Purpose of the Next Elite Specialization

Reading through the survey thread on the next elite weapon I saw so many shield requests!

However, I try not to assume any new weapons on Necro will will work like those on other professions. (A Necro shield could just as easily be Corruption or Minion Master skills. Imagine getting a shiny new shield and finding out it corrupts boons and blocks control effects, but not damage, while self-inflicting conditions. How about a shield with AoE taunt and a knock-back along with a trait line that changes minions?)

As much fun as it is to speculate on weapon type and implied skills attached, the weapon appearance is less important than its function in enabling or improving a profession's specialization.

Greatsword and the Reaper traits plugged a huge hole in Necro's capability and, while torch and Scourge's utilities may be lackluster, Desert Shroud, barriers, and increased boon corruption is also a significant improvement.

What does Necro really need, next, or what does the game need Necro to do next?

TLDRPost your thoughts on what might be really desirable for Necro to bring to the game, next. It can be anything awesome or weird from an anti-condi/CC banner-slave to using LF for aggro control and blocks, to creating a high mobility spec.

Skill and trait details are not required but please explain why the game and Necro needs it.

Pls no one handed weapon.I want 5 new fresh weapon skills.And a faster paced close combat style than reaper.So hammer or double sword would fit that perfect. With some movement skills and high dmg

Else give us insane multipliers like soulbeast and stealth and a longbow, that shoot unlockable oneshot projectilesAnd the raining arrows corrupt and do little dmg.

Melee condi is probably what it will be.

I posted my dream necro build a while back!

Necromancer: Count/Death Knight/Vampire One Handed Sword - (dual wielding would be nice too but maybe that is too much to ask for)

• Necromancers have plenty of conditions in their different specs but this spec would master in stuns and dazes. It would be closer to core Mesmer with a Vampire-y twist.
• Reaper slows targets and overwhelms them with powered attacks - Countess/Deathknight focuses on interrupting enemies and using Blood Magic to siphon health/boons.
• Shroud form focuses on mobility but doesn't change skill bar. Shroud levitates naturally giving them some stability and a passive speed increase.
• Can activate shroud skills to give attacks siphon, something that buffs mobility or enables a dodge, a ranged single target daze (vampire gaze?), and a shadow minion that attacks your target for a few seconds (Phantasm)

The idea is that Necros, Queen and Kings of conditions, have always lacked blocks, stuns, counters and evasive skills. Shroud tends to help them tank and mitigate damage and they stack corruptions on enemies that tick away at their hp. I hope to see a Necro spec that buffs their ability to avoid damage entirely with well timed sword blocks/counters and punish enemies for them by eating their boons.

@Nimon.7840 said:Pls no one handed weapon.I want 5 new fresh weapon skills.And a faster paced close combat style than reaper.So hammer or double sword would fit that perfect. With some movement skills and high dmg

Else give us insane multipliers like soulbeast and stealth and a longbow, that shoot unlockable oneshot projectilesAnd the raining arrows corrupt and do little dmg.

Spellbreaker gained dagger but in both hands. I don't see why they couldn't do this again for Necro.

My personal favourite is sword, for a duellist style weapon with an evasion or block skill attached. The spec itself would be far more focused on single target damage (Scourge and Reaper are both heavy aoe range and melee alike). Shroud would act more like Celestial Form, in that you would need to build up to 100% to use it and is on a fixed time limit, without an extra health pool. However this would open up shroud and our utilities to various skills that we have been denied because of past shrouds, like evasion/blocks and instant shadowsteps.

Probably a strong melee condi spec

Either a long-range power spec or a high-risk, high-reward style DPS spec.

And when I say "High risk" I mean bringing back stuff like the 55hp Necros of GW1.

We will not get blocks or invulns like the other classes since Anet has made that clear, plus shield on necro makes no sense and it's ugly af.So Imo what we need is a high-risk, high-reward melee debuffer fighter with ton of mobility.I would really like double swords necro, with a vampire style where we can actually use life force or health to get specific benefits. For example use lf to get more health siphon, not in small number but in single big chunks, also maybe get more endurance regen so we can dodge more and mobility skills with weapons.No more AoE, single target high dps survivable duelist, gimme dat Anet

@"Drarnor Kunoram.5180" said:Either a long-range power spec or a high-risk, high-reward style DPS spec.

And when I say "High risk" I mean bringing back stuff like the 55hp Necros of GW1.

Well, in fact, 55hp were low risk builds since the purpose of lowering hp to this point wasn't to gain "power" but "survivability". In case of a 55hp necro it was mainly in order to reduce the cost of the health sacrifice and those necromancers even purposedly seeked to have even less health point by exploiting the death penalty.

On topic:I don't think that an elite spec has any other purpose than to expand on an existing gameplay feature and thematic of a profession. Thus I think that after the slasher (reaper) and the walking plague (scourge), the next specialization have high probability to expand on things like minion and curse (I mean "curse" in a mesmer like way). This might be expressed throught:

Special mechanism:

• The shroud F1 allowing the necromancer to summon a minion and a skill kit instead of the infamous 2nd health bar. (classic shroud variation/ranger style)
• F skills summoning fantasms/clones. (scourge mechanic variation/mesmer style)
• LF upkeep shroud F1 allowing a proc every 3-5 hits to summon up to 2-3 clone like things (scourge mechanic variation/revenant or guardian style)

Utilities:

• Glyphs, appropriate to "exploit" shrouds that don't "transform" the necromancer.
• "Nature" spirits that would leave "mark" on active skill or when they die.
• Fantasms/clones.

Weapon mechanic:

• Channeling life force without transforming the necromancer could also modify the 3rd weapon skill of the necromancer to make it summon a minion/clone/fantasm.

I know that from a player point of view it wouldn't be satisfying and I'd personnally prefer something that have nothing to do with minion, but considering the Gw2 necromancer's heavy thematic I think this is the kind of thing that we can expect for our next elite spec. ANet's devs like their necromancers slow and predictible, expanding toward a "minion" spec wouldn't go against this principle.

I would personally love to see a minion master elite spec. The thematic element of surrounding yourself with undead servants and having them do your bidding is all I want in a necromancer. However, I do understand and agree with many of the concerns people have surrounding an elite spec based on minions. First off, no elite spec should be solely based on AI. Game modes such as PVP or Raids must require some amount of skill which a solely AI based class lacks. Furthermore, AI based classes are boring. Who wants to sit around and press a button here and there while your pets run around and do everything? That's why I want to see a minionmancer spec that allows the player to control his/her minions with life force. The spec would also revolve around sacrifice skills that cause your minions to become stronger, do more damage, and inflict conditions based on the skill and amount of health you sacrifice. Basically, there would be a trade off between the strength of your minions and your vitality. This would require the player to properly react to certain situations and judge whether to increase the damage output or to maintain better survivability. Obviously people don't care about the minion theme as much as I do but I still believe that it is very possible to implement one, and it could be pretty cool.

Don't need another melee spec, long-range please.

@Dadnir.5038 said:

@"Drarnor Kunoram.5180" said:Either a long-range power spec or a high-risk, high-reward style DPS spec.

And when I say "High risk" I mean bringing back stuff like the 55hp Necros of GW1.

And said builds were FUBAR'd if Protective Spirit got stripped. Yes, that was harder to do than stripping a boon in GW2, but it was very much a risk. Content-specific risk, though.

I would love to see a mobile DPS spec that gets stronger the more danger they put themselves in. Still no actual disengage ability, but probably a number of "teleport to target foe" skills in the kit making them extremely sticky. Think like Kled or Aatrox from League of Legends, where the correct answer to being in a tight spot is to dive deeper into it.

I guess that's just me, though.

@"DeathsProphet.7460" said:I would personally love to see a minion master elite spec. The thematic element of surrounding yourself with undead servants and having them do your bidding is all I want in a necromancer. However, I do understand and agree with many of the concerns people have surrounding an elite spec based on minions. First off, no elite spec should be solely based on AI. Game modes such as PVP or Raids must require some amount of skill which a solely AI based class lacks. Furthermore, AI based classes are boring. Who wants to sit around and press a button here and there while your pets run around and do everything? That's why I want to see a minionmancer spec that allows the player to control his/her minions with life force. The spec would also revolve around sacrifice skills that cause your minions to become stronger, do more damage, and inflict conditions based on the skill and amount of health you sacrifice. Basically, there would be a trade off between the strength of your minions and your vitality. This would require the player to properly react to certain situations and judge whether to increase the damage output or to maintain better survivability. Obviously people don't care about the minion theme as much as I do but I still believe that it is very possible to implement one, and it could be pretty cool.

there's also the issue that minions are already part of the necro and adding an espec to "fix" core mechanics instead of just fixing said core mechanics is a waste of an espec.and please use paragraphs next time

Necromancer next specialization are really in need of the Ritualisthttps://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ritualisthttps://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/51545/what-gw1-profession-do-you-want-in-gw2/p1

'The Ritualist can also use the remains of the dead to defend the living-not by reanimating corpses as a Necromancer would, but through the ritual use of urns and ashes.'

@Drarnor Kunoram.5180 said:

@Dadnir.5038 said:

@Drarnor Kunoram.5180 said:Either a long-range power spec or a high-risk, high-reward style DPS spec.

And when I say "High risk" I mean bringing back stuff like the 55hp Necros of GW1.

Nah I agree with the teleport to foe over disengage skills as well. I've always hated the cowardly escape skills many professions use, so that's the path I'd choose.

Based on current relative effectiveness and the directions each spec is taking:

• Core Necro is a jack of all trades but a master at none.
• Reaper is a master at Power Melee.
• Scourge is a master at Hybrid Mid-range.

So the new Elite Spec if it continues the trend, is going to be Condi Long-Range.

Core Necromancer

• Condi / Power / Hybrid
• Long-Range Shroud
• Close / Mid / Long Range Weapons

Reaper

• Power Bruiser
• Melee Shroud
• Melee Greatsword

Scourge

• Hybrid Support
• Mid-Range Shades
• Mid-Range Torch

New Elite

• Condi Spellcaster
• Long-Range Profession F1 skill
• Long-Range Weapon (Probably a Shortbow)

Yes, a Shortbow is considered long-range to a Necromancer.

Necro does not have a long ranged single-target dps spec so that is one possibility. For this, something along the line of Deadshot where there is no shroud but LF can be consumed for blocks and bursts can plug that gap.

It also does not have a single-target melee condi dps spec, either, although Scourge and Reaper show some ability, there. A short range condi dps weapon and some mobility skills could give Necro some relief from repetitive scepter slow-bleed-stack syndrome.

Finally, Necro is still weak at converting conditions to boons and it has no use for boon duration so A spec heavily based around converting conditions to boons for itself and allies can be worth a low dps on it.

@EremiteAngel.9765 said:Based on current relative effectiveness and the directions each spec is taking:

• Core Necro is a jack of all trades but a master at none.
• Reaper is a master at Power Melee.
• Scourge is a master at Hybrid Mid-range.

So the new Elite Spec if it continues the trend, is going to be Condi Long-Range.

Core Necromancer

• Condi / Power / Hybrid
• Long-Range Shroud
• Close / Mid / Long Range Weapons

Reaper

• Power Bruiser
• Melee Shroud
• Melee Greatsword

Scourge

• Hybrid Support
• Mid-Range Shades
• Mid-Range Torch

New Elite

• Condi Spellcaster
• Long-Range Profession F1 skill
• Long-Range Weapon (Probably a Shortbow)

Yes, a Shortbow is considered long-range to a Necromancer.

If the poll is anything to go by, that's the one weapon people don't want. Reaper is a hybrid too. Or at least it can play, as a condi spec, as effectively as Scourge can play as power (in a pve sense - in WvW, Scourge just eats Reaper alive and I can't speak for pvp).

I personally dont trust anet with the idea of using minions for the next elite if there is going to be one look at almost every current minion including the reaper shout one and they are all kinda poop. (more so in pvp) Not to mention why not just fix the minions we have now and this craving would be solved with a core setup.Should not be looking to ideas to fix core issues while leaving the core issues busted.

I personally dont want a long ranged weapon either once again this is a pvp issue for me ontop of the fact that its going to be slower than your average weapon when held in another professions hands (as anets principles usually imply) I dont want a long bow that shoots slower than a dragon hunters or warriors long bow and possibly wont hold up to do the proper dps.

Whats likely to happen is sword / sword currently every profession has access to a sword except necromancer It would be nice to complete the set all the way around and it leaves options open for both main hand and off hand skills.

Special mechanism:

The shroud F1 allows the necromancer to take on a new ghostly wraith like form though instead of a transform code it uses a kit code like holo smith photon forge, gain new low cooldown 1-5 skills which drain life force when used. Health i no longer protected by life force allowing the skills to be considerably stronger and slightly more over loaded mechanically than standard shroud skills. (literally think holo smith with this) Utilities are still readily open for use while the f1 is active.

Skill 1 standard auto for heavy damageSkill 2 Gap closer/ combo finisher leap/ becomes a blink with a trait possiblySkill 3 aoe cc /defensive skill (perhaps not a combat escape though)Skill 4 Something similar to mesmer off hand sword 4 block /counter skill that deals a hefty chunk of damage and immobilizes your target when triggeredSkill 5 Something kinda like guardian greatsword. Throw your sword and impale a target while impaled slow and chill are applied for a short time in short pulses / Flips over to optional blink to that target for heavy damage

Ideally its aimed at really sticking to a single target and ripping them up without being dependent on something like chill (chill hardly works as effective as it should ever sense anet made it so that leaps and movment skills are not effected by it.)

Utilities:Im still gonna go back on my old idea here and sayFeast skills :These are ideally stances or effects that apply for a short time on use granting bonus effects such asHealing for big chunks of % of damage done (your healing skill)Ripping boons per attack or dealing etxra strikes if there are no boons.Granting endurance for landing attacksXfering conditions when landing attacks.etcorMantras Skills (Why not add more broken instant use when loaded mantras to the game)

Weapon kit: sword/ swordMain hand sword focuses on dealing damage and gap closing while off hand sword handles excution skills and heavy cc (thats not fear im talking hard cc)

overall with this im thinking its more glassy than reaper is but its f1 kit outsides reaper shroud in very very short used burst while reaper still depends on a good bit of shroud up time. This is the mark a target and execute it elite spec. Its a ghostly / Wraith based hunter in search of prey.

I actually voted shield. One skill i would like to see on it would be:

Accursed Guard - for a given duration all direct damage attacks received are converted into bleeding (1 stack for 3s base per attack received). For converted bleeds attackers power is used as condition damage, while ferocity as expertise.

Just out of top of my head, so not yet refined, but that would be a very necro-ish guarding skill.Generally i would like new spec to be tank, with powerful and unique debuffing ability - since being master of negative condition manipulation is a necro's forte that has not yet been truly expanded on in either of his elite specs.

My Vampire spec would be nice, Either a Longbow or vampire hunter Dual pistols with hand crossbow skins, focusing on life steal, or a "similar mechanic" that ACTUALLY is life steal and not the current "Heal a very small amount unrelated to the small damage you do".