Guild Wars 2

Shar.3402:

Both. Spectral armor, then going into death shroud with protection up, and taking 20% life force damage from a full earth-air elementalist burst combo (hurl-earthquake-lflash-air discharge-lightning strike-double arcana-rtl)
That combo used to deal anywhere from 10 to 17k damage depending on crits.

I seriously hope this gets addressed before saturday, can’t go into a competitive tournament with something game-breaking like that.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Necromancer-Survivability-Explanation-Advice/first

That is all highly situational, firstly he had Protection, secondly he had a 7 second LF Generation on hit, lastly only a bad player would waste his/her burst on a Deathshrouded opponent, even prepatch.

You don’t see me whining about Elementalist mist form, do you? Oh wait, you do, because anything that grants pure invulnerability without a counter is overpowered.

Try doing this ‘Necro’ survivability against multiple opponents with CC.

Precisely my point.

However, if our survivability is to improve, then our conditions must be reduced, which is why I posted the above suggestions.

infantrydiv.1620:

A very small buff eh? Ahahahaha…

Oh necro doesnt have a way to defend itself? How about AoE blinds, chills and fears, how about Death Shroud, how about AoE condition transfers?

You are bad.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Necromancer-Survivability-Explanation-Advice/first#post2474827

Fungalfoot.7213:

Allie Murdock.8152:

Let’s brainstorm some scenarios if we did this, FOR SCIENCE!

If death shroud = survivability, and we allowed necros to have death shroud from the start, then how could that change how necros play? How would this affect certain maps and the balance of those maps? How would this affect the meta? How would this affect other classes?

Also, if we gave necros death shroud, should we give warriors adrenaline? Should we give thieves initiative? Should we give everyone everything they ever wanted?

Ultimately, what I’m looking for is the reasoning, and why you feel this would be a positive change for the game. I’m curious, because it’s easy to say “I want, I want” without saying why.

Because the necromancer lacks other means to mitigate damage. We have no blocks, evades or vigor. None. Everybody else does but us.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Block

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Evade

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vigor

Can you explain to us how this is balanced? Right now there is no way for a necromancer to avoid being assist trained and yet we keep getting our survivability nerfed. It makes no sense.

I made a thread on that a few moments ago, check it out and give your input on how I believe it should be fixed. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Necromancer-Survivability-Explanation-Advice/first#post2474827

Well, firstly putting Vampiric Precision at Grandmaster and buffing it so much, while putting Vampiric Rituals as a Master Trait would mean that you can use the two together with Blood thirst for a super strong vampirism field, HOWEVER, you would NOT be able to use all three with Ritual Mastery. So you can either have super strong leeching on a long CD, or a semi-strong leeching on a shorter CD. It’s a pick and choose basis.

As for Stealth, Thieves are not squishy. S/D Thieves are infact very hard to kill, without needing Stealth at all. It would still be strong damage mitigation, but not to the ridiculous extent it is now.

Though I’m glad you put your ideas in, the Life Force idea is a good one.

You must also remember, that these do not apply to Necromancer only. Warrior has a high amount of offensive mitigation, but very little defensive mitigation, and if you look, both Necro and Warrior are considered the easiest to kill.

Whereas Guardians, Elementalists, and Rangers all have the highest access to Defensive mitigation (and even a respectable access to offensive mitigation) and are considered the hardest to kill.

Engineers, Thieves, and Mesmers all have moderate amounts of both, therefore they are the inbetween classes, and are moderately difficult to kill, depending on what form of mitigation they build for

By using this logic, we can determine that defensive mitigation is too strong, whereas offensive mitigation is too weak

(I posted this a while ago, after the big ‘buff’ to Necro, alot of this could be used for ideas for future buffs/nerfs, if you like)

TheMightyAltroll.3485

• Remove Fear from Spectral Wall

• Add Torment (6s) to Spectral Wall

• Remove “Dhuumfire”

• Add “Strength of the Underworld” to Grandmaster Spite tree.
  Strength of the Underworld
  Wells last 50% longer

• Make Greater Marks default on Staff

• Move Staff Mastery to replace Greater Marks

• Move “Death Nova” down to Master Traits

• Add “Vengeful Servants” to Grandmaster Death Magic tree
  Vengeful Servants
  When a Minion dies, you receive Fury(5s) and Vigor(5s) (Does not apply to Jagged horrors)

• Change “Vampiric Precision” to heal yourself for 20% of the damage you inflict from Critical Hits

• Move “Vampiric Precision” to Grandmaster Blood Magic tree

• Move “Vampiric Rituals” to Master Blood Magic tree.

• Move “Terror” to Grandmaster tree.

• Move “Withering Precision” to Master tree.

• Move “Target the Weak” to Grandmaster Spite trait

• Remove “Siphoned Power”

• Move “Furious Demise” to Minor Curses trait

• Move “Barbed Precision” to Master Curses Trait

• Increase bleed duration on “Barbed Precision” bleeds by 100%

• Add new trait “Myopathy” to Grandmaster Curses trait to replace “Target the Weak”
  Myopathy
  Apply 2 seconds of Immobilize and vulnerability when you apply Weakness (10 second CD)

• Remove trait “Reanimator”

• Move “Ritual of Protection” to replace “Reanimator” (Only applies protection once per well)

• Add new trait “Summoner” in Master Traits
  Summoner
  Summon 2 Jagged Horrors when you use a healing skill in combat. Capped at a maximum of 5 Jagged Horrors. (Remove the constant negative health effects from Jagged Horrors)

• Remove trait “Strength of Undeath”

• Add trait “Specter” to replace “Strength of Undeath”
  Specter
  You regenerate 50% of your life force when out of combat.

Above is a nerf to the OP Terrormancer you see lately, and a buff to lesser used builds, also a buff to make Vampires viable. Numerous fixes to crappy traits too.

• Nerf Defensive Mitigation or grant it to us

Defensive mitigation is way too strong, you cannot deny that. It’s to the point that people whine about it every day, when they don’t even realize what they’re truly whining about.

• Stealth
  Stealth is overpowered, in any game you try to put it, no matter how you try to approach it, it’s overpowered. Everyone knows it. I think you know it too. There are several ways to make this balanced, though every way will tick off the Thief/Mesmer community, but it still definitely needs to be nerfed. I’ll list a few ways:

A) Remove the ability to use utilities outside of traps in stealth, including removing the ability to heal. (Disregarding Regeneration) <- Probably the best way to nerf it

B) Buff the duration, but reduce the speed of Stealthed players by 50-66%

C) Grant Stealth debuffs to classes such as Necro, Warrior, and Guardian when a Stealthed player is hit by a stun, daze, fear, or damage greater than 5% of their initial health

• Invulnerability
  This needs a nerf. I’d advise making Invulnerability be hit by unblockable attacks, and condition based attacks such as Scepter auto, or Doom. Also, class mechanics need to be disabled while invulnerable, I’m looking at Ele mist form attunement heals.

• Dodge/Vigor
  This needs the biggest nerf of them all, this combination is enormously overpowered, and is what most players complain about, and what most Necromancer wish they had. Dodge needs to be treated as a block, not invulnerability, it also needs to last shorter durations. Vigor access needs to be reduced on ALL classes, and corrupting vigor should become Torment. OR grant Vigor, and a way to refill endurance on Necromancer.

• Self Resurrection
  Either say it’s a bug, and remove it. Or say it’s a feature and give Necromancer a good way to do it, I mean, we are Necromancers, shouldn’t we be able to resurrect something? Signet of Undeath is also very bad, and doesn’t count compared to other classes Resurrection capabilities.

• Strong Healing
  Some heals are too good. Water Attunement heal on Ele is fairly strong, Troll Unguent is ridiculously strong, and should have 10 seconds added to it’s cooldown, Guardian Heals are also too strong, combining that with all of their other capabilities, though it doesn’t bother me much.

Final Thoughts

The point of this, is hopefully to guide the Developers into making smart decisions, rather than the bad ones they’ve been making lately. I was not among the Necro crowd whining for massive buffs, and I only wanted bug fixes. The ‘big buff’ was a serious overbuff to our already strong capabilities. If we had bug fixes, and possibly a bit better mitigation, we would have been much stronger, and highly viable before the ‘big buff’. Unfortunately, the devs continue to nerf/buff on a need-to-have basis, and seem to be messing up the class in many ways, I’m constantly forced to change my build, some of my builds have become completely unviable, whereas my semi-viable builds have become completely overpowered in fights.

We still need to be nerfed, but definitely not in the ways you seem to believe we have to be nerfed. If you want my advice on how to nerf Necro, without breaking the class (Again, not for the many whiners/baddies on the forums, but for the good, esports players you look for), then I can give that as well. I don’t expect you people to take my word seriously, but hopefully it will help you. Alot of these buffs/nerfs are also classwide, as what is currently wrong with balance and the game in general.

Now, let’s establish immediately that Necromancer does NOT need any more condition cleanses, at the moment, my Tormentor build is practically immune to most forms of condition damage compared to other classes. The main problem is white damage, and bursts. Also the fact that the Necromancer’s damage can be mitigated far too easily. What Necromancer needed before the big ‘buff’ was a way to keep people from immediately cleansing it’s damage, condition cleanses, both AoE and Self cleansing, are FAAAAAAR too prevalent on many classes, however, instead of granting us a way to keep them from cleansing it, you instead buff our damage so we now have a condition ‘burst’ which until then was only available to HGH Engineers.

• Buff Offensive Mitigation

• Weakness
  Necromancer has Weakness, but it isn’t all that effective of mitigation when opponents can cleanse it immediately. Do with that what you will, I’d advise buffing our access to it, or moving it down on cleansing queues.

• Vampirism.

Or should I bold it?

• Vampirism
  This NEEEEEEEDS a buff, and badly. This is our potential mitigation, and it could be very useful. What I suggest, is buffing Vampirism’s leeching capability by 25-40%, or by having it scale more effectively with power, or healing. Next, I’d suggest you move Vampiric Precision trait to grandmaster, moving Vampiric Rituals to Master tree, and have it siphon 20% of the damage you inflict on a critical hit as health. That wouldn’t be super overpowered, since most classes would still be able to do better, and remember that this is a class with no mobility/escapes.

• Blinds and Wells in general
  Wells are good, very good, but they are very situational too. Currently, Wellmancers are only good at fighting on small points in PvP, and worthless in WvW against competent players. Well of Darkness makes for strong mitigation, but it’s not enough to save a Necromancer. What we need, is a way to keep opponents in our wells, to stop opponents from kiting us too easily. Our only truly viable white damage builds have to involve Wells of some sort, since they allow us to burst, but our burst is incredibly easy to avoid compared to other classes. I won’t make any suggestions on this, since most of my suggestions would be blatantly overpowered, or involve removing “Dhuumfire” for longer lasting/larger/stronger Wells, all I ask is that you look into it. Blinding is by far the strongest form of offensive mitigation, and we have some strong access to it, however I’d say we could use a bit more. Though it depends on what options you decide to take for buffing our other mitigation, namely Vampirism.

A few friends ingame urged me to post the PM I sent to Allie in the forums, so that all can view.

There are two types of damage mitigation in this game:

• Offensive Mitigation
  Weakness, Blind, Stun, Daze, Fear, Vampirism/Leeching, Condition Transfers, Boon Conversion

• Defensive Mitigation
  Invulnerability, Dodge/Vigor, Teleportation/mobility, Invisibility, Protection, Stability, Strong Healing, Block, Evade, Reflect, Stunbreakers, Passive/Active Condition removal, Self Resurrection, Condition Conversion

Now, Necromancer has limited to zero access to most defensive mitigation capabilities, however it has a significant amount of access to Offensive Mitigation. The reason why Necromancers lack survivability, is because we rely on cutting damage at the source, our opponent. Every other class in the game has high access to defensive mitigation, the problem is, the Defensive mitigation, when used properly, will ignore a Necromancer’s offensive mitigation, thus making him very easy to kill.

For example: Fear (Or in this case Deathshroud 3: Doom), is the Necromancer’s primary damage mitigation skill, because it can interrupt a burst. However if the opponent has stability, invisibility, dodge rolls, invulnerability, block, or a stunbreaker, the interrupt is simply useless. That eliminates the average Necromancer’s only source of survivability if CC chained.

Most classes have access to both Defensive, and Offensive mitigations, that will allow them to be enormously hard to kill, while still being able to deal large quantities of damage, as an example: Ranger

Ranger is currently the best tank in the game, because they have large access to defensive mitigation from high boon access, and the strongest healing in the game. Troll Unguent and Healing Spring are by far the best heals available, Troll Unguent, combined with Signet of the Wild, and Regeneration boon when built for healing power can heal for up to 1,300-1,600 health per second. Which will simply negate most damage dealt to them, while they can also evade consistently, stealth, go invulnerable, or simply escape. Not to mention the fact that with their Spirit Elite, they can self resurrect themselves.

I made numerous suggestions in the past of how to fix Necromancer, I actually compiled a list of trait fixes/changes to both nerf the ridiculous condition presence people have complained about recently, while still making them a threat, and a hard to kill threat at that, what they were (I believe) intended to be. However, I will simply state some key ideas that, if improved upon, will put Necromancer at a much higher standing, and also nerf some of the stronger metas of other classes

Some of these builds have been rendered worthless by the recent patch.

I’m going to have to take another look at a few of them, see if I can modify them. I’m highly disappointed in Arenanet.

Dirame.8521:

TheMightyAltroll.3485:

JonathanSharp.7094:

ensoriki.5789:

Take the medium of the two.
Necro’s are eating up quite a bit of damage, and putting out a significant amount that well still feels somewhat absurd for how long they’re maintaining themself with shroud.

Without that lifeshroud however it’s not really a biggie and they go down fairly quickly. So sure at the beginning of the fight they’ll go down easily after that it’s a pain.

Nods. I’m simply illustrating the fact that we often hear things from the players that are diametrically opposed. And thus, if it’s hard to do “what the players want”. This is a good example of that.

The problem with this thinking is that Deathshroud is a tool for damage, NOT A TOOL FOR MITIGATION

If you stand inside Deathshroud to eat a burst, you now have no class mechanic, no tools, and have to rebuild it all up again. No good player will ever stand inside Deathshroud for 15 seconds to eat damage unless they are built for it, because then they are wasting their best tool.

Very questionable thinking. Every good play SHOULD go into deathshroud to eat damage and stall. Whilst in Deathshroud, they should use their “best tool” till they feel the pressure is off and their heal is up.

If you’re stunlocked, or focused, that will do you no good whatsoever. Your best tool is Doom, that’s your strongest damage removal right there, a way to interrupt burst done to you, it’s also a tool for applying extra damage, interrupting heals, etc.

The best tool we have, is Deathshroud 3. It’s also very situational unfortunately, and a Scepter/Dagger Staff Necro has very little access to Life Force compared to other builds. Standing in Deathshroud to eat a burst when being focused, simply removed any of your effective tools/damage the next time you are fighting, smart players will simply get you to waste your Deathshroud, reset, then come back and kill you.

JonathanSharp.7094:

ensoriki.5789:

Take the medium of the two.
Necro’s are eating up quite a bit of damage, and putting out a significant amount that well still feels somewhat absurd for how long they’re maintaining themself with shroud.

Without that lifeshroud however it’s not really a biggie and they go down fairly quickly. So sure at the beginning of the fight they’ll go down easily after that it’s a pain.

Nods. I’m simply illustrating the fact that we often hear things from the players that are diametrically opposed. And thus, if it’s hard to do “what the players want”. This is a good example of that.

The problem with this thinking is that Deathshroud is a tool for damage, NOT A TOOL FOR MITIGATION

If you stand inside Deathshroud to eat a burst, you now have no class mechanic, no tools, and have to rebuild it all up again. No good player will ever stand inside Deathshroud for 15 seconds to eat damage unless they are built for it, because then they are wasting their best tool.

No one brings Axe. No one brings Spectral Grasp. No one brings Spectral Armor. No one cares about those skills. (Exaggeration, but sadly mostly true) Spectral Walk is probably the only thing you buffed for LF Generation that anyone uses. Even Shadow Fiend is barely used.

I sent Allie a PM containing information on why Necromancer’s survivability is awful and suggestions to improve it, I’ll send it to you if you want, but I can’t post it on the forums because it’s too big. If nothing else, you’ll gain a bit of insight into why people are furious.

HiSaZuL.2843:

Mammoth.1975:

Andele.1306:

even the most obvious newbies just move out of the way/cc a DSed necro).

I like this strategy. ‘Oh look, that guy used a LF generation ability, can’t kill him anymore, he has the F1 godmode!’

As for the spectral armour change, it really does depend on how hard your opponents hit. If they’re hitting for like 500, sure, it’s a nerf, but you’re not dying anyway, so who cares?

This forum will whine about anything. ‘Sure, we got 180 radius marks baseline and a 50% increase to our DS hps, but I can’t jump off cliffs anymore anet you kittening suck!’

Gj on ignoring everything and being a cheering squad all-in-one. So what do you mitigate damage with as condition spec. Your face? Well… yeah I guess but now you can’t even negate that backstab for 10k… now that 10k backstab will stab you right through your crapshourd. So will everything else.
And its not just condition specs that rely on ds… but hey… no amount of logic will convince you… since anet are so awesome and everyone just whines.. amright?

Signets, Spectral Walk, Dodging, Good ol’ Fashioned skill saves me from Heartseeker monkeys.

Oh, and I don’t run the terrible glass cannon 30/30/10/0/0. That doesn’t mean I’m happy about the changes, though.

JonathanSharp.7094:

We want all weapon sets to have their uses, but it’s not necessary that all weapon types be equally viable in all given scenarios. In Starcraft, League, any shooter, etc., it’s not expected that ALL units/weapons/heroes be equally strong in ALL scenarios.

As different game types demand different “tools” from the classes, it stands to reason that some “toolsets” will perform better than others in a given game type.

:)

I sent a PM to Allie containing a long worded explanation of why Necromancer is bad at surviving, and some minor ways/ideas to improve it. If you want to see it.

We needed to be nerfed, but this is purely kittened.

I cannot imagine why they would decide to make this decision, other than to remove the dumb 30/30/10/0/0 meta (you brought this upon yourselves, btw), which it still doesn’t do effectively since you’ll just see 30/20/20/0/0. This also inadvertently nerfed all other Necro builds due to the DS nerf. This is absolutely stupid. It actually forces you to use Dhuumfire because Terror now does way less damage. What stupidity. Blatant, complete, absolute, stupidity.

Good thing I use Mesmer/Warrior/Ranger more than I use Necro nowadays.

Celestial is somewhat pointless for hybrids. If you want to go for a hybrid, look up “Mighty Altroll’s Mighty Metas” and look for Pestilence/Pestilence II, you can use them for a base. Carrion mixed with Berserker’s can make a very strong hybrid build, but you’ll need Dhuumfire, Terror, and Signet of Spite. You’ll also need Food that will grant you bonuses to precision.

Female Lich, Male Lich, and add combo finishers to each skill except 3.

Segev.4108:

I’m going to start a Necromancer for more pvpish purposes as a secondary character to my main warrior which will remain for dungeons and world bosses, so I need the most braindead, overused PvE build there is for this class after the recent buff. Not because I’m a dummy but because I need to level my new Necro as fast as possible. I sadly do not have time to “smell the flowers” due to my military duties and don’t have the time to enjoy the whole leveling experience again. I’d also like some tips on the class especially on how and when to use death shroud which is entirely different from my previous combat mechanism.

Thanks ahead.

Contact me ingame, we have numerous Necromancer teachers that specialize in PvP.

Sikari was a good guest to have on Bas. While I don’t always agree with him, I must admit he is easily the top Minionmancer of the community.

Fubar.8413:

Hey guys,

Currently, I’m a condition-mancer who feels like he lacks in the PvE department. Right now, I run full rabid arah gear with exotic accessories.

I have the 30/30/10 build whenever I run instances and I use epidemic during instances but, I just feel i’m not contributing as much or maximizing my dps.

Any help or advice is appreciated, Thanks guys!

You might want to go Vampire Wellmancer, they’re very strong in instances and Dungeons.

• 30/0/10/30/0
  Make sure to have the 5 following traits:
• Close to Death, Dark Armor, Ritual Mastery, Vampiric Rituals, Bloodthirst
• Full Knight’s Armor, 2 Knight’s Trinkets, make the rest Berserker’s
• 6 Vampiric Runes
• Dagger Sigil of Air (or blood), Warhorn Sigil of Leeching
• Axe Sigil of Blood, Dagger Sigil of Leeching
• Consume Conditions, Well of Suffering, Well of Corruption, Locust Signet, Lich form

I have skype, but I don’t have a TS server. So generally I just join public channels whenever I’m helping someone abroad.

Good suggestion though.

Arganthium.5638:

Mighty: I just realized that since there are people like Geiir applying, and, of course, I still have interest in the guild myself (never got an invi though :c), and that, furthermore, Team Akatsuki is an all-thief team that both Geiir and I are on, I figured that we could basically make Akatsuki members teachers for this guild. That way, we’re pairing students with an established team that knows practically everything thief, and, furthermore, we have a clearer post-“academic” route for applicants to go through, if they wish.

Due to the nonsensical quantity of teachers applying vs students, I think I’ll make the testing phase very difficult, to see whom the best of the dozens of teachers that applied.

As for the poster above, server doesn’t matter. If you’re in EU, best to let me know, you can still join, but it’s a bit harder to manage.

Due to the large quantity of applicants I did not expect, please whisper me ingame when I am on so as I can immediately invite you to the respective guilds to make keeping track of players easier.

Due to the large quantity of applicants I did not expect, please whisper me ingame when I am on so as I can immediately invite you to the respective guilds to make keeping track of players easier.

Due to the large quantity of applicants I did not expect, please whisper me ingame when I am on so as I can immediately invite you to the respective guilds to make keeping track of players easier.

Jax.5261:

Just so you know I was joking, I’d rather eat a cactus than be in a guild with you.

Everything you said in the OP was bs.

This is not about me. This is about helping the community. I don’t teach Guardian anyway. As soon as a competent Guardian becomes trust worthy enough to be the head teacher and allow the guild to be self-maintaining, I’d leave the guild.

Though if this is your general attitude, I don’t think you would be a very good teacher in the first place, good day.

TGSlasher.1458:

My turn:
Is this NA or EU?
If this is EU then take my name of the list and discontinue reading.

Do you accept people not from NA playing on NA (such as Australia, our time zone is very different)?

What do you mean by theorycraft … those crazy people who post all the stats and how 1 more point of precision will give you this much more damage? Or the laid back guys that put the traits together and proceed to use the build with all amulets until they find one that works well?

Do you find that stratergies are required for certain builds classes, not just a standard dps rotation?

Do you want PvP only teachers or someone who knows everything.
To answer this, I used to play TPvP. I was never a high rank and I didn’t enjoy it at all. Currently I play Hotjoin and Dueling, much more fun, I can run whatever build I want and I can try whatever I want. If you want someone to give TPvP advice I have some, but it isn’t my current cup of tea. If you want someone for general pvp, getting started, build strategies and what not, I can sure help out.

---

Finally some other questions you may want to ask applicants in the teaching roll:
-What weapons are you familiar with on the Elementalist?
This is important, because some people only play D/D for example and only know about the others, haven’t had any experience in those fields. Personally I have played Dagger main, Dagger offhand, Scepter main and Focus offhand.

-Do you currently run with your own build, or are you using someone elses?
A big question in regards to the FOTM builds. Did I copy Dapheonix’s build? Did I always run that build. No, I ran a similar build and took inspiration from Dapheonix’s build to come up with a build I found quite fun (if not optimal).

-Do you condone using FOTM builds and having no insight of your own?
Are you going to take a teacher who has copy pasted their build and playstyle from the forums, or some who knows what they are talking about. For example Dapheonix, he knows what he is talking about.

Sorry for wall of text
-Slasher

NA, but we also accept EU applicants, though they are tougher to manage.

Yes.

Theorycrafting includes creating an idea, or role for a specific build, testing, processing, etc. Essentially the production phase of a build.

Of course.

All teachers of all gametypes are welcome. However I find that tPvP players generally make the best teachers, and personally I start off many of my students in the Necro school in PvP, so that they can theory craft/learn without having to spend ridiculous amounts of gold.

As for those other questions, I save those for ingame testing.

Alright, I’ll approach you ingame.

Ostricheggs.3742:

A necromancer without dhuumfire would be seriously underpowered again without substantial changes and buffs. Terror does far less overall damage and simply makes dhuumfire more potent because the amount of damage done over a short fear duration is easily considered burst.

Mark my words, the old-fashioned soul-reaping/terror builds will not be viable even if all the changes are kept. The proc on dhuumfire is a necessity to keep necromancers viable. What pushes them over the top are terror fear bombs coupled with the simple lack of care for life force.

Despite my suggested changes to life force being a nerf to all necromancer builds it opens up the opportunity to buff them as well. It’s very easy to add a master or grandmaster trait up one of the unused trees that alleviates deathshroud management. It can also be used to buff unused weapon sets (I’m looking at you, axe)

We were never underpowered to begin with, we were quite viable prepatch. However ages ago I made suggestions on how to fix Necromancer without breaking them, to fix them in the ways they should have been.

Many people say that I am biased towards powermancers, but below is a massive nerf to the Terrormancer build I created and use in tournaments, and a buff to Minionmancers which I absolutely hate. So I am not biased.

TheMightyAltroll.3485

• Remove Fear from Spectral Wall

• Add Torment (6s) to Spectral Wall

• Remove “Dhuumfire”

• Add “Strength of the Underworld” to Grandmaster Spite tree.
  Strength of the Underworld
  Wells last 50% longer

• Make Greater Marks default on Staff

• Move Staff Mastery to replace Greater Marks

• Move “Death Nova” down to Master Traits

• Add “Vengeful Servants” to Grandmaster Death Magic tree
  Vengeful Servants
  When a Minion dies, you receive Fury(5s) and Vigor(5s) (Does not apply to Jagged horrors)

• Change “Vampiric Precision” to heal yourself for 20% of the damage you inflict from Critical Hits

• Move “Vampiric Precision” to Grandmaster Blood Magic tree

• Move “Vampiric Rituals” to Master Blood Magic tree.

• Move “Terror” to Grandmaster tree.

• Move “Withering Precision” to Master tree.

• Move “Target the Weak” to Grandmaster Spite trait

• Remove “Siphoned Power”

• Move “Furious Demise” to Minor Curses trait

• Move “Barbed Precision” to Master Curses Trait

• Increase bleed duration on “Barbed Precision” bleeds by 100%

• Add new trait “Myopathy” to Grandmaster Curses trait to replace “Target the Weak”
  Myopathy
  Apply 2 seconds of Immobilize and vulnerability when you apply Weakness (10 second CD)

• Remove trait “Reanimator”

• Move “Ritual of Protection” to replace “Reanimator” (Only applies protection once per well)

• Add new trait “Summoner” in Master Traits
  Summoner
  Summon 2 Jagged Horrors when you use a healing skill in combat. Capped at a maximum of 5 Jagged Horrors. (Remove the constant negative health effects from Jagged Horrors)

• Remove trait “Strength of Undeath”

• Add trait “Specter” to replace “Strength of Undeath”
  Specter
  You regenerate 50% of your life force when out of combat.

Above is a nerf to the OP Terrormancer you see lately, and a buff to lesser used builds, also a buff to make Vampires viable. Numerous fixes to crappy traits too.

I created a Necro guild not too long ago for teaching Necromancers that actually became quite effective ingame, I have helped/aided over 90+ new Necros. What I need, is for good Guardians (Or bad ones willing to learn) to step up, and join the guild (there is no need to represent) to teach/aid new players upon request. If you wish to give your expertise back to the community, to help players learn a class and get better at PvP/PvE/WvW, please use this application and either

• PM it to me, or post it here:
• In game name:
• What class(es) do you play as your secondary/tertiary:
• Are you applying as a teacher, or a student:
  (If you are applying for a teaching position, please answer the following questions. Student position applicants may ignore these)
• How many hours on your class do you have:
• How many builds have you theory crafted:
• Would you consider yourself a good contributor to your community:
• Are you friendly/helpful:
• Would you be willing to prove your skill/knowledge ingame:

The best player/teacher that applies will eventually be given control of the school.

I hope to grow this idea to further benefit the community, and I appreciate any help/feedback.

I created a Necro guild not too long ago for teaching Necromancers that actually became quite effective ingame, I have helped/aided over 90+ new Necros. What I need, is for good Elementalists (Or bad ones willing to learn) to step up, and join the guild (there is no need to represent) to teach/aid new players upon request. If you wish to give your expertise back to the community, to help players learn a class and get better at PvP/PvE/WvW, please use this application and either

• PM it to me, or post it here:
• In game name:
• What class(es) do you play as your secondary/tertiary:
• Are you applying as a teacher, or a student:
  (If you are applying for a teaching position, please answer the following questions. Student position applicants may ignore these)
• How many hours on your class do you have:
• How many builds have you theory crafted:
• Would you consider yourself a good contributor to your community:
• Are you friendly/helpful:
• Would you be willing to prove your skill/knowledge ingame:

The best player/teacher that applies will eventually be given control of the school.

I hope to grow this idea to further benefit the community, and I appreciate any help/feedback.

I created a Necro guild not too long ago for teaching Necromancers that actually became quite effective ingame, I have helped/aided over 90+ new Necros. What I need, is for good Thieves (Or bad ones willing to learn) to step up, and join the guild (there is no need to represent) to teach/aid new players upon request. If you wish to give your expertise back to the community, to help players learn a class and get better at PvP/PvE/WvW, please use this application and either

• PM it to me, or post it here:
• In game name:
• What class(es) do you play as your secondary/tertiary:
• Are you applying as a teacher, or a student:
  (If you are applying for a teaching position, please answer the following questions. Student position applicants may ignore these)
• How many hours on your class do you have:
• How many builds have you theory crafted:
• Would you consider yourself a good contributor to your community:
• Are you friendly/helpful:
• Would you be willing to prove your skill/knowledge ingame:

The best player/teacher that applies will eventually be given control of the school.

I hope to grow this idea to further benefit the community, and I appreciate any help/feedback.

Bhawb.7408:

TheMightyAltroll.3485:

Yes. I know what the meta is, and I know how a meta works. However my goal is to get the meta changed.

The meta is almost always defined and influenced by high level players. Look at games like League of Legends. Whether a pro actually came up with the strategy or not, the general meta, especially champion picks and bans, and itemization is generally changed by very high level players that people look up to and respect.

Why do I say this? You go out of your way to flame high level players. To my knowledge, and correct me if I am wrong, but the majority of high level players don’t respect you or like you because of your attitude. You have kitten ed off and antagonized the very people you need to accomplish what you want. So, good luck changing the meta.

I have the highest respect for high level players, I simply state that most of their builds are bad, or simply lacking. Gibbly is the only ‘high level’ player that I dislike intently.

The final schools have been created, I have come here to recruit for each school. If you wish to learn how to use your class better, be in a non-represent-required guild among those that are knowledgeable/skilled with your class, or simply help the community by giving advice/teaching new players, then please take a look at the schools below. If you are interested, contact any of the listed leaders of each guild for information.

• [Dark] The Necromasters: School of Necromancy
  “Metas are lame”
• Headmaster: TheMightyAltroll.3485
• Headmaster: Remortis.4287

• [XIX] Legio Undevigesima: Warriors and Rangers school
  “Power, Precision, Pets, Pwnage”
• Legatus Legionis: Ubernoob.2947

• [Ill] Illusionary Mechanisms: Mesmer and Engineer school
  “Shattering turrets?”
• Illusionary Master: K U T M.4539
• Illusionary Master: Pyroatheist.9031
• Gearlord: The Gates Assassin.9827

In Progress
———————

• [AotT] Art of the Thief: Thieves Guild – Teachers needed – New
  “N/A”
• Master Thief: To be determined
• Master Thief: To be determined

• [MM] School of Might and Magic: Guardian/Ele school – Teachers needed – New
  “N/A”
• Archangel: To be determined
• Archmage: To be determined

• If you wish to be a student of these two new guilds, please send me an ingame whisper

• If you wish to be a teacher, or apply to be the leader of these 2 guilds, send me a message, or an ingame whisper

• Please note that while I try to make these guilds casual, and allow for easy hands-on access to knowledge/players and have fun with it, it is still very serious to help new players learn their classes.

Teacher Responsibilities
1) Recruit players willing to learn their class
2) Notify me of any possible teachers wishing to join
3) Take the time to answer questions, give advice, help with builds, and hands-on teach players ingame.

Yes. I know what the meta is, and I know how a meta works. However my goal is to get the meta changed.

Craptrain.7203:

TheMightyAltroll.3485:

30/30/10/0/0 is a bad meta, and there were bad metas even before that.

Metas are neither good nor bad, they just are. This is why the other poster questioned your understanding of the word.

It’s the current meta. The 30/30/10/0/0 is bad. How does this not translate to the meta being a bad one? I’m stating that 30/30/10/0/0 is not worthy of being a meta build.

30/30/10/0/0 is a bad meta, and there were bad metas even before that.

I was truly hoping to demonstrate what Necromancer could really do when not chained to bad metas.

Well, Bas wasn’t on, it seems, and I could barely talk to him to set it up.

While this is very true, many Warriors are well equipped to taking down Necromancers, these tips only work against glassy 30/30/10/0/0 Necromancers. Not against more long-term fighting Terrormancers. Kindia is a kitten ed good Warrior, and a personal friend of mine, and he defeats Necromancers all day, but fails against me quite often.

It all depends on a number of variables.

Fenrir.5493:

TheMightyAltroll.3485:

Fenrir.5493:

Kharr.5746:

Contrary to what the other posts above say, you can indeed soak up damage as a warrior. You can soak up a significant amount of damage if you go into tactics for shout healing (2k per shout, 6k for 3 shouts on a 20s cooldown). If you are getting killed by condis, soldier’s runes with shout healing can help a lot too (1 condi removed per shout).

If you go a little bit into the defense tree for the shield trait and run shield on top of shouts, you can also negate quite a bit of damage with well-timed blocks.

That being said, you have to sacrifice the big damage and get creative with how you take down your opponent. On the plus side, since shouts and condi removal with soldier’s runes are aoe, you will help your team win the big fights moreso than if you charge in, 100b someone and drop dead.

Dont believe us, just try what this guy says and then come back to say us how you were kitten d anyway.

You do realize that he is correct, right? Shouts are infact quite good at mitigating damage.

No its not, any shout warrior in pvp is garbage, that is why i told him to try it out, so he can saw it for himself.

I’ve used it, and I’ve seen Warriors that use it. Granted it’s not as effective as a bunker Guardian/Engineer/Necro/Ele but it gets the job done. It can also be a very strong support build if you make a hybrid of it with Banners.

Sauly.5472:

Nice video, I see you switching out to staff every now and then. Do you switch when you need AoE? I’m guessing Berserk stats on staff?

I would advise you not to use Staff for PvE/WvW on a Vampire build. Go with Axe/Dagger, it’ll provide you with AoE Weakness, a condition transfer/blind, and Axe 2 is very good for ranged sustain on Mobs in PvE.

I suppose I’m far too used to tPvP where Blood is Power is utterly useless against competent players for a conditionmancer.

Fenrir.5493:

Kharr.5746:

Contrary to what the other posts above say, you can indeed soak up damage as a warrior. You can soak up a significant amount of damage if you go into tactics for shout healing (2k per shout, 6k for 3 shouts on a 20s cooldown). If you are getting killed by condis, soldier’s runes with shout healing can help a lot too (1 condi removed per shout).

If you go a little bit into the defense tree for the shield trait and run shield on top of shouts, you can also negate quite a bit of damage with well-timed blocks.

That being said, you have to sacrifice the big damage and get creative with how you take down your opponent. On the plus side, since shouts and condi removal with soldier’s runes are aoe, you will help your team win the big fights moreso than if you charge in, 100b someone and drop dead.

Dont believe us, just try what this guy says and then come back to say us how you were kitten d anyway.

You do realize that he is correct, right? Shouts are infact quite good at mitigating damage.

Terok.7315:

TheMightyAltroll.3485:

Blood is Power is useless for the bleeds against players, let me put it to you this way: I could have a 12 minute bleed that killed anyone who kept it on them, but exactly whom is going to ‘allow’ me to keep a 12 minute bleed on them? In today’s meta, you will see constant cleanses and passive cleanses, it’s not worth taking.

I really don’t think conditionmancers are taking BiP for the 2 or 4 extra bleeds (though they’re nice). It’s for damage ticks.

“- blood is power – pretty useless imo but always gives 2 bleeding stacks and the ones I can transfer from myself, I thought about switching it to signet of spite but power is quite useless to me and as its active is very nice it has long cd, I also thought about switching it to spectral walk”

I was responding to him. However the 10 stacks of might are still unnecessary for a conditionmancer.

Alright, firstly, none of your utilities synergize especially well with a Conditionmancer. Well of Corruption is somewhat nice, but not truly worth the effort to try and keep people in it as a conditionmancer. Blood is Power is useless for the bleeds against players, let me put it to you this way: I could have a 12 minute bleed that killed anyone who kept it on them, but exactly whom is going to ‘allow’ me to keep a 12 minute bleed on them? In today’s meta, you will see constant cleanses and passive cleanses, it’s not worth taking.

The transfusion trait is also not synergized strongly for a conditionmancer, because it means wasting precious Deathshroud for a heal that doesn’t heal you when you’re using it. Which reduces your survivability considerably, you’re better off taking Mark of Evasion so that you get Regen, and add more damage to your opponent, or move the 20 from Blood Magic into Soul Reaping for longer Terror duration.

If you’re fighting in a zerg, Well of Corruption can be nice, but what it does is less effective than advertised for helping your zerg, Corrosive Poison Cloud is now a very good thing to have to support your zerg, since it adds weakness to the opposing zerg and lasts for a very long time, reducing the opposing zerg’s healing and damage output. However if you’re looking for maximum AoE damage, choose Epidemic or Spectral Wall with Terror.

For your survivability, I would replace blood is power with Spectral Walk, and possibly add Plague Signet or Well of Power/Well of Darkness. Those choices would greatly increase your survivability.

As for your swiftness, you can sacrifice damage and the transfer from offhand Dagger, and include Warhorn if you like. It’s viable, but I personally prefer the damage. However, if you do include Warhorn on your Scepter set, do include Geomancy Sigil of you forsee any upclose battles.

Also, remember, duration is only useful for CCs against living players, focusing on duration for bleeds/regular conditions is simply wasting potential due to the cleanses.

For a PvE Vampire, you want to go with Vampiric Rituals, the amount of mitigation you can receive combined with the damage output is incredibly good. 30/0/10/30/0 with Ritual of Protection, Vampiric Rituals, Bloodthirst, and Close to Death are good things to use.

As for a condition vampire, Sauly, look at my “Mighty Altroll’s Mighty Metas” thread, and look for the “Condition Vampire” build. I experimented a while in PvP to find a solid vampire build, and condition vampires are by far the best for that purpose. It shouldn’t be too hard to adapt it to PvE/WvW.

Sauly.5472:

Yep. Advice is good. I might sound a little uneducated here, But how would I break that gear up?

Would I go Helm, Shoulders, Chest Knights, and Legs and Boots Berserk. Earrings, amulet and back Knights with rest Berserk?

Also why would vamp runes be a waste? lvling they have been fine. They not as good at 80?

I would advise going full knight’s gear, and full Berserker’s ruby trinkets. Worked the best for me. Also, Vampire runes are effective for what they are meant to do, but if you do not want to use them, I would advise going for Infiltrator’s runes, or the like. Also, remember to stock up on Omnomberry pies.

60% Knight’s gear/trinkets, and 40% Berserker’s gear/trinkets works well for a bursty tank, but again, it depends on what gametype you frequent.

Sauly.5472:

I’m currently trying out a vampire build, and have just hit 80, and i need some advice.

I’m running Vampire Runes and Leeching Sigils on my weapons.

My traits are 30/0/10/30/0

I’ve been told to run 60% Knights and 40% Berserker gear.

Is this the gear to run with a Vampire build, and if so, what pieces where? Do I go weapons Berserker and Armor Knights?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

WvW, or PvE?

Vampire builds are very viable in PvE, and I recommend them. They are semi-viable in WvW. Unviable in PvP.