Some long parts, but worth the wait. This is kinda what his build is like. Its pre-patch and I had to change it some for post-patch play, but this is the general idea of what he is getting at. Glad to see others experimenting with different things.
This “problem” has been going on in every WvWvW/ RvR/ PvPvP type game made to-date.
Dark Age of Camelot had the same problems with one side having more players then the other 2 factions. WAR online had the same problem and Aion was a nightmare and SWOTOR was lol at unbalanced sides.
I am not going to go into details of all the other pvp based MMO’s I have played over 14 years. but this is nothing new.
Since most of the mmo population exploded when World of Warcraft was unleashed, a lot of players who did play since beta remember how something as simple as battlegrounds was horrid. The average Que to get into Alterac Valley was 3.5 hours. Do you know what Blizzard did? Something amazing called cross server battlegrounds. The que’s went to instant pop and the players rejoiced. Something along those lines has to happen in order for any realm vrs realm vrs realm or server vr server vs server or faction vrs faction to succeed.
Im not going to tell the DEVs what they need to do, because its their game and if I don’t like what is going on I will move to another game. Back when Dev’s did not listen to people crying about something or another during the days of the old school mmos it was common place for Devs to remind us that it is their game. If you don’t like it move on, but no game company will say that now because its all about the $.
The only way I can see a pop vrs pop game being balanced is to open a q to a static battleground ascross all servers. If 12 servers que for say EB then those players would go to a self existing EB until it was player capped, then it would go down to a lower teir where keeps would reset every 3 days. When that cap is full everyone else would be shoved into lower tier EBs that acted like overflows where keeps reset everyday. Sort of a ladder type deal. This way the every server’s population can be spread out and eventually with a q system u can choose to go up a tier map or what not. Of course they would have to change the system of upgrading keeps since on the lower tiers it would not make sense to upgrade them if they reset daily. That’s an idea just off the top of my head.
The biggest problem, for us at least is the lack of a knights amulet. power prec vit sucks compared to power precision toughness. It is really hard to make a great axe power spec with the seriously lack of toughness we get in that version of pvp. A good spec though would still be the typical 30/25/0/0/15 for tpvp power. Some argue 30/10/0/0/30 is better but for axe #2 when you bring crit up to extreme numbers like 50% base then you start seeing higher dmg caps then you would with a lower crit. That and against bunker builds strait power is cut by a 3rd.
That being said, I did love axe when I played with it, and the channel #2 can be great for getting all my procs off asap, but the lack of being able to attack invis targets or take roots off me just got to be to much, so I replaced it with dagger.
AH not sure how to do quotes yet, was quoting on someone’s post who has I guess deleted it lol, oh well, but yeah 20 points into blood is kinda fun even without full healing power.
I can see your point flow, but in all my power specs I have used full zerk and at least 30 points into spite. Plus I never went 20 points into the blood tree in a power spec so this is prob why I consider it a hybrid spec. Condition’s are applied with every type of ability and weapons regardless of spec but which ever. I would never go strait condition dmg though for pve/wvw. Which is why im taking a serious look into celestial gear.
Toughness changes Necros greatly. PWR/PREC/TOUGH is fantastic for power type specs and Rabid gear is outstanding for condition dmg type Necros. Our base Hp is fine imo and once you start stacking toughness (I aim for around 2500-2600) that’s around 28% less dmg instead of 9% ish at 1950 toughness.
I too lived without greater marks for a great portion of my 10 months as a Necromancer. Since I have been using it I cannot live without it. I do not like being blocked. Besides, when I PvE I go with the 10 points into death magic tree for Cure a condition when entering Death Shroud. Great for throwing up blood is power and curing it instantly when I Shroud dance for the fury. Everything to help me stay above 90% health for Scholar runes makes me happy.
Dudes Quote : The Laurels are poorly designed for a PvP game mode, period.
The fact that player kills award no Laurels in themselves (besides the time-gated daily) shows just how kittened up gear acquisition is for WvW.
Whoever heard of a PvP game mode where you can’t get your endgame gear by actually doing PvP?
There were none…until now.
DAOC, AION, TERA, WoW(before Resilence), AoC, is just a few off the top of my head. People fail to realize the idea behind an mmo is that you can aquire anything over time since it is not a “I must have everything NOW” single player game. There is very little difference between exotic and ascended, certainly not enough to give a huge advantage. If you want to PvP for only PvP items then id suggest either playing the garbage conquest games in spvp/tpvp modes or heading over to another game.
Back before MMO’s went huge and were still underground DEVs would sometimes remind players that it is their game and they will make it the way they like it and here and there take advice if they feel it is needed, otherwise please find a new game. (of course I’ve seen EQ down for 7 days and tons of bomb threats and violence LOL). But with all the money out there you will never hear a DEV say that again.
If you go back a few pages I made a long video of me roaming as a Necro. The best advice any of us can give who have been Necro mains since release is once you decide to roam understand that there is no getaway button. Sure you can hide fleshwurm somewhere, or fight near keeps and run in to them quickly to get away. Once combat starts or I begin running 1 or 3 people down, I give it everything.
Once you start to realize this your I am sure you will see how much better you can do. I have won ALOT of my fights by not running when another enemy decides to jump in, I just continue to focus one person till he is down then work on downing the other. The punishment system in this game for dying is so laughable that honestly I will sometimes throw myself into hopeless situations just to see what I can handle. But instead of trying to run away, just fight like the hell. Better then dying with your back to an enemy and it makes me smile every time I manage to kill at least one player in a group of enemies when its just little old me =D
Well after being power for 8 out of the 9 months I have been playing my Necromancer, I decided to try out some different hybrid trait choices. I found one I really enjoy in PvE but while I spend all my time mostly in WvWvW, I was curious as how it would play out in a chaotic roaming rampage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrSTrxZPZSU
Spectral Grasp fail outside lake was hilarious, he latterly moved 2 feet lol.
Keep in mind I did not cut anything and just recorded from start to stop, so sorry if there are a few minutes of running around.
I normally run 30/25/10/0/10, or 30/30/10 but I decided to go for, 0/30/10/20/10. The first few fights was pretty good, underwater people don’t really have a lot of practice though. By the end the Ele I fought I made a key mistake which was not loading Lich Form up before engaging. I got kitteny thinking I could take him and well, next time.
Most fun I have had in awhile. The style and play reminds me of UT2004 and other 1st person shooters! If sPVP had a game like this I would never leave!
Life Blast still procs flame blast. I have used it since release and have it on every weapon I have ever owned. The only time signets carried over was well before the Signet of the Locust upgrade, since to achieve higher then the 10% speed it was u had to trait 15% faster speed in Death Shroud (which of course is all forgotten about and a useless trait imo). Sucks but atleast my 1500-2100k Fire blast still goes off every 5 seconds in death Shroud, though I wish it would do that in lich form. Regardless I always have up signet of the locust if I am moving so I don’t really notice the few slow seconds I’m actually in DS.
This is nothing new. DAOC faced the same problems, as did Aion, and a few of the other WvWvW, RvRvR, and such mmo’s. There is not really that much that anyone can do about it. The biggest hamper ATM is downmode and very small maps allowing quick recovery. Myself I can easily down 4-5 players in a zerg with some good crits from my openers yet this means nothing cause the zerg will just steam roll forward a few feet and insta undown them. But it really is just one of those things.
I would rather see entering Death Shroud to be a stun breaker. Instead of warping life blast to do different crap based on weapons, make it simple and act like our underwater life blast by transferring one condition on you to your target. Those 2 things are not Over powered and would give us a chance to hold our own via melee when trapped with only a little bit of Lifeforce.
Zerk armor + Scholar Runes
Zerk Weapons : Staff w/Fire sigil and axe-focus w/ fire sigil and chill on weapon swap.
Full Celestial Trinkets (back slot is still zerk)
I run 30/25/10/0/5
Utlites are roaming in wvw when im angry and want to burst a player down fast its : BiP, Signet of Locust, Signet of power. Lich form used if bunker is my target.
Relaxed Roaming its : Corrupt boon, Well of Blindness, Signet of Locus (if I have blind on my bar or via plague ill away use chill on blind.)
Food is 40% more condtion duration to put me at a set 70% on all condtion duration.
When and if I want to roll with the zerg its: BiP and Epidemic and Corrupt boon.
The nice thing about this spec is if I choose to do something pve related I can well bomb and with one slot open for BiP i can still see bleeds reach 100 dmg and have all the kick kitten damage from zerk gear and see some great numbers. I choose the celestial trinkets since I roam a lot and honestly its the only other trinket that gives me everything + crit dmg.
Thanks. I have played a Necromancer since release and greatly enjoy him, more so since Asura are superior. While this is my first non sub game in 14 years of sub mmos, and I will probably never again play a buy to play, I do understand how important it is to slowly build up a class to keep it from being to powerful (LOL at Necros in Age of Conan). Regardless of how the necromancer turns out, I enjoy the class more so they any other in this game and until I leave GW2 for something else, Necro is my main. OH and thank you for finally thinking of making weakness affect both crit and non crit chance. That alone with our many ways of giving weakness will be an amazing combo with many of my builds!
1.Make going into DS a Stun Breaker. Its already 50% there allowing us to cast fear.
2.Underwater DS skill #1 hits -50% as much as land DS #1 but throws conditions from you onto the target. Make the Throws conditions part apply to land death shroud.
3.For god sakes lower the Cds on Signets and LF generating skills.
1. New game modes. (CTF,etc) : I kinda miss Huttball (lol)
2. Option of getting tier 5 mats via salvaging pvp items to bring in some cash for players who don’t pve a lot but want skins and such. I have no problem but some people are dirt broke from sPvP only.
3. Retailiation gone. (25k dmg dealt is stupid, and no amount of skill or reaction will help in this case.) IF two guardians attack me with retaliation up do you really expect me to stop attacking? while they beat me senseless and I wait out an almost never ending boon?) I have pvp’d in mmos for the past 13 years and while the only skill base from pvp is reaction time, having to stop all combat and just stare at someone is pathetic.
2 things, 1st make life blast the same as the underwater version where it places a condition on you onto the target. (this will give it some use for condition damage necros) and about the dark dot, I would love to see a double skill for #5. using this skill once applies the new condition of rooting your target for 4 seconds every 6 seconds while in deathshroud based on crit chance (both power focused necros and Crit dmg necros use crit chance.) and have the ability to hit the skill again to instead change all boons into equal confusion stacks.
Goreion
Faxanadu was indeed a great game. I am enjoying the Baldurss Gate ipad game atm. I would love to see some of those older games get app’d, specially the Eye of the Beholder series and Ravenloft series.
My friend,
DAOC will always live in our hearts but this watered down version of real WvWvW is the best we have atm, and until Camelot Unleashed is released, IF its ever released, we just have to grin and bare it. While there are tons of problems with this system and as the DEVs have said there are money issues since its not a sub game, just kick back and have patience and see what they come up with. I to agree about the rank system they added. I was hopping for joy when I heard about it, and logging in to see something like 5% less dmg from AOE or 4% faster run speed or something that I can feel is worthwhile we got a joke of it instead. It is just the way of things. I too agree that the maps are to small, IMO they should combine all 4 maps putting EB SM in the center and the triangle spawn points at the furthest corners. This would fix a lot of problems but with their lack of funds I doubt that will ever happen since there servers can barely handle a one full battleground. Just don’t focus on one thing in this game, I usually just grind for gold, then wvwvw then spvp to mix is up. Anyway I wish you luck and hope that someday we can find what we are looking for, till then see you on the battlefield.
I have played sub based mmo’s for 14 years. All I ever heard was people complain 14.99$ was to much and they should become free to play. I am smirking reading about people complaining that my first buy to play people are still complaining. My 7 year old got a guardian to 80 without ever going higher then a level 25 zone. She makes on average a gold a day just running around doing events and node gathering. And she is almost rank 9 in spvp. Every aspect of this game is made for common gameplay and complaining about a certain aspect is not helping anyone’s side. Everyone knows how buy to play games are with gems. Just wait and see or spend 1 hour a day and level a toon and make money if you are broke.
I have to agree. For example, wells. Instead of the way they are, have various specters rise up from the center and scream or do some creepy animation for each pulse.
HI.
I never played Guild Wars 1. But Lich Form is ugly. There is a potion that you can take that allows u to look like an Orr Wraith I guess it is. I would gladly pay money to have that graphic as Lich Form since it looks like a Lich. (Lich: A wizard that sacrificed all his health, Weight, and soul to become the all power Lich)(Not a Lich that regularly hits the gym and eats protein powder)
Also I would Gladly pay for new minion looks as well. While I am sure there is a reason they seem more Demonic then Undead, I would greatly enjoy and love to see more of a undead minion skin theme like rotting flesh, missing limbs and just plain creepy stuff. (wights, specters, wraiths, zombies, skeletons, etc.)
Personally I do not care about the responsiveness of AI or the debate about the traits. I would just love and again happily pay a good deal of money to feel more, Necromantic.
I roam quite a bit in WvWvW. My build is extremely aggressive and I have no problem with them, though some mesmers do give me problems. I run 30/25/0/0/15 my main weapons are Staff and Axe/Focus.
My utilites are Spectral Grasp, Spectral Wall, Spectral Armor. My elite is Lich Form. 30pts in spite I use 50% more damage in downmode, Cast spinal shivers on a target with 25% health, and 50% more dmg with a target under 50%
In curses I use Cast enfeebling blood when entering deathshroud, and Increase spectral duration.
In Soul Reaping I use 20% faster cd on Spectral skills.
Weapons and armor is berserk, with Scholar Runes. Accessores are all Ascended multi stats(the ones with everything.)
Alone im at 3400 attk power, 56% crit rate (76% w/passive), 20400hp, 2080 Armor, and 96% Crit dmg. ( Food I use is 100 prec, +10% crit dmg and sharpening stones)
The best way to drop a D/D ele is to burst them down and keep the annoying conditions up as much as u can. Once I wittle them down with marks ill switch to axe/focus, aoe root, chill, then ill drop spectral wall and jump into lich form and run thru it gaining protection as I hit for insane amounts with auto attack lich. Plus Dodging at the right times is also helpful since a lot of their skills seem to cause a blowback. And remember, stay in death shroud as long as possible even if u don’t have much life force since it can absorb an unlimited amount of single point damage before breaking. (just like jumping off the highest cliff in the game, as long as u have 5% life force and jump into shroud right before u land, all that instant damage is absorbed.
Giving an experienced Necromancer full control of minions would be a mistake. When I do use minions I understand their limitations. The majority of minions are utility based, and as it has been stated all our utilities have downsides. When I am solo roaming in WvWvW I will never use pets, when I am keep defending I load up on wells and stick strictly to marks. When I am tagging along with a Zerg I am running Epidemic and such. When I am grinding I use minions. The entire point of our class is condition control. Let us see them build on that instead of minions. My only gripe about necromancer pets is they are ugly. I enjoy the way the class is played, and find it fitting that summoning a pieced together minion is a small part of the class, though I would like to see our underwater elite be something other then plague =(
I will work on some tPvP videos and WvWvW then if people are intersted in seeing more but a few friends wanted to see the numbers I was doing so this is for you guys, enjoy!
My tooltip says the same, that was my fault. Tested it without 30% minion dmg it crit for 4300. WIth the 30% increase to damage it was 5500 on average. And this was an argument about axe’s pathetic vuln stacking, i was just stating that combined with other abilites it adds to the overall ability of vuln. I never said u cant stack it with a dagger and focus.
Yes, my base explosion is 2500 undertool tip with 150% crit your looking at 6200 ish, its entirely possiable. I tend to use them alot if there are alot of rogues in the sPvP map since i can explode them when they go invis and they get the brunt of the damage. Everything has its uses =)
I love how the argument is about axe’s number 1 ability and others about an entire rotation of attunements and other crap. In case you have not realized necromancers have alot of other abilities that cause vulnerability. Well of Power, Focus #4 slot (which on a single target hits x3 for 4% each, which is 12 by itself) Let us just leave well of power the AOE ability out of this since its aoe vuln just like the ele. But opening up on a boss for example, focus #4 12 stacks in 2 seconds, axe #2. auto attk your looking at 16-20 stacks by yourself with not even having to use any utilitles, and while axe #2 is on CD you can use a utility then quickly go back to focus #4 then repeat keeping at least 16-20 stacks yourself….What you people dont seem to understand is for the Necromancer its small things added together for one big thing. People always complain about how 100 blades hits for 30k when warriors pop all the cd’s and what not and necros can’t reach crits that high. Well of power, Dagger auto attkx3, In and out of deathshroud at the same time for higher crit and application of automatic Enfeebling blood, is easily 25k+ in seconds geared in the same as a warrior, the only major difference is Quickness which we dont get, but I would take condition application and alteration mastery over a simple cut and dry damage class. Another grype of mine is the conditionmancers saying their better then power when the only difference is bleed and posion dmg. Power necro’s have access to every single condition that they have but their spike dmg is greater while their dps is better due to unalterable condtion dmg(i say unalterable because its a flat dmg based on your setup) Stop looking at the class like a simple warrior. We are built differnetly for a reason. Is axe 1’s damage crap, yes, but I have no problems and very rarely ever use it for 2-3 more swings in between Cd’s and dodging or swapping to my other weapon set up. If you dont like axe then man up and get in melee range and use dagger. Its an entirely different beast. As always, happy hunting.
thats ashame, i have yet to enter mists since my 7 year old is making me a dang mist wolf in slvyari lands till she goes to bed =( and yeah the almost 50% less crit dmg from mists is kinda bleh. Will mess around with it over the next few days, swapping out bloodlust and force and see how high it can reach in pvp.
hey, couple screen shots of just running around frostgorge. Some are on a champion mob others the vetren quaggans guarding him, its solo so im sure you realize in a group with more buffs the damage would be increased. Also notice how Flame blast hits for more based on might stacks and Vuln on the target, one shot has it at 823(which could be glancing) another at 1235 and another at around 1450. Enjoy oh and this was the typical play around spec of 30|15|0|0|25.
Hey all,
Since I am really not into the whole guild thing. I have decided to make my own guild called Some Conditions Apply (NKRO). Currently I am the only one in it and while I will most likely always have represent on, everyone who has a necromancer is welcome to join on their necromancer. There is no represent requirement, no vent, no website. and more then likely not very many group options. This could quite possibly be the worst guild ever, but it is a safe haven to talk about everything involving necromancy and a place to chill when you are grinding or a rich environment to gripe about other classes. It is a mature guild and the only rule will be to respect your other necromancers. While we all run different setups the point is to enjoy the class, and working together to tweak our class could be a good thing! Once you are invited you will be given permission to invite any other person as long as it is just their necromancer. Send a tell if you are interested to Goreion or send me a mail message.
Happy Hunting.
As much as I love power spec, I have to say our best class ability is between Condition Manipulation and Deathshroud. The greatest weakness as many others have posted is lack of endurence regen. You really dont notice it till Lupi in Arah. Other then what others posted the knockdown from Flesh Golem is really great it has changed the coarse of alot of my 1v1 fights when I have had it on my bar. And I love the fact that even in full power necro mode I can still maniuplate conditions just as well as a Conditionmancer. Since in my opinion Weakes/Vuln/Blind are really the greatest of all the condtions which we can apply with ease. Hopefully one day they will fix the 25 stack problem of bleeding but until then I will roll the way I roll =)
Well, first I think the idea behind a necro is cooler =) love my look atm. And even though minions are kinda wack atm and condtion damage is not how i want it, there is always hope for the future on those 2. And second I love staff and distance damage in wvwvw, id rather lay down 15k dmg in a few seconds over 20+ players from the saftey of the keep wall then charge in with 100 blades and die or use a wussy arrowcart! =) And rogues, well, i love having the ability to play with minons, play with the best class condition altering of all of them.(no other class can do what we can do with condtions, from removing them to transfering them to healing from them and spreading them with epidemic) I was interested in a rogue but when i found out that most of them are just like warriors and rely on quickness to do anything. Not that i mind but it just does not seem fun to me, because i love options. And a necro in your face hitting for alot of damage is rarer then a rogue or warrior. And if you are good enough to stay alive in melee combat or in zerk gear, the feeling is incrediable and your constantly on the edge of your seat moments away from death!
I agree whole heartedly with you. Shroud dancing is usefull in alot of situations but when im in an instance and the right Lifeblast spec I would always sit in Deathshroud till about 50% lifeforce since i would be applying might and vuln per cast. If im on dagger/focus however as in 30|30|0|0|10 I will shroud dance because it is the only time my damage will be greater then lifeblast. 1.7kx2-3.5k-4.7k crit string on autoattack. Which would do more damage faster then the 1.5 second total cast of lifeblast @ around 7k with the same buffs/debuffs on target. That and I would not be trapped in Deathshroud so I could use my wells . My highest crit ever on the final dagger attack was 6.2k and my highest ever given Lifeblast was 10.2k both instances i had 25 stacks of might and the boss had 25 stacks of vuln on him. All in all Lifeblast seems to be our hardest hitting ability in 1 shot. doing 2x the dmg on a crit then auto attk lich can do.
Yeah seems boon stripping in PvP would be greater. I personally have never played around with alot of the grandmaster minion specs. Though Death on Posion Cloud always had me wondering. Axe training is fantastic and I use that quite a bit, but in WvWvW I tend to go with close to death since on keep defense and offense im running distance wells and staff dmg. But close to death is almost always on its one of those abilites that onceyou start using you dont want to get rid of, ever =)
Life blast used to be extremly slow underwater till they patched that. Now its a great condition removal since on cast it transfers a condtion from you to the target. But as I enjoy underwater combat as a Power necro I tend to use bone minons for the high crit dmg, spectral armor for the lifeforce boost while underattack, and locust just cause 25% speed is rocking =) and frozen abyss is lol at 11k dmg.
The Lupi fight is not really about damage as much as staying alive. You can get out of combat by running towards the wall. Since we necros do not have a great dodge regen its hard to take his life drain hits or his lifedrain on the 3rd phase since u waste 2 rolls just dodging that. What I have done is is use Fleshworm, and set him at the opposite side lupi is running around on. This way if I get into trouble i can quickly teleport to the wall and get out of Lupi’s range. I also use the signet that lets u revive 3 people. My other utility is specrtal armor for the damage absorb. I run full berserk gear set up for Arah and always try to keep in mind that surviving is more important then fast damage. Keep your distance and staff attacks at the ready. I use lich form as my elete because in phase one the high damage I can reach goes thru the locusts and grubs and right to lupi like the auto attack that our staff does.
TIPS AND TRICKS
1. First and foremost I am going to cover something I call Shroud Dancing. This is when you jump in and out of deathshroud as fast as u can to apply the passive 15 point effect of gain fury for 5 seconds when entering deathshroud. that 20% crit chance for 5 seconds. That on most of these specs takes me from 50% range to 70% crit range. Unless I need to use deathshroud as a quick Damage absorb for a stun/100 blades or Lupi’s accursed life draw, im always going in and out of Lifeshroud everytime it pops.
2. WATCH OUT dam mesmers can counter our eletes. Be wary. While this causes me to grumble sometimes, I accept it as a challange though most of the time its just a facepalm like when Rogues or Warriors use quickness. Mesmers have the ability to transform you into a MOA. A bird. This kills all your pets instantly and resets their CD. This ability can also CANCEL Lich form and Plague form so be ready to expect it my undead lovin freinds. This is part of the reason why I Choose soldiers gear under my Minion Spec simply because it gives u time to back away and get out of there with your survival, so u can recoup and summon your minions. Fear Bomb and run!
3. I call this trick the Get over here move. This is where you drop all 4 marks down infront of you, use spectral grasp to pull them onto the marks, slam into dagger/focus use #3 dagger to root them throw down well of power and crit them dead with dagger dmg.
4. Im Asuran. The elete Mark Robot(the fighter one) is based off your power and crit chance. Want a HUGE surprise burst when sneaking up on someone in RvR? Do this lol move, get an axe out with burst spec, quickly summon your elete fighter robot apply skill #4 of focus on your surprised target then Axe skill #2 for the burst. Mean while your robot also has a burst over a few seocnds just like axe and dagger skill #2. His hits for top damage i have seen 7k, with your 7k from axe and 5k from focus on lucky crits your looking at 20k dmg in 3 seconds-4 seconds. Its soooo fun.
5, Check this out, want to see HUGE numbers from lifeblast? Wait till the mob is under 50% and has Vuln on him, then use Blood is power for 10 stacks of might instantly, get your health to 100% slam into Deathshroud and with might on cast by the time u reach the 50% lifeforce drop and your geared right, u will see dam near 9k or more dmg per lifeblast!
