Guild Wars 2

For me the easiest to kill is a toss of the coin between Necro and Ranger. Wither the Necro maybe there because I know its weaknesses and what to look out for, so it probably helps.

But I tend to find if I focus a Necro or a Ranger they die quicker and more times than any of the other classes and have less escape options.

Next ones I tend to find depends on the build and/or weapons you are running. Some classes like Guardian are easier when you have boon stripping. Warrior is a nightmare and especially the hammer warrior if you don’t have foot in the grave expect to spend most of the time flying around like a ping pong ball.

Thief and Mesmer have alot of stealth and evade skills which can take longer to kill them. Engineer has elixir s and toolbox 4 that allows them to have a nice period of immunity to zip in and out of the action.

Elementalist is the one I struggle with the most I tend to find they can zip away and regen up and get back in quicker than I can get myself topped back up.

I must admit that skill lag for me has been little to non existent which is a bonus. I have seen a huge improvement from what it used to be. Only problem now is that when I die I can only blame my lack of skill and not the skill lag.

Thanks for the improvements as its made WvW alot more enjoyable.

Gensokyo.1528:

Scarran.9845:

Unhinged Carrot.3849:

Great to see all the Piken excuses crop up so quickly (almost as quickly as you cast aside SFR’s “excuses” last time round).

Scarran.9845:

Being focused by SFR is indeed a compliment as to how well we performed in the Week 1 match-up. At the end of the day I and probably most others at Piken don’t care you are focusing us. If your expecting us to throw our toys out the pram like certain SFR individuals did on the forum then im hoping you will be surprised that we actually have a mature community who doesn’t steep to certain SFR forum warrior levels.

Fantastic logic here. Tailoring your view of the entire SFR community on a select vocal minority, meanwhile presenting your own server on a pedestal, skimming over the detritus already posted by a select few members of your own community. In reality there are forum warriors on all servers, and they will come out of the woodwork when things aren’t going their way. This happened to SFR when we were double-teamed. Let’s face it; double-teaming happened. It wasn’t a premeditated scenario as some conspiracy theorists suggested, simply a result of the circumstances. Piken had an opportunity to achieve more than they would otherwise have been capable of by riding in Vizunah’s slipstream, and they took it. Fair play to them. Now SFR is going to focus Piken, because that’s our best way to better our position in the league. Again, fair play. Call coverage wars if you like, but don’t forget how quickly you dismissed the coverage issues SFR experienced last time. But that was “fair ’n (vizunah) square”, right?

Back to lurking for me.

If it does look like im presenting my server on a pedestal that’s only because despite the numerous posts baiting people into a war of words. We have been resilient at most and tried not get drawn into the forum wars side of things. .

dont see how u can say that when i mainly find myself responding to the provactations of piken sqaure posters in this thread you guys keep trying to make it seem like sfr have all the forum warriors but i find that piken has just as many if not more

Prior to the quoted post you responded 3 times in 3 full forum pages and a bit, when each page contains 50 posts. So in 157 posts you responded 3 times to provocations by Piken, I think that 3 posts that you deemed provocative is quite a low number even if in worse case scenario its 50 odd posts for Piken and you assume its a 1/3 the number.

Unhinged Carrot.3849:

Great to see all the Piken excuses crop up so quickly (almost as quickly as you cast aside SFR’s “excuses” last time round).

Scarran.9845:

Being focused by SFR is indeed a compliment as to how well we performed in the Week 1 match-up. At the end of the day I and probably most others at Piken don’t care you are focusing us. If your expecting us to throw our toys out the pram like certain SFR individuals did on the forum then im hoping you will be surprised that we actually have a mature community who doesn’t steep to certain SFR forum warrior levels.

Fantastic logic here. Tailoring your view of the entire SFR community on a select vocal minority, meanwhile presenting your own server on a pedestal, skimming over the detritus already posted by a select few members of your own community. In reality there are forum warriors on all servers, and they will come out of the woodwork when things aren’t going their way. This happened to SFR when we were double-teamed. Let’s face it; double-teaming happened. It wasn’t a premeditated scenario as some conspiracy theorists suggested, simply a result of the circumstances. Piken had an opportunity to achieve more than they would otherwise have been capable of by riding in Vizunah’s slipstream, and they took it. Fair play to them. Now SFR is going to focus Piken, because that’s our best way to better our position in the league. Again, fair play. Call coverage wars if you like, but don’t forget how quickly you dismissed the coverage issues SFR experienced last time. But that was “fair ’n (vizunah) square”, right?

Back to lurking for me.

If you actually take off your SFR tinted glasses and read the paragraph properly you will infact see that I did not label the entire SFR community only a select few individuals.

The words “certain SFR individuals” does not mean all SFR individuals. The words “certain SFR forum warriors” is not all SFR. I understand that not everyone has english as their first language so just for record.

Certain – definite or particular, but not named or specified.

In this instance it is a particular set of individuals that almost all servers have that tarnish the name of the good people on that server. If your trying to say that my statement of the amount of complaining by certain SFR individuals in the first weeks matchup is untrue you just need to glance over that initial thread if your memory isn’t quite upto scratch.

If it does look like im presenting my server on a pedestal that’s only because despite the numerous posts baiting people into a war of words. We have been resilient at most and tried not get drawn into the forum wars side of things. At the end of the day I never mentioned it was unfair or unpredictable that you are focusing us because lets be honest for a tactical side and revenge side it makes sense. I am responding to the certain forum warriors who think that because they spawn camp us that we are shedding tears when in fact I and probably others in Piken don’t really care.

Again nothing was mentioned by me regarding coverage wars, at the end of the day WvW is 24/7. If servers haven’t got the population or the coverage to compete within that time period then that is tough. We are all aware of it and yes its not ideal but everyone is in the same boat and have managed to deal with it through various methods. There is always going to be servers with greater numbers than others over the period and if anyone is expecting it to be eventually balanced then they are in for a rude awakening as its never going to happen.

Being focused by SFR is indeed a compliment as to how well we performed in the Week 1 match-up. At the end of the day I and probably most others at Piken don’t care you are focusing us. If your expecting us to throw our toys out the pram like certain SFR individuals did on the forum then im hoping you will be surprised that we actually have a mature community who doesn’t steep to certain SFR forum warrior levels.

We knew coming into this season that it was more than likely 3rd place for us, if we get joint second its a bonus. It’s too funny seeing some of the posts with screenies trying to bate us into SFR forum warrior antics. No words or screenies will ever change the fact that its 2nd place overall that is being fought over. Maybe its sour grapes because you expected to win the league and run away with it but as the song goes you cant always get what you want.

Summon Druid Spirit (Sylvari Elite) – This one is pretty high on my useless elite skill list with the long cast time, the very long cooldown. Then when the Spirit is out the thing is slow and cumbersome and tends to stay static and hit everything other than what you want it to hit and thats when it does actually attack.

To be honest im not a fan of most of the Sylvari racial utilities never mind elite skills I think grasping vines is the only utility that gets pass marks. I used to like Take Root till I discovered a static Necro in WvW is a dead Necro and if your being jumped and use it as protection you get more bang for buck out of Plague.

JonathanSharp.7094:

Some great ideas in here. We’ve talked about moving Dhuumfire up to Grandmaster in the Curses line, and moving Terror as well.

We also like the idea of making Terror scale with # of conditions on your target, so there’s more “play” to trying to load your target up with a lot of condies before you hit them with Fear. Your opponent can try to keep condies low, so that Terror won’t hurt as much.

Dhuumfire moving would also open up a gap for a new GM trait in Spite, so we’d need to figure that out as well.

Great suggestions!

I really like this idea and it feels alot better than changing Dhuumfire to DS life blast. Altho I do hate myself for saying it as it means Terror that I use in my build will move beyond my points reach but in the longer term I think its going to solve alot of problems that trying to balance Terror and Dhuumfire is going to create.

JonPeters.5630:

AN UPDATE
Weakening Shroud. This trait now does a smaller version of Enfeebling Blood when entering Death Shroud. Bleeding (1 stack only; 6 seconds [10s with full condition duration spec]). Weakness (2s [3s with full condition duration spec]). No ICD.

Obviously this is a very big change so please discuss, and keep your discussion constructive, so that we can actually talk through the merits/downsides.

Jon

Thanks Jon for this as I like the change also and think its alot better than the initial change, I agree that 3s would be a better option but if its 2s or the old way ill stick with this iteration. Stx had mentioned the exact same reason why I find it useful and with this change it means that it will still be a useful trait.

JonPeters.5630:

Scarran.9845:

JonPeters.5630:

“Could you not combine Protection of the Horde with Flesh Of The Master?” -Scarran

We could but I think that would be a wildly OP Master trait…

Currently what is the difference in me spending 20 points in Death Magic and taking Flesh of the Master? Am I not receiving the same benefits? As I get Protection of the Horde as the minor trait at 15 points and I get Flesh of the Master 20 point major.

The difference would be that we would be adding a new 15 point minor as well that you would be getting for free that would have similar power to these. If we took any two major traits that had synergy and merged them they would be overpowered. No difference here.

But what if you tweak the toughness numbers so it falls in line as your not merging two major traits its a major and minor. It only becomes a major after the changes and the trait is definitely not a master worthy major trait on its own because if its moved and you are running a minion master build straight away that change has lessened the toughness of your build. Add onto that the squishiness of minions that toughness is only a real benefit if you can keep those critters alive for long enough. Plus comparable to other builds the damage output of a MM build is not really comparable to that of other quality builds and therefore the extra defence/survivability would be a perk of the build.

If it is not combined then Protection of the Horde is going to clash with Flesh of the Master and if your running a minion build its really a must to keep those critters alive so FOTM wins everytime. If your running a death nova build the whole point is destroying those critters for the damage and poison and thus negates the toughness you receive so again no reason to take it.

All it is really doing is replacing a pointless trait for another pointless trait by including it as an option. As I see no scenario where it would benefit me from taking Protection of the Horde over any other minion master trait.

JonPeters.5630:

“Could you not combine Protection of the Horde with Flesh Of The Master?” -Scarran

We could but I think that would be a wildly OP Master trait…

Currently what is the difference in me spending 20 points in Death Magic and taking Flesh of the Master? Am I not receiving the same benefits? As I get Protection of the Horde as the minor trait at 15 points and I get Flesh of the Master 20 point major.

JonPeters.5630:

We will talk today about changing duration on weakening shroud instead of cooldown .

Also we have some plans for death magic including merging reanimated with death nova, and moving Protection of the Horde to be a major trait, and then reworking the minors in this line. This kind of change is not going to happen for dec 10 for 3 reasons.
1) testing time
2) implementation time
3) most importantly: if we rework this we want to make sure it is correct the second time around so we will take our time deciding on the “right” design.

Point 3 is something I’m happy to discuss here to list some ideas and break down some pros and cons.

Thanks,

Jon

Thanks Jon for your response.

I can only speak for myself in that being informed that something is being worked on helps ease concerns. It is being left in the dark that is more infuriating and I know myself does not expect our class to be all fixed in one patch as that is unreasonable. But as long as im seeing improvements and progress that is all that matters.

I would be happy to see currently what the thinking is for point 3 as you must have some ideas penciled down. If you are planning merging reanimator with Death Nova and keep it as a grandmaster what about having it also spawn the little critter when your minions die? This allows the minion master to have a minor minion replace his major when it dies. Again this may or may not make things overpowered as there is a max 5 limit on how many of the little critters you can get out.

Could you not combine Protection of the Horde with Flesh Of The Master? As currently im pretty sure alot of Necro’s take this for extra survivability for their pets and this would also help the master and combining these two would make sense and not be an indirect nerf to MM. Would moving out some of the non minion traits as minors help? Like move Shrouded Removal to be a minor as its not a great major trait to take but could be useful as a minor. Or make things really good and make Dark Armour a minor…ok maybe a bit much for the last one but it would make a really good minor trait.

Death Nova is good as a grandmaster for minions but I find no reason to take Necromatic Corruption and its lackluster and not really a good grandmaster trait compared to the benefits of Death Nova. Having two grandmaster traits relating to minions are a bit much id rather provide an alternative trait that is non minion specific.

I would like to admit that I am surprised by the lack of response from the developers but to be honest I am not really that surprised.

Its a bit like the old saying out of sight out of mind, if they ignore us for long enough they can live in their imaginary world that there is nothing wrong with Necro and that we are that overpowered they need to shave damage and reduce abilities from our class. Despite all of the negative feedback from the Necro community it would have been better spent talking to a brick wall as we get a similar response.

I am not trying to be rude and I understand its a difficult process but we are being treated as if we know nothing about the class and that its just a learn to play issue. The lack of communication is what is infuriating the community and with no real sense of direction for the class after over a year released.

What is the point in proposed changes when no matter what is said the changes are implemented anyway. That is more in line of the air raid siren before the blitz you are really just giving us a heads up that something nasty is about to happen. To top it all off the class is not majorly broken, yes it needs fixes and traits adjusted, re-worked or moved around but we do not expect it all in one patch. As long as the community see’s progress and knows the dev’s vision of where the class is going we at least know there is movement.

Instead we are left in the dark to ponder if we will ever have a fully functional diverse class or if we are going to remain with the same old cookie cutter builds with the same flaws that have existed since launch. Now we are getting more flaws added each patch because of unneeded and unwarranted nerf’s. If the broken still remain broken and the good skill are made worse, where does that leave the future of Necro? Its not looking positive thats all I can say.

Jon its pretty obvious that no words are going to change what is already happening. The justification for these changes is great when you start picking out best case scenario numbers that in reality never actually happen.

That is the problem when you try to balance a class via a spreadsheet rather than playing the class and discovering in practice you never ever get close to the scenarios you state. I would love to have 100% weakness uptime, the full ticks of my staff bleed, the perma regen numbers and bleed damages that you state. In reality outwith the spreadsheets the conditions are cleansed easily either via combo fields or via traits or utilities that other classes bring. It’s an urban legend that all Necro builds can easily outstack the condition cleanses, as not every Necro is spec’d for condition application.

Regen is all well and good when you consider we rely on DS and in order to negate being railroaded we enter into DS and thus negating that perma regen we obtain. Terror on its own is not as powerful as you think but combined with Dhuumfire it does take it over the edge. I would rather you take Dhuumfire and stick it on another classes trait line and give us something else that doesn’t require you butchering our class or other traits just to balance out this deadly combination.

As for the other skills in Curses, Chilling Darkness is never a master trait, yes it is a good skill but we have 3 blinds and one requires the enemy to stupidly stand in a well with a long cooldown. The other one requires you to be remotely close for the unreliable bounces to happen and the last one requires you enter into plague form and then wait another 180 seconds before it happens. So yes the skill is a good skill but it is never a master skill and again in theory its great if everything worked and the enemy never ever cleansed conditions or they just stand there like idiots to let it happen.

Again I do not know where you get the information from, Blood Necro’s are not feeling pretty good, we are feeling pretty shafted as you tweaked around the numbers to give us blood necro’s little to no improvements in the way of life siphoning. If its not for the fact you rely on that tree if you run Well’s and probably certain minion builds there is little to no point in going into it as the siphons you receive are laughable at best and the only saving grace was transfusion which can be beneficial to your team members.

The problem being is that you are aware certain trait lines need work done but when are you ever going to find the time to do it?

To be honest this latest patch and the last patch for Necro is really disappointing. It feels like the Necro class is more of an after thought when the fixes are being proposed.

For example last patch you made it evident that we were getting some improvements to our life siphoning, in reality you juggled numbers around that much that we are no better and sometimes slightly worse off on our siphoning because it does not scale properly with healing power.

This patch feels more of the same you are removing 1 bleed from 2 skills and making changes to traits that are useless and after the changes will still remain useless but again we are ending up no better off and slightly worse off again.

I would like to know the thought process behind such changes as this is now 2 patches that feel as if you are changing stuff on Necro just for change sake in order to look like you are doing something with the class. It is also becoming more apparent that any suggestions by the Necro community is falling on deaf ears, for example Dhuumfire….. I can point to numerous threads in the Necro forum posted against this when it was planned being introduced and we knew what was going to happen and indeed it has happened.

So now because we got a skill we didn’t want we are getting punished in other area’s because of this. We have numerous outstanding issue’s with the class yet these issue’s are brushed over and disregarded with each patch. If you are not wanting to give us mobility then give us a way to be able to stay in the fight, fix our siphons so that it helps us last longer.

By your definition “we want the Necromancers to be focused on sustaining themselves through death shroud, siphoning health, and slowing down their opponent’s ability to act” but each patch does not match your own description.

We cannot sustain ourselves via DS as regen does not work whilst we are in this form, we can no longer use it to absorb large burst attacks as damage now feeds over onto our health as this was altered in a previous patch.

Siphoning is subpar and if you look at the numbers this is negated easily by one attack and therefore siphoning in its current form is terrible and at times worse than before the patch so again this has been nullified.

Next up slowing down your opponents ability to act, but now you’re extending the duration of Weakening Shroud’s mechanic that applies Weakness that in all intents and purposes will slow the opponents ability to act via fumble and wear them down by having heals being less effective. As you can see with each patch you release you do the opposite of what you vision us to be.

Bhawb.7408:

In what way are we the worst? Its been shown that we have comparable direct damage DPS to non-warriors, with a much easier time going full glass than pretty much anyone and still being self sufficient. And that is just single-target. We are easily one of the strongest classes at dealing with mass mobs, so long as they can’t ping-pong CC us.

You are right in what you say Bhawb and the problem now is that people are now aware of the flaws in Necro with the lack of CC prevention. If a Necro can stay on their feet long enough they can be competitive enough but if your against a group that knows what they are doing they will knock you all over the place and there is little to nothing you can do about it.

With Hammer Warriors being the new craze the knockbacks and knockdowns is flying all over the place and its tough going when your a Necro.

It used to be that on patch day we get given something with one hand and then slapped across the face with the other hand. Now they aren’t even hiding the fact that they are slapping us across the face and this time the other hand is sticking 2 fingers up to us.

I think its pretty evident by each patch that the miracle patch we hoped for is never ever going to arrive. If the people who created and designed the class doesn’t know what to do with it then what hope do we have? Its a sorry day when the best they can come up with for Necro in the first two changes is to remove a bleed. It feels like someone is trying to just fill the patch with anything for Necro and it doesn’t matter what.

Are we really that overpowered especially with staff that 1 bleed is pushing us over the edge from other classes? I never realised how overpowered 1 bleed actually made us, I was thinking that maybe with all the cleanses that the bleed didnt last its full duration to matter.

Reanimator which has been a debate amongst the Necro community for a while mostly stating that its not really good. So how is it improved…lets reduce the cooldown so its still useless but we might get more of the useless critters out instead now.

Vital persistence change doesn’t matter all that much when more times than not its the damage that knocks you out of DS rather than it ticking down. So this change is more than likely not going to be noticeable in a PVP environment.

Of course we will likely get the usual response of “wait and see to test it out how good it is” or “remember this is only snippet and there is a whole lot more in the patch”. Both responses have been stated numerous times and in every occassion we know the outcome and it wasn’t a good one.

And yes I am peeved and its more so because I enjoy my Necro, its a class ive played since beta to launch and beyond. Its a class that I know is misunderstood and altho it isn’t as awful as some make it out, there is glaring issue’s that patch after patch fails to address. But of course no amount of advice or recommendations or suggestions is going to matter when those are falling on deaf ears. Posts about we read everything you say is all well and good but someone needs a new pair of reading glasses. As I really don’t remember any recommendations of what the “community” said being included in any of the recent patches.

Build wise it might be easier to fit around whatever gear you can afford to get and working out a build from there.

For a fresh lvl 80 with little cash I found Orr was the best place to go for exotics as it uses Karma and I found I had tons of Karma to spend. You might need to visit a few temple karma npc’s to get what you need but here lists the gear stats and where you can get each piece.

http://dulfy.net/2012/09/08/gw2-templegod-karma-armor-sets/

You can also get exotic accessories from there also and again here is a link to locations and type you can obtain:

http://dulfy.net/2013/01/28/gw2-new-orr-temple-exotics/

Weapons you can either buy them or go to the vendor in WvW and get them that way if you have any badges yet. If your doing alot of WvW and your badges are counting up I find thats the best way to obtain your ascended accessories as it takes less laurels that way. But if you find your doing fractals alot and easily obtaining laurels then it might just be easier and less costly getting it from the laurel vendor in lions arch.

This method at least will get you some nice exotics and allow you to compete in high end stuff without busting the bank. It also allow you to work your cash up and get different gear that fits a specific build you want to go but lack the cash at the moment.

DevonCarver.5370:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Official-state-of-skill-lag-and-server-optimizations

Performance is something that is being worked on for the entirety of the game. We are aware of the issues and are in the process of addressing them as rapidly as we can. Please go to the above link to get more detailed information as Bill is really the point person for all of this work right now. While the impacts of performance are quite clear in WvW, it is not isolated to just WvW and we are in the process of making these changes to the entirety of the game. Direct questions and concerns to that post.

We are aware that skill lag is being worked on and that skill lag has been around a while. But the issue is more that since the introduction of leagues skill lag has become alot more severe in fights that before this recent patch resulted in little to no skill lag at all.

This issue is not related to a huge influx of players as with Tier 1 servers, they are used to dealing with full maps and this problem was only ever evident when 3 large zergs were fighting. Now it is happening when 2 medium sized zergs are fighting, so something has gone wrong in this latest patch for skill lag to get as severe as it is now.

Whether it has to do with the new achievements and having to calculate it all out I do not know but currently WvW is unplayable and I do not know how much longer people will put up with skill lag in its current state. Skill lag before the patch was annoying but it was something that people were able to put up with as it happened only in 3 way large zerg fights which normally do not happen that often. But now I find myself just logging off as it is pointless having a fight where no skills are able to fire off.

I spend alot of my time in WvW with some PVE but mostly I enjoy doing WvW. For me the one thing that annoys me when in DS is the lack of condition management.

More so immobilize as if your in DS when someone does that to you, then you have little to no choice but to exit out of DS to remove this. 10 seconds cooldown may not seem alot but in WvW it does feel like an eternity when your getting hit from all quarters.

So I wouldn’t mind some condition management, the trait upon entering DS to remove 1 condition isnt helpful when you are in DS and get hit with them. I just feel as a class that deals with conditions our main class ability has no way of dealing with them.

Wither this will make us too overpowered or too mobile I do not know but I think it would have been a better addition than torment.

I would go with runes of speed as altho they are expensive they aren’t as expensive as the traveler set. It’s around 15-16g for full set of runes of speed, well thats what I got mine for and prices don’t look to have changed much.

This not only allows you to have decent speed whilst running around, it also means you can have the full army out and not sacrifice a minion or trait for the extra speed.

Again this evening WvW was unplayable, I don’t mind dying when you know its down to numbers or to someone who is better skilled than you.

But its even more annoying dying as a result of the server, something that is outwith your control. This problem has been around for a while but its only since this latest patch that it has become a really severe problem. Before it was mega large zerg fests as in 3 full blobs all located in the one area but now its happening to 2 medium sized blobs.

I do not know what it is in the last patch that has created this woeful performance in WvW but what is the point in playing WvW when you cant do anything other than watch your health tick down and die. It’s also not about a influx of players because of the new league because higher tier servers have always had full queues during prime time and sometimes more and the skill lag has never ever been this bad.

People login to WvW to play the game not sit and hit your keys in the hope that even 1 skill actually fires off. Where is the enjoyment in that?

I dont know what has happened since the season start but the game has went from being skill lag occasionally, more so when the 3 server blobs are all in the one location to now having skill lag even when 2 blobs meet.

These blobs aren’t as large as the blobs ive witnessed in the past and had no skill lag, so wither its the new calculations for the achievements which is causing the server to do this or something else but it is awful to play in.

Since the patch WvW has went from being a joy to being a frustration, its tough being a Necro as you need to manage your death shroud etc to keep yourself alive or standing up right. But hitting death shroud and nothing happening then keep hitting the button to see you suddenly flash in and out of death shroud, then watch your health drop and hit heal and hit heal and hit heal….nothing happening and then dead.

At times I cant even get the auto attack to work, and to be honest id rather they cut short the leagues now and revert back as its pretty obvious in the EU who is winning that one. I’d rather have my WvW back rather than continue to bang my head against the brick wall of queue’s and skill lag. All for what?…..for 2nd or 3rd place and 7 weeks of long queues and even worse horrible unplayable skill lag.

To be honest I think this is a great idea, im happy that this is being put in place. A few arguments have been posted that its only to going to encourage more on the upper tier servers and give them more of a reason to stay than swap.

I understand where you are coming from and I understand its not very good being in a underpopulated server. But at the same time should that mean anyone that has to deal with queues should be punished because of other servers being underpopulated.

Its not our fault that people left to join higher populated servers or that your server is underpopulated and im guessing that a few who are on the higher populated servers didn’t ask for alot to come and add to their queue times but these things happen.

The map isn’t there to address the population issue it is there to help people who wish to do some WvW and maybe only have a limited time and do not wish to stand around playing eye spy with my little eye in lions arch. The good thing about this map is it will allow guilds to do GvG if they openly wish to do so, outwith the normal WvW environment. It is also a good place for some of the more prominent WvW guilds to advertise to train inexperienced WvW players in a place that isn’t effecting the grand scheme of things and being able to teach them the basics of WvW.

I know my first time in WvW I hadn’t a clue what was going on, I jumped off a hill to meet a sea of red and got trampled by a zerg and thought this is rubbish, how on earth am I meant to defend against that. But I stuck it out and then slowly discovered the mechanics of WvW, and even now im still learning new tactics and new strategy’s that I haven’t seen before.

For me this map is a good thing and its alot better being able to do some WvW action than having none at all. Yes I could transfer and yes I have done so in the past for various reasons but I enjoy being part of Piken and the community is friendly enough so why should I be forced to leave a server I enjoy just to play some WvW. This way I get the best of both worlds without having to sacrifice something.

Im having the same issue and it cropped up since updating my Windows 8 to Windows 8.1.

I do know when I did update my graphics driver got updated to the latest version and I know I had to revert back to an older Nvidia driver when I was Windows 8.0 as it caused these same issues but even reverting it back now has no effect. Ive only noticed it happening when there is alot of bodies around in WvW and ive yet to see it occur in PVE. It’s definitely a graphics driver crash as sometimes if I wait long enough it will come back with the warning down near the clock telling me so but other times the machine is frozen and requires me to hit the power button.

I was thinking about Well of Blood also and altho it is a good healing skill it is definitely overshadowed by Consume Conditions. Its been mentioned that because of the current condition heavy meta that its unwise to run with WoB in anything other than PVE.

So rather than change the field would it be better to have the well transfer conditions off allies onto any enemy who are in the well at say 1 or 2 conditions per pulse. Not only would this help make the heal slightly more useful but I don’t think this change would make it too overpowered.

We already have one that converts conditions to boons and one that converts boons to conditions why not have one that transfers conditions. We all know a dodge can get you out a well so it isnt going to make it too overpowered but hopefully it will make it good enough to use once combined with the other well’s and weapons we have.

To be honest im disappointed also with the ‘improvements’ that they done with our siphons. If you were nit picking then yes it was an improvement but so is hanging a picture in a derelict building but it doesn’t make it any better.

I think the biggest gripe is time and time again we get told to wait for the next patch, there is a ton of improvements and fixes coming. And time and time again we are left feeling like the development team thinks we are idiots and can throw anything at us, call it a great patch and think we wouldn’t notice that it aint that great.

My problem is how long did it take for you to make these so called improvements? Because the time spent on our siphons and for the end result out of it, I would rather it have been spent working on something else that needed fixed for the Necro class.

So in theory if you dont want to spend gold to get the corns then in order to obtain this and/or another skin and providing 100,000 is a correct number of candy corn (not in game to be able to check). That means you need around 3703 candy corn per day before the event expires in order to get your skin.

That is 27 days of gathering and the last day we will say you have the stuff to get it, otherwise its 3571 over 28 days. Who on earth is doing the calculations? And who on earth thinks that number is a viable amount over a 28 day period?

I would love to sit all day and night gathering with matchsticks to keep my eyes open and have the magical fairy pay all my bills and provide me a wage. But in the real world there is little to no chance of me ever coming close to that amount and id struggle to find someone who could without spending a ton of money on it.

To be honest this patch I was just hoping they never broke anything that I used in my build. They have provided a buff to minions in PVE which may or may not help as ive not had a chance to test them yet.

But if you look around all the other class forums the general consensus is of disappointment at the patch. Unless your a Warrior and the general consensus is of surprise that they had their shouts buff’d as they weren’t that bad in the first place. Overall they never broke anything that I used so I will take that as a bonus and for everything else, as usual we will have to work around it.

I have learned to deal with the fact that their isnt going to be any miracle patch incoming so if your still not happy with Necro then don’t expect any miracle soon. For me im happy as I dislike playing the other classes and its the one class that provides me the most joy.

Im hoping that the increased buff to all minions added with our transfusion buff will help in keeping the little terrors alive.

Thats as long as the there isn’t anything badly nerf’d with the existing traits for minions as with the 50% increase in health it should give us some pretty sturdy minions. I must admit im looking forward to testing this out the most, as I miss my one man army and would like to swap back to a minion build.

oZii.2864:

Scarran.9845:

I also noticed that Dhuumfire is now a 2 second burn so its being reduced. Which is strange as with all the condition cleanses that are being added I would have thought they might have left it to see how it performed with the new changes.

He was in the mists that is why it was 2 seconds. Dhuumfire is reduced to 2 seconds in the mists only.

Ah thanks oZii I never knew that, i really dont do alot of sPVP and spend little time in the mists. Im more WvW or PVE and only really go in there when im trying out different builds to see what they are like as its cheaper than buying the stuff.

Altho my buying armour addiction is definitely not appeased there as my bank is full to the brim with the different armour sets for my Necro. They always say the first step is admitting your addiction 8O)

I also noticed that Dhuumfire is now a 2 second burn so its being reduced. Which is strange as with all the condition cleanses that are being added I would have thought they might have left it to see how it performed with the new changes.

http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/c/3084198

That is a link to the recording showing off all the classes with a small peek of changes that are incoming to traits/skills and some of the new floaters and targeting changes.

As for the changes to Necro im not really sure what to make of them, from what I gathered about this patch from previous posts it was to help with the siphoning.

But the minion siphon was reduced and the bloodthirst % was reduced but until tested its hard to say how much of an impact it will have as the damage for minions now works and the base for bloodthirst was increased. Deathly Invigoration is in a tree that has alot of really good traits and for me the heal didn’t look impressive enough that it would find a way into any of the builds I use. The changes to Transfusion is very welcome as its a skill I use currently use in a party.

Im also assuming that the boost to minions will also be present in Necro’s and that will hopefully help MM Necro’s and their pets survivability. Overall I think judgement will be reserved until such times as the changes can be tested to see if its a positive or negative effect to our health siphoning.

To be honest a conditions build in a zerg environment is just not viable. A condition build is more small group/solo as that is where you get the greatest benefit from it.

In a zerg you tend to find that when you are zerg v zerg the first few moments as you run into the enemy zerg will most likely determine the outcome. In a condition build it takes way too long to cast epidemic or any other skill that is going to have an area effect for it to really matter. For zerg it really is about spamming area attacks and making sure that you step out of there alive at the end of it.

So your really looking for a build with survivability and area burst damage or your looking for something that can disrupt the enemy zerg to give your zerg a chance of wiping them out. And all of this has to be done in the short period of time from your zerg running in therefore because of this condition builds just don’t cut it for the zerg environment.

So your looking more for a build that uses power rather than conditions wither it be Well’s or a Spectral build or a mixture of both but those are definitely more viable.

To be honest it took me a while but i finally figured out this exact same answer as the threads topic. First off WvW for me is the only decent content available for end game.. Anyone who has a level 80 with 100% map completion already knows that there is only so much content you can repeat before getting bored. I have done all the maps, all the hearts etc and I have no need to repeat these, I also have no need to role a huge amount of alts to keep me occupied when I actually don’t enjoy the other classes other than Necro (I know glutton for punishment).

I could go do Dungeon runs but at this level rather than being able to savour the dungeon and take it in fully. The pace at which you run dungeons are more like a 100m sprint than anything else. I spend alot of my time in WvW and never got to do the dungeons until recently, but I cant take in the cut scenes or story when any group your in automatically exits the cut scene and legs it, so you basically have to do the same. When running the gauntlet gets boring which it does your really left with WvW its the only place that I felt changes and provides an experience that you do not know what to expect. Recently though I have seen WvW for what it actually is, it will never be an area about skill that is apparent that is saved for tPVP or sPVP. It is at times about tactics but alot of the time its running around in a zerg and the higher up you go the more this is required as even camp taking teams are of huge numbers so the small skirmishes slowly start to diminish. I just don’t see any fun in this combat, zerg combat for the most doesn’t tend to last long, you either rush head long or portal into them and kill most of them in seconds or you get demolished by similar tactics. What fun is there to be had its not skill its spamming skills and if your lucky you survived if your unlucky your dead.

WvW is not about the fun fights anymore, because it is a points game and everyone is looking to play the points system. Try having a fun long battle for a keep and then notice how much of your camps and keeps have suddenly been flipped. So fun goes out the window and its more about rushing between points and quickly taking stuff to get those points ticking up. I have been in alot of really fun fights at keeps which are long tactical battles but once they reach a certain time people leave because that’s what happens in WvW when it takes too long, because keeps and camps are being flipped its not about having fun in a long battle its about flipping those towers, keeps and camps quickly. If you start losing too many its better to cut your losses and go start taking them back. The higher you go in WvW the more evident that the glaring issue’s start to occur. How with each patch WvW still remains stagnant and the gameplay is getting worse. Numerous exploits still remain and at the same time new ones are starting to become evident. Large battles have now went from having lag only when a huge amount of fighting goes on to now medium sized battles are getting horrendous skill lag. Culling which I know is a hard thing to fix still doesn’t seem to be getting better, we all see the latest fix but all they done was flip the coin. Instead of enemies disappearing we now have our friendlies disappearing. Not only making it harder to play with your team because they are disappearing when there isn’t even an enemy in sight.

The imbalances in WvW are pretty evident and this can be seen by the fact that mostly everyone is rolling the same classes now. But with WvW its about having alot more people in each of the maps. Its even about the number of people you can have around the clock. Other than ply yourself with plenty of coffee prop those match sticks in your eyes and decide to become a hermit there is nothing that can be done when your coverage in the early hours of the morning arent upto scratch. If you cant then you can see a huge lead diminish in a matter of a day or 2 and to be honest I applaud that sense of dedication because at the end of the day the reward for winning is…nothing…well pride but try spending those pride points on anything in game. So I asked myself the question..Is WvW fun anymore? And the conclusion I got was NO. Its not fun anymore, its becoming more and more predictable, its stagnant and exploits are more frequent at higher level. The gameplay in WvW is now worse than it ever was with the new patch, and server imbalances are evident and I don’t see how they are going to balance themselves out. I see people getting bored and I will see them leaving but in order for there to be balance the ones higher up need to have more folk leave than the ones below. I shall wish everyone in the WvW community all the best and I hope the game turns out the way you deserve it to be. For myself my time is up, ive waited for too long for something to happen and with the severe lack of info, lack of basic fixes, lack of patching exploits that have been around for ages.

The culling I can put up with but the issue is that along with the new culling problem is the skill lag. It was so bad tonight I logged out as it was a waste of time playing.

I must admit that since this last patch ive had more skill delays than my entire time playing the game since release. Maybe ive been lucky in the past and this is it catching up with me but it is getting beyond the bearable stage.

Before this patch Karka in Lions Arch was one and occasionally in WvW in SM at the Lords Room would it do this but only when there was a gathering of all 3 servers battling it out.

Since the last patch it has been terrible and is ruining most of the fun im getting from WvW. It is also now spilling out into PVE events and if your doing the dragons, at least one of them will have this skill delay present.

You can only control where they are being placed by mouse. You can speed up placement by having fast cast ground targeting that will auto place them where your mouse cursor is.

You can also double tap the skill key and it saves on left clicking the mouse if that’s any easier but unfortunately there isn’t any way that I know of to control the circle placement as its linked to mouse movement.

Had posted this in another thread but thought it best to post it into the main thread never realised this was here.

I have also noticed since this last patch that its more common to have skill lag and stuttering.

I hardly ever got it before but now it seems pretty common and its making WvW extremely difficult. With the combat all about being quick paced and quick reaction its hard to react when you cast a skill it goes all the way to the top nothing, cast a skill progress bar goes 100% and nothing then repeat 3/4 times and suddenly it kicks in.
As I said it is something that has happened recently as I rarely ever got this before in WvW, last time I seen something this bad was when the Karka event in Lions Arch kicked off. But it is happening with far less people in the map, I have also had it outside of WvW but mostly when your doing one of the Dragon events and its never been as bad this before when doing these events.

I am in the UK and I have a 50Mb broadband connection and my computer is not bad spec wise, albeit not NASA material but it can play the game with everything pumped upto max normally without any glitches. I have tried tweaking with the settings and toning a few things down but nothing seems to help.

I have also noticed since this last patch that its more common to have skill lag and stuttering.

I hardly ever got it before but now it seems pretty common and its making WvW extremely difficult. With the combat all about being quick paced and quick reaction its hard to react when you cast a skill it goes all the way to the top nothing, cast a skill progress bar goes 100% and nothing then repeat 3/4 times and suddenly it kicks in.

As I said it is something that has happened recently as I rarely ever got this before in WvW, last time I seen something this bad was when the Karka event in Lions Arch kicked off. But it is happening with far less people in the map.

I was witness to a Thief today who was speed hacking and the tell for this is the constant stuttering run, if you pay close attention they don’t run as smoothly as everyone else.

Ive seen enough Thief’s in my time to realise they weren’t running away in a legit manner. The problem as has been stated there is no easy reporting system for them and the drop down box should have exploit listed. I had to report whoever it was for botting but that’s not correct but there is no other method for easily reporting these people.

It isn’t just Thief’s so having a thread picking out one class isn’t right, there are other classes making use of this and a few other exploits and its a shame as its a small minority trying to spoil the fun for everyone else. If they cant play fair then they shouldnt play at all.

We definitely have more options than most for dealing with conditions, followed by Warrior if they are spec’d correctly for it.

If you take staff recharges 20% faster trait you basically have Staff 4 every 20 seconds that transfers them all off you onto the enemy. Consume conditions that is every 25 seconds that takes them all off you. And then if you have dagger offhand with the reductions trait which allows you to transfer 3 conditions about every 15 seconds. That is 3 straight away without going further into other traits and well of power etc. that easily deals with conditions.

I think out of everything condition removal is the least of our worries.

To be honest ive tried both routes for PVE, WvW and Dungeon runs and its more a preference of play styles.

Conditionmancer is slow but wears multiple opponents down over a period of time. In PVE conditions tend to last longer in WvW you tend to find they don’t last as long, so longer duration tickups was a waste.

Powermancer is more burst damage and depending on your build you may have to get into the thick of it. I find area wise it doesn’t hit as many as conditionmancer can but what it does hit does more burst damage. If your running with a zerg in WvW things tend to last seconds anyway, there is a rare occurrence that they stand up for longer.

For that reason I chose Powermancer in WvW I wanted to do as much damage in a quicker period of time to drop the enemy faster. Mainly for 2 reasons…the quicker the enemy go down the less damage they do to me and also for badges, enemy go down that quick you want to make sure you get as much damage done as quickly as possible before they drop. Altho defending and attacking a keep I miss having my condition build as its alot easier. But as i said both builds are viable it just depends on your style of play, Slower more methodical playstyle is Conditions, quicker burst is Power but your more at risk.

I like some of the ideas you have for Necro and I have added some of my own. Altho I will admit some of these are more wishful thinking rather than from a practical sense.

When I first started Necro I must admit I never really read up alot on what the class was, but I envisioned a class that mostly delt poison and weakness to the enemy and had minions that were the extra damage required for the class to be on par with others.

But when I played the class I was disappointed that although we do have a few forms of poison alot of them are either skills that aren’t good or there just isn’t enough of a stacking of poison and weakness. I would like to see these be more used in our class so that we bring something that no other class has alot of. Right now our bleeds altho are good there is alot of classes that bleed and can hit that 25 bleed stack quicker than us. Once that happens it negates at least one of our weapon sets and a good few of our utilities.

Minions I agree still need work done and I would be happy if they had some sort of immunity to AOE damage or some sort of reduction to AOE damage. Wither it be added to the 50% extra health trait I don’t know but right now they are just way too squishy and need some sort of boost.

Life force again we rely on it a whole lot and some builds are easier than others to build up life force. Again it would be handy to have a trait that when out of combat gradually built up lifeforce at so much % every so many seconds. It would help not only build our lifeforce up but also not have it too OP that it effects combat as it would only work out of combat.

Axe I do feel needs some loving, I don’t find it totally useless I just don’t find a reason to actually use it. Most of what the Axe does I can get from other weapons and gain better benefits. If I want damage I will go dagger mainhand, the channel outputs the same damage as Axe only I get some Health back, albeit not much it helps. I also get a nice handy immobilize for runners. If you take axe for the cripple then the scepter gives you cripple and at a further range and retaliation isn’t that great to be honest. Right now the Axe is a niche weapon that certain builds use but if someone got rid of Axe tomorrow I couldn’t say that I would miss it as much as the other weapons we have.

The thing I would like to see also is tweaks to current skills, plague is a great elite but I would also like it to transfer conditions on you back to the enemy every time it pulses. Wither you add that to the 1 skill as its not really that great, but its a change that suits the skill, plague to me is a virulent cloud. So I find it strange that when im in this form I get tons of conditions stacked on me and nothing I can do about it other than to soak it up.

Spectral Armor make it useful by adding either stability or even reflect. These are two things our class really lacks so either one of them would be useful and make this skill viable.

Lich Form – Reduce the guys size, he is way too big and just draws attention to you in WvW.

Wells – Have a trait for greater wells which increases their size or add a trait that allows the wells to immobilize anyone in them (max 5 like other AOE restrictions). This will help reduce the ease of which it is to dodge right out of the well.

Spectral Wall – Add reflect onto this, its a wall yet projectiles can fly through it. I just find it strange its more like Spectral Curtain but I suppose when designing it this never had the same ring to it.

Again all of these I suppose are just pipe dreams and like your suggestions I doubt will ever see the light of day. But one can only hope.

I will be honest I have never seen culling as much in PVE like I have done when this patch went live.

In WvW although I am seeing the enemy and they are coming in faster, the constant disappearing of friendlies is making it unplayable for coordinating attacks properly. If it was a choice of seeing half the enemy or half the friendlies, I would prefer the old system. It is hard running around and being able to time when to rush and where your team are without having to now constantly check your mini map and also check the action.

The biggest problem is when you add Golems, its hard to protect something you just cant see. Even when they are at the door, today we were trying to get into Hills and had Golems and the only way I knew they were at the door was because it was going down quickly, other than that I never seen any Golem on my screen and for them to appear I literally had to run to the keep door in order to see them. It is crazy and for me is ruining WvW it is all about team play, with both tactics and coordination and you can do neither if you cant see your fellow team members because most are invisible to you.

You even get the Commander going invisible, the person that people are meant to be following, told to stick to like glue etc. How can you follow and stick to someone you cant see, if the commander and group rushes into an enemy zerg you want to be right next to the commander when it happens. If the commander and fellow friendlies are invisible I need to watch for the blue dorito and dots rushing in and its crazy, it causes people to hesitate as they aren’t sure what is going on and that slight hesitation is enough to get you wiped out.

With the build shown he has selected Carrion amulet with Shaman Jewels which tells me he might be going Full Carrion Armour with Shaman Jewellery. Having withering precision is not going to help as his Crit Chance is going to be really really low.

The second build that you posted Lala looks alot better and the only adjustment I might make is taking out the 20 from DM reducing it to 15 and adding that 5 onto SR for Last Gasp. Not only do you get protection at 50% health but its great for building up life force so you can pop into DS making use of the DS recharge 15% faster.

The other thing is Well of Blood when you revive an ally is great for yourself as it gives you two big heals, your main heal plus this but in Dungeons I find alot of people tend to be moving constantly and aren’t staying in the Well to get alot of benefit from it plus the heal tick isn’t alot for your allies but at the same time its combo field is useful. I use Transfusion so that life transfer heals ally’s, it actually does a really really good amount of healing and its more than noticeable when running a dungeon. But its more a personal taste thing, it depends if you feel you need the heal or your team needs the heal which one to select.

This is one of those skills that I wish it really did work correctly. I normally like these type of skills as I was a Templar in Aion and loved the Doom Lure skill. Only wish this was more of the same but with the way the game is currently its too easy for things to become obstructed that are right in front of you.

A prime example of this is using staff’s auto attack in WvW at a keeps Oil. The amount of times I get obstructed when its right there with nothing in the way and I have to run around to eventually get a place for it to work is crazy. I have also noticed that a good few times I have actually got pulled to the enemy rather than pull them to me and normally I would think Guardian but its happened against Ele’s with no Guardian around and Mesmer’s again with no-one around them.

I actually quite liked that as I sometimes use Well’s it was great to leap in and drop the well on them with the chill effect being applied. If anything I wouldn’t mind it being changed rather than a pull them to you its a pull you to them skill. Would definitely help catch those classes that are great for getting away as currently its hard to catch them.

I am seeing the exact same issue regarding queues. The queues on my server Deso at prime time have went from 10 to 20 minutes max to at least 1-2 hours now, at first I thought it was a huge influx of players from free transfer.

But when I dive onto the map the numbers just don’t add up, there is what seems like no more than 60 people max. Wither the culling issue tweak has somehow limited people in WvW to imaginary make it appear better as less folk means less culling but I am definitely not seeing the numbers that were previously in WvW.

But there is something definitely up with the queuing system either its still picking up people who have dc’d as being in map or there is an issue somewhere else. Either way if it was only 1 or 2 people noticing an issue you would dismiss it but with this many people noticing an evident problem then there is obviously something not right.

After having tested this out as I mentioned before I am noticing a big improvement on the culling issue of enemy.

The problem that this fix has now is that friendlies are disappearing and it is actually alot of friendlies that are disappearing, not just one or two and when running with a commander ive actually had the commander disappear.

It may not seem like a big deal but when your told to stick to the commander and you cannot see him it makes life hard and at times im rushing a zerg in the hope that the fellow friendlies I cant see have actually rushed with me and not stopped. Otherwise its a case of checking the minimap constantly to make sure I see lots of green dots following. It is making it harder to run with a group of friendlies and altho its nice to actually see the enemy im not sure wither this is better or worse. It is just a flip side of the coin of the same issue and leads to the same result in the end which is players getting frustrated at not seeing things rendered on the screen. Add onto that if your with a group of golems, have fun seeing those things as they vanish in and out of vision. Its hard to stick to those golems and protect them when its like they have the new stealth ability added.

As I said wither its better than before im still unsure but ive not had the issue where I see 6 enemy and its actually 20-30.

I must admit I had no interest in getting a legendary but after the amount of rage going on here for what is basically aesthetics makes me want to get this bow for my Ranger alt.

People who are complaining regarding the recent items being added need to take a look at the bigger picture. I have seen more people with the quaggan backpack these past days than any other backpack which tells me that this was a good addition and the population on my server at least thinks this too with the amount of people who have it.

I don’t have the backpack and it doesn’t take away my gameplay as im of the opinion who am I or you or anyone else to dictate to anyone how they should play the game or how they should look. If people want to jump around with bright pink armour then fair play to them I wouldn’t do it. If they want a bow that shoots unicorns then again go right ahead it is no big deal to me. There is lots of other legendary weapons to select, if you dont like the bow then dont buy it, im sure in the future there will be more variety, maybe one that shoot big balls of fire that suits your taste requirements. Until now I see no problem in having the unicorns flying everywhere, I find it quite amusing as long as im not the one at the opposite end of the stampede of unicorns coming flying at me. As that means im getting arrows fired at me big style in WvW, if anything its a big Neon sign where the person that is shooting you is at.

It is pathetic and childish to throw tantrums or leave groups due to aesthetics, it makes me wonder how people deal with real life issue’s if this is how they react in a pixel environment. There is enough variety in items currently in game to keep everyone happy so having a little bit of fluff items really shouldn’t matter, it is a game with a diverse user base and you cant just cater to certain individuals taste.

MeanMug.2630:

Scarran.9845:

Just for info incase anyone is trying to get the armour if you goto Orr karma merchants at the Cathedrals you can get a few of the Condition/Toughness/Precision armour for Karma.

Tactician Deathstrider at Cathedral of Glorious Victory (Straits of Devastation) does Helm, Mantle & Leggings
Historian Vermoth at Cathedral of Zephyrs (Malchor’s Leap) does Helm & Leggings
Lightbringer Brutefur at Cathedral of Eternal Radiance (Malchor’s Leap) does Helm & Leggings
Lightbringer Surefoot at Cathedral of Verdance (Cursed Shores) does Gloves
Keeper Jonez Deadrun at Cathedral of Silence (Cursed Shores) does Mantle, Gloves & Leggings
Crusader Benson at Arah Entrance (Cursed Shores) does Leggings.

The only two armour items you cant get for Karma is Garb and Shoes. But they should be easy to get via some Dungeon runs.

I also tried this build out and it is really good and you do some nice damage output. Survivability you have to watch when your in the thick of it and you need to be more aware of your surroundings than when in a full PVT build. But in full PVT you lack the damage that this brings and with this build your still tough enough and can still output a good bit of damage if played correctly with your rotations.

Scarran….thanks for this! Can you tell me the set names that these pieces are part of? I want to have a certain lok at 80 and would like to know how much I will need to transmute if I am mixing and matching.

Below is a picture of what the full set from the Orr karma merchants look like, I havent adjusted any colours of it this is what it looks like default. And remember the knee high boots wont be there and the garb/chest piece as you cannot get Condition/Toughness/Precision in those.

http://snag.gy/kRGjd.jpg

To be honest its not the nicest and I did transmute mine. I decided to go more for the looks of the blue invader set from WvW which can be got very cheaply. Below is what the blue invader set looks like. Not very dark and Necro like but it does me as I hate most of the masks in the game and its hard to match the colours with my blue faced Sylvari.

http://snag.gy/EDfOw.jpg