Necromancer’s Identity Crisis: How ArenaNet is Flailing with WvW Balance

[Apokriphos.7042]

It’s becoming increasingly clear that ArenaNet doesn’t know what to do with the Necromancer in WvW. Each patch seems like a halfhearted attempt is made, but the changes often contradict the profession’s core mechanics or weaken its identity. The upcoming October 8th balance patch, specifically the nerf to Extirpate, perfectly illustrates this. This skill, introduced as one of the selling points for Necromancer mains in recent expansions, is now losing its Extirpation debuff and replacing it with Weakness. This constant rework of Necromancer’s core strengths reflects, to me at least, a broader trend of ArenaNet throwing darts at a board when it comes to necromancer balance.

Major Issues:
Boon Corruption Nerfs:

• Necromancer was once the king of boon corruption, with abilities like Corrupt Boon actually used in wvw (imagine!) to dismantle boon-heavy classes like Firebrand. But the effectiveness of these skills has been steadily reduced. Extirpate, which was designed to counter boon-stacking, is now set to inflict Weakness rather than the tepid Extirpation debuff. In an era where Firebrands, Tempests, and other boon-centric builds dominate WvW, this nerf completely strips Necromancer of its ability to compete with the Spear.
• Solution: Reverting or enhancing the boon corruption capabilities is essential. Boon-stacking has only grown more prominent, and Necromancer should be the primary counter. Put it on another weapon, or restore corruption functionality elsewhere, such as the dagger or staff, or increase it on the scepter.

Shroud and No True Invulnerability:

• The core identity of Necromancer revolves around Shroud, but its dependence on life force makes it both unreliable and outdated in WvW. Life force depletes too quickly under focus fire (which is how all combat happens in the much pushed 'zerg combat format', making shroud ineffective as a defensive option. Even with the tiny upcoming buffs to core necro Life Transfer and Overflowing Thirst, the class still lacks a reliable invulnerability like Mist Form or Distortion. In large-scale fights, Necromancer has no true "panic button" for surviving burst damage.
• Solution: Add invulnerability frames when entering shroud or reduce life force drain in WvW.

Low Stability Access:

• Stability is a must-have in WvW, yet Necromancer struggles to maintain it. Trail of Anguish provides a brief window of stability, but compared to classes like Guardian and Warrior, who have near-permanent uptime, Necromancer is easily locked down by crowd control. 
• Solution: Necromancer needs more reliable stability access. Buffing core shroud skills to add some stability and reducing the cooldown on Trail of Anguish could make a significant difference in preventing CC lockdowns, a boring and predictable outcome in small scale necro fights.

Celestial Gear Nerf:

The upcoming nerf to celestial gear will disproportionately affect hybrid Necromancer builds, which rely on celestial for balanced sustain and damage in light of no true invuln vs focus fire and minimal mobility in comparison to other roaming specs. Builds like Scourge and Harbinger, already lacking in defensive options, will struggle even more once these stat reductions go live. I assume due to the easy pervasiveness of cleanse, power will become (even more) the only viable option, which other classes are far more successful at - with more capable tools. 

Lastly, necromancer’s weapon skills have not kept pace with the changing meta. Staff, once a staple for ranged utility, has minimal use besides its range (due to lack of better options) and lacks function in modern WvW. Dagger is too slow and lacks burst potential. Even the slight buffs coming in the October patch won’t solve the core issue: Necromancer’s weapons are too slow and don’t hit hard enough to be relevant in fast-paced, large-scale engagements.
To solve this, Anet should buff Staff, provide for stronger boon rips, and increase weapon damage and impact overall. Improve Dagger and Axe for faster execution and better burst potential.

Harbinger, the latest specialization with its soon to be removed cele roaming build, is crippled by its reliance on projectiles. Most of its damage and the latest weapons (pistol/sword) are easily countered by the common projectile reflects and blocks present in WvW. With so much of its damage mitigated by reflects, Harbinger struggles to have a use in larger group fights.
Solution: Either allow Harbinger’s projectiles to pierce reflects or reduce its reliance on them by reworking key skills to be unblockable or AOE-based.

 

Ultimately, Necromancer is suffering from a clear lack of direction, with ArenaNet making repeated adjustments that seem to weaken the profession's role without giving it any new strengths. The upcoming October 8th patch is yet another example of this, stripping away core mechanics while offering tepid buffs that don’t address the real problems. It’s like giving a Necro an extra 1% life force—helpful, but not enough when the whole system is broken.

If ArenaNet wants to keep Necromancer relevant in WvW, they need to stop patching over the symptoms and start addressing the core issues. Shroud needs invulnerability options, boon corruption needs to be restored, and weapons and stability access need serious reworks. Without these changes, Necromancer risks falling further into irrelevance, becoming the "newbie trap" profession that offers little utility or excitement in competitive.

Edited September 16 by Apokriphos.7042

[Brujeria.7536]

I agree with most of your points. Granted its not just WvW. At this point the class has so many issues that all are being ignored. I would sum them up in 3 big parts: Traits, Skills and Shroud

1. Traits:

A lot of dead or wasted and outdated trait slots. They are in every traitline. Either traits that are simply weak, or that try to play into a class feature or condition that isnt there. This fact also gets amplified by the strange weapon skill sets. The traits should focus more around what makes necro unique: Life Siphon, Corrupting Conditions and the actual conditions its causing. Like for example Warrior has traits centered around movement skills and stuns which are very plentyfull spread across all weapons. That kinda glue is missing. Like sure a trait that increases poison damage and gives toughness if causing poison sounds good on paper, but if you lack skills and tools that cause poison in most builds its wasted. Over time the traits have derailed from the skill effects by alot.

Spite:

- All minor traits revolve around hitting a low health target which is simply not in the meta in wvw. Neither roaming nor blob fights.

- Spitefull Talisman - rev has a similar trait that gives flat 5% strike damage and 5% if the foe is without boons. There will be no foe without boon in wvw or pvp.

-Chill of Death - a very conditional boon remove thats uncontrollable at times and cant even crit on the power line.

- Awaken the Pain - a very questionable payoff for this trait. Just why have a negative downside? It makes no sense and makes the trait less desireable for condi builds.

- Signets of Suffering - its a very weak trait and basicly a noob trap. Necromancer doesnt have low cooldown signets or multi hit ones. Also no elite signet, the heal signet is bad and one of the signets doesnt even hit a enemy target. So we are left with one signet where you kinda can get some value by hitting up to 5 targets once.

- Dread - One of many traits that play around fear. Yet fear isnt really a core mechanic. We have very few skills applying it, and also its the "worst" CC as its also a condition and can easily be cleansed or negated altogether.

-Spiteful Spirit - Why cant this trait crit? Why cant it have an additional thing that each boon removed / corrupted deals power damage? 

 

Curses:

- Target the Weak - why cant this trait have 1% increased condi + strike damage and 1% crit rate instead of 2% crit per condi? Other somewhat similar traits are split like that to have better synergy with power builds across different professions.

- Insidious Disruption - this trait is very outdated.

- Chilling Darkness - The trait is nice on paper but necro has no easy on demand blind. In fact we have very few skills that inflict blind at all.

- Master of Corruption - A trait that does only reduce CD is pretty boring and also corruption spells are not really strong. Epidemic has been nerfed to the ground and Corrupt Boon has a very long cooldown baseline because they keep this trait in mind, while corrupting two boons also isnt really amazing either.

- Parasitic Contagion - Why do we get punished for using our class mechanic? Besides that in WvW your conditions wont stick at all. For some reason also all food and runes are so potent in reducing the duration. -25% condi duration on runes -20% condi durations on food. There is no 25% strike damage negation rune. Also sigils: on swap 3 condis removed on a 10 second cooldown. They could rework this trait to something like " heal for each stack of a condition applied" or to be more thematic " steal health for each stack of a condition applied". That way this trait would be usefull for power builds that apply more vulnerability and other non damaging boons.

- Terror - One of many traits that play around fear. Yet fear isnt really a core mechanic. We have very few skills applying it, and also its the "worst" CC as its also a condition and can easily be cleansed. Yeah i know base chain fear nec. Is a meme build. But overall we have 2 grandmasters revolve around fear and thats too gimicky.

- Lingering Curse - The concept of a trait that changes a weapon skill generally speaking is very good. However, necro scepter is bad. Its a very old weapon. And also how bad must a weapon be that you can increase the base duration of conditions by 50%? That automaticly means that scepter baseline must be kept bad. They could go fancy like " conditions you apply cant be cleansed for the first 3 seconds or something"

Death Magic:

Carapace: Its a good design but realisticly only condi builds can make full use of it as our power weapons for the most part have very low condition application and the other two methods of applying it (causing poison or removing condition) can very hardly get you to high numbers to feel any effect. I feel like all three grandmasters should play around different ways to cause carapace for different playstyles.

- Minion Traits: Why are three traits of our defensive traitline all occupied by minion traits? There is no single utility skill line in the game that has that many traits and its also, from a gameplay perspective, the most boring utility skill line.

- Putrid Defense: Again a trait thats nice on paper but is heavily hindered by the low amount of poison application in the rest of the class kit. Its also questionable why it doesnt work like "poisoned enemys deal 5% less strike damage to you" instead of the damage increase. 

- Unholy Sanctuary: The heal is very weak, shroud camping really is not a thing, also the trait has basicly no use on harbringer. Why cant this trait kinda play into carapace? Like if we would have a reasonable way to get carapace other than condition application this trait could heal per stack of carapace gained or heal per stack of carapace while in shroud or double the life force of Soul Comprehension when entering shroud + provide a burst heal based on carapace stacks when leaving shroud.

 

Blood Magic:

- Overflowing Thirst: That trait is bad/boring by design. Lifeforce is part of our class mechanic, there shouldnt be such a trait when you could just increase the lifeforce gain on the weapon. On top of that dagger is a really outdated weapon

-Blood Bond: Honestly necromancer doenst have that much bleed application in most builds. Now if the treshold would be so low that a single corrupt would be enough to trigger it, it would maybe be worth it.

- Life from Death: I dont understand why this trait doenst heal the necromancer. It makes no sense.

- Banshee's Wail: Again a weapon trait with a rather boring, but high numeric increase. That warhorn is very bad since the last big changes doenst help here. If this trait would be baseline warhorn would still be bad. Normally a trait that really just affects a weapon with no added benefit is a big hitter. Thats not the case here.

- This traitline is missing a big grandmaster trait that plays around the multi-hit /  life siphon playstyle that brings it all together. Maybe after the Transfusion nerf they can set it to master tier and come up with a new one?

 

Soul Reaping:

- Gluttony - Life force shouldnt be so scarce that this trait does matter because its a class mechanic that already is gated via multiple cooldowns. This skill should reduce shroud recharge by 10% instead.

- Soul Marks - Another - on paper - very potent trait for a single weapon. But that also does mean the weapon sucks without the trait (which it really does)

- Vital Persistence  - I dont know why i would every pick this or how this thematicly makes sense. Should be something like "when gaining lifeforce you also gain x% of it as health" or "when gaining lifeforce while having full lifeforce you get xyz % of the overflow as health. Would make a lot more sense. This trait as it is belongs into bloodmagic.

- Fear of Death - the final baseline trait that plays around fear. For a master trait its okay as the occasional lifeforce can help. Most of the time its not worth it though, as necromancer lacks flat damage increases so badly that Soul Barbs is almost mandatory.

- Eternal Life - the trait feels weak as a grandmaster trait, especially because each time you leave shroud you do have a 10 second cooldown and in that 10 seconds you will normally get more life force than this trait could give you due to the low treshold in PvP and WvW. This would be the place to add some stability or real defense

 

- Reaper:

- Decimate Defenses: It would be great if that skill could be split so that it benefits condi builds also in some way.

- Deathly Chill: This trait means that there could be some kind of condi build for reaper but the trait really is not good. Most of the time, if you wanna play a condi build you are better of using Reapers Onslaught alongside Dhuumfire.

 

 

2. Skills:

The main problem in m eyes is, that the weapon skills - often on the same weapon - do not harmonize together. Also the condition distribution is questionable and most of all weapon skills feel "slow". Like they are still pre HoT. With real cast times, aftercasts and no instant cast skills. I mean it can kinda work to have "jack of all trade" weapons (basicly thats what elementalist is by default) or to have specified weapons. But for necro its weird.

 

Staff:

- A spamy weapon with the worst AA is a very bad combination. The weapon deals too little power damage to be used as a power weapon, too little condition damage to be used as a condition weapon, and too little "support" to be called a support weapon. In these times you cant say regeneration and chill is any kind of support. Without the trait you will most likely have lifeforce problems.

 

Spear:

- The newest weapon and also a weird one. Its now the third weapon with an AA that chills with no noteable effect which is a bad trend because it automaticly makes condi builds worse and limits the options. The burst skill has a life siphon effect that doenst scale with power, the gapcloser and skill 3 deal no damage (by todays standard you could tripple the damage of skill 3 and 4 and it would still be only "meh". I can maybe understand why they dont want to make the projectile deal big damage, but they could at least add damage if you teleport.) and Extirpate is being nerfed. Its also the same weakness / chill / vuln condi combination that gets really boring and has no real trait interaction. Like if there was a trait that increases damage done to weakened / chilled foes or something there would be some synergy but there simply isnt.

 

Axe:

- A weapon with a lot of "if". IF the target has a high number of vuln stacks you could deal good damage. But using the AA untill you have a good number you are dead because nowadays every class can instant teleport or jump you within 0,3 seconds leaving you with no or very mediocre damage. In fact most other classes can deal ranged power dps without any restrictions (see Longbow ranger, Longbow Guardian, Greatsword Mesmer, Spear Warrior, etc. This is the closest we got to a "pure" ranged power weapon up to this point) Unholy Feast: the same, IF the target is low you might get decent damage. IF there are multiple low targets you might get good damage. This weapon is the prime example of an outdated "old" weapon used then when the gameflow was a lot slower.

 

Scepter:

- Another old weapon that is weak without its trait. Grasping dead could use some love (like 1 or 2 seconds of immob on cast?) I also dont like the high cooldown of Feast of Corruption when traited. But at least thats one of the few ways to cause poison and a pure condi weapon.

 

  Pistol:

- It feels like a quicker version of scepter which is nice. However i really dont understand why in competetive modes skill 3 deals one second of one stack of poison. Like i know some time ago they made a change that CC spells deal almost no damage. But normally that isnt applied to damage over time effects (see engie hammer)

 

Dagger:

- This is very things get dirty. The AA basicly does nothing. I dont count the lifeforce gain, that should be baked into the weapon anyway, just like adrenalin is or any other cooldown for a class resource. Skill 3 has a long cast time given the range. Skill 2 has a gimmick with the self and enemy bleed. But it really is a gimmick as sometimes  your allies simply cleanse a condition on you limiting your healing. Now if skill 3 would still corrupt boons, you might have some cover conditions, or if the AA would cause bleed, things would be a bit different. The offhand version is only good because of skill 4. Skill 5 which normally is the big one, feels like an outdated filler move without the booncorrupt or something else to replace it.

 

Sword:

- Here it also gets confusing. We have an AA that heals a bit and chills, and all other skills can be dual casted for the exchange of like. Now the thing is: they sell most of these effects for the cost of life but it doenst feel like its worth it. If i need to pay life for the second leap why is the cooldown harshly increased? It also has heal in between skill 3 and 4 but sadly the same "new" condi jazz of vuln / weakness / chill. Skill 2 is supposed to be the main power damage skill, yet it feels like it doesnt deal much damage.  I feel like there is some damaging condition missing to make this a real good "jack of all trades" weapon. If this really should be a pure power weapon i ask myself: Why can for example warrior spear deal more damage, with longer range and no gimmick of sacrificing life in a way quicker timeframe?

 

Focus:

Skill 5 is a strong power burst skill (there are plently of boons in WvW and PvP). Skill 4 is a waste. Like it doenst scale with power damage since its life siphon. It gives some vuln and lifeforce as a slow projectile. That doenst fit here. This should be the power offhand weapon. Now if skill 4 would be a instant cast ground target blind or it would at least be unblockable in combination with a strong support condition (like immob or slow) that can be cast without facing your target it would maybe be better. If it scales with power damage and crit. Even if they revert it back to the bounce dps that it formerly was it would make sense. But as it is thats weird.

 

Warhorn:

This might be the worst weapon in the game. Wail of Doom is inherently bad as its a fear which has a whole lot of counterplay in WvW / PvP, more so then normal stuns or dazes. Unblockable wont matter much if the target has stab or resistance or any kind of condi cleanse or reduced condi duration as the base duration is also only 1 second. Locust swarm used to be a good and reliable skill to cause cripple, eat blinds and aegis and to cause a lot of hits to create lifeforce and to naturally proc the small life siphons from blood magic. But now it doenst scale and heal allies for targets hit? Like why? Especially when skill 4 does only scale with condi duration.

 

Healing Skills:

- Signet of Vampirism: This skill is very thematic but sadly so bad. Why does the passive siphon only work in direct 180 close range radius? For example the warriors signet heals directly, no questions asked, all the time, and the elementalists healing signet heals when spamming spells without hitting anything? Also the active part: Why does the active skill has an internal cooldown even for the necromancer? Like its hard enough to hit a target each second with blinds, no stability and kiting at times, so it should at least be worth it if you do, be it with reduced effect?

 

Utility Skills

-Minion Skills: Why cant they all have some kind of wanted effect in WvW / PvP ? Like instant summoning and AOE immob for Bone Fiend, Instant summoning and stealth for shadow fiend and an instant blast finisher + knockback for bone minions and so forth? Fleshwurm gets to see play sometimes but not because its a minion, but for the only on demand teleport necro has access to when prepared.

- Plague Signet : Why does this signet only reduce condi duration? Most similar signet effects of for example Mechanist or Guardian reduce both, strike and condition damage.

 

Elite Skills:

- Why dont we have a good universal option? It feels weird that we have one transformation thats completly negated by projectile reflect / block and another skill that can be countered by dodging once. Like that only further promotes the sitting duck playstyle

 

- 3. Shroud:

Shroud should be our main defensive mechanic and to some extend it is. However most shroud skills are pretty predictable. Reaper shroud has a pretty easy counterplay by just "getting away" and base shroud simply has no stability and gets stunned to death. I mean yes, maybe you can stay in shroud and survive like 5 seconds longer or so. But that also means your enemy has just shaved of 5 seconds of all of his cooldowns as well. Most other defensive skills either fully protect you and often let you move freely to reposition (like endure pain, mist form, distortion, blocks, etc) or let you continue what you where doing in the first place. Now for shroud you are a sitting duck. To make things worse: Base shroud forces you into totally weird skills that deal no good power damage and also no real condition damage. Like they buffed them a few times, and will so again, but really what will 1 second longer bleeds really help if the norm are instant bursts for 5k+ damage? The step by step buffing is also being done to axe since years and its still not good. To make things worse they wont even allow us to use our utility skills while in shroud. To make some kind of play (drop a well of darkness for blinds to get some skills through, use corrupt boon to maybe get that stability off to find some window of retalation). They wont even allow the passive effects of signets to work (I mean why did they gave us signets in the first place? To rub into our faces that the passive effects dont work?) Its understandable that too strong shroud skills with the added health could be very problematic very quick, but a combination of weird shroud skills, unlogical weapon skill and outdated traits paint a very negative picture both from a power standpoint as well as from a build diversity standpoint.

[XECOR.2814]

5 hours ago, Brujeria.7536 said:

I agree with most of your points. Granted its not just WvW. At this point the class has so many issues that all are being ignored. I would sum them up in 3 big parts: Traits, Skills and Shroud....

I read through everything and agree with mostly everything except minor disagreement wrt solutions you proposed here and there.

But the thing is nobody at anet will read this and even if they did they wont realize this and even if they did then they wont implement this. There are layers of reasons why they wont give you what you want or need.

Still if they did, wha i can say is:

1. Signet trait needs rework, the single boon remove is not worth. Make it special. This trait has been completely ruined and is screaming for help.

2. Fix warhorn skills:

Fix animation for warhorn#4. It has massive aftercast that needs to be stowed. The animation does not track the enemy well enough and player has to essentially no scope for it to work.

Buff warhorn#5 potency to similar level as the values after taking the warhorn trait in blood magic. After these changes the warhorn trait can make the warhorn skills even more potent which would then start looking more appealing.

It needs higher base duration on swiftness and fear.

3. Update weapon skills and durations/condition stacks:

Similarly for Scepter#2 needs additional bleed stacks in wvw.

Scepter#3 baseline should give some conditions and the torment durations needs to be 6second rather than 4seconds baseline. And single target scepter#3 should be 2 boon corrupt similar to pvp. The aoe version with the trait can remain at 1 corrupt in wvw. This is a very fair tradeoff and a very natural change but somehow devs arent ready to do this change at all.

Dagger#5 needs to do something else too l, after boon corrupt removal, it does nothing for its cast time. Maybe buff strike damage off both dagger#4 and dagger#5 so it starts hitting pretty big numbers and that becomes its niche.

Reimagine staf AA

4. Buff transfusion self heal and ally heal numbers in every mode especially wvw and remove skill split between specs now that the broken effect is gone.

Make death carapace more interactive by using more gm traits and make them grant positive buffs or debuff to enemy by maintaining them. Make it work for both power and condition builds.

5. Some core shroud qol:

Reduce Core Shroud auto attack cast time to similar as underwater variant which feels much smoother.

Make #3 terror 1/4sec cast time since it has been completely ruined by nerfing from insta cast previously, the power from this skill baseline is completely gone.

Make core shroud#4 higher bleed stacks durations in all gamemodes not just pvp. It direly needs higher strike coeff too. In ideal case this should've been poison not bleed with low durations for cleave scenarios but whatever.

Shroud#2 needs to be better in everything more conditions like weakness on this maybe, faster travelling projectile.

6. Spear is just a mess atm. And we saw it coming miles away dont know why they didnt listen to us. 

Spear#5 is a dead skill even with extirpate and high power damage because the mode of application of that skill is unreliable and doesnt work. It needs to be reimagined to provide something useful for the kit. 

My suggestion would be to make this an ammo skill which insta casts fears in 240 range around you on first ammo and does the current skill on second ammo. Remove the bloat effects like might or weakness etc etc etc. Spear needs fear to work with power builds and it needs more power in its #5 skill to make the kit work.

Make addle same range as perforate and

Make autos throw spear towards an enemy in ranged scenarios similar to some other classes. Buff melee spear strike damage and reduce numbers on ranged.

[who want blood.8765]

On 9/16/2024 at 5:52 PM, Apokriphos.7042 said:

Shroud and No True Invulnerability:

I've always thought competitive shroud should have the Pet/minion treatment, having a % incoming damage reduction Unless you are specifically being targeted.

 

On 9/16/2024 at 5:52 PM, Apokriphos.7042 said:

Boon Corruption Nerfs:

Necro has had so many boon rips/corrupts gutted out of the class over the years. I remember when:

• Corrupt boon actually corrupted ALL boons, then restricted to 8, then 5, then 3.
• Scepter Auto had boon rip on its 3rd chain
• Spiteful Spirit has danced between 1 and 2 boons over the years, back down to 1 currently
• Enfeebling Blood could convert a boon

With todays game style, we need more Anti-boons in the game, but just like extirpate, its 1 step forward 3 steps back and return to jail.

I miss competitive from the HoT Period, where every class had its identity and it was more balanced.

[Codename T.2847]

I'm all for this revanchism of Necros getting a bunch of their booncorrupt back, landing spear 5 always felt cool and well of corruption is still the sickest skill imo, but please for the love of god don't give it i-frames and more stability. I'm not even a very good power Reaper, but in WvW I can already get away with so much kitten because of mobility that gets better and better and smart Shroud 3 timing xD

Edit: to clarify a bit, for sure it's hard to survive as necro in a zerg vs zerg or cloud vs zerg environment, but beefing it up even harder with invulns in shroud and stability just powercreep the kitten out of it, even more than it already has been, and would make it super duper extra hard to fight in 1v1 or smallscale/havoc groups. when it would get a healer for example ,and if they ran blood bank trait, good luck even bringing it below 75% hp after minutes of fighting. would be an actual nightmare

Edited September 20 by Codename T.2847

[Narcemus.1348]

1 hour ago, Codename T.2847 said:

I'm all for this revanchism of Necros getting a bunch of their booncorrupt back, landing spear 5 always felt cool and well of corruption is still the sickest skill imo, but please for the love of god don't give it i-frames and more stability. I'm not even a very good power Reaper, but in WvW I can already get away with so much kitten because of mobility that gets better and better and smart Shroud 3 timing xD

Edit: to clarify a bit, for sure it's hard to survive as necro in a zerg vs zerg or cloud vs zerg environment, but beefing it up even harder with invulns in shroud and stability just powercreep the kitten out of it, even more than it already has been, and would make it super duper extra hard to fight in 1v1 or smallscale/havoc groups. when it would get a healer for example ,and if they ran blood bank trait, good luck even bringing it below 75% hp after minutes of fighting. would be an actual nightmare

To my understanding, the proposed increased stability that most are talking about would be to buff a Scourge utility skill and allow it to better give stability to teammates, not give more stability to themselves. So it would not power creep Reaper, nor would it make the Scourge any stronger in 1v1 situations.

[Codename T.2847]

2 hours ago, Narcemus.1348 said:

To my understanding, the proposed increased stability that most are talking about would be to buff a Scourge utility skill and allow it to better give stability to teammates, not give more stability to themselves. So it would not power creep Reaper, nor would it make the Scourge any stronger in 1v1 situations.

Oh yeah, I wouldn't mind Scourge having a way to give stabi that isn't running circles around your allies xD

[Narcemus.1348]

29 minutes ago, Codename T.2847 said:

Oh yeah, I wouldn't mind Scourge having a way to give stabi that isn't running circles around your allies xD

Agreed, maybe even single pulse from the trail followed by the trail could give make it still a unique skill without making scourge OP.

[Mell.4873]

You are really asking for to much. Many classes have issues and are not perfect but I would say that is the point. 

Giving Necromancer access to stability would just dilute what makes other classes like Guardian or Mesmer unique. 

I think all they need to do is move the transfusion downed pull to another skill, for example a utility. 

Edited Monday at 01:54 AM by Mell.4873

[Lahmia.2193]

Necro is fine in wvw. We've always been in the meta and always will be thanks to wells and our boon strip. Even after some of the most gruesome of nerfs, we bounce back just fine. 

[Codename T.2847]

16 hours ago, Lahmia.2193 said:

Necro is fine in wvw. We've always been in the meta and always will be thanks to wells and our boon strip. Even after some of the most gruesome of nerfs, we bounce back just fine. 

Mhm, a good Reaper is still a great force to deal with in any sort of WvW setting, PvP necro is doing well also (condi reaper and power harbi), and PvE reaper will never not be a great dps ^^ And for anyone who thinks healscourge is dead, in PvE it will still be more than usable with the right relics and not kookily stuff like relic of Febe or Herald xD (also, people sleep on unholy martyr hard)

Edited 17 hours ago by Codename T.2847

[Dadnir.5038]

On 9/16/2024 at 6:52 PM, Apokriphos.7042 said:

Boon-stacking has only grown more prominent, and Necromancer should be the primary counter.

Why should necromancer be the primary counter to boon stacking? I mean, it's not like necromancer is the only profession with boon hate nowadays.

If the target of the balance team is for all professions to be competitive in every role, then it's natural for necromancer to see it's overwhelming advantage in boon hate being reduced in order to open some room for other professions/e-specs to compete against him over a niche. It's not like the necromancer can still argue that they provide no boons or support like they could in the vanilla game and even in HoT.

On 9/16/2024 at 6:52 PM, Apokriphos.7042 said:

Add invulnerability frames when entering shroud or reduce life force drain in WvW.

Use Spectral armor before entering shroud, it result in a pretty lengthy focus fire damage mitigation frame. That's a 10+ years old trick already.

On 9/16/2024 at 6:52 PM, Apokriphos.7042 said:

Necromancer needs more reliable stability access.

While I agree that necromancer isn't up to par when it come to sharing stability, both Reaper and Harbinger are fairly good at giving themselve stability. As a matter of fact, there have been complaints this years about Reaper having to much stability in competitive modes.

On 9/16/2024 at 6:52 PM, Apokriphos.7042 said:

The upcoming nerf to celestial gear will disproportionately affect hybrid Necromancer builds

You're over reacting. The celestial nerf will only cut down the boon duration and the condition duration of those builds. At best the change will only make it slightly more difficult to keep up some strategic boons in WvW roaming. It will weed out the players that were carried by their gear while the good players will barely feel the change.

On 9/17/2024 at 2:06 AM, Brujeria.7536 said:

Yet fear isnt really a core mechanic.

Fear is a thematic CC that happen to be available on 3 out of the 4 profession's mechanic skillset. For all intent and purpose it's a lot more of a core mechanic than something like "minions".

On 9/17/2024 at 2:06 AM, Brujeria.7536 said:

Unholy Sanctuary: The heal is very weak, shroud camping really is not a thing, also the trait has basicly no use on harbringer.

It's a matter of perspective, without extra vitality, I do agree that the heal can be perceived as "weak", but within a vitality build, this thing heal a lot (even on Harbinger).

It is part of the necromancer's identity to be pushed toward stacking vitality even if, as players, we tend to try to avoid those options.

On 9/17/2024 at 2:06 AM, Brujeria.7536 said:

Honestly necromancer doenst have that much bleed application in most builds

Is this irony? The treshold is 3 bleed stacks, you don't even have to try to put 3 bleed stack on a foe. Heck, you don't even need to use any skill with bleed stack to achieve that.

On 9/17/2024 at 2:06 AM, Brujeria.7536 said:

Eternal Life - the trait feels weak as a grandmaster trait

It's not that the effect is weak, it's just that it doesn't fit your perception of the game. And that's your main issue, for you there is no room for anything that doesn't fit your perspective. This trait here, like many other you're questioning, exist for the sake of providing the sustain that the OP feel lacking enough to ask for an an invuln frame.

On 9/17/2024 at 2:06 AM, Brujeria.7536 said:

Deathly Chill: This trait means that there could be some kind of condi build for reaper but the trait really is not good.

Ah, yes, the trait is so bad that condi reaper bench at 44k dps in PvE. The trait is nerfed in WvW because it was so bad pre HoT that Reaper could solo bleed to death a 5 man party with ease.

On 9/17/2024 at 2:06 AM, Brujeria.7536 said:

The newest weapon and also a weird one. Its now the third weapon with an AA that chills with no noteable effect which is a bad trend because it automaticly makes condi builds worse and limits the options.

Those weapon apply chill on the 3rd skill of the AA because the "power reaper" community need a chill source for Cold shoulder's 10% damage increase. This also increase the viability of Bitter Chill, Blood Bond, Chilling Nova and Chilling Victory. Keep in mind that the fact that it is on the AA also make it easier to reapply than if it was on a 10 to 20s CD skill and almost instantly cleansed by your foe.

On 9/17/2024 at 2:06 AM, Brujeria.7536 said:

Minion Skills: Why cant they all have some kind of wanted effect in WvW / PvP ?

They don't want minions in competitive modes. It mess with the ping and players get infuriated when they die to an AI.

On 9/17/2024 at 2:06 AM, Brujeria.7536 said:

Plague Signet : Why does this signet only reduce condi duration? Most similar signet effects of for example Mechanist or Guardian reduce both, strike and condition damage.

Look at the bright side, if the passive is bad, you don't regret using the active effect (Which is pretty good and on a decent CD).

On 9/17/2024 at 2:06 AM, Brujeria.7536 said:

Shroud should be our main defensive mechanic and to some extend it is.

It is our main defense mechanism but it is also our main offense mechanism.

On 9/17/2024 at 2:06 AM, Brujeria.7536 said:

Most other defensive skills either fully protect you and often let you move freely to reposition (like endure pain

Nope, endure pain don't fully protect you. It's written in the description of the skill: "You are still suceptible to conditions and control effects."

In any way, the defensive skills that fully protect you usually have drawbacks (many prevent you from attacking, some prevent you from moving and most prevent you from taking over an objective in competitive mode).