Guild Wars 2

VaLee.5102:

Can someone explain why ANET said the new trait system will improve build diversity? Because from what I can tell, instead of having 5×6 traits to choose from you’ll only have 3×6 at one given time, which from a mathematical point of view means less possible combinations.
What am I missing?

I’m sorry to say this, but you’re makeing a mistake by assuming 5×6 VS 3×6.

In HoT spec you still have 5 trait line, and if you assume a 5×6 in the present sistem you are thinking of having 30 traits point, while you instead allocate just 14 of them.

But, back in HoT, with 3 spec line, you can reach the end of all 3 of them (If I’m not wronge).
So the actual allocated points will be 3×6=18 > 14.

I understand , thank you.

Sigil of Earth and Corruption are not anymore a valid options?

First of all, I want to thank you all who replied to this topic. All of you helped me to obtain a bigger picture of the situation.

Furthermore, while I too think that most dungeon are easy, I wanted to ask the efficenty of PS in Fractal.
Also, I was thinking to use strenght rune even on my 6/5/0/0/3 warrior, because I don’t run with organized groups, so I dont trust myself enought to play with Scholar runes.
So, in this scenario, do you think I can constanly switch easly between the two builds?

I remember that was a common build that was used in party with multiple warriors. If I don’t mistaken, Ele is the only other class that can buff might at the same rate (if not higher).

So, my question is if this trait is still viable or not (in dungeon/fractals of course).

4/4/0/6/0? GS main?

Is it good now that we can hit two targets……?

Played PvE condition for an year and half and still I don’t see true improvements on the condition sistems.
I saved material for craft my ascended armor , waiting to decise if keeping Rabid or going to a Zerk build, for too long….

The only thing i’m sure is that I don’t want to do rabid anymore…..But I have a Zerk warrior (and not enought material for his armor!)

So, my question is: Are the improvements in the last patch enought for makeing good the necro dagger build? Are they significant?

They are both bad in Zerg vs Zerg. Choose condition if you’re planning to do more roaming fights.

Correct, they aren’t that important even for a full condi build. Because our damage isn’t so depending only on bleeding (meaning, +20% alone isn’t that great) or scepter auto attack. In PvP situation, weakening shroud and path of corruption are more important.

Stripping boon with dark path makes a free space in your utility bar, weakening shroud still does bleeding and a little weakness for reducing the damage.

If you’re really looking for something else, you may try with the gm trait Withering Precision (weakness on crit) if you’re rabid. Or (still my favourite) Dhuumfire in the power trait.
But you will be forced on a 6/4/0/0/4 build, because Terror + Master of Terror is still mandatory.

Other trait in the Curse line:
-Focused Rituals (Wells are AoE): If you get inside a large zerg, you can take some wells and this trait. Suits ….well!!
-Banshee’s Wail (buff horn skill): War horn is good in WvW
-Spectral Attunement (buff spectral skills) or Master of Corruption( reduce cd on corruption skills): You may want to try these depending of your utility set up.

Withering Precision

Dhuumfire is still the way, my friends.

6/4/0/0/4 Burning has it’s own advantage. I’m still using it and I’m not turning back. Just remember the cd.
I used nightmare runes, and I have to say to like them more than Undead. You lose a bit of dps but that fear could save you, a lot. It also allows me to save my 5# staff fear in cause of heavy CC needed (such as ressing someone, or preventing reviving)

Never played Carrion because I think any thief could just destroy you whend you don’t have much defense (such as toughness).

Maybe i’m wrong, but i remember that the condition cap was made for sake of world event. All damagin condition bypass the boss armor, so you could kill them way too fast (and also they didn’t want to 100 stacks of vuln neither).

For a trait idea….speaking about WoW, here’s mine.
Lich King: Bleeding & Torment can crit.

Simple. It would increse out damage out put. The cap isn’t that big deal because A)In World Event doesn’t matterIn dungeon Necro doesn’t reach it alone C) If there are 2 condi necro in party, one just changes character (you cant beat efficently a dungeon with 5 guardians, eccetera)

The only problem, and it’s a main problem whend buffing conditions, is that they’re OK in PvP, so buffing again could bring them to OP levels.

Kain Francois.4328:

Unfortunately, Necromancer isn’t exactly a master of conditions like we are hyped up to be… We have access to bleed, which builds only very slowly. We also have poison, but poison…..

On the contrary, my friend. We ARE Kings of conditions (and engi is the Queen). We have access to all condition that deals damage (except confusion). Don’t stop looking at bleeding&poison.
Consider burning from dhuumfire, it’s still a must for conditions and don’t forget about torment! Some bosses that walks too much take a lot from our 5# skill in DS. And not all bosses are immune to fear!

The key to make things works is condition duration. You have to at least to raise up Bleeding a 133% (100% + Lingering curse) and try to raise as much as possible the durations of the others conditions . This is where the trait/rune set up is important.

WvW
If you want to use conditions , then you can pick any sPvP build and stick with that.
Condition are just too slow in ZergVsZerg, so those builds are high performing only in small fights.
Inside zerg you could just switch trait and skills for a wellmancer, even with condition set up, so at least you’re doing Aoe support.
I suggest to avoid Carrion, stick with Rabid/Dire. Otherwise, you will be downed by every thief. Necro really needs that thougness.

Just take the classic 6/4/0/0/4. Terromancer + dhuumfire is still great and works really well.
Full rabid/Dire or a mix of those. In PvP, condition necros really needs thoughness to survive high burst.

However, this build is more suited for really small group raids, max 5-6 people.

Edit: If you want to go with some nice zerg for a small time, you could just getting wells and traits (2 curses, 4 blood magic) for an AoE support.

Necro is king of conditions. Do somebody still belives that you can just spam some bleeding and invest in condition damage to be called conditioner? Hell NO!

Indeed Necromancer isn’t the faster class on stack bleeding, but it’s one of the two classes who can apply MOST of the condition that deals damage.
You shoudn’t be afraid of bleeding stacks, you should be about bleeding, poison, burning, fear (a 1k tick fear!), torment, plus weakness, chill and cripple.
Now let’s see how much you can rid of all that. Please, use your condition cleaner so I can just spam all again.

I droped my condition necro and trained myself in 49 fractal with my zerk warrior….And this video is showing me nothing…

You know an other funny thing? I heard guardian has better dps than warrior! Not also, many classes as far more dps than warrior IF they are fully buffed (25 might, 25 vuln).
I learned that the warrior strenght isn’t it’s damage output, but the number of offensive buff/debuff he can add to the group. In solo situation warrior dps is the best cause he can buff very much by it’s own more than other classes.

And you know what? I think it doesn’t matter at all!!

The only thing important is not the dps, but the cleaving weapon. Stacking here and there makes trash mob killing much faster, and most of the time these parts are harder than boss fights (hammer fractal, anyone?)

Finally, zerk is not an easy build to master. I was used to fight with my condition necro with 600 safe distance. Going melee is much more harder and you have to get used of the boss animations even with all those visual effects that could block your view.

More risk, more reward. And if you can afford it, why turning back to old settings?…. I don’t know.

I really hope that something could change in LS2, and necro is still my favourite class to play (or role play with the game). But after hearing the last stream about balance……I’m not so sure about it.

condi 0/6/4/4/0 was quite good, mostly for the part in blood magic. Gaining 45 life each hit was an huge advantage for the first part.

Maybe a 6/4/0/4/0 with the new trait in spite could be interesting.

Only 2 classes out of 8 in a 5 people team game? Sorry, you don’t go anywhere.

While I could agree the Necro don’t have a specific spot inside the meta, you just can’t say that they’re conditon are bad….especially vs warrior.
If we must pick an aspect of the game where Necro does best, we can surley pick condition. He , followed by engi, is the Best class suited for a pure condition damage build.
Plus, condi necro is a counter of condi engi. 4# dagger, GG.

I copy paste what I wrote on the Rune thread.

"

I’m still using tormenting runes on PvE, same as dhuumfire. I don’t think that the trait is dead. Now you just need to get into DS every time the cd is gone. Is not a big deal once you get used to.

For condition duration I think i’ll go with this set-up:
30% (spite) + 10% (toxic cristal) + 40% (pizza) = 80% all
Bleeding: +20% (Hemophilia) + 30% (lingering curse)
Torment => 100% thanks to the runes.

So, the only damaging condition that I left at 80% are just poison and burning. Poison doesn’t a lot of damage, so I don’t care much.
While burning duration goes from the base of 3 to 3*1,80 = 5,4 sec => 5 procs. 1 less from the 100% duration set-up. It’s a good compromise I think.

"

Basicly. I don’t think that torment alone is good enought, but there are indeed some bosses that moves a lot! (like the archdiviner in fractal)
I really love the healing damage, it makes me tag champions when they have 25 stack of bleeding XD.

With the torment rune set, 30 spite is mandatory to raise up your condition duration. I stil reccomand Dhumfire. It proc less, but still hits hard!

I’m still using tormenting runes on PvE, same as dhuumfire. I don’t think that the trait is dead. Now you just need to get into DS every time the cd is gone. Is not a big deal once you get used to.

For condition duration I think i’ll go with this set-up:
30% (spite) + 10% (toxic cristal) + 40% (pizza) = 80% all
Bleeding: +20% (Hemophilia) + 30% (lingering curse)
Torment => 100% thanks to the runes.

So, the only damaging condition that I left at 80% are just poison and burning. Poison doesn’t a lot of damage, so I don’t care much.
While burning duration goes from the base of 3 to 3*1,80 = 5,4 sec => 5 procs. 1 less from the 100% duration set-up. It’s a good compromise I think.

I have to say, I’m quite dissapointed, especially after reading Unholy Sanctuary first…I was ‘Oh wow, healing in DS! (just a sort of…but it’s still healing in DS) What they will do next?’ And than…these.
Ok, so lets try to be politically correct:

Parasitic Contagion: If you put 30 point in spite, with an hybrid or condition build, then this trait will battle with Dhuumfire.
(Please, spare me the ‘OMG dhummfire wortless, bla bla bla’. It will still be strong. condition build would still want dhummfire, I don’t want to agrue this again). Where i think this trait could shine is in combo with necro’s other lifestealing effect. A build 30/20/0/20/0 could make a nice healing (but this is just theorycraft)

Path of Corruption: There are some occasions where maybe this trait could be usefull. Maybe when you don’t have room for ‘Chill of Death’ , or you can’t use focus, or you don’t have room for corruption boon or WoC in the utility bar. Other than that I don’t see this trait great, I just see this as an other ‘boon stripping’ option for necro, nothing new.
(maybe in some heavy boon ripping builds for 1vs1 duels, compared with all the other…)

Unholy Sanctuary: Other than MM, necros never put 30 in death magic. So now, putting 30 feels so …strange…and not that much great (overall is quite fine). sPvP bunker necro would be viable?

Unholy Martyr First time I red this, I saw “Remove” condition, seems fine! Then I red a second time……Really?…

Renewing Blast: the only thing I can say about this is ‘interesting’. It’s a different trait that really could open a new build. I don’t know if would be good or trash….but it’s interesting.

Overall, this trait seems to open up a more support/defensive role for necro, and none of them add dps to our kitten nal.
With that said, all these changes are MINOR , they’re nice, but not enought.
If they wish for this GM to work, they need to change the game mechanics itself, especially:
-Conditions mechaninc on both enemies and allies
-Allowing support/healing builds to be competitive , and not just casual friendly.
(hoping that one of these could be in the next previews…)

If I look to some new GM traits of the other classes, I see good trait, strong strait, nice trait (Not all of them I mean). When I read necro’s new GM, i see potential in all them.
But ‘potential’ doesn’t mean good (and neither bad).

Last thing: Sigil & Runes.
Don’t forget this one guys, pay really attention how each rune set will get changed. My guess is that some hidden gems would be in there somewhere.

The condition immunity is a double problem on both power and condition builds. How many zerk build use traits that increase damage (mostly 10%) if the target is bleeding or is having an other condition on it?

I’m doing this event with my condi necro (main). And I find it fine. During the first phase i just use staff 1 and 4, DS 1 and 4, lich form. Sure, the damage isn’t that great , but is a good compromise. During second I spam anything I can. 25 bleeding cap? No problem, DS#5 + healing skill (I use a full set of rune of torment).

Considering that more than half of the fight is for the 1# phase and that even in my main server we don’t get all 50 calibrations on each fight and still success with no problems, I think the event is just fine.

Also, on the Breachmaker, we fight in 3 separed area (yes, there are 3 scarlet and 3 Holograms) and since not all people are attacking the main boss 100% of the time due the attunent mechanic, it doesn’t reach so quickly 25 bleeding stack. Almost the same things can be said for the rest of the fight with multiple targets.

Overall, this event is just fine. You just need to adapt to the new content. You can’t just pretend fo fight something new in the same way of the previous ones.

Leeto.1570:

So they added BURN as grandmaister trait into power traitline to incrase already high condi necro damage? And now they are gonna attach dhuumfire to life blast cause its one of condi necros main attacks? XD
Ye sure they talk all the time about build variety so they decided to make both power and condi necros go 30 points in spite, stone logic mate.
No wonder people on forums think devs are clueless when theres players who still dont understand basics of this game design.
Probobly you think that signet of spite is utility made for condi necros too right?

Gonna take another brake from necro forums, intelligence here is way too uncommon.

Dhuumfire on Curse => Op (devs said many times that don’t want Dhuumfire and Terror in the same line (at the current state of those two trait))

Dhuumfire on LF => Dhuumfire doesn’t require precision for proc anymore => More Build Variety

Simple.

At first it puzzle me the fact that it was too easy to spot it…..crap. I didn’t play GW expansion…

Sorry for the false allarm.

24944 – 5382 check for yourself. There’s nothing in the ingame map, so it’s a clue. But I can’t understand what is it…seems a building or a temple..

Jormag!! You’re next!

The real problem for necro is that is hard to fit him inside an optimized group. People who wants to farm Cof p1 in less than 10 min (or any other dungeon) will not like necros in their party, especially condition (althrough some parties just ask for a full beserker set)

Other than that, Necro is a fine and fun class. It’s easy to level up, it’s great in open wolrd PvE, while in dungeon you must understand that the only attacks that you avoid are those you dodge, there is no form of invulnerability (mass blind aside)

If you like the class or the concept, then just make one. Overall is (only) fine, and no one can deny it.

Ayrilana.1396:

Zaganna.6034:

Guys, it’s like snowmans, pignattas and pumpkins. If you enter in a overflow lion arch, you get 30+ rubbles to search.

No. You can search the rubbles on a different overflow but will not get anything if you had already searched it that day.

Strange, maybe i got confused by using dulfy guide and accidentaly found a rubble that wasn’t on her map.

Anyway, what are these potions? The notes says ‘halo or horns’, so it’s just a skin or something floating above your head?

Guys, it’s like snowmans, pignattas and pumpkins. If you enter in a overflow lion arch, you get 30+ rubbles to search.

It’s a bad idea. I’m sorry, but this are those things that makes necro hard to balance.

No matter which build or weapon you’re using, you have a 600 range multiple target pull?
No sir, it’s just too much.

If Dhummfire will be master, then it will be an HUGE buff.

Seriously guys….Burning on LB is not that a problem. You really tell me that you don’t use DS on your condition rotation?
Waiting 1 sec to cast a LB is too less for cryng…Between Tainted Shackles or waiting for Dark Path to hit you can press the 1 button. It’s not that bad.

Also on PvP is quite a buff, since it goes from 2,6 sec to 3,9. You just need a+10% burning or condi duration to make it a 4s.
People will dodge it? Use Fear first. People have stability? Fine, let them avoid it. Actually we gain a NEW skill that people need to dodge.

Also, don’t forget that with that change, Dhummfire will not be related anymore to precision.
Of course Rabid would be still the best condi build if you focus on DPS, but after the patch you can be Dire and still have burning, or even Carrion. It’s a new meta that allows us to Test new builds.

About the Tier, if really it goes to Master (and Terror shifts to GrandMaster) it would be absolutly great!
PvE condi build have got 10 traits bonus. The base of Rabid condi build will become 20/30/x.
(While PvP will probably go to 20/30/0/0/20)

Finally, don’t forget that this is the Tip of the iceberg. There are many changes that are not announced. Even if I don’t expect that will be a lot for the necro himself (patch after patch it seemed that they have a more clear picture in their mind. The last balance one is a good example (except they anticipated the change to Dhumfire)) I’m really looking foward for the New Rune set.

Dhumfire is still a great trait. Love it or hate it, the next patch is not going to rip him off (And I Love it)

Try to play both, and then choose.

Both are playable and have their ups and downs. People will tell you that condition sucks, but dont belive them. Rabid build is a solid set up, you may not ending dungeon fast as other classes, but you will do quite fine.

Did anyone tried a troll build with Signet Mastery, Superior Rune of Resistance, Life stealing, Signet of vampirism, locust and spite?

Situation? PvE, WvW os sPvP?

I can say, in PvE is just fine (almost great!)

I’m sorry to disagree. Condition necros still needed to use ds (2#. 5# and 3# with Terror), that’s why (Imho) this change will not affect that much.
Still they don’t stand inside that much like power builds, but look at the internal cd of Dhuumfire…10sec?
I’ll just spamming my DS evrey 10 sec and use evrey skill i’m ready to cast, and than 1 last lifeblast for apply burning.

A thing I didn’t read yet is someone makeng builds or theory with the fact that Dhuumfire will not be anymore realeted to precision.
A full Dire necro would be cut of from Dhuumfire. But tomorrow he could use a more bunker build and still have a burst condi using 30 points in spite.

Dalanor.5387:

Lopez.7369:

Zaganna.6034:

However, Dev still said that this is only the tip of the iceberg, what we saw is not that full list of necro’s patch notes. I really think that we’ll find some good surprises.

The developers say this with every single patch. It always turns out that the “many” changes they were leaving out were bug fixes or random tweaks no one cares about.

Don’t forget the tooltip fixes. Plus random bugs that came from nowhere of course.

Indeed is correct.

I needed to point that I was talking about sigil/runes :P

After thinking about it, my opinion is that nothing will change….
Meta condi build would be still 30/30/x, and here I’ll tell you why. (PvE environment)

First:Burning on Lifeblast. DS is an important part of condition rotation, #2 and 5# over all. If you’re running with terror even 3# (some boss are immune, but not all them).
Waisting 1 sec to cast a life blast it will not be so bad (also there are other buff incoming, like sigil of Earth going to 100% on crit, ecc..).
An other thing about DS is that the triat ‘Near to Death’ is a little wasted since all of my skills have a cd higher than 10 sec.
In my condition build i often put my last 10 points in Soul Reaping for ‘Path of Midnight’ (-15%cd on DS skills) but even with that I don’t see a point for having ‘Near to Death’.

Second:Buff/Nerf on Runes.
This one is quite important, and no one have talk about it. The Dev made an example with Runes set that give Might duration, moving higher bonus at the top of the set, and nerfing the low ones.
A lot of condition build (pre-dhuumfire) were using 3 set of runes (2 each) or a set of 2-4 runes for stacking condition (especially bleeding) duration. I suscpect that it will not be easy anymore after the 21 january.
Here’s is when Spite comes usefull. A longer condition duration allows us to stack more, to raise our dps of bleeding stack, or doing more burning tick inside that 10sec intern cd.
30% condition duration in the spite trait is important because it allows you to not pick runes set with condition duration (such as Undead)

However, Dev still said that this is only the tip of the iceberg, what we saw is not that full list of necro’s patch notes. I really think that we’ll find some good surprises.

(My bad, didnt realized it’s a PvP discusse. I’m really sorry, avoid reading this post)
After thinking about it, my opinion is that nothing will change….
Meta condi build would be still 30/30/x, and here I’ll tell you why. (PvE environment)

First:Burning on Lifeblast. DS is an important part of condition rotation, #2 and 5# over all. If you’re running with terrormancer even 3# (some boss are immune, but not all them).
Waisting 1 sec to cast a life blast it will not be so bad (also there are other buff incoming, like sigil of Earth going to 100% on crit, ecc..).
An other thing about DS is that the triat ‘Near to Death’ is a little wasted since all of my skills have a cd higher than 10 sec.
In my condition build i often put my last 10 points in Soul Reaping for ‘Path of Midnight’ (-15%cd on DS skills) but even with that I don’t see a point for having ‘Near to Death’.

Second:Buff/Nerf on Runes.
This one is quite important, and no one have talk about it. The Dev made an example with Runes set that give Might duration, moving higher bonus at the top of the set, and nerfing the low ones.
A lot of condition build (pre-dhuumfire) were using 3 set of runes (2 each) or a set of 2-4 runes for stacking condition (especially bleeding) duration. I suscpect that it will not be easy anymore after the 21 january.
Here’s is when Spite comes usefull. A longer condition duration allows us to stack more, to raise our dps of bleeding stack, or doing more burning tick inside that 10sec intern cd.
30% condition duration in the spite trait is important because it allows you to not pick runes set with condition duration (such as Undead)

However, Dev still said that this is only the tip of the iceberg, what we saw is not that full list of necro’s patch notes. I really think that we’ll find some good surprises.

They also said that they’ll buff lots of rune set (with more ultimate bonus) and sigil.
I think they’ll put sigil of earth at 100% on crit, they suggest something like..

I like the fact that it’s another ‘bleed’, cause it doesn’t count for the bleeding cap at 25.

Bhawb.7408:

You can make any combination of the classes including up to 5 of the same class of any class, and still run every dungeon, without too much issue.

The only thing I could see this not work on is maybe really difficult fractals, and I still imagine that a group of really solid players could make it work.

Indeed.
In fractal i just want a guardian in party. but it’s just for the shaman boss. I don’t know if there’s an other strategy, but I see the fight as a whole missle storm….
Sanctuary, WoR and Shield of the Avenger are highly necessery.
At least it’s the only way I managed to deal with that fract even at high levels.

But a week ago, I made a 49 guardian less (There was still a war and a thief, don’t remember the other 2). No grawl? easy job.

We can keep discussing about necro beign useless or not in dungeon, power or condi, ecc..

But the fact is that it’s just fine for the difficult level that the dungeons are set up. Same for all other classes.

-The bad news.
Yes, there’s a cap.
A target can’t have more than 25 stack of bleeding.

-The good news
Even a full rabid necro with 100% condition duration and with a good rotation would be hard to reach that cap alone. (something like 20, but not 25)

-The second bad news.
Running in dungeon with a second condition player, you will reach quite easy the 23 cap, reducing both your overall dps.

-The second good news
Necro has many condition that deals damage, so (according to the other players condi build and class) he could switch and relay on other condition, such as burning and torment(on some very walking bosses)

-The third bad news
On World Event, bleed cap is always up at 25……. (except torment, didn’t see that yet)

-The third good news
………in World Event, you don’t care about your damage.

-The final game breaking fourth good news!!
Evrey one who thinks about condition builds are so afraid of the condition cap, so they tend to build a classic power builds……Which is the reason why WE can make our condition necro without problems.

Putting 30 point in spite isn’t that much a ‘waste’ (except for dhuumfire, we’re all agreed with that i assume)
+300 power are always handly, more damage from scepter that rises a little our dps, but the most important thing is the 30% condition duration. A necro who want’s to achieve 100% condition duration can obtain it with out using 2 runes from 3 different sets (which overall isn’t that great and (if I remember right) it was the standard condition set-up pre-dhuumfire).

Using Toxic cristal, veggy pizza, Hemophilia and Linering curse I allow myself 130% bleeding duration, and 80% burning. So I’m going around with Rune of Tormentor. for having 100% torment duration and 2 more stack (20 sec!) on my healing skill. I know that they aren’t popular, but I decided to give it a try.
This example of my necro is for showing the variety of choises you can have, you prefer Undead runes? Go aheah. Perplexity? Make yourself confortable. But with out the 30% bonus from spite, it would be much harder.

As I said, a patch on the overall damage would be a an huge nerf. But also a shift in the curse trait or putting it to Master, it could become a serious new meta to explore for conditioner.
Even that idea that Devs liked so much (putting the trigger not on crit, but 100% on lifeblast) would be an huge meta shifting.
Completly broken the connection between Burning and Precision.

I don’t know if Condition necros are bad or OP now (for me in seems just fine), but the future very unsure it is…

May Grenth’s Force be with us.

I hope that you all realize that any changes to Dhuumfire that doesn’t proc Torment , burning or confusion, it would be a 33%damage nerf to conditions builds.

Speaking about PvE and necromancer’s utility…It came in my mind Mai Trin’s fight.

I mean, you can’t go melee her (or you can?) and there’s a ton of condition that needs to be removed (otherwise you die easly for 10-12 stack of bleeding or the burning).
But I used only my necro in that fight, so my point of view could be half-blind.

Dalanor.5387:

Can you tell me one which isnt nerfed to the ground or overshadowed by at least one other class or kitten by game design?

-Wells
-Blind Aoe
-Boon removal
-DS (which overall it’s a design of the necro to having a larger healthpool without the possibility to ‘avoid’ more attack than the other classes)
-Condition build (Some would say that engi are better. I say that engi condi build are just different from us. We don’t have confusion, but we got torment. And necro can stack more bleeding)

But I keep telling you…we’re not the only class with problems…People kick ranger too…I saw people kicking thiefs.
And why?
Because the only things that is important in dungeon are:
-DPS
-Aegis
-projectiles blocking

Dalanor.5387:

As above mentioned by a few times, engi and ranger has some usefull stuff in their pocket, but the players usually (!!!) plays them are bad. God bless the bearbow.

As well the necro has its own good skill & tricks.

We should stop to cry and think we’re alone and the most hated profession by the others…We’re not the only ones.

I just want to say my 2 cent about this.

4) Epidemic is not that useful of a skill because it spreads conditions to everyone BUT the one who actually needs to be targeted. Your teammates will be targeting the boss/high priority mob and stacking conditions on it; if you cast Epidemic on it you’re putting those conditions on the targets that your team ISN’T attacking. That’s disregarding the fact that most mobs can be LOS’d to a single point so your team should be able to maintain max stacks on all targets at once anyway. Offhand I can think of very few situations where spreading conditions you already have to other targets is actually useful. I certainly wouldn’t waste a party slot on Epidemic when I could just put an Engineer or something in that slot and just output more raw conditions instead of trying to copy them around.

Your’re thinking wrong about Epidemic. I agree that it’s not THE Necromancer’s skill. But it’s indeed strong and it’s unique for the way it works.

Of course, like many other skill of all classes, there are situation where you want it, some other where is not usefull. You made example where it’s not.

Epidemic is quite good in boss fight with spawning minion. The party can actually ignore them and let the necro spread all the conditions already applied. 1 or 2 random hit will finish.

With lots of mob, just spam your aoe skills (staff#2, scepter#2, dagger#5, DS#5) 2-3 hits on a mob you wish, and than epidemic =>Double up condition on all the others.

Anyway, the problem still is there. Necros doesn’t have lifesaving utility skill, just different ways to debuff, damage, and threaten mobs and bosse. While the real Top classes are those that can combine a Nice DPS with good ammount of support skill.

Warrior, guardians (surprised?), mesmer, sometimes elementalist, thief only for the stealth meccanic…..But the others? Don’t make mistakes, Necros are not the most ignored and kicked profession in dungeon. We’re not alone.
Engi? I think is the profession less used by players. Ranger??? Really guys? you think that rangers have an easier time than Necromancer?….No they don’t.

Knaifhogg.5964:

Power and crit is the only thing that matters in PvE.. Ever since launch sadly. Hope they fix it next year. So yeah go powermancer build, look it up somewhere. I am going full condi and getting ascended hoping they one day fix condi for PvE. Currently it’s just overnerfed.

On the contrary.
Since Condi necro is considered more than fine in PvP it’s more likly that a little nerf will come for rabid necros.
The only thing that Anet could improve is the stacking problem…But honestly I’m running daily frac 49, and I don’t find THAT much condi build where we kill the party dps by stacking eachother.
So overall, even if they fix the problem, the condi necro would be much the same.

A buff is quite difficult to spot.

Hi guys, im new to the necro and just wanted a pve build that works well for dungeons and running around. Thanks!

Anyway, for PvE almost anybuild is good. Lopez condi build, or Nemesis/Spoj power build.
Didn’t try minions, but I heard that someone is testing them in dungeon.

Almost all the other are just support builds.

I’m running daily 49 frac with condition build, and I’m just fine. 30/30/x.

On bosses I see many times 4k (and more) damage per tick (sum of bleeding, burning and torment), with a safe distance of 600.
During phases with large set of mobs you often switch to more aoe style and wells (corruption and/or darkness) for a little less damage and more support (like ascalon or Arm seals in cliffside) but it really depends on how many life the mobs have.

I don’t run with groups, so that maybe why I don’t use a power build, but running with pugs and some random friend it’s still fine and I like my condition necro.

2)Characters
Since we’re going to see an “epic finale that will rock Tyria to its very core”, we need someone to guide us inside, or fight with.
NPC are an important piece of the Living Story, and I wish that ALL of them will have their correct and deserved spot inside the story.
Evreyone must play their role, from heros to villans. I really hope to see again Rox and Braham, fully designed like in Molten Facility. Hell, those are an other reason why that dungeon was soo cool, excelent quotes.
“Yyyyyy It’s Overheating! Out my way……Oh! That’s suppose to happen…”
“I’ll deal with you….some other time….grrrrrr”
“Ooooooooh We’re so dead!”
“I’ll just say…explosive and me. We don’t get along very well”
Also, they used skill in the dungeon too! I see lots of projectiles blocked by Braham shield, or Rox ressing me while I was dead. Really small stuff that made NPC part of the Team, and not just stupid allied Mobs.
This is one of the reasons why Ellen isn’t that much appreciated like those two…(although i voted for her). I really hope that she will get a new restyle of her attitude and how she interacts with the players.
Marjory and Kasmeer had they’re opportunity to shine, and it didn’t went wrong, but I expect to see more.
We also saw Destiny’s Edge coming slowly inside the living, with Caithe. But I’m curios about the evolution of Eir and Braham, and maybe we’ll see the full DE in action like in Arah!
But why stop at the Heroes…You made a serious work on Scarlet’s background…why just focusing on her?…
I wish to see again Mai Trin (and finally interrogate her for good! Or let her escape so we’ll need to fight her again to bleed our curiosity dry!!).
Hell! I Want to see Canach too in action!
I hope that I explaind well my poin here…. Evrey character you made has a role in the LS, and you can’t make an epic final, with out and epic epilogue of their stories!
EDIT:Marcello di Giacomo & Ho-Tron, Subdirector Noll, Lord Faren and it’s fancy panties, and the list can go much more!!

Finally…3)Interaction
You know what I liked about Cutthroat Politics?…the CHOOSE.
Oh yes my friends. There’s nothing more tempemting in a videogame (especially in MMOs) whend you can CHOOSE the course of history.
Players during their personally story line make decision, but those all all scripted. While other players go in dungeon just for the reward. And even if you put a new LS evrey 2 weeks, those thing start at point A and goes at epiloque B. But whend players can CHOOSE the future of the word in which they play, they feel a great sense of power and beign important for the ‘realm’.
Honestly, I think you (Anet..not Santa) have waisted an opportunity, since anyone of the 2 candidates seemed to make any different with eachother…
I know that probably it will be impossibile to combine an “epic finale that will rock Tyria to its very core” with 2 different ending, which only one would preveal according to the decision of the players.
But, again, I invite you to think about it…The most catastrophic ending….it’s an ending that you choosed, writted and scripted ? Or a consequence of players attitude between moral questions and trade-off decisions?
At least…Think about this for the future contents.
Let’s just make a simple example:
-Final =>Scarlet unleash a more deadly threat, but now she’s defenseless. Player will choose if kill her immediatly for her crime….Or use her help to stop the new (common) enemy and redeem herself.

So…This are my suggestions…I hope that you will (read this first, lol, and) accept my feedback, for this is why a keep playng GW2. The Living story is something that I like from this game. With it’s ups and downs.
And, whend I think about the Epic Final, I picture in my head those 3 points I explained to you.

Thank you again.
Merry Christmast and an Happy New Year.

Your Favourite Reaper of Grenth, Zaganna.

PS:Santa, can you bring me a PS4? Thank you!!!!

Dear Anet (or Santa…).
First, I must thank you. I’m a 25 years old student, who plays videogames since 10 (more or less). I played lots of games during my long career, and finally I realized WHY I kept playng Gw2 for 2k+ hours and WHY I started from the First Weekend Beta.
Your work is great, and finally I feel that it’s my time to bring my feedback to this pages…

About the LS and it’s epic final. I will explain my point of view of the old Living Story contents during this post. But, my goal here is to explain to you what (I think) are the 3 most important things that you should focus while building and creating.

1)Fun
Ok, this could sound quite stupid…Of course you need to make fun stuff. But I’ll make some example from the last episodes of the LS for explain my view of fun.
Many people have different opinion on what is ‘fun’. Your first thing to do is tryng to make things that are less frustrating.
Note that frustrating and hard are 2 different thing, and while I like hard stuff (and I think that there are not enought hard contents in GW2) you should avoid to make even hard thing. A Medium difficult setting is good, you could just had an hard dungeon at the end of the LS, but without requiring players to complete it to witness the final act of Scarlet’s Legacy.
Now, a few examples:
-Molten facilities was fun..NO! It was the greatest content that you made. The dungeon itself was totally not hard , while still required a few runs to understand enemy AI and combat mechanic. The Dredge Engeneer fight was totally hilarious (and I must say that I was a little sad that he got to level 80 inside the Fractal…It loose a bit of his charm)
-Aetherblade Retreat it has simililar level, but overall down if compared to the Molten. More complex fights (still, not a bad things), but less charming style and atmosphere.
-Nightmare Tower. I must admit that I need to get used a bit, and I didn’t like the inside of the tower in the first hours. But than…I finally saw it.
Players…..Players Evreywhere tryng their best to overcome the insidiuos of the Toxic alliance, fight for any step they made inside that living nightmare. I know that a lot of people were there just because was the ‘new stuff to do’, but while me and my friends too were doign achievement and stuff, we fealt beign part of a real community of players which goal was to save Kryta from the evil seed.
-Watchwork Invasion & SouthSun Cove -Last Stand. Here we get a little less happy. While the concept was good, the event it self was big and too much chaotic. I’m hope that you left behind those MASS-mass event for going in the direction of the Nightmare Tower.
-Aetherblade path in TA. Finally an example of a dungeon that I didn’t like. It was more complex and the boss fight were much more frustrating than Molten or AetherBlade Retreat. The Ooze mechanich was really frustrating (again, not hard, but frustrating ). Overall, that path didn’t have a sinlge Boss fight (maybe the Char)…. I felt like all were a Puzzle fight…in the moment you know how to solve the Puzzle, you automatically win since the bossed had really not much HP, so you tried to balance the fight with a restricted group play and tactics. But it ended up beign frustrating and that’s all…

(continues next post)