Guild Wars 2

Personally what I think should happen is for players who buy the expansion (+ base game) and already own the base game they should get an additional 5 character slots on their account.

Think of it like an account merger (two base games and the expansion).

Ohoni.6057:

My first reaction to seing the Reaper was “cooool!” I mean, I really like it.

My second reaction though was, “what use is this?” It seems to be built to be good when fighting a tight pack of weak enemies. Well I already do just fine against a pack of weak enemies with my Scepter/Focus condi Necro.

What use will the Reaper have against single large targets, ie world bosses? That is what ALL characters need to be designed to fight, not trash mobs. What skills and traits will Reapers have that will make them a serious contribution to open world boss fights, when the enemy is largely immune to things like Chill and Fear.

Pretty much how I feel as well.

It looks great but is there a purpose to it?
Elite Specializations were supposed to bring a new playstyle to the class were they not? What we can see of Reaper so far is that you can do an AoE power build, that is neither new nor exciting.

I was hoping Death’s Charge would have a Whirl Finisher or something but it seems to make a Poison Combo Field instead, doubt it will do both.

• Still no support options that are useful in current game.
• Still minimal boss support.
• Reaper is forced into Chill.
• ‘Rise’ Shout seems counter intuitive, summon a bunch of minions that will then go and single target mobs, probably requiring minion related traits to work effectively.
• Not expecting Combo Finishers or Fields from the Shout traits, so hopefully something from the Greatsword

The main positive for me right now is trading off Death Shroud for Reapers Shroud. Just have to wait and see what else it brings.

Ravezaar.4951:

Anet dosent want us to do that, we known this for 3y so why still ask for it… maybe the Increased dmg + cleave + shouts can give you the PvE tools u want (i dont do PvE) but buffing allies never really bin the concept of Necro

Someone hasn’t played the original Guild Wars . . .

Dinks.2478:

People keep crying about Reaper when Reaper is going to be part of the new Meta because of this spec. While Guardian got nothing. You all need to calm the hell down.

So our Elite specialization might bring us up to par with where Guardian’s are now? Oh wow, Guardian’s sure are getting the short end of that stick.

Reaper seems like it will be an entirely Anti-Zerg Berserker based on what we are hearing so far.

Shouts that scale based on enemies? Great.
What Necro issue is this resolving exactly?

At least it looks cool but that’s pretty much all Necros bring are visuals.

I’m interested to see what the other Shouts will be but I am cautious to get hyped about it because so far this doesn’t seem to be anything that will fix our core issues, just another way to do what we already can.

I like the suggestion ‘Griever’ if we get shouts or ‘Ritualist’ if we get spirits

Lily.1935:

Navi.1032:

(F2) Spectral Shroud
Main Function: Stealth
Visual: Ethereal / Stealth
Applies Chill to Foes and Protection to Self and Allies upon activation
Depreciation: 8% Life Force per second
- Benefits from spectral traits

This is really powerful. Way too powerful. But I wanted to comment on it because stealth on a necro and chill foes when you’re around is really ghostly and a freaking cool concept. It’d feel so good. But at the same time, I can’t support something like that for the base Death shroud. For a specialization down the road? Sure, why not? Guardians got traps. Why not stealth for us on a specialization. As it stands though, this is an insanely powerful skill you’re suggestion.

Toned down quite a bit, make it a trait and part of a future specialization? Why not?

Hmm it could be too powerful but that could be tweaked with a cooldown and/or bumping up the Life Force depreciation.

At 8% depreciation that’s 12.5 continuous seconds of stealth and the conditions/boons only apply on activation (unless otherwise traited).

I also forgot to mention in my post that my idea would no longer have specific movesets within a ‘Shroud’ it would just give you the additional benefits on top of your base character.

1: Carving Slice (Generates Life Force)
11: Lacerate (Bleed)
111: Infecting Strike (Poison)
2: Blood Storm: Damages all foes around you and siphon health (Whirl Finisher)
3: Spectral Shift: Teleport to a foe (Blast Finisher)
4: Mark of the Tormented: Damage over time in area; stacks Torment on foes (Dark Field)
5: Shackles of Darkness: Damage over time; stacks Chill
55: Dark Chains: Immobilize

(F1) Death Shroud
Main Function: Secondary Health Pool
Visual: Current Shadow Visual
Applies Vulnerability to Foes and Retaliation to Self and Allies upon activation
Depreciation: 4% Life Force per second

(F2) Spectral Shroud
Main Function: Stealth
Visual: Ethereal / Stealth
Applies Chill to Foes and Protection to Self and Allies upon activation
Depreciation: 8% Life Force per second
- Benefits from spectral traits

(F3) Vampiric Shroud
Main Function: Life Leech
Visual: Surrounded by Green Mist
Applies Poison to Foes and Regeneration to Self and Allies upon activation
Depreciation: 6% Life Force per second
- Benefits from life stealing traits

(F4) Demonic Shroud
Main Function: Stacking Might
Visual: Similar to GW1 Bone Horror
Applies Cripple to Foes and Might to Allies upon activation
Depreciation: 4% Life Force per second
- Benefits from minion traits

Readjust our traits to suit such a system:
I still think our traits need a bit of work, these adjustments would just be to suit such a system

Gluttony

I: Speed of Shadows (now applies to all Shrouds)
II: Soul Marks
III: Spectral Mastery

Last Gasp

IV: Master of Terror
V: Vital Persistence
VI: Death Perception (now applies to all Shrouds)

Strength of Undeath

VII: [Shroud conditions stack on nearby foes every second]
VIII: [Shroud boons stack on nearby allies every second]
IX: Foot in the Grave (now applies to all Shrouds)

Wouldn’t it make more sense for Necro’s to get Spirits if this were the case? Like Binding Rituals.

• Heal: Ritual of Restoration
  Spirit could heal you and give allies regeneration
• Utility: Shadowsong Ritual
  Obviously this spirit would blind enemies, could also grant allies retaliation
• Utility: Ritual of Disenchantment
  Remove boons from enemies and conditions from allies
• Utility: Soothing Ritual
  Apply weakness to enemies and vigor to allies
• Elite: Ritual of Wanderlust
  Damages enemies, knockdown, and could give protection to allies

Conjured Weapons could be a possibility that could give Necro group support in an interesting way and still fit the theme. Although I’m not sure I’m the biggest fan of that idea.

Shouts could be good if they were balanced well.

I’ll take anything that will give Necro good support options tbh.

What’s wrong with the changes to Necromancer is that not much is actually changing.

Our traits are, apparently, just being thrown around to fit into the new system.
Every class is getting so many of their traits merged together and yet ours are left separated? What we got were tweaks to bring traits in line with the new philosophy (essentially, we don’t like on kill traits so we’re going to change those).

Group support is still incredibly minimal, Deathshroud still has a few glaring mechanical issues, Minion AI is still subpar, life leeching abilities are not effective and have not been effective for the entirety of GW2, we have 3 combo finishers 2 reliable ones on Staff and sacrificing Bone Minions, our utility skills and mobility skills are incredibly lackluster.

Looking over that list many of those issues are entire Necro trait lines (DS, MM, LL), if they don’t function at a base level of course we will never have build diversity.

Many builds for other classes deal less damage for the trade off of increased group support. We seem to be designed to deal less damage to balance Deathshroud. If that’s really the case Deathshroud needs a serious look at.

1. Hylek – I love the way they look and run. I think they could be added to the east of Kessex and south of Gandarran.
2. Kodan – They just look awesome. Could easily have a settlement type area north of Snowden Drifts and east of Frostgorge Sound.
3. Grawl – Not a very common pick but ever since I saw the image of the Grawl shaman I’ve always wanted them playable. Perhaps a starting area west of the Plains of Ashford.

Special shout out to Tengu, they are obviously located to the east of Caledon Forest in the Dominion of Winds.

There are a few places where I think Necro combo finishers would make sense, I don’t really get why we are lacking.

Blast

• Unholy Feast (Axe MH)

Leap

• Spectral Grasp (Utility)

Projectile

• Reaper’s Touch (Focus OH)

Whirl

• Deathly Swarm (Dagger OH)
• Wail of Doom (Warhorn OH)

In terms of combo fields, if Grasping Dead and Enfeebling Blood lasted for a bit that would be nice.

Necrotic Grasp pierces (can hit up to 2 additional targets on the way to your target) and has a 20% chance to be a combo finisher.
Fireball travels at a faster rate than NG, deals more damage, and also deals splash damage to other enemies near your target.

So yeah, in terms of damage Fireball is better. I would even say that staff Ele in general, even if just locked into Fire attunement, is far better than staff Necro even though a lot of Necros take staff (because all of our weapon skill group support seems to be stacked onto this one weapon).

It would be nice if we didn’t lose access to our utilities in Death Shroud for this reason and also similar reasons (like controlling Minions).
Maybe the Devs could make our utilities (not Heal or Elite) useable in DS?

Tony.2150:

@Navi.1032
To clear things up i belive necros do not need 2 5 point minor traits with on kill effects/ Reanimator. I feel this is not needed. So clear up reanimator to a major trait? thats a waste but in all said give me clearer reasons behind so.
Well one tree has to be minion centric- For minion master would have no point.
Really liking the ideas
I think some places for combo skills are
Warhorn (OH) – Wail of Doom – Whirl
Dagger (OH) – Deathly Swarm – Whirl
Focus (OH) – Reaper’s Touch – Projectile
Axe (MH) – Unholy Feast – Blast
Scepter (MH) – Grasping Dead – Dark Field
Best part there but for Grasping dead. Does not stay long enough for there to be many combos.

Hmm a bit of clarification on what I meant, I don’t mind that Death is the “minion” trait line but having 2/3 minors minion focused pigeon-holes us into that type of build.
If you go 20 (or 30) into Death for a Well build, Protection of the Horde and Reanimator are totally useless.
Also, I suggested turning Reanimator into a major but I should have added “with changes.” Perhaps lowering the internal cooldown to 10 – 15s, not having the minions degenerate health, and making it so enemies can not rally off their death.

I also agree on the Grasping Dead part, perhaps they could also make it last longer and increase the cooldown a bit to balance that out?

I just removed them, sorry I was at work all day (you might wanna remove your responses to my posts now they look kinda silly all alone :P). Thread looks great!

I agree with most of what you have said, there are some really good suggestions. Reading through your thoughts (and other posts on the forum) it is very evident that our scaling, for both condition damage and power, feels very under-tuned. I am not sure what the Devs internal number testing shows but with so many players feeling the same way I do think there is an issue somewhere.

Also, I agree with your thoughts on trait synergy. I’m actually a bit surprised about your thoughts on the Death traits as I know many posters dislike the fact that they are so Minion-centric.
Personally, I would like to see

• Flesh of the Master made baseline (Minions automatically have more health)
• Reanimator replaces Flesh of the Master (Major X)
• Protection of the Horde (Minor 15) swaps places with Spiteful Vigor (Major VII)
• Minor (5) swaps places with Minor (15) (aka Spiteful Vigor)
• Minor (15) New Denature: Transforms a condition on a nearby ally into a boon every 3 seconds. This trait prioritizes the Necro first
  I specifically picked something to do with group support and boons because the Death trait line has to do with boons and I feel like we are lacking group support.

I would really like to know what your thoughts are on the current state of Necro combo finishers and fields. I, personally, feel that outside of a Well build we are really lacking combo fields and we are lacking finishers in general (even the ones we do have can be annoying to use like Bone Minions and Putrid Mark).

I think some places for combo skills are

• Warhorn (OH) – Wail of Doom – Whirl
• Dagger (OH) – Deathly Swarm – Whirl
• Focus (OH) – Reaper’s Touch – Projectile
• Axe (MH) – Unholy Feast – Blast
• Scepter (MH) – Grasping Dead – Dark Field

Anyways, those are just some thoughts that I had.

I think some of the following things need to really happen for this profession:

1) The most important thing is to get through the, rather daunting, amount of bugs in our skills and traits.

2) Something needs to be done about Death Shroud. From someone who loves the mechanic (from a flavor perspective) I really think it needs a drastic change.
Remove it as a form and replace it with 4 (F1 – F4) abilities that drain our Life Force while activated for an “aura.”

• F1 – Spectral Cloak, grants Retaliation and chills nearby enemies
• F2 – Blood Shield, grants Stability and siphons health from enemies
• F3 – Doom Aura, grants Fury and causes nearby enemies to flee in fear
• F4 – Locust Plague grants Swiftness and poisons nearby enemies
  Life Force pulses once every 3 seconds while an ability is active, each pulse consumes 20/100 Life Force and reapplies its boon and condition. Effects are shut off when the same ability is activated twice or when Life Force is completely consumed.

3) Some of our traits (specifically Death minors) need to be redone

4) Damage scaling needs to be tuned up and Minion AI needs to be improved

5) Our support options need to be increased (combo finishers, fields, and group boons)

After all these changes I would hope it wouldn’t need to be said but just in case, we need more, competitive, build options.

• Necro
  Reaper’s Mark (Staff) — 40s c/d — 1s Duration
  Doom (Death Shroud) — 20s c/d — 1s Duration*
• Ranger
  Terrifying Howl (Wolf) — 45s c/d — 2s Duration
• Thief
  Skull Fear (Steal) — 45s c/d — 3s Duration
• Warrior
  Fear Me (Utility) — 80s c/d — 1-3s Duration
  *Only non-AoE Fear

Based on this list it seems like it would make more sense (based on cooldowns, area of effect, and taking into account the signature skill flavor) that both Necro Fears be bumped up to 2s durations.

[1:20] Steal – 4.5k
[1:20] Cloak and Dagger – 5.5k
[1:20] Backstab – 8.5k

Total 18.5k damage in what appears to be 4 – 6 seconds (based on the log and general skill activation, cooldowns, and resource generation) is a lot.

Even if you dodge, heal, fear, and DS you are just delaying time until those cooldowns are back up. Your conditions aren’t going to take off damage faster than that Thief build.

In any case I think this may be more of an issue with certain profession / build damage being too high rather than anything to do with Necros (especially if the OP is toughness stacking).

Tassy.5891:

Necro isnt broken. in PVE it does the best of all the classes for solo grind,explore whatever you want to do.
in pvp they are just fine. I have not seen a single bug in them so I dont know what class your playing

I’m playing [ https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necromancer-bugs-compilation-1/first ] this profession. What game are you playing?

Tilron.2738:

@Navi – I do not care about Spvp or Tpvp balance, they mean zero to me. WvW and PvE (PvE including dungeons fyi) matter to me about balance and Necromancers are good in these two area’s

So your view is completely bias. You are formulating your opinions on a profession as a whole based on game modes that do not require much balance for success. The types of content that do require balance are suffering but this is okay for you because you do not actively partake in that content (yet still feel the need to comment on it with your irrelevant views).

Tilron.2738:

Why balance a class based on arena pvp when only a small section of players are going to play that mode compared to the other modes? If you want to play PvP arena’s there are many games that balance classes for that type of game play. Go play LoL if you want balanced arena PvP or other games like that. This game main focus is PvE and it should remain that way.

Because sPvP and tPvP is where professions need to be balanced, where you are competing against other players and other professions. Flip your statement around and you can see how much of a hypocrite you are being.
“Why balance around WvW and Events when only a [insert made up numerical reference here] number of players are going to be doing that content.” The profession needs to be balanced for all content in the game, and not with just 1 build but to be on par with other professions.
Also, please provide a source for the bolded part or else that is complete BS. There is more evidence for this game being a PvP game than there is for it being a PvE game and even still that doesn’t mean the developers should be balancing for one type of content and not the others.

Tilron.2738:

I like how you get to decided which is more important because you think sPvP and Tpvp are important, you think the rest does not matter, I disagree. I think spvp and tpvp are useless mini games, why balance a game based on a mini game?

I like how you didn’t take my advice and still don’t seem to know how to read. I am not saying one is more important than the other I am saying balance isn’t as necessary in certain types of content comparative to others.

Tilron.2738:

WvW and PvE balance matter more to me than s PvP Epen.is Arena’s that have zero baring on the game and are nothing more than a mini game.

This is probably one of the most mind-meltingly asinine things I have read on these forums to date.
1) This game doesn’t have arena
2) SPvP =/= Minigame
3) This game is various parts that make a whole and all of them need to be balanced

You accuse me of saying x form of content is more important than y form of content and then go on to say this. Hypocrisy at its finest.

Tilron.2738:

Also, since we can agree that the class has bugs and is not yet working at 100%, nobody can say that Necromancers are not balanced for Spvp and Tpvp until our stuff is fixed.

Anyone with half a brain can say we are not balanced for SPvP and TPvP because we have vast quantity of bugs and besides those our scaling and various mechanics are not up to par with other professions.

Let me break this down for you

A)
1. You said all my opinion is based of theorycraft (even though I posted 0 theorycraft)
2. I said you are making baseless assumptions
3. You claim I make baseless assumptions of you playing with random trash, my assumption was actually based off of

“Also sorry, but you seem to be using just theorycrafting. However, I’m using my experience in dungeons (50 hours or so) and so far, it tells me that most people got damage builds and don’t bring any support at all and worse, they die constantly while bragging about the 6-10k crits they can’t land because they die so much.”

which tells me the players you play with are bad and most likely randoms. Unless you meant to imply that your friends are bad, which is fine in my books I suppose.

B) Again, no theorycraft. I am starting to think that you actually have no idea what theorycrafting is. I also never claimed that a single profession brings full buff coverage, I would never make such an idiotic statement.
I did, however, say that 5 profession can bring full boon coverage, which they can.

Tilron.2738:

Navi.1032:

I love the people that come into these sorts of threads and say something to the effect of “Necros are fine noobs! I do so good in WvW and World Events!”

Really? You do fine in giant zergs against mediocre players? How absolutely shocking.

Try doing some content that actually takes some skill, like sPvP / tPvP or the dungeon paths that everyone is not farming. Then come back and say that Necros are on the same level as everyone else.

Also, being able to press Signet of Spite and then Epidemic followed by “kiting” (aka running around in DS while things die) is not an achievement. It’s the only play-style you are built to preform with.

Yet another “I cannot do well, so you guys are lying” Post.

Who cares about Spvp or Tpvp. PvE, WvW and Dungeons are the only thing that matters to me and my Necro does just fine in all 3 of those arena’s.

If I wanted to play battleground pvp games, I would not have switched away from the other MMOs that ofter that type of pvp.

Perhaps you should spend less time playing MMOs and more time learning how to read. I clearly didn’t say I don’t do well nor did I say anyone was lying. I am saying the content that people are referring to is irrelevant to overall game balance.

No one cares about WvW balance. It does not take any skill to spam Epidemic and Staff skills into a herd of bads.

No one cares about World Event balance. It is not hard to kill 1 mob with 70 people. It takes an incredibly small amount of skill.

And unless you are referring to the actual difficult dungeon paths (not Magg runs or story modes) then no one cares about the balance in those either.

People care about SPvP and TPvP because that’s where game balance actually shows. People care about their performance vs others in high end dungeons because that’s where game balance matters.

I also rerolled Mesmer and it is a lot of fun. Started off feeling a bit squishy but each time I got a new utility skill I just felt noticeably more powerful.

I love the people that come into these sorts of threads and say something to the effect of “Necros are fine noobs! I do so good in WvW and World Events!”

Really? You do fine in giant zergs against mediocre players? How absolutely shocking.

Try doing some content that actually takes some skill, like sPvP / tPvP or the dungeon paths that everyone is not farming. Then come back and say that Necros are on the same level as everyone else.

Also, being able to press Signet of Spite and then Epidemic followed by “kiting” (aka running around in DS while things die) is not an achievement. It’s the only play-style you are built to preform with.

Sebyos.4089:

Navi.1032:

Is it just me or does it seem like the OP completely overlooks the fact that all professions bring conditions and in many cases they are far stronger and/or more accessible than ours.

There is really no reason to bring a Necro to apply conditions while everyone else pew pews away when you can bring 5 professions that will give you full condition coverage as well as boon coverage and damage that a Necro would not provide.

With the way the game is designed a pure support build is not comparable to a build that can deal damage and still provide the necessary support (boons/conditions/control/combos/utility/etc.).

You seem to forget that Necro can do it without losing damage too. Bleed damage ticks between 117 and 125 for me atm and I got weak gear so it feels like it’s good damage and great AoE.

Also sorry, but you seem to be using just theorycrafting. However, I’m using my experience in dungeons (50 hours or so) and so far, it tells me that most people got damage builds and don’t bring any support at all and worse, they die constantly while bragging about the 6-10k crits they can’t land because they die so much. I’m much happier staying alive and constantly keeping 10 bleeds up on every target than I would landing a few big hits here and there and dying so much.

So no I really don’t think other profession bring the necessary support of conditions and boons you’r talking about right now and if people someday start thinking about support a bit more I’m fairly sure we would still have a nice little niche.

I seem to be using just theorycrafting according to what? Nice, completely baseless, assumption there. Also, theorycraft will always be superior to anecdotal evidence.
I have farmed a full set of CoF gear (and not just running Magg over and over although that was a large part of it for the first few pieces) and have done exploration modes in all the other dungeons as well (working towards completing all the paths). I’ve spent far more than 50 hours in dungeons.

The players that I run with all play hybrid builds (a mix of survivability, utility, and damage; really the only way you can complete some of the exploration modes) and comparative to these builds Necromancers do not bring enough utility to offset the large gap in damage. We don’t even bring a large portion of utility when you look beyond conditions. Our choices for combo finishers and fields, boons, and unique skills (like Quickness and Stealth) pale in comparison to other professions.

Comparing your damage and survivability to bad randoms you run dungeons with is also hardly useful in illustrating your point. Play with good players, they will still hit for 6k+ and won’t die. They will debuff a target just as much as you will while providing boons and utilizing combo effects.
A profession having 1 niche is not balanced when nearly all other professions can perform in a variety of different ways.

Is it just me or does it seem like the OP completely overlooks the fact that all professions bring conditions and in many cases they are far stronger and/or more accessible than ours.

There is really no reason to bring a Necro to apply conditions while everyone else pew pews away when you can bring 5 professions that will give you full condition coverage as well as boon coverage and damage that a Necro would not provide.

With the way the game is designed a pure support build is not comparable to a build that can deal damage and still provide the necessary support (boons/conditions/control/combos/utility/etc.).

• Lingering Curses and Hemophilia do not stack
• Weakening Shroud only stacks 1 bleed instead of 2 (as it should)
• Greater Marks does not increase Chillblain’s effect and Marks can still be blocked
• Mark of Evasion only stacks 2 bleeds instead of 3 (as it should) and does not work with Soul Marks
• Path of Midnight does not reduce the cooldown of Life Transfer

And Reanimator is bad.

Not much you can do about those things though, if all the bugs were ironed out the build would probably be a lot better (which is sad since you claim it’s the only viable team build).

Here is my Necro, I am going to change this gear as soon as I can find a steady group to farm Arah with.

I agree with many of your statements, I am also planning on rerolling (probably to Elementalist, Guardian, or Mesmer). I kind of wish that I didn’t farm a full dungeon armor set or learned 250+ dyes on my Necro.

Biggest issues for me:

Damage

• Low Damage (especially on melee weapons)
• Odd and low Condition Scaling

Support

• Very restrictive group boon selection
• Minimal combo fields outside of Well build
• Virtually non-existent combo finishers (with most that we do have being a pain to use)

Builds

• Few high end, competitive, builds
• Certain minor traits are useless outside of specific builds
• Major trait layout is a bit odd in places

Miscellaneous

• Minion AI can be very cumbersome to work with
• A lot of bugs with traits and utilities, many seem to not work together as advertised
• http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/63398-necro-traitsskills-that-dont-work-as-they-state/
  (Good resource to highlight these issues)

Venator.5780:

• Discount waypoint costs for fully explored zones

This is a really good idea imo. More of a long-term perk for exploration and it solves this issue as well.

lol, epic fail there on the “correction”

In any case I would say Guardian.

• Weapon choices all have a clear and well thought out purpose
• Utility skills are varied between offense, defense, and support
• Traits are well laid out and synergise well
• Good balance of combo fields and finishers
• Decent array of conditions and fantastic boons
• Multiple high performing builds

I think Warrior would probably come in second followed by Ranger to round out the top 3 spots.

I didn’t know if there was anywhere better to put this, I was debating putting it in the Dungeon subforum but it didn’t really feel like it belonged there.

In any case, I love the customization options in this game; especially when it comes to gear customization (almost 250 dye colours!).

Right now I am in the process of building a Citadel of Flame Light Armor gear set for my Necromancer (5/6 pieces!) but I have a bit of an issue. The flames on the gear are orange/yellow and it’s really messing with my customization options

Could we get an option to “dye” the fire into different colours, even if the selection is limited to ROYGBIV (and possibly white)?

Not a massive issue, but it would be cool.

I want playable Hylek, I love the way they run and armor looks so cool on them. Hylek Necromancer in Citadel of Flame gear

I really want to see Scythes (even though Necros kind of have the animation already), Polearms, Chakram, Whips, and Fist Weapons.

I’d be down with 1 of 2 things

1) Global LFG channel, pretty self explanatory.
2) LFG feature that requires you to be in your dungeons zone, meaning that if you want to run Citadel of Flame you go to Fireheart Rise and join the LFG tool.

People seem to forget that there is a need for players to be in certain zones because those dungeons become contested. If everyone is in a different zone waiting in dungeon finder that dungeon will rarely become uncontested.

Also, I don’t really get the outcry to make dungeons easier/more accessible (except for when bugged or near impossible obviously). It’s for vanity gear, put the effort into it. If all you want are the stats there are easier ways to get comparable gear.

Dungeons should also be removed from the game and gear tokens should rain from the skies above Lion’s Arch.

General

I actually do agree with some of the stuff the OP is saying even if sometimes (s)he comes off as a touch hostile.

Necromancers have some bugs here and there, but that’s really no surprise as every class seems to have some.

There are some quality of life fixes that would be greatly appreciated (specifically when looking at Minions, area of effect damage is far too effective at wiping them out and the AI is a bit sluggish/unresponsive).

Some of our minor traits seem odd, being specifically geared to a certain build even if it’s not the build you are using (focused again on Minions or Death line here). As a Protection Well Necro I have 20 points in Death, Reanimator and Protection of the Horde do absolutely nothing for my build and it seems very odd to me.

Additionally, a lot of our traits seem to be not working properly at the moment or our skills are not synergizing together as we would expect. Examples being Greater Marks; Banshee’s Wail; Lingering Curses + Hemophilia; and Quickening Thirst (MH) + Quickening Thirst (OH) + Signet of the Locust.

Damage

Condition Damage scaling seems a bit low to the point where many players feel like they have to stack condition damage stat to get it up to more competitive levels, this issue becomes very apparent when you consider how many of our weapon abilities deal condition damage (it’s a lot, which emphasizes the mandatory feel of the stat).

Straight Power build is also low comparative to other professions Power builds. For Dagger I feel like we are too heavily taxed for Life Siphoning which just doesn’t work well for us, any experienced MMO player can tell you that stopping damage before it happens (absorbs, immunities, etc.) is better than healing damage that is done to you. In this game, Dagger Necro spends so much time in melee there needs to be a bit more survivability built into the weapon set.

Axe is okay, but again comparatively the damage is just low to other professions melee builds. For example gearing and traiting to max out Power and Axe damage I hit for about 2/3rds the damage of a less geared but similarly traited melee Warrior.

Support

It also feels like we are lacking boons, specifically group boons. Really the only Boons we give allies, and I may be missing some here, are Protection (Spectral Wall and Ritual of Protection (Death IV) and Regeneration (Mark of Blood and Reaper’s Touch). It would be nice if Locust Swarm also applied Swiftness to nearby allies, Unholy Feast’s Retaliation applied to nearby allies, and even if Reaper’s Touch’s Regen was Might instead (for some variety).

In a similar vein we seem to be lacking combo fields a bit (unless you go Well build) and we are definitely lacking Combo Finishers, which further detracts from our ability to buff allies. Even the combo finishers we do have (like Putrid Mark and Bone Minions) are very finicky to use. Maybe making Deathly Swarm and Locust Swarm into Whirl finishers would help with this.

Builds

I, and I know a few others, really wish there were more top tier builds for Necros. Minion Master is pretty close to being there in my opinion; it just needs a few minion survivability tweaks and some AI improvement. It would be great if we could see a Death Shroud focused build come back (much like the DS builds from beta).

Also, a quick note that I think Focus could still use a bit of work to bring it up to par with other off hands. The change to Spinal Shivers is nice but Reaper’s Touch is still a bit underwhelming (perhaps it’s just me though). Wail of Doom (Warhorn) could also use a bit of readjustment (either increased duration, increased area of effect, or reduced cooldown).

Content

I think that the builds we have right now are very powerful in WvW. I can deal insane amounts of damage to huddles of enemy players with a simple Signet of Spite and Epidemic combination.

For PvE we, again, have some good builds. They are similar to the builds we use for WvW with condition spreading, pure damage, or well support.

SPvP is where the profession seems to struggle the most. We don’t really output the raw damage to compete nor do we have support options that are comparable to what other professions bring. I think Carrion Crow’s post on Paradigm does a good job of explaining the vast majority of the issues here.

There are multiple issues with the Staff atm

*Auto-attack sound
*Necrotic Grasp is very slow
*Vampiric not working
*Mark of Blood does not seem to benefit from Greater Marks

MokahTGS.7850:

• All Minions need to regen health out of combat, just like pets.
• CD for Blood fiend needs to be removed when it is killed but mobs or AoE. Consuming it for health retains the CD.
• Flesh Golem (and all minions) AI needs to be fixed or given finer control.
• Jagged Horrors need the degen removed.
• All “Oh Noes, my minion died!!” VO should be removed. They are minions…not cherished pets.
• Bone minions need to run to target to explode, and it should pick the one that has the least health.

This is a great list.

I also, personally, think that Flesh of the Master should be the (25) Death minor and should allow minions to inherit a percentage of the players Toughness and Vitality. Then DS should be moved to 15, and PotH to 5, and Reanimator redesigned to the (X) Major which summons a non-degenerating Jagged Horror on a 10 – 15s internal cooldown.