WvW Player Engage: Spinal Shivers needs to be toned down

Spinal Shivers is a 5th skill upon equiping focus on Necromancer.In Power Reaper build this skill can hit up easily 7~9k damage to a player which roughly equals to in many cases ~50% of HP pool.Skill has minimalist animation during cast time, 1200 range and hits out of the box (only line of sight).Additionally it removes up to 3 boons, applies 6 seconds of Chill and has only 20 seconds of cooldown.

It needs to be toned down - too much packed into one single skill.

I mean... there are so many other classes with more OP mobility and range and packed skills...

and you want to nerf the only mid range skill a necro has that is decent for catching kiters in solo / small scale fights where a Necro is weak at in WvW’s open field environment...

So it is not enough to nerf our AOE effects for large scale fights...we need to be nerfed further on our single target skill...

Doom be upon us Necros!

I'm with Eremite here, but I was just going to say don't have any boons, ez fix.

A skill with 1s cast time, 20s CD, and max damage requires target to have 3+ boons? Ohhh, so scary.

It's only been buffed a lot since release, might be time for a slight nerf in 2022. Lets not forget there's also the auto proc trait version too.But anyways that's how they want this game to be, ttk near 0, shrug.

@Tao.5096 said:Spinal Shivers is a 5th skill upon equiping focus on Necromancer.In Power Reaper build this skill can hit up easily 7~9k damage to a player which roughly equals to in many cases ~50% of HP pool.Skill has minimalist animation during cast time, 1200 range and hits out of the box (only line of sight).Additionally it removes up to 3 boons, applies 6 seconds of Chill and has only 20 seconds of cooldown.

It needs to be toned down - too much packed into one single skill.

I got hit for 24k in full minstrel by kill shot. Backstab in full minstrel only hits me for 8-10k. Why does a rifle skill hit for more than a melee one?There are tons of things out of whack in wvw, spinal shivers isn't one of them.

Yeah reaper/necro has received nothing but straight buffs to damage over time for PvE reasons. Reaper is the #1 target above all else including scourge and firebrand because if you let a reaper do whatever he wants your whole group is going to wipe very fast.

But reaper has like no defenses. So it's actually kind of fine tbh. However, I do hate the lack of a "tell" from some necromancer attacks. Sometimes you have no idea what killed you in a smallscale fight and you check the log and it was some crazy spinal shivers or ghastly claws (both have no actual animation)

The skill is fine. Sure it's scary to get instachunked like that, but it has enough counterplay to warrant it such. It does not need a nerf. There are other skills, traits, and mechanics that are actually problematic for the game. This is not one of them.

I think removing things from Necro is a bit unsightly - they should definitely trade a nerf here for a buff somewhere else. How about a new invuln or a teleport or both?

@Tao.5096 said:Spinal Shivers is a 5th skill upon equiping focus on Necromancer.In Power Reaper build this skill can hit up easily 7~9k damage to a player which roughly equals to in many cases ~50% of HP pool.Skill has minimalist animation during cast time, 1200 range and hits out of the box (only line of sight).Additionally it removes up to 3 boons, applies 6 seconds of Chill and has only 20 seconds of cooldown.

It needs to be toned down - too much packed into one single skill.

It only hits that hard to a zerk target. A typical WvW target it barely cracks 1400, so in essence, it needs to do more damage, not less.

@"XenesisII.1540" said:It's only been buffed a lot since release, might be time for a slight nerf in 2022. Lets not forget there's also the auto proc trait version too.But anyways that's how they want this game to be, ttk near 0, shrug.

Rofl I didn't know they increased its damage by 50% last year, that's crazy.

Weak skill. Never seen over 4k crit.

Yes. Because a skill that needs 1s to cast is hard to dodge or interrupt.

@"Ruufio.1496" said:Yeah reaper/necro has received nothing but straight buffs to damage over time for PvE reasons. Reaper is the #1 target above all else including scourge and firebrand because if you let a reaper do whatever he wants your whole group is going to wipe very fast.

But reaper has like no defenses. So it's actually kind of fine tbh. However, I do hate the lack of a "tell" from some necromancer attacks. Sometimes you have no idea what killed you in a smallscale fight and you check the log and it was some crazy spinal shivers or ghastly claws (both have no actual animation)

If ghastly claws have no animation, then you have to be blind.

And it's always hard in messy group fights to Dodge some skills.It's the same for skills of all classes.

But in 1v1s the tell is pretty big for it.

So asking for it to get nerfed because u can't see it in visual clutter is like asking to get a tell, when you're about to be attacked out of stealth.

So adding a tell is a no-go.

Also what about the dmg? Well it's a single targets spell, that only hits for up to 9k when enemy has at least 3 boons and has a 20 second cooldown with 1 second casttime

Then we should compare that to: coalescence of ruinHits with same amount of dmg on 4 seconds cooldown but can hit multiple targets. BTW only 3/4 seconds casttime. And doesn't have the condition of being dependant on boons + even if you initial Target dodges the attack, you can still hit multiple people.

Hm I guess we should nerf rev hammer instead.

Have to agree with some of the above, this sound more like a glass on glass issue. Move either side away from zerk the skill is inline.

@Voltekka.2375 said:Yes. Because a skill that needs 1s to cast is hard to dodge or interrupt.

Tried making that argument for hammer Rev...

@Nimon.7840 said:

@"Ruufio.1496" said:Yeah reaper/necro has received nothing but straight buffs to damage over time for PvE reasons. Reaper is the #1 target above all else including scourge and firebrand because if you let a reaper do whatever he wants your whole group is going to wipe very fast.

But reaper has like no defenses. So it's actually kind of fine tbh. However, I do hate the lack of a "tell" from some necromancer attacks. Sometimes you have no idea what killed you in a smallscale fight and you check the log and it was some crazy spinal shivers or ghastly claws (both have no actual animation)

Spinal Shivers has a 2.625 power mod when removing three boons. CoR has a 1.5 power mod. On top of that CoR has to fight with terrain to hit on top of being fairly visible and easy to dodge especially at max range.

Not a very good comparison IMO.

@God.2708 said:

@Nimon.7840 said:

@"Ruufio.1496" said:Yeah reaper/necro has received nothing but straight buffs to damage over time for PvE reasons. Reaper is the #1 target above all else including scourge and firebrand because if you let a reaper do whatever he wants your whole group is going to wipe very fast.

But reaper has like no defenses. So it's actually kind of fine tbh. However, I do hate the lack of a "tell" from some necromancer attacks. Sometimes you have no idea what killed you in a smallscale fight and you check the log and it was some crazy spinal shivers or ghastly claws (both have no actual animation)

Both have their up and downsides.If sarcasm didn't came through I'm sorry.But we need to look at far more overpowered skills than spinal shivers

@Junkpile.7439 said:Weak skill. Never seen over 4k crit.

Works well against an ele or holo.

Funny. How about we start nerfing skills that need nerfing first. Like getting hit out of stealth for 18k with no obvious animation? Kids these days.

@gebrechen.5643 said:Funny. How about we start nerfing skills that need nerfing first. Like getting hit out of stealth for 18k with no obvious animation? Kids these days.

This.

This skill doesn't have to be nerfed, at least not atm.

It's single target and conditional though , acting as a localized counter to boon spam without providing condition fodder for conversion."9k" is only a major threat to a low HP pool + low armor elementalist not running much vitality (marauder ~18-19K) : it won't have as huge an effect on backline revs or other necromancers let alone minstrel scrappers or firebrands.With 2.625 coefficient vs 3 boons, you are looking at around 9-12K on a 2K-2.7K armor target depending on if you hit something <50% , whether you have 25 might, whether the target has vulnerability stacked up or protection remaining, etc. The coefficients on 1-2 boon removed are low enough (1.125 and 1.875) it is inconsequential even if Awaken the Pain is run to make might stacks apply more power (40 power per stack is in line with spellbreakers running strength but not in line with revenants that get 90 power per stack).

see https://api.guildwars2.com/v2/skills?ids=10555

@"Tao.5096" said:Spinal Shivers is a 5th skill upon equiping focus on Necromancer.In Power Reaper build this skill can hit up easily 7~9k damage to a player which roughly equals to in many cases ~50% of HP pool.Skill has minimalist animation during cast time, 1200 range and hits out of the box (only line of sight).Additionally it removes up to 3 boons, applies 6 seconds of Chill and has only 20 seconds of cooldown.

It needs to be toned down - too much packed into one single skill.Yes I am really scared too by 7-9k damage, especially if compared to the 22-24k of the DD Vault,HOWEVER I think I am quite "satisfied" by NERFS to Scourge's Sand Savant trait and to the Devouring Darkness skill, but thank you ! thank you for the new idea !

Id be with you if you said that the trait should be toned down, because that thing does way too much dmg for a mere trait.