Guild Wars 2

My main has been necro since beta, I’ve played only that in PvP and PvE (occasional pre buff ranger or war). I like playing difficult stuff.

I today soloed 3 people in a tournament with my necro. Then I soloed and engie and an ele (ranked high-40s), they came to a far point I’ve been standing on and took me down only after they both were downed.

• Has it been even tested? Did anyone take a look before the patch at how much easy and AoE condi/raw power pressure necro can pump?

• I dislike Dhuumfire – it would help if this was changed to something, I feel too OP and everyone can just faceroll thanks to this – any plans?

• Signet of Spite – this needs a split for PvP and PvE or some general balancing, seems blantly OP now

• What about lowering AoE pressure across the board to make necros where they were before pressure-wise? – engie grenade pressure should be a little stronger than necro’s, taken the grenades are much harder to pull off.*

• Doom needs a reversion to it’s previous state

It NEEDS TO HAPPEN quickly.

Do this or GIVE people things they can use to answer that

AoE is not balanced.

Necros have the easiest AoE to pull off in game (huge unblockable marks).

I’m a diehard necro and I’m really saddened and disappointed with what Anet did in this patch. The DS/life force generation changes would be almost enough.

We need a quick change, before things get out of control (they kind of already are).

I’m also sympathetic to all rangers and warriors and engies who have to put up with all the fotm kids facerolling the necro after it got buffed. I’m with you guys on it.

Whack-a-mole has stepped onto the earth of condi necros and touched them with its power.

Condi necros were happy for one day, but then became the object of passionate disdain from everyone.

No one remembers how bad necros were before that revelation.

Flavour players will reroll, because that’s the only thing they can win with – the OP stuff of the month.

Real necro players will get the slack for playing their most practiced profession much much better than the flavour majority.

Sad, but true.

Arheundel.6451:

My personal list based on required skill=reward relation

Tier S- ( 0=10)
None

Tier A- ( 2=10 )
Mesmer
Guardian

Tier B- ( 5=10)
Elementalist
Thief
Necro
Engineer
Ranger

Tier C-( 8=10)
Warrior

Tier D- ( 10=10 )
None

End result , mesmer and guardian are easier to play compared to warriors, while still having max reward, by contrast warriors require the highest level of skill to obtain same level of reward

Once warrior receive adequate buffs ( 1 more condition removal tool , more or less ) the game will be truly balanced in my eyes

Similar feelings.

Oblivion.8307:

I main necro, I hardly ever play thief so I don’t understand what you guys are talking about.

Can’t chill on close as a necro? Is it the reason why you are so sure and so offended by people disliking your very one-sided aggressive opinion? Yeah – opinion, because right now – it’s nothing else.

Please, read my previous post in this thread if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

Taegos.4132:

Hello (name redacted),

Thank you for getting back to us and for giving us more feedback about the Aetherblade Retreat dungeon.

The achievement Personal Space unlocks if you avoid Horrik’s area attack while fighting him. This means that during your fight with Horrik and Mai Trin, you need to avoid all the area attacks that Horrick does. You can be hit with the direct attacks, as this doesn’t count, and you can be hit by them without losing the achievement. We understand that the current description of the Personal Space achievement is creating confusion and we thank you for letting us know. Our team will keep investigating the dungeon and its achievements, and you can check for further updates and news in the official Guild Wars 2 forums and Guild Wars 2 page.

We also recommend you to take a look at the Guild Wars 2 official wiki page for tips and detailed information regarding this dungeon, http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aetherblade_Retreat.

Regards,

GM Tanooki
Guild Wars 2 Support Team
http://support.guildwars2.com

I know of people getting hit by the AoE attacks from Horrik that did get the achievement.
This doesn’t convince me.

Esplen.3940:

Nonono, I don’t think you understand. I was the only person alive. I was tanking Horrik and Mia. I was also ressing my allies. Nobody else was alive, just me.

I understood that, I just shared a similar (not identical) experience

Esplen.3940:

Of course, I think I deserved it, because I single-handedly ressed 2 players (alternated to avoid damage) while 4 people were DEAD (not down).

I tanked Mia and Horrik as my necro with my guardian friend ressing 3 dead party memebers who touched both mortars and aoes. One of the dead got the achievement, me and the guardian? Hell no. Thank you, ArenaNet. I’m happy I get rewarded for the skillful gameplay.

Folie.7980:

Not sure if this helps, but I believe if you walk into one of the cannon’s circles after it’s been fired and get damaged, it counts as getting hit.

My friend got hit couple of times by the cannonade and still received the achievement.

Why is Symbolic so angry?

I don’t think anyone knows at the moment whether anything’s op or not. Posting very opinionated comments without giving any examples of why you think so isn’t going to make people take your post seriously.

My personal view – necros are strong.

• They are able to create hybrid carrion builds that pump insane amounts of condis with lots of raw damage from skills now.
• The condi uptime went up.
• We have comparably lots and lots of access to weakness.
• Even with condi builds new DS hits really really strong.
• The new skill is not only powerful, but also extremely fun, both to use and watch.
• Life Force generation went crazy up compared to what we had before.
• Build diversity is just unbelivable.
• I can’t find any useless or really bad utility skills in our arsenal (maybe the Locust Signet or some minions).

But,
Good opponents will still focus you, and given they have more offense as well, you need more to answer that.
Necro still has a very limited defense against CC in popular builds and I would say it’s still necro’s Achilles’ heel and being a grown-up player I would look for the answers (read: counters) there.

The only problems I can see right now that could in my opinion be over the top is the condi transfer mechanic which if combined with overall high number of fears, corrupts and terror damage can create really strong locks on some unprepared opponents rending them useless.

We need to wait for the meta to stabilise and work from then on.

See? Now that was ways better than just saying ‘necro is op, but ppl in denial.’

Cheers.

My impression is – if necros and non-necros got used to the necro being bad, so the first group learned to play with what little they had and the other one learned to gib necros, they will now most definitely perceive the necro as being op.

The meta needs to stabilise. People need to get creative and find counters to this new necro which you just can’t ignore right now as it used to be (ignore as in: just quickly and easily dispose of the necro and win the match). I’m not saying it is or isn’t op. I played thousands of matches on my necro in tPvP but I’m trying to be as objective and cool-headed as I can. It’s too early to judge.

1. Necrotruck
2. Warrior’s still a big kitty
3. Thieves annoying even more
4. Mesmers can rupt stuff like there was no tomorrow
5. DS necro spamming #1 for 4k
6. Warrior’s still a big kitty
7. Signet of Spite – huehue
8. What is a ranger?
9. Shadow trap (-.-)
10. Everyone (that matters) hates boons
11. Ele seems to have a lot of Fury
12. Geomancy is Power
13. Poor guardians
14. Final Thrust crits for 10k
15. Terror damage needs a nerf or we need a quick AoE balance.
16. Blind-a-mole
17. YOLO

Post yours.

On a more serious note –

Overall I think the patch rose the power level and I’m not sure if there’s enough defense against some specs now. Condi warriors or necros can basically do condi spikes right now.

• Necro has the sickiest build diversity I’ve ever seen (and I main necro) and they have amazing utilities that you can combine regardless of their traits.
• Warriors received some help, but I still can kite them very effectively. Can’t say if it’s me being good and the warriors I dueled being bad (I know I’m good), but they definitely need something more or people need to change how they play warriors.
• Mesmers cry about the changes, but they were very strong for months. Can’t say yet if the complaints are justified, it’s too early for that.
• Engies are fun and getting even more fun, but few people realize the potential (most of those who do, play tPvP). Teldo will keep winning with engie, regardless of what happens.
• Thieves received some unprecedented mechanics, that are looking very strong (hello, ambush shadow trap ninja).
• Eles need some work, but are still really good at what they do. Can’t say where their build diversity is at right now. I would really like some good eles to get rid of this bunker mindset and test and learn some more offensive builds.
• Guards have received the least changes since the release and seem to have the worst build diversity of all classes.
• I hate rangers so I won’t talk about them. Sorry. I think they are bad though.

What do other people think about current state of balance?

Yes, most of my guildies cannot get this achievement.

Some were hit by both Horrik’s AoEs during the Mai fight as well as by the cannonade, and got the achievement.

It was the case for me as well, I now completed the dungeon 3 times, each time not getting hit by Horrik’s final AoEs and I never received the achievement. Something’s really fishy here. An explanation from a Dev could clear the confusion up.

This started happening after the Dragon Bash patch I believe.

Going into Lich seems to be causing it, but I’m not sure if I hadn’t encountered it even when I wasn’t running a Lich.

I did it twice already – still no achievement.

What really saddens me is that me and my guardian friend carried whole team by resurrecting 3 defeated members after the 3rd cannonade and they received the achievement, but we didn’t even when especially paying attention to Horik in the end.

30/whatever/whatever/whatever/30 – yes please.
Condi bomb with burning – yessss!
Wellmancer – ohh right!
Spectrals – insane sustain – necro version of cantrip ele.

:D

The Community’s effort seems to be finally paying off.

http://www.esl.eu/eu/new_games/news/223557/

All I can say is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL1JqgBd-Eg

We e-sports now.

OmegaProject, you are the hero with your effort to document bugs.

All necromancers are grateful.

http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/c/2458014

I don’t know if anyone posted it before. I couldn’t find it – so there it is.

I watched it and being a semi-high ranked pvp player I can recommend it to anyone interested in sPvP in general as well as in necromancer gameplay.

Karl is a nice guy to watch and listen and he has some useful advice for all of you. He is just a little nervous at times, which is kind of how most necros feel when fighting in PvP. ;D /joke

Karl, you’re doing great!

Have fun!

BillFreist.1527:

Iceflame.5024:

One shudders to imagine what inhuman code lies behind our class.

:D

This made my day.

Is Necro coded in the Black Speech of Mordor?

BillFreist.1527:

Guess what? This is fixed. I’m not sure what release it’ll make it into since I just fixed it today. Its a pretty risky change, but I’ll do what I can to get it out asap.

A couple notes about the bug:

• It can affect ANY Necromancer (doesn’t matter when they were created)
• It can happen in ANY game type, PvE and WvW were just waaaaay more common because of certain circumstances
• This particular bug ONLY affects Necromancers. I noticed there was some speculation that it could affect a couple other professions

Thanks for all of the info and sorry that I didn’t look into this sooner. Also thanks for keeping on top of this issue in the forums, it keeps us in check

-Bill

Guess what? I love you! <3

Thank you!

sorrow.2364:

Puru.4217:

30 points in soul reaping = potentially 3s of stability every 5s.

Yeah, without considering the perma-weakness due to Weakening Shroud (which won’t get any change according to those patch notes).

Weakening Shroud has 15 second cooldown just FYI.

Necros… and warriors.

Nemesis.8593:

I just finished reading through all of these, cause i got them from an outside source…

If this is true… the build changes… and new builds that can be made… holy gaming gods…
It’s… very pleasing

ps: my PvE hybrid build got buffed quite a bit… baaaaws

My builds are getting so strong as well.

This Axe Mastery + Close to Death combination or perma DS Life Blast spam with no points in Curses.

Tainted Shackles will help any build there is with its utility. I can already see locking groups of enemies in Well of suffering on a 28s CD.

Spectral Effects now work in DS – thank Jon Peters, the messiah of Necros.

Spectral Wall + Terror

My head is exploding from the excitement.

Also, regarding the topic – everyone should notice that DS#5 provides Torment on top of some other effects! This is the necro flavour I guess.

Bhawb.7408:

Sebyos.4089:

Nothing here to help our PvE problem.

Honestly, I don’t think PvE will be fixed until they revamp PvE boss mechanics.

For the first time I can completely agree with Bhawb.

But tbh, I run fractals 50+ and while there are problems (downed state anyone?) the necro isn’t bad. I contribute with my necro in many interesting ways.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/upcoming-skill-and-trait-changes/

“Necromancer Death Shroud 5

As the professions in Guild Wars 2 continue to grow, we will continue to find ways to augment them and add potency to their arsenal of abilities. With the next balance update, necromancers will be unlocking their fifth ability within Death Shroud: Tainted Shackles. This skill will cause nearby enemies to be inflicted with conditions and controlled if they don’t take very quick action.

New condition

With the introduction of Tainted Shackles, we’ll also be adding a new condition to the game: Torment. This condition is designed to play around with movement, one of our fundamental combat mechanics. Enemies under Torment will take damage periodically; as they move, they’ll take even more damage. In looking to expand the condition diversity of thieves and mesmers, we decided to include Torment skills for those two professions as well."

I’m really curious now. A counter-movement condition. Who expected that? How do you think it helps necros?

JonPeters.5630:

It sounds like it is pulling conditions from enemies of the target rather than allies of the source of the mark. I will take a look at this tomorrow. Is this new?

Jon

I think Jon has it right here. I need to test it on NPC creatures on Legacy/Forest in sPvP.

Gaile Gray.6028:

Hey, I think we figured it out! If you purchased a character slot during the Beta Weekend Event, then the extra is a normal “glitch” of the system that actually works to your benefit.

You’re clear to keep the slot, and thank you again for your honesty and your good question!

(If on the other hand you did not purchase anything during our beta period, we’ll probably want to look further BUT you’re still ok to keep that slot!)

Hi, Gaile!

I’d like you to look with the team once again at the possible roots of the bug.

I know of at least two similar situations (one is myself) where players did not buy anything during the BWEs and still received more slots than purchased.

One of my friends bought some back in the first month after launch and encountered this bug, but I remember numerous people writing about it back then, and even remember someone on your twitter writing that you’re looking into it. I presume it was later fixed to not occur in the future.

But… I purchased 3 myself at one time few months back (but already in 2013 I believe) and ended up with 9 slots total. I couldn’t really write about it on forums back then for some other reasons.

There is something fishy about this particular purchase. I hope it helps.

Edit: Ohh and please don’t take the slot away

I have another question relating to the downed state.

I’ve been recently running fractals (lvl 50+) and my parties noticed that there’s sometimes a big problem ressing the necro. What I mean is, sometimes, even 3 or 4 players have a hard time ressing me from the downed state. I think it can’t be poison since the difference is just insane. Sometimes we also see 53 hp ticks (what?) when ressing a defeated necro. Something is definitely WRONG.

I wasn’t able to replicate the issue yet, as I’m not even sure what causes it, but I’ll keep trying. One idea I had is maybe they were trying to fix the downed state and something was broken during the process.

Can someone confirm that such abnormal situations occur?

I’m looking at our warhorn skills right now.

• Wail of Doom – Screech a wail of doom in a cone pattern, dazing foes.
• Locust Swarm – Gain swiftness and summon a swarm of locusts that cripple nearby foes.

We can trait it with Banshee’s Wail increasing effect duration and reducing the cooldown slightly.

Now, I have two main problems with the weapon:

1. It does not provide any party-wide buffs
2. Locust Swarm tends to be annoying and counter-productive.

Both Ranger and Warrior warhorns provide AoE buffs for allies. Why should Necromancer’s version be different? The only answer I can come up with is that it’s a coding issue, i.e. they cannot currently separate effects for some reason and giving Locust Swarm to couple allies would be too strong.

The suggestion I have to fix it – Change Locust Swarm into a skill-sequence

• a first usage provides a speed buff as well possibly some other boon or flavour (single condi removal?)
• second skill usage gives you (the Necro) the locust swarm effect, just like it works currently

Doing this would allow us to have some useful party utility in WvW from warhorn, as well as retain the current (and very strong) utility in form of locust swarm. It would also let us decide whether we want the cripple effect, which as I mentioned before, is sometimes counter-productive (aggroing mobs you just want to run by).

I’d like to know what you’re thinking. What other ideas would you have for our warhorn?

I think John is blowing the whistle.

I like how the OP doesn’t seem to recall placing the order for these shards. It’s either a joke, an effect of a hard partying or the OP should really double-check his or her account security.

You first saw it here!

Are devs poking us with these sublimed hints? I want to go to Maguuma with my Sandwitchmancer. It was my favourite part of GW1’s Tyria.

Please tell me what you think

Good points, I agree with most of them.

The game needs a change quickly, because the longevity is not there yet.

The 2-week cycle doesn’t do ANY good to the game currently. After the last patch I was unable to complete Fractals, events and whatnot because of random hot fixes popping randomly every now and then.

I hope Anet acknowledges the problem, is actively trying to figure out and learn the way of handling these frequent updates. Otherwise it’s just detrimental to the game’s health.

Well, I have two sets that satisfy my needs for now.

One is a rabid condi set I chose to pick when I run a defensive condi build (rarely these days).

The other one and a one I would personally recommend you for starters is a full celestial (all-stat) set with a berserker backpiece. I combine it with a berserker gear and Superior Runes of Divinity (they are quite expensive though) to optimise my builds. The additional stats (toughness, vitality, healing power and even condition damage) aren’t going to waste in my power and hybrid builds and I even run condi builds with them of late.

The set gives you a lot of versatility when changing traits and weapons. What’s not to like about it? ^.-

pierwola.9602:

you will kill my build with it so no

Could you elaborate? I cannot possibly think of an instance where you would need 3 seconds of retaliation without enemies nearby, and with enemies around you’d only gain (and gain a lot let me add) from the transition.

Honestly, necro isn’t half as bad as people see him. It is more of a misunderstood and misperceived profession that has a very distinct gameplay not everyone will like and be comfortable with.

I agree with Gabi, the build possibilities are vast and I don’t have as much freedom on my war and ranger as I do on my necro.

Necro, just like every class, has a lot of tuning and quality-of-life changes coming. Things can only get better from now on.

I like the idea. The current state of the trait is rather unappealing.

It would need an internal cooldown to prevent people with Near to Death from spamming it every 5 seconds. BTW – Weakening Shroud has 15 second cooldown.

I definitely would consider taking it, especially since I always have a problem picking I-X traits in Spite tree. Plus, the skill sounds and looks extremely cool.

I really wish I could get a hammer on my necro (just like the Archdiviner in Cliffside Fractal).

Picking a completely new weapon set is difficult. I can easily see Polearms, Crossbows, etc.

What we need to remember is that new weapons should have a new flavour to them. For example, a polearm shouldn’t just be a greatsword with another look. It should provide a a different set of perks, creating new gameplay experiences.

But if you get downed, your HP will melt in a blink of an eye due to the downed state HP bug =)

Jokes aside, yes. It is a great perk and I’m taking advantage of it all the time running 40+ Fractals. This is the necro flavour I really like.

Ohh and the topic should be ‘One OF THE good things about Necromancers…’

I disagree with the idea of changing the bleeding.

Necro’s condition pressure is already strong in PvE, since mobs usually don’t cleanse and implementing the idea combined with a usage of Terror would create some insane condi spikes in PvP.

The bleeding in BiP is more of a long duration pressure and utility. It is a long bleed you can choose to apply or not. If you do, you can either send one part of it to the enemy or use it as a Consume Conditions buff. It’s an added value.

Let’s be honest, 10 stacks of might on such a low cooldown is already a good thing, especially for how necro works.

What my quaggan buddyShalla wrote.

The simple Weakness buff is a great improvement to the necromancer. Combine it with a possible access to buring, a new DS skill with a completely new condition AND a stronger Life Force generation… you can see where I’m going… ohh + other trait changes

What I think we should remember though is – not only the necro is getting buffs and changes. Weakness change helps hammer warriors or earth eles for instance. Make weakness worth speccing for and you open many new build possibilities.

If there’s one thing we (or at least I) learned since the release, it surely is patience
Let’s just wait and see what we’ve got in store.

Neb.4170:

I really wonder why the other classes exist sometimes.

I’m wondering why this game even exists.

Edit: I recalled why, for money.

Let me be as constructive as I can at this point after months of poor updates and design missteps –
– LOL Guild Wars 2

Better call Karl.

Cordlessjoe.2415:

“I haven’t touched Guild Wars 1 in…well, years. I hated the click to move everywhere feature in GW1, which is one of the main reasons why I stopped playing it”

nobody used click to move in gw1… makes the rest of your post invalid

Any self-respecting PvPer DID in fact use click-to-move.

@topic: Beware the thieves is my advice.

I see two possibilities in current situation; devs don’t care and keep doing what they like and the Gem revenue disappears with players leaving OR they fix their game.

Number 2 is highly improbable.

I did the same, then I quit the game.

I feel like there are no real interesting things left for small guilds and small teams to do.
WvW obviously favours larger guilds, GMs are for big guilds by design.

Of course, you can PUG Fractals, but why would you? They get boring after just couple times. Small groups have literally nothing immersive.

This game is boring and I can’t stand it anymore.

Thanks for cheating me with false advertisement.

WvW – a mode designed to hide lack of personal skill behind the numbers of a group. Huge performance issues on top of general lack of purpose and wasted lands.
PvP – unfinished and very limited.
PvE – somewhat innovative but in a long-run very generic and boring.

Inb4 fanboys swarm.

Peace out.

No good necro plays minions so if you’re losing to minion masters, and I’m sorry, it means you’re plain bad.

I’d agree though that all AI outside of class mechanics should be disabled in PvP (necro minions, guardian spirit weapons, turrets, thieves guild, elementals).