Guild Wars 2

Run Death Nova and Bone Minions in a Death Magic condi build. Don’t even need another minion.

Hey, that method works too.

Path of Corruption is plenty good for Power builds as well.

So, the actual point of the thread is actually theorycrafting builds.

Regardless of the doom and gloom from how our changes weren’t as good as other professions got, there were some interesting changes that came with the news on Friday. With changes comes theorycrafting.

So, here is a place for us to start doing that. Come up with builds you would like to play!

One poster in the Mesmer forums had an interesting proposal for notation on builds made possible by the new UI. The notation was “[specialization name]v^o” Each character after the specialization name denotes whether the trait chosen is the top (^), center (o), or bottom (v) trait on the UI for that tier. All three trait choices in a line can thus be denoted by three characters total.

For example, “Spite v^o” refers to choosing Bitter Chill, Chill of Death, and Close to Death.

Entire builds can thus be denoted very quickly. I’ll throw one of mine as an example.

Dagger/warhorn+Axe Dagger, Signet of Vampirism, Well of Power, Spectral Grasp, Signet of the Locust, Lich Form
Spite o^^, Blood Magic o^^, Soul Reaping ^^^

Traits chosen are Reaper’s Might, Chill of Death and Signet Mastery in Spite, Bloodthirst, Quickening Thirst, and Vampiric Rituals in Blood Magic, and Unyielding Blast, Spectral Mastery, and Foot in the Grave.

You don’t have to use that notation form if you don’t want to, I just thought it was a really good idea.

spoj.9672:

Another thing about the curses grandmasters. Its a condi and crit line. But all 3 grandmasters are flat condi traits. They arent related to crit chance at all. We could simply have some kind of on crit trait which benefits both condi and powers. For example might on crit (forceful greatsword style trait but not tied to a specific weapon).

• coughwitheringprecisionreworkcough *

Sorry, got something in my throat.

Anchoku.8142:

I just realized none of the new boons or conditions were shown. HoT release may be further out than I thought.

Taunt was shown on a Ranger Beastmastery trait (Pet F2 taunts foes).
Slow was shown on a Guardian trait replacing Glacial Heart.
Resistance was shown on a Thief trait being granted when they strike a foe that has full health.
Quickness (now a boon) was shown in quite a few places.

CodeHavoc.7926:

I don’t believe I seen a trait that reduces CD on Ds AND DS related skills. I suggest you just merge the two together. Im not sure how they can implement that but it would be a nice add on instead of choosing either or in a traitline. That way I can go with speed of shadows.

-Sidenote – If Signet of the Locust is now a Gm trait (I still disagree with it stealing health) I suggest it should work like a Dolyak signet (Reduced damage above X%) Beacause once again this skill doesn’t scale well and the healing received is horrible.

Edit: If this is now a GM trait, what happens to the 25% additonal run speed?

People really need to pay attention, and this is a prime example.

1. Vital Persistance and Path of Midnight were merged. This allows for drastically improved use of Death Shroud as a weapon.

2. Speed of Shadows and Near to Death were merged. Not entirely sure what the reasoning was for merging these two in particular, but it works.

3. Signet Mastery is getting moved tho Grandmaster tier and activates a copy of Signet of the Locust when you are hit below 50% health. You are still completely free to actually equip Signet of the Locust and activate it (or not) at your leisure.

I’d say Signet of the Locust is going to be untouched, but we already saw it’s cooldown getting dropped to 30 seconds base, 24 seconds traited in the stream.

And the healing of Signet of the Locust is very strong.

You don’t necessarily need to trait for a weapon to “make it worth it”. Take a look at our Dagger for a prime example (either hand).

nekretaal.6485:

With withering precision gone, access to weakness is severely kitten. That’s sad because weakness was a way to limit the advantage that classes with extra dodges have over the necromancer.

Really, Withering Precision isn’t doing much for that right now.

Anchoku.8142:

Any news on where the GS trait will be?

The Elite specialization would make sense, as it’s required to equip if you want to use Greatsword at all.

Aesa.4819:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

manveruppd.7601:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

@ manverupped: Chilling Darkness is still there. In fact, it’s effectiveness was doubled.

That’s awesome! I didn’t notice it cause it was all the way at the bottom of Dulfy’s screenshots and I didn’t scroll down enough :p

Would have been nice if we’d gotten a blind on fear trait to go with it!

That buff and the small buff to Armored Shroud seem to have gone unnoticed by everyone.

Ooh! It could be called Blind Panic!

Fear of the Dark

While a good song, not the best name for the trait as it implies Blind causes Fear. Blind Panic is being so afraid, you don’t perceive things properly.

manveruppd.7601:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

@ manverupped: Chilling Darkness is still there. In fact, it’s effectiveness was doubled.

That’s awesome! I didn’t notice it cause it was all the way at the bottom of Dulfy’s screenshots and I didn’t scroll down enough :p

Would have been nice if we’d gotten a blind on fear trait to go with it!

That buff and the small buff to Armored Shroud seem to have gone unnoticed by everyone.

Ooh! It could be called Blind Panic!

Those Terror values are pretty consistent for 0 condition damage on live.

@ manverupped: Chilling Darkness is still there. In fact, it’s effectiveness was doubled.

Suggestion regarding Beyond The Veil: Why not change it to “Nearby allies gain Protection when you leave Death Shroud. 360 radius, no AoE cap.”

This makes it comparable to the Guardian trait Communal Defenses. Your minions will usually be in this range anyway, but now it also allows the Necro to add defensive support to a team. Protection is arguably weaker than Aegis, and despite not including a cooldown, there is a higher cost associated with it for the Necro: namely they are without defense for the next 10/7 seconds.

They are all right, if you completely ignore any siphon trait but Bloodthirst. Our siphon skills are actually all right (save SoV’s passive, the active is good, though).

Of note, you just need to trigger it once and it will keep pulsing that skill until you tell it to change.

If we poke you enough, will you explode into a noxious cloud? :p

One more thing you should add to the report is that this is the perfect time to have profession specialists. Not sure why they apparently dumped the idea.

Because people are using Signet of the Locust now. There are two reasons why people didn’t:

1. Three-slot syndrome. Due to a Necro’s inability to avoid CC, two stunbreakers were mandatory on the bar. Corrupt Boon is practically glued on there as it is the primary reason to bring a Necro in the first place. In PvE, this wasn’t the case, but there people rarely need the active. With the change to Foot in the Grave, this is less of a concern now.

2. People are not realizing how good it actually is. They still think it’s terrible from when it had 40% of the scaling it does now and had a cooldown that was half as long again as it is now. Their perception hasn’t changed with the skill, as I can tell is the case with you.

Besides, even if you have no foes in range when it procs, you still get 3 Might. So, again, it will never be a complete waste. Using trait to get a burst of healing equivalent to a dedicated heal skill is good. Perhaps you haven’t realized it, but it’s quite possible right now for necros to effectively have 3 heal skills on their bar.

Soul Reaping
Soul Marks: As I mentioned above in Greater Marks, Necro Staff will be the only weapon in the game with more than one trait solely for it after these changes. To remove that, why not merge staff recharge with Greater Marks and make Soul Marks baseline for marks? Condition builds are constantly starving for life force and will take Staff anyway. Might as well help out their sustain and make traits more sensible along the way. This opens up a new Adept level slot. Dhuumfire might even be able to fit down here, since its use basically replaces a Condition build’s normal pressure (doesn’t really add on top).

Speed of Shadows: Nice change. Not much else to comment on.

Spectral Mastery: Merging the two Spectral traits is a nice move. Also, there is meaningful choice at this tier, which I like.

Vital Persistence: The only thing I will ask is, can we please get the cooldown on Death Shroud skills to be increased to 20% like all other live CDR traits? Otherwise, very, very nice. Lets you use your Death Shroud skills longer and more often to get the most out of each time you’re in Death Shroud.

Master of Terror: While good, I would like to see Terror merged into here. That way, we have one trait really focusing on Fear (Reaper’s Protection is more of a response trait than a fear trait). Move the result to Grandmaster in Soul Reaping to preserve it’s build-defining status.

Dhuumfire: Removal of the ICD is nice, but it’s honestly not strong enough to stay at this tier, since it replaces the pressure a Condition Necro usually brings instead of adding on top. Having it trade places with Master of Terror (after Terror has been merged) or even dropping it down to Adept is suitable.

In total, I’m advocating opening up one new Master and Grandmaster slot in Curses, the Master minor in death magic, a Master and a Grandmaster slot in Blood magic, and a Master or Adept slot in Soul Reaping. And a few buffs and changes beyond that.

Blood magic
Full of Life: Reduced recharge is nice. No complaints here.

Vampiric: Still worthless for non- MM builds. MM didn’t see a difference. The values on most Vampiric traits need massive buffs. See here for why: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Siphoning-traits-and-optimal-values/first
If the siphons for MM builds are a concern, try shifting some of the power of the trait from the minions to the player. The merger is good, but the idea that any siphoning trait is too strong is ludicrous to Necro players.

Blood to Power: Wait, a situational Healing Power boost that’s useful? I can dig it. Necros have some pretty good scaling with healing power on skills and some traits (just not siphons).

Ritual of Life: Decent changes here. The change in timing plus the faster revive speed makes this a decent choice for the slot. Not always applicable, but when it is, it’s nice.

Bloodthirst: On its own, a decent trait. I have no complaints, really. See Vampiric Precision below, however.

Mark of Evasion: Necros don’t have Vigor or any other methods of regenerating endurance outside of equipment. Why does this trait have an ICD? It’s not because you’re scared of the damage or else Hard to Catch, Evasive Powder Keg and Reckless Dodge would have ICD’s. The healing is just a Regeneration boon and is far far less than Selfless Daring. Nix the ICD and this will be a good trait.

Quickening Thirst: I like the change to the speed bonus, and I’ve been suggesting merging the dagger cooldown and dagger move speed for ages. However, the cooldown reduction needs to be below 75%, not above. Life Siphon you don’t use above 75% health, usually. It’s a recovery skill, so you use it when you need to recover. Deathly Swarm you also don’t use above 75% health, usually, as you want to let conditions stack up on you before you send them off. This process usually takes you below 75% health. When half the skills it affects are used in circumstances that don’t benefit from the cooldown reduction, this trait is far weaker than it appears. In addition, having it reduce the cooldowns when below 75% lets it synergize with Blood to Power, giving you more frequent, stronger Life Siphons. Synergy is something Necros really need.

Vampiric Precision: WORTHLESS in this tier. This needs to be merged with another trait, bare minimum. Merging it into Bloodthirst is a good idea to help reduce trait bloat and the result would still be low enough to stay at Adept tier, leaving open a slot for a new Master tier trait.

Transfusion: Is good on live, will continue to be good. However, see Deathly Invigoration below.

Vampiric Ritauls: Veeeeryyy nice having all the Well traits condensed. I approve. However, perhaps this should be named “Ritual Mastery” instead since, well, you mastered the rituals.

Unholy Martyr: Zerg surfing, here I come. Just increasing the life force gain to 10% is enough to make this trait viable in some situations. For example, in WvW zerg fights, you could enter Death Shroud and never come out. Yes, this is strong. No, I don’t think this is actually a problem. For one, it’s a niche situation. Let things be awesome when their optimal circumstances occur. Two, the Necro gives up all pressure and utility from utility and elite skills to do this. So, fun, but not game-breaking.

Deathly Invigoration. Hoooboy, you screwed this one up, ANet. This really will never be worth a Grandmaster slot if the Necro gets no healing himself. So, instead of trying to buff it as a party heal, why not reduce trait bloat and merge it with Transfusion? Both traits serve the same purpose: heal allies, but not yourself. Why not merge them? Leave the current values for Deathly Invigoration and add it to Transfusion. This opens up a new Grandmaster slot, hopefully to add either some meaningful sustain or party support to the Necro (or even both!)

Death Magic
Armored Shroud: I’m surprised nobody else noticed the small buff this got. Went from 170 to 180 Toughness gained.

Soul Comprehension: Honestly, this trait really feels like a waste of a slot. It’s not technically terrible, but the vast majority of life force gains are not from deaths. It’s effect is so minor, it might account for half a percent of total life force gain. I’m betting even less. Either add something to it, or replace it. It is just sooooo inconsequential that if it stopped working, nobody would notice.

Beyond the Veil: I like this. It’s good on its own, though perhaps it might be possible to have the protection be a PBAoE and have minions always get it themselves in addition? Adds a bit of group support for the necro, then.

Flesh of the Master: New placement is good, but I’m wondering if the health boost couldn’t be made baseline to minions and replace this trait with something else. After these changes come through, Minions will be the only skill type in the game with 3 traits affecting them.

Shoruded Removal: Seems a bit weak now. I’m one of the few Necros that recognizes its power, but honestly, making it pulse every 10 seconds while in Death Shroud would be a low-impact buff to it.

Putrid Defense: Yay! Survivability that synergizes with our skills! This plus CPC can drastically increase a Necro’s durability, and condition builds will certainly appreciate taking less damage. The value looks good. It needs to be evaluated on large-scale experience before values get changed.

Greater Marks: I’m feeling that Soul Marks can be made baseline and Staff Master can be merged into this trait. But name the resulting trait “Staff Mastery”. There is no reason for Staff to be the only weapon in the game with two traits dedicated to it post-change.

Deadly Strength: Very interesting change. Not for every build, but I can appreciate this. Gaining 165.2 Power in Death Shroud without investing anything in Toughness isn’t bad. If you have invested in Toughness, it gets significantly better.

Necromantic Corruption: Now this is how you revamp a trait! With this trait, minions may now be decent counters to AoE conditions. Say a Warrior lands a Combustive Shot on your minions. Pretty quickly, he will have that pressure returned fivefold. Yeowch. I do have to ask if the condition transfer on minion hit has a 10 second cooldown or if that is just the condition drawing function. The damage portion makes the trait feel a little bloated. Perhaps this could also be made baseline, even if that means a small nerf? The rest of the trait is certainly good enough to stand without the damage boost.

A small note before I continue on to Blood, but I don’t really see the fact we have two Minion Grandmasters as a problem. Each one caters to a different playstyle, and Unholy Sanctuary is a decent trait in any build, despite the bad rep it gets around here.

Curses
Barbed Precision: A nice buff. Nobody can really complain about this.

Target the Weak: Ehhhhh, questionable. On one hand, this is better for condition builds, since more crit chance means more Barbed Precision procs and more on-crit sigil procs. On the other hand, it’s worse for Power builds, who easily hit 100% crit chance anyway and preferred the extra damage. I’d say it’s an all right change that may mix things up a bit. Lets Necros drop some Precision and mix in other stats to their builds, if nothing else.

Toxic Landing: First off, change the name. This needs to be named “Master of Corruption.” Second, the self-weakness on CPC makes this really unattractive now. Falling damage happens a lot more than people think in PvP, and quite often in WvW and PvE. Such a long duration Weakness just for jumping down from Khylo’s trebuchet is very punishing. Perhaps add 2-3 seconds of Resistance on Corruption Utility use? This prevents Consume Conditions and Plague (if they become Corruptions) from getting too much, but alleviates the issues from the trait’s own use.

Chilling Darkness: I bet most folks didn’t even notice this trait got buffed. The Chill duration was increased from 1 to 2 seconds. Not a bad change.

Enfeebling Blood: Not a fan of having the cooldown be so long. I’d prefer seeing the current trait just getting an additional second or two of Weakness.

Reaper’s Precision: Just trash this trait or merge it with something else. It really is not impactful enough to justify its own slot and definitely does not compete with either of the other two choices at this tier.

Path of Corruption: Good trait is good, no matter what tier it’s in.

Lingering Curse: Dang. That’s certainly attractive now.

Terror: This is not strong enough for Grandmaster status as it is. As such, it is the best candidate to remove from the slot and replace with a trait for non-condition damage builds in this slot. My suggestion is to merge it with Master of Terror and move Master of Terror up to Grandmaster in Soul Reaping.

Parasitic Contagion: Rather surprised this buff didn’t happen when the Thief’s Invigorating precision was getting buffed. Looks good now.

Time for my thoughts and suggestions. I will only comment on things that changed unless there is a specific reason otherwise.

Made baseline
Making minion cooldown reduction and Focused Rituals baseline are good changes. The biggest benefactors are Flesh Wurm, Bone Minions, and Well of Suffering. I also love the increase of Focus skills to 1200 range.

However, a bit more can happen here. Details below.

Spite
Spiteful Removal: Niiiiiice. If a Necro with this trait gets someone low, they will have a much harder time getting momentum on the necro himself.

Death’s Embrace: The reduction of downed state damage is understandable and justified. Nice that we don’t have to pick it exclusively in a trait slot, though. However, the ICD on the vulnerability application needs to either go down drastically or away completely. Removing the ICD entirely would necessitate dropping the Vulnerability to 1 or 2 stacks, but make it much more attractive.

Siphoned Power: NO! Dangit ANet, why can you not come up with a version of this trait that doesn’t stink worse than limburger cheese? The ICD needs to drop to 1 second, or have the stacks reduced to 1 and remove the ICD entirely.

Spiteful Talisman: Interesting idea for a booster. This may be a staple trait in PvE, since then it basically equates to a 5% damage boost.

Bitter Chill: I can’t deny it’s nice, but really, we have enough Vulnerability application. Why not change this to apply 1 second of Slow when you apply Chill? Then the trait will work really nicely to slowing our foes down. This change would help Necros bring some extra utility to teams. If necessary, add up to a 5 second ICD to it, but it’s worth testing out.

Death Shiver: Not bad, moving it here. Very strong vulnerability stacking ability in the line most likely to take advantage of it.

Axe Training: My god, why was this nerfed? Half the builds that currently use Axe don’t even take the trait as it is on live! I cannot fathom the thought process here.
“Hey guys, this trait is never taken. Let’s nerf and pretend we’re creative!” No. Just no. The damage boost, if it is going to be tied to Cripple, either needs to apply to all damage the necro deals or be massively buffed. On top of that, the cooldown reduction is a flat nerf. It’s the same number of auto attacks as it is now between Ghastly Claws casts when traited, but now those autos are necessary for that timing. Horrid, horrid nerf to an already weak trait.

Signet Mastery: With the improved signets, I can see this being strong. In PvP modes, I personally will say this is likely stronger than Close to Death. Having a 1-8k heal activate when you hit 50% and give you 3 stacks of Might every 24 seconds is really nice. And you can bring the actual skill as well to double up on that without the health threshold requirement. Since we lack scaling defenses, scaling sustain needs to replace it, and this is a rather effective way of getting some scaling sustain.

Spiteful Spirit: Me likey. Good utility here and, with normal Death Shroud use, the ICD won’t even be noticed. With Weakening Shroud, it generates a fair bit of persuasion to not be focused. Not enough, of course, but weakness, bleeds, cripple, losing a boon, and focusing a target with looong Retaliation on them is usually not a good situation for a team.

Of all the Signets, Signet of the Locust is the best one to proc automatically. It doesn’t care if you have a target, and the effect is never wasted.

For example, if Signet of Spite were the proc, let’s say you just got backstabbed by a thief. You don’t have a target on him, so the proc is completely blown for no effect. Or let’s say you have a Zerker stance Warrior as your target. Ummmm, nada.

Signet of the Locust is the best signet they could have thrown in there. Even if you’re blinded or poisoned, the proc isn’t actually wasted. If you were blinded, then that Blind gets cleared without stopping any of your active skills. If you’re poisoned, sure, the effect is weaker, but you still get healed when you’re below half health at no action from you.

Renewing Blast doesn’t need to be any stronger, it needs to be more usable. Only Renewing Blast can hit sustained 1k Healing/second. That is nutso strong. The problem is how that healing actually gets applied.

spoj.9672:

I didnt even notice the ICD on Deaths Embrace. And yes its completely true. The new minors for spite are good conceptually. But the Internal cooldowns make them bad. And the health threshold should be no lower than 50%. I dont even like that they have thresholds in the first place.

ICD on Spiteful Removal should stay, I think, but the other two are too long of cooldowns.

I’ll be posting my review tonight. As a warning, it will be in-depth and have plenty of suggestions.

How about instead:

Vampiric Aura
Nearby allies siphon health when striking a Bleeding foe. Stacks intensity with bleed stacks. 1 second ICD. Does not affect summoned AI.

Make it something like 30 health stolen per Bleeding stack, capping out at 25. Would probably average around 300 health/second, which is strong support both offensively and defensively. Would cap at 750/second, but that requires focus fire and, at least in PvP formats, would be extremely short-lived.

Also, gives a great GM option for condition builds in Blood Magic.

Action Sloth.2603:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Here is my idea for the Curses problem:

1. Merge Terror with Master of Terror. Move to the Grandmaster Soulreaping slot.
2. Move Dhuumfire to Master tier for Soul Reaping.
3. Add a new, non-condition damage focused Grandmaster trait in Curses.

That would screw over everyone who took Dark Path and Foot in the Grave, for many it’d actually be a worse change than what they’ve announced so far. If you’re set on a course of action similar to what you proposed, do that and keep Terror as a GM and replace Master of Terror with Dhuumfire at master level or put a different master trait in there.

I’m honestly not sure what you’re trying to say here. Path of Corruption and Terror don’t compete at all regardless. As for the proposal to make Terror and Foot in the Grave compete, I see that as a decent change. Then you have Death Perception for Power offense, master of Terror for Condition offense, and Foot in the Grave for generic defense as choices. There wouldn’t be a “right answer” trait for builds then, but rather a meaningful choice.

First off, the last line in the OP is not mine.

Second off, those suggestions had no intent or aim in improving condition builds! They were aimed at solving the issue of Power builds needing to pick a worthless Grandmaster in the Curses line.

spoj.9672:

Gryph.8237:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Here is my idea for the Curses problem:

1. Merge Terror with Master of Terror. Move to the Grandmaster Soulreaping slot.
2. Move Dhuumfire to Master tier for Soul Reaping.
3. Add a new, non-condition damage focused Grandmaster trait in Curses.

Finally someone who knows what the heck is up. Thanks Drarnor agree 1000%

As it stands now condi is dead with these changes. Mark my words

And how does that fix the lack of power grandmaster in a line with several power focused traits in lower tiers?

Step 3? Helps to read it all, spoj.

Lucentfir.7430:

Muchacho.2390:

Lucentfir.7430:

Lily.1935:

Deathly invigoration was a bad skill before. Why reverse it and make it a grandmaster? it still sucks.

I actually use this with a vampire build and I’ve got to say with reduced CD Death Shroud it’s pretty good healing source with Unholy Sanctuary and regen access. By making it grand master as well they can buff the Healing Power Ratio by a good chunk.

To bad it is now when entering Ds, thus the necro himself will not get healed at all…

It might be a mistyped. So until it’s confirmed who knows?

No, it is confirmed. They flat out stated this in the stream and said it was intentional.

Here is my idea for the Curses problem:

1. Merge Terror with Master of Terror. Move to the Grandmaster Soulreaping slot.
2. Move Dhuumfire to Master tier for Soul Reaping.
3. Add a new, non-condition damage focused Grandmaster trait in Curses.

Dhuumfire was never 10 seconds.

The only annoying part I see with condition builds is the fact you basically need 2/3 Grandmasters in Curses. You need Lingering Curse if you want to put out damage, but without Terror for burst, you have to have Parasitic Contagion to even have a hope at sustain.

I like the idea that we have to choose, but I don’t like the fact that we need either Terror or Parasitic Contagion to make the rest of the build actually work due to shortcomings.

It wouldn’t surprise me if stat conversion minors were merged/replaced. Doesn’t make a ton of sense for Death magic, for example, to convert Toughness to Power when it no longer gives Toughness.

nekretaal.6485:

A defiance bar should go to the revenant. They have no blocks and really long cast times.

Defiance kind of sucks, most of the time it is just “gain 3 ticks stability when your character is stunned.”

You haven’t been paying attention, have you? Defiance is getting overhauled.

Necro support is horrid. Healing isn’t that great compared to water field + blast spam (which the necro can’t even participate in), they don’t give offensive support either (no party damage amp, via boons or otherwise) other than Vulnerability…which is easily stacked AoE to 25 via Glyph of Storms or a myriad of other options. Even condition damage, they lag behind as a condition Necro’s damage output is actually quite low for a condition build. The reason it’s considered better than other condition builds is because of its own resiliance to conditions (and transfers), not its damage output.

That said, Condition Necro will feast on condition Revenants in PvP areas. The Revenants will do half the condition stacking for the Necro, who then transfers and strips the Revenant’s Resistance.

NeXeD.3042:

I’m curious what they are doing with things like lifeforce pool, attunement recharge, steal recharge etc since they are changing how traits and stats are done and whatnot.

They stated what they would be doing, actually. Half of the benefit would become baseline to the profession. The other half would be gained if you chose that specialization line as one of your three.

For example, on Necromancers, the base life force pool would increase 15% from where it is now. Choosing Soul Reaping as one of your trait lines will increase it by another 15% of the current base (or 13% increase of the new total).

Depends when you want to record. I’d be up for it if I’m not at work.

Boon duration and Condition duration: Currently you can get up to 30% from traits, but Giver’s gear is a bit wonky. Namely, no Ascended versions and the boon duration is tiny.

Since gearing for these stats doesn’t really work, how is this being handled with Specializations?

I think Plague and Lich Form already have tags, that is Transformation.

But I am really looking forward to Consume Conditions becoming either a Spectral (doubtful) or a Corruption (likely). It’s definitely not a minion, well, or signet (which we already have as healing skills).

Easy way to fix “flying turrets” is to make their cast similar to 100 Blades. That is, moving cancels the cast. Since you can’t start the cast when in mid-air, the problem is solved.

Turret cast time is short enough that the self-root isn’t usually a problem. Healing Turret could be exempt from this because A: nobody complains about that one flying and B: it’s the most likely turret to get dropped in a sticky situation where you can’t afford to stand still.

Because I love the idea of “I may not be great, but I can make you suck worse.” I love the idea of toying with my opponents, drawing out their death to be as slow as possible, but still coming.

Doesn’t work quite as well as I would like, here, but nobody really debuffs better than a Necro.

lesteel.7314:

Is the difference due to being power focused?

Also a difference in sigil. The build I linked has an additional 12.5% outgoing healing at max sigil stacks, but also making use of the Spite 3 minor trait to convert some Power I’m getting anyway back into more Healing Power.

Rampager’s gear? Sinister should give you higher condition damage than that, so it almost has to be.

In that case, it’s a question on if quantity of conditions is important to you or not. Your other stuff is less likely to get cleansed and it adds a bit (small bit) of AoE damage. Air sigil adds more damage, but only single target. and doesn’t help with your other stuff being cleansed.

Okay. It will proc often enough anyway, as changing the proc chance from 50% on-hit to 75% on-hit won’t really do a lot.

Of particular note, however, is the Transfusion trait. In my linked build, it hits 7,166 healing to 5 allies every 34 seconds. In yours, it hits 5613 every 40 seconds. Regardless, you’re giving your entire party a bonus Healing skill without them needing to take a break from doing anything else.

lesteel.7314:

I was thinking something like this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNArYWjk00ZbRNe3wfbirhSyBIAmsBSAqfhUIYB-ThxGABA8GAy9QAso6PMp8bo9HoTJIpAkWmF-e

Yea the height thing makes sense.

You have two Sigils of Water on one weapon set. All that does is increase the chance it procs, not how often or how strong.

Yeah, since many bosses are taller than players, your Life Blasts sail over your allies’ heads. In WvW, players are A, moving around a lot and B, usually have large elevation differences, it likewise doesn’t help.

I’ll see what I can do to fix that link. It’s the first time I’ve ever had that happen to me.

EDIT: Link’s fixed.

All condition application except transfers and copying, gets affected by + and – condition duration, as appropriate. The Torment stack is more useful as eating cleanses than it is for damage in its own right, making your bleeds more likely to tick away.

In a condition build, a Sigil of Air just doesn’t hit hard enough to warrant using. In a Power build, you shouldn’t be running Torment anyway.