Scourge Suggestions

[Lily.1935]

This is probably the most difficult Topic to talk about in comparison to the other's I've posted recently. My reaper and Death Shroud Where easier to post about as the conflicts with them are a bit easier to pinpoint. Now, not everyone agrees on how to solve these issues, but they were still easier to pin down. Scourge's problems are difficult to pin down at least for some of them and many of the solutions are difficult to actually apply. I'm going to try and keep my suggestions fairly simple like the last two posts but even with that effort this will get a bit more complicated.

Manifest Sand Shade

Increase the Torment Duration: The torment duration on this skill should be raised in all game modes by a second. Scourge doesn't have much of a Burst damage yet the duration of this application suggests otherwise. The damage output and the duration does not match its initial design so it should be raised.

Serpent Siphon

Change the function of this spell from sending out small damage and barrier packets to an area strike that Stuns for a second and poisons as well as grants a small bit of barrier to allies.

Sand Swell

• Give evade on this skill while casting it. Shout out to KROOF for this suggestion, I hadn't even considered it before, but this was a great suggestion as this skill can be quite clunky to use and this would smooth it out.
• Increase range to 1,200.

Ghastly Breach

• Reduce the recharge time At least in PvE
• Have it grant Fury to allies in addition to might

It would be nice to have a support option as an elite which this skill is trying to do to some extend, but doesn't quite get there. Giving it a bit more frequency in use and upping the support factor could help this skill out a lot.

Herald of Sorrow

• Return its old function with a 10 second internal cooldown

This trait frustrates me because it does something Sand Savant honestly should do, which is provide barrier to allies. I do feel it corrupting a boon is honestly fine. We need more boon removal in the game. An additional suggestion to this is to have it convert all boon corruption the necromancer has on other weapons into a specific condition like Burning or torment which could be quite interesting but also make it easier to cleans from.

Blood as Sand

• Replace this trait with an offensive trait
• Vengeful Summoning: Summoning a sand shade now applies 2-3 seconds of Fury. While you're under the effect of fury gain 250 Healing power and Condition damage.

Raw defense isn't what this elite spec needs. Support and condition damage are. This could be quite nice as it offers another boon that the Scourge could grant to allies which they desperately need.

Sand Savant

• Replaces Desert shroud with Embalming Shroud: Embalming shroud deals no damage but rather Pulses packets of barriers to allies.
• Embalming shroud should pulse a boon: Several ideas of boons come to mind. A single unique one would be nice but Fury or Quickness would be the best options in my opinion with Regen a close 3rd.

I would be happy if it also provided a boon to allies but this way it can change Sand Savant into a proper support trait at least. Since Desert shroud is the most potent damage potential of the Scourge, I'd prefer it to be removed for something more supportive.

Feed from Corruption

Grant a 1% damage bonus for each boon on the scourge

I don't think Feed needs a whole lot to get going. Something else to help it out would be nice. A damage buff like this could help as scourge should be about boons at least partially.

Lingering thoughts

This isn't the only things I was thinking about when looking at the scourge. I also wanted a means to gain 20% Burning and Torment duration on top of what they have but that might not be needed. Hopefully the suggestions I have made resonates with some people. I do think these changes would help quite a bit. And there are other suggestions I have outside of the elite spec which I feel could also help out the elite spec. But we'll save that for another time.

[Anchoku.8142]

Good ideas here, Lily. Scourge is not an elite I like to run because it feels clunky and has only two purposes: annoy people in WvW and help PUGs as a barrier (shroud) donor. After so many nerfs when there was no split between PvE and WvW Scourge feels bad to me in a lot of content and prefer another profession over using it. When PoF came out, Scourge was a solid PvE dps option for those not wanting to give much barrier. Unfortunately, that led to extreme over-performance in WvW.

[Lily.1935]

@Anchoku.8142 said:Good ideas here, Lily. Scourge is not an elite I like to run because it feels clunky and has only two purposes: annoy people in WvW and help PUGs as a barrier (shroud) donor. After so many nerfs when there was no split between PvE and WvW Scourge feels bad to me in a lot of content and prefer another profession over using it. When PoF came out, Scourge was a solid PvE dps option for those not wanting to give much barrier. Unfortunately, that led to extreme over-performance in WvW.

Thanks.

I do like scourge now. Its favorite way to play. But it is quite difficult to use and the payoff for preforming well on scourge is pretty minor for their offensive set. While their healing set is fun it's more a fail safe in groups which I feel it could be more than that.

[Asum.4960]

Good ideas and a lot of same conclusions I've come to and posted in the past on what could work.

As for Sand Savant, I still think Scourge and this Trait would be a good spot for 10 man Alac, in addition to the pulsing barrier or healing in place of the base damage, making it a purely supportive option.

Scourge is imo one of the easiest options to make compete with Renegade for the Alacrity, CC, off-DPS and Boon Strip role in Fractal's and Raid's (or Alac Heal Scourge + Quickbrand) to start increasing the variety of support specs/combinations.

[Lily.1935]

@Asum.4960 said:Good ideas and a lot of same conclusions I've come to and posted in the past on what could work.

As for Sand Savant, I still think Scourge and this Trait would be a good spot for 10 man Alac, in addition to the pulsing barrier or healing in place of the base damage, making it a purely supportive option.

Scourge is imo one of the easiest options to make compete with Renegade for the Alacrity, CC, off-DPS and Boon Strip role in Fractal's and Raid's (or Alac Heal Scourge + Quickbrand) to start increasing the variety of support specs/combinations.

I'm on the other end thinking quickness should be the boon but I'd be happy with Alacrity for sure. Either would be great.

[Asum.4960]

@Lily.1935 said:

@"Asum.4960" said:Good ideas and a lot of same conclusions I've come to and posted in the past on what could work.

As for Sand Savant, I still think Scourge and this Trait would be a good spot for 10 man Alac, in addition to the pulsing barrier or healing in place of the base damage, making it a purely supportive option.

Scourge is imo one of the easiest options to make compete with Renegade for the Alacrity, CC, off-DPS and Boon Strip role in Fractal's and Raid's (or Alac Heal Scourge + Quickbrand) to start increasing the variety of support specs/combinations.

I'm on the other end thinking quickness should be the boon but I'd be happy with Alacrity for sure. Either would be great.

Both works ofc, and I've played with the idea of party Quickness on Necro in the past as well, namely when the Death Magic Rework was announced, hoping for something like a "Frenzy of the Dead" GM which increases Minion Attack Speed and provides Quickness to nearby allies and such, making the whole minion DM Trait line tailored around Minion and party boon support to broaden it's usefulness.

Since that didn't happen and we got Carapace instead, now for Scourge I suppose both Alacrity and Quickness could work well for a Sands of Time theme, but in terms of making supports somewhat interchangeable to make compositions more fluid, Scourge aligns a lot more with Renegade (Alacrity) than FB (Quickness) with the rest of it's toolset.

Also in terms of internal consistency (for solo play and such), Scourge is a spec that is very CD dependant, but doesn't scale that much with Quickness compared to others, so I'm personally leaning more towards Alacrity Scourge, and maybe Quickness for Tempest to compete with FB.

(Although I'm pretty sure neither is ever going to happen ofc., and it's more likely they will put everything into the next set of specs which will likely unfortunately just creep up so much in power that they will just replace the current specs, rather than compete with them offering variety)

And yea, that Serpent Siphon still exists in it's current form and has never been touched (by Anet or players) is almost funny at this point.

[Lily.1935]

@Asum.4960 said:

@Lily.1935 said:

@Asum.4960 said:Good ideas and a lot of same conclusions I've come to and posted in the past on what could work.

As for Sand Savant, I still think Scourge and this Trait would be a good spot for 10 man Alac, in addition to the pulsing barrier or healing in place of the base damage, making it a purely supportive option.

Scourge is imo one of the easiest options to make compete with Renegade for the Alacrity, CC, off-DPS and Boon Strip role in Fractal's and Raid's (or Alac Heal Scourge + Quickbrand) to start increasing the variety of support specs/combinations.

I'm on the other end thinking quickness should be the boon but I'd be happy with Alacrity for sure. Either would be great.

Both works ofc, and I've played with the idea of party Quickness on Necro in the past as well, namely when the Death Magic Rework was announced, hoping for something like a "Frenzy of the Dead" GM which increases Minion Attack Speed and provides Quickness to nearby allies and such, making the whole minion DM Trait line tailored around Minion

and

party boon support to broaden it's usefulness.

Since that didn't happen and we got Carapace instead, now for Scourge I suppose both Alacrity and Quickness could work well for a Sands of Time theme, but in terms of making supports somewhat interchangeable to make compositions more fluid, Scourge aligns a lot more with Renegade (Alacrity) than FB (Quickness) with the rest of it's toolset.

Also in terms of internal consistency (for solo play and such), Scourge is a spec that is very CD dependant, but doesn't scale that much with Quickness compared to others, so I'm personally leaning more towards Alacrity Scourge, and maybe Quickness for Tempest to compete with FB.

(Although I'm pretty sure neither is ever going to happen ofc., and it's more likely they will put everything into the next set of specs which will likely unfortunately just creep up so much in power that they will just replace the current specs, rather than compete with them offering variety)

And yea, that

Serpent Siphon

still exists in it's current form and has never been touched (by Anet or players) is almost funny at this point.

I see your point. The theme of Scourge is mummies and their horror movies obviously. So that's why we got Serpent siphon. The viper's trap in Tomb robing movies which is why a stun makes more sense to me personally. But ya know.

A tempest that Grant's Quickness could be neat. My guild leader would love that for sure.