Guild Wars 2

These changes are nice.

I feel like maybe axe needed a little more than just the range increase? I guess we’ll see how it turns out. I really hope they will use this opportunity to fix that horrible auto attack animation at least.

Necro has lots of chill and cripple as well as hard CC. If anything we will probably be one of the best (if not the best) classes to take down defiance. Necro has a lot more CC than the OP gives it credit for.

That being said, I don’t really like the solution to this problem and I’d have prefered to have these debuffs working on defiant enemies, even if heavily toned down.

If they were going to put another boon on it I’d much rather have stability.

I think it should give stability for each enemy hit, that way not even CC can save them… and I think we need stability on a utility instead of having them all bound to elites.

Necro is unplayable right now.

A few of the other profession forums have had red posts since the start of the weekend.

I’m not complaining, but it might be a good idea for the future to have devs post early in the weekend or even open a thread themselves to put the feedback in so we don’t end up like now where all the feedback is spread out into lots of different threads. It will be a lot more organised that way.

Was planning to write a feedback myself, but Spoj covers pretty much everything I’d have suggested.

Only thing I’d like to add is that I wish the stability on CttB was on one of our utility shouts instead.

Zenith.7301:

Khristophoros.7194:

Zenith.7301:

Khristophoros.7194:

Zenith.7301:

Khristophoros.7194:

Why does his LFG look different from mine? Serious question. I rarely see groups that demand metazerk on LFG.

I do, all the time. Tarnished Coast, US EST time zone. I’m constantly asked to switch from my necro/ranger/mesmer to ele/guard/warrior/thief all the kitten time for fractal 50 dailies if I’m not outright kicked before loading into the zone.

Class prejudice in LFG is real.

I have the opposite experience and I’m also on TC. I don’t see many groups that are picky about which professions people bring, and I often receive compliments for my necro play.

Well let me know what’s your secret recipe because my fractal 50’s would be so much nicer if I got to play the class I actually wanted to play instead of the usual ele/guardian for the past 3 years I’ve had to play.

I don’t bother to join ones that specify they want X profession, or if it says metazerk.

But that said, my LFG isn’t completely full of those like Nemesis’ video shows.

And if I want to do fotm and there are no groups, I just make one myself. This is important. Just make a group if you don’t see one that you want to join.

Actually the only character I have with enough AR for scale 50 is my necro. lol.

I make a fractal 50 on my necro, I wait for over 20 minutes if I’m lucky and someone joins.

I make a fractal 50 on ele/guardian/warrior, it fills up in less than 5 minutes.

And if I do make a group on my necro, I’ll probably get clerics/knights geared terrible players a lot of the time. At least the terrible zerkers do some damage before going down; these people don’t do damage and still go down.

This sums up my fractal pugging experiences quite well. I end up having to roll Warrior or Guard most of the time, while my Necro and Engi that I also got full ascended gear on hardly ever gets playtime.

I wish Anet would rework the icebow. Make it heal or something like that. Hopefully it would make doubling up on eles less lucrative.

If that’d not work I’m sure removing the Fury from Persisting Flames trait would mix things up a bit.

I’ve not tried reaper in any organised parties yet, but I was easily hitting ~15k on mobs in Verdant Brink.

I hardly play necro in PvE anymore. I want to play necro, but it just doesn’t perform well enough. Been switching a lot between guardian, warrior and engineer in PvE lately, and will probably make one of those my main and shelf my necro if necro doesn’t get the attention it needs by HoT.

I use that trait in WvW and PvP. In the heat of battle I must say I don’t really pay that much attention to whether it procs or not, but I know I have seen it proc before.

Skill 5 needs a cast time reduction, but other than that it’s a pretty good weapon.

I use it whenever I run the dagger build in PvE.

I think it would see more use in PvP if skill 5 had a lower cast time.

Looks really good I think.

The new minions sound like something that can actually be useful.

I still feel that you should just remove stability from the elite shout, reduce it’s cooldown a lot and add the scaling stability effect to a stunbreak shout.

Greatsword changes look awesome and I can’t wait to try it. Looks like it fixes most of the issues I had with it.

I am a bit disappointed about the stability fix for shroud. I was kinda wishing that was a feature rather than a bug. ^^

During the beta I did feel that the shroud could use some higher damage values, but we’ll see how it turns out when Reaper’s Onslaught works I guess.

Looks quite good all in all. Looking forward to try it next beta weekend.

Wow, the human female animation is so much uglier than the other ones. The other ones aren’t very nice either, but kitten …

Traps seem fine for the most part, I think they could use a slightly lower cast time, and I feel I should be able to self-trigger the healing trap.

Longbow is alright. Skill 4 should count as a symbol for synergy, but otherwise I have no gripes with the longbow.

Traits are complete kitten. Little to no synergy with base guardian. Only traits that I thought looked good was the adept traits, but I can’t pick all 3 at once.

I just love the sound of the shout “Nothing Can Save You!”… too bad the effect is very situational.

Here’s my feedback on shouts and traits.

Shouts: I’ve not really found any good use to most of them and I think Anet should consider giving them a considerable rework. Cast times are too long, and the effects seem very situational. I’ll give some feedback on the two shouts I thought were good in concept:

• “Your Soul is Mine!”: The heal is a bit low, but the life force generation is nice, especially when outnumbered. This was the only shout I found truly useful. Consider slightly more heal (or heal per target hit) and maybe a small cast time reduction.
• “Chilled to the Bone!”: When you actually successfully cast it the effect is quite devastating, but it is in need of some serious tweaks to numbers. 2 second cast time is way too long and always gets interrupted in PvP unless you’re catching an enemy by surprise. The stability does not serve that much use when your enemies are stunned anyways, and the stabilty really would be more useful during that long cast time. The cooldown is also really long. My suggestion would be to remove the stability (possibly replace with might or fury), reduce the cast time to 1 second and decrease the cooldown to somewhere between 60 and 90 seconds.

Also worth mentioning – Revenant has an elite skill which is basically a superior version of our CTTB shout. Jade Winds is 1 second cast time, 3 seconds stun (minus the chill) and has no cooldown.

As for the other shouts, they don’t seem very useful at all in most instances compared to other utilities. In their current form I see little to no reason for cast times on them. If any of the buffs affected allies, suddenly they’d become useful so I’d give that strong consideration if I was Anet.

• There also should be a shout that grants stability for each foe hit, but I really don’t think it should be the elite. I’d rather have it as a stunbreak shout on a relatively low cooldown.

Traits: Some really good traits to choose from, but others are not all that good. Minor traits look fine.

• Augury of Death: I’d suggest 10% instead of 7%, or maybe start with a base reduction and then add percentages depending on foes hit.
• Chilling Nova: ICD is too long. Change ICD to 10 sec, and up the damage a little. I’d also suggest adding a 5-7% damage modifier against chilled foes.
• Relentless Pursuit: This one is fine as it is.
• Soul Eater: Trait is bad because greatsword is bad. If greatsword is fixed this trait might be worth taking. Not sure if I’m a fan of recharge dependant on Gravedigger, but at least increase the percentage a bit. 5% might suffice.
• Chilling Victory: Looks good to me.
• Decimate Defenses: Awesome trait. Keep as it is.
• Blighter’s Boon: Great as it is.
• Deathly Chill: Damage is underwhelming as a condi reaper, needs way better scaling for condition builds.
• Reaper’s Onslaught: Trait is currently bugged so I can’t say much about it, and Death’s Charge is pretty wonky in it’s current state. Will probably be good if it gets fixed and Death’s Charge gets the tweaks it deserves.

In closing I’d like to say that I really like the concept, but in some cases it’s executed poorly. I see no major flaws in anything other than maybe the shouts. I think the Reaper has really good potential – I wish the team good luck with balancing it, and hope the community feedback helps!

I’ve played some open world PvE, some dungeons and some PvP, and I’ve also been whacking a lot of pracice golems in HotM. Here’s my feedback on greatsword and Reaper shroud.

Greatsword: Great animations, but feels slow and clunky. The damage is underwhelming considering how slow it is, and life force generation could be better.

1. Auto Attack: The numbers are way too low. The attacks in the dagger chain hit for about the same, but a lot faster. The greatsword auto attack could use a slight increase in attack speed, and buffed damage values. The whole auto attack chain just seems pretty useless in both PvE and PvP at the moment.
2. Gravedigger: Animation on this looks incredible. 80% reduction feels awkward since other greatsword attacks are so slow you hardly get to do something (half an auto attack chain?), and it really breaks up the flow of your attacks and gimps your DPS. The reduction in recharge should be 100%, and it should either get a damage buff or cast time reduction. I found it quite hard to land in PvP. It currently does not feel worth using over the Dagger auto attack in most situations.
3. Death Spiral: Feels a little bit awkward to land, but otherwise good skill with nice burst vuln. Maybe consider slightly increased range.
4. Nightfall: The tooltip says 1/4 sec cast time but I’m pretty sure it roots you in place for longer than that, which makes it feel clunky and very risky to use in PvP. Faster animation or castable on the move would fix it. Otherwise a really useful skill.
5. Grasping Darkness: Looks awesome, but is incredibly unreliable when moving. This skill needs to home in on enemies or be ground target for it to be useful in most combat scenarios.

Overall I think the weapon concept is good, but it needs some good tweaking. Damage needs increase overall, and some adjustments to animation cast times. There should also be some way to gain life force on Auto Attack or Gravedigger.

Reaper Shroud: Feels amazing, but life force generation and damage could use some buffs. It looks to be intended for melee group fights, but the life force generation is not nearly high enough to withstand melee against larger numbers.

1. Auto Attack: Great feel to it. Life force generation is very low, and I don’t feel it hits hard enough compared to Life Blast when you consider that it’s melee range. It needs higher life force generation and slightly higher damage.
2. Death’s Charge (Necrocopter): Only seems good for mobility currently. It flies right past the enemy if it’s used in combat, and the damage is insignificant. It either needs a big damage increase and ground target (like warrior’s greatsword whirl attack), or it needs a small damage increase, and stop at its target and keep spinning until cast is over.
3. Infusing Terror: Loving it. I see little need for further tweaks.
4. Soul Spiral: The poison application is great, but the spin is too slow, pretty sure it’s longer than the 2 seconds it states in the tooltip. Make the spin faster and put some life force generation on it and it will be good.
5. Executioner’s Scythe: Loving it. A bit hard to land in PvP, but damage is good and combo field is really useful. Nice stun on it too.

Reaper’s shroud is good overall, and is mainly in need of some numbers tweaks. Necrocopter still needs a bit more work.

Zenith.7301:

OlliX.1705:

punahou.3986:

Bhawb.7408:

About half of Reaper is solid or very easily adjustable as is. Reaper Shroud is great, almost all around, half the traits are solid, about 4/6 shouts are good. Its just Greatsword is really trash and so are some traits. Its all fixable though, very much so.

yes the gs concept is fixable, but do we feel that ANET will give it love? Im highly skeptical that they will.

Of course they will. What do you think a beta is for?

If you had any semblance of memory you would remember that it was from closed beta before release that ranger and necromancer were nerfed so viciously that they have remained the garbage classes of the game for 3 years that nobody wants in PvE at least.

I don’t remember that. Probably because I was never in any of those betas.

Not tried it much yet, but I’ve noticed that displacement skills ignore stability. Surely that can’t be intentional (?).

Nah, dark field is fine.

Only problem I see with Nightfall is that it roots you in place for quite a considerable amount of time.

punahou.3986:

Bhawb.7408:

About half of Reaper is solid or very easily adjustable as is. Reaper Shroud is great, almost all around, half the traits are solid, about 4/6 shouts are good. Its just Greatsword is really trash and so are some traits. Its all fixable though, very much so.

yes the gs concept is fixable, but do we feel that ANET will give it love? Im highly skeptical that they will.

Of course they will. What do you think a beta is for?

Khristophoros.7194:

535780kitten.1705:

It does not show up on your stats, but it’s working for me at least. I’m critting on every hit with 25 vuln and zerk amulet.

Wait so the crit chance is +2% per vuln stack? That’s not how it’s worded. It says you gain 2% whenever you hit a foe who has vuln on them.

“Critical Chance per Stack: 2%” is what the description says, so 50% crit chance with 25 vuln.

When you’re able to cast this and it hits it can be quite devastating. Problem is that this skill gets interrupted all the time in PvP due to its long cast time. I think it needs a hefty cast time reduction. I must also agree that the cooldown is a bit high on it, should decrease the cooldown to 90 seconds tops.

It does not show up on your stats, but it’s working for me at least. I’m critting on every hit with 25 vuln and zerk amulet.

I think OP is making things more complicated than they need to be.

When people suggest these small and simple changes it’s because they are just that – simple. I think most people know that won’t completely fix the problem, but it will make our situation a lot better with only small tweaks.

The necromancer does not need to be the king of DPS, but right now an elementalist or engi can deal almost twice the damage as us and provide a lot more utility for the party. Even in a scenario where necro had elementalist level of DPS it would still not be taken because it doesn’t buff the party, however it would not be as big of a handicap and as a result it would not be as frowned upon as it is now.

As for utility, I really don’t think small overlaps is that big of an issue. I don’t think anyone want necro to completely take over another profession’s role. The problem is when a class becomes so dominant that it overshadows most other classes (~cough~ elementalist ~cough~). The problem right now as is that we really have nothing worthwhile that we excel at in PvE

In the end I think we need a balanced combination of this. Projectile blocks, finishers and damage modifiers would go a long way to prevent necro from being a dead weight to a party without completely overshadowing other classes. We don’t even need elementalist level DPS, but we need to at least be on par with what most other classes are capable of in terms of damage.

This is what I’d consider the baseline needs a necromancer has in the current state of PvE, and it will also be useful in future and hopefully more necro friendly iterations of PvE.

His first build wasn’t even that bad, he just played it really horribly. The 2nd build looked pretty dull though, but I’m just not a fan of how these shouts work.

Axe, Scepter, projectile blocking..? o__o

Praised be Grenth, maybe there is hope for us after all. \o/

Thanks Gee. :’)

Uhm… btw, is more damage modifiers and finishers possibly on the table? We’re a bit behind other classes both in regards to utility like this and damage output in PvE. I’m sure you might be aware of that though, but thought I’d put it out there.

I’d rather they did a baseline increase of attack speed for Life Blast and increased the duration of the burn to 4-5 seconds.

Life Blast needs to have the same attack speed as Plague Blast, even if that would mean lowering its damage slightly. It would make all the Shroud 1 traits more potent on base necro. I’m especially looking at Dhuumfire, but it would benefit all the others too. It also needs to be a finisher, 20% is fine … 100% would be preferable.

insaneseagull.7063:

snip

You are wrong. Very wrong.

Let’s look at stunbreaks:

You’re making a big flaw by counting passive procs, cause you have little to no control over them. Foot in the Grave is such a big investment that I find it unreasonable to count it towards our total, and Flesh Wurm requires you to have it placed beforehand (and enemies can kill it).

This leaves us with 4 baseline stunbreaks:

Let’s compare this to others (not counting big trait investments and passive procs):
Warrior: 5
Thief: 4
Guardian: 5
Engineer: 6
Elementalist: 4
Ranger: 4
Mesmer: 5

As you can see, we’re at the lower end of the spectrum, but it seems pretty balanced. It’s not our amount of stunbreaks there’s anything wrong with, it all comes down to stability, blocks and mobility.

When we account for stability I think that again it’s reasonable to leave out Foot in the Grave because very few builds will make that big investment, and if they do it will reduce their build’s effectiveness in a lot of cases. It’s better to look at baseline for each profession. Counting Well of Power as a stability is also wrong because it’s only one second to cover its cast time (which is why I’m not going to count the Warrior’s Stomp either).

Our only proper stabilities are Lich and Plague, which both have 3 minute cooldowns, and both are transforms so we are locked out of our normal skills.

Let’s compare shall we (and again I won’t be counting trait procs):
Warrior: 3 (40 sec, 60 sec and 150 sec)
Thief: 1 (90 sec)
Guardian: 2 (30 sec and 80 sec)
Engineer: 2 (25 sec, and 180 sec)
Elementalist: 2 (75 sec, and 180 sec)
Ranger: 2 (both 60 sec)
Mesmer: 1 (25 sec)

As you can see, we have lower access to stability than every other class. The numbers are pretty equal if you only look at the amount of skills that grant stability, but both of our stabilities are tied to elite transforms with really high cooldowns. It gets even more uneven when we take into consideration blocks and extra evades like you did in your post.

This is what other classes have across all theirs weapons and utilities, not counting underwater or really unwieldy evades (such as ranger GS auto or swoop):
Warrior: 3 blocks, 1 semi-invuln, 1 extra evade.
Thief: 2 projectile blocks/reflects, 7 extra evades (counting Signet of Agility)
Guardian: 2 aegis, 1 invuln, 2 blocks, 5 projectile blocks/reflects.
Engineer: 2 blocks, 1 invuln, 3 projectile block/reflect, 2 extra evades (counting Elixir R)
Elementalist: 1 block, 2 invuln, 4 projectile blocks/reflects, 3 extra evades.
Ranger: 1 block, 1 semi-invuln, 1 projectile block/reflect, 5 extra evades.
Mesmer: 2 blocks, 2 blur/distort, 1 blink-dodge, 2 projectile reflects (several more through traits).

To put things into perspecive:
Necromancer: Nothing.

Of course you’re not going to access to all of this at the same time on other classes, but this is what they have in their kitten nal that they can choose from without any trait investment.

I’m not going to count teleports, leaps and stealth since you didn’t, but it would just make the imbalance even more prevalent and further prove my point.

Face reality: We have a “2nd lifebar”, that’s it.

Hope this post was enlightening.

They really should. Maybe you could actually use flesh wurm as a blink to get around faster then, and suddenly Dhuumfire would be somewhat decent with the faster life blast.

Unbuffed full ascended berserker gear with strength runes:

I care.

So far I can say I really enjoy the Ventari tablet. The only thing that really bugs me about it is that you have to move it manually, and it feels a bit clunky. I’d much rather prefer if it moved with you, but you could use the skill to have it move somewhere else (and then reactivate to recall it to you).

The class still needs a lot of work, but I think it has good potential. In its current state it feels very weak compared to the other classes.

1. Some times in WvW when Chilling Darkness had no ICD, and some times in Fractals when we had no thief.
2. Chilling Darkness gave it a niche use in a competitive environment, but it won’t be worth taking anymore. In PvE it will still only act as a kitten version of Smoke Screen with a horrendous cooldown.
3. Reduce base cooldown to 20-25 seconds, or reduce cooldown to 35-40 seconds and make it block projectiles.

There are so many threads about this stuff, and it has been this way for ages. I’m really doubting anything will change.

But, I’ll just dump this here. It’s basically what I’d write if I was to write another post about this same topic.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/TO-DEV-TEAM-BUFFS-FOR-NECROS/first#post5263534

I think the finishers, projectile mitigation, buffs to allies and damage modifiers are something we need in PvE, but will also be very useful in other areas of the game.

Things such as the mobility and stability are more of a PvP thing that will really help with catching up, and not getting rekt by CC all the time.

Being able to do basic actions like ressing and stomping in Lich and Plague, and being able to exit and enter Death Shroud without interrupting stomps and resses are more of a quality of life change I think.

Considering what other classes do I don’t really think any of my suggestions are overpowered.

There might be riots, but I insist that most of my changes are reasonable.

I can agree with Sigmoid on the Signet of Vampirism ICD, but it needs to be tweaked somehow… it’s not powerful enough right now.

I have to disagree about Enfeebling Blood. It’s actually pretty good if you consider that it casts Enfeeble as well as the weakness on crit. You can keep pretty high weakness uptime on people.

Here are my thoughts on buffs.

Elites:
Plague and Lich Form should get 33% reduction on immob, cripple and chill, and you should be able to stomp and ress people while transformed.

Wells:
All Wells has baseline cooldown reduced by 5 seconds.

Well of Blood pulses have their effectiveness increased by 33%.

Well of Darkness gets its cooldown reduced to 25 seconds if the Chilling Darkness nerf is to stay. If Chilling Darkness gets un-nerfed, 40 sec might be more reasonable.

Spectrals:
Spectral Armor grants 3 stacks of stability for its duration.

Spectral Walk ignores movement impeding conditions and has its recharge lowered to 50 seconds (same as spectral armor).

Spectral Wall reflects projectiles.

Corruptions:
Consume Conditions has cooldown put back to 25 sec like it was before.

Corrosive Poison Cloud blocks projectiles.

Blood is Power has its might duration increased to 15 seconds.

Minions:
AI needs to be fixed.

Minion activated abilities have 0.5 sec cast time, and is cast as soon as the master activates it.

Minion cast time reduced to 0.75 sec.

Melee minions cleave 2 targets.

Signets:
Signet of Vampirism ICDs removed.

Signet of Undeath cast time reduced to 2 seconds. Passive grants 1% life force each second.

Staff:
Necrotic Grasp inflicts torment and is a 100% projectile finisher.

Mark of Blood has 3 stacks of bleeding instead of 3.

Reaper’s Mark inflicts 2 sec of fear instead of just 1.

Scepter:
Grasping Dead has 5 stacks of bleeding instead of 3.

Feast of Corruption adds an additional stack of each condition on the target, and extra duration to unstackable ones, direct damage is reduced. Life force gain per condition stays the same.

Dagger:
Cleaves 3 targets.

Reduced pre-cast on Life Siphon, and it channels 0.5 sec faster.

Dark Pact cast time reduced to 0.75 sec.

Enfeebling Blood is a blast finisher.

Focus:
Reaper’s Touch has cast time reduced to 0.5 sec.

Spinal Shivers has its cast time reduced to 0.75 sec.

Warhorn:
Wail of Doom is a blast finisher.

Axe:
Animation fixed so it doesn’t feel as lame.

Range increased to 900, damage increased by 25% on the first two skills and they both cleave up to 3 targets.

Ghastly Claws is a whirl finisher.

Unholy Feast is a blast finisher.

Death Shroud:
Life Blast cast time reduced to 0.5 from 1 sec. Damage reduced slightly to compensate, maybe 20%, (remember it has a big after-cast so 0.5 is not 50% lower in reality). Add projectile finisher.

Dark Path is a blink and also has a leap finisher.

You can enter/exit Death Shroud without interrupting stomps or resses.

Spite:
Reaper’s Might (spite minor) deal 5% damage when you have might.
Death’s Embrace (master minor) deal 5% more damage to vulnerable foes.
Unholy Fervor trait gives 10% more damage with an axe equipped (not only axe skills), 20% cooldown reduction and a 33% chance to convert a boon on crit.
Spiteful Spirit is bound to Death Shroud recharge rather than axe recharge.

Curses:
Barbed Precision (adept minor) has 50% chance to cause bleeding on crit.
Furious Demise (master minor) grants fury to allies as well upon entering Death Shroud.
Chilling Darkness has no ICD.
Master of Corruption trait grants resistance in addition to the reduced cooldown and additional condition.

Death Magic:
Beyond the Veil (grandmaster minor) grants protection to allies as well.
Soul Comprehension is changed to have Signet of Undeath’s current passive effect (2% life force every 3 seconds).

Blood Magic:
No ICD on Mark of Evasion (adept minor).

Soul Reaping:
Dhuumfire duration is increased to 5 seconds.
Foot in the Grave makes Death Shroud pulse a stack of stability (similar to Juggernaut on Engi)in addition to its current effect.

Did I just fix necro? I think maybe I did.

TL;DR

• Weak minor traits are more powerful.
• Condi weapons deal more conditions.
• Axe does not suck.
• More damage modifiers.
• Combo finishers on weapons and in Shroud.
• Dhuumfire has condi pressure now.
• Dark Path actually closes gaps.
• Access to stability and safe stomps.
• Corruption trait is actually good.
• Block projectiles with certain skills.

Only time I feel OP on necro is when I’m fighting 1v1 against someone that sucks.

robertul.3679:

Why is everybody so salty about a trait that almost nobody ever used? It’s not like necro even has that much blind. I guess you could get a lot of chill from plague and well of darkness. So what does that really acomplish except maybe kitten people off cuz they walk too slow?

The real issue is obviously the whole heal nerf. They nerfed an already bad heal, and now they ever so slightly reduced the nerf. It’s still in a much worse state than pre-patch you know that right?

I used that trait + Well of Darkness in WvW when raiding with one of my guilds, and I believe a lot of other necros were too.

I actually liked the Chilling Darkness trait. It was really useful in WvW and was the only trait that made Curses appeal to me in a zerg build. Plague and Well of Darkness were both pretty good with it. I guess Plague might still be worth taking without that trait, but Well of Darkness is completely out of the question now.

Now that they have nerfed this trait into oblivion, maybe they can cut the cooldown of Well of Darkness in half. Knowing Anet they won’t, but they should. This trait was the only thing that made that skill remotely powerful.

Wouldn’t Celestial be pretty good with this? Gives you some more power to go on too.

Necro right now is the least desired class for dungeons because we bring limited utility and our damage is pretty low, even in full berserker gear. That being said, we are better off than before since the patch and can now help our party out with high AoE weakness uptime, vampiric aura and protection on wells.

I’d suggest having a look at Brazil’s guide that someone linked earlier. It’s probably the best you can do on necro in PvE right now. The Dagger build is more damage in a well optimised party and also provides high weakness uptime, while the Death Shroud build is a bit more self-sufficient and might be better in bad dungeon groups. The Death Shroud build in his guide also works really well for WvW zerging if that’s more your thing.

I have two main suggestions on changing how the axe works, and a comment on the trait.

Increase its damage a little bit and make it hit up to 5 enemies in a cone like other 600 range weapons (like Guard Staff or Engi Flamer) on its auto attack. Increase the damage on skill 2 a little bit and give it the whirl finisher it deserves, maybe allow it to cleave as well. Give skill 3 a blast finisher.

OR

Increase the range to 900 on the first two skills, and increase the damage and attack speed. Some kind of cleave would be nice on either skill 1 or 2. Make skill 2 a whirl, and skill 3 a blast.

ALSO

Change axe trait to give damage bonus independant of weapon, or give it some other boost to make it worth taking. The current trait does not compare to other professions’ weapon traits in the same tier, it’s such an underwhelming trait right now.

… and for skipping trash mobs in dungeons.

I very much 2nd this request.

I’m running a life-steal build on my necro right now in PvE. I reckon it’s the most useful I can do while still playing necro.

Go with Berserker gear though, and Dagger+Warhorn. Get a Focus for 2nd set if you’re mainly going to stay out of Death Shroud, or take Staff in 2nd set if you’ll be camping Death Shoud.

Some good things:

• Spite is easily my favourite trait line, mainly because of the minor traits. I also want to point out that I’m really loving the new Signet trait, it’s a very impactful trait and the boon hate is incredible. It has some good synergy in other trait lines too.

• Blood Magic is great, and finally has good synergy with Death Shroud.
  Suggestion: I only wish the damage and healing from the vampiric traits would scale a bit more with the power and healing power attributes. This way, a power build would would provide a more significant increase in party damage, and a healing power build would provide a more significant party buff to sustain.

• I’ve not played around with Death Magic too much, but it seems quite potent.

• Curses is still your go-to line for condition builds, but can also have some uses for power builds as well. I’ve been running Withering Precision in my PvE power build.

• Soul Reaping is good, as always.

The bad things:

• Unholy Fervor is horrible.
  Let’s compare: Warrior has a similar trait that grants them 10% damage boost with greatsword, might on crit and cooldown reduction. Our axe trait has the reduction, but our damage modifier is conditional on having vuln on our target and it gives no further buffs. Let’s also take into consideration how weak axe is compared to the greatsword.
  Suggestion: The axe in itself needs a major buff and/or rework (cleave, more damage, more range… anything), and so does the trait. If buffing axe is too much, at least make the damage increase depend on just vuln instead of having an axe equipped. The trait serves very little use in its current state.

• Dhuumfire is really weak. It really isn’t worth it, you can deal way more condi damage with your normal weapons. Once you start camping life blast you will only be applying burns, and you can only keep up 2 stacks at a time, compared to bleeds and poison, and having access utility skills outside of shroud.
  Suggestion: It needs more stacks, longer duration or some additional effect to become useful.

• Master of Corruption is very bad. Corruptions generally seem too weak to reasonably have the self harming effects on them, adding an additional effect just seems wrong.
  Let’s compare: Elementalist attunement recharge traits… those traits grant 33% cooldown reduction, and buffs to damage. Surely we can have a buff to corruptions as well as the 33% cooldown reduction. I also want to point out how unfair the Plague form change is to condition necromancers, it was the one elite skill that somewhat catered to condition builds, but now it’s very harmful to use on those kinds of builds. I don’t think anyone is happy about the change to Consume Conditions either.
  Suggestion: Some of the corruption skills feel a bit weak right now. Blood is Power… giving it an AoE buff was really nice, but the duration is very very short, a duration increase to 12 seconds would be fine I think. Corrosive Poison Cloud just doesn’t seem worth taking, make it block projectiles or something else useful. Epidemic is very situational, but I think it’s in a good spot, I’d say the same for Corrupt Boon. And please un-nerf Plague and Consume Conditions.

• Other things: I’m still waiting for Axe 2 to receive a whirl finisher, DS 1 to receive a projectile finisher, DS2 to receive a leap finisher and Axe 3 and WH 4 to receive blast finishers. We only seem to have finishers under water for some reason.

Edit:
I also want to add that the Mark of Blood on dodge is really annoying when specced into Blood Magic. You can’t dodge to avoid getting in combat. Could we have this trait changed to combat only?

Signets of Suffering absolutely looks like it will be my new favourite trait. I’m really looking forward to trying it out in a hybrid build once the patch hits.

33% chance to be assaulted by the Mossman when casting a corruption skill.