Asum.4960

And here the big misunderstanding on Anet's part lies I believe. I used to have fun playing 2-4 interesting Professions at a time in the past, exploring and capitalising on their uniqueness, making builds for them, learning where each of them shined. Now I'm not really having all that much fun anymore playing 1 bland Profession, and there isn't really a point to explore anything else anymore because differences are becoming increasingly superficial and there isn't anything unique drawing me to anything else. I'm not getting new tools which I can learn to apply in different situations. I'm just doing the same thing, at the same time, on everything, everywhere. And I'm bored. The game, by far, doesn't get enough content for this, and I've solved every Raid, Fractal and Strike boss, etc., years ago. Tracking abilities like Transfusion, providing real time decision making on if healing is required or whether a mechanic is upcoming which the people I play with are commonly struggling with, making me hold my down port in case, are the few things left that make this game's combat and encounters somewhat engaging. It's the same reason, even more so, why Aegis on Mantra of Solace was so kitten fun - not because it was overtuned, but because it made the timing of every time you used it matter - learning, timing and blocking all those little knockbacks, dazes on co. for your team, esp. in Fractals, was awesome. The difference between a bad support spamming buttons off-cd, and a skilled support using their tools intelligently was palpable, and you could tell, via actual gameplay and game feedback - not third party boon tables and co., seconds into an encounter. Now we don't have unique mechanics as supports anymore, we spam heals and boons off-CD. As DPS, Mobility and CC skills are increasingly also just DPS skills to be spammed off-CD. And Cooldowns are getting shorter and shorter on everything, so don't worry, it's will be fine, it'll come back up in time anyway, just spam. Everything is becoming a skill spamming slop without any thought, finesse or tactical consideration. And while ideally Anet would hire actual competent devs who understand and care about the game and can somewhat balance unique mechanics in overall efficacy among each other, failing that I say balance be damned if the game is kitten. No one cares if a bad game is balanced well. I want to have a good time playing a fun game - and GW2 used to be that.

This. I could not care less about the powerlevel or compensation. Nothing in this game is challenging anyway. I want fun gameplay. I want unique and interesting mechanics. I want interesting Traits that I can customize my gameplay with to have variety. Every Patch GW2 loses another unique, fun, gameplay altering mechanic, in favour of brainless spam everything on cooldown slop. They can give Transfusion 25 stacks of Stability for 60 seconds for all I care, and it's still a terrible change which will leave us spamming Garish Pillar on CD without a thought. The rate at which the design of this game is deteriorating every patch is nothing short of tragic.

Balancing a game doesn't mean to remove everything that is unique and fun, until the game is a generic, boring slop that no one wants to play. Just because you can't be bothered to come up with limitations and workarounds for mechanics like Epidemic and Transfusion, you are perpetually patching the fun out of this game. For whom is this? Now this is going from literally being the fundamental and Iconic Aspect of Support Necromancer to once again just yet another button we brainlessly mash off-cooldown, just like everything else. No more special mechanic, no more play-making potential, no in the moment decision making, nothing. What even is Blood Magic anymore? Just more passive boring Traits without any impact on gameplay, thematically as bankrupt as everything else on Necro at this point. Curses lost it's GW1 unique hexes for the generic Condition system in GW2, which it does nothing special with - Epidemic having been the one unique and once iconic thing Necro could do with Conditions, until it was essentially soft removed from the game with nerfs. E: I guess Boon Corruption could be counted as thematic and mechanical staple here too - which unsurprisingly is another thing that's being systematically removed from the class in favour of generic removal, which in turn is being added everywhere else. Death Magic you've publically admitted as team to hate minion gameplay and actively never wanting them to be viable - not that this wasn't already obvious. Soul Reaping lost it's shreds of identity long ago with the loss of Shroud manipulating traits like Shroud CD reduction and Shroud drain reduction being removed. Spite was barely rooted in the Necromancer theme to begin with, but lost everything unique like Signet's of Suffering also, while still being plagued by worthless 2012 balance Minor Traits. And now Blood Magic get's to join, with all of it's revival power utterly nerfed or removed, with the final interesting, genuinely gameplay altering, Trait left being hammered away. Congrats team, you did it!

A couple years ago I came up with a Death Shroud/Core Necro rework, changing Core Necromancer's Class mechanic into being based around temporary minion Summons instead, via F1-5 Minion Summon/support skills. The idea being that eventually we'd have a more diverse spectrum (both thematically and in terms of gameplay) with Core Necromancer representing Death and Blood Magic+ and providing that missing classic MinionMancer experience, Reaper being Spite/Soul Reaping+ focused and providing the Strike Damage and tanky Shroud experience, Scourge becoming Curses/Blood Magic+ focusing in on the debilitating and supportive Dark Caster experience, and then the at the time not yet existing next/last Elite Specialisation, which became Harbinger, being the Curses/SR+ Condition Damage and squishy but mobile spec. Part of that was then repurposing the Death Shroud skills (be it their mechanical design or the VFX) usefully as reworks/replacements for underperforming Weapon Skills. Such as Tainted Shackles making for a good Dagger 5 rework, with old Dagger 5 moving into Dagger 4 with a much sped up cast time/animation and inheriting Dagger 4's transfer. Unchanneled Life Transfer would make for a pretty good Locust Swarm update. Doom is already fairly represented in Reaper's Mark, especially if it got a duration increase. Dark Path/Pursuit I never really liked enough to want to see on anything else, but ironically ofc that was the one skill that was since copied onto a Weapon with Necro Spear. But lastly, and hence the posting here, I thought Life Blast would make for a good Necrotic Grasp update, especially coupled with an Update/addition to Dhuumfire akin to Lingering Curse and it's Feast of Corruption transformation into Devouring Darkness, where as Dhuumfire also transforms Staff 1 in addition to Shroud 1, adding Burning to it. Just that more satisfying and impactful AA would already improve Staff massively for me, esp. for Condi Builds ofc. The Marks are a complicated/divisive subject - they have their place in competitive modes, but personally I'd like to see the 2-5 completely reimagined; but at the same time I also do not trust Anet's designers, esp., those in charge of Necromancer, at all to do it even remotely right.

Distress doesn't specify players, but any "enemies". So I'm guessing Phantasms, Clones, Continuum Rift, Minions, Ranger Pets, Spirits, and likely even Guardian Spirit Weapons (since they do count as Allied entities to the Guardian which can be teleported to via Merciful Intervention) would count do disable it's Shard gain.

What I'd try at this point would be: Devouring Cut: Remove with Adept Trait conflicting Blight threshold interaction, make coefficient increase and Torment Baseline. Add 0.5 second Daze. Voracious Arc: Remove Bight treshold interaction. Increase Evade duration to 0.75 seconds to cover the skills animation and match dodge timing for muscle memory, rather than being an animation locking death trap. Increase range back to 900. Add Leap Finisher (The skill description literally reads "Leap to your destination.."). Remove Daze, maybe replace by short Fear in Impact. Increase Septic Corruption to 0.5% in PvE, compensating for Arc's Torment loss. Have one proper engage + damage skill, one proper defensive + escape skill, instead of this spam everything all the time for all purposes design they've been doing for the last few years.

True, although I do feel like Necromancer and Mesmer, of the core Professions that got carried over, got hit the hardest by the transition, both mechanically and in terms of class fantasy. A huge part of what really set them apart as Classes were all their unique Hexes, which got completely lost in the transition to a generic Condition system shared by all Professions in the sequel. Now a Necromancer inflicting a Curse upon their enemy isn't any different than a Warrior hitting them with their Sword, both is a generic Bleed DoT. That's entirely on brand for Warrior and what they could do in the Original, but a huge loss for Necromancer in identity. I will say though, while I liked GW1 Mesmer a whole lot more too, it's addition of the whole Clone and Phatasm system is at least entirely on brand with the class fantasy, and together with heavy Confusion and Torment access, and later support Chronomancer, imo represents Illusion and Inspiration Mesmer at least pretty decently. Especially considering also the awesome Utility of Blinks, Portal and Stealth, I can forgive Domination Interrupt and general nuisance Mesmer not really translating into GW2. They lost big, but they also got some really cool and on brand stuff in turn. Necromancer though got "Death Shroud", a mechanic which, as I remember from the Development Blogs leading up to launch, was originally intended to literally just be Necromancer's unique Downstate as a Mage with dominion over Death, in addition to a whole functional Class. Then, for whatever reason, be it running out of time or lacking inspiration for how to make Necromancer work in the sequel, they made that little sub-mechanic, which was all they had, essentially into the entire Class - with the major Profession themes in Blood Magic, Death Magic and Curses just remaining as barely functional husks or in name for Traitlines only. And while Scourge many years down the line finally brought some Curse like feeling gameplay back (although wrapped in this weird sand theme) with a, originally, heavy Torment and Cripple focused dark Caster; as well as eventually even a proper Support Blood Caster, it's imo been so butchered and sanitised in the years since with years of ill-conceived nerfs and reworks, that it may be the least enjoyable spec for me to play at this point, which is pretty wild. So while it's not surprising that all these new additions also fail to bring some of that Necro goodness back, considering they were likely created by the same people that butchered what Scourge captured from GW1 Necro in the first place, it's still a perpetual disappointment. There is so much thematic, mechanical and visual potential here - and then all we get is just more hit things with weapon with green particle effects and some Boon Rip somewhere and a Life Siphon, because that's all Necromancer is now, and that's such a bummer to me. That would be the dream, yea.

Mobs aren't smart enough to save up a burst for the second you drop Shroud. If you entered Shroud low on health, just time your exit well with mechanics and quickly re-sustain with Life Siphon/Perforate + Zakiros + Soul Eater + Heal Skill. If you intent to frequently solo content that's more difficult than that can handle (T3+ Fractals, Legendary Bounties, Strikes, what have you), Power builds just aren't designed for that. That's when you go Celestial Condi/Hybrid Scourge or Harbinger, where you have Parasitic Contagion and perma Prot via Sandstorm Shroud (+ Barrier) for Scourge, or Death Magic with Corruptor's Fervor (+ Alchemic Vigor) for Harbinger. These builds do more damage, have more mechanical damage avoidance because they can kite better/have better DPS uptime and have far greater EHP and sustain than what Power builds can achieve. Where Strike Damage shines is in easier solo content such as general OW, as Power Burst's are far quicker there. Forcing Blood into a non Transfusion support build (in PvE at least) is kind of getting the worst of both worlds. You are sacrificing the quick burst of a Power build for easier content, and you still don't get anywhere close to the staying power of a Cele Hybrid for more challenging encounters - while falling far, far behind in DPS in them too. But hey, at the end of the day, to each their own. /E: Personally, I wish Blood Magic was good (outside of Transfusion for Support in Group Play - I lobbied for a BM Trait consolidation and adding of a Rev Battle Scar like solo friendly line for Power Builds in BM for years), I adore it thematically - but as it stands, it just isn't.

This - except for Speed of Shadows, idk why you would take that over a 25% damage increase from keeping up Vuln with Unyielding Blast. Between Dread, Reaper's Onslaught and Chilled to the Bone, you really don't need Celerity Sigils for Quickness. At least get Frailty Sigils then.

@FalsePromises.6398 I'll just say that one, all of Axe, Staff and Dagger MH have been part of, and actively used in, Power DPS Meta builds before - Axe was replaced by post-buff Staff replaced by post-buff Dagger, and Dagger was literally just replaced by Spear. Staff has never been part of any PvE Condi Build - it was 8 years of literally just camping Scepter until Pistol came with EoD, and that's been it. They are most definitely Power Weapons in PvE. Competitive modes are a very different landscape with very different priorities where these descriptors don't even hold that much weight. Secondly, the Dagger OH being useful for BiP transfers, this is mostly a Golem thing to artificially inflate cNecro DPS numbers in Benchmarking. Cleanse has been so powercrept and is so frequent in 10 player squads that it's extremely unreliable - especially with something as slow as Dagger 4. Lastly, as for Necromancer themes, I'm coming from the Original Guild Wars, and early Prophecies (before it was even called that) at that. This was when Minion Master Necro was able to genuinely have 50+ Minion Armies following them around, mowing everything down. When Blood Magic and supportive Wells were actual things, Life Transfers genuine ways to do damage and sustain - and most importantly, where Necro actually had unique and iconic Curses - rather than just sharing in the generic Condition system that GW2 has, where a Condition (Curse) Necro really isn't any different than a Condition Warrior or anything else. For example combining unique Curses such as Reckless Haste, Price of Failure or Insidious Parasite and Spiteful Spirit to make enemies attack and miss wildly while killing themselves and their allies was very different than a simple Warrior Bleed (and ironically Necromancer didn't even really get Confusion access, which is the closest Condition to that iconic Curse combination). Shroud (thankfully) wasn't even a part of Necromancer in GW1 and it was free from that crippling design limitation they introduced in GW2 - so my idea of what Necromancer in the Guild Wars Franchise means is likely very different from you. I fell in love with the Class in GW1, where it was, imo, much more sophisticated and interestingly designed - with far stronger thematic elements.

My problem with that is that other Professions get their holes patched with these new tools being added instead, while Necromancer not only doesn't get new tools, but has it's few niches nerfed/removed. Necro pretty much just had Epidemic cleave, Boon Corruption, Revival Carry, and with PoF's Scourge Barrier Support as niche tools. Epidemic has been dumpstered. Boon Corruption is repeatedly getting removed in favour of plain Boon Removal, which other's do better/easier at this point. Transfusion's Revival/Down teleportation and Ritual of Life's revival power got more than cut into a third. And Barrier support is being added/filled as hole elsewhere as well, be it with Mechanist for Engineer, Specter for Thief, Scepter for Revenant, or even more subtle with Relics like Flock and great low Heal skill CD synergy with Mantra of Solace for Guardian's Firebrand, etc. And I'm not even saying they are doing great work on other Professions, but man have I not been excited for anything on Necro in particular since Reaper and Scourge - which were a long time ago at this point. It's just been the same uninspired stuff packaged in a slightly different but equally lame way. Other than Heal Scourge getting Alac and Prot and becoming a real boy at last (which tbf, could have been done in numerous far better, easier and cleaner designed ways), as well as the Serpent Siphon change, I'm hard pressed to think of anything genuinely transformative or build changing they've done in years. Everything plays and feels the same way and takes the same stuff. Death Spiral, Life Siphon, Perforate, Ghastly Claws (hell, even Dark Barrage on pHarb now).. it's just all blending together, the same tool in the same build for the same purpose with the same feel. I'll try to stop the topic derailment with my frustrations here though.

Power has Greatsword, Axe, Dagger, Sword, Spear and even Staff, which while it was somewhat hybrid, only had it's power coefficients significantly buffed over the years to keep up with Power creep - it can't really be considered hybrid anymore, let alone condi. Condi has Scepter and Pistol. Scepter is barely worth using at this point, with Grasping Dead not having gotten any buffs since 2013 to keep up with Powercreep, and Devouring Darkness actually got nerfed while it already was barely competing with just Pistol camping (the about least "Necromancery" weapon I can imagine). So at best it's a quick swap in and out before and after Shroud. Meanwhile Pistol is technically envisioned as hybrid weapon by Anet - just that hybrid doesn't really exist in a meta sense, outside of Celestial solo/OW builds and such, where Pistol really shines - so it's generally considered a Condi Weapon. GS and Spear being considered condi DPS weapons bc they have chill for Reaper's Cold Shoulder Trait, which then so happens to also be useful for a highly niche build with Deathly Chill is a big stretch. If we look into Off-hands as well (and especially if we count 2-handers twice), the disparity gets even greater, as Condi doesn't have a single 2-hander and really only Torch as off-hand - although Dagger-OH ought to be counted for condi as well, despite how rather pointless and unused it's been over the last nearly decade. Then in terms of Power vs Condi skills we are more at something like 20+ vs 10. Both being plagued by fairly useless or extremely (dead) gamemode specific skills. Then there are ofc Necro support weapons, which are at 0 - or if we are extremely generous,1 with Warhorn, rather than being Power since it's unfortunate "rework". For a Professions with the Primary Themes of Summoning Undead with Death Magic, Supporting themselves and Allies with Blood Magic, and esp. so Cursing and debilitating foes with Curses and conditions - I'd say the actual tools the Profession has at this point are beyond extremely odd. As for what we got of value with the new weapon additions, Sword MH 3 could have just been a Dagger MH 3 rework, adding weapon based mobility there more sensibly instead. Spear is pretty redundant with Dagger/vice versa. Sword AA could have worked nicely for either Staff as our in 2022 established long ranged Power weapon or Axe as medium ranged Power weapon - both suffering from terrible AA's, and Sword OH would have made for a fine Focus 4 rework, making it attractive not just in PvP. Then there would have been plenty room for a Support as well as melee condi addition with SotO and Janthir, which are both not only far less catered to, but also much more thematic to the class. I just find it rather pointless and frustrating to see Weapons repeatedly added which at the very best case simply supersede previous weapons in the same playstyle/niche, dooming either others or themselves to become more obscure left behind trash on the weapons pile - rather than reworking what's already there and struggling, while adding new and interesting tools and actually new ways to play and combine things. Anyway, oh woe is me.

No it's not, Vampiric has a 0.003 Power Scaling and VP 0.0333, while due to being Life Siphons both being unable to Critical Strike, nor scaling with Damage Multipliers (so things like Soul Eater, Death Perception and Spiteful Talisman do not affect them at all). Hence, Blood Magic, iirc, is about a 33% DPS loss over either of SR and Spite, with dropping Spite actually even being the slightly bigger loss unless you have another Fury source. BM does not provide anywhere near enough sustain to justify that. Besides, you literally get morse sustain by drastically increasing your damage with Spite+SR along with options such as Zakiros Relic and Soul Eater, sustain that scales with damage. On top of that, due to having more DPS, you have shorter fights and face less mechanics, aka lower your incoming damage and need for sustain. It's a win win, where as BM is a loss loss. Taking Blood is straight up a massive DPS and minor sustain nerf (compared to available alternatives and factoring in increased ttk and therefor incoming damage).

Just fyi, there is no such thing as "Base Damage" in GW2, so you can leave that out and just note the power coefficient. Wiki skill damage numbers simply are (Average Exotic Weapon Strength) * 1000 Base Power * (Skill coefficient) / (an assumed 2597 target's standard Raid Boss Armor). So for example for WvW balance Gravedigger, we have a 1.82 coefficient and are using a Greatsword, which as Exotic in PvE and WvW has an average weapon strength of 1047,5; which results in (1047.5) * 1000 * (1.82) / (2597) = 734 Tooltip/Wiki Damage. Life Siphon would be (952.5 average exotic dagger strength) * 1000 base power * (2.25 WvW Coefficient) / (2597 Armor) = 825 Damage. So the "Base Damage" you are referring to is derived from the power coefficient (and weapon type/strength), rather than something being multiplied.

Don't go Blood Magic, it's a trap Traitline which sacrifices far too much DPS for far, far too little sustain - meaning longer fights, meaning more incoming damage, meaning even more need for even greater sustain, etc. Beyond that, Blood Bank is an incredibly flawed design which only provides decent value in Barrier when you are taking very low pressure and can remain at max health, hence when you don't need that sustain. Then as soon as you really need your sustain to actually kick in as you are getting pressured, that's exactly when Blood Bank fails as a sustain Trait. Is pretty much on point - the only thing I'd change for solo/OW play is swapping out his Scholar Runes for Surging to get the base Movespeed QoL instead from there (Or use Locust Signet, or waste Spectral Walk proactively for Swiftness), and then use the Zakiros Relic for increased sustain, as well as Soul Eater in Reaper. If you need even more sustain, run Dagger/Sword + Spear - although I also prefer the Sword 3 mobility and optionally range of Sword MH myself, so I'd also recommend his setup first. Utilities I'd probably broadly recommend Well of Darkness/Spectral Armor (one is better trash defense and DPS, the other better against Defiant foes), Spectral Grasp for general trash pull and CC Utility and Spectral Walk for cleanse and traversal Utility. As present in Ryndor's Build, Reaper's Might, Dread, Unyielding Blast, Death Perception and Reaper's Onslaught are pretty much mandatory for Power Reaper - that package allows you to Crit Cap, apply both Might and Vuln and gain Quickness. Everything else plummets your DPS far too much, and "alternatives" such as BM, as mentioned above, are just far too low value at far to great cost. You are better off scaling up your damage, reducing time to kill and with that need for sustain, as well as then scaling your sustain off of your damage with options such as Zakiros Relic and Soul Eater.