Guild Wars 2

we in the necromancer community have communicated these issues ad nausea. Read the 10000 other posts stating the same information. ANET does not comment, nor care what the necro community has to say. I highly doubt they read these forums as we have not had any communication from developers in months. I don’t feel we are weak, I just feel we are not at the level as the classes ANET loves (guardian, thief, mesmer). Thus, if you’re hoping they will make changes to the class and that is what you’re waiting on to enjoy your necro, just roll another char and play. You will likely be more satisfied.

that’s it? Wow, so… they basically do not have the capacity or williingness to fix the class. yay! an event…..

no faith in this dev staff now.

Fellow Necromancers, I wanted to get your thoughts on a small number of changes that would spice up DS ever so slightly and allow it to be balanced for all builds, and not just the power builds. So here goes. I posted this earlier but when you don’t start a post, it can get hijacked.

Aside from fixing the bugged skills (Plague signet), I would be very satisfied if they did the following (top 5):

1. Allowed DS attack 1 to continue to stack conditions, or an effect dependent on the weapon you had equipped. That would spice DS up a bit and make it more useful for whatever build your running.

2. Allowed us to see the conditions on us while in DS. This is troubling when you’re trying to manage survivability. Boom, you enter DS, get focused and have no clue what is going on with regards to conditions yourself.

3. Allowed us to use skills 7-9 while in DS. Not sure how it would work with an elite, but why not skill 0 as well. Combined with request/wish 2, we could perhaps push the conditions on us, to an enemy with plague signet etc. (not sure about granting us heal in DS, so that would need a discussion if it came to that.)

4. switch some of the trait skills around to better allow conditionmancers to be condtionmancers and crit/power builds to do their job without having skills of no use to them. (I am not talking a complete re-work here, just a slight bit of maintenance.)

5. The final wish, would be to move the trait allowing us to gain stability in DS out of the grandmaster line and into an earlier slot (20 Skill Point trait perhaps). Keep it at 3 seconds, but not make us have to go ALL the way into the trait to gain a modest ability at best.

a PS request: Do something else besides the jagged horrors. It is just useless and embarrassing. Plus, I have to change builds sometimes because of that stupid jagged horror pulling mobs (Does not happen now that I have gone hybrid).

Not that the Devs will read this, or make these changes, but here is to wishing.

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

No you misunderstand me. I don’t give a kitten of who you are and what you want to accomplish, nor your childish competition to help Anet devs to ruin faster this game underpowering everything (i told ya, there is nothing faster than speedboost +invisible run 0 aggro till bosses haha ). I’m happy of what i am and what i got, and to have friends happy to call me to have fun, and call them to join me. I’m not in competition with you or anyone at all. The only thing i’m interested of is learn better ways to deal the entire gw2 content with better performance (speedboosting beggar runs not included, more than 1 time to see something new) , and craft the most beautiful weapons for my class. You, enjoy your competition. I’m sorry, i explained more than enough how pathetic i consider speedbooster runs, forget me and my name at all

No doubt gryph. I totally agree with you the loottable is pathetic, and kill adds is a waste of time. Right back to the topic, just saying
But you will admit fight just bosses and the lupicus kitefight using the wp is idiot and must be fixed. And speedruns like that video must be closed forever

Hey, I am not supporting the speedrun, but It would be ridiculous to kill everything, and too time consuming. Ill kill stuff directly in my path, and I will run around groups of mobs that I don’t need to kill. I have never done a speedrun. I have done a solid, kill a path to the boss run that was just under 1 hour (Best run with a good group.) However, I have grown to hate arah because its the same thing over and over again just to get a skin, and of course, im a gamer so I am doing it, but its BORING. I am a necro, that armor is perfect for necros The other paths are to time consuming, and give you the same kitten shards. so, I will always choose path 3, because I know i can complete with a pug group.

What makes things more difficult is that a lot of people hate arah, thus finding groups is difficult. Whole guilds don’t even want to do them. Usually people do it for the shards to buy the weapons, but the rest of the armor is kitten looking unless your a necro

Lucas, you need to chill. I know you want to be one of the few people with Arah armor but you’re not, and there are plenty of us that have done this dungeon quire frequently with and without pug groups. You want things to be more difficult and take more time? Killing all those mobs for no payoff eats my real life time. I would not mind killing trash if they were not trash (they don’t even drop matts I can use) and there was a chance to pick up 2.5 tokens or something of each kill. Going through the dungeon, I have stopped even picking up blue chest loot. Once you get a rythum to killing in arah, it’s not that bad.

I would never kill all the mobs, because there is no gain. If I can skip them, I would. ESPECIALLY, because there is only one path right now unless your group is good. Path 3 is doable because of the waypoint management. Path 1, which I think is really easy right up until Giganticus, sucks because after you kill the stupid tar beast (which is easy) there is no waypoint. thus if you do wipe, you reset

Path 2, I have not done much because it takes a long time and my adhd kicks in and I don’t want to waste time in a dungeon. anything longer than 2 hours and im wasting real life.

Path 4 requires a good group, and you need to know the dungeon, and how to use tricks to kill the final boss.

I just dislike that there is only one path that you can do, which requires effort but not a chunk out of my playing time. I like playing gw2, but i really dislike the dungeons. they are boring, undynamic, and give you nothing but the shards. OF COURSE, I will keep doing it until my set is complete (need masque and legs) but after that, I won’t go into it, unless i get bored and need to do a legendary.

Other than that, arah is boring, and I would rather be pvping.

2.8 seconds is a long time in PVP, esp if they are rooted and feared. Running away gives you some sort of protection while feared, in that I have seen thieves running after a feared guy missing the entire time

That said, I do think that the fear in DS should be a solid 2 seconds without traiting. I think it should be capped at 2 seconds and unchangeable. But it should be 2 seconds

Staff 5 being an AOE fear, no, I think it is fine and longer durations require traits, and runes.

Gryph.8237:

Aside from fixing the bugged skills (Plague signet), I would be very satisfied if they did the following (top 5):

1. Allowed DS attack 1 to continue to stack conditions, or an effect dependent on the weapon you had equipped. That would spice DS up a bit and make it more useful for whatever build your running.

2. Allowed us to see the conditions on us while in DS. Boom, hit DS, get focused and have no clue what is going on with regards to conditions on me.

3. Allowed us to use skills 7-9 while in DS. Not sure how it would work with an elite, but why not skill 0 as well. Combined with request/wish 2, we could perhaps push the conditions on us, to another. (not sure about granting us heal in DS.)

4. switch some of the trait skills around to better allow conditionmancers to be condtionmancers and crit/power builds to do their job without having skills of no use to them. (I am not talking a complete re-work here, just a slight bit of maintenance.)

5. and the final wish, would be to move the trait allowing us to gain stability in DS out of the grandmaster line and into an earlier slot (20 Skill Point trait perhaps). Keep it at 3 seconds, but not make us have to go ALL the way into the trait to gain a modest ability at best.

---

a PS request: Do something else besides the jagged horrors. It is just useless and embarrassing. Plus, I have to change builds sometimes because of that stupid jagged horror pulling mobs (Does not happen now that I have gone hybrid).

What does the rest of the necro community think about these suggestions?

Aside from fixing the bugged skills (Plague signet), I would be very satisfied if they did the following (top 5):

1. Allowed DS attack 1 to continue to stack conditions, or an effect dependent on the weapon you had equipped. That would spice DS up a bit and make it more useful for whatever build your running.

2. Allowed us to see the conditions on us while in DS. Boom, hit DS, get focused and have no clue what is going on with regards to conditions on me.

3. Allowed us to use skills 7-9 while in DS. Not sure how it would work with an elite, but why not skill 0 as well. Combined with request/wish 2, we could perhaps push the conditions on us, to another. (not sure about granting us heal in DS.)

4. switch some of the trait skills around to better allow conditionmancers to be condtionmancers and crit/power builds to do their job without having skills of no use to them. (I am not talking a complete re-work here, just a slight bit of maintenance.)

5. and the final wish, would be to move the trait allowing us to gain stability in DS out of the grandmaster line and into an earlier slot (20 Skill Point trait perhaps). Keep it at 3 seconds, but not make us have to go ALL the way into the trait to gain a modest ability at best.

a PS request: Do something else besides the jagged horrors. It is just useless and embarrassing. Plus, I have to change builds sometimes because of that stupid jagged horror pulling mobs (Does not happen now that I have gone hybrid).

I am a hybrid necro, thus I am trying to balance some power with a decent load of condition damage. I would greatly appreciate DS1 to be based on the weapon equipped going into Shroud. For example, if a conditionmancer goes into DS, then scepter attack 1 would have some influence over DS1 and apply conditions (poison/bleed). If I go into DS with a staff, axe or dagger equipped, it would also change the DS attack 1; which woudl also include range changes. It would make DS much more interesting and viable for the different builds. Also, if the 1 attack of that weapon added LF, then so be it, you stay in DS longer etc. It would be a good trade -off and not OP (of course that is my opinion).

nachdenki.2637:

as some others said your request doesn’t really make sense.
arah tokens are unique, and therefore cannot be compared to other tokens. you are SUPPOSED to take a lot longer in arah to get the armour because it’s the only elite dungeon in the game right now.

so it’s by design.

I am sorry, I do not understand wtf your talking about? Only elite dungeon in the game? What do you mean? I can get elite gear from grinding any dungeon? The fact that it takes longer, while extremely frustring when trying to have a normal life, is not necessarily the issue here. It is the lack of other paths, being restricted to 1 time a day because the other paths take 4-5 hours, vs the 1.1 hours on path 3 for the same payoff. more importantly, you need a group that is very familiar with the other paths, or you end up wiping, more due to game mechanics and not lack of skill.

Sorry, you seem uneducated about the game.

I run arah (a lot) and mostly its with PUG groups. If you have players that listen to the veteran arah dungeoneers, then it goes well. if you have a leeroy jenkins type player who thinks he can do it on his own, or thinks that the dungeon is just another dungeon then it goes badly.

I have had a few groups where I have just left, especially when you wipe on the first difficult mob in a dungeon where the player is clearly not listening and just plain bad. When im new in a dungeon, I listen, ankittenep listening unless I have something that may be more efficient. In the event I do have something that may be more efficient, I discuss it withthe players, instead of just trying it out.

Dungeons are cake with people who communicate.

ANET needs to decide if they want players to be frustrated or challenged; and there is a difference. Also, spending 4 hours on a game, in one shot, is not viable for an average player, especially when you have a gf/wife slapping you on the back of the head and are just devoid of a social life. I dont mind being challenged or playing a game for some fun, but let’s face it, after you grind path 3 a few times, it’s not fun, its boring and tedious, and gw2 just joins the same ole same old grind spectrum. In WOW you grinded for gear etc., in GW2, you grind for skins.

Ok, my 2 cents, as I am a necro and I want the armor skin, thus I am stuck doing Arah.

First, path 3 is the only path that is doable right now (with a pug group) as 1 is bugged, and 2 and 4 are so freakin long that most don’t have the time, nor the patience to play this game that long. I understand difficulty, but does that equate time?

Path three, 35-45 minutes if you skip; 1.1 hours if you kill mobs directly in your path.

The other paths warrant no attention, ESP considering that the payoff for 4 hours is the same as it is for 1.1 hours. The statement ANET seems to be making is SPEND all your time grinding.

Get to level 80 and what do you do. GRIND for a legendary; or Grind a dungeon, or Grind in WvW, to get gear.

So much for a game not focused on grinding. Instead of even grinding for more powerful items, people are actually grinding for skins.

I do want the arah skin, but I am slightly frustrated that I have one option in arah, path 3, which i can do 1 time a day. I have the top/shoulders, and masque, and I am bored with doing path 3, grind a bit on wvw, path 3, sleep. grind a bit on wvw, path 3, sleep

come on anet… really?

And btw, there is a HUGE difference between tedious and difficult. Tedious requires time, difficulty requires skill. The dungeons are tedious, and dont require skill.

Increasing hps on a mob to make him retardedly resistant does not require skil, it just requires mindless play. dodge, press button 1, dodge, press button 1; run, run run, dodge, press button 1, use utility, press button 1, dodge, run, run, use utility, press 1.

HAHHAHHA i get where your coming from.

I really want to ask the devs what they were thinking when they made these weapons. It was obvious that Necro was not added to the drawning board. These are the questions I ask myself at night after I have logged and prepping for sleep.

WHO thought…

= oh yeah, gamers will want a shortbow that shoots rainbows (only if the gamer is high and needs a laugh)

= oh yeah, gamers want a frankenstine solarsystem-on-a-stick for a scepter. that fits my weatherman elementalists.. maybe… but it still looks like someone hot glued a sciience project on a broken broom handle. Good job special K!

= Why are the greatswords so cool looking and the ones my class has to deal with look like poo!

= Do they hate us necros, our class? were they punished by a magician when they were kids and somehow this reminded them of that bad day and they are taking it out on us?

= rainbows agian… REALLY!???!?!?!? RAINBOWS!??!?! WTF?!

Chrollo.2173:

So I’m running as a minion master. My main weapon is a Scepter/Dagger, which I generally like.
My off weapon is Axe/Warhorn, which is good for AOE damage and a speed boost to get around.
However now that I’m level 80, the Axe is starting to grate on me and I’m considering switching both out for a Staff. I used to use a staff at the beginning a lot and the marks were decent though I felt forced to stand in one place in order to use my hands to place mark after mark on the enemy.

What do people think Staff or Axe?

Good question, and my answer is it depends. (Sorry)

I do a hybrid build and like you, I like the scepter/dagger combo. However, I have started stacking power a bit more (keeping conditions up) and when my cooldowns are on my scepter/dagger abilities, and i have good conditions stacked for a rotation on another weapon i use axe/focus. Focus has some cool things going on, and axe #2 does good damage with 1800 power or so.

All of that goes out the window if im in certain situations in wvw, or sometimes in dungeons. In WvW, axe just gets me in trouble, so I will throw a staff as my alternative weapon,. Add greater marks and +10% dmg on marks and you have a decent backup and ultility weapon. ALso in dungeons, when the boss demands range, I throw the staff in.

So I use both, but, it depends on the situation. If you had to chose, I would go with staff, even though I HATE staff 1 autoattack. I hate the sound, the projectile, the speed of the projectile, and the peeesly damage from 1, as well as the astoundingly slow cast times on marks However, they are needed, thus i use staff.

Hope that helps man.

YOU HAVE A SHORTBOW THAT SHOOTS MY LITTLE PONY RAINBOWS! MY THIEF WOULD GUT HIMSELF BEFORE EVEN USING IT!

So, hit 80, got full exotic worked out, sigils, runes, etc. etc. etc. Start doing dungeons for the armor skin (lets face it, the armor from dungeons gives you nothing but a diff skin). You can buy the stats you want on diff armor and trans it to others).

And then you start thinking, yeah, a legendary; so as a necro you peruse the options and see, a staff (that does not really fit), ok a scepter… what? it looks like a dryhumped science project with stupid solar system on a stick. ok, dagger, no, aoe fire does not help my class, ok axe… blah, great for a warrior, does not help me above and beyond what i can find in an exotic.

COME ON! Where is the dark matter dripping necro weapon? Reaper scythe? something DARK!.

NO ITS ALL BLAH!

Here is a suggestion: Instead of protecting the DEVs, why not let them speak for themselves. As far as I am concerned the last correspondence we have had from them is the following: Just prior to launch – Necros need some love (followed by nerf to axe); and 2 – learn DS.

My wish is to see the devs actually start commenting, giving feedback, explanations on the bugs that players have identified and validated.

Instead we have fanboys protecting devs. They designed the game, let them answer or at least discuss the issues at hand. I grow tired of the silence from devs. I know they read these forums, yet they remain silent. That is more frustrating than anything.

EASY psychological construct to master for you DEVS. Learn to talk to your community. Most of us could be easily placated with some simple feedback, or perhaps, we understand the bugs, we are attempting to fix. Instead, we have to reassure ourselves that YOU will do your job.

You’re making bank; appears your masses.

Two of my major concerns for necro (I don’t run minions) aside from our weird bugged traitlines:

One of the most frustrating things about running conditionmancer that has made me spec into hybrid is the fact that our conditions are so easily cleansed, and that we depend on one condition (let’s face it the rest are difficult to stack: poison is a joke, weakness does very little for us, chill is great but lasts 1 second it seems) that is the condition every other class depends on. Fear is a condition that lasts 2 seconds max, if specced and with runes of the necromancer (+20% fear duration), and while useful to interrupt, etc., does not really do any damage.

I think Necros should be given a condition that is difficult to cleanse, and is specific to the necromancer. I know people have discussed variations of disease, rotts, etc., but why don’t we have a condition we can stack that people cannot just one click off?

Is this such a difficult thing to ask for? Does it make us OP to have a different condition that does not get taken off so easily? It would boost us slightly in our damage output.

Alternatively, maybe have bleed intensity generate a small amount of life force (although that seems unlikely).

Last complaint I have is Staff 1. Can we please get a different graphic, sound, and perhaps an increase in the projectile speed? I love the look of the focus 4 ability. looks like a scythe that bounces between targets. A stupid derping hand that moves slower than my grandma crossing the street gets annoying in that anyone can sidestep it without dodging. For example, the hard hitting, fast moving thief gets a shortbow projectile that fires fast, hits multiple targets, has cluster bomb (huge damage), poison, cripple, and a teleport, while we get a slow moving autoattack that does pithy damage unless your maxing power, with 2-5 abilties that are decent, but SLOW to cast, forcing you to lead your target a lot or engage in melee range so you’re dropping them on yourself.

complaints heard a thousand times. Perhaps Arnet will actually take a look at some aspects of this class. I HATE autoattacking with the staff and i turn my sound down when I am using it. I also hate stacking 20 bleeds (working my butt off to do so) only to see them go “poof”.

My only prob with dagger is having to be so close in wvw and in dungeons. I like being able to control my distance a bit with scepter/dagger, and even with axe. And for a dagger build, I thinky ou have to sink a lot in blood magic to make it work. I just always end up feeling like a weaker thief with daggers when i do the damage, and I overextend in wvw too much. I am not saying the damage is not better, but I feel I loose some utility. That is just my opinion however. I will give it a try again.

Greetings, I have seen similar posts prior to this one, but I wanted to ask the Necro community what you truly thought about a Hybrid spec.

Currently I run a Hybrid Power/Condition/crit spec, which in my opinion looks like 20/30/0/0/20, which gives me a balance between power, condition dmg/duration, and some crit. It also gives me some Death Shroud focused abilities which makes it more useful bouncing in and out of shroud when i have enough bleeds stacked, or to fear an opponent/mob. I also see DS #4 ability hitting for up to 4500+ dmg, and about the same for Axe #2. Have not really tried dagger because I am not a huge fan of dagger on Necro (I have an 80 thief and i cry when i see the damage he does with a dagger in WvW). Staff putrid mark can crit for 4k as well, and i get 3500 – 3800 crits on lich #1 attack.

SKILLS: I typically run BiP, Epidemic, Well of Suffering as my utility skills (though I will add another well and drop epidemic if im single target focusing, or drop the well and run a spect skill in wvw for a break stun).

Weapons: Main weapon set is scepter/dagger, secondary set is staff or sometimes axe/focus, which is entirely situation dependent. I like Sigil of bloodlust on the scepter (stack it to +250 power to help out) and Sigil of agony on the dagger (sometimes i run geomancy). On the axe I run exquisite rubies that give power, perc and crit dmg.

Gear (which is a mix of Kebron (perc, toughness, condition dmg) and Arah (which is transmuted from the WVW badge armor and focuses on Power, Toughness, Vitality). I am working at getting a full Arah set, which i will Trasumute to work with a well rounded attribute lineup, but I will focus on Power, Condition Dmg, Toughness, with vitality and percision coming in second. Earrings are a mix between beserker and chrys (condition dmg, power)

Runes: I bounce between aflicted/krait, or just a full set of undead. Both are good for getting condition damage up there. I tried Lich but did not like it, enjoyed the increased toughness with undead.

Stats: Depending on which weapons I am running im averaging about 1750 in power (2000 solid with maxed bloodlust), 1550 percision (40 crit/40), 1250 toughness, 1250 vitality. Close to 3k attack power (2850 on average), 2k armor, and about 21500 hps. Condition dmg is about 1150 or so, and I tick for like 103 dmg, 121 dmg with BiP, and 130+ with BiP, and stacks of might from DS lifeblast (1 hit with life blast gives you 5 stacks might). I will bounce in and out of DS to get the +5 might stacks regularly, and I will just keep BiP going off constantly. With scepter 4, any bleed/poison/weakness i put on myself, gets sent back at the target. I use scepter 3, kills, and axe abilities to generate life force, so i dont seem to have a prob with life force.

Anyways, I just wanted to see what you guys thought of the build. I tried extremes of both, and was never satisfied. For example, with power builds, I hit hard, sure, but i got slammed if i overextended in WvW, and my damage was never enough to really burst someone down, unless they were solo. With pure condition build, I would cry when I would see all my conditions ticking at 145 or so just get erased after I worked hard to get them stacked (also DS was useless as it’s damage was mediocre, and i ended up using it as an escape mech. plus i never build life force).

A balanced approach allowed me to be both. I ended up being more satisfied. Maybe I am weaker than the extremes, but I seemed to kill more, last longer, and was much more of a menace to an enemy.

PS: PLease for the love of god and all that is unholy change the staff autoattack sound, speed and graphic. Holy crap, i feel like I am kitten-slapping myself when i fire off autoattacks with staff one. Sorry about the rant at the end.