Aside from all the bugs that the necro has, whether it be utility skills or traits not working, the major issues of the profession lie in the categories i mention in the title: Trait Synergy, Damage, Builds and Tradeoffs.
Trait synergy with this class is paltry at best. If we are going for a condition build, then we have to take precision and condition damage, even though conditions cannot crit and the only reason we need the crit is for a 1 second bleed, which cant crit! The other problem with this build is life force generation, which is now even worse with the change to Blood Is Power, although it does give us a good conditon damage boost which you can spread with epidemic. However, if we want to improve condition duration, we need to invest points in the Power tree. As for a power build, you are losing damage because it is being wasted in condition duration and damage. Minions are worthless in pvp, so the current toughness tree is only good for the staff traits. A survivability support role is somewhat possible, but it is still horrible compared to other support classes. These need to be adjusted so that the different builds can be played at their best.
The second problem is damage. A lot of abilities are dodgeable, and we get probably the lowest numbers in the game. This could be fixed easily by changing either base damage of specific attacks so we at least compare to the damage of other classes, or to balance the trait trees, which would also be a major factor in improving damage.
Necros also have build choices which can all be fulfilled better by another profession. A guardian or warrior can support a group much better than necros, and most classes have abilities to support the group. Our best support skill is our Plague Form elite where we spam blind(which i love). Other than that we have a weak regen, small protection wells that will hit only those you are standing around, some blinds and some condition transfers from a well and staff 4. Power builds are better with other professions, which goes back to damage, and same goes for condition builds. The best thing we have is the condition build because of its condition control, but not because of its damage. The condition control is amazing, but apart from that we lack in damage. Along with that, bleeds only stack to 25, so if there is any other class that stacks bleeds, then we lose a lot of damage(which a lot of condition professions do). Our survivability is good when you trait for it or gear for it, but that leads to the last major problem, tradeoffs.
If we want to be a support player, you have no damage. But if you want to give up survivability and gain more damage, you don’t gain enough damage to justify giving up the survivability. We have no glass cannon build, because we cannot generate enough damage to do it. Our support build is lackluster, and you have barely and damage. We also have tradeoffs in our traits, as mentioned above. We need to get crit for condition builds, but they cant crit.. etc.
This is a little side note, but i have always loved the greatsword weapon. I think a damage oriented greatsword build for the necro would be awesome. Thoughts on that?
All in all the necro class has a good foundation. I am able to top the leaderboards in sPvP, and do some real harm in WvW. I am not trying to take the skill out of the class, because it is a class with a bit more involvement ( i picked up a thief in sPvP and was able to employ all the tactics within minutes of joining the game). All we need is to have the synergy that other classes have, that make the profession and our builds fun, instead of making us choose certain builds only, without the ability to perfom the tasks as well as other professions can.
Let me know what you guys think.
