Pies.7462

Honestly, I'd say the deeper issue for the class is the lack of options. Right now the Signet + Lich Forms, and Leech + MM are the only viable options. But we should ask, why is this the case? It's because ANET has a variety of issues holding back other spec's from being 'viable alternatives,' putting them in a double bind where if they nerf what's good right now, Necro falls off the cliff and has nothing left. But if they leave it how it is, there will only be 1 or 2 builds, and they're both extremely oppressive. My suggestion is, any nerfs to Necro needs to be countered with either Corruption buffs, or buffs to Condi necro (and the fear Condi in general). Having it be auto-cleansed by other CC's as well as the multitude of AoE condi cleanses (a larger issue right now imo), means that Condi builds by in large do not matter. No bleed will tick more than 5s or so, Chill, Weakness and Cripple even less so. Considering the raw output of Burn and Torment from other classes, and more importantly the CC outputs and types, Condi Necro is woefully lacking. Even just looking at the Terror trait being on the same tier as Dark Path, even if you went full Fear-Generation in talents, utilities and skills, you'd still do more damage with that build just by adopting Dark Path instead. So Condi Necro (for a variety more reasons as well, but I digress) is effectively out of the running. Wellmancer is out due to the raw mobility and CC-breaking of every class that isn't also called "Necromancer," a full Spectral set was never particularly viable, and Specter is still the black-sheep of PvP that's simply too squishy without an actual shroud to do anything. Unless you simply want to punish the true Necro-main's out there, including us poor Condi Necro saps, the nerfs to Necro would have to be pointed, and balanced by buffs to other areas that have (by in large) historically been ignored. This would mean a shift of virtually every passive gained in Curses (I mean, a 1.25s bleed on crit? What kind of passive gives 133 dmg 1/3rd of the time on a crit, and then every other passive is just more crit chance, for the CONDI line?!)

I wish I had recorded my last match. 2 Firebrands have literal 100% boon uptimes on almost everything, and 60% Resistance uptimes, even with me and my friend as a duo-Corruption-Necromancer setup. The fact that they nerfed Corruption so hard, even though it wasn't particularly powerful to begin with, is insane. I wish you'd recorded it too. So you'd realise you're talking nonsense. 60% resistance uptime? On FB? The class that gets 3s every 75s?3s every 75s? Are you actually outside of your own mind? An average FB with combo finishers and sigils can have enough Resistance uptime to literally negate any form of CC a vanilla or Spectre Necro can output, and this is beyond the Aegis and Blind spam they output. Clearly you're either watching low-Bronze games, or have no idea how often those boons are actually applied.

Has anyone else noticed that when a Ranger Entangles your golem, when you use Charge the golem charges in place, does no damage and is still immobilized at the end of the dash? The AI for Necro pets have always needed fixing, but this is ridiculous.

Honestly, the biggest issue in my mind is the ridiculous Condi spam output they can put, while simultaneously dazeing you, and potentially immobilizing you. On top of all of this, the same symbol gives them boons, they get RIDICULOUS amounts of Resistance uptime, perma protection, fury, 10+ might for breathing..... It makes literally no sense. Buff durations needs to be cut in 1/4th without investing in Concentration, power scaling across the board needs to be reduced by ~10-20% for power builds, or they need to remove the Daze trait and rework it to something else. AoE cc should have to be a heavy investment for the class, not the objectively best choice in any scenario, with any build.

I wish I had recorded my last match. 2 Firebrands have literal 100% boon uptimes on almost everything, and 60% Resistance uptimes, even with me and my friend as a duo-Corruption-Necromancer setup. The fact that they nerfed Corruption so hard, even though it wasn't particularly powerful to begin with, is insane.

I think the biggest issue they face is their output of condi's in a power-oriented build, and the abundance of boons they're able to output. Primarily Blind and Daze for Firebrands, the amount of CC lock-down you have is absolutely insane. It's almost as if ANET either has no pro-guardian players to run on test servers, or they're all guardian mains and don't want to drop their ratings...

As a 6 year, Gold 3+ Corruption-Necro main, I am once again let down by another patch. Firstly, let me say that I recognize I'm not the greatest player, but this is an issue that's been in the game since I started with the beta. Corruption tables are still glitchy (corruption options (already a fringe build) are reduced in both intensity and frequency, virtually no synergy support by Devs (particularly making you choose between Dark Path and Terror, I mean really? Do they actually hate Condi-Necros that much that not only Fear being auto-cleansed by other CC is kept in, but they can't even let make your iconic condi do anything interesting?). The primary issue that's come up in this patch though is when multiple boons (or conversely, multiple debuffs) are applied at the same time due to a couple traits from other classes, you have virtually no options against it in upper-level PvP as your boon corruption count has been reduced, and your cooldowns have been increased by ~50% effectively across the board. This means there is no feasible way, even in ideal settings, to keep up with the boon outputs of Firebrands, Engi's, Elementalists, and even some niche Spellbreaker builds. This cut is compounded by the abundance of Resistance being available to literally every class that already soft-countered Necros in general, and hard-countered Corruption Necros specifically. If Corruption is ever to be a viable mechanic, the "last applied boon with random table if multiple applied at the same time" mechanic needs to go. There should either be soft-priorities for Resistance and for high stacks of might, or a flat out table for which boons get stripped first, with Stability and Resistance being at the top. The continuous knee-capping of Corruption (something unique to the Necromancer Talent Tree) has been a constant slap to the face of Condi-Necro mains. As a final note, as I could go on further, every buff that Necros get is aimed primarily at the Power Necro playstyle, either in the form of giving power weapons corruption (Axe 3) or access to more condi output (like Dhuumfire was on its inception). All I want is to live to see the day that Corruption or Terrormancers get to be balanced fairly, so that we can at least THEORETICALLY keep up with 2/3rds of the boon output of every other class.

Speaking from a Plat 3 to Gold 3 PvP player's experience who has over 1,200 hours playing Condi-only Necro, primarily as a Corruption Necro, these corruption changes are pretty ghastly. Granted, it's hard to see it's total context without having played matches in this upcoming meta, but the issue for Condi necro already is the insane condi-cleanse (primarily through blast finishers and select utility spells on classes) and boon application rates (which seems generally untouched, as duration nerfs actually harm this build slightly, plus unreliability of what boon your corruption chooses) means that this is an across the board knee-cap to this sort of playstyle. Reducing your boon corruption efficiency by ~50%, when your primary DPS ends up coming from Terror you inflict by flipping Stability (now going from a 5 out of ~14 chance in an average teamfight, to a 5 out of 28 chance). Seeing as this is the core of the build (as you can apply Chill, and if going reaper, bleeds, as well as banking on the additional damage they receive while feared) and how wonky Fear has been since the beginning of the game (since it can be cleansed both by AoE condi clears, as well as stun breaks) it's a bit distressing to see none of the durations for Fear go up (similar to other CC's) in compensation for the drastic reduction of a chance to land the crux of the build. Additionally, due to the low duration and need for re-application (plus often 1/2 to 1s cast times to apply a ~2s duration) it's often at the first condi cleansed by things like Diamond Skin and Engi blast finishers. Coupling this with now the increased CD's of Corrupt Boon (already unnecessary imo, as you're sacrificing a valuable defensive utility slot in an already slow-paced, DPS build) seems unnecessary for an already fringe build. Reducing boon corruption for power-based weapons like Axe (and the corresponding shroud-based talent) makes sense, but there are already so many anti-synergies in the Necro talent tree / weapon spec's that to nerf the only true weapon synergy you have (Scep/Dag) seems misplaced. At the very least, shifting the corruption back to Dagger 5 as it's a slow moving, long cast, telegraphed move, or replacing some of the random Precision in Curses with corruption proc's would make more sense. I could write a whole 10 page essay on the breakdown of all the options Corruption Necro's have, but the TL;DR is that it's already the weaker option for Necro overall (if a bit of a safer pick), and that crippling it's key mechanic will most likely gut the viability at higher levels to deal with high skill cap Engi's/Elementalists/Revs/Guards, as blast finishers (as far as the patch notes go) are not being nerfed either.