Guild Wars 2

In wvw I also use axe/focus but mostly staff. Axe has great uses for recharging lifeforce (#2) and unholy feast (#3) is beast, but there doesnt seem much need to trait it. Its definately for a power build so take your pick basically.

I was thinking the same, the specializations sound more like mandatory advancement when they are sort of packaged as a “choice”.

I think at first they will be more powerful to motivate people to advance in the new content, then they will be scaled back to be more in line with basic spec as the new-ness wears off.

Typical with MMO’s the developers throttle the class benefits to get us to keep leveling or re-rolling, thats one way they keep the player base playing.

War Mourner.5168:

Bhawb.7408:

Kilger.5490:

Nerf to FITG has hurt necros too much.

You mean the very significant buff to FitG? Because it is significantly better now than it ever has been since Shade was nerfed to create it.

It’s honestly not.

I’ve used the trait since the start on the game, and though I was initially pretty happy about the stun break, I still think it’s worse now then it was pre stability nerf.

It still works for shroud stomping 1v1, but outside of that the change hurt a fair bit.

My suggestion was just make that 1 stack of stability pulse every 3-5 seconds, which would make it much better in a sustained fight, while not being overbearing due to the nerf.

Ya this. Its most definately worse. In theory it sounds great but its not nearly as good as having on-demand stability to get some tactical movement or cast a clinch heal or well. We have lots of stun breaks. We had only one good stability outside of a shape changing elite, and when well timed made up for lots of class deficiencies with regards to other classes (evades, blocks, leaps).

The synergy it has is not as powerful either, I dont want to wait until I need a stun break to use shroud whereas stability was quite welcome. 1 stack is too fleeting.

However per my previous post I’m not looking to revert it, just compensate those of us that used fitg for pre-emptive capability with something else like a block or evade somewhere in our “toolkit”.

Maybe we should get illusions … ghosts of the kitten ed? Shatter for lifeforce.

For instance maybe even allow block while life transfer. Great little block, gives it a chance to finish channel and maybe lets us escape pinball mode a bit, but its on a long cooldown so not unbalanced.

Sagat.3285:

That’s why it’s a failed mechanic it’s too delicate to balance especially due to it’s dominance. While the rest of the game grows DS will stay behind and eventually make necros a “unreasonable choice”.

I dont understand why it couldnt be buffed with a 3s block or other evasive enhancements. These wouldnt add a lot of power but scale better vs many enemies.

DP should be a ground teleport like ele/mesmer blink. Since they nerfed fitg and we end up getting pinballed around again its worth revisiting for balance. I’d be ok with a cooldown increase.

Nerf to FITG has hurt necros too much.

Necros have no mobility options (leaps/evades/blocks/teleports) to get out of harms way, with smart play fitg used to be the safe haven to escape “pinball” mode. The buff to give it stun break is only part of the cure as you cannot use it to move anywhere without getting stunned again.

Having stability available for shroud was quite balanced for necro and I dont feel deserved nerfing along with general stability nerf. It was one ability we had to stand on our feet and try and do something.

Options to restore some survivability/self control in shroud are possibly a block, or for dark path to be a ground targetted teleport to use as escape.

edit: maybe add “evade” or “block” while doing life transfer? Powerful but scales better against multiple enemies than regular shroud and may let us stand on our feet in cc storm while using an ability which is on a fairly long cooldown instead of blowing it.

I wouldnt say its a failed mechanic since it works for me but its been left behind due to nerfing fitg. This took away our ability to use it as a stun block… stun break doesnt measure up since you still cant get any mobility out of it. We lost the ability to get out of danger.

Its time we got some kind of evade/leap or block out of shroud instead of pinball mode.

I actually dont have much concern with the changes, they’ll buff my power/wells build. Just wanted to mention that since it should be voiced some are ok with the proposed changes too. It should be said I’m looking at Spite, Death, Soul lines.

But… we could use love across the board in the group friendliness category. Just not if it means giving up any offensive power!

Spite6/Death6/Soul6. Max power, damage and survivability…

They say stats, which I assume will include things like condition duration and class specific stats now, will come from armor as well as a generic increase dependent on class. This isnt a big leap as most MMO’s have not attached trait/skill lines to stats previously anyway. Just dumbs it down a bit if anything. But I appreciate they need to keep mixing it up to keep people interested.

If you dont take the specialization you’ll still have good ol fashioned death shroud. At least thats the way I’m getting all this.

Totbot.4583:

Some commanders in WvW will have Necro’s put on Well of Power for choke points to give the front line Stab. If Well of Power wasn’t ground target it would limit group support since it would prohibit the Necro from using it on allies who aren’t near by. In PvE it wouldn’t be a big deal, but in other games modes it would be.

Did they change it so stability affects not just the user?

Anyway, its not a bad usage as the front gets hits by lots of cc but there are so many other options.

Also do we have confirmation on the specialization name being Death Knight yet? /makes popcorn…

I used only ground targeted wells mostly, using ground targeted only recently. Heres a tip if you worry about your mouse location when mouse-moving and fast targeting…. practice centering your mouse before you hold it so when you go to cast a well you just have to center your screen momentarily on where you want to cast. It becomes automatic with time and is very fast.

I agree about well of power being cast at your feet automatically though, extremely rare I want to use it otherwise.

Not exactly sure about your concern about being “shunned” to say whether its the class for you. But I will say we arent exactly a “group magnet” in the sense that warrior/guard/ele are. If you want a strong grouping class pick from those 3.

That said you dont really need a group in wvw and can do fine, just people wont be lining up to add you to their party because you really dont give them anything …except dead enemies which they dont need to be grouped with you for..

What would they do with those trait spots if they gave them away for free? Not so simple for programming! They are good traits, I use them all the rare time I spvp, mostly because they are also on my wvw spec too and spvp is just practice for me :P (aside from soul marks but you really do need more lf generation in spvp than wvw).

Slow moving projectile, nice when it gets some hits but seems to miss a ton. It does hit very hard however. Thats the benefit of lich form, you give up all your other abilities for a very hard hitting autoattack for 30 sec.

Kicks butt with foot in the grave too, multipurpose removal.

Yay a positive post!! Its not a roll your face on the keyboard to win kind of class and thats whats so great about it. There is no mobility or evasion built in anywhere so positioning and dodge timing is more crucial. But its compensated by massive damage output, enough to put anyone on the ground (w/ buff stripping of course). Its a class that keeps your attention long after other classes will have bored you.

Necros are in a good place right now. We are wanted in wvw and can hold our own in pve (like that matters :P).

There has been some creep with condition handling across the classes via sigils and buffs but its been beneficial overall to the game. We are still kings of pumping out conditions while barely even trying, and CC is the greatest heal ever still.

We could use a leap or some mobility with GS, since other classes are honing in us in other ways though. Good for the goose and all that.

I’ll bet revenant will have reflects … just because we asked for it :P

/ahem Great sword….

Blinding rush (ala fiery greatword) please!

Probably not as big a deal in spvp but this was sorely needed in wvw. Will have to adjust timing on using shroud now until after hit (used to be proactive as stabilty; as a stun break its reactive…) but it is definately helping.

LOL.. we were just saying how this might be a way to make fitg acceptable. Going to fire up my necro tonight I think!

Been on the shelf pretty much since fitg nerf, not in protest, just because I find I cant play necro near as effectively without fitg.

Suffice to say its bad for diversity and leave it at that! I didnt intend to get into what the best way to play necro is since there are as many playstyles as people.

gavyne.6847:

Necro bombs are still very much a thing in the current meta, both pre-stab and post-stab changes. Any decent guilds or pugzergs run at least 5-10 necros in WvW.

The stability changes don’t affect necros that much in WvW to be honest. As long as you are playing to your strength using well bombs properly and watching your positions, you should do fine unless your raid gets run over (in which case you’re going to do die anyway).

The thing that kills necros in large scale WvW is and will always be immob spam. Stability won’t save you from that.

Our guild zerg busts a lot and goes in b—— deep so being overrun is practically the play style. I have lots of ways to deal with immob so thats not as much concern to me.

The backline quickly becomes the frontline on t1, most good guilds leap right to the back and start there with hammer train. You can survive by dodging and positioning but its hard to go on the offense without decent stability against good players.

Aside from the ability to counter attack immediately, its only “just a crutch” if you dont realise its full potential… which is that Necro is at its best inside 600 units, and thats where stability becomes very useful when facing a large group.

People expect different armor types. The difference has become more cosmetic than real but there is a decent 15% damage resistance difference between light and heavy when you dilute with toughness.

I like stun break with 1 stack, seems worthy. At least you can get up afterwards after being cc bombed.

Also if the stack was shared by allies would make the necro a bit more group friendly.

Since the stability change there is a new tendency for increasing guardian numbers in WvW groups, making other group spots rare and high utility competitive . Basically so a group can achieve the same effect as stability before change applying large stacks of stability instead.

This leaves necros out in the cold since we add little to group buffs, and our access to stability is very underwhelming. Fitg was a good stop-gap previously to allow some clinch cc resistance a necro could rely on but with 1 stack its hardly a factor anymore.

I know there are numerous posts suggesting ideas with fitg etc but I wanted to point out the issue with the overall “meta” happening right now. Either you add stability or join the 2nd class group.

Three stacks would make it worthwhile I think. Of course I’d would prefer more but I think it would work then.

I’ve pretty much moved on from using this trait anyway. Its far too expensive as a GM trait to grant as little as it does.

Foot in the grave helped but after nerf dunno. Call them out in map speak and make them feel bad about themselves and their cheesy build?

Or just hit plague and try and wait them out till someone comes along.

Seems a bit melodramatic. Only thing i dont like is that they didnt give fitg enough thought imo. It was already a very minimalist timed stability to invest a GM trait in… it didnt need nerf to keep it in line with the game. I have a feeling they will fix this anyway though, nobody going to use it as is.

So let me get this straight.. this is a thread about complaining… about complaining?

EremiteAngel.9765:

If a change hits your skill negatively, then don’t use that skill.
if it affects your build negatively, then change your build.

Of course.

But this is also a forum about feedback and experiences, and its fair to discuss them here. Anet has shown they often review these forums, so pointing out problem areas or areas that seem unfairly impacted by changes is fair game.

I dont think they really thought about fitg when they did their stability review since they revised our stability (our ONLY stability) with a minimum of attention.

UGH… tried playing last night with no FitG.. yea ping pong is right. I am so dependant on a few clinch seconds of stability on demand when zerg cc hits.

I dont even care about the extra 50% crit chance because Im too busy picking myself off the ground. This definately impacts my play experience with necro.

Even a 3 stack may be enough to work…

Since when has ranger been stability dependant? Also.. RAO is buffed because it can no longer be stolen by thieves! Means its actually useable to me.

Many classes are hit far worse by this patch so go ahead and reroll one of those. If anything it becomes a net buff to ranger, since now pb shot can remove stability by itself.

More I think of it, more I think this is a massive buff.

Yea boon stripping and corrupting is less useful against elites, it works in our favor too. First thing that happens in plague is you get stripped and tossed around, might actually have a go with it again.

Dont forget spectral walk… doubles as a swiftness buff when you dont have it otherwise, but if you do then its great as a stun break and for juking/jumping.

I used to battle between using fitg or death perception, at least thats cleared up.

Do they realise its now worse than ranger adept trait “shared anguish” which is on all the time until needed. This is an insult.

wtf are you kidding me?

Sorry but thats not enough. As of now deathly perception is the clear winner for that slot!

WvW and spvp are two very different things… I see a lot of discussion about spvp here that doesnt apply very well. Wvw you generally want different things, like enough survivability for all the splash damage and other traits like foot in the grave can become useful, while nuking single targets down becomes less important in the place of doing mass damage to many. Range is also significantly more important, so I would definately say take staff…

I dont think anyone wants to throw out their armor and start over (imagine the qq), a simple buff would do. Also I dont see them tossing out ds, too many traits tied to it.

Youre probably not going to be able to do enough damage as a high tough/cele ele. Necro are good at outlasting moderate damage with high health and shroud. If he is high crit means no stability so use that to your advantage.

Their lag reduction has come so far I have a hard time complaining… Wasnt so long ago the complete enemy zerg didnt even show up because it could only render so many… stealth peeps got an extra few seconds stealth because they just wouldnt re-render after stealth wore off.

I still get skill lag from time to time but its rare enough its forgiveable.

You can play rangers melee too ya know. They can add a lot to the team with flame/viper/frost traps if you want.

Zackie.8923:

how the hell are these stability changes good…

I think they are supposed to make stability weaker so its not without counter play other than stripping/stealing/corrupting.

I dont know that its better, it favors the numbers since the more spam the less effective stability will be now. Not sure what brought this change on.

I suggested a similiar idea OP, that the necros cloth stats become heavy stats but when you chose to specialize, not just when you wielded the great sword.

I think it wouldnt be that hard, just increase armor stats proportionally as a buff. Theres a lot of hate against death knights which I dont understand (seems logical name – martial specialization for a death class), but I wont go there.. ! :P

Making something fun into a grind (work) that serves no purpose other than to perpetuate more of itself is some kind of insanity.

What about other classes? Necro’s “foot in the grave” trait has me curious.