The changes are so extensive that speculation at this point carries low probability. If I am not at work or at the pub, I may listen in.
Oh, I got an idea! Change LF to some nebulous energy from which Necromancer can draw from to use skills, kind of like mana. Call it SP, if you will.
If every profession has only it’s 9 least suckie traits per line kept, Necromancer will be truly blessed.
I think Plague and Lich Form already have tags, that is Transformation.
Actually yeah, they might just keep the “transform” tag.
Now, if only DS could be classified in the same group as Moa…
Without DS, perhaps the game’s most powerful damage avoidance mechanic, Necromancer would be an easy kill for everything frome PvP to PvE. The profession would need to be totally reworked into something completely different – something like Revy, in which case Necromancer would be replaced.
There should be some cross-professions skills, too, like racial and event (Anti-toxin Spray). Maybe Consume Conditions will be an “Other”.
I’d like to get a skill that converts conditions into LF.
Unholy Martyr – Enjoy
Did I read correctly that skill points will be exchanged for crafting materials? Will I be able to consume them for elite specializations?
I am going to have to think about the news page posts before speculating. There is nothing that hints at adjusting profession balance while there are also going to be changes to boss condition caps.
I do expect a number of balance adjustments following HoT for a few quarters.
(o_-) true but I doubt the stacking ability is quite the same. Use what makes sense and/or whatever build you want. There is no rule that says a player has to use any specific build or equipment. Play for fun and always question what you read on the forum. I am a big fan of trying things for myself.
Dagger beats even traited axe in dps by good margin and, in PvE, the modest cleave widens that margin far beyond anything Necromancer has except wells. However, use axe when…
… you need the fastest LF generation possible,
… you have difficulty keeping the gap with your target closed lowering your dps too much (axe is the second most powerful power weapon but has plenty of range for most encounters),
… you are in a PvE group that is not keeping enough vulnerability on target for one reason or another. Sometimes, players forget 5 vuln = superior sigil of force and 10 = L400 crafted potions for everyone.
It is that simple. Run dagger, otherwise.
Transfusion, an adept trait, is 1000x better at healing allies than renewing blast.
Skoigoth, axe can be very good in dungeons depending upon you group mix and the weapons they bring. Watch the vulnerability stack on bosses. If you group is not keeping it within, say, 5 of the 25 cap, axe can be good. You should be able to maintain 10 vulnerability all by yourself. That is equal to 10 might on everyone, all the time. Even if your dps is lower than dagger, the rest of your group is running 10% higher dps because of your axe.
If your group is close to capping vulnerability without you, run dagger, of course.
25 might on 25 vulnerability is a 50% dps boost – way too good to pass up. Make sure your group gets it. There is little you can do for might but vulnerability is something you can do, if needed.
In practice it is extremely difficult to use.
Ally, enemy, and yourself need to line up in a particular order and stand there letting you life blast both of them.
This is another case of “balancing” for 0.1% of the time.
If they made it an AoE with 240 radius, it might be better.
Biggest appeal for me is the variety of builds available. For a long time, Necromancer had nothing it was particularly good at so whatever I ran, it was all the same. Most other professions now have their own viable alternatives resulting from the balance patches.
Necromancer is still good at tagging trash mobs.
Torment is more of a nuisance condition. It proc’s often to hide bleeds, as Drarnor said, but it is weak even on a condition build. I have a full torment set I made, maybe, a year ago for PvE and was largely unimpressed by it despite PvE mobs tromping around regardless of what conditions are applied. It does, however, bypass effective condition damage caps on bleed and burning on event bosses for a tiny bit more condition damage, if you are not running a more effective sigil.
Necromancer can get bags in PvE and WvW through its tagging ability. It can tank as well as a Warrior. In 1v1, it is competitive with other professions.
In organized groups it is sub-par for its lack of doing anything of value for the team. Conditions are low value, team cleanses are poor, and there are no boons to speak of, no leaps or any other mobility skills, pretty close to nothing of use to a group.
The two biggest problems in PvE are…
… it is slow with nothing but a 25 or 30 percent speed boost – no leaps or teleport (without engaging a target.)
… low party benefits – no might stacking, poor use of fields, too many of the wrong fields, poor group buffs, poor group condition management.
HoT will include changes to boons, conditions, and how they are handled. Keep your fingers crossed.
Necromancer, with its very low combat mobility and tank-like design, should have a lot of access to Taunt – more than any other profession. I honestly do not think that will be the case, though.
^
Yes, I think you have it right. As far as I am concerned, the is not one Grandmaster trait in Blood Magic that deserves to be called a grandmaster.
The most valuable things about ascended armor and weapons are the skins you unlock and being account bound instead of soul bound. All PvE and WvW can be played with lesser armor.
The cleave works far better for me in PvE. I just do not understand why dagger got the PvE buff.
I think of staff as a utility weapon, not a power or condi weapon. It does little bits of a lot of things: piercing auto attack, regen, chill, poison, fear, condition transfer, lots of AoE, 1200 range…
Staff has low dps no matter which build you use. It is not at all like Ranger’s long bow, for example. I tend to lump staff into the same category as Necro’s off-hand weapons.
The stat difference between exotic and ascended gear is not that much. Exotic armor is also part of the updated reward system for leveling, map and story completion rewards. You can also play in rare or master armor. The old PvE server system was condensed so all servers share the same maps meaning there should be help completing a lot of PvE tasks from others on the same map.
PvP provides players with the same equipment stat, rune, and sigil selection so you will automatically be at the same level as the other players.
Game gold is a problem for most players. It can be spent on convenience items, skins, and many other things so everyone has to deal with the grind for gold. You will not be the only one.
Sagat, Necromancer is actually not that good at condition damage compared to some other classes. Scepter’s bleeds represent the highest condition damage dps. Terror may have a lot of condition damage when active but its tiny up-time means it is not much of a real contributor. Necro is better at managing conditions than applying damaging ones; corrupting boons, transferring, consuming, or flipping conditions, etc.
Other professions can keep opponents bleeding, burning, or confused a without being forced into one low-direct damage weapon on main hand.
How about this for a suggestion:
Introduce a pathing and hint system that costs the player half the reward. While learning to navigate and succeed in PvE content, the player could toggle an instructional mode that provides voice and or text instructions and hints at a cost. If the player toggles the hint mode during the dungeon, display a big, obvious status flag for the player to know that the rewards have been cut on that run.
Once the player understands the dungeon, fractal, or event chain, no more hints will be necessary and the player can play without them for full rewards.
For skills like using fields for combos and their effects, a training ground in the mists that announces the combos in detail is one step, giving Necromancers more combos and at least one aura is another, and adding more depth and breadth of combos requiring more coordination and timing is a third.
The rewards and effects for completing a combo should be more obvious. Other games do it and the combos can get quite complicated. New players learn to combo early on because it affects damage so much and can induce stronger effects. Two, three, four, or more hit combos make the game less grindy, too.
Total damage shown in the log divided by total time of the log. It is almost that simple. The only other thing to remember is that the accuracy of your measurement depends upon (a) making sure your total time is long enough to include several elites and their cool downs, (b) the situation you are measuring in is representative of real game play; i.e., hitting a dummy does not count because the dummy does not fight back, dodge, or counter your skills.
After that, it’s just tedious adding the damage taken and received for several minutes of play for a comparison of your dps versus an opponent’s dps.
Good discussion of the inherent weaknesses of Necromancer and a nice review of how ArenaNet has been half-heartedly changing how the profession works.
Personally, I find it hard to believe your suggestion that the endless balance changes are to keep players interested. Rather, I think the problems with the profession are too difficult for the staff to address.
The introduction of Dhuumfire, a trait with no synergy with any other aspect of the profession and its subsequent move to Life Blast, demonstrated how little effort has been spent on balancing not only Necromancer but all professions.
The forums are an invaluable source of information and advice, some good and some not so good, but I do not see it being leveraged.
I would like to see more balance in builds across all professions. Tone down the meta builds and buff the less attractive alternates. Necromancer is fortunate to have enjoyed the variety it has, even if there is nothing really worthy of being equivalent to a top profession’s meta.
Learn to be more tolerant and instructive. The reward is more tangible than game gold.
Sounds fine to me. It is more important to not get killed so you can continue contributing to the battle than eking out the maximum damage. A lot of valuable things you do in a zerg battle do little or no damage, anyway.
WoC, WoP, WoD, WoB, Transfusion, Corrupt Boon, Plague Signet, Spectral Wall, Marks, CPC, etc. I hope you see the point. It is good to lean stats toward damage but do not worry too much in zerging about maxing it.
Also, new players come into the game with preconceived expectations on how each profession should work based upon how similar professions work in other games and the explanations given in the character creation page.
Necromancer is a profession that does not play like a dark sorcerer. It plays more like a dark paladin or evil tank.
GW2 lacks a class system but still uses profession names and armor classes that suggests one. That, alone, no doubt causes misconceptions.
Yep, staff is one of Necro’s best tagging tools and has the longest range but that does not mean it is good, just that there are few other options.
Necromancer still needs a ranged single target weapon. Staff is more like a utility weapon than something designed for dps.
On a related note, I’ve been seeing a LOT of necromancers in PvE. I’ve only been playing about a month so I don’t know if this is a growing trend or it has always been this way.
Necros are popular for the aesthetic. As soon as people realise the mistake they made they often regret it and roll another class. With the influx of new players its not really a surprise seeing loads of necros in open world. Besides noone gives a kitten what anyone plays in open world.
I think another reason is that all the other professions have been leveled to 80, already, and players are just finishing off the unpopular stragglers.
My two cents
1. Bosses strip or flip boons to reduce the positive boon burst feedback loops that allows massive damage boosts just for spamming boons and combo’s. I am not suggesting boon and burst elimination but reducing the cap in practice.
2. Give Necromancer more options to affect Defiance. Necromancer and Guardian should have the strongest debuffing power on bosses, possibly depending upon boss type.
3. Necromancer needs a close combat condition weapon like scepter but with dps equivalent to dagger. GS will not be it, we are all pretty much sure of. A torch for burning may make burn duration runes useful and Dhuumfire less an outlier.
4. Strengthen condition management skills like Plague signet for greater party support. SoV could use some condition management so just add a condi transfer per leech proc.
I may post other ideas, later, but am really growing sick of seeing the fundamental issues with the profession being ignored.
Do not roll a Necromancer if you want a spell caster. Necromancer is pretty low, if not bottom, of all professions and is not much of a spell caster, anyway. It is a tanking profession – sort of a wildly unpopular anti Guardian. All professions, ALL, do debuffing and have offensive magic and summons. Necromancer’s design theme was too powerful so it was nerfed to oblivion before game release and the developers have been trying (half-heartedly) to find it a new place. That place is a dps tank with no group synergy.
Necromancer is a melee profession. Ranged damage is low and scales up as weapon range decreases. You face tank more than a warrior.
(edited by Anchoku.8142)
I trait Death Magic for at least one of these three reasons:
1. Boon duration (might) in specific PvE
2. Staff mastery and greater marks also in PvE
3. MM Death Nova
If you want toughness, it is cheaper, stat-wise, to get it from trinkets or armor.
Meta is a Greek preposition with a number of meanings depending upon context. In gamer jargon, it means roughly better than normal.
Players throw the term around pretty loosely but they usually mean a build that works particularly well for some situation or game mode. It may also mean a particularly good team composition for a dungeon, WvW, or PvP. GWEN (Guardian, Warrior, Elementlist, Necromancer) is an example of WvW meta. Berserker is a sort of meta, too. It refers to stat allocation toward the highest damage output and experienced players familiar with an opponent’s attacks can minimize the damage they take allowing them to forego defensive stats.
Arenanet has been trying to balance professions and skills so that there are no truly exceptional builds or group compositions and will continue to do so. GW2 is supposed to do away with team roles as they were in older MMOs. Pick any profession and you can fill any role or several at once. That is the theory, anyway.
This looks like a spectral condi build but I do not understand why you chose to put 6 points into soul Reaping instead of 2. You spent 4 points on toughness and boon duration. If it is your intent to flash DS and hide under spectral armor, would it not be better to just choose one or the other?
For a spectral build, why not 66002 or 64004? Even 64022 has less conflict in purpose.
Power still works. Conditions are less of a handicap to dps than they were. Feel free to run a blend of both. Silverwastes has opportunity to use condition damage to good effect, mostly from husks, and Necromancer’s condition management tools are also more useful.
I have run power, condi, and hybrid. All can work well enough so I would say there is no clear loser like there is in older content. I have all kinds of fun playing with builds there.
The 3 is okay at best. Its range is shorter than Wail of Doom and it’s not even unblockable. Pretty much the only time it’s useful is to prevent someone stomping/ressing or if there is a major spell being cast. Otherwise, you’re better off autoattacking for ~6k piercing damage.
The 5 is useful, but has a prohibitive casting time and is also easy to dodge.
I agree, fwiw.
Skills 2-5 do paltry amounts of damage and are all incredibly different. Making them good enough to use would definitely reduce the overall damage versus the typical 1111111.
2’s vulnerability is too short, way too short, for having a cool down and cast time so much longer than just the claws. Vulnerability is mostly useless in PvE but, if it were super long, it may find a place… barely.
The tiny push-back of 3 and short chill is even more lame than number 2 and why on Earth is the cool down so long on a 20 second elite if the pushback is tiny, with no stun, and the chill is a few seconds?
The undead gerbils on 4 just chase players around, never quite able to keep up, or are wiped by an AoE in PvE. They are designed for PvE but do not have the toughness to withstand boss actions. Also, they apply bleed, which often hits the cap in PvE. Maybe if they were a bunch of mini bone minions…
The boon strip on 5 would be nice if it did not take so long to perform or be so easy to dodge. With only 20 seconds, it is easy to duck the huge tells on Lich and almost as easy to dodge the claw.
Oh, what I would give for skills 2-5 not to suck. They are weak, useless in PvE, and take too long to cast. Cool downs are funny in that they still reflect a 30 s elite.
Marked for death should give 20+ s vulnerability, chilling wind instant cast and change the chill to an ice block, mark of horror jagged rodents should not decay over time, and grim specter should be a pulsing field like WoC and WoP combined.
Lich got nerfed with the stability change and, before that, 1/3 reduction in active time. Lich really is delicate despite the stats. CC is weak, claws are dodgeable, and everything takes so long to cast.
I had a dire set but salvaged it. Running a bunker set works better with power or healing. I still have an ancient soldier’s air set for WvW and a somewhat newer shaman’s exuberance set strugging PUGs but I need the bag space so these two are the only 2 def, 1 off sets I carry.
I carry 10 sets of armor, btw, for experimenting.
Zerker x 2
Carrion
Rabid
Lyssa temple (precision, heal blend)
Celestial
Soldier’s
Shaman’s
Sinister
Rampager’s
I need to rework the runes on several sets and am planning a Zealot’s for the next one but am waiting for the HoT release and how it will change crafting. Most of my armor had condition damage and I have found Necromancer not especially good at applying it. Power and soft CC is better for Necro. Condition management does not equate to condition damage.
Dire is too low dps for any build without scepter for me.
I don’t know about the others but I prefer Cele on Necro over Carrion.
Between the two, Carrion works better for Carrion traits, imo, but most of that condition damage goes to waste if not running scepter.
If you run a power build and need some defensive stats, Celestial works. It is inefficient but not horrible. Celestial is, perhaps, best for unoptimized builds where traits and skills have low synergy.
Celestial will never be a component of any Necromancer meta but it supports sub-optimal builds better than armor meant to optimize one specific build.
Often with PUGs I find myself finishing dungeons with a support build. There are a few ways to do this.
Minions are bad at a lot of things but they make good distractions. If you need bait to peel for you, this is one option but do not expect it to work particularly well.
Wells offer the most support of any type of build. WoP is not just good for using when hit with a lot of conditions, it can also be used on a stacked fight to convert conditions as they come from the boss to augment the burn-down, and WoP can be used at the end of a fight to clear conditions so everyone gets out of combat and back to full speed. WoB makes a fair heal, though pretty much every other job can do better, faster. Like all wells, it works better when stacking. WoD is probably only used in a super-bunker support build for a group in dire need of help. Trait it with Chilling Darkness and the pulsed blind with chill gives your group a few seconds of free dps. If you run wells, I recommend taking OH dagger and traits that remove conditions like Spiteful Removal, which is great for trash mob use but nearly useless against bosses. Shrouded removal would be better for bosses.
Transfusion is a powerful adept trait in Blood Magic I have found easy to use to help keep my group standing. Just use it whenever possible. It does not prevent the Necromancer from going down due to low health but the group can help you back up if they are all comfortably healthy. When they get low, then you are in trouble so keep their health up.
Staff is a great support weapon. The regen on #2 and condition transfer on #4 often go unnoticed but can be powerful. Staff does, unfortunately, handicap your damage output tremendously so camping out with staff is generally bad. Start with staff initially after the boss hits with AoE conditions, transfer them and regen your group, then switch to another weapon for dps.
There are other group support skills but I use them less frequently. Necromancer can bunker fairly well but its support will never be appreciated. Heals are not strong enough or fast enough and the cost in dps is high for a lot of support. The best support I do seems to be resurrecting downed players next to the boss. Keeping enough of DS to do that and survive makes a big difference.
For laughs, I started keeping track of heals I miss in dungeons and fractals from being in DS. The missed health astounded me. The more I use DS, the lower the odds of getting any sort of heal at all.
Now, DS prevents me from taking damage but the only way to participate in heals is to have team members call them out before using them so I have a chance to grab the heal. Unfortunately, I participate only in PUGs.
——————————— So here is where I go off on a tangent —-———————
In an older MMO, scripts were allowed for skills such that countdown alerts and skill names were echoed in the chat log. Things like a note that a skill was approaching the end of a cool down, or a script to launch a skill had started and the skill would go off after a set delay. The chat log echo could be personal notes not visible to the team, or notes for team members to coordinate bursts. In many cases, the burst was configurable based upon the order in which the skills were used to give varying effects and damage.
This type of planning is only available on voice in GW2. In the old MMO, the scripts were written by players using a framework set up by the game designers but that is not entirely necessary for GW2. The game is fully capable of reporting in chat log when skills are off cool down and when skills are used. There are also the visual effects players can see.
Chat logs, though, are mostly outdated. I guess I would like to see the following work performed by Arenanet:
1. Expand the chat log capability so the player can assign skills to kittenoed in chat to team members. Something like <player>, <skill>, “player comment” would at least help players connect with skills and their visual effects on screen. To prevent the chat log from clogging up, perhaps only combo fields and finishers should be able to be toggled this way. Certainly, auto-attack has no value being echoed in the chat log.
2. Integrate voice chat and audio tighter within the game. Joining a group should automatically join the voice channel. The same could be done with team or alliance channels and commanders may have voice override capability.
3. Further develop combo’s (skill combinations) to encourage more coordinated group and team play. An intricate combination should have a nice burst for a reward. Combo’s can be used to train players in PvE for PvP and WvW. The combo is not used very effectively in PvE right now because the content can be cleared with players spamming skills uncoordinatedly, knowing some of the rudiments of positioning and event stages. Make event success more dependent upon creating combinations successfully.