Unfortunately, Good and Bad start with rounded letters and Ugly is open to individual interpretation.
Great suggestion, though!
Does the new Consume Conditions eat the entire stack of up to 5 different conditions or just the first five of anything?
Looking for a common way to describe builds. Post suggestions here.
Example
U – up
M – mid
L – low
X – not used
UUM / X / X / LUM / X / MMU or UUM-X-X-LUM-X-MMU
Trying to decide on a system that is easy to read and write. Code should be easily distinguished, make sense for many languages and have strict interpretation.
Suggestions?
Vulnerability was spam before the update notes. Now, I do not know how Necromancer did not get nerfed by it. Axe is now useless (more so) because every profession will try to cap it ASAP for the condition damage and here is Necromancer with its same, slow application rate.
Vulnerability is not affected by the change to condition damage. The update will benefit scepter and Curses (though all professions will see similar) but axe will take it in the shorts for this.
Necromancer elites were definitely nerfed, especially Lich. 15 sec every 3 min, including transform time? Might as well not have any skill but #1.
Plague Signet, staff, and OH dagger look a lot more important, now.
There were a couple of things I thought were good but not much on fundamental capability changes to bring Necromancer up in profession ranks after looking over the other jobs.
Blood is Power and Transfusion help with group support. The rest look like they fall in line with other general profession buffs.
(edited by Anchoku.8142)
Necromancer is marginally good at two things; condition management, and doing short range dps while soaking up massive amounts of damage.
So far, the balance patch has discussed spamming boons and conditions beyond what Necromancer is currently able to manage, giving immunity to mobility-reducing conditions, and increasing ranged damage and condition options.
Without some miracle job rework, other professions will kite Necromancer and laugh as the profession struggles to cleanse. A lot of the changes poke at Necromancer’s weakest points.
Twitch still broken for me and nothing new on YouTube, yet. Guessing the YouTube will get loaded after the video rec is complete…
… With a gap in it for Necromancer ;-)
We already saw what HoT will bring to Necromancer. These balance changes seen so far today make me want to fear myself off a cliff.
Necromancer mysteriously deleted from game!
Wish they’d hurry up and put another quarter in the meter.
Some of the talk implied corruption and condition transfers will be pointless
Crashed on me, too.
Love the increased range other professions are getting.
Boon spam
Massive healing buffs
Lots of condition damage buffs, too.
Looks good enough for roaming WvW but I agree Bone Minions are better than the Shadow because if the putrid explosion.
You will not have good zerg/siege support or many escape options other than wurm and your two binds so use them well.
Berserker exotic is a good investment. You can also enjoy new armor skins if you do not have CoF, already.
There will be many builds for Necromancer without condition damage because it requires scepter and/or Curses. Necromancer will have plenty of power build options in comparison.
I have learned to ignore all of the vampiric traits and skills: they are there as a distraction to entice people into builds that do not work.
For a healing support build right now, get a lot of healing stat and run transfusion, then reduced CD on wells and DS. It really hurts damage output but can heal quite a bit if you discipline yourself to use Life Transfer as much as possible. I use Exuberance runes for the healing armor to convert some vitality back into power but you can run other healing runes. Spite, Blood Magic, and Soul Reaping. If needed, you can also grab Ritual of Protection in Death Magic or slot Spectral Armor instead of the blind.
This is only for PUGs in trouble, though.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBIhZakkmeabpxoG+bTgLUTvEXR/C5BEAUuFhBA-TxxGABA8EAIU9ncPFAopP4Jlf6u/wdKBBA-e
It’s ugly, I know, and hard to set up in the middle of a dungeon run gone sour but something like this is the best group support I have been able to find. Signet of Undeath and Renewing Blast should be useful but are not. SoU takes so long to complete that myself or others can just res the person faster and RB is nearly impossible in a group dodging and kiting; never mind the fact it only works if i have allies between myself and the target when I am best set up to tank the target myself.
Off-hand dagger can be swapped for war horn, of course.
The trick is to get people to stack on me.
(edited by Anchoku.8142)
HoT will take all stats away from trait lines so you will not automatically have precision and condition damage from the Curses specialization.
Likewise, Spite will not supply power or condition duration.
Axe has a few problems.
1. It stacks vuln too slowly compared to other professions
2. Vulnerability is easily capped in group PvE so axe is often a waste of time
3. Scepter has bleed, poison, easier postioning, and longer range making it way better in 1v1, dagger has much higher dps because it does not mess around with conditions MH, and staff has AoE and more range.
There are a lot of situations where axe just does not fit and those situations where it does fit, it performs poorly compared to what other professions get.
It does have excellent LF generation, though.
Technically, Terror is just a Fear condition buff. Necromancer does not really need it but the Dev’s added it to help a condition spec. Base Fear damage can be modified across all professions or Terror can be baselined into Curses as a minor. Making Terror require a trait slot creates a cost/benefit trade that I am not sure the profession still needs. Terror was nerfed a long time ago with Paralyzation sigil and other Fear access or duration hair cuts.
I kind of wish Necromancer had more Fear access. Add it to another weapon that needs help like axe and just delete Terror. It is almost a slot consumer like the other weapon CD reduction traits and slot-consumers for only ICD just suck.
Regarding Signet Mastery, I have long wanted some trait to reward players who take multiple signets. SM does not do that. It is very linear and encourages just taking one signet so a full signet build remains awful. If signet CD decreased depending upon the number equipped, then it might make some of the more useless, long CD signets tolerable.
Question: I forget if Retal is affected by condition damage. DoT may be excluded but I do not remember if this is true. However, if the new way of handling conditions includes Ret damage… I have no clue how that would affect balance. Any speculation?
Effectively, it will not matter. You take the whole trait line, or none of it at end-game so all three slots are equal.
There will be no such thing as a GM traits when specialization arrives. All three trait slots will be equal. Sub-80 unlocking will be the only differentiation.
I suspect Reaper will end up stronger than Necromancer in handling multiple opponents, particularly in PvE, but no better than base Necro in other situations.
Prepare to remain unwanted outside of zerg support.
(edited by Anchoku.8142)
If Necromancer can stack 25 vulnerability on a single target and maintain even half of that as Reaper, then the whole profession will be more unwanted than it is, now.
The vulnerability cap is staying at 25 per cent damage bonus and every profession will benefit on condition damage so every profession will be encouraged to use vulnerability more often. If Necro-Reap applies 25 vulnerability by itself, then it is already broken.
I expect signets will receive minor rework given past comments. Epidemic and maybe some other utilities will probably be adjusted, too, with the changes to conditions. Well of Power could get an indirect nerf with more conditions stacking and new conditions added. It may not be able to flip enough conditions fast enough.
Weapons might be rebalanced, too. Lots of professions will do crazy damage with intensity stacking; not Necromancer, though. Necro stacking is already balanced for slow application.
Vulnerability cap stays at 25.
Therefore, axe still sux and is in need of rework.Vuln stacking with axe would suck even if there was no limit.
True, but it would suck less in group PvE than it does now. >25 per cent damage increase would be useful. Knocking someone’s vulnerability off the 25 stack for your own latest one is absolutely useless right now.
With a large portion of Necromancer’s defense that is not DS coming from soft CC, the coming change giving mobility skills immunity to dampers like cripple and chill may further break Necromancer.
The condi stack change will open up other professions more than Necromancer, too.
The change looks positive at first but the only skill I think will benefit is Epidemic but I also feel Epi will get a cap-nerf soon.
Vulnerability cap stays at 25.
Therefore, axe still sux and is in need of rework.
Minions scale up the encounter, yes?
Expect condi duration stat’ gear after the patch.
Every profession will get duration crimped to roll back some of the higher condi dps builds. Be thankful scepter does not get nerfed to oblivion.
Lets be honest both weapons are bad for the back line. You just sit on staff or in DS for that anyway. The point is dagger is far superior when you do get close. And that is going to happen sometimes.
Lifeforce isnt really an issue in WvW as far as i remember. And you have it on dagger auto anyway. Axe 3 is like the only advantage. But its insignificant when you consider how god awful the rest of the weapon is.
I mean sure you can choose to use axe and try to justify it any way you like. But the weapon is beyond bad and thats not going to change unless it gets a rework.
I think of staff as an AoE version of War’s rifle. Don’t count on it for ranged dps. It’s going to jello.
More chill, more frost, less fire, fewer opponent eacapes
For myself, I would prefer every slot on every trait line to have…
Top – damage
Middle – utility unique to trait line
Bottom – sustain
This allows a clear trade between dps and sustainability that can be adjusted quickly depending on the situation I am about to stick my foot in.
Minions in PvE are good against completely stupid AI in many veterans, champions, and a few open world bosses that do not spam too much AoE.
That is, Minions are good for farming.
Axe needs a major rework. Vulnerability is too cheap and easy to come by, especially with how slow it stacks, and the channel has limited benefit.
Repeaer getting burning?
With Dhuumfire, in fact Reaper’s Shroud will probably be the only way to make Dhuumfire a viable trait considering there will no longer be an icd and Reaper has a much faster cleaving auto attack.
Also, keep in mind burning is rumored to get a nerf in dps per stack. Dhuumfire could end up largely useless, still. Necromancer has no other source, anyway.
I would rather change Dhuumfire from burning to chill/frost DoT to integrate better with the profession.
Watch the guard video you can see with no condi damage it does 150 a tick. With condi damage and +33% it does just over 400~500 damage a stack. Scales down to about 300~350 a stack without the +33%. Considering reaper shroud auto will allow you to keep up between 4~12 stacks depending on traits and runes its a lot of damage. Like A LOT.
You are not wrong, I would just rather that amount of condition damage be from a condition Necromancer has some synergy with. One source of burning to trait and buff versus frost dps, which Necromancer will have another source of.
Baelfire, Flame Legion and runes like these are a poor match for Necromancer because of the single source and low up-time for burning. Why fight for burning when a new condition is coming that does dps and already has another source planned for Reaper when you could have armor that may better match Necro-Reap?
Repeaer getting burning?
With Dhuumfire, in fact Reaper’s Shroud will probably be the only way to make Dhuumfire a viable trait considering there will no longer be an icd and Reaper has a much faster cleaving auto attack.
Also, keep in mind burning is rumored to get a nerf in dps per stack. Dhuumfire could end up largely useless, still. Necromancer has no other source, anyway.
I would rather change Dhuumfire from burning to chill/frost DoT to integrate better with the profession.
Watch the guard video you can see with no condi damage it does 150 a tick. With condi damage and +33% it does just over 400~500 damage a stack. Scales down to about 300~350 a stack without the +33%. Considering reaper shroud auto will allow you to keep up between 4~12 stacks depending on traits and runes its a lot of damage. Like A LOT.
You are not wrong, I would just rather that amount of condition damage be from a condition Necromancer has some synergy with. One source of burning to trait and buff versus frost dps, which Necromancer will have another source of.
Baelfire, Flame Legion and runes like these are a poor match for Necromancer because of the single source and low up-time for burning. Why fight for burning when a new condition that does dps and already has another source planned for Reaper when you could have armor that may better match Necro-Reap?
Necromancer has plenty of conditions: fear, bleed, poison, and the new frost are enough. The profession needs greater access to these, more up-time, rather than more variety. Using Dhuumfire as a throw-away condition to cover a bleed, for example, is a waste of an important slot.
Repeaer getting burning?
With Dhuumfire, in fact Reaper’s Shroud will probably be the only way to make Dhuumfire a viable trait considering there will no longer be an icd and Reaper has a much faster cleaving auto attack.
Also, keep in mind burning is rumored to get a nerf in dps per stack. Dhuumfire could end up largely useless, still. Necromancer has no other source, anyway.
I would rather change Dhuumfire from burning to chill/frost DoT to integrate better with the profession.
Chill time. You should know by now Necromancer is for soft CC and melee. Condition damage has been consistently balanced to equal, or below, that of other professions.
Necromancer is a melee profession. If you want range and conditions, play another profession.
Keep in mind you are asking for a buff when Necromancer is ‘In a good place.’
The dev’s could simply buff fear’s base damage or duration, if more fear condition damage was warranted.
That ‘Want to be hit’ comment was a Freudian slip. Just ignore it as a n00b thing.
Now, if Necromancer gained a bit of health whenever hit in DS, the comment would make sense.
Bone fiend and either bone minions or the balloon for two slots. SotL generally for the third.
Clarify what you mean by spec’ armor, Gryph.
Oscuro, if you can do without staff, you can build LF faster. Also, there are a number of LF building traits should you feel like a compromise on your build is in order.
As Silv said, Spectral skills help build LF, too.
Also, if is going to be a projectile, it should also be finisher where the grasp connects and before the pull completes.
And dark path, too!
Axe AA could stack vulnerability a lot faster. The slow ramp in vulnerability stacking just encourages auto attacking. No finishers also hurts it.
Axe 2 could siphon, too, in addition to LF generation .
The point, I think, is to give opponents more time to dodge or counter.
Necromancer’s design theme is so strict it precludes any other play style.
There are options.
1. Allow a fraction of a heal through DS
2. Increase base toughness for Necromancer
3. Increase blind, chill, weakness, and boons like protection availability
4. Increase DS LF generation and reduce DS CD.
5. Scale up heal and siphon effectiveness so, for example, a regeneration from anywhere heals more on Necromancer
6. Convert heals to LF
Some of these options should look familiar. The options may be used in combination.