Dadnir.5038

I love hearing blatantly false statements like this. I love people who dont understand balance trying to call me out. They're literally nothing but decappers and +1s at best in pvp and that extends to wvw. If you get beaten by a thief 1v1 you got extremely outplayed. I'm not a good thief, far from it and I mostly like to use every single profession but, in a sudden fight in WvW I have no issue killing easily single foes. The stealth, mobility and, yes, burst help a lot due to the fact that you got the surprise effect, the time to plan your fight, weight your foe, the ability to close gap quickly, a decent burst and, if things goes south, you got the tools to retreat quickly. That said, saying that I outplay someone by doing this much would be extremly arrogant, it's more capitalizing on the strenght of the profession than outplaying anyone. Lol the necro main is a better thief than thief players as usual lmao. I played thief 4 yrs and I know I'm definitely not great at it. If thief tries 1v1 a competant holo,soulbeast,warrior/spellbreaker list goes on it will need to disengage or die unless the thief player severely outplayed those classes. U can run behind a scrapper or fb unloading on them indefinitely and they just out heal u. I'm sry but these days if ur easlily winning 1v1 with thief than ur either playing noobs,ur a thief master or ur not being honest. I use reaper alot in wvw and most thiefs are my dinner except the few that can kite. Players that have mained the class for years didnt choose the boring role of decapper and limit themselves to +1 engagements due to it high proficiency in 1v1 lol they know most classes are to much a risk to try 1v1 due to most classes being in favor of winning the fight and if u do manage to win a 1v1 it most likely took too long which is funny thief being a glassy burst spec. It's always great to hear though people that dont play thief often are great at 1v1 with them as always seems the case on the forums lmaoWho said that I was a necro main? I said it, I use all professions, in fact I use 1 profession 1 day and the next day it will be another in an eternal cycle. There sure are professions that concern me more than other but if I had to choose 1 profession that I enjoy playing more than another it would be mesmer and not necromancer. And because I tend to enjoy mesmer gameplay more than the other professions, I don't comment on mesmers buff/nerf unless it truly break the gameplay of the profession (when I say mesmer, it's core mesmer or at most chrono, just for the 25% movement speed). Let's be honest, WvW is filled with average players and the "competant" players that you point out are rare if not inexistant most of the time. Thief isn't nearly as bad as you picture it and it can definitely hold it's own against those specialization you fear. NB.: Oh and stop trying to make this a PvP issue, this is a WvW thread where, again, the thief stealth is an incredibly useful tool for "sudden 1v1". Unless you are taken by surprise and 1 shoted in WvW, as a thief you can basically reset the fight whenever you want. And it's not even close to be difficult to do.

I love hearing blatantly false statements like this. I love people who dont understand balance trying to call me out. They're literally nothing but decappers and +1s at best in pvp and that extends to wvw. If you get beaten by a thief 1v1 you got extremely outplayed. I'm not a good thief, far from it and I mostly like to use every single profession but, in a sudden fight in WvW I have no issue killing easily single foes. The stealth, mobility and, yes, burst help a lot due to the fact that you got the surprise effect, the time to plan your fight, weight your foe, the ability to close gap quickly, a decent burst and, if things goes south, you got the tools to retreat quickly. That said, saying that I outplay someone by doing this much would be extremly arrogant, it's more capitalizing on the strenght of the profession than outplaying anyone.

You mean there was a time when the player base was worse? By far, in 2012/2013. Well, at least at this time players where willing to learn and try, now they are only willing to follow other steps/builds. I think it's enough to say that it's worse now. You're directly contradicting yourself. How does "following other steps/builds" not show a willingness to learn and try? That's exactly what learning and trying means. I guess he means many people just play builds from metabattle and get carried by those specs without knowing proper rotations, compositions and stuff.Exactly. In 2012/2013 there were no such thing as metabattle, players were building by themselve, not following blindly the most op build released by other. It was a lot healthier.

You mean there was a time when the player base was worse? By far, in 2012/2013.Well, at least at this time players where willing to learn and try, now they are only willing to follow other steps/builds. I think it's enough to say that it's worse now.

If I had to choose a single one... I'd add to beyond the veil a leap finisher when leaving shroud and modify the prot so that it's given to allies instead of minions. Otherwise, there is plenty of minor or major change that I'd want to see but you got to choose a single one, that's the rule :)

Unfortunately, I believe this is the kind of misleading sentence that ANet usually use to raise the hype. The players understand "introducing new weapon type in the game as a whole" while the dev mean "introducing new weapon type which are new to the specific profession but still in the existing pool of existing weapon". The issue with spears is that they are tightly tied to underwater and when you try to equip them they are automatically sloted as underwater weapons. They would have to introduce exceptions and modify the UI and we all know that for them the idea of touching the UI is like the idea of conquering the Everest.

Of course they will, they seem to love working on it. Next balance patch they will say it's fixed, you'll test it and there will be different issues.

What's fun is that in PvE toughness draw agro while death magic (arguably the minion traitline) give you toughness. Better, a trait give you more toughness the more minions you got. Either minions aren't meant to tank anything or death magic's traits aren't well thought. (You don't have to choose only one option, you can take both! It's free!)

Shadow Caster: A thief e-spec that replace stealth by "shadow", rely heavily on reveal as both personnal buff and foes debuff. (while in "shadow" the thief is visible and thus lose access to the stealth attack however reveal do not prevent him from entering in shadow). With the "stealth" traits from shadow art, shadow could become a very interesting buff for a resilient thief while capitalizing on reveal as both personnal buff and foes debuff could open some possibility of a thief less bursty but doing good sustain damage Witherer: A necromancer "dodge" e-spec that focus on draining foes' endurance instead of dodging (in PvE, this effect would deal damage to the breakbar). Legionnaire: A warrior that replace it's burst by chorus based on the off-hand or 2 handed weapon they wield, main hand gun as weapon (the closest weapon to GW1 paragon's javelin) and a chant/aria on F2 giving bonus each time you launch a chorus based on how you trait. Hunter: A revenant e-spec based on norn background (semi-animal transform on F2). Idealy it would involve axe main hand and the Owl as a legend. Pharmacist: An Engineer e-spec that use drug implant to mimic other profession's signets. Exorcist: A guardian e-spec using dual guns or riffle with a focus on self buff instead of party/raid wide buffs. Minstrel: A mesmer e-spec whose shatter skills are replaced by channeled "songs" with different effects (duration of the channeling effect based on the number of clones dissipated) Archonte: An elementalist e-spec with a magic transform that hide it's HP bar (a lot like the necromancer's shroud). It would build it's ressource by switching element, Skills of the transform would basically be arcane skills able to add effect from the current attunment if traited. Hivemaster: A ranger's e-spec that replace the pet by a set of swarm that are "determined" (invuln to damage) but deal next to no damage. F2 passively buff the hivemaster like a signet, focus or shield as weapon and a set of insects (minions) as utility. Utilities like weapons are optionnal in an e-spec build so the swarm would already be good enough material to create a ranger's zerg build.

how about no How about yes. But this would need much more work to be done. Like giving necro blocks and/or evades on weapon or utility skills But that would make necro much more easier to balance Death shroud is necros "shield". If you want to play with blocks and evades go play a warrior. Removing the second health bar would remove necros unique playstyle. Blocks and evades are inherently better because not taking damage is better than soaking up the damage. However, that doesn't mean shroud doesn't have any advantages. You can achieve much higher defense up time with shroud if used properly, and you can be rather sloppy with the timing. Whereas blocks and evades have to be timed precisly, and typically have longer cooldowns with shorter uptime (with some exceptions i.e. mesmer). What shroud needs is some form of status reduction. We already get 50% damage reduction while in shroud. We need a similar reduction in control condition and stun duration. Because, while shroud can be effective at blocking incoming damage, it does absolutely nothing against incoming stuns and conditions unlike blocks and evades. There should be a 50% reduction in the duration of incoming control conditions and CC's while in shroud. Next, an inherent weakness with shroud is the 10s cool down that you are defenseless for (other than two dodges which you should save for this period). During this time the necro will take damage before the next shroud, and since there isn't reliable ways to heal in shroud your primary health pool will continue to drop until you are dead. For this there are a few options: Increase the healing capabilities of certain traits and add more traits that let the necro self heal in shroud. (i.e. increase lifesteal heal while in shroud, make blighter's boon a core trait, and allow parasitic contagion to heal in shroud). Allow the necro to be healed in shroud at a reduced amount. Give access to utilities in shroud. Utility heal is affected by reduction in healing while in shroud. Give necro access to more mobility in shroud so that they can properly disengage to drop shroud and heal. (i.e. make dark path a ground target teleport, and give death's charge a flip over that teleports the reaper back to the casting location)The worst weakness of the shroud as a "2nd health bar" is that a lot of traits depend on you being in shroud to be effective and this 2nd health bar cripple heavily those traits by being depleted by your foes in an attempted to mitigate damage. However you put it, the shroud shouldn't have this duality of main defensive mean and offensive mean. It force ANet to keep the necromancer in mediocrity. Honnestly, remove this unsightly "2nd health bar", transfert the damage mitigation provided by the shroud to barrier via a minor trait in Death magic, add a few mean to build barrier on the core skills, tweek scourge's barrier value accordingly and "voilà". This make the "defensive" traitline into a defensive traitline and reduce the survivability of offensive build significantly which in itself justify the ability to be healed while in shroud, see your utility CD when in shroud and even hope for damage potential at the same level than other professions (since you now need to build and gear toward defense for your defense). And the best is that fondamentally, you don't touch at the necromancer's philosophy to mitigate damage via health point, The shroud just no longer is your main defensive asset always here whatever build you want to play.

Why magi gear over shaman gear? Is it really worth it to sacrifice damage for a bit of extra healing power?

Well, anyway objectively, a tank fill no niche in PvE. In PvE you tend to ask a support to tank, not a tank to tank otherwise the reaper would have had it's hours of glory in HoT. "PvE" niches are incredibly restrictive and always targeting maximum efficiency, there is just no room there for a tank that just "tank". The saddest part is that when a spec become good at "tanking", it still stay unwelcome in PvE and often become a target for nerfs due to PvP.

I have an inkling that this spec would be called: "gambit"ANet love X-men ;)

Ultimately, there is a need for a losing team to have a winning team.

I'd put myself in the shoes of the asuras and sell high tech weapons prototype to both faction. Why bother with petty things when guinea pigs come and pay me to be the ones to test my products.

More than e-spec, it's more a few mechanisms that I'd like to see introduced by the mea of e-spec: Engineer: An e-spec more focused on "drugs" with "implants" as utilities that work like signet does for other professions.Necromancer: An e-spec that "animate" the shroud, making it a "minion" and glyphs having similar effect than the ranger's shouts. An e-spec where the necromancer drain endurance from it's foes and focus heavily on weakness. (both e-specs can probably be fused into a single one)Ranger: A zoo e-spec based on insects, named the swarmmaster. The pet would be replaced by swarm and utilities would be insects minions.Revenant: A "norn" e-spec with the owl as the legend. F2 become an upkeep transformation and the owl grant utilities with some stealth.Thief: An e-spec that replace stealth by a shadow armor.Warrior: A paragon like e-spec with the burst replaced by shouts and the addition of a few "refrain" on F2-F3-F4.

Well... 99% of the DH longbow's issues come from the cast time, like most of the issues you find on weapon kits. Reducing puncture shot cast time to 1/2 would make the AA a lot more pleasant to use. Symbole of energy already need to be targeted, reducing the cast time shouldn't be an issue. Hunter ward is a copy of the ranger's LB 5th skill but somehow end up being worst, there is a need for improvement here.

Added change suggestions for death shroud.

Added a 2nd possibility to replace Lich form.

i get what you were trying to do but you did it in the laziest/thoughtless way possible. you seemingly looked at lich form in isolation rather then as a part of necro. it also doesn't help that "grim specter" is basically "life transfer" ++ It's difficult to look at something that have such a short uptime as part of anything "but iz hard" is the excuse of the lazy, miss me with that weak sauce.Let's reword things then: Elite transformation skills tend to have short uptime which make building familiarity with them very difficult. In particular, lich form skills were even totally change from a "mark" form to "conventional" skills, destroying any past effort to build familiarity. If you add to that that balance history had 4 "elite transformations" already returned to digital dust and that transforming into a big and clumsy green bibendum isn't really what I picture as profession's defining, I think I have a background solid enough to justify a more simple and accessible form of elite skill to replace Lich form. next you're gonna tell me that plaguelands needs to be replaced with a 5 target version of "corrupt boon" and flesh golem replaced with 5 bone minions. (bad comparison because at least they're better version of skills in their skilltype rather then a skill all core necros have) Well, you've said it all...

i get what you were trying to do but you did it in the laziest/thoughtless way possible. you seemingly looked at lich form in isolation rather then as a part of necro. it also doesn't help that "grim specter" is basically "life transfer" ++ It's difficult to look at something that have such a short uptime as part of anything while having grim specter being an elite version of life transfert is in fact quite a good thing for an, you know, "elite skill".

First of all, I appreciate the feedbacks, thanks! Lich form: Outside the fact that I don't like the visual and feel of the transformation, for me 99% of the issue with this transformation is "accessibility". So, Yes I am dumbing down the process. ;) . @Sigmoid.7082 : Still I'd prefer to keep a bit of stability amongst the necromancer's tools. But, like you say it's only partially adressed, only in fractal and like I say, the more player you got bashing at a single foe, the less impact the mechanism get. Bringing more boons in PvE objectively won't make boon corruption better in fight where you are 10 players facing a single foe, in fact it might just make things worse. In GW1 where mobs were designed around having "boons" and supporting each other, boon corruption was adapted, but in GW2 mobs just aren't close to be designed the right way to make this work. Also, power damage on boon corruption is bound to create issues in PvP/WvW leading the kind of mechanism to rot into a non crit thing while PvE would need the thing to be able to crit as hard as possible. And since ANet's policies is to avoid mechanism splits, it make the idea extremly unlikely. It isn't "Passive invincibility", it's "Passive power damage immunity". The difference is huge and the counter is condition damages. Also, most professions have similar traits with ranger's, thief's and elementalist's having almost the same degree of efficacity. Don't spit on warriors because they are an easy target to spit on, please! This kind of trait is pretty common in game. Dark defiance was a flat buff to the traitline. More access to protection and potentially 20% more defense against condition damage. Yes it would be neet to have better access to protection like guardian's hammer auto attack but the necromancer is far from being "bad" at generating protection.

1- How to fix boon corruption in PvE? Boon corruption, and more generally boon hate, in PvE is and has always been into an awkward state for 2 reasons, mobs generally don't need boons and the ability suffer from tremendous diminishing return as the number of player attacking a single foe is high. In order to fix this, I think the best way is to modify defiance/breakbar in such a way that it interact with "boon hate". Thus, here, the main idea is to make it so that stricking a defiant or an enemy in breakbar phase with a boon riping effect create a "feedback" despite the fact that no boons seem to be there. With this in mind, here is what I suggest: On defiant foes, boon hate act like it strike on either vigor or regeneration.On breakbar phase foes, boon hate act like it strike at stability.Note: It might seem that such a change would only benefit the necromancer but, in reality, it would benefit any professions with effects that depend on boon ripping. Right now, I see revenant and spellbreaker also being positively impacted by such a change without pushing those 2 professions to unwanted height. 2- How to fix dark fields? The necromancer is the unfortunate owner of the generally unpopular dark fields. The lack of popularity of these field's combo effects coupled with the necromancer's low ability to use reliable combo finishers tend to make those more of an hindrance than anything. However, I think that the combo system deserve to be revived and that this is especially the case for the necromancer since it would give more depth to it's gameplay that often seem very basic to profane's eyes. My suggestion here won't be to directly change the current effect of these combos. Instead, what I'll suggest is simple changes promoting the use of dark fields for the necromancer in the form of simple "specialization" traits affecting your combos in dark fields. My suggestions: Reaper: Change chilling nova into chilling sigh: your combos into dark fields also apply chill (0.5 second) on foes affected.Scourge: Change demonic lore effect into: your combos into dark fields also apply torment (4 seconds) on foes affected. Desert shroud now also pulse a whirl finisher every second.Note: This probably wouldn't increase much the skill cap but it should be able to increase build diversity and make dark field a bit more popular in necromancer's builds. This can also become a signature flavor trait for each necromancer's elite specialization. 3- How to fix lich form? Lich form isn't really an issue per se, however, like all elite transformations, it doesn't really have a place in this game. Transformations, by design, capitalize to much on flavor and are only used when they allow some form of gimmicks which often aren't good news for the game when players start to abuse them. The simplest way to deal with lich form would be, in my opinion to just replace it with an "improved" grim specter. Grim specter: Now also grant 1 stack of stability for 1 second every second. CD 90 seconds.The "hard" way would be to create a new skill that would embody the "spectral" skills' purpose (LF sustain and mostly survivability, the current Lich form being terrible at LF sustain). We could, thus, end up with something like: Phylactery: For the next 6 seconds you focus your health into your phylactery and can't be criticaly hit. Periodically drain life force from foes around you while under the effect of Phylactery. CD 90s.Sub-skill: Life spring: break your phylactery granting barrier (2k) to allies around you.Note: all in all a much needed change in term of visual pollution in combat. I'd even suggest a lich tonic for those that may be nostalgic for the transformation, it would last longer and fit more into the "role play" than having the transformation as a "skill". 4- How to fix Scourge? Scourge hoover between a balanced state and an imbalanced state which is difficult to assess. On one side the scourge is an oppressive existence and on another, it a mediocre specialization. The main reason behind this state is how, as a good brother of the shroud, all ecompassing the shade mechanism is. This versatility of the shade mechanism is what is oppressive and at the same time "weak". My suggestion, here might be seen as a big "nerf" since I'll suggest to move shade skills out of "soft control" and more toward "plain support" by replacing manifest sand shade conditions by an aoe heal and a whirl finisher. In essence, I suggest: Manifest sand shade: now heal and create a whirl finisher when summoned and on shade skill use.Desert shroud: No longer deal damage and torment, instead it pulse protection on surrounding allies every second. (PvP/WvW CD turned back to 20s)Serpent siphon: Change the way it work to be similar to how the current summon madness work with the serpent counting as "minions". The serpent won't explode but shot toward their target and seek to hit it once before dying.Note: This would help a lot in specializing the scourge into a support instead of the blur it is right now. 5- How to fix Minion/death magic? Right now, death magic is in a way better shape that it used to be. With soul reaping defense being heavily impacted by the last nerf, this traitline reaped some nice buff and is on the verge of becoming a strong asset for the necromancer. To further push the line on the right spot I suggest 2 simple trait changes and a few change on the minion's active skills: Beyond the veil: The necromancer no longer grant protection to it's minions but to surrounding allies when he exit the shroud.Flesh of the master: The health bonus to minion become baseline. The trait is renamed Will of the master and now allow the necromancer to perform a combo finisher based on the minion's active skill used. (blood fiend/wurm and bone minion's active skill create a blast finisher where the necromancer's stand. Using bone fiend's active skill create a whirl finisher at the necromancer's feet. Using shadow fiend and golem's active skill allow the necromancer to perform a leap finisher.)Edit:6- How to fix Death shroud? The death shroud never really felt "good" to use and with Reaper shroud and then scourge's shade mechanism, the limit of this mechanism continued to feel more and more like a slap in the face. Death shroud skills don't need a damage buff, in itself these skill already hit hard enough. While it might be good to have some skills reworked/improved, I think that what death shroud need is mainly some CD shave. Dark path: CD reduced from 15 seconds to 10 seconds.Life transfert: CD reduced from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.Note: Dark path's clumsiness and overall weak power have always been a concern for the necromancers, that's why this small change only aim at balancing the power between the various "shroud skill#2". As for Life transfert's change, it's the same, the skill don't need fancy high damage, it just need to be competitive with the other skills when used coupled with the trait: transfusion.

You'll have to tell me where you find "near perma protection" in DM. 3 seconds of prot every 10s (if you flash shroud) isn't going to put you close to "near perma protection". It's even worse in PvP an WvW where it can just be removed or corrupted. The point is that Blood magic still largely outsustain any damage mitigation that DM can provide you and barely have prot uptime on top of that. If you need toughness, you gear for it, the extra toughness given by the traitline isn't going to do you any good. In fact it even end up being an issue for PvE content where this extra toughness is not welcome.

Still on a crazy idea, I'll expand my wish for 2019 (note that the changes suggested need to be all implemented at the same time to make sense): For Core necromancer: The active skill of summon blood fiend, taste of death, now perform a blast finisher.The active skill of summon bone fiend, rigor mortis, now have it's projectiles performing a 100% combo finisher.The active skill of summon shadow fiend, haunt, now perform a leap finisher.The active skill of summon flesh golem, charge, now perform a leap finisher.The Death magic trait Flesh of the master no longer grant toughness per minion, instead, whenever their minions (skill category) perform a combo finisher, this finisher is also performed by the necromancer. (it doesn't duplicate the skill, only the finisher).Reaper's trait chilling nova now imbue the reaper's combo finisher with chilling energy when they are used in dark fields, providing additionnal effects. Ennemies affected by your combo finishers in dark fields now are also chilled for 1s. Scourge's trait demonic lore no longer apply burn on torment but, instead, imbue the scourge's combo finisher with burning energy when they are used in dark fields. Ennemies affected by your combo finishers in dark field now are also burnt for 2s (extra: Torment's increased damage by 33% is also removed, instead desert shroud now perform a whirl combo finisher making you and your shades send a bolt every second)