Guild Wars 2

Druid is confirmed to still have a pet, though.

Spoj The Second.7680:

Defilers?

In another game, sure, but in Guild Wars, Necromancers are (usually, Rissa was an exception) very respectful of the dead. Main reason they aren’t considered “evil.”
Unless you meant like this: http://starcraftrpg.wikia.com/wiki/File:Primal_Defiler.png

Almost exactly what I want it to be. The one thing where I would like a change is the interaction with the Necro’s self-healing traits and the Regeneration boon. Those should work through Death Shroud.

From my time spent playing with Unholy sanctuary, I can say with confidence Necros would become broken if we got all healing in Death Shroud.

unlucky.9285:

unholy sanctuary says hi! a trait based around healing in the toughness line lol!@# its basically anet saying here have some healing in ds but we dont really want you using it so put it in an un useable spot

I’ve found it’s really not so unusable

To be fair, Blood Magic has its bad rep because it fights with Death Shroud, and Death Shroud is mandatory.

And siphon scaling sucks, but this is really the smaller of the two issues.

And people in WvW would now have to hunt all over for Flesh Wurms when they take a keep/tower. Even without ground targeting, they can be placed in some very…interesting spots. They would become the low-risk hiding mesmer.

I’ve got a feeling CPC is actually better in teamplay rather than soloque. Good for dropping on downed bodies, sure, but not if your team isn’t working together.

On Signet of the Locust, it doesn’t fit into any current meta builds, but it might work out in a new build that is now viable that we just haven’t come up with yet. I was pleasantly surprised at the performance of the siphon build I linked, for example, though I will be testing it more thoroughly. Important thing to remember is that it is not your primary healing skill. It is, at best, tertiary. The only required skills on a Necro utility bar are a stunbreak and Corrupt Boon, so I can see this being an option.

There’s your answer.

Pretty fast auto chain. Whole thing takes about 1.7 seconds.

And Corrosive Poison Cloud still sucks. Sorry guys, I tried to make it work. Didn’t have any luck.

Perhaps I should back up. On my stream this evening, I went into PvP and tested out the buffs Necros got today (outside of Signet of Undeath, which is obviously still terrible). I used each improved skill in 3-4 rounds and tried to evaluate the performance.

First off, Locust Swarm is much more fluid now. I think when they trimmed the cast time, they just cut off the back half of the animation because the aftercast is practically nonexistant now. Locust Swarm barely delays your DPS at a 1/2 second cast and probably the most hilarious thing about it is that opponents still won’t see just how strong the skill is.

Second up was Signet of the Locust. I spent about 2 minutes coming up with a build to test it in and came up with this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBIhZ6kGRqsxeaw8GYvxE4C1kJxVA5CEAR/BnQ+C-TpBCwAAOBAZOCAcOEA+2fI/DAIcZAA

Yes, that is Signet of Vampirism in my healing slot. I think in 4 matches, I actually activated it twice. Signet of the Locust and Life Siphon instead made up for healing quite effectively. I also decided to do a variant using a Cleric’s amulet instead and it felt pretty good with utterly massive heals. I prefer the damage output of Zerker amulet, however.

Third was Corrosive Poison Cloud. I just could not get this to feel like it was doing anything. The reduced cast time certianly helps, but the skill’s impact is so low, it might as well not have one. I feel like this one is better suited to WvW in zerg combat, because in PvP, it sucks. Of course, I’ve spent so much time on Power necros that I need to re-learn condition necro it seems.

Dagger 2 got improved drastically and today they buffed Signet of the Locust very significantly. After having done a few testing rounds in PvP, I can honestly say Signet of the Locust is now good. Life Siphon (dagger 2) is also good.

Siphoning traits? Still utter crap.

…You get both…

Well of Corruption turns Aegis→ Burning, Vigor→ Bleeding, and Regeneration→ Poison, all of which benefit nicely from the condition damage. Also, the minor trait you already have throws some free bleeds on.

But this is not the reason you go in there. The reason is for crits. 100 Precision is ~5% crit chance, and wells hit hard. Having them crit more is good.

It’s like people complaining that Dhuumfire is in the Power line. That is also the condition duration trait line. You get both. Even if you only want one, is there really a problem with getting the other?

Capela.1854:

wells dont dont aply condition that do damage…unless ppl use them on ao crit build

Well of Corruption does.

More specifically, wells hit hard. Wouldn’t you like them to crit so they hit harder?

Knighthonor.4061:

Targuil.3741:

Orders.

[characters]

You didn’t explain how your idea works.

Orders
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Order_of_Apostasy
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Order_of_Pain
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Order_of_Undeath
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Order_of_the_Vampire

It’s in the Precision line. What’s the problem?

Going for female Norn. I was intending to have two Norn to start with, but I wanted to see the Iron Legion storyline as well, so I made a third charr instead of a second norn.

Engineer Hammer was very much confirmed, as no profession but an Engineer would have little hoverbots. Or a rocket-powered hammer.

Light armor profession with sword: Mesmer. Not saying this was definitely it, but it’s a possibility. Likewise, a Medium with a Rifle could have been an Engineer.

Now, Thief getting Rifle is the most likely upgrade to their weapon choices, but it’s not confirmed. Yet.

A decent substitute for Sigil of Peril. I’m no expert on top PvP strategies, but I expect it to be used.

I expect engineers to flock to it.

TheDevice.2751:

Ugh. I mean death knight makes as much sense as a medium lol

I never knew a medium who walked around with a greatsword. And a medium is just somebody who communicates with spirits like a catalyst. Has nothing to do with wielding a sword so how can that name properly convey the specialization or its theme?

If you would want to convey the whole sword/spirit intertwined = necro sword master you can’t stop at looking over a thesaurus and finding a synonym for necromancer.

Anyways, I’m not saying its a bad or improbable idea im just saying it makes just as much sense saying death knight.

Personally, my choices would be:
Occultist (cuz it sounds cool)
Reaver (see occultist)
Symbiont (two organisms living as a singular, roughly speaking. In this case it would be more just entities. If a sort of “spirit blade” is key to the theme.)
Convergent (much like the symbiont idea)

“Medium” works because of the one example we already have in-game. Marjory’s blade-wielding is from her spiritual connection to her late sister, who’s spirit resides in the sword. She started using the weapon before Rox started training her with it, showing the proficiency is more of a connection rather than actual skill. The sword was the focus, rather than an actual weapon (though it works as that, too).

The main thing to remember about the Necromancer specialization is that we already have one to look at. No other profession has this luxury in predicting their specialization.

My prediction is for “Medium” because it fits everything we’ve already seen. And when you get to the root meaning of the word “Necromancy” you find that “Necromancer” and “Medium” are actually synonyms.

Caeledh.5437:

Don’t we also know eles have sword?

Where was this confirmed? This is the first I’ve seen or heard of it.

Only confirmed ones so far are:
Ranger-Staff-Druid
Mesmer-Shield-?
Engineer-Hammer-?
Necromancer-Greatsword-???

lil devils x.6071:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Map capacity is exactly the same for all tiers. The fact lower tiers aren’t reaching it very often does not mean the larger servers have larger capacity.

There is no way it is the same, I have played on multiple servers and we have done headcounts for the map while qued..
The lower tiers have worse ques than T1…

Unlikely at best. “Headcounts” on maps that size can only consist of the people willing to respond in chat. In higher tiers, those people are more likely to be concentrating on fights and objectives than taking attendance.

As for ques, I doubt you see ques at all except on reset night in the lower tiers. Everyone has horrid ques then.

If you’re playing Necro in WvW, you’d best learn to love it. Nobody is on par with a Necro underwater, and we’re the only profession that can reliably kill Rangers there.

Map capacity is exactly the same for all tiers. The fact lower tiers aren’t reaching it very often does not mean the larger servers have larger capacity.

Options→Control options→

• Movement for About Face
• Camera Options for look behind

I also got my “swim down” and “look behind” keys mixed up.

kwstyle.9148:

@ Cagbyrn Yep at some classes I had to adjust the utility to compensate the lack of LF.

And as for the thief burst I agree that was also the reason why I start with LF before a duel. But after playing necromancer almost everyday I wanted to try 0% lf it is a lot harder to play but definitely fun. As for roaming I always stack 100% lf XD you never know who want to jump on you while roaming.

@Flow Thanks for the detailed awnser and tip Aflow :P You are one of my Necromancer Trainers ingame!! but you know that already ^^.

Aflow the camera tip is amazing but to be honest it is kinda a automatic thing after doing that for so long and it will take a lot of effort to force me to place the mouse at the enemy xD but indeed amazing tip. (the memory is kinda built in my hand it will automatically go to my character instead of enemy even though my brain tells me to place it at the enemy :P).

As for the camera angle I’m wondering is there a key that I can pres so that the camera turn 180 degree? So 1 push on button instant camera turn?

Not by default, but you can bind one. Mine is C, and I have About Face as X. Still haven’t trained myself to use them, though.

Nanashi.6297:

Simzani.4318:

We have a clue. They presented it. A spvp map is called “huge feature”. It tells all about the scale of this DLC.

just to clarify. not the actual map is a big feature but the possibility to rank your guild with this map. if that fits the description of “huge feature” better has everybody to decide for himself.

They also never said it was just one map. They said it was one new mode. It’s entirely possible we will have multiple maps for Stronghold.

Sword and Staff are the only two confirmed by the trailer. Spear is the most likely water weapon due to the class clearly being martial in nature.

It’s unknown if they will get weapon swaps or not. I’m leaning toward thinking they do, as if “channeling legends” is their profession mechanic, how is it different from Elementalist attunements?

No, channeling a legend will do something else. I have no idea what, but it will not function like attunements.

Not yet. Bone Fiend and Blood Fiend are responsive (they always have been), but the rest…not so much. I frequently have Flesh Golem stand there as I attack a dolyak in WvW. It smacks the dolyak a few times as the dolyak walks by, but then Fleshie doesn’t even attempt to follow.

They fixed Plague Signet to transfer Blind. Only Deathly Swarm misses due to Blind for our transfers.

The problem, as I see it, with Death Knight is that it really isn’t that fitting.

Consider that Marjory is pretty much confirmed to be a member of the new specialization, whatever it is. She’s a Necromancer, sure, but definitely no knight. Even though she has moved to using the greatsword as her weapon, she is still more mystic than martial. Death Knight implies more martial with a flair of necromancy.

Compare that to the Druid specialization. Druids have always revered nature (so, fitting for the theme) and druidic traditions have existed in Tyria, using nature magic. Again, this fits what we know of the Druid specialization. The Druid uses the staff to cast nature-related magic, the one example we have is firing a tangle of vines.

Is it used often? Yes, but it really fits here. Is Death Knight used often? Yes, but it really doesn’t fit what we’ve already seen.

Rangerdeity.5847:

considering its the only teleport in the whole game that requires preplanning it should work thru all terrain including going straight 1200 up if you want it to. it should essentially be a personal mesmer portal no questions asked

The problem there would be in WvW. Think about having a small zerg of Necros running around, placing their Flesh Wurms as grappling hooks, taking even Stonemist Castle with no siege at all.

DB’s core guilds (the ones from launch) have gotten very good at defense (we had to when we had virtually no NA presence). Probably a but rusty right now, but to say the server doesn’t know how to defend is not accurate.

I’ve got a feeling “Ritualist” will be a Revenant specialization. “Medium” is, by definition, a Necromancer (divination from death being the actual definition of “necromancy”).

mugen.4763:

from the trailer looks like they use spear on ground. sooo hammer?

Pretty sure that’s a staff Rytlock smacked the mordrem with.

Spear is almost a definite, since every martial class gets those. Assuming they do have weapon swaps, I’d say Trident is most likely as the second.

I just have one: Medium.

A Medium is a person who speaks to the dead. Marjory already does this and the spirit of her dead sister resides in the sword, making the weapon as much of a spiritual connection as material.

What would actually come of that mechanics-wise? No idea. I do think the new utility skill type we’ll be getting is Orders, though, since they are definitely the most requested skill type for Necros.

Bhawb.7408:

It is a brand new profession, presumably with a specialization as well although I don’t know if they have explicitly said so.

Colin did say so at PAX South.

Coffietire.2783:

Outside of the auto attack, your main hand dagger should never be your main weapon. It is used for gaining life force quick in melee or using the other skills from afar when your foe is attacking someone else.

False. It’s used for damage in melee (and life force, sure), extra healing when necessary, and immobilizing for, well, anything you want them immobilized for (usually burst).

Knowing when to use each skill on mainhand dagger is very important to being a good power Necro.

Condition necros are great for a lot more than just “noob killer.” Primarily, they’re the Celementalist and Cengineer achille’s heel. Corrupt Boon wrecks them and the pressure in general s very good.

Should probably mention that the “7-7:30” stream is when I will be starting, not the total length of the stream.

With charr, you have to remember their goal on most military gear (including armor) is mass production. You don’t see much in the way of unique charr creations because if it works well enough to use, they want more of it.

Charr are the race least likely to make different armor for males and females due to the practical nature of their society. Not a whole lot of “charr art” out there. What there is is memorials.

It may not cause us to lose Death Shroud, but it very well could give us different skills in death shroud.

For Guardian virtues, a specialization probably wouldn’t get rid of them, but it might increase the effectiveness of their actives at the cost of no longer applying to allies.

For Power, well builds are pretty popular for both PvE and WvW. They can be good in PvP if you have allies that know to contain your opponents rather than forcing them out of your wells, but that can be difficult to accomplish. Entangle + wells is a brutal cross-profession combo and is capable of screwing up an entire team.

Looking at about 7-7:30 EST this evening for start time.

Traits, what you do take varies with build. What you don’t take always includes Spiteful Marks and Speed of Shadows.

First things first: “burst rotations” don’t exist outside of PvE for Necros. Necro burst comes from wells, which players leave.

I think the best help would come from when something can be demonstrated. I plan on streaming this evening (link in my sig), and I’m more than willing to answer questions. Necros have a few things that get rather funky (I find Cloak and Dagger to be more important to actually dodge than Eviscerate, for example, as Eviscerate can be absorbed by Death Shroud), and do require changing how you prioritize things to play well.

Suburbian.1023:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

I’m predicting something more Assassin like, but still heavily emphasizing the spiritual nature of the Revanant.

Wraith or Specter sounds like a likely name, and daggers would be their game.

I heard someone talk about Dervish-like specialization, that would be cool… Trying to find some lore on Revenant btw…

Not going to find much. I believe Rytlock is canonically the first one.

Definitely getting a lot of new skills.

From a single specialization of each current profession alone, we are going to get 1 weapon (2 skills minimum, three 2-handers confirmed already for bare minimum of 25 new weapon skills, thieves have a 5-skill minimum thanks to dual-wield skills), 1 new heal (8) new utilities (either a new category per profession, which come in groups of 4 or a new skill to each category, for 5, 6 on Mesmers, minimum 32), and a new Elite (8). That’s guaranteed 76 skills without accounting for Revenant skills or any weapons that are not off-hand only outside of Ranger Staff, Engineer Hammer, and Necromancer Greatsword (as those three have been confirmed)

Revenant, not including weapon skills, will have at least 3 Healing skills (probably 4), 20 utility skills, and 3 elite skills, plus specialization skills (minimum 8 ) for a minimum of 34 skills not including their normal weapon skills.

So, 110+ new skills, not including base Revenant weapon skills.

The best leveling build we can really recommend is just equipping minion skills. They don’t really need traits to work for PvE.

Actually, the Necromancer profession as a whole isn’t as trait reliant as other professions (like Mesmer). Leveling is probably easiest on them and Warrior.

I would submit a bug report. See if you can test it further first, but you should have no issue at all escaping Ring of Warding with Flesh Wurm.

Dropping Rune of the Grove cuts the Protection uptime to below perma-Protection , even when below 50%. You can substitute Rune of Earth for Grove, but other than that “double perma-protection” doesn’t work.

Damage loss would be higher due to losing the Ferocity and Precision. Spectral Wall is used for much more than just the Protection, it also provides great zone control. Weaving in and out of it as you fight helps prevent a lot of damage to you from melee opponents.

Or you can drop it to prevent enemy ressers/stompers. Or delay orb runners on Spirit Watch.

Spectral Wall is stupidly versatile, yet highly underused outside of EotM.