Guild Wars 2

Soul Reaping:

Minor Adept:
Gluttony: Life force pool increased by 20%. Life force drains slower while in shroud

Major Adept:
Soul Marks: Marks generate life force and are unblockable. Staff skills recharge faster
Speed of Shadows: Movement speed increased and skill recharge is decreased while in shroud. Shroud 2 grants speed
Unyielding Blast: Shroud skill 1 causes vulnerability and grants fury

Minor Master:
Last Grasp: Gain spectral armor every time you lose 25% of your health. When downed, you take half damage

Major Master:
Fear of Death: Fear nearby enemies whenever you are downed. Downed fear skills recharge faster
Spectral Master: Spectral skills recharge faster and last longer. Gain life force when you using spectral skills.
Vital Persistence: The next attack that would down you instead converts 50% of your life force into health

Minor Grandmaster:
Strength of the Undead: Gain more life force with attacks. Do more damage while in shroud

Major Grandmaster:
Death Perception: increase critical hit chance by 50%, double when in shroud
Dhuumfire: Shroud skills 1, 2, 4 and 5 cause burning . If you are on fire, you apply an extra stack of burning
Foot in the Grave: Gain stability (10s) and break stuns when you enter or leave shroud

Reaper:

Minor Adept:
Death Knight: Death Shroud is replaced with Reaper’s Shroud. Can use great swords

Major Adept:
Augury of Death: Reduces recharge of shouts. Shouts steal health (2%) and gain additional recharge reduction per foe hit. Instant recharge if shout kills a target
Chilling Nova: Critical hits apply chill. Critical hits on chilled foes cause an explosion that chills adjacent foes
Relentless Pursuit: Reduces duration of movement impairing conditions (33%). Double if in shroud. Whenever a foe applies a movement impairing condition on you, they are chilled (5s)

Minor Master:
Shivers of Dread: When you fear a foe you also chill them. Any movement boons are stripped

Major Master:
Chilling Victory: Do more damage against chilled foes (10%). Gain might and life force when striking chilled foes
Decimate Defences: Gain 2% critical hit chance per stack of vulnerability applied on a foe. If a foe has vulnerability, your attacks against them are unblockable
Soul Eater: Great sword skills execute and recharge faster as well as steal health (4%). “Your Soul is Mine” restores more health

Minor Grandmaster:
Cold of Death: Chill does damage (unique condition icon, restored old chill damage). Chill lasts longer and chilled foes do less damage to you (15%)

Major Grandmaster:
Blighter’s Boons: Gain life force (5%) and health (5%) whenever you gain a boon
Reaper’s Victory: When you kill a foe you gain 20% or 10% life force if you are in Reaper’s Shroud. If you down a player, summon a Reaper of Grenth to finish them
Reaper’s Onslaught: Attack faster when in shroud. Killing a foe reduces recharge on skills. Shroud recharges faster

Death Magic:

Minor Adept:
Amored Shroud: gain 50% toughness while in shroud

Major Adept:
Flesh of the Master: Minions have increased health and Jagged Horrors lose health more slowly. Gain 25 toughness per minion
Putrid Defence: Take less damage from poisoned foes. Foes who perform a critical hit on you are poisoned (5s)
Shrouded Protection: Gain protections (4s) when entering shroud and every 6 seconds while in shroud

Minor Master:
Soul Comprehension: Gain 1% life force per second when outside of combat

Major Master:
Deadly Strength: gain 50% of your toughness as power. Power gain doubles in shroud
Necromantic Corruption: Minions deal more damage and attack faster. Minions transfer conditions from you when they hit a target (5s cool down)
Reaper’s Protection: When stunned, knocked back, pulled, knocked down, sunk, floated, feared, taunted, launched or interrupted, inflict fear on nearby enemies and protection on allies

Minor Grandmaster:
Beyond the Veil: Chill enemies within earshot when exiting shroud

Major Grandmaster:
Corrupter’s Fervor: Gain 30 toughness and -5% condition damage every time you apply a condition (10 max)
Death Nova: Minions explode when they die, causing heavy damage and leaving a poison field behind. Summon a Jagged Horror when killing an enemy. Can summon an addition bone minion
Unholy Sanctuary: Double your toughness when in shroud and regenerate health

Blood Magic:

Minor Adept:
Sanguine Defence: Siphon health from foes that attack you (2%)

Major Adept:
Blood Bond: Cast a Lesser Signet of Vampirism when you bleed a foe (4 stacks). Transfer any bleeding to the marked foe during the duration of the signet
Quickening Thirst: Increase movement speed by 25%. Dagger skills recharge faster
Ritual of Life: Cast Well of Blood whenever activating a heal skill. Revive speed increased

Minor Master:
Vampiric: Siphon health whenever you hit a foe (2%). Minions siphon health and transfer it to you

Major Master:
Banshee’s Wail: War horn skills recharge faster. Apply chill (240 radius) when activating a war horn skill
Life from Death: Heal nearby allies when entering or exiting shroud or when killing a foe
Vamiric Aura: You and nearby allies siphon health when attacking (5%). Bleeding also siphons health (1% per 5 stacks)

Minor Grandmaster:
Last Rites: You and allies do not bleed when downed. Whenever you or an ally is downed, a Well of Blood is created that partially revives you

Major Grandmaster:
Transfusion: Shroud 4 heals and partially revives allies. The next attack that would down an ally instead transfers 20% of the attacker’s health to the ally
Unholy Martyr: While in shroud, constantly draw conditions from allies. Gain 7% life force and 5% health per condition drawn. Lose all conditions when exiting shroud.
Vampiric Rituals: Wells siphon 2% health per pulse and marks siphon 4% health upon activation. Gain protect (10s) when either is activated

Spite:

Minor Adept:
Reaper’s Might: Skill 1 grants might

Major Adept:

Bitter Chill: Chilling a foe corrupts a boon
Spiteful Renewal: Consume a condition when you strike a foe below 90% health. You consume two conditions if foe is under 50% health.
Spiteful Talisman: Do increased damage to foes with no boons (+10%). Striking a foe with boons strips them of a boon. Focus skills recharge faster.

Minor Master:
Death’s Embrace: Skill 1 applies vulnerability. Do more damage when you are downed.

Major Master:
Chill of Death: Striking a chilled foe applies poison and bleed (10s)
Rending Shroud: Entering shroud inflicts damage on nearby foes. Constantly cripple nearby enemies while in shroud.
Unholy Fervor: Reduces recharge of axe skills. Gain quickness (4s) on critical

Minor Grandmaster:
Siphoned Power: gain 100 power per enemy within earshot

Major Grandmaster:
Close to Death: if your health drops below 50%, gain 20% more Power, Precision and Ferocity. Deal 20% damage to foes below 50% health
Signets of Suffering: Reduces recharge on signets. Signets grant might (x10), convert boons on foes into conditions and apply torment (x5)
Spiteful Spirit: Corrupt up to 3 boons on up to 5 enemies nearby when entering shroud. While in shroud, corrupt a boon and transfer a condition every 3 seconds.

Curses:

Minor Adept:
Barbed Precision: Improve Precision by 150. Critical attacks cause bleeding (10s)

Major Adept:
Chilling Darkness: Blinding a target also applies chill (6s). Chilling an already chilled foe applies blindness
Plague Sending: Whenever you reach 5 conditions, you transfer them to up to 5 enemies within earshot
Terrifying Escape: Dodging fears nearby foes

Minor Master:
Furious Demise: Gain fury when entering shroud, killing a foe or when an ally is killed (including minions)

Major Master:
Master of Corruption: Corruption skills recharge faster. Consume conditions upon activating a corruption skill.
Terror: Fear lasts longer, cripples and causes damage. Damage is increased if more conditions are present
Path of Corruption: Inflict torment (5s) and poison (5s) whenever you corrupt a boon

Minor Grandmaster
Target the Weak: Gain 10% more condition damage. Striking a target with 5 conditions or more resets their time

Major Grandmaster:
Lingering Curse: Scepter skills recharge faster. Conditions have 100% more duration
Parasitic Contagion: Receive less condition damage. Any conditions applied to you are also applied to the attacker
Weakening Shroud: Apply weakness to all foes nearby when entering shroud. Apply bleed and weakness every 3 seconds while in shroud

Well the good thing with Viper’s gear is that it gives you a lot of flexibility. I have full viper’s amor, amulet, ring, and accessory, and sinister ring and accessory. I have recently switched to power weapons and am actually having quite a bit of success. Is it viable in raids though? No. I tested it out on golem and I got around 9.5k dps with a good rotation. As far as power necro is concerned, that’s good damage, but as far as raid damage is concerned, it’s not viable.

And I thought I would be chastised for it being “Overpowered” XD

I had thought about this at one time. It’s a cool concept indeed, but sadly one that we will never see

Flumek.9043:

Id say the most important thing in making a viable build, is having a good weaponset, one with natural flow. Utilities are only invulnerability get out of jail cards….

So…

Youre only giving CD reductions on weapons.
They need fixes and reworks to make them usable.

Focus 4.
An ability thats hard to use when focused, cz thief jumping you = blind. So you cant use the melee burst skill to drive someone off yorself. That is rework.
Reducing the horrible 3year aftercast on focus 4. That is a tweak.
Making the projectile actually hit and home, aka just copy the ultra reliable mirror blade. That is bugfix imo.

Just my example for focus, which is already a 10x better choice than trashsword, a weapon with no good number, sloooow, buggy and unreliable, and witn zero useful combat flow (5+2 is not a true combo, so whole design is without value)

Yes certainly, I’m just tossing a few ideas around.

Ah yes I see your point!

Muchacho.2390:

Why would you nerf corrupters frever? You do know it is already 30 toughness per stack? Making it 25 is a nerf. Also proposing death magic changes but not touching soul comprehension? That trait is what needs change the most of all traits we have…

My bad, was under the impression it was 10 for some reason. Must have been confused with Flesh of the Master.

What’s wrong with Soul Comprehension?

I love this profession but I am the first to admit that it has very little to offer in a team. Now that I am bored of Halloween events, I took the time to modify the necromancer in my dreams. These are on top of how things are currently. Here’s what it would look like on paper. Is it perfect? Hell no, but it sure is an improvement on what we have.

Axe:
1. Auto-attack becomes an auto chain which inflicts vulnerability on the first two strikes and cripple on the third strike.
2. Skill 2 gets an extra +25% damage.
3. The retaliation boon has a base of 4 seconds and an extra 4 seconds per enemy hit.

Dagger:
1. +15% damage on auto chain.
2. Increased damage of skill 2 by 20% and life gain by 40%.
3. Skill 3 also teleports you to target.
4. Skill 4 can transfer up to 5 conditions.

Scepter:
1. Improved speed on auto chain by 5%.
2. Skill 3’s base torment duration increased by 2 seconds.

Staff:
Reduced recharge of skills 3, 4 and 5 (10, 15 and 20 seconds).

Greatsword:
1. Improved speed of auto chain by 5%.
2. After-cast of Gravedigger reduced by 0.1 seconds.
3. Increased the damage of skill 4 by 25%.
4. Skill 5: reduced recharge to 10 seconds, range increased to 1200; behaves like a projectile in that it reaches target regardless of uneven terrain (though uneven terrain will still prevent target from reaching you).

Focus:
1. Skill 4: regeneration increased by 3 seconds and recharge reduced to 10 seconds.
2. Skill 5 can remove up to 5 boons and recharge decreased to 15 seconds.

Heals:
Consume Conditions – recharge reduced to 15 seconds.
Signet of Vampirism – increased life gain from life siphon.
Summon Blood Fiend – heals caster when killed.
Well of Blood -recharge reduced to 25 seconds.
“You Soul is Mine” – increased base healing by 15%.

Utilities:
Corrupt Boon – convert up to 5 boons into conditions.
Summon Bone Fiend – Rigor is applied to the next three attacks.
Summon Fles Wurm – Necrotic Traversal’s range increased to 5000.
Summon Shadow Fiend – Haunt causes AoE blindness.
Signet of the Locust – improved health gain by 40%.
Spectral Armor – protection increased by 5 seconds.
Spectral Walk: Spectral Recall lasts for 30 seconds (essentially as long as the speed boon); for 5 seconds all incoming damage is converted into Life Force.
“Rise” – minions do not expire but only a maximum of 12 can be controlled. Protection restored to 50%. Using “Rise” again with maxed minions simply reapplies the protection.

Elite:
Life Form – increased base duration to 30 seconds and skill 3 steals life; jagged horror restored to previous form where they suffer slow health loss instead of being timed. Form also adds 1000 power. Recharge reduced to 120 seconds.
Plauge – Reduced recharge to 120 and projectiles automatically miss.

Reaper’s Shroud Utility Skills:
Heal Skill – “Your Life is Mine” gain 20% of your max life force and 5% health for each foe struck (range 600).
Flames of Torment – Well (6s) Damage foes (1, 565) and apply torment (5 seconds) per pulse (range 900).
Cry of the Banshee – Daze (2 seconds) and chill target (5seconds) (range 450).
Ghost Body – Become invulnerable for 3 seconds.

Traits:

Spite:
Spiteful Renewal – increased threshold to 50%.

Curses:
Linger Curse – conditions applies by scepter last 100% longer instead of 50%.

Death Magic:
Flesh of the Master – increased toughness to 25 per minion.
Necromantic Master – minions also attack 10% faster.
Corrupter’s Fervor – -5% incoming condition damage per stack.
Death Nova – Explosion causes damage similar to bone minions. Can summon three bone minions instead of 2.

Blood Magic:
Vampiric Presence – life siphon increased by 40%.
Vampiric Rituals – applies to marks as well.

Soul Reaping:
Last Grasp – reduced recharge to 30 seconds.

Reaper:
Soul Eater – increased health steal by 25%.
Cold Shoulder/Cold of Death (renamed) – chill damage added here to current trait.
Reaper’s Victory (new) – killing an enemy restores 20% of your health. If in reaper’s shroud it restores 10% life force.

NekoNoKoi.9137:

Methuselah.4376:

Spectral Walk:
-Spectral Recall lasts 30 seconds not just 8.
-For 8 seconds, any direct damage is instead absorbed as Life Force

I agree with a lot of your ideas, but I like this one the most. 8s might be a bit OP, but having that skill absorb any incoming damage as life force (similar to the Glint heal) is an interesting idea

While normally I would agree, one must consider that this would be the only skill of its kind and it has a 40+ second cool down.

I loved playing Necro from the start and the Reaper specialization was the whole reason I bought HoT. However, I do concur that there are some serious issues and yes, the developers seem to waive them aside because of SHROUD. Urgh. First off, shroud immolates in 2 seconds under focused fire, even if one takes the Soul Reaping trait. It’s absolutely nothing compared to Guardians or Warriors who can keep a decent amount of blocks going, essentially making them immune to most damage. AND they have heavy armor. I think the only way to solve this is adding Shroud utility skills. I thought of a few that might be handy:
“Your Life is Mine”
-Essentially this is the reverse of Your Soul is Mine, whereby you restore an amount of Lifeforce and for each enemy you hit you heal a certain amount of health.

Flames of Torment
-A mark. Target area is engulfed in green flames and any enemies in the area are damaged and have 5 stacks of Torment for 10 seconds or such.

Wail of the Banshee
-A hard CC, this would Daze and chill as well.

Ectoplasmic Body
-The devs keep throwing “but it’s not thematic” at us when we cry out for blocks. Well here’s a theme: the reaper becomes insubstantial as a ghost. In other words, invulnerable. 3 seconds sounds fair. And the fact that we have to access to shroud to use it is a sort of pay off.

There are other things that beg changing:

Spectral Walk:
-Spectral Recall lasts 30 seconds not just 8.
-For 8 seconds, any direct damage is instead absorbed as Life Force

Grasping Darkness:
This one is so frustrating on uneven terrain as it won’t even reach the target sometimes. I would have it act more as a projectile. Devs said this skill is what allowed the slow reaper to bring victims to him…hard to do with such a low range (even after increase) and long recharge…so I would increase range to 1200 and reduce recharge.

Staff…reduce recharge on skills 3,4, and 5.

Lich Form…honestly such a long recharge time for just 15 seconds. I mean ye the form is very powerful but we get no means of healing other than cancelling the form and we become a big green beacon. So at least reduce recharge a bit. Same for Consume Conditions….the ONLY skill we have that cleanses without having to hit an enemy, so at least make it more viable by reducing recharge.

Life Siphon deserves better damage and health gain.

Deathly Chill now applies bleeding….a lazy way to get around the issue it had before. Would it be difficult to create a unique condi icon for chill that applies damage? and therefore instead of it coming up as the usual chill icon it comes on its own and therefore if anyone else applies non-Deathly Chill chill it won’t cancel out.

Minions:

Blood Fiend: Heals player when killed, not just when eaten.

Shadow Fiend: AoE Blind.

Bone Fiend: Next 3 attacks paralyze, this way if it’s in mid attack you won’t waste the activation as it becomes a set amount rather than timed.

And honestly…come up with some new minion designs Anet…to have Bone Minions, Jagged Horrors and Shambling Horrors all practically using the same design with superficial changes is just lazy.

Well I realize the numbers need tweaking, but that was just a floating idea.

I mostly use GS and A/W (for some kiting) in PvE and PvP.

I main a Sylvari Necro/Reaper, and though I have created other characters, I only ever really play with him

Imagine if for the next expansion there will be a competition for us players to design our own skills. You have to design 5 utility skills and an elite.? Here’s what I would design:

Order of the Vampire (recharge 30 seconds) (range 900)
- Bleed yourself (x5). You and allies within range steal health with your attacks (10 seconds). This is like a more amped up version of Vampiric Aura

Order of Corruption (recharge 18 seconds) (range 900)
- You and allies within range convert up to 3 boons into conditions with your next attack (8 seconds)

Order of Undeath (recharge 18 seconds)
- All your minions gain Might (x15) and are healed

Order of Power (recharge 30 seconds) (range 900)
- You and allies within range automatically convert up to 5 incoming conditions into boons (7 seconds).

Corpse Rain (recharge 30) t(range 1200)
- Bombard targeted area with necrotic energy (like meteor storm with green particle affects) (6 seconds). Deals 1, 098 damage and Poison (x2) each second.

Three of the Order skills should make Necromancers more able for supporting party members (and stop the whining about how necros are selfish) by adding support that’s related to their theme. I realize that Order of Power is in some regards functionally the same as Well of Power, but this skill is more viable as a party support and would be combined well with Well of Power for a more sustained form of condition management.

Elite Skill

Wraith Servant/Sepulcher Cry
- Summon a wraith (like the Risen Wraith) whose attacks chill enemies (1.5 seconds) (Melee). (Does not benefit from traits that enhance chills)
- Order your wraith to release a cry that fears foes (3 seconds) (recharge 40 seconds)(range 600) (Does not benefit from traits)

What would you do?

Berserker’s gear, Superior Rune of Strength, Greatsword (Superior Sigil of Fire/ Bloodlust), Axe (Superior Rune of Bloodlust) and War horn (Superior Sigil of Fire).

Spite:
Spiteful Talisman/ Unholy Fervor/ Close to Death

Soul Reaping:
Unyielding Blast/ Vital Persistance/ Death Perception

Reaper:

Augury of Death/ Decimate Defenses/ Reaper’s Onslought.

What I use for utility:
Consume Conditions
Signet of the Locust (nice speed buff plus an extra heal)
Well of Suffering (has nice dps)
Rise (while the minions themselves cause little damage, they are a good distraction and you mitigate 50% of incoming damage to them provided they hit something)
“Chilled to the Bone” (good for cc)/ Flesh Golem

I main a Reaper, and I won’t deny that I do not enjoy the damage boost we got, especially after years of dealing subpar damage. Now we deal decent damage and everyone complains. The truth is that our survivability, as been said, is not as great as some people think. Two or three players focus on a Reaper an it’s dead in 5 seconds. We’ve no blocks and invulnerability, and that is more frustrating to deal with than a double health bar. Many a time I nearly kill a player and boom blocks and invulnerability and they’re back to full health.

The Reaper was desgined from day one to be a brutal force, that’s their thing. But they still have no support utility skills, no teleports, and move as slow as molasses ( needing to waste a skill slot to keep speed at a decent pace [Signet of the Locusts]). I think that Dragon Hunters are more annoying and Thiefs are just plain kittens.

The only time I “pwn” people is when I am in Lich Form, and its attacks are easy to dodge, no healing, has a short duration (though to be fair I often down three players in fifteen seconds), long kitten recharge and you become a big giant beacon that says “Hey kill me!”.

I find that the Arah dungeon armour is the best armour for necromancers aesthetically. You could throw in Reaper’s Hood but it has some clipping issues.

Before I got all the Arah pieces I mixed it up with CoF pieces and the Reaper’s Hood, looked pretty neat (second pic)

The black wings have some minor clipping issues with the Mantle of the Lich, so I hid them.