6 Feb balance update

In this update, we are converting the alacrity enhancement into a boon. For more information, see our official forum post from last week called "Alacrity: Time for a Change."

• Alacrity: Alacrity is now a boon. The recharge-speed bonus has been reduced from 33% to 25%.
• Regeneration: Regeneration now uses the greatest healing regeneration to immediately heal you rather than going by each regeneration stack's duration or order of application.
• Confusion: Heavily reweighted damage from this condition's base damage-over-time component to the damage-on-skill-use component. The condition-damage contribution has been removed from the damage-over-time component and redistributed into the damage-on-skill-use component. This condition remains split between PvE and PvP/WvW.

Boon and Condition Conversion: With the addition of alacrity to the boon system, the tables have also been updated for skills and traits that convert conditions to boons, and vice versa. The conditions inflicted when a boon is converted have been reduced in several cases where they were found to be too strong.

• Alacrity now converts to 3 seconds of chill.Resistance now converts to 2 seconds of immobilize.
• Chill now converts to 3 seconds of alacrity.Immobilize now converts to 2 seconds of resistance.
• Protection: Reduced the vulnerability inflicted from 3 stacks for 10 seconds to 3 stacks for 8 seconds when this boon is converted into a condition.
• Regeneration: Reduced the poison inflicted from 1 stack for 10 seconds to 1 stack for 6 seconds when this boon is converted into a condition.
• Might: Reduced the weakness inflicted from 10 seconds to 5 seconds when this boon is converted into a condition.
• Vigor: Reduced the bleeding inflicted from 3 stacks for 10 seconds to 2 stacks for 8 seconds when this boon is converted into a condition.

Necromancer

Scourge shades have long been a pain point in PvP and WvW with their rapid corruption and few tells for players to spot. In this update, we're introducing better tells for shade actions, reducing the more oppressive condition applications, and easing up on the punishing boon corruptions. On the other side of things, we improved the effects of Vampiric Presence to make it competitive with the auras of other professions.

• Scourge: Added a 0.5-second warning to enemy players on each shade and on the player when activating a shade skill.
• Feed from Corruption: This trait now grants 3 seconds of alacrity when corrupting alacrity from a foe.
• Abrasive Grit: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from granting might and cleansing a condition on allies who already have barrier.
• Vampiric Presence: The power contribution from the necromancer to the damage portion of this trait has been increased by about 1,200%. The healing-power contribution from the necromancer has been increased by about 560%. The functionality of this trait has been modified and currently increases its effectiveness by 100% when in shroud. This effect now has a 0.5-second cooldown.
• Sand Swell: Increased the speed of the portal's formation once the skill has been cast, and altered the effect so it doesn't get culled when in high-density situations.
• Nefarious Favor: Reduced the number of conditions converted to boons from 2 to 1 in all game modes. Increased the cooldown of this skill from 8 seconds to 10 seconds in WvW and PvP.
• Sand Cascade: Increased the cooldown of this skill from 8 seconds to 10 seconds. Increased the barrier granted by this skill by 15%.
• Punishment Skills: The torment durations of this skill category have been reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds. The cripple duration has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds.
• Unending Corruption: Fixed a bug in which Manifest Sand Shade was not updated to reflect the boon conversion from this trait.
• Path of Corruption: Reduced the number of boons converted to conditions from 2 to 1 when coupled with the scourge specialization.

@Anchoku.8142 said:

• Nefarious Favor: Reduced the number of conditions converted to boons from 2 to 1 in all game modes. Increased the cooldown of this skill from 8 seconds to 10 seconds in WvW and PvP.

Didn't even realise there had been a patch until I tried actually playing the game and immediately noticed this. I thought my F2 was actually broken at first, and then that there was some bug because I couldn't tell if it was actually doing anything. Then I read the tooltip and was immediately filled with disgust. Thanks ANet, keep on gutting necromancer at every turn so it can never see the viability it deserves after years of this. It was tolerable when you decided to nerf our damage and buff everyone elses, but now you're also removing the bare minimum we had to survive competently without needing to be babysat by a druid in any extended encounter. You never did enough for Reaper, core necro isn't what anyone is looking for and now Scourge is being smashed back into its grave.

facepalm.....again.

Someone Please get the necro dev here. We need a looong serious talk about what the real issues with our profession are...

Meanwhile warrior, one of the top dogs for any game mode is getting party play boost, yeah, he was a dead profession without it...

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:facepalm.....again.

Someone Please get the necro dev here. We need a looong serious talk about what the real issues with our profession are...

Meanwhile warrior, one of the top dogs for any game mode is getting party play boost, yeah, he was a dead profession without it...

ANet doesn't care about making a real attempt anymore. I'd really love to see what process their butchering balance team goes through when making decisions, because they very clearly don't play test or put any real time, thought or effort into it. Or, alternatively, they do and just really despise certain classes which is perfectly in line with their historical decisions.At this point ANet shouldn't be left to its own devices when it makes any decision, especially not around class balancing. Radical idea but maybe putting out the details of any change like this before it is implemented would be a good idea to let people argue for or against it, like any conscious developer actually interested in doing what would be most beneficial for the community would do.

Judging by the numbers of changes and impact (gameplay wise) for other professions necromancers got the short stick again. Nerfing the only viable spec wihile providing one (arguable) "buff" that changes nothing. GG.

@"Brujeria.7536" said:Judging by the numbers of changes and impact (gameplay wise) for other professions necromancers got the short stick again. Nerfing the only viable spec wihile providing one (arguable) "buff" that changes nothing. GG.

That's the only end of the stick necro ever gets. I wish I had an alternative to GW2 so I could just quit and stop being held hostage by ANet's incompetence.

From a PvE Scourge perspective

• Scourge: Added a 0.5-second warning to enemy players on each shade and on the player when activating a shade skill.Could be worse

• Feed from Corruption: This trait now grants 3 seconds of alacrity when corrupting alacrity from a foe.Never used it

• Abrasive Grit: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from granting might and cleansing a condition on allies who already have barrier.Bug fix

• Vampiric Presence: The power contribution from the necromancer to the damage portion of this trait has been increased by about 1,200%. The healing-power contribution from the necromancer has been increased by about 560%. The functionality of this trait has been modified and currently increases its effectiveness by 100% when in shroud. This effect now has a 0.5-second cooldown.Don't use Blood spec. And it now deals like 200 dmg in shroud on a powerbuild and it still doesn't heal much, it also has icd. Useless.

• Sand Swell: Increased the speed of the portal's formation once the skill has been cast, and altered the effect so it doesn't get culled when in high-density situations.Okay, tested it don't feel much or any difference. A neat skill with niche use, something I would love to have as an utility skill. Give it 1200 range a stunbreak maybe, make it last longer, otherwise not much use for it in pve.

• Nefarious Favor: Reduced the number of conditions converted to boons from 2 to 1 in all game modes. Increased the cooldown of this skill from 8 seconds to 10 seconds in WvW and PvP.This is just such a crappy move srsly. I always used "Master of Corruption" Trait where your Corruptions gave you an additional condition. I refuse to use the terrible dagger oh to condi transfer, because, well I could just convert them or get rid of them after entering shroud. Now I have to get another way of cleansing conditions. Thank you, it's not like I am already struggling to do good dps in pve with scourge, have tons of mobility, blocks, evades and don't struggle at all with life force regen and half of my skills don't give myself conditions. I ahve space on my skill bar enough for other skills. /s Now I have to get another weapon or utility skill for that as well.

• Sand Cascade: Increased the cooldown of this skill from 8 seconds to 10 seconds. Increased the barrier granted by this skill by 15%.Is there even a real purpose behind this? A nerf in "barrier uptime"?

• Punishment Skills: The torment durations of this skill category have been reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds. The cripple duration has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds.Yeah because scourge dps was totally broken and the reason was the insane pain stacks due to duration on torment skills /s

• Unending Corruption: Fixed a bug in which Manifest Sand Shade was not updated to reflect the boon conversion from this trait.Bug fix

• Path of Corruption: Reduced the number of boons converted to conditions from 2 to 1 when coupled with the scourge specialization.Don't care in PvE.

From a WvW perspective:

• Scourge: Added a 0.5-second warning to enemy players on each shade and on the player when activating a shade skill.

Necessary, nearly impossible to see shades in large fights or respond to their locations.

• Feed from Corruption: This trait now grants 3 seconds of alacrity when corrupting alacrity from a foe.

Nice bonus little buff.

• Vampiric Presence: The power contribution from the necromancer to the damage portion of this trait has been increased by about 1,200%. The healing-power contribution from the necromancer has been increased by about 560%. The functionality of this trait has been modified and currently increases its effectiveness by 100% when in shroud. This effect now has a 0.5-second cooldown.

Interesting buff and nerf at the same time - previously did not have an ICD, remains to be seen if the buff is real enough to make a marked difference over the previous iteration. Blood spec is really useful in WvW right now and getting some buffs to the line is a nice perk.

• Sand Swell: Increased the speed of the portal's formation once the skill has been cast, and altered the effect so it doesn't get culled when in high-density situations.

Nice, it was super slow and got culled out in large group fights. Made it hard for either your team or enemy teams to see.

• Nefarious Favor: Reduced the number of conditions converted to boons from 2 to 1 in all game modes. Increased the cooldown of this skill from 8 seconds to 10 seconds in WvW and PvP.

Not sure if it was necessary to nerf in PvE, but absolutely necessary in WvW.

• Sand Cascade: Increased the cooldown of this skill from 8 seconds to 10 seconds. Increased the barrier granted by this skill by 15%.

Nice nerf/buff.

• Punishment Skills: The torment durations of this skill category have been reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds. The cripple duration has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds.

A minor nerf along with all the other condi nerfs, I'm really looking forward to see how condis continue to be balanced out in WvW. However, don't think this is necessary in PvE.

• Path of Corruption: Reduced the number of boons converted to conditions from 2 to 1 when coupled with the scourge specialization.

100% necessary for WvW - although again I doubt PvE Necros need a nerf at all.

I can see how the patch doesn't sit well with PvE players, but I do hope they understand these changes are absolutely necessary to the WvW meta. I can't comment on PvP since I don't play it. I hope Anet continues to split skills between WvW, PvP, and PvE - the game modes are so vastly different that it's impossible to balance all 3 without it.

PvE'ers, continue to push for PvE Necro buffs and skill splits. Hopefully you'll get some soon!

@obastable.5231 said:

I can see how the patch doesn't sit well with PvE players, but I do hope they understand these changes are absolutely necessary to the WvW meta. I can't comment on PvP since I don't play it. I hope Anet continues to split skills between WvW, PvP, and PvE - the game modes are so vastly different that it's impossible to balance all 3 without it.

PvE'ers, continue to push for PvE Necro buffs and skill splits. Hopefully you'll get some soon!

ANet doesn't deserve any commendation for this slap in the face and clear disregard for any care in their work. We shouldn't have to tell them to have the common sense to realise what are issues in WvW aren't issues in PvE. It isn't like they give us the opportunity either. There is no excuse for them not naturally splitting these things.

@Saracen.2691 said:ANet doesn't deserve any commendation for this slap in the face and clear disregard for any care in their work. We shouldn't have to tell them to have the common sense to realise what are issues in WvW aren't issues in PvE. It isn't like they give us the opportunity either. There is no excuse for them not naturally splitting these things.

From the outset in GW2 Anet stated they wanted to avoid skill splits as much as possible. In GW1 it ended up creating a massive mess, and in the end it will create a massive mess here, too. At least in GW1 it was only split between PvP and PvE, whereas here they have to split for WvW as well. Their recent acknowledgement that they cannot balance GW2 without also going the route of skill splits is HUGE, and in time we'll see a better balance across all game modes.

I think you under estimate the work it takes to balance out 3 very drastically different game modes. They are, in effect, 3 separate games entirely. They absolutely do deserve commendation for starting to fix the shit pile that's been WvW for the past 4 months. You can whine about how unfair it is to your preferred game mode but that won't change anything. Try giving them constructive feedback, it might get better reception and actually produce tangible results.

@obastable.5231 said:

@"Saracen.2691" said:ANet doesn't deserve any commendation for this slap in the face and clear disregard for any care in their work. We shouldn't have to tell them to have the common sense to realise what are issues in WvW aren't issues in PvE. It isn't like they give us the opportunity either. There is no excuse for them not naturally splitting these things.

I do give them constructive feedback. I have suggested they should publish their intended patch notes before they actually go through with them so the community can react to them, akin to how before you erect a building you need to inform the local community of your plans, but it has been six years and they certainly won't make that change now. I will NOT give ANet any credit because of the "Well at least they didn't do their worst." excuse. I refuse to breed mediocrity through acceptance of incompetence.

@"ZeftheWicked.3076" said:

Someone Please get the necro dev here.

Lol, there is no such thing as a "necro dev".

@"Saracen.2691" said:I do give them constructive feedback. I have suggested they should publish their intended patch notes before they actually go through with them so the community can react to them, akin to how before you erect a building you need to inform the local community of your plans, but it has been six years and they certainly won't make that change now. I will NOT give ANet any credit because of the "Well at least they didn't do their worst." excuse. I refuse to breed mediocrity through acceptance of incompetence.

By give them constructive feedback I mean make suggestion threads here in the Necromancer sub, offering objective opinions on how you think the skills could/should be better balanced for PvE. They do read those sorts of threads.

Asking them to release their patch notes ahead of time isn't anything near constructive, in fact it's quite the opposite and would cause a lot of problems. If you want them to change something, if you genuinely believe something is a problem, then be proactive about it and work with them to find a solution (assuming they agree with you). If they don't agree with you then move on, this isn't exactly a democracy. We aren't entitled to get what we want all the time.

@obastable.5231 said:

@"Saracen.2691" said:I do give them constructive feedback. I have suggested they should publish their intended patch notes before they actually go through with them so the community can react to them, akin to how before you erect a building you need to inform the local community of your plans, but it has been six years and they certainly won't make that change now. I will NOT give ANet any credit because of the "Well at least they didn't do their worst." excuse. I refuse to breed mediocrity through acceptance of incompetence.

Ah yes, wanting ANet to have some semblance of an understanding of their game clearly reeks of entitlement. I clearly just want everything to go my way all the time and throw a childish tantrum every time it doesn't. It definitely isn't like this is the end result of years of enduring ANet making the same decision over and over again and finally reaching the end of my rope with no hope in sight.You don't like my manner of constructive feedback because it isn't veiled behind an "Well ANet I really like you and think you guys are really great but [x]". The time for that has come and gone. How exactly do you expect me to be proactive when none of us have any idea of what they're going to break next because they don't ever tell us ANYTHING about what they're planning to do with the game, or when, outside of the rare time they remember WvW exists. The only choice we have left is to be reactionary, that isn't my fault. That's the fault of not handling updates like I suggested and like you are against.

Losing that condi clear and corrupt is pretty painful. So much weaker against cover boons/conditions.

With Path of Corruption nerfed I'm curious about Spiteful Spirit. Use that to cripple & flip boons; take Speed of Shadows to close the distance? Since you don't use F2 to corrupt boons anymore, maybe Savant's AoE boost not as important; use Feast instead?

I dunno, I guess we'll see how substantial the nerfs are.

You forgot the most important part of the balance update, Engineer now have a trait named: Purity of purpose. That made me laugh so hard...

Anyway, changes done are in the line with what anet's give us usually. Took them a few month to fix buged traits, nerfed the support of the so called "heavy support spec" which was already meh at support, a try at making vampiric presence worthwhile but still not understanding that as long as the damage component don't crit it's useless... etc.

I had no expectation so I'm not disappointed.

I had expected a hard nerf again and was also not disappointed.

@"Saracen.2691" said:

Ah yes, wanting ANet to have some semblance of an understanding of their game clearly reeks of entitlement. I clearly just want everything to go my way all the time and throw a childish tantrum every time it doesn't. It definitely isn't like this is the end result of years of enduring ANet making the same decision over and over again and finally reaching the end of my rope with no hope in sight.You don't like my manner of constructive feedback because it isn't veiled behind an "Well ANet I really like you and think you guys are really great but [x]". The time for that has come and gone. How exactly do you expect me to be proactive when none of us have any idea of what they're going to break next because they don't ever tell us ANYTHING about what they're planning to do with the game, or when, outside of the rare time they remember WvW exists. The only choice we have left is to be reactionary, that isn't my fault. That's the fault of not handling updates like I suggested and like you are against.

I don't like your manner of feedback because it isn't constructive. You aren't even being reactionary aside from throwing a hissy fit, which is really the wrong reaction to take to a public forum.

Nothing prevents you from making constructive posts in the profession forums, or the PvE or WvW forums. Go nuts, have at it, it might go better than stomping your feet and flailing your arms around hoping for attention, but really if this is what you'd rather do then by all means you do you and have at it. Don't be surprised if it doesn't get the results you desire, though.

@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:facepalm.....again.

Someone Please get the necro dev here. We need a looong serious talk about what the real issues with our profession are...

Meanwhile warrior, one of the top dogs for any game mode is getting party play boost, yeah, he was a dead profession without it...

Nec Hot:Pve : weakPvp : MediumWvW: Overpowered

Nec PoF (pre patch):Pve : weakPvp: Gamemode breaking OverpoweredWvW: Overpowered Plus

"Nefarious Favor: Reduced the number of conditions converted to boons from 2 to 1 in all game modes. Increased the cooldown of this skill from 8 seconds to 10 seconds in WvW and PvP."

Why? Was it really so OP that necros had condition cleansing outside of a long CD heal? This skill was only OP because of the Corruption trait. That's it.

Give him a longer CD or decrease the Conditions which are converted. But both of them is the overkill :( this hurts soooo much. + visibility on Shade skills with 0.5 CD. i could say CD and visibility would be ok, but not all 3 things.

From nearly the end of the line to the end of the line.. That's this patch in a few words. Let's wait ~3 months for a new patch and enjoy a sad lonely life, anet must hate nec's.. The only thing where nec was "good" were pvp and wvw. Now it's again :"Nec can do everything - but nothing good! byebye dude i get class X with me, cause it's fit ability Y better".

@"Zintrothen.1056" said:"Nefarious Favor: Reduced the number of conditions converted to boons from 2 to 1 in all game modes. Increased the cooldown of this skill from 8 seconds to 10 seconds in WvW and PvP."

Why? Was it really so OP that necros had condition cleansing outside of a long CD heal? This skill was only OP because of the Corruption trait. That's it.

And given Path of Corruption got a nerf with this patch, they could have left the rest of the skill alone.

So necro got hit in pvP and WvW and....really didn’t get any help anywhere else except in that vampiric prescience “buff.”

Well that was a fun 5 second read, back to other things!

pvp/wvw split ... Annd the B.Team doesn't use any of it on the skills that are multi-mode dependent

I love reaper, but I had to switch to scourge, because nobody wants reapers in their parties. Now scourge is getting useless too. :( That reduction of the number of converted condies makes it much weaker in PvE.