Guild Wars 2

From the first look of it, it’s really disappointing…

No support.
Probably no combo finisher.
Even slower than he already is.
More AI minion.
Skill that will be easily interruptable, dodged etc…

Exactly what most of us feared. And as expected, they kitten up with the trait unyelding blast… Changing DS without addressing any core issue, that’s just disappointing.

And i’ll dare to say that I hardly see in what this elite spec could be related with Marjory? Oh sorry, yes, the greatsword…

NB. : Guardian gain AoE reveal, massive damage bonus, a viable range option that was doing already more damage than any necro range option on the video, a real possibility for condibuild and massive CC that will be direct counter to this “reaper” spec.

Gulesave.5073:

Erasmus.1624:

Use it like an actual resource.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/A-good-necromancer/first#post5026965

Sounds interesting, but TLDR. Do you have a summary?

Just from the look of it it’s nerf everywhere + a dependance on a “mana” pool. I’m affraid that reducing dagger auto damage by 50% won’t be very popular…

NiisanSora.6289:

If they built upon the lore they created, Belinda being infused with her GS, I could see bundle spirit weapons being a thing, similar to the spirit bundles of Ritualists from GW1.

Pretty smart Idea, I didn’t even consider this option since i thought that bundle and conjure could be only given to profession that don’t have any weapon swap. It could even end up in something pretty good…

Caladbolg have just the worst skill possible. I can still remender how nightmarish was this kitten chapter where I had to use this horrendous weapon (And it’s been 2 year already that I did it). Never ever again I’ll do this story path.

Roe.3679:

Dadnir.5038:

CodeHavoc.7926:

DrArmature.4619:

met.9653:

Dude where this thing got head Oo ? I don’t want to play something with big hole instead of head.

It’s an asuran with a deep hood. Think ringwraithes with floppy ears. ;O

Necro’s Creed: Dark Path Chronicles

chapter 1 : Dark path blocked by an aegis -> fail
chapter 2 : Dark path blocked by a rock on the field -> fail
chapter 3 : Dark path evaded -> fail
chapter 4 : Opponent outrun dark path projectile -> fail
chapter 5 : Dark path projectile reach it’s target -> but fail because no valid pathing for teleport.

To be continued…

Dark path is unblockable.

Just remove chapter 1 then…

it will depend on what the elite traitline will focus. I’m already mourning the fact that I won’t be able to invest in 4 traitline which will make my tanky build die because I don’t care about the crappy grand master trait that grant absolutely nothing good on the table.

Actually I use every traitline except spite in a 04343 build. So I’ll either have to sacrifice curse and lose WH (which is probably a really bad Idea), Death magic with extra armor in DS and condi removal (Not really happy to lose that), Blood magic who grant me extra damage from siphon and a bit of survivability outa DS (Not really happy either) or Soul reaping with last gasp which is a real life saver (Well… this line shall not be sacrificed).

So, most likely except if this elite traitline have better option, it will be the sacrified traitline. All depend of what ther will be in it.

And what if…

Instead of classic utility the elite specialization was a “necromancer/revenant” combo and gave to the necromancer some DS utility skills.

Let’s say that we gain the Legendary Verata shroud. And since Verata was a minion master we could end up with shroudminion skills… Moaaaaaaaar AI!!!

PS.: before anyone rage, I fully know it will worsen even more the Necromancer state but in all honesty it’s totally in the lines of what they seem to want : Profession using even more there profession mechanism.

Well they tend to make condition usefull in the new map they create and since condition cap seem to be in it’s way to be removed from pve, it may not be an issue in the futur.

I think that what you don’t understand with fear is that it’s a condition that also control your ennemi, so :
- In 1v1, a condition that controle your ennemi and do damage is extremely powerfull.
- In 1vX (assuming you are solo), it’s also extremely powerfull
- In XvX this condition make your foe run from you or your party. So, even if it does damage, it also destroy the damage of your allies. So it become an hindrance. And in PvE, fear is an Hindrance.

In this game that is mostly about teamplay, Fear and Terror are like the necromancer, selfish and out of place.

They said that there will be plenty enough heroes point (?) to unlock every specialization. Most likely just by leveling to 80, you’ll be able to unlock all the base specialization.

You’ll maybe need a bit of exploration when there will be more “elite” specialization released.

Yeah, Guard is used on cool down in a very common build with high survivability.

I think i’d be satisfied if the auto attack cleave and if there is at least 1 whirl finisher on short cool down… Oups sorry… with wells being baseline ground targetable, they will be a pain in the kitten … Forget about the whirl, it will be boring to play with combo while always wondering where the hell my mouse curser is.

Well no. I think I found in Mist Raiser my favourite one finally.

CodeHavoc.7926:

DrArmature.4619:

met.9653:

Dude where this thing got head Oo ? I don’t want to play something with big hole instead of head.

It’s an asuran with a deep hood. Think ringwraithes with floppy ears. ;O

Necro’s Creed: Dark Path Chronicles

chapter 1 : Dark path blocked by an aegis → fail
chapter 2 : Dark path blocked by a rock on the field → fail
chapter 3 : Dark path evaded → fail
chapter 4 : Opponent outrun dark path projectile → fail
chapter 5 : Dark path projectile reach it’s target → but fail because no valid pathing for teleport.

To be continued…

It’s more that it will mostly depend of the game mode. DH is pretty solid damage wise even if you don’t use longbow and traps. But I have to agree, the Chronomancer spec have the most juicy minor trait a mesmer could ever dream to have.

So most likely, there will be loads of chronomancer.

Euh, Shiki, you must have not played at that time. Just consider the fact that at that moment, you were able to virtually chained Spectral armor and spectral walk while just letting your LF run out. No ICD was just making you enter god mode when you were entering in an ennemi zerg. They could have focused you as much as they want you would have survived for as long as you were under of one of these 2 spectral skill and in DS.

Consider that traited in spectral skill, you just had to pop spectral armor to gain 10% LF, then enter DS and let your ennemi build your LF by hitting you. Then you just wait for your life force to run out and pop Spectral walk which give you 10% LF. Against hard hitting opponent the spectral walk phase was a bit harder though but not impossible, especially against a zerg since that usually there are load of peeps that aren’t hitting hard in a zerg.

And if you wonder, it’s still viable even with the ICD. Just you need locust swarm for more LF sustain.

Oh i’ve got another one :

HellReaver or MistRaiser : Official statement – Like for the Dragon Hunter, we feel that the necromancer deserved a name in the line of the great filmography of the 20th century. And if gardian are obviously set for the heroic adventurers type of film like VanHellsing, Necromancer give more a vib of horror and gore, so we decide that Hellraiser would be our base for this one. We really hope you enjoy it.

It could be the Glyphomancer. Imagine How awesome it would be for them to design a spec around glyph for necromancers?

You take the exact same glyph of the Elementalist but give it a death attunment.

Healing skill : Glyph of the death taste.

Utility skill :
- Glyph of plagued storm (ground targetable storm effect)
- Glyph of the bloody spirit (summon a bloody spirit, Skill : Steal life to foe around him while used)
- Glyph of the frozzen soil (ground targetable pbaoe preventing downed ennemy to be healed for a duration)
- Glyph of the corrupted might (Glyph buff that have a chance to grant yourself a boon when you receive a condition. With a short ICD of course)

Elite skill : Glyph of the dark spirit (Summon a dark spirit, Skill : erect an impregnable dome around him that destroy projectile on use)

If i had to change DeathShroud… I’d probably start to reform almost all the trait that bind Death Shroud in it’s sorry shape.

For me Death Shroud need to be able to evolve with each elite specialization. Traits like unyelding blast prevent this kind of evolution because it force life blast in it’s shape into DS. This kind of trait don’t allow any kind of shroudless elite spec and thus it prevent any change of mind about new defensive means on the necromancer.

Well… Ideas pop and run away at an amazing rate. So I think I’ll say thing differently. I think, life force should be the core mechanism of the Necromancer and Death shroud should be just the main utility (of the core profession) that make the link between life force and the core profession. Which mean that traits should revolve around Life force use/generation and not around Deathshroud.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Death-Shroud-w-Spectral-Armor-post-patch

The thread that nerf it all.

http://www.twitch.tv/symkitten/c/2622702

The video with phantaran struggling to even falter the LF bar of the necro while discharging everything he had on the necro.

The buff came the 25th June 2013.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-June-25th-2013/first#post2339673

nerf happened 1 month later on the 23rd July 2013.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-July-23rd-2013/first#post2495876

Sorry I was wrong It was a month of OPness

@MethaneGas : Yeah it’s part of my most treasured memory in this game along with the Mesmer cheesy blinding every time you were under chaos armor and applying confusion everytime I was blinding something. I still ears the cry of agony from the thieves of these sweet days…

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Dadnir.5038:

Bhawb.7408:

Rising Dusk.2408:

I think the biggest issue they face with Necromancer is the fear of it becoming hyper overpowered because of how Death Shroud functions in its current incarnation should they make all of the changes suggested. There’s also of course the “it mostly works in PvP now, so any buffs will send it over the top” angle that they’re contending with. The best we can do in either case is to simply hope and see what they get us.

I get that, making every change at once is dangerous (Dhuumfire), and they don’t want to bring us back to beta levels of power. But they’ve been hiding behind that excuse for 2.5 years, and still refuse to make some of the basic changes we need, even one at a time, despite the fact that this accidentally making people OP has apparently never bothered them when it happens to warrior or elementalist.

That isn’t to say that they have never made changes, but they seem far more cautious of touching us, even in cases where we are just objectively awful and have been since launch. I don’t understand how they can honestly believe that leaving a broken profession in the game is better than fixing it and dealing with more imbalance (because let’s not pretend like the meta of only zerker and celestial builds is in any way balanced).

In all honesty Necromancers got their 2 week of OPness. It was when spectral skills were giving life force while in DS and without ICD. This was the best 2 week ever…

Just one problem: that time never happened. Spectral skills got their ICD’s when they were changed to continue functioning in death shroud.

Nop drarnor, there were a few day and I really enjoyed these few day. Though they were really quick to come up with the ICD kitten.

Nobody though of the obvious Dragon Shroud ?

No hope for me untill they change the way they see the Death Shroud. I still think that the elite specialization will be a poor addition that will give an illusion of solution but won’t change the fact that some core specialization (I’m forcing myself to call the traitline like that) are underwhelming and that our profession mechanism still fight with some of our other mechanisms.

The idea of Death Shroud itself is fine. But it’s shape and the fact that through the showcased traits they don’t want it to be able to change only lead to a big wall on which we all crash.

There won’t be any core specialization change. The way they designed new trait line (or should we say core specializations) engraved death shroud in the necromancer’s flesh and soul. It engraved it so tightly that there is not even room for some change in skills like Life Blast.

They already put the nails on the coffin on any evolution for Death Shroud and at the same time for any hope for Blood magic. Their change on Vampiric ritual (with the number they showed) will just cast an illusion of OPness on life siphon which will obviously lead to a nerf of Wells. (Exactly like what they did with dhummfire which had led to an overall nerf to all other condition duration and condition accessibility)

There are tons of things that they could do to exploit necromancer existent mechanism, but nonetheless they always focus on an already restrained and clumsy Death shroud.

Life Siphon are out of hope. Like I said, Vampiric ritual will certainly kill even more any possibility here.

Corruption could have been looked at. Yes, this is a unique type of skills of the necromancer. Nothing they could add from other classes could give the same taste as these skills. So obviously none of the Elite specialization will be able to enhance these skills to greater edge. But wait, we got tons of way to corrupt ourself and they don’t exploit this. What’s a trait that would grant support each time you corrupt yourself? Is this this hard to design? What if simply, each time you inflict yourself a condition (corruption skills, unholy martyr, plague signet, gathering plague) you were automatically granting boons around you?

Well, I really don’t get the designer. They close the door on to many possibilities to focus on a thing that they force themself to restrains in a shape that don’t really work with the game. I get the fact that they want the Necromancer to rely on Death shroud but I don’t get why after so many feed back they don’t understand that Death shroud need to be something that support all other mechanism instead of fighting them. It’s the very shape of Death shroud and it’s skills that need to be able to change to support each gameplay, it’s not the gameplay that have to change to support the deathshroud clumsy form.

Bhawb.7408:

Rising Dusk.2408:

I think the biggest issue they face with Necromancer is the fear of it becoming hyper overpowered because of how Death Shroud functions in its current incarnation should they make all of the changes suggested. There’s also of course the “it mostly works in PvP now, so any buffs will send it over the top” angle that they’re contending with. The best we can do in either case is to simply hope and see what they get us.

I get that, making every change at once is dangerous (Dhuumfire), and they don’t want to bring us back to beta levels of power. But they’ve been hiding behind that excuse for 2.5 years, and still refuse to make some of the basic changes we need, even one at a time, despite the fact that this accidentally making people OP has apparently never bothered them when it happens to warrior or elementalist.

That isn’t to say that they have never made changes, but they seem far more cautious of touching us, even in cases where we are just objectively awful and have been since launch. I don’t understand how they can honestly believe that leaving a broken profession in the game is better than fixing it and dealing with more imbalance (because let’s not pretend like the meta of only zerker and celestial builds is in any way balanced).

In all honesty Necromancers got their 2 week of OPness. It was when spectral skills were giving life force while in DS and without ICD. This was the best 2 week ever…

I think I’ve got a huge idea that may even make dragon yeller fall.

You see, with their greatsword, they will reap all those vegetable lead by mordremoth. In this game there is also a profession that reap vegetable. It’s the Peon!

So what d’you say? Dragon Peon! Awesome, ain’kitten

I root for the DragonYeller proposed by Coconutdown.

Also, Reaper is to classy for the necro if you want a profession that reap things… Well… There is always Peon that reap grain in fields. Even Better, the Dragon Peon elite spec. (I’m amazed at myself for this one…)

Ah no! It has to be Dragonyeller ! Just imagine! You yell at the dragon with utmost confidence right before he step on you.

Pretty sur the dev said he was using an assassin amulet for crit chance and not a carion amulet. What’s scarry is the burn numbers which will probably be toned down a lot.

Otherwise, I’m pretty sure the PvE (read dungeon) meta guard will use Dragon Hunter elite spec. And I’m also pretty sure that this meta won’t use LB nor traps. The damage potential is awesome.

Wooot! awesome! Dragonyeller… I can’t stop laughing… more like this please moarrrr!

Bhawb.7408:

Let’s start the baseless speculations: the picture has a hood in it, confirmed Reaper specialization.

This picture doesn’t inspire me anything… Oh! I got one baseless speculation! The guy is in a melee shroud form because he got this strange aura floating around him like a death stench while still wielding it’s GS.

They really like to make me lose my bets…
Guess it’s not Engi week then.

This won’t happen.
There will be only one new weapon per class and a OH staff would be a new weapon.

Well, my bad, I didn’t listen to all the things they said during the ready up. So if it’s confirmed, it’s ok. For me it was just a really obvious thing that they could change.

Your logic is wrong Wwefan. We knew that mesmer would have a shield. This was showcased when they announced the xpac.
We didn’t knew a thing about guard but, that’s not a big thing.

As of today, we know for sure that :
- Necromancer will have a greatsword.
- Engineer will have a hammer and some drone thingy.
- Ranger will have a staff elite spec named Druid.
- One elite spec will have 6 shouts.

We suppose and datamined :
- Elementalist elite spec will be called “Tempest”
- Elementalist weapon will be MH sword
- Revenant will have skill that remind shiro, glint and ventari (don’t know if one of them is part of elite spec)
- Sword, dagger and staff (or maybe underwater weapon) have been datamined for revenant.

We don’t know anything about (for sure) :
- Thief
- Warrior

Although, with the fact that there is only 2 heavy profession atm, we can’t assume a rotation : Light/heavy/medium since it will fall off in the middle of the last rotation.

Though, I think it will be engi to be the profession of the week because it’s just ahead of guardian on the forum list of profession while guardian was just ahead of mesmer. This is a silly argument I know but why not

The idea ain’t bad but won’t work with already existing traits. Although, the class mechanism is a bit difficult

Well, somewhere in the forum, I suggested to move trasfusion up to grand master and make it affect all channeled skil insted of just life transfer. I suggested something more in this line :

Transfusion : while using a channeled skill you also heal ally around you. You heal 100% more while in DS.

Which would end up with the current healing number for Life transfert and half the number for Ghastly claw and Life siphon.

NB.: even with 200% difference this could be a thing.

Zaklex.6308:

Both of you need to take a step back and rethink what you’re saying, this is getting dangerously close to talking about having a Trinity in this game, and GW2 is anti-trinity…so don’t think it’s going to happen any time soon.

Juste saying that’s you are wrong here. GW2 ain’t anti trinity.

GW2 is a game designed so you can play whatever role you want with whatever profession. So it’s possible to make a party with 1 tank, 3 dps and 1 heal. There would be nothing wrong with it.

However, the content is designed so any kind of party should be able to finish it and experience have proven that the most efficient way to beat the PvE content of the game is to run a full Direct Damage berserk party that know how and when to dodge. At the same time, to prevent never ending fight, Healing power have been set up so it can’t be powerfull.

Because “ranger” don’t mean “the guy that hit things at range”.

And, as a very dumb argument, I’ll take the Walker texas ranger argument! You barely see Chuck norris using guns or range weapon! What he love to do is smack it’s fist and feets in the face of it’s foes. And that’s obviously in mele range.

There are several missconception in your thread, but, some of what you say have roots in the comon believes.

The huge wave of complaint we got actually on the necromancer’s forum ain’t a learn to play issue. It’s complaint that come from a community that’s already mastered all classes, love the gloomy theme of the Necromancer and is pretty much tired of the design limitations that block this profession.

There are powerfull mechanisms in game that are denied or very limited for the necromancer :

- Combo : very few combo finisher and some of them have a really bad design (blast on minion for exemple). The most unpopular combo field cripple the necromancer’s utility due to the fact that these utility become an hindrance in teamplay.

- Mobility : The issue here come from the “in combat” mobility meaning that this classe is the only one that most likely won’t be able to reset a match.

- Block/evade : Active block and evasion are the most powerfull defense mean in game. Necromancer’s have been designed so that they won’t have acces to them but in exchange, they can use Death shroud to suck up damage. On the paper, it’s OK, especially if you base your judgement on 1v1 fight. The issue is that this game is not a solo game where you just duel anything. The issue is that mobs/boss don’t have base damage/mechanism on par with a solo player. In short DS as a defensive mean can suck up a short to long periode of a solo player damage but will be totally underwhelming against large hit or outnumbered situation (this, while other defensive mean shine).

- Stability the low acces to stability and the lack of active defense make Necromancer especially weak to any kind of Crowd controle ability. Though they tried to correct this with the changes on FitG.

- Cleave : Cleaving effect are really usefull in the game but the necromancer have been cursed with pierces effects.

- Sustain : The issue with necromancer sustain is that it’s extremly hard to balance. Necromancer’s sustain come from “siphon” and “life force generation”. If you look at the theoric health gained from these 2 sources, Necromancers are god among men. Except that these 2 mechanisms fight each other to the point that in the end almost 2 traitline suffer from this, ended up to being underwhelming.

- Special mechanism : The Death shroud is the necromancer’s special mechanism. It’s a mechanism that, in the end, have to fill way to many roles. And, for me it’s DS major issue. Defence, offense, support… you can’t give all these rôle to 1 and only one mechanism. In the end the Death shroud have been set up in a shape that would have to answer all these rôle at the same time but without being able to be good at any of these role. This very shape is an issue on itself.
Life blast : a mid range powerfull attack. Seem good, no? except that it’s neither good at range nor at melee. (Not to say that it miss a lot lately)
Dark path : A mobility skill. Good, ain’kitten except that you and other player can outrun the projectile, it need a target, may be block by tiny land texture… etc.

- Attrition : This is something really recurent, peeps see the necromancer as the attrition profession. The main issue here is that giving a rôle to a profession simply go against the policy of the game. Any profession can fill any role in game. Beside, Necromancer ain’t better at attrition than other classes.

Well… it’s getting a bit long, so I’ll leave the rest to others. But In short, Necromancers are good on the paper, they even have overpowered skills and mechanisms on the paper. Alas, if they are perfectly balanced for small scale, non-organized pvp situation, but that’s all.

phys.7689:

shouts are AOE around the caster, so they work well for providing melee oriented support.
The holes in necro right now, are melee playstyle, active survivability, and support that provides something unique.

shouts could provide this, however so could other skills.

i doubt you will see something that fits strongly with existing uses of necros, the specializations generally seem to be trying to bring a more active, higher skill cieling and new play to the class. (so far)

You’ve got bias about shouts. You’re right about the fact that guardian’s and warrior’s shout are AOE skills that support the party or debufffoes around you but…

You clearly don’t want to see another kind of shouts. The Ranger’s shout. Ranger’s shouts are basically order given to their pet. So if you imagine a bit what special skill they could give the necromancer while looking at marjory and LS history, we could easily guess that :

Special ability : By specing in the elite trailine necromancer become haunted by a vengefull spirit. By using F2, this haunting spirit feed on your life force and enter in your weapon to deal additional effect.

Weapon : Great sword.

Skill : Shouts . Necromancer’s shout are basically order given to the haunting spirit in exchange of some life force.

From this base, they may give any form to these commands. Be it a kind of black/misty shield of faith to some “Buff us to death” or “Save my life”.

EremiteAngel.9765:

a guard’s 16 sec cooldown F1 skill for constant burning for 10 secs is a total death blow on necros.
we are the only class without enough mobility to get out of 900 range against a guard’s F1

As long as there are fodder (necromancers) to die around him, a guardian can pretty much spam F1 if correctly traited. What’s fun is that spaming F1 also blind the foe, apply vulnerability and grant might to the Guardian and it’s allies. Well but that is if you trait your guard for that.

When I see what they might do to “tomes” for guardians, I can’t restrain myself to think that they might have some plans like that for every professions transformations in game.

Which would probably lead to plague being changed into a well skill and lich form being totally reworked because it could probably fit spectral or corruption but not without some major change here.

Peeps that like these 2 elite transformation should enjoy them as they are at the moment and grit their teeth in wait of what they got for them.

You don’t have to take this trait line if you don’t like it. You’ve got the choice, either you take the elite traitline and have the new resolve or, you don’t take it and keep the old one

What’s amazing is that in other langages the name is ok. For exemple in french the name end up being “draconnier” which is somewhat far from “dragonhunter”.
They could have named it “draconeer” in english it would have been neutral.

the potential of the Blood trait line

You probably mean the concept.

Adept: Vampiric – Siphon health equal to 25% of all damage dealt, works while in Death Shroud. Proportion of health returned is increased by Healing Power.

This trait would already make the necromancer immortal

Bloodthirst – Increases siphoned health to 75% of damage dealt

thanks for the laugh

nekretaal.6485:

You forgot about spirit weapons, intended to open up an entirely new playstyle to the necromancer.

To be honest, I felt it was to close from minion . Oterwise, it seem you got my irony.

Personnally, I think terror is and have been build defining since a long time already. The issue here, is that trait itself is too strong. We can argue for age that it’s damage are mediocre or whatever, the fact is that it’s free damage paired with a problematic CC.

I think, Necromancer would have been more healthy if Terror (inflicting damage on feared foes) was something like Chillblain (inflicting damage on chilled foe). Why?
- Because chill, even if really anoying, is less harmfull than a hard CC (fear)
- Because ton of other profession can overide your chill (making it less likely to open up to rant from players)
- Because there is very few things that are immun to chill.

Actually, close to death is build defining. This is our bread and butter for DD spec.
Path of corruption define our corrupt build but ain’t really build defining, he is just kittenefull addition.
I’d also say that Vampiric master is the core defining trait for minionmancer (I would hardly play any minon build without this trait, but maybe I’m wrong)
Death nova should be core to any minion bomber build. The issue here is that either damage are ridiculously low or our minion generation output is poor.
Unholy sanctuary is way to weak to define anything.
Unholy martyr a grandmaster trait that is weaker than Mender’s purity a mesmer adept trait. This trait ain’t build defining it doesn’t give any material for any build.
Vampiric ritual may be our vampiric defining trait, execpt that he need optimal condition to be usefull and the long CD on well totally kill it’s potential.
Death perception is the DD shroud build defining trait.

If, I had to propose something as defining traits :

Spite (Damage/weakening trait line)
Keep Close to death which is fine as it is.
Replace parasitic contagion by a trait that double chill duration and inflict vulnerability when you chill a foe.
Replace Dhumfire by a trait that build frenzie each time the necromancer hit a foe while in DS. (like risen abomination. Obviously frenzie would wear off as soon as you go out of DS)

Curse (condition/precision traitline)
GM trait that replace Terror. Chillblain, chilled foe also take damage overtime. You do x% more damage against chilled foes.
Keep new lingering curse
Keep new Parasitic contagion

Death magic (Minion and defensive traitline)
Change Death nova. This trait should create a low life, low survivability minion whose only purpose would be to reach the necromancer’s foe and then explode, inflicting some damage, poisoning and having a chance to remove a boon on foes in range as it die. ICD reduced to 2 seconds. (only minions create by this trait explode. These minions are created on foe death and minion death)
Add to Unholy sanctuary an aegis when entering DS.
Keep Necromantic corruption (I feel it’s ok that this traitline have 2 minion traits)

Blood magic (support/survival trait line)
A trait which would replace Unholy martyr. This new trait would simply share any boon you grant yourself while in DS.
A second trait that would replace Vampiric ritual. This trait would share any heal received from Necromancer’s siphon. (With this they could, at last, upgrade vampiric)
A third trait would replace Fetid consumption by something that would, perhaps, heal the necromancer each time he gain life force with a 1 second ICD.

Soul reaping
Keep foot in the grave.
Keep Death perception
Change Dhumfire to apply torment instead of burn.

We get Venom (Necromancer/thief) :

It doesn’t work with thief so it should be ok that necromancer get a hold of those. All in all, it will be useless but whatever it fit the gloomy necro theme.

We get Physical skills (Necromancer/Warrior) :

Necromancer should melee to be hit to death and it’s marvellous, with physical skills you gotta be at melee range to use them. I can see a trait that would gve retaliation on use. Yeah, it already feel OP.

We get Glyph (Necromancer/elementalist) :

Elementalist glyph effect with the necromancer’s attunment. So that’s glyph of death storm, glyph of death elemental… (This wouldn’t be to bad, maybe)

We get Consecration (Necromancer/Guradian) :

Something with terribad long cool down. Yeah that’s the necro spirit for you!

We get Gadget (Necromancer/Engineer) :

I’d be amazed to see that and how they would explain it.

We get Mantra (Necromancer/mesmer) :

Poor effect, long cast time. Well… this make sense.

We get shout (Necromancer/Ranger) :

Shout end up being command to an additional pet gained by specialization.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Anchoku.8142:

This is a matter of perspective and I admit it is a blurry one with all the modifiers attached but the fact remains that Necromancer rakes no damage to health while in DS.

It is not a matter of perspective. DS is not invulnerability, end of story. DS does not provide immunity to conditions or control skills. So as long as no one recognizes this imbalance, the necro will never become on par with other classes.

DS does not scale with focused fire, or very heavy hits. Invulnerability does.
DS does not make you immune to control skills. Invulnerability does. (that is why we get stun locked, when other classes don’t)
DS does not make you immune to conditions. Invulnerability does.
DS does not allow you to heal or use utility skills. Invulnerability does.
DS requires a resource (life force). Invulnerability doesn’t.

Since we are the only class without an invulnerability mechanic, our class simply has the worst defense of all classes in the game. The whole game revolves around the 2 dodges mechanic, which is broken because of invulnerability, which is in essence an extra dodge.

So why do all other classes get 3 dodges, and we get only 2?

That is a question I would like to ask the game designers at Anet.

Just a counter to your arguments : DS have a longer uptime than any invul skill.
Personnally, my issues with DS are more simple :

First, they want DS to be our bread and butter. If you look closely, you see that DS is our DPS mean, our support mean and our defense mean. That’s way too much to force in a single mechanism.

Second, The way DS skills are designed. It’s neither mele nor range, it’s in between. Principal issue with this is that we end up not being good at mele nor at range.

Third, Piercing effect on life Blast. Piercing is probably the worst effect to hit multiple target. It’s the same root as my second point, DS is a mid range transformation.

Forth, DS fight with other mechanism like siphon. It’s not a secret DS negate them and for all we know they are just here as a bit more DPS because as sustain means, they don’t fit with the profession mechanism. Should they remove the damage part of siphons, they would end up totally useless.

Fifth, Life blast a single DS skill have at least 4 specifics traits supporting it. So to make use of this skill, you have to go in DS and actually use this skill (even if this skill is cluncky) to make use of these specifics traits.

PS.: Strill, You should look closely at the futur inspiration traitline. You should be able to understand that this traitline will be very very usefull in dungeon. Illusionary inspiration being a free share of all your boons everytime you create a fantasm. Group cleanse everytime you use a heal skill or cast a mantra, distorsion on your fanstasm when you create them… This traitline will be mandatory…

If this is shouts, I bet this will be the same kind of shout that ranger have. I’m pretty sure necromancer elite spec will have a permanent spirit following him (like rangers have their pet) and the shout will be here to order the spirit to perform some action. To perform these action, the spirit will obviously need to eat some of your life force.

It fit totally the majory theme.
- The GS
- The spirit (it’s sister)
- The ritualist roots (borrowing spirit power)
- The type of skill that are almost never used (We must give this to the necromancer!)

PS.: If you see skills type that other classes don’t use because they are clunky, they are necromancers best candidate for specialization. After all, if a profession can revive some dead skills, it have to be the necromancer.