Elite Specialization [Diabolist]

Lily.1935 · March 28, 2020

My research into the Necromancer has lead me to some pretty dark conclusions. And the possibility of seeing an elite spec like this is quite high since demon magic does seem to be a part of necromancer and specifically Minions. So this spec will repurpose an old elite spec post of mine the Deathcap. However this one will be more refined and offer better explinations for why each of the aspects of the spec are the way they are. There isn't much point in me personally designing an elite spec without some lore justification for it. "It sounds cool" isn't really good enough for me. So the Diabolist will be set to Embrace lore and meld it with its overall design. Do note! that most the design here is just reusing the Deathcap design. not much has changed, but some elements have been.

Demonic Rebellion [Fan Lore]

Came then Desmina, scorned and exiled by her people. And in her misery and wretchedness, did Desmina curse the gods for abandoning all who, like her, admired power and ambition.

And asketh she, "Where is the god to whom I may give my undying devotion? Where is the god to whom I may beg revenge against those who scorn me?"

And rumbled then the earth from far below, and with a terrible groan, split open. The ground grew white with frost and ice, and from forth the frozen earth spilled the rotted, skeletal minions of Grenth.

Appeared then the god, and with bony hands outstretched, welcomed the girl into His fold. Saith he, "I am your god. Follow where I lead, come whence I call, and the rotted corpses of the dead will be yours to control." And swearing allegiance in life and beyond, did Desmina thence become the god's first follower. ~ Scriptures of Grenth, 48 BE

We had all heard it before. The scripture we where taught when we where but children. The god of death and the final judge. Yet the cruel irony of this scripture was how little it actually mattered. Where was Grenth now? He had abandoned us, the outcasts and the macabre. Those who would scorned us do so and there is no god to grant us our revenge. To whom shalt we pledge our loyalty to? To what can we channel our scorn when the one god who embraced us has abandoned our prayers? The Ritualists in their monestaries whisper to minor spirits and seek aid from our ancestors. Fools. What wisdom can the displaced spirits bring when the mists have swallowed their reason? Chasing echos of long gone wisdom while we live in the present. While we live under such Oppression. Underneath tyrannical rule of the Ministry of Purity and the Dragon Emperor himself while they blind themselves to the horrors in front of them to chase phantasms.

I say No more. I'll sacrifice my life for the liberation of our people. Our magic has gone beyond that of what the ritualists believe. Our oppression under their practices will not stand. Like the Jade sea slams against the rocks, they to will fade into obscurity. Necromancy has all but been outlawed. They see our practice with diseases and corpses to be treasonous in itself. What good are those words when they storm the homes of families and kidnap children who display necromancy magic at a young age? The purity of our Empire... Bah! What good is that when we live in fear?

Raised in secret, much of our scriptures have been destroyed. Calling to Grenth has never answered my prayers for liberation. We had to learn a new way to teach our craft. Whispers from the Realm of Torment echo through our thoughts. Powerful, dark energies. Perhaps these are just the creatures who will answer my prayers. To whom I may beg revenge against those who would scorn me. My soul may be damned, but I will spill my blood for my home and the emancipation of my People!

Fan made History

In the 250 years Cantha has seen the rise of the Elder Dragons, but has been disconnected from it for the most part. Their Xenophobia and Nationalism has had their borders locked down, keeping out all non humans and non canthans. This Isolation has Also lead to the lack of expansion in specific ideas. Necromancy was especially impacted by the Isolation. Quickly finding that their practices were seen as evil by the Ministry of purity for fear that they would summon another Shiro Tagachi. This has put a crackdown on the nation to raid any homes with children who were rumored to have necromancy powers. Either they would be integrated into the Monasteries to be trained as Ritualist priests or they would be killed. Many Canthans believe that necromancy is evil magic because of the wide spread propaganda and the lack of tangible information as the Ministry went on a book burning campaign to rid Cantha of the demonic knowledge.

Some Necromancers escaped, either smuggled out to a rebellion faction by their parents or ran from the monasteries themselves, finding their practices and treatment of their talents draconian in nature. With a lack of knowledge though, the available knowledge was limited and the old ways of necromancer were all but lost. Most remained Ritualists but some got Bold, seeking stronger Magics. The very thing the Empire feared would be the very weapon the necromancer would harvest.

Consorting with demons offered them the knowledge they were seeking to aid them in their rebellion. They learned how to conjure lesser demons known as Stygians as more powerful minions to fight for them. The cost of such knowledge was blood. As Demons would only deal in blood and soul. The life force the necromancer's collected could be used to summon their minions and their blood was offered to empower allies, making them a new sort of necromancer. a Diabolist. Diabolist is the ultimate rejection of the Ritualists philosophy and the rejection of the Empire.

Philosophy behind the design

In terms of what the Diabolist should do aside from summoning minions, I'm keeping the design of poison from the previous elite spec. This is partially because death has always been very heavy influenced by the poison condition but also for synergistic reasons. I don't have a good lore reason for it aside from that's what Minions Did before and Torment and burning very well could work in the design space Arena net has given us, but I don't want to steal the Scourge's favored conditions. Bleeds, Poison and Confusion will work just fine. Confusion can simulate madness and discord which are themes of the realm of torment in Guild wars 1.

Unique Mechanic: Summon Stygian

What good is a shroud for? To hide from the world and let the spirits do your biding? Cowardice! The Diabolist relinquishes their shroud for power! Choosing to summon demonic minions to do their bidding. They will use the lifeforce they've gathered as the price that must be payed and continued to feed them more life force to command them to do their biding. The Shroud mechanic is replaced with these potent minions who degenerate health over time. They scale with the necromancer's stats and attack your primary target. If no target is set they will become aggressive if you are in combat.

[F1] Summon Stygian: Summon 3 Stygains if you control no Stygains otherwise summon 1. Stygains degenerate health over time. You may control up to 5 of them at any one time. These minions explode on death dealing damage scaled to your power and their crit chance is based on your current crit chance including Fury. approximate cost, 1,600 life force. No recharge. 1/2 second cast time. Stygain death causes your shroud skill one to trigger. Not their summoning or auto attack.
[F2] Devil's Pursuit: Call target location damaging foes, each stygain leaps that that location and damages foes and causes crippling. Approximate cost of 2,200 life force. 3/4 second cast time. 7-8 second cool down. 1,200 range. Minions leap at a distance of 500 of their target. The first strike you will do will achieve the boon corrupt of something like path of corruption while the later hits will not.
[F3] Dreadful Pain: you and your stygians burst with hellish shadow spikes damaging foes and causing Bleeding and Torment. 120 radius around the minions. Life force cost, around 2,400. 3/4 second cast time. 10-12 second cool down.
[F4] Discord: Conjure an aoe blast of horrifying howls that Confuses your foes and cause fear. Stygians create the same AoE blast. Life force cost, 3,300, approximation. 1 second cast time. 180 Radius around yourself and the minions. cool Down 15-20 seconds.
[F5] Shroud of Darkness: Sacrifice a(or two) Stygain to gain barrier equal to 30% of its health Gain shroud of darkness for 3 seconds which boosts your stats during that duration. If you control no Stagains you sacrifice health damaging foes and inflicting poison. No Cast time. Duration 3 seconds. Count charge 3 with a 30 second recharge time. Recharge on recast 5 seconds. 3,700 life force cost. I had an idea for this skill in that you would be able to enter and exit shroud multiple times to really push a shroud dancer idea around. and its previous form just didn't work for what I wanted the spec to do. I feel its better if this skill synergizes with the first skill as Discord was already doing so much. So the change is to give the players less reliable defense for a smoother experience. Entering shroud on a charge system sounded interesting to me so that's the direction I went. Each charge has a cooldown of 30 seconds so you can't just Spam it, although this does synergize extremely well with entering and exiting traits such as spiteful spirit. And that is part of the intention. Given how fragile this elite spec is, This shouldn't be an issue.

Unique Skill Type: Sacrifice

I wanted sacrifice skills for the necromancer for a long long time, 7 years now... And this honestly fits the Diabolist the best. Having minion utility with existing minion utility would be a mistake. So having sacrifice skills which provide allies with Offensive support as opposed to the Scourge's defensive support would be much loved. Necromancer's don't have a glassy spec and to gain something quite powerful at the cost of their durability is what I would honestly prefer. The reason we got high health in the first place was because we were supposed to use it as a resource. Let me use my health as a resource.

[Heal] Foul Feast: Heal yourself then steal health from each of your Stygians. Lose life after the skill has complete. 300 health cost. 3/4 second cast time. 25 second cool down. Unlike the other sacrifice skills you'll see this one has the cost after you use the skill. I figured that would fit better as a heal. its life loss would be minor as to not offset the balance of the heal.
[utility] Blood of the Master: Sacrifice health to heal each of your minions for 3.5k(0.5) and Grant them 6 seconds of Quickness and Super speed. The more targets healed, the higher the sacrifice cost. 500 health per minion healed. 3/4 second cast time. 15-20 second cool down.
[utility] Demonic Miasma: Sacrifice health to Create a large AoE field at your location. This Field poisons foes for 3 seconds each second and corrupts a boon each second. Lasts 6 seconds. Radius 300. 700 health sacrifice. 1/2 second cast time. 30 second cool down.
[utility] Order of Madness: Sacrifice health. Allies inflict confusion and poison with their next 3 attacks. 300 radius. 1k health sacrifice. 3/4 second cast time. 25-30 second cool down. Give us confusion arena net!.
[utility] Plague Carrier: Sacrifice health to break stun of you and your allies and grant 1 stack of stability. Allies transfer conditions with their next few attacks. 300 radius. 250 health per ally. 1/4 second cast time. 35-40 second cool down. How many conditions this should be I'm not entirely sure. But it is something the necromancer does, and giving them the option to let their allies pretend they are necromancers too doesn't seem like a half bad idea.
[Elite] Simulacrum: Sacrifice Health to create a Minion that is a demonic visage of yourself, mirroring your actions exactly as you do. Lose health when this Minion uses your life force abilities. 1 second cast time. 4.7k health sacrifice. 120 second cooldown. Lifespan of 15 seconds. This elite is a bit of an oddball. You basically create a second version of yourself that will cast weaker duplicates of your weapon skills and Shroud skills when you do. So it does spawn Stygians of it's own. It also will attack as you attack Doubling all weapon attacks. However everything it does is much weaker in strength than you. My estimate for how strong it should be is about 20% of your total strength so it's a 20% buff effectively. However it is still much more significant than that due to it casting weaker versions of your abilities. It can't use utility skills however so no double well of corruption or anything like that. The duration of the condition it applies will be much shorter likely 20% of what that skill could do or half, not sure depending on balance. It would independently trigger traits as well. So if you use Spiteful Spirit for example it too will cast Spiteful spirit all be it a weaker version. This is a complex elite so I don't expect it to he added and I'm sure my explanation isn't quite good enough to get the point I'm trying to make. Please ask for clarification if needed.

Weapon Shield

I'm going to keep advocating for a shield as I think its the right weapon to choose for a Minion master spec. I have had an idea for a hammer on how that could work, but I'm going to save that for another day. As for the shield, I'm a classical girl. When I first played a necromancer in any game it was Diablo II. And the idea of having this bone Shield was just the best. I love the idea of this caster wielding a shield and a shield compliments both a power and a condi playstyle. Since both of the necromancer's Ranged weapons are fairly good, it could function with either. Shields also offer us a block which would be something we would need since we won't be getting barrier or a proper shroud.

Bleached Bastion: Raise your shield to block attack. Each attack blocked grants you 2% life force. This skill will change to Spiked Targe if you successfully block an attack. 3 second channel time. 20 second cool down.

Spiked Targe: Grant allies retaliation damage foes and cause Bleeding. 300 radius.

Bone Wall: Send out a cone of bones shooting forth from the ground knocking enemies back behind a summoned bone wall. Causes crippling and bleeding. Knock back distance 320. 1/2 cast time. 30 second cool down. The Bone wall itself starts off with an animation of bones spiking from the ground and moving outward slowly, pushing enemies back till its edge when it finally summons a bone wall between you and the foe. It counts as an immobile minion that can be killed and acts as a barrier between you and them, much like Ring of Warding or Line of Warding at that point. The difference being is it lasts much longer but is also capable of being killed. The bone wall does act as a body block.

Bone Spear: Shatter your bone wall into spears bleeding and damaging foes. With proper play a good necromancer could use this at the right moment when a foe is about to break through to harm them further.

Traits

Demonic Pact: Commit your lifeforce to the Demons of the realm of torment allowing you to create Stygians with your life force and gain access to Sacrifice skills. Stygians are impacted by the corresponding traits for shroud.
Sadism: Whenever you or a minion you control deals physical damage to a foe gain a small bit of health.
Demonic Flesh: Damage and poison foes when your health drops below set health thresholds. 90%, 60%, 30%. 180 radius. Each threshold has a 5 second internal cool down.

Top Traits

These traits focus primarily on summoning to aid allies or your minions.

[Adept] Explosive Growth: Damage Foes and grant fury to allies on summoning a Minion. This will not trigger shroud skills when summoning Stygians.
[Master] Demonic Mockery: Discord causes your Stygains to taunt foes and gain retaliation. Taunt you or your minions apply triggers traits associated with fear.
[Grandmaster] Living Nightmare: Summon 3 tormentors instead of Stygains. These minions are larger with more health and damage, attacks cleave with increased life force skill radius. Tormentors don't lose health over time.

Middle Traits

These traits focus on the affliction side of the Spec. Primarily dealing damage through poison.

[Adept] Putrify: Poison lasts 20% longer. Whenever you inflict poison corrupt a boon into 1 stack of confusion for 3 seconds. 5 second internal cool down.
[Master] Mouth of Torment: Shield skills now inflict poison. Summon bone walls becomes a Mouth of Torment: [summon a Dreadspawn mouth at target location that knocks enemies down and blocks projectiles.] and bone Spear becomes Demon's breath: [The Dreadspawn Mouth releases a noxious gas that poison's foes each second.] Dreadspawn Mouth is a minion.
[Grandmaster] Virulence: Whenever you poison a foe poison adjacent foes for 5 seconds(3 seconds WvW). 240 radius. 10 second internal cool down. Each target will trigger the trait individually and spread their poison to adjacent foes. The spread will not occur if the foe has resistance.

Bottom Traits

With the last set of traits we have traits that care about sacrificing health and vitality.

[Adept] Offering of Blood: Gain life force whenever you sacrifice health. Reduce the recharge of sacrifice skills by 20%. 7% life force on a 5 second cool down.
[Master] Vital Fervor Your Life force skills have a reduced life force cost by half but now cost half that in health. Using these skills now counts as sacrificing health. Gain ferocity based on a percentage of your vitality. 7% .
[Grandmaster] Masochism: Demonic Flesh now has increased radius by 120 and deals increased damage and poison. Whenever you Sacrifice health trigger demonic flesh.

A lot of the stuff is the same, mainly for convenience for myself. As I do like most of this design. The theming is different of course and I was trying to fit as much flavor as possible. The Diabolist should be fun to use regardless. I Don't really want you guys to think i'm lazy reusing my old design, although some might. Sorry, I'm a busy girl. I don't have all the time in the world to dedicate to this. So I did my best. There is some nerfs and buffs, but we'll see how it pans out. I did have most of my fun writing up my fan lore. So that's were i wanted to focus. Tell me what you guys think. And remember this is just a proof of concept. Nothing in this design is concrete.

Update: A few things have changed. Primarily I wasn't happy with the Shroud and I was really unhappy with the Minion master trait. It was just TOO good for what it was doing so instead I replaced with with Demonic mockery.

Dadnir.5038 · March 28, 2020

I don't like the idea of sacrificing health, which is my main reserve on this e-spec suggestion.

Other than that...

What good is a shroud for? To hide from the world and let the spirits do your biding? Cowardice!

Honnestly it doesn't make sense, unless you have a very corrupted perception of the shroud. And you also have the shroud of darkness that make this sentence even more insincere.

(Well... Lore is also arguable after all...)

Lily.1935 · March 28, 2020

@"Dadnir.5038" said:I don't like the idea of sacrificing health, which is my main reserve on this e-spec suggestion.
Other than that...
What good is a shroud for? To hide from the world and let the spirits do your biding? Cowardice!

Honnestly it doesn't make sense, unless you have a very corrupted perception of the shroud. And you also have the

shroud of darkness

that make this sentence even more insincere.

(Well... Lore is also arguable after all...)

Shroud is a spirit form. And I'm also playing into the character of the Diabolist as someone who rejects the practices of ritualist.

"Once they’ve collected enough life force, necromancers can activate their Death Shroud, entering a spirit form."

Quoted from the website. And you may not like sacrificing. But I do. It's one of the most fun designs in these types of games and even for me Signet of Undeath has gone from one of my least favorite skills to one of my most. Not just because of the life force either. But because it forces me to think and engage with the battle which I greatly enjoy.

Also the story behind the Diabolist is fan made. It's not real. I'm using existing lore to justify it to tell an interesting story.

Dadnir.5038 · March 28, 2020

@Lily.1935 said:
@"Dadnir.5038" said:I don't like the idea of sacrificing health, which is my main reserve on this e-spec suggestion.
Other than that...
What good is a shroud for? To hide from the world and let the spirits do your biding? Cowardice!

Honnestly it doesn't make sense, unless you have a very corrupted perception of the shroud. And you also have the

shroud of darkness

that make this sentence even more insincere.

(Well... Lore is also arguable after all...)

Shroud is a spirit form. And I'm also playing into the character of the Diabolist as someone who rejects the practices of ritualist.

"Once they’ve collected enough life force, necromancers can activate their Death Shroud, entering a spirit form."

No, I get that, but your sentence litterally say: "let the spirits do your bidding". And this imply that the necromancer use spirit to do it's bidding which is not the case. There is a difference between doing and having other do something.

Unless you see minions that are a minor part of the necromancer as spirits, which put the fact that the e-spec suggested use minion in a similarly shacking stance.

Lily.1935 · March 28, 2020

@Dadnir.5038 said:
@Lily.1935 said:
@Dadnir.5038 said:I don't like the idea of sacrificing health, which is my main reserve on this e-spec suggestion.
Other than that...
What good is a shroud for? To hide from the world and let the spirits do your biding? Cowardice!

Honnestly it doesn't make sense, unless you have a very corrupted perception of the shroud. And you also have the

shroud of darkness

that make this sentence even more insincere.

(Well... Lore is also arguable after all...)

Shroud is a spirit form. And I'm also playing into the character of the Diabolist as someone who rejects the practices of ritualist.

"Once they’ve collected enough life force, necromancers can activate their Death Shroud, entering a spirit form."

No, I get that, but your sentence litterally say: "let the spirits do your bidding". And this imply that the necromancer use spirit to do it's bidding which is not the case. There is a difference between doing and having other do something.

Unless you see minions that are a minor part of the necromancer as spirits, which put the fact that the e-spec suggested use minion in a similarly shacking stance.

It is the case. But I'm not arguing with you. Read the Guild wars 1 manuscript.

Lily.1935 · October 14, 2020

Updated the Spec. Added the Elite Simulacrum. Its probably Over powered but it fits with the overall theme of the spec.

Thornwolf.9721 · October 14, 2020

@Lily.1935 said:Updated the Spec. Added the Elite Simulacrum. Its probably Over powered but it fits with the overall theme of the spec.

I like the spec but I honestly would enjoy it a tiny bit more, if you actually sort of shapeshifted into a demon? Shapeshifting is a class fantasy unfulfilled in this game and since I know they will never give us anything with the spirits of the wild, norn or the like? Maybe the necromancer could fill that niche with a demon-hunter like thing, which could differ based on trait choice? Id also like maybe physical skills, so the touch necromancer could maybe return this way we could really get like a different version of a necromancer. Or we could maybe make it something like, spirits? Or totems? I dont know but there has to be a way to avoid sacrificing health as guild wars 2 just seems to glare defiantly at the idea.

Lily.1935 · October 14, 2020

@Thornwolf.9721 said:
@Lily.1935 said:Updated the Spec. Added the Elite Simulacrum. Its probably Over powered but it fits with the overall theme of the spec.

I like the spec but I honestly would enjoy it a tiny bit more, if you actually sort of shapeshifted into a demon? Shapeshifting is a class fantasy unfulfilled in this game and since I know they will never give us anything with the spirits of the wild, norn or the like? Maybe the necromancer could fill that niche with a demon-hunter like thing, which could differ based on trait choice? Id also like maybe physical skills, so the touch necromancer could maybe return this way we could really get like a different version of a necromancer. Or we could maybe make it something like, spirits? Or totems? I dont know but there has to be a way to avoid sacrificing health as guild wars 2 just seems to glare defiantly at the idea.

Could work as the elite. But I'm following what the suggestion of the lore of the necromancer is in cannon. Necromancers have summoned Demons in the past. Mang being a primary example as well as Vizier Khilbron summoning the titans which are technically demons although I don't know if that really counts because he used the scepter of Orr.

But it seems that making a demon requires a lot of Negative emotions to do according to the wiki descriptions from Gw1 wiki and Gw2 wiki.

Thornwolf.9721 · October 14, 2020

@Lily.1935 said:
@Thornwolf.9721 said:
@Lily.1935 said:Updated the Spec. Added the Elite Simulacrum. Its probably Over powered but it fits with the overall theme of the spec.

I like the spec but I honestly would enjoy it a tiny bit more, if you actually sort of shapeshifted into a demon? Shapeshifting is a class fantasy unfulfilled in this game and since I know they will never give us anything with the spirits of the wild, norn or the like? Maybe the necromancer could fill that niche with a demon-hunter like thing, which could differ based on trait choice? Id also like maybe physical skills, so the touch necromancer could maybe return this way we could really get like a different version of a necromancer. Or we could maybe make it something like, spirits? Or totems? I dont know but there has to be a way to avoid sacrificing health as guild wars 2 just seems to glare defiantly at the idea.

Could work as the elite. But I'm following what the suggestion of the lore of the necromancer is in cannon. Necromancers have summoned Demons in the past. Mang being a primary example as well as Vizier Khilbron summoning the titans which are technically demons although I don't know if that really counts because he used the scepter of Orr.

But it seems that making a demon requires a lot of Negative emotions to do according to the wiki descriptions from Gw1 wiki and Gw2 wiki.

I mean an evil spec seems fine to me, we have too many basic or normal specs as is. At this stage despite being a lore nut I couldn't care less about the lore; And I honestly at this point am where I dont want the lore making an excuse for them not to do something strictly because it goes against the lore. And that comes down to A-net themselves not really caring about it and just doing whatever strikes their fancy. ( I used to care, but over the years this game has been out... They've shown they are MORE than willing to ret-con and change or just outright ignore their own lore. Which just made me drop most of my investment.)

Rather than summoning demons I think necromancers of "Today" or the necromancers we know, who have managed to create death shroud and have moved almost entirely away from what they once were (Gw2 necromancer is NOTHING like the gw1 necro) Id say them becoming demons would be more fesible in the form of narrative anyhow. Think about it; Binding and maintaining such a link and sense of control over a creature would be tideous to necromancers of today and given how A-net seems to HATE Ai, Pets, summons and so on? I dont think they'd give us anything involving that. (Sadly, I miss my MM from back in the day) So the Diabolist aims to personify and become the infernal beast; To pull that negativity and darkness into themselves and internalize it. "Who needs to summon a demon, when you're worse than one." ~ Gul'dan from Heroes of the storm

Lily.1935 · October 14, 2020

@Thornwolf.9721 said:
@Lily.1935 said:
@Thornwolf.9721 said:
@Lily.1935 said:Updated the Spec. Added the Elite Simulacrum. Its probably Over powered but it fits with the overall theme of the spec.

I like the spec but I honestly would enjoy it a tiny bit more, if you actually sort of shapeshifted into a demon? Shapeshifting is a class fantasy unfulfilled in this game and since I know they will never give us anything with the spirits of the wild, norn or the like? Maybe the necromancer could fill that niche with a demon-hunter like thing, which could differ based on trait choice? Id also like maybe physical skills, so the touch necromancer could maybe return this way we could really get like a different version of a necromancer. Or we could maybe make it something like, spirits? Or totems? I dont know but there has to be a way to avoid sacrificing health as guild wars 2 just seems to glare defiantly at the idea.

Could work as the elite. But I'm following what the suggestion of the lore of the necromancer is in cannon. Necromancers have summoned Demons in the past. Mang being a primary example as well as Vizier Khilbron summoning the titans which are technically demons although I don't know if that really counts because he used the scepter of Orr.

But it seems that making a demon requires a lot of Negative emotions to do according to the wiki descriptions from Gw1 wiki and Gw2 wiki.

I mean an evil spec seems fine to me, we have too many basic or normal specs as is. At this stage despite being a lore nut I couldn't care less about the lore; And I honestly at this point am where I dont want the lore making an excuse for them not to do something strictly because it goes against the lore. And that comes down to A-net themselves not really caring about it and just doing whatever strikes their fancy. ( I used to care, but over the years this game has been out... They've shown they are MORE than willing to ret-con and change or just outright ignore their own lore. Which just made me drop most of my investment.)

Rather than summoning demons I think necromancers of "Today" or the necromancers we know, who have managed to create death shroud and have moved almost entirely away from what they once were (Gw2 necromancer is NOTHING like the gw1 necro) Id say them becoming demons would be more fesible in the form of narrative anyhow. Think about it; Binding and maintaining such a link and sense of control over a creature would be tideous to necromancers of today and given how A-net seems to HATE Ai, Pets, summons and so on? I dont think they'd give us anything involving that. (Sadly, I miss my MM from back in the day) So the Diabolist aims to personify and become the infernal beast; To pull that negativity and darkness into themselves and internalize it. "Who needs to summon a demon, when you're worse than one." ~ Gul'dan from Heroes of the storm

There are still aspects of the lore that are still in the game. Necromancer's still tap into the underworld and realm of torment. We saw that with scourge with Demonic lore and Ghastly breach. As far as the AI thing is concerned, yes they've taken away AI but they've also added more elsewhere with the elementalist summons and the Kalla summons. I don't think a Minion Master is out of the question at all.

Turning into a demon doesn't really fit my fancy personally. I like the soft connection necromancer has now as opposed to embodying a demon like the Revenant does.

I like the idea of this spec being basically the saying "the path to hell is paved with good intentions.".

I don't see how a demon transformation spec would differ from the reaper mechanically though. You need a hook.

Thornwolf.9721 · October 14, 2020

@Lily.1935 said:
@Thornwolf.9721 said:
@Lily.1935 said:
@Thornwolf.9721 said:
@Lily.1935 said:Updated the Spec. Added the Elite Simulacrum. Its probably Over powered but it fits with the overall theme of the spec.