How would you redesign the necromancer?

[CHIPS.6018]

How the GW1 necro used to play is how they should change the GW2 necro back into.

For example: High risk high reward. Explosive damage while killing yourself.

[Lonami.2987]

@"Samnang.1879" said:being able to resurrect fully dead players/enemies as zombies i mean that's the epitome of "necromancy" yet i dont see anything like that in any specialization or skills :/i mean joko in the Twilight fractal can do it... why can't players?

That could be a cool skill for PvE. Instead of normally healing a deceased player, you raise him, and he has 3 minutes of fight. Then he goes back to deceased once again.

Could be really, really interesting for raids.

@CHIPS.6018 said:How the GW1 necro used to play is how they should change the GW2 necro back into.

For example: High risk high reward. Explosive damage while killing yourself.

Some crazy scientist necro with plague bombs is my dream elite specialization lol.

[ZDragon.3046]

@Lonami.2987 said:Do you feel like the necromancer could be much more? That his mechanics don't do his theme justice? Maybe his elite specializations have a weak design? Or do you just want to post some crazy ideas? Well, then this thread is for you.

First things first I would start off by filling the missing utility categories for every professionSpectral healSignet eliteetc

I would not change too much core shroud could use mostly QoL improvements and maybe a bit more stability.Faster casting on life blast lower & channel time on shrould 4 needs to be reducedBoost minions a bit and rework the trait line so that when used it boost them just about as much as ranger pets get boosted when using beast mastery. (Move faster, Deal more damage at high hp, KEEP THEM FROM DIEING FROM 1 or 2 skills in pvp. etc)Off hand focus needs its reapers touched coding looked at it should have the accuracy of mirror blade.Staff need amo charges at least 2 per skill.Main hand dagger (i wont say needs more damage) needs a true identity perhaps make it a high leech sustain weapon blood magic is its trait line after all.

Reaper is perfectly fine as it is mostly. Just a maybe a 15-20% power damage increase in several areas would do it just fine. (it should hit harder when you go zerker)

Scourge needs a whole new mechanic rework. The current one will always be hated by other players because of how hard it is to balance not to mention scourge is always locked into taking the big shade anyways which prevents the use of the other gm traits.

Some utility skills in general need to be redone.Fleshwurm needs to work like shadow step. Giving you an instant break stun teleport that summons a wurm at your previous location.Singet of spite needs to be reworked into a hard hitting strike that deals 10% more damage for each condition on your foe.Makes no sense to have a passive that improves power and a active that applies pretty crap conditions although it does apply alot of them.Spectral Walk should make you immune to the application of movement impairing conditionsSpectral Armor Needs a stacks of stability for its duration.These are a few

@Drarnor Kunoram.5180 said:I would like to see Lich Form almost completely erased and be replaced with Grim Specter (current Lich Form 5). Keep it with the current Lich Form life force gain and bump the cooldown to at least 60 seconds, possibly up to 75.

I second this ^ would be nice to have a spectral elite that was not that big of a transform. But make it hit hard AF

[Catchyfx.5768]

Elites are good, core shroud rework, some traitlines that give"nothing (fear)" i would like to see something different, fix glitch(shroud aa sometime dont shoot, RS2, grasping darkness es,), some utility skills are JUST too weak compare to other classes(Plague signet vs Arcane Thievery: dont start Flaming pls, i know stunbreak bit AT Is more beneficial after succ. Hit And unblockable)And somehow buf shroud(both) fór wvw And pvp stuff, drain Is pain.

Overall. I rly like the class And understand why necro dont have this And that. But for easier living i like to see that What i write upper(glitches First plspls)

[ZDragon.3046]

@Catchyfx.5768 said:(Plague signet vs Arcane Thievery: dont start Flaming pls, i know stunbreak bit AT Is more beneficial after succ. Hit And unblockable)And somehow buf shroud(both)

Imo its better compared to corrupt boon.But you point is it does a hell of a lot more for something with a very short cast

But in that case corrupt boon has the shorter cd than ATh.

[Catchyfx.5768]

But you point is it does a hell of a lot more for something with a very short cast

Exactly. I know bozh spells are different, So nobody can say"this Is better then this". But like you wrote. IT does more if you hit. I like that. Now im glad if i hit And dont get blocked,evaded. So i Will like that.

[pah.4931]

One thing that really bugs me is that Corruption abilities are so lame -- and even lamer because power creep -- that they are almost unusable. Why these aren't the most OP abilities in the game I don't know. A class like Mesmer gets absurd utilities without any downfall and Necros get these garbage utilities that even without the "self-harm" are not that great...

They need completely reworked.

[ZDragon.3046]

@"Catchyfx.5768" said:But you point is it does a hell of a lot more for something with a very short cast

Exactly. I know bozh spells are different, So nobody can say"this Is better then this". But like you wrote. IT does more if you hit. I like that. Now im glad if i hit And dont get blocked,evaded. So i Will like that.

Personally i think AT is fine as is. If corrupt boon did anything more its cd would have to be raised again right now corrupt boon is usually off CD almost any time you need it which is pretty great. and traited its like 12 second or something like that pretty handy tool. The only thing I would want for a CD increase on corrupt boon is for it to hit all boons on a players bar and not 3 but ill settle for leaving it how it currently is.

[ZDragon.3046]

@"pah.4931" said:One thing that really bugs me is that Corruption abilities are so lame -- and even lamer because power creep -- that they are almost unusable. Why these aren't the most OP abilities in the game I don't know. A class like Mesmer gets absurd utilities without any downfall and Necros get these garbage utilities that even without the "self-harm" are not that great...

They need completely reworked.

Mesmers utilities are strong and solid no doubt about that.

How ever your call to say that necro corruptions need a complete rework is false.

Epidemic is still widely used in open world, dungeons, Fractals, and RaidsCorrupt boon is fine for WvW skirmishes roaming or PvP in general.Consume Conditions is the necro staple standard for healing. Is all around necros best healing skill and scales very well for its mechanic. The only hate i have against this skill is that its cd was increased some time ago when it really shouldnt have been.Corrosive poison cloud (IS too situational and maybe could use a rework of some kind or another)

Plague lands is solid. Drop it and it becomes a enter at your own risk zone. OR use for Aoe Rez denial. This thing pumps out a ton of damage on anything that cant or wont move out of it. I would want to think that even scourges use this in open world over The torment realm thing.

So to you I say you are mistaken that corruption skill do not need to be reworked completely. The self harm vs reward could be re weighted and thats totally fine do debate but they dont need a whole rework with the exception of 1.

Heck in pve the self harm becomes extra dps if you know what you are doing.

[Gustaff.6581]

I would like to redesign all the shroud resource mechanic, and even the shroud skills themselves, also give reaper something better than a diferent shroud than core necromancer.

But as a start, focus death shroud more in ranged skills and condition damage.

• Give life blast a condition.
• Change dark path to make a projectile which immobilises.
• Make life transfer also heal your hp pool.
• Change tainted shackles with another skill more focused in range.

Also focusing reaper shroud into power damage, which has been done. And reaper should have another perk apart from a diferent shroud, maybe an special F2 skill with something special. There is an idea, you can put a shroud skill into that F2 slot and use it outside shroud.

As for Scourge, i would redesign scourge by reordering the shade skills, because traits seem too mixed for what purpose they must provide.

• Change sand shroud into f1 skill and make it proc dhumfire for every pulse, rather than proc dhumfire for every shade skill
• Change sand cascade into f4 and make it heal from transfusion.

I mean, in scourge i want my damage dealing skills to do damage, and my support skills to do support, i dont find any sense to put a heal into garish pilar or wasting shade skills to get the maximum of dhumfire.

And for last, Reaper and Scourge need some rework into underwater skills.

[Subli.8217]

i would redesign reaper to finally have well casting animations when wielding greatsword, 2015 was how many years ago?and also in AC dungeon when you turn into ghosts some animations are missing like gravedigger.

[Lonami.2987]

Revisiting the redesign ideas in a short way, plus some new elite specialization ideas to see how this redesign would improve future content too:

• Necromancer: The Death Shroud mechanic is gone. The new mechanic is the swarm, letting you control multiple companions at once, using a control panel similar to that of ranger pets, in a mechanically-established minion master role. You have five swarms to choose from, with different combat roles, and you can equip two at once, swapping between them with the F4 mechanic skill. The swarm options are Blood (vampirism), Bone (direct damage), Flesh (damage absorption), Plague (condition damage), and Shadow (crowd control). Each swarm is composed of the same basic unit, the horror. The swarm has an unit limit of 12. Once destroyed, horrors will keep respawning until that limit is reached. Swapping the swarm with the F4 skill will heal the active minions, and let you respawn different ones from then on. Previous minions are not destroyed upon swarm swap, so you can combine different types of horrors at once by swapping constantly. Minion slot skills are gone, replaced by glyphs, letting you summon specialist swarm units, the unit changing depending on your current swarm. These specialist minions can take up multiple slots in the limit of 12. For example, the elite glyph (Flesh Golem) might take up to 4 slots, and the healing glyph (Blood Fiend) might take 2. Mechanic skills F1, F2, and F3 let you control the swarm.

• Reaper: The Shroud mechanic survives in the reaper, becoming exclusive to him. The Shroud transformation is located at the F5 mechanic skills, and now changes depending on your current swarm, effectively giving reapers five different transformations to choose from. Each of the transformations interacts with the swarm minions in one way or another, driving them into a frenzy, consuming them for more health, etc.

• Scourge: The swarm is replaced by shades. Mechanic skill F1 summons a shade, mechanic skills F2, F3, and F4 contain shade skills, and mechanic skill F5 lets you swap to another set of skills. The set of skills are determined by your equipped swarm options, and inherit the same combat roles. Shade skills are now much more meaningful, and reward situational tactical approach.

• Apothecary: The swarm is replaced by plague bombs. Mechanic skills F1, F2, F3, F4, and F5 let you equip 5 plague bombs, individually selected from a list of 10. Each bomb has a different explosion pattern, some of them with random properties. You can throw multiple bombs to the same spot, making their explosions combine to get new effects and patterns. New elixir slot skills can randomize your plague bomb effects even further, making them even more dangerous, to the point where they can even kill you when things go wrong.

• Necrophage: The swarm can now be consumed to summon a powerful fleshreaver pet. The more minions are consumed, the larger and more powerful the fleshreaver will be. Swarm controls apply to the fleshreaver as well, letting you control it like a regular pet. The fleshreaver is summoned using the F5 mechanic skill, and there's a different type of fleshreaver option for each of the five swarms. You can keep your fleshreaver up for as long as you want, using glyphs to heal it instead of summoning more minions.

• Swarmhost: The swarm minions can now be infected with insect larvae. By using the F5 mechanic skill, you make the insects hatch, exploding your regular minions to summon a whole new swarm of hungry invertebrates, which can overwhelm and slaughter your enemies easily. The insects die after a few seconds, and can be easily destroyed by area of effect damage. Their strength lies in numbers and the surprise factor. Once the effect is over, the swarm goes back to its regular respawn cycle. Insects spawned by the F5 skill depend directly on each individual minion type, and not just your current swarm type. The insects steal health from their targets to survive longer. You can also use glyphs to summon more minions, which will be automatically consumed if the insects are up. New venom slot skills let you infect your enemies so that additional insects hatch from them, injuring them in the process. You can also infect yourself as much as you want, sacrificing your own life to make the insect swarm even stronger.

[derd.6413]

i woud make shroud in line with Celestial Avatar and the like and make it so shroud doesn't absorb damage (and you still have acces to your utility skills) and giv necro some proper defensive abilities.

something they could do is introduce "dark aura" to the game. aura that applies weakness when stuck and rework deathmagic around that (and rework the minion traits) or something

[Lonami.2987]

@"derd.6413" said:i woud make shroud in line with Celestial Avatar and the like and make it so shroud doesn't absorb damage (and you still have acces to your utility skills) and giv necro some proper defensive abilities.

something they could do is introduce "dark aura" to the game. aura that applies weakness when stuck and rework deathmagic around that (and rework the minion traits) or something

That could help with balance, I guess. In my idea above, shroud became exclusive for the reaper, the swarm replacing it as the core mechanic. Starting from here, you could take this new shroud further.

Instead of each shroud form having fixed weapon skills, you could make shroud transform the weapon skills as well, much like the elementalist attunements. Both weapon swap and slot skills would be available while transformed. Weapon models would be replaced by shadowy versions, respecting their original weapon type. The staff would become a scythe (Assuming scythe never becomes a new weapon type), greatsword would be handled nazgûl-style, etc.

Life force could disappear altogether, the shroud getting a fixed duration in time. Instead of the direct HP boost, shroud form could temporarily boost attributes so you're still harder to kill, but your health stays the same, so you no longer get a free pass by using the shroud right before getting downed.

Going back to the "swarm as the core mechanic" idea, minions would no longer be sacrificed, instead being transformed by the shroud as well.

[derd.6413]

@Lonami.2987 said:

@"derd.6413" said:i woud make shroud in line with Celestial Avatar and the like and make it so shroud doesn't absorb damage (and you still have acces to your utility skills) and giv necro some proper defensive abilities.

something they could do is introduce "dark aura" to the game. aura that applies weakness when stuck and rework deathmagic around that (and rework the minion traits) or something

That could help with balance, I guess. In my idea above, shroud became exclusive for the reaper, the swarm replacing it as the core mechanic. Starting from here, you could take this new shroud further.

Instead of each shroud form having fixed weapon skills, you could make shroud transform the weapon skills as well, much like the elementalist attunements. Both weapon swap and slot skills would be available while transformed. Weapon models would be replaced by shadowy versions, respecting their original weapon type. The staff would become a scythe (Assuming scythe never becomes a new weapon type), greatsword would be handled nazgûl-style, etc.

Life force could disappear altogether, the shroud getting a fixed duration in time. Instead of the direct HP boost, shroud form could temporarily boost attributes so you're still harder to kill, but your health stays the same, so you no longer get a free pass by using the shroud right before getting downed.

Going back to the "swarm as the core mechanic" idea, minions would no longer be sacrificed, instead being transformed by the shroud as well.

i'm gonna go with no,i think your suggestion is a bit too extreme of a change to regular necro

[ZDragon.3046]

@"derd.6413" said:i woud make shroud in line with Celestial Avatar and the like and make it so shroud doesn't absorb damage (and you still have acces to your utility skills) and giv necro some proper defensive abilities.

something they could do is introduce "dark aura" to the game. aura that applies weakness when stuck and rework deathmagic around that (and rework the minion traits) or something

I think a better way to envision it would be like Holosmiths Holo mode rather than Celestial avatar. Just when i see celestial avatar i never really see it as an offensive thing where as shroud i always think of as an offensive tool just cause welll yeah it has no healing/ supportive skills.

BUT i do support your base idea behind this with the non protected health and use of utility skills.So long as the damage on the shroud offensive skills are also adjusted properly in the process.

[ZDragon.3046]

@"Lonami.2987" said:Revisiting the redesign ideas in a short way, plus some new elite specialization ideas to see how this redesign would improve future content too:

• Necromancer: The Death Shroud mechanic is gone. The new mechanic is the swarm, letting you control multiple companions at once, using a control panel similar to that of ranger pets, in a mechanically-established minion master role. You have five swarms to choose from, with different combat roles, and you can equip two at once, swapping between them with the F4 mechanic skill. The swarm options are Blood (vampirism), Bone (direct damage), Flesh (damage absorption), Plague (condition damage), and Shadow (crowd control). Each swarm is composed of the same basic unit, the horror. The swarm has an unit limit of 12. Once destroyed, horrors will keep respawning until that limit is reached. Swapping the swarm with the F4 skill will heal the active minions, and let you respawn different ones from then on. Previous minions are not destroyed upon swarm swap, so you can combine different types of horrors at once by swapping constantly. Minion slot skills are gone, replaced by glyphs, letting you summon specialist swarm units, the unit changing depending on your current swarm. These specialist minions can take up multiple slots in the limit of 12. For example, the elite glyph (Flesh Golem) might take up to 4 slots, and the healing glyph (Blood Fiend) might take 2. Mechanic skills F1, F2, and F3 let you control the swarm.

• Reaper: The Shroud mechanic survives in the reaper, becoming exclusive to him. The Shroud transformation is located at the F5 mechanic skills, and now changes depending on your current swarm, effectively giving reapers five different transformations to choose from. Each of the transformations interacts with the swarm minions in one way or another, driving them into a frenzy, consuming them for more health, etc.

• Scourge: The swarm is replaced by shades. Mechanic skill F1 summons a shade, mechanic skills F2, F3, and F4 contain shade skills, and mechanic skill F5 lets you swap to another set of skills. The set of skills are determined by your equipped swarm options, and inherit the same combat roles. Shade skills are now much more meaningful, and reward situational tactical approach.

• Apothecary: The swarm is replaced by plague bombs. Mechanic skills F1, F2, F3, F4, and F5 let you equip 5 plague bombs, individually selected from a list of 10. Each bomb has a different explosion pattern, some of them with random properties. You can throw multiple bombs to the same spot, making their explosions combine to get new effects and patterns. New elixir slot skills can randomize your plague bomb effects even further, making them even more dangerous, to the point where they can even kill you when things go wrong.

• Necrophage: The swarm can now be consumed to summon a powerful fleshreaver pet. The more minions are consumed, the larger and more powerful the fleshreaver will be. Swarm controls apply to the fleshreaver as well, letting you control it like a regular pet. The fleshreaver is summoned using the F5 mechanic skill, and there's a different type of fleshreaver option for each of the five swarms. You can keep your fleshreaver up for as long as you want, using glyphs to heal it instead of summoning more minions.

• Swarmhost: The swarm minions can now be infected with insect larvae. By using the F5 mechanic skill, you make the insects hatch, exploding your regular minions to summon a whole new swarm of hungry invertebrates, which can overwhelm and slaughter your enemies easily. The insects die after a few seconds, and can be easily destroyed by area of effect damage. Their strength lies in numbers and the surprise factor. Once the effect is over, the swarm goes back to its regular respawn cycle. Insects spawned by the F5 skill depend directly on each individual minion type, and not just your current swarm type. The insects steal health from their targets to survive longer. You can also use glyphs to summon more minions, which will be automatically consumed if the insects are up. New venom slot skills let you infect your enemies so that additional insects hatch from them, injuring them in the process. You can also infect yourself as much as you want, sacrificing your own life to make the insect swarm even stronger.

I have to say im not behind these changes because shroud was the first thing that drew me in to love necro as much as I currently do. I feel like we should not be trying to redesign every part of necro to mimic scourge in some way with tons of extra F profession skills and the culling of shroud

More importantly this sounds like it could get visually out of hand in terms of numbers and would require more coding to work properly. (necro minon code is already shudderingly bad....) The devs also already have told us that its hard to change anything that lives in that profession bar area of the game because when it was designed it was not built to be easily changed or edited to heavily. I would keep that in mind when doing redesigns.

Im not behind the flood of F skills on every spec on necro either, i like having my basic f1 skill and thats it. I dont have the quickest fingers or biggest hands so playing anything that starts reaching into f5 region is already hard enough not to mention shroud is almost thrown out of the map with all of these except on reaper and it sounds like would still get changed heavily by this redesign despite reaper itself being a ok spec.

[Kuulpb.5412]

I sort of like this Idea, But I feel like Life Force should be used more like energy from GW1, since the entire point in GW1 was gain energy from Deaths.

Maybe make the Idea about Changing Minions/shroud a trait such as Reaper grandmaster would be like - Bone shroud, Horror shroud, Blood Shroud. or something, where it just adds stats not necessarily an entirely different thing since you can't have no grandmaster Unless you want to lose traits.

So perhaps keep it a life force pool, Make some skills Use it ( a bit like Initiative/energy from thief/rev), maybe Just remove shroud from 1 as you suggested BUT make it like F1 is Life Blast, F2 is Dark path etc, then reaper becoming oneshroud is like reapers being slowed but hihger damage, and scourges chaning from Death skills to Sand skills. It would also let them Do smaller changes ( plus make some legendaries better just for the fact you could swap legendaries and use F1 to see the projectile :3). But Honestly it's hard to "redesign" necro, as I can't really link GW1 or Gw2 necro together, Perhaps they could make a passive trait in each line add an effect to detah shroud, or the necro , or skills Just fo rhaving that , such as Deathmagic would give you 10% damage reduction just for taking it, Blood magic would let you heal from Kills just by taking it etc. To make it more of a Specialisation "feel".

So I would guess something like:

Spite: Damage is 10% strongerCurses: Conditions you apply are 10% strongerDeath magic: Reduce Damage by 10%, Extra 1% per MinionBlood magic: Life steal per strike (2% of damage) and Heal from deathSoul Reaping: Increase health of minions and Effect of other trait lines by 50%.( Spite, Curses, Death, Reaper= 15%, Blood = 3% dmg heals,, Scourge = 33% movement speed)

Reaper: Attack speed is 10% fasterScourge: Movement speed is 25% faster.

Then give base necromancer more stability and keep them a "slow, focused caster" whereas Eles are Quick and versatile, and Mesmers are Agile and precise.

[LeonLannister.9754]

If I had to redesign the Necromancer, I'd have a whole defensive vampire themed mechanic around sacrificing health for delayed rewards, like damage, party support, etc, kind of like GW1's Blood Renewal, but maybe a little more support-role in mind. Hurting yourself to aid others would be a cool theme. I'd like a skill in which the longer you hold down, the more health you sacrifice, but with a payoff of doing more damage or support. A support type skill would be you take your dagger, stab yourself in the chest, summons a well around you as drain life, which does damage to foes but at the cost of your health, a support trait could be that it regenerates health to allies that are within the well. It could be an effect that happens continuously as you do it with a gradually increasing intervals of damage, or a payoff that happens after you finish holding down the button.

I'd have necromancer's power themed around the idea of death through a thousand cuts where the damage builds up overtime with a couple of slow building skills that deal big damage like the second Reaper skill. Like the Axe 2, Ghastly Claws, would do increasingly more damage if above 50%, then if the target is below 50% by the time the skill ends, then it does burst damage at the end.

For necromancer's condition, I'd have a similar theme of stacking but with blood and poison, except with a greater focus on the non-damage conditions so there's that slow constricting feeling. I like the elements of chilled, weakness, slow, cripple, immobile, blind, etc Like skills that do more conditions depending on certain circumstances, or add effects as time goes on. Like a Fear in which you get more conditions as you are feared.

I'm really not that big of a fan of the idea of minion masters, even though people really seem to gravitate towards it. I feel like there needs to be some kind of mechanic in which you're intellectually more stimulated and not just letting them kill everything. I'd be up for something in which you're constantly like creating minions and and sacrificing them, it'd feel more active and menacing because you're really manipulating minions without the love and care that rangers have for their pets. Like instead of just blowing them up which is similar to Mesmer phantasm/clone system, perhaps like you could summon a minion, then have a series of skills activations/orders are more circumstantial so it's more fun and not as spammy (summon minion then explode).

Like summon a minion, then a skill in which the minion leaps at the opponent, then bites/sucks the enemy's blood, then explodes, or have a minion that you order to toss its limbs at an opponent and each attack like lessens, like it throws its bladed arm at an enemy, then its other arm, then its head kind of like the skeletons from BotW.Thematic things in which you order your minion to sacrifice itself to do your bidding rather than raising a small army and letting them run around. In spitballing this idea, I actually would find this idea really fun and interesting and would actually play as a minion master.

For the special mechanic, I really don't know, the second health bar can cause balance issues. Maybe the shroud health bar can depend on how much you health you have? I'd also have skills that change depending on what weapons you have so they can combine better depending on what your focus is. I'm sure all these suggestions are probably problematic in some way to anyone that's taken time to read this post.

[Lonami.2987]

Been a long time since my last take, so let's give it another round.

---

Necromancer

Death Shroud is no longer available for the core profession. Instead, the new mechanic is the swarm, which gives you control over a group of minions. There are four swarms to choose from:

• Bone Swarm: Direct damage.
• Flesh Swarm: Crowd control.
• Plague Swarm: Condition damage.
• Shadow Swarm: Support.

Once you have selected a swarm, you can summon up to twelve minions at once. If you exceed this limit, the weakest minions will automatically explode.

• F1: Damage up to five nearby enemies, and summon a minion for every affected enemy. Always summons a single minion, plus a maximum of five more for every affected target, for a total of six.
• F2: Explode four minions. The weakest ones will be prioritized. Boost the rest of the minions.
• F3: Order four minions to charge at the target enemy. The strongest ones will be prioritized.
• F4: Merge minions. Two light minions become a medium minion, and two medium minions become a heavy minion. The limit of twelve total minions considers medium minions as two and heavy minions as four.

There are three minion classes (light, medium, and heavy), each one having different combat skills. Swarm skills F2 and F3 trigger stronger effects depending on the minion class. For example, the F3 charge might include a bonus immobilize for the medium minions, and a bonus crowd control effect for the heavy minions. Minions of different classes have synergies with one another, and minion class variety is encouraged.

Minions remain locked at combat with the selected target of their last action. Specific weapon and slot skills allow minion target swapping as well, either automatically or through optional chain skills.

Spectral slot skills have been reclassified as cantrips. Minion slot skills have been replaced by enchantments (similar to thief venoms, affecting both the necromancer and his minions).

---

Reaper

You can transform into a wraith-like creature. The shroud transformation mechanic is back, located at F5.

• F5: Reaper Shroud. Activate/Deactivate the shroud form. Resource required.
• Life Force: New resource. Generated by minion deaths.

Once Reaper Shroud is activated, both your weapon skills and your minion's skills will gain alternate effects (much like elementalist attunements). Staying in shroud form consumes life force, which also acts as a health shield. Shroud skills consume life force as well. Slot skills are available during shroud.

The idea is to balance minion upkeep with sacrifices, and decide whether to use shroud for bonus damage or as a defensive measure. Gameplay focused solely on the shroud with a constant minion sacrifice is possible, but not entirely optimal.

The new weapon is the greatsword, and shouts are the new slot skills.

---

Scourge

Minions have been replaced by Effigies. There's four sets of effigies to choose from, based on the four original swarms:

• Bone Pillar: Direct damage.
• Gnarled Tree: Crowd control.
• Scarab Nest: Condition damage.
• Sand Shade: Support.

You can summon a maximum of three effigies at once.

• F1: Summon effigy.
• F2: Effigy skill #1.
• F3: Effigy skill #2.
• F4: Effigy skill #3.

Effigy skills apply their effects on both the scourge and all active effigies at once.

The idea is to exchange minion controls for a more precise point control gameplay, rewarding positioning much more.

The new weapon is the torch. The new slot skills are consecrations, reclassified from punishments.

---

I feel like this is much more solid than my previous ideas.

@LeonLannister.9754 said:I'm really not that big of a fan of the idea of minion masters, even though people really seem to gravitate towards it. I feel like there needs to be some kind of mechanic in which you're intellectually more stimulated and not just letting them kill everything. I'd be up for something in which you're constantly like creating minions and and sacrificing them, it'd feel more active and menacing because you're really manipulating minions without the love and care that rangers have for their pets. Like instead of just blowing them up which is similar to Mesmer phantasm/clone system, perhaps like you could summon a minion, then have a series of skills activations/orders are more circumstantial so it's more fun and not as spammy (summon minion then explode).

Like summon a minion, then a skill in which the minion leaps at the opponent, then bites/sucks the enemy's blood, then explodes, or have a minion that you order to toss its limbs at an opponent and each attack like lessens, like it throws its bladed arm at an enemy, then its other arm, then its head kind of like the skeletons from BotW.Thematic things in which you order your minion to sacrifice itself to do your bidding rather than raising a small army and letting them run around. In spitballing this idea, I actually would find this idea really fun and interesting and would actually play as a minion master.

Yeah, I too think that should be the general idea behind minions. Cannon fodder you throw at your enemy, that won't get too dangerous unless you let the swarm grow too large.

[Lahmia.2193]

Problem with redesigns, this far into gw2's life is it will inevitably disappoint those asking for a redesign and also really skritt off players that are happy with the profession (like myself). Sure Necro could do with buffs here and there, maybe a few trait and skill revamps (looking at your focus 4), but a complete redesign is just a bad idea and waste of dev time.

[Xxnecroxx.4039]

A way I would rework necro is to remove the 2nd form of shroud and instead make death energy gathered used as a resource to cast more skills, no death energy no skills, this will increase damage but depending on elite spec, core necro it will increase boon corruption as in every skill will corrupt at least 1 boon but the skills themselves don't do much damage or apply much condi themselves, and some would be say single target or maybe a little survivability or even AoE corrupt etc, it would have to be played around but I would say 3-5 skills would be good to spend death energy on and for more balance you can always just increase or decrease the cost of these skills, but there is no transformation these are just extra skills basically, similar to warriors special ability for instance for the death magic energy, for reaper spec these would be more power based and apply chill, for scourge probably centered around barriers and condi cleanse or something along those lines, but to do this I would also take out some of baseline necro condi corrupt to help balance and even reworking some of the condi corrupt skills probably, and do a bit of splitting ofc between the different game modes, then probably increase the AA speed of scepter for necros, some balance tweeks to condi necro, this way it will move necro overall away from a boon corrupt bot to more condi but you can spec into a boon corrupt bot if you wish

[Lily.1935]

More like it was in GW1. So more scourge like. I'd remove Shroud entirely, work in corpse exploitation some how and minions would snowball. The class would still be high health but be extremely glassy due to its life sacrifice and self inflicted conditions for its ability to be great at any cost. More or less. I've got into great detail about what I'd do in the past.

But You can rest easy that I don't get to decide that for the game. Since I know a lot of reaper fans would be extremely upset. I'd find a place for you, but it wouldn't be on necromancer.

[Arzurag.7506]

It´s good to see that we necromancers stick true to our profession.

[Shadowmoon.7986]

Remove second health bar with reaper shroud, allow use of all utilities. Have it act like celestrial avatar, but for damage not heals