Daevhalla.7823

Shroud is vital mechanic to a necromancer as it is. Later iterations changed it (scourge and harb, harb softened the lose of shroud with barrier applicaiton), but it is still a core ability to the necromancer and simply giving it speed or even quickness is not a viable option at all, not only because of all the possible boons to get in a group setting, but because necromancers have very little actual damage mitigating skills (blocks, aegis) and stability application, which would cause them to be stunned (like in current gameplay) and killed off - it would just happen faster than it's happening now. Removing shroud - changing it to something like harb has would not only kill the spec but kitten off the majority of the necromancer player base, becasue as it is right now I believe that next to support scourge, reaper is the most used spec exactly because of the shroud. Why you're finding the reaper playstayle flatter is simply the lack of movement and the easy way they get controlled, especially compared to the harb. The initial idea with reaper was this horrendous monster coming after you, that's even why they made it slower and tougher, but the progression and changes since then took the game in a completely another direction that's why it doesn't hold up, especially with the "balance" changes made in the past year.

Honestly I'd love to see that leap/dash, but you are right that is would truly make necro terrifying and the devs would not want that xD Also it's true that the pull has some really strange interactions.

At this point they could have given us a branch for how useful our "new" weapons turn out.

I admit I'll probably not switch out my main hand for a sword, but on the offhand I enjoy 4 quite a lot, only wish the cast time was reduced.

are you really trying to make out as if "Atleast warrior is X" while in both pve and pvp necromancer has always been the Stronger of the 2 in metas?..... lol, its been years, since i've returned to the game and seen Warrior being consistently good, lol yet every time i come back, Necro is massively overplayed and Beloved. lol Low hp pool and High CDs, Low mobility (til willbender, but willbender takes trade offs there) Just to start necros are actively played by a lot of players probably due to the aesthetic and playstyle it offers, it's true that a halfway decent necromancer doesn't ask for a lot of skill, it is also one with probably the highest solo sustain out in the beginners pve. There is a reason some classes get recommended to newbie players constantly. And yes, in that conversation we were comparing warrior to necro and going "At least warrior gets x when ..." is what you do when you compare features and skills and the like. And I don't know what kind of content you have been playing but a skilled warrior player will outperform a similarly skilled necromancer player most of the time. Just to add, mobility was never (and I mean NEVER) a problem for a guardian. They have a pretty solid access to both swiftness and quickness, (also stability which helps) and many of their utility and weapon skills give them access to shadowstepping, of the top of my head I can think of at least 3 and I don't even play guardian a lot. The problem is that is literally all that you get. 1 mobility on shroud (with an exception on harb) Swords are new, and also don't make sense, putting a leap on a ranged weapon just because the playerbase was asking for some more mobility is not an answer. Stability is tied to elites almost exclusively, with the exception of Well of Power - which has never been a meta and is laughable that you must take (and the shroud on reaper, which you actually need to get to - imagine channeling a 2-3 second mantra that can easily be interrupted mid fight to get to some stability - that is exactly how conveninent that is) There is also spectral walk, wurm and the desert one on scourge and there you have all your utilities filled just to get what other classes can get from their weapons or 1-2 utilities alone.

While that might be true the warrior at least gets some access to active protection, be it through utility or weapon skills (blocks and the like), necromancers get none of that. The closest they get is Corrosive cloud with projectile denial.

Greatsword is great. At most it only needs some minor adjustments in number and maybe a bit faster autoattack. Tho I would not mind GS4 applying stability and/or swiftness, it does feel appropriate there.

Also, I know it's not mentioned often, but the number/amount and accessibility to combo finishers is abysmal. They are hard to come by except if you respec into reaper (which probably has the majority on them) or play underwater.

I partially agree with the OP and I see all the other guys posting the possible solutions and all are partially right. Necros do get *some* acces to mobility (wurm, walk, swell, charge,..) but all except the spectral walk and wurm they are all specilaization specific, which is already a minus, BUT what is worse is if you compare necromancers to other specs. Other specs get all that without having to beg for it. Not only do they get it but often times there's multiple benefits from one ability where necro would have to take one or two utilities to compensate for that. And I know people are calling necro a HP sponge and tbf it is, but what nobody sees is that other classes clearly get either skills that outright block all dmg and conditions, or they make the character invulnerable outright - to all dmg and conditions. Where a necro can die in a second - even with all the hp, others just block or prop the skill - necros have no skills like that - even the shroud skill isn't a stun break, which means the lack of stability is a real weakness (and from what I see necromancers literally have a choice of taking the Well of Power utility, specing to scourge (1) or reaper (2), or being ok that the only source of stability will be an elite - long cooldown and therefore hard to access http://en.gw2skills.net/wiki/boons/stability/) - literally the only thing necros can do in a situation like that is to have a decent support party member or to have a utility bar full of stun breaks - and even those won't help when you're being the focus of 3-4 players with cc abilities. And yes - in PvE this is not that much of a problem, necros are decent for what they do. Great dmg and sustain. But the moment one steps into any kind of PvP situation and the opposing player knows what they are doing, necros are at an alarming disadvantage. I know from experience, it is necros that constantly get targeted first in pvp situations (due to starting off with an empty lifeforce tank) and that usually succeeds and effectively sends them back to spawn. And even if necros would want to have a more roaming build in pvp, while it is doable it's just worse than a thief, ranger, ele or a mesmer (with great mobility skills or a steady swiftness application - with that also being quite bad for necros). And yes, necros have a lot of skills that offset their weaknesses, but where other professions would take one utility to erase two or three of those weaknesses, or trait well into them, necros usually can't do that. Being a hp sponge simply isn't effective in a pvp setting, especially with how dmg scaling is at the moment, and the access players get to cc. And the access other professions get to either block abilities or nulify damage, makes anything a necromancer does pointless. And let's not even mention the casting times, where many other professions simply feel faster and smoother due to lower casting times, even on utilities. I know I often run shouts or spectral abilities just for faster gameplay. Don't get me wrong, necros are great and I love them, but there are some really glaring weaknesses when it comes to pvp especially, and they need to be corrected. Edit: typos

The mechanics seem really interesting and I can't wait to see what the other skills are.

They look amazing and will probably play best with scourge and reaper. And wooooooooooooooooooo! we're getting leap!

Only like half an hour left until the reveal 🤩

Staff just generally needs a rework. In itself it's not exactly bad, but it's extremely non-reactive.... I mean we get 4 marks and only 2 interactive fields and a porly designed finisher (not counting AA). At least something they could do is give it ammo or make the fields interactive with each other (like engi shortbow). In case of necro mobility, on base there's spectral walk and the wurm with some more options on harb and scourge. What we're missing the most is stability application, because as far as I remember right now we only have 1 source of that - a Well, with like 1 more on each spec. Which isn't a lot. And without that necros become perma controlled quite easily. And while it would be interesting to have a port on staff it would be better if they just repaired Sand Swell and make it actually functional (too long cast time atm, too short range).

I imagine they're going down the true historical templar route and burning everything down around them 😂

So like the guy before me posted, the safest bet is to just try out different specs and drop the minion skills. The closest you'll get to minionmancer (and maybe because of that the most similar in gameplay) might be reaper with it's minion shout utility. They are aggresive spec and you have to remember to just use shroud as often as possible (I know a lot of players trying out necro for the first time like to save their shroud, but don't do that - just spam it). They are tanky, with great cleave, and if you want some non-meta support (especially if you're playing in a group with sparse healing and support) it's fun to take Blood magic as one of the traitlines - shroud skill 4 healing whirl xD (this is totally just my opinion). Scourge does lend to a more static gameplay and you have to be carefull with life force managment so you always have some sort of barrier generation going on as defense. It's great for support and condi play. just know your positioning, have some feeling for timing and a good build and you'll do great. For harb I can't really help much. It's ok class to play, decently mobile, but I sadly favour reaper over it so hopefully you'll get more info from others.