The saddest part is Necromancer was meant to be the selfish dps class, but has one of the lowest overall dps of all professions.
edit: all other professions actually have a better dps build than us. Even Mesmer. Welcome to the bottom of the barrel.
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The only time this gets annoying is when you use an Emergency Waypoint in WvW from another map, but because of slow loading, you get send back to your spawn waypoint when the EWP closes.
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Prologue: I know the “meta” says “Zerk!”, but let’s assume we don’t care about the main meta.
I’d really like to tailor a “shortbow-condi build”. It sounds dumb, but I see potential in terms of fun and probably some PvE support.
The idea is to use skills like “Protect me” to grant your self the ability to get the enemy’s back easily while applying the impairing effects of the shortbow.
I’m focusing on signets to speed up (hunt and wild right now), quickening Zephyr, but I’d put in protect me to enhance the mentioned strategy.
For this purpose, I probably should focus on condition damage and duration to max out the idea.
Any experiences? It would be a nice alternative to my main longbow-Crit and a possible (when I’ll get to 80) Druid-support + staff (which is probably more fun in groups).
Ideas?
You do realise Condi druid is now the best condition dps in the game? And it includes Shortbow with axe/torch
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Dragonhunter f1 pulled into an enemy zerg and instant killed. It wasn’t pretty.
yeah that gets me a lot no matter what i’m playing, haha.
what’s always fun is when it goes beyond its range to still work and pull you off higher part of a keep or something. you go flying once to the caster then up into the air all over again!
While yes it is a problem all professions can face (and a hilarious one at that), many professions have some sort of anti CC trait which causes an auto stun break if you are cc’d. All ours does is fear nearby foes.
PSA: I’d actually prefer if Anet removed all those no-skill auto traits.
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Would you be willing to give up the instant non projectile hits on #1 and #2? Because that is pretty much the reason why Axe will never be buffed into usefulness. The guy in charge of creating Reaper said as much (I forget his name).
I’m all for any change that benefits Axe, so long as it either remains ranged or Dagger gets turned into a ranged Power Weapon (I mean, considering every skill for Dagger is ranged except the autos……..). We just need a good, solid ranged Power Weapon, every other weapon is more Condition-based or is flat out melee.
How’s about Axe 1 be reworked to where you throw the Axe instead of it slicing and dicing? And for Axe 2, I honestly don’t know cuz I do love this skill but maybe make it unblockable? You got me there to be honest, I’ll put my brain to work for a bit and come back with a better response.
how about just swapping axe and dagger for functionality? i’d much rather swing an axe than a dagger. make ghastly claws a melee whirl or something.
The general consensus seems to be: don’t make Axe melee and don’t make Dagger ranged. I can see where the OP is coming from, and I honestly don’t want to change how they’re used at all, though personally Dagger being ranged would make far more sense to me considering its only melee ‘skill’ is its autos.
Lets be honest though.The immobilise would be kitten if it was anything less than 600 and Life Siphon is deliberately 600 to allow you kite away to recoup health before returning to the melee.
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why does it have to be shroud? if that’s the limit of your imagination, I find that saddening. Necro’s can be so much more if they are given a fundamentally different F skill mechanic, which in regards to elite specs isn’t a far fetched idea. Shroud is the main reason we don’t have active defenses. It’s a poor reason due to how fast shroud just melts when anything looks in your direction.
Changing the f skill to something other than another shroud is the first step to helping fix necro’s problems.
What’s the point of a class once you remove it’s defining mechanic?
it won’t remove anything, it will add other options, which the elite specs were designed to do
You do know that it is a contradiction when you say it wont remove anything but at the same time you say the following
Honestly I want shroud to be done away with and gone.
or in other words “I want shroud be removed”?
You will most likely dont like it but the chances are pretty high that all our future elite specs will have a shroud of some sorts. Also elite specs arent designed to remove class mechanics (which our shroud clearly is) but give them some twist.
So if you shroud want to be gone, you best hope is that Anet for some reason decides to complely rework necro. While i cannot say that wont happen i would say the probability of something like that happening is pretty low.
oh stop nitpicking. what i meant, is that i’m not advocating to remove shroud from current elite specs. just that the next elite gets a new f skill, because i love necro as a class, but i hate shroud, shroud has always held the class back. im not even sure why you are arguing so much as this post is a feature wishlist and we all want something different.
The only problem with that would be how would Shroud traits effect the new elite spec? So many traits would be wasted with the lack of shroud on the new spec.
hmmm yes i suppose you’re right there. i guess they could tweak them to work with the spec but that’d probably take too much work
I mean, I’d love the idea of having a new profession mechanic and getting all the QoL stuff we have been denied, over the years, because of shroud. But I’m sure there’d be a way to adapt it.
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Anets reaction to the nerf:
Increase bleed duration on Enfeebling Blood from 10 seconds to 12.
Reduce aftercast on Grasping Dead by 0.02.
Feast of Corruption grants 2% more life force on hit. No change to life force per condition.
“We feel these changes will make Necro more competitive.”
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why does it have to be shroud? if that’s the limit of your imagination, I find that saddening. Necro’s can be so much more if they are given a fundamentally different F skill mechanic, which in regards to elite specs isn’t a far fetched idea. Shroud is the main reason we don’t have active defenses. It’s a poor reason due to how fast shroud just melts when anything looks in your direction.
Changing the f skill to something other than another shroud is the first step to helping fix necro’s problems.
What’s the point of a class once you remove it’s defining mechanic?
it won’t remove anything, it will add other options, which the elite specs were designed to do
You do know that it is a contradiction when you say it wont remove anything but at the same time you say the following
Honestly I want shroud to be done away with and gone.
or in other words “I want shroud be removed”?
You will most likely dont like it but the chances are pretty high that all our future elite specs will have a shroud of some sorts. Also elite specs arent designed to remove class mechanics (which our shroud clearly is) but give them some twist.
So if you shroud want to be gone, you best hope is that Anet for some reason decides to complely rework necro. While i cannot say that wont happen i would say the probability of something like that happening is pretty low.
oh stop nitpicking. what i meant, is that i’m not advocating to remove shroud from current elite specs. just that the next elite gets a new f skill, because i love necro as a class, but i hate shroud, shroud has always held the class back. im not even sure why you are arguing so much as this post is a feature wishlist and we all want something different.
The only problem with that would be how would Shroud traits effect the new elite spec? So many traits would be wasted with the lack of shroud on the new spec.
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GS doesn’t need any buffs or changes, and Death Spiral is perfect as is. It’s primarily a power-support weapon in my book (engage with it then swap to your main weapon, in my case that’s Dagger/Dagger). The 4, 5, 3 combo works like a charm and bursts your opponent pretty well (depending on your Traits). I have yet to have any issues with it in PvE, now PvP (which I don’t play) would have to have its own patch server in order for these changes to work. Vulnerability on Autos just makes is a melee-copy of Axe. Death Spiral is a free ‘half-stack cap’ of Vulnerability all in one strike and Nightfall IS your Invulnerability (provided they don’t remove the Blind). The only change I can see GS needing in all modes is the 5 needs to be re-targetable. If I press 5 and turn to my left the claws should pull from where I’m currently facing when they come up, not where I was originally facing.
It doesn’t need any of these major changes, it might need a damage boost but other than that everything is fine as is (Death Spiral is great with Decimate Defenses as well, that’s an instant 6% Crit Chance increase for about 10s).
So given the chance, you wouldn’t change Reaper’s Onslaught to grant Greatsword increased attack speed as well as its current effects? That would allow for all current Greatsword skills to stay the same but give us a good trait that we have yearned for since day 1 of HoT (if you’ve seen my past posts, you’ll know how much I hate the current Soul Eater).
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Sorry to say that but those changes are also unrealistically. I doubt that Anet would ever give base necro an invulnerability effect like you suggest on spectral armor.
I am also not sure if i like the idea of giving boon corruption to greatsword. I would prefer if it focus more on your 2. point also staying power in melee. For that ether mobility or a block would be a nice.
Given Anets track record, any decent Necro buffs are unrealistic at this point. And all of the points I have made are ideas I’ve heard from multiple people in the forums and in game.
But if Anet were to give us an Invuln skill, Spectral Armour is by far the #1 candidate for it.
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I’d say the #3 idea is too much effort on Anets part. There’s an easier way to get an invuln as I will stay later.
Greatsword has the following problems in pvp.
1. It is too slow
2. Necro lacks staying power to go melee
3. Necro is currently stuck as boon removal which favours sceptre/condi
Ideas for fixing:
1. something many people have asked for, make Reaper’s Onslaught attack speed increase affect Greatsword.
2. change Spectral Armour so you take no damage for 3 seconds (traited would mean 4.5 seconds). Also give some sort of life force gain but with a health threshold so it cant just be used to instant fill your life force pool as soon as you enter combat. This would effect the minor Soul Reaping trait and would stack with each other like Endure pain and its trait equivalent.
Also there’s a need for more stability. Add some to Spectral Walk maybe?
3. similar to Anets sceptre buff, give Greatsword auto a boon corrupt on final hit. Then maybe boon corrupt on #5 (oh you have stability? It would be a shame it it got corrupted into fear and you were pulled by one skill).
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I’d be satisfied if life steal worked in shroud. It fits the theme and would be a simple-but-not-gamebreaking boost.
Life steal does work in shroud.
Couple weeks ago I tested sigil of leeching, sigil of blood, and life steal food. None of them stole life in shroud. The damage part of life stealing still did damage, but I gained no health.
None of those are actual life steals. They just do damage and heal you. I’m talking Blood Magic Vampiric/vamp aura/vamp wells here.
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I wouldn’t mind any of the changes, so long as Anet buffs our power build so it can out dps an ele. That seems fair given we are meant to be the selfish dps class.
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It also honestly depends on your playstyle, I’m a Power Necro and I absolutely hate Condi-builds (too common, nothing really special about them to me) so Viper’s Armor wouldn’t be ‘best’ for me. It’s definitely still worth crafting if you’re into the Condi side of things, by far the best armor you can craft for that specific purpose. But I wouldn’t go as far as to say ‘the best gear for teh foreseeable future’ since there are many different playstyles and types of Necros you can build, each having their own specific ‘best’ gear sets.
Oh I agree, I’m back running my zerker gear for fractals and general use. Much more fun. However he did ask for high end fractals/possible raiding, and I’ve never seen a request for power necro in raids and you still get “condi necro only” t4 fractal groups.
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Viper gear is still the best gear a Necro can run for the foreseeable future.
If I recall correctly though, it is cheaper to make a non HoT stat armour set then stat swap it to Vipers.
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In a Pve setting, Blood Fiend is effectively our “passive” equivalent heal. It’s something like 1000 health every 3 seconds baseline. Go with that instead.
If I could sway Anet though, I’d change Sig of Vampirism so the passive would inflict Life Stealing on hit. That way the passive could be more selfish but useful, whereas the active would still be good for the party.
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Male greatsword swings (on a human at least) feel real awkward, especially the first swing. I tried out male Reaper today and by god, the auto chain is horrible.
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While I wouldn’t call it a class peak so much, when specialisations first came out (pre HoT), Necromancers could run Chilling Darkness (with no ICD) and Bitter Chill to make Well of Darkness actually good. Also at the same time, all wells triggered vampiric/vamp aura.
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it is odd how there isnt a condition damage minion outside of lich form and rise. i think it would be awesome to have bone minions provide bleeding to their targets even if their auto damage would have to be ‘balanced’ to compensate. would give non reapers a condition minion. and a choice of whether to keep them or blow them up.
The minions you get from Rise are not condi dmg minions. They look the same as the jagged horrors you summon in lich form, but they are actually shambling horrors and do not inflict any conditions whatsoever on their own. But that being said, giving bleed to shambling horrors from Rise or bone minions would be great way to begin offsetting this awful lich form nerf, although the changes of that actually happening will be very slim.
I have a solution. Add the bleeding on hit effect to the Necromantic Corruption trait. Now all minions inflict bleeding with their attacks.
Funny you should say that. I had an idea to revamp Death Nova so it gave each type of minion a different condition on hit but with separate cooldowns depending on the condition. Imagine Flesh Golem applying Taunt every so often, like a Voidy from WoW.
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Grasping Darkness is a very complex skill under the hood and integrates programming and art in a very specific way to work the way it does. As a result, changes that would be simple for another skill (like giving it increased range) are very difficult and require coordination from multiple disciplines. I’ve made a few changes that I believe are safe for this BWE that changes the skill to be enemy targeted instead of using your facing direction. We’ll be keeping an eye on this one to see if it needs further tuning in subsequent beta events.
I don’t think we’ll be seeing changes anytime soon.
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Would you be willing to give up the instant non projectile hits on #1 and #2? Because that is pretty much the reason why Axe will never be buffed into usefulness. The guy in charge of creating Reaper said as much (I forget his name).
Surrender and serve me in life, or die and slave for me in death.
You say that but I’ve had a recent fondness for Avatar of Grenth. It’s crap I know but its what I imagine Plague could become albeit a lot more powerful.
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Make FITG or Vital Persistence baseline…. even having both baseline would not be over the top.
A baseline trait would be more balanced. Switch out Strength of Undeath for VP but change a few things so VP now gives 15% larger LF pool and 50% less LF degen, whereas SoU gives +10% damage in shroud and 20% reduced recharge on shroud skills. That would mean more options for the mid tier trait in Soul Reaping rather than having to go VP.
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The problem with a lot of your changes is that you’ve only upped the current values, rather than change the undesirables into something better. For example Soul Eater with a 40% life steal increase would be no more usable than it is already.
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Death magic is pretty pointless now. Even for full minions. Its best just to take blood magic and roll Spite for the extra damage. Also go full Berserkers. You’ll have no problem surviving with rise, minions and Vampiric.
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So tell me then pls, why so many of players rage about fact that they slightly changed mechanic of the spell ? ….
I am laughing at so many of those who rage about this how 1 “nerf” “destroyed” reaper/necro …. all of them acting like if Anet nerfed every single ability ….
A jagged horror could inflict 1 bleed for 10 seconds (at 100% bleed duration) every 3.5 seconds. So that is ~2.8 perma stacks of bleed per minion. You could realistically keep up about 7 jagged horrors at a time so that is ~19.6 stacks of bleeding from those minions alone. So with 25 might/25vuln and full vipers, each bleed does 235 damage. That’s 4606 bleed damage a second lost for 2 and a half of every 3 minutes of fighting, which is massive. If any other profession suffered that much damage loss, they would go torch Anet’s HQ.
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I’m back to using my power minion build. Sure it isn’t meta but I’ve seen pug T4s without any friendly AI, to soak up damage, and the amount of wipes that happened was too kitten high.
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I vote for buffing everything else. Necromancers have the right to be good.
Sorry, but eles are the only profession that gets to have nice things.
What are you talking about? Didn’t you see our amazing Necro buffs. That aftercast reduction on greatsword auto. And the damage buff on axe. My god. I think we might just rise to the top of the food chain now. *crazed maniacal laughter
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So after doing T4 dailies today, I found that anet have changed the voice of the Mysterious Asura in the Chaos fractal. Long story short, he now has a deeper voice, less distorted and less comical. Please change back. It was the most memorable parts of the fractal. The once maniacal antagonist is now dull and forgettable.
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To be fair, there has only been ONE change made purely for the needs of PvE in the entire history of GW2, and that was the FGS nerf.
Every single other balance pass has been based on PvP or WvW.
Take your entitlement elsewhere, OP.
o.0 FGS was OP in PvE at some point?
Pre nerf, you could use #4 (with no target) into a wall and it would cause a bunch of fiery fields to pop in the same spot, causing any stacked foe to melt in seconds.
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