Personally, I’d rather see them give us better access to torment. That was supposed to be necromancer’s condition and we can barely get 6 stacks of it (tainted shackles then epidemic). I’d be very happy if they put it on staff 1. Back on topic, if necromancers had confusion they would have every condition in this game. That could be a little op.
Pretty much this. We should have enough torment that people actually consider not moving.
The last time we got similar leaks they were pretty accurate. Not 100% spot on, but very close. I hope they are true, it would be a good patch if it were.
whats that? leak or wishful thinking?
Not all thhose details are 100% accurate with the radii and cooldown info. But those are positive steps, it seems.
they need to remove the cap on AoEs. We constantly have the Outnumbered debuff so the only way for 5 people to kill 50 is if Meteor Shower can hit unlimited targets.
If by “need” you mean make the lag ridiculously worse, create even more AoE dependence and ruin WvW. Think it through…
Imagine how ridiculously kitten a Guardian would be without AoE limits? Their shouts would buff and heal everyone in the stack. Their staff spam would hit a crazy number of players. Warriors… holy crap… the control would be disgusting. The shout healing would be insane. Every AoE class would be insanely powerful and fights of 10+ would end in under 3 seconds. Most importantly the lag would make the game UNPLAYABLE.
Removing the cap is not going to happen… it really cannot happen for a slew of reasons. Even if they could and did remove the cap on all AoE, players would still stack and zerg thanks to AoE heals and fields.
If AOE were completely removed, would there still be healing or boons at all? This change would completely annihilate classes like guardians or necros who rely on groups of allies or enemies, and shift everything to mesmers and thieves. Entire weapons and in some cases classes would need to be overhauled entirely, all for WvW, which they don’t make big changes for with balance.
NECRO: Lots of mixed feelings about this class over the years, seems as though this class was cried about in 2012 for being kitten until recently when they got a huge buff patch.
No, we never got a huge buff patch. What we got instead was so many bugs and nerfs, that a lot of people have stopped playing necromancer. I think the reason less people cry about the necro, is because they’ve given up, and moved to a different class. A whole year has passed, and we’ve only seen about 5 comments by Anet in our class forum. 5 comments over a whole year. Yeah, I give up too. They just don’t care. I might as well roll a warrior like everyone else.
If you have up, then why so many negative posts? By the way none of this actually helps so as a necro player who wants to see the class balanced, I wish you’d stop.
You’re wrong anyway since necros received insane buffs on 6/25 that elevated the class in many ways, while taking away some utility at the time. Since the class was buffed so much, necros have been shaved down over time to the point that now it’s questionable if we are better now or before the buffs. All the while many bugs still exist in the class, and it still has some weaknesses.
I think now you still have people that hate necros as their buffs brought along the condition meta, and you have others who wish to see the class brought to where it can really be. Not necessarily buffed, but improved. The class needs more utility and attrition style buffs.
Thank you very much.
Was the staff by ever fixed? I know when my lich form cast gets interrupted, that goes on full cooldown, too. Those would be nice.
I think healing in death shroud would be a massive step toward attrition gameplay for necromancer a, so I am 100% behind that. But that isn’t a bug as much as a huge QoL improvement.
Do you have a source for this?
Close to death affects your damage only, not the minions.
The trait decision, if you use a lot or all minion, is probably better with death nova.
So this is an honest question as I’m trying to understand this idea: what happens to group support, utility and cc if AOE damage is nerfed? Do they stay the same, or change as well? If they do change, then essentially the game must be balanced around 1v1, which has not been the goal so far. If those things change, what happens to guardians, arguably the best balanced class in the game? What happens to mesmer utility? Ele damage? Wouldn’t thieves rule supreme?
Fairly certain that retaliation is nerfed by 33% in WvW, so 270 makes sense if you’re expecting 400.
@Luke
The casting of AoEs on staff is the casting of any ground targeted AoE. They are not skillshots, they are AoE, pretty big ones at that. With their area and casting time, marks are pretty much 100% hits which brings me to the next point:
There is no counterplay to current marks. You can hardly tell which one the Necro is casting and they require lucky dodges to avoid, similar to current Pin Down or a Thief’s stealth opener. Every other example you stated is actually the Necro using his skill on the wrong time, so it’s a mistake on the Necro’s part, not an active counter by the opponent.
There is no hierarchy problem with marks, they don’t trigger on objects, period. Unfortunately objects in this game includes, bosses, monster spawning structures and even downed players. Manual detonations fixes all these issues at once, keeping marks as they are does nothing for it.
Yes, introducing the 1 second timer is a big nerf that’s why I said it’d allow the marks to be buffed with more interesting or intricate effects, like zapv said, marks are BORING right now. Boring and pure spam.
I guess this raises the question of what kind of buffs would everyone want to see. Personally I’m all for lower cooldowns first and foremost. If what is suggested was implemented chillblains could be at 15, putrid mark 20, and reaper’s mark at 30. With 20% reduction that would put the skills at 12, 16, and 24. That would be awesome. One could potentially change the skills to do something else though while keeping the cooldowns the same. For instance chillblains could give swiftness, putrid mark could steal life, and reaper’s mark could give retaliation.
I would prefer lower cooldowns to anything, but adding books to chillblains and reaper’s mark is an interesting idea, the same way mark of blood gives regen.
If all skills were single target, wouldn’t it benefit larger numbers even more? I thought the argument was the AOE cap needed to be removed for better WvW, not eliminated completely.
Both are probably better for fights. But extending it to more than 5 is not possible due to performance reasons ANet said (-> skill lags).
As it is currently the blob is an defensive method against AoE.
If you are blobbing with 1-5 you are hit 100% of times by AoE. if you blob with 40 you are hit only 12.5% of the time. So blobbing reduces the damage you take from AoE by 87.5%.This defensive reason for blobs would be invalidated, if AoE would be rare and not the main method of attacking.
But, if people are blobbed up that is also where the focus of AOE goes. So while it does reduce the odds that you take damage from AoE, it increases the amount of AOE you’re dealing with, because where else would you put it?
I understand the sentiment and its an interesting idea, but I think that this very much assumes equal numbers. Fighting a small zerg with 10 people with all single target skills sounds like a nightmare. If anything, I would expect this to encourage more large group play, not less.
If all skills were single target, wouldn’t it benefit larger numbers even more? I thought the argument was the AOE cap needed to be removed for better WvW, not eliminated completely.
I have about 400 total ranks and I got one ring with knights stats, but I’ve never used it so far.
As a power necro I can struggle against meditation guards, PU mesmers and very quick and very patient thieves. Otherwise a lot of classes can be burst down relatively easily, but those with good dps yet mitigation are a problem.
I don’t mind that a class is easy to play. It’s how effective it can be at said ease that is the problem.
I would pay to have a button to click that automatically switched my weapons and armor, and possibly have the same button also switch my traits to a predetermined spec, so that I don’t have to do all that clicking. Just reset my traits, hit a button and go.
Also I love skins. MOAR SKINS. And please consider giving awesome skins to weapons other than greatsword and the usual suspects.
So I take it you never played a condition build in PVE? Especially those big events.
Your proposal is bad. What you need is a streamlining of conditions and condition removal, as well as a readjustment of condition duration buffs. Dont call for just nerfing an entire playstyle you struggle with.
Then chill should also not apply to death shroud cooldowns, shatter cooldowns, kit and toolbelt cooldowns, pet cooldowns, virtue cooldowns, burst skill cooldowns…
That makes no sense at all, switching ele attunements is actually comparable to switching weapons. And while I don’t really agree that making them immune to chill is the answer, and instead making weapon swaps affected by chill. I also think that the amount of chill being thrown around should be toned down.
I see the issue more as being that eles need better condition removal options rather than some special treatment in regards to chill, which I don’t think is as common as you insinuate. Thieves are already largely unaffected by chill, we don’t need another class like that.
Then chill should also not apply to death shroud cooldowns, shatter cooldowns, kit and toolbelt cooldowns, pet cooldowns, virtue cooldowns, burst skill cooldowns…
While I personally wouldn’t advocate a focus on necromancer a over rangers as a necro main myself, the point is well made.
Lack of meaningful sustain, finishers and group support, cleaving weapons and rather large bugs have all plagued the class since launch. Pun intended. Then dhuumfire came in and changed one spec hugely, resulting in nerfs to other great skills.
I do think they need to open up to the idea that perhaps they need to rethink some issues with necros. It doesn’t seem to me that the class is terribly far off from getting what it needs, but there needs to be an effort to change that. The necro forums certainly have plenty of ideas for improvement.
Guardians have been relevant, but never OP, in all game modes pretty much since launch. They’re a very balanced class and have different builds, and you can’t go wrong with them.
The same way people want to bash looking for fights as excuses for losing, saying you play for PPT sounds like you just run around with bigger numbers and better coverage.
Minors:
- Reanimator: I find this trait to be unfairly discriminated against. I agree it shouldn’t be a minor trait, but its effect is actually pretty decent. Merging it with Death Nova will honestly be a great change.
- Protection of the Horde: This needs to go die in a fire. Reanimator at least has uses even if you aren’t a MM build. PotH doesn’t even have a use for a MM build.
- Deadly Strength: Good trait in my eyes. Stat conversions are always handy.
Majors:
- I) Dark Armor : Pretty bad. I think I mis-voted on this one saying it was just sub-par, but the trait is actually quite bad right now because we really don’t have many channel skills.
- II) Spiteful Vigor : Doesn’t even work properly on Blood Fiend or ground-targeted Well of Blood. Could use a longer duration.
- III) Minion Master : Lots of builds can make use of this. I like it
- IV) Ritual of Protection : The Protection duration is a little low, but otherwise this is a good trait.
- V) Staff Mastery : Classic 20% cooldown reduction trait. Nothing wrong with it.
- VI) Shrouded Removal : Useful trait, but it really should be 1 removed on entrance, one on exit. Necromancers are the masters of conditions, so if the trait is stronger than other class condition removal traits, that’s actually fine.
- VII) Greater Marks : A good trait, but since the baseline mark size increase, it feels a little lackluster. Merging with Staff Mastery or Spiteful Marks sounds good.
- VIII) Reaper’s Protection : I love this trait. Since the cooldown got reduced to 60 seconds, it’s better, but we really need more things like this to dissuade people from CCing us. Or more Stability.
- IX) Death Shiver : Decent for Death Shroud builds, but it’s in the wrong place to be really good for them.
- X) Flesh of the Master : Great trait. Needs no changing.
- XI) Death Nova : Strong trait. No complaints on this one, since the poison is such long duration on each pulse of the field.
- XII) Necromantic Corruption : Chance is just too low to be any good. Buffing it to 25% chance would make it better, but honestly, I’d rather see the trait get nixed and get a non-minion Grandmaster trait with a defensive focus.
I agree 100% with this evaluation.
I’d like to see server transfer costs changed, based on wvw rank, not on population. The average cost could remain 1800 for revenue stability but it should cost more for higher ranked servers:
Tier 1: 5000
Tier 2: 4000
Tier 3: 2000
Tier 4: 1200
Tier 5: 800
Tier 6: 600
Tier 7: 500
Tier 8: 300
I agree with this, except you would want all the gems adjusted so you can’t just stack on the top servers at the bottom of the leagues, or however it works.
Agreed with OP though, needs to be drastic incentives to play on servers expected to do poorly or doing poorly. Top servers can get titles or finishers or whatever, and bottom servers can get massive gold/chance at ascended/whatever to keep them playing.
The game would be better off if populations evened out, and the last league made things worse before it made them better. This is a chance to try to smooth it out more.
They are tough for me too, they can have so many blinds and aegis and heals that they are tough to take down as a power necro.
Keys to remember are that they have very few soft CCs like cripple or chill, while all necros have that. Keep up those up and kite, kite, kite. Plus, many run off hand focus so watch when they have the shields around them, because if you break that shield it deals crazy damage to you. Save your fears for when they are too close.
Training for plague and targeted wells with well of corruption and well of darkness could add a lot of support and utility to your group. Spectral wall might also be good for the protection, or suffering for tagging people. But the blinds and boon strips are valuable.
Staff/axe might get you the most tags, with the wells, plague, and smart death shroud use.
You get a lot more money killing players than keeps.
All my stuffs paid for with heavy loot bags
Truth. An organized WvW guild will end up making a lot of gold.
I tend to make a couple gold every time I play for an ok amount of time. WvW rank chests, loot, occasional rares and rewards add up to a decent amount over time. It doesn’t compare to PVE gold, but it works.
Don’t forget that you can get gear with karma and gear at a reduced price with badges of honor, which you also obviously get in WvW.
I agree with OP, and I would like to add that I think boon removal should be improved should boons stay in their current state.
But either way, those little red and yellow thumbnails around my UI should be more meaningful.
I wouldn’t mind if Axe 2 was a whirl finisher, though.
That would be nice! I’ve always though that, too.
Also, I guess 95% of the guys, who are calling for refunds here, will choose full zerk again, once they GET their refund.
The whole thing is silly. You want max dps, you get zerk. That much hasn’t changed. You might want to toss out those divinity runes, tho and get runes of rage instead. With the crit portion being changed to ferocity, those will actually be STRONGER than they are now.
Why would the people calling for refunds here want the same stats anyway?
If your point is most PVE players will still choose zerk, you’re probably right. The same way, I’m sure, that players with MF gear quickly got to 300% magic find. But there are many WvW players and PVE players interested in playing support or hybrid roles who feel this change makes the all-damage playstyle no longer worth it.
Isn’t the point of the change to encourage more builds? If so, potentially changing out some crit damage specs would be a quick way to do it, and allow people who feel shafted to get back their time spent grinding for crit damage sets.
Runes of the traveler negate this, and guardians can rather easily achieve perma swiftness. Mesmers are slow, but also provide great group utility and are an incredible dueling class. So it’s not too crazy that they have some weakness. Most classes have some weakness, somewhere.
If axe 3 was a blast finisher it would deal decent damage, apply cripple, strip a boon and grant retaliation all in an AOE, along with a blast finish. It doesn’t need any more utility.
Agree on axe 1 though.
Giving Meteor Shower an AoE circle would be such a huge nerf to Elementalists that I’m not even sure people would bother using them for damage anymore.
I mean, let’s get real here: the spell already has a massive channel time and you’re a stationary target for the duration. Meteor Shower also needs to be synced with 4-5 other Elementalists to have any impact due to the AoE cap. Not to mention the huge cooldown and that you can easily bait the spell or simply dodge-roll out of it.
If you’re having problems surviving Meteor Showers, it’s completely on your end.
You’re stationary for the cast time, not the duration of the skill. And trust me, as a well using necro main, some red circles aren’t going to stop people from staying in the AOE.
I agree that it needs some warning though, as do mesmer feedbacks and necro spectral walls.
You knew what I meant about being stationary, but whatever.
Also, Necro AoE is completely different from Meteor Shower: wells are instant, act as combo fields, and have effects other than pure damage.
If Meteor Shower was instant cast and could strip boons from enemies while acting as a blinding field, I might agree with you.
Wells are never purposefully blasted, or at least, I’ve never witnessed it. Dark fields arent in high demand. They also are not instant cast, and have longer cooldowns than meteor shower, which isn’t a utility.
That 1/4 second cast time must be a real downer. For all intents and purposes, it is essentially instant cast.
Dark fields are also highly underrated and I’d love to know what guild/server you’re with that doesn’t think blasting them is worthwhile.
I find it funny that apparently your guild/server wastes their blasts on dark fields. The only time I’ve ever had anyone ask for dark fields was when they could be used to bypass righteous indignation.
But to the point, meteor shower generally is hitting you without much warning and it’s entirely possible to dodge and still be inside the AOE. It should have a circle, as all AOEs should. In fact, I wish all red circles actually reflected where the damage where the damage could it you.
(edited by Roe.3679)
Giving Meteor Shower an AoE circle would be such a huge nerf to Elementalists that I’m not even sure people would bother using them for damage anymore.
I mean, let’s get real here: the spell already has a massive channel time and you’re a stationary target for the duration. Meteor Shower also needs to be synced with 4-5 other Elementalists to have any impact due to the AoE cap. Not to mention the huge cooldown and that you can easily bait the spell or simply dodge-roll out of it.
If you’re having problems surviving Meteor Showers, it’s completely on your end.
You’re stationary for the cast time, not the duration of the skill. And trust me, as a well using necro main, some red circles aren’t going to stop people from staying in the AOE.
I agree that it needs some warning though, as do mesmer feedbacks and necro spectral walls.
You knew what I meant about being stationary, but whatever.
Also, Necro AoE is completely different from Meteor Shower: wells are instant, act as combo fields, and have effects other than pure damage.
If Meteor Shower was instant cast and could strip boons from enemies while acting as a blinding field, I might agree with you.
Wells are never purposefully blasted, or at least, I’ve never witnessed it. Dark fields arent in high demand. They also are not instant cast, and have longer cooldowns than meteor shower, which isn’t a utility.
Giving Meteor Shower an AoE circle would be such a huge nerf to Elementalists that I’m not even sure people would bother using them for damage anymore.
I mean, let’s get real here: the spell already has a massive channel time and you’re a stationary target for the duration. Meteor Shower also needs to be synced with 4-5 other Elementalists to have any impact due to the AoE cap. Not to mention the huge cooldown and that you can easily bait the spell or simply dodge-roll out of it.
If you’re having problems surviving Meteor Showers, it’s completely on your end.
You’re stationary for the cast time, not the duration of the skill. And trust me, as a well using necro main, some red circles aren’t going to stop people from staying in the AOE.
I agree that it needs some warning though, as do mesmer feedbacks and necro spectral walls.
Well, that’s the problem right there – it comes down to the Ascended gear again. Because really, the issue is not with rebalancing stats. Really isn’t. The issue is having added a gear-tier which is a) superior, so it’s non-optional and b) takes ages to get. And c) this is in stark contrast to the rest of the gear system of the game.
I suppose you’re correct about the real problem, but it doesn’t change that right now I have loads of in game resources spent for gear that I wouldn’t choose again if given the option, and I’m not crazy about the idea of pursuing another set.
They’ve said that sigil and rune changes may make up the difference, but the sigil change doesn’t effect my build, and I doubt the rune change makes up a 10%+ dps loss.
I wish they would focus their balance updates on improving all those useless skills and traits, rather than nerfing the few that are useful. But it seems like they are more likely to add new skills, than to fix the old ones that we already have.
This is my perception as well and I also feel it is a problem.
I think the first solution to this is to keep stats unchanged in WvW, especially since they will be unchanged in sPvP. WvW and Pve need seperate balance changes. This would cut a huge amount of this concern.
Crit damage is too high in WvW too, though.
Is it? Most roamers complain about bunker condition specs. Most zergs run PVT or something with more survivability. It’s considered folly by many to run a zerker spec in WvW unless you can manage to not be a rallybot. Yet those specific players are still being punished for another game mode entirely.
I suppose I wouldn’t be as upset if it weren’t for having purchased all of the recipes for the ascended gear, all the infusions… All of it totalling to months of grinding for a player like me.
I think the first solution to this is to keep stats unchanged in WvW, especially since they will be unchanged in sPvP. WvW and Pve need seperate balance changes. This would cut a huge amount of this concern.
So I heard Necromancers don’t have ways to escape combat, but that is offset by being a profession with a lot of survivability. Well, let’s just examine that – shall we?
Let’s take a look at its defining feature…
Profession mechanic
- Death Shroud allows damage to reduce your health pool.
- Death Shroud prevents Necromancers from receiving healing.
- Upon leaving Death Shroud, Necromancers cannot access their healing skill.
So the profession mechanic of the ‘stay and fight’ class strips it of its healing and leaves it at its most vulnerable? It’s not just underwhelming but completely ironic!
First you should get around to fixing that bug (happy anniversary, guys!). Then please consider Tainted Shackles providing Regeneration. It has a long enough cooldown.
I’m not going to be unreasonable and demand that Death Shroud become an I WIN button that allows you to heal to full unassisted; that would be farcical. However I don’t consider it unfair that the profession mechanic of an attrition class provide some tiny amount of healing. Five and a half seconds of Regen can’t be too much to ask for.
I can’t speak for others, but have Tainted Shackles (40s cooldown!!) provide Regeneration and I’ll forgive and forget the year long bug crippling our profession mechanic.
Sound fair?
Don’t forget that it also completely negates training into siphoning and other traits like parasitic bond. Our class mechanic negates our own traits. That is just silly.
Would be nice if this were fixed, this bug gets me killed every now and then and I never see it even formally addressed.
Why are some responders pointing out the obvious fact that zerker will still be powerful? I think anyone looking for a change in stats knows that. The point is that many people grinded for ascended and exotic gear and the game was changed after they bought in. Perhaps they would have gone with another set if it were different to begin with? I know I would have, as a WvW player.
I feel worse for those with celestial, Valkyrie, or cavalier pieces as they likely got hit even worse. Personally I think it’s only right to allow this change on a one time basis, and it would be great if they did this when they release new stat sets, to promote build diversity.
On thieves? No.
On mesmers? Maybe.
From a WvW standpoint, I could have other specs besides zerker that could be beneficial for me, so I would personally like to choose new stats like they did with magic find gear.
Not every class uses 2 handed weapons with berserker gear, so that change doesn’t solve everything.
I think it’s time that WvW got its own balance changes separate from PVE and closer to pvp.
So you have no response, got it. You’re severely overrating plague while putting lich in the worst possible situation.
I’m disappointed, I thought we might actually have an interesting discussion on power necros in zergs.
Just thought about something…
In our fights (guild group), especially when outnumbered, we often voluntarily let a few enemies down for the enemies to come and raise them, then, while they are busy rezzing, we go back at that same point and make another burst, thus downing quite a good bunch of them. Some proposed changes would also mean that strategies that are based on human/compassion behavior (save the ally before he dies!) would not really be effective anymore…
This would still work. In fact, this may work better with these changes since those downed players won’t rally off someone they cleaved earlier in the fight, and instead will stay downed until they are finished or rezzed. Most of this discussion is on downed players and excessive rallies more so than the downed state itself.