(edited by Anchoku.8142)
Necromancer is one of the best professions for farming. If you like gathering materials and killing trash mobs to do some crafting or just to sell, consider Necromancer.
I agree with Helicity. Play style for Necromancer is different than for a front-line dps. Each profession can do a wide range of jobs but you will never get completely away from playing conditionmancer to some extent. If playing support roles make you unhappy, then do not punish yourself by trying to make Necromancer into a Warrior.
The Death Magic line (toughness) has extremely useful traits. I retrait a lot, sometimes just to experiment with builds other players discuss, but putting at least 20 into Death Magic yields a lot of flexibility in skills.
Some of these comments lead in strange directions.
Three months ago, the recipes using powerful blood were the same as today. The market environment has changed. Maybe there are more players crafting T6. Maybe there are fewer botters. Maybe there are a lot fewer players actively farming and gathering. It is not as if the drop rate decreased.
In my view, the increase in cost (gold) for crafting supply is very positive. It means the market is working properly. What I had a problem with in 2012 was the rapid drop in the value of gold in terms of gems compounded by a similar drop in the value of gold denominated items. Those two trends meant sellers were forced to continually lower prices as demand fell short of supply every day. The market is much more stable, now, than it was.
Farm what you need in crafting materials or pay someone else to do it and the trading post to facilitate the transaction.
People like, and I mean really like, complaining about the limitations of any profession so that is why the forum seems filled with whiners but those same people are usually the ones who love the job enough to have put a lot of time into it.
The technical points raised in this thread and many others have a lot of merit. However, the Necromancer is, perhaps, the ultimate farming machine. It takes more skill than a botter wants but if you want a thief to “clean up,” think of Necromancer.
Considering how many times I re-trait and re-skill for different situations and environments, I decided to make a thread for people to post their impressions and the tune-ups you use. This is kind of a survey.
Necromancer versus -
- PvE trash mobs: Very powerful because of DS, its AoE abilities, and minions so it can easily handle a train and tag multiple mobs for a good drop quantity. Almost any trait and skill setup will work fine but I usually run Flesh Golem for the extra direct damage and leave traits weighted for CD and toughness. I use DS frequently.
_ PvE bosses: Low initial dps from my standard CD/tough tuning is offset by the boss’ high stats so that Necromancer contributes pretty steadily. I trait toughness because bosses typically can one or two-shot me if i miss a dodge. Golem is only used outside of dungeons for its knock-down. Otherwise, I use Plague or Lich. Against bosses, I would rate Necromancer as above average because conditions usually run their full durations and I end up acquiring the boss’ hate. I would rate Necromancer higher if the profession had a mechanic to avoid damage. I use DS as much as possible.
WvW: There seems to be several viable play styles but I usually play a light condition- Iartillery and healing role. For that, I again trait CD and toughness but add some healing/vitality. I never run minions because any opponent with a brain will ignore them. Odds are fair that a minion will goof off, anyway. I use DS less frequently in WvW because I save it for its small escape utility. The little extra bit of life does not help when I am singled out, though. It is better for escaping AoE. Flesh worm sort of helps with mobility but has a cool down that keeps me from the front line and it is highly vulnerable. I rate Necromancer as below average in this style of play mostly for the reduced value of conditions in PvP and the poor escape options. I do not mind either handicap but both at once is a high price. The only solution we have is a glass cannon build.
I have tried 30/30/x/x/x or 30/x/x/x/30 and found them pretty squishy and short on good utility traits but do admire those with the skill to pull it off. If spectral armor had shorter cool down and spectral wall was a mobility skill like a portal or stability, I think this build would be easier for me to deal with. As a side note, even though the traits scream “glass cannon”, the effect is still less glassy or cannon-like than other professions.
Post your own impressions. I would very much like to read them.
In WvW, Necromancers make good siege weapons. Even though mobility is crap compared to other professions, we can take a few hits and not need to run back to safety while we wait for CD timers to clear. Whether firing down from a wall, or up at one, a Necro with a staff can make the other team unhappy and give your own team’s high dps player a chance to close ranks. Do not expect to get a lot of badges doing support work but also remember that work is critical for the team. A few necromancers on a wall are like light siege weapons that can be moved around to fill in gaps before the gaps turn into holes.
If you prefer making the kills yourself, then Necromancer is not the best job for that. It does not have a nuke button or an escape button. All Necromancer has is a second health bar so that it can take a beating just a bit longer before dying. Our best weapons in a zerg are staff marks (AoE) for conditions and to set up combo fields, wells which also set up combo fields but are very good at converting conditions, and epidemic (the closest skill to a nuke) which spreads conditions on one target to up to 5? others.
Badges may come slowly and Necromancer is one of the easy prey when singled out but in a zerg the job is like mobile artilery, not for direct damage, but for its ability to send opponents back for CD after blowing a good heal just to remove a bleed or poison and get their speed bonus back.
(edited by Anchoku.8142)
I found that by giving conditions some attention and switching from Berzerker to Rampager, I’ve increased my damage, AoE, an utility.
A very large portion of damage comes from conditions for Necromancer. Buffs to condition damage will naturally pay off so nerfing that stat completely in favor of another can gimp total damage. Those little numbers squirting off over a mob’s head really add up fast. I agree it is nice to see a large damage number but this job was designed around condition damage, not pets, crit bursts, or OP AoE.
If what people stated above is correct about the games design philosophy. Then maybe what Necro’s lack more than heals scaling better/at all with healing power, is easier access to defensive boons.
Our accesss to Stability is almost non-existent (grand master trait 3 seconds). Our abilities that gives us access to Protection are on far to long cooldown or far to short uptime (wells or utility). Our retaliation is very short excluding Axe#3 which is uncommonly used due to poor implimentation.
Maybe instead of siphon and proc heals, we should be asking for more boon access?
Actually, I would suggest other professions have longer CD on condition removal, or for Necromancer to have at least one unique condition. However, the lack of stability options is really annoying, even in PvE. Catapults and farmers with shovels just knock me around. I understand the dodging mechanic but if I am too close to a cat the red circle provides no warning and if there is more than one angry, undead farmer, sometimes they will just play tennis with me.
http://dulfy.net/2012/10/03/gw2-endgame-gearing-guide/
http://dulfy.net/2012/09/08/gw2-templegod-karma-armor-sets/
Temple armor is not that bad. I bought a Grenth set. The runes are not so good but the set includes 3 rabid and 3 soldier’s with emphasis on toughness. You can mix and match armor from any temple but you will need to run a few dungeons if you want a whole soldier’s set. Soldier’s legs are not available for temple light armor. Still, balance is actually not bad and toughness seems to pay off better than vitality because Necromancers do not heal as well as a couple other professions so a larger health pool might be a waste after the first couple of hits.
If you are really new to L80 exotic armor, you might wish to stay with one rune set rather than mixing armor and having to crunch over some new runes but, then again, Rune of the Undead is pretty cheap and very decent. The only reason not to go with rune of the undead is to pick up specific bonuses like increased condition duration.
Although Necromancers excel in condition damage and are very useful in PvE, I feel like something is missing in WvW. Lots of professions can inflict conditions and have some form of condition removal that really limits a Necromancer’s total damage but, instead of requesting an ownage button, I suggest adding a trait or skill that can be used not to add damage to a battle, but disorganization.
Please add a 1 second “charge an ally and activate slot 1” trait or replace a skill like Spectral Wall with a signet of undead that is effectively an interrupt just a little bit more irritating and a lot more disorganizing. It would be nice if the skill forced target lock off, too, to aid in escape options but I would be happy with almost anything that is uniquely for Necromancer and gave it a little boost in WvW usefulness.
I would hazard a guess that a contributing factor is giving players an out in order to increase their likelihood of spending real money.
This is an abstract concept, not statistical, but consider the potential fence-sitter group of gem spenders. That is, people who want gem-based items but would never buy them with RL money if it was the only way to do so. Give them the opportunity to play the game however, with a reasonable chance to accumulate enough in-game wealth to buy those items, and they are happier. Possibly (conjecture) to the point where they might decide to spend RL money anyway in lieu of the effort, rather than eschewing it entirely because they felt forced to spend it because it was the only way.
I happen to agree. Gold is completely valueless to Arenanet unless it is used to entice people to spend real money so the exchange can be thought of as bait. Dedicated players or those who are skilled in the TP mini-game can purchase the items essentially for free and, maybe, advertise them or spread good word about their use. That way, players short on gold may wish to convert real money.
Talk of the “pool” is only part of the story. This pool has a big hole in the bottom called cash flow from which the profit margin, monthly operating, and ongoing content development costs are drawn from. Client and gem sales go in the top and money flows out the bottom down the drain. I expect the price of gems in terms of game-gold is a function monthly expenses and RMT transactions. Maybe I will start thinking of the BLTC as Arenanet’s own Mystic toilet but I, for one, do not mind feeding it real food once in a while. ;-)
People who never buy gems with real money are the moochers who may very well be adding to the “inflation”. That is why I wonder if the gem exchange is really serving its purpose. What would happen if it was just turned off? Want a plushie back item skin? Two hundred gold gets you nothing but $3-5 might. I can easily imagine the exchange rate moving a factor of 10. It is more a balance of in-game vs real life financial pain that Arenanet is testing.
People playing the TP mini-game is probably skewing the Arenanet’s gem exchange toilet game. I would imagine their intent is not to make it too difficult for newer players to obtain free samples from the BLTC through gold exchange. Players who make gobs of gold from the TP may be consuming too high a ratio of gems.
The BLTC needs improvements badly, anyway. I would put that task higher priority than class balance and mechanics adjustment.
The TP is not just an exchange for gold denominated items, it is also a mini-game for players but there is another way to look at it. To Arenanet, the TP is an economic and behavioral experiment and we are the squishy test subjects. In a very real way, GW2 players are the only currency that matters. As the game matures and client sales decrease, Arenanet must get revenue either from gem store RMT, or institute monthly fees.
“Buying” legendary bling is part of the entertainment package you purchased. If it is more satisfying and fun than the long odds on the RNG, maybe that will, somehow, make you want to trade real money for gems via some fuzzy mechanic I do not understand. Then, again, if you are skilled enough at the TP mini-game, why use real money to buy gems?
Hello, my name is Monte Carlo. Nice to meet you.
Yes, if you write out you own detailed explanation on how you perceive the market mechanics you, too, will be wasting your time on speculation and conspiracy theories. That is what this thread is for. Arenanet will never disclose details of their game’s market behavior and how their controls affect either it, or corporate revenue.
All we can do is ask pointed questions and have a little fun with it. Instead of taking attacks to blind faith in an assumed free market personally, write out why you think there is a gem exchange, how it really functions, and how it affects game play.
Arenanet only makes money when people buy gems with real money. The game’s gold economy is nothing more than a toy for players made by the dev’s. The gem exchange is probably a research project studying how to control the money supply and effects on gem RMT. I remember reading that the gem exchange was installed to discourage illegal RMT but wonder if it actually was all that effective.
If you post here again, I want to see you reasoning.
Syeria, you are absolutely correct that other items would be used to store value but those items will be less liquid, more cumbersome to store, and any exchange will be heavily taxed. Arenanet can also pull the accountbound/soulbound trick with items likely to be abused in that way. I see no reason why a person cannot produce very high value items and store them for potential sale later on. The same is true for BLC keys because any exchange will be taxed and the seller will compete with others for customers.
Using ectos is a wonderful example because converting gold to ectos was probably taxed through sale of salvageable items and salvage kits, removing some gold from the system and slowing the flow of converted gold. Storage space was necessary so expansions were probably purchased, removing more gold. Then, when the gold is needed once more, conversion from ecto to gold was taxed, again, and the seller may be forced to reduce the price if the conversion has urgency.
At first glance a cap may appear to be easily circumvented but the velocity of money affects market volatility and inconveniences high-volume speculators.
In any case, I think “inflation” of gems in gold is one issue compared while maintaining market stability is another. When I was crafting heavily, it was seriously depressing watching going prices for the things I had made drop every day so that I rarely sold an item listed unless the price was set exceptionally low. Soon, I just salvaged everything I made to clear out bag space. Since prices began to stabilize, I can at least sell for a modest loss on most leveling items.
Money supply is not really the problem, it is a control used to adjust the economy. A cap on accounts will not fix a broken economy but it will limit how much and how fast the population can move money. Unsanctioned RMT is, of course, a problem but that can be stopped by doing things like making legendaries soulbound on acquire. Arenanet certainly does a lot of that to limit trade of items meant to be used only by the character or player that earned them.
I know it is easy to get mixed up with all of the in-game currencies.
Gold has been losing value in terms of gems. You might think of it as gem inflation but gems are pegged to real money and token-denominated items are also fixed in price so it is gold that is moving down in value taking labor with it. For a while, gold-denominated items on the TP were also deflating in terms of gold. That gave items a double-tap on their value for months until gold sellers started getting the boot and drops were adjusted to be more at the character’s real level so that some of the over-supply was reduced; particularly in what I think of as animal parts and ecto/ori/goss donors necessary in crafting and forging. A little inflation on the TP is good until Arenanet figures out how to remove more gold from the market. However, that issue is independent of the growing gap in the gem exchange.
Arenanet needs income. Income comes from sales of the client and RMT for gems through the BLTP. Revenue can also come from direct sale of, or licenses to produce, real-world merchandise like backpacks shaped like monster books or plushie quaggans. (I’d fire anyone who missed obvious opportunities to make real money.) Conversion of gold into gems or taxing sales on the TP buys them only a measure of control on game-gold.
Game gold and real gold may have the same name but derive their value very differently so understanding how GW2 gold works is not intuitive. Gold in-game is more like a paper currency loosely based on the inverse of GDP instead of a somewhat limited natural resource. The game economy is not transparent and not a truly free market either so assuming a chart on “inflation” means anything other than “whim of the game gods” at this time is pointless. The PRC is a more transparent, free market than the BLTP. For me, all that chart does is plot Agony.
By providing a gold to gems exchange, players are able to access every item from the cash store without spending cash. If there was any intent to try “force” real money transactions in game, this would never have made it out of the first concept meeting.
Your naivety and faith in a corporation’s altruism is charming but your assumptions have no basis for a working business plan. Content development and daily support require continued funding from current players. I have paid for gems. Have you?
I would rather see a better working economy that does not punish new players or those who play less frequently. I want new players to be able to exchange silver for a key to a BLC just to see what is inside but the exchange rate continues to worsen. What do you hope for in your endless charity?
Think about the total supply of money.
Then also consider happenings inside the game (sales, new items) and how the currency exchange works.You’ll have your answer.
Fix the money supply without taking it out on the newer or casual players. Just cap gold in an account at 100, or even less, and cut off the trade for gems, capping them, too, so that any added real money above the cap goes into an account overflow of available funds. The only real use for a lot of gold is to shortcut crafting legendary weapons or to “gift” in unsanctioned RMT.
I will start the speculation with this:
(with sarchasm) The function of the exchange is…
1. to encourage players to speculate in buying and selling TP items using gold to try and make a fortune.
2. to slowly force players to use RMT (legal or otherwise) to obtain items denominated in gems.
3. to alienate new players who do not have extra gold laying around
4. to drive up the perceived value of gem-based items by forcing players to work harder or longer to obtain an equal amount of gems than they would have earlier in the life of the game.
Now that gold farming is coming under some control, the gold value of some consumables has started to stabilize or increase instead of losing value in terms of gold, while at the same time gold loses value in terms of gems. Reducing unapproved RMT has slowed the devaluation of drop items but such items still continue losing game value in terms of gems. Thinking in these terms, what really is the purpose of the exchange?
The TP’s commission should prevent speculation in currency exchange but is it effective? Currency speculation should only happen if relative valuation (exchange rate) moves more than the commission over a reasonable length of time (investment risk). Then, there is also speculation on consumable items as intermediaries because their rate of price fluctuation is more than the currency exchange but why tie gold to gems at all?
The new, leafy currency, the green laurel, was introduced to circumvent gold, just as dungeon, pvp, and wvw tokens do. Laurels reward players for achievement (effort) at fixed rates. Why is this when the items could be sold for gems, or traded on the TP using gold?
Real money fixes gem prices (though rates are different by country), gems are tied to gold (through a secret formula), and gold is tied to in-game rewards and a huge variety of items on the Trading Post. The flexible end of this chain ends up being gold and the items denominated in it that trade in the BLTP. Why is gold so instable that almost a dozen other forms of currency are required to keep people from flipping out? We have gems and tokens for each dungeon and the fractals, karma, mystic forge coins, wvw, pvp, and, if you want to count them, all of the account and soul-bound items.
So gold is good for exchanging items on the TP and is created by mob drops and event/mission rewards. I do wonder why a gold exchange for gems is even necessary. I, myself, have properly purchased gems through Arenanet’s approved RMT exchange and also exchanged gold for gems. What does the ability to perform a gem/gold exchange do for the game? What would be so wrong about shutting down the gold→gems exchange path? Miyani could do direct sale of offerings to the forge without conversion through gems.
(edited by Anchoku.8142)
Post in this thread what you think the function of the gold-gem exchange is.
Ranger is the pet class. The dev’s will never allow any other class’ pet equal or better usefulness. Minionmaster builds are supposed to be sub-optimal for most Necromancer play. For PvE farming, minions are there to make up for lower direct damage and burst capability. I have no problems using a pet or two on a conditionmancer variant to speed farming. I have tried minionmaster builds and run into the same limitations but firmly believe Necromancer will always be sub-optimal as a pet class. Look at the trait tree.
Earlier this week I saw my first gather-bot. A naked player with only a bow spawned on a node for herbs, gathered, and was gone, just like that. I know other players have seen this.
To counter this kind of botting, why not make gathering impossible within the first 10 seconds of spawing in an area? That way, at least I could have caught the name of the player and reported it.
Played a bit with minions last night. Flesh golem now appears to have an electric collar with my Necromancer standing in the middle of an electric dog fence. The golem would still get curious and want to go play with the first thing it noticed but, when it hit the hidden fence line, it returned to me. Have not perceived a difference in the other minions but they have always been more like little lap dogs. All pets still seem to have spells of laziness but the shorter leash on flesh golem is a definite improvement.
Jagged Horrors, btw, were occasionally useful as cannon fodder. The patch may have inadvertently taken even that use away.
I do wonder if, instead of making Necromancer easier to configure and play, the dev’s might make other jobs harder without nerfing them; maybe scramble the trait trees a bit or make them loose lock and auto-attack whenever they tap their elite skill.
Only a Necromancer has a dozen different build options and none of them are OP.
Why not give minions own skillbar and skills like in some f2p games? You could choose if you go full pet, hybrid or normal build.
Because that would make them OP, and we would essentially be rangers with magic instead of arrows. The pet skill bar is the inherent trait of rangers. We have Death Shroud and Life Force. It’s not happening.
That is correct! Making Necromancer a better pet class than Ranger is forbidden. All those gold-farmers would drop Ranger in a heartbeat.
No, for me. Dungeons, fractals, and wvw playing skills are effective enough in separating noob from expert. Besides, people will just hit the new cap almost right away. Rather, I expect new areas like Lost Shores to be more challenging all the time instead of just for the week it takes to reach the new cap.
Only a Necromancer would like playing a profession without a “nuke” button to mash.
Still evaluating minion behavior but the fix may change how the class plays. I regularly run a minion or two for farming and under water fights to supplement damage when wearing my magic find or rabid armor. Hoping that the flesh golem is now less curious and the others are less canon fodder.
The biggest factors in survival is the group’s experience level beyond L80 and familiarity with the dungeon. Personally, I have been in groups where I die a lot. I can tell when I am doing more damage than anyone else and rather dislike kiting and tanking while the rest of the group respawns or backs off to heal. I carry several sets of armor in case I need to slow my dps and sub as part time, temporary, relief healer, or need to play as a front line tank DD. Good groups let me play as a full-rabid conditionmancer without making me facetank.
I tried running a fear build close to Nemesis’ recommendation and it did add to survivability more than traiting the vitality line. A few thousand extra HP at the start of a battle does not mean much in the long run and traiting the blood line never seemed to provide any significant functional benefits. I have been traiting at least 20 in the death magic / toughness line for the last couple of months after giving up on what I thought was supposed to be one of the the Necromancer’s two specialties; vitality. If healing capacity and HP scaled better, then I might change my mind. It would also be nice if the LF pool also scaled significantly with traiting the blood magic line.
So right now, for me at least, I trait for reducing incoming damage rather than improving my health pool and healing. There is also the effect of agony in Fractals that doubly-kinks the vitality route. More defense or more potent heals/life steals are needed. A bigger HP pool has almost no effect.
No class balance changes, if I understand the patch notes, just some bug fixes. I am looking forward to seeing how the flesh golem behaves in Orr. Usually, it just aggros mobs until one of us is dead. Learning how not to be a total tool would be a good fix for that minion and, quite frankly, I think auto-aggro is the worse of the two bugs. I can force the golem to join the fight by activating the minion skill or by some of the Necro’s own skills.
Maybe next month will have class balance adjustments. Really, Necromancer needs something more to be good at. There are many ways to get it there without making it over-powered. The more I think about it, the more I like adding one more ability to force enemies to disorganize for 1 or 2 seconds. Giving Necromancer more damage will just finish turning the profession into an echo of the warrior.
Buffing the self-healing capabilities and making conditions slightly more annoying to opponents would also help. (Vitality on the Necromancer is not worth as much as Arenanet makes it out to be. An extra few thousand HP only means one or two free hits at the start of a fight and traiting the HP/heal line yields only minor improvement for a large cost.)
Another improvement that would help the class without making it OP is to cut the CD for DS in half so it is more of a key mechanic in a fight. Right now, cool-down is a few seconds too long to really use it for more than absorbing damage or escaping. I often find myself hoarding life force more than I should because I worry about that CD. In PvE, a shortened CD should not affect fights because opponent numbers are much lower but in WvW popping in and out of DS faster would help survivability way more than a larger health pool.
Oh, and I just want to say that the very first, most annoying problem for Necromancer, more than deranged pets, is to loose auto-attack after transforming. I want to maintain the same target and auto-attack I had before transforming to DS or an elite skill. Make this happen, please. It is the biggest game mechanic bug in my mind and should have been fixed months ago, unless it was intended to be an annoying waste of time for the profession.
This really belongs in the suggestions folder but I was thinking about the recent nerf to fear on bosses and was reading Nemesis’ recent thread on a Fear build and thought of something the Necromancer community might want to discuss and maybe petition for.
The Necromancer’s Fear needs a lot of optimization, as Nemesis explains, to get the most out of it. This, of course, means other trait skills must be sacrificed. What if Fear could be modified in traits to create an “infected” status making players on the oposing team attack their own uninfected allies for a short time, or if an infected status spread poison and/or confused on allies they get too close to?
- Just thinking about mechanics and skills that could be more unique to the Necromancer profession. Whatever the idea, it cannot be over-powered, obviously, but Necro conditions are too easily dealt with in wvw where lots of players unload all their damage quick, then back off for CD. It seems like all I can do as Necro is be mildly irritating, then dodge around while I wait for CD. It would be nice to have more skills that are disorganizing and interrupting, even if damage is minimal, very minimal. (-_-)
Then, again, it would also be nice if conditions in wvw were serious problems for other professions. In PvE, conditions inflicted can last a long time but Necromancer conditions are relatively short-lived.
Comments?
Like many in the “plox” thread, I find many of the higher level female light armor designs tacky, if not ugly, and reskin other armor on top of the uglier sets using transmutation stones. Hopefully, Arenanet is working on other skins for the game.
If other armor is in evaluation, why not use tonics with attached surveys for players to grade various concepts? Perhaps you could designate a “Mystery Tonic Week” where normal mystery tonics are converted to show random armor options and let people try them out and provide feedback. Reward players who fill out the form with a replacement tonic.
New armor skins can be item drops in expansions or sold on the TP. Really, the armor designs I like most are mob drops or low level crafting. Light armor sets I seriously dislike are Feathered, Masquerade, Seer, most of the dungeons (except HothW, CM, and AC) the cultural armors, and Pact armors. Exalted armor and Temple armor are ok but my favorites are Cabalist, Conjurer, Tactical, and Devout so kudos to whoever designed those. Low level crafted armor generally looks much more normal (tolerable) than high level so maybe abnormal was the goal.
I also wish Arenanet could relase an armor set development tool so players could try designing our own to submit for review.
I agree with the OP’s stated opinion. A lot of the “special sauce” that went into the Necromancer concept are mitigated by skills of other professions or the recent patch to dungeon bosses. I find it sad that people complain about Necromancer not having good healing or finally getting a buff to Signet of the Locust because, instead of making the Necromancer profession better at what it was supposed to do, developers make it better at what other jobs do.
Each profession should have areas that are funtionally as good, or better, than other professions while being equal or worse in different areas. When I play Necromancer, sure, I note and appreciate the specialties, but the value of those areas seems pretty low overall. If minions worked reliably, if conditions were harder for other professions to remove, if chill and fear were not so short-lived, if health and life siphon were stronger, then, yes, Necromancer may have functional areas of specialty. Right now, I feel like it lacks something to distinguish it from being inferior in every category except ones that have little effect.
(edited by Anchoku.8142)
Removing the interrupt capability of fear on bosses really hurt its usefulness. Adding more damage to terror was poor recompense. I agree our fear is nearly useless in WvW and PvP with such a long CD. If 1 second is all we get, then I would rather CD be cut in half, if not less, so it can become a more useful interrupt in WvW. Cast time is a bit too long for use as a reliable knock-back in an emergency and CD is too long for any significant effect in walled defense.
We talk about different Necromancer builds but a power build, for example, is still heavily dependent upon conditions. Reducing AoE condition damage would be like filing the point off the only sharp tool in the tool-box.
I can see reducing Warrior and Elementalist AoE damage but, to be honest, that might be like making them into Necromancers with mediocre attacks and AoE conditions that every class can mitigate, at least short term.
Slightly extending heavy class AoE attack and condition removal CD will preserve their burst capability and make using combo fields more important.
Variants on that idea could also work for the medium and other light class proffessions. Conditions are relatively weak until they stack and that takes time, hence the importance of AoE for Necromancer. I can drop wells and marks all over the place then go into DS for AoE damage but I still need time wear through an opponent’s heals, buffs, and condition removal. However, if direct damage from AoE attacks is reduced, then I would need to avoid being ganked by a 1 or 2 shot a lot longer.
A few months ago I suggested adding a short-leash / long-leash setting; perhaps over the minion’s utility slot. We need something to allow/forbid pets to respond to mob aggro or the minions will just go looking for anything that aggro’s me or them. The “attack my target” mechanic also needs fixing so pets do not just stand there but the minion’s skill can help kick their butts into gear.
If those two things are fixed, an on/off switch for auto-aggro and a more reliable target attack, then I would consider Necomancer’s minions fixed. They may even need nerfing versus Ranger. Right now, minions only really benefit farming in areas with medium or lower mob population density because they are about as trainable as a cat. The two fixes mentioned would probably result in a lot more players using minions.
Most obvious problem I see with this idea is that Rangers are supposed to be the pet class. Giving Necromancers equal control but more pets would make them the pet class so more control and better AI may make Necro OP.
Hope they do not nerf Necro AoEs any further. The fear nerf was tough and the terror buff did not make up for it. Anyway, the best thing about AoEs in WvW is that they can still irritate opponents even after I’ve been ganked.
Edit: Actually, if AoEs get nerfed for Necro, I also hope condition mitigation for other jobs gets limited, too. Otherwise, I doubt Necormancers will be useful at all in WvW and PvE play may get more difficult, too.
(edited by Anchoku.8142)
“… artificer,tailor or jeweller would fit your needs most…
Agreed. Of the three, tailor and jeweler are the closest two because Necromancer can use a number of weapons and they drop quite frequently so jewelry and tailor support the profession best. However, you can level any craft you like. The most important thing about crafting is the XP gained. Jeweler is a good second craft because it does not consume mob drops. Cooking is also a decent alternate but the variety of ingredients is limited by how much exploration you have completed so you will find gaps in recipes, and cooking will also fill up your inventory rather quickly, too.
Purchase the recipes from the master craftsmen as soon as you can use them because they will help bridge your skill-gain to the next tier of materials.
Bag, bank, and character expansion slots can be purchased to allow more storage. Salvaging or skinning equipment, buying runes and recipes, or just giving the tokens to an alt are also options for those with more tokens than they know what to do with. I suspect the OP really wanted to exchange them for gold.
The inherent difficulties of organization in WvW helps to level the playing field among servers and spread activity throughout the day, instead of having a super-zerg claiming the entire map, followed by very low participation.
I would actually suggest having claimed points or locations go neutral or have their defenses reduced if they are not visited and supported by the owning world after a long enough period of time. How would you feel if your local police department, IRL, abandoned your town for the next one after declaring it free of criminals for the night? A maintenance force ought to be necessary.
Actually, I prefer the current system of multiple forms of currency that are non-exchangeable and non-tradable. It keeps the player count for those areas/dungeons up and stabilizes the value of the earned items. Having everything denominated in gold would just send the entire population after the quickest, cheapest method of earning it.
I have mixed feelings about the sale of Legendary weapons on the trading post but can understand the desire to sell something that clearly took an enormous effort to create. As long as there is no RMT, that is fine. I suspect players with thousands of gold have no real use for it except in TP speculation. Provided market prices are not being manipulated by the speculation, it is fine. The TP tax should be enough to dissuade most people from this activity.
IMO, the current set-up is fine the way it is. All other MMOs have similar issues trying to entice players back into an area to participate in events. Let the local population in an area determine how hard that event is so it is not completely impossible, or have events that are necessary to the story progression so that there are enough players willing to participate frequently enough to support the event difficulty. Heart NPC quests, events, and the need to farm crafting materials or raise alts is good enough for me.
Another, well-known MMORPG has the ability for users to swap equipment outside of battle. Perhaps you cannot allow this for intellectual property reasons but I became really spoiled by being able to swap equipment sets at the press of a button, provided the swap was permitted by the system at that moment and was legitimate.
It would be nice if I could swap a particular set of equipment, skills, and a couple of traits depending upon what I expected to encounter next. Filling a good portion of my screen with the vast and complicated menu between fights is not very convenient or timely. Creating the equipment macros took a lot of work and validation testing in the other MMO but it was considered preparation time just like getting appropriate food. Of course, the macros detracted nothing from required player skill and people learned a new aspect of the game and found planning in advance for the intended event or area was another discriminator in skill level.
Macros for combat, on the other hand, are not necessary. Skill cool-down is shown clearly on the combat status bar.
Sounds exactly like the abnormal run through HotW path1 I had earlier today. Continual respawning of adds was crazy hard.
Just re-ran path 1 and Hirvela did not have an infinite supply of adds. The six pulsing frost/snow piles did not keep respawning them. Not sure what that was all about during the first run today but it sure made us miserable.
Hirvela the Lost on path 1 had an endless supply of summons. They would not stop spawning.
I hope someone can explain these “balance” adjustments to dungeons. It was a good, strong party I was in and it took us hours to complete.
Also, I know for a fact that I have not been to HotW dungeon in more than a week, yet I only recieved 20 tokens. I did go through TA, yesterday, but that should not count, should it?
Maybe I am a noob but I do not plan on going back into a dungeon until I understand if there was a change, or if the endless army was just a random occurrence.
(edited by Anchoku.8142)
Necromancer’s lack of mobility is a serious issue for the profession. Supposedly, the higher vitality and Death Shroud supposed to make up for that but it does not, really. Spectral Walk is an aweful skill and Flesh Worm is only marginally better but without the swiftness buff. Even Fear is a somewhat lame knock-back. Signet of Spite is also a problem because duration is so short while cool-down is so long.
However, Necromancer has a variety of conditions to apply and can transfer, multiply, convert them to boons, or convert boons to conditions. If only it could be better at those things. Too many other jobs have a bag full of conditions to apply so Necromancer is not really needed for conditions except for the variety and stacking them higher. The power builds that I have tried just cannot match other jobs. The trait tree scatters things around. It is like the developers decided to make a Necromancer, then added some Guardian, a bit of Warrior, found out it was too strong and gave all the other jobs skills and counters so that it became a hodge-podge profession.
Necromancer still does AoE and still manages conditions better than most classes but not quite enough to give it any clear advantages in situations where AoE conditions are important. The pets are kludgy, too, as if the devs realized Ranger was the pet class so Necromancer pets had to be less controlable and less powerful so they nerfed the original reanimated dead concept to be clearly inferior to Ranger.
Balance is the word we keep hearing from the developers but Necromancer is a job that can do a half-way decent job at a lot of things but is really good in very limited situations. The Necromancer is a light armor class built around magical curses and undead pets but many players find it more effective to play close and medium range. Why? While we are considering that, consider also why the Ranger is a medium armor class but players almost always play ranged. The different jobs have become muddled and, in some cases, confused, or confusing. Necromancer is one of, if not the, most confused profession. All of that flexibility sure makes for variety but not consistent play.