I think most of the problems necromancer currently is suffering from are major, high level design flaws. Sure you can analyze every change they do, and show them why these where bad / wrong / unwanted, but i think the problems lies in the concept. If you look at what the necromancer should be at a high level concept you see:
- A sturdy, attrition based class, deeply connected to aggressive gameplay. Conditions should be a connecting theme, as well as boon corrupt, condi manipulation and lifedrain. The necromancer should have excellent abilities to stick to a foe but limited disengage potential.
What ANet has created however is a sitting duck. Necromancers are first to focus in competetive game modes. Shroud in its design seems like a pure punishment – the skills feel clumsy, are unreliable and have long cast times and cooldowns – the ability to get lifeforce is heavily crippled by weapon choice – shroud as a profession mechanic has much more traits to make it good than other classes. Overall shroud feels very very limited compared to the other classes mechanics. Baseline skills, weapons, anc mechanics should be usefull and good by default. With traits and a concrete build in mind they should be awesome.
Now i could get into detail of all the following, conceptual problems but everyone should be able to see the problems without explanation.
- No stunbreaks, stability or potent defensive tools to maintain pressure.
- Very limited ways to generate Lifeforce
- Shroud is clumsy, the skills are all not up to the state of the game in regards of quickness and velocity.
- Shroud is limiting several traits, utility skills and builds.
- Fear is too weak. We have one single weapon skill, one single utility skill and one single shroud skill. Yet multiple traits are balanced around fear. Fear basedurations are too low. Fear has much more counters than any other CC skill in the game. Fear should either be a condition (stability and stun breaks have no effect) or a stun (condition cleans, resistance, reduced condi duration have no effect)
- Traits are a mess. See death magic for example, we have 4 traits that are based around minions. We lack % modifiers. We lack offensive group support. We lack a theme in most of the trait lines.
- Staff as a weapon is too weak and gated behind absurdly long cooldowns.
To put things into perspective here: can a necromancer, building around a theme be as efficient as other classes?
Can a pure glass cannon power necro be as strong as a thief, or warrior, or even mesmer in the same setup? It cant, it lacks the tools and the damage.
Can a pure tank necro be as sturdy as a pure tank warrior, or guard, or ele? No, it lacks the stability and stunbreaks to keep up its use. It doenst provide meaningful support, or meaningful CC like other builds.
Can a pure condi necro put out the same amount of pressure and damage as similar classes do? No, necros are good at corrupting and condition manipulation, but they are bad at inflicting much conditions themself. This turns them to maybe even under best circumstances. But these circumstances are only based on the enemy.
Solutions in my opinion would be:
- A full Baseline Shroud overhaul. Skills should be altered based on the weapons wielded.
- Lifeforce generation should be added in form of %damage done, in addition to the current skills generating lifeforce.
- A full rework of staff.
- A full rework of shroud interactions with skills and utilities.
- A full rework of minions.
- A full rework of traits.
All these reworks, with a high concept in mind would fix most of the problems. At this point we need major work, at a core design level. They are fixing things around a concept that has gotten out of place, so no matter how good or bad a small trait or skill change is, this is destined to fail.