Guild Wars 2

CHIPS.6018:

I just feel that the class designers for Anet has never played a necromancer in GW1. At the very least, they have no idea what makes necromancers in GW1 so fun. That’s why they have no idea how to transfer that fun in GW1 over to GW2 for necromancers.

It should be obvious to all that the GW2 necromancer has NOTHING to do with the GW1 necromancer. It is a 100% new class. The GW1 necromancer are built around 4 very strong themes: Blood Magic, Death Magic, Curses and Soul Reaping. And each traits are very thematic and fits the class. The GW2 necromancer has these IN NAME ONLY. The essences of these traits weren’t carried over from GW1 into GW2 at all. Instead GW2 necromancer is built around ONE SINGLE WORD: Attrition.

What does attrition even mean? Because every OTHER class in GW2 does attrition better than necromancer.

Hence this is the core of the problem for the GW2 necromancer. That’s why it still isn’t fixed after the game’s 5th birthday and might never be fixed. That the GW2 necromancer is build around attrition INSTEAD of the GW1 necromancer.

Yes that’s right. It should have been a REQUIREMENT for the GW2 necromancer to be designed around what made the GW1 necromancer FUN TO PLAY. But nope. It is all about attrition. That is why the class is in ruins and is still in ruins after 5 years.

A lot of people only played GW2 and never GW1. They have no idea why the GW2 necromancer is such a disappointment for us veteran GW1 players that has been there since GW1 beta. You have to understand that I took my GW1 necromancer from beta all the way to finishing Winds of Change in Hard Mode.

If Anet wants to fix the GW2 necromancer, they have to first play the necromancer in GW1. They have to FIRST understand what Blood Magic is about, Death Magic is about, Curses is about and Soul Reaping is about in GW1. And then maybe there is hope.

There are certainly very clear problems, like Death Shroud. Yes it is totally useless except for some extra HP. The problem is because Anet choose PASSIVE FACETANKING instead of ACTIVE DAMAGE CONTROL. Death Shroud is all passive facetanking. You just turn on death shroud and face tank damage. Where is the player skill in that? Instead a successful attrition class should have used active damage control. That is we can block when we want, stun enemies when we want, “Backfire” enemies when we want, etc. This is true attrition. Facetanking is not attrition. It is just an excuse to make a very-underpowered class. Death Shroud is the bane of the necromancer and should be removed completely until Anet figure out what to do with it.

But even these obvious problems aren’t even the core problem. The core problem is that the GW1 necromancer is missing. Instead this idea of attrition is ruining the class.

I will give a clear example.
Let’s say a GW2 necromancer has 200HP, 60 healing rating and 80 damage rating.
And then we have a standard class that is standard at 100 HP, 70 healing rating and 90 damage rating.

Necro has double the HP and only a bit less damage. So it looks good right? Nope!

After the first time period of fighting the necromancer will have 200-90=110 health. It is healed by 60 back up to 170. The other class will have 100-80=20 health. It heals by 70 to back to 90.

After the 2nd period the necromancer will have 170-90+60=140. Other have 90-80+70=80.

3rd Period: Necro 140-90+60=110. Other 80-80+70=70

4th Period: Necro=110-90+60=80. Other 70-80=>Dead.

Yay necro wins right? On paper yes. And that is the struggle that Anet has. On paper necro looks good. The mathematics looks good. So if necros keep lossing, it is the player’s fault.

Of course what wasn’t said was stuff like the necros keep on getting pinballed around. etc. And it is NOT due to bad player skills that the necro gets pinballed around. This is VERY IMPORTANT. It is due to necro’s total lack of actual counter to things like this.

Also keep in mind that if the match keeps on going to the 5th around, the necro would have died. So the match is actually very close. Also we have to keep in mind that I am talking about a double of health at start, 200 vs 100. Meanwhile the healing power is different by a much smaller amount, 60 vs 70. And damage is also different by a much smaller amount, 80 vs 90. But look at how close the match actually ends up being. Point here is that just doubling the health doesn’t mean all that much. At the very least, not nearly as much difference as Anet seems to think.

And of course Death Shroud isn’t actually double HP. That’s because the necro’s whole skill bar becomes DISABLED when they are in Death Shroud. So a necro actual hurts its own effciency by entering Death Shroud.

What I am getting at is that if Anet only look at the numbers and math, perhaps the necromancer looks good. But numbers and math means nothing on the actual battlefield. And certainly they mean nothing in making the class actually fun to play.

thank you <3 <3 <3 <3

Kaladel.1670:

Silmariena.6205:

This forum is full of fantastic ideas for making necro more competitive. Simple way to rework ? For me:

Axe ? mele weapon <3
Rending Claws ? 130 range, targets: 3
Ghastly Claws ? 300 range, targets: 5, combo: whirl
Unholy Feast ? Health Threshold: 50%

We already have two melee weapons (dagger & greatsword), do we need more ? We are a scholar profession, after all. And axe is our ranged power weapon.
I’d personnaly make Unholy Feast a blast finisher, we lack those, I agree with you on raising the health treshold, not sure on the exact value.
A bit of cleave on Rending Claws could be good too.

For me – yes we need mele weapon, the greatesword is slow and available only for specialization that is not a core weapon, dagger is a pure dps weapon with no chance to improve condi dmg. For range we have scepter and staff, axe have many options to boost necros dps especially in case of an condi dps. When we compare how the sister skills of the same weapons in other professions, you can see how much necro stands in the way.
I wrote it because I know that for another specialization we will be waiting a year and a quick rework weapon would introduce a lot of new capabilities.

This forum is full of fantastic ideas for making necro more competitive. Simple way to rework ? For me:

Axe ? mele weapon <3
Rending Claws ? 130 range, targets: 3
Ghastly Claws ? 300 range, targets: 5, combo: whirl
Unholy Feast ? Health Threshold: 50%

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Someone said that dagger is no longer power weapon cause of self bleeds on 3.
Those actually make it even more power weapon.

These are used to make #2 skill stronger. Stronger life drain if self bleeding, stronger power damage if enemy bleeds.

This is truly a great move from a-net – making a power necro who was outta loop in terms of condition gameplay, actually care and benefit from manipulating condies on himself ane enemies.

Necro’s own DPS sucks, that is true. But i am seeing and liking what they’ve been doing recently with him on other fronts. How they attached unique gameplay and roles for his weapons (dagger, axe gs).

Axe is now a ranged execute weapon that grows in power the more vulnerable the foe is. Greatsword received sustain option worthy of a reaper (the health regen).
And dagger now encourges paying attention to self condies and those on enemy on a power build for increased damage and life steal.

As Obtena pointed out – LF generation on scourge is a scourge issue, not a dagger issue. Dagger has a very good spot to sit on. Also i use it a lot in spvp and got no complaints, for those saying it’s subpar in spvp setting.

Pls great move? only in pvp you have the chance to keep self bleeding. On pve this is useless especially that the skill includes one goal… And there is not even a transfer for allies on Life siphon.

Thank you for the words of truth <3

and blast !!!

Human female hairstyles <3

Spear as mele weapon <3 and utility symbols → grant boosts to alies and dmg foes <3 it’s so simple and needed. Increases movment speed when wielding twohanded weapon (?) <3

Second sword would be nice too ;>

• gw1 dance style
• race change
• more appearance options
• gw1 hairstyles
  <3

Maybe Christmas miracle? ^^

I wan’t to be mobility when cast 3rd skill on sword thats all.
Have a nice day!

Lily.1935:

Since my job is rather boring, I’ve been thinking about a few different directions that the devs could take the necromancer with future elite specializations. I’ve come up with 4 possible elite specs in that time with only 1 of them in a presentable form to be shown at the moment. However, I don’t wish to share the skills and traits of that elite spec because I suspect that it might already have been planned for the necromancer anyway. Though that’s kinda a Tin Foil hat belief so thats meh.

So the 4 elite specializations that I’ve come up with each work with what the necromancer has and what its missing to see what we can come up with. The 4 I’ve come up with are Ritualist, Lich, Witch and Vampire.

• Ritualist: This first idea was what I speculated would be the necromancer’s first elite specialization to which I was wrong. This elite specialization the concept behind it is pretty much complete with a full list of traits, skills, weapon and even spectral shroud. But I’m not going to show this one just yet, but rather tease it.

The Ritualist elite specialization is a heavily supportive profession that functions extremely well at long range. The spirits they summon having a 1,200 radius and providing both offense and defensive. 3 of the spirits were defensive while the other 3 were more offensive. I’ll give you two skills to show you have impactful they could be.

1. Dissonance: Summon a spirit of dissonance. Every 3 seconds a condition on each allie is transfered to a foe in range. Dissonance loses health for each condition transfered this way.
   ^Agony: Sacrifice dissonance to convert boons on foes within range into conditions. 600 radius of the spirit.
2. Call to the Spirit Realm: Summon a Spirit of Anger, Hate and Suffering. These spirits each send out bolts, damaging your foes.
   ^Summon Spirits: teleport all your spirits within range to target location healing them. 10s cool down.

The spirits themselves are actually fairly fragile but have extremely powerful effects. Because of the health loss of Dissonance it can’t be maintained forever. It will kill itself rather quickly the more allies are in the area. Although health can be adjusted you can expect it to last long enough to seriously hinder your foes.

Call to the Spirit realm is the elite. And it has a dual function, giving you the power to move your spirits at will and heal them. Their abilities are nothing to take lightly. These aren’t your ranger spirits, these are ritualist spirits!

I’ll also give you a preview of a couple of the traits. One Minor and a two grandmaster to see where my thinking is.

1. Minor: Spirit to Flesh: Whenever you would gain life force heal allies for a small ammount. 600 radius.
2. Explosive Growth: Whenever you summon a creature lightning surges out from its location, damaging foes and healing allies.
3. Sight beyond Sight: Stealthed foes have a blue flame around them while you’re in shroud. You are immue to blind while in shroud.

Ritualists are summoners. They were in GW1 and they should be in GW2. Explosive growth lets you combo with runes and sigils, Spirits and also the ever popular Minions! One thing that I really loved about the ritualist in GW1 was this ability to add abilities to their summons like damage or healing. It was something that made a ritualist minion master very unique when compared to a necromancer minion master. So I want to embody that idea in GW2. Giving you some very unique ways to play a minion master. The minor plays into the support aspect of the Ritualist. Letting you benefit and provide support to allies with some minor healing as you build to your spectral shroud. Sight beyond sight is just a total flavor bomb of a trait. Rather than revealing foes from stealth like other anti stealth abilities the ritualist can just SEE them. This gives them the knowledge to always know were their foe is but thieves can still back stab a ritualist.

Nice idea, necros are summoners so why not “spirit summoner” with new staff skills and support for team?
+1

Wetpaw.3487:

Grymlocke.1067:

MY suggestions

1: Race change
Price 1000 gems

• if you have completed your story quest you can change your race

snip*

Race Change please.

+1

I really want to thank You all. Now i know that this problem is much more complex. Simple solution is create trit which makes marks instacast for pve players and rework only Necrotic grasp to more aoe skill like eles fireball.
Chances for staff as a power 1200 ranged weapon could give us only new line of specialization with new skills & trits and then we have chance to get true dps casters.

And we have another event with structures where marks do not activatet on them…

ZDragon scepter and axe are the seperate topic. I just want to say that 3 years is enough waiting. We get new instances and we need to prepare – and we need this discussion.
I still think that necros needs AA similar to fireball, animation and skill name is the least important.

nekretaal.6485:

The staff is garbage once 4 + 5 go on their long cooldowns.

Until now this has been ok, because necromancers have Death shroud for proper ranged offense. (And a few patches ago, necromancer had a non crap scepter weapon to swap to).

This is a real problem, but the best fix is to fix axe + focus + scepter, so that you have useable weapons with their own strengths and weaknesses.

Also, not enough chill on 3, and too long cooldown on 2.

Yes and no. We all understand that every class needs 1200 range weapon but why necromancers weapon must be the most crappy one?
I know that this solution is not a perfect one but it is simplest one to give us better gameplay. I don’t belive enymore for bigest changes like delete marks and give sybols on their place for example.

And I still hope for a fix for staff skill on necro… Creators are always talking about balancing this game, so I ask: where?. Necro don’t even have half good skills on staff like Ele does.
My suggestions?

• necrotic grasp -> Dark Orb : Cast a orb of dark shadow that explodes on impact and hits multiple foes.
• double klick mark gives activate skill to makes our blast usable and gives regen to our party when they need it and cast them on world bosses.

Who is with me?

Twohanded SPEAR as meleweapon – YES (guard+thief+necro+ranger)! And twohanded AXE!

Quickening Thirst : Increases movement speed for while wielding a dagger. Dagger skills recharge faster if activated while above the health threshold. —-—> Increases movement speed for while wielding a dagger or greatsword. Dagger and greatsword skills recharge faster if activated while above the health threshold. Or something like that…
+ stability sharing from shout.

to be welcom in partys necros needs : blast & might sharing.

Swiftness for all from warhorn pls…

Elite signet with passive siphon/ active heal allies + might + fury.

• much more armors sets
• much more hair/look style
• advanced body creator
• race change
• dance style from gw1
• voice change
• move/combat style change
  all to customize our chars – to make them unique

I played my necro 846 days… and I really want to make her a norn, so how can I left my main? She must be the best – get all dungs story, maps, crafts and everything. I dont want a NEW char a want my main but in the other race.

Yep i know and it’s my nightmare…

On the wind of changes maybey someone think about add new weapons pls? Like spear as mele twohanded weapon and maybey some irrational thinking : give us choose weapon skills?

EU Underworld, all in my guild have this problem…