I have been using axe, and will continue to use axe, in a few builds of mine. The buff is nice, but I don’t think many people will begin to use axe because of it alone.
Assuming those changes are real, why none see the potential of this change?
Minionmaster will be way more viable and spending 30 points into Death Magic will be truly worth it. Even Reanimator now has its value!
AoE on minions isn’t a good idea anymore.
Depends 100% on how strong Death Nova is. It will need to do a decent amount of damage to become an actual AoE threat.
Cleric is a decent set on Necro, especially if you really play to it. It isn’t like other sets, where you get a ton of really small heals to benefit from the healing power, but WoB and Consume Conditions can both exceed 10k healing. Also, with Blood Magic traiting, you can have a WoB on revive, and we pretty easily get 100% regen uptime. Its more about huge healing with your 6 skill, and then some intermittent healing.
I still think it should be with healing power. Vitality already double scales, both with your HP and with your LF, and toughness scales fine on its own anyway. While it doesn’t necessarily make sense lore-wise, healing power makes the best sense balance wise. If I want to heal myself better, I need more healing power, just like I need more condition damage if I want to damage my enemies more with conditions.
I don’t use staff without greater marks basically ever. If you want it as a very small AoE weapon, or are anticipating more single target fighting, then it is fine as long as you are accurate. The Greater Marks is really needed in places where 10 points is not a huge investment compared to turning your weapon from essentially single target into actually giving a decent chance to hit 2-5 players.
I actually enjoy all the classes in PvE. I think its most fun playing Warrior because of how faceroll easy it is to press a few buttons and kill everything.
Without major changes to how MMs work, full MMs will never be viable at high levels. Blood Fiend will not work when someone can force your heal on CD at the start of a fight, and every time it comes up. As for the other minions, you can make them work in team fights just fine (not Shadow Fiend, he’s in a bad place right now), you just need to have less selfish traits and stat allocation than the standard 20/0/30/20/0 minion build with all minion traits does.
MM isn’t getting nerfed at all in this patch, they just aren’t getting directly buffed. Don’t play strict MMs either, my MM build is getting a really nice buff because of the other things, because full MM builds aren’t that great right now.
They mentioned a lot, and there was no way they could accurately do all the changes at once, without taking a big risk of overdoing it. Right now, this is already a ton of changes; much more and it is very difficult to anticipate the fallout.
Except there are many things, such as lyssa runes and guardian shouts, that apply more than 5 boons at the same time. So unless there is a prioritization system, or they are not truly applied at the same time (but in order with a tiny separation), then it is down to RNG as to which 5 you actually take.
It is obvious that the patch notes are not fully correct, because we know the name of the DS 5 skill, and it is not the same as the patch notes. So at the very least, we can assume those are old notes, from before they had finalized the name of the skill, meaning at best those are old, likely incomplete, patch notes.
And like Drarnor said, they have no reason to comment on them. This isn’t a huge leak, it doesn’t really break the game or anything. It is just an unplanned preview, really, so ANet can just do their thing, try to fix the leak, and then move on.
Not saying I haven’t. Theorycrafting is fun, its hardly going to be a waste of time if the changes turn out different and whatever thinking I’ve done turns out useless; that is part of speculating.
% of damage. A 10k hit on a 20k HP bar is the same as a 5k hit on a 10k HP bar, % wise. In the first example, the person stacked HP, the second toughness, yet they took the same % damage. (just an example).
Really though, people have spent more time theorycrafting changes (and how those changes would affect gameplay) that were obviously not going to be implemented any time soon than people have spent theory crafting these changes that at least have a decent chance to be somewhat accurate.
This current build is a mid “bunker” (I use that loosely since I can’t stay on point on my own, I need at least another bunker to swap with). I have a version that I use as home point guard as well, but it is a bit different (no staff). And yeah, I would use CtD if I felt it worked well, I just don’t like sacrificing the healing it gives up in this build.
I basically sit on whatever point all the time, so moving isn’t a huge issue, and I much prefer what focus allows (you can melt bunkers with 25 vuln + boon stripping).
Actually, DS 5 is going to have decent synergy with minion builds. Its basically guaranteed bonus damage (you need to kite minions), and with Bone Fiend you can chain immobilize a single target for ages.
I do admit to missing mass Thriller dances with all the Necros waiting around in GW1 lobbies. I spent many hours doing that dance waiting for an AB.
Edit: dance pack ANet? I’d be willing to spend at least a few dollars if not only I could do the Thriller, but if you got my minions to line up behind me and dance along.
That is a very interesting idea. I probably wouldn’t use it in this specific build, but I will keep that in mind for any chill-inclusive builds I make in the future for sure.
I like the build, I don’t know how it ends up playing, but I could definitely see it working with high chill uptime (chill really synergizes well, keeping your minions stuck on the enemy) and high personal and minion damage. If only CtD worked with Putrid Explosion… ::sigh::
At the very least, I’d like for them to look at giving us more/different combo fields/finishers, even if it turns out that it doesn’t work from a balance perspective.
The runes are there to synergize with the on switch sigils. It gives me 4 sources of 975 siphon (flat heal and true damage), and honestly I just haven’t been that impressed with what other rune sets give for this build in comparison. However with the new patch upcoming I’ll be at least examining this build again, so I will be going over all the suggestions everyone has been nice enough to give me then. I’ll edit the original post as well.
Thanks for all the input everyone, it helps out a lot.
Actually, DS 5 will synergize in some way with every build, depending on the immobilize and torment numbers. Dagger users can use it as a “I dare you to not get out of range” mechanic (forcing you to eat the added damage), or risk the immobilize (which chained with Dagger 3 could basically guarantee a full WoC, and also one could attempt a chain immobilize, Dagger 3 → WoC → DS 5). Condi users get the obvious use; Torment stacks. Standard MMs will get the added benefit of the extreme danger of not continuing to kite while afflicted by Torment (not kiting an MM is toying with death), similar to what a dagger user will get. And every Necro will get the AoE benefit of the danger of allowing yourself to get locked up at the end (I could see this clearing points in PvP instead of risking it). I doubt it will be god-mode, but it should be very fun to play with.
I am very happy with how they implemented the skill, I just really want to see the full numbers on it (immobilize duration, how long it takes till that procs, how much torment is stack, etc.). Oh, and NA profession tournament people. I demand to see huge torment/fear epidemics.
Sorry, I don’t mean for the post to be misunderstood. I wanted to list out all the possibilities (and the fact that minions actually self-combo as well). I don’t mean to say that you should bring a full MM build, but if you are looking for finishers, you are going to need to turn to minions.
I honestly feel the problem is not the lack of finishers, but its the fact that our combo fields to finish on top of are really lack luster. It is really fun to have Bone Minions blow up for some ridiculous poison times (over 30s), or get the big damage buff from using a dark field and the ranged minions, but when people think finishers, they are wanting Engineer’s ability to self combo water fields for huge healing, or fire fields for might stacks.
Condition Necros in PvE are amazingly strong in AoE scenarios. There are many times that my team will be focusing down 1 or 2 targets, and by the time they get those two down, the cleave from Epi has already brought the entire rest of the enemies down to nothing.
The only problem, PvE is actually very easily done as a Necro with full glass gear, meaning you could also go hybrid, and retain all that amazing cleave, but picking up much better single target (and some AoE still) that doesn’t rely a single bit on bleeds. Basically, Hybrids almost do a Condi Necros job better (at least until they make debuffing really useful), which is why I run hybrid. I get the strong Epidemics, a good amount of condi damage, and yet when another condi build is fighting me for bleed stacks I’m still doing high damage with my attacks.
Bhawb its not like people don’t want to use them, not everybody plays MM.
As they spread stun breakers, I believe they should spread the finishers also, we have one on spectral, few on minions, and none on corruption.
Yeah it doesn’t make much sense to place a finisher on corruption utilities, but we really need them to be more spread since we don’t have a lot.
Edit: On a side note, I still don’t get why Unholy Feast is not a blast finisher. It wouldn’t hurt that much, it would actually get as closer to the “attrition” proffesion since we could use it to spread easier Weakness and Blind with our -a lot- fields.
You aren’t a Corruption build by bringing Corrupt Boon. You don’t become a well build by bringing well of suffering. Bringing Signet of Undeath does not make you a signet build. You can not bring them for other completely legitimate reasons, and even say that we should do things about that, but bringing bone minions does not make you an MM.
This is essentially what is being passed around. I warn you that it isn’t confirmed by ANet, and even if it is real, it is an old, in house version of patch notes, meaning it is incomplete at best. While some things, like a trait for Burning, and the new DS 5 skill/condition are guaranteed, the rest are only rumors for now.
Its a bit too early to be theory crafting. I’m waiting for the patch to actually go live, and then I have every intention to go crazy with the crafting.
I would like to see if this change will potentially make Venom Share thieves more common. Yes, that is a totally personal thing, because I had a tournament match recently as an MM where after winning a mid fight, I went off to defend home node against a Mesmer, with Flesh Golem, Bone Fiend, and myself stacked with two venoms each. It was a slaughter. If I had had essentially 9 stacks of torment (plus my own torment from Morgana ult), and the forced movement I can get with fears? Oh yes.
Also the only projectile finisher its the staff one and we need more finishers for the number of fields we have. Having both fields and finishers make the combat more dynamic like the leementalist.
Want finishers? Get friendly with minions. 3x Blast finishers, 3x projectile finishers.
OP complains about us not having enough finishers, I point out the fact that we actually have quite a few of them, on very low CDs: 16-20s for 2x Blast finishers that can self combo with Death Nova, about 3 seconds per 2x Projectile finisher from Bone Fiend, about 3-4 seconds per projectile finisher from Flesh Wurm (both 100% chance).
Its not like we lack finishers, people just don’t want to use the finishers we have.
With all the life force gain, 50% DS crit chance.
Do you think an (almost) all time DS build is viable? Using the pierce to compensate our lack of cleave.
It depends on how Spectral Armor and Walk’s buffs not being cancelled by DS works. If they now give you LF while hit inside DS, then sustained DS builds are at least becoming more viable.
Generally speaking, a class tends to get their combos and finishers from the same source. Guardians and Eles get both on weapon sets, whereas Necromancers and Engineers get them from utility skills.
…to be a projectile finisher. It’s on a 1 sec cast time, i think it deserves it. Also the only projectile finisher its the staff one and we need more finishers for the number of fields we have. Having both fields and finishers make the combat more dynamic like the leementalist.
Want finishers? Get friendly with minions. 3x Blast finishers, 3x projectile finishers.
I took a better look at these changes… not to sound bad but they seem a bit fake. It’s not necessarily that the changes are bad, but it’s the way they were delivered…
Let’s just say i find a lack of professionalism in the writing of it, actual patch note are a bit more formal and detailed.
They are obviously not the final notes, which means they would not have had the “final touch” done to them to make them look pretty for actual release. Assuming they are real, they are old (not sure how old) in-house notes, and most likely incomplete.
PvE necro will remain fine but unwanted in PvE until they change the PvE mechanics themselves. We are king of debuffs, but with debuffs being lesser than the other mechanics we aren’t the best picks for a team.
I like how these ‘leaked’ patch notes turn Spectral Wall into almost a mandatory domination utility for Terrormancers. Yet… Corrosive Poison Cloud remains laughably bad.
Just look at the full leak, every single class gets a huge list of changes, there are 460 ish lines of changes in the leaked notes. Assuming its true, everyone is getting changes.
