Guild Wars 2

Finally got to listen to the whole thing. I think you should stay in DS is for the mount of LF that you can regen in 10 seconds. And then you times that by two.

For example let’s say your build is heavily LF regenerating and you can confident you can regain 30% of the LF in 10 seconds. 30% times 2 is 60%. So you should stay in DS until your total LF reaches 40%.

If your build is weak in LF regeneration and you can only regen maybe 10% over 10 seconds, then you should stay in DS only until your total LF reaches 80%.

The plan is to slowly wear down the enemy, though your LF regen and health regen.

Of course, this only applies if your character can survive for 10 seconds without DS. If you are a glass cannon you will need to use DS longer, probably until it reaches zero. You cannot play that attrition game.

I won’t bother waiting for that 1.99 sec timer thing. That requires you to keep an eye out on your LF bar constantly. Your attention is better used elsewhere, specially in wvw with so much going on.

Be Careful what you wish for. The Canthan fleet under Zheng He might be invading Tyria soon. The Ministry of Purity must finish their work of purification of the world from all non-humans. ^^

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PUZ1irOH3sU/UV2m5rkuqPI/AAAAAAAABVc/XkgvGfDfF78/s1600/83101273.QMYCTn0g.MelakaFeb07547.jpg

http://www.artwallpapers.org/paintings/HongNian-Zhang/images/China's%20Great%20Armada%2036x72.jpg

http://english.yi-sunsin.com/img/03/02_01_img01.jpg

http://www.marinersmuseum.org/blogs/civilwar/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/turtle-ship-fight.jpg

If LF below 10%, the player should be allowed to sacrifice 10% health for 10% LF. This allows the player to use DS skills.

namloh.8610:

CHIPS.6018:

Thesilentflute.8761:

War Machine blackgate wants you! Come play with us in T1 we have a grand community that rewards the efforts of all of our battle worn solders. If is great fights you seek look no further there are fights to be had against the mightiest of enemy in foo and many others. We have high skill base but low numbers with your guilds help there is nothing that could stop us our glory Awaits.

The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.-Thucydides

Well you guys better be prepared to pay, a lot. A server (I won’t name which) is promising premium dollars for WM, RISE, CO (and maybe others) to head over. I am talking about crazy out of this world money here. But they said no since they didn’t want to leave their Kaineng brothers.

Thanks for staying all! Sometimes we put so much focus on recruiting new players, we forget to appreciate the people who decides to stay, even during tough times. ^^

Well if this was to happen Kaineng would be back to a low populated server again…

Don’t worry, no one is moving as of yesterday.

Tonight is karaoke night on teamspeak. So if you don’t see anyone in wvw, you know where to to find us. ^^

Thesilentflute.8761:

War Machine blackgate wants you! Come play with us in T1 we have a grand community that rewards the efforts of all of our battle worn solders. If is great fights you seek look no further there are fights to be had against the mightiest of enemy in foo and many others. We have high skill base but low numbers with your guilds help there is nothing that could stop us our glory Awaits.

The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.-Thucydides

Well you guys better be prepared to pay, a lot. A server (I won’t name which) is promising premium dollars for WM, RISE, CO (and maybe others) to head over. I am talking about crazy out of this world money here. But they said no since they didn’t want to leave their Kaineng brothers.

Thanks for staying all! Sometimes we put so much focus on recruiting new players, we forget to appreciate the people who decides to stay, even during tough times. ^^

Sunspots.9861:

Lot of loll’s tonight in KNBL. Super Zergs on all sides smashing into each other for the last 2 hours ;P

Here is how it looked from our side.

Sajuuk.4973:

Bas.7406:

In this week’s But of Corpse Necromancer Podcast, your hosts Bhawb and Bas sit down and talk with Skyro. Skyro was brought in to talk tournaments and Death Shroud. Throughout the podcast Skyro lectured and encouraged about the proper use of Death Shroud, and even taught our hosts a few things about the class.

After the podcast was over, we asked Skyro if he would be interested in doing a BOC Presents: Death Shroud Tutorial. He agreed, and we are working on putting something together for all of our followers.

http://sittingonacouch.com/the-gw2-necro-podcast-but-of-corpse-ep-9/

So I’ve been listening to your podcast. And let me just start out by saying Thank You!! Thank you for all your work and great information you provide us Necro users. I’ve been playing a Necro since GW2 launch back in August. I’ve always picked a battle Mage or Necro type class in other games. Even before the game came out my friends already knew that I was going to pick this class.

Since launch, the Necro has been my main. I do have two other alts that I rarely play only because I enjoy the Necro game style to much. But I will admit that there was a dark cloud over my Necro life for a period. I don’t venture into the forums to much but when I kept dying in WvW and getting frustrated with other classes mobility. I would scourer the forum looking to see what others were doing and seeing if maybe I was doing something wrong. What I found was similar complaints and I soon started to agree with others that maybe my class was broken. But I didn’t want to give up hope on my Necro class. I soon then discovered Nemesis youtube tutorials and he reignited my fondness of the class again. Help me to rethink what the Necro can do. And now with your guys podcast, you’ve help me rethink the game as a whole and made me realize all of my available option as a Necro. And now the forums are full of help information and interesting debates. You’ve guys have done a great service to the Necro Community and I just wanted to thank you and keep up the great work. I look forward to hearing all your future episodes.

In WvW any roaming necro would die a lot. They do not have the means to disengage from a fight. So as a necro you should stay with your zerg. ^^

I forgot Fencehopper. He is another one of our great commanders. “No mercy guys no mercy!”

/Signed. I want to be able to tell the dead from the living. I should be able to, being a necro and all.

Kaineng is like Canada: We are full of immigrants! ^^ We understand what immigrants needs and will do our best to help you settle down. We are the smallest of the T2 servers yet the toughest to beat. Come to us.

Jeda.5209:

Who are the commanders you consider elite? Preferably don’t list a guildmate because they tend to be biased opinions.

Anyway for Kaineng the absolute best commanders that I have seen in action on this server:

Jang Gun (WM) – by far the best in leading, listening to scouts, reacting, training, etc.
Ssaul (WM) – sry if its misspelled.
Chicken Hide (WM)- when he was on.
Prince Jarvan (Rise)
Ethersin (RE)
Chaster (SOS) – when he use to play.

Many others are pretty good but some just are very good. This is just my perspective from an unbiased point of view.

Who are the top commanders that you consider the best of the best?

His old name was Hide Chicken, not Chicken Hide. Now he is Follow Chicken. Next up will be Chicken Noodle. :P

I would add Unreasonable (was TL, now Meow) to the list. He is very knowledgable about the game and knows how to rally people.

Also Sano is a good cmd.

If you are new, stick with your zerg. Else you would melt when organized havoc teams find you.

If you are upleveled, max your vit and toughness. Don’t worry about damage too much. Just survive first.

Some fun fights there guys. ^^

Kaineng is still recruiting players from NA and EU time zones. Our guilds are committed to training absolutely every wvwer, small guilds and pugs in our server into an elite fighting force. If you want to receive those training and be part of this upcoming elite army, join us today! ^^

Right now Kaineng is the smallest server in Tier 2, and even then we often overachieve with the manpower we got. That’s why we were 1st for weeks in T2. However recently both FA and TC has gotten a lot more manpower. The population differences nowadays is often 3 to 1, making it very difficult for a fair fight. Even then we are still fighting hard and we are current a respectable 3rd place. We often wipe zergs much bigger than ours.

Respectable 3rd place is much better than a blow out. :P

So yes please consider coming to Kaineng. With some additional manpower we can make a serious splash in T2.

brandon.6735:

Next time we need to find better singers lol.

But where is the fun in that? :P

Nice screenshot Crion. ^^

Everyone watch our karaoke naked zerg omega golem rushes.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/4-11-KN-karaoke-naked-zerg-omega-golems/first#post1816538

Best WvW night ever!

While we were naked, our group also consisted of mostly commanders and the elite core of our server during NA time. That’s why we achieved so much. I don’t think we ever gathered our elites together like this. Super awesome.

Our plan is to eventually train every WvWer in Kaineng, absolutely everyone, to be elites. If you want to be receive these trainings and become part of that upcoming elite fighting force, consider transferring over to Kaineng. ^^

If you are a Kaineng native I hope you enjoyed the video. I look forward to fight beside you in WvW. ^^

Next up: WM and KOR doing naked wvw while singing Kpop?

Jski.6180:

phaneo.4597:

Jski.6180:

Zoja.2631:

Late night score update. No map because I’m tired and lazy, but most of it was green anyway.

<3<3 to both KN and FA. Great fights this week!

Ya it looks like FA has mostly given up meh we could of came in first this week but i guess the want to be in T3 is stronger then the will to win. I guess good job to TC getting to T1 soon i hope that what you wanted.

I don’t see either FA move to T3 or TC moving to T1 any time sooner. Nor do I think either servers are willing to or playing to end up there. FA has pushed quite harder this week since reset, so much that FABL reminded me of Yak’s Bend BL back in T3 – highly impenetrable (where everyone was basically poking fun at FA that they don’t defend well). If anything, you must be proud of every single soul from FA that made it possible this week. I don’t think FA is in any danger of dropping tiers, and god forbid if it were to happen 2-3 weeks down the line, it would be similar to the vacation TC had in T3 around 3 weeks ago. They’d come back stronger. We all are destined to be here for weeks to come and gonna have fun while we’re at it.

There has been a major shift in players due to ppl moving i think FA lost a very small WvW guild so nothing but but Kain lost some major ones only TC got a new guild and from what i understand its a major one.

https://leaderboards.guildwars2.com/en/wvw

I do not comply understand the rankling but i know the numbers where a lot closer between the 3 servers 3 weeks ago.

Please stop spreading false rumors and propagandas. Rise, RE, WM, CO, KO, FBA, SOS, KOR, Ph, Meow, RUN (hope I didn’t forget anyone ^^) are all still here.

Arkanfel.8403:

Ren.6351:

First time poking in this thread. I know there’s been a huge uproar about our moving to TC and I can only say we moved to just have some fights.

You want fights so you transfer to the largest, most active server in the tier? For most of the day (NA) TC’s zerg is so gigantic that you have to run from it.

It really ticks me off how TC was so gung-ho about “supporting” our recruitment efforts, yet look who is getting all the transfers. I have a sneaking suspicion that the days of a competitive T2 are rapidly nearing an end.

Don’t be jealous. Public relations is a fair part of this game. Currently TC is doing a great job at that. We from Kaineng would need to pick that up too if we want new transfers. ^^

Andy.9137:

[Awe] spotted in TC already, guess they’re starting to move? According to a friend in CD these are the guilds that will transfer over.

[NAGA] 150 or so

[EsF] 300-400

[Awe] at least 200

Just what I’ve been told.

Congrats to TC for getting those new guilds. I look forward to the new challenges. ^^

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Ugh it doesn’t need a solution, please don’t nerf one of the few options we have to help defend against overwhelming numerical superiority.

It works both ways. When the defenders outnumbers the attackers, the smaller attackers got zero chance due to Leg Specialist.

Gismor.8407:

DevonCarver.5370:

We are aware of this little strategy and have our top minds hammering out possible solutions.

Let me ask you something: why take away something that gives defenders a chance to hold a location, just because a few people cried over it? It seems pointless. You might as well remove traits altogether, and have only 1 attack, that way everyone quits crying… :|

-Sir Tryce

P.S. Devon, can you give me a VALID reason to get rid of something like this? I’d appreciate it.

70 Defenders with 6 Leg Specialists on arrow carts. How do you break though?

naphack.9346:

It’s fine. Thieves can spam AoE weakness with treb, Rangers can give all siege bonus damage(spirit of frost), Engineers can have their turrets out while operating, Eles and guardians can swap out and drop some anti projectile fields… Every class got something to offer on siege…

What does a necro have to offer on siege?

My beef with Leg Specialist is that the necro’s trait of Vampiric doesn’t work with arrow carts. Fine let warrior cripple foes. But when a necro uses arrow cart every single hit should steal health.

Florgknight.1589:

So how do you plan to prove more people play WvW?

Ever heard of a sPvP only guild?

I know many people that do sPvP. But they only play that on the side, and are mostly wvwers most of the time.

WvW is a much better esport than sPvP would ever be. It is like Rome: Total War, life action edition.

LOL FA +45. Take that for stabbing our backs. Keep going after them TC. Love you guys.

Another problem I found is the lack of themes for weapons. For example daggers would be a perfect life sacrifice and life stealing weapon. The recharge on all skills should be fast, but costs health.

For example dagger/dagger:

1: Auto attack (ranged life stealing, weak damage)
2: Reduce recharge (no recharge, cuts currently recharging skills’ cool down by 10 seconds, but cost 10% health)
3: Immobilize and bleed (fast recharge, but cost 5% health)
4: Transfer conditions, bleed, blind and weakens targets (fast recharge, but costs 5% health)
5: Blood Bond (special hex that cannot be removed, any allies hitting that foe for the next 5 seconds gains regeneration, costs 10% health)

Another example staff should be a minion weapon. Reduce all physical damage from marks but change the following:

1) Auto attack (lf gain)
2) Mark that bleeds foes, heal allies and summons 3 bleeding horrors for 5 seconds that bleeds foes for 1 seconds when it hits a target.
3) Mark that poison, chill foes and summons 3 death nova horror for 5 seconds that blows up when killed, poisoning foes for 2 seconds. If they die naturally nothing happens.
4) Transfers conditions from allies to foes, and summon 3 condition horrors for 5 seconds. These minions have Plague Signet on by default and will drain 1 conditions from nearby allies each second. They transfer all conditions on them to foes on each hit.
5) Cause fear on foes and summon 3 fear horrors for 5 seconds. This horror runs 50% faster than normal by default. When this horror hits a foe suffering from fear, it adds 0.33 seconds to that fear.

We totally should have the Scepter of Orr.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Scepter_of_Orr.jpg

I can see this working in pve and spvp. However in wvw you would need AoE. All the items and foods have a internal cool down on the life steal. That means you cannot AoE life steal. Even if you use AoE skills you can only life steal from one target. So this idea won’t work in wvw.

I really hope that the devs read our discussion on attrition and necro being boring. We had some good discussions going on and lots of valid inputs.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/ATTRITION-A-discussion/page/4#post1712568

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necromancer-my-opinion/page/4#post1799008

Whenever people question my necro, I just pop my commander tag. I tell them I earned all that money from dungeons and WvW. They usually keep quiet after that.

1) In GW1 we summon minions directly from dead bodies. That was much closer to undead than the GW2 version. Honestly the GW2 minions are nothing special, since nearly every class can summon.

Energy costs aside, a GW1 minion master in WvW will be keeping up an army of 20 minions non-stop, given how many players dies in rapid succession. It is funny how in a situation where the GW1 minion master would shrine, the GW1 minion master no longer exists.

Minions are supposed to die fast. But in WvW they are supposed to be re-animated rapidly. Using dead bodies should allow a necromancer to re-summon his/her minions more rapidly than summons from other classes. That’s the balance. Minions are NOT supposed to be limited by long cool downs just like summons from other professions.

I know you are big fan of the GW2 minion. And I am not saying they are weak or anything. But what difference is there among an elemental summon, spirit weapons and a necro minion. There aren’t much.

Just look at how many classes and races can summon. 8 classes and 5 races. Hey wait a minute that’s everyone! >_>

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Summon

Necro minions are supposed to shine when there are lots of deaths around. And be underpowered when there are no deaths. That’s the trade off.

2) With the removal of ritualists from the game, the GW2 necro should have inherited some of their abilities. That includes spirit summoning and using spirits in battle. The necro is the closest thing to a ritualist, lore wise. And this image indicates that.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Necromancer_05_concept_art.png

3) Glad we agreed on this.

4) Unless that equipment allows for AoE life steal, it aren’t useful in WvW. Sigil of Blood’s 5 second recharge limits it to single target, even if you use AoE skills. Same thing with Rune of Vampirism and Omnomberry Ghost food. The cooldown doesn’t allow for AoE life stealing.

5) In WvW, one single AoE stun from a mesmer overtakes all of Weakness, poison, blind, fear, cripple, chill combined. Sorry it is true. This next thing that comes close is AoE immobilize, reserved for warriors on arrow carts and engineers (I think).

6) My point is a GW1 necro might hate how DS works and hates DS skills. This is fair, since DS has nothing to do with the GW1 necro. There is no inheritance here.

Login.5102:

In high lvl tPvP necros are beyond good. A well played condi necros can completely dominate a team battle and are some of the best at 1v1s.

Not to mention that power and MM builds are not only viable but very good now when played right. Good luck trying to take a point from a soldier MM by yourself.

ALL of our weapons are good and have there places in the above builds giving the necromancer a wide array of options/builds that should make most classes jealous.

In PVE I can’t even comprehend how some one could complain about the necromancer, so I’m not even going to touch on that.

In WvW we can’t get caught in 1v2 situations because of our lack of escape mechanics(by design), but excel in team fights. Run with a premade group and wreck shop.

Its true, I liked the gw1 necromancer more. But in gw2 the necromancer is not even close to being bad, dead or boring!

The opinion of a rank 40+, lvl 80, 30,000 WvW kills beta necro.

Like I said this topic aren’t about necro good or necro sucks. It is about the missing themes of the necro; things that would make the necro cool, fun and unique.

Missing themes:
1) Undead fight for necro – Nope. Summons that uses flesh aren’t undead. Pretty much any class can summon in GW2.
2) Ghosts and spirits fights for necro – None at all.
3) Sacrifice life for power – Not much.
4) Life stealing – Very weak
5) Curses to mess up the enemy – I would take Mesmer’s AoE stun and confusion over necro’s AoE blind any day.
6) Killing foes makes yourself stronger in battle – Probably the only thing that “sort of” remained from GW1. However you have to like how DS works and DS skills for this to apply.

Chewy.9263:

Come on, join Kaineng! Who doesn’t like to kill some RPers!?

Now how do I make my signature show that I’m from TC like all the other cool guys…

Scroll to top, look at top right corner, click “FORUM PROFILE”, click “Edit Profile”, profit

And people wonder why we love TC. Thanks guys.

I would also like to ask our local PvEers to join us in WvW. Just try it once and you would fall in love with it. ^^

Our WvW core are a close group of awesome players and great commanders. Our server is drama free and pressure free. You would be free to contribute in any way you like, whatever havoc, protecting yaks, zerg or /dance. :P

If you are thinking of moving to T2, I hope that you consider Kaineng as your new home. Here is a glimpse of what’s in store for you in T2.

If you do come, we would do our best to make you feel most welcomed. ^^

Back when I was with SBI, the exact same thing happened to us. Trolls would come on our TS to trash talk us. Swearing. Name calling. Loud Music. etc. It got so bad that we lost 75% of our TS population in a week.

Back then our enemies were JQ and SoS. Never figured out who it was.

Rune of Undead is the cheapest rune for a conditionmancer. It is mostly due to the cheap production cost, not b/c it is weak or anything.

In GW1 most necro skills can cast right through walls. Vampiric Gaze and Dark Pact to name a few. That was, in a way, a necro speciality.

Gone were the good old days.

Anyone interested in playing an new insectoid race?

Males looks like dragonflies (various wing color and shapes)
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSZuBTBKICs71HmFR8TMCjHQ8c1Bc5GWYituTRIt0fYpjjlLm3X
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ0L5KBJi-6y42gXDW0aDi0MqFdvFslfEiFKCOimxVOiBdfv3tdFw

Female looks like butterflies (various wing color and shapes)
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSGIr2wxRA1yF-Jo3UQzyD6AjqAvp6VZuxfaPvbK5_wIe7WV3L5rA
http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/013/cache/butterflies-morpho-laman_1367_600x450.jpg

AzzaCin.3691:

Necros still suck. Not much has improved on them just a few bug fixes but the major issues still haven’t been fixed

Necro doesn’t “suck” on the battlefield. But you can argue that it is unrelated to its GW1 version at all, and it can at times be boring to play.

We have faith in TC and FA to be honest players. We are shooting down any rumors of having spies in our ranks right now.

And even if there are, there is absolutely nothing we can do about it so why even worry?

GG TC. We will get our revenge next week.

Where did you guys get all those extra manpower this week btw? Internal recruitment or guild transfers?

flow.6043:

Hey chips!
Big fan. Encyclopedia deserves a sticky.
Your epic accent actually makes the videos more entertaining ^^

Regarding topic suggestions, there’s one thing that I could think of: How do racial skills fit into necro builds, for people who aren’t sure which race to pick (if that’s ever a deciding factor..). Just heard a BoC podcast where they mentioned that warband support scales with your own power+precision and hounds of balthazar scales with your condition damage… those sort of things.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will look into that in the future.

Added part 12 to talk about how to win outmanned battle. Included here is one of my most epic wvw battles. It is a great video for commander trainees. Don’t miss it! ^^

lettucemode.3789:

Quotes getting too big!

CHIPS, I didn’t play much GW1, so I have to ask…how similar is it for other classes? There are probably lots of things that GW1 warrior, mesmers, thieves, etc can’t do in GW2 also, right?

In GW2, other than the necro, I only played a thief. I had an assassins from GW1, and the GW2 thief is indeed a carry over from GW1. They can still shadow step (main theme from GW1). They can still deal very high damage rapidly. On top of that they can now stealth.

I cannot really comment on other professions. But:

Warrior still uses adrenaline, a major theme for warriors and paragons back in GW1. They can also deal AoE melee damage just like Dervish. The GW2 warrior is pretty much a combination of those 3 GW1 professions.

Eles still uses nukes, although even easier now that they don’t even need energy management anymore. They also no longer suffer from exhaustion, a major “negative” theme for eles back in GW1. They can also now summon.

Mesmer’s confusion replaced GW1’s Backfire and Empathy. On top of that now they can create clones.

Guardians are a true carry over from GW1 monks, with multiple healing and team buff skills. Now they have even higher defenses.

Engineers can set up towers, similar to ritualists in GW1. Although this is a bit far fetched. There is no ritualist in GW2.

Rangers is still about interrupts, pets, traps and condition support, just like they were in GW1.

As for “build design choices” that I really missed from GW1, you have to understand that back in GW1 you have access to skills from 2 professions. You can mix and match, experiment for hours, and discover some crazy combos.

I didn’t make too many videos back in the days. But here is one of them.

Ultimate condition control: I am nearly immune to conditions, and able to draw conditions from allies to myself rapidly. So because I am there, my whole team was immune to conditions. (The mobs I was fighting here are the strongest mobs in the whole game; Winds of Change hard mode mobs.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqxvFznjsB8

Now maybe you would understand why the GW2 condition control of the necro doesn’t really impress me. My GW1 necro can do condition control MUCH better.

Bhawb.7408:

CHIPS.6018:

I will simply things:

DS transform: If you do not like how DS works and its skills, it is simply extra hp for you. Boring.

Fear: Necro is not the only class that can fear. Nor is the necro the only class that can interrupt and CC. Many other professions can do these better. Not unique.

Life Siphoning: Vampiric Gaze from GW1 (a very underpowered skill btw) can stealing around 10% of the enemy health every 8 seconds. Can the GW2 necro do this kind of damage by life stealing alone? Not even close. Very weak.

Condition Control: As fancy as this sounds, this is just another method to deal damage. And with the Epidemic nerf condition control is, for wvw at least, pretty much non-existent now. Not unique and very weak.

His points remain valid.

DS is still the only transform skill with its own HP bar.

Fear is still only accessible by 3 professions (hence limited, similar to stealth), and Necromancers are the only ones that have multiple ways to access it on low CD and with the ability to make fear do damage. That makes Necro fear quite unique.

Touch Necromancers could also steal more HP on lower CD, but it wasn’t a great build, just fun when you didn’t run into interrupts. Still, life stealing is quite unique to necromancers in GW2.

Still his point remains, we have more condition control. Its like saying a mesmer’s shatter isn’t “unique” because its just another way to deal damage, or that a warriors burst skill is just another way to deal damage.

His points were all valid, Necromancers do have unique mechanics by Yoh’s own definition (accessed by few classes, with one class having a stronger version). By that definition, everything listed was correct.

I will clarify.

Let’s say you are a GW2 necro veteran and love everything about the GW1 necro. You come to GW2 and start playing a necro.

Eventually you found yourself hating DS. Maybe you don’t like the DS mechanic. Maybe you don’t like those DS skills. It just aren’t working out.

Is this fair? Yes, because DS aren’t from GW1 necro.

You also found yourself hating fear. Maybe you are not good at interrupting foes. Maybe you fear often fails due to enemy dodging or have stability. It just aren’t working out.

Is this fair? Yes, because fear and interrupts aren’t from GW1 necro.

You also found yourself hating condition control. Maybe enemies removes conditions too fast for you. Maybe you don’t feel it does enough damage.

Is this fair? Yes, because condition control was a very small part of GW1 necro.

What can you do? Nothing much except change to a different profession.

The key here is: A player can be 100% in love with the GW1 necro but totally hates the GW2 necro, because they are pretty much non-related in all ways. And I personally thinks this is a huge problem. There is no roots there. No heritage. No lineage. And that’s a serious problem for GW1 necro veterans. They found it hard to adopt their skills and experience from GW1 into GW2.

I just happens to love both the GW1 necro and GW2 necro. However being a GW1 necro veteran myself, I totally can see where these players are coming from. Like I said earlier, I got to relearn everything when I play my GW2 necro. None of the skills and experience I got from GW1 necro were transferable. Cover hex, etc.

lettucemode.3789:

So let’s analyze Death Shroud, given your actual definition.

- Functionality limited to one or two professions: No other profession has a non-elite transformation. Other professions with transformations are Elementalist and Engineer (and maybe Warrior? Is that one elite of theirs a transformation?).
- Mechanics unique to Death Shroud: Only transformation with its own health bar, and this health bar can be replenished during battle. Gain boons and cause other effects when entering/leaving Death Shroud, other transformations only grant Stability during their duration.

Heck, let’s analyze Fear:

- Functionality limited to one or two professions: only other classes with access to Fear are thief and warrior.
- Mechanics unique to necromancer Fear: can have more than one in a build, lower cooldowns, necromancer can make their fear do damage.

How about life siphoning?

-Functionality limited to one or two other professions: only other class that can siphon health on hit is Thief.
- Mechanics unique to necromancer siphon: can get an extra siphon on crits, can trait to increase the siphon, doesn’t take up a utility slot, can gain an extra siphon on well pulse, can gain an extra siphon on minion attacks.

Or transferring conditions?

- Functionality limited to one or two other professions: Mesmers have Arcane Thievery. Guardians can use “Save Yourselves!” to pull conditions onto them like Plague Signet, but they can’t transfer them off after that.
- Unique mechanics to necromancer condition transfer: No unique mechanics I guess. But we have the most.

You want to talk about truly unique mechanics? Then why didn’t you mention converting boons into conditions, or spreading conditions on one enemy to others? Because both of those are necromancer-exclusive. So please pardon me when I say that I think you are a little biased against the necromancer :P

I will simplify things, from the opposite camp:

DS transform: If you do not like how DS works and dislike its skills, it is simply extra hp for you. Boring.

Fear: Necro is not the only class that can fear. Nor is the necro the only class that can interrupt and CC. Many other professions can do these better. Not unique.

Life Siphoning: Vampiric Gaze from GW1 (a very underpowered skill btw) can steal around 10% of the enemy health every 8 seconds. Can the GW2 necro do this kind of damage by life stealing alone? Not even close. Very weak.

Condition Control: As fancy as this sounds, this is just another method to deal damage. And with the Epidemic nerf condition control, for wvw at least, took a huge hit. Not unique and weakened.

That’s how a “hater” of the GW2 necro sees it. The GW2 necro’s skills, traits and themes are boring, non unique or very weak. The “lovers” of GW2 necro will see it the other way, obviously.

Perhaps the worst sin for the GW2 necro was that it is pretty much 0% related to the GW1 necro. There is no roots there. No heritage. No lineage. And that’s a serious problem for GW1 necro veterans. They found it hard to adopt their skills and experience from GW1 into GW2.

I tell you for a fact, that I got to relearn everything when I play my GW2 necro. None of the skills and experience I got from GW1 necro were transferable.

Like I said, this is when the “lovers” say: Go play another profession! And this is what we want to avoid. Anet have to provide more interesting, unique and strong skills, traits and themes for the GW2 necromancer.