Fear of Death

[Coeruleum.9164]

Could Fear of Death cause Feared enemies to take more damage? Right now there's absolutely no reason to take Fear of Death over Soul Barbs. I have a necro build where I use Fear a lot more than Shroud and I still have to take Soul Barbs for the damage. I don't know if it should be 10% more damage, 20%, or what, so please test it, but this needs to be added. Thanks!

[Zero.3871]

@Coeruleum.9164 said:Could Fear of Death cause Feared enemies to take more damage? Right now there's absolutely no reason to take Fear of Death over Soul Barbs. I have a necro build where I use Fear a lot more than Shroud and I still have to take Soul Barbs for the damage. I don't know if it should be 10% more damage, 20%, or what, so please test it, but this needs to be added. Thanks!

Fear of death doesnt increase dmg output to a target. it just regenrate LF when enemies got feared and increase fear duration. even if it is useless in pve. it is a common trait for condi builds in wvw. so i guess there will be no buff in future to that trait. hope i could help you.

[Coeruleum.9164]

@Zero.3871 said:

@Coeruleum.9164 said:Could Fear of Death cause Feared enemies to take more damage? Right now there's absolutely no reason to take Fear of Death over Soul Barbs. I have a necro build where I use Fear a lot more than Shroud and I still have to take Soul Barbs for the damage. I don't know if it should be 10% more damage, 20%, or what, so please test it, but this needs to be added. Thanks!

Fear of death doesnt increase dmg output to a target. it just regenrate LF when enemies got feared and increase fear duration. even if it is useless in pve. it is a common trait for condi builds in wvw. so i guess there will be no buff in future to that trait. hope i could help you.

I was saying I think it should increase damage because I don't even see a reason to use it on condi builds in WvW. 10% longer fear duration is pretty useless since fear already has a really short duration, and there are better traits and skills to take for life force that don't cause you to lose a large damage increase. Fear of Death seems to do pretty much nothing even if you use Fear all the time and that's my problem with it. If you take Terror Fear of Death won't cause Fear to do more damage because it won't cause Fear to last a whole extra second. That fraction of a second isn't good if you want to make a control-oriented build either. Fear of Death is only good for trying to keep up your life force, and it's better to take another trait or even a skill like Signet of Undead or Spectral Walk and use Soul Barbs and have the 10% extra damage for more than half the battle.

[Zero.3871]

@Coeruleum.9164 said:

@Zero.3871 said:

@Coeruleum.9164 said:Could Fear of Death cause Feared enemies to take more damage? Right now there's absolutely no reason to take Fear of Death over Soul Barbs. I have a necro build where I use Fear a lot more than Shroud and I still have to take Soul Barbs for the damage. I don't know if it should be 10% more damage, 20%, or what, so please test it, but this needs to be added. Thanks!

Fear of death doesnt increase dmg output to a target. it just regenrate LF when enemies got feared and increase fear duration. even if it is useless in pve. it is a common trait for condi builds in wvw. so i guess there will be no buff in future to that trait. hope i could help you.

I was saying I think it should increase damage because I don't even see a reason to use it on condi builds in WvW. 10% longer fear duration is pretty useless since fear already has a really short duration, and there are better traits and skills to take for life force that don't cause you to lose a large damage increase. Fear of Death seems to do pretty much nothing even if you use Fear all the time and that's my problem with it. If you take Terror Fear of Death won't cause Fear to do more damage because it won't cause Fear to last a whole extra second. That fraction of a second isn't good if you want to make a control-oriented build either. Fear of Death is only good for trying to keep up your life force, and it's better to take another trait or even a skill like Signet of Undead or Spectral Walk and use Soul Barbs and have the 10% extra damage for more than half the battle.

the fear duration in wvw is +50% not just + 10%, also in pve it is +100%. its about min max, most condi builds play full trailblaizer, that brings you 50% overall condi duration increase (max 100% is possible) and you get the 100% by using fear of death. the long cc duration here is crucial part if you play condi core and cc chain your opponent to death. also the 15% lf gain is pretty nice since you also got this lf gain while in shroud what gives tons of extra sustain inside of shroud. as condi core you get nothing from soul barbs or vital persistence. but you are still forced to play soul reaping for your overall shroud sustain. especially if you fight outnumbered.and since stability and stunbreaks got nerfed on all classes cc chains are very important in wvw to win fights. and there is a big difference between 1 or 2 seconds of fear especially when people run bufffood, runnes that reduce condi duration or resistance.

just 1 case. rune of durability is main rune for many builds. this rune gives you 1 sec resistance after getting struck. if you fear him for just 1 sec, while this rune procs its resistance, you wont get a cc effect to your opponent.but with higher fear duration (2 sec) after the resistance left you still cc your opponent for 1 sec.

sure you can also bait the first proc with other skills, but long fights you can give more pressure to the enemy and can better peel for yourself with the longer duration.

[Aigleborgne.2981]

@Zero.3871 said:Fear of death doesnt increase dmg output to a target. it just regenrate LF when enemies got feared and increase fear duration. even if it is useless in pve.

Not useless in pve, it can be very efficient in solo play.10% damage is meaningful but you don't really need it to succeed.Double fear duration can help in tough situations and most of all, it is great to break bars. 15% lf is another reason to pick it, it's one of the tricks to get perma shroud.

[jpsssss.7530]

I actually think Fear of Death is pretty good. It helps non-power builds as the damage % bonus on Soul Barbs doesn't give that bonus to condition damage. It can also help with sustain on builds that may not need the bonus to damage.

[Taril.8619]

Buffing Fear of Death can be dangerous.

Since, Terror exists and Fear of Death makes it easy to cap duration on Fear so that Terror provides its full value.

Also, Fear of Death can combo with the new Dread for some shenanigans too. Providing heavy CC and also Quickness... Could be a silly Power Core Necro build in PvP...

Fear of Death provides a solid alternative to Soul Barbs, for when you want more CC (Which is targeted towards PvP/WvW mostly. But I've also used FoD in PvE with a Condi Scourge build spamming Garish Pillar to proc Terror)

If any trait on this tier needs buffs, it's Vital Persistence... I'm not sure that's picked ever...

[Dadnir.5038]

Imo Fear of death is already pretty much OP, why would you buff it even further?CC are pretty much one of the major issue of this game (this game is probably the worst when it come to CC, favoring long duration/big effect CC with long cast time over a skillful use of CC meant to interrupt). This trait make the necromancer's main CC (Fear) last even longer. For a terror build in PvE it's effectively 100% increase of terror damage and duration while in PvP/WvW it's 50%.

[Anchoku.8142]

Dread (Spite) gives a damage increaseTerror (Curses) gives a condi-damage increaseFear of Death (Soul Reaping) gives a LF increase and Fear duration

I think the Fear modifiers are appropriate for their trait lines. Fear is a condition I always thought Necro should have more sources of but shorter durations but that is pure opinion. Its initial CC aspect is more valuable than its gap-opener ability.

p.s.If Necro had an elite with access to Taunt and Arenanet allowed it to be modified by the Fear-related traits, that could be interesting.

[KrHome.1920]

Fear of Death is one of the strongest traits a condi necro can pick.

A condi necro has at least two fear sources (staff5 and shroud ... additionally spectral ring). That's a lot of LF generation in one skill rotation just from one trait. The duration increase is an "I win mechanic" if your target doesn't have any stunbreaks left.

@OP:Did you ever play competitive except zerging? WvW zerging is mechanically just another form of PvE. There is stuff dying left and right from you. Of course you don't notice any LF management issues in these scnearios. And since you are usually not focused you also don't notice the impact of a long duration fear on your target. Play smallscale or 1v1 and you will see how good that trait is.

[Shroud.2307]

@Dadnir.5038 said:Imo Fear of death is already pretty much OP, why would you buff it even further?CC are pretty much one of the major issue of this game (this game is probably the worst when it come to CC, favoring long duration/big effect CC with long cast time over a skillful use of CC meant to interrupt). This trait make the necromancer's main CC (Fear) last even longer. For a terror build in PvE it's effectively 100% increase of terror damage and duration while in PvP/WvW it's 50%.

Agreed. This is not a trait I ever thought of as weak.

Also, making it so that it increases damage to Feared targets would essentially be turning it in to what Dread used to be. I don't think ANet would do that.

I understand the OP's complaint, but I don't think this trait needs to be changed at all. It is quite strong in PvP and WvW and isn't useless in PvE, just less appealing.

[Nimon.7840]

@"SpellOfIniquity.1780" said:

@Dadnir.5038 said:Imo

Fear of death

is already pretty much OP, why would you buff it even further?CC are pretty much one of the major issue of this game (this game is probably the worst when it come to CC, favoring long duration/big effect CC with long cast time over a skillful use of CC meant to interrupt). This trait make the necromancer's main CC (

Fear

) last even longer. For a terror build in PvE it's effectively 100% increase of terror damage and duration while in PvP/WvW it's 50%.

Agreed. This is not a trait I ever thought of as weak.

Also, making it so that it increases damage to Feared targets would essentially be turning it in to what Dread used to be. I don't think ANet would do that.

I understand the OP's complaint, but I don't think this trait needs to be changed at all. It is quite strong in PvP and WvW and isn't useless in PvE, just less appealing.

Well, on a lot of encounters in raids, the trait is better than soul barbs on condi scourge.You don't do a lot of power damage anyways so extra 10% isn't really mentionable.But extra lifeforce on fear is very useful on some encounters.Getting dhuumfire procs with f1,2,3,5but with fear of death you can press f4 at almost no lifeforce cost, which can be extremely good for some extra break at damage

[jpsssss.7530]

@Taril.8619 said:Also, Fear of Death can combo with the new Dread for some shenanigans too. Providing heavy CC and also Quickness... Could be a silly Power Core Necro build in PvP...I've been testing this in WvW using Blood Magic as my 3rd trait line. I can confirm that it is very strong. We're talking approaching reaper shroud damage (close but its ranged so shrug) on autos strong.

[Mormegil.2345]

i have many complains about necro's synergetic limitations but its not included. I think what OP is seeking is having it superior to soul barbs in any aspect.

[Yasai.3549]

Buffing Fear of Death is not needed.

Fear of Death already directly increases the dps from Terror by extending Fears by 100% (50% in PvP)This is a huge deal considering in PvE, this means each fear is gonna be 2s long which essentially doubles Terror damage, and in PvP, Necros has access to corrupts to turn enemy Stab into Fear which is even more Terror procs.

Plus yu gain Lifeforce.

[XECOR.2814]

Please read the tooltips correctly and play the game before asking for change.

Fear of death is the best trait for roaming for both power and condi builds. It is fairly balanced and has its place in the master slot. I think you dont understand the value of traits that give you lf when u are in shroud.