PVE Only:
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).
Well the thing is Anet doesnt really want that skills work differently between the modes hence the only difference they would ever do is changing the numbers. And that wont help Greatsword for spvp/wvw.
And honestly something like giving deathspiral a short charge or teleport (a pretty common demand for greatsword) would be useful for pve as well, so i am sure you can make greatsword more useful for pvp settings without effecting pve too much. Even reworking that skill to be a block etc. wouldnt be bad for pve after all that skill before the patch was so terrible it wasnt even part of the dps roation for power reapers (now it is barely worth casting over the auto).
Other common change demands were a reduction to the aftercast of gravedigger and better functionality of grasping darkness. Also things that make the weapon even in pve clunky (hence why i wouldnt call greatsword perfect even for pve standards).
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).
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.
If anything heals Like Well of Blood ticks, and Sig of Vamp’s on hit heal, and Blood Fiend’s attacks should heal through shroud, even if it’s at 50% effectiveness
I would argue that regeneration should also work in shroud. By the way the debuff of SoV works though shroud (though the bloodbond trait doesnt).
there is a hidden internal cooldown on the protection gaining from spectral wall if I remember correctly…
It doesn’t have a internal cool-down. Its actually much worse. You only get protection if don’t already have protection on you. Just test it, cast spectral armor and spectral wall then run though it.
I think this is generally how walls work to prevent people from stacking boons by crossing the wall multiple times. Mesmer has similar issues with Temporal Curtain.
Funny that you mention temporal curtain. Because it should works differently atleast the wiki says so. The wiki says that the frist crossing gives 12 sec swiftness and successive crossings are 1 sec. But i think in the past it actually worked like you said.
GS I feel is a perfect power weapon, yeah it’s slow but it does hit pretty hard and the GS autos regen some nice chunks of LF as well (so Warhorn 5 then rotate in GS and you’ll also regen some nice big chunks of LF there as well). Axe I feel needs to just be sped up a bit, rather than increasing the damage, because even if you increase the damage you won’t be dealing enough to a fast moving/tough target because your attack speed is too slow. Greatsword even hits faster than Axe (only 3/4s per swing if I remember correctly with a 1s final swing) but it also serves a better purpose all around. GS autos can regen lifeforce and Chill (which, with the way I’m built, also applies Vulnerability stacks) whereas all Axe does is a steady flow of damage while stacking 1 stack of Vulnerability per strike. GS 3 will instantly apply over half the max stacks of Vulnerability within a second, whereas Axe is still trucking away trying to reach 10.
GS is hardly a perfect power weapon. Axe is actually superior to GS in pvp and even WvW.
If you actually read the words “I feel” within that sentence you’d realize that it’s my opinion and, as such, it’s the perfect power weapon FOR ME AND MY STYLE. I also don’t PvP nor do I WvW so that’s completely irrelevant. Besides, when up against someone with an Axe GS can easily pull them in, Blind/Cripple them with a DoT and apply 12 stacks of Vulnerability in seconds while Axe is busy hacking away trying to get 5 Vulnerability stacks going. Your 2 may be the only useful skill in that scenario, but it’d be foolish to even say GS is superior to Axe because you’d have a crap ton of variables to take into account as well (the type of gear, player experience, etc etc). Besides, last time I was in the PvP lobby (testing out my DpS on the immortal golem) everyone there was just typical arrogant PvPers who think killing each other is the only ‘fun’ way to play a game and all other modes are for scrubs. In other words: kids trying to act tough and failing miserably. Hence why I never PvP in MMOs, it’s never worth it and it’s its own community for a reason. WvW is essentially the same thing to me, just on a larger scale with a more PvE feel to it (pretty much 2 groups go to war is how I picture it).
I’m speaking only for my area of play which is PvE. I’m also simply speaking my opinion, just like you’re simply speaking yours. I personally find Axe to be the worst Necro weapon available, others may disagree but that is my rightful opinion.
Well then consider what i wrote as my opinion.
And in my opinion it is ignorant to call greatsword perfect when it is in such a pitiful state in pvp/wvw.
Also the way you talk about pvp is pretty arrogant aswell, so you are probably more similar to those “typical arrogant Pvper” then you may like.
But going back to your proposed axe changes.
The important one first, giving axe a condition transfer is certainly interesting but i dont think Anet would ever give a main hand weapon a condition transfer, when we already have a offhand weapon with condi transfer. If they really would give axe a condition removel it would probably more a skill that “consumes” them and gives health or boons back. But honestly i think they are ok with the current unholy feast, since it is a good skill (though i agree with you that axe is not the best place for it).
For rending claws and ghostly claws if i understand correctly you want simply better versions of them and some lifeforce from ghastly claws put on rending claws, so why not.
GS I feel is a perfect power weapon, yeah it’s slow but it does hit pretty hard and the GS autos regen some nice chunks of LF as well (so Warhorn 5 then rotate in GS and you’ll also regen some nice big chunks of LF there as well). Axe I feel needs to just be sped up a bit, rather than increasing the damage, because even if you increase the damage you won’t be dealing enough to a fast moving/tough target because your attack speed is too slow. Greatsword even hits faster than Axe (only 3/4s per swing if I remember correctly with a 1s final swing) but it also serves a better purpose all around. GS autos can regen lifeforce and Chill (which, with the way I’m built, also applies Vulnerability stacks) whereas all Axe does is a steady flow of damage while stacking 1 stack of Vulnerability per strike. GS 3 will instantly apply over half the max stacks of Vulnerability within a second, whereas Axe is still trucking away trying to reach 10.
GS is hardly a perfect power weapon. Axe is actually superior to GS in pvp and even WvW.
there is a hidden internal cooldown on the protection gaining from spectral wall if I remember correctly…
It doesnt have a internal cooldown. Its actually much worse. You only get protection if dont dont already have protection on you. Just test it, cast spectral armor and spectral wall then run though it.
It is intended. Only the spectral recall buff lasts longer. Its the same for spectral wall, only the wall lasts longer but not the protection and fear.
The Protection does actually last 50% longer. I haven’t paid enough attention to the Fear portion, admittedly.
Well for me it doesnt work. Just tested it. It is 5 seconds with and without the trait. For the fear it is hard to see but i highly doubt it since terror gave me only 1 tick (if it was 1.5 sec duration it should be 2 ticks with the second tick doing half the damage).
Maybe you confuse it with spectral armor? That skill indeed has the protection duration increased by the trait.
It is intended. Only the spectral recall buff lasts longer. Its the same for spectral wall, only the wall lasts longer but not the protection and fear.
Mhh i dont think that matchup is necro favored. But generally no thief plays perfect and is bound to make mistakes. Exploiting those mistakes will allow you to win. So i would agree with flumeks opinion about the thief vs necro match up.
A perfectly played thief shouldnt lose to a necro though since he can always just run away (no matter who good of a necro are you wont be able to stop this).
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?
Maybe the fact that it is practically useless?
For spvp on death traits are generally a bad idea. But soul comprehension is even for a on death trait bad. In WvW and in pve with alot of deaths going on (also a area in which that trait should exel) it still will be bad because of 3 simple facts.
1. max lf is capped at 100%.
2. shroud has a cd.
3. deaths give already alot of lifeforce (roughly 10%).
So even without this trait and deaths going on you will almost certainly get to 100% lf before then end of the shroud cd hence there is no point to this trait.
Also lf on death only works out of shroud meaining the trait is useles while in shroud.
While i dont know every trait in the game i am confident in saying that it is the worst trait in the game.
If Anet thinks death magic needs a on death trait, they need to design it so that even without deaths going on, it gives some reasonable benefits otherwise it will always be terrible for spvp.
Also if we talking about death magic lets talk about unholy sanctury. That traits need higher basehealing. Even assuming a 50% uptime of shroud (which is unrealistic) you will get less healing out of it then eles smoothing mist (which is a minor adept and also heals allies). It should atleast 200 in my opinion.
(edited by 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…
Well you are wrong on some of the things you say though.
First plague sending isnt the only “condition removel” trait necros have. There is also spiteful removel (which is kinda bad since you need an opponent with 25% health or less), shrouded removel (it is actually a good trait but sadly not good enough to make deathmagic viable for non mm builds) and of course necromatic corruption (which needs minions do to anything). And the best part is they all work in shroud.
Second consume conditions isnt the only condition removel skill. Well of power (which is not that amazing) and grim specter (tied to Lich) are also true condition removel skills (aka work without targets).
To be clear most of the things i listed wont do you much good in a match but you know… only because traits/skills arent viable for whatever reason it may be, it doesnt mean they dont exist.
Honestly making deathmagic more viable as a traitline for non mm builds would probably help alot. But for that soul comprehnsion needs a rework into something useful and probably some number changes to unholy sanctuary (the healing is pitiful).
Talk about traits or skills no one will ever use and the lich form is pointless.
If I play as a MM there’s the trait that grant me to senc condis to my minions but also it’s another condi transfer, not a condi clean (you transfer condi to your minions, but if you don’t have them it don’t work, as if you don’t hit the enemy).I can tell you that guardians have the Spirit Bow to clean a Lot of conditions and heal AoE, then they had not to die against any condi build. But no one will ever use a spirit weapon on a guardian why they’re really terrible (expecially in PvP).
As Active or Viable skill/trait there’s only the Heal Consume Conditions that really clean conditions from you, and is one of the healing skill with the longer casting time ever, making it really easy to interrupt with all the CC in the game. There’s also the well, but basicly no one use it why there’s better skills.
Well it is still wrong to say necros (or any profession) dont have certain things when they infact have them but they are not viable for some reason. I think we should be more precise about such things.
classes that cant wipe a entire 5man if left alone for a few seconds? all of them can. guess that means necro is balanced huh.calling necro barely good is about as dishonest as you can get. necro is amazing. i love playing it. did you just say necro doesnt have good condi clear? now i know your just straight up lieing. my necro has 3 full condi clears. 1 on staff and 2 in skills. super easy to use all of them and 1 of them has no cast time. you also said necro has no good condi. dude get out with that. necro is the best condi class to date.
In truth I was talking about when in Shroud and how easy is for every kind of class/build to burst us out of it… (just read better next time, please)
Out of the Shroud we have the staff, the signet and the heal (plus the PS by the trait if you use course). I don’t even talk about the well because no one use it for his high CD and slow effect (still if it’s good in team fight). in shroud you can have the PS trait but it’s not an active skill and can work whenever you crit, becoming useful or barely useful depending on the situation and your luck.
Also is true that the necro have only a single condi clean skill (Corruption Heal), that is the only way to clean conditions for a necro. If not with that skill, you Need to hit someone and if he dodge,block,blind,invulnerable you miss the condi transfer and your few chances to remove that pain from you. That is a condi clear mechanic that is specifically of the necromancer and frequently grant us some troubles. But also is the better way for a necromancer to obtain condition damage why our condi output without the RS5+4 is really low if compared to other classes.
I’m not the best necro ever but I know what I’m talking about.
Well you are wrong on some of the things you say though.
First plague sending isnt the only “condition removel” trait necros have. There is also spiteful removel (which is kinda bad since you need an opponent with 25% health or less), shrouded removel (it is actually a good trait but sadly not good enough to make deathmagic viable for non mm builds) and of course necromatic corruption (which needs minions do to anything). And the best part is they all work in shroud.
Second consume conditions isnt the only condition removel skill. Well of power (which is not that amazing) and grim specter (tied to Lich) are also true condition removel skills (aka work without targets).
To be clear most of the things i listed wont do you much good in a match but you know… only because traits/skills arent viable for whatever reason it may be, it doesnt mean they dont exist.
Honestly making deathmagic more viable as a traitline for non mm builds would probably help alot. But for that soul comprehnsion needs a rework into something useful and probably some number changes to unholy sanctuary (the healing is pitiful).
You do know that unless we get an offical name, the name means nothing. Scourge could be a name in progress or are scappers still called forge?
#ihateirony
ive never killed a necro or been killed on my necro because its easy to shut me down. ever. its always because if you dont the necro is going to kill every single one of you when freecrasting.
Tell me: what class leaved alone to freecast on your team is not dangerous?
Yes, a necromancer that freecast on your team is a pain, but also a ranger, a guardian, a warrior, a mesmer, even a dps ele (with high damage AoE).I don’t focus the enemy necro why is stronger than the other classes if I let him freecast, I focus him why I’m shure at 100% that I’m able to kill him fast and easy, making the enemy team fight in 4v5 for 20+ seconds.
One time I was accorded to my team to leave the enemy necro alive and it was not even able to make us problems. When he vas in RS we just bursted him out and stop, he was not able to inflict any good damage on us, I don’t even noticed any of his damage.
Any other class leaved alone is a more dangerous class than a necromancer. At last a necro can corrupt your boons, nothing more. No good condition damage out of shroud (that is really easy to burst off why don’t have any defensive ability or condi clean, and out of RS5+4 don’t have any good condi skills), no survavibility, no mobility (then can’t steal your points), easy to kill why don’t have any defensive skills, no bunker build, no dps build.
A necromancer is good Only in a Super Organized Team. That’s true. And that’s the Problem.Boon corrupt build is barely useless in a pug team and we don’t have any other way to make that class useful. medium-Low damage, No survavibility, No mobility, No defensive support.
The BIG problem will be in the Next Season. (even more than in this one)
Why?
Because ANet is making the Ranked section of the sPvP a PUG related game.
Then, we’ll have a class that is Barely good in super organized high level teams that will be forced to play in Pug Only teams.
Wow, our future is gonna Shine!classes that cant wipe a entire 5man if left alone for a few seconds? all of them can. guess that means necro is balanced huh.calling necro barely good is about as dishonest as you can get. necro is amazing. i love playing it. did you just say necro doesnt have good condi clear? now i know your just straight up lieing. my necro has 3 full condi clears. 1 on staff and 2 in skills. super easy to use all of them and 1 of them has no cast time. you also said necro has no good condi. dude get out with that. necro is the best condi class to date.
There are currently 14 conditions in the game hence a full clear has to remove 14 conditions.
Consume conditons is the only one that works without prerequisites. Staff 4 is only a full condi clear with 5 targets hit. For the rest they actually arent full clears, Lich 5 is only 12 (should actually 14 but Anet never bothered to increase the number with the introduction of slow and taunt), dagger 4 also only has the potantial to transfer 12. The rest of the skills is capped at 5 conditions (well of power, plague signet, suffer etc.)
So necro have technically only 1 real full condition clear and an additonal one when you can hit 5 targets with it.
Going back to silvs comment, he is probably implying with bad condi clear that most ways to deal with conditions on necro are transfers and if they miss/get dodged/get blocked/i-framed etc. you dont lose the conditions. Hence it is quite risky. Necros have actually only 3 skills that outright remove conditions namely consume conditions, well of power and grim specter and for traits there is only shrouded removel. All other things need succesful attacks on targets.
Necro DOESN’T die in 1~2 sec, but he becomes a punch bag
https://www.twitch.tv/djzapp/v/96510073
02:07 and thats only just an 1v1 not team focus.
Thats my level of play as i’ve played with and against Flawless Spocka some matches. I getting that level of enemy players.
It really seems that you don’t get it…so let me explain it in more “practical terms”
-Anet usee elites to sell expansions
-Anet nerfs professions to a level where elite is required to play at all
-Anet forces every elite in a specific role for the sake of gameplay, to limit the effort they’d need otherwise to create better gameplay
-If you want to 1vs1 or be more solo friendly as class…anet will make an elite for that in next expansion..so that you will compelled to buy itDo you get it now why reaper like tempest won’t be ever the 1v1 power house you seek?…but hey feel free to keep asking on the forum, see how far it brings you
Well technically reaper is also a failure for its specific role (though i am not sure if they realize it or care). It is supposed to be really good in big melee fights hence why it has so much cleave but yet reapers rarely are in the frontline of wvw zergs. Necros even if they take reaper e-spec, they stay in the backline/midline for well bombing, mark spam because they have a much harder time surviving the melee train then the classical frontline professions (warrior, guardian etc.) and thats with 100% life force. And greatsword as a result is rarely taken in an area (WvW zerg fight) in which it should excel.
Though that may not have much relevance for this tread (since you always have lf in WvW).
Why does Lege armor have to be tied to Raids?
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: Muchacho.2390
@Anka i think it is more realitically that it will tournements that will get you the legendary armor (if it will come to pvp). I dont think it will be like the backpiece.
Honestly I want shroud to be done away with and gone. I want active defenses like every other class. I want blocks or invulns, I wan’t something that allows this class to grow, not be held back at every turn by it’s clunky f skills
Well sorry to disappoint you then but shroud is part of the necro and i highly doubt that will ever change even on an elite spec.
Also i dont think shroud is even a reason at all not to give necros a block or invuln frame. The reason we dont have them is because Anet doesnt want us to have them. For example you could easily put a block skill on greatsword and that wouldnt make reaper op. Just rework death spiral to work similar to Duelist’s Preparation, also a block for x sec and on a succesful block switch it to death spiral (should be a weaker version of it though).
Why does Lege armor have to be tied to Raids?
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: Muchacho.2390
Chances are legendary armor will also given out to “pro” level spvp tournaments like it already is the case with legendary weapons. Though raiding is probably easier then being really good in a “pro” tournament.
There is not a precedent to hint that this might happen.
Yes, legendary weapons are given away at the Tournament of Legends, but you are excluded from certain choices.
The choices that you are excluded from are Eternity and any Legendary introduced in or after HoT. It seems more likely that based on it only being 1st gen legendary weapons, that armor will not be a reward for the tournament. Granted they could add it as a reward from anywhere else, but at this time, I would highly doubt it.
That is true for the next one in november. But for future ones we have no idea. Since i dont think Anet has ever mentoned anything about this, it all depends on what they want to do. So i wouldnt be so fast in saying this wont happen.
Also eternity is a bit special since it is actually 2 legendaries so you can get it though tournaments.
While axe may not be the best dmg-wise(typical necro problem), all I want is to make skill 2 actually follow foes like ranger longbow 2. One dodge/sidestep and the whole thing misses which is pretty terrible.
It does track targets, in stealth and everything.
Maybe I make it bug then because it sure don’t always do that for me. It just seems like the “cone” in front of you where it hits is just really narrow in comparison to LB2
Just make sure you aren’t holding right click if you want it to track perfectly; the skill will get cancelled mid-channel if they break camera:player model interaction (i.e. they run through your character to get behind you).
Yeah I know that though I find it strange that it does as the skill doesn’t require a target to activate. Not that it matters much and all the other channelling skills that I can think of works that way too.
Actually no. Life siphon (dagger 2) only needs facing at the start but during the channel facing isnt required. That why it is annoying to go from dagger to axe. You are so used to the fact that you channel works no matter the facing and then with axe it suddenly interrupts the channel.
Channels don’t require targets to cast; you can easily use Life Transfer, Spinal Shivers, Rapid Fire, etc. without actually targeting anything. In fact, I highly recommend the Allow Skill Retargeting option if you aren’t using it already, as it allows you to maintain a channel and use the ability on a different target than originally selected.
I know but what has that anything to do with what i said?
I was talking about facing. For example lets take a golem in the mists as target. So if you channel life siphon and run though the golem during the channel it will not stop the channel. However if you do that with ghastly claws it will stop the channel. Hence life siphon doesnt reqire facing during the channel but ghastly claws does.
While axe may not be the best dmg-wise(typical necro problem), all I want is to make skill 2 actually follow foes like ranger longbow 2. One dodge/sidestep and the whole thing misses which is pretty terrible.
It does track targets, in stealth and everything.
Maybe I make it bug then because it sure don’t always do that for me. It just seems like the “cone” in front of you where it hits is just really narrow in comparison to LB2
Just make sure you aren’t holding right click if you want it to track perfectly; the skill will get cancelled mid-channel if they break camera:player model interaction (i.e. they run through your character to get behind you).
Yeah I know that though I find it strange that it does as the skill doesn’t require a target to activate. Not that it matters much and all the other channelling skills that I can think of works that way too.
Actually no. Life siphon (dagger 2) only needs facing at the start but during the channel facing isnt required. That why it is annoying to go from dagger to axe. You are so used to the fact that you channel works no matter the facing and then with axe it suddenly interrupts the channel.
Why does Lege armor have to be tied to Raids?
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: Muchacho.2390
Chances are legendary armor will also given out to “pro” level spvp tournaments like it already is the case with legendary weapons. Though raiding is probably easier then being really good in a “pro” tournament.
So, new Power Coefficients for Death Spiral, Rending Claws, and Ghastly Claws.
Death Spiral (Greatsword 3): 1.5
Rending Claws: .88
Ghastly Claws: 3.6For reference, Rapid Fire is a 3.75 coefficient. Gravedigger is 3.0.
Did you test the numbers? Because if the numbers on the patchlog are correct ghastly claws should be 3.25 not 3.6.
Ran them through the standard formula using my Power, weapon damage, and tooltip damage.
It’s possible the wiki was never updated after the prior buff.
Well it seems the wiki really wasnt updated. Ingame i get roughly the same number then you got.
I don’t like Strength on the Staff; the weapon is generally too slow and utility based to get a lot of value out of it. You’d be better off with Agility or Energy.
Your are right that strength is not the best for staff but you kinda want the strength sigil in shroud when you take blighters boon so i think it is fine .
So, new Power Coefficients for Death Spiral, Rending Claws, and Ghastly Claws.
Death Spiral (Greatsword 3): 1.5
Rending Claws: .88
Ghastly Claws: 3.6For reference, Rapid Fire is a 3.75 coefficient. Gravedigger is 3.0.
Did you test the numbers? Because if the numbers on the patchlog are correct ghastly claws should be 3.25 not 3.6.
I would go for reaper. Yes its melee but it has deaths charge. I like having more mobility for roaming.
Honestly that sounds more like bug.
Rebound!
But seriously, I think necromancer has it slightly better than elementalist. Chilled to the Bone and Flesh Golem are at least CC access
Yes rebound is terrible but honestly as necro i would take fiery greatsword over any necro elite…
I have a new idea for this trait:
Soul imprisonment (the name would work nicely with the picture):
For every death (same range as the lf from death) and every 10 secends passively you gain one stack imprisond soul. Stack up to 5 times.
The imprisoned soul buff:
Use an imprisoned soul as shield to reduce the damage of the next hit by 50% . Remove 1 stack upon getting hit and gain 4% LF.
(edited by Muchacho.2390)
Ok I’ve been away for a while, can someone fill me in on why Mark of Horror was such a big damage source for condi necros? I can’t imagine it was the bleeds from the horrors themselves? Is it just that the death nova x5 would happen pretty fast for condi necros who didn’t have other minion buffing traits?
Actually it was the bleed from the horrors itself. With a healer you could stack quite a number of those rats. The base bleed is 5 sec long and is applied roghly ever 4 sec. It may not seem much but with a whole army of rats it actually is
Necromancer had no true power AoE build before Reaper. The best Necromancer had was a combination of dagger small cleave, Life Transfer, Mark 3-4 blast, and WoS. It was kludgey at best.
Come on, base necro has more aoes. Both LB (in the past with a trait) and staff 1 are aoe skills. They may not be that useful for pve but for WvW zerging they are really good. There is a reason why power necro with wells is WvW zerg meta since release and that not only because of wells (though they are important of course).
At this point they should just put Lich form in the bin, like they did with Guardian Tomes, and make it into something useful. And when i say useful, I mean more “Feel My Wrath” than Signet of Courage.
Yeah, give me https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Grim_Specter as an elite spectral. Honestly its the only skill on lichform that is still good.
No? MH dagger was untouched according to the patchlog and i dont notice any difference.
Mhh though i think the gs auto now does more dps then the dagger auto. The CPS of dagger auto is 1.33 and with the aftercast reduction the sequence of the gs auto should be less then 2.9 (the old one is 3 sec) giving atleast 1.24 CPS but gs does 10% more damage then dagger so you can muliplicate 1.1 to the CPS for the damage comparison which would be more then1.36. But that just taking the numbers from the wiki.
GS auto also applies chills which, if you are traited for them, will activate Deathly Chill and Chilling Nova without needing another source.
You’ll also be able to weave in GD, Death Spiral and Nightfall, though I’m not sure if Death Spiral is an increase over auto even with the damage buff.
Well i think the new CPS for deathspiral should be around 1.5 and with that it would be worth casting over the auto.
Though it is kinda sad that gs was merely buffed for pve. For pvp it needs more then damage.
Be happy its only 0.75 sec, as necro you have to deal with a 1.25 sec casttime consume conditions… And necros dont have blocks like a guardians focus 5 and stability is restricted to shroud and eliteskills.
Spiteful Spirit/Unholy Feast actually looks really good for WvW now. I was already a big fan of Spiteful Spirit for power necro and turning into an instant-cast 2-boon corrupt on entering Death Shroud isn’t small.
The damage increases to Axe skills are nice, but I think they may fundamentally miss the issues of power Necro/Reaper. We don’t need tools that allow us to deal more damage from range as a power necro; we need tools that will keep us alive and unstunned in the melee.
Greatsword aftercasts being reduced is good. The Death Spiral change seems pointless for PvP, but combined with the autoswing reductions, Greatsword may be a contender for PvE DPS.
Mhh though i think the gs auto now does more dps then the dagger auto. The CPS of dagger auto is 1.33 and with the aftercast reduction the sequence of the gs auto should be less then 2.9 (the old one is 3 sec) giving atleast 1.24 CPS but gs does 10% more damage then dagger so you can muliplicate 1.1 to the CPS for the damage comparison which would be more then1.36. But that just taking the numbers from the wiki.
(edited by Muchacho.2390)
You guys seem to forget the biggest nerf for necros in spvp. There is no invulnerability on downstate anymore. This could mean the end of the necro + necrorezzbot meta.
Which may be good in the long run for us but the next pro league may not see many necros.
You have to enter into the mind of a-net when it comes to necro balancing:
- AA: life force + chill = utilities
- whirl finisher
- life force + vulnerability = utilities
- blind = utility
- CC = utility
To see how strong a-net thinks this weapon is, let us translate those utilities in “other classes language”:
- chill = gap closer
- life force = evades
- blind = block
- vulnerability = might
So if this translation was accurate, GS is as good in terms of utilities as the engineer hammer
- might + vulnerability
- whirl finisher + missile reflect
- gap closer + evade
- block + vuln
- CC
Understand how a-net thinks to understand their surprising balance choices.
Well i play this game since release at this point i doubt there will ever a balance change that really surprises me.
Ahh well atleast they realise that power necro is in a bad spot, it is just too bad that they dont realise why this is the case.
Well to bad it wont change anything. Most of those buffed utilites will still not be used.
Non Raiders blocked from XP bar spirit shards
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: Muchacho.2390
You do still earn them through xp. It’s just not as glamorous as it was because of masteries. You’ll see the spirit shards go into your loot side when you get one.
They explained this before and after heart of thorns launched people.
Sure about this one?
If so the whole tread is pointless.
Greatsword in pvp still has the same problems it had before and no damage increase for death spiral or aftercast time reduction to the auto will change this.
Axe is interesting though i doubt it will be better then our condi builds.
Mhh greatsword is still terrible in pvp but maybe axe is finally useable.
You’re overestimating Vital Persistence.
If vital persistence were baseline, Necromancer may not even want to spec into soul reaping, because none of the other traits in Soul Reaping are integral to being a Necromancer.
First of all, neither VP nor the entire Soul Reaping spec are mandatory for running a viable pvp build. And by far the best reason to pick Soul Reaping is Soul Marks.
VP just happens to be a popular pick because Soul Reaping is popular, not the other way around, and the only alternatives are Fear of Death (=useless) and Spectral Mastery (which imo would be a viable alternative if spectral skills could compete with other utilities).
As for your request to make the lf degeneration baseline:
Again, you’re overestimating its importance, life force regeneration is much more effective and important. And I’d argue that the second part of VP, cd reduction for Shroud skills, is a lot more valuable.So, should it be made baseline? Sure, why not, 2% vs 4% degen isn’t a big deal either way. But what really needs to be done then is a rework of several other traits in Soul Reaping.
For example: Take the Shroud skill cd reduction and combine it with both Unyielding Blast and Speed of Shadows to create a proper alternative to Soul Marks. Then also scrap Fear of Death and create 1 new trait in adept and 2 new traits in master tier.
I agree with this. Though i would say reworking soul reaping shouldnt be a high priority when we still have a bad traitline like deathmagic.
#soulcomprehensionthebiggestkitten
I think for necro GS to be viable. They need to completely redesign skill 3 into some strong utility skills that provide either movement or range CC.
I am inclined to agree. However i dont think Anet wants to give gs any extra movment since thier theme of reaper was more of a slow methotical one. Hence a ranged cc or a defensive skill (block) would be more in line with that theme.
Yes a block skill similiar revenants Duelist’s Preparation would be nice. Also a block and if you block an attack switch to the current iteration of death spiral (or a weaker version of it, e.g less damage and less lf). The cd would need to be increased though.
And given how the skill isnt even used in the optimal dps rotation i doubt pve power reaper would even protest. They probably prefer the ranged cc though (for breakbars).
Well it is hardly mandatory when a we have meta builds that dont use it at all.
Honestly i would rather Anet focuses on necros real problems then on vp.
Well i think it was already said but i think the best idea would to put the extra survivability (or mobility which some of you mentioned), which this tread asks for, on the power weapons (also greatsword, mh dagger or axe). They currently are all underperforming so a buff in that dirction wouldnt be bad.
Retal scales with power (unless you have that guardian trait), so why would it fit a line that prefers more conditions like curses does?
The spite traitline is better suited for retal then curses is. So it is ok that our only retal trait is there. Though i wouldnt mind if we good some retal in deathmagic (like we used to have).
Funny enough, Spite already has a trait for Retal. It’s just that it competes with Signet of Suffering and Close to Death which are waaaaay better traits than Spiteful Spirit.
?
I mentioned that we have a retal trait in spite and that it actually is the only retal trait we have. Sp why cite me?
And yeah i agree it is kinda lackluster for a gm trait.
I was just spitballing numbers. Obviously it would have a ICD too.
But really healing through shroud does little for us because it completely misses the problem.
Necros already pair well with supports. That’s what allows the ESL teams to run glass necros since they can just pair them off with supports and they are golden.
What necros can’t do is function without a pocket support. And healing through shroud doesn’t address that. All healing through shroud does is make necros with pocket support excessively strong while still screwing over solo-queuing necros.
You are solving a problem that doesn’t exist.
Well the healing in shroud is a design problem not a balance problem. Probably you could balance necros without allowing healing in shroud but it wouldnt fix the frustration with shroud.
Heck i can remember a time when shroud was even worse and you couldnt even stomp/rezz and you bloodmagic siphons didnt work in shroud. And fixing that was important not from a balance perspective but a design one, so i am happy that Anet did this. They just shouldnt stop halfway though…