics are made to do ONE thing – kill you, cheaply. Such as normal boss 1 shotting you when you can’t even see them on the screen, that is just lazy as hell design.

i would actually say WvW IS the end game content, what else is there? You got dungeons with cheap mechanics that are mostly boring as hell and still like to bug out alot. You got terrible world event bosses and then cheap and lazy Living Story content that actually adds very little to the game bar just more farming for stuff that isn’t even needed and mostly just skins.

Then you have Factuals that rather than become a challenge and new as you level up all they do is add new “conditions” that you have to farm to protect yourself against and then have it actually no different than level 1 from my experience just they hit harder. No new tactics, nothing actually new just the same old same old just with upgraded stats.

You know, id say that stuff like proper coordination on just mai trin takes more skill than the entire T1 WvWvW matchups together.

Also no, actually agony resistance does nothing against the “new conditions” except for the final one, its more build editing stuff like not letting enemies hit you from behind since then a 20% hp hit takes 80% of your hp or chill/poison/confusion turning into defensive boons, etc.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

It’s PvE….It’s not hard. The dungeons mostly just use cheap pathetic fake challenge mechanics like normal mobs doing 40k+ damage in a single hit (heap, very cheap!) the ONLY area where your build might matter is High level factuals. Nothing else.

Fractals ARE the pve content balance scale.
Also WvWvW is even less important than dungeons in terms of balance decisions, one could remove it from the game and no functional content would be lost for any real gamer.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Bhawb.7408:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAW7Yjc00ZbjNW2wfbCAAQaMloBA-T1xCABAcBAEa/hjfAAAqDwT1fSUJYWK/CAcAs7uBgxHf8xHf82d3d3d3dLFwkSjA-w

That is the highest fully possible. Note that technically speaking healing/utility skills don’t “matter” as far as highest condi damage, they just make it more realistic to get there/use it. That is 3817 condi damage with full might/sigil while in plague, you could potentially get it slightly higher through certain passive effects that would raise toughness/vitality as well, and it is 2181 with no buffs (just food) and out of plague.

Also important to note is that the build listed is not the highest damaging condition build, but the one with conditions that tick for the most. Those are very different, as one is more efficient at dealing the damage while the other just has a higher condition damage stat.

Note: This build will cost you upwards of 1200g to fully realize. You will need to do a lot of farming to get enough gold for this.

Edit: kitten ogden armor had strength runes in it: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAW7Yjc0UdbjNe3whbCchaqnA6FIAi2ozgOYEA-TFyCwAOOCAAeAA4U/BryPh7PM5iAUS3wYlgAA-w – khilbron budget version.

a) will you stop using actual scientific terms for stuff they dont mean/cover (circular arguments require you to confirm causational statements with their origins, something you actually did continue doing by saying “But necro can use bows because they use other weapons which are functionally nothing alike bows thus necros can use bows”)

b) AS I SAID, PLAY THE GAMES http://www.guildwars.com/ and http://buy.guildwars2.com/store/gw2/en_IE/html/pbPage.buyguildwars2 – all the lore youll ever need is in the quests i mentioned, if you are too dumb to find them, i shall not baby you; as a matter of fact if you dont know of them, you have no right to even talk about lore, like for example oolas great speech about how her studies in the necro arts allowed her to be a paragon of innovation in fields of golemancy, techno-magical servants, other forms of homunculi and trans-biological sentience (and also allowed her to use a crippled form of lich rituals to tie her souls into a golem core, which as she found out, can if designed properly, work as a phylactery and not explode/crack after a while.

How about the entire previous 3 games+ expansion or for kittens like you, the original Guild Wars + GWEN. Stuff like Path to Revelations and Elusive Golemancer (and all tie ins to it in GW2), the entire invention of the Asura Gates, one of the primary reasons for the Infinity cube storyline in GW2, the existence of the Metamagicals lab, the existence of golems and how Power cores are designed compared to the much more efficient elementals and necrominions.

As for the source why corruption skills have a sacrifice and that minions assemble themselves/rip into existence from the underworld in case of the shade in gw2… i think that you just proved that you never even played necro, never even watched how the animations play out nor that you ever read any necro skill description, thus are a worthless kitten that shall be blocked and reported for trolling less than 5k AP nub.

Lorelei.3918:

Interestingly enough, most of the stuff Andele just rattled off isn’t applicable in GW2.

Marks, wells, ect require nothing to cast except a CD timer.

Using Spectral spells doesn’t seal off part of your soul. You can spam these skills forever. If your soul is somehow involved it is neither implied nor relevant to the game itself.

You don’t have to bother setting up a phylactery in game to go into lich form. (And in the greater lore of necromancy – once you go lich, you Don’t go back.)

There is no variation between Human and Asura Necromancy. Neither race is stronger or weaker at any part of it and there is no variation in how the spells or cast or set up.

And lastly, and Oh I wish it were true…our magic is farrrr from ignoring/disrupting ‘deceptions’ (aka Mesmers). If anything our lack of consistent aoe and gap closers makes fighting mesmers harder for us then other classes.

So….yeah….that whole consistency thing has already been thrown out the window imo.

Technically, no. its all true:

We are undead via Lich form, thus can ignore (just like Palava Joko and Khilbron) part of the cost required to cast our skills, a phylactery is made once, thus showing you clearly didnt listen to your D&D nor GW1 lore about undeath. Also both of the mentioned great liches showed off their transformations at least once before (twice in Jokos case thanks to bonus packs) returning to their casual form right after (tho they werent locked off their utilities/spells in said modes which is G&SS).

Since we already are users of DS, we got no more past to lose, thus spamming spectrals works without negative effects, tho if for example the underworld collapsed into another world, all necros would experience the same thing as all the mobs in TMNR did, getting ripped trough the mists into another location.

We still require corpses for sentient minions, both Aria Venom and freaking Saladbolg show it off, our minions however use as described by the website: Remains of flesh and bone, which we probably carry around in the hammerspace bags just as warriors carry 1000000000 22 caliber rounds and engies 4 tins of led balls for their blunderbuss spam.

Asura as mentioned make up their kittenty magical abilities with technology (and their kittenty tech with magic), thus why they can compete with both charr and human in respective fields, thus making em balanced in terms of gameplay.

Also WoS/WoC/MoB/MoE/Chillblains/RM/PM/Life Transfer/Tshackles, if you cant butcher a phantasam mesmer with those, its just L2P.

TLDR: try poke holes in lore that you dont understand and just as now, get the kittenslap you deserve

Dustfinger.9510 again little kitten, if you take lore, take it from the people which actually wrote it and didnt spit on it, aka from Ree, Will McDermott, Annie (and kinda John Stumme for the punny stuff).
Also magic being a free resorce to use just means there are no energy costs, sacrifice (self bleeding from corruptions) or resource buildup (cast time on minions) still exist and are mandatory.

Dustfinger.9510:

A) I’ll quote any site that the devs see fit to give interviews to since we are discussing information from the devs rather than the interviewees complete grasp of every aspect of the game.

B) What loophole? How would a magic projectile from a bow be any different than a magic projectile from an axe or a staff?

a) Chinese whispers (as in no they dont get dev interviews but kitten they got told others got told by people who got told by a-net), same thing applies to anything Amccoy is in terms of lore

b) Bows dont shoot magic projectiles, they shoot arrows, same as guns using bullets (even in the mesmers case), in both staff, dagger and axe you create the effect and channel it past, doing such on a bow on rifle would not only be functionless (since it has no innate magic powers like a staff and scepter do), nor is it a proper focusing/shaping tool for attacks like ceremonial daggers or axes are.
WH5 is the closest thing we do to a physical attack using demonic insects from the stygian pits of hell so to say.

Dustfinger.9510:

Andele.1306:

Dagger causes spectral cuts and a bite (green slashes in black mist caused by it), it physically doesnt actually hit the enemy if you check it out (physical hit from all other weapons have those rocky/blob particles with white slashes).

Its very easy to notice on upscaled models based on its attachment point (aka its a on enemy effect like scepter and axe) or by wildly flailing with the dagger and not getting the effect (while for examine warrior swords mesmer swords or thief dagger always keep their hit effects on no hit attacks since they are actually on he weapon model.

What’s to keep them from doing the same with a sword? Slashing out with a sword and hitting them at close range with necro magic?

A) dont quote a site which said magic find works on champ boxes and that guild missions are independent from eachother

B) Yes it would work on bladed melee weapons as said above, it could be excused on hammers more than maces because of impact effects, then kinda on rifle and pistols, but bows would really need heavy loophole abuse for them to be put on necro.

Dustfinger.9510:

Evo Sapien.5298:

In lore? Maybe nothing. In magic? Weapons can be enchanted, hexed, cursed etc but other than that magical tools involve athames, candles, focii etc. Athames, or ceremonial blades can NEVER be used to actually cut anything. It would ruin the athame, much like ele daggers, necro axe, or mesmer greatsword.

And i have no intention of desiring a Longbow that does not fit this class at all just because other mmos think its cool. What the hell am i supposed to shoot? snakes? preposterous. Poison arrows? its been done.

Honestly I have no idea what current weapon could possibly work as a 2h power weapon for a necromancer I mean i could see them with a land trident or a scythe, but anything else would require a vast amount of looking the other way and pretending its not completely ridiculous.

There is no hard class lore in GW2 like there is in other games. What you’re doing is arbitrarily applying other game rules into gw2. if there’s no lore reason then there is nothing to say that it doesn’t fit the class. Other games necro doesn’t fit with certain weapons because there is actual lore reason behind it. What you decide fits your necro isn’t the same for all playable necros. By saying that there is no lore reason but it just doesn’t fir a necro is putting the cart before the horse. It’s arbitrary game dogma that has no rhyme or reason when applied to GW2.

“There are as many individual ways to tap into that magic as there are people in Tyria. Some follow the methods taught to them by mentors or teachers. Others devise their own special style and relationship with magic.” http://esprits-dorr.fr/node/261

ACTUALLY NO, necromancers unlike engies or eles, were designed and created by the arts of the human gods, all other necros in game which arent new races/races which worked with the gods like the forgotten and got their powers from em, were demons/shadow beasts from the underworld.
They got clear cut rules (same as ritualists and dervishes, second one now no longer possible to exist) which are set up by lore, examples:

Sentient and powerful enough minions require blood upkeep, tho mindless ones/not nearly as strong can be kept up without any real problems.

Wells and Symbols (Marks in GW2) require either power from a fresh corpse, from the underworld or from the casters blood.

Turning lich requires you to set up a phylactery, turning part undead.

Using Death shroud and manipulation of the spectral arts, while allowing a easier to abuse connection to the underworld, keeps a part of you in it.

While actual worship of Grenth is not required, a connection and affinity to the mists (and more importantly, the underworld) is, races (like the asura) with a weaker connection preform worse at their max potential than others (tho said asura make up for it, with tech aka golemancy; oola being the to date still best golemancer was for example the only necro asura influencing the storyline).

Objects used during combat must be able to physically channel a connection, non-magical projectiles dont work.

Necromancer magic disrupts/ignores deceptions/the UW and grenth dont like liars (nor did Dhuum before him).

P.S. Ways of learning magic being different =/= each person has their own rules of it
Its like saying Person x learned from a game that 2 × 2 + 2 is 6, but if person y sees it in a book he can say that 2 + 2 × 2 is 8… it doesnt work that way.

Edit: formatting doesnt undestand what + is…

Bhawb.7408:

We don’t get free escapes because Necromancer is supposed to be one of the strongest in-fight professions. Meaning we get into the thickest part of the fight and thrive more than anyone else because we scale best in that situation through life stealing, conditions, LF regen, etc. You can see this in WvW where we are at our strongest and deal pretty high damage while retaining near bunker-levels of tankiness.

Unfortunately things don’t translate so well out of that in many builds. However assuming they balance those issues, you can’t have a profession be amazing in the thick of fights that is then also able to escape the second things get bad. That is why Thieves have such amazing mobility, it makes up for the fact that they are actually quite bad at fighting for extended periods of time. They get in, deal their damage, get out and wait for another opportunity. In this case they should be polar opposite to us.

The reason things like SWalk and Flesh Wurm are okay is because they are extremely limited in allowing you to only return somewhere you were already, with other limitations like the window of time you have and how far they take you. Both of them also uniquely allow you to go even more ham than you could without them (SWalk can let a glass build jump into a fight, blow their load all over their enemies, then warp out until they can get their stuff up again).

Actually… the bad point about thieves aint their dps (having second/tied highest dps in pve in game and the highest evade frame uptime in game) or survivability, its that you need to perfectly combo and twitch react for maximum efficiency… its kinda how the original starcraft zerg worked, that is till Koreans got their hands on the zerg and they got stomped into the dirt.
Also their max dps options and their efficient survival options dont mix nearly as well as one would think.

Lorelei.3918:

It’s kind of ridiculous that we’re worrying about how magic ‘works’ inside a video game. The rule of cool trumps all of this nitpicking and the suspension of disbelief is more powerful then any fanboys nerd rage.

WARNING, TV TROPES LINKS:

Rule of cool also states that ranged weapons are worthless.
Proof provided:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfCool (that reminds me, we should have forced caps speak while in DS/Lich form and a guitar weapon and players with Death nova should get a active mini version of a undead Drake or Skale called Death of Critters who instakills any critter in 240 range around it)
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ImmuneToBullets (compare and contrast this warrior trope to the necromancers http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RegeneratingShieldStaticHealth)
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeflectorShields
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeehiveBarrier
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter

Note that despite most players using the Conspicuous Segregation, GW2 (and GW1 for that matter) actually can and should be played as Naturally Integrated S&G games based on the http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration?from=Main.GameplayAndStoryintegration

Thiagugu.9682:

Here’s mine.

May i suggest this setup (researcher or acolyte pants, depending on if you want a cleaner/more pointy dress):

NeXeD.3042:

Whoever said we don’t physically hit anything with our weapons… are you sure dagger doesn’t hit? Give us a scythe and a bow, the bow shoots poisonous kitten, the scythe shoots bhawbs.

Dagger causes spectral cuts and a bite (green slashes in black mist caused by it), it physically doesnt actually hit the enemy if you check it out (physical hit from all other weapons have those rocky/blob particles with white slashes).

Its very easy to notice on upscaled models based on its attachment point (aka its a on enemy effect like scepter and axe) or by wildly flailing with the dagger and not getting the effect (while for examine warrior swords mesmer swords or thief dagger always keep their hit effects on no hit attacks since they are actually on he weapon model.

Shockwave.1230:

The OP’s issue still isn’t clear. How does point blank range make life blast harder to hit? Point blank gives you less time to dodge.

Life blast (like Necrotic grasp and a few other staff base animation skills) actually starts outside its own hitbox, thus a melee character inside your model can never be hit with it and a strafing 150 range character will cause it to cancel 4/5 times.
Surprisingly the underwater version of life blast applies to normal projectile rules of starting inside your hitbox.

spoj.9672:

7k effective power is very low for both builds in an organised group. Put simply in an organised group you are going to have close to 100% crit chance without DP and you will easily have 4 conditions maintained permanently (5-6 isnt hard either). Thats an 8% boost from Target the weak which is greater than the 5% from strength of undeath. The ferocity doesnt make up the difference. Plus the 6/6 has more condition damage which will add a small amount. And dagger > lifeblast.

Actually we had it confirmed ages ago that under 600 range LB>Dagger in terms of rotations (over the same duration having identical 1.4 power ratio but LB having higher base damage , 7k effective power is average self efficient stats, can be higher assuming disc banner allowing different multipliers on both builds (even better for SR because then you got 100% crit chance in lich too and you can drop accuracy sigils for air or night).
I gave TtW the benefit of 7 conditions (so 14% damage bonus), tho additional 13% more damage from SR crit damage does negate it fully so yes it does make the difference.

NOTE: DAGGER IS MORE RELIABLE HIGH DPS (and thats why i personally use it over axe, same reason why i use staff over axe for in DS, more reliable damage differentiation), but in optimized setups that little fact, for dps, is counted as a non sequitur (same as scholar runes, might and vuln, rotation differentiation because of events, lack of melee option, etc)

So you can chose, pick the full on “true optimized” team setup with banner, empower spotter bloodlust, frost etc giving your build 95% crit chance (100% if using oil over sharpening stone) and 3.35k power, but in that case also giving SR the equivalent treatment, thus not needing oil (having 100% crit chance either way even without fury/75% crit chance out of DS for the 5 seconds it takes for mobs to die and Axe 2/kittenain according to your rule of optimal situation * to go off after 50s of life blasts) having 3.28k power BUT also getting the benefits of a air sigil every 5 seconds (aka 4.5k pre 5 additional damage/900 dps vs the 91 bit power gives).

Or we can easily settle for my very conservative and practically efficient in uptime which as already mentioned above in a beefed up multiplier seting the axe/life blast will do higher dps, but in any pugged setting, where 7 condis is actually a thing that happens because of skill spam, the curses setup will give equivalent dps without having to rely on other environmental facts (such as boss type and previous encounters).

Also no, dagger has 2.8 scaling pre 2.2 seconds which is a 1.27 power coefficient being thus 0.34 power pre second weaker than LB, not counting the fact that its base weapon damage from dagger (952.5/ 1000A vs 1048/1100A) accounting for dps is quite lower (300 power value the difference lover to be precise).

Here calculate it yourself:
damage pre second without crit = average weapon damage * power * skill coefficient in a second / 2600
Now that with multipliers:
(Crit D x Damage x crit chance + 100-crit chance x damage)/100 x rune/sigil/multiplier