Showing Posts For striker.3704:

Reaper & minions

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

Will the Reaper be able to summon new minions ?

No, he’s getting shouts that damage enemies, and isn’t a dedicated minion spec. The jagged horror shout was probably added to fill in kitten in current builds, as well as give us a very flavorful shout.

What about his jagged horrors ? Do they have health degeneration or not ?

They’re jagged horrors, so yes they will. All jagged horrors are exactly the same.

Will minions AI be fixed ?

This is actually more on the new engineer elite spec’s head. If they’re gonna improve minion AI (it’s the same AI used for spirit weapons I believe) Then they’ll do it for the engineer drone spec so people (besides minion junkies like me) have a reason to look forward to it.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

What is the mainhand Dagger's role now?

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

Dagger is gonna be more for survivability via life siphon, vampirism, and life force generation. Not to mention having warhorn as an offhand for that sweet life force generation, cripple, and swiftness.

Greatsword is probably gonna have higher damage, but less survivability and speed.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

I love the idea of a chill based necromancer

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

Chill is a good Idea but a bad choice.

easy to clean in spvp/www and useless in pve. Why i have to spend a entire traitline to obtain something that have already a high efficace counterplay meta that fight against it before it’s released?

Chill is easily the most potent of all the control conditions. There isn’t a better option for the class that is all about control conditions really.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

“Rise!” Shout

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

It works well if you run a curses/death magic/reaper setup. each jagged horror applies a bleed on each attack (scales with your condition stats), and can give a death nova on death. This can create a lot of pressure not to use AOEs else the enemy will eat a lot of poison and they will bleed if they don’t.

This also combined with the new damage from poisoned enemies reduced and damage from chilled enemies reduced, leads to a lot of synergy.

utility combination would be something like: blood fiend, bone minion, rise!, corrosive poison cloud, lich form.

It also has some synergy with the necromantic corruption build, as it both gives toughness from flesh of the master and gives you more minions to transfer conditions through.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

(edited by striker.3704)

One Topic for Reaper Feedback

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

I think the rise shout will be very useful to any MM build. the third utility slot for any minion master is taken up by disposable minions who are there for bigger fight uses (bone minion explosions, wurm teleport escape) and jagged horrors are no exception. By themselves they’re pretty terrible, but if kitten someone at once it’s a lot of damage. Those combined with the lich form mark of horror means the explosive minion build will be really solid.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Do you fear the Reaper?

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

Definitely CC shouts. Considering the focus on chill, I can easily see a shout that chills enemies in range.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Meet the Reaper!

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

The reaper spec seems like it will synergize well with every single spec except for a straight condition damage corruption build.
-good for chill based builds (wells, blinds, ect)
-good for minion builds (Rise! shout, cleaves, pulls)
-GREAT for power builds (cleave, huge power scaling, chill)

I expect spite/soul reaping/reaper trait combination to become the new necromancer meta very quickly.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

The Reaper and the Minion Build

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

The new reaper specialization will work with both minion build styles quite well.

necromantic corruption build- more jagged horrors means you get more conditions removed from you in quick succession (it also means more units proccing vampiric hits). The shout also gives you something good for bigger group fights, which the necromantic corruption build lacks.

death nova build- pretty obvious, a lot more fodder for death nova. bone minions+rise shout will be core for the death nova build. It will definitely benefit the minion bomber spec more between the two.

The new reaper spec also boosts chill by a lot, which is incredibly useful to necromancers who use axe+focus.

hell, I think the only spec reaper ISN’T good for is a straight conditions spec.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

(edited by striker.3704)

What Trait you sacrifice for Elite Spec?

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

I play MM, so if any, it’ll be Soul reaping…

The new trait system works differently. You pick 3 trait lines that are set for you. So I can take death, blood, and spite for my minion master build for example.

If the spec gives us something beneficial to minion masters, I’ll probably drop the spite trait line for it because the bonuses from it look minimal. If it doesn’t, I might forgo the great sword entirely.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

next reveal,necro! speculations?

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

Ritualist seems out of the question right now – lack of blue themed spirits and some omnious aura does not imply ritualist… Though I was wrong about the Guardian, so hey-ho

They’re keeping all classes with their base-class color on purpose. It keeps them categorized.

But idk…
http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/thumb/6/62/Aggressive_binding_spirit.jpg/250px-Aggressive_binding_spirit.jpg
vs
http://i.imgur.com/D8K7psU.jpg

I could see that thing behind there being a spirit outline.

I do not see it, but I’ll be fair…

If another AI spec makes it into specializations, I am going to uninstal the game and fill my free time with other needless aspects… Sorry to say, but since these three years, AI has literally held back the game multiple times, and with no change in sight to improve it… you can guess the rest

The only AI that is bad is melee minion pathing. If it’s a spirits build similar to ritualist, then it would be all ranged AI. Ranged AI works just fine.

Since engineers are getting drones, I’d hope Anet would use this chance to fix melee minion AI pathing so the hyped up specialization works properly.

In all honesty I expect us to get “orders” like guild wars 1 as a form of support. If they do provide us with shouts, I hope they have the shouts do creative things and not boring buffs.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Traditional Necromancer Meta Speculation

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

What other traditional builds can be seen as drastically improved/unimproved that you can think of?

The power focused minion master build will be greatly improved by the up-coming changes as it allows party utility while also giving the necromancer access to more traits to buff himself up.

http://dulfy.net/2015/05/02/gw2-specialization-calculator-that_shaman/#profession=necromancer&traits=“Spite”,1,6,9-“Death Magic”,1,6,8-“Blood Magic”,2,6,8

-net gain spite line: axe training, spiteful spirit
Before you needed to use the master slot for training of the master, now that trait is merged into necromantic corruption, opening up the master slot for axe training. The new trait system gives you 3 GM traits instead of a max of 2, so taking spiteful spirit gives you access to more boon removal, AOE damage, and cripple.

-net loss spite line: none

-net gain death magic line: beyond the veil, *necromantic corruption
Beyond the veil gives you more survivability (at argueably the best time as well) and a way to increase your minions ability to survive on demand. This trait will be immensely helpful when you or your minions are the target of spike damage.

*Necromantic corruption is listed as a gain because it’s a combination of 3 traits into one (fetid consumption, old necromantic corruption, training of the master) all of which were good in their own right, and amazing together. Since those three were combined into this new trait, I won’t list any of them as losses for this build. Because you get a lot of boon removal from axe+focus, changing it from “removing a boon” to “transfer a condition” is a lot more beneficial as condition removal is sparse in the build without the staff.

-net loss: death nova, armored shroud
Before it was possible to take both training of the master and death nova, now you must choose one or the other. As a power based necro who is focused on bolstering his minions, death nova simply isn’t as useful. Especially since it now competes directly with the trait that now increases minion damage. Armored shroud isn’t a big loss when compared to what you gain from beyond the veil.

-net gain blood magic line: transfusion, unholy martyr
Now that vampiric minions has been merged into the minor master vampiric trait, the master slot has been opened up. This allows you to take transfusion giving you more party support and a way to heal minions on demand if you’re alone. now that you can take an additional GM trait, you can pick up unholy martyr. This gives you a way of staying in death shroud longer and a minor bit of party support (the 10% life force gain is more potent than removing a condition from an ally).

-net lose blood magic line: none

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

(edited by striker.3704)

New Necromancer Minions

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Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

The only minion skill I can really think of that we’re lacking is a way to spawn jagged horrors on demand. Especially with the new traits we are seeing, there is a clear division between “strong hitting minions” and “death nova fodder” minion builds.

As of right now, the “strong hitting minions” build is solid and complete (if the skill changes stay the same). It’s a simple power/toughness/vitality build that holds the enemy down as your minions tear them apart, simple enough. There is a lot of obvious synergy for the build between blood magic, death magic, and spite (asuming you use axe+focus with this setup) making it easy to fill all it’s “slots”.

The “death nova fodder” build isn’t. It’s a condition damage build, but lacks a way to get jagged horrors out on demand. The jagged horrors give a great way to apply bleeding (through their attacks) and utilize death nova, and would be core to the build. Some givens for the build would be:
weapons: scepter+dagger / staff
trait lines: curses/death/?
heal:
?
utilities: corrosive poison cloud (?), bone minions, ???
elite: lich form (summoning 5 jagged horrors)

Yet, there are some pretty clear weaknesses here. There isn’t really a third trait line that seems to synergize with it. The blood magic trait line doesn’t have a grandmaster trait that really benefits the build, and soul reaping has no synergy with it. Spite is heavily geared for axe/foxus and power builds, yet building for power seems to stretch the build thin since you need survivability, condition damage, and crits. This huts Lich form, as Lich form deals more direct damage than condition, and spawning 5 jagged horrors on a 180 second cooldown is wasteful at best. If you take plague form it kills all of the horrors and bone minions you might have out, and if you have another corruption in your third utility slot, you might as well run a corruption focused build instead.

There simply isn’t enough to give the build an identity as anything other than a lesser corruption build.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Making Spirit Weapons Viable

in Guardian

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

a big issue for spirit weapons is that there isn’t a good weapon that both uses symbols and synergizes well with them.

For a spirit weapon build you’re gonna be doing a burning build, which means you’re taking torch as it benefits the most from the radiance tree. However, you’re also gonna need a weapon that you can use with this that has a symbol, because the zeal tree only has minors that benefit that.

This only leaves you with mace as an option. Mace has very little synergy with the spirit weapons build as it’s more of a protection and support weapon, while spirit weapons are more for a DPS type of build. Especially with how the radiance tree is built.

If smite was considered a symbol, or if sword had a symbol, then spirit weapons would be in a better spot. At the moment, there is a big lack of synergy between spirit weapons and the tree they’re put into. Until this changes, the spirit weapons suffer from a tree that really doesn’t synergize with them at all.

Also, why isn’t the bow a heal skill? seriously?

If anything, Mace has the most synergy with SW’s as it’s got the fastest recharge on it’s symbol to take advantage of those sweet symbol traits in Zeal. That’s still not saying much because the GM trait for SW and Symbol damage multiplier are conflicting. I’m still not seeing SW’s very useful.

That’s what I’m saying though, the mace symbol does synergize with the adept traits, but none of the other qualities of the mace do.
-the mace has very slow auto attack skill, where you want a fast swinging weapon for proccing burning and crits as much as possible. This is compounded with the up-coming trait changes in radiance that make crits proc even more burning and other effects.
-When you have both mace and torch equipped, you have no access to any built in CC outside of the spirit hammer. If you do stun someone with the spirit hammer, by the time you get in range to hit the enemy with your symbol, it takes so long to place it, that they can get up and out before even taking 2 ticks from it.
-the block on the mace is at most a minor inconvenience as you don’t have any traits to take advantage of it. The spirit shield does a better job over all accomplishing this, even if it only blocks projectiles.
-Since the radiance tree needs crits and you need survivability so your weapons can do their thing, the heal on the mace auto attack is a waste as you need to be stat’d for healing power to get a noticeable benefit from it.
-the benefits you get from the minor traits (10% more symbol damage and a couple of stacks of vulnerability) are incredibly meager even for minor traits.

In fact, the zeal trait line is easily comparable to the older death magic trait line. The old death magic trait line used to have “spawn a jagged horror” as the first adept minor trait, and “more toughness per minion” as a master minor trait. While these both in theory synergize within themselves, If someone wanted to take the death magic trait line, they’d need to deal with those two traits being incredibly mediocre if they didn’t run minions.

A simple way to fix it would be to take the current minors and combine them all into a symbol mastery trait, and instead make zeal focus more on power and burning builds. IE
adept minor- zealous strike- when you burn a foe, gain (1) might, 5 second cooldown.
master minor- firey wrath
grand master minor- kindled Zeal (changed from 13% to 7%)

By making the tree more general and allowing players to pick traits to specialize it, it makes the spirit weapons build stronger as a whole. While the example I gave above might not be balanced in any way, the general idea is still the same. The zeal tree is obviously about power builds and damage (with burning), so why not make the minor traits reflect that?

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

whats the origin of this "Shout" theory?

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

I legitimately hope it isn’t shouts. Shouts are the most boring utilities in the game, even compared to signets.

I’d hope with the elite specialization, we’d get a defiance bar or something instead.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Making Spirit Weapons Viable

in Guardian

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

a big issue for spirit weapons is that there isn’t a good weapon that both uses symbols and synergizes well with them.

For a spirit weapon build you’re gonna be doing a burning build, which means you’re taking torch as it benefits the most from the radiance tree. However, you’re also gonna need a weapon that you can use with this that has a symbol, because the zeal tree only has minors that benefit that.

This only leaves you with mace as an option. Mace has very little synergy with the spirit weapons build as it’s more of a protection and support weapon, while spirit weapons are more for a DPS type of build. Especially with how the radiance tree is built.

If smite was considered a symbol, or if sword had a symbol, then spirit weapons would be in a better spot. At the moment, there is a big lack of synergy between spirit weapons and the tree they’re put into. Until this changes, the spirit weapons suffer from a tree that really doesn’t synergize with them at all.

Also, why isn’t the bow a heal skill? seriously?

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

(edited by striker.3704)

Necromancer Up comming changes

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

Spiteful spirit being put into curses makes absolutely no sense.

Death nova being merged into Minion master, while good for minion masters, makes it too powerful of a trait base line.

Instead I would change death nova from:
“spawn a jagged horror when you kill an enemy. 15 second cooldown”.
to
“spawn a jagged horror when an enemy, ally, or non-jagged horror minion dies around you. 20 second cooldown”.

This would give the condition based MMs who would be running this trait, bone minions, and some condition utilities a bit of an easier time keeping their weak disposable minions up so they can explode for a bajillion damage repeatedly.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Is condition damage a must have?

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

DO you use scepter and a lot of skills that apply bleeding, poison, and other damaging status effects?
If yes, then you want condition damage.

If you use dagger or axe, then you shouldn’t get any condition damage.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Elite specializations overshadow old ones?

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

It depends entirely on the build your running as to whether or not the elite specialization is a strict upgrade.

For example, for my minion master build I run axe as my primary weapon, meaning I take spite, death, and blood magic. With the new trait system, blood magic and death magic have a lot of synergy between the necromantic corruption GM trait and the blood GM trait that draws conditions from allies, let alone the life siphon.

If I take the new specialization, my only option to get rid of is the blood spec as death magic is core to MM builds and the axe synergizes extremely well with minions. This means I’d have to give up survivability through blood magic for what could potentially benefit me, let alone give up that grand master trait combo.

The only way this new specialization would be better for my build, is if it somehow had jagged horror creation in one of it’s skills. Otherwise I’m better off without it.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Pet focused necro viable for pve/dungeons?

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Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

In general PvE/dungeon/fractal content the pet based necro is fine. It isn’t until you get to speed run parties and very specific dungeons that it becomes a problem.

Good example of this is Caudecus’s Manor. if you was trying to sneak pass something and stealth runs out or doesn’t cap all your minions then you’ll end up with a truck load of bandits in your face.

Yes, as a minion master I’d highly recommend having an endless tonic on hand so you can on-demand kill all your minions for situations like this.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Pet focused necro viable for pve/dungeons?

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

In general PvE/dungeon/fractal content the pet based necro is fine. It isn’t until you get to speed run parties and very specific dungeons that it becomes a problem.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Necro Spec Notes & Feedback

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

And while im on the topic of Unholy Martyr. The trait itself is fairly decent. The problem is we have no way to get rid of those conditions other than blowing cooldowns. We have no trait synergy with that grandmaster. Our condition cleanse trait is triggered on DS entry and unholy martyr works after you are in DS. They are in the wrong order.

Unholy martyr has incredible synergy with necromantic corruption if you’re a minion master.

If an ability, trait, resource, whatever in any context is only good if another ability / trait / resource / etc is used alongside it
Maybe it’s the second ability that’s useful, and the first is still just crap.

Incidentally, this is why I still can’t stand Chilling Darkness.

The second ability is definitely what I consider the more useful of the two. You basically extend your time in DS and sit like that, and at the end transfer all your conditions with whatever skill you’d like. If you’re a MM, you can stay in DS a hella long time as long as you have minions out.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Necro Spec Notes & Feedback

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

And while im on the topic of Unholy Martyr. The trait itself is fairly decent. The problem is we have no way to get rid of those conditions other than blowing cooldowns. We have no trait synergy with that grandmaster. Our condition cleanse trait is triggered on DS entry and unholy martyr works after you are in DS. They are in the wrong order.

Unholy martyr has incredible synergy with necromantic corruption if you’re a minion master.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Wait until Elite Specs come out

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

There is no “replacing” a single line, it is just a third line that you can mix and match as you want. The only special stipulation is that you can only have 1 elite specialization, and you need that specialization equipped if you want the specialization stuff.

I thought the purpose of the specialization was that you would trade off something for something else? If they introduce this specialization without you needing to give up anything for it, it will just be a straight upgrade unlekittenanges other factors of the necromancer at their core upon adopting it. At least until they introduce the next specialization set after this one. I'll be honest, I haven't seen anything beyond the current changes to existing traits as far as this specialization stuff goes.

Here’s the basic rundown of the new changes:

You pick exactly three trait lines, which will now be called “specializations”. In those three lines, you’ll get all the minors and your choice of major at every tier. (So three Adepts, three Masters, three Grandmasters.)

How the new elite specializations fit in:

Elite specializations that will be released with Heart of Thorns (Like Druid for Rangers) will be slotted in instead of one of the three ‘core’ specializations. So instead of going Spite / Death Magic / Soul Reaping, you might choose Spite / Death Magic / New Specialization. As well, you can only ever have one elite specialization equipped at a time, even if they release more in the future.

So the tradeoff for the elite specialization is one of your three chosen trait lines / core specializations.

Edit: Beaten to the punch. But I like this post, so here it stays.

I like your explanation, this is awesome news as, looking at it now, taking blood only for the minor siphoning might not be too beneficial for me after the patch. I hope we get to see this new specialization soon so I can know for sure what i want to do.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Wait until Elite Specs come out

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

There is no “replacing” a single line, it is just a third line that you can mix and match as you want. The only special stipulation is that you can only have 1 elite specialization, and you need that specialization equipped if you want the specialization stuff.

I thought the purpose of the specialization was that you would trade off something for something else? If they introduce this specialization without you needing to give up anything for it, it will just be a straight upgrade unlekittenanges other factors of the necromancer at their core upon adopting it. At least until they introduce the next specialization set after this one. I'll be honest, I haven't seen anything beyond the current changes to existing traits as far as this specialization stuff goes.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Wait until Elite Specs come out

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

I’m feeling like GS is gonna be a power weapon and will replace the curses line, but we will see. I feel like they’re making one line core for a spec and the rest fluff for that very reason (all dedicated minion traits are now in death magic for example). This way, more specs can make use of the specialization instead of GS coming in and wrecking 2-3 different builds at the same time.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Necro Spec Notes & Feedback

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

Minion Masters look like they will be a LOT more solid this time around, especially power focused minion master utilizing axes.
spite:
-siphoned power
-spiteful talisman
-axe training (this honestly seems weaker but could be good in the long run)
-spiteful spirit (this is huge since you can get 2 unholy feasts back-to-back using this, which is quite a bit of AOE damage and retaliation.)

Death:
-beyond the veil (protection for you and your minions on demand is AMAZING.)
-flesh of the master (same)
-deadly strength
-necromantic corruption (this is a HUGE buff, combining training of the master and fetid consumtion into one skill, and then having the minions transfer those conditions to the enemy. Talk about an all-in-one trait).

Blood:
-vampiric (awesome)
-blood thirst (not many other good options, really)

This is what I assume would be the go-to axe minion master build. Judging by putrid defense and death nova there is also a sorta more defensive poison based build with disposable minions.

Also to note:
-reduced recharge on minion skills
-base 15% life force increase
-Death nova jagged horror creation cooldown reduced to 15 seconds (more horrors, good for PvE)
All really help. The only real down side to these changes is that now you must choose between “training of the master” or death nova, meaning that overall damage coming from the minions will go down, but since trait point options are opened up, you gain protection for yourself and your minions, condition removal (and return), and increased access to retaliation and cripple.

None of this takes into account how the new specialization will influence anything, especially what it replaces. At minimum I expect two distinct minion builds (disposable weak exploding minions and strong bulky hit hard minions). Obviously, the explodey weak minion build will favor PvE and the strong minion build will favor PvP, however, the weak minion build looks like it will be the inferior of the two unless jagged horror creation is changed to proc on the death of non-jagged horror minions as well (akin to that one elite enchantment from GW1).

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

(edited by striker.3704)

Great sword skin favorites?

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

dhuumseal is pretty awesome, however I think twilight is probably the winner.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Necromancer Specialization Speculation.

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

the basest core of the classes will remain, such as ranger pets and necro building life force. How these are used will probably be very different.

Death shroud is “enter a state that makes YOU tougher” so my guess will be “spend lifeforce to hinder things other than yourself”. A form of mana bar for using certain skills. potential skills include but aren’t limited too:
-A skill that summons jagged horrors
-A skill that applies AOE chill to a large area
-A skill for AOE cripple
-A skill that rips boons from an enemy giving them to you

Basically, I’m expecting a control focused set of skills that synergize with the greatsword which will likely be a damage oriented thing. The necro relies on “sustain” through death shroud to survive, and since we won’t get evasive skills or invulnerability, the only thing they can give the necro to keep this survivability is more control through hampering conditions.

I think if we give up anything, it will be the scepter. The dagger is really designed for a “life siphoning” type of build (hahaha) so we lack a true melee physical damage focused weapon. Condition builds also seem to be what are already considered solid, so I think Anet will want to use this to touch up the side of the necromancer we don’t see as having any options. Like wise I think we’ll lose the corruption trait line in exchange.

Another reason I believe this, is that Anet has always had a hard time dealing with balancing traits for condition vs physical DPS for the necromancer (see: dhuumfire) and by creating this divide it will be easier for them to accomplish this goal. This will also synergize with other lesser builds as well (AOE CC for keeping enemies in wells, keep enemies in place for minions, more direct damage for direct damage builds, ect) without synergizing with the already strong condition burst builds (imagine AOE CC on top of the AOE condition damage we can already do).

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

[Necromancer] Minion AI bugged again

in Profession Balance

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

This is a pretty big problem in PvP, and is especially noticeable in any situation there. Most players will kite minions away, and this immediately will lead to them bugging out until the fight is basically over. This bug will persist through:
1.using a minion “command” ability on an enemy player (IE: if the flesh golem charges a warrior, it won’t attack him after the charge)
2. re-targeting a player
3. using ground targeted aoes

I’ve actually stopped using my minion master and swapped to turret engineer until this gets patched.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Necro axe is terrible please change it.

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

The only real problem with the axe is that the auto attack doesn’t do “enough”. If they extended the duration of the vulnerability the axe applied, it would make it more of a “attrition weapon” in that taking too much vulnerability leaves you open to be killed. They could also increase the damage a tad on the auto attack.

Axe 2 is good damage and the life force generation is solid. No real problems there.

Axe 3 is good in about any and all situation. Be it chasing, fleeing, group fights, or just trading blows.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

(edited by striker.3704)

The state of Necromancers in PvP

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

Fear stacking isn’t really a problem because fears are best used separately for maximum benefit. However if Fear duration is that much of a problem to you, then a better solution to flat nerfing it is to change how it scales. remove the condition duration scaling, Increase the base duration of fear and “base damage” from terror, and change the terror trait from “increased condition damage when enemy is feared” make the secondary effect “fear duration is increased by x%”

If you nerf fear duration scaling, other necromancer builds that are already suffering will suffer even more. We’ll see the dhuumfire effect on other builds all over again. This change would reduce “fear nuking” but leave fear as a good from of CC for all necro builds.

Also, we don’t need access to vigor really. What we need is some form of protection from focus fire burst. like for example:
fear of death: If you lose x percentage of maximum health within x number of seconds, gain dark shield for 5 seconds. Any enemy that hits you during dark shield will be feared for 2 seconds. (cooldown of 10 seconds per target, 90 second cooldown on the trait)

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

(edited by striker.3704)

Scepter or Ax?

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

Axe for sure. Your build is mostly focused on survivability and power (very little condition damage) meaning you’ll benefit more from retaliation and vulnerability.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

necro fear vs other classes...

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

so.. for a class where fear actually makes sense we need to chain 3 abilities together and trait the hell out of it to get as decent duration.

thief just needs to click once for a 4-5 second fear then run behind me stabbing me in the back till I die, lost count on how many times I have died to this especially when they do it in stealth

warrior one click 4s fear and copy the thief to a lesser extent

how is this fair?

We have access to fear more liberally and on short cooldown. Specifically, death shroud fear. Not only is death shroud instant cast, but so is the fear. Meaning that at any given time, unless the enemy has stability on, we can fear the enemy even when CC’d. Also, our fears can be specced to deal plenty of damage.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Minion master Necros in hot join

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

Ok, first I must tell that I’m complete noob when it comes to minion builds. I played it once and disliked it.. Tried it now again and starting to get a better grip of it. Tbh, I got no idea what I’m doing but the targets just… melts.. lol? Bone Fiend, Shadow Fiend and Flesh Golem is a no brainer with the secondary skills. But Bone Minions are kinda hard to keep track of, since the explode on spot when activating the skill.. So is there some kind of burst combo rotation or something? And oh, how do minion master do in solo arenas/tpvp?

I use zerker amulet, traits are 4/0/6/4/0. As for runes I’m pending between ogre and wurm (kinda like the new changes to those). Any advice much appreciated.

Personally I use the same traits as you, however I like to run:
soldier’s amulet
rune of the lich (for jagged horror summons which have excellent synergy with all of your traits)
Axe+focus (sigil that applies vulnerability 50% on hit+sigil that increases vunlerability duration by 20%)
staff (sigil that increases poison duration and sigil that increases chill duration)
blood fiend/bone minions/bone fiend/shadow fiend/flesh golem

In PvP you can basically use any weapon combination you want with minion master. I like the Axe+focus because of the synergy vulnerability has with minions, and staff has a lot of built in utility. However the weapons you use are up to you since none of your traits really benefit any other weapon more than another.

If you don’t run either staff or dagger off hand, you should really consider bringing the trait fetid consumption. You shouldn’t go into PvP unless you have at least 1 form of condition removal.

Your burst comes mostly from the minions. Lock down your enemy with rigor mortis+charge, then hit them with whatever combo your weapons provide. (focus 4+axe 2, dagger auto attack chain, staff 3+4, ect).

Minion Master is more of a 1 v 1 bunker. You don’t have access to blocks or vigor but you can deal a lot more damage than other bunkers (except for maybe dagger/dagger ele). You focus on outlasting the enemy and letting your minions whittle them down.

This is also why I don’t recommend running zerker. If you do, you make yourself all the easier to be picked off. If you die, all your minions go down with you.

Since the changes to how DS functions with the death magic tree, you’re also tankier than ever. +200 toughness in death shroud is more toughness than a nearly full set of soldiers (excluding jewelry). You need to take advantage of this and use death shroud to mitigate damage when you can, especially when your life force is full.

Speaking of death shroud, you should ALWAYS use it when chasing someone down. Either fear them to make sure your dark path lands, or wait for them to waste a dodge and dark path them. If you successfully land dark path the enemy is effectively screwed as this can lead to an easy root from death shroud 5.

Regardless of what you run, certain builds will always give you a lot of trouble. In particular:
Dagger/dagger ele, staff ele, greatsword warriors who cleave down your minions first, shatter mesmers (they get a lot of evade and aoe damage), and anyone who can invis repeatedly (messes with minion AI).

Also, some quick tips for working around the current minion AI problems:
1. If your bone minions go stationary, just stand next to them and wait for the enemy to get too close. If the enemy goes invis, it’s pretty easy to guess when they will come at you. The damage from putrid explosion is amazing and the weakness from death nova will protect you from whatever spike they were hoping to achieve.
2. Minion actives force the minion to target that player/enemy. If the flesh golem/shadow fiend aren’t responding, haunt/charge tend to fix it (not guaranteed).

Misc tips:
If your blood fiend looks like it’s going to die from haphazard AOE, make sure you consume it. Though you get more healing passively out of it being alive, 9 times out of 10 if it’s getting low on HP you are probably missing enough HP to warrant eating it, and it’s going to die either way.

Rigor mortis, haunt, putrid explosion, death shroud, and doom (death shroud fear) are all instant cast. This is extremely important as it means you can use them while CC’d. This makes all of these skills extremely useful for defensive play. You should make a habit of entering deathshroud and using doom defensively any time a warrior or thief stun you.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

(edited by striker.3704)

Necro minions stand still in combat

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

The melee minions definitely have a big problem with this. I’ve actually stopped using my minion master in PvP for the time being simply because of how game breaking it can be for 3 of my utilities to not work.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

[bug] minion AI going stationary

in Bugs: Game, Forum, Website

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

After the most resent patch, minions tend to go idle in combat for upwards of 2-3 minutes. I’ve killed entire bosses without the flesh golem, bone minions, or shadow fiend attacking him. This also happens frequently in PvP.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Do we still suck?

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

I last played when Evon Gnashblade and The Other Candidate were competing for election. Since then there looks to have been some serious necro changes.

So my question is, do we still suck?

When I last played the general consensus was:

Vampiric Necromancer – unplayable

Minion Necromancer – unplayable

‘Power’ Necromancer (berzerker gear + axe/double dagger) – OK

Conditionmancer – Great for PVP, useless for WvW because everyone can just strip conditions instantly

Anything else – unplayable

Is this still the case?

As far as PvE goes:
vamp- unplayable, signet of vamp sucks.
minions- unplayable in CoE, passable in other dungeons.
power- meh
conditions- only works if there isn’t another condition class with you.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Feature Build Balance Preview

in Profession Balance

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

I’m honestly not concerned with the minion changes anymore. The benefits from the traits they’re nerfing are already so low that it won’t be felt at all.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Necromancer minions

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

And agreed, its always been strange to me that minions had way better attrition scaling than everything else.

Agreed. Blood Magic / Death Magic / Bunker DS builds (without any minion traits & skills) should be able to “attrition” better than MM, since minions deal lots of damage compared to those builds while still giving lots of things that’ll keep you alive longer, even better compared to those builds (like, vampiric/dagger build)

1.The problem isn’t that “minions are over powered” It’s that vampiric sucks right now.
2. If you buff “dagger builds” It’s just gonna inherently buff minion master survivability because they can use daggers.
3. I completely disagree with the idea that other builds should be tankier than minion master at all. Minion masters build entirely for survivability first, they should be the hardest to kill. The problem here isn’t that minion masters are too tanky, it’s that the other builds don’t do enough damage/have too long of a cooldown on utilities. Heck, necromancer direct damage being crap has been a problem for a long time running now which mostly applies to the builds you talked about!
4. The soul reaping (and by extention death shroud) trait lines are not survivability focused. It’s all damage+survivability. Heck, the soul reaping line gives + 30% crit damage at 30 points. If you build soldiers on that, you are wasting a huge chunk of stats. So with this in mind, what makes you think death shroud (an agressive trait line for crit builds) should be tankier than a spec that uses both of the defensive trait lines?

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

(edited by striker.3704)

Necros need leaps

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

Considering you only get 3 utilities, I find (IMO) slotting flesh wurm just so you have an escape to be pretty wasteful.

It’s basically an escape/defensive skill for minion masters. When compared to a number of other purely defensive stun break skills, it has some pretty good benefits.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

[Merged][PvP][Warrior] Healing Signet is Too Powerful

in Profession Balance

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

You all are right, it was too fast, shouldve thought of all you slow thinkers.
Here is another FACT:
Game is balanced by devs as warriors have base HP of 18k.
if you are saying the ‘return to full health’ is not a good measure because warrior (and necros) has the most HP its basically saying that before a fight even began:
warrior >> others classes if no ones uses heals.
Now this may be true or not but it’s a whole different issue and not related to HS.
If say game was balanced for warriors with 15K hp, then HS would heal to full at 37sec which sounds definitely stronger and might have been OP compared to others,
but again it isn’t.

And here is another something to think about for the guy with ’it’s always on’ answer.
Engi vs warrior on a fight that takes
70sec: engi heals at 10, 30 ,50, 70 = 4*7400 / 70 = 422hps
50sec: engi heals at 10sec, 30 and 50 = 3*7400 / 50 = 443hps
30sec: engi heals at 10sec, 30 = 2*7400 /30 = 493hps
much more then HS 392.
You can see that the shorter the fight the better normal heals are. Of course this is just an example of potential and any fight can go differently, one can use he’s heal every 30sec, or not use it at all, that’s up to you, point is potential is there.
HS is fixed 392hps for better or worst, if your heals get interpreted all time coz you play like a noob then its for the better, but if u can burst down real fast and cast your heals when invisible, or the heal is an evade or a block or its knock ppl back anyhow then HS is a sure disadvantage.

You can’t throw around those numbers and exclude the signet active heal. The problem with the heal signet is that you get the passive heal ON TOP OF the ability to use an active heal. so add another 4k HP or so to that heal number.

The biggest problem is IMO is actually the active heal. If we reduce the passive without doing something to make the active useful, we are just creating a different problem. Truly the active on this skill right now is in the following place. When I see someone press it I think “No No No don’t do that!” We are discussion some options here so if you want this to be constructive give suggestions towards improving the active. Reducing the passive is easy to do but we will not do it without solving the other problem. Also we will not greatly reduce it because it is giving Warriors a sense of sturdiness that we want their profession to have. Without strong heals, Warriors feel too much like everyone else. Setting them apart with strong heals has been good for changing their playstyle feel, but we agree it needs some tweaks.

Jon

You are showing an awful lot of concern about nerfing a healing skill that is universally considered too strong, yet you’re willing to nerf vampiric master without a second glance despite the fact that siphoning is already in a weak place. Why are you making the warrior’s sustain better but nerfing the necromancer’s? Is the warrior gonna be the king of both damage and sustain?

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

(edited by striker.3704)

Necros need leaps

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

we don’t need more leaps, just more skills that prevent the enemy from getting away. At the very least Anet could put cripple/chill lower on the condition removal priority so it’s harder to remove them.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Necromancer: "I lack an identity!"

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

Also, just because the Ele’s weapon works like that doesn’t mean the necro’s should. They are two different classes and should remain that way.

We shouldn’t justify ignoring a well-balanced skill functionality just because of class flavor.

Class flavor is actually very important. If you make the classes too similar, it becomes more difficult to distinguish what they are even mean’t to do, let alone balance the two classes around each other when they compete for the except same play style. Never you mind the fact that it would make the game less diverse and frankly more boring. If you’re going to suggest changes, keep true to the class and it’s functions instead of lazily copy-pasting another class into it. Which is actually quite ironic considering the title.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Zealot stat is a tease

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

Anet is pretty scared of siphoning. Just look at how they’re nerfing vampiric master, which is arguably the only acceptable form of siphoning, while leaving the rest of siphoning alone despite people continuing to point out that it’s crap? It also doesn’t help that very few of the necromancer’s abilities scale with healing power (making it a lack luster stat for us), let alone the measly amount of scaling you get from siphoning. Until Anet gets over their fear of siphoning, I wouldn’t expect them to ever allow us to heal in death shroud.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

(edited by striker.3704)

Necromancer: "I lack an identity!"

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

The addition of 1 second delays, especially that many, would completely neuter the necromancer. Some of those nerfs are completely needless (mark of blood).

The 1-second delay AoE paradigm is not something at which we should be turning up our noses. Staff elementalist has been getting along with these types of skills with proper timing, target-leading and positioning. The 180 base radius of staff marks make them very viable to land despite a 1-second delay so long as the Necromancer properly predicts an enemy’s movement. Moreover, unlike other AoEs, Necromancer staff marks stay around even if they aren’t initially triggered. This creates a mine-field effect that no other class can simulate.

Even so, I understand the issue with marks: they don’t have any staying power. Once they trigger, they go off and that’s it. If an opponent dodges them, that’s it for good and most of them (aside from [Mark of Blood]) have pretty substantial recharges. I’ll look at ways of maybe addressing this, but I don’t want to just make an entire weapon set of pulsing, duration AoEs simply because people say that leading a target in order to land an AoE with a 1-second delay is too difficult.

Marks are not wells and shouldn’t ever be like them. Their purpose is just that: to make a mine field. If you want to make the “trap” element more distinct, instead of adding a one second delay and making it exactly like a well, why not just make the mark’s effect more potent the longer it’s on the ground? It may be a more boring solution, but it’s a solution that makes more sense.

Also, just because the Ele’s weapon works like that doesn’t mean the necro’s should. They are two different classes and should remain that way.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Necro vs war

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

Warriors are an aggressive class. You basically want to hinder his offense as much as possible and whittle him down to win. I’ll list some tactical overviews to fighting a warrior.

non build specific-
1.building life force is your top priority. You can enter Death shroud and cast doom both while CC’d, which gives you an immediate defensive option.
2. Set a mark of fear early on in the battle (assuming you use a staff). If the warrior is trying to rush you with melee, simply put it under your own feet. If they try to get you at a range, put it between yourself and him and lead him into it.
3. Maintain any sort of movement impairing condition. I personally have access to a lot of chill and cripple as a minion master, so i can hamper movement very easily.
4. boon removal will let you take away his might, fury, swiftness, and all his other aggressive boons.

build specific:
minion master:
1. maintain cripple and chill as much as possible. This should allow your minions to get in on the warrior.
2. All minion actives are instant cast except for the flesh golem charge. This means you can use them re-actively in any situation even when CC’d which makes them great defensive tools.
-Your bone minions provide weakness (with death nova) and high damage burst to ward them off.
-Shadow fiend’s aoe blind is great if the warrior is trying to melee you.
-The bone fiend’s rigor mortis is great if you wanna kite the enemy, escape, or hold them still.
-The flesh wurm is a given, it breaks CC and even gives a good chunk of life force.
-The flesh golem’s charge can provide great follow up CC to chill or immobilization.

wells-
1. Honestly, all the wells are defensive options. Just keep an eye on what the warrior plays like and try to figure out which one you want to use. The safest bets on wells though are:
-Darkness- good for stopping any sort of melee damage (hundred blades, whirlwind slash, ect).
-Power-converts any sort of condition the warrior puts on you into a boon, great if you get CC’d a lot.
-corruption- converting his boons into conditions can turn burst into fizzle. This is most effective against warriors who spam shouts or those who just activated their signet of rage.

-conditions-
1. maintain your conditions and distance. Especially poison, weakness, and cripple.
2. Don’t use your full condition “burst” until you’ve made the warrior use a cleanse.
3. Use staff marks defensively. The staff has very good options to protect yourself. (transfering all your conditions to the warrior, chilling the warrior, fearing the warrior).

-blood (signets?)-
1. Signet of spite gives you a good option to cripple a warrior who’s about to activate their burst, especially their adrenaline skill.
2. If you’re using transfusion, activate it as your life force is about to run out (<5%). As long as you don’t leave death shroud manually, It won’t stop the channel. Transfusion recovers your own HP if you’re outside of death shroud.

-spectral-
1. Spectral armor should be used if you’re about to eat burst. Save it for when you know you won’t be able to avoid the damage.
2. Spectral walk is good for disjointing. If you see a warrior charging you with bull’s rush or something, activate Spectral walk and try to create distance before the hit. You can activate it again to make the warrior’s skills go to waste.
3. Spectral grasp- While I wouldn’t use this against a warrior personally, it’s good if they try to escape or you desperately need life force.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Necromancer: "I lack an identity!"

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

The addition of 1 second delays, especially that many, would completely neuter the necromancer. Also, attrition based combat is all about small numerous hits over time and out lasting your opponent. By making more of the skills bigger with longer cooldowns, you achieve the opposite of your goal.

If you want to make the necromancer more attrition based, you need to make power builds have more attrition based conditions/boons like retaliation, regeneration, protection, weakness, ect. IE: give the axe an auto attack chain that applies weakness.

Also, power builds should NOT inherently be better than condition builds. Berserker’s should have the highest DPS, sure, but that doesn’t mean condition builds need a nerf in DPS. This is especially true in PvE where condition builds already fall behind, let alone if you have 2 condition damage classes in a party.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

(edited by striker.3704)

Boss mechanics and DPS meta

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

Needing heal classes isnt really the right way to do it, Don’t make this into some crap mmo, it’s an action mmo meaning full dps gear should be able to do it. We don’t like playing some generic mmo that has spank and tank mechanics.

I’m not looking to make any class required at all. However, there needs to be more incentive to use something beyond power/crit DPS. As of right now there is none.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Boss mechanics and DPS meta

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

The reason for this DPS meta is very simple, and the nerf to crit damage is only a bandaid fix. At the moment boss mechanics only really negate soft CC, hard CC, and conditions. There is little to nothing in the way of direct damage mitigation. on top of this, bosses only really deal large avoidable damage, making support and survivability rather pointless. The lack of direct damage mitigation and the abundance of support counters is what created this DPS meta. I’m not saying that DPS needs even more of a nerf, I’m saying the other specs need more relevance to how a fight turns out. It’s gonna take a few changes to make all of this possible.
The first thing that needs changing is how bosses deal damage. At the moment most bosses do large telegraphed attacks that can simply be dodged. Having these big attacks isn’t a bad thing in the least. The problem is the lack of any pressure outside of that.
An example of a boss done well in this sense would be lupicus. Lupicus has lots of attacks that hit hard in large aoes, pressuring people to be on the move. On top of this, he also has a single target auto attack that applies pressure between big hits. The auto attack isn’t enough to kill a player on it’s own, but it makes mistakes harder to recover from, leading to a fun fight where the person being chased by the boss tries not to die, while the others support him and attack lupicus!
An example of a boss that needs work would be alpha. Alpha has little as far as weak fast hits go. He has a burning damage aoe and. . .that’s it. The AOE isn’t even range either, it’s point blank. While melee shouldn’t be pressured out of fights entirely, The burning isn’t enough to make you want to back off after getting hit by it once, twice, or even three times! This leads to alpha fights being nothing more than a stack and smack. Even if most of your party dies, he’s pretty easy to solo, which in itself exemplifies the problem.
By giving bosses more weak but difficult to avoid attacks, it will promote:
-soft CC (chill for melee bosses, weakness for high damage bosses, ect): to reduce the damage/potential to hit of those weak attacks so they can be powered through.
-defensive stats: to mitigate that damage that gets through to you. As of right now you can simply avoid most damage making this stat currently undesirable for more advanced players.
-soft support- right now healing, protection, and to a minor extent retaliation, aren’t that useful as there aren’t small weak hits. However, more numerous hits will justify all three of these more so as you can’t utilize these boons against big damage attacks.
However, this is not the end of it. Making bosses more offensive will be good, but with the current state of defiant all of the soft CC conditions are neutered too much to be useful. On top of that, the amount of effort required to get stacks low enough to interrupt a skill simply isn’t worth it when the skill can be avoided instead. At the same time defiant can’t be completely neutered, otherwise bosses will just be CC spammed instead. I think defiant should create a tug and pull between wanting to stop certain skills or maintain soft CC.
Change defiant from giving a flat reduction of conditions like weakness and blindness, and instead have it be determined by the number of stacks the boss has. The fewer stacks the boss has, the longer these conditions last. Defiant will now truly be you weakening the bosses will to resist effects until pushed back over the edge. This will create a tug and pull where you want to get their stacks as low as possible, but not remove them all until a skill you want to stop appears!
Another point albeit lesser, is the PvE enemy use of buffs. At the moment most enemies don’t buff themselves. The ones that do, however, re-apply them so quickly that removing the buffs is almost pointless. There needs to be more of a happy middle ground created because, as of right now, buff removal is only really effective in PvP. The same can be said about condition removal. Enemies that have it tend to use it extremely frequently making condition duration ineffective.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard

Why Soldiers Gear for M/M Necro?

in Necromancer

Posted by: striker.3704

striker.3704

Bhawb is right, minion’s don’t scale with your stats at all. This is why soldier’s is so good for minions. Most of your damage comes from them, so you can stack defensive stats to be as tanky as possible.

Also like he said, if you want hard evidence, you’re gonna need to test it in-game if you don’t believe us.

Unless its pvp, no, they dont deal near enough damage to compare to a player at 80 and while soldier is the second highest power dps setup (no mix matching) chosing either zerker, knight or even rabid (since you can actually run a very good condi minion setup) usually covers the weaknesses of minions much better.
Ofc that shouldnt prevent anyone from having a soldier set of gear for taco and fractals on their necro, just its like the /worst of the good/ builds that you can pick if going minion master.

The problem with stacking damage stats as a minion master is that unlike the other specs, all of which have traits or utilities that directly benefit from getting certain stats, minion masters don’t gain as much as the other specs for getting damage stats. Sure, PvE is easy enough as is, but that doesn’t change the diminishing returns. If you run full damage, you would be better off just going for a deathshroud, direct damage, or condition build.

And that is why you shouldnt go minions at all. Anyone in a so to speak off “end game” pve guild will ask you to take a alt (guard war ele ranger or thief, last 3 only if you are really good with em) than a necro and will plain tell you sod off if you show up with minions.

It also doesn’t help that this spec is getting a blanket nerf next patch.

D/S/R necromancer F/A/T elementalist
S/I/F engineer Z/R/D guard