Guild Wars 2

Esorono.1039:

I would love these cosmetic effects. But I would love it more if we could have Dhuum’s scythe as a greatsword skin.

That would be a waste in my opinion. I’d rather them just add scythe as a weapon. Dhuum’s Soul Reaper shouldn’t be disrespected by being made into any weapon outside of an actual scythe.

I’d look forward to using Bifrost on my reaper.

insaneseagull.7063:

Nobody else who supports this idea? O__O

People prefer to respond to things with drama involved than things that are just sorta fun and interesting. As well as hard to argue with. People like to argue. Especially on the necromancer forums.

I think I might be the only one who’s not happy with the changes… I actually got used to this skill fairly quickly, learning its limits fairly fast and using it to outstanding effects. I could easily traverse the field and have decent control over my space as well as my foe’s. Able to move through enemies and obstacles without locking onto a target.

I actually feel that a flip skill that could allow us to cancel the charge would have been better. But that’s just me.

Here’s an idea. I keep rolling it around in my head so here it goes.

Lingering Curse : Outgoing conditions while wielding a scepter last 30% longer. Scepter skills recharge 20% faster. You and nearby allies gain 150 condition damage. 600 radius.

Something I feel the necromancer should have. Guardians give toughness, warriors give power, Rangers give Precision, Revenant’s ferocity . Necros granting condition damage would be nice if a condition team becomes a thing.

Brujeria.7536:

Lily.1935:

Fear is going to be seriously hurt with the coming changes. Fear can’t be applies to a creature with defiance, though it does hit the defiance bar if I’m remembering it correctly. This is an issue for us terror users.

Fear reduces the defiance bar by a rather big amount though.

Not as much as stun. Chilled to the bone and Executioner’s Scythe where both huge.

Fear is going to be seriously hurt with the coming changes. Fear can’t be applies to a creature with defiance, though it does hit the defiance bar if I’m remembering it correctly. This is an issue for us terror users.

Knaifhogg.5964:

I think Lingering Curse should be changed because it feels like a “use scepter or else” trait, not a “hey my scepter is better” trait. It wants to keep me out of Shroud, stick to one weapon, and all it gives me is average condi damage.

Scepter 3 should apply conditions somehow, poison per x bleed stacks maybe, increase condi duration on target, bite twice to go through aegis, I don’t know. It could bite several times which can crit so you get bleeds from Barbed Precision. Doesn’t make sense as a power skill though

Scepter’s base condition duration needs to be raised to around the level that Lingering curse provides. One of the issues is that overall, the necromancer has lots 30% condition duration from the change. And having a trait that provides that is sorely needed for a condimancer set for PvE. Lingering curse is the perfect canidate for that. But havinging 70% of the duration from Lingering curse put into the scepter would at least strip much of the focus from this trait in all game modes. And a universal 30% while wielding a scepter would greatly improve everything else around the scepter. Or at least bring it close to par with what it used to be.

Another issue is terror competing with path of corruption. And the issues with trait placement in Soul Reaping. But people have been saying that for months now. And although it doesn’t directly effect the scepter itself, it has a major impact on the condimancer.

Some things need to change for Condimancer in my opinion. Such as they should have a trait to increase bleed damage as well as a trait that increases poison duration in an Adept slot. Dhuumfire also needs to last longer or have its burning trigger on other skills beside the auto.

manveruppd.7601:

Lily.1935:

manveruppd.7601:

Lily.1935:

Mine’s a Techno Necromancer so none. Though I take some inspiration from the film character Herbert West from Re-animator.

I have noticed that the name Herbert West is in use… was that you?

Nope. A fellow Fan I’m sure. They’re probably a minion master.

If they’re NOT a minionmancer they should forfeit the name! Kicking myself for not reserving it earlier! :p

Haha!

Lightsbane.9012:

the trait reaper’s onslaught should probably be a minor, or at least in a lower tier. and should also affect the greatsword as well.

You mean Adept. But yeah, I wasn’t at all impressed with that trait. It gave instant cool down to a skill with a really low cool down as is and the 15% attack speed wasn’t noticeable in the slightest. Maybe instead of it recharging death’s charge it made your attacks deal 10% more damage against chilled foes?

Edit: Just some I’m perfectly clear This should stay a grandmaster. The 10% damage boost I was suggesting was in that light.

manveruppd.7601:

Lily.1935:

Mine’s a Techno Necromancer so none. Though I take some inspiration from the film character Herbert West from Re-animator.

I have noticed that the name Herbert West is in use… was that you?

Nope. A fellow Fan I’m sure. They’re probably a minion master.

Knighthonor.4061:

Lily.1935:

Mine’s a Techno Necromancer so none. Though I take some inspiration from the film character Herbert West from Re-animator.

I guess that makes you Lawnmowerman

What? no.. Thats before my time. So i don’t really even know what that is.

I suppose expanding on that my character is inspired heavily by Lucy Lawless, Wonder Woman, Herbert West, Poison Ivy(from Batman), Maleficent Now that I think about it. I was more thinking about the General Design of my Berserker armor though. Which is what I plan to use on release of HoT. Which is heavily influenced from the Re-animator Poster designs and Cyberpunk.

Zefrost.3425:

Would like to see Unholy Feast have a “draw in” animation added to it. The cast time is long enough for this to work already. Make Unholy Feast draw in conditions from nearby allies and then spread them to nearby foes when the attack lands.

Keep its current effects as well.

Now that would be a good skill.

Unholy Feast is the only skill on the axe that really doesn’t need much modification. I’d say no on this part.

Mine’s a Techno Necromancer so none. Though I take some inspiration from the film character Herbert West from Re-animator.

Lily.1935:

Here’s a random Thought. What if Unholy Feast also gave us a stack of stability for each target hit?

Actually, scratch that idea. This alone would make it a must have almost.

Blue Jinjo.2603:

Here’s my suggestion.

change the bleeding stacks on grasping dead to torment.

change the functionality of feast of corruption to the following:

“Remove 2 (two) stacks of bleeding, poison, and torment from target foe. Deal the condition damage they would have taken to them instantly. Gain (x%) life force for each condition removed.”

Note that this would be considered condition damage, not physical. This way necros would have a form of “condi-burst” like many other condi-classes have at the moment. But instead of simply dumping 999 stacks of burning on a foe, you strategically apply conditions, then rip them off all at once, or at least that’s the idea.

As similar as reaper’s shroud is, we are not dervishes.

Siva Mira.3546:

People could come up with a lot of interesting ideas to fix or revamp it all new together but at the end of the day it is all depend on how far Anet willing to change.

If they are willing to change it as little as possible, I would say AA is the first thing to look at. Adding 1% LF to all 3 AA chain and makes Lingering Curse improves it by another 50%. So a full chain AA with Lingering Curse with net you 4.5% LF. (as Drarnor mentioned, 2 stacks of poison for Putrid Curse seems reasonable given this is the third and final attack of the chain.)

And if they are willing to change more, then Feast of Corruption is next in the line. To test the water out I would try adding Torment to the skill.
1 Stack of Torment for 2 sec if target has at least 1 condition on them.
2 Stacks of Torment for 2 sec if target has at least 3 conditions on them.
3 Stacks of Torment for 2 sec if target has at least 5 conditions on them.
with the maximum of 3 stacks of Torment.

I’d say go full Ham on it. 1 for 1. 1 stack of torment for each condition. But that’s just me.

Sagat.3285:

Lily.1935:

Sagat.3285:

Very first is bringing 50% of Lingering Curse duration baseline,#3 needs to drop to 10 sec and give more LF,not sure if there is a rule saying only 1 skill per weapon can give LF but LF on Putrid Curse would help a lot,just make #2 a short duration dark field it’s extremely unreliable,Lingering Curse could give an AoE condition damage buff I doubt it doesn’t compete with Weakening Shroud. If we have to stick to scepter only that’s all.

It seems to only be a rule on one handed weapons. The issue with the Scepter’s life force is not that it has bad Life force generation, its that its usually offhand pair, dagger doesn’t have any life force generation. Which by all rights it should.

GS only has 1 LF gain skill or I missed something because it’s so bad staff only has it on all because of a trait another reason why it’s our best hated third wheel. Yes LF gain on dagger would be good probably per condition transferred on #4 and btw conditions specs cough cough bleed have issues but that’s another topic.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Grasping_Darkness
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Death_Spiral

These two skills.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Bare minimum, Putrid Curse needs to go to 2 stacks of Poison, instead of 1.

I agree. :O

Sagat.3285:

Very first is bringing 50% of Lingering Curse duration baseline,#3 needs to drop to 10 sec and give more LF,not sure if there is a rule saying only 1 skill per weapon can give LF but LF on Putrid Curse would help a lot,just make #2 a short duration dark field it’s extremely unreliable,Lingering Curse could give an AoE condition damage buff I doubt it doesn’t compete with Weakening Shroud. If we have to stick to scepter only that’s all.

It seems to only be a rule on one handed weapons. The issue with the Scepter’s life force is not that it has bad Life force generation, its that its usually offhand pair, dagger doesn’t have any life force generation. Which by all rights it should.

I figured I’d make a topic on this once since I love the scepter. It is my favorite weapon to use. But the issue is that Other than some condition duration increase I haven’t given much thought into how it could be improved. I’m so used to running it the thought that it could be much much better never dawned on me.

So Why not pool suggestions together in one Topic post? I’ve got a few ideas floating around in my head, though I haven’t given the scepter nearly as much thought as I have the axe or Death shroud’s current state. So hearing what other people have to say would be nice.

Currently, the scepter as a bleed heavy weapon seems like the right direction for it. I feel that change the bleeds to torment isn’t a good direction for the weapon. Sticking to its bleeding guns is probably its best bet.

So we should look at traits as well as the weapon itself because its a major part of the build process.

For starters I think its hard to argue that Lingering Curse’s Condition duration should mostly be rolled into the base duration of the scepter. I don’t think that’s really disputable. Second, feast of corruption shouldn’t get a damage bonus but apply more conditions based on the number already on them. What condition it should apply has been tossed around a bit. Some say torment, I wouldn’t mind Vulnerability. But anything would be good really. Even if it was just more bleeds I’d be happy.

An interesting idea I had was turning the skill grasping dead into a 3 second aoe field that would apply 2 bleeds and crippling each second. And perhaps be a combo dark field as well. An interesting idea, but I’ll let you guys decide.

For traits, Lingering curse should have a flat 30% condition duration boost to all conditions while wielding a scepter. This duration should also apply while in Death shroud along with its 150 condition damage. Added to that, a skill recharge reduction would be nice but its not needed.

What are your guys’s thoughts?

Here’s a random Thought. What if Unholy Feast also gave us a stack of stability for each target hit?

Captain Unusual.9163:

Lily.1935:

Nyth.3492:

The idea to make axe a hybrid condition/power weapon is nice as well. But my experience learns that these kind of hybrid weapons and hybrid skills tend to suffer because they’re inefficient for either. The “jack of all trades, master of none”-problem.

Grenade kit says “whats up”.

That one’s balanced by being an absolute kitten to use for long periods of time.

Its hard to use, but beastly once you learn how to. I’ve learned how to use it and its a blast[no pun intended] to use. Its also not the only example of good hybrid weapons. Torch on Guardian is technically a hybrid weapon. And that one is great to use.

Klaeljanus.7695:

To be entirely honest:

I actually liked ax/focus + GS for reaper(blighter’s boon based build), and I don’t think a complete rewrite of ax is necessary.

That said, the only purpose of ax/focus was to start with focus 5, get a focus 4 off(+ might and can rely on a crit from chilling nova for more might), get ax 2 off, and then switch to GS and either go into reaper or stay there(GS-3/4/2/2/2/…), since gravedigger only needs to hit one guy below 50% to get the CD reduction.

Ax 1 was only ever used when I screwed up and both swap and RS were on CD. Even then, it was only used if I thought it was going to die before anything worthwhile came off CD. Otherwise it is simply a better idea to run away and wait for something better.

Ax 3 was never used except to tag things.

Ax 1 should have greater range and more damage, not as high as dagger AA, enough that it should it preferred over simply running away and waiting for a better option.
I am aware that it’s ability to ignore reflects is considered OP in Anet.

Ax 2: Add a whirl finisher, but keep the non-AoE attack itself as is.

Ax 3: to a well or mark that positions on the initial player position and is a dark field. Add blind.

Back before the change to the animation I used Axe with focus allot since focus could be used to chill and as I closed the gap Reaper’s Touch was great as it still worked at long range it rewarded you for getting close. Which made it an excellent partner for axe.

Brokensunday.4098:

Don’t get me wrong I like the idea of corrupting boon even if is 1 on the auto attack don’t know sound kind of op but I like it
But right now axe is so bad is bad at close range and at a far is almost useless and necro is in need of a power range wep and make sense to be axe
Any way let’s keep the ideas flowing maybe we can give Robert some inspiration so they can make axe a good weapon of all of us to have fun =]

It might be if its a direct conversion. But if its converted into something like 2-3 stacks of valn it might not be. But that’s not as interesting imo. Its hard to say if it would be over powered since we haven’t had a weapon quite like that before. Corrupting boons outside of well of corruption and Corrupt boon is a rather interesting concept and Arena net wants this sort of boon hate to be well locked into the necromancer’s identity. The axe just seems like the perfect candidate for this sort of concept.

Nyth.3492:

The idea to make axe a hybrid condition/power weapon is nice as well. But my experience learns that these kind of hybrid weapons and hybrid skills tend to suffer because they’re inefficient for either. The “jack of all trades, master of none”-problem.

Grenade kit says “whats up”.

Nyth.3492:

I agree that we need a condition weapon. But I don’t think axe should be that weapon. Axe would make a great ranged power weapon, which is another category that we miss.

that wasn’t what I was getting at. With my suggestion it gives it hybrid potential without actually making it into a hybrid weapon. This is an important distinction that we need to make. It would still be high power but with its double hit at melee range like I’ve suggested it gains powerful synergy with barbed precision as well as melee range attack with aoe fields. Its boon corruption is universally useful but gain increased effectiveness in a hybrid play style.

Hybrid potential doesn’t equal hybrid weapon or condition weapon.

Keeping this as a midrange weapon doesn’t force it to be changed in its initial function. Increasing its range doesn’t give the weapon an identity and leaves it open to just be outclassed by an elite specialization weapon later in the future that was designed from the ground up to be a long ranged power weapon. Which at that point we’d be back to square one with the axe having the exact same problem it has now.

Brokensunday.4098:

Lily.1935:

Brokensunday.4098:

ok so almsot all agree it need to be 900 range power increase around 40-50% and skill 3 remaind almost ast it is just a buff skill 2 need to be faster and reduced recharge and add a finisher so this leaves axe 1

how about make it a chain of 3 apply vulne cripple I would like to head more ideas torment perhaps let me know =]

No, thats what you want to believe what it needs. What the weapon needs is a real identity and 900 range will not solve its problem. Neither will giving it 40-50% damage boost. The issues with the axe are not just in the axe but our traits themselves. The axe’s damage is comparable to other weapons at face value. When taking into account the traits we have available that percentage you’re throwing around is a worthless number since a flat stat boost in our traits would go allot further.

You have to think multi-dimensionally with these suggestions. How would this impact the other weapons? How would this impact the use of something like Death shroud or Reaper’s shroud? 40-50% puts its damage at way above that of the greatsword and dagger. Which isn’t something that anyone truthfully wants and its absolutely terrible game design.

You’re all in agreement without thinking about the consequences to your band-aid fix to a horribly broken weapon when its not entirely the weapon’s fault.

if you look what we have:
dagger=power
scepter=condi
axe= power wannabe
gs=power aoe
staff= condi utility
right now we lack a power wep at range axe was designed to do that I don’t mind if they make axe a hybrid but axe for power right now make more sense and it will have better synergy for reaper because it lack that range attack maybe in other spec we can have sword to be our close range condi wep i dont know
with the changes that most people agree you only put axe on a par with dagger and gs but still dagger will be better for brust and gs for aoe cleave a 50% buff to axe auto will make it around 315 and is still lower than dagger that is a fast wep I agree with you some traits need to change for axe

The axe should be a shotgun weapon. What it currently isn’t. My suggestion would make the axe into a shotgun weapon. Adding the corruption to its auto, even if its not a direct conversion would make it into a pressure shotgun weapon. Which is a playstyle in our weapons that would be an extremely welcome addition to our kitten nal.

Increasing its range doesn’t do what you think it does. It doesn’t give it identity. It turns it into a power version of Scepter. And I want to like the two weapons for their uniqueness not being mirrored of each other. The axe was designed around the 600 range. From granting retaliation, to its ofhand partner weapons, to its aoe.

If its to gain range, Unholy feast needs to completely change. And the auto attack needs to completely change anyway. So you’re still looking at a complete redesign of the weapon where a flat damage buff is a completely useless concept.

Axe is a midrange weapon! This is where its supposed to shine. This was its intention! Save the Long range power for an elite specialization. We still need space for elite specs and high ranged support isn’t something that the axe shouldn’t rob from potential from the future.

Captain Unusual.9163:

Anchoku.8142:

I am with Lily on this. Reaper Shroud, shouts, and GS will marginalize axe even further than it is.

Necromancer has a lot of weapons that support power builds with only scepter and staff (maybe) supporting condition damage builds.

That is why I favor reworking axe into a close range hybrid power condition damage weapon so it has a niche to fill, again.

Axe with vulnerability stacking is fine I’m solo MM or small groups without the Reaper line where vulnerability stacks do not cap but this line of caveats is becoming longer every year.

Axe needs something to make it special and a damaging condition would do that.

A lot of power build weapons? There’s Dagger, Greatsword, and some offhands that can be useful with any spec.

Staff, death shroud, dagger, warhorn, focus, axe, greatsword and reaper’s shroud are all useful to power and really good for power excluding Axe.

Off hand Dagger and scepter are the only condition weapons. Staff is decent as a hybrid weapon but its best for spacing which is useful to both power and condi.

out of 8 weapons and the 2 shrouds 7/10ths are power, 1/10th is both and 2/10ths are pure condition. Not including traits that attempt to make shrouds into a condi weapon that basically says yeah, its mostly power.

Brokensunday.4098:

ok so almsot all agree it need to be 900 range power increase around 40-50% and skill 3 remaind almost ast it is just a buff skill 2 need to be faster and reduced recharge and add a finisher so this leaves axe 1

how about make it a chain of 3 apply vulne cripple I would like to head more ideas torment perhaps let me know =]

No, thats what you want to believe what it needs. What the weapon needs is a real identity and 900 range will not solve its problem. Neither will giving it 40-50% damage boost. The issues with the axe are not just in the axe but our traits themselves. The axe’s damage is comparable to other weapons at face value. When taking into account the traits we have available that percentage you’re throwing around is a worthless number since a flat stat boost in our traits would go allot further.

You have to think multi-dimensionally with these suggestions. How would this impact the other weapons? How would this impact the use of something like Death shroud or Reaper’s shroud? 40-50% puts its damage at way above that of the greatsword and dagger. Which isn’t something that anyone truthfully wants and its absolutely terrible game design.

You’re all in agreement without thinking about the consequences to your band-aid fix to a horribly broken weapon when its not entirely the weapon’s fault.

Anchoku.8142:

I am with Lily on this. Reaper Shroud, shouts, and GS will marginalize axe even further than it is.

Necromancer has a lot of weapons that support power builds with only scepter and staff (maybe) supporting condition damage builds.

That is why I favor reworking axe into a close range hybrid power condition damage weapon so it has a niche to fill, again.

Axe with vulnerability stacking is fine I’m solo MM or small groups without the Reaper line where vulnerability stacks do not cap but this line of caveats is becoming longer every year.

Axe needs something to make it special and a damaging condition would do that.

Axe used to be a valuable weapon for a hybrid build because of its ghastly claws. With the 66% on Barbed precision it could get a decent amount of bleeds in a short burst. Though since that was nerfed its lost even more of its utility since then.

nekretaal.6485:

Lily.1935:

It wouldn’t be unique. Both the engineer and Elementalist already do this in spades. It wouldn’t make us desired for groups either because 2 blast finishers isn’t enough to get into the zerker might meta.

And, duh, that’s why it would be a completely unique playstyle. No fire fields & only 2 blasts means that you do not have the playstyle of the engi/ele zerker might meta.

I’ve heard this before: putting a blast on a profession does not turn it into an elementalist. Everybody can blast. Minions can blast.

Remember that axe is 66% single target only. So, if you could blast your own fields for AoE effects that vary according to the field, you’ve got an interesting tool to use with proper setup.

Plus the necromancer has it’s unique dark fields (and chill on blind trait which could very useful), and you have something different and new.

Axe does nerf your shroud damage (and being able to un nerf your damage by taking a trait is not a fix). It shoud be a support weapon & it’s base skills (all of them) should hit harder if you spec damage

Nothing you don’t already have with the Staff. Also the whirl finisher would be more interesting and useful for us. It would do more for us than a blast finisher. Whirl through Spectral wall for confusion, corrosive poison cloud for poison, one of our many dark fields for life stealing, Executioner’s Scythe’s ice field for chilling bolts.

Tim.6450:

And tell me how often do the mesmer/clones survive to use it more then once every 15 seconds without completely ruining themselves? Axe is going to be able to do that. Also just because the axe was not a ranged power weapon doesn’t mean it was intended as such. Unless you are refferring to the 900 range and then I say focus.

Often enough actually. Plus the mesmer can do it themselves with a lower cast time than what I’m proposing.

Tim.6450:

Guardian longbow is going to apply cripple. Also just because the boon conversion is random doesn’t makes it blanaced. Axe corrupting stability/resistance/quickness with it’s auto is not a good idea.

Its only if someone is by them. Its an extremely conditional application. Not unconditional like you’re suggesting. Plus, the axe isn’t a projectile so it has fewer skills that can block it, or move out of its path of fire because it doesn’t have one. Your idea is busted beyond repair. No… No auto attack CC. That’s insane.

Jackalrat.5493:

I agree, in general, that the axe could use some improvements and something to make it unique. Boon stripping could be one way to do this, but on every 3rd auto would definitely be too strong.

Perhaps rolled into #2 or #3 with a damage increase and/or cripple to the AA.

Boons are pretty dominant right now. A direct conversion might be a bit strong, maybe though I’d still like them to test it. But stripping isn’t too strong as evidence from the mesmer’s Sword auto. Having 3 clones out they have a potential to remove 4 boons from the clone’s chain with no cool down. Granted its melee and there are inherent risks wit that. But when looking at the necromancer axe along with the suggested cast times its not as extreme as it sounds. Compared to the mesmer who could create 3 clones who could be auto attacking while the mesmer sits back quietly avoiding attacks or perhaps spamming blinds can hinder boons fairly well. At least in theory.

The advantage to the necromancer axe would be that its at a range. Even if its a low range its still a range. A direct conversion would give the axe a dual potential in power builds as well as hybrid builds who would value the axe for its natural high damage and potential with boon stripping. Combine that with the whirl finisher I’ve suggested for Ghastly Claws and suddenly the suggestions all add up to make perfect sense. Combo it with spectral wall for confusion bolts, or Corrosive poison cloud for poison bolts. Combo with allies with a fire field for high burning damage or regain a good chunk of your life with dark fields. The utility it provides is much higher for us than a blast finisher.

Also, just a cripple or any sort of soft CC on an auto attack is extremely dangerous. Especially at range. Throwing in a random element with the boon corruption is still less powerful than an auto attack cripple. Arena Net is cautious about giving CC on auto attacks for a very good reason. And we’ll never see a CC on a ranged auto attack just as a automatic ability that isn’t on an elite transformation.

nekretaal.6485:

Lily.1935:

Also, we’ve had the damage increased several times over the years, if what you’re saying is that simple the axe would have been useful by now.

False

Anet has never increased the damage coefficient of the entire weapon.

That’s whats subpar and needs to be increased. All they have done is upped the damage on axe 2 a few times, and tweaked 3 a few times (the last time was to change the boon rip to a boon corrupt). (and the increases on axe 2 were very conservative. The numbers suggest that its a very mediocre skill).

FWIW. anet has never increased the damage of axe 1. They have changed animation. The last change was effectively a nerf.

As for a blast finisher. If axe 3 gets one, the trait gets one too. That means you could blast twice in a row. Blast your well for blind (chill traited). Blast your well of blood for retaliation. Blast your spectral wall for Confusion. This in addition to helping your team with blasts.

It would be a totally unique playstyle in the game on its own (instead of feeling like a non condition scepter), and would be a welcome addition to the necromancer kitten nal.

Axe nerfs your Shroud damage, so it should be designed as a support (not pure damage) weapon.

It wouldn’t be unique. Both the engineer and Elementalist already do this in spades. It wouldn’t make us desired for groups either because 2 blast finishers isn’t enough to get into the zerker might meta. (Which also should die by the way because its a disgustingly destructive meta that turns away new players and creates elitism and spite among the community with people who’ve learned one trick to trivialize content.)

Also, Axe 1 has been increased a few times. I was there! Yeah, it was conservative changes but you also have to remember that traits had been moved around as well which effectively increased the axe’s damage because Close to Death used to compete with Axe mastery. And that was a flat 10% damage increase or 20% while the foe was below 50%, depending on how you looked at it. That was a significant buff and the axe was used for a while, even though it wasn’t amazing. Of course, the Staff was also much weaker back then as well.

Currently, we have a superb long ranged option. The staff is a great ranged option. Its damage isn’t too high, but it honestly doesn’t need to be. Its 1,200 range. The axe shouldn’t just become better weapon than Staff in this space. That space should be saved for an Elite Specialization. Currently, the necromancer doesn’t even have very much utility to support 1,200 range combat outside of conditions. Spectral grasp really being the only one, and with how offensive the necromancer’s traits are the axe doesn’t have a whole lot of support at 1,200 range. A 900 range it does, but even then the extra 300 range wouldn’t make it better than a scepter or staff. I’d still rather just take the scepter or staff. Even if I’m going full power. I need a reason to take it beyond damage. A ranged weapon needs to do more. And at short range this can fill a play style gap that the scepter and staff can’t.

Another problem with increasing its range is the issue with Unholy Feast. That skill would need to be completely redesigned to support the 900 range you’re suggesting. Which its designed entirely around the 600 range limit of the axe. So you would have to reinvent the wheel. Which at that point the blast finisher wouldn’t even be relevant.

nekretaal.6485:

Just increase the damage and put a blast on 3.

No need to reinvent the wheel here.

Axe currently doesn’t have a home and a blast finisher will not make it as useful as you think it would. It also wouldn’t give the axe a home either. A sort of combo supportive weapon, which is what a blast finisher supports, isn’t in the axe’s design as it stands. And it shouldn’t be. An offhand with a blast finisher would both make more sense and would be far better for the overall design of our weapons.

Also, we’ve had the damage increased several times over the years, if what you’re saying is that simple the axe would have been useful by now. But low and behold, it never has been.

Brokensunday.4098:

animation on axe 1 need a rework range need to be 900 increase damage by 40% skill 1 also apply cripple skill 2 need to be faster and combo whirl finisher skill 3 damage increase thats all the axe need

any sort of CC on an auto attack that isn’t an auto attack on an elite transformation is extremely busted at range. I honestly don’t understand how people can’t understand that…

Tim.6450:

Corrupting one boon every 3 seconds is really beyond what is acceptable for a autoattack even ripping one would be over the top. Right now necromancer lacks a ranged power option something reaper even more pronounces. So I suggest:

Auto Attack:
Rending Claws: 1/2 cast time: Damages and causes vulnerability. (needs a damage boost compared to now).
Tearing claws: 1/2 cast time: Damages and causes vulnerability.
Corrupted Claws: 3/4 cast time: High(er) damage and cripple.
Ghastly Claws: High damage, last hit applies 2 seconds of chill (not sure about this one) and a Combo whirl finisher
Unholy Feast: change cripple to ~1,5 seconds of immobilize and retaliation to swiftness.
Unholy Fervor: change tto deal 10% more damge to vulnerable foes. Axe skills get 20 second cooldown reduction .
Spiteful Spirit: no icd.
The main point is to make the weapon a kitting tool at mid range. 900 range might be necesairy but with all the soft cc I doubt it.

No one ever complained about http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mind_Spike Oh, and each clone rips boons as well… So, no its not over the top. Plus a high ranged option is something we should expect from a second elite specialization and not at the core.

PS: A Ranged cripple on auto is WAY more powerful than a corruption. Especially since its a random boon. Actually, your entire idea is completely busted. Sorry to say.

Axe for necromancer is my second favorite weapon. Right behind Scepter. Which makes me sad that the auto is so horrible looking, and feels so bad to use that I haven’t touched the axe in a few months. Yeah, its that bad. I’ll try to be nicer about it, however that doesn’t mean I wont be critical about the axe. So I’m going to make some suggestions to make the axe a viable weapon. I’m going to be looking at the traits that are effected by axe as well as axe itself.

First lets take a look at the axe.

Auto Attack: Change this into a skill chain. This will stop skill canceling and the pay of for the third attack will make the full force of this attack weighted so that anyone using the axe will see value in the chain.

• Rending Claws: 1/2 cast time: Damages and causes vulnerability.
• Tearing claws: 1/2 cast time: Damages and causes vulnerability.
• Corrupted Claws: 3/4 cast time: High damage and corrupts a boon on a foe.

Ghastly Claws: Add function that it also damages up to 3 foes at melee range as well as becomes a Combo whirl finisher.

Unholy Feast: Increase its base damage and reduce its cast time.

Why am I suggesting these changes and not something thats a bit more popular like range increase or a blast finisher? Well, the answer is fairly simple. I’d like to keep the axe to a sort of frightening corruption theme with high overall damage. Giving this a reverse Mesmer greatsword effect that allows it to have much greater damage at melee than at far range playing more into the necro’s midrange style rather than trying to force this to be a long range weapon. I don’t want change the weapons function. Or make people only want to take it because of some silly blast finisher that was tacked onto it. It should stand as a weapon in its own right. And it shouldn’t just outclass the staff or scepter. I believe keeping this at 600 range is the correct way to go. And giving it combo utility is important, but not the only thing that’s important about this weapon. I also feel that 3 already does enough as it stands, it just needs a little boost while the other skills need some serious help.

Traits

• Unholy Fervor: While wielding an axe you gain 150 power. 20% cooldown reduction.

• Spiteful Spirit: Conditions applied by through boon corruption last 100% longer. Whenever you enter shroud, cast unholy feast.

Fairly simple changes. The 10% bonus should just be rolled into the base of the necromancer’s axe. Although it should probably be buffed anyway. Having that 150 power should be a nice touch although that might be a bit powerful. Having 10% power converted into Ferocity while wielding an axe is also a decent alternative. One thing that the necromancer is missing compared to other professions which seriously impacts their damage is flat stat boosts. And the axe seems like a good place to start with that. Also, keeping the with the corruption theme, Spiteful spirit as a grandmaster could give a condition hybrid alternative to the necromancer as opposed to the signet build. Though, this is still a tough call as they do fill the same space. It might just be better for spiteful spirit to have a completely new function. Though other than it applying confusion I see no space for it in spite currently.

What are your guys’s thoughts?

The greatsword was really fun to use and so was the Reaper’s shroud. Sure its power was a bit on the low side for both condition damage and physical damage I have to say that I really enjoyed it. But, I’ll use weak weapons if they’re fun to use. Unlike Axe… Which is no longer fun to use.

That is Dhuum. He’s used as the art for the reaper. His scythe could also be updated to look more spectral and shadowy from its GW1 counterpart.

And yes, absolutely legendary trail. Especially legendary trail with Dhuum’s scythe!

I’d much rather not see this. As it stands, there is little reason not to take Reaper at the moment. Reaper’s shroud is much better than Death shroud and being able to have both while as reaper makes the reaper specialization required for your bar.

Later on I’ll give me feedback on the reaper, what I feel needs to change, whats good and where the specialization shines and where it falls short. But for right now I’m going to suggest some cosmetic changes to diversify the community just a bit without it being a too much of a daunting task.

Suggestions:

1. Dhuumfire should give you Dhuum’s Soul reaper: I’ve made this suggestion before and I know you guys have heard it already. I doubt you had the time to implement something like this in the beta, which is fine. Though I’d like to see a cosmetic difference between your basic scythe and the Dhuumfire scythe. Dhuumfire, as unpractical as it is for the base necromancer, looks absolutely awesome when you’re shooting that glowing green fireball of dhuum! I feel the reaper should crank it up to 11 and give us the Soul reaper skin. A really cool nod to GW1 and a awesome cosmetic feel that could make running a condi reaper all the more fun to use.
2. Legendary trail: They scythe as our weapon should have a trail based on the weapon you are wielding. Such as if a reaper decides to run Frostfang it should have an icy trail on its scythe swings. Or if you want to wielding a Twilight you should have that night’s sky trail. Or if it fancies you, which it does me, if wielding bifrost you should have a rainbow trail with the swings. I don’t know if there was a trail in the beta, but from what I could see I saw no reaper with it. It would be nice to see this as it adds a bit of flavor to the profession and gives players some unique identity, especially with new legends coming out.

Other than that I think we’re good. The shouts sound great and look good in my opinion and the greatsword looks amazing. Issues aside for the profession, I look forward to playing it again.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Captain Unusual.9163:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Highest tick I got was 314 and I was sorely disappointed. That was the trait I was most looking forward to. Was really hoping it’d be a more balanced version of Dhuumfire that I could more reliably keep on my target for damage but NOPE.

Call me a baby but after trying out Reaper I’ve decided I’ll be moving over to my Warrior as my main… It doesn’t have the dark and brooding theme which I adore so dearly with Necromancer but it suits my style of play a lot better. It’s not complicated, gets the job done and I can function well with it solo in WvW.

Still always gonna have a soft spot for Necro and will still play it from time to time but… This was the final straw. Time to play a class that doesn’t suck at everything.

An expectedly unbalanced beta test is the last straw?

Reaper bored me. Would be the tldr. I’ve got over 2.2k hours in Necro, I think I’ve put up with enough for even a beta, which is obviously going to be buggy, to turn me off for good. I’m just not interested in what ever future the Necromancer has anymore.

Arena Net is using this test to get feedback on the reaper. I’d suggest saving your “I quit forever!” comment until the final product. If you feel you need to take a break from the profession, thats fine. I feel that way from time to time. But we have to remember that the reaper we’re seeing in beta isn’t the same as the reaper they currently have. Think of this reaper as version 0.5 and not the final product.

Out of the grandmaster traits on reaper, the only one I see worth taking is blighter’s boon. The others are way too weak in their current form.

So I’ve encountered what I think might be a bug since it isn’t something we can do without reaper’s shroud. Normally on entering Death shroud, even with a beta character you gain no benefit from sigils that trigger on weapon swap. But for reaper’s shroud only your weapon sigils that require you to weapon swap will trigger on entering reaper’s shroud. This is a massively fun bug.

I’m going to go right out and say it. Anet, you should just implement this into the base shroud as well as reaper’s shroud. Keep it in! I’m really enjoying this and it would be a great addition for defensive as well as offensive necromancers.

I’ve been using the greatsword in the beta and I have to say, I rather enjoy using it. Its attacks are really meaty and many of the skills are extremely useful. Skill 5 I found particularly good. However, the weapon is far from perfect having a few issues that holds it back in both PvE and PvP.

Skill 1: The damage on this is quite high. Allot higher than I expected from what people were saying on the forums. Though i do have to say that the full investment of the auto’s chain isn’t worth executing At a 2 and a half second investment the pay off just isn’t there. That last attack in the chain just isn’t worth it. And with such a huge investment you’re better off using other skills.

Suggestion for skill 1: Increase the third skills damage and increase the chill duration to 3 seconds. This would increase its usability in both PvE and PvP. You could permanently chill someone in the chain, but at as high of a investment as this skill requires you’re not likely to be able to do it in challenging content for PvE and against skilled or even moderately skilled players in PvP. Its still really slow and has huge tells.

Gravedigger: Very strong skills. Its damage is pretty high but not insane. I managed to hit for 12k with this thing and after being able to spam it fairly frequently while moving I have to say this skill is a bit better than people think. Normally I was hitting for 4-9k depending on if I critically hit or not.

Death Spiral: This skill obliterated foes. The damage was just insane and its life force gain was always useful. It was a great lead into Gravedigger as well as getting me back into Reaper’s shroud.

Nightfall: I like this skill. Its animation, its name sake, what it does. Though it feels like it doesn’t hit very often and when it does it doesn’t feel like it does too much beyond the blind. So this needs some work, though I’m not too sure on that just yet.

Grasping darkness: Really good skill. A bit hard to determine where you’re sending it out but otherwise great. The poison feels a bit weird on it. I’d probably have gone with something like chill on it. Though that might be a bit strong. Valn would be great though.

Overall I love the design of the greatsword. I think its a powerful weapon and the skills work very well together. There are a few issues with overall power with some of the skills though nothing so big that the weapon would need a re design. A few buffs here or that and it should be a great weapon.

Malchior.1928:

• Dagger OH: 5/5 It brings good utility although it may become more valuable with changes to pve. Currently, warhorn is used more often although that doesn’t make this offhand inferior.

Dagger OH is not a 5/5. As a primary condimancer, its fairly weak but our only option. The skill 5 is rather slow to cast and slow to hit compared with other skills and it doesn’t have a way to generate life force which forces heavy focus on the scepter making the scepter seem like a really bad weapon for life force. When it really isn’t. Allot of the misconception about a condimancer comes from their prefered Offhand weapon. Dagger. I’d say its a 4/5 maybe 3/5. It needs some love to it for sure.

Malchior.1928:

• Axe: 3/5 Axe auto attack damage and its animations are terrible. My solution to this is to have its second hit of the attack chain remove 1 boon. This will synergize well with the Spite line in section 5, and it will also increase axe’s overall dps (through the spite trait, spiteful talisman). Axe 2 is useable. Axe three is amazing, but it needs a blast finisher. This will make axe see more use as a boonhate weapon.

I actually disagree with giving axe a blast finisher. I think it would help its usability, but I don’t feel that that is the way to help it. A whirl finisher on skill two might not be as attractive, but fits a bit better. As for boon corruption on the auto, well that was my idea so of course i’m in favor of that. Though I still am of the opinion that Axe should be a skill chain with its 3rd strike corrupting a boon.

Malchior.1928:

• Warhorn: 5/5 Magnificent game design. Wonderful synergy. Very sustain. Wow.

Again, as a OH I feel warhorn isn’t as good as you think it is. If any weapon should have a blast finisher its this one. Warhorn always disappointed me as its wail of doom was supposed to fear and confuse foes. Which it does neither. Which also means its potential synergy with traits outside of Banshee’s Wail is fairly limited. Still, a 4/5. Its good but not great.

Robert Gee.9246:

Regarding general silence, it’s mostly due to how busy everything is at the moment, but also due to how a company as large as ArenaNet works. I’ll see if I can explain a few things to put the situation into context.

Right now I’m waiting to get feedback from the upcoming beta weekend on Chronomancer and Reaper, but I haven’t worked on either of them specifically for several weeks. Many of the changes you’ve seen from Gamescom were locked down weeks ago in order to assure the stability of the floor demo and the upcoming beta weekend. With a game as big as Guild Wars 2 it takes a long time (and a lot of QA effort) to make sure big events like Gamescom go smoothly. My work over the last few weeks hasn’t been for Necromancer or Mesmer and is actually been for the Warrior elite specialization (which I probably can’t say anything else about). I’m also fixing bugs on live for ALL professions this week and next which has kept me pretty busy.

Now this isn’t to say that I’m not paying attention to what’s being said or what’s been said in the past. I take notes on threads I think are relevant for when I have time to work on them. I have notes on things to improve with both axe and scepter as well as a note about skills that we could add projectile blocking to (incidentally RS 2 blocks projectiles because of a suggestion I read here). These are changes I’d like to get to and see happen, but right now iteration on Reaper and Chronomancer are probably going to take priority over that once the beta finishes.

I hope that clears up a few things. I’m not really as talkative as Roy or Karl, but I’ll see if I can show up now and then to answer the occasional polite question.

Woah… Woah! You’re blowing my mind. Really? I don’t know what to say to this… I guess thank you will do. Yeah, thank you!

Zoso.8279:

Lily.1935:

Zoso.8279:

This sentence right here is the problem. Also it looks like you want engi play style on necro.

I don’t want necromancer to be a jack of all traits. A single build should have a counter to it. Soft counters are preferred but hard counters are alright as well. However, there shouldn’t be a hard counter for the entire profession. It should matter what your match ups are. It shouldn’t be that their is absolutely nothing you can do to play better based on your limitations from mechanics. So I see no problems with my statement. I don’t want to play like an engineer. We need greater utility. This is a fact. We are front loaded, which puts way too much focus on Death shroud. Its our damage, its our utility, its our defense, its our control, its supposed to be everything all at the same time and executes none of this very well. You must be imagining things on the Engineer comparison, because I don’t want it to be like the engineer. I’ve never even hinted toward that.

DS can be tailored towards defense or offense depending on how you trait it. People tend to forgot about the actual necro :P he can do stuff too you know. Its not about just getting into DS and 111111111 or getting into DS and absorbing damage. Either way I play for fun and very casually just giving my opinions because atm it looks like necros are kinda stuck but w/e glhf. Ill be going back into the shadows less headaches there :P (get it? cuz I’m a necromancer… lol!)

Never said it couldn’t… Are you… Are you trolling? Well, if you are, congrats. You’ve succeeded. But now I can’t take a single thing you’ve said seriously. So, moving on to more pressing issues.