[suggestion]Add more Marks for necromancer

Some people maybe remember. But in the past there was one balance patch where the guardian classes get some rework. At this update anet implemented more symbols on the different weapons of guardians because symbols are a class unice mechanic of guardians and have many synergies with traits and things like this.

i am wondering since 5 years that necromancers unique mechanic - marks - more or less just available on staff. i would like to see anet would rework some weapon skills to add more marks to necro weapons.

e.g. scepter skill 2 (grasping dead) and degger 5 (enfeebling blood) would work better if they would be marks...

That could potentially fix some of the LF generation on some of the weapons, with the marks trait active. While I was reading this, i felt like they could also implement charges to the staff marks, which could also improve game play for staff users. Like for example:

Staff 2 = 4 max chargesStaff 3 = 3 max chargesStaff 4 = 3 max chargesStaff 5 = 2 max charges

Cooldowns kept the same or tweaked depending on things, and you might have to adjust how long marks last on the ground, but if nothing else it would make staff play a little more engaging than dropping 4 marks and auto before swapping. Also opens some ideas to either build some more conditions, or burst some conditions clear, or even a chance to chain fear a little for some disengage options.

no pls no! remove marks from the game !!! these are the worst mechanics in the whole game :<<<give us some simple and effective symbols or ready-made wells compatible with traits <3and more siphoning health (life stealing) options with transfer <3

Turning a couple already aoe skills into marks would be ok.

And please no freaking charges on mark skills... the last thing the game needs is more mindless on-point ranged aoe spam. And please no to the idea of turning marks into pulsing aoe fields for the same reason.

Marks are fine as is. I've NEVER read a thread comparing necromancer staff marks and dragon hunter traps. If we give them ammo, those threads start growing like mushrooms.

I do like the idea of creating more marks.

Also note the old lich form had marks on its bar. and they were affected by the trait. Don't know if the new lich form has any.

I would say however, that if we did add marks, then that trait wouldn't be a minor power level trait. It would me major at least.

Also.... Do we want dagger 5 and staff 2 to act like a mark? Or do we just an AoE? I dunno about placing them on the ground.

Imagine all 4 staff marks, and scepter 2 and dagger 5 all on a point. That's far worse condi burst than anything anyone is complaining about now, with fear, and chill in the mix. That is PUNISHING.

So while I love your idea for the synergy it adds... It might cause unintended interactions.

Yeah what Necro needs is MORE mindless press and forget AoE that they can spam around themselves to have a huge No go area around themselves...

The only problem I have with the current marks is, without the Soul Marks trait, staff does not regenerate life force. But to be more on-topic, I think we already have an abundance of AoE-based attacks as a necromancer. Someone mentioned the ammo system used for marks? Oh lordy...

You mention in changing the scepter 2 skill in specific to a mark; I would rather not wait for a mob to run into the 'mark' versus an AoE already in progression (like wells, for example; the pulsing); in other words, you leave my scepter alone!!! :P That is another reason I do not 'love' my marks, but I still use my staff either way so... I can live I guess.

@Lanthun.7251 said:The only problem I have with the current marks is, without the Soul Marks trait, staff does not regenerate life force. But to be more on-topic, I think we already have an abundance of AoE-based attacks as a necromancer. Someone mentioned the ammo system used for marks? Oh lordy...

You mention in changing the scepter 2 skill in specific to a mark; I would rather not wait for a mob to run into the 'mark' versus an AoE already in progression (like wells, for example; the pulsing); in other words, you leave my scepter alone!!! :P That is another reason I do not 'love' my marks, but I still use my staff either way so... I can live I guess.

to came back to my suggestion, i dont want NON-AoE skills as marks. i want only already AoE Skills as marks for greater synergies. (like justine said)

@"BrokenGlass.9356" said:Marks are fine as is. I've NEVER read a thread comparing necromancer staff marks and dragon hunter traps. If we give them ammo, those threads start growing like mushrooms.

I do like the idea of creating more marks.

Also note the old lich form had marks on its bar. and they were affected by the trait. Don't know if the new lich form has any.

I would say however, that if we did add marks, then that trait wouldn't be a minor power level trait. It would me major at least.

Also.... Do we want dagger 5 and staff 2 to act like a mark? Or do we just an AoE? I dunno about placing them on the ground.

Imagine all 4 staff marks, and scepter 2 and dagger 5 all on a point. That's far worse condi burst than anything anyone is complaining about now, with fear, and chill in the mix. That is PUNISHING.

So while I love your idea for the synergy it adds... It might cause unintended interactions.

I'ts not Dragonhunter traps that he's comparing, it's symbols. Which are exactly like marks, but were inconsistent across guardian weapons (Hammer, Staff, Greatsword and Mace had a Symbol, while sword and scepter didn't. So they changed a skill in each of those weapons to be a symbol, and thus benefit from the symbolic Avenger trait.Same thing could easily, and justifiably be done for marks. Since only Staff has marks in it, so the "marks" trait is actually a staff one, and could simply be changed to "Staff skills generate life force on hit. Marks are unblockable".I mean since there's no actual staff trait, it wouldn't hurt reworking that.

Adding more marks to other weapons would be overpowered in WvW since marks are unblockable ranged aoe.

Individual, yeah, a mark sucks. But it's their wide radius, unblockable nature, and 20+ people using them at once, what makes them a deadly force. Honestly, Staff is fine. It has its place for tagging in open world, and meta in WvW and PvP.

The only thing I'd change is give bleed to autoattack (since it is clearly a condi weapon), and maybe add more support-y effects to compliment scourge, such as direct healing on Mark of Blood instead of regeneration. Staff has always been condi/utility, and I think the utility aspect of it should be expanded upon.

Marks are some of the blandest designs to exist in video games. Throw in the word "non-functional" as well if we're going to include pvp. Don't make more of them. Just redesign staff so it's not the most boring weapon to ever exist (but anet wouldn't do that anyway).

@"Swagg.9236" said:Marks are some of the blandest designs to exist in video games. Throw in the word "non-functional" as well if we're going to include pvp. Don't make more of them. Just redesign staff so it's not the most boring weapon to ever exist (but anet wouldn't do that anyway).

Disagreed. I think marks are awesome. Literally, land mines to control an area.

The problem is their execution and the fact you can't really specialize in a specific mark-type. You're just given a small little bit of everything and nothing remarkable comes from it.

There could be all sorts of ways to revamp marks. One of them might be switching them to the Ammo system, but making them all share the same ammo. That way, a power user can use all the power marks they want, condis get their condi marks, mark of blood can be the "heal" mark, and mark of fear can be the CC mark. Every kind of build will have at least one type of mark useful to them. Everybody happy.

So some people want more marks, some people want to redesign staff. I say we compromise and keep staff the way it is with no new marks.

As a Scourge, shades do exactly what marks does and better, so why i need a staff?

A suggestion, merge some marks, like mark of blood and chillblains in one mark, and putrid with reaper mark. Or another suggestion, make the marks detonable, with a staff skill.

@Lahmia.2193 said:So some people want more marks, some people want to redesign staff. I say we compromise and keep staff the way it is with no new marks.

I like this option

@"Conqueror.3682" said:As a Scourge, shades do exactly what marks does and better, so why i need a staff?

Because of "obstructed"

Marks have never worked as intended - 95% of the time you drop them on the target to trigger instantly like any other aoe. They are a bland and weak skill mechanic and you could swap them out for standard aoe skills and nobody would notice. By the same token, you could leave them alone and it wouldn't matter either.

Staff does need a rework though. It's support got nerfed long ago and it doesn't have DPS. All it has going for it are the condi transfer and fear.

To the people in favour of more marks. Ask yourselves, would you still want more marks if the Soul Marks trait didn't exist?

No thanks, marks are probably the most boring things necro has.

^^ Condi transfer and fear, traited unblockable lf gain from trigger+. DPS non existent. Bland status achieved.

marks are a cool mechanic and i like staff... i puked when i saw scourge came out and u just put down more aoe fields alongside with marks and wells... so pls no more aoe ground targeting skills

@Alendar.3195 said:That could potentially fix some of the LF generation on some of the weapons, with the marks trait active. While I was reading this, i felt like they could also implement charges to the staff marks, which could also improve game play for staff users. Like for example:

Staff 2 = 4 max chargesStaff 3 = 3 max chargesStaff 4 = 3 max chargesStaff 5 = 2 max charges

Cooldowns kept the same or tweaked depending on things, and you might have to adjust how long marks last on the ground, but if nothing else it would make staff play a little more engaging than dropping 4 marks and auto before swapping. Also opens some ideas to either build some more conditions, or burst some conditions clear, or even a chance to chain fear a little for some disengage options.

Sure, but with lower counters. 3 charges/2/2/1(25sec cd and much higher dmg/modifier) And ofc lower the LF generation per mark.

They should make staff 1 also be a mark so the whole weapon is nothing but marks.