Guild Wars 2

Bhawb.7408:

Our signet, depending on how much the Siphon is for, has very strong potential.

Perma retaliation like effect, and the healing every time we are hit is essentially straight damage reduction. For example, if we siphon 100 HP every time we get hit, its like reducing every single hit by 100 damage.

I love the idea of this signet, although I need to see the numbers if the siphon is remotely significant, I can see it being good in all game modes depending on build. PvE builds would allow us really strong group support for the LoS stack and face-kitten boss fights. WvW will be proccing, EVERYWHERE. PvP will be good for builds that don’t necessarily need CC or WoB. I just really hope that it scales well with healing power, because it’ll work best with Blood Magic support builds that also have self-healing.

One worry… Blood Fiend is getting even MORE useless as a heal.

A 10 point trait will reduce the CD by 20% as well, and a 10 point trait that has little competition.

My one primary concern about it is that it seems to not have a direct heal for the necro. This can be a huge issue. For example, say you’re fighting a backstab thief. You don’t have the ability to heal in that situation because he isn’t hitting you much (when he does hit, it’s much harder than the signet will siphon for) and keeps stealthing so the active is useless.

And, of course, the fact that it would be most useful to us tanking hits in DS when we can’t get the healing.

Stillmoon.6894:

scepter 3 skill need some rework as it doesn’t hit hard enough ( around 1200 at 4 condition, average) and boon rip by 1 is mediocre, need at least 3 boon rip added to it.

Scepter 3 has no boon rip. That’s Axe 3.

Brujeria.7536:

I found this on reddit earlier today :

-Signet of Vampirism: Signet Passive: Siphon life from enemies that strike you. Signet Active: Mark an enemy. Allied players will steal life from that enemy.

http://i.imgur.com/f1hCfRG.png

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1ryeur/8_brand_new_healing_skills_previewed_this_friday/cdsiaax

Would be really interesting if it is true. Some nice combo with retaliation, the active part would be nice for those chanelled skills + group support + minion master sustain.

Oh god I hope those aren’t real. Look at the ones Warrior and Engineer get. I was joking with a buddy earlier tonight that Warriors would get something like “go invulnerable while healing” And it being a stance means they can extend it too, not to mention no channel time.

I actually feel like this was Scarlet’s best appearance. For once, we actually got to learn something of her motive. Actually listening/reading her monologue can be useful..

She was interested in the research that had been done there, specifically about the “lines of magic that criss-crossed the world” She also lamented a bit on the fact that the facility had been built right atop an intersection and how that was interfering with the stability of the reactor. We also learn that she has a keen interest in Dragon magic and that it was what was actually being studied there.

I’m willing to bet that the Jungle Dragon is sleeping very close to the Thaumanova Reactor, and Scarlet was looking for important information regarding him.

nekretaal.6485:

Rumor is that we are getting a lifesteal signet with no burst heal on activation. Sounds pretty sorry unless the lifesteal base values are huge and we all know they wolnt be.

So… another Blood Fiend?

DayLight.9603:

^^ Bhawb gave some great advice there.

Quick question – if traited for it, isn’t the cooldown on the blood fiend minion something like 13 seconds? I might have my facts wrong and cannot confirm it now. Still, 13 seconds isn’t that bad.

16 seconds traited, 20 seconds base.

Perhaps a signet that grants health regen inversely proportional to our life force? What I mean is that it gives us more healing when we are empty than full. Would provide a niche for bunkers that balance both pools.

Spectral Wall is zone control. Short of Stability or invulnerabilities, enemies can’t cross it (it even fears Dodging people). It is not your typical Fear, so don’t use it as such.

Reaper’s Mark can be dropped right on your intended target, so it’s actually quite reliable (especially if you have Greater marks).

Doom, of course, is out most reliable fear. Instant cast, can be used while stunned, doesn’t require facing, and all necros have it regardless of build.

However, it does have unfortunate interaction with our Blood Magic 5 trait where the Regeneration can trigger while you get no benefit from it.

Tseikk.9032:

Drarnor does it trigger confusion too?

Can’t say for sure since I never bothered getting Perplexity runes, but I would imagine so. It counts for the daily, at least.

Pelopidas.2140:

Do we have another interrupt except fear ? just trident 4 i think

Warhorn 4 and Spectral Grasp also work. Same with Spear 4.

And for some reason Spectral Wall’s fear. Sepctral Wall and Reaper’s mark both count as an interrupt if an enemy walks into them while casting, but not if they are dropped directly on someone. It makes no sense, but that’s how it works.

Only thing I can think of is that Spectral Grasp has a high arc and can’t easily be body-blocked, though that should make it easier to yank people on walls, not harder.

Stx.4857:

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

Good thing to replace 25 Spite trait, which completely dumb and useless

According to Jon Peters, Siphoned Power is a good trait lol. The Devs scare me sometimes.

I think it’s a good idea for a trait, it just suffers the problem of being “too little, too late”. It needs tweaks, but the basic functionality of the trait I think is good. The current implementation is not.

The way I see it, builds should be fine-tuned to your personal preferences.

That and I’ve been working on a build that is 100% DS crit chance and +100% condition duration, so there has been a lot of juggling on stats :p

I believe it does work in DS, but I’m not sure if Gluttony works with it (as Reaper’s Precision isn’t a skill). It’s actually decent in a Deathly Perception 100% crit build, as 1/3 of your hits increase your life force while you’re in death shroud.

Nagato no Kami.4980:

This actually can’t be considered a valk build or even half a valk build — it’s a zerker with 2 pieces of valk armor and 2 valk trinkets. With weapons, this is less than 1/3 the set up. The less valk armor, the less the differential in damage. Outfitting the build to handle “real situations” with Eagle runes, the damage differential is down to around 6% now.

Ballpark but still significant.

I never claimed it to be a Valk build either.. That’s just the way I would choose to run it on a necro.

I think it would be fine if it were combined with Path of Midnight (since Path of Midnight is already weak for a CDR trait) and had a new trait replace Speed of Shadows.

Bhawb.7408:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

On a related note, does it increase the damage dealt by Vampiric Master? We know it increases the damage dealt by Death Nova.

TL;DR No, TotM only works on the direct damage of their attacks and active skills, nothing else.

And Death Nova. Given that both are traits that give new benefits to minions, I figured it was possible that it could work.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRBHRhGiJEoHvXt4MRFOGqHrD68hA-jUDBYfDimgAgwAiII0JPDhN9JaFOFRjVjET5aR1aXA2bJygLY2cpWKgIWGB-w

Good example of what I mean. I chose Eagle runes instead of Scholar (I like the bonus better), but you end up with a 50% crit chance pre-DS and are more durable (though not by a whole lot) than pure Zerker. Once you enter DS, you enjoy the same 100% crit chance with the same crit damage.

While the scholar/berserker set does have a higher theoretical peak damage output, my linked build has a more reliable damage boost in real situations.

On a related note, does it increase the damage dealt by Vampiric Master? We know it increases the damage dealt by Death Nova.

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

I find it wonderful to yank people off walls in WvW or do silly things. People always forget about this skill in WvW, so they don’t know what to do when they are suddenly yanked into the enemy zerg and chilled (answer is usually die). I’ve even managed to yank people off of cliffs a couple times and let them fall to their deaths.

It doesn’t work this way. It doesn’t work at all.

My dozens of times being successful at it says you’re wrong. It works quite well in my experience. I’ve only had it fail for no reason a couple of times. Other times the pull failed, it was blocked, dodged, or stability.

It’s also worth noting that the skill is the only attack in the game that outright ignores Blind.

I miss the ally cleansing function, but we’re pretty sure that got removed because of a bug when the game said “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” incorrectly.

I find it wonderful to yank people off walls in WvW or do silly things. People always forget about this skill in WvW, so they don’t know what to do when they are suddenly yanked into the enemy zerg and chilled (answer is usually die). I’ve even managed to yank people off of cliffs a couple times and let them fall to their deaths.

Nagato no Kami.4980:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

I can see a mix of Berserker’s and Valk doing well. Use enough Berserker’s to hit 50% crit chance out of DS, then fill the rest with Valk. You have the same power and crit damage as full berserker’s, but the lost precision doesn’t mean anything in DS where you would have 100% crit rate anyway.

We discussed this in the above posts. It probably works fine on balance, it lags behind full zerk. Valk/zerk yields 25% more HP but more than 15% (probably closer to 20%) less damage from things like the loss of power, precision, Sigils of Force and Scholar runes.

Once you hit 50% crit chance in a Deathly Perception build, you really aren’t losing anything by replacing further Zerk’s with Valks. So your damage output outside of DS drops slightly (you’re still mostly Zerk’s, so it’s a small drop) due to a lower crit chance. In return, you get improved durability and the same exact damage output in DS (same power, same crit damage, same 100% crit chance).

Again: you go Zerk’s gear until you hit that 50% threshold, then fill the rest with Valk’s.
This is not a “half and half” idea I’m proposing. You will still be mostly Zerk’s gear.

If that happens, you activate the signet. You clear whatever stacks you have and aren’t getting more transferred to you.

Hydromancy sigils also damage those they chill, so I wouldn’t belittle them.

The passive does need to pulse more reliably, I will definitely back that. Not certain we need it to constantly shed conditions, though. Necros already have tons of ways to do that.

Mark of Blood deals decent damage, but if you want the minions to die faster, just don’t use it. The lost damage should be made up for the more rapid death nova procs. A better idea is to use Mark of Blood before the minions close, then swap to your other weapon set. That way, you don’t have a dead skill.

Usually, though, the minions die fast enough for Mark of Blood to not change much. If they do stay up longer, it means they get another few hits in before going boom. More damage is more damage.

I can see a mix of Berserker’s and Valk doing well. Use enough Berserker’s to hit 50% crit chance out of DS, then fill the rest with Valk. You have the same power and crit damage as full berserker’s, but the lost precision doesn’t mean anything in DS where you would have 100% crit rate anyway.

raubvogel.5071:

I don’t like mark of blood. Since I’m playing with minions it’s healing my minions while i’m using death nova for further damage…

As mark of blood is know it is rather useless for the necromancer himself. If you want your minions to die and if you play without minions you most likely will not get any of its healing-regeneration benefits. So my suggestion is to add physical damage and remove the heal. That regeneration could be added to the dagger #2 so if you are in melee you got some great support rather then that boring dagger #2 skill.

Better suggestion: don’t use Mark of Blood on cooldown if you want your minions to die quickly.

Is the chest account bound? Magi’s is pretty decent on a BM ranger.

Overkillengine.6084:

And that also means you also were not doing much other than slowly spamming life blast since every other DS tool has a not inconsiderable cool-down and costs life-force to boot.

The design just comes across as schizophrenic frankly.

No skills cost life force.

However, Fetid Ground hits surprisingly hard. In PvP/WvW, it’s all but useless as it’s rarely off cooldown before you get stomped. It’s pretty good against NPC’s, though.

Really helps you win those downed fights, though, so long as you aren’t against a warrior.

Our signet cooldowns are just too long. It’s not worth it. Melandru runes do much more of what matters on those runes.

flow.6043:

Before the nerf you could only transfer 9 condition from yourself: torment didn’t exist yet, it missed when blinded and of course it wouldn’t work if you’re feared.
However, you could cleanse all 11 conditions from your allies.
What is not true though is that you could hit all targets with all conditions. Everything was transfered to just one enemy.

You could transfer Fear. The mark just had to be placed before you got feared and triggered when you were. It was (and still is) the most hilarious answer to thieves stealing from us.

ProxyDamage.9826:

data.4093:

…kormir wasn’t around during the fall of abaddon…

Scarlet wasn’t supposed to be around for Thaumanova either.

Your point being?

Considering the Thaumanova Reactor went kablooie maybe a month prior to the game’s start? More likely just a week or so? Yeah, sorry, but Scarlet was around then.

Confusion stacking is always dangerous to do against a necro for exactly this reason. Just consider it an important learning experience and carry on.

Andele.1306:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Andele.1306:

As a idiot mod fused my topic, they still didnt fix the 3 condi “cleanse” nor did they fix the incomplete transfer of conditions, making 1/5 targets immune to the skill (if you hit 5 enemies that is).

Well, since it’s 3 conditions per target hit, and there are only 12 conditions in the game, a 5th person hit will never get conditions from this skill (barring any “on-crit” procs). Not so much that 1/5 of the targets are immune, just that there is nothing left to give them.

You know that if you had all (back then 11) condis on you and you hit 5 people, all of them got the full force of em, right?

Pretty sure only one enemy got the conditions (all of them, including those from allies), but if you have video evidence to support your claim otherwise, I’d be happy to see it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter at all now.

And no, if you had all 11 conditions on you back then, no enemy would get anything because the Blind made you miss.

Deathly Swarm was actually always supposed to be 3 conditions per target, but they had a bug where it only transferred 1 condition and copied two more. It was…weird, to say the least. They fixed the bug and now it works as we have it today.

Also, the Blast finisher (x2) should not be forgotten on Putrid Mark, plus it doesn’t require facing and ignores projectile hate.

Reanimator would probably be fine if they made it give you a buff when you kill an enemy and it triggers when you next hit with an attack. The worst part about the trait is by far the timing of its activation, and this would guarantee you would be in combat where it can be helpful.

That said, I am perfectly happy with them combining it with Death Nova as it is the best use for them anyway. On top of that, removing Reanimator as the 5 point Minor means that they MUST get rid of Protection of the Horde as a minor trait (which is honestly the bigger waste of a trait).

Draehl.2681:

I love fighting Warriors. Why? Because they’re the only class that will reliably actually fight you. Everyone else attempts to run if they’re not outnumbering you at least 3:1, and if they fight you and start losing they run. I love the moment when I lock gazes with the Warrior and you charge at each other. Winner lives. Loses dies. Warriors tends to have an honor about them in this regard.

More along the lines of overconfidence, really. They know they’re overpowered, but overestimate by how much. Overconfidence has led to many a defeat by every profession and build.

Rennoko.5731:

What? A valk necro doesn’t have any toughness at all. Which means you get backstabbed for 10k. You also have no precision, which means your DS crit rate is 50% assuming you take the 30 point trait, so its only every other life blast that is 6k.

54% in full Valk gear with nothing in Curses, but using Deathly Perception. Minor nitpick :p

But yeah, only Soldiers gear matches Dire for durability and both are only surpassed by Sentinels. Going Valk gear means you are wasting an entire stat when you aren’t in death shroud, because the base 4% crit rate just will not cut it.

Andele.1306:

As a idiot mod fused my topic, they still didnt fix the 3 condi “cleanse” nor did they fix the incomplete transfer of conditions, making 1/5 targets immune to the skill (if you hit 5 enemies that is).

Well, since it’s 3 conditions per target hit, and there are only 12 conditions in the game, a 5th person hit will never get conditions from this skill (barring any “on-crit” procs). Not so much that 1/5 of the targets are immune, just that there is nothing left to give them.

Monkeymonger.9235:

I do agree with these points. However in my experience (bad) necros immediatly drop into plague as a panic reaction and remain there for the entire duration. I’m usually content with just leaving them there and focusing them once they come out again. I don’t quite understand why people would chase a blinding plague.

I usually drop into Plague for full duration in fights, but the reason for that is Plague is massively disruptive, regardless of whether or not it’s being focused. If I get focused, great! They’re wasting soooo much time. If I don’t get focused, I sit in the middle of them causing their damage and cooldowns to take a vacation.

You don’t run in Plague, you stick on your enemies.

Afya.5842:

I use mistfire wolf when I champ farms

Pretty much this. Champs drop your Flesh Golem pretty quickly, but the mistfire wolf has already unloaded its damage by then, so its rapid death doesn’t mean much..

Let’s be honest, though. The problem with necro isn’t the lack of access to stability, it’s the fact we lack things to supplement it as a defense. Blinds are good, but ours have long cooldowns. Since we lack any other real defensive measure, we need higher access to stability (or some other answer to CC) to be really viable on the defensive front.

For an example, thieves do have worse access to Stability than necros do. However, they supplement it with spammable blinds, stealth, evades up the wazoo, and even some projectile blocking, so it’s not as necessary for them.

Thieves only get stability while using a channel skill (and elite at that), so the point remains that we still have better practical access than they do.

striker.3704:

and the jade maw (wastes time taking lasers.).

Sometimes that’s a good thing, though, so I won’t say they aren’t viable there. While familiartiy with the fractal does make minions less useful, you still occasionally get a tentacle knocking you down just in time for the eye laser while you don’t have a crystal. Minions can help mitigate the pain there. Just don’t summon them until you need to buy time.

Believe it or not, necro. Other classes may be able to out-stack us, but they lack the variety of conditions that necros do. Then there is the god-mode skill for condition builds: Epidemic.

Warriors are a strong contender, though.

1-shot mechanics one shot the minion instead of a player. Sounds like a viable use for them to me.

The one Dredge path with the spreading fire is indeed a case where they aren’t viable. Subject Alpha, they aren’t viable. Lupicus, they’re fine for phase 2, but I wouldn’t run them there (because they cause issues in phase 1 and 3). Everything else in dungeons, they range from “decent” to “pretty good”.